This Is My Town

Chapter Two ~ Enzo

Enzo didn't know why he bothered anymore. I mean, seriously; you'd think that your parents would at least pretend to care about you, rather than to just ignore you completely. Wouldn't you prefer your parents to act like they cared for you more than you'd like them to just forget you even exist?

Enzo's parents basically discriminated him by not acknowledging him. They only saw him at dinner time in the evening, and maybe sometimes in the morning at breakfast time. But, even then, they did not look at him and they did not speak to him. He sat at the head of the long, stretched-out table while his parents sat right at the opposite end, facing each other. They weren't even facing Enzo.

They would eat in silence, other than if they would want to discuss things about the way Frate was run. But not even they cared, and they were the ones that were supposed to.

You see, Enzo's family was a special one. They weren't like the other Vampires, and you could see this only if you looked at the way they would eat or at the colour of their eyes. They could eat either blood (which is extracted from animals) or normal food that any mortal child would eat; either suited them. Plants, meat, produce; everything that was edible by mortals was edible by them too.

But it wasn't contagious, and it wasn't a different race of Vampires either. The only way you could be one of them was to marry into the family, but that wasn't as easy as it seemed.

Enzo was a Royal. His parents were the King and Queen of Frate, and all three of them lived in the massively built palace positioned in the centre of Crinya. This was the most powerful city in Frate, and Enzo lived here, unwanted and unloved by people who had never cared for him in the first place.

Being a Royal meant that it was his responsibility to look after the palace. His best friends were all the guards that protected him and his home from the people who wanted their wealth and riches, and they all got along so well with him. They knew that Enzo was a neglected child, only at the age of twenty one. He was still young, though not a mortal, but this didn't bother anyone. Enzo's parents still had a long, long time to go before they died, so Enzo would look to be as old as seventy before he got the throne.

If he ever did at all.

He didn't want to marry, and he didn't believe in love anymore. Not after his parents threw him away to fend for himself. The only reason he was still in this palace was because it was his duty. If he left, his parents would be stripped of their rights and Enzo would become King once he was tracked down.

But he didn't want to be King, he certainly didn't. That was one right he was not accustomed to. He hated the thought of ruling such a terrible, terrible place like Frate.

It's better than being King in Montilo, Enzo thought to himself as he sat in his bed chamber, lying on the floor to look up at the ceiling expressionlessly. Whenever the word 'Montilo' came to mind, he cherished what he had and appreciated the hospitality that his parents absent-mindedly provided to him. If he lived in Montilo, he would not survive.

Thinking of the evil Pandora and the people who dwell in the same city as her, Enzo felt ashamed of himself. He lived in a palace, on the other side of Frate than Pandora and her wicked ways, and he had all the things he wanted, plus more. And here he was complaining that he wanted more, even if this 'more' that he wanted was to be free of his duties. Where he may have wished to be in the place of another, living on the streets, there would be another that would be wishing that they could live in this palace, with the food, clothing and love they thought Enzo received from his parents.

The closest thing he had to a friend was the guards, and not even they could pretend to be Enzo's friend sometimes. When his parents were watching, the guards wouldn't move, otherwise they'd be fed to the Nonsept. But when Enzo's parents were nowhere about, they would talk and laugh and enjoy Enzo's company, just as he had wished anyone would love to be in his place to talk to the guards themselves, thinking that if they had parents like Enzo's - the Royals - that they would love them with all their hearts and souls.