Embarrassment 28: Karin
Kanon almost teared up when her mother said okay to the idea. It was even harder not to burst into tears when Karin gave her a hug. Her mother was completely fine with becoming a vampire as long as it meant that she didn't have to say goodbye to her daughter. Kanon was all she had left in the world and she knew Kanon would never be truly peaceful in the human world, so Karin was willing to make due with the vampire world.
Kanon knew what she must do next. Just thinking about it made her usually small fangs grow in size. She was at a perfect spot to do it as well. She closed her eyes and sunk both of her pearly whites into Karin's neck. Karin jumped a little at first, but didn't stop hugging her daughter. She had bitten many people in her day and it had crossed her mind as to what it felt like for people like Kenta to get bitten by her, however she never thought that she would end up getting bitten one day herself. Especially not by her own daughter.
She really couldn't describe the feeling. It wasn't painful like she expected it to be. She could actually feel Kanon's warm blood flowing into her system. In her mind, it was like she was forming a bond with her daughter. A part of her daughter was combining with her blood.
Kanon didn't drink any blood, so she did feel quite light headed after draining some of her blood into Karin. Her fangs retracted back inside her gums and she almost fell over trying to stand up. Karin quickly caught her.
"I'll be fine, I swear," Kanon reassured her. She looked her mother over for a few seconds, before making the assumption. "It looks like it didn't work."
Kanon wasn't far from the truth. Apart from the two pinholes in the side of her neck, Karin didn't look any different. Kanon was expecting something. Anything. But after a moment or two, she knew that it didn't work. Her mother was still basically a normal human being.
"That's okay," Karin said softly, obviously upset herself. "You know, my entire life, when I was an un-vampire, I always wanted to be a normal vampire like the rest of my family. I would have given up everything if it meant that I could stay with Mama, Papa, and Anju. But I always knew that that day would never come."
"I'm sorry, Mama," Kanon said before running out of the room.
Kenta quickly got up and followed his daughter to her room where she slammed the door and went over to the bed crying. She had hoped to god that this would have worked. It would be the only reason she would ever bite her own mother. Kenta didn't even say anything to cheer her up and she realized that he had disappeared again. It didn't matter though. She had been up all night and the loss of blood was unbearable. The next thing she knew, she had passed out on the bed.
Karin also went to bed shortly after. During her sleep she had a dream of her being with her family. Kenta, Kanon, and the rest of the Maaka family were there, and they were happy. She couldn't remember a time in her life where everyone in her family had ever been genuinely happy. She always seemed to be a problem for everyone in the family, including Kenta. Even when she had her memory wiped there was never true happiness. It was because of what she was. Even now that she called herself a human, her entire family was vampire. Sometimes she wished that she could erase her families memories of her so that they could be happy.
When Karin awoke around noon, she was surprised that she was still so exhausted. It wasn't even the fact that she was tired but it felt like it was the dead of night for her. But her dream seemed to give her motivation. She decided that since the food stocks in the house were slowly dwindling, Karin would head out to the store and buy more food. She was getting tired of waiting for the hunters to leave anyway. It had been a week now so her chances of running into them now was highly unlikely.
However, when Karin left the house she was surprised by how bright it was outside. Maybe it was because she had spent the last week in a dark house, but the light seemed to hurt her eyes. She wished that she had a pair of sunglasses to block out the sun. Besides that, it was quite a warm day. As soon as Karin's eyes adjusted to the light, she headed off for the store.
Things seemed to get better while Karin was shopping at the grocery store. She was looking through the canned foods when she happened to bump into an old friend. She quickly bowed, appoligizing for running into the person, when she realized it was none other than her high school friend, Maki Tokitou.
"Maki?"
"Karin?" Maki responded before giving Karin a huge hug. "Oh my god. Karin! It's been so many years. I thought you left town."
The truth was that after Karin had her memory wiped of ever being a vampire, she had been hidden from many of her friends, including Maki. It was just easier that way, just in case Maki were ever to ask about Karin's family.
"I can't believe it's you, Maki," Karin said. "Are you still living around here?"
"No, I'm was visiting mother for the weekend. I moved away a couple years ago. What about you? Are you still with Usui?" Karin fell silent and Maki suddenly felt bad for asking. "Oh, I'm sorry, Karin. I guess it just didn't work out between you two."
"Oh no, it's not that," Karin said, shaking her head. "Kenta died in a car wreck just a week ago. I'm still grieving him being gone."
"I'm...sorry to hear that. I know how much you loved him, Karin." She immediately tried to change the subject. "So why didn't you keep in touch after high school ended? I thought you and I were best friends."
"It's not because I didn't want to, Maki," Karin said. "I was just to busy and completely forgot to call you. I'm sorry. But maybe we can hang out sometime."
"Well...I'd love to. But I'm going back home tomorrow. I moved out of the city a couple years ago because I was offered a great job. Sorry, Karin."
"That's okay," Karin said, feeling a bit down.
"Well it was nice seeing you again, Karin," Maki said, walking off.
When Karin finished her grocery shopping, she was given another unpleasant surprise upon leaving the store. For some reason, the sun still seemed way too bright and it was absolutely burning Karin's eyes to be out in it. Even more so, it felt like the temperature outside had risen to a blistering temp. That wouldn't be so weird if it weren't for the fact that there were people going into the store wearing long sleeved shirts while Karin felt like she was going to die in the heat.
This is just too weird, Karin thought to herself as she walked back home quickly with the bags in her hands.
It wasn't until Karin noticed that other people were staring at her that she felt something was very wrong. She quickly found a dark alley because the heat outside was way too much for her to handle. That was when she finally got to see her own reflection. In the window of an old house Karin was able to see why other people had been staring at her. Her bright blue eyes were now a very dark red and looked like cat's eyes more than humans. Not only that, but Karin's skin seemed to be blistering from the sunlight. It looked like Karin had just ran through a burning house. Her skin was burnt red and there was steam coming off of her.
It didn't take long before Karin noticed that she had fangs poking out of her gums. It was no doubt that she was a vampire. Kanon's blood had reacted with her own, turning on her vampiric attributes. It had just taken a bit longer for the effect. But this explained why Karin was so tired. She was finally the thing that she had always wished she could be. Karin was a real vampire. But there was a problem. Since the sun was out, it was dangerous for Karin to be outside. The sun wasn't burning her to a crisp yet but she didn't know how long it would be before she became a full vampire and burst into flames from the sunlight.
"I have to get home now," Karin said softly.
She decided to just sprint the last bit of the way home, hoping that she wouldn't die. It wasn't easy and she barely made it to the vampire barrier. But something strange happened that she didn't expect. The moment she was near the bat barrier, all the bats came down and formed a cloud over her head, blocking out the sunlight. One bat even came down and landed on Karin's shoulder. She was even more surprised when the bat whispered in her ear to hurry back to the mansion.
Did that bat just speak to me? Karin wondered.
For the first time ever, when Karin opened up the door to the Maaka mansion, she could see perfectly inside. Her eyes felt so much better being in the pitch blackness rather than being outside. Karin was so happy. She was experiencing the world in a completely different way. She could finally be with her family and be happy. Upstairs, Kenta was sitting in Kanon's room, watching his daughter sleep with a smile on his face. He already knew that Kanon's blood had changed Karin. He was just one step closer to his goal.
