Misty Rose: Nature
Chapter 20
Few days after the vampire social, I had to go for a walk again, but for different reasons. Okay, that sounds like I just sat on my ass in our apartment the whole time. I didn’t. Mostly. Well, I at least left to look for food couple times a week, so… ugh, okay, yeah, I did tend to sit around on my ass a lot. But it’s like I said. There’s not a lot open late enough that’s interesting and… the whole monster thing. And part of me was kind of worried I’d run into the creepy doll again. Or vampire preachers. Or… something. I don’t know what, just it’d be twisted and have to do with vampires somehow.
Anyway, this time I had to leave because Kaitlyn found some old song from the eighties called Maneater, and kept singing it over and over. It’s not like we were even born then. She just wouldn’t stop, and it was getting on my nerves, so I just walked out. Didn’t go far, though. I was just kind of… stomping around in a little circle, trying to let off steam, when my phone rang. I dug it out, and didn’t recognize the number. I don’t usually answer numbers I don’t know, but… I felt like maybe yelling at some robocall or marketer might make me feel better, so I answered this one.
“Who is this?” I said before the other person could say anything.
“Hello Misty,” the other person said. “It’s Pops. How’re you?”
“Pops?” I said. “But… um…”
The voice on the other end chuckled. “Wanting to be sure? Smart,” the voice said. “Let’s see… you’re a hugger, and you don’t think your life is really worth talking about. You have a roommate named Kaitlyn, who’s your best friend and can be extremely annoying. That enough?”
“Yeah,” I said. “Sorry, but I just thought… um…”
“I have a cell phone,” Pops said. “I’m not a savage.”
Was he seriously quoting Dr. Strange? I mean, I thought older vampires had a hard time keeping up with modern stuff, and Pops was older than any other vampire I’d met.
Pops chuckled again. “One of my friends makes a point of making his older associates watch current movies and keep up with at least some modern trends,” he said.
“Oh. Okay. That’s good.”
“Can’t say I care for this modern… rap music,” Pops went on. “I prefer jazz. But I understand why it appeals to the youth these days. Especially the inner city youth. Rather like jazz for earlier generations. But you don’t really need to hear me talk about trends and history.”
“It’s okay,” I said. “Um… but I guess you had a reason to call me.”
“I did, yes. Are you somewhere you can speak freely?”
“Um…” I looked around. “No. But I can be. Hold on a sec.” I walked back to our apartment and let myself in. Kaitlyn looked up and started to say something but I held up a finger, and she saw I was on the phone. “Alright, Pops. Go ahead.”
“Well, I mostly wanted to see you were alright,” Pops said. “I heard you met Violet.”
“I did, yeah,” I said. “She’s… creepy. Makes my skin crawl.”
“Violet is from…” It sounded like Pops was looking for a nice way of putting something. “… a different era of history. One which had ideas that the modern world would find…”
“Disgustin’?” I finished for him. “Yeah. Like adults findin’ twelve year old girls attractive. ‘Cept that still happens, and she fits right into the whole sick fetish. Well, sorta. One type of it.”
“I believe Violet was made a vampire for a specific purpose,” Pops said. “One which she still tries to fulfill even though her maker is long gone. These days, she’d have been a prostitute… or perhaps an attractive party girl. Do you understand?”
I actually felt kind of bad now. “Yeah,” I sighed. “She’s a victim too. But she’s just so creepy.”
“She’s a vampire. Many vampires end up creepy, child.”
“I get it. I shouldn’t hate her.”
“I’d say Violet should be pitied, but never trusted.”
“Yeah…” I said. And I was going to do that by staying the fuck away from her. I sat down on my bed, then flopped over on my back. “Thanks for settin’ me straight, Pops.”
“My pleasure,” Pops said. “I’d have preferred to talk to you in person, but I’m rather unfortunately busy at the moment.”
“It’s fine,” I said. “I can let you go if you need to go.”
“Oh, I’m not doing anything I need to let you go for,” Pops said.
“Okay,” I said. “Um…” I couldn’t think of anything to talk about.
“Anything else you’d like help on?” Pops asked me.
“Well… yeah, but…”
It was a moment before Pops replied. “Ah. You’d mentioned Kaitlyn problems.”
“Yeah.”
“Still having them?”
“Yeah.”
“She’s right next to you, isn’t she?”
I looked over at Kaitlyn, who raised her eyebrows at me. “Um… yeah.”
Pops chuckled. “Well, I can wait until another time if you like. Or… you could go outside.”
“Oh, right,” I said. I looked at Kaitlyn. “I’m, um… gonna go back out,” I told her.
Kaitlyn looked at me like she had a question, but didn’t say anything. I got up and went back outside, then walked a little ways away just in case she was listening through the door.
“Okay,” I said into my phone. “I’m outside again.”
“Alright,” Pops said. “What’s Kaitlyn been doing?”
So I went over it for him. The jokes, the weird responses, everything I could remember. Didn’t take all that long because I wasn’t really going into detail. While I was doing that, I could hear stuff happening on Pops’ end of the conversation. Couldn’t quite tell what it was, but… I decided I wasn’t gonna ask. Figured I might not wanna know.
“I see,” Pops said when I was done. “She been doing it more than usual lately?”
“Um…” I thought about it. She’d always made sex jokes at me and done annoying things, but… it’d been more frequent lately. “Yeah. She has been, since the party.”
“Have you thought about why?”
“Um… I guess ’cause she’s… tryin’ to get over what happened. Maybe?”
“How does she react to things that scare her?”
“She… um…” I thought about it a bit. “She kinda… makes jokes about ’em. Tries to turn ’em into somethin’ to laugh about instead of… bein’ scared of. I think. Somethin’ like that.”
“Mmmhmm,” Pops said. “And the reason she’s making jokes at you is…?”
Oh god, I could be so dumb. The sex jokes, the touching, all the being annoying and making me uncomfortable… she was scared of me. “Jeez, yeah,” I said out loud. “She’s scared and tryin’ to make me less scary by makin’ jokes. Makin’ me uncomfortable.”
“Might want to think about that,” Pops said. “Instead of getting angry with her.”
“Yeah, no kiddin’,” I said. “I’ve been stupid.”
“No,” Pops chuckled. “Just young. Everyone was young once.”
“Thanks, Pops. I gotta… go apologize. Explain things. Somethin’ like that.”
“Take a moment and think first,” Pops said. “About what to say.”
“I will. Thank you.”
“My pleasure,” Pops said. “You take care now.”
“I will. Bye,” I said and ended the call. Jeez, I really could be a dumb blond sometimes. I mean… okay, yeah, Kaitlyn could be annoying and stuff. But if she was just… scared and trying to make me be less scary, then that’d make sense. Same went for the… harassing me, I guess. Was all part of the same thing, trying to make me less scary, and me being uncomfortable and flustered helped. I didn’t seem as much like a vampire and more like… her friend. So I had to… go back and apologize. But I couldn’t figure out what to say. Also couldn’t stay outside all night. I waited for a few minutes, still trying to think of what to say, but couldn’t. So I went back inside.
Kaitlyn looked up from her phone at me, but didn’t say anything.
“Um…” I said. “So…”
“You were talking about me,” Kaitlyn said. She didn’t sound mad, which was good.
“Yeah.”
“Anything good?”
“Um… more… difficult,” I said. “Dunno how to talk about it.”
“It’s fine,” Kaitlyn shrugged. “I kinda hate hearing only one side of a phone conversation anyway. I always end up trying to figure out what the other person’s saying.”
“Yeah,” I said. “Um… I’m gonna hafta think about it some more.”
“That’s fine.”
“Think I’m gonna… go for a walk. If that’s okay.”
“Sure,” Kaitlyn said, then grinned at me. “But put on some clothes first.”
I looked down at myself. I’d gone outside in a tank top and boyshorts and no shoes. Twice. At like two in the morning on a cold night. Not that I’d… um… reacted to it being cold. Vampire. But people didn’t go outside dressed like I was that time of night in the city. I’m sure the neighbors had loved me. If they were awake. I pulled on a hoodie and leggings before I went out again. Then I just… walked. Wandered around. Didn’t really go anywhere specific. Didn’t go to any of my usual hunting places either. Wasn’t in the mood. I tried to think about how to bring up the thing about Kaitlyn being scared of me, but my brain just wasn’t working or something.
I wound up just wandering around until a little before dawn before I went back home. Looked like Kaitlyn had tried to stay awake again, but fell asleep anyway, so I tucked her into bed as best I could. Then I went and sat in the bathroom. Looked up some stuff on my phone, but… the internet didn’t really have any advice for how to tell your best friend you weren’t mad she made a lot of jokes so she wouldn’t be scared of you being a vampire. Funny, right? The internet has all kinds of advice on lots of stupid shit, but not something like that. Best I could find was something about an emotional vampire, but it was talking about… detaching in a gentle way, and I didn’t think a drama queen was quite the same as a literal vampire. Kaitlyn would have liked the name, though. An advice column called Heavy Meddle? I’d have to text her the link, she’d love it. The advice was actually pretty good. Maybe something I could use later. You know… if I turned into a drama queen for some reason.
Ended up staying awake past dawn again. Figured I should maybe practice doing that in case I needed to at some point. And I figured Kaitlyn might want to talk. And it gave me time to think. Didn’t want to scare her, though, so I left the light on made sure to make some noise when I heard her waking up. She was snoring and making adorable sleep noises again. After a few minutes, she came into the bathroom, and yeah, she had that cute just woke up thing going.
“Scoot,” she said. “I gotta pee.”
Well, that wasn’t so cute, but I moved into the kitchen, as far away from the windows as I could. The curtains were closed, but… yeah. Sunlight. After a bit, Kaitlyn came back out again. She yawned loudly at me. “Mornin’ sleepyhead,” I said.
“Mornin’,” Kaitlyn mumbled. She started gettin’ breakfast stuff out.
“You were asleep when I got back,” I said. “Looked like you were tryin’ to stay up, but…”
Kaitlyn mumbled something I didn’t quite hear as she filled up the kettle with water.
“Hmm?” I said.
“How’s being awake during the day working out?”
That didn’t sound like what she’d mumbled, but whatever. “Well… the curtains are makin’ me really fuckin’ nervous,” I said. “That’s why I’m over here.”
Kaitlyn looked at me for a moment, then dragged one of our stools over to the corner I was in so I could sit down. Then she went back to making breakfast. I sat down on the stool.
“You were snorin’ again,” I grinned at her.
“I don’t snore,” Kaitlyn said.
“Yeah you do,” I said. “You make cute noises in your sleep, too.”
“Were you watching me sleep?”
“No. I could hear you though.”
“Fucking morning people,” Kaitlyn said, putting the kettle on the stove and switching on the burner. Well, that was interesting. Even that little fire was enough to make me jumpy. I leaned away from the stove and Kaitlyn looked at me.
“Stove burner,” I said. “Fire. Vampires don’t like fire.”
Kaitlyn nodded but didn’t turn off the stove. I got it. One of the few things we both made sure we never ran out of was hot chocolate. We’d both hit it pretty hard in the morning when we had emotional shit going on, and that’s what it seemed like was going on here. Kaitlyn noticed me watching her. “You want some?” she asked.
“Um… no thanks,” I said. “I don’t drink… hot chocolate. Remember?”
“Sucks to be you.”
“Yeah, well, blood’s… um…” I cleared my throat. “And vampires can’t be mornin’ people.”
Kaitlyn just shrugged, getting out a mug for herself. “So what’d you two talk about?”
“Um…” I looked at my hands. Still wasn’t really ready to talk about it, I guess.
Kaitlyn looked at me, then yawned loudly, right in my face. “Okay, look,” she said. “Not trying to be a bitch here. But I’m too tired to put up with a buncha stalling. And you’re prob’ly not gonna be awake for much longer. So why don’t you sleep on it and we’ll talk tonight?”
I looked at Kaitlyn for a while. That was probably a better idea, and yeah, I sort of felt dumb because a half asleep Kaitlyn could come up with a better idea than me. “Yeah… okay,” I said.
Kaitlyn patted me on the head, but didn’t say anything. I looked over towards my closet… and at the curtains. It wasn’t like there was actual direct sunlight over there, but… it was still bothering me. So I was kind of… working myself up to walking over to my closet. Kaitlyn noticed me doing that, then went over and grabbed my blanket from the closet and brought it back.
“Thanks,” I said, wrapping it around myself. That was better.
“Sleep well,” Kaitlyn said as I walked over to my closet.
“I will,” I said. “Talk to you tonight.” I sat down in my usual spot, closed the door, curled up, and was pretty much dead to the world instantly. It’s a vampire thing.
I did wake up later, though. Kaitlyn was shaking me. I could tell it was still day, but the room was darker than I’d expected. And my brain was full of glue.
“Hey,” Kaitlyn said. “I’ve gotta go to work. But I thought you might wanna see this.”
She got out of the way, but it took a few seconds for me to catch on. Kaitlyn had tacked our heavy winter blankets over each window. She’d even made sure to pin them to the wall all around the edges. Put up like that, they blocked out enough light that the room was pretty much dark.
“Good idea,” I said and yawned.
“You okay?” Kaitlyn asked.
“Tired,” I said. “Brain not workin’. Daytime.” Which was true. And kinda weird. So, I could stay awake with no problems, but for some reason, being woken up after I went to sleep made it really fucking hard to think. Good to know, but still a pain in the ass.
Kaitlyn looked at me for a moment. “Okay,” she said. “Well, I gotta go to work. Sleep well.”
I’m pretty sure I didn’t even manage to say goodbye before I was out again. I’m also pretty sure the last thing I felt before passing out was her kissing me on the top of the head. But, you know, I’m dead to the world during the day, so I didn’t really get to think about that until I woke up at sunset. That’s one of the problems with being a vampire. I don’t really get to sleep on stuff because it’s more like an off switch than laying around in bed just letting my mind wander. But that’s really a tiny problem compared to everything else, so whatever.
