Remember Me Spain

Chapter 5

The 21st century came quickly. And with it came new inventions and new prospects. For example, I had seen the rise of buildings called skyscrapers, people were now communicating with cellphones and instant messengers, people were taking things called selfies rather than getting paintings, and there was a new way of listening to music called MP3 files. I found it hard to keep up with the constantly growing nature of the human world. It was both thrilling and nerve wracking.

Despite the progress that the century brought us, we still found that there were hardships that affected both the humans and the vampires. To begin, Dad had moved us to Ireland in 1839. The following year was the Irish Famine of 1840, which caused the death of one million Irish people. Because of the huge decline of humans during that time, there wasn't much to eat. As a result, the remaining children, except Freckles, had perished. After that, Dad decided to move us to England, where we witnessed wars, starting with the Second Opium War all the way to World War II. In fact, it was during World War II that we lost Grim and Dustin due to the German bombings in 1941. I had to admit, my heart wrenched when we got the news about Dustin. By the end of the Second World War, we were surprised that our family was still around. But somehow we managed.

But that was all in the past. Now it was 2004. A brand new year and a brand new start. Because of the complicated political issues in England, Dad decided to move us back, believing that it would benefit business. Of course, it did. Those of us who remained managed to get work all across the country.

It was now July, summer had just started and I had just finished a job for a local Drug Lord in London. It seemed that a nosy cop was diving too far into a drug ring and the employer, who wanted to keep everything hushed up, wanted him gone. So, it was my job to take him out. It was an easy enough job. Disguising myself as a new recruit I managed to slip poison into his morning coffee. It killed him within days.

Quickly, I walked through the busy, night streets of London. One hand held a bloodstained duffle bag that firmly sat over my shoulder. From inside the bag I could feel the bundles of bills slapping against my leg. I had to admit, the Drug Lord certainly paid well. Meanwhile, my other hand was buried deep in my fake Prada bag, trying to find my keys. Somehow I always managed to lose them. And it was no wonder. My bag was a mess. Apart from the usual items—wallet, purse, and phone—I carried lipstick, vials of poison, a knife, pepper spray, old receipts and old candy bar wrappers.

Finally, my fingers wrapped around my cold house keys. Just in time too, because I had just turned the corner and arrived at the large house that Dad had bought only recently. I hurried up the steps, nearly tripping myself in the process with my damn heels, and slipped the key into the lock. As the door opened, a wave of noise swept over me. Upstairs, I could hear Skander's pounding, rock and roll awkwardly mingle with Kalista's classical Spanish guitar music. Meanwhile, in the basement Freckles, or Nate I later found out, was loudly playing one of his new video games, Halo. I sighed and slouched my shoulders. The noise was the last thing I wanted after a rather stressful job.

After kicking off my heels, I stepped over the mess of shoes in the hall and weaved my way to Dad's office at the back of the house. He had really gone out on this office as well, I noted. The door, when one approached, was made of solid mahogany. Meanwhile, the knob was made of a shinny copper. Along the bottom, Dad had splurged on a golden plate. I knocked and waited quietly outside the door.

"Come in," I heard Dad call.

As I stepped in, the first thing I noticed was a large oak desk with a leather chair behind it. Around the room were momentous he had collected over the centuries, from old swords to military uniforms. I cleared my throat, and watched the chair turn, Dad's smiling face looking at me. These days, he had grown much older, so he emanated less fear and more vulnerability. His hair had grown thinner, his skin now even more transparent and his eyes were now clouded with partial blindness. He was what we called in our world a Patriarch.