Misty Rose: Nature
Chapter 9
So, for the record, at this point it’d been about a month since I got turned into a vampire. Like I said, I haven’t been telling you about every single thing that happened. Just the important stuff, because me just hanging out isn’t really worth talking about. I wasn’t really used to being a vampire yet, but… maybe it wasn’t so much of a shock. I’d… sort of been avoiding a lot of what vampires got up to, I suppose. But I just didn’t feel like getting into the nightlife.
One thing I did end up doing though, was the vampire social thing I’d gone to in May. I remembered Pops saying it was on the first Tuesday of every month. I thought the timing was sort of weird, but then again, a lot of the stupid meetings people got to go to that’re outside work so they cut into your personal time are on Tuesdays, you know? Maybe Baron Whatshisname just wanted to hold the whole meeting thing on a night he wasn’t going to be doing anything more important. This time, though, I decided to not be so… noticeable. It’s not like I was the most attention-grabbing person there the last time, but I still didn’t want to stand out, so I put on a hoodie and leggings before I went out. Simple, not fancy, and pretty much the uniform for college girls everywhere. If anything I’d stand out for being so boring looking, but I’d rather be boring than get the sort of attention I got the last time I was at one of those things. Less of a pain in the ass.
When I got there, Pops was leaning against the wall by the door like before. I walked over to say hi because it’s always nice to see a friendly face at a gathering of bitchy monsters.
“Hey Pops,” I said. “How’s it goin’?”
“Same as usual,” Pops said. “You?”
“Learnin’. Little by little. Some of it isn’t so easy.”
“I hear you,” Pops said. “Sorry I’ve been busy.”
“It’s fine,” I said. “You got things to do besides hold my hand.”
“Isn’t that the truth. Listen: I’ll get someone to drop by soon, okay?”
“Thanks,” I said. “Whenever’s fine, I don’t go out much.”
Pops nodded, then tilted his head towards the door. “Sound like they’re starting.”
“Alright,” I said. “See you inside.”
I walked through the doors and up the stairs and inside the throne room. I wasn’t sure where to go, so I just went to the bench in the back corner of the room where I’d been last time. No one seemed to be using that part for anything, and it put me close to the exit in case I felt the need to leave in a hurry. Sounds paranoid, but paranoid is smart in a room full of vampires, you know? Only problem was that being close to the door meant everyone had to walk past me, and some of them decided it was a good time to be snobby at me. Nothing major, mostly just looking down their noses at me or acting all superior, but not like stopping and harassing me directly. Maybe they didn’t think I was important enough to actively harass. Which was fine by me. Some of them gave me weird looks, but I guess decided to just keep walking. I didn’t care. I was looking at stuff on my phone.
Of course, it didn’t last for long. One of the vampires decided to come talk to me instead of going on to whatever he was going to do. He was… well, he sort of looked like a hippie. Or a homeless guy, or maybe some kind of really strung out student. He had dreadlocks even though he was a white guy, the kind of beard guys get from just not shaving for a few years, and was wearing… well, it sort of looked like hippie clothes that he’d patched up over the years with whatever he could find. He had some jewelry and stuff, looked more handmade than bought, and I’m pretty sure some of it was just trash he thought looked nice. And he was dirty. Not like smelly, but like… he hadn’t bathed in a really long time, which isn’t so bad for a vampire because we don’t sweat or anything, so he mostly smelled like dirt and grass and maybe a bit like moldy cloth. But under it he was actually kind of cute, in a spaced out intellectual way. He sort of reminded me of some students at college I saw sitting around talking about… political stuff while smoking pot. I didn’t get what they were talking about, I was just interested in maybe scoring a hit or two. Anyway, the guy who walked up was sort of like that, but maybe after a couple of decades of rejecting… whatever they’re rejecting that makes them go live in a commune and stop buying clothes and bathing. And he looked mostly human.
“Hey there, sister,” he said.
“Um… hello.”
“I’m Sage. What’s your name?”
“Misty Rose.”
“Whoah!” Sage said. “Right on!”
“Thanks,” I said. “My Mom liked how it sounded.”
“How’s life treating you?”
“Well… okay, I guess. Um… well, okay for bein’ a vampire anyway.”
“I feel ya, sister,” Sage said. “Some nights I just wanna tune it all out. You know?”
“Yeah,” I said. What was with this guy?
“You new around here?” Sage asked. “Don’t remember seeing you around.”
“Um… sorta. This is my second… um… meetin’. Whatever this is.”
“Oh, right, we missed last month. We weren’t feeling it, so we didn’t come.”
“Um… okay.”
“Hey, don’t mean to bug you, but what’s your dharma? Maybe I can introduce you.”
I stared at Sage for a moment. “My what?”
“What you do,” Sage smiled at me. “What kinda vampire you are.”
“I… actually dunno,” I said. “No one told me.”
“Aw, that’s not cool. It’s like I always say, they’re always trying to keep us down…” and from there Sage went into a long, sort of crazy speech about… well, lots of things. I sort of lost track of what he was saying when he took what looked like a paperback without a cover out of his pocket and started waving it around, but I did catch some stuff. Like that he was called Sage because he writes poetry, and that he shared a home with his brother and sister and all three of them were turned into vampires during Woodstock, so I guess Sage was a legit hippie and not just some faker. I also learned his sister was called Marigold because she’s bright and sunny, and his brother Skye didn’t say much but could play his guitar like Hendrix, whoever the hell that was. He also said a shitload of political stuff that I mostly tuned out and ended with something about how vampire politics were just a construct to divide us up over phony issues and not take control of our own nights. Or something.
“Um… I just try to avoid politics,” I said. I hadn’t caught enough to say anything smarter.
“Yeah, I feel ya,” Sage said. “But you still gotta take a stand, sister.”
“I kinda just feel like… I’ll leave ’em alone if they leave me alone.”
“Go with the flow, yeah. Live and let live.”
“Somethin’ like that.”
“Wow, Misty, it’s like we’re grokking each other. You gotta meet Marigold, she’ll love you.” And Sage grabbed me by the arm and hauled me to my feet. Caught me by surprise, and he was stronger than he looked. He didn’t seem hostile, but I still didn’t want to go with him, and I couldn’t get out of his grip. He started dragging me across the room.
“Hey!” I said. I tried to pull away, but couldn’t get free. “Let go!”
Then Sage suddenly stopped, pulling me up short as well. Pops was standing in Sage’s way. Not threatening. Just… smiling at Sage. But Sage flinched back like Pops had yelled at him.
“Now Sage,” Pops said. “I don’t think Misty wants to be introduced right now. Don’t you think you should let her be free to do things in her own time?”
Sage suddenly looked guilty, but he let me go. “Sorry, I just thought she’d really like Mari.”
I actually felt kind of bad. Sage didn’t seem dangerous, just… really fucking intense. “I’ll come meet your brother and sister when I’m ready, Sage. Okay?”
“Okay,” Sage nodded. “Don’t let the Man get you down, sister.” Then he wandered off back towards where the scruffier vampires were hanging out.
“Sage is a good man,” Pops said as we watched him leave. “He just gets… enthusiastic.”
“Was he really a hippie?” I asked.
“Still is,” Pops said. “Sage and his little family haven’t changed since the sixties.”
“That’s… sort of sad.”
Pops shrugged. “They’re happy. They have each other, don’t hurt people much. I think they’d say they’re free. Forever. Not a bad way to spend eternity, if the life’s right for you.”
I looked at Pops. “But not for you? The life they have?”
“Nope,” Pops said. “Wasn’t my scene. Still isn’t.”
“Well… thanks for the help. Didn’t expect anyone to be that… enthusiastic.”
“Any time,” Pops smiled.
“I guess even vampires can be socially challenged.”
“Oh, that happens a lot. We just pretend it doesn’t.”
I just grinned at him.
“You going to stick around?” Pops asked as we walked back to my spot in the corner.
“Nah,” I said. “I was gonna leave once the official stuff’s done.”
“I see. I have some things I have to do here still. Otherwise I’d walk you home.”
“It’s fine,” I smiled at Pops. “Go do your thing.”
“I’ll go do my thing,” Pops grinned at me, then got more serious. “Be careful, Misty. Even vampires that’re trying to be nice can be a problem. Because they’re vampires.”
I nodded. “I’ll be more careful.”
“Good. You take care now.”
“I will. Thanks again, Pops.”
Pops turned and walked back into the room. I watched him go, then looked around. Guess I was going to have to add overfriendly hippies to my list of vampires to watch out for. Along with pretty much all of the rest of them except Pops. Not exactly good odds, you know? Pops could probably help a lot, but… he couldn’t always be there, and if I was still going to be getting this shit at a neutral vampire social, I didn’t want to think about what it’d be like out in the city. So I was going to need to be more careful about who I let get that close. Some shit doesn’t change, right? When I was still human, I had to think about which guys I’d let get close ‘because of what they might do. After getting turned I wasn’t so worried about humans, but I had to watch other vampires for the same reason, pretty much. I know I keep saying this, but fuck my life. It’s like every silver lining gets taken away. Mostly by other vampires.
So, yeah, I wasn’t really in a mood to stick around. I left when it seemed like all the stuff I was supposed to hear was done. Might have got it wrong, but I don’t think anyone cared. Made my way back home and let myself in. Kaitlyn was still awake, looking at stuff on her phone.
“Hey,” she said. “How’d the vampire social go?”
“Got dragged halfway ‘cross the room by an undead hippie,” I said.
Kaitlyn raised an eyebrow and put down her phone. “I gotta hear about this,” she said.
So I told her what happened. Wasn’t much of a story, really. Kaitlyn found it all kinds of funny that I noticed Sage was cute under all the dirt.
“Hey, s’not like I had anythin’ else to do but look at him while he was talkin’,” I said.
“Uh huh,” she said. “Or you were just feeling lonely.”
“Whatever.”
Kaitlyn looked at me for a moment. “You feeling okay? Thirsty?”
I made a face. “A little. Should prob’ly do somethin’ about that soon.”
“So I’ve got an idea about that,” Kaitlyn said.
Uh oh. Kaitlyn’s ideas could be good. Or they could be… difficult. I’ve talked about some of them already, but she had a long history of coming up with stuff that crossed a line or three. She was my best friend, but… I don’t know, sometimes I just wanted her to think about whether or not I was comfortable with some of what she came up with. Like some of the outfits she’d come up with for me to wear. Um… well, she’d usually drop it if I really didn’t want to do something but… not always, and I’d feel bad because I felt like I was crushing her dreams or something. I just wasn’t as… out there as she was, so some of her ideas could take things too far for me. And with the whole vampire thing, I was feeling a lot less open to some of her crazier ideas than before.
“Okay,” I said. “But I get to say no if I don’t wanna do it.”
Kaitlyn grinned at me. “How about we go to a party?”
“A party?”
“Yeah. Been a while since we did that.”
“There’s reasons for that.”
“You can’t stay here forever, y’know.”
I sighed. She was right, but… “You sure it’s a good idea? I mean…”
“You’ll be fine,” Kaitlyn said.
“Yeah, but… how’s this supposed to help with me bein’ thirsty?”
“It’s a party, dumbass,” Kaitlyn said. “There’ll be guys there. One of ’em might wanna get you in a dark corner, you go with him, then put the bite on him when he isn’t expecting it.”
“Okay, but… he’ll be awake. He might fight back.”
“So get him drunk first.”
“Drunk enough to not notice me bitin’ him and drinkin’ his blood?”
“Really, really drunk.”
I sighed. “Kaitlyn, he might die from alcohol poisonin’ if I get him that drunk.”
“You’ll think of something,” Kaitlyn said. “You’re not stupid. For a blond.”
“Gee, thanks.”
She had a point. A party’d put me around a lot of guys, who probably wouldn’t mind going off to a dark corner with me. If I played it right, I could maybe find one who wouldn’t remember it later. Still. I wasn’t sure I was up to going to a party yet. But Kaitlyn would be there too, so I wouldn’t be alone.
“When’s the party?” I asked.
“Friday,” Kaitlyn said.
“Mmmkay. Where’s it at?”
“Warehouse. Where d’you think?”
That helped too. A lot of the guys at raves didn’t remember what happened when they woke up the next day and didn’t say anything about it. Because it would make them look less manly, I guess. So if I picked one that was pretty gone, he probably wouldn’t be a problem. Or I could even… see if I could find more than one while we were there. You know, so I wouldn’t have to take so much from one guy, since they’d most likely be on something when I was doing it. Okay. I wasn’t totally happy with the idea, but I thought it could work. Maybe. If I was careful. And didn’t mind that honestly it made me feel like I was planning to have sex with more than one guy at the same party.
“Okay,” I said. “I’ll think about it.”
“Don’t think too hard,” Kaitlyn said. “Don’t wanna strain yourself.”
I ignored her. “I should prob’ly… top up a little before, though.”
Kaitlyn made a face at me.
“Think of it like pre-drinkin’,” I said.
“Oh,” she said. “Okay. That’s different. Knock yourself out.”
“Was kinda hopin’ it’d go the other way, but thanks.”
“Thought you weren’t planning on beating anyone up.”
I shrugged. “Better to be ready for it.”
“Speaking of being ready, we need to figure out your hunting outfit.”
I blinked at her. “My what?”
“Your clothes for the party,” Kaitlyn said.
I sighed. “I still haven’t said yes.”
“I know. But I’m gonna figure it out anyway. Better to be ready for it.”
“Yeah, yeah.”
“You gonna do your pre-drinking tonight?”
“Ugh,” I shook my head. “No. I wanna not be a vampire for the rest of the night.”
“Gotcha,” Kaitlyn grinned at me. “You can help plan your outfit.”
I rolled my eyes. Still, it was better than going looking for some asshole to jump me. And the party wasn’t a bad idea. I’d need to keep some stuff in mind, but… well, vampires get shown in a lot of parties and stuff, right? And I wasn’t one of the monster-looking ones. So I should be able to pull off being at a rave long enough to top off, and it’d be dark with a lot of confusing lights. So it probably wouldn’t be too bad. And, hey, if I played along, Katlyn might not try to dress me up like a skank.
We spent the rest of the time Kaitlyn was awake arguing over clothes. It was… normal. Felt good, actually, like it was human stuff and not weird vampire shit. Then Kaitlyn went to bed and I curled up in my closet with my blanket and phone until dawn.
Only other thing that I should probably mention before I get to the party, which kind of needs its own bit to itself, is that I did end up going… pre-drinking, I guess. Not a lot to mention about this one except that the asshole had a gun instead of a knife and managed to shoot me in the arm before I knocked him out by sitting on his chest and banging his head against the concrete. Bullet went right through and didn’t really slow me down, and I’m pretty sure the guy had a concussion but he wasn’t bleeding anywhere, so I think he woke up with a headache but that’s it. I know this sounds… all casual and shit, but… you really do get detached from that sort of thing when you aren’t in any real danger, you know? Almost like it was happening to someone else or… I don’t know. Like a game. And it wasn’t like he could kill me or even really hurt me much. I did end up tossing his gun down a grate, though. Asshole like that shouldn’t have a gun.
