7 A Soulless Ghost (1)

Eventually, I was right. We decided that it was better to stay and defend—or not exactly. We just could not move so instantly. Even for dad who had a lot of acquittances all over continent, he would need time to find a new home and to transfer to another army unit. Not to mention that it would be a reckless choice to sap our family savings more than it already had been sapped.

Karen was stubbornly suggesting to move. She asked dad to manage it one way or another. The suggestion became so intense that anyone who listened would think that it was really an evacuation from disaster.

I chose to stay in my room on second floor instead of getting involved with whatever 'unsafety' Karen was talking about. I had been ignoring her frightened expression for days.

Never that I knew that my stubbornness and stupidity would take mom and dad to their death. If only we had listened to Karen's suggestion like we usually did, they might still alive by now. Things might be hard but they would survive.

Everything was my fault. I was the one who made them stay. I was the one who ran away to save my own life and left them behind.

But here I was. What the hell did I do here? Why was I survived?

Those questions had been popping up inside of my head, echoed among insanity, until it finally came out. I could hear my voice cracked.

"Why did you save me?"

Zero, the guy with topaz blue eyes and golden blonde hair that looked like a mess, just sat there on the corner. He averted his eyes, avoiding mine. His face was expressionless, but for a split second I could see a flash behind his blue eyes. A flash with a weak light.

I thought he was going to ignore my question when she suddenly spoke after few silence seconds.

"Because I can't let you die."

"Why so? You don't even know me."

Zero turned his gaze outside a large window. I could see his side face and his sturdy looking jaw. I wasn't sure why, but for some reasons, he seemed not so unfamiliar to me. Have we ever met before? Or it was his voice that reminded me of someone I knew—but wait, who was it?

No. Maybe that wasn't the case. The familiarity I felt might come from this scent that I've been smelling even before I regained my consciousness here. The scent of woods, mixed with something sweet like vanilla and honey.

Though I wasn't sure where I ever found the same scent.

"You won't say that you wish to never being saved, will you?"

Strangely, I couldn't answer that. My lips felt frozen and my mouth seemed to forget how to make voice. And somewhere, in the inner part of my stomach felt like it was squeezed till stiff. I might really wish to not being saved, huh? That sounded like suit me better. I should have died too that night, along with mom and dad.

Actually, why did I come back to life? What for if I've lost everything I have? I would even eventually lose myself. How the hell this guy even managed to save me? I was so close to death as if it embraced me so tightly.

I rubbed my temple with my left hand. Suddenly, my head ache so badly. Perhaps, it was due to I hadn't used it for quite a while, since I was being brought back from the death's embrace. It felt like I was being resurrected but my heart was already died. I was starting to feel like a ghost with no soul, so empty and meaningless.

It took a few minutes for my mind to recalling the memory from that night when the old vampire chased us into a small cave inside pine forest. One by one, the scene was flashing in my mind. I recalled the scent of pines tree and the dry air on that forest. It was much dryer than our forest back in Minnesota.

The pine's barks were black as night sky, stood straight as if they were aiming for the stars above. I pulled Karren with one hand while another hand was busy clear up a path through grasses in front of us.

The inner part of that small cave was even darker than night itself. But we had no choice. Karen was turning into 'statue mode' since dad was killed. She was just sitting there behind me, hugged her knees close to chest. I tried my best to calm down and adjusting my breath, but everything was for nothing. My efforts were all became null in front of such strength. Even the bullets I shot could do nothing to that freaky vampire.

Wait! Then how did this Zero guy save us from that freak?

"What is it?" Zero asked me, probably realised my gaze upon him for a while. He was keep typing something on his computer's keyboard. "You could just ask if you have any question."

This guy was freaky too, like he was reading my mind. I inhaled a breath. Wondering if I should ask. Surely, I want to do. But at the same time, it freaked me out, thinking about the possibility. I really wished my hunch would turn out wrong.

But well, I pulled my self together and asked him anyway.

"How did you save us from that vampire?"

He was unbelievable strong. Human simply hold no chance against that creature.

Zero stopped his fingers movement, shifted his gaze toward me. And the answer he gave strike me like thunder. It made my eyes grew so wide that the balls might jumped out of the socket. I looked closely at that guy whose skin was so pale as snow and the topaz blue eyes have no glow.

"I am not a human. I'm vampire too."