Chapter 8:

Chapter 8:

“William! William!”

15-year old William frowned from his computer game.
“What?” he hollered impatiently, pausing the game he was playing. He was just about to win, save for the fact that his mom had called him at the wrong moment. He dropped the controller on the floor and strode downstairs.
“Didn’t I tell you to watch Robert?” his mom said calmly. William frowned at his younger brother, who was looking innocently at him, with a scraped elbow, scratched knees and dirtied clothes. He growled annoyed. Couldn’t he just have a moment alone without babysitting his brother? His brother was already 11! He could’ve taken care of himself!
“I just told him to go play with his friends!” William complained.
“Fix your brother, William,” his mom said, “You are the elder after all”

William growled again and dragged Robert to the kitchen and applied first aid on Robbie’s wounds.
“Robbie, who did this?” he asked.
Robbie shifted uneasily, staring out the window. He wouldn’t answer.
“Who did this?” William repeated again.
”Andy and his crew,” Robbie said finally. William grunted, applying alcohol and disinfectant on his brother’s wound then putting on a band-aid.
“Look kid,” he told his young brother “You don’t have to fight back. Just let older people handle the problems.”
Robbie stared in confusion but William just walked out the kitchen in deep silence.

†

“I just don’t know what to do with you!” William’s mom said in fatigue.
William stood before her, held by the collar by his uncle. His hair was messed up and he had his clothes nearly ripped as if by wild animals, his lip split open and purple bruises all over his body.

“Linda,” said his uncle “You have to discipline this kid! We can’t have a slayer in our family who has no control over himself.”

William’s mom took her son from her brother.
“That’s enough Garret,” she said in a calm yet stern voice “I’ll take care of him.” William’s uncle sighed in exasperation and left.

“William” his mother said.

William sat down and gazed in silence at his mom. Her saddle brown hair, fell in calm waves below her shoulder. Her light blue eyes, which he had gotten from his mother, look intently at him as if trying to see what he was thinking. William’s pride left him.

“They hurt Robbie,” he spat out “they picked on him cause they knew that he was vulnerable! I made them pay for it”
His mother pulled him towards her and ruffled his dirty blond hair, which he had acquired from his father.
“Will,” she said, “You shouldn’t take revenge or vengeance. What would it give you? Pleasure from their pain? You would just turn into them yourself.”

William kept silent for a while.

“Listen Will, honey,” said his mom “Will you keep me a promise?”
William looked up.
“No matter what happens,” she said to him “take care of your brother, okay?”
“I promise,” he said. “But mom, why-”
His question was cut short as they heard the door opening and closing. Heavy footsteps echoed in the hallway and William’s mother smiled. William’s father had arrived.

“Hello, my beautiful wife,” said his father, his dirty blond hair messy and brown eye twinkling “and my brave son.”
“Oh Wallace,” his mother said with a sigh “Those words are growing old.”
“Ah,” his father said, approaching them both and giving his wife a kiss on the forehead “you never get tired of them, do you?”

His mother smiled. His father looked at his son with amusement.
“Why William,” he said “I didn’t know you were taming tigers already!”
William laughed.
“Honey,” his mother told his father sternly, “You know better than to spoil our children!’
“But it’s not my fault,” William protested. “They attacked Robbie from behind!”
“He’s got your nerves Linda,” chuckled his father. Linda scowled at her husband who laughed continuously. She decided to change the subject instead.
“So,” she said, “how did the hunting go?”
“We swept out a whole clan!” his father exclaimed. “It was a great success!”
“Whoa, cool!” cried out William, “I wanna wipe out those monsters too! When can I join you?”
“Soon,” winked his father.

†

“Cheers!”

William sat by his brother, looking at his father proudly. They had a small celebratory dinner and their parents were giving a toast of apple cider. It made William want to become a slayer right away. He gazed at the tattoo, a cross-shaped stake on his father’s right arm. His mother had one on her thigh but she retired becoming a slayer after William was born.

Their family were made from generations of vampire slayers and they were the strongest slayers in their clan. William would have his tattoo below his right shoulder if he ever got one. Robbie, who was sitting beside him, didn’t give much of a concern about becoming a slayer.

During their celebratory dinner, there were poundings on the door and William’s father went to get the door with wonder. There were fast whispers coming from the doorway as his father talked to his nerve-wrecked uncle. William stood up and peeked to see what was happening. Passing the door, he accidentally knocked over their family picture frame. William’s mother gasped. She went to pick it up and William thought he would be in trouble. Only his mother stared where she was, staring at the picture and looking very pale. There were large cracks on the frame, running over his parent’s faces but not on his’ and Robbie’s.

“Mom,” Robbie asked, also leaving his seat from the dining table to see what the commotion was all about “what’s happening?”
“Linda! Hide the kids!” William’s father said, his face alarmed.
“What’s happening?” Linda asked, fazed
William’s father cleared his throat. “There were a couple of vampires who escaped. They brought more to hunt me down. Garret went to get more allies but we have to go hide.”

There was a sudden chill the passed in the air. The lights blinked and then turned dim. William’s mother dragged him and his brother towards their room. She opened the wardrobe and bent in, pounding through the wall. The wall revealed a mini door leading to a secret room.
“Come on boys,” their mother said, trying to stay calm “In you go. Promise me you wont make any noise and come out okay?”
“But mom, what about dad?!” William protested.
“Mom, I’m scared!” Robbie said. Their mother bent in and kissed them both on their foreheads, her eyes filled with sadness. William’s heart squeezed in his chest and he grabbed his mother’s arm.
“Mom, no!” he cried out. Their mother just silently pushed them in and locked the door.
Robbie started to cry but William wouldn’t give in. There was a bang followed by his father’s shout. Robbie and William shook in horror inside the secret room as they heard hissings. There were poundings on the wall, indicating the arrows that his father shot towards the vampires had missed. There was a shout and the only noises that were left to be heard were the hissings from the vampires. Their father’s struggled has stop and there was a pit of dread in William’s stomach. William found himself crying, too.
“No!” he thought to himself “Father did not lose!”

He took a pin from inside his short pockets and picked the lock on the door. There was a satisfying click. He climbed out, being met by his parent’s clothes. Robbie followed him uncertainly and they watched through keyhole of the wardrobe. Their mother was shaking as she held on an axe. There were banging of doors to be heard as the vampires stormed through each and every room, determined for their revenge. Finally, the door to their room opened with a bang and the vampire went in the room.

“Leave,” their mother commanded “creatures from hell!”
There were more hissings, as the cloaked figures of the vampires surrounded their mother. Their mother swung the axe around, trying to hit the figures.
“Leave us be!” their mother screamed. The axe landed on one of the figures but it got trapped in. She tried to pull it back out but it was really stuck. They attacked her from the back, scratching her and then they moved forward. She screamed and there was a crack. Their mother’s scream stopped suddenly.

Shivers went through William’s spine as he heard the thud of his mother’s body hitting the floor. The vampires all dived at her, trying to get themselves a share of her blood.
Robbie, in seeing the whole scenario, screamed in terror. William pulled Robbie towards him but it was no use. The vampires all froze and looked at each other. All this time, they had not spoken anything and one finally spoke. His voice sent the room freezing as it sounded like blocks of ice being crushed together. There was no mercy in his voice either as he commanded his acquaintances.

“Get them.” He said. The vampires all stood up, one by one leaving their food for later. Their mother was visible now, lying on the carpet, in a weird angle and all sucked of blood. She was looking towards the closet in dread, her last memory before her death.
William pulled Robbie into the back of the closet, covering his younger brother, fulfilling his last promise to their mother.
The closet door burst open and the vampires stared, their gleaming red fangs showing.
In William’s eyes, these figures had turned into demons that had come out of hell, into heaven and were terrorizing the angels.
Robbie had returned to screaming again and William with all his might kicked the arm that was going towards him.
The vampire hissed and raised its hands. William turned to hug Robbie and he felt the nails scratched his right shoulder. William tried not to scream in pain and the nails had rip of his clothes and skin, which felt like boiling water being thrown over his whole body.
There were a few bangs and William turned over to see that the rest of the slayers had arrived, just in time for them and at the same time, too late for their parents.
Their uncle pulled them out as the dozen slayers with him cornered and fought with the vampires. Their uncle choked out a sob when he saw his sister as he carried Robbie and led William, who was bleeding on his left shoulder. William looked back at his mother’s body. He grabbed the axe on the floor and ran towards the leader in rage.

“William no!” shouted the elder

But he had already reached the leader and he had swung the axe, chopping the vampire’s head off clean. The other vampires hissed loudly at him but they were also terminated along with their leader. With a heavy heart, William collapsed in exhaustion and lost of blood.

†

I stared at William in silence as he looked over the trees, his face bitter. The area felt colder than it already was. The rain had stopped, leaving me and William wet all over. His story had shocked me and I had felt like we both knew what it was like to lose someone you love because of the vampires. Their mother gave their life for him and Rob.

That might’ve been why I had seen a scar on his shoulder that day at James swimming gala.
“I’m sorry,” I said.
“Don’t be,” he told me, “That was why I wanted you to be with the SSS. I knew that you hated vampires and that vampires are the cause of your pains.”
“Sly,” I said “But I’m still not joining.”

He bursted out laughing.

“Hello, kiddies.”

I shivered, as I realized we had been caught. I turned around, baring my fangs but William and I were pushed down. I grabbed William towards me and we fell on the ground, William safe on top of me. I swear, that’s the last time I’ll be helping the guy.
“Eliza!” he said, “you okay?”
“No problem,” I wheezed, “Just get off me”
He scrambled off and helped me stand up. The vampires encircled us and I tried to look for an escape route. None was visible. It had seemed like there wasn’t any hope at all.

Suddenly I was grabbed from behind and William gasped up at me.
“Eliza!” he shouted out. I wriggled under my captive but he held me still. Then he threw a bomb towards the vampires and it exploded along with William in the circle.
“William!” I shouted out.
There was no reply.

“No wonder guys never gotten to stay with her long enough”
-James Yin