Chapter 3
RPOV
"Little Dhampir," a tall lanky man with shaggy light brown hair calls to me with a joking smile. He rushes over to me with happiness running all over his face. We stand on a beach, he wears long swimming trunks and I wear a pale pink bikini that can barely cover my large breasts. I back away from him nervously. He watches me, and stops confused.
"This is just a dream," I mutter to myself. He can't hurt me in a dream. I have made him up in my mind and he is not really here with me. He can't be.
"You know that this isn't a dream…are you ok Rose?" he asks stopping to stare at me with a highly concerned look. I look up at him, fear showing on my face and in my eyes.
"How do you know my name?" I ask him scared as shit. "Did you kidnap me? Did you try to kill me?" I ask nervously, half expecting this figment of my imagination to answer me.
"I'm Adrian. We are friends, remember?" he answers. Holy crap, my dream is talking to me. How can dreams do that?
"I don't have friends." I tell him. My only friends are the nice people of Michie, but I am not going to tell this guy that.
"Do you remember anything?" he asks, taking a couple steps closer to me. I freeze automatically and take a quick couple steps backwards so we keep the same distance.
"I am the one who is going to ask questions around here?" I growl angrily, trying to be brave. I pick up a rock on the ground and throw it at him. it hits him hard in the chest and falls to the ground.
"Ow. Ok Ok, what do you want to know?" he asks rubbing his chest.
"Who are you and how do you know my name?" I ask him. He looks at me worried and sits down on the ground. I sit on the ground where I am standing making sure there is enough distance between us.
"My name is Adrian Ivashkov and we are good friends. We met at a ski lodge one Christmas when you went with your school." He explains. He sounds sincere, but how do I not know that my subconscious isn't making up a bunch of crap to make me wanna believe.
"You sound like your telling the truth, but since I am dreaming and you are not really here then I can't believe a word you say." I tell him.
"Rose, you have to believe me. You were kidnapped by Strigoi and taken who knows where. Everyone thinks you have been turned, but you don't appear to be, so they should be relieved to know."
"You will not tell anyone about me!" I yell at him. "I'll kill myself and my baby if you do!" he looks at me shocked. I can't be taking any chances on anybody knowing I am alive. If he tells the wrong people they could come hunt me down and kill me, I am defiantly not ready to die yet.
"Your Pregnant?" he asks shocked, jaw falling open. He is trying to distract me, to keep me from being in charge. I can't loose control over the situation.
"Yes, but don't ask questions. What's the S word you said?" I ask him curiously.
"Strigoi?" he asks confused by my question.
"Yes that word, what is it?"
"Vampires, but you know that, don't you?" I laugh at him. This Looney believes Vampires are real.
"Now I know this is a dream because vampires are not real." I laugh. He looks even more worried now.
"Oh Rose, what did they do to you?" he asks worried and scared at the same time. The world around us starts to fade really fast.
"I don't know who you are, but if you speak one word about me being alive then I will hunt you down and kill you in your sleep like one would kill a vampire, before killing myself and burying myself in my grave." He seriously looks like he is going to shit his pants.
"I won't tell anyone, I promise," he says about to cry. I wake up with a start in the bottom bunk of the pink trailer. I sit up urgently, my long hair rubbing my back as I do. I climb out of the bed and walk into the main hallway of the trailer. Donna Jo stands in the kitchen, frying something over the stove and the young man, her son, sits in the living room area reading some kind of book. I quietly walk further into the room. The floor creaks a little bit and both heads turn in my direction. Donna Jo smiles hugely and the boy rolls his eyes. For some reason I don't think he likes me even though he doesn't know me.
"Good morning dearie how was your nap?" Donna Jo asks turning off the stove and pouring some muck in the frying pan onto 3 plastic plates. I scrunch my nose briefly at the smell before looking back at her.
"It was ok. I had the strangest dream though," I tell her. She places the hot pan inside the sink that contains soapy bubble water and then pours three glasses of what looks like milk into coffee mugs. She sets everything at the kitchen table and motions me to sit down in front of one of the dinner settings. I obediently sit down and look down at the mush. It contains chunks of some kind of meat, what looks like dried rice, a liquid and some vegetables. It absolutely does not look that appealing.
"What was your dream about, sweetie?" she asks me before turning towards the living area. "Nicolas come eat, put the book down!" She yells to the boy. He sighs and makes his way over to the table. He plops down in the chair across from me. He starts gulping down his beverage.
"A boy was there and he knew my name. Well the name that was on my grave. He was telling me about how he knew me and that we were friends. He tried convincing me that we were not in a dream, but I know it was a dream." I explain looking down at the food once again.
"Did the boy give you a name?" Donna Jo asks looking at me with her huge smile.
"Adrian something…Ivashkov maybe," I say trying to remember what he had said. Nicolas starts choking on his milk. It sprays out of his mouth like a faucet. We are all lucky it didn't land on our mush.
"Nick, that wasn't polite. Where are your manners? You will have to ignore him; sometimes he can be a total bonehead. Let's say grace, so we can eat my best dish." Best dish? If I have any cooking experience I know who will be doing the cooking around here. Nick and Donna Jo place hand in each others and both extend one towards me. I don't think I have ever had to do this before. I place a hand in each of theirs and watch as they bow their heads and close their eyes. I just watch them, quietly.
"Lord, bless this food that we are about to receive and use it to nourish our bodies, amen." They say in unison. It is different. Then they start eating there dinner. I pick up the fork that lies on the table and stab it into my meal. It does not work too well because the food is slimy and slippery. It will not stay on my fork. I finally manage to get it done my throat. It has a sweet taste to it, but also a bitter one. It is extremely chewy and burnt. I feel like I am going to be sick.
"What do you think?" She asks eyeing me pleasantly.
"It is good," I lie. She has taken me into her home and has been so nice to me, that I can't be rude about her awful cooking. I can't tell her that I wanna die rather than eat another bite.
"Glad you like it. This is one of Nick's favorite meals." She says proudly. I look over at Nick who looks like he wants to barf too. He probably doesn't want to hurt his mommy's feelings. That's so sweet. He gives me a sympathetic look.
"So Rose, do you remember anything from your life?" Nick asks looking into my eyes. I am quite surprised that he isn't looking at my breasts which do not seem to want to stay inside the shirt. Donna Jo elbows him.
"I don't remember anything. It is all a big blank to me and I wish I did. Detective Williams and I went to the cemetery and found out that someone expected me to die or to be buried alive and that my name is Rose Hathaway, but that is all I know."
"Let's not talk of such sordid things at the dinner table," she says turning back to her food. I nod and turn my attention back to my mush. I eat little bites slowly and then use my fork to mix it up, making it look like I ate some. A phone rings and Donna Jo jumps up from the table to go answer it. The second her back is turned Nick picks up my plate and quickly scrapes my food onto his before setting the plate back down in front of me. I look at him in shock and he just gives a short nod in my direction. Donna Jo returns after a moment and resumes eating.
"You finished all your meal. You must have been hungry. Rule in the house is that if you eat your whole meal you can have dessert. I'll bring out the chocolate cake, but then I have to go back into work, Betty is sick with the flu." She stands up and walks back into the kitchen.
"Why did you do that?" I ask Nick curiously, as he manages to eat the disgusting meal.
"I know my mom's cooking. Don't want a pretty girl to suffer." He says taking another bite. I don't know what is more sweet. The fact that he thinks I am pretty or the fact that he took my nasty mush so I could have a piece of chocolate cake. Donna Jo returns and sets a big slice of cake in front of me.
"I am off to work, but I'll be back before 11. Keep an eye on him," she tells me before she grabs some keys off the counter and leaves. I take a bite of the cake and immediately my heart and stomach are absolutely happy.
"You can have half," I say, pushing the plate toward Nick. He gives me a sad smile and shakes his head.
"It is a sweet gesture, but I have food. You need to eat something, your feeding two people now." He says pointing his fork in the direction of my stomach. I smile and eat my cake slowly. When we are both done eating he takes the dishes and drops them in the sink. Then he leads me into the living room and sits me down on the ratty old couch.
"What are we going to do?" I ask watching as he goes over to a cabinet on the side of the TV.
"We are going to watch a movie," he says pulling out one and putting it in. He dims the lights but doesn't completely turn them off and grabs a big crocheted blanket with millions of colors. He sits down next to me and wraps the blanket around both of us and hits play on the movie remote. He opens his book and multi-tasks while also watching the movie. It is a romantic comedy involving a girl who can't remember her husband and has to find a way to love him again, while juggling her feelings towards a new guy. I fall asleep halfway into the movie, laying my head in Nick's lap.
