Chapter 2
The next day, Teddy and Ivy continued to work on the daunting project. For a change of scenery, they'd moved the boxes of pictures they planned to look through up to Tedd's room. The new location also kept the downstairs coffee table clean, so Bob wouldn't complain that the papers blocked his view of the television.
"Okay, I'm just gonna say it," Teddy said as she quickly glanced at the back of each picture for new last names. She didn't bother to look at the actual pictures anymore. "This stopped being interesting an hour ago."
Seated in Teddy's desk chair, Ivy remarked, "You thought this was interesting at some point?" Her pile of pictures lay on the desk next to the keyboard, while Ivy took a "short" break to check her email. "Oh! Thirty-percent off at that shoe store in the mall this week! Let's take a break!"
"I thought you were taking a break," Teddy said with a nod at the email page.
Ivy waved a dismissive hand. "I mean we need to get out of this house! There's a whole wide world out there, but we wouldn't know it because we've been here all summer long!"
"You exaggerate. A lot," Teddy protested, yet she sighed and stood up from her bed. "But you do have a point. I guess an hour at a shoe sale won't be so bad."
In a second, Ivy grabbed her purse and was ready to go. "That's my girl! Let's go before you change your mind!"
About to get her purse as well, Teddy paused. "Wait, did my mom leave for work yet? I can't leave Gabe and Charlie here alone."
Ivy opened the door to the hallway. The sounds of a movie could be heard from the living room. She sighed. "Shoot, Gabe's watching his movie. Your mom must've left."
"Then I guess we're stuck until PJ gets home in a few minutes. Back to - " Teddy was cut off when her cell phone rang. She looked at the caller ID - she didn't recognize the number, but she wasn't surprised given how many relatives she'd been trying to contact. "Hello?"
"Hi, is this Teddy?"
"Yeah...Aunt Sarah? Did you read the rest of the diaries?" Teddy asked hopefully. Seventy-year-old great-aunt Sarah had found the first diary that had helped Teddy place her ancestors in pre-Civil War Georgia. After looking through her attic some more, Sarah had found other diaries and promised she would let Teddy know if they contained any more important information.
"Yes, and yes. Turns out the ancestor who wrote those diaries was also interested in our family history. She has stories that go back to the very beginning of our family line, near the end of the sixteen-hundreds in the northeast American colonies, New York I think."
The incredibly helpful information made Teddy's heart beat so fast, it almost stopped. "Aunt Sarah, that's amazing, thank you! Tell me everything and don't leave out a single detail!"
For the next half hour, Ivy held the phone, the speaker on, while Teddy wrote down every word her aunt said. Apparently, the Duncan line began in colonial New York, where Juliet van Heusen, a stranger passing through the colony, fell in love with a local. The two married, and she gave birth to a son. But after the baby was born, she mysteriously vanished, never heard from again. The father, whose name had been lost over the years, never got over his love. He reluctantly re-married, but only so the boy would have a mother.
When Aunt Sarah was finished, Teddy thanked her again and ended the call. "Wow," Teddy remarked. "That's so sad. I wonder what happened to Juliet."
"Yeah," Ivy replied. Then she stood up from Teddy's desk chair. "Thank goodness this project's done. I heard PJ get home during your call, so I say we treat ourselves to a shopping spree. We'll start at the shoe sale, then go counter-clockwise from there. We'll hit the food court sooner that way, and girl, I am starving!"
Teddy laughed. "Whoa, not so fast. I just got the information I needed. I still have to put it into the project."
"Are you kidding me, T? We were just about to take a break!" Ivy whined.
She does have a point, Teddy thought. And to be honest, she could use some lunch too. Her stomach had grumbled so loud during the call, she'd worried her aunt would hear it. "Okay, fine," she relented. "But just lunch, then the shoe sale. And that's it."
Of course, they stayed at the mall a little longer than Teddy had wanted. After lunch, and the shoe sale, they ended up going to all their usual favorite stories. By the time Teddy got home several hours later, she had a new pair of boots from the sale, and a couple of new outfits to match. Then when she got home, she got distracted again because she had to try on her outfits again and admire them in her bedroom mirror. She couldn't help it if it was a post-shopping tradition.
Dinner followed, and when she got up to her room, she had to clean up the mess from both the pictures and the clothes that'd left on her bed. She'd then remembered she had to update her video diary with the information she found out that day. When everything was said and done, it was about nine o'clock. Too late to work on a project, especially after a day of shopping. But actually, Teddy didn't mind as much as she thought she would that the rest of the day had been a bust. During the course of her time at the mall, she'd realized how much she'd needed to de-stress. Worrying about and working on the assignment so much had worn her down, to the point where she couldn't even see what it was doing to her. Even if she went back to finishing up her project the next day, at least she'd had a good, long break.
And if she was going to take a day of rest, she was going to do it right. "Okay, Facebook," she said to herself as she loaded up the page for the first time in a week. "What have I missed...whoa, that's a lot of requests."
It took her an hour to get through them all, and the tediousness of processing application requests caused her mind to wander back to her project. Out of curiosity, she typed "van Heusen" into the search box.
Her jaw actually dropped when there were two exact matches, Alucard and Cindy van Heusen. Wow, she thought. Maybe they're distant cousins!Thrilled at the idea, she clicked on Alucard's page, relieved to see that it was set to public. Alucard, that's an interesting name...wait, that's Dracula backwards!
"Wow, his parents must have been big horror fans."
His info page only revealed that he lived in Transylvania, and Cindy van Heusen was his wife. They also had a daughter.
"Juliet?" Teddy exclaimed. They must have named their daughter after their ancestor! They are my cousins! Excited, she clicked on the only photo album listed called The Late Nite Bite, which featured pictures of the family at a restaurant.
She gasped when she came across a close-up picture of their daughter. If there was any doubt in Teddy's mind that these people were her relatives, it was gone in that instant. Juliet could have been her twin. Same blond hair, same face, same build. Sure, it seemed this Juliet preferred skirts and blouses Teddy would never wear, but otherwise they were identical.
"Oh...my...God..." Teddy whispered, her eyes riveted to the screen in shock. With trembling fingers, she managed to type out identical messages she sent separately to both Alucard and Cindy.
Dear Mr. van Heusen,
This may sound strange, but I believe my family and yours share a common ancestor, Juliet van Heusen. Not only have you apparently named your daughter after her, but if you look at my profile picture, it's clear that amazingly enough, your Juliet and I could pass for identical twins.
I understand that this might not interest you, but I really want to speak with out about the original Juliet van Heusen. My school assignment for the summer was to research my family tree, and I believe she's my earliest paternal ancestor. From research, I only know that she stayed with my many-times-great-grandfather long enough to have a son, then mysteriously disappeared. I'd love to hear any more stories you might know about her life.
I hope to hear from you soon.
Sincerely,
Teddy Duncan
Her hands still shaking after both messages were sent, she went back to looking through the album of about fifty pictures. Most were just of a van Heusen doing something in the restaurant, like clearing a table or making a sandwich. At first Teddy thought it weird for people to take pictures while working. But then she went back to the album cover picture of the restaurant, and saw that the caption read "Our New Home." She supposed it madesense that the family wound want to document a new chapter in their life. Teddy's own family had a whole slide show of pictures from when her parents renovated the office floor that would house her father's exterminator business.
The last picture in the album made her pause. It showed Juliet, ready for the prom, standing next to a very cute date. Teddy moused over the guy's face to see if he was tagged. The name that appeared was "Justin Russo." Since clicking on random profiles was automatic when she surfed Facebook, she checked out his profile too. Then she frowned.
His status was two words. Missing Juliet. And his bio revealed that he was single.
"What happened?" Teddy asked aloud. The couple seemed totally in love, even while posed for their prom picture. She saw that same love in every one of the couple's pictures posted on Justin's page. If they were broken up, even if he still loved her after she'd dumped him, surely he would have taken those pictures down. Unless he was a creepy stalker type who was obsessed with her.
Then it ocurred to Teddy that Juliet didn't have a page of her own. Her heart sank. Had there been an accident? Did something horrible happen to Juliet?
Suddenly, Teddy's instincts screamed at her to message Justin as well, though she wasn't sure why she would. It couldn't hurt, she reasoned. And he might be able to help me reach the van Heusen's if they don't reply. Quickly, before she lost her nerve, Teddy clicked on the message button. To calm herself down, she read aloud as she typed.
"Dear Justin...this might seem strange, but..."
"...I've been doing some research on my family tree over the summer for my school project, and I'm pretty sure that Juliet van Heusen and I are distant cousins. We share an ancestor, who Juliet is named after. I'm sorry if this is painful for you since it appears that you and Juliet are broken up, but I wanted to make contact with you, in case the van Heusens' are reluctant to return my messages. I also need more information about the original Juliet van Heusen, and since your ex-girlfriend is her namesake, I thought she might have told you some stories as well. I hope to hear from you soon. Sincerely, Teddy Duncan."
When he was done reading the troublesome message he'd opened that morning, Justin turned to his father, who was standing nearby. "Well?" Justin asked. He really hoped his father could reassure him that the girl, who he'd been shocked to see did look exactly like Juliet in her picture, wasn't in danger.
Instead, Jerry let out a worried sigh. "I'm sorry, but if she's already contacted them, then my guess is that she's definitely in serious trouble. The van Heusens will see her as easy pickings. No doubt they're on their way to America now." He paused, as if he'd remembered a rarely-accessed memory. "Wait, if she's Juliet's ancestor, then both she andher family are in trouble. Mortals with vampire blood in them, no matter how faint, are usually very powerful vampires when turned. No doubt the van Heusens will want the Duncans for their vampire coven."
"What? Dad, there has to be something I can do!" Justin insisted. As a monster hunter - shoot, as a human being - he couldn't just sit back while innocent mortals became prey for vampires. Wait, monster hunters...that's not a bad idea! "I'll contact the monster hunters! They can stand guard at Teddy's house!"
Jerry just gave him a skeptical glance. "Do you know her address to give to the monster hunters? Even if she contacted you first, I doubt this girl will give a stranger her personal information."
"I'm a wizard! I'll track her address down," Justin reminded him, but he still made a mental note that he would have to start working on that as soon as possible. "In the meantime, I'll reply and tell her to stay away from the van Heusens."
"That might help," Jerry replied, though his tone was doubtful. "What are you going to tell her?"
Not really concerned about the minor detail, Justin shrugged. "I don't know, I'll make up something. She was worried they wouldn't reply anyway, so it shouldn't be too hard to convince her."
"Well, good luck with that, then," Jerry said as he started to leave, then frowned at the thumbnail of Teddy's profile picture next to the message. "I hope you can save her, Justin. If there's any way I can help, let me know."
"Thanks, Dad." While Jerry headed for the hallway, Justin quickly read the message again, though he practically had it memorized. Still, a sentence that hadn't really clicked with Justin before that moment made him call his father back. "Dad, wait." When Jerry turned around, Justin asked, "The Juliet who lived in the sixteen-hundreds is my Juliet, right?"
Jerry raised an eyebrow. "I thought you were supposed to be the smart kid."
"Very funny. I meant...well..." Justin paused, not sure how to handle the awkward question. He and Juliet had never reached that point where he'd needed to ask her. And he hadn't come across it in his studies yet. "If vampires are dead, then shouldn't they not be able to have kids?"
Much to Justin's total humiliation, Jerry was stunned by the question. "You mean you and Juliet never...talked about it?"
"Hey, she was captured by a mummy, then scratched by a werewolf," Justin snapped, more harshly than he'd intended. "There wasn't much time for us to...'talk.'"
"Okay, okay! Sorry."
"It's all right." Justin paused. "For the record, that talk never happened."
"Agreed," Jerry replied, then shook his head. "Anyway, yes, vampires can have children if they've been around long enough. Vampires over a thousand years old tend to develop so much power that they almost bring themselves back to life. Some even start needing actual nourishment in addition to blood. I'd imagine that Juliet was even more human than most because she had a soul."
Juliet was, at the moment, an ancient crone who most likely wouldn't make it until her next birthday. But she still required present-tense. "Is even more human," Justin corrected sharply. "And has a soul."
"Right, of course," Jerry said. He hesitated, then added, "Look, Justin, I know I give you a hard time about how much you think about Juliet. But I really am sorry you had to go through what you did. And that now you have you have to deal with this situation..." He indicated Teddy's message. "While you're still hurting."
Surprised, Justin foced a smile to show his appreciation for the usually sentimental words. "Thanks, Dad. In a way, helping Teddy might give me some closure. If I can't save Juliet, at least I'll be able to save her grandchildren."