Page 43 of Fallen Thorns
Mars tensed to my left.
That I did have an answer to. I didn’t even have to think about it.
“The day I woke up.”
Neither of themexpected that response. I hadn’t meant for it to sound quite so frightening though. All I meant was I’d felt different since Mars saved me, as though the ‘me’ I was before had now removed a part of himself and replaced it with something else. Something darker, that I couldn’t even explain. Not in the literal sense of ‘now I’m immortal and live off blood,’ but something more interwoven than that. Maybe that was how everyone felt though, and it was in fact nothing to do with what happened the night before. But my response felt as accurate as it could be and once Marianne got over the initial shock of my answer, she composed herself and rubbed her chin, switching her crossed legs over before continuing with her interrogation.
“How much do you know of our kind, Arlo?”
I gulped. Not much, not really. But I feared that answer seemed as though I wasn’t taking any of this seriously and thought myself above it all. “A bit,” I said, not really a lie.
“I explained the basics: the feeding, intolerances, things so he could initially survive,” Mars interjected. Marianne nodded intently.
“But that’s it?” she asked, turning back to me.
“More or less.”
Marianne chewed her lip. I wish I could have heard what she was thinking.
“I can teach him more,” Mars offered as if they had something to prove.
“We’ll definitely need that.” Marianne spoke the words absently, lost in her own mind. “But that’s not entirely what I was hinting at here.”
Mars and I instantly caught on to what she meant, and my stomach sank.
“You know that we are the product of a very powerful parasite,” Marianne began. “One that almost perfectly imitates that of what ancient folklore most commonly likes to call ‘Vampires’. Creatures of the night. Though history makes these creatures out to be cruel, sometimes even pure evil, we are nothing like that. Our minds remain our own while our bodies become…” Her eyes wandered in search of the right word. “Other.”
I took in a sharp inhale.
“It stops our hearts but keeps our blood flowing, keeping our bodies as stable as they were the day our lives were taken from us. We are corpses frozen in time, with only one thing needed to keep us alive. Blood.”
I shivered, monitoring my breathing.
Marianne continued. “Like most human diseases, we can deteriorate without proper care. We must feed, to remain alive. If we do not, we begin to lose ourselves and our minds until nothing remains of our original souls and… well. Then we really die — in such horrible circumstances too.”
I didn’t dare glance at Mars, though I felt their stare burning into me. This was my warning.
“On the other hand, some of us were too greedy in life, or perhaps just lost their grip on human morals. Their immortality makes them believe they are above everyone else, above the law, and they simply end up doing what they want. Lucy, as we’ve all gathered, is a product of this. We call them the Turned. Their cruelty is what we strive to eradicate.
We are lucky our scent of Manipulation has kept us relatively hidden from all of society and I would hate to think what would happen if we were ever truly found…”
“But the main thing is, Arlo is alive. And he’s safe now,” Mars cut her off and I finally looked in their direction to see them leaning forward on their chair as if waiting for validation. A plea.
Marianne breathed out slowly. “Arlo is alive. Thanks to you, Mars. But we are far from being safe.”
At least she was being honest now.
“There’s something wrong with me, isn’t there?” Marianne’s honesty encouraged the words on the tip of my tongue. I glanced back around the room at the unsettling paintings that seemed to track my every move.
“There is nothingwrongwith you, Arlo, but there is something inside you. Something that may have planted itself the day you died or perhaps lain dormant for years before this. I don’t know what it is, and I will not lie when I say it scares me a little, because I don’t believe it has anything to do with our kind. But we will find out what is going on and I will do everything in my power to help you.”
My limbs grew numb and I bent over myself, a strong wave of dizziness wiping my strength clean out of me. A pained sigh escaped my lips.
Mars was upon me in an instant. Their body sheltered mine, protective but not touching. I did not see the face they threw at Marianne, but I presumed it was one in favour of my wellbeing as I heard a low apology mumble out of Marianne’s lips.
I didn’t need the truth hidden from me, but I also needed to learn how to deal with it better. I was petrified.
“For now, we have nothing else to go off. So as long as we keep an eye on you Arlo…”
