A Nighttime of Forever

by Matthew S. Cox

  “I ripped Scott’s head off and watched him stagger away chasing it. This isn’t weirder than that,” I mutter.

  Favors

  23

  I walk down a quiet hallway with grey carpet, dark walls, and maroon curtains, approaching a man in a suit standing beside a door. He bows his head in greeting and opens the door for me. I step through into a room filled with people seated in chairs, all facing a white casket.

  Without even looking at the body, I know it’s me. I recognize the people in the back rows from school. A teacher or two, but mostly students. My family’s up front, including Dad’s two brothers and their boys, Mom’s brother and sister, and their six kids.

  It’s surreal attending your own funeral, even if it is a dream. I drift down the middle aisle. No one who looks up at me recognizes who I am, assuming I’m just another person come to pay their respects to a life cut too short. Do the vampires who take Dalton’s route and allow the world to think them dead ever attend their funerals―or do they go far away from the life they had, and leave everything behind?

  Mom, Dad, Sam, and Sierra sit in the front row, all fighting not to smile like someone told a hilarious but inappropriate joke. Sophia, dolled up in a pink dress and super-frilly socks, stands beside the casket, complaining to a dark-skinned man in a fancy suit about how pale I am, criticizing his cosmetic skills.

  My doppelganger has the horrible makeup job Sophia did to me the other day while I slept, and she’s awake―playing a game on an iPhone. When I approach the side of the coffin, she looks up at me.

  “What the heck are you doing here?”

  Her weird comment knocks me awake.

  My sisters are both on my bed. Sophia’s tucked at my side reading her Kindle. Though I don’t see it as such, my room’s completely dark, so the light from the little screen makes her face glow like she’s a creature made of pure energy. Sierra sits cross-legged with her back to the wall by my knees, engrossed in her PS portable, using headphones. Her face also glows in the screen light, but in an ever-shifting array of colors. According to the clock on my desk, it’s 2:04 p.m.

  Did my desire to cling to humanity somehow cause me to become an Innocent? Is it random? How does vampireness pick what ‘tribe’ a newbie gets tossed into? Is there an undead Sorting Hat? Dalton’s a Lost One, so shouldn’t I be one of those too since he’s the one who gave me the Transference? Or did I wind up Innocent because of the reason he turned me? He didn’t kill me first, and I didn’t ask for it; he wanted to save me.

  Ugh. How does any of this work? Aurélie made it sound like I won the vampire lottery, but I dunno. My big advantage is being lifelike. Yay, I can eat cake. Some of the other types get legit super powers that sound pretty cool, but yeah… This is still pretty awesome. I’m still way strong, I can fly, and there’s that whole immortality thing. Waking up early is pretty wimpy compared to, like, shapeshifting into a bat or a wolf (which I’m still not sure if that’s even a thing), but it does mean I can spend more time with my family before they’re gone.

  Right. Enough morbidity.

  Well, I suppose I got my eight hours… The sun’s obviously still up, but I don’t feel groggy at all. The girls yelp in surprise when I sit up, but wind up smiling once the shock of my sudden motion wears off. Sam, on the floor beside my bed, points a flashlight at me. I get a split-second glimpse of him wearing a football helmet before I go white-flash blind.

  “Ack!” I flinch away, covering my throbbing eyes. “Ouch.”

  “Sorry,” says Sam.

  A light switch clicks.

  “Aww. Ow that hurt.” I rub my eyes and blink until the dancing spots fade away. Remembering my ride with Mom, I turn off night vision. “What are you guys all doing in here?”

  “Guarding you,” says Sam.

  “Technically, you’re babysitting us.” Sierra grins. “Mom’s at work and Dad had to go into the office.”

  Usually Dad works from home, writing software and doing bug fixes. Every now and then, he’s gotta go in for one thing or another. “Huh?” I scratch my head. “They left you home alone with me when I’m zonked?”

  “Don’t you wake up if something bad happens?” asks Sam.

  I shrug. “I think so.”

  “Besides. I’m eleven and smart.” Sierra puffs up her chest. “I can watch Sam for a little bit. And Sophia’s ten… and afraid of everything, so she won’t get in trouble.”

  Sophia sticks out her tongue. “Dad’s not gonna be gone that long.”

  “How are you awake?” asks Sierra.

  I explain what I learned from Aurélie about my nature. The three of them cheer at the news I might be able to still do stuff during the day if it’s not too punishing outside. Then again, ‘Nevada desert sun’ doesn’t happen around here too often. If I had a car, I’d be tempted to do something crazy, like take my sibs out for ice cream.

  “Might as well test this.” I hop out of bed.

  Sam laughs at my Powerpuff Girls PJ pants.

  Dad added a strip of black stuff along the bottom of my bedroom door to block out light. Aww. When did he do that? Wow, how messed up is my life? Hah. My parents are taking care of their little vampire. I pull the door open an inch. With my night vision off, it’s pretty obvious that daylight from the basement leaks into my room. I poke my finger into it and cringe. It’s warm, but doesn’t qualify as painful. One finger becomes a whole hand. Feels like I’m reaching into a thing at the school cafeteria where they have the French fries, that cabinet with the heat lamps. Wait. Not quite that hot.

  I pull the door open more and peek out into the main basement. Looks pretty sunny outside, and the room’s about ninety degrees to me.

  “She’s not on fire,” says Sophia.

  Hmm. I glance down at my toes. Experimentation time. I attempt to fly, but it works about as well as Brian from school attempting to use Star Wars powers to pick things up from across the room. I don’t even get noticeably lighter. After taking a step back, I shut the door. The instant it closes, the temperature drops back to pleasantly cool.

  Flight-test two works normally. I float a few inches up from the ground. I open the door again while hovering. The instant daylight warms my front, my levitation cuts off and I land hard on my feet. Hard enough that my PJ pants drop around my ankles.

  Fortunately, my top is long.

  My siblings die laughing.

  “You got a little thinner,” says Sophia.

  “Yeah, well.” I hike my PJs back up and tie the string tighter. “Stuff happens.”

  Why am I afraid to go out into the house and be normal until the sun goes down? I wouldn’t have been afraid of that two weeks ago. Granted, I wasn’t an immortal with a severe sun allergy a few weeks ago. I’ve got a whole lot more to lose if something screwy happens now. Scott murdering me cost me at most maybe eighty years if I got lucky. Now, if something stupid happens and kills me during the day, I’m losing thousands. Shit. I can’t even comprehend living that long. I’m only eighteen. Oh, hell with it.

  We migrate upstairs to the ground floor. It’s too bright outside for me to go anywhere near the windows. I get within four feet of one and the light burns too much for comfort. Even being on the ground floor with all the curtains closed is less comfortable than a hot yoga studio. Still, the ‘hey wow’ effect kicks in and I stay there to spend time with my sibs. As long as I don’t go near the windows, I should be okay. I’ll wind up needing to feed again tonight, but small price to pay.

  Nicole drops by around four and invites Sierra/Sophia over. I don’t want them to spend all day stuck inside because of me, so I let them go with her, insisting that they call once they get to Nicole’s. A couple of Sam’s friends show up, Jimmy, Byron, and Chris I think, but they decide to hang out here and go up to my brother’s room.

  I head back down to my sanctuary for a break from the daylight, and finally do the nasty: open Facebook. After an overacted wail of anguish, I attack tons of OMG posts and memorials. One by one, I apolog
ize to everyone for the misinformation and say that a new guy at the hospital mixed up names and notified my parents by mistake. One jackass even sent me an event invite for my own candlelight vigil. Now, if I was a bitch, I’d have kept quiet and showed up in person. I can think of at least three people from my former class who I could’ve walked up to and asked who’s the vigil for and they’d have said ‘Sarah Wright,’ not realizing the irony of me asking that question.

  The phone rings, so I haul ass upstairs. It’s Sierra, confirming they’ve arrived at Nicole’s. She also asks if I’ll walk them home later.

  “Yeah, if it’s not too nuclear outside.”

  “Cool,” says Sierra. “I’ll, umm, call when we wanna go home, or you could just show up when dinner’s almost ready.”

  “Sure.”

  Well, since I’m up and about―and upstairs, I set in motion a devious plan to kill both of my parents: I run around cleaning and dusting. They’ll both drop dead of shock when they see it. You know, I might even try cooking at some point. At least, until I’m busy with college work.

  Dad gets home around six and almost walks into the doorjamb when he spots me mopping the kitchen floor.

  I smile at him. “Is it the mop or that I’m awake?”

  “Yes,” says Dad.

  I laugh, and explain what Aurélie told me about my new relationship with sunlight. Since I haven’t spent all day hiding in a dark cave, I’m going to need a snack sooner than a month from now, but I’ll deal with that. For simplicity’s sake, I think about my blood energy like mages from video games with a mana bar… exposure to sunlight burns off my mana, and if I run out―foom! The eating, drinking, and looking lifelike thing is pretty minor, but kindasorta being able to withstand daylight is massively powerful, at least for a vampire.

  “Umm. The girls went to Nicole’s, and Sam’s upstairs with some of his friends.”

  Dad nods and heads off to poke his nose in on the boys.

  I finish off the floor and dump the bucket, then set the mop out on the deck to dry. The clear, sunny day is not comfortable, so I dash out and back in like braving the bathroom after one of Dad’s crimes against nature. In the ten seconds it takes me to lean the mop against the wall, I don’t erupt in flames.

  Cleaning done, I head back down to my awesomely cool (as in temperature) room and kill a little while on random internet searching. I wind up reading about vampire folklore and stumble on an article that claims the whole ‘sunlight destroys vampires’ mythos only started recently. It refers to a few old folkloric stories that never mention anything about daylight killing them. Some of them are pretty trippy even; they don’t involve drinking blood. More like siphoning off ‘energy’ instead. Of course, the article talks about vampires like ‘creatures of fiction.’ It kinda makes me wonder if vampires aren’t the authors of that narrative, wanting to keep everyone believing they’re made up.

  Mom gets home a few minutes to seven. I’m crushed when she doesn’t bat an eyelash at the cleaning I did, like helping out around the house is something I’m expected to do. Sigh. Oh well. She is surprised to find me awake early, and yet again, I go over the explanation. When she realizes that I’m a little closer to normal, she gets teary-eyed and grabs me in a hug. Wow, okay, maybe Aurélie has a point. I could’ve wound up a Shadow and looked like a walking corpse. Ugh. Amazing those guys don’t fling themselves into the sun and just end it.

  When she starts cooking dinner, I throw on a pair of Uggs and trot off to Nicole’s. My sisters’ friend lives like ten houses down. Nicole’s mother answers the doorbell. She kinda looks a little like that woman from the movie with the vampires fighting the werewolves. I wonder… Nah, Mrs. Pierce has been out in the day.

  “Hi.” I wave. “I’m here to collect my sisters.”

  “Oh, hey. So glad to hear it was a mistake. How are you feeling?”

  “I’m doing okay, I guess.”

  Mrs. Pierce shakes her head. “It must be so scary for you that he’s still out there. I’m worried about Nicole.”

  “Unless she starts dating Scott and dumps him, she’ll be fine.” I smirk. “And I’m not worried. He surprised me when I was too upset to see it coming. He won’t catch me off guard again, but I’m sure the cops’ll find him before I ever see him.”

  “I hope so. You got so lucky. Just can’t trust anyone I guess. He seemed like such a nice boy.” Mrs. Pierce twists back into the living room. “Sierra, Sophia? Your sister’s here.”

  “Ehh, yeah. Lucky,” I mumble.

  “Sorry.” She offers a sad smile. “I’m glad you’re okay.”

  Sierra and Sophia run up behind Mrs. Pierce and brace their hands on the wall while stepping into their shoes. Nicole and two other girls continue laughing at something in the living room.

  “Bye,” yells Sophia, waving at the archway.

  “Later,” shouts Sierra.

  They slip past Nicole’s mom, both chiming, “Bye, Mrs. Pierce,” at the same time.

  I wave at her and start back for home.

  “Are you powered up yet?” asks Sierra.

  “Hah.” Trying to fly does nothing, so I shake my head. “Nope. Still not dark.”

  “Right, so we run like hell if something happens,” says Sierra.

  I raise an eyebrow. “Are you expecting something to happen?”

  “I don’t wanna get kidnapped.” Sophia whimpers.

  “Scott’s still out there. He’s probably just going to try and kill us all now.” Sierra shrugs.

  Sophia clamps onto me, shaking.

  Great. “You know you just gave your sister nightmares for a week, right?”

  “I’m only being realistic. He wants to hurt you.” Sierra kicks a rock.

  “Don’t panic. He can’t go anywhere while the sun’s up, and most of the time we were dating, I kept complaining about how annoying you guys were.”

  They both stare at me.

  “I don’t think you’re annoying. But you guys made a good excuse for when I didn’t want to hang out with him.”

  Sierra punches me in the side. “Butthead.”

  Sophia’s still staring at me like she thinks I hate her.

  “Geez, I’m kidding.” I squeeze her. “Come on. Mom’s cooking.”

  “Okay.” Sophia looks down, glances back at me, and looks down again.

  “I mean it. You’re not annoying. I used to get frustrated at all three of you before, but… after what happened, I feel awful about that. I’m sorry.”

  Sophia lifts her head and manages a small smile.

  We make it home without an issue. Tonight, I join my family for dinner. I take a little food as a test. Mom’s meatloaf tastes a bit blander than I figure it ought to, but it goes down easy. After a moment, I start to feel sick. However, once I think about wanting to keep it down, my stomach stops tweaking out. Confident I can pretend to be normal, I savor this little time with my family. Sam and Dad chat about how he should spend his video game character’s stats. The girls try to talk Mom into a mall trip. Sophia wants a dress, and Sierra’s angling for a new PS4 game. In between when I join the conversation, I kinda feel like a spectator, but it’s cool. Not too long ago, I’d suck down my food as fast as possible so I could rush back to whatever I’d been doing before dinner. Now, this quiet time of being with my family feels like the most precious twenty minutes in the universe. And yeah, I feel strange for having that notion at eighteen, but I suppose almost dying kinda messes with priorities.

  When the sun sets, I feel it inside. In an instant, a cloying sense of meekness I didn’t even realize I had explodes into overwhelming confidence.

  “Whoa,” says Dad. “What did you just do?”

  “Awesome,” half-whispers Sam. “Your eyes just glowed.”

  I sit up straight. “Vampire is online.”

  Mom looks confused, while the sibs laugh.

  “The sun just went down,” I say. “Oh, Dad… 137 MPH, according to Mom’s phone.”

  “Nice.” He grins. />
  After dinner, the girls and I clean up the kitchen and wash dishes while Sam wipes down the table and hauls the trash out to the curb. Once cleanup is over, Dad throws on a movie and we have a family night. Eventually, the sibs go to bed and I head out in search of a meal. Doing the daylight thing has left me noticeably hungry.

  It doesn’t take me long before I spot one of my former classmates, Ian McAllister, jogging alone. Last I heard, he’s enlisted in the Army and is only going to be home for another two months before he goes off to wherever. Guess he’s required to stay in shape now. He’s tall and gangly, so it’s not like he’s got a weight issue. Maybe he does have a weight problem: not enough. Heh. I’m going to need to hover to reach his neck.

  I land behind him and catch up on foot. “Hey, Ian.”

  He glances over his shoulder at me, not breaking stride. “Hey.” Two steps later, he looks at me again and yells, “Gah!”

  “What?” I ask. “Is it my breath?”

  He stumbles to a halt, clutching his chest. “You’re dead!”

  “News to me.” I smile. “Hospital error. They got my name mixed up with some Jane Doe and called the wrong parents.”

  “Oh, shit.” He runs a hand over his newly buzzed hair. “Sorry. That’s really lame. Hope they find Scott. Real shitty what he did to you. Glad you’re, like, alive and stuff.”

  “Thanks.” I step closer and stare into his eyes.

  His expression goes vacant as I command him to blank out. Sure enough, I can’t reach his neck. And no, I’m not having short girl problems, Ian’s like seven feet tall. I float up and clamp on, sniffing at his neck until I find the sweet spot, then bite.

  My eyebrows flatten into a line of disbelief at the flavor of his blood.

  Mac & cheese? Really?

  After drinking my fill, I close the bite and change his memory of our meeting into my walking by the other way and us having a short conversation about not being dead. I leave him standing there confused and decide to walk, enjoying the night air.