Volume 2, One.

Ok, so i was just TOOOOOOO lazy to start posting anythiing from volume one anymore. You can understand the characters using volume two too, so...

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Chapter One. He was gone

  No. This wasn’t happening.

  Ivan is gone. Maybe forever, and I couldn’t chase him back.

  The first second after he left, I couldn’t bear it anymore.

  After coming back from Merlin Square, I ran up to my bedroom really quick and buried my face into my pillow. I felt like I could die anytime now without Ivan by my side. I cried, I yelled, I shouted. But Ivan still isn’t here yet. Where did he go? Just where did he go…?

  I don’t want to give up on him, just like that. I knew how much I’ve loved him since the first time we met under the woods. All my memories with him, no matter how short or brief it was, it was all etched into my soul. I couldn’t forget, just like that. I didn’t want to forget. I just wanted him to be by my side, so badly.

  Mum and Dad tried various ways to comfort me, but the worst thing was, they kept telling me that vampires and demons were never meant to be together, although Mum was a demon.

  After a week, they both gave up and said that time would heal me.

  Maybe after an eternity, yes. But in a few centuries? Never.

  My heart was aching the whole time. Plus Zell was nowhere to be found too. Everyone searched everywhere, but still no sign of him. Great, Ivan was gone and now Zell too? All the people I loved the most, disappeared like thin air.

  Ivan wasn’t here beside me. Zell wasn’t here telling me the silly jokes he made up.

  There was no one else I could really talk to. I didn’t want to add problems to Mum and Dad when they were busy searching for Zell.

  After a week, I didn’t know why or how, but I became deadly calm. Everything seemed so… boring to me. I often skipped class to go back to the woods, near the pond, where I first saw Ivan. I would stare into the pond for hours and hours, until it’s time to go back from school.

 And also since Mum and Dad would be in Canada by now, finding for Zell, there was no one the teachers would complain to.

  Everybody in school knew that Zell disappeared already, and since he was wildly popular as he was really cute and funny, people usually tread carefully while talking to me, avoiding the use of the name Zell in front of my face. Even though I felt and was deadly calm, I still noticed things around me pretty fast.

  When I finally realized that winter was coming soon, a few months after Ivan left, I quickly put a shield over the pond in the woods, so that the fish wouldn’t die and I could still stare at them blankly day by day.

  Every day before I go in the front door of my empty house, I would remember when Ivan lightly kissed my forehead, how sweet it felt, how warm his lips were. That was the first time I really felt warmth from him. The rest of my memories only showed that icy cold smile, forced out on his face. But that was still a precious memory, deeply attached into my heart.

  I’ve dreamt almost every night, about Merlin Square, the part where Ivan left. It kept repeating in my mind, until I think I could get crazy.

  I didn’t want to remember about that, instead I wanted to keep thinking of that kiss on the forehead, his sincere, real smile. That precious image that had my hope of him coming back someday in me.

  ‘Your love is the sweetest, isn’t it?’

  I kept saying that sentence in my head, about how I wished I told that to Ivan. Maybe if I said that before he left, there would be a bigger chance he would return. But I didn’t. And I regretted it.

   But also, when I think of that precious memory, where Ivan coldly smiled, it could make me suffocate.

  I don’t mind if he still coldly smiled to me. I just need to see him. The memories I had in me weren’t enough to keep me going. I needed him in my life. He was like a drug to me, where I just want more.

  Ashley and my other good friends stayed with me, where they would cheer me up and I sometimes would laugh. But Ivan was still in the back of my mind, and it popped up again after I forgot about him.

  Maybe that was a sign saying that he is still here.

  I hoped that that was true.

  Please, another look will do…

  Your image is like a drug to me.

  Am I?

x x x

 IN ANOTHER CITY

  ‘Ivan, are you sure about this?’

  ‘Of course I am, Enneil.’ he crinkled his nose a little.

  ‘Then why are you looking so… sad and uncomfortable?’ Enneil asked innocently.

  He thought hard to find a reason to tell his innocent little brother.

 ‘Err… Well, I’m feeling a little sick now. Ahem.’

  He wondered whether he could trick his little brother. Enneil was quite sensitive of the things happening around him most of the time.

  Enneil shook his head lightly.

  ‘Surely it is because of that vampire scent you had on you a few hours ago, right?’ he chuckled.

  His eyes showed some surprise, and Enneil figured that he had caught his older brother’s answer.

  ‘…Maybe.’ Ivan answered abruptly.

  ‘He he.’ Enneil chuckled. ‘I knew it. So who is the vampire? There were two smells.’

  ‘You really won’t let me go, right?’

  Enneil chuckled a little more loudly. ‘Of course not, as I am really interested. I can keep a secret for you.’

  ‘Ah… You noticed the vampire scent a while ago already, huh. Well, the most I can tell you is that one of the vampires was the one who made me leave that town.’

  ‘Aw… Telling no more?’ Enneil asked.

  ‘… Since Julia isn’t here now, I’ll tell you this. I… fell in love with a vampire, okay? Keep this a secret. If not Julia would surely kill me.’

  Enneil giggled.

  ‘So that’s the reason, eh? How interesting. Since it’s so interesting, I’ll keep this secret for you. Can you tell me the vampire girl’s name, unless you’ve turned roads?’

  It took Ivan a little while to translate what his little brother said.

  ‘Oh. Err… She’s a girl. Her name is…’ he hesitated a little before saying her name, hoping to avoid saying it.

  ‘Hmm?’

  ‘Hea… Heather.’ he winced at every word as if it hurt. A lot.

  The wound when he hurt her heart opened up again when he decided to close it forever. For eternity.

  ‘Oh… What a cute name.’ Enneil smiled. Then he closed his eyes to get some sleep.

  ‘Yeah… What a nice name.’ Ivan repeated. He thought back to when he first met Heather, in the woods. He noticed how utterly beautiful she was, although she was covered fully with a vampire’s scent. Her gorgeous crystal clear light brown eyes plus light brunette hair made her look like an angel. And he was a creature straight from hell.

  He never was suited for her.

  But he fell in love with her.

  Does she love me? He asked himself.

  The damage had been done. Maybe by now Heather hated him, despised him for leaving just like that. Just one, short goodbye. Maybe she was unsatisfied. Maybe she still wanted to see him. Or she turned to that vampire that made him leave.

  Ivan remembered himself kissing Heather’s forehead. The softness and tenderness of it was something he would never forget. The smile coming out from his own bare lips. A sincere smile from the bottom of his heart that was sealed a long time ago.

 He played his fingers over his lips slowly. He wanted to see her, but he didn’t dare to. He left her just like that, and now he just wants to appear again?

  Ivan and his little brother were on the train, on the way to some other city, leaving the city or anywhere near it where Heather could find for him.

  He wouldn’t bear to see her again. Ivan slowly closed his eyelids too and then dreamt endlessly of when he first met Heather, the vampire he loved… so much…

x x x

I coughed lightly while walking back to the house. Winter was already here but the fish in the pond were safe. I tried to concentrate on the street of where I was walking to but I kept thinking of Ivan. Suddenly he was stuck in my mind, unable to go anywhere else.

  ‘What are you doing, girl? Want to get killed?’ a man’s voice yelled to me.

  I suddenly woke up from my daze. I swiftly looked around me and noticed that I was in the middle of the street, with a car just a few inches away from me. I quickly nodded then apologized and the man just cursed at me then drove away.

  I continued my journey back home, trying to push Ivan’s image out of my mind for awhile. I didn’t want to forget about him, but, I have the need to stay alive now, if he ever comes back.

  Suddenly, there was a tap on my shoulder. I turned around but there was nobody there. Only one thing that I could sense, and that was Zell’s scent. Did Zell tap me on the shoulder just now?

  I hurriedly looked around but no one was there. Not even a shadow.

  Maybe that was a hallucination, I told myself. No way would Zell appear here… Right?

  When I opened the front door, unexpectedly, Mum and Dad were in there. They looked a little surprised to see me but then they rushed over and Mum said ‘Heather! It seems that someone saw Zell come back to this town and he is somewhere around here! We have to find him together!’

  I felt a slight shock in myself.

  That meant that… Zell really was the one tapping on my shoulder? Why did he disappear later? Why…?