Chapter 9

“Melody, dinner time!” Melody’s father called, already tucking in the flesh of fresh Jugpig.

The Jugpig’s stomach was bloated and it was obvious that it was taken ill before seized by Melody’s father.

“I’m not coming!” Melody reminded, her music booming behind her.

“You will do as your told and come eat your dinner.” her father warned.

As she entered the room she heard the squelching of blood and the slurping sounds that followed.

“That’s disgusting!” she gagged as she edged further away from the table, watching in horror as her fathers long fangs dug into the skin.

Melody’s family was a rare thing nowadays. She was a midnight bloodfang. Everyone was afraid of Bloodfang’s so she didn’t have any friends at all. Her mother had died when she was just a baby which was hard on her dad. Even after 15 years, he still didn’t seem to know anything about her. In actual fact Melody was a Bloodfang in denial. She hated everything about her life and often ran away from home, only to be dragged back by her dad. She never ate the same food as her father; she couldn’t take the thick sickening blood running through her fangs.

“When will this phase end!” her father cried.

‘You’ve been saying that for 15 years’ she thought bitterly.

She couldn’t stand watching him gorge himself any longer and ran back to her room, gagging.

Slamming her bedroom door, she threw herself on her old lumpy bed. She was going to go hungry again tonight. Suddenly, a glint of silver caught her eye. It was her black hair in the smashed mirror. She took a while to look at herself. She had flat black hair, two black holes for eyes, spotless pale skin, two small white fangs and a knobbly bony body underneath her black lace dress. Everything in her house was second hand, her father had found in peoples rubbish.

‘This isn’t the life for me’ she thought sorrowfully.

She wasn’t too keen on her father either. She glanced at her back pack. As always it was packed. She flung the bag from her perch and slid down her tree trunk in the middle of the dark forest, just a mile away from Caprica. She flicked her long black hair in a tight pony tail and quickly made her way out of sight, knowing it would only take her father a couple of hours to finish his feast.

“Eric? What are you doing here?” I gasped, flinging my arms around his neck. “I thought you were dead!”

He reluctantly hugged me back and then wiped the water from his jacket.

I suddenly felt a tinge of embarrassment that for our great reunion, I was looking like a drowned rat. Then I remembered Jamie. Turning around, I saw him sat behind me, pressed against the wooden mast with a girl about our age, wrapping a thick blanket around his shoulders.

“That’s Leona” he explained, pointing at the young girl next to Jamie. “She’s a bewitcher from Atrinity”

With that, Leona shot up from the floor showing off her true tiny yet healthy figure. She had beautiful Caribbean skin and short black hair. She was wearing a short blue skirt and small white T-shirt.

“Hey!” she smiled and shook my hand.

I smiled and returned her greetings.

“This is Jamie” I introduced, turning to Jamie.

“Where’s Loriei and Abi?” he asked, changing the subject.

I looked around and then turned to Eric and Leona to see if they saw them. They both shook their heads.

“Oh no!” I groaned. “What if they didn’t make it out? I mean, if it wasn’t for these two we wouldn’t have made it. And if they did get out where have they gone? Are they looking for us?”

Jamie tried to calm me down by giving me a hug.

“Two of our friends are missing.” he explained to Leona and Eric, rubbing my back.

“Loriei? I haven’t seen her in months!” Eric cried.

Leona gave him a confused look and flickered her eyes our way, asking who we were.

Eric took us all downstairs and explained everything about the Ellie Mae and what happened when I left his world. Apparently he survived the jump from the mast and he and Tory locked the Captain up in a cell. It was when Loriei and Lyla took them to their world and they got to port, when the captain escaped and Tory went missing in Atrinity. He searched for her for months but she wasn’t found. Loriei and Lyla went back home to Vixen and Eric stayed on the Ellie Mae and met his girlfriend Leona. I told him about Jess and Jen and what every one thought about what happened to Tory. After I finished, me and Jamie explained what had happened so far and told them about Lyla’s kidnapping.

“Bloodbeam… dangerous piece of work he is” Eric warned. “He might look soft but be warned; he can get a pack of dwellers on you in less than a second. He lives in Dwellers land, but I haven’t known anyone to survive a dweller attack.”

I looked at him through my smudged mascara eyes.

“Listen to you, didn’t take long for you to learn the Ylddion history book” I joked.

“What are we going to do about Loriei and Abi then?” Jamie asked, sipping on the Bloom flower cocktail which Leona mixed for them.

Jamie didn’t like getting lost and at this moment in time he felt like the lost one rather than Loriei and Abi.

“It’s Ok, Jamie. We’ll find them eventually. Its not as big as our world you know” I assured him.

He looked doubtful.

“I doubt they would to dead” Leona blurted out and cupped her hand over her mouth.

Jamie instantly freaked out. Well I guess all of this was a big shock for him.

“It’s Ok, Loriei will take care of Abi” I told him.

I was almost completely dry now.

“You lot can stay here for the night, if you want” Eric shrugged.

I remembered the good old days when the Ellie Mae was mine. I guess now Eric had claimed it. I nodded and thanked them for their hospitality. At least in the morning we could sort out what we were going to do.

The only transport left in Caprica was by Spinnadile. Lebandee had hoped for a dragon but none was left. It was close to the rainbow shower where all the pixies have a holiday from working and go travelling. The Spinnadile was the least popular option in Caprica. It was more of an unsafe theme park ride than a type of transport and like all Pixies; rides were not his cup of tea. The Spinnadile is a huge barrel shaped machine with a huge open top. Everyone is led by the hostess’s to hard uncomfortable seats around the circumference of the spinnadile, in which everyone is forced to face each other. Everyone is strapped firmly down and held down with a heavy harness that wraps around their ribs and after the first five minutes, bruised them. Lebandee sat nervously down next to a pretty young girl dressed in black lace. Her face was like powered porcelain and her black hair shone like marble. A shot of envy stabbed him in the stomach when he noticed her hair had a tint of dark purple. The harness pushed down on his chest a little too tightly, but tight was good. Spinnadile’s are horribly dangerous when the right safety precautions aren’t met. Only a of couple months ago, Lebandee read about a man who’s harness was broken and he fell from his, never to be seen again. Well, he was found again but it took the Pixies a couple of days to wash the blood away and identify him. Lebandee closed his eyes and tried to think of something else.

Potions, Loriei, Snoggle’s… anything.

The girl beside him could smell his fear but didn’t want to draw attention. Everyone was checked one last time and then the Spinnadile hissed a nervous wrecking squeal as it came to life and slowly began rotating. The breeze felt quite good on Lebandee’s face but he was too scared to really feel the experience. The girl next to him gave him a concerned look. The speed picked up and very soon after everyone’s stomach dropped. The girl beside him let out an excited squeal which pierced his eye drums. Despite the speed racing over one-hundred miles per hour, the speed failed to decrease. The wind whipped through everyone’s hair. The Spinnadile hummed as loud as it could. Lebandee took a peek at the other passengers; one man was sat opposite him reading a newspaper. The girl next to him was still giggling in excitement. ‘She must be from Atrinity’ he thought noticing her skin was way to pale to be a Pixie. A Pixie would never wear black anyway. Pixies wore only bright rainbow colours in mostly silk but never in black lace. The spinnadile was going so fast that no one could open their eyes anymore. The instant they did the air would dry their eyes out in a second. Suddenly, everyone was shot flat in their seats and the whole spinnadile shot into the air. Lebandee felt himself go for the arm rest to squeeze. He tried to pull himself up but the pressure on him was too much to beat, not even mentioning the harness crushing him. His ears failed to hear anything except the buzzing of the wind, deafening him. His face felt dry and crackling. He couldn’t see anything except for bright colours behind his sheltered eye lids. He bit his lip as the pressure kicked in one last effort. His head throbbed and his eyes felt like they were going to pop out of his skull. He could feel the bruises starting to form on his ribs. Everyone was holding their breaths so not to choke on the air. It was so powerful and dry. Finally the machine let out a high pitched scream and it instantly stopped in its tracks, jolting everyone forward. Lebandee slammed back on his seat, banging his spine.

“That was fun!” the girl next to him giggled, turning to him.

“I’m just so glad I haven’t had any breakfast” he joked, struggling for breath.

She nodded. If only he knew what breakfast was in her house. He would be glad!

They both looked down, at the exact same moment, to see that Lebandee was actually squeezing on her hand rather than the arm rest he had mistaken her for. Slightly embarrassed, he released her hand and apologized.

“It’s Ok” she smiled, rubbing her hand down to try and start the blood circulation again.

Everyone emptied from their seats until only Lebandee and this strange girl was left.

“My names Lebandee” he introduced and held out his hand for a hand shake.

She shook his hand.

“Melody”

Lebandee couldn’t help but notice her hands were freezing cold.

“Why are you travelling alone?” he asked as they cautiously stumbled out the Spinnadile exit, trying to keep their balance after that long spin.

“Why are you?” she answered back, her neatly shaped eyebrow rising in a playful manner.

He laughed in reply.

“Long story. Where are you heading?”

She shrugged.

“As far away as I can, I guess”

Lebandee eyed her suspiciously and said no more about it. As she spoke he noticed her teeth were a lot sharper than others but the thought of her being a Blood fang didn’t enter his mind.

“You can come with me if you want” he told her, hoping for a little company and maybe the secret of her perfectly shiny hair.

She smiled at him, her sparkling white teeth almost blinding him. Her long fangs were in full view now. He gulped but didn’t say anything in case that he offended her. A sudden pinch of fear pierced him in his mind. What had he done? What if she was a Blood fang and planned to make him her next feast while he’s sleeping. And how could he get rid of her? He couldn’t just leave her in Vixen and certainly not Caprica. Perhaps she would be better off in Atrinity. Well one thing was for certain, she would be caught almost instantly as soon as they left the area on the Spinnadile landing area. Blood fangs weren’t well thought of much everywhere, not even Atrinity. Blood fangs were just as foul thought of as the Dwellers. They were just like vampires except even glancing at a Blood fang who was in the middle of a petrifying spell could turn you to stone for the next twenty years. However, the victim who the spell was aimed at could remain in its stone form for the next four- hundred years.

‘I’ll just have to be on my guard’ he decided.

“First, you have got to get out of those clothes!” he cried “You need a disguise”

The sky was streaked a deep red like blood. It would be pitch black in about an hour. He peered over to a nearby clothes stall.

“I’ve got it!” he beamed. “Come on, we just have to get some essentials and we can find a bed and breakfast for the night”

To be continued...