Thirsty for him
11. The Tormented ones

“The what? Who are they and what are they doing in our house?” He takes me inside, which shocked me because first he wouldn’t let me in, and now he takes me inside. I look into the room where I see a woman bent over the bed looking for something. Until she sensed our presence, then her look got straight at me. Something felt very familiar; “Angelica?” I whisper. Suddenly I recognized her. Recognizing is one thing, but she must be dead after all these years. All could I not fool myself, she is still alive, as I see her sitting there, looking at me.

She wants to come closer, and I see the scary look of her red eyes and the familiar pointed teeth. She wanted to attack us. I don’t know what had happened when she suddenly pulled away, back to the window where she began to stare out. Frightened by what has just happened, I step backward out of the room, causing Uncle Phil to close the door behind us. “Why did they put them here, and why did Mother put me on the same floor as the tormented ones? Is this some sick trick they’re playing on me?” I ask this, frustrated and angry at Uncle Phil.

Can hardly believe I let these words slip out, especially since my mother has not long passed away. Again I point to my mother when something bad happens to me, or as Diana would say, I see her as the bad guy she is not. “Your mother knew you were going to be a guardian and leader. Your father didn’t believe it, your mother did, but I had to see it with my own eyes to believe it. You made them listen to you just by looking at her. Protector of the tormented, as the legend says.”

What, protector of the tormented? Not a thing you can put on your resume. What am I with such a power, and what are they anyway? She looks so scary and lost. “You don’t know what they are, do you?” Asks my uncle with a face full of pity with his eyes fixed on me as if he was sorry about something. “No, I don’t know and would like to know?” I asked him, answering back while I was still trying to figure out what all this meant. “They are haunted by thirst that they cannot satisfy. Their marked ones are dead, and you will only find a marked one once in your life, someone you can drink from and feel completely fulfilled.” What a sad ending. Not an ending I would wish on anyone just to have to live like that. To live in a room that feels like torture just at the sight of those four walls around you, not to mention the thirst they must feel. Better to be dead than to have to live like this.

“Why don’t you kill them and save them from this eternal pain?” I asked Uncle Phill curiously, which made him even more sad, with a tinge of anger hidden in his eyes. He was just a quiet man, who didn’t like long conversations or many questions thrown at his head. Once he had had it, the conversation was over. I always thought of him as my father’s nicest brother, but he is just a monster like us and a little more if the book is to be believed.

“Avery, that’s enough for today. You will have to learn to control it, and I hope you will soon. Because they are coming for us.” Then he walked back down the stairs to where I heard him rummaging in the kitchen. Where I imagine he’s working for food, is what I hope anyway.

Now the tormented needed to be fed, just like us. Thirsty or not, we have to drink plasma and eat meat to stay alive. That is one important thing that is in the whole book. The book! Maybe I can find something in the book about these tormented people. I can still hear Uncle Phill’s voice repeating in my head that I must be quick because they are coming for us. But what can I do? I go to my room, close the door, and grab the book to delve more deeply into these creatures, just like us, but with much more pain to endure. As I flick through a few pages, I find a small piece about them.

The Tormented; are those who have lost their marked one by eating or killing them. When your marked one is gone, life has no meaning and hunger will be your eternal life. There are ways out, but Nicroat cannot kill their own kind. That is a rule you cannot break, or many bad things will happen to you. Just ask Trinios. Where there was a piece on this, the person mentioned down the page that he had died a few years earlier because the curse always finds a way.

I’m looking for someone to keep them in check as a sort of guardian, but can’t find anything. I will have to find out for myself, and I keep trying to think of what I could do to keep them in check, but for tonight nothing will be able to help us. Now I have to control them. What must I do now, I am too weak to make them listen to me, and what if I take them downstairs unprepared. What if they die in the battle, that would give them an honorable death.

I wake up with the book clutched between my arms and look outside where it is already getting dark with only the light of my room. I feel deep inside of me that they are coming, not only through Varnic’s warning. Also, a gut feeling that notifies me that they are coming, as if Varnic is telepathically sending me something to be able to get ready. Even though the last thing I want to do is fight. Yet, I have to do something to save my family.

We are all victims of some witch pleasure, why aren't we searching for a cure? The cure! I need to find Merina, but the only one who can help is on the other side of the front, and I don’t know if he will come back to me soon.

He may not be able to be away from me for long because we are still connected, although that doesn’t mean he likes being connected or I for that matter.

I need to find Father and warn him to stay awake to make sure there are three of us. So they can’t get too close to us.

As I walk down the stairs I hear Diana calling out, making me go to her first, “Do you know it’s a moonless night Avery, you need to stay inside and sleep.” Does she try to make me aware of our habits? “We can’t go to sleep, Diana, the bounded ones are coming.” She looks at me shocked and amazed that they are doing this and breaking our agreement.

This is something I just discovered in the book, whether the agreements still exist I don’t know because this book dates back a hundred years ago. The time when the last agreements were signed between the two families.

“We can’t Avery. I don’t know if you’ve read this yet, but we can’t stay awake. That’s another thing about our curse, it makes us fall asleep. It’s like being hit with a hammer and lying in a coma.” No, why didn’t I feel it before? I’ve been cursed for two years, and I’ve never had this feeling before. From a young age, I have trouble sleeping, and indeed I have had more blackouts than I have had in years. “Where is Dad? I have to warn him too. We have to find a way to stay awake.” Shaking her head, she begins pacing her room, sighing, not knowing what to do with what I just told her. I can read in her eyes that she thinks this is a hopeless task.

I know the feeling of hopelessness all too well, and I don’t want to let my family down now, but what can I do? “Father is in his room, maybe he is already sleeping. Because I feel the same feeling coming on. Avery, I don’t know how much longer I can keep this up.”

Quickly I rush down the hallway to the other side of the second floor where I knock on Father’s bedroom door, almost whispering that I can come in. I almost fall into the room as I quickly push myself through the door and run to Father’s bed to grab his body and shake it until he looks at me angrily. It’s as if I’ve woken Dracula from his eternal sleep.

“What do you think you’re doing!”

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