Chapter 4

As Charlotte opened her eyes the next morning she could already feel the memories of her dreams fading away. The ghosts of the dark figures with teeth disappeared with the sunlight that filled her room. She sighed and laid in bed for a moment longer, not ready to get up, as her mind began to recall last night's events. What began as a normal shift turned into this overwhelming and confusing discovery. Vampires were real, and she had met one. In fact, she tried to help one. Charlotte still wasn't quite sure why she had, or why she even trusted him. But something inside her understood him, and she could not turn away. The one thing she couldn't understand was his mood swings. He was so sincere and open one minute then closed off and lashed out the next. However, his very existence intrigued her and she knew she had to find out more.

After thorough contemplation and time arguing with herself, Charlotte decided to get up. She swung her feet around and sat up on her bed while ruffling one hand through her messy bed hair. It was almost noon, and bars of sunlight peeked through the closed blinds on her windows. Slowly, Charlotte got up and opened them, letting the warmth of midday fill her tiny apartment. As she opened her sliding glass door and walked out onto the tiny adjourned balcony she began to hear the noises of a busy city street. As the warm air blew and ruffled her hair she attempted to put the stranger out of her mind. He obviously wanted nothing to do with her, by the way he left her standing in the street without a word. But she couldn't forget what she had learned.

Charlotte decided to find out more. After a few minutes of fresh air she went back inside and grabbed her laptop. She opened it and began typing in everything she could think of related to what she heard the night before into a Google search. Most of the results mentioned Twilight and the typical vampire books that teenage girls read. She had never really been interested in that stuff; she had much more important things going on then. After about an hour of researching, she finally found a question forum that mentioned the things she had seen.

"...veins under the eyes…." she began to read. "protruding fangs…..inhuman speed….mind control."

So this was how he managed to get her to leave her post and follow him outside. Charlotte thought. She scrolled down the page and continued reading.

"Weapons against vampires: a stake through the heart will kill, vervain for protection."

Vervein? She had never heard of that plant before.

Opening another tab, Charlotte ran a search for the plant. It seemed pretty basic to her, how could this plant protect her against vampires? She began to doubt the validity of her source. However after what she had seen last night, she decided that anything was possible.

Leaving doubt behind, Charlotte searched up the address of the nearest flower shop and found one a couple blocks away from her apartment. After eating a quick breakfast, she began to get dressed
_

A small bell rang as Charlotte opened up the door to the shop. The sweet smell of flowers greeted her as she stepped across the threshold. As she walked in, Charlotte admired all the different flowers laid out for display, quietly searching for a group that matched the picture on her computer.

"Hello, how can I help you?" a voice greeted her from across the shop and Charlotte looked up to see a middle aged woman approaching.

"Pretty lady like you should have a man in here buying flowers for you." the woman smiled. "What can I help you with."

"Um, yeah" Charlotte began reaching into her purse for the small slip of paper on which she wrote down the name of the flower. "I'm looking for a type of plant that may be more rare."

"We have all kinds of plants here, not just flowers. Do you remember the name of this plant?" She asked very friendly.

"Ah, yes." Charlotte replied finding the paper. "I believe it's called vervain." As she finished her sentence Charlotte felt the lady beside her stiffen.

"And what would a young lady like you want with a plant like that?" The shopkeeper with a smile that Charlotte could now tell didn't reach her eyes.

"It's a long story" she replied tersely.

"I don't believe we carry that plant here." The shopkeeper replied.

"But you just said -" she was cut off.

"I said we had a bunch of plants, not every plant, dear"

"Look, you and I both know that's not true. I saw the way you looked at me when I walked into the shop. I didn't realize it then but I do now, you were looking to see if I was able to get in. And now you clam up at the mention of vervein. I think we both know what it's used for, and I need it. So please, help me."

The shopkeeper contemplated her proposal before motioning to a backroom. "Follow me" she sighed and led Charlotte into the back room. Tons of less decorative plants lined the walls of the storeroom, Charlotte didn't recognize any of them but a few she could tell were not common.
"Over here" the shopkeeper motioned to a box in the back corner. When she opened it, Charlotte could see that it was filled with multiple stems of the plant.

"Will this be enough?" the shopkeeper asked grabbing a handful of stems from the box and placing them in a small ziplock bag before handing them to Charlotte.
"Yes this will be fine, thank you." she began to turn to leave when the woman suddenly grabbed her arm.
"Listen, do not tell anyone about this. Don't tell anyone you have this, or where you got it. Okay?"

Charlotte nodded eyes wide and the woman released her hand.

"Go ahead and go" the woman gestured to the door. "And a word of advice: vervain goes great with any beverage."

Charlotte returned to her apartment her mind a mess of thoughts. The entire way home she had contemplated what she had just seen and heard. Not only had this woman confirmed that vampires existed but also that vervain worked. She spent no time on hesitation and immediately went to go make a cup of tea. Minutes later, sitting at her small apartment table with the hot mug of tea in her hands Charlotte broke off a couple of the stems and leaves of her plant and placed them in her mug. Taking a deep breath she slowly began to take small sips. A couple hours later she sat on her bed, looking at her computer, with an empty mug on her nightstand. By now it was quite late and the sun had already set. Since it was a Saturday, she didn't have to go to work tonight and could relax. She sat, researching, doing her best to distinguish between fact and fiction of the numerous stories found on the internet.

Suddenly, there was a knock at the door. A loud purposeful banging. Charlotte lived alone, and she had very few living relatives, much less relatives she talked to. Her friends were limited to her coworkers, and they had never once visited her apartment. For the most part she kept to herself. Therefore this knocking was not only strange but completely unheard of. Slowly she neared the door as once again the impatient individual announced their arrival. Unfortunately, her door was not one that had a peephole, it had not seemed an issue before. Now she desperately wished she had one. Slowly she clicked each of her locks out of place and turned the handle to open the door. She was met with a set of piercing blue eyes looking down a her.

"You are going to forget everything you saw and heard last night" Damon compelled her as he stepped across the threshold.