Two

            She lounged around her room, reading and fretting over David’s wellness.  The days passed slowly, with Anastasia visiting about once a day for about a half an hour.  Mostly, they discussed if she needed anything, which for the most part she didn’t.  Anastasia was slowly growing on her; she had a blunt honesty that Kelly-Jo had never encountered before.  Basically, she considered all humans as mere food and thought David was in err for loving and entrusting one with their fate.  Although, she time and again mumbled that is was indeed necessary.

            “I am not saying that you are not capable of this, but David should have the key, it is not your place to have it.  He should have put himself in danger before he put a mere mortal under such an all-inclusive hazard. Truly, I cannot believe you are still alive.  If nothing else, you have gained my respect.”

            Kelly-Jo nodded slowly, deep in thought.  “What is it all about?  I know it’s critical, but he barely explained before he left.” she squinted her eyes, wondering why he hadn’t explained the key and its meaning, it truthfully didn’t make sense.  If it was important to these creatures, then it shouldn’t matter for her, a human.

            Anastasia shook her head, her brilliant red hair hung in a sheet to her mid-back.  Her bangs caught on her eyelashes; she said it was to somewhat keep the sunlight out of her eyes.  “David will tell you.  It is not my place.”  She drew her pouty lips in a straight line that said she was tired of hearing that question.  “I must go sleep now.  You are brighter than I thought, perhaps you will live.  But then again, there is a certain softness to you that will get you in trouble.”  She said it with a bone-chilling laughter that left the room feeling empty, more so than the resolute click of the door that, when it reached Kelly-Jo’s ears, told her she was once again alone.  Two more days passed like the previous with some differentiation in the conversation, before a soft knock came at her door.  It wasn’t assuming like Anastasia’s were and it made Kelly-Jo’s heart leap with hope.  Her hair was pulled back in a loose bun at the nape of her neck and she had on her reading glasses that were square and smart looking.  She was wearing sweatpants and a plain t-shirt. 

            She hadn’t heard the door ease open, or click shut and she surely hadn’t seen the figure enter.  “Hello darling.”  The male voice said smooth as butter and rich as sugar.  That smile, that accent, no wonder she was such a goner for him.

            She paused, taking it in.  Is this a dream?  Gosh, I hope not.  He looked just like the first time she’d seen him that day at the bookshop.  His head slightly cocked to the side, so tall, his hair was this rich dark brown color that hung, a bit chaotically, in his starch white face.  His green eyes had that subtle red tint that meant he needed to feed.  His eyebrows were neither too thick nor too thin and led into his gentle, curvy nose.  His lips were a soft pink and somewhat too thin, yet still nice.  He was muscular, but not bulky and he moved like liquid, which never failed to surprise her since he was so tall and masculine.

            “David!”  She sprang up from where she had been sitting Indian style, sketching a foot.  She leapt into his arms; he held her close as she rested her head against his shoulder.

            “I missed you so unbelievably much.” He said into her ear.

            “You have no idea.” She whispered back, closing her eyes.

            He released her, but grabbed her wrists, as if so she wouldn’t get away from him.  “Do you like your room?”

            “I love it, it’s beautiful!" She paused, "How was Paris?  As you remembered?”

“No, it has changed in the past few years.”

“Few?”  Kelly-Jo laughed at this thought.  “You haven’t been there since 1931; I would far from call that a few years.” They chatted easily for awhile catching up with each other.

            Eventually he asked, “How was getting up the mountain?”

            “Hard.  I almost died.  First, a witch almost caught me.  You never mentioned they were quite so alluring, not exactly the believed ugly and green with a wart on their pointy nose.”

            He laughed.  “Well, you never told me you believed that.”  He shook his head.  “Only the old ones are ugly, they have spells for beauty, but none to reverse the aging process.”

            Again, she wondered specifically why David was attracted to her above all the beauty that surrounded him on a day to day basis.  “Then, a fairy helped me for a short time, but she had to go.  I always thought they were tiny, but she wasn’t, she was tall and she looked like so angelic.”  David nodded.  “And then, a goblin had a hold of me for a minute or so, but somehow I got away.”

            “If you had gotten killed or seriously injured, I don’t know what I would have done; I am foolish to put this burden on your shoulders.”

            “No, you aren’t.  I made it alive, I can do this.  I can help you.”

            “It is only the beginning that is just the prelude.  It is like the game on the first level, you have no idea how much worse it will become.  You cannot even begin to imagine.”  His voice was grim and his eyes were dark.

            “Maybe you should explain it to me, David.  Don’t you think I have the right to know?  I don’t know how much longer I can go on carrying around this key, that no one is willing to explain the meaning of to me, risking my life, without any knowledge whatsoever.  Do you want me to just go back, pretend to forget what I worked so hard to receive?”  Kelly-Jo furrowed her eyebrows as she demanded this information.

            “Perhaps you should go home while you still have the opportunity to lead an ordinary life.”

            “I’ll be damned if I go back now.  You know I’m not leaving.  At least explain the freaking thing to me.”  Her voice was raised, but she wasn’t yelling so far.

            He sighed, giving in to her.  “It’s awfully complex.  We are all damned creatures.”  He gestured to the woods, and including the mansion.  “The key is to L'Eglise du Fichu, or The Church of the Damned.  It has been watched by the pope himself for centuries; the key pretty much unlocks this forgotten church and reverses the curse we are under.  However, since the vampires have it, if we undo the curse, then all the others will spend eternity baking in hell.  So they are all willing to fight us for it, they are willing to kill us, as well as you. Except, there is a catch to being rescued from this curse, a major one...” He broke off, shaking his head and standing up, walking across the room.

            Kelly-Jo stood up and followed him.  “David,” she said quietly, “what is it?  What’s the catch?”

            “Kelly-Jo, I cannot do this to you.  I am taking you back to your home, I cannot ask this of you, and I do not want you to concur.  Come on, let us go.”

            “No.  It is my decision and I’m not leaving until you explain it.  I came here, no questions asked, almost dying for the cause, and you expect me to leave with hardly an explanation?”  She crossed her arms stubbornly over her chest.

            “I wish you would.”  He closed his eyes, pausing for a painful second.  “I know what is best for you, and this is not it.  Please, go with me, do not be obdurate.”

            She held back tears, he wanted her to leave.  He didn’t want her to be here anymore, he thought he could kill her, but somehow that plan had been unsuccessful, so now he was trying to send her back.  “If you want me to leave,” her voice crackled as she began to whimper, “you could just say it.”

            “No, Kelly-Jo, it is not like that.”  He swept her into his arms, and then held her away from him so he could look her in the eye.  “Look at me; I want you to go back because if you stay you will die.  I love you, and I do not want that for you.”

            “I promise I won’t die.”  Her bottom lip trembled.

            “Look, the catch to our being saved is finding a voluntary, human sacrifice.”  He paused allowing Kelly-Jo to take this information in.

            “Which would be me?” she asked slowly.  Her head spun, she wanted to save David, but the whole ‘Would you take a bullet for the one you love?’ took on an entirely fresh meaning when you actually had to decide if you wanted to die for them so they could live, again.

            He lowered his eyes.  “I love you; I do not think I can let you go through with it even if you do agree.  Anyway, you must think seriously about this, it is your life; you can go back now and still build a future.  I will arrange for you to return if that is what you want.  Please, I beg you, do not be rash.  And always remember that I love you, no matter what and would much prefer you live than die for me.”

            Kelly-Jo hesitated, searching for the words she wanted.  “I’ll give it serious consideration, but I’m not promising anything.  You’ve had hundreds of years; I’ve had twenty-three.”

            “I know.”  He said.  “You have as long as you need.  I am sorry I am doing this to you, so sorry.  I can hardly believe myself, you owe me no favors.  Please go home, Kelly-Jo?”

            “Why don’t you go feed, I can tell you need to by your eyes and I will think about the entire matter.”

            He nodded, walking out of the room deflated.  His shoulders were slumped and his head was bowed.  She wished to reassure him that he was only doing what was necessary, and she knew that, but it wouldn’t help, because dead is dead, whether the person loved you or not.

             She sat wondering what to do.  This is my life, I’m not even twenty-five, and I have so many more years in this world.  How much more dangerous will this get?  He made it sound really bad, I almost didn’t make it up one mountain, and that’s only the beginning?  And he is only one vampire, what do the others want?  She brought her knees to her chest, wishing she was five again.  That was the best age, a little freedom, and minimal decision making.  Well, I can’t decide without talking to Anastasia.

            She went to sleep, tossing and turning for awhile before her eyes shut, when she awoke David was beside her.  “David?”

            “Good afternoon, Kelly-Jo.”

            “I need to talk to Anastasia in private; can you get her for me?”

            His eyes narrowed, but he widened them immediately trying to not look suspicious.  “Yes, I will go get her for you.”

            Was she just being paranoid, or did his voice sound strained?  “Thank you, David.”

            He was out the door by the time she sat up in bed.  She went to the mirror, raking her fingers through her hair and wiping some smudged mascara off her cheek.  She pulled her clothes straight, seeing they were in disarray.

            “You wanted to speak with me?”

            Her tone was frost-bitten, and Kelly-Jo jumped since she hadn’t heard her enter the room.  “Yeah,” Kelly-Jo turned so that she was facing the vampire.  “I’m in sort of a predicament.  David wants me to help the vampires become human again, as you well know, but he is only one vampire.  And you are quite an opinionated other.”  This lifted Anastasia’s scowling mouth into a slight smile for a second.

            “There are vampires who do not want to be a human.”  She said sharply.

            “How many?”

            “I have not a clue.  I have met both vampires wanting to be a human again and those who wish to remain the way they are.  I think the ones that want to be human again should go burn at the stake, if they want to expire so greatly there are ways.”  Kelly-Jo nodded.  “However, I am biased.  I am…” she hesitated for a moment, her walls falling away, but they went right back up again, “gay.”  Kelly-Jo was surprised, she’d never once heard of a vampire being a lesbian. Not that it was bothersome, it just took her aback.  “I will go to hell whether or not I die as a vampire or become a human again.  I would rather die with Zora than be human.  When I was human I was treated shoddily because what I was went against the church.  Then, I was turned to a vampire, and was surprisingly treated much better.”

            Kelly-Jo winced, she hated when people weren’t treated equally.  As far as she was concerned it was a crime, obviously it had taken quite a toll on Anastasia for her to remember it so clearly even hundreds of years later.  And it was no different for humans; it’s not as if they chose to be unusual.  No one wakes up one day and decides they want to go through heartache to be different.  No one wakes up when they are twelve and says ‘I am going to like girls.’  No, they see a girl and think, ‘Oh, she’s cute.’  So why did people have to act like it was a transgression to be different.   “But you’ve made it sound like you want to be human.”

            “Kelly-Jo, you humans and we creatures cannot reside together evermore.  This is the only opportunity I have ever, in all of my years, encountered to fix this quandary.  I do not want to go to hell and this is the only way I had the choice.  You are taking my choice, ripping it to shreds, and sending me straight to hell, along with Zora.  You, though, are the only person who, at this moment can help us.”

            “I need to think…”

“I know, because either resolution is a mistake for you and everyone else.  If you go through with it thousands will die and go to hell.  If you do not, thousands of people are bond to die because of us.” Her eyes were a deep red, and her skin and teeth were toothpaste white.  Her hair was pulled into a ponytail that swung from side to side when she made any rapid movement.  It was so unfair that there were, by no means, right answers.

Author's Note

helpful advice please, this chapter is far from perfect...

Reviews

[Nazarea]

I liked it. You need to rework some sentences, but Kady x Babe went over that. Also, watch your grammar. I really like where the plot line is going. This chapter puts a lot of what's going to happen out there, and you might want to be careful of that. On the other hand, letting the reader know where your going can be good. Just keep a balance. And that balance is really up to the writer. I'm intrigued, though. One last thought...Draw out your scenes a bit more. You're sort of rushing through them, and there seems to be a that could be done with the relationship between Kelly-Jo and David. Even the early conversation with Kelly-Jo and Anna...it could be fleshed out and explored.
I so did not realize she was gay...thats kinda cool. Never met a gay vamp before. (ok, I've never met a vamp before, but its rare to read about lesbian vampires. Why is that, I wonder?)

[Kady x Babe]

this . . . hurts in grammatical sense . . "errorous for loving one and entrusting one with..."

possibly = "in err for loving and entrusting one with . . . " something such as that. I don't know. There are a lot of different spelling mistakes, and various other errors that need fixed . But this story does intrigue.

The line "I am in love with a witch, I am gay" ... I understand she is blunt and outspoken but for some reason it still does not seem to fit. She is a lesbian, I understand that. It's actually enhancing her beauty for an odd reason. But the diction for this sentence doesn't seem to fit, or to portray that beauty.

I'm rediculous, I know. My own writings haven't gotten as much attention from me as yours have been receiving but for some reason. This novel is getting my attention. Good luck with the future chapters, I cannot wait to read more. :]

Kadyy.