on the bottom of the package were visible through the cellophane. She couldn’t take her eyes off it. Not really thinking what she was doing, she pulled out the package and tore into it, and began cramming the raw meat in her mouth. Starving! Before she realized it, she’d eaten the entire pound of raw hamburger and began licking the blood off the Styrofoam.
Then she realized what she was doing. “Oh my God!” She threw the Styrofoam in the trash. Trembling hands went to the sides of her face. “What am I doing? What’s wrong with me?”
Star woofed. She hadn’t even realized he was there. He looked at her strangely, sensing something wrong. He woofed again.
“I…I don’t know what’s wrong with me, Star…I don’t know what’s wrong with me!” Her eyes went to her back door. For a brief moment, she thought she saw Dorian standing there. “Dorian!” she cried and ran to the door and swung it open.
No one was there. It had all been in her mind. She had the urge to run outside into the darkness of night. Something about the darkness made her feel better. How? Why? She didn’t know and didn’t care. The night felt comfortable, inviting.
The next thing she knew, she was heading for Dorian’s cabin, Star at her side. She ran as fast as she could, feeling a need to be close to something of his, to be near where he lived.
At last, she reached his back porch. Only the moonlight lit up the place. No one was home, but it was still his home! She ascended his back porch steps. He’d left a coffee cup sitting on the railing. She picked it up. What little coffee that had been in it had dried up a long time ago. She put her lips to the rim, wanting to touch what his lips had touched. She then set the cup down and glanced around the trees surrounding his cabin. It was really dark, but strangely enough, she could see much better than she had at first realized. In fact, she could see better in the dark than she ever had before. In fact, she could hear things she’d never noticed before, a leaf falling to the ground, a mouse scampering across the damp grass, a breeze sifting past each and every leaf and limb. It was incredible!
“What’s happening to me, Dorian?” she cried out into the night. “What’s happening to me?”
Star rose up on his hind legs and rested his paws on the railing. He nudged her with his cold wet nose, whining softly.
“I don’t know, Star. I want to say I’m okay…But I really don’t know that I am. I wish I understood it all… I wish Dorian would come back!” There was a wooden chair by the back door. She sat down in it and stared out into the night. Star lay down at her feet. Strangely enough, she didn’t feel sleepy anymore, she just wanted to stay where she was, and as close to what was Dorian’s that she possibly could. She sat there for hours. After a while, off in the distance, she heard screams, human screams. She wondered if Klaus and Sally had found their… food. And, if so, had they left them alive? She hoped so. Just before dawn, she drifted off to sleep in the chair.
Eleven:
Amber awoke with a start when Star barked. She sat up quickly, realizing she was still sitting on the chair on Dorian’s back porch. The sun was shining extremely bright, glaring. Hurt her eyes. Star was looking at her and wagging his tail.
“Sorry…boy…Guess you want your breakfast.” She managed to stand. She squint, though, as the glare was so bad. “Why’s the sun so damn bright today? Where are those Washington clouds? I’d welcome them about now.” She started down the back steps, Star anxiously running ahead of her. Even this morning, all her senses were heightened beyond belief. She swore she could smell someone frying bacon miles away. “Nah…that’s impossible!” She shook her head and took off running after her dog and was surprised when she actually caught up with him with little effort. “Weird! Whatever is happening to me…is really strange. Some things are better and some things are worse. Maybe I should go see a doctor?”
Soon as she had her dog fed, she was on the phone making an appointment. She was happy to get one for that afternoon, a Doctor Shelby in Seattle. She quickly showered, dressed and shared a raw steak for breakfast with Star, as it was the only thing that looked even remotely appetizing. Then took off for her appointment.
“You’re not pregnant,” the tall, bug-eyed doctor with short black, curly hair informed her.
Amber let out a sigh of grateful relief.
“But…I think…and I emphasize the think…you may have some kind of virus going on. Don’t know as I’ve come across anything like it before.”
“What can you do?”
His expression was complex, unreadable. There was something he wasn’t saying. Or was it her imagination? “I would like to run some more blood tests.”
“Okay. But do you have any ideas?”
He expelled air and sat down, laying his clipboard aside. “I’ll be honest with you, Amber. It is all right if I call you Amber?”
“Certainly.”
“This is the part that’s completely blowing my mind…We even double-checked the samples…Why I had my nurse come in and draw blood a second time. You have two totally different kinds of blood flowing through your veins…Which should by all science and logic be impossible – You haven’t had any blood transfusions lately, have you?”
“What?”
“Quite frankly, I don’t know what to tell you. From what you say, you certainly are exhibiting some strange symptoms. But no stranger than you having two different kinds of blood. Amber, this just doesn’t happen! Quite honestly – You should be dead!”
She gasped. “Did I hear you correctly? You’re saying I should be dead?”
“One gets very negative results when you mix two blood types together…That’s why it’s so important to get the blood types accurate for transfusions.”
“I’m afraid I’m thoroughly confused.”
“Frankly…so are we. That’s not all of it. And this just keeps getting stranger and stranger – it appears that one blood type is…the closest I can explain it…devouring the other.” Then he said, “I really don’t understand why you aren’t dead.”
She was blown away. It was happening! What she had thought was impossible…wasn’t!”
Doctor Shelby suddenly stood. “Are you all right, Amber?” He reached out a hand and gently took her arm. “I know this is really weird. Do you have any idea how you came about this problem? Have you been exposed to anyone else showing strange symptoms of illness?”
She shook her head. “No! No!” And she hadn’t. Not anyone sick – Just undead. Just exposed to a vampire. Only, she couldn’t tell him that. She slid off the examining table. Now, she just wanted to run out of there. But looking into his kind and very concerned eyes, she knew she couldn’t do that.
“I feel it urgent that we check you into the hospital.”
“No! No hospitals…please! Not yet. I want to think about this for a while. If it’s okay?”
“It’s against my better judgment…Time could really matter here. As I said, you should be dead. My advice is not to wait at all. If there’s any chance we can help you, we need to get started ASAP!”
“I do understand, Doctor. But right now. Just give me a few hours? I just want to go home.”
He considered her request for a moment, and then replied, “You’re in shock. That’s obvious and understandable. But please don’t take too long in getting back to us.” He reached in his pocket and took out a business card. “Here’s my phone numbers. You can even call me at home, if you need to.”
He really was a caring doctor. Nodding, she took the card. “Thank you, doctor.”
“I’m sorry…You came in here thinking you were pregnant…I wish that had been the case. I’m sure it would have been much happier news. And I still wish you’d let me check you into the hospital now?”
“No…Not yet! I need to think. Thank you.” She walked out. She was glad she’d given them a fictitious address and phone number. She’d had a hunch it might be something more than a simple pregnancy, and she didn’t want anyone to find her should that be the case. Now, it appeared that it was.<
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Amber sat in her car for half hour, emotionally numb. She almost wished she had been pregnant. That she could have had some idea how to deal with. But this!
Doctor Shelby’s words kept echoing over and over in her mind: “You should be dead! You should be dead! You should be dead!” She was between dream and reality. But what was reality? She wasn’t sure anymore. It seemed something intangible, now. “You should be dead!” Then…was she…undead? Was she a vampire? But one had to die first! She hadn’t died! At least, she was pretty sure she hadn’t. If only Dorian was there. She was almost angry with him now for leaving her. Had he known that this could happen? If so, if he really loved her, how could he have left? Her eyes were burning like hell. She had worn her sunglasses, but they weren’t the best. She decided she’d stop at Macy’s and buy the best she could get. A pair of really dark ones. Surely, they had some that would help.
When she stepped out of the car at the mall, the sun had grown so bright that she ran into the store. She asked the first clerk she came up to where their sunglasses were. He was a nice young gentleman of around twenty. He asked her if she was okay, and noted that she looked badly sunburned, something she hadn’t even noticed because of the pain in her eyes.
She stopped for a second, staring at her arms. They were blistering. She knew this new symptom must have just started, as she was certain she
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