12 The Darkness

No man wishes to be referred to as 'A man like you,' it makes you feel weak and rather bruises the ego. Now here where I stand; I do not wish to refer to myself as 'A Vampire like me.' My sole reason for these words is that I am the only Vampire who can feel the pain that I am feeling. Yes, a Vampire can easily say, 'It hurts like a stake to the heart,' well, I can truly feel that feeling.

It is with the greatest of terror and a heart that is slowly breaking that I am facing my one and only brother. Roberto has, for a great deal of his life, always looked up to me; he always used to tell me the stories of how he wishes to be like me one day. Needless to say that when it came to the choice to turn him, he gratefully accepted. After all, he was going to be just like his brother.

But what has now changed is that the man has grown evil, and as Vampire Master, I do need to take care of this before it spirals out of control, which in fact, it already has.

So I find next to me a man that is mumbling most annoyingly to himself; it seems our dear Connor has turned into a stupid, well, the man always was. But it is not so much his voice that is annoying me; it is what I hear being repeated over and over in his head.

Now not wanting to alarm the rest of the group that is already terrified beyond their minds, I lean in closer to speak to him, "Just get out with it already."

He only but growls as he grunts, "You do know what is happening here?"

Well, did I not say that the man is dumb, "My dear Connor, I would not be asking if I knew myself. Now, what is this thing that you are mumbling about?"

"The Darkness."

I look at him and only but shake my head, "Yes, we all know it is dark, my dear man, it turned evening an hour ago if you perhaps missed it."

He only snaps at me, "I am not referring to that, Sebastian. His eyes."

"Well, let me point the obvious," I wave my hand over to where Roberto is almost like hovering over his prey, "The man has dark eyes; we all have seen it."

"My god, you are impossible." Much to my horror, he slaps me against the head, "The Darkness consumes him."

Anastasia, who has been looking at our exchange in conversation, only but stares me down. "Can you two stop messing around and figure out how we are going to fix Roberto?"

"My beloved, the man is not a broken toy."

And yes, true to Connor, he firmly connects the flat of his hand against my head once again, "Can you focus, Sebastian."

This man, well, let us reserve the comment, and, "Please can you enlighten us what we are faced with, for he is now starting to look at our little Vampire Hunter as his next snack."

Now while we are discussing, which seems to be taking rather long, but while we are wasting valuable time, the poor Vampire Hunter has been trying to hold Roberto at bay. I can honestly say that the man is completed terrified; each time Roberto snaps his teeth at him, I see his body jerk.

Roberto is the pure form of evil. He has gained a power so strong that he can snap one in half, which he has done with his current prey. His skin has gone a pale grey; veins are protruding on his face and down his arms. But the thing that is the most horrific is the eyes; his eyes are a deep night black. One does not need to be close to see the chaos that is brewing in them.

So as Ethan steps closer to Zachariah, Connor pulls Alatar and Anastasia closer to him, "We need to take him alive if we wish to save him. But my greatest concern is that we might already be too late."

I immediately raise my voice but a pitch higher at him, "There is no such thing."

"Sebastian," Connors starts to explain, "You need to be prepared for the chance that you are going have to kill him."

I only but ignore him, "Let us get him alive. There will be no other option."

And so we all arms ourselves and start stepping one step after the other closer to Roberto and join the side of Ethan and the Vampire Hunter.

As we have lined up in a row, slowly approaching, I turn to Connor and glance at Ethan, "I will be the only one that shall take him."

"Don't try and play brave," I hear Ethan from the side as he firmly tries to warn me not to be a fool.

But this fool will do anything to save the life of his brother, but yet, "What is this Darkness?"

Before I can even have my answer, I see Roberto launching forward; he is coming straight for me. I gasp in horror out of pure lack of control, "Please do not let me hurt you, brother."

Then from some ungodly place within his being, there is a voice that is rumbling to the surface, "Brother? I do not have a brother."

I snap my head towards Connor, "Demon?"

"No, you fool, I said Darkness."

But before I can ask what the hell the man is on about, I have Roberto landing in front of my feet. He catches me off guard, and I stumble a step back. As I stare him in the face, I see his fangs dripping with blood. The way his face has been distorted into something evil shocks me straight to my core. I can honestly say that my skin has gone whiter than all the fifty shades of white.

As I try to take another step back…

He smashes his claws into my chest.

With razor-sharp nails, he tears through my white designer shirt, turning it completely red as he pierces into my flesh. I cry out in agony as he slices over my abs. My body topples forward, and I crash with a loud thud into the tarmac.

Then…

Just as he is about to lift me by my shoulders, I jump to my feet and slam his body back into a green rubbish bin behind him. He growls out of anger and comes charging for me again.

I slide out of the way, and he crashes into a very frustrated Connor behind me.

But he does even touch Connor, but an inch, he spins around and faces me. Connor tries to grab him around from the back, but he only pushes him away with the shove of one hand. As Connor lands on his ass, I hear him curse under his breath. It seems that Roberto is only after me.

So I launch at Roberto.

I grab him around the throat, and ever so slightly, I start to squeeze, "Roberto, please stop. Let me help you."

He only but bursts out in uncontrollable laughter, "I told you I am not this, Roberto. Now unhand me, and I might spare your life."

But I do not have that ruthlessness in me to harm my own brother; I only but let him drop to his knees. As he crashes to the floor, he grabs me around the ankle and lifts my body into the air. It only takes him one flick of the hand, and he tosses me into the wall near to where Anastasia is standing.

I can see her eyes beg; she, too, wants me to end this. Can none of these people understand that he is my family? It does not matter what he has turned into; I can save him, I will not rest until I find a way, but I am not killing my brother today.

So as I rise to my feet again, I slide across the tarmac and manage to grab Roberto by the shoulders and wrestle him to the ground. As I straddle him between my hands and feet, I look over at Connor and Zachariah, "A little help will be appreciated."

Zachariah, ever so scared, comes closer with a silver chain and a rope, but the moment Roberto sees the silver, he breaks free from my grip and flips me over. Now I am finding myself pinned to the ground by some evil monster.

"Well, is this not fantastic?"

But in as easy as three…two…one…I have him by the shoulder, and I am pushing his face into the wall. With his wrists firm in my hand, I call for Zachariah to come again.

But…

Roberto slips loose; as he turns around, he grabs me around my neck and slowly starts lifting me off the floor; with each inch he lifts, he squeezes even harder.

"Roberto," I beg, "Please, don't do this. Let me help you."

Then…

He snaps his fangs at me; much to my horror, I watch him coming closer and closer to my throat. But as Anastasia yells, he gets distracted, and I wiggle myself loose.

Once again, Roberto is standing in front of us with the rather intimidating evil that consumes him. But much to everyone's shock, he turns as he is about to walk away.

Yet, Ethan is not going to let this one slip so easily. He juggles between his knife and his gun, not sure which one is going to be the most effective. Then…in…one…two…three, I hear the click of a trigger being flicked almost as light as a feather. Next, I hear as the bullet slips into the chamber, as smooth as silk, it slides until it exits with one thundering snap.

As I watch it almost travel in slow motion through the air towards Roberto, I make one split decision. I throw my body as a shield in front of my brother; the bullet crashes into my chest and carves a way into my chest.

In an instant…my body drops.