The Transitioning Series: Transfiguring

Chapter Twenty-Four: Surrounded

*five weeks later*

"How's pretending to be Chelsea going for you?"
"It's awful... But they haven't caught up yet."
"Good. I thought you said you got this situation under control."
"Yeah I did, Oliver I don't know actually how long it's going to take." Alex replied over the phone as she sat in Chelsea's kitchen eating cereal.
"Honey, who's that?"
"Oh it's just Oliver mom. Ollie, I've got to go. I'll see you later. Love you."
"Hate you too."
"Ditto." Alex hung up the phone and placed it onto the counter and continued to eat.
"Honey, are you alright? You've been acting strange lately."
"Oh it's nothing... Actually I'm not liking college... I thought I could do it but I just can't. I'm quitting."
"What? Are you sure?"
"Yeah... I think so." The smirk was so hard to resist.
"I'll support you in every way possible my darling. But I don't think it's in your best interest at this moment."
"Why?"
"I've been meaning to say something to you, but I've just never had to words to start off the conversation."
"Mom? What's going on?" Sophie came into the kitchen and asked as she saw them at the breakfast bar.
"Come into the lounge and I'll speak to you."

"Dads dying!" Sophie exclaimed and was on the verge of crying, Alex pulled her close and hugged her tightly. It was nice to feel the warmth and love of a hug, since she lost her sister all them years ago.. No one had been able to fill her heart as much as Sophie did. She was a lot like Katie in a way... Yet so different. It was all the little things she did every so often and since spending weeks with the family, Alex felt home for the first time in her life since turning, yet she knew it wouldn't last.
"Your father, he hasn't got much time left, so I need you to be gentle and spend as much time with him as possible. He's lost his ability to walk unaided so if you're around, I'd like to you help him."
"It's just taken over him..." Alex spoke gently.
"I know honey, but it's been a long battle and I just don't think he can face it again. This ones back for good, so we need to spend as much time together as a family as possible. Is that okay with you girls?"
"Sure mom." Sophie spoke gently as she walked over to the other couch and cuddled her mom, Alex sat not knowing what to do but grimacing.

A few hours later Alex sat on Chelsea's bed, looking at the photo frames on her drawers, she had nothing like that and all she wanted was everything to go back to normal and find her daughter, the one thing that brought her back to town. "Chelsea..." A croak called from across the hall. "Chelsea..." She heard it again and followed the voice to Pete who was half sitting up in the bed, his head propped up by a million of pillows. Alex walked into the room slowly and saw him, his skin had paled a lot more and his skin had started to sag around his face, causing him to look a lot older than he really was. "Chelsea." He tried with all his might to pull a genuine smile but Alex could see the pain it caused him. He patted the bed and Alex sat down at his feet.
"Hi dad." Alex smiled and followed his hand with her eyes, she felt as he placed his hand on hers, the coldness of his touch sent a dark shiver down her spine and she smiled warmly. "How are you this morning?"
"Not good." He struggled to talk. "You?"
"I'm okay, dad. Thankyou. Did you want anything? A drink something to eat." He shook his head.
"You're mother said you want to quit college. Why?"
"I don't know dad. It's just..."
"Don't do it, you will regret it in years to come."
"I'll think about it."
"Please do..." He smiled weakly at her. "Now..." He tapped her hands and coughed out loud. "Are you going to tell me why you've changed in the last few weeks?"
"I'm just worried about you... Dad." Alex said back.
"Where's Chelsea?"
"What?" Alex pulled her hand back and looked at him. "Dad, I'm Chelsea. Are you okay should I call mom?"
"Cut the act, now who are you?" He tried to sit up but failed and just accepted he was half lying down. Alex got up and walked over to the door and closed it, placing one hand on the door and another on her head.
"Fine. How did you know?"
"I've seen you about, why do you look like my daughter?"
"Umm..." She turned around the face him. "Studies show that there's at least one person in the world that looks like someone. So I made that theory come true." Pete looked at her and folded his arms. "So you obviously don't believe that, but honestly it's a theory, but I don't know whether it's been proven yet." She chuckled.
"You've been around a long time..."
"In what sense?"
"The town? What else are you thinking?"
"Oh nothing!" Alex smiled gently at him.
"It's amazing, how much you look like her. I'm still amazed, but I want to know why you haven't shown yourself before?"
"Um, just some circumstances came up meaning I had to pretend to be her."
"Why?"
"Oh don't worry about that."
"What is your name?" Pete asked gently.
"My name is Alexandra, but most people call me Alex. Please don't tell mom - I mean Christine."
"I won't."
"You promise?" Pete nodded his head slowly and smiled. "Thank-you."
"What I want to know is why did you act as Chelsea in the first place?"
"I've never had a family like this before. I lost my parents and my sister many many years ago, and I've never felt the same since. So I wanted to try it out the whole 'family' thing. See what it was like, you see sir.. I've not had much of a life."
"What do you mean?"
"Oh that would be telling... Mr Adams." She walked slowly around the room. "This town holds many secrets."
"Like what?" Alex kept tight lipped. "Oh come on, I'm a dying man. Tell me, you can't keep me out of the loop."
"I'll get myself and you in trouble. It's not safe."
"Oh come on Alex.."
"Fine." Alex moved to the bed and sat opposite him. "Do you believe in living forever?"
"Now if I did, then I would make that my one last wish."
"No I mean, living a lot longer than you really should?"
"Umm, I guess so why. Is there a way to help me?"
"Mr Adams, if I could. I'd help you right now, Sophie and your wife aren't ready for something like this to happen. But I'm sorry I can't guarantee that you would survive."
"It's okay, at least I tried." He chuckled and Alex smiled at him. "So tell me, what are you? Ghost? Witch? Bit of both?"
"Vampire."
"Oh really?" He didn't even flinch at the word and that didn't really surprise Alex, there were a few people like him. "How long have you been alive?"
"Since the 15th century."
"So that makes you, over 500 years old oh wow. I'm amazed. You don't look a day over 21 one."
"I wasn't even 21 when I turned... I was 17."
"What? How?"
"I had a baby, but because that baby was completely different to any other baby she was taken away."
"I'm so sorry."
"It's okay, you'd think after all these years i would give up on her, leave her with my past. But I can't. I'm still searching for her."
"That's really brave, when you have a child, a part of them never leaves you. It's like if something happens you can feel it. You can notice something has changed about them..."
"Is that how you noticed me?" He nodded his head. "Dammit." Alex laughed. The bedroom door opened and Christine poked her head through.
"Hello you two, you ready for some dinner?"
"What's the time?"
"Little after 6, I'm just serving up."
"I'll come down and get mine and dads in a little while."
"Oh are you going to stay up here?"
"Is that okay?" Alex asked gently, and watched Christine nod her head in agreement.
"Of course sweetie, come down when you're ready."
"Okay mom. Thanks."
"That's okay baby." She smiled at them both, and closed the door. Alex listened all the way down the stairs until she was in the kitchen.
"Okay she's serving up."
"You can hear that?"
"Yep." She smiled.

Alex sat on the bed next to Pete who was sipping teaspoons of his soup, she watched him as he ate little by little each mouthful. He looked exhausted so she took the bowl away from him and placed it on the bedside table. "I'll leave it next to you for later."
"thank-you  Alex." She smiled and continue to eat. "Tell me some of your adventures."
"Serious?" She replied with mouthful of food.
"Yeah."
"Okay." Alex ate the food and started off when she firstly turned, all the things she got up to, how she learned to survive and how she was still alive and well to this day. She watched him as she spoke reliving her memories, the smile on his face was priceless, something that she hadn't seen in a very long time. But something nudged her in the back of her mind that she shouldn't be the one sharing his last final moments with him, his daughters should be. Yet she couldn't find the words to say about what was happening with Chelsea so all she said was how Chelsea needed a break from Oliver because they kept fighting and she had gone away for a while. Pete didn't approve of it in the first place but he finally agreed, when Alex told him about being a vampire. Something in the back of her mind knew that Pete knew about Chelsea's transition, yet he wasn't letting anything go.

Chelsea stalked the streets of Chicago, in the early hours of the morning. She left bodies in alleyways for people to find in the morning, when the sun came up. As she turned the corner, she watched as a club had started to close and humans filtered out of the door and walked down the streets, the hunger in the pit of her stomach rumbled and the smell of fresh, human blood that was so potent that she could feel her fangs start to descend in the mouth, Chelsea let out and hiss and breathed, calming herself down before walking out. She stalked the people, letting their scents fill her nose. One girl in particular smelled a lot more appetising to her, the stench of blood reeked off her clothes, Chelsea continued to follow, picking up speed and as soon as she was right behind the girl she placed her hand on the girls shoulder spinning her around, shifting into the monster that she had let herself become and hissed loudly, letting the fangs and veins underneath her eyes flash in front of the girls face. Chelsea scattered her eyes to the girls features and retracted her fangs and breathed out. "What are you doing here?"
"Oh how nice to see you too Chelsea. How's life as a humanity- less vampire working out for you?" Isabelle spoke and smiled brightly showing her teeth.
"What are you doing in Chicago?"
"trying to find my best friend and question her why she's turned into this person who I'm standing in front of."
"Well you won't get your answers, because I'm not saying anything to you." Chelsea tried to walk away but Isabelle caught her arm. "Let go of me."
"Not until you tell me exactly why you've done this and why you're back in Chicago."
"One, the blood is fresher. Two, I don't have anyone keeping tabs on me. Three, I wanted to start fresh. Now I've told you, leave me be. Go back to your precious school with your loving boyfriend and let me live my life."
"No." Chelsea hissed but Isabelle just blinked and stood cross-armed.
"Isn't going to work."
"Why can't you let me leave? Why do I always have to have a babysitter!" She exclaimed throwing her hands up in the air.
"Because of this exact moment, you've never lost control and No-one has shown you the ropes, so you just spiral out of control." Chelsea saw a few figures, close in and stood just behind Isabelle. Chelsea laughed darkly as she saw a few faces she remembered from Lady Meyers, like Sasha and Charlotte and there right next to Isabelle was Leo, standing a few inches behind Isabelle.
"What you brought your army with you? To try and tackle me down. Face it Iz."
"You don't get to called me 'Iz'."
"Fine, Isabelle." She snaked out, letting the 's' sliver out of her mouth. "Let me go and then we'll never speak about this again." Chelsea turned around and tried to walk again before she heard chanting, the pain had started to rush around her body.

"Ossox" Sasha shouted as she started the spell, everyone watched as Chelsea yelped in pain, and the sound of her bones breaking. Chelsea fell to the floor and laughed as she got back up, cracking her bones again, fixing them into place again.
"Ossox!" Sasha screamed louder this time.
"Phasmatos Somnus" As soon as Sasha chanted the two words, Chelsea stood
Still and then her body fell to the floor instantly. "She's unconscious, it should give us enough time to get her back to Pennsylvania."