The Garden of What Once Was

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

Safe and sound inside the club were the many humans and vampires that were spared due to Ember's bravery. All of them danced, laughed, and drank the night away without knowing that yet another life was about to be taken that night. Those oblivious people included the very High-tiers that brought Ember to Hypnosis, ultimately guiding her straight to her doom. None of them had noticed Ember's disappearance just yet. But, the moment they did, all hell would break loose. As of right now, they were busy trying to find each other. Well, actually, it was only Landon and Casper that were trying to locate the others. Only a short while ago, they captured Jared who had tried to run from them after they said it was about time they left. Because of his drunken tendency to do every mischievous thing possible, Landon immediately slung Jared over his back once he caught him. This ensured there wouldn't be a repeat of Jared crowd surfing on the dance floor. Now all they had to do was find Reed, wherever he was. For almost ten minutes, they circled the entirety of the club. Finally, the sound of his soft snoring floated into their ears. Following the sound, they found him fast-asleep at the table with a red chrysanthemum tucked behind his right ear. This tickled a part of their brains, telling them that they had another person to look for. Their more than exhausted brains came up blank when they tried to think of who exactly that person was. As far as they knew, they had found everyone they needed to.

Casper leaned down to Reed's exposed ear, whispering, "Reed, Aiko is here."

"What?! She's not supposed to be back y–...!" Reed sputtered out, waking with a start.

His reaction caused both Casper and Landon to begin laughing uncontrollably.

"If I was Aiko, I would've dumped your ass," Casper taunted him, exhaustion making him make fun of Reed about a certain subject Casper would normally avoid.

I wish she would, Reed thought, surprising himself slightly. He shook his head as if he were trying to erase the intrusive thought from his head. If he allowed himself to think about such things, then he would be doomed. It was better for him to convince himself he loved Aiko and that their relationship wasn't as toxic as a barrel of arsenic.

"Ah, whatever. If you were Aiko, I would've dumped you first!" Reed shot back as he slowly got off the stool he had been sitting in. "Actually, I wouldn't have even dated you."

"It's 'cause he's ugly as shit, like a blue-haired chihuahua," Jared let out an airy laugh.

"Landon, why don't you toss him in the fountain on our way out?" Casper suggested as they began heading toward the exit of Hypnosis.

"Do that and I'll hurl on ya, Noods," Jared warned, annoyingly poking at Landon's hard back muscles.

Suddenly, Jared stopped poking Landon. He opened his half-lidded eyes all the way, scanning his surroundings. When he realized that there was a lack of a brunette with them, he began kicking his legs, hitting Landon in the stomach multiple times. Before he could tell the others that Ember wasn't with them, a pungent smell of blood flowed into his senses as well as the others. Almost instantly after it clouded their noses, they took off running toward the exit, all thinking the same thing. Where the fuck is Ember?! Blood meant danger and danger reminded them of Ember. They wanted to make sure she was far from the heavy stench of blood that likely meant a vampire was lurking nearby. The only problem was none of them knew where she was. Something inside of them told them that their answer to her whereabouts was one that lay beyond the doors of Hypnosis, where the scent of blood was the strongest. Though they knew it wasn't Ember's blood, they still found themselves being fearful of what was to come. Despite those fears, the doors of Hypnosis burst open into the air that hung heavy with spilled blood. Their eyes all focused on one singular thing, a body, most likely dead, lying in the middle of the road. If they were in the right state of mind, they would have instantly realized it was not Ember's but their mentality was far from stable. As soon as they saw that body, the worst-case scenario invaded their heads. Their otherwise slow heartbeats began pounding in their ears as they ran over to the body, desperate to reassure themselves that Ember wasn't lying dead on the road. The only one that still remained at the steps of Hypnosis was Jared who was struggling to sit upright, far too drunk to comprehend what exactly was going on. He followed the others with his hazy vision, watching them all kneel to the blood-covered ground beside the body with frantic whispers of denial leaving their mouths. Realization crawled over him like a swarm of spiders. His fingers twitched against the cold slab of the steps. That body, that unmoving, all-too-still body in the road could very well be hers. At that moment, the alcohol in his body seemed to seep down into the ground, leaving him with the numbing pain of reality. Slowly, he stood up, swaying on his unsteady feet. If that was her body, he would kill whatever bastard that took her life. He'd make sure of it. Just like Jared, the others had the same malevolent thoughts clouding their minds. Fortunately, those thoughts had yet to be acted upon, as they recognized the dead body to be Aisha. Still, that didn't give them any reason to relax. Her death was clearly orchestrated by a vampire, as only such a creature would be able to break a human's neck so easily. A signature move of a vampire is to break the neck of their prey after they have finished drinking from them. It's done to ensure that no other vampire can take the scraps from their prey. But no vampire in that day and age would use such gruesome tactics. That was unless...