Chapter 2: Coming Out is Delicious
Anju watched the events unfold or, more precisely, her bats did. A prodigy at worst and a miracle at best, Anju possessed an uncanny control of bats that was rare even amongst the higher end vampire bloodlines. This was fortunate since she needed those skills to keep an eye on her sister. Karin had the nasty habit of getting herself into trouble when she was alone. It was Anju's duty to rescue her when that happened, or it used to be, Kenta Usui had recently filled the roll of Karin's knight leaving Anju even further out of the picture.
This arrangement was probably for the best. It was a real burden for Anju to have to try and live in both the worlds of night and day. Even if she stayed in her room and used her bats to keep an eye on Karin the strain would take its toll. Still, Anju did miss her sister very much. Being only recently awakened the memories of daylight with her sister pained her. Now that Anju was in the darkness it was almost impossible to live in Karin's brightly lit world.
From what the bats saw and heard Anju could tell there would be trouble. She almost wished her sister was the kind of person capable of lying. If that was the case Karin would have just told Maki 'no' and the two would be on their way back to their respective homes, none the worse for wear.
As it was, Maki was crying as she ran home and Karin had simply fallen to her knees in the path tears pouring out from the hands covering her face. Anju sat debating what to do.
"It doesn't mater what you do, the result will be the same either way." The ghostly voice of Boogie permeated the silence of Anju's dark room.
"I know Boogie, but still . . ." Anju began to respond.
"You are feeling guilty about it." Boogie interrupted, "I told you it was a bad idea. But nooooo, you just wouldn't listen to me. If you had then . . . aaach … Aaaaaanju . . . your . . . aaaaaaach."
A loving squeeze to his stuffed neck was Anju's method of choice for silencing Boogie. But he was right. This whole mess was a direct result of Anju's prior actions. She could have found a better way of telling her sister she was awakened as a vampire. But things were so difficult back then.
In all the pain and strain of trying to cling to her old life Anju had effectively been starving herself. The strain built and built until Anju felt she could pop. Then Maki came over. It was strictly taboo for a non-vampire to enter into the house but Karin had begged an exception for her friend. The illusion of a normal family was laid before Maki and she ate it up. But that didn't change the facts. Maki had stumbled into the vampires den, and she reeked of jealousy.
Anju did her best to keep herself at bay, but her blood drew her to Maki's side the entire night. That day passed and led to another and the memory of Maki stayed burned into Anju's mind. Then it happened. Anju's bloodlust took over and she found herself tracking Maki down. She already knew where she would be, Karin had said she was meeting her in the park. Anju even knew when the meeting was to happen but that didn't stop her from hunting her prey.
Anju remembered seeing Maki sitting on a bench. Even from a distance she smelled delicious. It was too late to turn back. Anju advanced on her prey. She wasn't entirely sure how it all unfolded, but she could remember the sweet smell of Maki's neck, the delicate texture of Maki's skin, and the exquisitely intoxicating sensation of Maki's blood running down the back of her throat.
Karin showed up right as Anju was finishing. The result was, of course, catastrophic. Evil and hurtful things were said, bonds were tested, and the family began its head first spiral into disaster. It was because of all this that Anju knew what Karin's reaction would be when she came home. She would scream 'I hate you!' as she ran past Anju; crying on her way to her room.
Anju opened her closet and fished out her favorite black dress.
"Meeting your doom head on huh?" Boogie felt the freedom to speak since Anju wasn't holding him. "This ought to be good."
"You're staying home." Anju asserted.
"Anju," Boogie whined, "that's not fair. I can't protect you if you don't take me with you."
"I won't need your protection." Anju's voice asserted final authority on the matter. "So just stay here and be good."
Anju closed the door to the house and began her trip. She had gone out the back to ensure that she wouldn't run into Karin on the way. Where she was headed was the interesting bit; Anju was headed for Maki's. She wasn't sure what she would do when she got there, but the walk was long and time was plentiful and Anju's bats were keeping a tight eye on Maki.
Maki had made the run to her house in record time. She managed to avoid her parents and make a line straight for her room. She was crying there now. Anju felt a little sad seeing it. Maki was usually so bright and cheery. It was unfortunate to see her face scrunched in a pillow that was slowly soaking with tears.
After a while Maki reached for her phone. Anju had the bats move in to listen to the call. She doubted it would be Karin that Maki called, but it was a possibility. The more likely scenario would involve a call of catastrophic means to some sort of tabloid or such. If that was the case Anju would have to hurry there and erase Maki's memories permanently.
The phone rang and rang. Who ever Maki was calling didn't seem to be home. Then the answering message kicked in. It was easy for the bats to overhear.
"Hello" an overly cheery and enthusiastic voice rang out, "you have reached the phone of Winner Sinclair. I regret I am too occupied to answer at the moment. Please leave a message and I shall respond at the earliest possible convenience. Oh and if this is my darling Miss Karin please know I will be back as soon as I can to sweep you off your feet."
Maki threw the phone hard and it shattered against the wall. Then she collapsed into her pillow again. Her sobs were muffled but none the less present. Anju paused. Opportunity had presented itself in a rather unusual manner, directly below Anju was a phone store. Anju had relatively little money, but she saw a small opportunity to be kind in this situation.
The phone Maki had destroyed was very expensive. Anju could not afford to replace it with the money she had, but that was ok. The shop keeper was more than happy to give her the phone at a discount after he was entranced. Vampire powers could be a useful thing. Now that Anju didn't have to worry about the morals of humanity, bending the rules a little wasn't so bad.
Anju entered Maki's house through the back. It was necessary since the front was locked and the neighbors were awake. The first order of business was to ensure no interruptions. Two bats made quick work of Maki's parents, slipping them into a deep sleep. It was a secondary form of mind control that worked well at short distances.
Now it was time to finish things. Anju opened the door to Maki's room.
"Please mom, I don't want to talk now." Maki sobbed.
"That is acceptable; all I want you to do is listen." Anju responded.
Maki spun around after hearing Anju's voice. This was as planned, the second they locked eyes, Anju froze Maki in place. Limited mind control was easy for Anju since it was a similar skill to controlling bats.
"I have come to apologize for my actions and to clear some things up." Anju began as she moved closer to Maki. "I saw your fight with my sister. I know you remember me biting you and I know you are upset. However, there is little I can do to change the past. I only possess two options for you.
"Option one; I can erase your memories of this whole event and you will think it was all a bad dream. Unfortunately I would have to erase a substantial amount of your memory and the process is risky. At best you would go into a temporary coma and wake not remembering these horrible memories. At worst you would lose all of your memories and remain a vegetable for the rest of your life.
"Option two; I bite you again so you can experience the sensation. I don't erase your memory so you feel and remember all of it and can make a decision on how it will affect you based on that. The only scenario for this is that you will feel a tiny bit sleepy and you will lose all jealousy that you have built up inside of you. That is the effect of a vampire bite. We take the trait we have an affinity to. The reason you were able to feel so good around my sister till only recently was due to that. You won't become a ghoul and you won't become anything else either. You will not be affected permanently in any way. Now make your choice."
Anju released the hold she had over Maki's speech just enough to allow light talking.
"Why? Why should I choose?" Maki tried to scream but it was futile.
"Do you wish to risk the chance of memory erasure?" Anju pressed the question.
"I don't want to lose any memories." Maki was trying to cry but couldn't.
"Very well." Anju moved in on Maki. The girl became erratic and started blurting out the kinds of things you would hear from someone afraid they were going to be killed. Anju expected this. She had never fed off anyone who was aware of it before. She always knocked them out first. But this time had to be special. She was taking a huge risk in trusting Maki, but there was little more harm that could come of the situation.
Anju leaned Maki's head to the side. She could smell the sweet scent of the jealousy in her blood even over the smell of her fear. Anju's lips brushed against Maki's neck, the motion was customary. A vampire's kiss possessed mild anesthetic properties making the bite mostly painless. Her fangs touched Maki's skin. The girl shuddered even under Anju's mind control. The skin broke and Anju could taste Maki's blood once more. In the countless feeds since Anju's first she had still tasted none so sweet.
Finished Anju removed her fangs. The vampires bite closes itself quickly so there was no need to worry about a mess for the parents to see. Anju backed off and moved in front of Maki. The girl was almost in shock.
"As is customary for a transaction I brought compensation." Anju said as she laid the small phone on the bed in front of Maki. "I am going to leave now. It is up to you to decide how you deal with all of this. I am placing the safety of my entire family in your hands just like Karin did with Kenta. I know you Maki, you may be mad but I don't think you want to hurt Karin. Please think about this."
And with that Anju left for home. She had a strange feeling of remorse in her heart and her trip back was faster than she would normally take. There would be a great deal of waiting involved in this situation. Anju trusted Maki to make the right choices. She trusted her enough to keep these recent events to herself. It was a huge risk and the trust defied Anju's logic.