by J B Stilwell
I continue to look at her, amazement all over my face. “But I thought that you were just supposed to observe. You’re not supposed to get involved.”
“Yeah,” she responds, “until fire breaks out and my ass could be part of the kindling. No thank you. Saving my ass, first. Government project, sometime after that.”
I can’t help but smile. I abruptly turn to Rick, walking to him slowly, “Are you okay?”
He looks at me as if I have claimed to be the Queen of England. “Why, yes. I’m just peachy. Thank you for asking.”
I don’t stop myself from rolling my eyes. “I know you’re hurt, but are you okay now. Do you still feel something? Is it spreading?”
Holding his arm, he walks toward the table to sit down. “I feel fine, except for the burning sensation in my arm.”
I practically trip as I rush to him. “The water didn’t work? It’s still eating away at your flesh?”
Closing his eyes, he says, “As delightful as that sounds, no. It’s not still eating away at my flesh. I just have a sensation that is like what I remember a burn to feel like. Like when you remove your hand from a hot stove. It still ‘burns’ although there’s no longer any real danger.”
I sit beside Rick as he begins to slowly pull the paper towel from his skin. Gwen lays the extinguisher on the table and resumes her job of taking notes. Rick grimaces as the paper lifts, showing a mass of molten skin, blackened bubbles and exposed meat and veins. My stomach twists as my heart wrenches. I peer more closely. Before I realize what I am doing, I take his arm in my hands and begin examining the wound. I am racking my brain for an idea of what type of First Aid you give a vampire. Not like I would know. I shake my head. “What do we need to put on this so that it doesn’t get infected? Or so that it can heal quickly?”
I look up to see that Rick is looking down at my hands. He looks into my face for a beat then lightly shakes his head as if he were shaking the cobwebs from his mind. “None needed,” he says. “I can’t get infections and vampires heal so quickly that in a few hours, you won’t be able to tell that anything had happened. If you look closely, the skin is already starting to knit itself back together.”
I look back at his arm and sit up, my hands slowly sliding from the unmarred part of his skin. Indeed. It is as if small threads of skin and flesh were weaving under and over in their mission to rebuild perfect, unscarred vampire skin. I rest my hands in my lap and nervously smile at him. “I’m glad you won’t hurt for long.” We hold our gazes for a while before I rub my eyes with the back of my hand, feigning sleepiness as I poorly execute an attempt to stifle a fake yawn. I get up and head back to the center island. “I will jot down a few notes, then get ready to leave for the day,” I say over my shoulder. By the time I reach the island, Rick is already by my side, the crumpled paper towel neatly placed in the wastebasket.
“So you know,” he begins, “it was worth it. There’s no major damage and now we know that we’re heading in the right direction. We’re on the right path. Tomorrow we’ll start planning on what we need to do before presenting our findings to Mr. Caulfield and the others.”
I try to smile at him as I shuffle my papers, “Yes, I guess it was worth it.” I write a few lines in my journal to outline how we used the tablet of vitamin D, the process of making it into a powder and how we administered it to Rick’s arm. We will need to look at each step to make sure that no outside variable influenced the reaction, so we can confidently say that vitamin D is the source of the injury he sustained. In the name of science. For the benefit of humans. And for vampires. So that we can all be protected from the horrors of an all out species war and the casualties it will bring. Casualties that could affect both of us, in many ways.
Once I complete my notes, I go to the closet to retrieve my jacket and purse. I walk toward the table where Rick is sitting, nursing his arm in the best way he can. Gwen has packed her things up and is about to leave for the day.
“Thank you for the warm welcome and the excitement for my first day,” she smiles brightly, without sarcasm as if she genuinely means it.
As she leaves the suite, Rick stands to accompany me outside to the parking lot. We stop not far from my car. We both continue to look across the lot, to the wooded hills in the distance, the silence broadening between us like a gulf of hurt, embarrassment and new possibilities.
“Thank you,” he says as he continues to gaze out into the distance.
I turn my head to him, “For what?”
“For your concern.” He turns toward me, the side of his mouth raises in a half-smile. “So many humans wouldn’t care, and even those that do, wouldn’t dare show it. Thank you for that.”
I look down as I feel the blush cover my face. “No need to thank me for that. I can’t stand to see people in pain.”
He reaches over and takes my hand, lightly squeezing it. I look up at him again. “Thank you for that, too,” he says.
I just look at him in confusion. “For saying that.” He smiles. “I’m not a people.”
And with that, he is gone.
Chapter 21
When I arrive at my apartment, my mom is standing at the door with a baseball bat, looking like she is ready to hit a homer.
“Mom, what the hell are you doing?” I shriek.
“Emma Jean, don’t you talk to your mama like that.” She drops the bat to her side. “I’m an old woman alone in a strange place. And I thought I heard rustlin’ around outside earlier. Coulda been anyone at the door.”
“Opening it with a key?” I ask.
“Don’t sass me, young lady! You’re book smart enough to know that fear overrides clear thought. And senility starts early in our family, so just be thankful we ain’t at home where I have my gun.”
I try not to giggle. “The gun you were going to use on the neighbor’s dog?”
She looks agitated. “Don’t be silly. I wouldn’t try to stop an intruder with a pellet gun. They’re deservin’ of buck shot.”
I lay my purse and jacket on the couch. In moments like this, I should not engage in further conversation. Just let her have her say and accept that I shouldn’t expect an elder to change her ways. Not after years of this line of thinking anyway.
“I need to get to bed,” I tell her. “When do you plan on going back to Huntington?”
“Tryin’ to get rid of me so soon?” she huffs. “I was plannin’ to start back when the sun comes up.”
“That will be soon enough.” I grin as I hug her. “I do miss you, mom.”
She squeezes me tightly. “And I miss you, too, Emma Jean. It’s not the same at home without you.” She sniffles as if she is trying not to cry. “Well, get on to bed. I’ll be outta your hair by the time you wake up. I love you. Always be careful. Be mindful of strangers.”
I smile. “I do remember all of this, mom.”
“Just remindin’ ya. You tend to get distracted with other things and forget the important stuff, like comin’ in outta the rain.”
I smile again and kiss her cheek. “Love you. Call me when you get back to Huntington so I know that you made it safely.”
“Will do,” she says.
When I get up that afternoon, mom is already gone. Actually, I learn that she has already called, leaving a voicemail to say she had arrived. I was so exhausted that I didn’t even hear the phone ring.
I go through my normal routine of breakfast and shower all while thinking about what our focus should be for the day. The vitamin D powder had eaten through Rick’s skin like acid. We need to make sure that it was definitely the powder that caused the reaction. And if it was, then why? Was the reaction because of some allergy? Or was vitamin D poisonous to vampires? And what about the apparent dehydration? There are still so many questions to be answered.
When I get to the facility, I’m just lucky enough to arrive exactly when Ms. Montgomery is. As she walks up to the door, I rush after her.
“Ms. Montgomery! Please wait.”
She sto
ps and waits without turning to face me.
I step around to look at her. “Hi. We met our new archivist yesterday. I was wondering, why did they assign you to Dr. Vinh’s group instead of Gwen?”
She looks at me as if it’s completely unacceptable for me to even ask. “Archivists are not given the reasons behind decisions that are made.”
“Oh,” I whisper, my face falling in disappointment.
Ms. Montgomery adjusts her shoulders. “An educated guess would be that it is better to place an archivist who is familiar with previous events with this particular team given...the challenges of dealing with one of the researchers.”
Without further comment, she walks into the building.
Surely she meant Bree. That woman - er, vampire - gives me the heebie-jeebies. I would also hate to foist her on anyone. Still, I don’t know the real reason why, and I don’t have any information on what happened to Tucker. Maybe he quit after what happened in the park. That would be a blessing. With my usual luck, he would stay around as a reminder of the ugly incident. But, the incident did include him getting his butt kicked, so maybe he doesn’t want to show his face.
When I get to the suite, Rick is already standing at the center island, and Gwen is nowhere to be seen.
“Good morning.”
Rick looks at me with one eyebrow raised. “Good morning?”
I shrug. “Well, for you.”
“Indeed. Although I’ve been up for a while just thinking over everything that happened yesterday.”
“I have, too,” I begin. “There are still many questions that need to be answered.”
Before I can finish, he interjects, “Like what happened to Tucker.”
I just look at him, not saying a word.
“You don’t know?” he asks.
“No. How would I? Last time I saw Tucker, he was laying in a bloody heap at the park. Next thing, he seems not to be working on the project anymore. I don’t know anything more than you do.”
“Oh, but I do know more. He was fired.”
“What?!” I exclaim.
“From what I understand, he showed up yesterday looking quite haggard, with his face rather mangled. When questioned about it, he actually told the truth. Evidently there have been other incidents with him and his temper. With the latest example, he was considered too much of a liability and they let him go.”
I breathe deeply in relief. Thank God. Now that I know what happened, I can rest a little easier knowing that I don’t have to wait for him to jump out at me. Knowledge certainly dampens fear, while ignorance breeds it.
“You should be careful,” Rick says.
“Why?”
“Because,” he explains, “Tucker told the truth. Including the fact that he was in the park to meet you. Then after relaying what happened, he got fired. Sure, he was fired for multiple incidents, but don’t put it past him to blame you for losing his job. People like him have a twisted sense of logic.”
I walk over to the table to sit down, slowly setting my purse on the tabletop. I feel like someone has just grabbed a hold of my insides, squeezed and are attempting to pull them out through my mouth. Everything seems to be moving in slow motion. Or maybe it was my brain trying to catch up with what my heart already suspected.
What am I going to do? What if he does blame me and tries to do something stupid, like get revenge? And here I am in this town all by myself, without anyone to help me be careful. Yes, I need help with that considering that I’m not the best at considering all angles, especially since I actually thought that knowing why he was gone was enough to keep me from being scared.
I look up and Rick is standing in front of me. He kneels down so that he is at eye level with me. He lays his hand on my knee. “If you want, I can come by in the evenings, and we can ride to the facility together.”
I smile, “That’s a nice gesture. But what’s going to protect me during the day? During those hours when Tucker will be up and around plotting my death?”
He takes my hand. “That’s not going to happen.” He looks around, his eyes darting around the table. “Maybe I could start spending the days at your place.”
I look at him questioningly. “You can’t do that. I just live in a little apartment. It’s not like I have a coffin in the bedroom.”
“I haven’t slept in a coffin in a long time.” He smiles at me.
“Another vampire myth?”
“Not exactly. All vampires have slept in a coffin at some point and many continue to do so. They are the best protection against the sun. I choose to sleep in a big, comfy bed in a room with no windows or with blacked-out windows.”
“And that’s enough to protect you?” I ask.
He nods.
“Huh. Then the idea that when the sun’s up and it having some type of draining effect on vampires is bunk.”
“Well,” he says, “vampires are only ‘drained’ during the daylight hours if we’re exhausted or sleep deprived. The fact that someone took notice of this is what started that particular piece of the vampire legend. The fact is that vampires cannot go out in daylight, so it only makes sense that our days and nights are reversed, as it were.”
I cock my head to the side. “Again, I’m beginning to see how much vampires are really like humans.”
“Oh, don’t ever mistake that. We are most decidedly different in many ways. It’s just that those differences have been blown out of proportion to the point that people fail to see the similarities. Besides, the sun is up all of the time, it’s just not always direct because of the revolutions of the Earth. No one seems to think of that.”
I look down at his hand on mine. He removes it with a look on his face that suggests that he hadn’t realized he was still holding it. He smiles, “Which brings us back to the point of our research. What is it with the sun that is fatal to vampires?”
He stands up and watches me. After a few heartbeats, I stand and follow him to the center island.
“I was thinking,” I start, “what about the effects that looked like dehydration? How does that correlate with the acid-burn effects that you experienced with the vitamin D powder.”
He shuffles his stack of notes. “Not only that, we saw how dehydration is not the answer. Does vitamin D ultimately cause death or is it a combination of the vitamin D and dehydration?”
“What if the vitamin D alone is not fatal? Can you imagine what that would be like if someone had that type of burn all over them?”
“Actually, I can,” he responds. “I’ve even seen humans with chemical burns over most of their bodies. It’s extremely painful. The person is in utter agony and wishes to die if it will just make the pain stop.”
“Then what if we ask to try this possibility on Thalia and that happens?”
“What if we do and it doesn’t - and she dies?” he adds.
I look down at the countertop. “Well, I guess that’s what we’re ultimately here to do. In some ways it would be worse if it didn’t kill her, and she ended up like one of the burn victims you were describing.”
“She’s a vampire,” he says as he lays his stack of papers down, “which means she will heal rather quickly. She’ll be in a lot of pain, but she will recover. She probably wouldn’t even have a scar.”
I humph. “If that’s the case, then everyone should want to be a vampire.”
He leans one arm against the counter. “You would want to drink blood and never go in the sunlight?”
“Well, when you put it that way...”.
“We know the vitamin D causes significant damage. Now we need to determine if it’s enough to kill.”
I look up at him. “We’re going to need more vitamin D tablets to have enough to cover her. Even if we buy every bottle they have at Wal-Mart, it still may not be enough.”
He lifts one shoulder, “Are there any other options?”
Looking up at the ceiling, “Not so much.”
“Then let’s go to Wal-Mart.”
I pick up my
jacket and purse from the table as we leave the suite.
Thank goodness it gets darker in the early evenings of autumn or else we would have to wait for our little excursion. However, because it is earlier in the evening, there are also many more shoppers in Wal-Mart. Many of the people who are rummaging through racks of clothing and shelves of cheap consumer goods stop to stare as we walk by them. Many of them are probably seeing a vampire for the first time. West Virginia is not exactly known for embracing those of the fanged persuasion, although there might be plenty of them here. Heck, vampires are probably part of the reason why many of these areas are so steeped in so-called superstition. At this point, who really knows if what we call superstition is actually the truth.
Come to think of it, that’s probably also the reason why people aren’t accepting and stare us down when we’re in public. If you’ve grown up being told that a certain group is the reason for all of your nightmares, I guess it would make it difficult to give them a big hug when they announce their presence. At this point I’m just thankful that they’re not screaming and running in the other direction.
Still, I have to remind myself of these things to keep myself from staring at everyone else and allowing myself to get lost in my own prejudicial thoughts. Places like this get a reputation for being frequented by unsavory individuals. The truth is that in towns like Rowan, people don’t have a lot of money, so much of the town goes to the one place where they can afford to get daily essentials. And those not-so-essential items, like a pair of boxer shorts depicting popular cartoon characters in compromising positions. I mention these particular boxers because they’re the ones that the gentleman in front of us is flashing due to his jeans being too small to fit appropriately over his backside. I’m just glad the boxers are there to cover his crack because that is something that I so do not need to see.
Rick pushes the cart up alongside the shelf containing multiple bottles of vitamin D, produced by multiple companies, although the ingredients are the same. How many different brands of vitamin D do we need? I mean, if they’re all the same dosage, isn’t one brand good enough? Apparently not.