Sacrum - 6. Chapter 6: Cruel Intentions

6. CRUEL INTENTIONS

My woes about Maratoni spilled out like a dam overflowing. As I recounted his infuriating lack of guidance and the bizarre nurse visits, Angelo and Laura listened patiently.

“Surely, there’s a good reason for the nurse, and for Maratoni sticking to Vinicius’ approach of just letting you figure things out on your own... organically, you know?” Laura offered tentatively. We both knew it was a reach.

“Maratoni despises me. Maybe he invented the nurse thing just to mess with my head and confuse me even more,” I complained, frustration twisting my voice.

Angelo gave a sympathetic grunt.

“Or to waste my time so that I wouldn’t understand my gift before I turn eighteen,” I continued, knowing I was saying too much. Discussing classified information with non-Specials was strictly forbidden. But isolation gnawed deeper.

“That’s a solid possibility, Dani,” Angelo answered, and Laura nudged him with her elbow.

“Well don’t make it worse, he’s already seeing it all as a conspiracy and now you’re encouraging him,” she complained.

“Well, he has a point," Angelo countered. "Look, Maratoni made sure that Demetrius was caught up, and now he's got one-on-one private lessons. I doubt he’s telling him to figure it out on his own. So how is Dani supposed to do it?”

Laura sighed, draining her daily blood pouch. Silence settled over the table, heavy with the weight of my predicament. None of us had an answer.

I spent the next few hours catching up on homework and trying to get as much information from the secret manual Vincent had given me. If Maratoni wasn’t going to teach me, I had to do it myself. Suddenly, there was a knock on my door, followed by a friendly face peeking through.

“Meet me at our spot in half an hour,” Vincent said, his voice low and urgent. With a quick nod, I traded my school uniform for the familiar comfort of sweatpants and a t-shirt.

After getting dressed, I followed a well-worn path into the woods and emerged into a familiar clearing, the retired hunting lodge – or 'our spot' as Vincent called it.

He was already there, a lone figure bathed in the moonlight.

His usual playful smile was absent, replaced by a tense expression.

“Hi,” I managed. He quickly closed the space between us and leaned down. His lips brushed mine in a brief, chaste kiss. The feeling was overwhelming, and we both moved apart.

“How was your day?” He asked, leading me towards the cot on the floor.

“It’s much better now,” I replied, as we sat down across from each other. “How was yours?”

"Good," he began, his voice strained. "Just... happy I can steal some time with you. Things are going to get hectic for me in the next few weeks." A knot of unease tightened in my stomach.

"Hectic doing what?"

His smile faltered, replaced by a flicker of apology. “I can’t tell you.”

The urge to roll my eyes burned, but I held it back. Secrets. It felt like all we did lately was keep secrets. The weight of them pressed down on me, threatening to suffocate the budding trust we were building.

“Did you know Vinicius was Maratoni’s teacher back in the day?” I blurted out, switching gears. If anyone would have some secret insight into this news, it would be Vincent and all his mysterious sources. As I expected, he nodded his head.

“So why does he despise him so much?” I asked. Vincent thought about his answer for a moment.

“I wouldn’t say he despises him, Dani. Their relationship was... complicated.”

"Complicated how?" I pressed, frustration lacing my tone. "Maratoni speaks of him with nothing but venom." He remained silent for a long moment, weighing his words carefully.

Finally, with a sigh, he spoke. "Vinicius was one of the most powerful vampires this world has ever seen, Dani. What Maratoni feels isn't hatred, it's more like..." he paused, searching for the right word, "envy."

My jaw clenched. "How can you possibly know that?"

A fleeting smile played on Vincent's lips. "Vinicius was a close friend of my grandfather's," he confessed, his gaze locking with mine.

I couldn’t hide my shock. How was it possible? Vinicius created the Specials program to destroy anyone like Vincent’s grandfather. And now I was finding out they were friends?

Vincent's phone buzzed insistently in his pocket. He checked the message with a frown, the light momentarily chasing away the shadows in his eyes.

“I have to go Dani," he announced, his voice laced with a hint of regret. "I’ll see you tomorrow, okay?”

“Okay,” I replied, the word heavy on my tongue. Asking him where he was headed felt pointless. It’s not like I was going to get an answer anyway.

Alone in the lodge, the weight of the conversation settled around me. Memories flickered to life, one in particular sharp and poignant.

Vinicius, bathed in the soft glow of his indoor garden, had posed a question that still resonated.

“Tell me, Dani, what do you think it means to love someone?” He asked as he ruffled the leaves of a rare plant, the way he patiently coaxed answers from me.

“Is it to want to be with them constantly?” I'd offered, a touch hesitant.

“Perhaps," he'd agreed, a hint of amusement in his voice. "What else?”

“Thinking about them all the time.”

He'd hummed thoughtfully, and I couldn't shake the feeling I wasn't quite hitting the mark.

“What do you think it means?” I asked in return, yearning for his perspective. He stopped and looked up, as if he were gazing at the sky.

“All the lifetimes I’ve lived, Dani," he began, his voice soft, "I think I’ve seen every type of love there is. But one thing I’ve noticed that true love seems to have in common, is that it expects nothing but wants to give everything.”

“What does it mean to give everything?” I asked, not understanding. Vinicius smiled.

“I think you’ll probably know what it means to give everything, when it’s time to give everything,” he replied.

Life would make so much more sense if Vinicius were still here. He could clear all this up. He could make sense of everything for me. I wouldn’t be so lost and afraid.

I made my way out of the woods and back inside the school. Lost in thought, I nearly missed the frantic whisper that pierced the hallway.

“Dani!” Laura's voice, laced with urgency, jolted me back to reality and made me pause me in my tracks. She rounded the corner, Angelo at her side, both faces etched with excitement.

“What is it?” I asked.

“Some government lady is here," she explained. "I saw her leaving Trusting’s office and disappearing into the medical wing." This was it. My chance to shed light on the bizarre nurse visits. I had an idea. I shot Angelo a quick glance.

“You won’t tell on me, will you?” Right away he knew what I was referring to.

He didn't hesitate. "Of course not," he replied, a conspiratorial grin spreading across his face. "Let's go."

With a determined nod, he set off down the hallway, Laura trailing behind, her brow furrowed in confusion.

Our destination: the forgotten storage closet. The very one where Vincent and I had witnessed Maratoni's horrifying secret. Perhaps, I thought, tucked away in the dusty corners of the nurse's office lay the answers I desperately craved.

One by one, we ascended into the shadowy crawl space.

Below, we could see Headmistress Trusting - a beacon of pink in her perfectly tailored suit and her blonde hair cascading down her back in waves. She sat across from a woman whose attire – a sharp black pantsuit and short, dark hair – screamed efficiency.

"Have you reviewed the nurse's report?" the black-haired woman inquired, her voice clipped and clear.

"Yes, everything seems... normal," Trusting replied, a touch of hesitation creeping into her voice.

"For now," the other woman countered, her tone heavy with unspoken suspicion. It was clear she wasn't entirely convinced by the report.

Trusting's composure seemed to crack further. "Vinicius wouldn't have done anything to harm his own Special," she stammered, a flicker of doubt clouding her normally confident eyes.

“We can’t be certain of anything anymore, especially where Vinicius is concerned," the woman countered, her voice devoid of warmth. "Just make sure the Special continues attending the nurse sessions. If he has so much as an eye twitch, the State wants to know about it. This isn’t something we can afford to take lightly. If word were to get out...”

Trusting simply nodded, her bright pink facade crumbling under the weight of the black-haired woman's words. The air crackled with unspoken secrets and a chilling sense of unease.

“I know. I will keep a close eye on it," Trusting conceded, her voice tight.

The black-haired woman gave a curt nod, her gaze lingering on Trusting for a beat too long.

“Good,” she finally said. Her lips then twisted into a sneer as she asked, “Has the rotten apple situation been handled?”

Trusting stiffened but met the woman's gaze head-on. “I’ve advised him to... discontinue his association."

"Discontinue?" The woman's voice sharpened, a dangerous edge creeping in. "Boeriella, listen very carefully. Maybe I didn’t specify this clearly enough. This isn't a request, it's an order. We will not tolerate the Special fraternizing with Carandini scum. Is that perfectly clear?"

Trusting's jaw clenched, but she forced a tight smile. "Crystal clear," she replied, her voice laced with a hint of defiance that went unnoticed.

The black-haired woman's face contorted in disgust. “The fact that him and his whore of a mother are still walking this earth and are allowed to show their faces!" She spat the words out like venom.

“He was just a baby," the headmistress interjected, a flicker of sympathy crossing her features. "he had nothing to do with it."

The other woman sneered. “The rot is in the genes, Boeriella. Children of vipers become vipers themselves. They are spoiled to the core, all of them were. They can’t help themselves. Power hungry, arrogant, sadistic. We are going to watch him like a dog for the rest of his sorry existence. And the second he so much as puts a foot wrong, he will be tried and sentenced to die.”

“That seems extreme, I haven’t noticed any signs of bad behavior from him,” the headmistress stammered, still trying to protect her student.

The black-haired woman's smile was a chilling thing.

“We’ve already got eyes on the mother’s house. The second he turns eighteen, there is nowhere he will be able to go, where he will feel safe.”

A strangled gasp nearly escaped my lips. Laura and Angelo slowly turned their heads in my direction, their faces etched with a mixture of horror and disbelief.