Original Stories Fan Fiction ❯ Vampire Summer ❯ Once Upon a Time ( Chapter 17 )

 

 

“I came back to Lockwood in the mid-twenties,” Johnny said. “Amelia was popular with the boys even then.”

 

“Came back? Where were you?” I asked.

 

“Away,” Johnny replied shortly. Then he added, “Don't you think they might have noticed if I never aged?”

 

I never really thought much about what had become of Johnny during those periods where there was no mention of him as Jonathan Price. I think I had just figured he had stayed in the shadows, sort of like he was doing now. But maybe I was wrong. I wondered where `away' was.

 

“She was Amelia Summerfield then. I met her one night while she was at the lake swimming in the moonlight. She recognized me for what I am.”

 

“A vampire,” Crystal piped up.

 

Johnny smiled. “Yes, a vampire. But she wasn't afraid or repulsed, even when I—“

 

“You bit her?” I asked.

 

“I had to make sure,” Johnny said. “Her blood made me sing. I couldn't kill her after that.”

 

Of course not. He wanted more.

 

“I wasn't Amelia's only admirer,” Johnny continued. She had a young cousin, Philip, who followed her around like a puppy dog. I didn't like it, but Amelia tolerated the boy so I left him alone. Nobody back then knew I was there, except Amelia. She treated me like one of her boys, and a part of me enjoyed that. I was very careful around her.”

 

Careful not to kill her by accident, I'd be willing to bet. “Did you intend to turn her?” I asked.

 

“Not at first,” Johnny replied. “Her parents wanted her to marry Charles Lovall, but she wasn't interested in him. Hmn.” Johnny turned his gaze on me. “But Charles Lovall is whom she ended up with. Interesting.”

 

“What happened?” I asked. “With you and Amelia. Why did she go away?”

 

“I never knew until today,” Johnny said. “I looked for her, but she was gone. I feared it was about me, so I disappeared for a very long time.”

 

“What do you mean—about you?” I questioned him. At what point in our conversation had this turned around? Now I was asking the questions and he was answering them.

 

“She was determined not to marry the man her parents had chosen for her. She came to me at the lake and begged me to take her away. I was ready to try to bring her to me, right at that moment, but she didn't truly understand what she was asking. I couldn't stop, and I left her there, on the beach, before I went too far and killed her. It was Elizabeth all over again.” Johnny took a deep breath. “I stayed away for several days, and when I returned, she was gone.”

 

“But you didn't kill her,” I said.

 

“No,” Johnny agreed. “I may have frightened her. If I had frightened her, she might have told her parents about me. I had to protect myself. When I couldn't find Amelia, I left and didn't return for sixty years.”

 

“Sixty years! Where did you go?”

 

Crystal had pushed her drawing pad aside and turned on the television. I glanced down at her last picture, and it showed a woman holding a baby. I wondered. “Johnny, could it have been your baby that Amelia lost?”

 

Johnny shook his head. “No, not mine. More likely, it was Philip's.”

 

I was disappointed. I had thought I might get a lesson in vampire procreation, but apparently not. However, that raised another question. “My grandfather? But they were first cousins.”

 

“That might have been why Philip went away, Lisa,” Johnny said. “Their parents would never have approved.”

 

“But the baby died. Grandpa never came back, and Amelia eventually ended up marrying the man her parents picked for her.”

 

“Are you sure the baby died?” Johnny asked quietly. “What year was your father born?”

 

“1935,” I said immediately. Amelia's baby had been stillborn in 1930. It wasn't my father.

 

“Birth certificates can be altered,” Johnny said. “From everything you've told me, it seems likely that Amelia's first child was your father. You said they kept in touch over the years, and then her daughter kept in contact afterwards. Philip must have taken the child.”

 

Then my grandmother, Grandpa's wife, must have known about it. John Summerfield wasn't her child. It made sense now. That must have been how Dad—and now Crystal—had the blood. “Does my Dad know?” I asked.

 

“No, he didn't know anything except that his father, Philip, had come from this town and Philip did not want him to get too involved with the townspeople. And he knew what I was, but that's because of the blood, not because of anything he had been taught. That's why I let him live.”

 

Crystal lay on the rug in front of the TV, her head cradled on her arms, fast asleep. No wonder Johnny was being so frank. She couldn't hear him. Letting my father live had nothing to do with Johnny's feelings for either me or Crystal. It had to do with Dad not being a threat to Johnny.

 

“Let me put her to bed,” I said, reaching down to pick her up, but Johnny did it for me, easily sweeping her up into his arms and carrying her to the back bedroom. We both stood over her as he tenderly tucked her in, and I was struck by how young she really was. Could Johnny truly care enough for her to want to wait for her to grow up? Would he respect her wishes about the matter when the time came? Most importantly, would she survive it?

 

“Johnny, how many times have you tried to convert someone to become a vampire?” I asked. We made our way back to the living room, but Johnny stopped by the kitchen sink and poured a large glass of water. I knew what that meant. I didn't have a lot of time left.

 

“Not as many as you think,” he replied, handing me the glass. I took it, but I didn't drink. “Every generation there are some born with the blood, who have an instinctive knowledge of what I am, but very few of them have no fear of me. I must always be careful. The few times I tried to bring one of them to me, it ended badly.” He grinned suddenly, showing a flash of teeth. “As I said, though, I've gotten better.”

 

That was it until the next day. He hadn't even waited for me to drink the water. I woke up in my bed next to Crystal. He was getting better. He took less, so I woke up not nearly as depleted as I had in the beginning. Too bad I didn't have the right kind of blood.

 

I took my old notebook from where Johnny had left it on the couch and made a list of all the people I had met at Aunt Beth's funeral. I hoped I wasn't signing their death sentences. Betty had obviously read the letters and her grandmother's diary, but Cara had not. Did Betty guess at the truth? Did she know I was Amelia's grandchild?

 

The blood was so prevalent in this town because they kept on intermarrying. But where had it come from in the first place? Elizabeth Smythe, Johnny's first love, hadn't known she had it until Johnny realized it, and realized what it meant. Was she the first? Or did it stem back even farther? Why, besides the fact that Johnny was looking for some company for eternity, was Johnny attracted to that particular strain of blood? There was a lot going on here that I didn't know, and not even Johnny knew.

 

“Johnny,” I said to him when he showed up like clockwork a little before dusk, “you once said you were older than any of the people buried in the cemetery up the road. How old, exactly, are you? Did you always live around here? It might help to know those things.”

 

He looked up from where he was thumbing through the notes I had left. “Help who?” he wanted to know. “I thought I told you to drop it. Don't think, just because I told you some things about my past, that I would tell you anything you wanted to know. Leave it alone.” He read through the list of names. “Jameson,” he said, and a smile lifted his lips. “He's still alive?”

 

The other names were new to Johnny. He tossed the notebook to the side, no longer interested. Instead, he knelt down on the floor next to Crystal and challenged her to a game of Candyland. I was slightly miffed. I'd been hoping he would help me fix supper.

 

After we ate, we decided to go for a walk. By this time, it was dark, so I rubbed bug repellant all over me and Crystal so we wouldn't get eaten alive. Johnny swung Crystal up on his shoulders and off we went. There was a bridge half-way around the lake, where a stream fed into the lake proper. We stopped there and threw stones into the water. I could just make out my island in the distance.

 

“Come on,” Crystal said, pulling on Johnny's hands. He laughed and went along with her, leaving me standing at the bridge railing.

 

I spotted headlights from the way we had come. “Car!” I shouted, so that they would move to the side of the narrow road. The car barreled down, going faster than it should, and I squeezed myself against the railing so I wouldn't get hit. Kids. I should have known. The car sped off up the hill where the dirt road diverged, one part curving to the left along the lake while the other part went straight uphill and cut across the paved road that led to town.

 

We took the other way, along the lake. I liked this view of the lake. If it weren't for the dogs that lived somewhere on this side, I wouldn't have minded living on this side of the lake. Suddenly I heard the roar of a car engine and saw lights approaching from in front of us this time. The car swerved past us—it was the same one—and managed to spin its tires sending bits and pieces of gravel up and over us. I heard teenage laughter as the car sped by. They must have cut back around by the cemetery to scare us.

 

“Wait here,” Johnny said, handing Crystal to me. She looked worried.

 

“Where are you going?” I asked. “They're only kids. Let's just keep going.”

 

“You go on ahead. I'll catch up.”

 

With that, Johnny disappeared into the night. Crystal and I kept walking. We were nearly back home when Johnny suddenly appeared next to me, grabbing Crystal and swinging her up once more onto his shoulders. He was grinning and appeared very satisfied with himself.

 

“What did you do?” I asked, fearing the worst.

 

“I didn't kill them, if that's what you mean,” he said. “They never saw me, and they'll probably think they were very lucky not to have gotten killed when their car rolled off the bridge into the lake.”

 

“Did you drink their blood?” asked Crystal, very interested.

 

“Maybe just a little,” Johnny said with a laugh. “They're sleeping it off on the shore next to the bridge. Want to see?”

 

“Yeah!” cried my bloodthirsty daughter.

 

“No.” I put my foot down. “No looking at vampire victims tonight, young lady. It's past your bedtime.” I glared at Johnny for corrupting my young daughter.

 

So what was Johnny in this case? The hero or the villain? I couldn't decide.

 

Later, after we had put Crystal to bed, I sat on the couch a safe distance away from Johnny, as if that would make a difference, and asked him to babysit again in a few nights so I could go to dinner with Betty, Cara and the cousin who was very interested in me.

 

Johnny thought that was funny. “They're trying to marry you off within the family,” he said with a grin. “You should go for it.”

 

I glared back at him. “Why? So I can produce more babies who might carry the blood? I don't think so. Besides, are you planning on letting me live that long?”

 

Johnny sobered completely. “Don't push me, Lisa,” he said in warning.

 

I felt tears of frustration gather in my eyes until they burned. “What do you want from me, Johnny?” I asked, turning my head away. “What am I to you?”

 

I didn't want to know the answer. Crystal's mother, a vessel to carry the blood, a brief summer diversion in an otherwise boring eternal life? I felt Johnny staring at my back, and it was awful because he didn't answer me at all. For once, I wished he would just drink my blood and be done with it. But he didn't. After a while, I heard the front door open and close.

 

I was alone.