Original Stories Fan Fiction ❯ Vampire Summer ❯ A Wasting Sickness ( Chapter 5 )

 

 

I didn't know how to make Mary and the kids go home. I tried. After what Johnny did to me I was terrified that he would come and murder them all in their sleep. But he was a subtle vampire. He settled for killing them slowly.

 

He met the kids on the way up from the beach and walked home with them. He was like the Pied Piper, the way they flocked around him. I followed behind, panicking every time one of the kids touched his arm or leaned towards him. Karen picked daisies from the side of the road and handed them to Johnny with a big smile. He left when we got to the cottage, only to return later, after supper, playing with the children until bedtime.

 

Karen wouldn't wake up the following morning. Her mother felt her forehead for signs of a fever, but I knew it was Johnny. His eyes would follow the children hungrily as they played games or watched TV in the evenings. One by one, they all succumbed. They would wake up tired, weak and sick to their stomachs. All except Crystal. She remained untouched.

 

But Mary wouldn't hear of going home. “It's just a summer bug,” she said to explain the childrens' weakness. “Nothing to worry about.”

 

Mary liked Johnny. She thought he was harmless and a good distraction for the kids. She invited him over for dinner the next night. We had stayed in because it rained all day long, and right around dusk Mary happened to glance out of the window and see Johnny walking past the cottage. The kids all crowded around the window and started waving to him. “Johnny! Johnny!”

 

Mary opened the front door and called out to him. “Why don't you come on over and dry off a little? We're just about to have supper.”

 

Johnny came right in and made himself at home. Only I noticed that he didn't actually eat any of the macaroni and cheese Mary served him. He sat on the rug in front of the fireplace with the other kids after supper and played cards. If I didn't know better, I would have thought he was exactly what he was pretending to be—a polite neighborhood kid who indulgently played with the younger kids since there was no one else around.

 

I kept looking for signs of his ruthless nature, but there weren't any. The kids loved him. Karen even had a little crush going. She sat next to him on the rug and hung on his every word. “I hope you'll come swimming with us tomorrow, Johnny,” she said.

 

Crystal looked up from sorting her cards. “He can't, he's a vampire,” she reminded her cousin.

 

Johnny smiled at her. “That's right,” he said, and Mary chuckled from her place on the couch, where she was reading her romance book.

 

Karen pouted, and Johnny added, “But I'll be sure to visit you again before you go home.” He caught my eye and I shuddered.

 

I had to do something. I couldn't believe I was going to do it, but I had to—I volunteered to drive Johnny `home' since it was still raining.

 

“Are you sure?” he asked me, and I know he wasn't talking about the ride offer. I nodded, and he followed me into the dark driveway.

 

“Please, please leave them alone,” I begged him. “I'm trying to get them to leave.”

 

“Try harder,” he replied, a hard edge to his voice. “I'm hungry.”

 

I stared at him in shock. Was he trying to tell me he didn't mean to harm them? “Then take my blood!” I said desperately.

 

“No. I won't kill you yet. Stop the car.”

 

We were at the cemetery. I watched him walk through the gaping iron gate and disappear among the headstones. Was he going back to his resting place? If I had been braver, I would have followed him. But I wasn't. I turned the car around and drove back down the hill.

 

Mary had put the kids to bed and was in the shower when I got back. I poured myself a glass of wine and told myself I would call Sam in the morning to take them all back. I'd send Crystal back with them, and face Johnny's wrath on my own. Yeah, that's what I would do—in the morning. I finished my wine and crawled into bed beside Crystal, snuggling against her.

 

The sun was just peeking in the bedroom window when I opened my eyes and noticed Johnny standing at the foot of our bed, watching Crystal and me. I tightened my arms protectively around my daughter, and Johnny frowned. I blinked, and he was gone. That fast.

 

He had `visited' Crystal's young cousins, as he had promised Karen and threatened me he would do. All three children were pale and listless, and again had no interest in going swimming. Mary wanted to take them to the doctor in the next town, but I suggested she go home to her own doctor instead, and she finally agreed. We called Sam, who couldn't come out until after work. I worried a little—a lot—about that, because it meant there was more of a chance Johnny would be around, and I wanted to convince Sam to take Crystal too.

 

I packed up Crystal's things and put them outside with the rest of the luggage. Sam drove up right when it started to get dark, and was startled when I begged him to take Crystal back with him too. “Is she sick too?” he asked. “I have a meeting tomorrow morning. What am I supposed to do with her?”

 

“No, she's not sick,” I murmured. “I just thought—I thought it would be nice if she went home with you, since you had to come out here early.” Go, go, just go, I thought. Hurry!

 

“All right,” Sam said. “I'll work something out with work. But I'm still keeping her for my regular weekend. You can drive up and get her this time. Sunday night?”

 

“Sure, sure,” I agreed rapidly. Just go!

 

“Johnny! Johnny!” The kids all pounded on the windows of the SUV, smiling and waving, and slowly I turned, dreading what I knew I would see behind me in the driveway.

 

Johnny walked over to the car and placed his hand, fingers spread, on the outside of the window where Crystal had both her hands pressed to the inside glass. He looked at me. “What's this?” he asked.

 

I stammered. “S-Sam came to-to take the kids home be-because they're getting sick!”

 

“Crystal isn't sick,” Johnny stated in a reasonable tone. “Why is Crystal in the car?”

 

“I was afraid sh-she would catch whatever was making everyone sick in the cottage,” I said bravely, acutely aware that I was staring at the thing that had made everyone else sick. The look that Johnny gave me frightened me. He was very, very angry with me.

 

“Get her out,” he said flatly. “Come out, Crystal.”

 

Crystal immediately scrambled to open her door.

 

“Now just a minute!” Sam stepped up, clearly irritated to see the teenage kid he disapproved of back again. But instead of taking his temper out on Johnny, Sam yelled at me. “What is that kid doing here? I thought I told you I didn't want him hanging around.”

 

By this time, not only Crystal, but Karen and the boys had gotten out of the car as well. They all crowded around Johnny, glad to see him as always. How a blood-sucking vampire could inspire such devotion in children was mind-boggling to me! They loved him even as he killed them—except for Crystal, that is. But clearly she was infatuated with Johnny, too. She tucked her hand into Johnny's, and looked up at her father. “It's ok, Dad,” she said. “Johnny's not a kid. He's a vampire.”

 

Sam's face got red, and I thought he was going to explode. But he let out all the air in his lungs in a big whoosh. “Whatever. Stay here with your mom and your vampire, then,” he said. “Everybody else, back in the car. Now.” He glared at me as he stomped around to the driver's side. “It's on your head,” he told me.

 

Mary came out of the cottage and looked curiously at Crystal standing beside Johnny. “What'd I miss?”

 

“Crystal's staying with me,” I mumbled as I gave Mary a quick hug good-bye. “Get well, all of you. I love you.” I felt my eyes fill with tears as Mary climbed into the passenger seat. Sam looked straight ahead, both hands on the steering wheel. “I'll see you next week then?” I asked in a small voice. Sam didn't reply, but waited with both hands rigidly clasped around the steering wheel until I'd stepped away from the car before he took off.

 

Johnny walked back to the house with Crystal still holding his hand, skipping along beside him. He even held the door open for me, though his eyes burned black as I squeezed by him. For the rest of the evening he ignored me and watched TV with Crystal. I watched him watch her, and realized that he loved the same things about her that I did—her openness, her perpetual smile, her ability to adapt to any situation without resentment, without judgment. She had accepted Johnny from the moment she met him. She accepted her father, grouchiness and all. She accepted that her cousins wanted to be around Johnny too. She never resented them for it, or tried to keep her new friend to herself.

 

I closed my eyes and thought about all the wonderful things I wanted for my daughter. A future. A loving husband, kids, all the things I had always wanted. Looking at her now, on the floor with her vampire playmate, I wondered if she wanted those things, too. In my mind I tried to picture her as a young woman lurking around graveyards and drinking blood from unsuspecting children. I couldn't even imagine it. Not my Crystal. She was too nice, too good.

 

When I opened my eyes, it was to Johnny's face inches away from my own. Crystal had fallen asleep and Johnny had carried her into my bedroom where she had been sleeping ever since Mary had taken over the front bedroom. He didn't touch me, but his lips were drawn back exposing his long teeth, and his eyes were filled with rage. I threw myself sideways to escape him, only to find myself locked within the circle of his two arms on either side of me on the couch.

 

“That was very bad of you,” he said, his voice husky with anger, or need. Threads of saliva coated the sharp points of his elongated teeth, I noted with the clarity usually reserved for near-death experiences. “I warned you.”

 

He seemed very close to losing control. Every other time he had attacked me, it was sudden and unexpected because he seemed normal right up until the moment he attacked. This time, it was different. Johnny was upset, visibly so. “I—I sent them away!” I croaked, my throat so dry I had trouble forming the words. “That's what you wanted!”

 

“Not—Crystal!” he grated out. His breath came in gasps and his arms on either side of me shook with strain.

 

“I'm sorry!” I said. I might even have meant it. He was in such bad shape. I knew my death was imminent. “You said—you said you wouldn't kill me,” I reminded him breathlessly. “Crystal needs me.”

 

“Crystal. . . .” His eyes lost a little of their black fire and he pulled back. “I can't do this now. I'll take too much.” He wrenched both arms away from me and I watched a shudder roll down his back. Still facing away from me, he turned only his head until he could see me huddled on the couch. “Next time I won't stop.”

 

After he left, I stumbled into bed with Crystal and pulled the covers up over my head. I had been lucky. This time.

 

In the backyard by the fireplace I found the mutilated body of a raccoon the next morning. It was the first time I saw actual blood connected with our vampire. I had no doubt Johnny had done this. Taking a shovel from underneath the cottage, I gingerly picked up the carcass and chucked it as far as I could into the woods.

 

“Crystal,” I asked later, when we were having our breakfast, “how would you like to go for a ride into town today?” It was time I visited the archives at the Town Hall.

 

Crystal, as usual, was happy to come along.