by Elle A. Rose
***
When the pins and needles finally stopped assaulting every part of my body, and my muscles no longer felt like they were being shredded, I was finally able to see straight. The first thing I did was examine my surroundings. We were still in the cave. Unlike when I first entered the cave, I could see. I saw everything. I never would have guessed I was missing so much. My eyes roamed the cavern, and landed on the fire that had warmed me. I now was able to see all the little twigs and branches that kept the fire going. Shifting my gaze past the fire, I watched the flames dance across the wall and ceiling. There were white and brown guano dripping down the sides and onto the floor of the cave. My eyes then wandered up to find the bats all clustered together at the top of the cave. I watched the bats move around without bumping into each other, and was truly amazed by the fact that I could see them with how far away they were. I had forgotten about the others in the cave until Isaac, who was the closest to me spoke.
“Yes, your eyesight is enhanced. It will take some getting used to, but you will be surprised by how far and well you can see now. How do you feel?”
I had not taken a truly good look at Isaac, or any of the other vampires. Every feature of their bodies stood out much clearer. As they took steady breaths, I could see each and every muscle under their clothing. As Isaac helped me up, I noticed how handsome he was. He stood before me with his long black hair now pulled back into a ponytail. I stood up, and observed that his eyes were not truly black, but a very dark brown. He had a small scar over his right eye that cut deep through his eyebrows. His nose was not too long just extremely pointed at the end, and his mouth, which was now turning into a smile, had nice full lips. I twisted to look at Olivia. Her long brown hair was all over the place. It looked as if she had just walked out of a windstorm with nothing to protect her head. She was a lot skinnier than I originally thought she would have been, since she was able to carry me like a rag doll. I did not think she was more than one hundred and five pounds. Her blue eyes sparkled with a hint of gray. It was as if you were all alone on a raft in the middle of the ocean. She too had full lips, a small cleft in her chin along with a dimple that started to peek through as she smiled.
Christopher of course broke my concentration again. “Should we take it as a ‘yes’ that you are feeling all right?”
I let go of Isaac’s hand and spun fully to meet those green eyes head on. I was expecting to see a frown on Christopher’s face. Instead, he had a huge grin. His emerald green eyes glittered in the fire’s light. His nose was just a little off centered, but it fit his face well. His lips were not as full as the other two. Although, they were in a very tight grin, which I believed he was trying to hold back a smile. His freckles added life to his face. Our eyes met and I nodded before speaking. “Yes, I do think I am all right. I do not know what all right is supposed to feel like, but for right now, I will say yes. Do you hear that noise? It sounds like thousands of little thumping feet.”
The three vampires laughed at me, and Christopher came a little closer.
“A few minutes ago there were thousands of little thumpings and one big thump. Now there are just the little ones. It is coming from the heart beats of the bats that are over us.”
I looked at him confused. “What was the big thump?”
Amused with my response, he laughed again.
“It was your heartbeat, silly. Remember, now that you have changed, your heart is beating much slower. I am sure you hear yours and the rest of ours too, but the bats’ heart beat is much faster and stronger than ours.”
I closed my eyes and let the noises around me flood my senses. The beating of the bats’ hearts, along with the rustling of their wings registered in my ears as little thumps. My attention was once again drawn to the noise above my head. Something about that sound made my mouth ache. The whole room seemed to close in on me. All I could hear was the pounding in my ears. Isaac put his hand on my shoulder, and without taking my eyes off of the creatures wrecking havoc on my whole body I said, “How do we get those down from there?”
4
Learning to Cope
After convincing me there were tastier things outside of the cave, I spent more than four hours eating everything in sight that moved. When I was certain I could ingest no more, I stumbled into the clearing to find the others. We were still in the woods, not far from the cave we previously occupied. The woods are beautiful in the fall. I could see every leaf on every tree. I loved the way the leaves on the ground moved as the wind blew them past me. The typical sounds a human can hear were magnified. There was a harmony of rushing water that flowed down the nearby river, along with the animals that scurried across the forest floor, all harmonizing with the gentle breeze, that softly brushed the trees and bushes around us. I thought fall was pretty before my transformation, but looking at all the vibrant colors, and seeing how they all blended together left me speechless. It was still dark out, but I could see everything so clearly. It seemed like I was standing in one of those pictures I had seen when I used to go with Mother to the bigger town’s markets once a year.
Thoughts of Mother brought my attention back to the present. I turned to face the others. “I will never be able to see my family or friends again, will I?” Olivia was on my right side. I found it odd how she did not seem to move as quickly as she did a few hours ago.
She came to stand next to me and spoke. “We do not think it is wise for you to go home. How will you explain what has happened to you? Will you be able to control your need to hunt? If you thought the bats would have made a good meal, you will not make it within fifty feet of your village before you are craving the blood of every person in the area. Do you realize that you have wiped out six rabbits, four elks, eight deer, and three foxes? I have never seen a vampire consume so much in one sitting. It is evident your appetite would have been satisfied a little faster with human blood, unfortunately there were none around to feed from.”
I was stunned by the count. Had I really consumed that much? Why was it all a blur to me? I walked slowly over and sat on a huge rock in the clearing where we came to rest.
Christopher walked over to me, and nudged me with his hip. “It was pretty neat the way you drew the animals to you. I enjoyed watching that more than finding my own food. Besides if you keep up eating like that, you will make me look good!”
He slapped his hand on his thigh and laughed. “I thought I had an eating and control problem.”
I looked up not comprehending what he meant. “What do you mean? How did I draw the animals toward me?”
Christopher stopped laughing. “Did you not realize the animals were not running from you? Most of them walked right into your grasp or just did not move at all when you approached. You know, it is not normal? Well at least for the rest of us, it is not.”
I had not noticed any of that. I shook my head a looked at the ground. Between the amazement of my new senses, my huge appetite, and the longing for my family, I could only sit there. Despite the noise in the wood there still seemed to be a vast silence encasing me.
I was not able to stay within my entombed silence for long. The scent of the warm blood was calling to me again. This went on every hour for the next few months. It hurt so much to leave my home without having a chance to say goodbye to my family. I understood, but it did not comfort me to think that we would never see each other again. In the first few days, I told myself I would get my blood lust under control to get close enough to see my family. Even if I could not talk to them, it would make some of the pain go away to at least see they were doing well. My new friends thought I had lost my mind. They said that it would just be best to forget about my past life, like they did.
“The pain will go away, it always does,” Isaac told me.
We were leaving Pennsylvania heading toward their home, my new home. I knew they were right, and I should start thinking of them as my new family, but it was just so hard to leave my old life behind.
&nb
sp; During our trip to Virginia, we moved slower than the others would have liked to travel, however, we needed to stay far away from towns and villages with my eating habits. Along the way, we quickly learned I possessed other abilities. One day, while passing through Maryland I was having a mental battle with myself. I kept telling myself I should go back home and everything would be fine. I was chanting this over and over again until I heard Olivia say.
“Enough, already! Can you keep it to yourself?”
I stopped in my tracks. I was a little ways behind the group. They heard me stop and all turned around. “Sorry I thought I was keeping my thoughts to myself. I did not know I was speaking out loud.” My sight immediately dropped to the ground. I was embarrassed; I did not want my new friends to be upset with me. There was a soft movement and I knew Christopher had come to stand by me.
He gently lifted my hand and brought it to his lips. “I wonder if she is just hungry again.”
I snatched my hand away from him. When I looked up from the ground, I saw a shocked look on his face. “I am not hungry again,” I snapped. “I would have said I needed to stop if I was.” That slipped from my lips with a snarl. I did not know I could snarl, but cataloged that for later processing. I was annoyed with Christopher, I thought about more than food. At that moment, all I could think of was my family.
Christopher and Olivia looked confused.
Olivia walked back toward me. “Amber, what are you talking about? No one said you were hungry.”
Isaac started to laugh. “I am surprised I did not pick up on this before now.”
We all turned to look at him, waiting for him to explain.
“She is not only reading our thoughts, but she is also projecting hers telepathically as well. I thought I was hearing an echo for a while. Now I understand. Amber was not only thinking she wanted to go home, but she was also sending the same message out for all of us to hear. I believe she is becoming more attuned to her abilities. That explains why she was able to understand what you and Christopher were also thinking, Livia.”
Christopher of course had the first response to that.
“Are you trying to tell me that not only can she subdue an animal and possibly a human, but she can also read and communicate telepathically? How did she end up with so many abilities? She did not even want to be one of us. She does not even consider herself a vampire, like us!”
In the past few days, I had seen Christopher’s mood go all over the place, but this was different. I backed away from him. Those green eyes of his had taken on a red tint. I did not want to be anywhere near whatever was about to happen. It felt like something was pushing at my brain. I crouched down and put my head between my knees. I pictured myself pushing back at whatever was making my head so uncomfortable. I heard Isaac gasp just before hearing a swooshing, loud thud, like a boulder hitting a tree. I looked up and saw Christopher almost eighty feet away from me, lying on top of a broken tree stump.
Olivia and Isaac moved toward him to help him up. Before they got there, Christopher was on his feet and racing toward me. I wondered what happened. Everything began to swirl around me. I could hear Olivia, Isaac, and Christopher all talking at once, although, their lips never moved. I did not know what to do. I cringed and waited for the impact of Christopher’s body.
I heard Isaac cry out loud, “Christopher, No!” but it was too late.
A scream pierced my ears, and I did not realize it was my own, until I felt Olivia grab and shake me. I opened my eyes to check to see if my body was still intact. After seeing I was untouched, I looked around. Three more trees had fallen with Christopher stuck in the middle of one of them. Isaac was attempting to help him out. I believe I heard him say, “I wager you will not do that again.”
I was not positive if he thought or said those words out loud. I did notice Christopher give him a dirty glare. Once Christopher was out of the tree, he and Isaac began pulling splinters from his body. I decided that it was best not to help, and to stay where I was. I was still confused on what happened. Was I the cause of all of this damage?
Isaac answered my thoughts. “Yes, you were. Livia, can you please explain what we just witnessed.”
Olivia took a deep breath and tried to explain all the commotion. “I do not know if I fully understand it. From what I saw, you must have felt the anger build up in Christopher. Before he was able to move, I think you pushed him with your thoughts. That is how the first tree was knocked over. When Christopher got up and started to charge, I think something inside of you snapped. You shielded your body, and somehow your mind gripped Christopher’s body and you began to fling him around. In the process, he hit two more trees before becoming embedded in the last tree. That is when I grabbed your arm and shook you. We attempted to call your name, but between your screams, which by the way were deafening, and some mental block you had up, it was hard to reach you.”
I looked at her, and then back at Christopher and Isaac, they were done removing the splinters. “I am sorry, I…I did not mean to hurt you.” That is when I noticed that all the scrapes, cuts, and holes on Christopher’s body had healed. “How did you do that? You were just all bloody a few seconds ago.” I decided not to mention the smell, it was not awful, but it was nothing that I wanted to sink my teeth into. Isaac stepped away from Christopher and started walking toward us.
“As vampires, we heal a lot faster than humans. We can be hurt as you see, but most wounds heal rather quickly.”
I brought my hands up to eye level. Once again I was stunned by my body. I was slowly seeing my life in a whole new light. “Can we die? I mean, do vampires die?”
Isaac had come to rest next to Olivia. I watched as he looked her over to make sure she was not hurt. “Yes, vampires die. It is not easy, but we do die.”
I found that hard to believe with how fast Christopher healed. “How?”
I sensed my questions were starting to annoy Isaac, but like always, he answered. “Like I said, it is not easy. There are only two ways that have been proven to work. The first and probably the easiest is a sharp object like a spear through the heart. The spear must be on fire though. If you are stabbed by anything and it is not lit on fire, it will hurt like hell, but it will not kill you. The second way is decapitation and leaving the head and body out in the sun. Have you noticed we are weaker and slower moving during the day than at night?”
I thought about that for a minute, and truthfully I had not noticed a difference. I felt the same. I just figured we moved slower during the day because we did not want to be noticed by the humans.
Isaac chuckled. “With the way things are going for you, I am not surprised the sun is not affecting you. Besides, look what you just did to those poor trees.”
In the distance, I heard Christopher mutter a word I had never heard before. It was not the first word I had heard from him in the last few minutes. He was not happy with me. I drew my attention back to Isaac and Olivia, who were now holding hands. I tilted my head and smiled “Can we eat? I am starving.”