Ch. 9

It was about a week after the incident and Rosemary was still at her house. It was a Sunday, and she was reading reading the book, looking for the spell. The spell was hidden, so she was sure it would take a while.

“Rosemary, aren’t you going to eat anything?” Bodoleck asked.

“In a minute,” she replied.

“You said that two hours ago. And three hours before. Now please eat something,” Bodoleck pleaded.

“I’m reading.”

“Not even a cracker?”

“No. Go away. I want to finish this,” said Rosemary. Even if she could read fast, she wanted to take it all in. Understand everything. She wanted to know exactly what people knew, and what was real.

“You’re a vampire yourself. You know everything in that book. Now, I’m not going to let you die from starvation. Sometimes you’re almost as stubborn as Veripema. You are related by blood,” said Bodoleck.

That grabbed Rosemary’s attention.

“Don’t compare me to her. And just because we’re family, doesn’t mean we’re exactly alike. . .”

“I never said you were exactly like her. I just said you can sometimes be as stubborn. Like now, for instance. But if you don’t want to live until tomorrow, I guess I can eat all this food myself,” said Bodoleck.

When Rosemary didn’t look away from the book, Bodoleck decided to do the last thing he could to get her to eat. He snatched the book away from her, and when she was about to protest, he held the plate in front of her nose. Giving up, Rosemary grabbed a carrot stick and some celery.

“That’s better. Now, since you haven’t eaten anything since you got the book in your hands, I think it would be fitting if I didn’t give the book back to you until you’ve finished that entire plate. See you later. I’ll stash this away someplace safe, and then I think I’ll go for a stroll. Veripema won’t be back for a while. That wound you gave her was pretty deep. I’ll be back by dinner,” said Bodoleck. He walked out of the room, and Rosemary turned the TV on. The show was boring, so she turned it off and finished the plate. Then she opened the window and was about to jump out, but grabbed her jacket before she did.

“Just because Bodoleck is gone, that doesn’t mean that I have to be cooped in here without that book,” Rosemary said to herself. She stuffed her arms in her jacket and started to climb down.

Once she was on the ground, she realized how terrible it was that people knew that she was a vampire. She wasn’t being seen as a normal person anymore. She was an outsider. It was lonely, she realized as she walked past people who were once her friends, but now thought her as a monster.

“Rosemary!” she heard a voice call. Rosemary turned around to find Sarah running towards her. At least somethings never change.

“Rosemary, I’m so glad to see you again. I haven’t seen you in a really long time. That’s the bad part of summer vacation. We don’t get to walk to school together,” said Sarah brightly.

“Yeah. Did you say it’s summer vacation? I thought we still had a month more of school. I guess I’m still not used to the human calendars. They’re so different than ours. We have the same months, just in a different order. It’s June, right?” Rosemary asked Sarah.

“Yeah. Last month was May. It’s the second week of June, and school ended last Friday. I missed you last week. Where were you?” Sarah asked.

“I was busy, doing somethings that I needed to catch up on. Us vampires are completely different than you humans. Why aren’t you scared of me? I thought for sure you would be,” said Rosemary.

“Oh, I believed you when you said that you weren’t going to harm me or anyone else. I trust you. Where do you want to go? We’re downtown now,” said Sarah. Rosemary stopped to take a look at where they were.

“I don’t know. I’ve never been here before. I try to stay as far away from a large mass of humans as possible. I dreaded going to school,” she informed her companion.

Sarah stood blinking at Rosemary, but then they heard two voices calling their names, “Sarah! Rosemary!”

They turned around to find Leginivo and Bodoleck behind them.

“Bodoleck, what are you doing with Leginivo?” Rosemary asked.

“I was just showing him some stuff,” said Bodoleck. He winked at Rosemary. She groaned. He had showed her some things that vampires can do.

“Yeah. It was so awesome!” Leginivo yelled.

“What are you talking about?” Sarah asked, hating being left out.

“I’ll show you later, okay? I’ve got to go home with Bodoleck, to talk about some things,” said Rosemary.

“Looks like I’m in trouble,” said Bodoleck, laughing.

“You are.”

Rosemary took Bodoleck’s ear and started dragging him.

“Ow! Ow! Quit it! Just because I’m in trouble, I hope you realize that I’m still stronger than you and am over one-thousand years older!”

“Yeah, but I got my wings before you, and they aren’t puny. I’m still strong. I’m from Veripema’s family, I hope you’ll remember. She’s my mothers twin sister, for crying out loud!”

“Am I really in trouble?” Bodoleck asked Rosemary.

She winced and said, “No. I have some questions about humans, and I’m sure you know more than me. Now actually move!”

“I would if you weren’t still holding onto my ear.”

Rosemary let go of his ear and they ran the rest of the way home. It was five miles, but they still got there in under a minute. Once they got there, they slammed the door shut and locked it.

“Now, what were your questions?” Bodoleck asked.

“I asked Michael this one, but I didn’t understand his answer entirely, so now I’m asking you. What’s a kiss?” Rosemary asked.

Bodoleck paused a moment, and then replied, “I’m not certain, but it’s what humans do to show affection to each other. They do it when they love each other, and that’s basically all I know on that subject, why?”

“I was just wondering.” Rosemary got up and went to bed. It was only twilight, but Rosemary was tired from reading all day. She jumped into bed and that was that.

Until around midnight.

There was someone at the window. It cut it open with a dagger and came in the room. It held the dagger up in the air. It covered Rosemary’s mouth. Rosemary was half asleep, but she knew what was going on.

The person stabbed Rosemary’s chest. Rosemary let out a small scream. Blood was soaking the blankets. The person went up close to Rosemary’s face and said, “Just because I still can’t fight you, that doesn’t mean I can’t easily get my revenge.”

There were footsteps outside the door. The person looked up, and the next second, it was nowhere to be seen.

The door opened, and Bodoleck came into the room. He leaned over Rosemary and asked, “What happened to you?”

Rosemary was breathing heavily. She replied, “Someone came in and stabbed me. I’m not sure, but it sounded like it was Veripema. I’m bleeding badly. Look at the dagger, and see if it was my mother’s.”

Bodoleck took the dagger out and looked at it. Then he said, “It is. We have to close this wound, quickly. I can’t take you to the hospital. There will be questions. Only the people in this neighborhood know that we’re vampires. We don’t want the rest of the city to know, too.”

Bodoleck left the room, and then came back a few minutes later with a medical box in his hands. He took some thread and a needle and started to make stitches.

“I didn’t know that you have medical experience,” Rosemary told Bodoleck.

“I was gone for a long time. And don’t talk. It will make your injuries worse,” Bodoleck warned her. When he finished, he packed up his gear and went to get Rosemary a glass of water.

The next morning, Rosemary was a bit better. It didn’t hurt as much, and she was allowed to sit up. At about nine o’clock, the doorbell rang. Bodoleck quickly answered it.

“Hello. Are you here to see Rosemary? She’s up in her room right now. You may go see her,” Rosemary heard Bodoleck say. A minute later, Michael was at her doorway.

“Knock knock,” he said.

“Hi.”

“How are you feeling?” Michael asked.

“Not good, but still better than last night. Veripema did this. We’ll have to do something about that window. I have some spells that should do the trick. I’ll be okay. We don’t have to move,” said Rosemary.

“That’s good to know. Um, remember that question you asked me about humans? The second one?” Michael asked.

“Yes,” said Rosemary, blushing.

“Well . . .”

Michael leaned over Rosemary. As he got closer and closer, Rosemary knew what he was doing. He leaned a little bit farther and it happened.

He kissed her.

“That’s a kiss.”

They were both smiling. Then Michael turned around and left the room, leaving Rosemary in a daze.