Who is Audrey Wickersham?

by Sara Shrieves

  “Kirk I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to…” I didn’t know what to say really. Had I hurt his feelings? Made him mad? Embarrassed him?

  “It’s fine. Just don’t ask me about that stuff again, okay?” He turned back around and looked at me, giving me his warm smile, “I mean ask me all the vampire stuff you want, just not-”

  “About who you killed, I got it.”

  “Right.” He nodded his head and sat back on the edge of my bed.

  “So can you fly or anything?”

  “Not as far as I know. I don’t think it would be impossible, as I get older. I think different things are supposed to come with age. Strength and speed, those are just standard. Boring, I guess.”

  “Boring? You can’t tell me you’re already bored with that kind of stuff! That’s so cool!”

  He laughed at my expression and said, “Yeah, you’re right. I guess just after a few years of having this stuff it sort of becomes second nature or whatever. You don’t think about it much after a while.”

  I thought for a moment and said, “So wait, how old are you again? We’ve known each other two years, and that whole time you’ve been a vampire, right?”

  “Yes.”

  “So you were ‘seventeen’ when we met,” I said, using air quotes around his age, “because that’s the age you were when you were changed. But when we met, you said you were fifteen. I was thirteen. Sooo…ugh.” I put my head in my hands and felt my brain spasm.

  “Audrey, why do you try to work out anything mathematical in your head? You know what happens.” He laughed again and got up and walked over to my door.

  “Wait,” I said from in between my hands, “Where are you going?”

  “To get you a Coke, of course. Brain power.”

  “Ha ha.” I rolled my eyes at him, and then quickly added, “But thanks.”

  He left the room and I leaned to the side and let my head rest on my stack of pillows. Stupid math.

  He came back in a moment later with the Coke and opened it up for me, “Here you go.”

  I took it gratefully and sat up and took a huge gulp, “Ahhh, much better.” I smiled at him.

  “So Audrey,” Kirk said, looking at me seriously, “I really think I should do this.”

  “Do what? Turn me? But, I haven’t even given Agnes a chance! I already told you I wanted to do that first, before I thought about doing…that. And now we have Bruce helping too!” I said this last part a little halfheartedly. Deep down I knew they probably wouldn’t find anything. It was all just talk to make everyone feel a little less helpless. I could feel Kirk’s eyes on me, waiting for me to look up at him. I sighed loudly.

  “Look can we just, I don’t know, give it a couple of days?” I began speaking faster at his annoyed expression, “I know I don’t have a lot of time but I think two days won’t hurt me too much! Please Kirk, just understand. Besides the fact that of all the scenarios I had running through my mind about someday meeting a vampire and possibly becoming one, this was definitely not how I thought it would happen!”

  “You’ve had various fantasies about meeting a vampire and being turned into one?” He asked in an amused tone.

  “Please, any teenage girl who’s seen Interview with the Vampire has had that fantasy.” I rolled my eyes.

  Kirk smiled and shook his head. “Fine. I’ll give you two days. But if nothing happens, Audrey,” he stood up and walked directly in front of me, and stooped down so that we were at eye level, “I will come here while you’re sleeping--all helpless and vulnerable and unable to argue with me--and I will change you no matter what. Understand?”

  Okay, having Kirk this close, speaking to me this way, was messing with my sense of rational thought. Or actually, all of my senses. But the thought part was bad because I already had the whole issue with the “zombie worms slowly warping my brain” scenario. “Well…ummm…sure? I just- I don’t really-” I was sort of helplessly fluttering my hands around in my lap, not knowing what to do or say exactly, when he grabbed both of them gently and leaned forward, kissing me lightly on the lips. My mind sort of exploded with fireworks at this point, and I definitely wasn’t thinking straight anymore. All thought had drifted away and the only thing in my mind was the wonderful sensation of his lips against mine. I realized, right before he pulled away and broke the kiss, that my eyes had been wide open the entire ten seconds that it had lasted. Yes, I counted. I am so incredibly lame.

  He sat back slightly and smiled at me. Then he realized that I was sort of in shock and he reached up and lightly shook my shoulder, “Audrey?” He laughed and leaned forward again, kissing me on the nose. “Are you okay?”

  “I…don’t know,” I answered slowly. I was blushing furiously and I didn’t want to make eye contact. I had just had my first kiss and I didn’t even know if he realized that. It’s not like we’d ever spoken about our sexual exploits--or lack thereof in my case--with each other. We kind of steered clear from that topic for the most part.

  “Did I…upset you?” He looked concerned now, as I had finally decided to meet his gaze, and I quickly shook my head no to his question.

  “I’ve just never…you know…” I gestured at my lips. If it was possible I think I blushed even harder. Could someone make a plaque maybe? For what a total loser I was at this moment? I wanted to bury my face in my pillows and never resurface.

  Realization dawned in his eyes and he sat up next to me on the bed now, putting his arm around me and giving me a hug. “I didn’t mean to embarrass you.”

  I could hear the smile in his voice. “It’s okay. I just feel like a total moron is all.”

  “You’re not a moron,” he laughed. “You’re cute.”

  “Not so cute when I become a zombie,” I mumbled under my breath. Of course the fact that he was a vampire and also that he was sitting right next to me made him perfectly capable of hearing this complaint.

  “That can be prevented, if you let me.”

  I glanced over at him and he was smiling, but he had lowered his fangs and they were the first things to grab my attention. Then my gaze slowly drifted upwards, to his solid black eyes. “Are you flirting with me right now, or trying to scare me?” I asked shrewdly, cocking my eyebrow.

  His smile grew wider and I felt a tiny flicker of fear, just for an instant, at the site of those fangs looking longer and being so close to me. He looked…hungry.

  I looked down at my lap and said, “Thank you. For being so sweet to me, I mean. With the whole,” I gestured awkwardly at my mouth again, “you know. I was always afraid I would bite the first guy I kissed.”

  He laughed loudly at that and said, “I don’t think that would be much of a problem for me.” He retracted his fangs and we were enjoying sitting side by side, with his arm around me, when my dad walked in.

  “Audrey I just wanted-” He stopped when he saw Kirk sitting next to me with his arm around me. I jumped up quickly and said, “Dad! Hey! How’s it going?” I let out a nervous laugh, which, let’s face it, may as well have been a huge sign above my head in neon lights flashing “YOUR DAUGHTER HAS JUST HAD HER FIRST KISS!”

  Kirk stood up as well, calmly, and gazed back and forth between the two of us.

  “What’s going on?” My dad asked darkly. His whole face had changed from an expression of tired, yet cheerful host, to menacing, murderous giant. He stepped slowly into the room and the space suddenly seemed incredibly small.

  “Ralph-”

  My dad cut him off with a look that would have had anyone else--anyone human I guess--running away in terror.

  Kirk started again, “Mr. Wickersham, I promise you, everything is fine. Audrey was upset and I was giving her a hug. I know it looked bad from your angle-”

  “Get out. Now.” He stared at Kirk until Kirk’s polite expression changed to a slightly embarrassed look of apology. “I don’t like being lied to.”

  “But Dad-”

  “Get him out before I do it myself.” And with that he walked back to his
room and slammed the door.

  Kirk and I looked at each other and then slowly walked out to the living room, where he said goodbye and whispered, “Two days,” in my ear, before disappearing soundlessly into the night.

  Now I had to go and deal with my dad. Great.

  Chapter 6

  Instead of going straight to his room and knocking on the door, I decided to wait and see if he would come to me. Call me a wimp, but when my dad was that angry and it was being directed at me at all, I tried to avoid him as much as I could.

  The last time I could remember him being really angry with me was a day when he had left me with Bruce. I was about nine, and I was begging Bruce to play hide and seek with me. Bruce, however, was in one of his diva moods and didn’t want to “damage the façade”--as he phrased it--with anything like sweat, or dirt…or whatever. So I had decided to just go ahead and hide, and figured he would have to come and find me eventually.

  The spot I ended up choosing to hide was this old shed that my dad had taken apart and left in the garage. There was still a good chunk of it left to hide in though, and it was shoved into the back corner, where I knew Bruce wouldn’t think to look, considering the dirt factor and everything.

  I sort of crammed myself into the thing and ended up waiting for what felt like hours, but in kid time was really only twenty to thirty minutes. So naturally, I fell asleep. When I woke up, everything still appeared to be the same, except that it was dark outside. Bruce had never found me! I was totally shocked by this. I strolled back into the house, ready to gloat my little head off, when I saw two cops in the kitchen, talking to my dad. At first I thought something must have happened to Bruce, and that’s why he never found me. I was about two seconds away from an open-mouthed wail (the kind you only seem capable of as a child) when my dad suddenly noticed me standing behind the cops and his eyes popped open wide and he rushed over to me, lifting me up and squeezing me incredibly tight. I was seriously lacking air when he finally set me back down. He turned to the cops and said, “This is her. She’s back.” Then he turned back towards me and with his patented look of death asked, “Audrey, what happened? Bruce said you just ran off, and he couldn’t find you! Then he called me and we’ve been searching for you for hours. Are you okay?” And before I could even respond he asked, “What were you thinking?”

  Everything was cleared up with the cops after that and I was sent to time-out. No T.V. or anything. This came after a ten minute lecture about responsibility. I was nine. Sheesh.

  I guess that wasn’t as bad as how angry he might be now, because of a boy and everything…but I knew I was about to find out because I heard his door open down the hall and he called out, “Audrey?”

  “Yeah Dad, I’m in the living room. Not with Kirk.” I shook my head and waited.

  He was quiet and I didn’t hear anything for a few seconds. “Dad? That means you can come out here now.”

  “I know,” he said from directly behind me.

  I jumped a little and said, “Geez Dad! How do you do that? You’re so quiet.”

  He shrugged his shoulders and came around and sat down on the couch with me. I turned and faced him and said, “Dad look, what you saw… It was just a hug! Really.”

  He stared at me, unblinkingly, until I began to squirm uncomfortably and I blurted out, “Okay fine he kissed me! Alright?” I folded my arms across my chest and turned away from him. “I don’t even get a moment to enjoy it. Now I have to get in trouble,” I said quietly, pouting.

  “You’re not in trouble.”

  I looked at his face and then said, “Ha! I know that look. You’re going to ground me or something for getting my first kiss!” I started blushing again at this last sentence and I looked anywhere in the room but him.

  I heard him sigh and he reached out and touched my shoulder, “Audrey, you are not grounded. I’m not going to ground you when we don’t have a lot of time… Well, you know. I think what’s happening to you right now is punishment enough. Don’t you?”

  I looked at him from the corner of my eye and said skeptically, “Really?”

  He laughed and said, “Yes, really.”

  I lifted my head up and smiled at him, feeling much better, when he suddenly ruined that by saying, “It’s Kirk who’s in trouble.”

  “Wait, what? Why? Dad he’s never done anything before! And when you came in, he really was just hugging me! I told him about…the zombie stuff.” I muttered this last part quietly because my dad’s look had gone all stony and hard.

  “Why did you tell him?”

  “He’s my friend! And he kind of just, knew something was odd.”

  “What do you mean? How did he know something was odd?”

  “I don’t know! Okay? I’m in pain right now because my head is starting to bug me and I’m just really tired. I think I’m just going to go to bed, especially if you’re going to be angry about my friend wanting to comfort me.”

  “Audrey, don’t push it. I know what he wants to do, and it isn’t comforting to me at all.”

  “Dad nothing has ever happened between us!” I yelled, turning towards him. “He’s never even made a move on me, or made me think he would even care about me like that. And this is really embarrassing to talk about with you!”

  “I am just worried. And I have every right to be. It’s just you and me, kiddo. And now with everything…” He trailed off and zoned out for a minute. I let him think as I sat there, trying not to concentrate on the increasing pain in my head.

  “I want you to be happy as much as you can right now. You just need to tell me everything so I don’t get surprised again, okay?”

  “Sure Dad, that sounds…great actually.” I smiled, starting to get up.

  “Wait,” he said.

  I sat back down and looked at him.

  “That doesn’t mean you two can…you know. Make progress.”

  “Oh, eww Dad! Yuck! Seriously gross. How could you even think that?”

  “Because I’m not an idiot. When he comes over again, you two are out here the entire time.”

  “If he comes over again.” I gave him an accusatory look and he smiled.

  “I hope I scared the shit out of him.”

  “I think you accomplished that. He raced out of here pretty quickly.” I smiled inwardly at this thought, knowing I held his secret still and I was also happy that I didn’t have to see my dad kill my best friend.

  “And next time, don’t lie to me. Okay?”

  “I’m sorry for lying. I was just so embarrassed and you and I have never really talked about that kind of stuff. It makes me feel weird, you know?”

  “Isn’t that because there’s never really been anything to discuss?”

  “Hey! I resent that. I may be a prude, but that won’t always be the case.”

  “Can we just, change the subject now, or something?” He looked like he was going to be sick.

  I laughed and said, “Yes, no problem. I’m happy to never talk about this again.”

  “Well that makes two of us.” He smiled and turned on the T.V., leaning back and putting his feet up on the coffee table. “Want to watch a movie or something? Feel normal for a little bit maybe?”

  “Oh! Yes! Let me get a snack.” I ran into the kitchen, oncoming headache momentarily forgotten, and grabbed the bag of powdered donuts, and a Coke. I also grabbed my dad his can of Poppycock, which he had hidden from me on one of the higher shelves. He always convinced himself that I was stealing his snacks or sweets from him, which of course I was.

  “Here you go,” I said, dropping the can into his lap as I came around, sitting back down on the couch.

  “Hey. How did you know where this was?” He looked at me suspiciously and then pried open the lid, looking inside to check the contents.

  “I know your hiding places when it comes to junk food. And stop looking at me like I stole some!” I laughed and curled up against the arm of the couch. Phantom leaped up a moment later and curled himself into my bent legs.
“Well as long as you’re comfortable, sir,” I said to him sarcastically.

  He looked up at me and yawned, then proceeded to fall asleep.

  “I’d say we’re all ready,” my dad said, starting the movie.

  __

  I woke up suddenly, realizing I was not in my bed. I was totally disoriented and my head was throbbing. I could feel Phantom’s warm little body pressed against my legs still. I couldn’t believe I’d been in the same position all night. It was definitely morning. The living room was bright and the neighbor was mowing his lawn, which was probably what had woken me up. I moved my legs and Phantom popped up quickly, looking at me as if I had punched him or something. “Sorry, but I have to stretch.” I moved my legs toward the floor and I groaned loudly. “Man, this sucks.” It felt like I had been hit with a sledge hammer over the head, and now my whole body was sore. I got up slowly and headed towards the shower, hoping that would help me loosen up and feel better.

  “Audrey, are you hungry?” My dad called out from the kitchen.

  “Shower first.” I trudged into the bathroom and closed the door and leaned against it for a moment, thinking about Kirk’s kiss briefly. Even that couldn’t make me forget the pain I was in though. I went over to the shower and started up the water, and then I turned to the sink to brush my teeth. I looked in the mirror first and saw that I had dark brown circles ringing each of my eyes. “What the hell?” I lightly touched one of my eyes, and then it dawned on me that the hand I was using was all bandaged up. “That’s weird,” I mumbled. I began un-wrapping the bandage, wondering what I could have done. When it finally came off I saw the back of my hand, and it seemed to be normal, except…the color was off. I turned it over and opened my eyes wide in shock. What was all of this stuff? There was like, a green slime, seeping out of a huge cut in my hand! I immediately turned to the toilet and threw everything up from the night before.