A Feast For The Vampires

XIII

All his life, not once did Kimi Mikaelis ever think that he had a sibling-much less an elder sister-as he stared at the picture his mother had given him. Staring at the monochromatic, portraitlike picture-which had patches of yellow and lemon-with a shocked expression, the only thing that made him realize who his sister was was his mother's white hair, because his sister and mother were splitting images of each other with twin grins and the same height.

"It was taken the period before she'd died," Kara whispered with a cracked voice.

Kimi dropped the picture on his lap and looked at his mother. His thoughts became fuzzy and jumbled as he swiftly breathed, "why are you both wearing freaking traditional garbs? Why does she freaking look like your clone? How old was she? What the heck is her name?!" His voice held a hint of happiness?

Kara sighed and dropped the box on the floor. "Back then, when I still lived in the African country of Kïsan. I hailed from the Kerkuu tribe and was called Tilaya. I had your sister there before your father and I relocated to Rhodes Isles. And-"

"Wait, wait. Freaking hold on." Kimi glared at his mother. "I'm African. Like... I freaking come from the Kerkuu tribe? It..."

Kara froze. "What do you mean 'the Kerkuu tribe'?"

Kimi shrugged. "I don't know. It's just that I once read somewhere that the Kerkuu tribe was famous in magic and-"

"Stop! Stop talking nonsense. That's not true." Kara heaved a sigh. "There's no such thing as magic. And don't interrupt me again when I'm talking."

"Sorry," he mumbled, and picked up the picture. He scrunched up his face in confusion as he looked at it again. "Why does she freaking look like a replica of you?"

"Our tribe was known for maintaining their youth with traditional herbs and ointments." Kara sighed and looked to the ceiling, a pensive look on her face. "Your sister was the epitome of patriotic and kind. She... She sacrificed a lot in order to save others. But she died due to some disease that was wiping out the people of our tribe during that time." Kara shuddered in remembrance and dropped her gaze. "She was called Kidagakash, which meant 'princess' or 'goddess', a beautiful name for a beautiful girl."

Kimi dragged out an exhale and returned the picture to his mother but she held it to him.

"Keep it, so that you'll always remember her."

Kimi nodded. "What about those other stuffs?" He motioned to the other two objects.

"Oh, this." Kara picked up the lighter along with the ring. A deep frown worked its way onto her face. "Kimi, today I got a call from your principal and was informed that your school will be going on an excursion to Ashville."

"Yeah, we'll be leaving this Friday." Kimi took the form from his bag and gave it to his mother. "You need to sign it."

She nodded and put it away. "Kimi, what I'm about to say, to tell you, don't you ever go against it."

Kimi hummed and nodded in response.

"Lately, there's been some deaths and abductions." She looked at her son with a cold expression. "Do you believe in 'vampires'?"

He furrowed his eyebrows in disdain. "I believe I'm about to freaking hear something I don't want to."

"Well, in this case, the killings, the abductions, stuffs like that. They..." She sighed. "They were caused by what we call 'cadavers' or adz-é in our native dialect."

Kimi grimaced. "What, so zombies now freaking exist?" Kimi sighed and held his head. "I need to freaking visi-"

"This is not a joke Kimi. Cadavers exist and they're what that killed your father!" she yelled, an angry glint in her eyes.