Nightmare's Daughter

by Aurora Smith

  “BORING? What are you talking about?” I closed my eyes, trying to remember how it felt in my dreams to have his hands on my arms and have him tell me he would follow me anywhere. “He has that French accent!”

  “Have you ever talked to him before?” She asked me, her serious face on.

  “Not directly…” I trailed off.

  “I have. And he’s an idiot. If you were to tell him the sky was purple he would agree. And if he shook his big head then you would hear his brain squishing against his skull. I don’t think it’s a language barrier, either.”

  “No. It’s just because you make men nervous.”

  “Maya, seriously. It has nothing to do with that. He’s just dumb. He has pretty boy syndrome. He never had to develop any kind of personality because he’s so good looking.”

  “I thought only girls got that.” I snickered.

  “No, it’s human nature, the prettier - the stupider.”

  We both laughed and I didn’t believe a word of it. Christina was about as pretty as they came and she wasn’t dumb.

  We walked into homeroom, following stupid Justin and sniggering as we sat down in our seats. Christina put her face into a magazine as Danny, the crayon hording nine-year-old-turned-seventeen came over to talk to her like he did every single morning. I, the lame third wheel, sat next to them awkwardly listening to Danny tell Christina how awesome she was. I put my finger down my throat behind Danny’s back, Christina pinching her lips closed, trying not to laugh at the poor sap who didn’t realize he had been sirened all those years ago.

  I looked around, suddenly bored by Christina’s boy troubles. There was Justin, sitting three chairs ahead of me and one row to my left. I liked him sitting in front of me, that way I could look at him without giving away what a stalker I was. What I wouldn’t give to spend ten minutes alone with him. If he gave me a chance I’m sure he’d fall helplessly in love with me. I mean the looks-decent-wagon didn’t completely pass me by, and I was kind of hilarious. The jerk would be lucky to get me! Too bad I was destined to be the queen of night time terrors. If I had Christina’s abilities to get whomever I pleased then Justin would be my lost puppy.

  This had been his first year at Madison high. I would have felt bad for anyone who had to move their sophomore year, especially from someplace as amazing as France, but it didn’t seem to affect him. He seemed almost absurdly happy to make new friends and he was a natural at it. There was something about him, though. Not just his looks, something was familiar. Christina said she felt the same but she brushed it off as nothing more than him looking so cookie cutter gorgeous that we’ve seen it all before. I didn’t know, or care, to be honest. I knew that someone like him would never, ever notice little ol’ me. Even if he knew I had some kind of cosmic power. But, no matter. Two more days after today Christina and I would be at camp. Two whole months with old friends and we would be participating in the most amazing pranks invented by other-worldly kids. We would get a break and get to be kids.

  ***

  “Did you pack your toothbrush?” my dad asked me as I shuffled past him, my big red and black polka-dot suitcase behind me, full to the brim.

  “Yup!” I said excitedly, jumping on my heels and smiling at him.

  “Good.” He winked at me.

  “Listen. I don’t want any calls from Mr. Torricelli this year!” my little mom said to me from behind the open refrigerator door. Her face was peering at me, her tip toes under the fridge door were all that was showing. She came out with an arm full of different kinds of veggies and fruits for me to take on the bus trip. She was so sweet the way she took good care of me. I never told her, of course, that Christina and I ditched her food at the first gas station the bus stopped at to get Sour Patch Kids, Doritos, and Diet Coke.

  “M’kay, mom. I’ll be good this year,” I said as she huffed a “yeah right” at me.

  “Tell ol’ Tortellini that I said ‘Hi,’” my dad said, sipping his coffee with a far off, nostalgic look on his face. He had been a bit of a trouble maker at camp as well and of course I had been accused of being just like him.

  “Please don’t encourage her!” Mom hissed. Her irritation with the two of us was overwhelming her ability to pretend she didn’t accidently marry the Boogie Man and bear his child. Things happen, what can you do?

  “Sorry, Babe,” he reached out and engulfed her tiny frame I’d inherited into his arms. I rolled my eyes, outwardly disgusted by my parents constant and inappropriate PDA but inwardly longing for the same for myself. After the longest parental kiss, they both turned to me; sudden sadness that I was leaving etched their faces.

  “Yeah, yeah, I’m going to miss you, too.” I said. I was saved from having to get to mushy by a honk that came from a bus that was outside on the street in front of our house. “Love youuuu!” I sang as I hugged them both, received my fruit and dashed out the door with my suitcase rolling behind me and a pillow under my arm. I probably looked like William Wallace screaming ‘freeedoooom’ as I ran to the big white bus that held Christina and a few less mentionable, but still awesome friends of ours, all of us excited to be done with another year of school.

  The air outside was thick and soupy, the typical New York day acting as expected. The cold, stale bus air was welcoming and refreshing. It smelled amazing, too. Homemade cookies and clean hair, freshly shampooed swirled with the air conditioning. It was a much different smell that filled the air when we were all coming back home from spending eight weeks in the wilderness. Our main source of getting clean was from swimming in the lake.

  I spotted Christina right away; she sat in the back of the bus, her usually grumpy pre-ten A.M. face looking unusually chipper.

  “Hey, Girl.” Vanessa, a very pale Dracula descendant greeted me with her hand raised as I walked down the aisle towards them.

  “Hi!” I said excitedly. Christina moved over for me so that I could sit next to her in the powered blue bucket seat. I was sitting in the middle of a small group, all of them turning their bodies to face Christina and me.

  Like I mentioned, Vanessa my vampire friend was there and sitting next to her was her cousin, Randy. He happened to be a werewolf. I know what you’re thinking. “Vampires and werewolves? Sworn enemies since the beginning of time, as cousins?” Well a few centuries ago a vampire and a werewolf went all Romeo and Juliet on their families. (Except without the dying, and they were in their mid-twenties, not pre-pubescent teens.) They made little hybrids. Some fell in love with vampires and some with werewolves and some with common, everyday humans. This eventually made their blood a bit more one than the other but they will forever-more remain a family. Randy and Vanessa were good friends, too. Vanessa was a direct decedent from Dracula himself, while Randy’s abilities just showed up out of the blue one day. With digging they found that he was a part of the great “werepire” love scandal. And when you found family you stuck to them like poo on Velcro. Our parents were only allowed to have one child. It wasn’t some kind of strange law where one had to hide their accidental second child or anything it was more like the laws of super natural nature. Our parents had to pass on their lineage, and they got one shot. That’s why Bigfoot only had three generations to his name.

  His great grandson was a real idiot. He decided to join the circus and fell in love with the bearded lady. They got married and the circus master found them running away together. He shot them both dead right there because if he couldn’t have them and their offspring then no one else could.

  True story.

  Next to Randy was Dominic, an ancient, honest to goodness, arrow flinging elf. He was tall and had dark black hair and pretty teal eyes. His ears were a little pointed, but not very much. After years and years of elves having children with humans the trademark point was rounding off a bit. Which was a shame; because those pointed ears were actually sexy, if you asked me. I don’t know why he hung out with us. We were considered more of the outcast in the group of cool mythical creatures. Christina, a Siren, was
traditionally frowned upon. No one liked the idea that she could look like your greatest fantasy and get you to do whatever she wanted. There were the mutt vampire/werewolf offspring duo, you can imagine the names people came up with for them. Then there was me. Everyone gets made fun of at some point about their parents. But imagine that your father is none other than ‘The Boogie Man.’ Yeah, everyone called me the ‘Booger Lady.’

  Hilarious.

  It didn’t bother me all that much. When all was said and done I had complete access to everyone’s subconscious and they knew it. At the end of the day their teasing was minimal and for the most part in good fun. Everything is more fun when you have the last word though.

  Dominic must have had it bad for Christina to hang around with us misfits. And as far as I knew she hadn’t done anything to win his attention, so of course she was always at a loss at how to act around him. Talk about pretty person syndrome.

  Our bus started to slow down in the middle of a neighborhood that I didn’t recognize and I knew where everyone lived. There weren’t a ton of us in this town so my interested ears perked up with wonder.

  “Did someone move?” I asked the group, but my question was met with shrugs. Outside were two figures, both of them the same height but one was covered by the hood of a hoodie, which was strange because it was so hot out. The closer we got the more the two of the figures came into focus. Christina gasped, her hand was over her mouth and she looked like she couldn’t believe what she was seeing. I squinted, then felt the air escape from my lungs.

  There, at the stop light, waiting to get onto the bus was a strange, unseen boy and next to him was none other than Justin Prevot.

  Chapter Three

  What the what? Justin? Justin…

  He was getting onto the bus that took me and my mythical self and friends to a special summer camp designed especially for us. Surely he and that hooded figure behind him were in the wrong place at the wrong time. They both looked completely un-shaken by all the strange people on the bus though, or at least Justin did. I’d yet to see the boy with his hood up. He probably just figured it out and was trying to hide from the vampires and sirens. Smart.

  Christina and I slumped into our bus seat, both of us looking at each other, then looking in Justin’s direction.

  “What’s going on?” I hissed and Christina’s shoulders took on the look of a hiccupping kangaroo.

  “Do you think he’s meant to be here? Maybe he got on the wrong bus,” she said.

  “What are you two talking about?” Vanessa asked us, having the common knowledge to whisper along with us. Randy didn’t though. I blame the XY chromosomes he possessed.

  “What’s wrong with you two?!” he practically yelled. Everyone, Justin included, looked over in our direction. I started waving like a frantic flamingo, pink painted fingernails and all in his direction. Vanessa rounded her big black eyes on him and he cowered under all the feminine scrutiny.

  Once we made sure that no one (Justin) was looking in our direction, we answered him.

  “We go to school with that kid that just got on.” Christina said, her head peering out a little from our safe zone.

  “My mom told me that a French kid was coming this year,” Dominic said. He looked worried by the fact that Christina was freaking out about Mr. Gorgeous over there.

  “She did?” I yelped. Then it’s true. He was like us. Maybe a fairy, they were known for being perfect in every way. And that boy was definitely perfect in every way.

  “Fairy?” Christina asked, tracking with my own thoughts.

  “I don’t know, she didn’t say.” Randy said, trying to be quieter. Trying but failing.

  “Shall I ask him?” Dominic asked, looking irritated.

  “NO!” Christina and I both said, our faces going red. Mine felt numb.

  “It’s just,” Christina looked embarrassed and I could tell she wanted to explain herself to Dominic. “It’s just strange having these two worlds collide like this. I just need a minute to think.” I agreed, head bobbing.

  “You’re going to be spending all summer with him; shouldn’t we just get it over with and talk to him now?” Vanessa asked, her eyebrows going up and down.

  “Who is that with him?” Randy asked.

  “You should know. Your mom is the one who knew someone new was coming,” I said, wanting him to know everything so I didn’t have to sit here like an idiot with her head in the sand.

  “She said a French boy was new this year, I didn’t hear anything about two people,” he said.

  “You’re useless.”

  “That’s it. I’m going and talking to them,” Vanessa said.

  “NO…” Too late. She had stood up and was walking her considerably voluptuous body toward Justin and his plus one.

  We all sat in silence as we watched our traitor friend chat with the duo, her real intentions becoming obvious as the many, many minutes passed and she was still over there with no sign of coming back. I completely lost every anxious emotion I had encompassed in my tiny body and was now stewing in passionate frustration. She didn’t care who he was or about getting us answers, all she wanted was to talk to Mr. Pretty Pants. Vanessa was of Scandinavian decent (obviously) so her hair was long and a beautiful shimmering black, her skin was made of the most expensive, spotless porcelain and her body was round in all the right places. She was ridiculously pretty and I had just hand-wrapped her for Justin. I looked down at my bony hands and scowled at them. I know what you’re thinking. “She’s beautiful because she’s a vampire.” That’s not true, I’ve met some truly ugly vampires; they’re just like everyone else. I’ve met Edward Cullen, he was ok. If I had to choose one of them then I would have stolen Emmett under snotty Rosalie’s nose in a second; I dig the boys with curly hair. But I digress.

  “What are they talking about, their complete life story starting from conception?” Christina sounded more amused than annoyed. I scowled, crossed my arms, locked my legs, then looked out the window. Picture of maturity and grace. I sat like that the rest of the way to camp, my legs were going to sleep but Vanessa needed to see me like this! Right when I was about to give up, we drove around Lake Hass, the water coming into view and looking like sparkling glass and the trees surrounding it were green and full. I could already hear the happy birds chirping, welcoming cheerful campers. This put me in a better mood, at least we would be getting out soon and I would be able to separate those two. In a matter of minutes our recreation center was in view. A volleyball court was in front of the building as well as a Ping-Pong table, a horse shoe ring and a tether pole. Tether ball may be a kid game but we were cool enough to be into it. There was an ongoing match that we all had with one another; I had been the reigning champion for the last few years. The idea that I was going to be known for something and Justin was going to be hearing about it made me very happy. The bus stopped with a lurch, all of us leaning forward with gravity. Vanessa giggling loudly and Justin gave an audible chuckle in response. He had a great laugh. Vanessa was getting a verbal lashing the next time I spoke to her. She was going to be hurting, I almost felt bad for her.

  The sour faced, overweight bus driver grabbed for her bullhorn and began speaking in her irritating, belching voice.

  “Alright, kiddoes,” Christina and I were mouthing her speech along with her. “No one stand up until I say so, stand in a single file line and wait your turn. If I see ANYone cut in line you will be going back into town with me.” Everyone grumbled their consent and she nodded, pleased. We waited like we did ever year. Nothing was happening, but we were waiting, afraid that she would make good on her threat and actually take us back home to our parents.

  “Okay, form a line.” We all stood, then waited again like good kids.

  “Very good, you may begin to exit the bus now.” We started to inch forward, ready to get off of the bus and into the sunshine. And into Justin’s arms. While standing in the long line of anxious teens I peered through elbows towards Justin andVanessa. They
were still laughing, still smiling, and still flirting. I caught her eyes and I puckered my thin lips and made my eyes even wider. She waved, either trying to make up for her behavior or feigning cluelessness.

  “Hello! It’s your turn.” Our sweaty bus driver snapped at a young boy with red hair and thick glasses. I’d never seen him before, he was obviously a newbie: just turned twelve and able to come to Camp Neverwhere now. I didn’t like the way she was talking to him and I wished I was closer so that I could give our dear bus driver an evil eye.

  The little boy gave a small yelp of apology and jet toward the door, tripping on the way. Most of the bus laughed, the bus diver included. I wanted to help him but I was stuck behind a long row of people. I was about to complain until I saw that boy who got onto the bus with Justin, whose face still remained a mystery, bend down and help the portly boy up off of the floor of the bus. The laughs tapered off after that, an air of embarrassment setting in. I soaked it up, loving every moment of the awkward glances that were shooting around the bus. Suddenly the air got hot while most everyone blushed.

  One by one we all made it off of the bus, our shoes crunching against the pebbles as we trekked over to the cargo carrier where our luggage was. The air was clean and smelled like pine and fresh dirt. Yes dirt can smell clean. Other buses from surrounding towns were rolling in, their bus drivers much easier going than ours. The kids ran off the bus, everyone stepping over their friends and rushing to get their suitcases. My ladybug baggage stuck out like a cow in a chicken coop so I walked over bravely to it, hoping no one noticed me.

  “Hey, I know you!” Justin’s smooth, French accent filled the air and surrounded me. Which was impressive since we were in the great outdoors. I turned slowly…pause for effect…I had to savor this. Justin had recognized me, he was speaking to me, he…

  He was talking to Christina…

  Justin wasn’t even facing me, his back was to me and he was showering all his charm on my best friend. She looked completely flustered going from one foot to the other. I snorted with angry pleasure that she looked so ridiculous and it earned me the group’s attention.