buy into that story. Not that I could blame her. It sounded ridiculous even to me, sitting here in the daylight in my bathtub.
Sliding deeper into the tub, I let the water run over my head and through my hair. Reaching up, I fanned the long locks out with my hands and rinsed it out of habit. I scoured my scalp and then scrubbed myself from head to toe.
Remembering his mouth on me, I scrubbed at my neck again until the skin felt nearly raw. Giving up because I couldn’t make myself feel clean no matter how long I scrubbed, I leaned back into the tub, trying again to focus on the best solution to my problem.
What about a priest? Was there some sort of exorcism for vampires? And once again, was I willing to risk that person’s life to see?
Could I kill the vampire myself? Another improbable plan, I felt, given the speed of his movements I had witnessed. But of all the plans that I had worked through in my mind, killing him seemed the safest for everyone else involved. If I didn’t succeed though, it would still leave Ellie at risk. He probably wouldn’t feel obligated to hold to our agreement if he felt I had betrayed it.
A chilling thought occurred to me for the first time. What if he didn’t follow through with his word and went after Ellie despite his promise? I mean, how much could you trust a vampire?
The more I thought about my situation, trusting a vampire seemed like the most absurd plan of all. Hadn’t I felt the air change just by his entering the room last night? Didn’t my hair stand on end? And here I was, sitting in my house, like a fly in a spider web waiting for him to return. To be his beck and call girl until he killed me, hoping that he would keep a promise to me, his intended victim, and not kill my family.
Panic seeped into my mind once again while I had been running this scenario through my mind and now I was under its control, feeling its heaviness beginning to suffocate me.
I shot up out of the water, splashing it on the walls and onto the floor with the force. There wasn’t much time. I needed to pack some clothes for myself and some food. I didn’t want to be stopping to eat once I had picked up Ellie. She had clothes at my mom’s house. There was money and a gun in the safe.
Grabbing a towel from the linen closet, I barely had made a dent in the water beading on my skin before I was pulling on my jeans and t-shirt. My hands were shaking as I attempted the combination on the safe and it took three tries for my trembling fingers to get it right. Finally, the lock released and the door swung open on the hinges. I reached into the dark of the safe, my hand landing on the gun first.
Grabbing the small amount of emergency cash I always kept, I stuffed the money in my back pocket and pushed the gun into the waistband of my pants. Jerking the hangers violently, I pulled a few warm clothes out of my closet including a thick down-filled coat and shoved them all into an overnight bag.
I was in my car in less than ten minutes. The clock in the car shone like a beacon in the dark garage reading 4:45 p.m. forcing my mind to register how close I was cutting this. Pushing the garage door opener on my visor, I waited impatiently for the door to open and was pulling out just as the edge of the door cleared my car.
Jabbing my finger down on the locking mechanism, I didn’t give the old house a second look as I roared down the driveway that turned into the winding dirt road.
Taking each curve too quickly, my wheels spun rocks and dirt into the trees covering the road. Since the dirt road dead-ended in my driveway, it was unlikely I would meet another car. My nerves were frayed and my eyes strained around each curve, half-expecting the vampire to be standing in the road waiting for me.
It was still light out, however, with the late afternoon sun having taken on the dark yellow color rather than the clear light of midday. Coming from an angle, the sun shone through the trees casting long shadows from
Sliding deeper into the tub, I let the water run over my head and through my hair. Reaching up, I fanned the long locks out with my hands and rinsed it out of habit. I scoured my scalp and then scrubbed myself from head to toe.
Remembering his mouth on me, I scrubbed at my neck again until the skin felt nearly raw. Giving up because I couldn’t make myself feel clean no matter how long I scrubbed, I leaned back into the tub, trying again to focus on the best solution to my problem.
What about a priest? Was there some sort of exorcism for vampires? And once again, was I willing to risk that person’s life to see?
Could I kill the vampire myself? Another improbable plan, I felt, given the speed of his movements I had witnessed. But of all the plans that I had worked through in my mind, killing him seemed the safest for everyone else involved. If I didn’t succeed though, it would still leave Ellie at risk. He probably wouldn’t feel obligated to hold to our agreement if he felt I had betrayed it.
A chilling thought occurred to me for the first time. What if he didn’t follow through with his word and went after Ellie despite his promise? I mean, how much could you trust a vampire?
The more I thought about my situation, trusting a vampire seemed like the most absurd plan of all. Hadn’t I felt the air change just by his entering the room last night? Didn’t my hair stand on end? And here I was, sitting in my house, like a fly in a spider web waiting for him to return. To be his beck and call girl until he killed me, hoping that he would keep a promise to me, his intended victim, and not kill my family.
Panic seeped into my mind once again while I had been running this scenario through my mind and now I was under its control, feeling its heaviness beginning to suffocate me.
I shot up out of the water, splashing it on the walls and onto the floor with the force. There wasn’t much time. I needed to pack some clothes for myself and some food. I didn’t want to be stopping to eat once I had picked up Ellie. She had clothes at my mom’s house. There was money and a gun in the safe.
Grabbing a towel from the linen closet, I barely had made a dent in the water beading on my skin before I was pulling on my jeans and t-shirt. My hands were shaking as I attempted the combination on the safe and it took three tries for my trembling fingers to get it right. Finally, the lock released and the door swung open on the hinges. I reached into the dark of the safe, my hand landing on the gun first.
Grabbing the small amount of emergency cash I always kept, I stuffed the money in my back pocket and pushed the gun into the waistband of my pants. Jerking the hangers violently, I pulled a few warm clothes out of my closet including a thick down-filled coat and shoved them all into an overnight bag.
I was in my car in less than ten minutes. The clock in the car shone like a beacon in the dark garage reading 4:45 p.m. forcing my mind to register how close I was cutting this. Pushing the garage door opener on my visor, I waited impatiently for the door to open and was pulling out just as the edge of the door cleared my car.
Jabbing my finger down on the locking mechanism, I didn’t give the old house a second look as I roared down the driveway that turned into the winding dirt road.
Taking each curve too quickly, my wheels spun rocks and dirt into the trees covering the road. Since the dirt road dead-ended in my driveway, it was unlikely I would meet another car. My nerves were frayed and my eyes strained around each curve, half-expecting the vampire to be standing in the road waiting for me.
It was still light out, however, with the late afternoon sun having taken on the dark yellow color rather than the clear light of midday. Coming from an angle, the sun shone through the trees casting long shadows from
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