Embracing Normality
(A/n- This story is about one girl, whom we think we
know very well, trying to block her family heritage from her mind. Here we take
a look into her mind, and see her journey to self-acceptance)
Becky Dingle cautiously wiped her lips with the sleeve of her coat. The body on the ground below her made her want to vomit. The man had passed out well before she was done with her meal. She hadn't meant to take that much, really she hadn't. The smell of the warm liquid had over come her destroyed her defenses. The result, a nearly- if not- dead man. Her purse was still around her neck, the antennae of her cell phone sticking out. Despite what her brother may have thought, she really did have a sense of compassion. She was after all calling an ambulance for this man. Merton would have to proud of that, right?
A few weeks after Becky had turned twelve, things started to happen. She found that food didn't satisfy her, and she could generate balls of energy through her hands. Being frightened she almost turned to her friend Cassandra for help, but her mother caught her first, and sat her down to talk. Becky had been (and still was) amazed at the details that came out during their discussion. Her mother was a vampire, and her father, actually no one ever told her what exactly her father was. She'd inherited some of her mother's abilities- the ability to not be noticed in darkness, heightened senses, and then there was the blood lust. That was what had driven her to almost kill this night. From her father had come the energy balls, but nothing else. But what about Merton, she had asked innocently. Merton had only gotten a very pale complexion from his parents, nothing else her mother relayed to Becky.
'You should just ignore him' her father's voice ran through Becky's head. 'He'll hinder your power strength.'
A single tear ran down her cheek as she remembered the years after that order. At first she thought that she had a one up on him. C'mon, she had these powers that could hurt him in a second if he crossed her. But then came the down sides to having these abilities. She was constantly thirsting for blood. Merton had been of good supply for awhile (he never knew what had hit) but then she got tired of his taste, so she was forced to go out and hunt. So she did, and she hated it. From this point on she hated her powers.
On his fifteenth birthday Merton moved down into the basement that he'd just finished decorating. He called it his Lair. Becky went down to look at it when he first moved in. It disgusted her. Here, was Merton who was perfectly normal. He wasn't ladened with any powers making him have to hurt innocent people. Yet, he went out of his way to be different from every one else. He used theater makeup to ad to his already vampiric pasty complexion, dressed in black, wore skull necklaces, and studied about the supernatural constantly. It made Becky furious. She vowed from that point on to make his life a miserable as possible.
Well, to give herself points, she had to admit that she had mostly succeeded. Once she entered his high school, she managed to spread rumors, and do all sorts of things to get her brother bullied. It all worked until his senior year when suddenly he'd made friends with Tommy Dawkins. Then it became harder to hurt her brother at school.
"Hello, Becky Dingle." She said.
"Hey, it's Merton." Becky almost dropped the phone. Merton never called her unless it was to check up on her grades. And he'd done that last week. He did have a right; after all he was paying for part of her tuition in law school.
"M-Merton? Is something wrong?" she though she detected a bit of urgency in his voice.
"I was wondering," he started, and hesitated. "What do you know about mom and dad? I know you guys just left, but something's come up."
Becky's interest perked. 'Something' had come up. Immediately the ice-cold Becky façade to presence. "What's come up?"
"I'm not in the mood for games. Just…c'mon, Beck, this is important." Merton pleaded. "Anything you can tell me please?"
"What's the matter?" brief flashes of worry passed through her mind.
There was silence on the other end of the line in England. Though in the background, she was sure she heard someone's voice urging him along.
"Weird thing's have been happening, and Cally's pregnant. I want to know any knowledge you posses about our family. Anything interesting."
"Oh!" her cold voice left her. So he had gotten more talents from their parents after all, but he didn't know it.
*~*
"Oh!" Merton heard his sister surprised voice. His best friends sister looked at him expectantly, waiting for him to relay the details.
"She knows something." Merton told Lyrissa covering the mouthpiece of the phone as he talked. Lyrissa smiled knowingly and motioned for him to continue talking with Becky.
"So?" Merton asked his sister. "Spill it."
"Details about you first." She said edgily.
Curiosity getting the better of her, Lyrissa reached over to the phone cradle and pressed the speaker button. Merton glared at her, but made no movement to turn it off. Content, Lyrissa lied on the couch, prepared to have a good entertainment source for the rest of the evening.
"I can generate electricity with my hands." He all but shouted into the phone. "There, now are you happy? I don't suppose you'd know anything about this?"
"That's it?" Becky sounded disappointed. "Well it's better than nothing."
"Excuse me?"
On the couch Lyrissa grinned. Suddenly she disappeared.
"What the-" Merton heard on Becky's end of the phone. Lyrissa reappeared holding Becky by the shoulder.
"Just seemed like the kind of conversation that needed to be held face to face." Rissa admitted sheepishly, before reclaiming her position on the couch. So Becky and Merton stood facing each other, with about one billion emotions between them. They didn't know what to do exactly. After a long pause Becky took a deep breath.
"I'm really sorry." She choked out, before turning to tears.
Now Merton really didn't know how to handle the situation. He considered the Mr. Crazy-pants dance, but some how the situation just seemed a little more serious than a simple boy. Other than that time, he had never had to comfort Becky emotionally before. Lyrissa passed over a box of tissues. Merton handed them to Becky stroking her hair, and trying to force ten years of dislike out of his system. He dabbed at her tears while leading her over to the smaller couch.
"Maybe you should tell me what's getting you like this." He turned on the sympathy, and tried to be encouraging.
"Mom and dad told me not to hang around you." She sniffed.
"Huh?" Merton asked, thoroughly confused.
"It was 'cause I got their powers, and they thought you
hadn't."
"Wait, back up a little, and tell me what you can ok?" he said nicely.
"Mom's a vampire, and I don't know what dad is. From what you said, you have his powers. You have that energy thing right?" Becky looked up into her brother's eyes. He seemed transfixed now that she had started in on something of the supernatural.
"You mean we're part vampire, part what-ever?" Merton asked, awe struck.
"I got my powers when I was ten. Then they told me to ignore you. I was going to tell Cass, but they stopped that too. I'm really sorry. That doesn't make up for what I've done to you, but I really am sorry." Her tears started flowing again.
"Just consider your self forgiven." Merton's eyes narrowed. "I think I'm going to be having a talk with our mother and father. And Becky, this wasn't, and isn't your fault. Do you understand."
Feeling like a wounded little girl, Becky nodded and crawled in closer to her older brother.
*~*
(A/n- aw! So sweet. I liked writing this. I have NO idea where it fits in on my time line, but who the hell cares. I'll find a spot for it when I finish Pirates. By the way, I won't be finishing the King Arthur one. I like this and Pirates better. I have to go now. Sorry school is back in full force, but if you ever want to talk I'm always on the computer from 5:00 PM to 6:00 PM on the weekdays, and on weekends, it's 5:00 PM to 7:00 PM. You can e-mail me at KendraBP@aol.com or Cajun_chick411@hotmail.com. Or, IM me on AOL IM at Cajun Chick411.)
