Original Stories Fan Fiction ❯ Vampire Summer ❯ Good-Bye ( Chapter 29 )

 

 

The rowboat drifted in the early dawn. I had left Crystal up at the cottage with my father, who was there to help us close up for the season, and come down to the lake by myself to think. I hadn't seen Johnny since the night he told me his biggest secret, the one that had been plaguing me every moment since then.

 

He wasn't dead, had never been dead. He carried the same blood in his veins as I did. Vampires were born, not made, although he swore he could make Crystal into one because she carried my blood. But not me. I was just the human carrier, the host. I couldn't be turned or change the circumstances of my birth. I would grow old and die, unless Johnny killed me first. I almost wished he would. But he wanted me as breeder, to make more like himself. I would have to do it with someone else who had our unique combination of blood—Kenny, my sometimes boyfriend and distant cousin, had the right blood, but he knew more about the family history than I or even Johnny, until recently, had known. He knew better than to have children with me. It was forbidden.

 

I rowed a few more strokes. The lake was smoky with mist, and completely deserted. This late in the season, all the summer fishermen had gone home. I had the entire place to myself, which suited my mood perfectly. Summer was drawing to a close, and my life had changed drastically in these few short months. At the beginning of the summer, I had thought my biggest problem was my loveless marriage. And now, I had a chance of falling in love again, but nothing was as it seemed. I couldn't trust that Kenny loved me and was not just protecting the threat that my blood represented. And Johnny didn't care about me at all. He knew from the beginning that he couldn't change me to be like him, but he could change my daughter, and now that he knew I could make others like him, he wanted me to stay with Kenny, regardless of whether or not Kenny really loved me.

 

The trouble was, I might have stayed in Lockwood, once I got things settled at home. The lake had always drawn me, just like now. I would have enjoyed living near here, I think. But now, I wanted to get far away from Johnny and Kenny both, even if it meant being alone. I knew Johnny would never let me go for good. He would come looking for us next summer if we didn't return on our own. And how could I put my family at risk? Dad and Mom, and Eddie and his family, still considered the cottage as their summer home. If Johnny couldn't have us, he would probably go after Bethany and little Eddie, since their blood was like Crystal's. I couldn't let that happen.

 

My chin trembled, but I refused to cry. It wasn't so much that Johnny was a blood-sucking vampire. Over the summer I had come to terms with that. The thing that bothered me was that he had manipulated me all along. He didn't care. None of them did.

 

I viciously pulled at the oars, sending the little rowboat away from the shoreline and out into the open lake. I rowed until my arms got tired, then I stopped and let the boat drift once again. I sighed. That wasn't entirely true. Johnny did care about Crystal, and she obviously cared about him. They had some connection I couldn't see, couldn't feel, but it was real. If anything happened to me, Johnny was the one person on this earth who I trusted to take care of Crystal, even if that meant he would turn her into a vampire. At least she would live forever.

 

I wondered if Johnny's mother had been a vampire or if she had been human, like me. Johnny didn't remember much except that she had been killed, not the why or the how of it. If she had been human, how would he have felt when she eventually aged and died? Would he have been sad? He was lonely now, I knew that. It's why he wanted to turn Crystal, and why he had tried, in the past, to turn Elizabeth and a very few others. He had never been able to do it. Maybe, now that he had regained some of his memories, he would figure it out. I hoped so, for my daughter's sake.

 

My eyes spotted a figure silhouetted against the far shore. As I watched, the figure slowly waded into the water and disappeared. I waited for the early morning swimmer to resurface, but the mist closed in once again, and I was too far away to see any ripples on the surface of the lake. Quickly, I grabbed the oars and started rowing towards the spot where I had seen the swimmer.

 

The rowboat rocked violently a moment later, and Johnny hauled himself up until just his head and arms were resting on the side of the boat. He gazed up at me with a quizzical smile. I dropped the oars and knelt down so I could see him better. He was fully dressed. It couldn't have been comfortable. “What are you doing here?” I asked. It was still early. The sun was a faint red splotch on the horizon struggling to overcome the morning fog. Still, Johnny should be heading off to sleep right about now. I shook my head to clear it, bothered that I still worried about him.

 

Johnny grinned, but made no move to climb up into the boat. “You still haven't figured it out,” he murmured. “Did you miss me?”

 

“Where were you?” I thought he had stayed away because I had been angry. I was still upset that I could possibly give birth to vampire babies, and not with him, but with Kenny. But I couldn't help thinking about Johnny. I was afraid we would leave without saying good-bye.

 

He chuckled. “Around. I didn't want your father to sense me.”

 

I had forgotten. Dad had the blood, same as Crystal, which could sense when Johnny was near. He didn't know what Johnny was, but he could sense the strangeness whenever Johnny was near. The last time they had met, Johnny had told me he needed to avoid my father for that very reason. Of course, the alternative would have been to kill my father, but I like to think that Johnny wouldn't do that because of me, or at least because of Crystal. “Oh,” I said in a small voice. “We're leaving the day after tomorrow. Will you come to say good-bye to Crystal?”

 

Johnny reached one arm up around the back of my head and pulled me close. I thought he was going to bite me, and I tensed. But instead he whispered in my ear. “I'll come,” he promised, and my eyes flooded with tears. I don't know why I was crying.

 

He let go of my neck and used both arms to raise himself higher out of the water. “Lisa,” he said softly. “If things had been different. . . .” He stretched up and kissed me softly on the lips. My heart pounded and my tears fell faster. “I'll come to you tonight.” He dropped back down suddenly and let go of the side of the boat.

 

“Wait!” I said, wiping my tears with my arm. I was still reeling from his kiss. I didn't know what it meant. “The sun is coming up. You need to go, now!”

 

He smiled. “Think about it,” he said. “I'll see you when the sun goes down.” He let himself slip under the water, and I finally understood. This was Johnny's daytime resting place. I should have realized it sooner. When he was badly injured, Crystal had me put his body into the lake, and he was rejuvenated. It made sense that the waters of the lake would do that for him every time he needed rest. The first Elizabeth had found him on the shores of this lake, and so had Amelia, years later.

 

The mechanics of it occupied my thoughts as I rowed slowly back towards the beach. How did he dry his clothes? Didn't they get damaged? Or did he just get new ones by biting some poor unsuspecting humans whenever he needed a wardrobe change? Would my Crystal have to go into the lake every day for rest, too? What happened in the winter when the lake froze? And what about the box I had discovered under Jonathan Price's grave in the cemetery? It wasn't big enough to hold clothes. So what did Johnny use it for? Mementos? There were so many questions I wanted to ask Johnny. Why had Johnny kissed me? I suddenly didn't want to leave.

 

My dad had put on coffee while I was out. It tasted terrible, but I drank it. There really wasn't much left for us to do. I was pretty much packed, and we had to leave the water and electricity on until right before we left. I had already contacted the phone company to disconnect the phone as of mid-September and turn it back on next May.

 

Kenny drove up as we were finishing our second cup of coffee. I introduced him to my father, who was genuinely glad to meet Kenny. Dad had been disgusted with Sam for years and was glad to see that I was moving on. “He's a distant relative, Dad,” I told him, just to clear the air. Dad didn't seem to care, which told me he really didn't know much about the family at all, just as he claimed. His only connection was because of the blood, and the fact that he could sense vampires, even if he didn't know that's what they were.

 

“You're really going, then?” Kenny asked me later, while Dad puttered around out back mowing the sparse lawn one last time with our little push mower. I had planned one last summer picnic for later today. Cara was coming over, with Ellie, and I invited Betty too. There was no logical reason for me to avoid her, especially since I still kept in close contact with Kenny. They didn't know I knew what they had done to Johnny.

 

I nodded, avoiding Kenny's eyes. Even though I told myself it didn't mean anything, I still felt guilty about Johnny's kiss. “Monday,” I said. “We're almost all packed.”

 

“Can I still see you?” Kenny asked, lightly grabbing my chin and turning my head to look at him. “I'd like to come visit.”

 

I squirmed. I wanted him to visit me, but I wanted it for the right reasons, not because he felt he needed to keep an eye on me. “Let me get through the divorce first,” I hedged.

 

Kenny let me go, and sat down on the edge of the couch with slumped shoulders. “If that's what you want,” he said heavily. “I won't forget about you, Lisa. I'll be here when you're ready.” He looked up, and his eyes shone wetly. He couldn't be on the verge of tears, could he? “I know you hate it that I've kept secrets from you,” he continued. “I had a long talk with my father, and we decided that you can join our society, if you want, when you come back to Lockwood.”

 

I stood up, stunned. “The Historical Society?” I asked.

 

Kenny gave me a brief, sad smile. “That's what I called it. It's a little more than that, as I'm sure you've guessed.”

 

“And you'll tell me—everything?”

 

“You deserve to know,” Kenny said. “If you come back. If you decide to stay. If we—if we decide to stay together. You deserve to know the truth.”

 

My heart soared. Why would Kenny tell me that if he didn't truly love me? “I'll hold you to that,” I said happily, as I threw my arms around him. “I'll miss you.” I backed away a step and looked up at his face. “How about if Crystal and I come to see you when she has school vacation? It's not that far away. I'm sure Cara would let me stay at her place.”

 

“It's better than not seeing you at all,” Kenny agreed, hugging me close to him again. “But why can't you stay at my house instead of at Cara's? I have all kinds of room.”

 

I giggled into his chest. “We'll see,” I said. It was too soon to be making promises I wasn't sure I would be able to keep.

 

The lawn mower stopped. “Lisa!” I heard from outside. “Tell Crystal to get her stuff and bring it into the house. She has her toys scattered all across the backyard!”

 

I called to Crystal and headed out through the back porch with Kenny following on my heels. Dad was already shoveling some of her dolls into a big paper bag. “Sorry,” I said. “She must have left them outside all night again.” I spied her sketchbook in among the doll clothes and snatched it up before Dad or Kenny could get hold of it. Whether Crystal had some psychic ability, or it was due to her connection with the vampire, some of those sketches were of things she couldn't possibly have known. I hadn't looked at her sketchbook lately, so I wasn't sure what else she might have drawn. Sometimes Crystal drew the past, and sometimes she drew the future. I tried to close it to the front cover, but I wasn't quick enough.

 

“What's that?” Kenny stood over my shoulder peering down at the latest drawing Crystal had made. I saw the rowboat, and the water, and a yellow-haired girl kissing a brown-haired boy. It could have been anybody. It could have been me and Kenny. But Crystal knew it wasn't.

 

Just then, Crystal came outside in answer to my call, looking worried because all the grown-ups were picking up her toys. She immediately took the sketchbook from my hands and flipped the cover closed. “It's mine,” she said firmly, and stuffed it into the brown bag, then quickly piled the rest of her doll stuff on top of it. Where had my little girl gone this summer? She knew too much, had to hide too much.

 

Kenny laughed. “All right, all right,” he said in surrender. “I won't touch it.” We went back inside and left Crystal to finish cleaning up her mess. That was too close.

 

Later, Crystal brought me her sketchbook as I was getting dressed before our other guests arrived for the end of summer picnic. “Mom, can you put this with your other important stuff?” she asked, glancing down at the bed. “I'm sorry I left it out.”

 

I had to take that important stuff with me when we left, but for the time being, I tucked Crystal's sketchbook in with the rest of the things I had hidden between my mattresses. Both Crystal and I knew we had to protect Johnny, no matter what. I wasn't the only one who had changed drastically this summer.

 

Cara had gotten over the sudden death of her cousin Bill, and Betty spent most of the afternoon talking with my father. She was very interested in his early days at the lake, when my grandfather was still alive. I wished the day would end, because Johnny would not come around when there were three people here who could sense his presence: Kenny, Betty and my Dad. Four, counting Crystal. But not me. I couldn't sense Johnny, not until it was too late.

 

Kenny promised to see me again before we left early Monday morning. It was late when everyone finally left. I put Crystal to bed and sat by myself on the back porch with a glass of wine. Dad had long since gone to bed in the front bedroom. He planned to put up all the storm windows tomorrow, and needed his sleep.

 

Even though I expected Johnny to come, I was surprised when he finally did appear, close to dawn, in different clothes than the ones I had seen him wearing the previous morning. So either he had another, larger, hidden stash somewhere, or he had gone `hunting' for new clothes among his victims. “What do you do all winter?” I blurted out, since that was the question in the forefront of my mind.

 

Johnny smiled, amused. “Sleep,” he answered.

 

“You don't—rise?” I asked, for lack of a better word. “You don't need to eat—drink?”

 

“The water sustains me,” he said. “It's enough.”

 

“So, when we leave, you'll really go to sleep until we come back?” I asked, skeptical. Was that what he had done for the last sixty years before we came?

 

Johnny's eyes twinkled. “Not the second you leave,” he replied. “I've got other things I need to do first.

 

“Johnny!” Crystal's bare feet flew across the kitchen and out the back door to the porch. She flung herself in Johnny's arms and hugged him. “You came back!”

 

“Shh!” I cautioned her. “Grandpa's sleeping.”

 

“I've got to go to school,” Crystal whispered, “Will you wait for me to grow up?”

 

“You know I will,” Johnny murmured, stroking Crystal's hair. “I'll sleep lots and lots until you catch up to me.” He stood, still holding her, and silently brought her back to bed. “When you sleep, you grow, but when I sleep, I wait,” he told her. “Before you know it, you will catch up.”

 

He spent a few minutes tucking Crystal in and murmuring to her softly. I mulled over what he had said. When he sleeps, he waits? Did that mean that he grew older when he did not go under the water to rest? I asked him about it when he came back out.

 

“Yes,” he said. “I would have to grow sometimes if I was born a baby, don't you think? The water sustains us. When we are away from it, we age. We need to take more blood to survive long stretches outside of the healing waters, but it can be done, from what I can remember. When Crystal catches up to me, maybe we'll grow up a little bit together, before she changes. We have time. In this day and age, we would be considered too young to have children at fifteen or sixteen. Years ago, it was more acceptable.”

 

In one sense, I was relieved. He didn't intend to change Crystal the moment she turned fifteen. How would I have explained Crystal's sudden disappearance if that had happened? In another sense, I felt as if I had lost something precious. The kiss hadn't meant anything to Johnny after all. He didn't want me, hadn't ever wanted me.

 

“Kenny says he will tell me everything if I come back to stay,” I said quietly, my head down.

 

Johnny stiffened and focused all his attention on me. “And what will you tell him?” His voice was deceptively soft.

 

I raised my head. “About you? Nothing. Your secret is safe with me.” How could Johnny think otherwise? The old familiar ache came back into my throat as it tightened with unshed tears.

 

“Then come back to Lockwood when you have settled your affairs,” Johnny said, after staring at me in silence. He tossed a handful of pebbles onto the fold-down table in front of us. “Buy Aunt Beth's house. Let me watch Crystal grow.”

 

My eyes widened as I realized the pebbles were actually gemstones. They were small enough to be hidden in that little box back in the cemetery. “Where did you get these?” I asked, but Johnny only shook his head. He wasn't going to tell me, and honestly, I didn't want to know.

 

“There's a man in Boston who will help you,” Johnny continued. “Bring those to him and tell him I sent you.” He scribbled a name and address down on a piece of paper and pushed it across the table to me. I wondered if that had been the old friend he had told Aunt Beth he was going to see when he disappeared for several days. “Go on, put them away.”

 

He waited while I put the gems and the slip of paper he had given me under my mattress. Then he tucked me in as carefully as he had tucked Crystal in earlier. “For old time's sake,” he whispered, and then he descended upon me in a blur. Thankfully, I didn't feel pain. I didn't feel much of anything, but I didn't pass out immediately this time, either. “Your blood is sweet,” he whispered in my ear before he disappeared, and I sank into oblivion with a smile on my face.