Vampire Vocab

“Oh my god, Diana! Your outfit is ah-mazing!” shouted Kiara as I opened the door to step into her house.

“Thanks! You look great, too.” I was practically bowled over by the overwhelming smell of chlorine as the other guests of the pool party came over to admire the shimmery, aqua-marine pool coverup that I was wearing. They pulled me after them toward the pool, coaxing me to jump in with them.

“I-I can’t,” I said, stuttering as I am prone to right before I tell a lie. “I’m afraid of the water!” Half-truth. I wasn’t afraid of the water, rather of what would happen if I entered it. “I’ll just stay on the pool chairs.” My companions cast me sympathetic looks, then, heaving a cumulative shrug seemingly, they resumed their previous activities. I sat quietly, daydreaming about the warm sea and the silence it brought to my strained mind.I watched them, squealing and giggling when splashed, so happy and carefree. I didn’t want to, but I also felt a rush of bitterness. They would never know what it was like to watch the centuries pass them by, people they loved growing old and dying as they looked on helplessly. They would never suffer the realization that they had truly made a deal with the devil, and since that point had never, and would never be human. The greatest secrets they had to keep were who their crushes were. Lucky. No, not lucky, smart. Unlike me.

“Hey,” came Kiara’s soft voice from beside me. I glanced up, startled. “Is something wrong? I’ve been calling you for five minutes. It’s starting to rain, but you were just sitting here with a really sad look on your face.”

“I…no, I’m fine, really. I was just lost in thought.” Another half-truth. Lost in thought, yes. Fine, no, and I haven’t been since my sixteenth birthday, when I made the deal that would destroy my life. Of all the people, Kiara was the one I hated lying to the most. She had been my friend since we met, and tolerated all my “weirdness” with supernatural patience. I was snapped out of my reverie when she rounded on me.

“I don’t believe that. You’ve been weird ever since I said I was having a pool party. What’s the real problem? Is it a guy?” She is also very frank, if off-base on this one thing.

“No, it’s not a guy. And what do you mean by ‘weird’? Weirder than usual, you mean?” I said jokingly, trying to get her off-topic. No such luck. The girl had a mind like a steel trap.

“Hmmm…I’m not done with you, but we need to go have cake with the others. You can’t avoid me forever!” She pointed a finger mock-threateningly at me. I screamed, clutching my heart, over-dramatizing until we were both convulsed with giggles. Still laughing, I headed inside, abruptly halting when I sensed a darkening in the air. How to explain it? Have you ever come across an electrical wire that was severed by a hurricane and known instinctively that it would start a forest fire if left unattended? Or discovered that a flammable gas had leaked into the room, just as someone lights a match? It was a sense of hideous foreboding and inevitability, but I seemed to be the only one aware of it. I felt the change when it came, shivers running repeatedly down my spine. Kiara turned towards me her mouth open as if to ask me something, when her eyes took on a glazed expression and she turned silently away as if she had forgotten my existence. I walked through the throngs of people but even if I tapped their shoulder, or called their name they seemed to not see or hear me. The doorbell rang, but only I seemed aware of it. I waited until the final reverberations left the room, listening for another ring. Then it came, tolling like the church bells on Sunday morning. Looking around myself once more, I answered it. Three people, who though dressed in contemporary clothing, reeked of ancient evil and seemed to pull shadows around themselves like a cover hog pulls the blankets. Not a good sign, to state the obvious.

“Who are you and what do you want? You don’t exactly look like pool party guests,” I said, pleased at the fact that my voice didn’t quaver.

“We’re coming back…Be ready or die…” Three hissing voices responded.

“Be ready or die?! What does that mean? Get your shadowy butts back here and answer me!”

I was met only with the faintest semblance of ghostly chuckles, and I spun around, infuriated. It seemed that now the people who had ignored me when under the temporary spell were now focused on one point, me, with identical “she’s crazy” expressions. Kiara broke the silence with her no-nonsense voice.

“Diana, mind talking to me for just a sec?” The casual tone didn’t fool me, she meant business. She hauled me off to her room, threw me down on the bed and uttered one word.

“Spill”

I replied, “There’s nothing to spill, I-I must have imagined something that wasn’t there.” I had been grasping at straws and as her face progressed from skeptical to very concerned, I knew I had picked the wrong excuse. Very carefully and gently she began to speak in the soothing tones one would use to address a frightened animal…or a deranged person.

” I know school life is hard for you, and living in an orphanage must be very difficult, but maybe you should consider–” I was saved from the agonizingly sympathetic speech when a sharp scream cut Kiara off. We ran out of the room to see with horror that the  screamer’s face was slowly graying, hardening as her now cold lifeless eyes continued to gaze forward with terror forevermore.  I glanced at the offending object, and froze at what I saw. The others began to move forward to see as well, but I held out a hand.

“No! Unless you want to end like Kelsey, don’t look!” I said as I hesitantly walked toward the bear. It was huge, dark hair matted with dark dried blood. Its head had been severed and staked on the end of Kiara’s banister, mouth open with an expression that would be comical had it not been so gruesome. Through the heart of the body was a long knife, almost a small sword, with a note attached.

“Little Bears should not hide from their families,” it read. “nor should they pretend to be a house cats!” Though the words seemed harmless, they held more malice than anything else I’d ever heard. Only my mother ever called me “little bear”, and she had died the day of the…incident. I didn’t know who knew that name, but they must know more about me than I’d ever told anyone.

“Be ready or Die”

I understood now.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 17th, 2009 at 8:24 pm and is filed under Writing.
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