The Valley

by Annie Graefnitz

  “Hello, Cami.” Jack’s softly accented voice came from nowhere.

  I looked up to see him hiding his smile behind his fist. “Jack, hi! You’re here, oh my gosh, why are you here?”

  “I came to see how you have been,” he said, sitting next to me.

  “To see how I’m doing? How are you? Aren’t you angry with me? What happened down there was my fault, if I hadn’t been so stupid—”

  He waved his finger to quiet me. “There is no need for that. What happened is in the past and it is time to move forward. He would want that, you know.”

  “I’m trying to Jack, I really am. I just feel like I’m completely out of place here now, if that makes any sense. There’s an evil out there and I want to put an end to it. I can’t pretend any longer to care who is dating who or what the next trend is. I don’t care, about any of it. It’s getting harder and harder for me to sit here and pretend like there isn’t a silent war going on. I think I might explode!”

  “I understand. You will get your chance to save the world, I promise.”

  I buried my face into my arms on the table, feeling a little foolish for telling him that. “I don’t want to save the world, Jack. I don’t know what I want to do.” I kept my face covered and hoped that he would have some words of wisdom for me. Maybe he could figure my future out for me so that I didn’t have to do it for myself. But then again, how could he help me with mine when he was still young too?

  “What are you going to do?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I mean, you’re a vampire now. What are you going to do with that?”

  He chuckled. “I do not really know that yet. I have a long time to figure it out, I think.”

  “Are you going to find Avedis?”

  “We know where he is, it is only a matter of time.”

  “Well let me know when you do it. I want to be there.”

  “I’d rather you not.”

  “Too bad. You don’t have a choice, if I’m going to own this whole vampire thing. I need to know how to use it.”

  “There is no using; it is not a super power. Vampires are very nasty creatures. We do very wicked things.”

  I lifted my head finally and stared at his boyish face. How could anything so innocent on the outside be wicked? “You said in Costa Rica that you didn’t have to feed very much. It’s like chocolate.” I mimicked.

  He looked defeated, “I was trying to spare you. I did not want you to think badly of me. And no we do not have to feed very often, but when we do, it is not a pretty moment.” His skin seemed more ashen than the last time I saw him and I wondered when the last time he had drank.

  “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to downplay it. When was the last time you drank?”

  “It’s been a while,” he grinned. A hint of red dusted his cheeks making me smile.

  “And you knew I was vampire how?”

  His chin fell and he peered at me from under his eyebrows smirking. “You really want to know?”

  “Yes.”

  “Okay. You stuck out like a, uh, bad thumb.”

  Sore thumb. But I guess I could see his point because I didn't exactly fit the description of the average local - or tourist for that matter. I arrived there with nothing but a bag and a water bottle in my hand. So obviously I was up to something and he knew it from the second he saw me coming out of the store as I searched for 'the' phone.

  “Oh,” I said, straightening my back. I wasn't going to let him know how embarrassed I still felt after remembering our initial meeting, and how obvious it now was that he was on to me from the beginning. Maybe he realized quickly that I was going to end up here, with or without him.

  “Did you know when you saw me?” I asked picking at the wood on the table, trying to be nonchalant.

  “I knew there was something about you,” he said as dark face flooded pink again. “I don't mean to offend you, but I could smell you.”

  Good, the long ride on the un-air conditioned bus had not only took a toll on my hair, but made me reek as well. Why didn't I notice that? B.O. was definitely one of my biggest pet peeves. “That's disgusting, Jack.”

  His blue eyes widened and waved his hand in the air. “No, no, no. I didn't mean you were, eh, stinky. I meant that I knew you were different because of the way you smell.” He could see that his correction wasn't any better than the first explanation and quickly added while tapping his nose. “I have a sense for others like me.”

  “So you knew I was like you because of the way I smell? That's it?”

  Frustrated, he shook his head. “No, not just that. That is how I knew you were different. It is difficult for me to explain. You were in the middle of a jungle and were untouched by mosquitoes. They avoided you because they do not like your blood. Little things like that also.”

  I wasn't buying this explanation either. He knew I was different because I hadn’t been bitten by a mosquito, what a bunch of crap.

  “Okay Jack, I believe you. You knew I was different because I stank,” I lied. “But promise me you’ll let me go with you.”

  He looked away and then stood up.

  “Jack, promise me you’ll let me go with you.” I asked, standing up next to him, fully ready to grab on if he had the sudden urge to bolt before he answered me.

  “I must go now.”

  “Jack?”

  “Yes!” he said, hugging me. “I will tell you. William was right about you. You are very stubborn.”

  “Yes I am,” I mumbled into his chest.

  He let go and stepped back. “All right, I will let you know.”

  “Thanks, that’s all I wanted. Was that so difficult? Now where are you running off to that so important?”

  “My father is waiting for me at the Inn. We have work to do. There was a fire, yes?”

  “But you just got here.” Couldn’t we hang out for a little bit?

  “Eh, There is no rest for the wicked, right?”

  I stretched as far as I could on my toes to give him another hug before he left. Something about his demeanor told me that he had no intention of telling me when he was leaving again, but I couldn’t push him into letting me go with him.

  I stepped back and watched him walk away with his hands tucked into his pockets and the hood pulled over his head like it was the day I met him. It was a major relief to know that he wasn’t angry with me and I hoped he wouldn’t mind if I just happened to stop by his house on my way home from school, even though it wasn’t even close to my house. He had no choice, if he was going to stay in this town; he was the one that needed protection this time. Fangs or not, one look at his dimple and the girls would eat him alive.