Waxing Darkness by Jose Luis Solorzano
Chapter Five: Memories
Heartless dreams within,
For midsummer nights have passed.
The fates play goes on.
It is said that werewolves could go on for almost a full year without having the need to rest. It wasn’t the healthiest of lifestyles, but it was indeed possible to accomplish. In the Estrella family however, they usually used one night out of a week to catch up on their sleep. This idea was inspired mostly be Emily than by Victor.
On this very early October morning, Luna refused to sleep for almost a complete month now. The last time she tried to go to sleep, the nightmare had occurred.
In her dream, Luna was wearing only a velvet silk nightgown and was walking along an abandoned road in a forest that she had never visited before in her life. At times, she would attempt to simply transform into her werewolf form, but was oddly unable to do so. When that failed, she attempted to cast some of the simple defensive spells she had known, but her powers were extinguished. Nothing made sure that she was secure. Everything that made her a supernatural being had left her powerless.
Her insecurities exposed, she unconsciously traveled down the road, mostly hoping that it would lead her to an easy way out. Sometimes, there would be the sound of a twig breaking, which caused her to jump. She wasn’t that much of a physical fighter when it came to her human form. Yes, she would be able to fight off any predator, but only enough to attempt running away from them, and only if it were a human being, she knew she would most likely be able to get away from.
Towards the end of the road, Luna began hearing a voice. It didn’t belong to anybody that she could recall to memory. The voice was feminine and very ghostly. The strangest thing about it was that the voice wasn’t calling out to her into the open air, but right into her brain. As the voice spoke to her, her body began to move much more quickly.
“Luna, there is nothing that you can do to change what is to happen. Death is an equal force for every living creature. You enemies will die as well as those who are the most important to you. Keeping them close will only cause them harm and lead them to a much premature death. There is no way a girl as small as you can save them from the Reaper and his list. And when it is your time to die, you will have no one left beside you to witness your passing. You will die absolutely alone. There is nothing that makes you special enough to escape this inevitable fate.”
Luna was on the verge of tears, wishing the voice would go away. Shut up, Luna thought as a few stray tears exited her eyes. She wanted to lash out verbally at the voice, but that was completely useless. Not a single noise would exit her mouth.
She walked a while longer, and finally noticed a small glimmer of light. Unable to run due to a supernatural restriction, she walked as fast as she could. It didn’t matter to her what was waiting for her on the other side, but she just wanted to get away from here as quickly as possible. The light grew brighter passed the trees, and as it became nearly blinding, it felt like some force was holding her back. With all of her strength, Luna was determined to pass through what was every holding her back from passing through the light.
Luna was blind only for a single moment. When the light passed, Luna was slowly becoming very able to see her surroundings. It wasn’t a bright day as the light had made her expect. She now stood in the middle of a dimly lit field, storm clouds covering up any possible trace of sunlight. There was no longer a gravel road that would lead back into the forest from where she came. In fact, there wasn’t even a way for her to get back into the forest. Circling around her were deceased trees, branching out completely, causing her unable to leave the field. In a wave, the green grass turned into old, rotten dead pieces of grass.
As she passed through the large field, she noticed a strange object lying on the ground. The only other sound throughout the quite place was her footsteps through the passing grass. As she got closer, she noticed that it was a young man. He appeared to be completely still. Luna’s worst fears were realized when she noticed who it was that was lying on the ground.
Luis Medina’s eyes were completely open. He looked as if he had been involved in the middle of a fight. His hair was much messier than usual, his clothes are ripped and ruffled, and bruises lay all over her body. Tears streamed down Luna’s eyes, wishing that she could get the image out of her mind. The suddenly, Luis’s right arm twitched. Luna at first believed that it was a trick of the light mixed with her tears. That theory was quickly thrown off of the table when his entire body moved in a spasm. Luna’s eyes examined his body and closed in around his neck, noticing two tiny openings where blood began to spill out. His eyes began to flutter, and his light brown eyes slowly dissolved into the blood red irises of a vampire.
Slowly, his body began to raise, his hair covering his face from Luna. Luna wished that she could run away, but her body was now completely paralyzed. She couldn’t understand if she was unable to move out of complete fear or if the unknown force was now keeping her deadly still. Her mind fought, but her body didn’t respond. All she could do was witness whatever was going to happen.
The two of them stood eye-to-eye, Luis’s face almost emotionless. Luna had only hoped that she could hide the emotions that were running through her mind; fear, anger, and above all, loneliness. The two of them stood silently in the opening for over a minute, studying each other’s faces.
The nightmare had ended there, with Luna waking up in a cold sweat over a month ago. Even thinking about it caused her to become breathless. A few times, she would try to use one of her spells and make sure that she still had her powers intact. The simplest of these spells was when she held a glass ball in her hand, imagining it to turn itself into a glass cup. She learned that spell casting was very much like a chemistry, involving the Law of Conservation of mass; what you put in is what you get out. Less than a second passed and the small orb transformed itself into the cup she desired. It was a simple spell, but it had a strange calming effect on her.
Luna had always been able to remember every single one of her dreams, each one varying in detail. She wasn’t quite sure that it was due to her being a mix of a werewolf and a spell caster or that it was something that was another thing that was special about her. No matter the cause, this particular nightmare was one that she could remember in very fine detail. Going back to sleep was something that she gravely protested and refused to do.
She blamed the nightmare itself on what the vampire, Karin, did to her on the night that the two of them had met. That in itself was much like a dream. Looking back at it, she felt very stupid for not looking at the logic of the moment. For one thing, Luis didn’t know where Luna lived at that point in their relationship and there were no clues in her “human” life about what she really was. Not only that, but he used a gun to kill both the werewolves and the vampires involved, when she knows full well that such a weapon could barely injure them, let alone kill them. The illusion was all in the moment, and probably anybody else would have acted the same way if it happened to them. Still, Luna was hard on herself for not really noticing something that was quite obvious.
Drake had been very on guard since his failed attempt in trying to kill Alexander. Letting him go was probably the sloppiest mistake that had ever happened to him. Leaving loss ends just dangling out in the opening wasn’t a part of his character. He was on edge, wondering if Alexander was going to come back to the hideout. Obviously, he hadn’t gone to the werewolves, probably because Alexander felt that Drake would expect him to do that. Right now, he didn’t want to be found out by anybody. That bought Drake some time to think, but he knew he didn’t have much. That night was only a fluke, and Drake knew that was a fact. Alexander was always stronger than Drake, but Drake was much smarter and resourceful.
Recently, Drake was the only person who left the hideout to retrieve blood for everybody. Karin would explore the apartment building throughout the daylight hours as well as the hours that they were forced to stay inside. It went up too thirteen stories, somet
Of course, Karin’s absolute most favorite part about her new lifestyle was that she was no longer who she had to be. Alexis had made well on her promise to show Karin how to become much younger, back into her mid-teens. When they did the special enchantment, Karin had to have as much blood in her as possible. New vampires didn’t have complete control over their bodies, and even doing simple things could result in them burning out before they ever started “living”. Fortunately in Karin’s case, her first attempt was all that she needed. She forever wanted to look as she did at sixteen years of age: lean, bouncy, and absolutely full of life.
Tonight, Karin didn’t feel like watching through any of her movies, nor did she want to explore more of the secrets of the apartment. While Drake was out, she travelled up to the thirteenth floor, which was used as their headquarters and where the main television was located. Up there was Alexis, who seemed to just be staring at the screen, focusing on absolutely nothing. If Karin didn’t know better, she would have guessed that Alexis was actually sleeping.
“Alexis,” Karin said in a shy voice. “I was wondering about something.”
Alexis broke her focus from the television and to the young vampire who was asking for help. “What is it Karin,” Alexis asked, trying to sound sympathetic.
“It’s about my memory,” Karin answered. Alexis’s face changed, seeming as if she understood what Karin was going to ask, but she didn’t interrupt her. “I can remember vividly everything about who I was when I was alive. I was an actress who got lead roles almost every time. This change has also made a lot of things in my past much clearer; I can see the kind of clothes I used to wear when I was in elementary school. But, when I try to think of the day I was turned into a vampire…everything goes blank. I remember clearly finishing up rehearsals for Rent, and then, the next thing I remember is waking up in this building, feeling like I was starving. I’m not even sure if that last memory even took place on the same day I changed; everything is such a blur. Why can’t I remember anything?”
As Karin was speaking to Alexis, she stood up and the two of them began to walk the hallway. Alexis had always felt that walking was very therapeutic and helped clear out her thoughts. Alexis was careful to let Karin express what she was feeling.
“I went through it too,” Alexis said after a few seconds of silence passed. “It’s an amazing feeling, isn’t it? Being able to remember things that you otherwise forgot or you couldn’t remember quite clearly. But I was bugged by why I couldn’t remember what happened to me on the night I changed. Drake always told me about what it was like when I changed, but part of me didn’t believe him. It took me about a year until I was finally able to remember what happened to me.
“Alexander had a theory about why this happened. Our bodies go through a lot of trauma when we’re changed into what we are. Our brain is very much affected by the venom that’s running through our veins, releasing many of our memories so we can clearly see them. However, our short term memory of that day is damaged, that is, until almost a year after we change. You’ll know what happens when your mind is fixed. Don’t worry about it too much.”
These days, Alexis didn’t like discussing Alexander too much. She was grateful to him for teaching her how she could properly live her life, to help humanity. That all being said, she had lost trust in the man she once knew. What Drake had told her and Karin, about how Alexander was planning on killing all of them, it affected the very memory of a man she once saw as the father she never really had. The only person she was willing to trust now was Drake, but it wasn’t for the reasons why she used to trust Alexander.
“By chance,” Alexis said again, “do you want to look and see the night that I became a vampire?”
“What?” Karin asked, looking dumbfounded.
“You can look into my mind, right?” Alexis seemed to be trying to leading Karin on.
“Yeah, but I don’t think I can reach into someone’s memories.” Karin had an uneasy feeling in her stomach, as if she wasn’t sure if she said something that was stupid.
“How do you know if you haven’t tried?” Alexis asserted. “It’s not going to hurt either of us; all that you’re going to do is tell me to think back to when I was changed. When you get your memory back of when we changed you, you’ll understand why it all feels so strange.”
“Alright,” Karin said, in a bit of a flat tone.
Karin and Alexis’s velvet eyes stared deep into each other’s. Karin did her best to focus, grabbing a hold of Alexis’s mind. Show me what happened when you were turned into a vampire, Karin though, hoping that Alexis’s plan would work. It was obvious that Alexis was already in a trance, so Karin closed her eyes and looked into the events that were unfolding inside Alexis’s mind.
It was as if Karin was living inside an old black and white movie. She was standing next to Alexis. Around them, it was nightfall, and very few noises were being known. It took Karin a while to understand that they were in the middle of an old hospital. A nurse staring at the chart for a patient came into the room, passing straight through Karin, as if she were a ghost. She looked at the name on the chart the nurse left behind. She gasped when she noticed it belonged to Alexis.
“Two years before this point in time, I had been diagnosed with the AIDS virus,” Alexis narrated as they looked at the Alexis in the past, lying in her bed. She appeared to be very sick, almost as if she was already a corpse. The Alexis in the memory was obviously older than what Alexis chose to be in her vampire form. “In the late eighties, I was in my fifties, and I worked as a nurse before I was diagnosed, so I knew that there was no way to help me. I was surprised that I lived as long as I did. My husband divorced me after the diagnosis, and I chose not to stop him. On this day, I knew that this would be my last day alive.
“However, I knew that there was one person who needed to say goodbye to me before I passed on. Care to take a guess on who it was?”
Before Karin could answer the question, she felt someone pass through her just like the nurse did only a minute ago. The man was tall and wearing an aged, leather jacket, a black shirt, and faded jeans. He had hurried to the past-Alexis’s side, who smiled when she saw him coming through. The two of them appeared to be very different in age, but they seemed to share a very special connection. Karin stared at the young man for a few seconds until it all finally seemed to click inside his head.
“No way! Is that Drake?” Karin blurted out. The past-Drake was a bit younger than the Drake she usually saw, but she could easily tell by his forcefully hidden red eyes that he was a vampire at this time.
“Yep,” Alexis answered, smiling.
The two of them looked at the memory unfold. Drake was holding tightly onto Alexis’s hand. The two of them were speaking in low tones, Alexis’s being a bit shaky. The vampire- Alexis and Karin moved in closer in order to hear their conversation.
“Do you remember when we first met,” The past Alexis asked to Drake. “It seems like so long ago. That fire nearly killed you. I was glad that I was put on your medical team to help you get better. You became a good friend for me these past few months. Thank you, Drake. For everything you’ve done for me.”
“Alexis,” Drake sighed. He seemed to be avoiding all eye contact from her at all costs. “You’re probably the most decent human being I have ever met. Everyone else…they don’t care. It seems like they all have no sense of morality.”
“Hush,” Alexis weakly ordered him. “I’m just like everybody else; everybody is flawed, but you have to look passed those flaws and look at
“What if you don’t have to leave,” Drake pressed. “What if I knew there was a way to save you, to not only stop the virus, but to stop you from dying completely?”
Slowly, Alexis sat up in her bed, fresh tears in her eyes. She believed that she was done crying, knowing that she was going to die today. She reached out and held onto Drake. It surprised him, the feeling of the woman holding onto him as if he were her only lifeline. Drake hugged her back, trying to make sense in all of this.
“I told you, quit worrying about me,” Alexis told him. “We’re both going to be okay. You’re my best friend; and if there were some way to stay here, you know I would take it. I want to keep the only friend I have left.”
Alexis’s divorce had recently been finalized at this point. The man she had supposedly loved for the last decade ditched her when she needed him the most. One by one, everyone who was important in her life decided to leave her alone to die. Love was now something far beyond anything she wanted; she couldn’t be in love with Drake, but that didn’t mean that she didn’t care about him.
Suddenly, Alexis’s body ceased movement. Curtains covered and doors shut, Drake dug his fangs into Alexis’s neck. Alexis wished to scream out in pain, but Drake kept his hand over her mouth. He finally released her neck and allowed her head to fall back onto the bed. Her eyes were slowly fluttering and she began to slip out of consciousness. Until her last breath, Alexis held onto Drake’s hand.
The memory had finished. Both Alexis and Karin was pulled quickly back into reality. The two of them were back in their apartment complex, staring at each other. There was nothing else that could be said between the two of them. The silence between the two of them seemed to say absolutely everything.
The quiet was broken a few seconds later, as they heard the elevator door ding. Emerging from the elevator was Drake, carrying two body bags. He dragged them into their own separate rooms without even noticing the two girls that were around him. Karin could only guess what was going on while Alexis understood what was happening. He was recruiting new members for their family.
Ever since Alexander had betrayed Drake and ran away, Alexis could tell that Drake was much more serious and stern than before. He didn’t seem to want to do things Alexander’s way anymore. All Alexis wanted to do was survive, which is what a life with Drake seemed to guarantee. These new members, they were probably here to help keep their family together, at least, that was what Alexis was hoping.