Author's note: This is a companion piece to my story "Lost and Found" but it works as a stand alone piece. I don't own Moonlight and this is just for fun. No money is being made and no copyright infringement is intended.
Hidden in the Shadows
They say that your wedding day is the happiest day of your life. I guess you could say that about mine. I certainly felt like the luckiest man in the world. After all, my bride was beautiful, intelligent, wealthy, and could set me on fire with a look, never mind a touch. Too bad that day also ended up being the last day of my life.
I remember everything so clearly, even when other memories have long since faded to nothing more than vague recollections and shadows on the wall. I remember the smell of the flowers in the church and the feel of the champagne coursing down my throat when my father raised a toast to my bride and me. I remember the look in my mother's eyes as I told her I loved her before climbing into the car with my new wife. Above all I remember the pain, shock and terror when her fangs sank into my neck and I could feel my blood trickling down my neck, flowing out of my body rather than through it.
The days following are a blur. There was confusion and fear and revulsion. I couldn't understand the burning sensation when I felt sunlight on my hand and face. I remember the rage when I discovered what I had become and the hunger for something I didn't want to identify. I was repulsed by what Coraline had made me and of my weakness when I gave in and fed from the poor girl she brought to me.
Between the anger, the hunger and Coraline's talents in the bedrooms there wasn't much room for anything else in my head those first few days. It wasn't until one night, a week after our wedding, when Coraline brought up the milestone that I even thought about my parents and how worried they must be. Coraline had to stake me to prevent me from heading to their house. When she calmly informed me of my presumed death and how I was going to stay dead a despair I hadn't felt even when I saw friends bleed to death as I tried to save their lives during the war fell over me in waves. Knowing what my parents had to be going through made me once again long for the death I begged Coraline for right after she turned me.
I thought about disobeying her, of course. I'd spend every spare moment plotting some elaborate escape plan and envisions myself surprising my parents with my reappearance and some wild explanation regarding the bloody sheets and weeks of no contact. Then reality would set in. I would realize that going back to my life and my parents was impossible. How was I supposed to explain this to them? How to explain why I couldn't help Dad paint the house or why I suddenly wouldn't eat Mom's cooking? Telling them the truth about what I was out of the question. I couldn't bear to see the looks of horror and fear that would inevitably show in their eyes and faces. The same look that had undoubtedly been on my face when I realized what had happened. Most of all, I couldn't bear to know my own mother thought of me as a monster.
And so I did what Coraline wanted me to. I let her take me away from Los Angeles and tried to focus on making our new 'life' together work. Even after all she had done I had promised to love, honor and cherish her as my wife and part of me still loved her and wanted to be with her. I did my best to forget the past and accept my new way of being, if only because I knew I had no other option. All that changed when I learned my father had passed on. I learned of my father's death by reading his obituary in the paper that Josef had sent me.
Josef is always telling me that someday my inner vampire is going to force its way out, and that day it did. Every single bit of anger, frustration and loss that I had been trying to keep bottled up since Coraline had turned me came out. Quite a few pieces of furniture and more than one wall were destroyed that night. When every last bit of emotion was expended I packed the essentials and without a word left Coraline's house and headed back to LA.
I had missed the funeral, of course, but I spent most nights watching over my mother's home, trying to expunge the guilt and shame I felt for abandoning her and my father in penance by listening to her sobs. I found ways to slip extra money into her accounts to make sure she would be able to make ends meet. I sighed in relief when she accepted the explanation of a life insurance policy that my father hadn't told her about for one of my larger contributions. I knew I couldn't comfort her but I would be damned if I was going to watch her struggle to pay the bills if I could help it.
Eventually Coraline came and claimed me again but it was never the same. More and more frequently I headed back to LA to check on Mom and to get away from my wife. Finally I accepted what I had known all along and left Coraline. I set up a PI business in LA with some help from Josef. It allowed me to work my own hours, earn a decent living and still have time to keep an eye on Mom. It wasn't easy. Sometimes I would see her move towards where I was hiding in the shadow and I'd have to hide. It hurt like hell to see the hope dim in her eyes time and time again but I told myself that it was necessary.
For years I tried to be her guardian angel. Muggers, conmen and other petty criminals were all kept at a distance from her no matter what I had to do to keep it that way. Watching from a distance never got any easier but walking away wasn't an option.
And that nearly ruined everything. When Mrs. Turner first came to me for help finding her daughter I partially took the case because of having seen my mother go through the pain of losing a child. When I found out Coraline was behind this I knew I had to find Beth and bring her home. And I did. I returned Beth to her mother early morning but giving a statement to the police and everything else kept me there until mid-day. By then I was having trouble focusing because both the time of day and the injuries I'd received fighting Coraline were making me long for a glasses of A+ and some long-overdue time in the freezer. The sunlight didn't help matters and so I largely ignored the reporters and photographers parked outside the Turners' home. The hand I used to block the sun also blocked the view of my face and I knew any photograph of me would come out fuzzy. All I wanted was to get home and rest.
I woke up shortly after midnight and I spent the rest of the night catching up on some of the paperwork for Beth's case. I was just finishing another glass of nourishment before heading to bed when I heard the paper thump outside my door. As soon as I saw the front page photo with my name in the caption I knew I was in trouble. Forgetting the call of the freezer I raced to Mom's house and found a shadow to lurk in where I could hear what was going on but not be seen by anyone in the house or in the area. If she made the connection between the picture and her long-lost son I was going to have a problem on my hands.
When I heard the erratic beat of her heart and the thud as she fell to the floor instinct took over. Not caring who saw me I raced at top speed to the door and slammed the door open, tearing the deadbolt from the wall. If my heart still was capable of beating the sight of my mother lying on the floor barely conscious would have stopped it. I grabbed the phone and called for an ambulance. Once the operator said it was on its way I dropped the phone. I fell to my knees beside Mom and begged her to keep fighting and stay with me. Her skin felt cold and clammy, even to my hands and I felt terror wash over me as I contemplated losing my mother in front of me.
I rode with her in the ambulance and despite the temptations to a hungry vampire inherent there I haunted the hospital until I knew she was going to make it. A couple of times I even managed to sneak into her room in the ICU and tell her how sorry I was for everything and how much I loved her. Tearing myself away, even knowing that she was going to make it but I knew I had to get out of there before regained consciousness and asked questions I wasn't prepared to answer.
That didn't stop me from using some contacts to keep an eye on her in the hospital. When I heard she was asking questions about her rescuer as well as wanting a phone book to look up a P.I.'s number I knew I was in trouble. Resigning myself to owing Josef a half dozen favors I called him and asked for help erasing my tracks. Within a day he had my office and apartment cleaned out and my bank accounts changed to a different name. I hid at Josef's house until it appeared Mom had given up.
At that point I knew that I had to say goodbye for good. I had come too close to being exposed and for all I knew had caused my mother's heart attack. So one night when I heard her soft, regular breathing indicating that she was sleeping I slipped into the house I had grown up in. I carefully made my way to her bedroom. As I slid through the house so many memories came to mind: birthday parties and family dinners, celebrations and heartache and most of all the unconditional love that had always surrounded me. With tears in my eyes I paused outside my mother's room as I tried to keep my emotions in check. Leaning over her with my heart in my throat, I whispered "I love you Mom" and placed a gentle kiss on the top of her head. I felt her begin to stir I slid out into the shadows knowing that this would always be my place in her life.