The Missing Boy

Chapter 23 - Heartbeat

The vampires didn't mean for anyone else to see it. But Miles did.

And the events scarred him.

The vampires are long gone now, they had taken Julian's body with them but Miles remained in the same place.

His knees pulled up to his chest as he sits against a tree. The darkness of his closed eye lids the only thing he can see. Nothing to comfort him except the promise that Axel would collect him soon.

•••••••••••

Axel is outraged. Terrified, but outraged.

He sprints to the bar, stopping and circling when he tries to find something that could lead him to his Miles. Come on, give me something. A scent? A heartbeat? But when he hears crying, he knows he's found him. And considering Axel can't hear any other footsteps or noises, he figures that the vampires have left.

Again, Axel sprints into the forest, knocking away stray branches and twigs, jumping over logs and fallen trees. He pauses abruptly when he sees Miles, who had somehow fallen asleep against the tree. His hands are still bolted around his knees. His cheeks still stained with tears.

"Hey." Axel says lightly as he crouches down, laying a gentle hand on the boy's face. Miles wakes up immediately, the fear in his eyes replaced with relief as he looks at Axel. "I'm here now. It's ok. You're ok."

Miles isn't. But right now all he wants to do is get out of this cursed forest. He had been too afraid he would get lost earlier if he left on his own.

Miles and Axel stand and Axel brushes the dirt off of Miles' cheek from resting on the tree. And when he looks into Miles' eyes he can see the torment, the sadness and the struggle.

And Axel wonders what those brown innocent eyes have seen.

•••••••••••••

They go to Axel's house, straight up to his room. Miles doesn't bother to text or call his parents. He rests his head on Axel's chest. And he doesn't hear a heartbeat to comfort him. He tries so desperately hard to search for one though. For the rhythmic thumbing. But all there is is silence and Miles refuses to believe that Axel is really dead. Julian is dead, you're not. But once he feels the warm press of Axel's lips on his forehead, he doesn't feel as scared.

"They killed him." Miles whispers.

Axel looks down at Miles. So that's the reason behind the darkness in his eyes.

"You saw that?" Axel asks, shocked. Not even he has seen someone get killed in real life and he's the vampire in the room.

Miles nods. "A metal stake to the heart."

Axel remembers that video. Elias had said that a knife to the heart wouldn't do the trick. That the weapon needed to be thick but also sharp to really kill a vampire and applied with a lot of force. An inhuman amount of force. Axel never understood why it had to be the heart, especially since theirs didn't beat anymore, but Elias said that the heart was the focal point. The only part of their body that couldn't heal over time.

"Who could live without a heart?" Elias had laughed at his own question.

It appears many people could.

Therefore, the vampires who did this must have been professionals, civilised, because rogues were never taught how to properly kill a vampire. They would end up killing them on accident, not really knowing the right techniques or weapons.

"Rogues don't kill vampires, they kill humans."

There is some truth behind Elias' words.

Because of their lack of training, rogues weren't taught how to accurately bite humans. Their bites were often lethal and not precise and calculated like Axel's. That's why they had their bar, so they wouldn't have to bite humans.

"I can't get the image out of my head. He was so scared, Axel. I should have just listened to you. I should have left or gotten help from someone else. I-"

"Shhh. It's ok. You did what you thought was right." Axel runs his hand through Miles' curls. Miles buries his head into Axel's chest.

"But what about Sydney? We're going to have to tell her."

A cold shudder runs through Axel's body as he remembers Julian's friend. A friendship so close that he and Sydney were practically siblings.

"I'll tell her tomorrow." Axel says.

"No, I should do it. I was the one who saw it."

"We'll go together." Axel replies. "Was that all you saw? Did you manage to see any of their faces?"

"There were four of them. I think they were all guys. One of them spoke and he was the only one who didn't wear a mask. He said that rogues were an abomination. That they wanted to live like humans. And that to be human is to die. Then he..." Miles doesn't finish the sentence. "He was tall." Miles continues "and had long black hair, longer than yours. And...he had a smile while doing it."

Axel tries to ignore the dreadful feeling that he knows who it is.

"To be human is to die."

Elias had said those words.

"We're simply granting them their wish."

He had repeated them everyday.

"I swear we're not all like that." Axel says, hating the fear that emanated off of Miles.

Miles knows it's true. He knows how caring Axel can be. He knows how nice Sydney is. He knew how funny Julian was but sometimes the bad outweighs the good.

Miles just nods his head.

He listens to the silence in Axel's chest.

Axel listens to the deafening beat in Miles' and when it slows down he realises that he has fallen asleep.

"I'm not like that." Axel says to a sleeping Miles. Or maybe to himself. But then he remembers the anger that courses through his veins. And that almost innate impulse to kill that had been hidden deep inside of him. A seed Elias had planted when he was in the mansion. And now it had grown.

"I'm not like that." He says louder.

But deep down, he knows he is.