Little Secrets (Part 1)

Kanes and their secrets, peas in their pods. From her grave, Farah Kane would have been amused how the legacy of her great-grandfather seemed to carry on, as if he'd laid a curse upon his children to never have freedom from the skeletons in their closets. Would she be amused, though, at what her granddaughter had become because of a skeleton so hidden she didn't even know of it herself?

No, perhaps she wouldn't... But if Farah still breathed, she wouldn't be silent. "You reap what you sow," she would have said in her matter-of-fact voice. "And if you sow secrets, you'll never grow peace."

This night was certainly anything but peaceful.

In the darkness of the sunless road, the lights from the science facility stood out like a beacon. The street got little traffic, but many who drove by recognizing that they shouldn't be on tried to puzzle why the building was open so late. It was strange in Twinbrook, a place where no one ever stayed at work after hours--even if they had to. Something important definitely had to be happening.

Luckily, no one in Twinbrook had a good enough imagination to figure out quite what was going on.

Amelia had never been so hungry in her life. She could even feel the drool slipping down the corners of her lips, which she impulsively wiped away as her eyes turned to follow Bradley running away from her with all his dear life.

"What's wrong, brother?" she spoke in a voice that wasn't her own; it almost had a purr to it, like a rumbling tiger ready to stalk its prey. "I just need a snack..."

Bradley ran and he ran, but everywhere he went Amelia was only steps behind him; he'd never seen such speed before. If he wasn't fearing for his life, he might have actually been impressed at what her transformation had allowed her to do... But at the moment, he was... slightly distracted.

Unfortunately, there was no where to go; he'd locked the door to the stairs when they'd arrived, and couldn't get through them now without pausing long enough for her to catch up to him. Everywhere else? A dead end. He was cornered, with no options.

... Almost no options. Kanes may have their secrets, but they also have luck--and whether it be that or fate, something seemed to weigh heavier in his pocket as he watched his sister's glistening teeth growing closer and closer to his neck.

He tugged it out: Lil's remote. Brad had had it since he'd repaired her at the station, but it'd been nothing but a useless set of buttons until this moment.

Knowing it was the best he had, he said a prayer to the Maker above and pressed a red one near the top.

Several miles away, Officer Walker stood up from his desk when he noticed a suspicious amount of movement from within Lilobot's cell. "She better not be trying to eat the bars, again," he muttered to himself as he tentatively approached. Her back was turned to him when he stopped, which irritated him further. "Something wrong?" he asked.

Her head swiveled around. "I am afraid so, sir. And I must apologize, but I have to leave."

"... Leave?" He tried not to laugh.

"Yes, sir. I have greatly enjoyed my stay here, but there is something much more important that I must tend to." When she saw the very displeased look he was giving her, Lil continued,  "You are welcome to join me--in fact, if you would meet me at the Science and Research Center in due haste, you would have my gratitude. Now if you could please back away from the cell bars, sir--I would be quite upset if I happened to injure you."

"What the heck are you ta--" Officer Walker didn't get the opportunity to finish his statement. Before he could even reach his hand out to unlock the cell door, a blinding light erupted from the opposite side of the cell, sending such a violent explosion of heat and wind that he felt himself stumbling backwards, his hands shielding his face. "What the--?!"

"WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!! KA BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMM!!" Lilobot's mechanical voice was lost within the sounds of stone crumbling and exploding out from her cell's back wall, but it didn't stop her from giddily dancing in delight at the amazing surge of what--to her--was like adrenaline pumping through her oil-driven veins.

"It's amaaaaaaaaaazing!"

"Wait--wait, stop!" Officer Walker choked on the smoke as he lifted a hand out towards her, trying to stop her; but the bars to her cell were too hot to the touch for him to come in and tackle her. "You can't do this!"

"I'm sorry, sir, but where Lilobot is needed, Lilobot goes!" With Walker doing nothing but blubbering nonsense at her response, she began to jog through the rubble she'd created, giddily saying, "Don't worry, sir, I'll be right back!"

The police station stirred to life as Lilobot escaped, sirens blaring and alarm bells waking citizens up for miles around; Lil didn't have time right now to worry about that, though. Her legs carrying her away faster than any human could possibly match, Lil bounced into the sky and, with what could only be described as a smile on her face, flew off into the night.

Back at the science facility, Brad was having no such luck escaping. He'd managed to continue to keep a few steps ahead of Amelia's chase, but it was obvious she was doing it on purpose. Every lap around the hallway was one more lap until he was too tired to run, and another lap she got to watch him skitter away like a mouse whose tail was trapped safely in the cat's paw.

Brad's exhaustion and clumsiness finally got the better of him. He stumbled to the floor, hopeless. With  no help in sight, all he could do was plead. "Please, Mia... You don't know what you're doing. Wake up... I know you're in there!"

"You always were so horrible at being funny," Amelia giggled as she slowly stepped closer and closer.

"Step away from my father."

Amelia swung around quickly, teeth bared. "Well well well," she hissed. "Looks like your friend's come out to play!"

"Lil... Please..." Bradley groaned as he collapsed feebily against the wall. "Try not to hurt her."

"I will try," she spoke in a low hum, very much unlike her normal bubbly synthesized voice. "But I make no promises."

All it took was for Lil to take one step, her eyebrows furrowed in anger, for Amelia's face of hunger to fade into one of fear.

Amelia fled, but the speed of a vampire was no match for Lilobot's mechanical strength; she got only a few steps before Lil had already gained the distance and reached out to grab her.

No one hurt her family.

"Put your hands up! Both of you!"

Behind them, Lilobot's entourage had finally caught up; they'd taken their willy nilly time, but they had had to decide whether Lil actually went to the Science Facility like she said; they were lucky, then, that the security guard there had finally figured out something was awry and had given them the call.

Guns out and all business, the cops waited for the two to comply with their command, even repeating it when neither one seemed to have heard it.

"Sorry, officers, I was just finishing up some important business," Lil said calmly, her voice now back to normal. "I had to make sure my Dad was alright--I'll come back, now."

"Miss, up off the ground! Now!"

Her body aching all over--and weakening as her thirst continued unsated--Amelia slowly began to rise from the floor, clearly none-too-happy about her current predicament. Things just couldn't be going any worse, right now.

"Hah," she smirked, wiping the dust off her thoroughly-kicked bum. "And all I wanted was a bite to eat."

---

"She should be calm, now that she's... eaten," Bradley said slowly to the officer next to him. They stood inside a small room, staring through a thick piece of one-way glass at his sister, who knew she was being watched well enough to not want to look up. Now that her 'hunger' had faded, all that was left was shame.

"Why do you think she waited until now to confess? I mean... you know her better than any of us."

"Honestly?" Brad said, pulling himself away from the window; it was too painful to look at her. "I don't think she remembered until now. The virus... it causes some incredible regeneration properties. I don't think she could forget anything now if she tried."

Bradley had no idea how right he was. Amelia was doing everything she could to forget, but each sip she took of plasma just made everything more and more clear. The memories she had didn't feel like hers, but they were. It was the most terrifying thing she'd ever felt... Yes, even more terrifying than looking up into the eyes of a man about to kill her.

There was no where to hide from the truth.

"Are you ready to continue, Miss Kane?"

She nodded, ready as she'd ever be. "Where do you want me to start?"

"Let's start from the beginning--there's a few things I want you to clarify."

Amelia swallowed, hard. This felt like a time to take a deep breath, to take the plunge with as much courage as she could muster, but every breath she took felt useless. "Like?" she asked in a sheepish voice, exhaling slowly.

"You went to the Bottega the night of Shark's death... You said you were looking for blood there--now, why exactly would you do that, Miss Kane? An art studio is hardly a blood bank."

Breathe in. Breathe out--so unnecessary, but she needed it to feel alive. "It's complicated."

"We have time for complicated. Elaborate."

"Well, see... My dad. He--he--" She looked up at the cop, fear coating her eyes. How could she do this to her father? Amelia knew he had connections, but would they go far enough to protect him? "He had a shipment there. Stuff he stole from the black market trade with the vampires in Bridgeport. He told me... a while ago... that he stole it from them, to try to keep their population down. So I knew, he had to be keeping it somewhere--"

"And... why the Bottega?"

"When I first moved home, my Mom said that she was doing some sort of favor for my Dad, to repay him for buying her the studio... I just sort of put two and two together. Well. I didn't. ... She did."

"'She?'"

"Yeah... The... Me that's not me. It was... it was like a dream. I keep thinking on these memories and they're real, but they don't feel like mine. I mean, until a couple hours ago I didn't even know what was in those crates--or, er, didn't remember. I guess there was something inside me, trying to get out..."

"Well--this isn't particularly relevant at the moment, Amelia. Can you explain, what happened to Shark?"

"I killed him. I mean... obviously I killed him, but--" Amelia felt herself shaking; how could she be saying this?! She wasn't a killer! "--well, see, someone interrupted me the first night I went looking for the stolen plasma. I remember being so hungry, that when I came back and discovered the shipment had been replaced by a decoy, I was angry--angrier than I've ever been. Shark popped outta no where, accusing me, and then... then..."

"You attacked him?"

"I didn't mean to! I mean... I did... But..."

Amelia stopped. It was useless; they didn't understand. Her hands had done the slaying, so how could it not have been 'her' that had murdered him? Maybe having fangs had lent her a small ounce of courage, but the sickening feeling in her gut that no one seemed to believe her made her emotions run even colder. She wasn't even sure she cared, anymore--especially if she really was behind all of this.

"He was in the way. He scared me, I was hungry... But when I threw the lid at his face and watched him fall to the ground--I couldn't do it. I was so hungry... But I couldn't use him, after ending him like that. Some part of me stopped myself."

"Mhm... What about Harris de Wynter, then?"

"The night of my concert, after the hospital released me, I was weakened... I guess at this point I really needed to... drink... some... stuff." Flinch. "I remember feeling... really desperate. Desperate enough to trust de Wynter, that he'd actually help me."

"But he didn't, so you attacked him, didn't you?"

"No, no, not at all! I mean... Sort of, but not the way you think I did! When he saw me, he freaked--he was going to call the police, started running around his office like a lunatic, and all I was asking was for him to steal some plasma for me so I wouldn't starve! But he was so afraid of me... so afraid..."

"Amelia--he couldn't fallen through that window without help."

"But I--I didn't push him! I swear!"

"So you're saying he broke the window and jumped of his own free will?"

"I don't... I don't know!" Amelia began to cry; as the memories continued to flood back, and the cops swarmed her like hawks in such a dark, ominous room--all her emotions seemed to endlessly blur together. "Maybe I pushed him... But I didn't push him hard! I was just trying to knock the phone out of his hands, so he wouldn't turn me in..."

"But..."

"But--I didn't know my own strength. I was just so angry and blind--even... Her, the me that... you know, wasn't me? She was mortified--all she wanted was help, and yet, as he fell, it just all went away. Her last lifeline."

"You mean, your last lifeline."

"Yeah, whatever," Amelia groaned. "I remember watching him fall, though. Reaching after him like I could actually catch him, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't. He just kept falling... falling... Took forever. Didn't even have to be slow motion. And then when he hit the pavement... Even she--me--wanted to die."

"And so you just left?"

"I... I... I sat there for almost an hour, just staring at his body... But I had to go home. I was so tired... So scared... I don't even know how I got back to normal again, I was so hungry--but I woke up the next morning with nothing but a bad headache.. At least, until now."

As the last words left her lips, she felt her entire body become consumed by sobs; there was nothing she could say to prove her innocence, and she knew it.

No... She knew, she wasn't innocent. She was guilty. Even if it wasn't the actions of the Amelia Kane she had always been, it was still done by her hand. Done by a fragment of her that, as much as she hated to believe, WAS a part of her.

"I think we're done here," the cop behind her spoke in a low voice, his arms crossed. She couldn't see his face, but she could sense his expression--sense all of them. The disappointment, the hatred, the shame... it overwhelmed her too much to resist.

Tonight, the truth could not set her free.