Chapter Four: Henri Who?
By the end of that day, everyone had heard of Mrs. Kentucky's death. Some students grieved her, but most had never appreciated the teacher's strict teaching style and so they couldn't really care less; as sad as it may be. Joy, however, could not forget the kind teacher, or her mysterious death.
She did try to though, and after a couple days of heavy homework loads and taking extra shifts at her after school job at a clothing store on Melrose, Joy's mind unintentionally pushed the Vampire matter to the back.
Another welcome distraction from the teacher's horrible death was Henri. Henri and Joy had met the previous year, Joy's freshman year at her private high school. He was an exchange student from France and had decided to complete all of his high school years in California. They had become close very quickly and within one month of their first meeting everyone could tell that they were falling for each other; even the teachers could see it. Almost right away, they started dating and by the end of the second school month, Henri and Joy had declared their 'love' which was shared mutually between the two.
Almost a year had gone by since then and nothing had changed. The couple still spent every spare minute together. At school they were always seen together, walking the halls hand-in-hand, whispering to each other beneath the shady trees on the front lawn at lunch, or making out in front of the lockers in between classes...they were an adorable couple. There were many students in school who were jealous of the perfect lovebirds, but would never admit so publicly because that could be considered 'uncool'. See, as much as a trouble-maker as Joy was, no one at school felt that she should be associated with and even though Henri was an attractive guy, because of his relationship with Joy, he had more or less isolated himself from the other students as well.
"Henri, are we going to the dance together?" Joy's candid personality never failed. The dance she was referring to was the annual Halloween dance, coming up in only two more weeks.
"Isn't the girl supposed to wait to be asked by the guy?" Henri laughed as he followed his girlfriend into the cafeteria line for lunch.
"Sure, but this girl's tired of waiting!" Joy giggled.
"Well, maybe I'm not sure about asking you yet." Henri was joking of course. There was no one else in school he would even consider asking to the dance.
"Jerk!" Joy playfully slugged Henri in the arm. There was no force to her punch, but Henri winced in surprise pain.
"I'm just messing with you, sweetie." Henri kissed her apologetically. "Of course we're going to the dance."
Two weeks later, on the night of the dance, Joy had altogether forgotten her strange apprehension about the creatures she had found in the ancient manuscripts in the library. However, her fears were unfortunately rekindled when Henri did not arrive on time to pick her up for the dance.
"Maybe he's just late," Mrs. Peters tried to console her fretting daughter. For the first time in, well, a while, the mother and daughter were more or less getting along. They hadn't had any serious arguments since the last one concerning Joy's first school fight of the year and Joy had mostly been staying out of her usual trouble. Perhaps it had something to do with Henri's coaxing Joy to try and behave, but more likely they had both been too preoccupied with their separate lives to bother with one another. And tonight especially, Mrs. Peters was feeling partial to her daughter (Joy contributed that fact to the fancy, angel costume that she had chosen for the costume dance, and the fact that she had allowed her mother to fix her hair, for the first time since childhood). Of course, Mrs. Peters still wasn't thrilled with the black nail polish that Joy refused to remove and she was even less pleased with the discovery of the thorny, rose tattoo she had found on the back of her daughter's neck which was usually hidden by her long, thick hair.
"No, Henri's always annoyingly punctual!" Joy paced the length of the entryway nervously. "I think it's a French thing." Glancing at the hallway clock she sighed loudly. He was almost a half hour late now. "Something's wrong."
"Joy, don't panic." Mrs. Peters had never matured from the frivolous and blithe behaviors she had embraced as a teenager. "Have you called him?"
Joy shook her head and then retreated to the kitchen where she used the wall phone to call her boyfriend's cell phone. After letting it ring through to the answer machine, she left a brief and frantic message and then slammed the phone down on the cradle. Something happened. That's the only explanation! Something terrible has happened. Tears sprung to her eyes as her mind reeled with all the worst possibilities of things that could be prohibiting Henri from being there now.
The night passed and she heard nothing from her boyfriend. Joy chose not to attend the dance; going by herself would be miserable. She fell asleep early, still wearing the silvery white slip-dress that she would have worn for the costume dance; her head throbbed with the remnant of sobbing.
Through the darkness a bright white face shone luminous. It was moving steadily towards her as if on a determined mission, inevitably with an unfortunate undertone of doom. Soon the person had neared enough for her to see the body that was attached to the alarming face, and this brought about a startled gasp from the girl. It was a ghastly sight. A tall, gangly sort of frame, cloaked in a grim black that made his body seemed to blend as one into the deep night. It contrasted with the pale face to such a degree that they seemed almost not to be connected. Then, all of a sudden, his mismatched figure was not her concern. He opened his mouth wide and a sort of vicious growl escaped from low in his throat. He appeared like a lion with his long, sharp teeth jutting out most terribly from his mouth. He lunged towards her with his hands extended like claws, without nails, and his violent teeth seemed preparing to latch onto her neck. Until this moment his face had been indeterminable, but just as he prepared to feed, his identity became instantly as clear as daylight: Henri...
Joy awoke with a shriek before sunrise the next morning after her most horrid nightmare. Henri! Her mind screamed out his name as she bolted upright in bed. Instantly the previous night surfaced in her mind and she again worried. Henri, where are you? No matter how much she tried to calm herself and tell herself that everything was okay and that there was just some sort of misunderstanding concerning his whereabouts, there was no chance of assuaging the fears that were twisting her stomach into a painful knot.
She suddenly felt suffocated inside her room. The air was thick and muggy with the hazy remain of hair spray and perfume that had been wasted the night before in preparation for the big dance. Her head was pounding again and she felt nauseous. She had to get into fresh air. She hurriedly tiptoed out of her room and down the stairs to the front door. It was just after three thirty and Joy knew that her parents would both still be sound asleep and she wasn't in the mood to wake them up and have to deal with the grumpy, morning countenances. She was equally quiet as she hurried through the front door and then through the security gate at the end of the driveway. Finally she was out of the bounds of her home and began wandering along the sidewalks of the sleepily-still Bell Air neighborhood.
Her head was aching and the loudness of her own uncontrollable sobbing made her unaware of any of her surroundings and so her heart leapt in surprise when Joy was stopped by an icy hand gripping her arm. With a scream, she spun around and found herself staring into his face.
"Henri?" Joy's voice was short and breathy with surprise. "It's you!" She felt like crying with happiness and relief. "What happened last night? Where were you?" Her excitement in seeing her boyfriend after all her fears from the night before crowded her mind and she didn't even notice how pale and strange he looked, nor did she bother to question what he was doing in her neighborhood so early in the morning. "I waited, and I called you, but you never came and you never answered! I was so worried!" She rambled when she was excited, or nervous, or confused...she rambled quite often actually. "I was scared about you." When Joy stepped closer to him and wrapped her arms around his neck in a hug, she noticed how oddly cold his skin was. He still hadn't answered her, but now that familiar pang of foreboding began pounding in her head and she knew that something was wrong. "Henri," She whispered barely audible into his ear. "What's going on?" As she pulled away and looked at his face, a scream caught in her throat.
"Damn girl, you look sexy!" His voice seemed to have grown lower and raspier. He grinned wickedly, revealing two long pointy fangs. His face looked horribly pruned and scrunched around the forehead, and his eyes glowed a ghastly, lurid yellow.
"Henri, what happened to you?" Joy's voice shook.
"I don't know, but I feel incredible!" He laughed, but it wasn't his laugh that Joy was used to. It was a terrible cackling sound and she wanted to cover her ears with her hands. He sounded wicked.
"This isn't you, Henri." Tears sprang to her eyes and she couldn't control them "Who did this to you?" She started backing away from him when he stepped closer, reaching his hand out to touch her hair. "Please, you've changed." she sobbed. "Come back to me, Henri!"
"Henri?" He laughed again. "Henri who? No, I don't want to be him anymore. Henri was weak. He was an idiot. You're right I have changed. And it's amazing!" His sharp, white teeth caught the reflection of a streetlamp and they seemed iridescent in the dim light. "You could be changed too, you know. We could be changed together." He stepped closer to her until she had been backed up against a nearby gate surrounding one of her neighbor's houses.
"Get away from me," She spoke through gritted teeth.
"Don't you want to be with me, Joy? We could be together, forever." He touched her cheek with one of his cold, clammy hands.
"No!" She cried miserably. "Not like this. You're a Vampire, Henri!" Saying the words made her realize how true everything really was and made her cry harder. "You're dead, dammit!" Her tears were bitter and her voice was cracked with ferocious sobbing.
"Je t'aime, mon amour," The Vampire Henri leaned close to her neck.
His French words which would usually make Joy melt at the sound now repulsed her. Suddenly, the rage inside of Joy burst and she shoved Vampire Henri away from her with all the force she could muster (which was a lot and much more than she knew that she had). With the most confused look of shock on his face, Vampire Henri flew backwards, landing hard on his back and skidding at least five feet on the rough pavement. Quickly, he jumped up to a standing position and instantly pounced on her, his teeth flashing as swords would flash in a battle. Losing no time, Joy retaliated with a fierce blow to his nose. Again he was caught off guard and his head jerked back in pained confusion. For just long enough he was stunned and Joy immediately broke into a sprint, heading to her house. She didn't even look back to see if he was following her.
This can't be happening! This can't be real! Joy didn't stop crying the entire run back to her house and the tears continued as she punched in the security code to her gate and raced to her house. From the large library manuscripts, she had learned that vampires could not enter a house without invitation and she hoped that were true as she stepped inside the front door and closed it securely. She rested her back against the door and slid down to a hunched-shoulder sitting position where she cried herself sick contemplating the nightmarish truth that she had to face that morning: Henri was a Vampire. So with that fact, it meant that Vampires were very real!