The Feeding House (21 page)

As
Dreno watched on he could see those who were able to get out the burning farm house being captured and executed. He kept a keen eye out too see whether any of them were Isaac or Jack but as the house continued to burn no sign of their escape was noticeable. In some ways Dreno preferred it that way, he enjoyed the idea of Isaac slowly burning to death within the house and not getting the luxury of a quick death like those who had managed to escape.

Slowly the amount of escapee’s began to dwindle and soon there were none, the house fell in on itself over time and the vampires watched on as it did so.
Dreno knew that Isaac had to be inside and was happy to know that finally he was dead, no longer did he have that particular thorn in his side. The embers finally extinguished themselves and the house and barn were now little more than rubble.

There were large fields surrounding the farm house which were all growing blood fruit.
Dreno ordered each and every field too be burnt a decision that left his fellow vampires confused but they were not ones to say no to anarchy. The fields lit up like a bonfire and all of the blood fruit was destroyed leaving nothing but a derelict wasteland before them.

Dreno
had done it. He had destroyed every last remnant of the blood fruit and had killed Isaac and his followers. There was now nothing that could stand in the way of his progress, he smiled as he looked over the area that had once been the farm house.

Turning to Henry he patted him on the back “Well done, I am most pleased with what you have done for me.”

The words hung heavy in Henry’s mind and slowly he began to realise that what he saw before him, all the death and destruction was all his work, he had made it happen. He saw what remained of the farm house and had to stop himself falling to his knees with guilt, instead he let out a small whisper as Dreno walked away “What have I done?”

Jack and Isaac were at the end of their Journey back to the farm house and although they had been trying to plan their next move on
Dreno for the past few days of the journey they were coming up short. Mainly because they were so exhausted, the two of them had barely had a moments rest since they had left the farm house 8 days ago, and now they were both ready for some much needed rest.

As they approached the farm house the driver turned his head so that he could better speak to Isaac and
Dreno inside the carriage, something sounded very off in the way he spoke “Isaac, I think you may want to take a look at this.”

Jack threw Isaac a confused look but Isaac was already poking his head out of the window to see what was going on. Looking across the fields he could see clear as day that the farm house, his sanctuary, was now ash and dust. Isaac couldn’t believe his eyes at first there was no way that this could have happened, but as Jacks face slowly changed from confusion to concern Isaac began to realise that this was in fact real.

When Isaac finally brought his head back into the carriage he looked as though he had seen a ghost, he was white as a sheet and looked full of despair.

“What’s happened?” asked Jack more confused than ever, but he knew that something was very wrong.

Isaac completely blanked Jacks question it was almost as if he wasn’t even there, Isaac called up to the driver “Speed up, we need to see if there are any survivors.”

“Any su
rvivors?” exclaimed Jack “Isaac what’s happened here?”

Jack shook Isaac and after a short period of time with no response Isaac seemed to return back to normality as though he was coming out of a trance “Jack I don’t know how to put this,
Dreno has finally got to me, I don’t know how but all I know is the feeding house is destroyed. I promise I will explain the whole story to you later but for now we need to see if there are any survivors.”

Jack slumped back in his seat and sighed loudly, this was the last thing he expected to happen. It was obvious to him that Isaac was hiding something from him but this wasn’t important now, what was important was searching the farm house to see if anyone survived. There would be time to listen to the truth of the matter later.

The carriage stopped outside of the remains of the farm house, Jack and Isaac jumped out and stood there in horror. Everything was destroyed. The house was nothing more than a pile of ash and dust and the barn was just the same. Isaac seemed to be stuck in place, the gravity of the situation weighing him down, making him unable to move. Jack took a look in the rubble of both buildings and saw the dead bodies, burnt by the flames. Then looking across the field he saw the heads of some of the farm house residents stuck onto stakes in the ground, their bodies thrown in a pile next to them.

“They’re
all dead,” began Isaac, a deep pain filled every word “All of them, I don’t even have to look around to know that they were all killed, without mercy.”

Jack didn’t say a word he just continued to listen “
Dreno did this and I’m sure he thought that I was in that house too. It’s my fault, I never told them the whole story. I never told anyone.”

“What is the full story exactly?” asked Jack, knowing that this would be what Isaac meant by telling him the truth.

“They all knew about the blood fruit and that we were hiding from Dreno, they were my pupils, my followers, they were sick of the old way of feeding too, but none of them ever questioned why it was that Dreno hunted us so mercilessly. Jack, my name has not always been Isaac. I was once known by the name of Dreano, I am Dreno’s brother.”

“You’re telling me that
Dreno is your brother?” Jack couldn’t believe what he was hearing, this could only mean that at one point in time Isaac was one of the most powerful vampires on the planet.

“Yes, he is indeed my brother. I was once his right hand man. We developed the feeding machines together but I never craved power like he did I was more than happy to just advise him but then he began to take things too far. I could see the deep set hatred for humanity in his eyes, he believed that we should be the masters and they should be nothing more than slaves. So when the blood fruit came along he went crazy, it was only ever seen by me and eight other elders.
Dreno hated the idea that any vampire could grow it and we would never have to drink blood again. He couldn’t accept not having control of the blood supply. He ordered all of it to be destroyed, but I took some and ran. As I left he swore to me that he would kill me one day and anyone who dare ever follow me. It’s my fault that they’re dead. Through my reckless decisions I have brought about the deaths of my friends.”

Jack was silent for a moment trying to get a grasp on the information that he had just
heard “Isaac, it’s not your fault you couldn’t help this.”

Somehow the words felt hollow to Isaac, he couldn’t stop the thoughts running through his head. If only he could have moved them
sooner. He should have been more careful about security. Isaac felt empty inside “I think I need to spend some time on my own.”

Before Jack could reply Isaac was al
ready walking off down the path. There was little that could be said that would have stopped him leaving and although Jack knew that Isaac needed some time alone he also knew that it would not be long until he returned. Jack was still trying to get his head around the fact that Isaac was Dreno’s brother, he wondered why he had never told anyone but realised that maybe it could have been for the best.

Over the next few hours Jack set about the unenviable task of gathering the bodies, digging holes and burying them, each individually with their own makeshift wooden headstone. Jack felt that it was important that these vampires have proper burials after all
, both he and Isaac had hoped that, they would be the first in the new era of vampires.

Later on Isaac eventually returned
wearing the same depressed look that he left with, he saw the graves as he walked closer and although it hurt him to see that it had ended this way he was happy that Jack had given them a proper burial.

“We will hold a small ceremony to remember them later,” said Isaac as he looked over the graves “It is a shame that this all h
ad to end this way, their deaths will not be in vain, we shall have our revenge for this. My brother has gone too far this time and we shall put him in his place,” Isaac spat his words like venom and his eyes lit up with passion, something that Jack had not seen in him before.

“When I was gathering the bodies I stumbled across something very peculiar,” began Jack Isaac looked up at him not sure of what he was going to say next “One of the residents
bodies is missing, I searched everywhere for it, including the surrounding area away from the farm house. Their body isn’t here they weren’t killed, do you think Dreno took them away?”

Isaac pondered on this for a moment and then replied “I don’t think that they were taken,
Dreno would have no reason to do this. If he was to take anyone it would have been me, remember he thought both you and I were in the farm house when it burnt down, so to choose someone at random seems very against his nature. Who is it that is missing anyway?”

“I’m pretty sure that his name is Henry, I don’t remember him that well because he never seemed that friendly towards me but I couldn’t find his body anywhere.”

Isaac remembered Henry was always quite troubled during his time at the farm house. He had been the hardest to wean off of blood and had never really got along with the rest of the residents. Isaac hated to admit it but he now knew what had happened. “We were betrayed,” he began letting out a long sigh “Henry presented many problems for me during his time here, but I thought that I had finally cracked him. It appears that he led Dreno here, Henry is our Judas.”

Jack wanted to offer some other explanation for how this had all happe
ned but he couldn’t think of any. The few memories that Jack had of Henry didn’t paint him in a good light. Henry always seemed so agitated almost as if he was going to break down at any moment. Jack remembered how he would skulk round the farm house late at night trying to earwig in on the conversations between Isaac and Jack. Henry thought that they didn’t know he was there, but both of them had enough experience with this sort of thing to sense the presence of another, however they thought nothing of it, the both of them always just assumed that Henry was being nosy.

Although Isaac no longer blamed himself as much for the destruction of the farm house, he wondered how any of its residents could ever have betrayed him like this.
The plan lay in ruins and everything that he had worked towards over so many years was destroyed. For now Isaac would mourn over the deaths of his friends, but soon he would take his revenge for what Dreno had done. The plan may have been foiled but that wasn’t going to stop him.

As they looked over the rubble the memories of their past came back to haunt them, playing like some cruel film in front of their eyes. Isaac remembered his past and his escape from his brother
Dreno, and Jack remembered the screams of the girl and how he had to save her. They were now fuelled by the same need for revenge, and it was now more powerful than ever before.

Dreno
was in high spirits, he had been for the past few days ever since he had destroyed the farm house. Henry had joined the population of the feeding house successfully and spent most of his time, like the others, gorging himself of pure blood. The word had spread about the burning of the farm house and the killing of the rogue vampires, Of course no one knew about the blood fruit but that was Dreno’s secret. Although it was known why Dreno was in high spirits, it was still a strange sight to behold. Tonight would be no exception, Dreno had called a special feast at which every vampire in the feeding house must attend, many assumed that it was a celebration, they couldn’t have been more wrong.

The vampires all entered the hall that night, they knew of the news that
Dreno had destroyed his sworn enemy and as such expected that tonight would be a celebration unlike any other. As the vampires took their places around the long wooden table they were surprised to see that there was no blood laid out on the table. It wasn’t anything for them to worry about though, they were sure that it would be brought around soon enough.

As time moved on however without any blood and without any appearance from
Dreno, tempers began to flair and they began to wonder what was going on. Eventually the doors flew open and in entered Dreno, the situation was immediately defused and the hall fell silent as Dreno stood behind his chair, poised to make an announcement.

“As you all know,”
began Dreno his voice resonating around the silent hall “I have recently killed my sworn enemy and Brother Isaac, at least that was the name that he hid behind most recently. Many of you will remember him as Dreano,” the vampires began to whisper amongst themselves in acknowledgment, many of them remembered him from the old days and as such it now made sense to them why Dreno was so happy that he was dead.

Dreno
held up his hand and motioned for the hall to be silent. Quickly the hum of activity began to die down, he continued “This however is not a celebration, my brother was an example of an age gone by, an age of betrayal and backstabbing between vampires. Just as I have flushed him out so now do I wish to flush the weak out from the flock. There is no longer any room for weeds that would spoil our perfect society.”