Return of Garrick Verne

"Here," Connor said and tossed Garrick a pair of yellow long sleeve shirt and black pant.

"Oh, you brought my favorite color," Garrick said and smiled.

"Twenty years isn't enough to forget, and anyway you can't walk out to the city dressed like someone who just time traveled from the past to the future. A lot of things have changed and that includes the dress code." Connor explained.

"I see," Garrick replied and crumpled his face. "I don't remember my pants being so thin," he grumbled as he tried to unbutton it.

"Well, it's called pencil pants and it's the latest trend in fashion. The world has changed a lot in twenty years," Connor said and scoffed with a grin.

Garrick shook his head and then began to change into the new attires. It is a surprise how his old clothes had managed to remain intact after twenty years in that coffin.

Anyone who saw Garrick behave the way he did will call him childish and playful. Well, maybe he was both of those things, but he was also a dangerous man when he got angry. A vampire that shouldn't be toyed with on any circumstances, one with a history of mass murder

Garrick had generational blood on him; he's been ending lives since 06, human and vampires alike. Garrick was someone no one dared to cross unless they had a death wish, you can't run from Garrick Verne; he was someone willing to choose his victim across the globe to any continent.

At one time of his life, when he was just a savage and brute, Garrick had killed five hundred humans just for entertainment. With nothing but the jawbone of a wild cat, he laid waste to half a thousand men in one night. But those days were far behind him, he had become a much better person with time, but even though he claimed to have left his past behind, his past never stopped haunting him.

"So where exactly are we going to see this miracle baby of yours?" Garrick asked with a grin on his face. It was obvious that he didn't believe the child Connor spoke of was his, because he was certain that it was naturally and scientifically impossible for a human to have a baby for a vampire.

Even though Garrick wore a mocking smile on his face, he was nervous on the inside. He had asked Connor not to wake him up for another two hundred years because he was certain that Claire would be dead by then, and he would never have to set his eyes on her again, but now he is going back to face the last woman he ever loved and still very much have feelings for.

Sleeping for twenty years didn't get rid of that feeling in his stomach when he thought of her, he was still in love with her and it scared him. Seeing her again would hurt him, it might have been twenty years for her but it still feels like everything had happened last night to the vampire lord.

"Sorry, you said?" Garrick asked as he realized that his friend had been speaking to him while he was lost in thought of his lover who rejected him.

"You are thinking of her? Aren't you?' Connor asked softly.

"Shut up mate and tell me where we are going," he ordered as they walked down the bushy path.

Connor smiled softly as he watched his friend avoid the question directed at him, he could see from his expression that his friend still harbored those feelings that forced him to take the rational decision he had taken twenty years ago.

"It is okay if you don't want to talk about your feelings, he would have to face it sooner or later because we are going to see Claire and Clarisse right now." Connor stated.

"Clarisse? Is that her name?" Garrick asked and paused on his tracks.

Connor stopped walking as well and turned back to read Garrick's expression. "Yes, Claire named her that, why?" he asked.

Garrick sighed and looked down. Long before Claire found out the truth about him, she had asked him what he would want to name their first child if they had a daughter and he had said the name Clarisse, even though he knew that they could never have children.

"It is nothing," Garrick replied and waved it off. "So where does 'this' Clarisse and Claire stay now?" he asked with a grin on both sides as he moved forward, trying to sound insensitive about them like he didn't care. But he was bad at hiding his feelings for Claire even with the pretense.

"They stay at the mansion, the one you bought before you proposed to Claire." Connor answered.

Garrick swallowed hard as he heard that. It seems like he was about to face the worst times of his life, he was going to face memories that would haunt him for days.

He had bought that mansion with the intention of spending the rest of Claire's life there with her, maybe hundred years later after her human life span ends, he would dump it like every other house he had acquired over the years and move on to somewhere new.

That mansion was the first place he made love to Claire, she was just very young and naïve and she had fallen for his charm. Maybe he should have been honest with her from the start, he should have revealed his true identity to her rather than pretend to be a thirty years old regular human guy.

"Why the mansion?" Garrick asked softly.

Connor was the one who stopped this time around, he glared at Garrick with suspicious eyes. "They had to move in there because it belonged to her baby's daddy and her own parents had rejected her for being pregnant for a man who just puffed into the air and vanished." He uttered sarcastically.

Garrick sighed and rolled his eyes, "We are not even sure the baby is mine, let's just go there anyway," he said and moved on. He was curious to see this miracle baby and even though he didn't want to believe it, a part of him wished it was true. If he really had a child, then his life for the first time in nearly three thousand years was going to have a purpose.

** * * * * * * * * *

"Pull!!!" the commander yelled at the other five men and they did as they were told.

Their crew had discovered a strange casket in the depths of the sea, made of pure gold and aside from the casket itself, they were curious to know what other treasures it held.

They had attached a hook to it and were now pulling it up to their large boat. It was a private boat and the men had gone on an adventure seeking treasures, they had almost given up on finding anything when they detected the gold coffin deep down in the sea.

Six of them eventually pulled it up to the top and their beings were filled with excitement. "Sir, I think these are treasures from the fallen kingdom, I am sure there is more. We are going to be rich, right sir?" one of the enthusiastic crew members asked the team leader with smiles on his face.

"Shut up and let's open it before you start to imagine being rich," he yelled at him and the smile on his face disappeared.

The rest of the crew burst into laughter in mockery of the guy who had gotten shunned but then the mean looking team leader turned to them and they went cold immediately.

"One more word from any of you and I will toss you into the sea, maybe life would be much better down there," he spat.

The men knew better than to speak, their leader wouldn't hesitate to keep to his words as he would gladly throw anyone who misbehaved down there.

The leader walked to the coffin and stared back at the curious team member, they were staring at him like dummies and indeed they were dummies who were just good at swimming.

Slowly, he unlocked the casket. It looked not just sophisticated but expensive and there was something strange about it that pricked his curiosity. This wasn't just a regular coffin, it looked like it was made hundreds of years ago judging from the physical look.

The crew leader opened the casket and was disappointed when he saw a woman in black robe lying in it. His eyes widened in disbelief and he gasped. The rest of the team came closer and were also confused to see the young lady in the coffin.

"Sir, who is she?" the guy asked with his Indian accent, he was the only guy in the team that wasn't European.

"Your grandmother," the team leader answered sarcastically and cussed angrily. "Who the hell buries their dead down in the sea with such expensive coffins? We will just throw the body away and sell the coffin for a fortune," he said and smirked.

"That sounds like a good idea sir," the Indian guy said again with a smile.

The leader sighed and stared at the man with a look to kill and then he went closer to the coffin. "She is beautiful though," he said and touched the lady's hair. She had silky black hair but her face was pale in complexion, probably from staying underwater for long.

Suddenly the lady grabbed his hand and her eyes shot open. "Arhhh!!" the man screamed in panic. How the hell was she still alive??

To be continued!!