I'm Not Crazy (A Kinsey Short)

Thought about making this a novel. Love the character but I got bored with it. What do you guys think?

I sat on that old hard wood chair that had held me for so many meals with these people. The paint flaked in shards under my nails. Aware of this I nerveously slipped my hands into the warm gap of my lap. Across from me was the man I'd come to regard as a father. Jed swept his cowboy hat tighter on his balding head, his agitiation and fear leaking through the pores of his leathery skin.

I could smell it, all the hatred and confusion he felt for me. I couldn't blame him. The feeling was all too familiar. His caloused hands grazed the old table as he leaned toward me. His cowboy callogne mixing with the sweat of a hard day, A scent my mind had thought comforting, now stung my like the dry breath of a corpse. I was terrified of what he might do, What he might think? But what could he think other then monster? He would grab a pitchfork and throw me out into the night surely. That wouldn't be so bad I guess. After all I was a creature of the night wasn't I? This cursed being, this murderer..

I heard Mary's shuffled walk behind me but I didn't look up. The bowl in her hands rattled full of round peeling cloves of garlic. Looking back I might of laughed at the old superstition. But now I just sat quietly as she tried to place a bowl of strong smelling vegitables on the table. Jed was pushing her back with that defensivness only an animal would understand. The grate of his hand against her sleeve screeched like metal on a chalk board. I winced, this was the worst part of being a vampire. This sensitivity that opened the world so completly to my ears. Normally I could ignore it, but not now. My sensory adaption was in shock like the rest of me.

From somewhere above I heard the patter of tiny feet. Cheri, that sweet little red head that had found a friend in me. What was she thinking now?

Did she know that they had caught me crained over the body of one of their cows?

It's blood on my hands and down my throat like water from a faucet?

Had she heard her brother scream?

I still felt his iron grip on my arm as he had hauled me, mad with blood, from the body. I had struck at him but somehow Kyle's farm boy strength held me taut. I remember whipping back and forth. He held me prison style and marched me to the house. The sun had just been falling over Kettle Farm. I had watched the sky brim with blood and fade to that sweet purple and gold of an Oklahoma sunset. Already the resolve was fading and I was as human as Kinsey Risner had ever been. I stopped squirming and looked back at Kyle with those vindictive blue eyes that had made so many mortals melt. He did not look at me.

He shoved me through the door and onto that fouton matress they used as a couch. That was when he screamed. Such a voice I will never forget. He howled with abandon of the sight he'd witnessed. The proof was painted on my plaid blouse. His voice was high as he spilled everything he witnessed. Jed, who'd been spooning a pinch of tabacco into his cheek, stared wildly at my misreable figure. Mary hid in the kitchen but it was obvious she heard every word. When Kyle had finished his sermon the man of the house rose on tree trunk legs.

"Sarah," I flinched at my fake name. "Go take a shower and come right back. There are things to be discussed." He was too calm, too nice. I was terrified.

That's how I got here. In fresh clothes gazing at the man who would pass judgement on my heart. Mary was dismissed and it was only him and me. The overhead light buzzed and popped to my over active hearing. I imagined it mocked me and I glared at the fixture. It's voice formed in a language only I could understand.

"Why do you look that way to God." His voice so deadly calm I jerked back.

"I.. Don't" I muttered. He shook his head and walked around the table to my side. He was staring at me with confliction. It gave me hope. If he wanted to believe me I could make him see. But he kept walking. Stalking like a mourner on the death march behind my chair. I shivered.Hearing his voice, A whisper in my mind.

"Why did you do it, Sarah?"

"I had to."

"What made you." I wanted to turn and tell him about Danny and the horrible life I had been living but the nature of his question dawned before I could form the words. He didn't care about my past. He cared about his cow.

"Instinct, I have to kill." The steps behind my chair continued. I stared defiantly down on those blue jeans i wore. Determined to count every stitch if it would help me keep my mind.

"That is a demon answer." He spun my chair around so fast I couldn't move. Those cowboy hands gripped my arms with a power I didn't know existed.Who are you!" I shook with fear. "IT'S ME SARAH!" I screamed. He roared. "No, you are a demon who has possessed this lovely girl. In the name of the holy spirit I command you to leave her!" The laugh exploded from my gut in a spray across his face. He retracted wiping the gleaming drops of spit.

"You think I'm a demon!"

"NO!" Mary's voice howled in a way I never imagined her soft spoken voice could be. She flew from the kitchen dishiveled and violant wielding a cleaver knife above her head. My body reacted, I was off the chair facing my enemy. My teeth gleamed as the lights laughed. Telephone wires cheered me on. Jed stood between us his back to me. It was all I could do to stop the beast from wrenching free. I fell to my knees and ground my fingers into the wood until it creaked and gleamed with crimson tones.

Mary's voice herelded over me. I heard the couple struggle. The knife swung harmlessly through the air. Mary cursed as she was once again banished into the contours of the house.

"She's a lunatic!"The gentle woman screamed. "Crazy! She'll kill us all!"

***

The basement was cold and dark. My hands stung from raw hide rashes. Rats sqeaked around me. The thirst was begining, that burn that would mean the destruction of some unlucky soul. Heavy footsteps above me. Now on the stairs. I didn't care. I'm not crazy. I'm not crazy...