Chapter 41: Alternus
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At the twist of Beethoven’s 5th Symphony, Ulrich brought Cornelia’s hand to his shoulder, as if she was about to embrace him. He leaned closer to her face, and smelled a hint of Escada perfume from her hair, something he thought Cornelia wouldn’t use. “What happened to Adidas?” Ulrich teased as he took another whiff of the smell.

“What? You don’t like it?” Cornelia narrowed her eyes. “Hrmph! I wear what I want.”

“No no no…” Ulrich chuckled, trying to hide a smile. “It is just…different.”

Cornelia liked hearing Ulrich laugh. It was a much better silence than when they were at the table. She gazed into his mismatched eyes, and when she stared closer the blue and purple colours of his eyes seem to blend like one colour. They are the same colours as Artemis’. The little voice inside her head interrupted her positive thoughts.

She didn’t want to suspect Ulrich as Artemis. He had somewhat proven it to her, and she had seen both Ulrich and Artemis at the same time during the octopus incident. They couldn’t be the same.

Cornelia brought her right hand from his shoulders and touched his face. Artemis had a horrible scar across his face from above his left eye, all the way to the end of his face. Although Ulrich was flawless, his face no deformity, Cornelia traced her fingers, outlining the imagined scar on Ulrich’s face.

Ulrich didn’t flinch. Instead, he asked with a calm voice. “Have you got any plans for Summer vacation?”

Shocked that he didn’t ask about her doing instead, she brought her hand back on his left shoulder. “Well, Jason has not said anything,” she spoke, staggering at the beginning. “Normally, Jason plans the holidays and I’ll go with him, wherever. Once in a while, my parents will follow, but not always.”

“Where are you hoping to go this year?” Ulrich asked. “I might be planning to go to Sydney, Australia.”

“Oh my god! Sydney!” Cornelia gasped, and then lowered her voice. “I’ve always wanted to go there. Jason always goes to countries that are rather weird.”

“Weird?”

“Oh! Like there was this one time, he wanted to go to Cambodia, and for the whole ten days of the holiday, he always went missing after lunch, leaving me behind to shop for stuff or sightsee on my own. Then, on the last day, when I trailed after him, I found out that he makes regular trips to villages and actually gives them food, company and plays with the children there.”

“Wow,” Ulrich raised his brows. “He’s generous?”

“I mean, it’s not wrong for him to do this but…” Cornelia huffed. “He would rather spend time with other people than his family.”

“Then why don’t you spend Summer holidays with me?”

Cornelia had to pause for seconds to digest what he was asking her. Spending the whole two months with him?! Well, she always wanted to go to Australia, but Jason always said that it was either too hot or too cold for him. This could be her only chance.

“I’ll have to ask my parents, and tell my brother,” Cornelia replied, containing her excitement from within.

☆

Jason started for the stairs of the girls’ dormitory carefully. He didn’t want any slight movement to wake Tiadora up from his arms. She had fallen asleep during the slow ride back, and Jason was more than inclined to carry her back to her room. Somehow, it reminded him of the very first time he met Tiadora. Jason had also carried her back to his room, just like a damsel in distress.

Soon, he found the right door of the dark corridors of the third level. Once he unlocked the room, Jason placed her on the bed and pulled up the blanket over the sleeping beauty. Smiling to himself, he sighed and caressed her brown hair as she slept. Then he unstrapped Tiadora’s bagpack from his shoulders and pulled out the Jason doll. They even made with my favourite jacket, Jason chuckled to the doll and ruffled its hair till it had style.

Suddenly, an image flickered in his mind. Jason shuddered and brought his hands over his eyes, afraid that the pain in his brain would come again like how it did in the basement of the flower shop. The familiar picture crystalised, showing the same wounded family in the glorified dark ball room. Their cries were louder this time, and the woman’s shrieks made his spine shiver as if he was there as well.

The image moved again, with the sword blocking his vision of the family. The blade shone with great brilliance before it drove for the kill, and the splashes of blood stained the rich carpets. An icy laughter erupted, echoing the ball room with fear, louder and louder.

Zzz-ping! Then, like how it happened the last time, the pain retreated and gave him peace again. Jason took away his hands and opened his eyes, to see an undiscerning person. Hood over his head and a cloak to cover almost his whole body, Jason recognize him too well. And just like the previous time, Xana had also appeared right after the vision.

“I would have assumed that you could not have seen it since it is part of my memory,” Xana spoke with the same twinge of laughter from Jason’s nightmare. “But it does have a connection with you, so I guess…it can’t be helped.”

Jason held onto the side of the bed, and staggered up, facing the demon. “If it is your memory, TAKE IT BACK!”

“Initially, I would have considered doing so,” Xana removed his hood, revealing his masked face and red hair. “But then, I realized that I can’t exactly tap into your mind due to circumstances, and that seeing you in this state is much more amusing.”

Jason groaned from the pain again, as if the image was coming back, but he thrust out his right hand and set ablaze flames that engulfed his palms. He was about to hurl the flames that Xana when he suddenly shifted to Jason’s right and slammed him in the face. Jason could feel his nose bleeding as he tried to gain back control. But Xana kept on disappearing from his blows, and finally kicked Jason from behind.

Xana then grabbed Jason’s wrists from behind and kicked again against his back until Jason crashed on the door. Xana pulled Jason’s wrists as he held his foot at Jason’s back, seizing him against the door. Jason felt his face smash onto the door. He wanted to turn around and give Xana a real beating, but his wrists were handcuffed and he couldn’t move.

“You would want to make a scene in the Princess’ chambers?” Xana spoke from behind, still gripping firmly onto Jason’s wrists. “How inconsiderate of you. Why don’t you listen to me about this family from that particular memory, and I’ll leave you with more clues.”

“I’m not listening to a single crap that you’ll be saying!” Jason seethed uncomfortably as his cheek was pressed forcefully against the door.

“Tsk. Among many of my killings in my years, this is one of the most important and significant, affecting greatly for my plans,” Xana explained while holding on to the awkward position. “The Delta couple that you see was hosting a party in celebration of the birth of their first newborn child, Christopher Lee Delta.”

“It was a masquerade theme, and Artemis, Tyran and I were able to blend in among the guests for the party, disguising ourselves as colleagues of the Delta family’s rich business. Soon, after we had our stomachs filled, we massacred every single soul there, leaving the last for the host!”

“The very vision that you’ve been seeing these past many nights, was the event that took place ten seconds before I killed the couple and their newborn. I guess, I don’t need to tell you how I killed them since their slicing has kept haunting your dreams every night, right?”

“Chopping of the couple’s heads, and literally slicing the baby in half!” Jason yelled, from the pain that he felt for the Delta family. “You’re sadistic!”

“And a genius!” Xana bellowed another horrendous laughter. “Their deaths are the very main essence for the creation of my plan! And you’re going to be playing the biggest part in the phenomenon!”

“Shut…UP!!!” Jason practically screamed, and concentrated his energy on his hands. The fire scorched Xana’s hands, making him release his grip on Jason’s wrists. Jason fell from the door, but made no attempt to rest and placed his palms on the floor. Remembering the practice that he had yesterday, he focused on the flame from the earth, and obeying his call, a simple sword emerged from the earth. But as Jason gripped the handle, the sword heated, turning the metal blade into red hot steel.

“So you’re using this pathetic weapon as a substitute before you receive your Sacred Sword?” Xana pointed revoltingly at the rapier. “I’ll spare you the humiliation for tonight. For Tiadora’s beauty sleep.”

And with that, Xana held the tip of his cape and shrouded himself before disappearing into thin air. But just as Jason thought that Xana had vanished for good, he hears the tiny whispers of little people hissing in his ears Xana’s words. You’re going to be playing the biggest part in the phenomenon!

★

“This is really lame, Shaniqua!” Sally scoffed in disgust as she flicked away a dried fallen leaf from her shoulder. “I just can’t believe that you use this opportunity to spy on that stupid goth jerk.”

“Oh c’mon. I won, so this time, you listen to me,” the two-ponytail blonde crouched lower into the bushes. “Plus, I want you to see him the way I do. Then you’ll see how brilliant he – Shh! He’s coming!”

And on queue, a tall figure jogged through Kadic Academy’s main gates, drenched with perspiration. The boy was thin but well-built against his black sports tee. He walked to a halt and leaned against the walls, panting from his daily morning run. Oblivious to the three cheerleaders hiding behind the bushes, David took off his shirt, un-capped his water bottle and showered himself with the mineral water. The three girls gasped, and Shaniqua started snapping some shots. Sally snatched the camera away and glared furiously at Shaniqua.

At first, Shaniqua thought that Sally was going to scold her for wasting the girl’s precious time, but instead, Sally broke into a grin and angled the camera back at David. “Sheesh, Shaniqua! I can’t believe you’ve been hiding something for so long!”

“I—I did try to --”
“C’mon!” Sally grabbed her friend’s wrist and gestured to the other cheerleader in the other bush. “We’ve got to get this to Morgan!”

“The news reporter?” Shaniqua’s eyes narrowed. “Why?”

Sally gave a sly evil smile. “I’m going to make sure that the number of admirers that Jason has, will decrease.”

★

Normally, David skips breakfast. Why? Because he would be the only one in the boys’ toilet, showering off all the perspire he worked out that morning. David swung the white towel around his waist and strut out aimlessly in the empty corridor. Mokona immediately stuck to his leg the moment he entered. “Dav! Dav! Dav!” the little thing squealed in delight when its master ambled in the room.

“I thought you didn’t like Jason?” David pulled out a light blue collar tee from the wardrobe. “By calling me ‘Dav’, you picking up his slang.”

Immediately, Mokona coughed furiously out, making David chuckle. “Oh yes! Tiadora left you this,” Mokona pointed towards a chunk of ice on his desk. Through the clear icy surface, David could see a purple tentacle frozen within. David narrowed his eyes in confusion towards his sacred animal. “I’m sure you remember the time when Jason fried the octopus at the sea just outside the school.”

“Vampires do not only just require fresh blood, but they also need meat,” Mokona explained, walking back and fro from the ice. “Normally, it would be human flesh, but animal meat will do just fine.”

David approached his desk and let his hands rest on its surface. “Even though you are not capable of fire, your special ability is to be intangible.”

Slowly, his hand passed through the block of ice, and he easily took the tentacle out. It felt hard in his hands. The green slime, which he assumed that it was the octopus’ blood, from the opening had frozen while dripping. David gave a little questioning look of disgust to Mokona. Must he really eat this? “It’s for your own good, Davy,” Mokona said, as if reading his mind. “You’ve been relying on too much human food as a vampire. Your instincts need to be contain without me around. Fill it with the right food.”

Strangely, looking at the tentacle, all of sudden made him hungry. Well, this is my breakfast then. David just barred his fangs and sunk his teeth into the cold flesh. The taste didn’t really explode like how blood did, but it was definitely a better sensation than the chicken he ate last night.

As he ate, David fumbled with his books, getting ready for a new day in school. But as he moved from his textbooks to his storybooks, David noticed something out of place. “Mokona,” David threw his textbooks on his bed, and rampaged his storybooks. It’s missing! “Where’s my black book?”

“What black book?” Mokona fished out a Hearts biscuit from the snacks tin. “The Black Book Of Secrets?”

“No. I have twenty-one storybooks, with one that said ‘Anastasia, The Legend’.”

“What?!” Mokona dropped her biscuit. “You had a book about that and you didn’t say anything?!”

“It doesn’t matter now!” David re-scanned the books again, removing all his storybooks one by one. “It’s gone! Someone has been in my room, and took it!”

★

“This is awkward.”

“What is?”

Every corridor they walked, everyone was busy engrossed in the newspaper, and Jason didn’t even hear his name being whispered once among the girls’ giggles. Jason and Tiadora were walking together heading for the cafeteria for breakfast when they noticed that everyone around them was holding newspapers. Jason approached a group of girls near a pillar. “Hey girls,” Jason was glad that they still looked at him with that admiration on their faces. “What’s so interesting about today’s newspaper?”

“It’s David!” one with dyed green hair squealed. “Oh my god, he looks so hot!”

Tiadora snatched the papers from the girl and saw a picture of David, topless and dripping wet. Before Tiadora could even process what she was seeing, she felt the eyes of the girls dart away in a North direction, and grew into wide grins. “There he is!”

All the girls turned in that one direction while David moved through the corridor silently. He himself didn’t realize that all eyes were on him till he look up from his fringe. Then came the sound of high heels in the opposite direction. Sally and Shaniqua walked up right in front of David and threw the morning papers at him. “Don’t need to thank me, Goth-zilla,” Sally muttered as David caught onto the papers and saw the headline news.

Immediately, the girls who had stood still, erupted into their chattering and approached David. Soon, David found himself bombarded with many questions that he could not keep up to answer and the attention was awfully too much. He wasn’t used to everyone speaking to him. It felt like culture shock.

A grip on his elbow pulled him out of the crowd, gesturing for him to run. When he was finally able to squeeze out of the mob, he broke into a run and tried to look for whichever person who had pulled him, but all he saw was the curious faces of the girls and their engrossed attitudes as they then chased after him from behind.

“Do you think we should help him?” Tiadora tugged on Jason’s folded sleeve.

“Maybe we should,” Jason stroked his chin before grinning. “But still, this can be prove quite interesting. David will have to just learn and adapt.”

“You’re mean,” Tiadora interlocked her arm with his as they headed for the cafeteria. “I wonder how Sally got that photo.”

“If it’s Sally, she’ll do anything to get what she wants. Normally, she does it through her father.”

“The previous principal?”

“Yes,” he said as they finally reached the entrance. “Oh well, we have to cope with Cyrus as our new headmaster.”

Tiadora nodded. Then something triggered in her memory. “Do you think Cyrus had anything to do with the leave of Mr. Galili?”

Jason pondered, “My guess would be yes. Though if Sally doesn’t seem to show any weirdness, my guess is that her father is safe. I think.”

“Oh. Maybe you’re right.”

After taking their trays, Jason saw that their table was full, as usual. It seems that Ian and Ulrich had somewhat dominated it with the rest of the soccer team. “Wanna eat somewhere else?”

“And where would that be?”

Jason smiled and ushered Tiadora out of the cafeteria. It was no sooner that she realized that they had walked past the girls’ dormitory, approaching the now-fixed clock tower. But instead of heading up the staircase, Jason sat on the ground with his tray and leaned back against the tower. Tiadora did the same.

“May I ask you something?” Tiadora spoke in between bites of breakfast.

“What is it?”

“Are you okay?” Tiadora blurted, and saw Jason’s face turned to confusion. She pointed to his face and held his hands. “Your face looks pale. And your wrists are burning red.”

Jason quickly pulled his wrists away, rubbing them clean. He hadn’t told her about Xana’s visit last night nor had he said anything about his dreams to her ever since it happened. Too many things were happening, and he didn’t want to trouble her further. “Oh that. I’m fine. Really. My wrists might have probably been from my soccer training,” Jason plastered a fake smile, hoping that he could cover it up. “It’s nothing. So you don’t have to worry about it.”

“But then –”

“Anyway,” Jason immediately tried to change the subject. “Would you like to spend Summer vacation with me?”

“Summer vacation?” Tiadora questioned. “What’s that?”

“It’s a three-month break from school,” Jason sighed, glad that he was able to dodge that particular topic. “The whole student population will not need to attend school for three months, but since ours is an elite academy, we get only two months break. It starts next week, and since you don’t really have a place to go back to, I was wondering if you maybe wanted to…”

“I would love to,” Tiadora smiled, and leaned onto his shoulder. “Thank you very much, Jason.”

He felt sudden warmth cool his worried cold heart. “We could go to any country. You can choose whichever, but I think I need to go back to the mansion for two weeks for a while then we can sightsee.”

“I don’t know where to go,” Tiadora mumbled as she took another bite at the bread. “As long as you’re with me, anywhere is fine.”

Jason was about to say something when Tiadora rebutted in. “Plus,” she lifted his hand and interlocked her fingers with his. “I will be able to make sure you are alright.”

“Likewise, Princess,” Jason tightened his grip, and stroked Tiadora’s brown hair. “Likewise.”