Eternal Test of Time (2 page)

“You look like something is on your mind.”

I nod.

Rome stands gesturing toward a back exit. “I can’t now. My friend will worry.”

He nodded his head in the direction of the crowd, adding, “I don’t think she’ll notice.”

Everything screamed at me not to go with Rome, I ignored the voice inside my mind. Instead I followed Rome outside into the back of the club. The dumpsters nearby smelled stale and old. Mice made
noises scrounging around for food.

“How do you know my name?” I found myself blurting out before my mind even knew my lips moved.

Rome froze in place. It was a minute before he turned to face me. There was a danger to his appearance. Rome looked into my dark eyes and said, “you told me your name when we met last night.”

“No I didn’t.”

“You were so terrified you must not remember.”

I shook my head.

Rome sighed.

It was clear he had been defeated by my memory.

“Don’t ask questions you aren’t prepared to hear the answers.”

“How does the guy with the scar know my name?”

“You were at a party where many people knew your name, correct?”

I let out a puff of breath.

“Fine don’t tell me, I will just have to figure it out for myself.”

I turned heading back toward the door. Rome was in front of me as fast as lightning. “How did you do that just now?”

Placing his hands on my shoulders, he looked at me with sorrow seeping out of his eyes. He ignored my second question.

“Don’t.” He pleaded.

Rolling my eyes, I pushed passed him and headed back inside.

The next night there was a knock at my door. Peeking through the peephole Rome leaned against the door looking completely exhausted. Carefully I opened the door. He stared passed
me into my house.

“May I come in?”

Giving him a peculiar look he adds, “it is customary to be invited to enter Aly. We need to talk.”

Stepping aside
,
I welcomed him into my home.

Sitting on the couch
,
I noticed in the
light how pale Rome is, his skin
smooth like marble. His lips a light pale blue and his skin could pass as someone on the brink of death. I’ve had my suspicions about him.
Inside my mind was trying to sway me away from what I knew to be true.

Rome started searching around my home. “What are you doing?”

He found a loose floorboard and opened it up. “It isn’t here.”

“What?”

“The locket.”

How does he know about the locket?

I pulled a necklace tuc
ked within my blouse letting it
s silver gleam against the harsh lamp light next to the couch. Rome’s eyes brightened. Rushing at me, he gripped it gently with his fingers.

“You found it.”

“Yeah why?”

He wanted to know how I came to live in this house. I told Rome my parents bought it for me as a graduation present for graduating college early. My parents let me pick out the house and this one had spoken to me.
As though it was telling me I am finally home.

“It’s a family heirloom in a way, it rightfully belongs to you.”

I looked at the locket wrapped around my neck examining it as though it had to be decoded. On the back of the silver heart the initials AS were engraved.

“AS?”

“Alyson Sycamore.” Rome spoke without missing a beat.

“That is my name though.”

Rome walked up to me unclasped it from around my neck. Gently laid the locket in my hand and closed my hand around it. He urged me to hide it in a safe place. I still didn’t understand what this all meant.

Things were starting to scramble around in my mind.

Holding the necklace in my hand an image appeared before me of a girl with dark hair accepting the necklace fro
m the hands of a gentleman as he
placed it delicately around her neck. It must have been something from a movie yet it felt like a memory. Something I experienced in my past. The image scared me.

I had to get away from my house, from Rome. I got in my car and started to drive. Eventually I found myself at the abandoned warehouse on the old industrial side of town. The metal was chipped and fading away leaving rust on the building. A few windows were broken in various places and a door sat ajar.

I didn’t even have time to run or get back in my car before someone else was standing behind me.

“Well look what we have here.”

The guy with the scar approached me, with a swagger. His two buddies came up on either side of me. The glint in his eye was pure hatred. The trio closed in on me. The two guys grabbed my arms
and when scar guy touched my face, his hands felt slimy and cold in a way that made me nauseous. Oddly enough his touch was familiar in a déjà vu sense.

“Aly look at you. Even more radiant.”

“What do you want?”

“You of course.”

“Let me go!” I spat.

Scar guy moved even closer to my face, “you want to know I got this scar? A very stupid girl thought she could defeat me and took a blade piercing my skin and dragging the blade quickly across the top of my eye. All it did was delayed me a little bit. I got my revenge though.”

He came up behind me. I could feel his hot breath on my ear.

“You sense what we are. No matter how much you deny it, the facts still remain.”

“I know what you are.” He came around to face me once again intrigued. “You are vampires.”

This hardy laugh escaped from deep within scar guy. “It will make this so much sweeter now that you have admitted the truth to yourself.”

He tilted me head harshly to the side inching his mouth closer and closer to my throat. Someone knocked into him before he got too close. The two guys let me go and started attacking the other person. When I saw a flash of blond I knew it was Rome.

There is no telling
how he found me, but he came to my rescue again. With the two other guys distracting him scar guy came up behind me grabbed both my arms cuffing them to my back with his hands. “Look at what we have here. This is a treat.”

“Let her go Lars.” Rome says to the guy with a scar above his eye.

“Now now Rome, you wouldn’t want to have her death be your fault would you?”

“Lars!”

Rome took a step forward. “This is between you and I leave her out of it.”

“She is the one who gave me this scar; she is the one I have a problem with.”

Keeping calm as best I could it was inevitable he somehow is mixing me up with someone from his past. Rome met my eyes. I could see it tore him apart to watch me be at the mercy of Lars. My life currently held in his hands.

Lars let out a throaty laugh.

I finally realized
,
Rome is a vampire. His fangs
protruded from his gums quickly. Lars pushed me off to the side doing the same. I hid behind a tree watching the two circle each other like two aggressive dogs waiting for the other to attack first. Lars made the first move. Effortless Rome turned in a circle avoiding him completely. He then took a swing at Lars hitting him in the jaw.

Watching the two vampires fight seemed to drag on forever. They both moved quick and swift it was hard to pay attention to who was who. Eventually Rome brought Lars to knees.

“Tell her.” Rome commanded Lars.

“Tell her what she needs to know. Better she hear it from you than me.”

Lars laughing turned to me.
I came out from behind the tree carefully approaching. His two friends had deserted him in the fight leaving him now at the mercy of Rome.

Before anyone could speak further, I couldn’t resist any longer. I asked. “How old are you?” Staring at Rome; he didn’t want to say.

“Older than you think.” Lars smiled. “We are both well over 200 years old. You were once as old as us.”

“That isn’t possible.”

Rome had let his guard down. Lars tried to attack me again. This time Rome had the upper hand. A stake turned up in his hand and he plunged it into Lars’ back. Leaving Lars to his fate
,
we ran back to my house. Suddenly letting Rome in felt wrong, yet
he had answers I was ready to face down.

“Lars isn’t dead Aly. The stake just immobilized him temporarily. He will be back.”

“Okay.” It helped me calm down.

Rome brought me some tea and sat down next to me on the couch.

“To start 275 years ago I met this beautiful young girl. Being a vampire I found it strange I would be attracted to what I thought was a human. Only you weren’t a human. You were a vampire. Lars and I had been friends back then. Before long
,
he caught sight of the beautiful pale skinned girl with black hair and deep brown eyes. You had been walking along the stone path next to a stream with your black and purple parasol. It was not long before Lars and I started fighting over you. He went mad with jealousy when you laid eyes on me. We wanted to spend an eternity together. That was our plan. It seemed to be going wonderfully until eighty-five years ago when Lars had crossed our path again.

“He attacked you. The only thing was you had a blade
.
You slashed it across his upper eye to get away. Only you didn’t get very far away.
Lars took a quick route to cut off your path. He surprised you before you had a chance to alert me. Lars was prepared
with a metal stake and rammed it into your heart and set your body on fire. Helpless I watched as he took you away from me. I’ve spent almost a hundred years in sorrow.

“The only reason I helped you out that night is because I saw you twice. The first time you were with friends at a local diner. The second time you were in the café. You ran right passed me and as soon as I saw your face clearly
,
I knew it was you. That somehow you had come back. Only you didn’t see me until I wanted you to see me. It is funny how
you don’t recognize me. However,
I can understand, Aly you’re human somehow. Lars should have let you be to live your days in a way you couldn’t before.”

“Are you saying I went through some sort of vampire reincarnation?”

“When you put it that way it sounds wrong, but yes that is the best way to put it.”

Rome placed the locket in my hand. “Please remember.”

That night in my sleep I went to another time.

I dreamed of Rome.

We were in another place full of stone streets. People rode around in buggies and carriages pulled by horses. My nails were black with purple tips. My dress pulled tight to my body. Purple lace hung over silky black fabric. The bodice was a black and purple corset. My parasol matched my dress. Black curls hung down to my shoulders with a semi bun pushing half my hair up.

We stood in an everlasting embrace. Gazing at the people surrounding us, the shade consumed us. I felt different. The smell of blood flared my nostrils. A sweet coppery scent lingering in the air each time a person walked passed us
. We were strong and controlled. Not savages.

It was like watching a movie play out before my eyes. The very first time I laid eyes on Rome. Instantly I was in love. Life changed the moment we met. Things went from carefree and simple to dangerous and complicated. I enjoyed every risk we shared together.

Time fast forwarded until I was wearing a long flowing skirt and a short sleeved bodice. Fear gripped me. Someone chased me until they caught me off guard. Springing upright
in bed
trying to breathe my eyes fell on a shape sitting on my bed.

“Rome?”

He turned to me.

“Hey.”

“I remember.”

He smiled. Running his hand softly down my cheek he leaned into me slowly. Holding my breath
,
this was the first time for us all over again. Gently his lips parted mine. The moment we kissed the passion exploded inside me, awakening for the first time in almost a century.

“You bought me the locket.”

“I sure did.”

“How did I end up with it now?”

I asked a series of questions that were unexplainable. A string of curiosities to help me understand how this could ever
be
possible.
My life started out normal and now it was filled with a whole past I am only starting to remember. A new life filled with changes and new beginnings.

Rome searched my eyes.

“I was doing some research. The locket was a part of who you were and someday it would find its way back to you.
Which it did.
Darling it is best not to ask how the wonders of the universe work. All that matters is we are together again.”