Original Stories Fan Fiction ❯ Crystal ❯ Chapter 25

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Crystal, Chapter 25:


I woke up after a few hours of fitful sleep with a mouthful of blood.  I staggered across the hall to the bathroom, wincing as light glanced across my face, and spat.  I gagged, and spat some more.  My face in the mirror was stark, my eyes the color of midnight.

Pale as I was, I felt flushed.  I leaned my head against the cool glass of the mirror.  I was burning up!  “No,” I moaned softly.  “Not here, not now.”

It was too early for Johnny to be up.  I had intended to take a quick nap and then have a long talk with my father before nightfall.  I must have only slept for an hour or two.  I peeked cautiously out the door, where light streamed in from the window at the end of the hall.  Morning.  Definitely still morning.

I closed the bathroom door, trembling, and slowly sank to the floor.  What was I going to do?  The change was happening faster than any of us had expected.  I had experienced hunger for blood for several years already, although it had been getting more intense these last few weeks.  I thought I knew what I was getting into.  How naïve of me!

The hunger pulsed through me now, a physical pain which set all my nerve endings on fire.  I had to have blood, or lose my mind.  I remembered the picture I had drawn one Christmas, years ago.  In that picture of a possible future, I had been thin to the point of emaciation because Johnny had begun the change in me and then stopped, leaving me half human and half monster.  The same thing was happening to me now.  We had pushed the point of change as far as it would go.  If I didn’t complete it soon, I would die, and so would a lot of innocent people.

I rose unsteadily to my feet, and turned on the water in the sink, splashing my face to cool down.  My teeth ached, and I remembered the blood I had woken up to.  I opened my mouth wide.  No wonder I had been bleeding!  Where my two eyeteeth had been were dark indentations, but poking through the gums were new, sharp, teeth.  I couldn’t help grinning, despite the seriousness of the situation.  Finally I was getting my vampire teeth!

Someone knocked on the door, sending a surge of hunger roaring through me.  This was bad.  I had to get out of here before I hurt somebody!  “Just a minute!” I yelled.  This bathroom had no window.

“Crystal, is that you?”

It was my dad.  “Yeah.”  I thought quickly.  “I don’t have my robe.  Can you get out of the hallway so I can go to my room?”

“All right, but hurry.”  I heard the strain in his voice as I listened for his footsteps to recede.  I couldn’t face him the way I was now.  Maybe after some blood. . . .

When he had shut the door behind him, I ran across the hall to my own room and fell onto my bed.  What was I going to do?  Need, this was definitely need I felt now, not want.  Now I understood the difference!

My teeth still ached, and I poked around with my tongue until I felt the tiny sharp points.  I needed blood, and I needed it now if I was ever going to have that talk with my father.  Throwing on a pair of jeans and a sweatshirt to protect me from whatever sun was out there, I climbed out of my narrow window, wondering briefly, if I fell now, would I still get hurt?  I didn’t want to test it, so I carefully made my way down to the narrow drive between the house and the hedge.

Grandfather had taken me to hunt deer.  Could I do it on my own?  I wasn’t sure I could control myself around human beings yet, but I had no idea how to find a deer, much less catch it and wrestle it to the ground so I could drink.  My throat ached with my need.  Sun or no sun, I had to hunt.

I crouched down behind my father’s rental car when I heard a crunching noise on the gravel in front of me.  Trapped, I panicked, my heart beating wildly.  Please don’t let anybody see me like this, I prayed.  Go away, go away, go away!

The sun beat down on me, hunger was a constant roaring in my ears, and the person in front of me kept coming closer.  I squeezed my eyes shut, like that would help me remain unseen.

“Crystal?”  The footsteps stopped.  I had almost hoped it was a stranger, although who else would be up here on the bluff?  Paul caught my arms and tried to raise me to my feet.  “Are you all right?”

I turned my head away so he couldn’t see me.  Stupid, stupid.  “Go away, please!”  I said.  “Leave me alone.”

Of course he didn’t.  “What is it?” he asked, concern in his voice.  “Do you need blood?”

I groaned and twisted in his grasp, but he wouldn’t let go and I wasn’t that strong yet.  Just the mention of blood had me sweating and hurting with need.  But the little offering from his wrist was not going to hold me over this time.  I wanted more.  I needed more.  I was afraid if I took it, I wouldn’t be able to stop.  “I can’t,” I whispered.  “You have to go now.   Please, just go.”

“Crystal.”  Paul shook me lightly.  “Look at me.  If it’s blood you need, I’m here for you.  Blood of my blood.”  He had taken to carrying a little jackknife in his pocket like I did, although it looked like I would no longer be needing mine.  The smell of blood hit me like a freight train, and against my will I turned to look at the source.  Paul flinched as he saw my face.  “Your eyes,” he whispered hoarsely.  It made me draw back, but only for a brief second.

“I’m sorry,” I gasped, and then I fastened my mouth to his wrist, using my new teeth to widen the wound.  I couldn’t get enough, and soon I abandoned his wrist for his throat.  I knocked him to the ground behind the car, and if anyone had seen us, they would have thought we were making love there in the dirt.

“Stop.”  Paul’s voice was faint, and his body made no attempt to fend me off.  But the hunger had abated, and I scrambled backwards, appalled at what I had done.    Paul looked awful.  There were bite marks all up and down his arms, on his throat—but as I watched, the marks closed, becoming merely red rashes on his ravaged body.

“Oh, Paul, I’m so sorry!  Can you stand up?”  I leaned forward to help him, and Paul drew away from me before he schooled his features and accepted my hand.  I was surprised at how much that hurt.

He was able to get to his feet with my help, although he was a bit shaky.  Orange juice, I thought.  I should get him a big glass of orange juice.  For some reason, that struck me as funny, and I started to giggle.  Then I started to cry.

“I’m all right,” Paul said.  His voice sounded gravelly, and he was far too pale.  He patted my hand.  “It’s not your fault,” he said.  “The change has started, hasn’t it?”

I nodded miserably.  I had waited all my life for this moment, and now that it had begun, it wasn’t at all like I had imagined.  “I didn’t want to hurt you,” I said in apology.

Paul waved me off.  “I’m fine.  Does Johnny know?  How can this be happening if you haven’t gone under the water yet?”

“I don’t know,” I said.  “And, no.  I woke up this way.”

Paul grinned.  “So I’m your first?  I’m honored, Miss Crystal.”

“I could have killed you!”  I didn’t think his remark was funny at all.

“But you didn’t,” he pointed out.  “And you look more like your old self.  How do you feel?”

I felt—good.  The sun no longer hurt, and the hunger no longer pulled at me like a living thing.  “All right,” I said in surprise.  “I’m okay now.”

“I think I need to lie down,” Paul said, and I could see beads of sweat on his forehead.  I draped his arm across my shoulders and helped him into the house.  I got him that glass of juice, and made him drink every drop even though he protested that he wasn’t thirsty.  Then I helped him up the stairs and made him lie down in my bed.  I felt fine now, not tired at all, even though it was daylight.

Dad!  I had forgotten all about him!  “Paul, go to sleep for a while.  I’m sorry I took so much blood.  Tonight I’ll talk to Johnny, and we’ll figure this out so it doesn’t happen again.”

Paul grabbed my arm as I moved to leave.  He stared earnestly into my eyes.  “Crystal, promise me you’ll come to me if you ever are in need like that again.”

I nodded, my throat tight.  Mine.  He would have let me kill him if it came to that.

I closed the door behind him.  Now, for my father.  The house was suspiciously quiet for this time of morning.  When Paul and I had come in, there had been no sign of Rose or Uncle Robert.  I hadn’t thought to ask Paul about it, but in retrospect, I was grateful it was Paul who had found me, and not either one of them.

I knocked on the door of my father’s room.  “Crystal?”  His voice was muffled.

“It’s me,” I said, and he opened the door.  He was still in the clothes he had worn when we put him to bed last night.  “Have you had breakfast?” I asked.

He stared at me.  “No,” he answered shortly.  “What the hell’s going on, Crystal?  How can that boy still look the same?  What did he do to me—some hallucination?  Is your mother in on it?”

He didn’t sound like he remembered that Johnny was truly a vampire, but he must on some level.  Maybe he felt safer in the light of day.  I wished it were true.  “Come on, Dad,” I said, taking his arm.  “Let’s get you something to eat, and then we can talk.”

I made him some toast and put on the kettle for tea.  Rose had a small coffee press but I didn’t know how to operate it, so he was getting tea.  If my father thought it strange that I didn’t eat along with him, he never said.

“Why did you change your mind and come here?” I asked finally.

He brushed crumbs off his shirt.  “I called your mother.  She told me if you had suggested it, then I should probably go.  I had some time, and some airline miles, so here I am.”

I smiled, careful not to reveal my new teeth.  He really did care. Maybe he was ready to learn the truth, after all.

“That kid, he’s not really, I mean, it’s impossible.”  My father shook his head.  “I don’t like that kid.”

“Dad,” I reached across the table and took his hands.  I felt in control, thanks to Paul.    “It’s true, you know it is.  Johnny is a vampire.  He’s the same now as when I was six.”

His eyes widened to hear the truth out loud.  “Then that time at Lake George—I remember now.  He—he attacked me!  I saw his teeth!  I—“  He looked at me a little desperately.  “Why didn’t I remember until now?  Why the hell are you with him?  I can’t believe your mother knows about this—she does know, doesn’t she?”

He wanted me to deny it.  He wanted me to tell him it was all a big misunderstanding, that I hadn’t been involved with a vampire since I was six years old.  I couldn’t.  I tried to explain.  “It’s because of our blood,” I started.  “There are certain people who have a special strain of blood that we share with the vampires like Johnny.  That’s why we’re in Scotland.  To find out where my blood came from and to meet the rest of the family.  People with our bloodline have always been drawn to each other.  We think that’s why you and Mom got together.  It’s why she married Kenny.  It’s why Uncle Robert married Rose.”  I hesitated.  “It’s why I’m going to marry Johnny some day.”

My father’s face closed up.  He had made up his mind that he wasn’t going to believe me, and that was that.  He tried to pull his hands away from mine and stand up.  “We’re getting out of here.  Now.  Get your things.  What’s wrong with your mother for putting ideas into your head?  You’re not getting married, not to that thing.  I don’t want to hear any more about blood.  There’s nothing wrong with my blood!”  But I could see the doubt in his eyes.  My father had been adopted.  He didn’t know who his birth parents were.

I didn’t let go of his hands, although I stood, too.  “There isn’t anything wrong with our blood,” I agreed.  “It’s just different.  Let’s go for a walk.”

I led him down to the loch, feeling the tension in the arm I held.  The sun was starting to bother me again, but I tried to ignore it like Johnny always did.  “Daddy, do you love me?” I asked.

“What’s that have to do with anything?  We’re wasting time.”  He eyed the sky nervously, having, I’m sure, seen the same vampire movies we all had grown up on.  He wasn’t wrong about that, but it was still too early.  “Of course I love you!” he snapped, when I waited for his reply.

“Then I have to show you something.”  I made sure he was sitting down, but then I let my eyes go dark and I opened my mouth so he could see my teeth.  I was inordinately proud of those teeth, although as yet they weren’t full grown.  “I’m one of them,” I said solemnly.  It wasn’t quite true yet, but close enough.

He fell back, scrabbling away from me in the sand.  This time, I expected it, and it didn’t hurt.  He had every right to be frightened of me.  I waited patiently for him to come to terms with my revelation, and after a little while, he did.  He sat up, stared hard at me, and in a shaky voice, he asked, “You drink blood?”

“Yeah.”  The hunger, which had faded after I had taken so much blood from Paul, was back.  The sun was sapping my strength, and I would need to either get out of it, or replenish the blood in my system.  But I wasn’t quite a vampire yet.  The sun didn’t rule me.  I was still human enough.  Johnny said any of us could overcome the cravings—we were all human underneath it all.  I hoped he was right.

His shoulders sagged, and all the fight went out of him.  “What do you want me to do?”

I moved closer to him, pleased when he didn’t recoil from me.  “Talk to Johnny and the others,” I said softly.  “You are family—safe.”  I stressed that, feeling guilty that Paul hadn’t been safe from me, and he should have been.  I had a lot to learn about control.  “You have the family bloodline, but we’re not sure which branch.  Your bloodline, mixed with Mom’s, made me what I am.”

He started at that, and looked at me with wide eyes, rethinking his assessment of vampires.  I had just told him I was born, not made, and here I sat, albeit very uncomfortably, in the light of day.  “All right,” he said.  “I’ll talk to them.  I still don’t like that kid, though.”

I smiled to hear him refer to Johnny as a kid.  If only he knew, he would be even more freaked out than he already was.  “Come on, then,” I said.  “We should get some sleep before nightfall.”

I kept surprising him.  “Nightfall?” he asked, obviously confused.

I grinned ruefully.  “Yeah, our vampire cousins like to sleep in,” I explained.

Now I regretted offering my room to Paul.  Where was I going to sleep for the next few hours?  I was hoping to catch Johnny alone, as he was an early riser, and maybe go hunting with him before the others got here.  Already, I was feeling on the edge of control.  “Lock your door, Dad,” I said, as I walked him to his room.

Paul was pulling on his shoes as I cautiously opened the door to my room.  “Still okay?” he asked, taking in my haggard face.  I wondered what color my eyes were.

“Tired,” I said.  I was glad he was getting up so I could have my bed back.  I fell into bed, and let Paul tuck the covers in around me.  “You should rest more, too,” I said sleepily.

“I will,” he promised with a smile.  “I’ve got to go in to town for a while first, so I’ll take another nap at Michael’s.   Annie and the baby are still at hospital.”

“Hospital?  Baby?”  I sat up.  “Annie had the baby?”  So that’s where Uncle Robert and Rose had gone.  This would be their first grandchild.  “I didn’t know.”

Paul grinned.  “You were a bit busy,” he said.  “I’ll give them your love.”

“Okay,” I yawned and lay back down.  Tonight would be time enough to deal with my impending life change and my father’s interview with his newfound vampire relatives.  I was so tired even the hunger for blood took a back seat to my need for sleep.  A baby, I thought, as my eyes closed, and I fell asleep smiling.     
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