Sacrum
Chapter Six
Angelo, Laura and Kyle sat and listened patiently as I droned on about my Maratoni woes yet again.
"Surely, there's a good reason for the nurse, and for Maratoni sticking to Vinicius' approach of just letting you figure things out on your ownÉorganically, you know?" Laura said.
At least she had the decency to look somewhat embarrassed because we both knew there was no good reasonÑthere couldn't possibly be. All the other Specials were ahead of me, and I had nobody to help me.
"Maratoni despises me. Maybe he invented the nurse thing just to mess with my head and confuse me even more," I complained. Angelo nodded his head in agreement. "Or to waste my time so that I wouldn't understand my gift before I turn 18," I continued, knowing I was saying too much. I wasn't technically allowed to discuss these things with non-Specials, but I felt so alone in my predicament that I decided to go against the rules. I trusted my new friends. And they were the only people I had in my life now that Vinicius was gone. I felt the empty pit in my stomach at the thought of him. How was I supposed to go on without the only parental figure I had? How was I supposed to figure this all out on my own without him? It all felt overwhelming.
"That's a solid possibility, Dani," Angelo answered, and Laura nudged him with her elbow.
"Well don't make it worse, he's already seeing it all as a conspiracy and now you're encouraging him," she complained.
"Well, he has a point. Look, Maratoni made sure that Demetrius was caught up. And he has his private lessons now. I doubt he's telling him to figure it out on his own. How is Dani supposed to do it?" Laura sighed as she finished her daily blood cocktail. She had no answer.
None of us did.
I spent the next few hours catching up on homework and trying to get as much information from the secret manual Vincent had given me. If Maratoni wasn't going to teach me, I had to do it myself. Suddenly, there was a knock on my door, followed by a friendly face peeking through.
"Meet me at our spot in half an hour," Vincent said seriously, and I nodded my head. I changed out of my school clothes into a more comfortable pair of sweatpants and t-shirt, and made my way into the woods until I reached the wooden shack, or as Vincent referred to it, the retired hunting lodge. He was already there, waiting for me.
"Hi," I said, suddenly feeling shy once again. Vincent came towards me.
"Hi," he replied, leaning down slowly, until his lips met mine. The feeling was overwhelming, and we moved away. He smiled.
"How was your day?" He asked, leading me towards the cot on the floor.
"It's much better now," I replied, as we sat down across from each other. "How was yours?"
"Good. Just happy I have some free time to spend with you. I might be a bit busy in the coming weeks, just so you know," he confessed, and I felt uneasy about the information right away.
"Busy doing what?" I asked.
"I can't tell you," he replied apologetically, and I had to fight the urge to roll my eyes.
The secrets just kept piling on, and I was growing tired of it all.
"Did you know Vinicius was Maratoni's teacher once upon a time?" I asked, switching gears. If anyone would have some secret insight into this news, it would be Vincent and all his mysterious sources. As I expected, he nodded his head.
"So why does he despise him so much?" I asked. Vincent thought about his answer for a moment.
"I wouldn't say he despises him, Dani. Their relationship wasÉcomplicated."
"How so? The way he talks about him is full of venom and hate." Vincent seemed to contemplate his words for a while before speaking, once again. Finally, he decided to share with me.
"Vinicius was one of the most formidable vampires our world has ever seen, Dani. What Maratoni feels towards him isn't hateÉit's more like envy."
"How do you know all this?"
"Vinicius was a close friend of my grandfather's," he confessed, looking into my eyes to check my reaction. I couldn't hide my shock. How was it possible? Vinicius created the Specials program to destroy anyone like Vincent's grandfather, King Romero Carandini. And now I was finding out they were friends? Suddenly, Vincent's phone vibrated in his pocket. He took a quick look at the message.
"I have to go Dani, I'll see you tomorrow, okay?"
"Okay," I replied, not bothering to ask where he was going. It's not like I was going to get an answer anyway.
I sat in the lodge for a while longer, thinking it all through in my head. Suddenly, a memory of Vinicius popped in my head.
"Tell me, Dani, what do you think it means to love someone?" He asked me one day, as we walked through his indoor garden. I thought about it.
"Is it to wanting to be with them constantly?" He smiled and ruffled the leaves of one of his plants.
"Perhaps. What else?"
"Thinking about them all the time."
"Mmm, I see," he replied. For some reason I felt that I was getting the answer wrong.
"What do you think it means?" I asked in return. He stopped and looked up, as if he were gazing at the sky.
"All the lifetimes I've lived, Dani, I think I've seen every type of love there is. But one thing I've noticed that true love seems to have in common, is that it expects nothing but wants to give everything."
"What does it mean to give everything?" I asked, not understanding. Vinicius smiled.
"I think you'll probably know what it means to give everything, when it's time to give everything," he replied.
Life would make so much more sense if Vinicius were still here. He could clear all this up. He could make sense of everything for me. I wouldn't be so lost and afraid.
I made my way out of the woods and back inside the school. I was on my way to my room when a sudden loud whisper stopped me.
"Dani!" It was Laura's voice that made me pause me in my tracks. She was running behind me with Angelo.
"What is it?" I asked, noticing the excitement on her face.
"Some government lady is here. I saw her leaving Trusting's office and going into the medical wing," she said. This was my chance to figure out what was happening. I had an idea. I shot Angelo a quick glance.
"You won't tell on me, will you?" Right away he knew what I was referring to.
"No, of course not. Let's go," he said and started walking. Laura followed us with a confused face. Finally, we got to the storage closet where Vincent and I watched Maratoni bite into human flesh. Maybe I would finally get some answers about these strange nurse visits.
Angelo pulled the ceiling ladder and we quietly climbed up into the crawl space and walked until we reached the large ceiling ventilator located above the nurse's office.
Underneath, we could see Boeriella Trusting speaking to another smartly dressed woman.
The headmistress wore a bright pink suit that matched her long blonde hair perfectly. The other woman had short black hair and a black pantsuit.
"Did you look over the nurse's report?" she asked the headmistress. Her voice was clear and short.
"Yes, there was nothing unusual," Trusting replied.
"For now," the black-haired woman mused, as if she was expecting to see something strange on my medical report.
"ViniciusÉhe wouldn't have," Trusting stammered out. For the first time she sounded unsure of herself. "Not to his own Special."
"We can't be certain. We can't be certain of anything anymore where Vinicius is concerned. Just make sure the Special continues attending the nurse sessions. If he has so much as an eye twitch, the State wants to know about it. This isn't something we can take lightly. If word were to get outÉ" Trusting just nodded her head.
"I know. I will keep a close eye on it."
"Good," the black-haired woman said, then added, "Has the rotten apple situation been handled?" The headmistress nodded once again.
"I've told him it would be best for them not to be friends, yes," she replied.
"Maybe I didn't specify this clearly enough. This isn't a request, it's an order. We do not approve of the Special associating himself with Carandini scum, do I make myself clear Boeriella?"
"Crystal," she replied icily.
"The fact that him and his whore of a mother are still walking this earth and are allowed to show their facesÉ" she shook her head with disgust.
"He was just a baby, he had nothing to do with it," the headmistress replied, and I wanted to give her a hug for standing up for Vincent.
"The rot is in the genes, Boeriella. They are spoiled to the core, all of them were. They can't help themselves. Power hungry, arrogant, cruel, evil. We are going to watch him like a dog for the rest of his sorry existence. And the second he so much as puts a foot wrong, he will be tried and sentenced to die."
"That seems extreme, I haven't noticed any signs of bad behavior from him," the headmistress replied, still trying to protect her student.
"We've already got eyes on the mother's house. The second he turns 18, there is nowhere he will be able to go, where he will feel safe."
I could feel Laura and Angelo slowly turn their heads and look at me, as I listened to the cruel words in stunned horror.
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places, events and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.