Young Writers Society

The vibration of Gabriel’s phone jerked him out of his reverie so violently, he instinctively launched said phone across his bedroom like a grenade. He frowned at the dint it left in the plaster and got off his bed to retrieve it.

His head had been somewhere else. Not just somewhere else. Somewhere very specific. On that park bench. With Becca. With lovely, sweet Becca, who he adored so very much. And for a moment, adored so much he was almost salivating.

Her name lit up on his phone screen and he inwardly cringed.

He hadn’t dreamt. He hadn’t had a dream since he had been Turned. But if his unconscious mind did have the capability to conjure images and stories and fantasies, he was certain he would have endured a salacious concoction of perverted, twisted tales involving gorging on Becca’s life essence.

What had gotten into him? He was an old vampire. He could control himself. It was so out of character for him to nearly give in to his hunger.

Maybe it was because he hadn’t been around her in such a long time? They did used to see each other every night. He had built up a resistance to her allure. And then meeting her after a long stretch apart, he was just like an excited puppy. It was harder to control himself.

He was just happy to see her, that was all.

Yes, that’s it.

It was like when they made love. At such close proximity, when emotions were running high and pheromones were all mixed up in the action, he would get the urge to bite. But he didn’t. He was respectful. He could contain himself.

He was a gentleman.

I am a gentleman, he recited, before opening the text. Or, should he say sext.

I am a gentleman, he reiterated as he sank back down onto his bed with a smile.

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A thud brought Ezra’s attention to the hallway. Shuffling footsteps followed. Curious, he got off the sofa and found Lillian supporting herself on the banister while zipping up her boot. She was wearing her trench coat. A large camel coloured suede duffel bag sat in the centre of the hallway.

“What’s going on?” Ezra asked. It was the first time he had seen her in actual clothes since the attack on the house.

“I’m leaving,” she replied without looking up. She slid her other foot in her boot and zipped it up. “I’m done. I tried. But I’m sick of this.”

A flurry of fear danced in Ezra’s gut. “Lillian.”

“No.” She snapped, finally looking at him. Her eyes flashed a warning. “I’m moving in with Ben. Don’t try to talk me out of it. I’m not a child and you are not my father. You can’t forbid me from seeing a boy.”

“I may not be your father, but I am your Maker.”

“And you want me to be happy, right?”

“I want you to be alive,” he gritted out.

She gestured upstairs. “Hiding out in my room isn’t living. The three of us cooped up in here isn’t living.”

A lump lodged in his throat at the pained strain in his voice.

“We’re a family,” he almost pleaded.

“Ben is my family.”

“That’s not the same and you know it.”

She shook her head. “Just because you don’t have anyone except us doesn’t mean you can keep us all to yourself.”

The backs of Ezra’s eyes burned and the fear inside him ignited into anger. “I had people, and they died, Lillian. There are bigger things going on right now than you not being able to see your boyfriend. Do you not get that?”

She stepped up to him. “I get it. And if this is the end of the world, I’d rather spend my last night with Ben than you.”

Ezra almost choked on the lump in his throat. She sent him one last furious look before grabbing her bag and heading towards the front door.

“Don’t make me command you.”

The words rang out between them and seemed to linger there, suspended in the deafening silence that followed.

Slowly, Lillian turned on her heel. Ezra watched, frozen. Her eyes roved his face, trepidation drawing her brows together.

“You wouldn’t.” Her words were barely a whisper. It was a statement but there was a questioning lilt in her tone.

No, he wouldn’t. Never in the twenty years they had been Maker and progeny had Ezra ever dirtied their bond by commanding her to do anything. They loved each other, anything that she did for him, she did willingly. It was how it was supposed to be.

But this was the first time Lillian had ever challenged his authority.

They just stared at each other for a moment. The silence was so thick between them it was stifling. Ezra felt for their bond, his touch tentative. She was there, still attached to him. He reached further, feeling along the tie as delicately as if it were a trip-wire. That’s how thin their bond was now. So fragile. One sharp pluck and all could be lost.

Lillian’s eyes searched his, registering his reaching. Her jaw set and Ezra flinched as she threw her walls up and blocked him out. The tie reverberated erratically but didn’t snap. He wouldn’t let it snap. Not ever.

“Lillian, please.” The pressure of tears scratched the backs of his eyes, but his voice stayed firm.

“If you command me to stay-” her voice was strong and sure as she stared him down, “I will never forgive you.”

He clutched at their bond like it was a root and he was dangling from a cliff. The chasm below waited hungrily, ready to be fed. As he looked into his progeny’s eyes, he saw that root splintering.

That was the cold, hard truth. She couldn’t lie to him.

Ezra bowed his head in defeat. The sound of the door shutting had him flinching like it was a gunshot.

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Ezra didn’t know how much time had passed as he sat at the dining table, ruminating over his own failure. It wasn’t until Gabriel came into the kitchen when he finally looked up from the crumb on the table, left behind by Lillian’s cherry Bakewell tarts. She had obviously been baking them for Ben, he should have known. Gabriel had a dumb smile on his face that didn’t need explaining.

Gabriel took out a bottle of blood from the fridge. “Want a drink?”

“Sure.”

He crossed over to the hob. “Shall I make one for Lil?”

“No. She’s gone.”

Gabriel turned to him, pan in hand. “What?”

“I said she’s gone.”

“Gone? Gone where?”

Anger set Ezra’s jaw. “She’s just gone, okay?”

Seeming to understand Ezra’s desire to drop the subject, Gabriel turned back around and started heating the blood in silence.

The smell of the warming animal blood filled the room and had Ezra falling into yet another spiral.

Did Lillian take any of the animal blood with her? Did she take her coupons? Was she going to drink from Ben? Was she going to get caught drinking from Ben?

He knew Ben lived alone but surely his neighbours knew he was dating Lillian and so would be watching him like a hawk. Will they vandalise his house, too? Or worse, will they attack her there? They would know it was just the two of them in the house, and Ben wasn’t a fighter.

Ezra hoped he had scared the village enough that they would stay the hell away from his progeny. Although their neighbour had thrown a bone at her head in their own back garden, so it was anyone’s guess.

Ezra’s stomach roiled. All this uncertainty was making him feel sick.

Gabriel passed Ezra his mug and sat opposite him at the table. Ezra watched his companion as he searched his mind for some sort of conversation. No doubt wanting to find an easy topic but coming up short. Nothing that mattered was easy anymore. But Ezra was quite thankful for the comfortable silence that followed. He was far too rattled for small talk.

When they’d finished their drinks, Gabriel washed the mugs, dried them and put them back in the cupboard. That wasn’t like him. He usually just dumped them in the sink and let Ezra clean up after him. It was funny what a guilty conscience did to people.

“Right, I’m just going out for a walk. Need to get some air,” said Gabriel, folding the tea towel into a neat square by the sink.

Ezra chewed his tongue and kept his face neutral but Gabriel refused to look in his direction as he left the room.

Ezra didn’t know what he preferred; being lied to or told the truth. Either way, he was losing them both. At this time, he wished he could be more like Silas. To be so focused on keeping his progenies in line and safe, no matter if it meant them hating him. Maybe the fact that Ezra and Lillian had been involved before he had Turned her was what had muddied the waters of their bond. A part of him still saw her as the lonely woman who sat at the end of his bar every Friday night without fail, ordering a different type of gin every time and claiming she was being ‘naughty’ when asking for a third.

Things had been easy back then. Even their affair had been simple. Her husband hadn’t paid enough attention to her to even notice she had been leaving the house more often, and in much finer attire.

But now, Lillian was his only progeny. His only true responsibility in this world. Gabriel’s safety also constantly played on his mind, but deep-down Ezra knew he could fend for himself if necessary. Lillian, on the other hand, was still just a new-born. She needed him. But how was he supposed to make her understand that without pushing her further away and into Ben’s arms?

Ben. Boring, beige, human Ben.

He had lost is progeny to him?

The world must truly be ending.