bedtime

Chapter 5

As he stood there he thought about the way his life was going to be different from now on. He would become a different person being bonded with Annabelle. As he stood there he remembered a place. It wasn’t one of his memories. He could remember a young Annabelle Lee coming here. He remembered when she was sad she would sit under the tallest tree and watch the small river. He could feel the warm summer breeze bringing the scent of lavender to his too sensitive nose. The things that he could smell were amazing. The vampire remembered Annabelle sitting under the tree with her drawing pad sketching. He came back to reality and turned off the water.

Annabelle wandered through the vampire’s apartment looking at all his stuff and getting confused as memories came flooding in. Annabelle remembered how every single thing ended up in his apartment. She found a bathroom and started wiping the blood off her body.

Annabelle walked through the hall now clean looking through the rooms. She walked as if she had been living there for her entire life. Annabelle knew the history of every object in the apartment. She could recall with perfect detail every page of every book the vampire had read.

She wandered in to the vampire’s bedroom wanting to see what it was like for herself. As she looked around Annabelle had to admit that she did like it. The walls were a soft red-gold colour that made the room feel warm and comfortable. The furniture was made of a dark reddish wood. Annabelle walked over to a bookshelf that was stashed in a corner to inspect the titles on the shelf. As she had expected the books on the shelves were not for everyone to read. These were the sacred vampire texts that were written in a secret language known only to the vampires, until the vampire bonds with a cat. In time Annabelle would be able to read and write in this language but for now all she could do was marvel at the beautiful calligraphy on the spines of the books.

Annabelle moved on to the next shelf. This one had more interesting contents. On the shelf was a sword stand with a collection of authentic antique Japanese swords. She looked over each sword with a curious eye. She knew everything about these swords. She even knew how to fight with them but Annabelle lacked her own experiences. Annabelle tentatively reached out a hand to pick one of them up.

The vampire heard Annabelle in his room. He was amazed at how much his hearing had changed. Usually he could hear everything in the apartment but now he could hear people three floors away arguing. The vampire turned off the water towelled off and quietly put on his clothes. He stood at the entrance to his bedroom watching Annabelle looking through his books. He was concerned at first but he knew that Annabelle would probably not remember how to read the vampire language.

He watched as Annabelle traced the calligraphy with a long nailed finger. The vampire watched with interest as Annabelle moved on to inspect his swords. She didn’t seem to notice the vampire lurking in the doorway. Her hearing must not be as acute as his. He watched Annabelle reach out and hesitantly took the hilt of a long knife. The vampire smiled and silently slid up behind Annabelle. “Like what you see?” He asked.

Annabelle jumped a little not hearing him leave the shower. Annabelle almost dropped the knife but her primal instincts wouldn’t let go. “How can you sneak up on me?” Annabelle asked curious.

“Annabelle I am a vampire I will always be able to sneak up on everyone. Why does it annoy you so much, little kitty?” He replied as he looked over her shoulder.

“It annoys me because I can’t hear you. You are not there then you are and it’s annoying. As I’m sure you know my hearing is amazing.  It doesn’t happen often that I get sneaked up on, and don’t call me little kitty, it’s completely degrading of someone with my intelligence.”

The vampire grinned at Annabelle. She was so cute when he annoyed her. “Why don’t you use my name? It must be in your head somewhere, but you don’t use it.”

“We cats don’t use names that haven’t been given to us. It is a really important part of our social interactions with other beings. Also it’s being polite. If you tell me your name I will use it as often as I can.” She said with a smile.

“I will never completely understand cats.” The vampire muttered to himself though in his own ears I sounded too loud. “My name is Dimitri. I have been a vampire since around the 6^th century. I have lived in Europe for most of that particularly in Germany.” He smiled knowing that his name would be spoken from that mouth made him happy.  He expected her to say something but she just yawned. He turned away from her foolish that he expected anything from a cat. He could expect things until the day the earth burns but he would never ever get anything from the cat.

She looked at Dimitri’s back wondering if she had upset him in some way. Annabelle couldn’t think of a reason why he would be mad but then again Annabelle was not the best cat to talk to about other’s emotions. She yawned again, it had been quite a while since Annabelle had been this exhausted. She thought about leaving Dimitri alone with his thoughts but Annabelle didn’t really want to leave. She turned to face Dimitri. “Dimitri? Get some sleep.” She walked towards the bed and crawled in between the sheets. It had been a while since Annabelle had slept in a bed. She fell asleep almost immediately all curled up in a ball.

Dimitri watched her sleep for a few minutes before he smiled to himself and got into bed beside her. She seemed so quiet and peaceful as she slept. He really didn’t know what to make of her. Annabelle was so different from a vampire and he had never known a cat like he knew Annabelle. It was so personal and he knew absolutely everything about her and his feelings were so intense even though he had only just met her. His life was going to get complicated.  He chuckled to himself he was a vampire living in a human city and living with a cat was making his life complicated. He pushed such thoughts out of his mind as he slowly drifted off towards sleep.