The Day I Discovered I Was A Vampire

I sit up. What a weird dream I had. I was walking in the park looking for my purse. I accidentally left it under a tree when I was picnicking with Leah. It started raining and then a cloaked figure attacked me. I can’t remember the rest. Then I woke up. Wow, I’m really cold! Wait, where am I? It takes a moment for my vision to clear up. I feel around. Why am I sitting on wet grass? I look up. It's so bright! I use my arm to shield my eyes. Since when did the sun get so blinding? I hear birds tweeting and see trees in the distance. I am in the park! Wait does that mean…It wasn’t a dream? No! I must have tripped and hit my head when I was getting my purse. That makes much more sense.

After I finally find my purse I clump home.

“Blyana! Where have you been? Your soaked. Get inside the house this instant! You look as if you slept outside.” Mom scolds.

I follow her inside and Mom gives me a towel to dry off with.

“So where were you? With Leah? Or did you take the bus around the city all night again?”

“Um, I wen—” I start, but I’m interrupted by Moms phone ringing.

She looks at her phone and frowns. “Ugh, it’s your father again. I'll be right back. Don't go anywhere, I'm not done with you yet.”

When Mom leaves I sit at the kitchen table and I can’t keep my mind off the smell. I don't know what Mom did in here when I was gone, but the place reeks of garlic. It smells like she rubbed raw garlic on everything! I can’t help but wretch and run out of the room.

The living room is a little bit better, but the light shining in through the window is so bright. I pull the blinds down. A thought comes to me. Maybe someone stole money from my purse.

I hold my breath and walk into the kitchen. I grab my purse and hurry back to the living room. Sitting on the couch I unzip my purse and peer inside. Nothing is missing.

“So, where were you last night?” Mom asks, walking back into the room with a cup of coffee in her hand.

I sigh, it feels like I'm on trial. I mean I'm nineteen, an adult. Most of the people my age have already been in college for a year! “I went to the park to get my purse. I forgot it there yesterday.”

Mom frowns and sets her mug on the coffee table. “That doesn't explain how you were gone ALL night?”

“Well, I think I must have tripped and hit my head or something, cause I just woke up on the grass this morning.” I explain.

“Your head looks fine,” Mom’s eyes inspect me carefully. “What happened to your neck?”

My hand traces over my neck until it finds a scab. “I didn’t notice this. I must have fell on a stick or something.”

“You should go and disinfect that. It looks nasty. Oh and you need to be more careful Blyana. God knows what could have happened to you!” Mom worries, picking up her cup of coffee again.

I go into the bathroom to inspect the scrape on my neck in the mirror. I lean on the sink to peer at myself in the mirror and try to ignore the horrendous tangle of thick red hair on my head. There are two red holes on the side of my neck. I feel the scab with my fingers. I accidentally scratch the scab off and a trail of blood drips down my neck. As if in some sort of trance my eyes follow the blood in the mirror as it drips down my neck and soaks into my t-shirt. Suddenly I feel very hungry.

I quickly change into some dry clothes and hurry into the kitchen, my stomach rumbling. That is, until the smell hits me again. I turn to Mom who’s sitting at the kitchen table typing into her laptop, her empty mug beside it.

“Ugh! Mom what did you do in here? It reeks of garlic!” I push open the kitchen window and stick my head out.

Mom looks confused. “I don't smell anything. The last thing I had with garlic was the day before yesterday. I had some spaghetti. I think there are still some leftovers in the fridge. You want some?”

I feel like throwing up. “No. I'm going to go get some coffee from the coffee shop.”

When I walk out the front door I immediately regret it. For some reason the sun burns my skin like crazy. It feels like when you have a bad sunburn and then go into a hot tub. My very pale skin goes scarlet red and I feel a weird urge to count every single car that passes by. Fifty two, by the way. I walk faster. Luckily we live ridiculously close to the coffee shop and I am relieved to find that the place is air conditioned and has only one window.

My friend Leah works at the coffee shop and I'm happy to see her standing at the counter when I walk in. She is just slightly round and has her blonde hair cut straight down to her chin. She is handing a cup of coffee to an elderly man now.

When the old guy leaves with his coffee—the bell tinkling way louder than normal behind him—Leah sees me.

“Blyana, no offense, but you look horrible! Did you sleep at all last night?” She asks, getting me my usual coffee.

After I explain everything to Leah, she raises her eyebrows and looks around.

“Meet me at my house after my shift is over. I have to tell you something urgent.” Leah says, “Oh and wear sunscreen.”

“Um…Okay?”

At home the house is empty. I forget sometimes that's Mom always goes to her book club every Saturday at 10:30 am. The first thing I do is pull Mom’s leftover spaghetti out of the fridge and—holding my breath—throw it out the kitchen window right into Mom’s rose bush. Okay, I was planning on throwing it in the trash can in the garage, but it stunk so bad I couldn’t hold it any longer, plus the window was so conveniently open. I take a breath of fresh—garlic free—air and then head towards my room. But in the hallway I stop at Grandma's old silver mirror hanging on the wall and gasp. I can’t see my reflection! Why is everything so weird today? Is the mirror broken or something? I don’t even want to think about this now.

I go into my room and close the curtains ready to take a long nap. But first I check the mirror in the jewelry box I got this year for my birthday. Just to make sure I'm not invisible. But sure enough I see my face in the tiny mirror. More pale than usual I must say, and I'm usually very pale since I’m a redhead. It's probably just because I'm so tired. Just when I'm about to fall asleep it dawns on me that I've probably developed an allergy the the sun! That makes so much sense…I really need to get to sleep.

When I knock on Leah’s door three hours later she ushers me through the house and into her basement. Which I'm surprised at because I've never been down there before and me and Leah have been friends since the fifth grade.

I take a seat on a couch that’s in her basement. The whole place is kind of weird for a basement. It's very dark, with no windows, but it's clean. And there are two black couches, a refrigerator, a shelf full of sun glasses and sunscreen and earplugs and all sorts of weird things.

“So what did you want me to talk to me about?” I ask Leah, brushing my fingers over the velvety black couch.

“You’re a vam—”

But Leah gets cut off when I let out a shriek. Apparently the couch wasn’t empty. I look down to see a black cat with—almost glowing—green eyes look up at me. Letting out a shaky breath I pet the cat gently and ask: “What were you saying?”

“I was going to let you find out on your own, because you’re probably not going to believe me. But you are a vampire.” Leah says waiting for my response.

“But that's impossible…” I lean bag against the couch and think.

Vampires aren't real. That’s the end of it. But… Is it? All the things that happened today… The garlic. The sun. The marks on my neck. Leah had never lived about anything in her life. I mean once, she took two cookies from my Mom—when we were eleven—when she was only supposed to eat one. But then she gave it back and tattled on herself.

“So…How?” I ask, stroking the cat on the head.

“Well a vampire bit you in the park and now you're one too.”

“How do you know that though?” I wonder.

“Well my brother is a vampire.” She explains.

I raise my eyebrows. “You mean you're older brother Drystan?”

Leah sighs. “I only have the one.”

“It's just hard to believe that he's a vampire.” I reply.

Then a door opens and a beanstalk of a boy walks in. Drystan looks nothing like Leah. He’s tall and twiggy, and he is very pale with black hair that really should be trimmed. While Leah is short and blonde, how can they even be related? Plus they have completely different styles, Leah is wearing a pink flowy dress and Drystan is wearing black jeans and a black long sleeve shirt. But then I remember Leah told me that they’re only half brother and sister.

His eyes dart from me to Leah angrily. “Leah, you know we have to keep the layer—I mean the basement—a secret. You can’t be having your little friends in here to paint your nails—or whatever it is you girls do.”

Leah puts her hands on her hips and glares at him. “Blyana just found out she got bit by a vampire yesterday. And I don’t appreciate your tone.”

Drystan looks intrigued and looks at me for more than just a glance. His eyes rest on the scab on my neck and he nods, as if confirming what Leah said.

Two questions keep floating around in my head. One: Do I have to drink blood?

And Two: Is Drystan single?

Drystan turns to me. “So… Um, I guess, have you bitten anybody yet?”

“No.” I say, honestly a little alarmed. I really don’t want to drink blood.

“Okay good…” he trails off.

“Tell her about the elixir!” Leah says.

“Okay, well, I didn’t particularly enjoy biting people's necks and drinking their blood…So, um, Leah did some research. And we made a, um, Leah calls it an elixir. So…Yeah.” Drystan says a little shyly, brushing his black hair out of his face.

Leah pulls open the fridge and takes out a tiny glass bottle full of what looks like blood.

“Here. You should probably have some now.” Leah hands me the bottle.

“Um, what is it exactly?” I ask, the glass cold against my skin.

“It's just a mix of fruit and vegetable juices, and minerals and other things. Completely safe.” Leah assures me.

I take a sip and make a face. “This stuff is disgusting!”

Drystan laughs. “It's the beet juice.”

“You get used to it.” Leah tells me. “Right Drystan?”

Drystan wrinkles his nose, obviously he’s not shy anymore.

“Are you sure I can't just drink blood instead?” I joke.

Drystan chuckles, but Leah just shakes her head and says. “Not funny. I'm still a human you know.”

I down the rest of the ‘elixir’.

“So…It's probably going to take a long time to help you get the, um, whole vampire thing down…So…I could, um, give you some tips. Tonight there’s a fair and, um, that would be a good chance to understand it all. So…maybe you could meet me there at nine?” Drystan asks.

Hmmm… This is all a lot. First I'm a vampire then I have to hang out with Drystan. And could this possibly be a date? The idea makes me sweat. I mean yes, Drystan is really cute, and he seems nice, but is it really safe to go out alone with a vampire? Plus I probably have gross sweat marks on my shirt now, and even if it wasn’t a date he's probably changing his mind.

“I guess.” I say. “Sure.”

I arrive at the fair grounds at nine-twelve pm. And I realize that Drystan never said where to meet him. So I wander around and buy a soft pretzel. Hmm, If I was a vampire where would I be?

A little girl with pony tails and a snow cone in her hand looks at me weird when I laugh out loud, because I AM a vampire. I aimlessly walk around until I see a tall guy in line for funnel cake. I wait for him to turn around and to my luck it’s Drystan. I notice that he looks much better in the blue shirt that he’s wearing today. Drystan looks relieved when he sees me.

“Blyana, I thought you weren't going to come.” He says.

“You never told me where I was supposed to meet you.”

“Oh.” He says walking over to a rollercoaster.

“Um, I thought you had to give me tips?” I ask shakily.

“Yeah, I will. On the roller coaster.”

“But…” I trail off, I’ve never been on a rollercoaster before. I've always been too scared.

“What?” He asks.

I don’t really want to admit that I’m scared of rollercoasters so I just stand there, my stomach full of butterflies, partly from fear and partly because of how close Drystan is standing to me. “Nothing.” I say.

Drystan hands two tickets to the woman who works at the rollercoaster and turns to me. “Ready?”

I nod hesitantly and we both get into our seats. When Drystan pulls the safety bar down, I contemplate pushing it back up and running home.

There’s a clunk and a hum and then we start moving. Instinctively I grab Drystan’s arm—which is more muscly than it looks, by the way.

“So, um…” He glances down at my hand clutching his arm for dear life. “First of all, if you have the urge to bite some random stranger’s neck, don’t. It, um, doesn't end well. And never tell anyone you’re a vampire, I'm guessing you’ve watched movies…”

I nod, holding my breath as we go down swiftly, my stomach flipping a few times.

“And, um, avoid sunlight, garlic, loud noises,—vampires have super senses—running water, and counting. And don't freak out if you ever can't see yourself in one of those really old mirrors. Leah told me it has something to do with the silver, and how it’s a pure metal, or something like that. But you can see your self in normal mirrors, apparently it's because they’re made of aluminum.”

“Oh! I thought I was just too tired.” I say.

Drystan smiles. “I thought that I was invisible.”

I laugh. “I did for a second too.”

“Oh and I, um, forgot to mention that we are kind of immortal now.” Drystan says, but I can't reply because we are rolling down super fast. Okay maybe this is a little fun, in an almost-gonna-puke kind of way.

When we get to a slower part of the roller coaster I say. “So does that mean we can’t die?”

“Well, um, not exactly. We are much stronger than humans and we can’t die of old age, but don’t go and do dangerous stuff. I, um, got immortal and invincible mixed up when Leah told me.” He pulls up his sleeve and there’s a nasty scar all across his arm. “I did a little race car driving, um, more like race car crashing.”

“Oh my.” I gasp.

And before I even realize it, the rollercoaster rolls to a stop.

When I'm back on my feet, I feel a little dizzy so I sit on a bench.

Drystan plops down next to me and grins. “So did you have fun?”

“Yeah, I'm just dizzy. It was actually the first time I went on a rollercoaster.” I admit.

“Really? I, um, couldn't tell. Wink, wink.” And then he squeezes his arm over dramatically.

I elbow him playfully.

“Oh and did you know that vampires can hold their breaths for forty five minutes, or at least I can.” He says.

I smile. “I didn’t actually.”

TWO YEARS LATER:

“I'm so glad that we opened this school.” Drystan tells me.

“It was all Leah’s brilliant idea.” I say.

“Thank you very much.” Leah says, grinning.

Leah’s School For Vegan Vampires was Leah’s idea. Just last year we realized that it is really hard for beginner vampires, who don't like drinking blood. I mean what would have happened if Leah wasn’t my friend? I would have had to drink blood, maybe even Mom’s. Just the idea of it sickens me. I look around. The school is a big brick building in the country and all of the walls are painted nice colors like yellow and pink and green. There are children and adults all learning how to be good, non-blood-drinking vampires.

I'm just so happy that we were able to help so many people! I give Leah a hug and Drystan a kiss on the cheek.

“Someone’s in a good mood.” Drystan says.

Leah nods her head in agreement with her brother’s statement.

And I just smile, probably showing my two very sharp vampire fangs—which work very well for biting into apples by the way.