Misty Rose: Nature
Chapter 3
Thinking back now, just laying down on my bed right under the window and everything was probably one of the stupidest things I’ve ever done. Throwing open the curtains and frying a vampire with sunlight is actually a trope, you know? See it all the time. But I wasn’t thinking about that, and our little studio only had two windows and both of them pointed north so it’s not like we got a lot of sun anyway, but… it was still really dumb. I almost killed myself with sunlight on my first day as a vampire. Or second maybe. Whatever.
My first clue how stupid I’d been was how I woke up and my arm felt like I’d gotten a really bad sunburn. Like when you peel for a week, but it looked actually burnt, so more like… well, a burn I guess. Hurt like hell. Almost didn’t notice the second clue, which was for some reason I was curled up in the fucking closet. Yeah. Pretty much exactly like some kid hiding from something. Door was closed, but somehow I knew the sun was down, like before. I pushed open the door and things looked… normal. Well, my bed looked like I’d jumped out of it, which I guess I had, but everything else looked like it had last night. Kaitlyn still wasn’t there. I got up and went for my phone, turned it on.
More messages from Kaitlyn, of course. Where am I, am I okay, that sort of thing. Sometimes I think she thought I was a total idiot or something, because she got really protective. But I guess I understand. I mean… I’d left with some guy and vanished for a whole day. Two days. Kind of weird she wasn’t home, but… whatever. I called her phone and she picked up right away.
“Kaitlyn?” I said. “Sorry I didn’t call back, but my phone’s been dead.”
“Oh my god, Misty!” Kaitlyn almost screamed. “Where’ve I been? Where’ve you been? What the fuck is wrong with you?”
“You mean the party? Kaitlyn, I was…”
“Yeah, the party, but also you hit me!”
“What? When? Why would I do that? I was asleep all day!” I was thinking what the fuck, but she sounds serious. And… upset. Like she was freaking out about it.
“Well, you did. What the fuck, Misty?”
“Okay, I’m sorry if I hit you. I don’t remember doin’ it, but…”
“Oh, you did it. I still got the bruise. We’re gonna talk about this.”
Great. “Alright, sure.”
“Are you home now?”
“Yeah, I’m home.”
Kaitlyn didn’t say anything for a moment. “Okay. I’m gonna do something first. I’ll be there in… an hour or so. Okay? Don’t go anywhere. And… I’m gonna want you to stay back from me.”
What the fuck? This wasn’t like her. But… being a vampire wasn’t like me, and the whole thing was fucked up, and I needed to talk to someone. “Okay. Please, just… come home and talk to me. I really need to talk t’you. Like, now.”
“An hour. See you then.” Kaitlyn hung up.
So, that gave me an hour and… I didn’t have anything to do. I was still thirsty, still feeling sort of weird… and still a vampire. I sort of messed around a little. Wound up deciding to eat something, thought maybe that’d help with feeling weird. Fridge was mostly empty as usual, but I found some crackers and… that was also a stupid idea, but more oh my god, why did I do this to myself than dangerous. I ate maybe two crackers before I needed to throw them up, which sucks even more when you don’t really have a working stomach with acid and stuff because the dry cracker bits kept getting stuck. And then… ugh, I still don’t even like to talk about it… I guess I set off some kind of reaction because suddenly my body needed to get rid of everything. And I mean everything. I’ve had food poisoning, kind of hard to avoid when you got to eat cheap stuff because you don’t have any money. I also used to have a shellfish allergy when I was alive, and this was like both of those along with… well, the worst diarrhea you can imagine. I’m not… gonna describe it, but… I’ve heard guys talk about feeling like they’re shitting out their guts, sometimes even like they’re proud of it or something, and… that’s what it felt like. And I’m not so sure it wasn’t literal, because I found out right after that I’d somehow lost around ten pounds between being alive and being a vampire. I weighed myself.
That went on for most of the time before Kaitlyn got home. Had enough time to clean up, but not enough to shower or change clothes, so I was still wearing my party clothes when Kaitlyn walked in. She… had this bruise on her face, like someone hit her pretty hard. Me, I guess, but I didn’t remember it. She didn’t look happy to be there, and the first thing she said was, “Other side of the room.” Like she was trying to be tough or something, but I could tell she was scared.
“Um… okay.” I moved over to the little kitchenette thing we had. “I’ll stay over here, and you stay by the door. Is that better?” Not that I blamed her.
“Sorta.”
“Mind closin’ the door?”
“In a sec.”
“It’s just that this is gonna be weird, so…” I stopped because her brother Mike walked in.
Let me tell you about Mike. Mikael, not Michael, but he goes by Mike and… I’m pretty sure he’s mixed up with the Russian mafia or some shit. He looks like it, and like he’s really fucking proud of it. Dark clothes, slicked back hair, sunglasses, pretty much every stupid stereotype. And he just… feels violent, you know? Plus every time he’s been over, he’s spent way too much time just… staring at me like if Kaitlyn wasn’t there, he’d try to rape me. I hate him, but I guess Kaitlyn still remembers him like they were as kids or something because it’s like she doesn’t see what he’s like. Her family does, though.
“Why’s your brother here?” I glared at Mike. “Thought your family wasn’t talkin’ to him any more ’cause he’s a gangster douchebag.”
“I’m protecting my sister,” Mike leered at me, as usual. “From you.”
“Me? Why? The fuck could I do?”
“I asked him to come, Misty,” Kaitlyn said. “Back off.”
“Okay, yeah, I get it,” I said. “But he can’t be in here for this.” Kaitlyn didn’t look too sure about the idea, so I went on: “I’ll stay here, you stay by the door. He can wait in his car.”
“Why?” asked Mike.
“’Cause we got stuff to talk about,” I said. “Girl stuff.”
Mike leered at me again. “Girl stuff, huh?”
“Yeah,” I say, rolling my eyes. “Periods and boys and hair and get the fuck out, Mike. I’m not gonna do anythin’ to Kaitlyn, okay? But I’m not talkin’ about this with you here.”
Mike just shrugs and walks out. Kaitlyn looks at me for a sec, then closes the door. I take a deep breath. This was going to be fucking hard. Bad enough to explain vanishing, and hitting her when I don’t remember doing it, but the vampire thing? Kaitlyn didn’t believe in that shit any more than I did, at least until I became one. So I sort of… chickened out a little.
“Um… I’m sorry ‘bout hittin’ you,” I said. “I really am. I don’t remember doin’ it, but… um… why don’t you tell me what happened? What you saw. I’m gonna… sit down here.” I pulled up one of the old bar stool things we had instead of real chairs and sat down. Kaitlyn just looked at me for a bit, then kind of… hugged herself like she was all defensive and started talking.
“Well… you just left the party without telling me,” she said. “I asked around, and some people saw you leave with this guy they didn’t know. So I called your phone, but you weren’t answering and… I came home, but you weren’t here. I went to bed, and when I woke up you still hadn’t called, I drove around looking for you. Thought maybe you’d been dumped in an alley or something. Spent all night looking. Almost went to the cops, too. Came home again this morning, and here you were, asleep. Only… it was like you were too still. Like you weren’t breathing. And you didn’t seem to hear me when I tried to talk to you. Or when I shook you. So I thought maybe you died and… I panicked. I went and opened the curtain so I could see better, and I smelled something burning and… you stopped being dead and jumped up and… hissed at me. Like a cat. Then you hit me. Knocked me over and ran into the closet and slammed the door and… went back to being dead, I guess.”
“I’m sorry. I really don’t remember doin’ that.”
Kaitlyn didn’t seem to hear me. “So… I freaked out. Thought… I dunno, you were on something. I left. Spent the day with my mom. Then you called just after sunset, but… I didn’t wanna come back alone. No offense. So I called Mike, and… that’s what happened.”
Well, fuck. I had to admit, I really wanted to hug her. Kaitlyn looked… hurt and scared, you know? But I was the one who did all that to her, so I stayed where I was. Couldn’t think of anything to do, so I just told her I was really sorry again. She still wasn’t saying anything.
We stayed like that for a minute or so, then Kaitlyn looked up at me. “Misty… what the hell’s going on? With you? I’ve got to know if you’re okay or not.”
Couldn’t hide from it any more, right? “I can tell you,” I said. “Or try to. But it’s gonna take a while, and you might not believe me. I’m… not gonna hit you again. I promise. So if you wanna tell Mike he can go, go ahead. I don’t care if he spends the whole night sittin’ around out there with his thumb up his ass, but he’s your brother, and you might wanna be nice. Or…” I swallowed. “… you can just leave. Go spend the night with your parents. I understand. I… I’d like to talk about this, but… if you don’t wanna deal with me right now, I get it.”
Kaitlyn just looked at me, then walked out the door. I wasn’t sure if she’d left or what. Part of me kind of wished she had, so I wouldn’t have to deal with the whole vampire thing until later. I mean, it’d have to be dealt with, you know? Or I’d have to just… move out and not say anything. Vanish. Maybe Pops could help with that. But Kaitlyn was my best friend, and we’d been roommates for a few years at that point, basically since meeting in college. Then we’d wound up dropping out together, going to parties together, working the same shitty job together. We’d both helped the other through breakups with bad boyfriends, and dealing with the kind of shit that can happen to girls who go to the sorts of parties we’d go to. Neither of us were saints, or really anyone special, but… I felt like if I just left, I’d be… well, it didn’t make a lot of sense, but I felt like I’d somehow be worse than just a vampire. Like, I’d be a vampire and a really shitty friend, too. Didn’t know if vampires could be friends with humans, but… at least if she kicked me out because she thought I was crazy, she’d… get over it, I guess. It’d still suck, but I wouldn’t be her friend that just up and vanished one day, you know?
Turns out I didn’t need to worry about that, though, because I heard Mike’s car as he drove off, and she came back in. So I just had to worry about telling her about being a vampire. Fuck my life.
“Okay,” she said. “I told Mike he could go, but he’s gonna come back if I need him.”
“Got it,” I said. “I’ll just… stay over here. Tell Mike that squealin’ his tires like that isn’t impressive or manly or whatever the fuck he thinks it is. It just makes him look like a child.”
Kaitlyn just nodded and sat down on the little table we had by the door, which she really shouldn’t do because it’s not all that strong. But I’m wandering off again.
“Okay, so…” I started. “Um… I’m really sorry ‘bout hittin’ you. And… I’m sorry I didn’t call or text you back, but my phone died and… things got really weird.”
“Weird?”
“Yeah,” I said. “Not like bad trip weird, but I guess there was some of that. Like… down the rabbit hole, what the fuck has my life become weird.”
Kaitlyn looked at me. “Did you join a cult?”
“What? No. I didn’t join a cult.”
“You sure? You sorta sound like you did.”
“I did not join a cult.”
“Did you get into the BDSM scene or something?”
“No.”
“I’m not judging you if you did. Just don’t bring any of it home with you.”
“Kaitlyn, I didn’t join the BDSM scene.”
“Was this like Spring Break? With that guy?”
“I… Kaitlyn, no. Nothin’ like that.” Annoying as it was, I was actually kind of happy about it. This sort of thing was more like Kaitlyn usually was than scared of me. Sort of assuming I couldn’t take care of myself without her watching out for me, but also… kind of getting on my case while she did it. Then again, I didn’t have the best record for not accidentally getting into things I probably shouldn’t.
“Are you still high now?” she asked. “If you are, I can get Mike to take you to a hospital.”
“I am not still high, and I’m never gettin’ in a car alone with your brother. Ever.”
“Why?”
“Because he’s…” I sighed. “Look, can I just tell you what happened?”
“Were you high when you hit me?”
“No, I wasn’t high. And I’m not high now. This is just… Kaitlyn, this is gonna be weird. And you’re prob’ly gonna think I’m crazy, but just listen to me, okay? And I’m really, really sorry I hit you, okay? I dunno what happened. But, okay, so… yesterday.” Jeez, this sounded crazy even in my own head, and I’d lived through it. Unlived. Whatever.
“Um…” I started. Oh god, oh god, oh god. “Kaitlyn… I’m a vampire.”
She looked at me. “I knew it,” she said. “You’re still high.”
“No, I’m not high, just…”
“Wait, is this one of those nerd game things? Because…”
Right then, something seemed to… sort of roll over and growl inside me. Like some kind of animal in my chest, and it made me suddenly really, really mad at her. The fuck was her problem? Can’t she just let me talk for once? “LISTEN TO ME WHEN I’M TALKIN’ TO YOU!” I yelled.
Kaitlyn’s response was… well, people don’t usually respond like she did when I yell at them. Mostly they look annoyed, or bored. I’m just not a scary person, you know? But Kaitlyn jumped up and backed up against the table… which broke because it wasn’t strong, like I said… and her face went white. Except for the bruise. Like she’d seen a monster. Which I guess she had. She seemed kind of worked up, so I just… backed away and went into the bathroom. I turned on the light and looked in the mirror, and… well, yeah, she had seen a monster. Me. Not… a hideous monster because I’m not ugly, but… a chick with obvious fangs and crazy eyes. Not… human, you know? I poked at one of my fangs with my tongue, and yeah, they were sharp. Like you’d expect for a vampire.
“Jesus Christ, Misty!” I heard Kaitlyn from the other room. “You know what you look like?”
“A vampire?” I said. Couldn’t help myself.
“Well, yeah, but… damn. You look scary. You.”
“Gee thanks.” I rolled my eyes. This was going to be awkward if I’d have to hide vampire fangs from everyone I talked to, you know? But as I was thinking that, they sort of… slid up or something. Went back to being normal human teeth. Don’t know how, but then I wondered if they’d come back, and they did. Well, that was useful, at least. I tried a few more times while Kaitlyn got over it in the other room. I could hear her breathing… and her heartbeat, which was weird, but now that I’d heard it, I couldn’t stop hearing it. Like when you’re aware of your breathing. Which I wasn’t doing.
“What’re you doing in there?” Kaitlyn asked. She sounded more like herself.
“Tryin’ out my fangs,” I said. “Just figured out they go away and come back when I want.” Damn. They were… actually kind of sexy, in a weird way.
“Oh.” Nothing for a few moments, then: “Are you still playing with your teeth?”
“What? No, I’m not…” I sighed. “You okay? Can I come out now?”
“Yeah.”
I walked back out to the other room to the kitchenette where I’d been and sat down again. Kaitlyn looked… well, not recovered entirely, but… less freaked out. Which was a start.
“Were you looking in the mirror?” she asked.
“Yeah.”
“I thought vampires didn’t show up in mirrors.”
“I guess that’s wrong ’cause I show up fine.”
“I still don’t believe you’re a vampire. Maybe you… got some kinda fake teeth or something.”
“They’re real.”
“Maybe.”
“You broke the table.”
Kaitlyn looked behind her. “So?”
“So I told you it’d break and I was right.” I got up and went to the fridge. “Um… you want somethin’ to drink? You look like you need a drink. Might help.”
“Okay, sure,” Kaitlyn said.
I opened the fridge. Not a lot of food, but… “So, we got… tequila, which I told you not to keep in the fridge. Beer… no, we’re out of beer, this is empty…”
“Vodka. In the freezer,” Kaitlyn said.
I looked in the freezer, and yep there it was. “Since when did we have vodka?”
“Some guy gave it to me last week. At the party we went to.”
“Was it Eyebrows? He was hangin’ around most of the night.”
“No, some other guy. Said he was too drunk to drink it, so he was giving it to a pretty girl.”
I checked the seal on the bottle, which was still there, so it was probably safe. For cheap vodka, anyway. “You want a glass?”
“No.”
“Okay. I’ll just… um… roll it over, I guess?” I bent over and put the bottle on the floor and tried to roll it over to Kaitlyn, but it ran into some of her clothes halfway there. “Not my fault. If you picked up your clothes they wouldn’t be in the way.” Kaitlyn looked at the bottle, biting her lip. “Well, you’re just gonna to hafta trust me that I’m not gonna attack you if you move a few feet closer for a few seconds if you want a drink,” I said. “Want me to turn around or somethin’?”
“I’ll get it,” she said and sort of… edged towards the vodka, reaching out to grab it as soon as possible, then ducked back and sat down with her back against the door. I felt like some kind of nasty animal. Kaitlyn opened the bottle, then took a big gulp like I’m sure she’s seen her brother or some macho guy do, then started coughing. I didn’t get on her case about it, though.
“Feelin’ better?” I asked, after she’d stopped coughing.
“Yeah, but… stay over there.”
I nodded. “So… maybe I should just start with what happened after I left the party. And no, I don’t know who that guy was, but… he’s prob’ly the one that made me a vampire.”
“Still don’t believe you,” Kaitlyn said, and took a sip from her bottle.
I shrugged and… you know what? I already described all that, so there’s no reason to go over all of it again because I told Kaitlyn about it, too. Same story, except there were things that were more… Kaitlyn being Kaitlyn. Like when I got to actually leaving the party.
“It was two guys,” Kaitlyn interrupted. “You left with two guys.”
“What? I did?” I didn’t remember a second guy.
“Yeah. Tall dark and brooding, and some kid. Looked sixteen.”
“Kinda nerdy lookin’? Spiky blond hair?”
“That’s him. What’s up with that? Was he gonna watch?”
“Look, that was only one time, okay?”
“Twice. Spring Break.”
“I didn’t know anyone could see us!”
“Three times. Karen’s birthday, remember?”
“I was really high, and it was just makin’ out!”
“In front of everybody.”
“Yeah, in front of everybody, but for fuck’s sake, I thought I was… I dunno, that I was a fairy or some shit. I was seriously fucked up!”
“It still counts.”
“Are you done? Jesus!” Kaitlyn could be really annoying sometimes, and… I could sorta feel the animal or whatever inside getting mad, but I couldn’t stop myself. “Three times doesn’t mean I’m into public stuff if I don’t really remember two of ’em. And one was just makin’ out! Judgey much? At least I didn’t…”
“You are not bringing that up.”
“Yes, I am bringin’ that up. You started it!”
“We are not going there!” Kaitlyn was actually glaring at me now, and I could feel the animal wanting to… to hit her, make her stop, show her who was boss. I was a fucking vampire, right? And she was just a human. I could feel my fangs growing again, could feel my body tensing up to jump at her and beat her and rape her… but instead I forced myself to turn away. Think it was that last one that did it… Kaitlyn was my best friend, and I wasn’t gonna let the animal hurt her, you know? I even punched the fridge a couple of times because I just… had to do something physical. Not what the animal wanted. We’d both been hurt like that, and I couldn’t do that to her, be like the guy who’d… yeah. Like I said, there’s some shit that can happen to party girls, and it’d happened to both of us.
Um… anyway, I calmed down after a bit. Kaitlyn hadn’t moved.
“You okay?” she asked. Sounded scared, but also like she was worried about me. Which helped. Meant she wasn’t totally afraid her best friend was going to attack her.
“Yeah, it’s…” I wanted to tell her about the animal, but… I couldn’t. So I ran away again. “It’s been really fuckin’ stressful, y’know? I’m sorry. I sorta lost my temper there.”
“It’s okay,” she said. “But… I’m gonna stay over here for now. Okay?”
“Okay,” I took a deep breath and finally turned around again. “So, um… the two guys.”
“Yeah.”
“Nerdy blond and… tall dark and broodin’?” I looked at her. “You remember what he looked like? He kinda… vanished after he turned me, and… some people wanna find him.”
“Didn’t see him,” Kaitlyn said. “That’s what the people who saw you leave said.”
“Shit.” Yeah, still couldn’t ID my vampire daddy, but… it was something at least.
“Is he important?”
“Yeah. He’s prob’ly the one who did this to me.”
“Made you a vampire,” Kaitlyn said, and sipped her bottle again. “Still don’t believe you. Why don’t you just tell me what happened? For real?”
“I’m tryin’ to tell you… ugh,” I said. “Look, just… forget the vampire thing then. Let’s just say the guy with the eyes… did somethin’ to me. Okay?”
“Fine,” Kaitlyn said. “Did you fuck them?”
“No, I didn’t fuck either of ’em, Kaitlyn.”
“You sure? You might be… I dunno, making up the vampire thing to cover for something else that you can’t deal with right now. I read something about people doing that online.”
“I’m sure.”
“You ever find out anything about either of them?”
“Nope. I never saw the eyes guy again, and the kid was dead when I woke up, so…”
Kaitlyn stared at me. “You woke up with a dead guy?”
“Next to. He was on the floor. And dead. I told you this was fucked up. Can I go on?”
“Sure,” she said, and sipped her bottle again. If she kept that up, she was going to be hammered by the time I was done talking, but… maybe she needed it.
“Thank you,” I said. “So, after I left I with those guys, who I did not fuck thank you, I woke up in some shitty apartment and the kid was dead on the floor. Don’t remember gettin’ there.”
“What time did you wake up?” she said.
“Not sure. After sunset, whenever that was. Only things in the apartment were the dead kid and a note on the door. No food, no clothes, like no one lived there. Power was off, so I couldn’t charge my phone and the lights were off…”
You know, I’m sort of going through all of it anyway, so… I’m going to just mention some of this. Like Kaitlyn not wanting to accept I could see in the dark, or that I didn’t trip and fall on my ass because I was wearing my chunky boots and going down stairs. Or her asking if I had all my clothes when I left because of that one time during Spring Break that I didn’t. She kept making my being thirsty into a sex thing after I told her about being thirsty for people, but she did that. A lot.
When I got to talking to Pops, she interrupted me again: “Pops? Why’d you call him that?”
“I dunno,” I said. “He just seemed like someone I’d call Pops, y’know? Which was weird ’cause that’s not part of my lexicon…”
“Lexicon? What’s with the ten dollar word?”
“Fuck you, Kaitlyn,” I glared at her. “I did at least go to some classes before I dropped out. I remember some shit, okay? It means a person’s fuckin’ vocabulary. Read a book.”
“Okay, okay,” she held up her hands. “Sorry.”
“Me too. Um… so I kinda just… hung around until everyone else went in, then went up to Pops at the door. I don’t know why, but I just started tellin’ him about everythin’ that’d happened. He listened to me — quietly, Kaitlyn, he actually let me speak, might wanna try it some time — and when I was done he just… told me that I was a vampire, and to check my pulse.”
“I still don’t believe…” Kaitlyn started.
I interrupted her, because this was just getting to be too much. “Kaitlyn, you’re gonna hafta fuckin’ accept the vampire thing at some point. Just… I dunno, assume I’m trippin’ balls right now and just think I’m a vampire, but seriously, deal with it. You saw the teeth, sunlight burns me, see?” I held out my burnt arm towards her. “Yeah, I woke up in the closet with that. Hurts like hell.” She didn’t like that. But she at least let me go on. She didn’t say much until I get to the part with the Baron.
“What’d you call him?” Kaitlyn asked me. She thought it was funny, I guess.
“Baron Whatshisname,” I said. “Only he said he was somethin’ like ‘Kan-slesh’ that I have no idea what it means. Everyone else just calls him Baron.”
“How’d you spell it?” Kaitlyn asked, getting out her phone.
“Fuck if I know. Can I keep tellin’ you about this?”
“Yeah, sure,” Kaitlyn said and put away her phone again. So I went on, at least until I got to sword guy telling me the rules, and that I’m not supposed to tell humans about vampires, or else.
“Yeah, but you told me,” she said.
“Um…” I bit my lip. Not like vampire bite, more worried. “Kinda broke that one. But… I couldn’t make myself lie to you, Kaitlyn. Felt like I’d be a real piece of shit as a friend if I just… left.”
“As opposed to telling me you’re a vampire.”
I sighed. “I can still just leave, y’know. But at least you’d know I didn’t do it ’cause I wanted to screw you over or just didn’t care. And I figure if you don’t tell anyone, they won’t know.”
“Or I could decide you’re crazy and throw you out,” she said.
There was the cold Kaitlyn again, like after her dentist appointment. I couldn’t really deal with her like that, so… I just went on with what happened. She didn’t say anything until I got to the part about leaving the meeting. “Were they all looking at you again?” she asked.
“Um… some of ‘em,” I said.
“Same as before? Like you were meat?”
“Yeah. Like…” I sighed. “Like your brother looks at me. Like they couldn’t decide whether to say hi or eat me or bend me over a table and…”
“Thought you said it wasn’t a sex thing,” Kaitlyn interrupted me.
“I dunno how else to describe it,” I said. “Wrong. Like I was an object, but worse. A toy.”
Kaitlyn didn’t say anything for a bit, then nodded. “Think I know what you mean.”
I didn’t ask what Kaitlyn was thinking about when she had her cold face on. She usually told me eventually, when she wasn’t so cold, and it was usually pretty nasty. I ran away from my problems. Kaitlyn… could get mean. I didn’t think she’d done any of the things she’d talked about, but I wouldn’t want to be the one that pissed her off if she ever did. But she wasn’t that kind of crazy, and she was my best friend, and mostly she was annoying and cheerful and caring and stuff, so I didn’t worry a whole lot about her getting pissed off at me. Not in that way, at least. That time I just… kept talking. I do that when I’m upset, too, like talking means I don’t have to think about it. Got through the rest of the story to when I fell asleep or whatever, and Kaitlyn wasn’t looking so cold.
“That’s… pretty fucked up,” she said eventually.
“Yeah,” I nodded. “And there’s more.”
“More?”
“Well, not like more shit that happened. Just… stuff I didn’t mention. My body bein’ weird.”
“Like what?” she said and sipped from her bottle.
“Well, for one, I’ve been wearin’ the same clothes since the rave and… they’re not all sweaty or… well, okay, they got sweaty from dancin’, but… they haven’t gotten worse, you know? I told you about the boots and seein’ in the dark. I’m not breathin’ except to talk, and you saw the teeth. Oh, and um… I’ve been wearin’ the same underwire for two days now, right? But my boobs don’t hurt, and my back hasn’t started hurtin’ either. Same with my feet, and you know how much I can hurt if I wear these boots for too long? Nothin’. I haven’t felt any pain except where you burned me since…”
“Sorry about that,” Kaitlyn said. “I didn’t know.”
“I’m not mad at you about that,” I said. My arm was still all red and burnt looking, but it wasn’t quite as bad as before. “It hurts. A lot. But I’m not mad.”
“That’s pretty weird too. Just so you know.”
“Yeah, so, I’m not sweatin’, I’m not tired, I’m not hurtin’, everythin’ seems… sharper, I guess. Sunlight burns me. And… I’m thirsty, like, all the time, but I’m not hungry… oh, and I tried eatin’ somethin’, but I just threw it up. And… I think that set off somethin’, ’cause my body decided to… um… get rid of everythin’ else. Like everything everythin’ else. I don’t wanna talk about it. We’re out of toilet paper, by the way.”
Kaitlyn gave me a look. “Why?”
“Really don’t wanna talk about it,” I said. Needed to change the subject, so I went on with: “So, um… when you were lookin’ for me… you didn’t actually go to the cops, did you?”
“No,” Kaitlyn said, sipping from her bottle. She had to be at least a little drunk now.
“Okay,” I said. “That’s… good. Yeah. All this is bad enough without cops.”
“Wouldn’t want my brother around for that.”
“That wasn’t actually about your brother.”
“Whatever,” she said. “So… where do we go from here?”
“From here…” I said. “I dunno. I guess… well, do you still think I’m not a vampire?”
“Dunno what to believe.”
“Okay, that’s fair. But if I was… then what?”
Kaitlyn looked at me like she was thinking about it. Then she shrugged and looked away. “Think I’d get as far away from you as I could. Because vampires, y’know?”
That… actually kind of hurt. Like in my chest. Me and Kaitlyn had been through a lot, and she gave me shit about some of it. But hearing her actually say it still hurt, even if I couldn’t blame her. I took a deep breath. “Okay. I guess I understand why. I… might not be safe to be around.”
“Or…” she looked up at me. “I’d figure out what hurts vampires. In case I needed it. Or… if I needed to… put you out of your misery. Vampires are monsters, y’know.”
That hurt a bit more. No one likes to have their friend talk about hurting or killing them. Well, okay, maybe masochists and people with a fucked up deathwish, but that wasn’t me, and it hurt. But again, I couldn’t really blame her. Vampires are monsters. “Can’t say I like the idea, but okay. Guess the only other choice is for me to go away and never see you again.”
“Might still have to,” she said, then started getting to her feet. She swayed a little, so yeah, I was right about her being at least a little drunk, but she didn’t fall over again. “Right now, I think I need to sleep this off. I’m too tired to think about this shit. And… I want you out, at least for a few hours, so I can sleep without being afraid of you.”
“Um… okay,” I said. More twisting in my chest. “I’ll… go wander around until dawn. So you can sleep.” Kaitlyn just nodded. “Um… I’m still gonna need somewhere to sleep… or… be dead or whatever durin’ the day. So if it’s not a problem…”
Kaitlyn didn’t say anything, just looked at me, then pointedly at the curtains.
“No,” I said. “I’ll sleep or whatever in the closet. You, um… want me to wake you up if you’re still asleep when I get back?”
“No,” she said. I couldn’t tell what she was thinking.
“Okay. If you’re sure, I’ll let you sleep.”
“I’ll leave the curtains open,” Kaitlyn said, not looking at me. “That should work. Might wanna figure out how to keep the sunlight away from you when you’re in the closet.”
I looked at the closet doors. They weren’t exactly solid things, some kind of sliding frames around big mirrors. We’d both knocked them off their rails at least once, but they’d hafta do for now. “I’ll figure somethin’ out. Hell, I’ve had enough hangovers. Should be able to figure out how to hide from the sun, right? It’ll do for today.” Kaitlyn didn’t say anything, so I just went and picked up my keys and phone. Left my purse where it was. Not like I’d need it. Kaitlyn was still in front of the door, so I sorta waved a hand at it. She nodded and opened the door… and I couldn’t help noticing that she stepped to the side so the open door was between me and her, like a wall. Hard not to feel like a monster when your best friend does shit like that, but I couldn’t blame her.
“Okay,” I said, moving towards the door. “I’ll… um… be goin’ now. Don’t drink too much.”
No response.
“Um, Kaitlyn?” I said, more or less through the door between us. “Thank you.”
Kaitlyn was quiet for a moment, then said. “See you tomorrow.”
“Yeah,” I said, feeling a little better. “See you tomorrow. Sleep well.” And I walked out the door. Kaitlyn closed and locked it pretty much instantly after me. I just kept walking.
About a block away, I realized I was still wearing the same damn party clothes. And I didn’t have a purse or any pockets to put my keys and phone in. Genius.
