I Can't Just Leave Them
Mick St. John told that to his newlywed wife, Caroline, after he found out he was a vampire.
Caroline tried to explain that because of safety reasons, he had to give up his friends and family.
Mick said he couldn't.
For some reason, Caroline just nodded.
Mick stood, clouded by the tree, as his mother and father sat on the front porch on the swing. It had only been a couple of hours since they had the telephone call that their son was missing with his wife.
As a child, the swing was his favorite place to sit.
He only looked away once he heard his parents' sobs.
Then he went back to the darkness, and to Caroline, who was the person who had turned him into a vampire.
Mick had watched his funeral from afar. Somehow the police were able to find the small – in the case of a vampire – amounts of blood Caroline had left behind. He could still hear his mother wailing, calling his name.
There were not many gathers. Mick's parents stood stiffly as the sermon read from the Bible. He saw with surprise his old friend, Ray, there, with Lilah. The friends that Mick had had from his band were not present.
Although they were not able to find a body, Mick's parents had bought a grave stone. It made out marble, with his birth and death date elegantly carved onto it. Mick wanted to comfort his parents, but couldn't. So he snuck back within the shadows.
Mick slowly watched with despair as his mother grew insane. She became convinced that her only son, her baby, was still alive. "I see him!" she exclaimed one day. "He's right there!" She would eventually collapse, sobbing. His father's neighbors would shake their head with fake sympathy. Mick could hear their thoughts.
What a pathetic woman.
That's why I had two children.
What a disgrace.
Poor woman. Lost her only son.
Mick had seethed with rage.
Then suddenly his father had sent his mother to a mental institution. Two years later, she came back and never was the same. She died a year after of a heart attack when she was only forty-eight years old.
Fewer people came to that funeral.
A few years later, on the third anniversary of his son's death, Alan St. John committed suicide by his son's empty house.
No one even bothered going to his father's funeral.
No one wanted to taint their family name by going to pay their respects to the Tragic St. John Family.
The gardeners trimmed their graves because they had to or they would get fired.
Mick watched over his friend, Ray's family, even though he had betrayed him.
When Ray and Lilah died, Mick had watched from afar.
Only Robert, his wife, and their small son, Jacob remained.
Mick sensed that Robert knew that he was watching over his family, but Robert didn't do anything about it.
Mick liked it that way.
Fifty-four years since he supposed death, Mick visited his and his parents' graves with Beth.
The garners who reluctantly trimmed there found a surprise.
There were flowers on each grave.