ItM - Erin - 39

Vampire Family

Simon and I actually had a lot in common, but I hadn’t known that when we first got together. Neither of us had known that our parents had been important people, that his parents had left to protect him and Michaela, that mine hadn’t wanted to leave me. We didn’t even know if mine were really dead or if it was another lie to protect them and me from those that would hurt us.

Both of us were essentially orphans, and it was part of the reason I loved him, which sounds terrible if you just look at it like that. I loved who he’d become as life had twisted and turned around him, trying to shape him into someone he never wanted to become. He didn’t accept the role the false mother tried to force him into, and he’d become someone smart and funny and playful and loving.

I told him this once, when we were lying out in the backyard one night, and he chuckled, telling me that he loved me for the same reason, that somehow I’d become the same person despite having no one to care for me and love me.

Maybe I’d been waiting for him to save me.

~*~*~*~

It was hard to keep track of time as it passed, because everything moved along so smoothly without anything to block our way.

Our birthdays had come and gone with little fuss, Simon and I turning 21 while Michaela became 16. Simon took her to get her driver’s license every day for a week until she passed, and then took her out to dinner to celebrate.

Simon had become so popular with his photography and videos in the months since he started. One of his pictures from a wedding was featured in a local magazine, and he’d had a small interview printed in the newspaper about him being so young but so talented. I’d had the article framed and hung in our room.

He told me I was being silly, but I was so proud of him. He was finally being recognized for his amazing work, and he was making enough money to have his own little studio built near the house.

We hadn’t gotten married yet, but I wasn’t in a hurry to go through the ceremony and everything. It would happen one day. Simon was a little impatient, but he knew that I wouldn’t make him wait twenty years before finally saying yes to the wedding. He still collected pictures of dresses and flowers for me, like it would change my mind.

Michaela was getting bigger with the baby, almost seven months along. She’d matured so much during the pregnancy, and she’d mellowed out some, no longer snapping at people. She was still the teenager she’d been before she got pregnant, but a lot nicer.

A human guy kept calling and coming by the house with flowers to try and talk to her, but she avoided him. Once he went around the back and cornered her in the yard, but she’d punched him in the stomach and strolled into the house like nothing had happened.

Simon was furious, wondering who was trying to hit on his little sister, but I told him that one day Michaela would have to deal with it.

The flowers bloomed, and I scattered them throughout the house until every room smelled different. The kitchen had violets, the living room roses. Simon brought the orchids into our room, and I blushed as much as I could when he said it was because they smelled the same as I did.

Some of the people that hired Simon for wedding pictures bought some of the flowers for the brides to carry, and I started growing more roses and tulips.

I started drinking the blood I had delivered from a local blood bank. Drinking Simon’s blood was changing me too much. Once I was out with Ainsley and she made a comment about me having freckles from the sun across my cheeks. After that I told Simon that I had to stop feeding from him because I didn’t know what all the repeated bites would do to him.

He didn’t look like he believed me, but he agreed.

I kept hanging out with Ainsley and Oliver, even though Simon would growl under his breath every time one of them would call. He just didn’t understand that I liked being around other vampires, that they were a link to a world I knew so little about, a world I rarely lived in.

I knew how torn Simon was. I felt the same way. On one hand, there was a family that accepted me and loved me, and other the other were vampires just like me, that understood what I went through trying to survive and avoid too much of the sun.

Ainsley and Oliver were fun to hang out with. They’d grown up in a big city but found they liked smaller towns more, because of the lack of noise and traffic and smoke clogging up the air.

They were fun and quirky, but sometimes they were so serious I felt out of place with them. I would mention something funny that Simon did or Michaela said, and they’d just nod and give me a tight smile, like they didn’t enjoy that fact that I lived with werewolves.

They just didn’t know how much I was used to it. They didn’t understand. If they came to the house to meet them they might, but they never came. They would only drive as far as the edge of the driveway and wait for me to get into their car.

But, still, everything was good, and I was happy. It finally felt like I was home.

One night I went out to Simon’s studio and knocked on the door frame, not wanting to go in and ruin everything if he was trying to develop some pictures. The door opened and Simon leaned against the frame, smiling at me. “I was just thinking about you, my Erin.” He reached out, pulling me close, and nuzzled into my hair. “You missing me already?”

I chuckled and let myself rest against him for a quick moment before pulling back. “No, I just wanted you to tell you that I’m going out with Ainsley and Oliver tonight.”

He sighed, running his palm over my hair as his face turned blank and cold. “Again? That’s five nights this week you’ve gone to see them.”

“They’re my friends, Simon. I like spending time with them. Besides, I won’t even be gone long. They mentioned something about going out of town tomorrow. I’ll be there and back so quick you won’t even notice that I’ve left.”

He pulled me close again, pressing his lips to my jaw. “I always notice when you’ve left, Erin. The world becomes empty without you there, and it never smells the same. Don’t go tonight, Erin. I’ve missed spending the night with you. You’re always with them, talking for hours, leaving me here to wonder if they’ve kidnapped you away from me.”

“Simon, they wouldn’t do that.”

He sighed against my cheek and kissed me hard, like he thought someone was ripping me away from him, and I wrapped my arms around him tight, letting him know I’d always want him more than anything or anyone else.

When he finally let go of me he sighed again and reached up to stroke my cheek. “Be careful when you go out, Erin. I wish I could go with you.”

“I know.” I kissed him quickly, squeezing his free hand. “I love you.”

“I love you, my Erin. More than anything.”

I gave him a smile and turned to go, heading around the side of the house to the driveway. The black car was waiting at the street, Oliver behind the wheel with Ainsley next to him in the front seat. I smiled at the both of them as I climbed into the back, and they wrinkled their noses a little. “You smell like chemicals, Erin.”

“I do?” I sniffed at the air. “Simon was out in his studio playing around with something when I said I was going out.”

They both looked at each other as Oliver started to drive. “Did you tell him where you were going?”

“I said I was going out with you two.”

Ainsley started fidgeting in her seat as Oliver drove towards town, but she stopped when he reached over to squeeze her shoulder. She started looking out the window as the car sped through the trees, her shoulders tense, like she thought we were being followed.

The car kept moving for about twenty minutes, and then I noticed they missed the turn-off for town. “You missed the turn. Is there another way to town I don’t know about?”

Oliver chuckled, but it sounded forced. “No, Erin. We’ve been thinking of buying a larger place outside of town, away from all the people, and we wanted you to take a look at it. We like it, but we want your opinion.”

“You guys are moving? Well, town can get busy some days, and it is nice living out in the trees. It’s so quiet.” I rested my head on the seat and watched the shadows rush past the car, the headlights bringing out the shapes of the trees for only a second before they moved back into one large, black mass.

After half an hour I was worried that we were lost because it felt like the car kept circling, but soon it stopped in front of a large farmhouse. The exterior was a light blue with a large porch at the front, and the building looked to be almost 100 years old. I could see a medium-sized barn near the house, and thought that Oliver and Ainsley must have a fair amount of money to be able to buy this place.

They led me inside and everything looked perfect. The rooms were big, so they had more than enough space, and there was even a finished basement when they wanted to be away from the sun.

At the bottom of the stairs they stopped and looked at me, Ainsley looking slightly worried while Oliver just looked his normal self. “So, what do you think?”

“I think it’s a great house. You guys shouldn’t let it slip though your fingers.” I looked over at the clock in the DVD player and sighed. “It’s been more than two hours since I left. I should be heading back home now.”

Oliver nodded, not listening to me, and Ainsley headed upstairs, soon tossing down three duffel bags to her brother. He set them down by the stairs, and turned to face me, a blank mask on his face.

I looked at him, confused, my head tilted to the side, and started towards the stairs. I tried to go around him but he grabbed onto my shoulders and squeezed until I could feel his fingers dig into my bones. “What are you doing? Oliver, I want to go home.” I started struggling, trying to pull away, but he was stronger than I was. Tears started falling down my cheeks. “Let me go.”

He pushed me towards the couch in the middle of the room and I landed hard on it, my hair falling into my face. I pushed it out and looked at him, eyes wide with fear. “What’s wrong with you? I want to go home, Oliver. Take me home.”

“No.”