3.69
I made it home, and after waiting for hours to make sure nobody followed me, I went inside. I spent the next few days making pained trips back and forth from the grocery store and devouring a month’s worth of few in a few days. Elias thinks I need to go to a hospital, and is concerned I won’t tell him where I spent the last few weeks. I was gone for thirty-six days. I survived thirty-six days of torture and my family has been worried sick. They came to visit, but could see I wasn’t feeling well. I just promised I wouldn’t vanish again.
Through all of this, I could only think of one thing; where is Destiny? I managed to get free of Elias long enough to make my way to Destiny’s apartment. The place was still a wreck from the fight, but I could tell she had been there. She had taken somethings, eaten and left the place abandoned again. I checked her phone call history, nothing but me. Searched for clues about the grandmother and family she had spoken about, nothing. No family photos, no letters or even a recipe for grandma’s famous pot roast. Credit card statements, her cards were on autopay and hadn’t been used in months. The more I searched the more I felt like she had been a ghost. If I hadn’t stood in the wreckage of her apartment, I wouldn’t have believed she was ever real. Everything we had been through and she had vanished without a trace. The whole thing left me with an uneasy feeling.
The solution came to me as I was lying in the bathtub with earplugs and beneath a blanket trying to block my senses. She’s never left me without telling me. I just have to go back to the beginning, the very beginning where we met. Club Void, and that’s where I’m going tonight. Elias is out courting a lady friend, finally giving me some space, and I’m heading for the club.
I pull into the parking lot, and scope out my surroundings. I’m still afraid somebody has been watching me, so I’ve been checking my surroundings a lot lately. I don’t have any problems getting in the club or finding my way around. The loud sounds and color changing lights have me on the edge of insanity.
Last time I was here, I only found the secret exit because I was following Destiny. Now, I can see the door, clearly without any aide. It’s magic, a feint outline that I couldn’t see before. I wonder if the library has a magic signature over that hidden door as well. I don’t waste any time making my way towards the door. What I’m looking for is behind there.
Behind the door I recognize the smell as blood now. It was so foreign to me the first time I smelled it. Now, it’s second nature. Tonight, I can taste it in air, no almost. My mouth is watering, preparing for the taste as if I enjoyed being forced to drink all that blood. Now my body seems to be craving it and my hunger has become worse than before.
These tunnels look like a place where people with fetishes for vampires come to get bitten. Every so often I come across a human or a vampire. I never noticed vampire eyes glow in low light, almost like a cat. My suspicions are confirmed when I hear a man yelling to be bitten harder. I’m not going to kink shame anyone, but I’ve never had the urge to be bitten, then again, nobody has offered. They look like they’re having fun and most don’t seem to care if I watch. I just keep going, trying to retrace my steps the night I chased Destiny.
I wonder if Destiny was here to shut it down that night, it wouldn’t be hard to believe this is a Marson operation. They did attack her that night, and I wouldn’t put it past her to be a constant pain in their ass. This place is a lot less alive than my first visit. If that was her plan, it worked. I make my way outside through the exit. The smell of garbage stronger than ever.
I’m not sure how, but I can smell Destiny through it all. I can almost sense her presence looking at me. I glance up and spot her, sitting on the edge of the club’s roof kicking her legs in the air. I make my way over, and look for a way up, settling on the ladder bolted to the side of the building. I start to climb as she looks down on me.
“I’ve been looking for you,” I wrap my arms around her but she doesn’t hug me back.
“Hey, I’m really sorry. I’ve ruined your life.”
“You’re the best thing that ever happened to me.”
“Only because you don’t realize I’ve ruined it.”
“Stop with that,” I finally let her go. “I’m so glad to see you and all you’re saying is sorry.”
“You just don’t understand yet,” she walks away, seemingly wiping tears away.
“Just tell me what’s wrong,” I ask not realizing I raised my voice until the words are gone.
“Just drink this,” she hands me a can with no label.
“What is it?”
“It’ll make you feel better. I know you’re a mess right now, and you look like you aren’t far from going rabid.”
“I don’t know what any of that means.”
“Just drink blue bird, and I’ve got more. You’ll want it.”
I take the can from her and open it up. At first it tastes like cream soda, I love cream soda. For the first time in days, I seem to have something that’s stopping my constant hunger. With the third can, my constant headache subsides. By the sixth I’m no longer hungry, but I taste more than cream soda now.
“What’s in the can,” I ask knowing the answer.
“Cream soda and,” she lets the word hang, “blood.”
The answer comes to my head right away. I don’t need to ask her; it all makes sense. The reason I could smell everything, see in the dark without an issue, why lights were suddenly too bright. Most of all it explains the constant hunger that I’d felt. I remember Destiny mentioning how it felt when a vampire didn’t feed too long.
“Why?”
“You were dying, it was the only way I could save you.”
“Why not take me to a hospital?”
“You wouldn’t have made it. I was selfish. I just didn’t want to lose you.”
She keeps talking, but I don’t listen, I try to hear anything else. The newfound level of hearing lets me focus on what the club is playing below us, the argument in the building across the street, what the bouncer is saying to the guy he won’t let in the front door. Everything but what she’s saying. It’s overwhelming, just as bad as before, but focused on one or two things at a time now. The scents aren’t any better, I can at least focus, almost look for certain smells, but it’s still too much. The hunger is gone, the headache is gone, and my head is clear, but I’m not feeling better. I know why she did it. But that was my choice to make. I don’t know if I would have decided to be a vampire if she just asked me. I know I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her. I just didn’t know it meant eternal life. What if we hate each other 100 years down the line? What happens when I outlive my family? Can I turn my family into vampires? I get it, I really do, but I can’t be happy.
“Please, just talk to me.”
“I don’t know what to say.”
“You were the first person that ever loved me unconditionally. The first person that never wanted anything from me, and would do anything for me. You fought vampires, werewolves and even a half troll because you were caught up in my bullshit. The only time you got mad at me was because I was being an asshole. I’m sorry, I just couldn’t stand not waking up knowing you weren’t out there anymore.”
“Alright.”
“That’s it? You’re not going to yell at me? You got the right to push me off this building for what I did and you’re just going to say alright?”
“What do you want me to say? I love you. I’m not hurt, I’m alive. There’s so much I don’t understand, or can’t comprehend right now. I want to thank you for saving my life. I want to thank you for giving me the chance to see my family again. I want to thank you for being you and loving me. I don’t know if I ever wanted to be a vampire. I’m not sure what I’ll do when I outlive my family. I’m not eager to go around biting people. I should be mad, I want to be mad. I’m just glad we’re together.”
“Then we’ll figure it out together.”
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