Empathy Bites: Part 2

The storm started to calm down but the wind stayed consistently wild. It blew the dead leaves all around the garden. By the small blood fountain he saw his mother sitting on the bench. 

“Cain, my sweet son; come sit”

Cain sat next to his mother. His mother noticed the sadness in his eyes and started to gently rub his back. 

“What’s wrong?”

“Me and dad got into a …. situation again”

“Situation? Is he still bothering you about your empathy for humans.”

“Yes… I found a girl earlier so I brought her home and well I did what I was supposed to but at first she got away and dad saw and I think he was disappointed.”

“Yes, your father is always disappointed in something”

“I think he wants me to be more like Cassius” 

“Don’t be ridiculous, he loves you. He just doesn’t understand that you are different from your brother.”

Cain laid on his mother’s lap; she ran her fingers through his dark black hair. Her sharp nails looked like knives dancing in his scalp.

His mother always babied him , he was the baby of the family. Whenever things didn’t go right with his dad his mom would be there to defend him. She loved that Cain was different; he understood things and felt things that long forgot or just never had. 

“Victoria you’re doing it again” yelled his father from the balcony

“Eavesdropping again how rude” 

“I wouldn’t have to if you treat him his age, he's 54… he has to grow up eventually.”

“Can you just come down here I don’t like yelling” 

Soon as Cain lifts his head from his mother’s lap his father is standing right in front of them. 

“Maybe you and Cain should have a talk. He’s your son and he’s feeling unloved.”

His father sighs.

“Yes we should talk”

“Yes you should”

She blows him a kiss and walks gracefully back inside. 

His father joins Cain on the bench and they sit in awkward silence for what feels like an eternity. 

“So mmmm you think I’m too hard on you…”

“Yes”

“Okay well mmmm I’m sorry but you are a vampire… humans are food.”

“Can’t I just go back to blood bags?”

His father sighs.

“Cain, you're old enough to hunt on your own. We shouldn’t be depending on us to provide connections for you to eat. If you’re hungry you find a human…. Simple.”

Cain doesn’t say anything, he just looks at the ground. He kicks the nearby pebbles. His father uncomfortably changes the subject. 

“Cassius is coming home today.”

Cain rolls his eyes.

“Great” he says 

His father gets up and leaves the garden. Cain could tell how excited his father was and that only proved his statement from earlier. His father wanted him to act like Cassius. Cassius was a ruthless vampire and a brutal big brother. He tormented Cain just as much as humans. 

Cain decided to go to his room and hopefully Cassius wouldn’t come bother him.

Cain laid in his bed staring at the ceiling. The posters on his new favorite rock band were slowly peeling off. He looked at the blood stain on his sleeve and felt worse. He wondered if the butler moved the body yet. He wanted to see her face and apologize again, her death was eating at him. He closed his eyes to try to drown in the silence but was interrupted by his brother's loud footsteps walking towards his door. 

Cassius kicked the door in. 

“LITTLE BROTHER GUESS WHO!”

Cain rolled over to the other side of the bed. 

“Now that’s not how you treat your brother”

He grabbed Cain by his collar and pulled him all the way downstairs. Cassius enjoyed watching his brother hit his head on every stair.

When he got to the bottom of the stairs he released Cain and walked over to the girl’s lifeless body.

“Dad told me you did that… did you?”

“Yes” he said sadly

“Really? I’m surprised I thought you were a punk and decided you wanted to pretend to be human or whatever”

Cain didn’t even dignify that with a response his head was still spinning from ending that girl’s life. Cassius poked the girl's eye and laughed. 

“Yup she’s dead!”

“Don’t touch her!”

“What’s the matter? Are you upset you killed a precious human?”

Cain shoved Cassius away from the girl and closed the girl’s eyes. 

“You are upset over someone you didn’t know and I bet you didn’t even know her name.”

Cain froze in place as he realized that he didn’t know her name. Cassius started to search the girl, he realized her dress had pockets on the sides. He pulled out a small black leather wallet.

“Look it’s her wallet. Surprised she has one … doesn’t look like she has any money.”

Cain snatched it from Cassius and opened it. It was full of small coins, nothing more than a dime. He couldn’t find an ID , just a picture of the girl and her family. Her and what looked like to be her dad and a small dog. Cassius leaned in to see but Cain tried to move it from his view.

“Turn it over, see if there are any names on the back.”

Cain turned the picture over to only find one name, Emma.

Cain’s heart almost felt like it was going to start beating. His face froze and he dropped to his knees. Cassius grew bored with the situation and walked away. 

Suddenly the front door flew open and in came a crowd of people.