The Sacrifice (Legends Of Transylvania) (2 page)

  “Look, Aunt Clara!”
Ariana said '' I have never seen such an unusual and pretty rose.''

  Clara and George were silent as Clara was also grieving for the sister she had lost.

  “It will die soon, so can I take it home and put it inside a box and that way when I look at it I will always remember my mom and dad. Can I, please?”

  Clara was in too much of an emotional state to think properly and she just bowed her head in agreement, so
Ariana took the rose and put it in a bag. As soon as they got home she went straight to the old dresser, took out a jewelry box and carefully placed the rose inside it for safe keeping.  '' I believe my mom and dad will live through you beautiful rose '' she whispered. Each day she took hold of the pretty box without opening it and continued to speak to the rose as if she was talking to her parents, which brought great comfort to her little mind.

   However, Alexander continued to ignore
Ariana, which upset her deeply. Other children in school seemed to point at her and make cruel remarks, and in the weeks that follow the accident things became very difficult for them both. Uncle George had originally come from another town, so eventually he and Clara decided to move back there and take Ariana away from the area that was so painful to her memory and make a new life where nobody is aware of the tragedy. Although Ariana knew they were acting in her best interests she was devastated that she is being taken away from Alexander before she has made her peace with him. She knew Alexander still cares and he will come around one day and start to talk to her again. She pleaded for a little more time but her words fell on deaf ears and they decided that it is the best thing to do.

  The day arrived when they were prepared to move.

  “Can I at least go and try to say goodbye to Alexander?” Ariana asked her aunt with a pitiful look on her face as tears welled in her eyes.

  “Well, I don’t see what good it will do but you can go if you want so” Clara said
“ But don’t be long or we will miss the train.”

 
Ariana walked into Alexander’s garden hoping he will be there. She heard the sound of someone trying to strum a guitar and she knew it was Alexander. She found him sitting at the bottom of the stairs in the hall as she walked to stand in the doorway. Alexander looked up briefly as he saw her standing before him, and then he looked back at the guitar and tried to play it, although he had not learned to yet and his actions were clumsy.  

  “I don’t want to talk to you!” he said sorrowful.

  “I haven’t asked you to talk to me have I?” Ariana responded in a low sad voice “I just have something to tell you.”

  “Then say what you have to say quickly and leave me alone.” Alexander replied in a dismissive tone of voice.

  “I just came to say goodbye, that’s all!” Ariana responded, with her eyes staring intently at his face to see his reaction.

  “I already said goodbye to you on the day your father was responsible for the death of my parents, so you can just go back home right now!” he said without looking up at her.

  “I will go back home if you say so.” She accepted with emotion “But not to the house next door. We are leaving for my uncle’s home town in a few minutes.”

  At this remark Alexander put down the guitar and looking up at her for the first time with a frown, he cried out:

  “Leaving… but…”

  “It’s okay
“ Ariana interrupted, as she tried to put on a brave attitude about it “ My aunt says it is a lovely city, and it has a beautiful beach on the shores of the Black Sea. I have always wanted to live near a beach!”  Alexander stared into her eyes with a look of great anguish.

  “Maybe one day I will forgive everyone for the accident, but I will never forgive you if you go away and leave me to suffer the memories all on my own!”

  “But that’s not fair “Ariana said with pain in her eyes “It is not my decision, just as the accident you are blaming me for wasn’t my fault”.

  “But I haven’t learned to play the guitar properly yet and I made you a promise. How will you hear the song?” His voice choked and
Ariana’s eyes began to stream with tears.

  She ran to him and threw her arms around him lovingly. He held her shoulders tenderly and looked at her with pleading eyes. They were like two young angels. One of whom must stay in heaven while the other has to fall from the sky – Two hearts divided.

  “You will always be my friend Alexander, no matter what happens, and one day, somehow I will get to listen to you playing the guitar.”

  “Come along,
Ariana “Aunt Clara’s voice suddenly rang out from the garden gate “The taxi is here to take us to the railway station.”

 
Ariana turned and walked away from him without another word. As they put the luggage into the taxi she turned to take one last look at Alexander sitting in the same position as she had left him. His tearful eyes followed every move as the taxi drove off.

3.
The presence of evil

  For thirteen long years Alexander continued to mourn the loss of his parents. His days were all the same and not one of them passed when he didn't think about how his life would have been if they had survived that tragic night. He had passed most of his time learning to play the guitar to keep his mind off things, and he has become an accomplished musician, his tunes and songs of his memories echoed through the old, almost empty house where he was living, as he plucked the strings of the instrument that once belonged to his father. When he wanted to find his peace he took the instrument at sunset and walked through the forest that raised up a hill, where from the top he could see the whole of his town and the rows of houses as one by one they began to show a warm light from the inside as the night throws its usual blanket of darkness over it.

Everything was quiet there, and the only thing that could be heard was the birds singing their last songs for the day that seemed to be in time with the beat of his guitar. The lovely boy became a handsome man with brown hair and deep hazel eyes, which looked dark-green with the effect of the sun’s rays, and the black eye-lashes which surround them. His white skin fits perfect with his outlined lips, with a beautiful forehead which gave him an intelligent look. He used to wear black, which reflected the pain and the loneliness he was still feeling in his soul. However, black looked good on his tall well-defined body.

On the anniversary of the accident, each year he visited the grave of his parents to tell them he will never forget them and to show his undying love for the two people that fate stole from his life. With those thoughts in his mind he walked with slow heavy steps, accompanied by the song in his mind that he had just finished playing. Each time he went there he replaced the old dead flowers from the year before with new ones, but the strange black rose has not withered!

  The day arrived which marked the thirteenth anniversary of the accident. As Alexander prepared for his visit to the cemetery he noticed that during the course of the day as he looked and saw his reflection anywhere at various times, his skin was gradually getting paler, like cold hard porcelain. His eyes became so red and bloodshot that he felt they should be sore and irritating – but they were not. As if they had become a natural part of his features. As he left the house he felt forced to shield his eyes with his hands as the glare of the sun seemed to bother them much more than usual. At the graveside he saw that as usual, the black rose which had been placed at the grave has not withered ,during the thirteen long years it has been lying there, and he began to wonder if the flower has anything to do with the dark feelings and strange happenings to his mind and body that he was suffering. As he sat by the graveside, he took the black rose in his hands, and started to remember the better times he had with his parents and their friends, the Luca family, especially the lovely Ariana.

The sky became overcast and an eerie atmosphere swept across the cemetery, which brought a cold wind moaning and whistling through the gravestones, sending leaves scattering around and broken twigs flying everywhere. A downpour began to drench his face and mix with the tears that were falling from his eyes. A sudden flash of lightening lit up the area which shocked him and during the tension it brought; he squeezed the stem of the rose tightly. At almost the same time he noticed that the rose he was holding was dripping blood onto his hand. It gave him a dreadful feeling throughout his body and a shiver run down his spine and he threw the flower to the ground. From the corner of his eye he suddenly noticed a long dark shadow coming slowly into view, and something about it made him feel dreadfully uneasy. His hands started to tremble and his heart pounded so hard that it felt as if it might burst out of his chest.

As he turned to face who it was behind him, his eyes fell upon a tall sinister figure dressed in a long black coat with a slouch hat on his head which was pulled down over his forehead, half-covering his piercing eyes, which were so dark, they looked like two holes in his face and glared sternly from beneath the rim. Wearing black leather gloves, he was holding a black rose with one hand while twirling the stem around the fingers of the other. The rose he was holding was much bigger and sturdier than the rose Alexander had. Alexander strained his eyes through the gloom to try to see his face more clearly but all he could make out was an arrogant expression, and a ghastly piece of loose leaf-shaped skin at the end of his long twisted nose.

“Who are you? And what do you want?” Alexander demanded to know.

He believed that he has seen the cruel empty look before but he could not bring to mind where.

  He knew he can see a person in human form standing there, but there was a deathly aura about him.

‘‘I am
Volod.” The unearthly stranger said in a dominant tone of voice.

“And I have the answers your pathetic troubled mind is searching for.”

“Oh?” Alexander replied sternly, and he jumped quickly onto his feet.

“The rose belongs to my clan and you should not have touched it.”

“What are you talking about?” Alexander asked with a shake of his head. “Are you insane?”

 
“Of course!” Volod laughed in an impassive tone “…clinically and criminally.”

  Alexander’s breath became smoky as it left his mouth and mixed in the cold air, but he noticed that
Volod’s did not as he continued in his scornful voice.

  “Today marks the thirteenth anniversary of the death of your parents and they should have risen from the grave as my followers, rescued from their mediocrity.”

  “You’ve been watching too many horror movies “Alexander laughed mockingly “If you think I’m going to fall for your lies, you can go to Hell.”

  “I frequently do!”
Volod replied “And you had better heed my warning because soon you will become the same as me! You have the urges already? So too will the female who stole the other rose if one drop of blood mixes with hers. If you kill her you will get back to normal and if she will live, you will stay as vampire for eternity.”

   “Don’t you think my parents suffered enough in the way they lost their lives?” Alexander fumed angrily.

   “Yes, I remember that day well.” Volod remarked with a strange glare of fulfillment on his face “The look of terror in the driver’s eyes as he tried to swerve to miss me was very satisfying.”

   In a moment of dreadful realization Alexander remembered the gaunt face before him was the same one that he had seen through the window of the car.

  “It gave me feelings of great pleasure to put an end to the lives of so many wasteful mortals. “ Volod went on with his taunting remarks from his twisted mind.

   “I have spent the last thirteen years blaming my best friend’s father for the accident which took away my parents” Alexander cried out, as uncontrollable rage began surging through his body “When all the time it was you who caused their deaths! Why did you do such a stupid act? What kind of monster are you?”

  Thinking of all the trouble and heartache Volod has caused, Alexander could hold his anger no longer. He pounced forward and thrust his fist towards his face, but the vampire summoned some kind of invisible force which stopped Alexander’s arm abruptly in mid-air. Volod gripped his shoulder like a vice and with awesome power he threw him violently aside.

  “What’s wrong, Alexander?” the demon shrieked with laughter “You should be grateful to me for ending their pointless existence. And now you have ruined their opportunity to embrace the darkness.”

   Regaining his composure Alexander prepared to retaliate, but a bright flash startled him for a moment and when he managed to re-focus his eyes, Volod had gone. The cemetery fell silent as if he had never been there, leaving Alexander speechless and trembling with temper. It crossed his mind to destroy the black rose but when he looked he realized that it had disappeared. After saying goodbye to his parents he quickly left the cemetery and set off home, shivering from the cold weather and the frightening things he has just experienced. He walked with heavy steps and the road seemed long because he didn't want to reach home too quickly as his mind was searching for explanations. The painful memories were alive in his mind again and the car accident seemed to have just happened, and while remembering that day he heard Ariana’s frantic screams and his parents’ terrified faces - and Volod’s hateful words began to torment his mind. He decided to find Ariana to warn her, but he was scared he will lose control of himself and he had no way of knowing what terrible things he might be capable of. “When he will meet her, will he be a friend or a vicious vampire killer?”