Chapter 36: Nora Lee’s Story

Ariana's POV: I began to explain Nora Lee's story to Jade, "Once my family and I were turned into vampires we were monsters. Terrorizing villages, Charles may have told you that Nathaniel was the monster, but he was basically the Easter bunny compared to our sister. We would call Nora Lee 'The Heartless' which seems normal for a vampire, but Nora Lee would eat the hearts of her victims. It's not a vampires way, we drink the blood, we kill, and we do it all over again, but Nora Lee was the true monster. She only survived nearly a century until she became crazy. She'd wake up in the middle of the night while we were all sleeping and she'd try to kill herself because she was driving her head mad. Everything she ever said was just screaming at us to help her and fix her. She'd even try to convince us that she was somehow cursed to want to kill herself, and how she would act was just not normal. Vampires aren't normal as you know. But Nora Lee's behavior wasn't even 'vampire normal' in any way. Almost as if her humanity switch was permanently flipped off. Nobody could understand what was happening in her mind, so instead of trying to help her like we all wanted, Nathaniel put her to sleep. He threatened us saying that if we ever woke her up that he'd put all of us in our sleep for the next 1,000 years, so nobody ever woke her. She's been asleep for nearly 3 millenniums, unable to love a normal life."

Jade's POV: I honestly felt disgusted and kind of sad for this Nora Lee girl, she had a rough life and nobody helped her through it. I can relate to that, I'm having a hard time right now too, but nobody seems to notice. I have a secret...I've consumed all the magic that was once inside the glass hair comb. All the dark magic is inside of my body, running through my veins, and not even Charles nor Talia noticed! Anyway, I asked Ariana, "Why do you think Nora Lee went so crazy? There had to have been something wrong with her." She replied, "I have a theory, but it's far fetched..." I gestured my head for Ariana to continue so she said, "as I said, Nora Lee kept trying to convince us that she was cursed, well what if my mother had cursed Nora Lee either on accident, or on purpose while she was trying to fix Nathaniel? It's my only theory of what happened to her." "I don't think she cursed Nora Lee, I mean yeah, she cursed Nathaniel, but what did Nora Lee ever do that made her deserve it, because from all of you're sibling I've heard the same thing, that Nathaniel deserved the curse because he was using the extra power to his advantage. So why would it be Nora Lee?" Ariana gave me a puzzled look and said, "I'm not exactly sure. You just busted my only theory, now I got nothing!" "Sorry." I said sarcastically. Ariana got a mischievous smirk plastered on her face and she said, "How much power do you have access to?" "As much as I want I guess..." I said suspiciously. Ariana replied, "Good. Enough to hold down an original vampire?" I furrowed my eyebrows and answered, "Yes. Why?" "Wanna cause some trouble Jade?" Ariana asked. I smiled cautiously and replied, "With what?" Ariana grabbed my hand and pulled me out to my car and said, "Why don't we find out once and for all what happened to Nora Lee!" "Ariana...You don't mean..." "Yes!" She quickly cut me off. I laughed and said, "Alright. Let's go wake up your crazy ass sister!"

After some time we arrived at the Suliman house. It looked like nobody was home. I told Ariana to wait in the car so I could check and make sure the house was clear. I couldn't hear anyone so I went back outside and told Ariana we could go in. We walked into the house and headed into the basement. We had to set up candles in order to perform the spell I wanted. I could draw power from the flames. The spell would allow us to wake up Nora Lee without her being able to move, she would only be able to speak. I easily made the coffin visible to Ariana, that way she can talk to her too. I opened the unmarked coffin and rehearsed the spell in my head silently. After some time Nora Lee's eyes opened with the exact same blood shot color Arianas were. I heard a quiet whisper come from Nora Lee, she said, "Ariana?" Ariana smiled and said, "It's me! I'm here Nora Lee! You're going to be okay I promise!" I smiled at how happy she was to see her sister. I asked Nora Lee, "What happened to you before you were put to sleep?" Nora Lee whispered, "I killed many people, one of them was a vampire hunter. I was left cursed when I killed him, it's called a hunters curse. I kept seeing the man I killed in my dreams and everywhere, he'd tell me to kill my self. That I was a monster and had to die. I believed him and tried, I failed however and was put in my sleep. But I'm fine now. It went away as soon as I was put down. I can be awoken again!" Ariana smiled and nearly started crying when she said to me, "Wake her up Jade!" I started to wake Nora Lee up when suddenly I heard footsteps coming downstairs, I put a cloaking spell on Nora Lee's coffin, but I failed to put one of Ariana in time. It was Charles, he came down here when he got home and heard voices. He looked worried and said, "What are you doing down here Jade?" Then he looked beside me and saw Ariana and he said, "What is she doing awake? I told you not to use that spell!" I walked over to Charles and said, "This is a good thing. She's a good person Charles, she hasn't tried to kill me more than once so I'd say we're good!" Charles looked away from me and at Ariana and said, "Why the hell are you still even in town, wouldn't you want to leave Nathaniel as soon as possible?" Ariana smiled and said, "Aw. Show your little sister some respect Charles! I have been practically dead for 90 years. I expected a different reaction." I laughed and said to Charles before he could reply to Ariana, "She's helping us kill Nathan. You have to hold back your siblings, Ariana will grab Nathan, and I'll kill him!" I continued, "Do you trust me Charles?" He smiled sincerely and said, "I trust you Jade. But everyone will be home any minute, including Nathaniel. So I hope you're ready now!" I turned to look at Ariana and we both nodded our heads. I told Charles to get into position upstairs and be ready. Then I hid in a nearby room while I waited for my cue. I heard everyone walk through the door. The plan was in motion...