I kept listening to Ama and when I thought the story couldn’t get any worse, I had a bad feeling that it would be.
"So they had Thomas, or Tom which I later called him," Ama continued. "See, I was not even aware my parents were going to be having another child since I was too busy saving myself in the missions and coming back alive. I even got the nickname, the "undertaker". With time, people wanted to go on missions with me less and less and I mean, I can’t blame them for this. Who would want to go on a mission with someone they know will leave them for dead?"
I am getting the gist of the situation now but seriously, after all this, how is Ama able to keep her sanity is a bigger question. The experiences she went through made it seem that she was at her breaking point every single time but still the Ama I see right now is nothing but an average person. Well, calling her normal would be far from the truth but I won’t say she is someone who has completely lost it. I guess that’s where the brother comes into action.
"Tom, on the other hand, went through the same thing. It wasn’t until he was three years old that I knew of his existence by mere coincidence. I was home that week for vacation and had no interaction with my parents. That place became more like a fancy lodge than a home," Ama said and clenched her fist harder; I held her hand and gave her a reassuring smile. Her hand stopped trembling and she took a deep breath. "I know I am saying this so many times, but sorry Kazu-chan, I am making you go through all this."
"Now stop spewing bullshit. You have nothing to apologize to me Ama," I said and looked right into her eyes. "You have been through a lot in your life and from how this all went; you must have felt so alone that you never opened up to someone else. For whatever reason, you are able to open up then it makes me really happy. I just want to help you right now so there is no need for you to be apologising to me."
"Acting so mature huh, how sad that you are already with Ai-chan," Ama said and I chuckled.
"You know that is not quite an ethical thing to say, I am still somewhat a minor," I said and Ama winked at me.
"You think after everything I have been through and done ethics mean anything to me?" she asked and I shrugged my shoulders. Well, she has a point there.
I guess holding these little light-chatting sections is better for Ama. I adjusted my position on the chair and looked at Ama again and she looked like she had calmed down enough to continue with her story.
"So as I said, I found Tom by mistake when he escaped the doctor for his weekly checkup. He bumped into me and I could instantly tell from the appearance that he was related to me. Thinking back, he was quite a cutie. His innocent eyes look all confused as to why there is a mysterious woman in the house." She lets out a sigh. "But let’s say I was less than happy to see him there. The moment I laid my eyes on him, I felt anger and sadness at the same time. To my parents, their kids were nothing more than just an heir, not their sons or daughters, but a person who would take forward the Heilberg name. Right then, something snapped inside me and I became determined, to be stronger. To be the one to bear the name of Heilberg."
"Because you didn’t want him to be the one to be pressured that way?" I asked and Ama nodded her head.
"He was just a kid and had no idea what was going on around him. To him, just like me back then, it was all normal so he just went with the flow and followed whatever order was given to him," Ama said and scowled. "To my parents, he was the perfect successor. More like a puppet in their eyes who will be dancing on their fingers. You see, unlike me, Tom was talented. Way more talented than me, what I had to work so hard to grasp, Tom was able to do it with ease. The training was a breeze for him and the only minor inconvenience was the drugging laboratory. By the time he was ten years old, my parents already deemed him strong enough to go on missions…with me."
It is all coming together.
"Over these missions, me and Tom bonded, less as mission partners but more as siblings. Yes, Tom was strong but my parents were so in need of a worthy heir that they rushed everything, he wasn’t strong enough to go on S-class missions. So being the older sister, I protected my brother. Mission after mission, I killed and killed and kept killing every single vampire we came across during the missions. I was not fighting just for my sake but for the sake of the life of my brother. I wasn’t killing to keep myself alive but to protect Tom," Ama said and I could only imagine what a life like that could have been. That was the moment that made her push past her limits. "In the process, Tom also got stronger, even though he was a child, his skills were on the level of mine and maybe even exceeding mine in some places. Even so, he was inexperienced and I had gotten us out of the mouth of death time and time again. I got cut, bruised, bit, scarred, and even burnt."
Ama said and placed her hand on her chest and clenched her fist as if holding her heart in place. Her saying all this meant the memories were coming back to her along with the emotions and pain she had felt then. Not physical, but mental. The psychological scarring a person could get from all these events could have broken a person by now. Probably the only thing holding her sanity in place was her brother.
But I had another question too.
"You said scarred and burnt but I remember even though when you wore all those revealing clothes during training, I saw nothing as such on you," I asked and Ama chuckled and winked at me. "Ama, what did you do to yourself?"
"That is a story for another day Kazu-chan," she said putting a finger on her lips. Seriously what did she do, given all that she is saying, her body would have been scars all over, some even irreparable. Ama must have done something to herself to repair or hide those. Something I couldn’t imagine anyone just doing in their right mind. My eyes widened and I looked at her.
Don’t tell me.
"Vampire blood," I muttered and I could see the look on her face change. I was right on the mark. The same thing Ai did to me with her blood, she could heal my wounds no matter how big so easily.
"My, it looks like you have done your part of the research too, I always love a well-prepared man," she said and her face saddened. "It was vampire blood, yes, I did find it by accident but while running some tests on the blood of a noble, some of it spilled on me and I found all the scars on my hand just disappeared. As if there was no wound there at all."
"So then you poured the blood on your wounds?" I asked and Ama shook her head.
"I took a bath in it, literally. A bathtub full of vampire blood and not just any vampire, nobles at that. I took a dip in it and came out just not a single mark on my body left. Vampire blood is not much different from that of a human and can be used as a potent medication to heal wounds that would deem unhealable normally even to the point of regrowing limbs. Turns out as long as the blood is not inside your system, it won’t turn you into a vampire but you still get a lot of the benefits a vampire gets from their blood," she said and let out a sigh. "Obviously, it was deemed as completely unethical and people loathed the idea of this practice so it was always kept in the dark."
I held my chin and nodded while listening to Ama’s explanation. That does explain lot of things and thinking on how people would not want something like that to be helping them to heal their wounds. It is as if taking assistance from a vampire which vampire hunters wouldn’t really want. Even though vampires in the VEO are also vampire hunters.
"Okay, back to the story," Ama said and I was brought back to the present. She had a kind smile on her face and seemed to have calmed down a little again. Even though not the lightest of the topics, it had her take time from the main story. "Then on such day, we were sent on another mission but it went south very fast. We were to infiltrate a vampire nest and at first, everything went well but soon, we were ambushed. Someone leaked information about the mission and we were jumped on by vampire numbers we couldn’t imagine, all extremely strong. We weren’t strong enough and they got hold of Tom and I somehow escaped the place. I was ready to just go but for once, I was hesitating. I have always been able to do this with no worries but this time, I couldn’t just do that. Back in the vampire nest was my brother. I ran back and by sheer willpower, I could cut through the crowd but I didn’t make it in time. By the time I got to Tom…he…already got turned…"
Ama started shaking again and gripped her hand strongly with both of my hands. Her breathing started getting rash and her eyes were darting everywhere. I could easily hear her heartbeat getting abnormally faster. She was having a panic attack.
I quickly got up and sat beside her, pulled her in, and started rubbing her back. I rested her head on my shoulders and she gripped my hand as strongly as she could. With nothing else coming to my mind, I hugged her and started gently caressing her hair.
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"Ama, listen to me. Everything fine, okay? There is no need to panic, everything is alright. Tom is completely safe and so are you. Don’t worry, I’m here for you," I started talking to her in a gentle voice. "You’re not alone anymore Ama, you did really well going through all that by yourself but you don’t have to do that anymore ever again."
Luckily, my voice could reach her, and I saw Ama slowly but steadily calm down. I continued comforting her until she could calm herself down. Seeing how she is reacting to merely recollect all those memories, I can’t even comprehend what was going through her head at that point. I kept holding her and finally Ama calmed down but she didn’t let me go.
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