Not The Girl From Kansas Anymore

My mind drifted in that in between dream space. The past and my present coiling about; spring loaded, imitating a trigger. Nightmare and reality. Which was better? More reliable? More certain?

I woke up with a start as my cat pounced on my bed. The summer night breeze blowing my sheer blue curtains about. “Apollo!” I said annoyed; he meowed rather apologetically. His orange gold, reflective gaze, round and loving, gave me a slow wink. I sighed, easily forgiving and petting him. He was just adorable and not many animals got along well with me. Cats just got it. I didn’t have to explain myself. Nor did my fur baby Apollo.

We had just moved into this old new home and he wasn’t used to it yet. To the sounds and the scent. This was night 5 and he was keeping me up. His tail all puffy. Panic having his gray and white fur on end. Calming him down, we both settled back in. He nestled on my chest fast asleep. I rubbed his soft fur, grateful for the comfort. Sleep claimed me not long after. The rest of the night I spent tossing and turning. Anxiety filled dreams souring my mood upon morning.

My commute to work was me cussing out every driver that passed me. I also needed to eat and food and I weren’t on the best of terms. Safe to say, it wasn’t off to a great start of a day. My attitude was written on my face and in my body movements as I made it into the building finally.

Once working, there wasn’t any improvement to my countenance. I was an assistant to a no nonsense, business consultant. Who didn’t take kindly to my disheveled appearance and sour disposition.

“Never come back into my offices looking like this Miss Rhodes. Or without a smile. We are here at the behest of our clients. Act like it. You are excused for the day.” She finished, her green eyes narrowed. Tone even and detached.

My mouth opened and closed. I knew better than to stand up for myself. Not with her. Stacy Vance was known for firing people on the spot. So I swallowed my pride, gazing evenly into her cold green eyes.

“Yes Mrs. Vance. I understand.” I replied, doing my best to keep my tone neutral and professional. She looked down and I knew that was her dismissal.

My flats clapped on the blue, white and gold marble floors as I left. My coworkers giving me curious glances, but I said nothing. I already was a an enigma among them. I didn’t need anymore attention.

Fuming to myself, I wanted to cry in the elevator. The cold steel doors offering little comfort to my plight. Having just moved, I couldn’t afford even missing these hours. Yet who cared? I was a single 26 year old, with a cat and a family I hadn’t talked to in a couple years. All I had was myself. Gone was the comfortable life I had in Kansas. I wasn’t the same woman anymore.

##

The next day, I was careful to dress appropriately. In fact, I applied even more attention to my appearance than I had in over a year or more. I wore a fitted pencil gray skirt. A short sleeve buttoned up, spring yellow blouse. Paired with 3 inch dark green heels. My hair was styled; my normal braids held up with a yellow bow tie. It was bold. I also knew I looked good. Good enough Mrs. Vance gave me a long stare. She herself was always dressed to the nines. She favored cool colors with the random splash of maroon or magenta. Or a nice teal or turquoise. Today she wore a dark plum suit with a teal silk blouse. Her milk chocolate hair was wavy and styled in a classic Hollywood side part with structured waves. Her green eyes were always lined drastically with soft toned eye shadow matching her fit of the day. Today she wore a dark violet.

“Much better Miss Rhodes.” She said her gaze traveling in a way that made me blush. I stood there shifting. What was that? I wondered to myself the rest of the afternoon.

It was a productive day. Her and I were working together most of it. Running about. She was the best in her field and it’s why I had applied for this position. The rush of it all. The word play with the clients. And her expertise. To learn from the best. Watching her work was exhilarating. And I was finding myself wildly attracted to her. I knew she was married. Yet I couldn’t stop myself from stealing glances. Of slightly her touching. She also seemed to do the same to me.

Soon enough, I was working more closely with her than ever before. Things were looking up I thought. There was a confidence I was beginning to feel that I hadn’t felt in a while. I could feel a sense of happiness blooming in me.

“You want to go get dinner?” She asked as we were getting ready to shut the office down for the night.

It had been two weeks since our outfit encounter and something had obviously shifted between us.

Her gaze seemed half expectant and vulnerable. She shyly tucked her long brown hair behind her ear, waiting.

“Yes.” I said too quickly, the eagerness naked in my voice.

Her eyebrow slightly rose as she smiled. “Well let’s go. I have the perfect spot. Come on.”

##

What happened next, is that predictable trope. And I won’t apologize for it.

We had dinner somewhere romantic and private. We flirted the whole time. Tension rising between us with each glass of wine we brought to our lips. By nights end, we found ourselves kissing in my doorway; Apollo looking on suspiciously. It was the first of many kisses to come.

Months passed and before I expected it, I was falling in love with her. We were 6 months in. Our routine was set. She even spent every other Friday overnight at my house. It was hot. Tender and new for me. I hadn’t ever experienced a passion like what we shared. Her kisses set my soul on fire. Her touch giving me something to look forward too.

No. I knew it wasn’t right. That affairs usually never ended the best way. That I was headed first into another disaster. But this one, even I, couldn’t of saw coming.

##

“My husband knows about us Laura. I told him I’d stop seeing you.” Stacy said, her pretty face in a straight, cold line.

My heart broke at her words. Though I knew this couldn’t go on forever. “I’m falling for you Stacy. I don’t want us to stop seeing each other.”

She looked away, tears streaming down her face in diamond trails. “I think I am falling for you too.” She replied, her voice cracking at the end.

I grabbed her chin, turning her back to me. “Then don’t go. Stay with me. Be with me. We can figure this out in the morning. Just touch me Stacy.” I pleaded into her eyes.

Indecision warred in her moss green gaze. Those eyes I had grown to love. So I made the decision for her. I kissed her softly. Once, then twice. “Don’t go,” I pleaded again.

“Ok,” she breathed as I kissed her fully.

We made love that night and fell asleep in each other’s arms.

I woke to a click of some kind, thinking it was my cat Apollo. I quietly got out of bed so I didn’t disturb Stacy. Sleep still lingered in my limbs and I let bliss make me more casual than I normally was living alone. I walked towards my closet thinking that’s where I heard the sound. Too slow, I heard it behind me and felt a sharp pain in my back.

“Charles no!!” I heard Stacy scream.

Several more painful stabs tore into my back and I fell to the ground from the force of it all. Stacy’s husband Charles loomed over me as I slowly realized I couldn’t move my legs. He must’ve hit my spine.

The memory of meeting him at last years Christmas party meandered through my subconscious. How he had held onto Stacy with extra possessiveness. The office gossip the next day was saying he was possibly abusive or jealous. He was a white male. Handsome in that ivy league cliché way. His dark eyes empty in the shadows of my room. He wore all black with gloved hands. His expression clearly murderous. Full of hatred. Before I could get a word out he brought the knife down into my face. And everything went black.

##

Normally this is where a story would end. Jealous husband killing his wife and her female lover. That’s the typical, atypical crime story. Yet there was something Charles Vance didn’t know about me; I was already dead. I was a freaking vampire. I had died two years ago in Kansas.

Was attacked one night after a party and woke up in an unmarked grave with new found strength and abilities. A handwritten note was in my pocket explaining how sorry they were and a bit about what I now was. A vampire. I never knew who did it. If my attacker was who changed me. Or if it was some random vampire. I only had that bloody note. I could walk in daylight. See my reflection. All that good stuff. Just occasionally once a month I got more hungry than I bargained for. I would crave blood instead of having a period. That was the gist pretty much. I also healed at a supernatural rate. Which Charles didn’t know this as he proceeded to beat and cut at Stacy. He thought I lay dying; not healing.

He didn’t know that the mess of my head would heal in less than 3 minutes. Or the stab wounds in my back. He didn’t know, that before he could deliver the final stab to Stacy, I would be there taking the knife from his hands with ease. His bones breaking in my grip.

He gazed at me in a panic, seeing my head still fusing together from the mess he made.

Stacy’s haggard breath, wheezed out below us. He had her crumbled on the side of the bed. A bloody heap. Charles tried to swing at me with his other arm, but I simply snapped the one I held. He cried out loudly and began to try and run. I held on tightly, anxiety rising as I could hear Stacy’s heartbeat slowing.

Now my super hearing wanted to work? Had I got so complacent, I had let this man sneak in here to murder us? It would seem I had. It was a lesson for sure. One that filled me with anguish and rage. I looked down at Stacy’s beaten face. One of her eyes were open and she wasn’t scared of me. It was sadness. She knew her time was ending.

Anger tore its way into my chest; wrapping its nails around my heart. I didn’t pause at I yanked Charles towards me biting his neck. I drank enough of his blood to heal myself faster and then tore out his throat; arterial spray coating the already bloody crime scene, of my room.

Tossing Charles behind me, I ignored his dying whimpers and gathered Stacy into my arms.

She was going cold and I had limited time. “Do you want forever with me Stacy?” I asked her softly, tears falling down my blood stained face.

Her one green eye regarded me. I knew she saw my fangs. Saw my reflective irises. She had to know what I was offering. She slowly nodded yes. It was all I needed. She had already lost enough blood from the stab wounds so I didn’t need to bite her. I just tore a cut into my wrist with my fangs. I didn’t have much time as I placed it into her swollen, red mouth.

Her green eye bore into mine as she sucked. Moments slowly ticked by and she was soon sucking hard enough I stopped her. She let go on a gasp. Her eyes going round. I watched in horror as my blood worked it’s way through her. She jerked and tensed. I had never seen a transition, but I knew it had to be rough. It was. I will never forget her contortions. How her body healed and then died again in my arms.

I cried that night more than I had when I woke up after my own transition. This woman who I loved had faced a similar fate. I was partially to blame.

Next step was to bury her in a shallow grave. Technically, I had two bodies to bury. Husband and wife; may death do they part. It wasn’t a pretty experience. I hadn’t ever killed anyone. Dug a grave or turned someone. Cleaning up the crime scene was something I hope I never had to do again. Getting rid of what evidence I could, took it’s toll. I also didn’t know if Stacy would even wake.

##

On the third night she did. She climbed out without any sound. Just a determination I had started to love her for. She took my hand. Her’s was icy and she noticed the difference. “Why are you warm if we are the same?” She questioned not used to her fangs. She wouldn’t be able to control them until she was used to it.

“You need to feed. It’ll warm you up.” I said softly.

“Do you kill people for their blood?” She asked worriedly.

“No,” I replied reaching down into the bag I brought, I handed her a thermos. She took it; opened it and immediately started gulping its contents. “It’s warm blood I get from a willing donor. They suspect I’m a vampire but don’t question. I pay them and it’s all hush hush.”

Stacy embarrassingly, lowered the thermos, her lips now stained red as color immediately returned to her cheeks. Her eyes brightened. “You’ve been a vampire this whole time?”

I nodded wearily, “I’m sorry. I know this is a betrayal you weren’t expecting. I’m sorry for all of it.”

Stacy scoffed looking down at herself; the grave. “Laura. This isn’t all on you. No. I would’ve never expected you to be a freaking vampire. I never thought they existed. That any of this was possible. That I’d betray my husband with my assistant like some low rent d movie plot line. That I liked women. That I liked you enough to love you.” She shook her head looking around. I knew what she was feeling. How all the scents would intermingle. The colors would be different. The sounds. That first night as a vampire was a lot for anyone. She also had a dead murderous husband to process. One that I killed viciously.

“None of this I could imagine Laura. But even less could I imagine my own husband trying to kill me. And if you weren’t what you are, you’d be dead too. We both would be. Like forever dead, not vampire dead. If this is what we are?”

“Yes.” I looked down. “What we did together Stacy. This affair. It was wrong.”

Stacy didn’t disagree. “Yes it was wrong. However what he did was evil. There’s a difference. I broke his trust. So he tried to kill me and my lover? He didn’t own me. He knew I wasn’t in love anymore. That I wanted to separate. We never had sex anymore. He always cheated. I’m not excusing my dishonesty. Yet we didn’t deserve this.” Here she started to cry and I pulled her into my arms. Holding her tightly.

The site I buried her and him in was in a farm land with no cameras I passed everyday to work. So we got our stuff and made it back to my car. I had a change of clothes for her and she changed with my help. We used wipes to clean off what dirt we could.

Her expression was kind and mentally exhausted.

Once in my car she asked me about the cleanup. About covering our tracks. Which Charles had made it easy for me, since he had came there to kill us. He had boarded a plane; typical for his weekly business trips. Had hotel reservations in another city. He did a good job covering his tracks, so well, getting away with his murder was almost too easy. Stacy added to it by showing me she had actually texted him saying they needed time apart. It wasn’t perfect. We knew there would be questions at some point in time. We’d deal with it then.

“So what’s next?” Stacy asked after I finished explaining everything about Charles and what little I knew about being a vampire.

I sighed. “Well we have that new start up company coming on Monday. Everyone thinks you’ve been sick so we just go to work.”

Stacy chuckled bitter sweetly. “That’s it? We go to work?”

I looked at her lovingly. “I am with you forever if you want Stacy. We’ve all the time in the world to do what we want. For now let’s just stay out of jail.”

She rested her head back in the seat. “We go to work?”

I grabbed her hand. “We go to work.”