Only Human (8 page)

Does he think I am going to answer him? What is he after? Why doesn
’t he just kill me and be done with it? I don’t know anything about anything! I’m a kid, MORON!

His eyes have just opened wider with anger, he has heard my thoughts! I forgot that they can read minds. His eyes are boring into me; they are hot coals burning into my mind. The pain, such pain, my mind is fire, burning, STOP! PLEASE STOP!!

‘Do not disrespect your Elders human! You are useless to me; there is nothing in your mind. I will find out from your mother and father.’

Find out what? What does he mean? Don
’t hurt my parents, they are innocent, they didn’t know, please don’t! I feel sick! I’m going to be sick!

I must have passed out again but where am I now? I am so cold, so very cold and I can
’t move my arms and legs. Such pain, I am stretched out! Am I standing?  I can’t see anything! There is something on my face; it’s all around me, trapping me, I can hardly breathe! There is a tube with blood, my blood. ‘SOMEONE HELP ME!!! HELP ME!! AAAhhhhhh!!!’

So tired now
, every time I come around, and I’m too weak to scream. There is no point, no-one will answer and no-one will help. Each beat of my heart pumps out more of my lifeblood and I will die. In death I will find peace and I welcome it.

‘
No you won’t!’

‘
What? Shut up Amica, and let me go! How did you get in here with me? Go away, you can’t help me!’

‘
I am always with you; draw your strength from me! Don’t you dare give up!’

‘
Leave me alone friend, please! Look at you with your golden hair and pretty dress. You are free! Go! Be my friend and let me die!’

‘
No.’

‘
I am already dead!’

‘
No!’

‘
You are making me angry now! I thought you were my friend.’

‘
I am not friends with a girl that lacks courage!’

‘
Oh My God! I will rip these tubes out of me and knock you out Amica!’

‘
Yes, yes you have.’

‘
You what? I have what?’

‘
My arms, they are free, when did I? Amica! You gave me strength! Thank you! Thank you!’

I have to free my legs somehow but it
’s hard to see what is tethering them to this metal slab.  It feels like straps, thick leather straps, but they are so tight and I am so weak. Oh No, I can hear something, ‘pretend Aecia, pretend you are still being drained!’ It’s too late, someone is here, and there is a knife cutting through this plastic cocoon! No, not now, I don’t want to die anymore.

‘
Aecia, It’s Garok, I have come to free you; don’t be scared.’

Garok
! I am a burning sword of anger and I will strike him down with my last breath! Get me out of here Amica, help me to rip him to pieces, and spit on his corpse!

He has cut the straps and I still can
’t move; my limbs are weak and limp and they won’t do what I tell them. He is on a kind of ladder; I couldn’t see that before, I must have been suspended, high up in the warehouse. I want to reach up and claw at his face, but I can’t. I will kill him, but not now. I can’t see him anymore, it is dark, and I am sinking into dark and peace. What is that lovely, fresh smell? My face feels warm and glowing and it is bright, brighter than I have ever seen before. I know where this must be friend, there is no pain and I am happy because I am waking up in heaven.

Someone is holding my hand and talking to me. It is my
Uncle Rauul; dear, sweet and kind, Uncle Rauul. I am so glad he is here with me in heaven.

‘
Aecia, darling child. You are okay now, and you are safe with us. No-one will hurt you.’

I think I will just sleep a little longer and rest. I am so tired still
, but I am not afraid anymore and when I awake I will hug my uncle, and I will never let go.

THE HONEYCOMB CAVES

It is dark now and I am afraid to open my eyes. Someone is murmuring quite near me but so quietly, almost a whisper.  Someone else is answering just as quietly. My mind is clearer than it has been for a long time, and I remember some of the real nightmare that has been my life for the past few nights.

I know that I was captured, that Garok gained my trust
, and even my love, before betraying me and handing me over to the Vampires on a plate. I remember the pungent smell of human blood in the factory where I was strung up, and the relief I felt when I thought that death was near.

I remember you, my best friend Amica, you wouldn
’t let me give up, you made me stay alive, and I know now, that whatever happens next I am going to embrace the fact that I am human! I can’t live a lie anymore, and pretend to be something I now loathe and despise; Vampire! I am not timid Aecia, the weirdo, whose greatest wish was to be invisible. I am Aecia the human, and I will build my life on that truth!

‘
Aecia.’

A warm hand has taken my hand, a warm hand! It must belong to a human being
, but who is it? I don’t recognise the voice.

‘
Aecia, open your eyes luvie, you are amongst friends.’

I am looking at a person I have never seen before. There are lines on her face
, but her eyes are bright, not blue or green but somewhere in-between. She is wearing what looks like a smock dress made out of sack cloth, crude and roughly sown.

‘
Hallo Aecia, my name is Anne. It is so nice to meet you at last. We have been worried that you didn’t want to survive.’

There are more people, a group of five or six crouched in the corner of wherever we are. Whatever they are doing over there, it smell
’s delicious!

‘
Come, meet the others, you must be hungry and we are about to have some stew.’

My desire to know what the hell is going on is far outweighed by my desire for whatever they are stirring in that cauldron. My mouth is watering, I am practically drooling here.

‘You are starving child, here eat, we have plenty today, No three and six, caught some rabbits.’

Animals, of course, we must be in the barren lands. Rabbits, my heart is protesting that I am about to eat cute, lovable animals
, but I’m afraid my stomach has no such morals. I am taking the proffered bowl of stew with gratitude.

OMG Amica! This is what
Humans mean by Heaven, never mind the daylight! It’s like eating little miracles off a spoon! My bowl is empty and Anne is immediately refilling it and her own. There is silence now, except for the spoons scraping the bowls, as we all partake in this stupendously delicious stew.

Anne has handed me some water in a plastic tumbler
, and it too

is delicious, sweeter and purer than
any tap water I have ever tasted.

‘
It is from the spring and full of minerals, it will help strengthen and revive you.’

Now that my hunger and thirst have been satisfied I am full of curiosity, so many questions that I don
’t know where to start. ‘Where are we and who are you, and all these other people?’

They are all looking at me now
, as if I have asked the questions they also want the answers to. Only Anne seems to know exactly what is going on. One thing is clear to me, everyone here is human, not a fang in sight! Anne is addressing us all.

‘
Welcome all of you, I know you must be confused, and to be honest I am just getting to grips with what is going on myself, but I will tell you what I know. We are in the barren lands, so called by the Vampires who consider any area without a Clone farm to be barren. As you can see this is not the case for Humans. From what I have seen since I have arrived here, I would call this place a paradise.’

As she is speaking, my eyes are adjusting to the dim lamplight in the room
, and I can see the expressions on the faces of the other people. Their eyes are like the eyes of a newborn child. There is no knowledge there, no recognition, but there is desire, yearning, they want to know. I am beginning to understand who and what they are; could I be right? Are they Clones? Anne is still speaking. ‘I have lived in the Vampire world since I was born, but I am not Vampire. My parents concealed me in the basement of our house for many years until I was discovered. They were executed and I was farmed. I was 23 years old then, I don’t know how long ago that was.’

‘
How did you escape the Clone farm? How did I escape the Clone farm?’

‘
Your friend Garok and your uncle saved you, and these people with you.’

‘
My friend GAROK! Are you frikken kidding me!! ?’

I am on my feet
now; with my head nearly touching the roof of what I have assumed is a cave. ‘He is the reason I was in the Clone farm! He is working for the Vampires! If he knows where we are, we are all dead! Don’t you see?’

I must do something, get them all out quickly
, and we can find somewhere else to hide. I will help them. ‘Hurry! Come on!’

Why won
’t they move? Who are they looking at now? Has someone else come into the cave?

Even as I turn around to face the entrance of the cave, I have an idea of who is standing there. There are glimpses of jumbled memories flashing through my
mind which tell me Garok was there when I was released, but I don’t understand. He is the reason I longed for death. The reason my mother and father are either dead, or in agony somewhere. All of my clan must be starving, or burned into a mountain of ash.  I won’t forgive all that! It is too late!

He is standing there
, just looking at me as if waiting for me to speak. There must be a knife in this cave, surely. Amica, look for a knife and give it to me, and I will cut his heart from his body! I am poised, ready to strike, and he is just standing there, still waiting for me to speak.

‘
Aecia, I…’

His voice infuriates me more, I am on him now
, punching and kicking and hurting. For the pain of my mother and father, my clan, my life!

‘
Aecia stop!’

Anne has hold of my arms,
‘Look, Look what you are doing to them.’

The
Clones are in the farthest corner of the cave, they are huddled together and crying in terror. Oh no, I don’t want to hurt them, I rush to them, but they are shying away from me. ‘I am sorry, so sorry. I will stop; you are ok, you will be ok.’

What kind of a monster am I
, that I could frighten these innocents? My anger is melting into shame and I huddle next to them, with my head bent.

When I next look up
, Garok is gone and I am glad. I am not ready to hear his words, or his remorse. Maybe I never will be, but I do know that he is not a threat. Anne has explained that he is an outcast now, the same as the rest of us. She thinks the vamp’s had something over him; they blackmailed him somehow, and that’s what made him betray me. I don’t know and I don’t care. He is dead to me.

I feel so weary, I want to sleep again
, but my curiosity won’t allow it as yet.

The
Clones are the same, their eyes are half closed, with their heads nodding into sleep when they suddenly realise, and consciously force themselves awake again.

I can
’t begin to imagine what they have been through, or for how long each one was subjected to it. They have no language whatsoever, but communicate with their hands and eyes, and it is possible to understand some of their gestures. I suppose it is logical that they would have no language; they were grown as adults and intravenously fed, at the same time as being drained of blood. That was it Amica, that was their existence; they must never have touched another living soul, plant or animal, the entire time!

Anne is extremely fond of all of them
, given the short time of two nights in which she has known them. Two nights friend, which is how long I have been here, slipping in and out of consciousness. The Clones were freed with me, and I believe more would have been rescued if they had had enough time and larger transportation.

I still have so many questions
, but I find it difficult to unravel and separate my thoughts. A side effect from the draining procedure maybe, or perhaps there were some kind of tranquilizing drugs in the intravenous food tube I was also attached to.  I’m just going to rest for a while longer and see if I awake a little more lucid. I’m glad I have you to talk to or I believe I would certainly be in an even worse state of mind. Goodnight (or is it good morning) for now. X

My
Uncle is here, I am just waking up and it is such a comforting, familiar sound to wake up to! ‘Uncle!’

I feel strong enough to give him his usual bear hug today, tonight
, or whenever this is. It’s impossible to distinguish between night and day since I have been living in this cave. Uncle will clear out the flotsam in my mind and help me to finally understand exactly what has happened to me, Anne, and my Clone friends. Also my own family; I hardly dare to ask him, but I must. The agony of not knowing is worse than the sea of pain and guilt, I will surely be drowning in when I discover their fate.