Souls vs Blood 14

Souls vs Blood 14

During those 5 weeks Johnathon and Harold were in the dungeon, the only communication there was between Harold and Alice was through Mashup. Some of the more random courses in the dungeon had rewards that Harold gave to Alice through Mashup. Alice would also send sweets or a little paper with a phrase on it in return. Rebecca never failed to look through the contents of each letter Alice passed to her before she coaxed Mashup to bring it to Harold. Alice trusted Rebecca and didn't question why only Rebecca could communicate with Harold. Rebecca had also told Alice about how she knew Harold and about her mother during one of the girl talks they had. The end of that talk went a little like this...

"My mother really loves Harold's mother. As a friend of course."
"Wow... I never knew something like that could or had occurred..." Well, it wouldn't have appeared in the human newspapers would it? And Rebecca was still filtering out the words soul suckers and vampires...
"I'm rather glad I managed to meet Mrs Keyes son."
"Mrs Keyes?"
"That's Harold's surname. Keyes."
"Oh... Keyes... "
*after some silence, Alice continues speaking*
"So how is your mother now?" Rebecca is a little surprised Alice doesn't ask more about Harold's mother. Guess she thought it might be rude.
"Ahh... she's in a bit of a situation now." Rebecca thinks to herself: "Can't possibly tell her it's impossible for my mother to get a job or all her colleagues would die faster..." but she fills in with some facts to satisfy Alice's curiosity. "She's working from home. Far away from here. I left home quite long ago but I do visit from time to time."
"Why don't you stay with her?" Nope, Rebecca couldn't say that her mother is in hiding and that she wanted a free life and that Alice was the reason why she is staying in one place for so long.
"Well, sooner or later I would have moved out. And I had my dreams I guess. We weren't very close, my mother and I"
"Not close?! With your own mother?!" Rebecca thoroughly enjoyed Alice's expression of exasperation.
"Well, it just happened that way."
"Oh my... " after a little pause Alice asked another question. "Then what are your dreams?"
"That, I am in the process of fulfilling. A merchant!"
"Oh! I've heard James call you smuggler, but you aren't really one are you?"
"I can't say I've never smuggled... but I do sell very rare items..."
"Ooooo, like what?" Alice's curiosity got the better of her. Rebecca thought hard about more realistic rare items she could talk about.
"Limited edition Josephine Larry perfume volume 13?"
"Per... perfume?"
"Well... I don't sell that though... I use it..."
Alice laughs. "Oh Klar you are so funny sometimes."
Rebecca smiles a little painfully. Didn't really like being called funny. But all her items were magic related... Then Alice spoke again,
"So how old are you actually Klar?"
Rebecca shrugs. "I don't know!" And she walked out of the door before Alice could probe any further.
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As for James, he too was caught up with preparations for war even though he had absolutely no intentions of taking part in it. But when vampires were summoned, not complying had consequences. He too went through basic trainings in the vampire world and participated in blood collection activities.

His relationship with Alice had been rather normal, but one of the days after he had gotten blood pills and artificial flesh from Rebecca, James confronted Alice about something. While they were on the way to school, he brought up a topic more serious than usual.

"So Jane was just telling me..." Alice was ranting on about something that had happened in class. James gave the appropriate reactions and replies and when she had finished that mini episode, he spoke up.
"Hey umm..."
"Yeah?"
"You know..."
"What about?" Alice was a little worried cos James was rarely hesitant about things.
"You don't have to hide about meeting that Harold guy." James avoided Alice's eyes. He had talked to Rebecca about Harold. Especially after that incident that night. Rebecca was half vampire afterall and though she seems to help Harold more than James, in truth, no one knows her true intentions. Whether she would do anything during the war, or whether she had any other goal in mind... no one knew. The point is, she does keep James updated about selected things. But significantly large information she left out were with regards to the spell and the glitter. She even told James about her debt to Harold since Harold had mentioned Mrs Keyes in front of him. No helping that.
They walked in silence for a little while.
"You always knew?"
"Yeah. since the day your parents..."
"What?"
"They passed away...."
"But I hadn't met Harold at that time...?"
"What? But..." James couldn't have possibly said anything about the mark of a soul sucker... Then something occurred to him.
"Hold on... Alice, I need to ask you something." James stopped walking and looked at Alice seriously. "What did you say your parent's died of again?"
Alice felt awkward and uncomfortable. Also, the straightforwardness of the question had knocked her off by surprise and she was starting to tear. She mumbled: "Why ask?"
"Please!" James grabbed her by the shoulders, both of them were trembling.
"He- Heart failure."
"At the same time?"
"Yes... The doctor also sounded very bewildered when he tried to explain it to me."
But that's the effect of death by a soul sucker... Suddenly, anger was fully ignited in James' eyes and heart.
"I won't be attending school today Alice. For a while actually."
"What? Why is that? What's wrong?"
James with his emotions on a rampage, didn't think of the consequences and used a little magic to make him run faster, so Alice thought he had disappeared suddenly.
"That... that's almost like how Harold disappears..." Alice thought out loud.

James on the other hand, reached soul sucker territory in the matter of moments. He didn't think of the consequences of a vampires appearance in this place. Or that he might trigger the war. Luckily, Alice had contacted Rebecca and told her what happened. She stopped James right in the nick of time before a scouting group were going to approach him. Grabbing his shoulder hard, she interrogates.

"You planning to get yourself killed?"
"I don't care. Where is this Harold guy, I need to ask him something."
"I heard what you asked Alice, she's shocked, you know that?"
James doesn't reply but continues to struggle under Rebecca's grasps.
"Even if you ask Harold, it's no use. He wasn't the one."
"But he'll know who were the ones. And he didn't stop them. I'll get them. Get them all!"
"It isn't just Alice who went through this James! Many other families in the human world all dropped dead for no apparent reason. Even vampires often couldn't stop themselves and killed off a great number of humans. Natural disasters and accidents were created to cover the incidents up. If anything is to be blamed, it is the war James. Now calm down, and let's go back. As for meeting Harold, I'll let you meet him, but under a spell..." And as she said that, she sprinkled a little something from a small test tube into James' ear, and James stopped struggling.
"That's much better." Rebecca smirked.
"Hey what did you do to me?!" James body slumped. Rebecca threw him into the car with little effort, and drove home. Every time James even tried to leave the house without Alice, Rebecca used the little test tube on him. Soon, James gave up after a verbal agreement had been made that he was only going to his part time job and school, but he would be able to meet Harold, one on one. Unfortunately, since that day, Alice was always a little awkward around James, even though he'd still joke like on a normal basis.
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