Victor is a vampire. He isn’t that sort of vampire that turns into a bat and is afraid of sunlight etc etc. He still has superhuman strength, inhuman speed and is immortal. But it’s not the superficial aspects that we want to focus on. Victor rejects his existence. Victor yearns to be normal and a geek and an outcast in school is as close to normal as he can get.
Victor’s parents were outcasts. They had the taboo union of a Vampire and a human. Victor’s mother was beaten to death by her very own race for having a child with a Vampire right in front of Victor’s eyes. Victor’s father was killed for betraying his race. Through some miracle, Victor survived and continued living on. He remembers the last thing his father said before he died, “Don’t blame the humans, they don’t know anything. Live with compassion; don’t hurt them like we did,” and Victor’s father left this world. Victor has always lived honoring his father’s dying words, but he has never forgiven them for killing his mother. Since Victor is half human, he’s invulnerable to sunlight, though he’s stronger at night. He’s not immortal and is vulnerable to physical attacks. However he does possess the strength and speed of a vampire.
“SPLAT” a tissue soaked with water landed on Victor’s face. Victor sighed and wiped away the muck. “This is going to be another typical day,” thought Victor.
“Hey loser, can’t even take a wet tissue? Boy you’re a drip,” Luke shouted after him.
Luke. He’s your typical high school hottie. Good looking, always with the popular crowd, girls worship the ground he steps on etc etc. However, god was fair. He’s an obnoxious, arrogant, absolutely detestable…thing that walks this planet. He also picks on geeks and nerds...
“…which makes me public enemy number 1 of the school naturally,” sighed Victor. Victor trudges up the stairs to class knowing that this day could not be any different from any other day in school. Little did he know the surprise which was in store for him.
Victor put his bag down in the usual spot in class, which was usually the furthest away from the popular crowd. He sat down, made himself as unnoticeable as possible, and buried himself in his work.
Luke swaggers into class and like Moses parts the red sea, the students automatically shifted to give way to him.
“God here it comes,” Victor thought.
“Hey loser, you’re sitting in my seat…” Luke says halfway when he notices a new girl sitting alone in class calmly reading a book.
“Hey, looks like there’s a new girl in class, I think I’ll go introduce myself, everyone needs a friend,” Luke comments as he slicks up his hair and moves over to the new girl.
New girl? Victor looks surprised. He even forgets that he was about to receive a barrage of abuse from Luke. Victor perks up and tries to take a look at the new girl. It was love at first sight. It was as though an angel has descended from the heavens to bless this class with her beauty. Her hair was a lustrous black. Her features were subtle but clearly defined. She had a demure aura around her, and it was as if everything around her complimented her beauty. Well. That was until Victor caught sight of lecherous Luke leaning over to make her acquaintance and maybe even more than that.
But what is this? It’s as though Luke’s a different person altogether!
“Hello, my name is Luke, welcome to 07S03. I saw you sitting here alone and thought that you might need an introduction to the class…” Luke says. As the conversation trails off from there, “Sigh. It’s for the best anyway, after all, a vampire and a human is taboo, not that anyone realizes we exist anyway.” Victor thought to himself bitterly. Victor continues doing his work. At the corner of his eye, Victor spies Luke and Cassie in animated conversation. Little did he know...
“Look thank you for your hospitality but I just want to read!” Cassie almost screams in exasperation.
“Oh all right, well you know you have a friend in me, if you need any help you can always approach me,” Luke replies, subdued.
“Yes thank you very much, your efforts are appreciated,” Cassie thanks Luke with a sigh of relief.
As Luke returns to his seat, Victor can only imagine that the new girl, has already fallen for Luke. As Victor started to daydream about the new girl, the teacher walks in.
“Good morning class!” Mr. Loke beams with a cheery smile.
“Good morning Mr. Loke,” groaned the class.
“I have a few matters to address this morning. Firstly it’s about your class test. I have to say, you made marking easy,” Mr. Loke said, grinning from ear to ear. “Secondly, it’s about a new student in class. I’m sure you’ve already noticed her, this is Cassie from
Cassie stood up and walk to the front of the class. Victor was once again stunned by her beauty. She looked more beautiful than before, and the moment she opened her mouth…
“Hi! My name’s Cassie and I’m from
The rest of the day went by slowly and painfully, there was not a time in class that he could look at Cassie and not be hurt by the cruel reality. The pain weighed heavy in his heart. As he walked home, he thought, “This will be over soon, after all it’s just a crush,” “Anyway as long as I keep myself buried in my work, I think I’ll be fine,” he laughed sardonically. It seems ironic that he found refuge in his work when it is the activity he so abhors. Victor hates the education system. He feels that its futile to work for something that would be useless to people in the future. “It’s just a piece of paper, it’s not like we use integration or thermal physics in the workplace next time,” Victor rants angrily inside. Victor sighs, “But still it’s the only thing right now that might distract me from…” Victor stops abruptly. Once again, god sure has a sense of humor - right before him, as he turned the corner, stood Cassie.
“Oh, hey,” Victor stutters.
“Erm, do I know you?” Cassie says awkwardly.
“Oh I’m sorry. I’m from your class. I’m Victor,” Victor blushes. He averts his eyes and says “I’m sorry, I guess I should get going now.” As Victor turns to walk away, Cassie suddenly calls him back.
“Hey! I remember you! You’re the guy that’s always sitting in a corner buried in your work. Wow, what a coincidence. Do you live in this area too?”
That cheery reply, though so simple, filled Victor’s heart with joy. It filled him with hope, this mad hope, that maybe, it was possible, maybe one day, a geek could be with an angel, a union between a human and a vampire could happen. He smiled.
“Yeah, I am. I do live here, just two blocks away from here,” Victor points.
“Come on, I’ll walk you home, I just live over there, 5 blocks away,” Cassie smiles cheerily.
Victor could not believe his ears. First he met this angel on his way home, now she’s walking him home? But he reminded himself, I am a vampire, in no position to be with a human being. “Reality sure is cruel,” he thought.
As Cassie walked with Victor that day, it was as though they had known each other for eternity. They clicked wonderfully. They were like bread and butter, one incomplete without the other. Victor even forgot himself, he just lost himself in that innocent conversation with Cassie. Cassie was taken aback by his honesty and simplicity. All her life she has been wooed, degraded and chased by those arrogant pricks that are found everywhere. This is the first time that she has been able to talk to someone who didn’t need anything more from her than her company. She was impressed, and little did she know, she was in love. The more they talked, the slower they walked. And when they parted company, it was already night. They had talked for 4 hours and not once did either of them look at the time.
“So I’ll see you in school tomorrow?” Cassie quipped.
“Erm, yeah I’ll see you around,” Victor replied uncertainly.
“Hey, you all right? You don’t look right. Is something on your mind?” Cassie asks, concerned.
“No I’m fine,” Victor flashes a smile. “I’ll see you in school tomorrow then,”
When Victor walked home that night, there was a slight lilt in his step. For once, he felt happy. Now it was time for his duty, his responsibility to mankind, his promise to his father. And once again, his heart weighed heavy on him.
As Victor stood on the rooftop of a building, he surveyed what he saw beneath him. “Why am I doing this?” he thought bitterly. He thought about what Luke has been tormenting him everyday, he thought about how his mother was killed by the same people he has to protect. Victor clenches his fist. “Father, why? Why do I have to protect the race which have hunted our race for ages?” Then he thought about Cassie and her beautiful smile. “That makes it easier I guess,” Victor thought to himself as he spied a couple of thieves trying to steal a car. Within a blink of an eye, he was gone.
“Quick Jeff I got a bad feeling about this,” Nick urged his partner who was trying to use a coat hanger to open the car door.
“Look I can only do things this fast all right? So just hold on to your balls and stop irritating me,” Jeff shot back, irritated.
Victor smiles in the darkness. He walks towards them. His footsteps echo clear into the night.
“Who’s that?” Nick whispers, panicky.
“What? I didn’t hear no nothing. Shut up and let me finish,” Jeff replies.
“No seriously, I heard footsteps,” Nick defends himself.
“It must be the marbles rolling around in your head,” Jeff laughed.
“That’s not very nice,” Nick shot back.
When the footsteps rang again, both Jeff and Nick heard them. They turned towards the direction of the footsteps, petrified. Victor appeared from the shadows and whispered softly, “Evening gents, lovely night isn’t it?” In his full superhero garb, Victor was an awesome sight. Black aviator shades like those that you see in the Matrix. He was clad in black entirely finished with black half gloves. He looked as though he was the wrath of the night itself. Victor laughed, his cold laughter pierced the night air, ringing loud and clear. It sent shivers down the two felons’ spines.
Jeff got the locking mechanism open and was about to get into the car when Victor commented, “I wouldn’t do that if I were you, not only will they get you for stealing, they’ll get you for destruction of property as well, since I seriously doubt you two have your driving license,” of course, they did not heed any of Victor’s warnings and got into the car, starting it and hitting the accelerator. They braced themselves for the crash but it never happened, for Victor was no where to be seen.
“So where are we going boys?” Victor smiled as he draped his shoulders over the two of them. They fainted. Victor sighed. “I always hate when this happens, it’s so boring,” Victor dragged the two of them out of the car and suddenly he thought about him mother. His fists clenched tighter. He looked at the two felons. He shook his head, “No I can’t hurt them,” he reminded himself and just left them on the floor.
As Victor stood in the lamp light, a voice rang from behind him, appalled. “My god, what have you done?” A figure clothed entirely in white stepped out from the darkness. She wore a white mask across her eyes, as well as a piece of cloth across her mouth. She wore knee high boots and a short miniskirt, making her look amazingly attractive. In her hand she carried a wooden stake, the mark of a slayer.
Victor was caught by surprised. He took one look at her and ran. The slayer gave chase. Many thoughts went through his mind as he made his escape. How did they find out who I was? Who is this person? There have never been slayers in
The slayer stopped the pursuit. She thought to herself, “I don’t know who you are vampire, but if you’re the one who murdered my family, I promise you there’ll be hell to pay,” the slayer walked off into the night, her hands tightly clutching the wooden stake with determination.
By the time the slayer gave up chasing Victor, he was already home lying on the bed with all the questions running through his head. The last word that went through his head before he went to sleep was “why?” He closed his eyes, and fell into a fitful slumber just as a hint of orange appeared far over the horizon.
Victor trudged to school, enduring the verbal abuses that Luke threw at him as he walked past him. Actually he didn’t hear anything at all; he was lost in his own thoughts, too busy to even realize that Cassie was calling him from the far side of the canteen.
“VICTOR! Why didn’t you answer me?” Cassie shouted as she stood in front of him, blocking his way.
“Huh? Oh I’m sorry, I didn’t hear you,” Victor explained with a dejected look in his eye.
“Hey, is anything the matter? Anything you would like to tell me?” Cassie asked, concerned about his welfare.
By this time, many of Victor’s classmates were staring at the both of them wondering how this could be possible. That included Luke, standing at the far side of the canteen, with a facial expression as black as night. Luke could not believe his eyes. He had never imagined that Victor was able to best him with Cassie. “He stole Cassie from me,” Luke thought. “He won’t get away with this,”
Victor started to notice that half the canteen was staring at them. “It’s nothing, really,” Victor mumbled as he brushed past her, leaving her stranded. Victor turned his back on her, and walked away. Cassie was confused and upset, but she was determined to get to the bottom of this. Luke watched the events unfold getting angrier and angrier by the second. He turned away and stormed off, muttering under his breath that Victor will pay.
Victor slowly walked up the stairs to his tutorial class and settled himself down in his usual place. He took out his books nonchalantly and started to immerse himself in the world of chemistry, not realizing that there were 2 pairs of eyes fixated on him. One filled with anger, the other filled with sorrow.
The bell rang, and like clockwork, Mr. Loke walked into class, his usual cheery self and announced that today there would be an OBT, much to the disappointment of the class. Victor just pretended nothing has happened and did the OBT without skipping a beat, finishing it in less than 5 minutes. However, it was not the OBT he was thinking about, but what happened last night.
“Am I really that hateful?” Victor questioned himself. “Do people really want me dead?” “Stupid human beings, no matter what I do for them, they’ll never accept me, I’m destined to be an outcast, destined to be hated by all. Why father, why do you help these human beings that you know killed mother?” Victor brooded. “Am I really worth what Cassie sees me as?” “No, I’m a monster; people should stay away from monsters.”
As these questions swam through Victor’s head, little did he know that the absolute opposite of these questions swam through Cassie’s. While the class was absolutely absorbed in their OBT, there were three individuals who were thinking of something totally irrelevant. The bell rang, Victor walked up to the teacher’s desk with his head bowed low and placed a single sheet of paper on his desk, after that he grabbed his bag and left without a word. Mr. Loke looked at him, confused about what brought about that sudden change in personality. “He may be unusually quiet in class, but he looks as though the weight of the world lies on his shoulders today,” Mr. Loke thought to himself.
Victor walked down to the canteen and sat alone, his head in his hands. Not too long later, Cassie sits down in front of him. They’re both silent for a while, then Cassie breaks the silence.
“Hey, what’s wrong?” Cassie asks, almost close to tears.
Victor doesn’t reply, he just sits there, quiet and brooding.
“I don’t think I can be your friend Cassie,” Victor says quietly. “I’m sorry,” Victor takes his bag and stands up about to leave.
“Wait! Victor!” Cassie calls after him tears already flowing from her eyes. “Why can’t you tell me what’s wrong?”
Victor just walks off, without looking back at Cassie. He walks past Luke who saw the entire thing. Luke stares at Victor with hatred in his eyes swearing to himself that he’ll make Victor pay for what he did to Cassie. “But right now, I think Cassie’s more important,” Luke thinks to himself. He walks over to where Cassie is sitting and sits in front of her.
“Hey…” Luke whispers tenderly.
“I’m fine,” Cassie replies, sobbing slightly.
“I know,” Luke says, handing her a piece of tissue.
Cassie looks up and smiles, she thanks Luke for the tissue and apologizes to him for the way she looks and wipes her tears away, rearranges the smile on her face again and walks off into the crowd.
“What a girl,” Luke thinks, and smiles to himself. “Not like all those chicks that fall head over heels over me with no backbone,” Luke runs his hands through his hair, “And I hate it when girls cry, especially when I’m helpless to do anything about it.” He suddenly thinks about Victor. “I don’t know what he did that made Cassie cry, but I can be sure that he’ll pay for it,”
Victor was in the library studying when he looked at his watch. 5 pm it told him. “Time to go, I guess” Victor thought to himself. He packed up his books and walked out of the library. He didn’t notice Luke nearby doing the same.
Victor was walking through a secluded corridor when someone tapped him on the shoulder. As he turned to look who it was, a punch flew out of no where and caught him on the cheek. He fell to the ground in a heap clutching his cheek. He looked up and saw Luke towering over him, hatred in his eyes.
“That’s for making Cassie cry!” Luke shouted at him, spitting out every word. “You jerk! Whatever did she do to you?” Luke grabbed Victor by the collar and raised him up. “Answer me!”
Victor just raised his head calmly and looked straight into Luke’s eyes. “You would never understand,”
“Why you arrogant geek!” Luke shouted and threw another punch. This time Victor dodges it and his fist contacts with the wall.
“Argh!” Luke cries out in pain and crumples to the floor. Victor stands over him, wanting to help him up.
“Hey look, I’m sorry…” Victor starts trying to help him up.
“Get away you geek!” Luke shouts as he throws another punch.
This time Victor is prepared, he grabs Luke, but just as he does, he is reminded of his mother, who was killed by the same kind of people who are tormenting him now. His fists clench and in one moment he loses control of himself and throws him against the wall, just as Cassie turns the corner. She sees Luke crashing against the wall, face bloody. She turns to look at who did this and sees Victor standing over him, fist raised. Cassie can’t believe her eyes. She runs over and shouts, “Stop it! Stop it! Get away Victor, I thought you were a nice guy. I was so wrong,”
Victor looks at her with a bewildered expression on his face. He looks at her and sees the hurt and hatred that she has for him and realizes that there is nothing that he is able to say that would change the present situation. He bows his head and leaves.
As Victor walked home that day, he thought to himself, “Maybe it’s better this way. Maybe if I hurt instead of her, she’ll be happy,” “Anyway, there’s nothing I can do about it now. She hates me. I hope she’ll be happy with Luke, he seems to care a lot about her,” As he thought about these issues, his brain assured him that everything would be fine, but his heart just weighed heavier, and heavier on him.
Victor stood at the edge of the rooftop, questioning his identity. Who was he? What was his place in society? If his existence is hated by so many, wouldn’t it be better if he just left? But he remembered the promise to his father and has sworn to honor that promise. He sat down at the edge of the rooftop, brooding. He thought about Cassie and the look that she gave him today. “Sigh, I’ve lost a friend, perhaps the only friend I ever will have. At least we were friends for that time we spent together. To me, that’s more than enough,” Victor sighed. A tear ran down his cheek.
“It’s not fair to sneak up on someone from behind,” Victor said to no one in particular.
A figure in white appears from the shadows. “I wasn’t intending on doing anything, I just came for the night air. You however, ruined everything.” The Slayer spat.
“I apologize for ruining your night. I guess now that I’m here, you would want to kill me. I won’t let you, but I will not fight with you tonight,” Victor states resolutely.
“It’s not your choice!” the Slayer shouts as she rushes up to Victor. Victor parries every blow but never returns a hit.
“Why don’t you fight back?!” The Slayer shouts, emphasizing every syllable with a blow.
“Firstly, I don’t fight girls,” Victor grunts, trying to parry each of the Slayer’s blow. “Secondly, you’re a good guy, I don’t want to hurt you,” and he thought to himself, “we ought to have been killed off ages ago anyway,”
The slayer suddenly stops her attacks. “My family was killed because of your KIND!” the Slayer swings her fist at Victor’s face. Victor just dodges it and has a shocked and guilty look on his face. “I’m sorry, I didn’t know…”
“Of course you don’t, you’re just a…” the slayer continues when suddenly a piercing scream fills the air. Victor hears the scream and runs towards the railing of the rooftop.
“I’m sorry, I have to go now,” Victor apologizes.
“Don’t try to escape!” the slayer shouts after him and gives chase.
“I’m not, I promise we’ll finish this later, but now I really have to go,” Victor vaults over the railing and disappears. The slayer gives chase and spots Victor defending an old lady against a snatch thief with a knife.
Victor grabbed the thief by the arm and tried to pin him down. The thief fought back and slashed Victor with his knife opening up a deep gash in his arm. Victor yelped in pain and growled. He jumped on the thief and they both went crashing onto the floor. He had the thief in an arm lock when suddenly the image of his mom appeared in his mind. The more he thought about it the angrier he became. He didn’t hear the thief crying in pain. Suddenly he remembered his father’s words. He was brought back to reality and immediately released his grip. The thief ran off, cradling his arm in his hand. He was shocked at himself. “I’m sorry…” he told to no one in particular, looking at his hands. “I’m sorry.” He ran off, shocked at what he just did.
The Slayer walked over and returned the bag to the old lady. After that she helped the old lady to the lift. As the slayer was about to walk away, the old lady said to her, “Thank your friend for me, he saved my life. Bless you too, whoever you are.” The slayer stood there, stunned.
The slayer went to the same rooftop she saw Victor. She was right, he was sitting on the rooftop with his head in his hands. “What did you do that for?” the slayer called out.
“I don’t know…I just lost…,” Victor whispered, his thoughts elsewhere.
“I meant when you helped the old lady, that man deserved justice…” the slayer said.
“He may have deserved justice, but i’m no killer…” Victor trailed on.
That was when the slayer snapped. “I don’t believe you!” the Slayer shouted at him. “Do you know what your kind did to me? They killed my family in front of me and made me watch!” the Slayer went on her knees and wept. “I’ll never forgive your kind!”
Victor just slowly backed away and said, “I’m sorry,” before disappearing into the night.
Victor sighs as he gets into bed thinking once again about the pain he’s causing people around him. He asks himself whether whatever he’s doing does pay for the pain his ancestors have caused. “I just want people to be happy around me, to be able to accept me for who I am and not what I am. If that happiness can only be achieved if I wasn’t around, I shouldn’t be around,” sighed Victor. He thinks about the students in NYJC and he thinks to himself, “Sigh, if only they knew that being normal is a privilege I would give anything to have,” he closes his eyes and falls asleep.
Once again Victor finds himself in school again. He thinks to himself, everyday I do the same thing day in day out. What am I doing this for? He shakes the feeling out of his head. Suddenly, he spots Cassie hanging out with Luke. He suddenly collapses on the floor clutching his heart. “I didn’t know it would hurt me that much,” he mutters to himself as he tries to catch his breath and picks himself up. He walks up the stairs to class. Little did he know that when he turned his back on them, Cassie looked at him go with sorrow written all over her face and tears welled up in her eyes. She fought back feelings to call him back and just sat quietly in front of Luke.
“Hey, don’t cry, it’s not worth it crying over him,” Luke said softly.
Cassie nods and dried her eyes. “I’m fine,” Cassie said, “he just seemed so different the other day,” she thought to herself.
Luke is silent. Cassie suddenly thought of something.
“Luke?,” Cassie raises her head.
“Yes Cassie?” Luke looks curious.
“Why do you hate Victor so much?” Cassie asks.
Luke falls silent for a while.
“Hey if you don’t want to tell me it’s all right you know, I just want to know why you always treat him so bad,” Cassie says.
“Victor and I go way back. He was in my class in secondary 4. Our school had this program where a person has to excel in sports, project work and academics to be able to qualify for a scholarship to our affiliated school,
Cassie fell silent for a while. “Come on let’s go to class, we’ll be late,” Cassie said as she stood up to walk to class.
Victor was already in class when the two of them arrived, as usual buried in his books. Just as Cassie and Luke stepped into class, Mr. Loke arrived, this time in place of that cheery expression he has on his face, this face is as black as storm clouds.
“What happened to all of you? I may have expected poor results because of the surprise test but this is appalling! Those of you which I expected more from just disappointed me. I’ve got nothing to say. Take back your scripts.” Mr. Loke sighed as he sat down heavily on his chair. “Victor, see me after class,” Mr Loke said curtly as he buried his head in his hands.
“I guess it’s not the first time he has called me up,” Victor sighs. The lesson ended quickly and Victor went to see Mr. Loke after class.
“Care to explain this?” Mr Loke said quietly as he placed Victor’s script on the table. Victor took one look at it and bowed his head. “Your work has been steadily declining Victor, what has been happening to you?” Mr. Loke scolded.
“I was busy…” Victor murmured.
“Busy? What can be more important than school work?” Mr. Loke shouted as he starts to lose his temper.
“Trying to make something out of my life!” Victor shouts back. “All my life, I have been doing the same thing over and over again. Everyday I come to school, get laughed at, get ignored, act like wallpaper and then go back home to an empty house! It’s as though I’m the only one left on this planet! I just want to be accepted. Sometimes I think whether this is how my life ought to be. Sometimes it gets so lonely at home I look forward to coming to this godforsaken school. For when people laugh at me, at least there’ll be laughter around me…” Victor trails off, he places his head between his arms and draws heavy breaths. He didn’t realize that Cassie was standing at the door, looking at him cry in front of Mr. Loke. But all Cassie could do, was cry with him. She never realized the pain that Victor held inside and wanted to kill herself for the way she treated Victor that day. She desperately wanted Victor to forgive her, but she just didn’t know how.
As Victor stood up to go, Mr Loke told him, “Ask yourself this, who are you, what is your purpose here?”
That day, Victor walked in the park before going home. He just wanted to clear his head about certain things. He thought about the question Mr. Loke asked him. “Who am I?” Victor asked himself. Suddenly he heard a scream from the far side of the park. He looked into his bag and cursed, his superhero garb was not in his bag. He ran.
When he reached the scene, he saw Luke lying bloody on the floor and Cassie was being attacked by 4 gangsters. Victor cried, “No!” and rushed to attack them, fangs bared and eyes full of rage. Cassie watched, her eyes full of surprise. “Victor is a vampire?” As Victor was getting slashed up by the knives, he shouted to Cassie, “What are you doing? Take Luke and run!” Victor was bleeding profusely from multiple wounds over his arms. Then, Cassie did something very unexpected. From her bag she pulled out a wooden stake. Victor’s eyes went wide with surprise. Distracted, the gangsters took their chance and plunged their knives deep into Victor’s chest. “No! Victor!” Cassie cried as he fell to the floor. Cassie looked at the gangsters with hatred, “How dare you,” she hissed, her words full of venom. “How dare you do that to my FRIEND!” At the last word, she rushed at them, movements full of grace, but attacks full of fury. She was controlling herself, as she was not meant to kill, but that did not stop her from inflicting the worst pain this gangsters have ever felt in their life. Cassie wasn’t as merciful as Victor in that aspect.
Luke was appalled that the stories his mother told him about vampires were true. Luke summoned up all the courage left in him and dragged himself over to where Victor lay. “Hey man,” Luke said, a little guilty and a whole lot of scared.
“If you’re going to insult me again, please don’t, at least let me have my last moments in peace,” Victor struggled to reply.
“I just want to say, I’m sorry for how I treated you. I never did forgive you for how you lost my scholarship for me, but I guess I was wrong to act like that…” Luke trailed on.
“I lost it on purpose. I knew about your scholarship thing and I knew how the teachers pushed up your marks so you could get good grades. Do you think a geek like me can actually fail something? I did it for you, I knew you would not be able to make it in HCJC, your grades have never been good. Do you want to get kicked out after the first year?” Victor replied. His eyes closed and he went limp.
“VICTOR! VICTOR!” Luke cried as he tried to shake Victor awake. Luke remembered what his mother told him about vampires. He never really thought it was true. But he knew what to do anyway.
Luke took out a pen knife from his bag when a hand was placed on his shoulder. He turned to look, it was Cassie. She took the pen knife from him as Luke started to protest. Cassie just silenced him and whispered, “I owe him this, for misjudging him,” I’m a slayer, and because of that, I nearly lost a friend. “He must have been thinking about how I have been hunting him all this time and it must have broken his heart to think that someone out there wants him dead, I’m sorry Victor, I really am.”
Luke was silent. Cassie made a slight cut on her wrist and brought it to Victor’s mouth. The blood flowed, drip by drip into Victor’s mouth. After a while, Victor coughed and fluttered his eyes open.
“Cassie,” Victor said weakly. “You’re a slayer, why did you do this? You should have just let me die, after all, I’m a freak of nature. Everybody would look at me with hatred…”
Cassie shakes her head, “No Victor, you’re a friend to me. The best one I have ever known for a very long time. And it doesn’t matter what you are. I just accept you for who you are. And you’re Victor Sefuro Tan. Don’t you ever die on me.”
Victor was stunned. After that he bowed his head down and said, “Yes Cassie,”
Luke put his hand up, “Dude, sorry for all I did this year. You didn’t deserve it. Friends?”
Victor looks apprehensive, Luke continues, “for life?”
Victor looks at Luke and smiles, takes his hand and says, “For life.”
All of them stood up and walked away, each with a different path of fate, each with a different destiny, but all of them entwined, inseparable.
Victor stands on rooftop. “It doesn’t matter who people think I am, I know who I am. I know my purpose in life. I’m to live, mostly to protect those who love me but also those that don’t. I have to respect my father’s wish but I’ve realized why now. View people for who they are and not what they did to you. The people who killed my mom were fearful. My parents never blamed them and I should not as well. Make people happy wherever I go, not whenever I go. People may want me dead. But I would live for those who want me alive, those I have to protect, those in need of protection. What do I want in life? To live, nothing else. Who am I? I’m Victor, VAMPIRE”
A piercing scream fills the air. A voice from behind Victor says, “Let’s rock and roll,” The voice came from Cassie, dressed in her white superhero costume. “Yeah, let’s,” another voice calls out. It was Luke, dressed all black in a sweeping cloak. Victor smiles.
“I’m Victor, vampire,”
