Club Vampyr
Chapter 15
x.o.x.o.x.
Kerry's alarm went off and instead of sluggishly rolling out of bed like she did on most mornings where she got less than her minimum requirement of eight hours, she bolted straight up and skittishly glanced around the room. Her human eye-sight could still take in the sharp corners of her furniture and muted texture of things which appeared slightly fuzzy in the dark. Her pulse was blaring, the early morning sun was rising, and she couldn't shake the feeling of eyes focused on the back of her head. Rationally, she knew it was remnants of some strange dream where she was in the middle of a circle of people who whispered about her future in unhearable voices, but rationality didn't stop her from being frightened of rolling out of bed or even moving enough to turn off the escalating alarm-clock.
She sat, keeping her breath controlled in deliberate deep inhales and exhales until her heartrate decreased. By the time she was able to move from the bed, she missed out on the extra minutes she usually allowed herself every morning in order to take a long shower. She took one anyway, leaving her morning primping at nil and her long hair looking wildly bed-head in a way only little girls and university students tend to get away with. Kerry rushed into class and took a seat just as the professor was putting his not-so-random pop quiz on the projector. Luckily, she made it on time, unluckily, she hadn't really taken into account the fact that reading over her notes and/or the required material in the textbook might be advisable. She handed in her answers with that feeling of dread that she failed, which would ultimately bring down her grade and give her a promising future as a bum living under an underpass with a broken grocery cart and a box to call her own.
Barring, of course, that she didn't die before getting back the results.
The rest of the class passed by in a bored blur. She kept looking at the whiteboard, the squiggles of handwriting on it that she knew were also detrimental to avoiding a future living beside a dumpster, and instead of jotting them down in her notebook like a good little student, she saw Michel's blue eyes instead. A single night within his presence encompassed betrayal so great she should have slapped him and left, but it also made her loyalty to him stronger. How was it that he could lie to her, make almost every moment since his return tinged with possible falseness of it all being part of his 'plan' to get answers from her, and still make her feel a strong sense of loyalty to him? The fact that he was buying time for her by living the lie that he didn't know who she was just brought her closer to him after the initial anger wore off. Shouldn't she hate him by now? Want to hit him, or scream, or just toss him out of her life? Apparently not.
When Kerry emerged from class the sky was overcast with dark clouds. It was that time of year where it could either rain or snow, be sunny and warm one moment and the next be cold enough to see breath. She loved it, but was woefully unprepared for the day in her small fashionable camisole and thin jacket. Fending off a shiver from the cold, or so she told herself, Kerry stuffed her bare hands into the inadequate pockets of her jacket and hunched against the stiff breeze coming off the nearby ocean. Her hair whipped around her as she trudged back to her apartment, gleefully shuffling her feet through leaves which seemed to have fallen overnight. She could feel that sense of being watched again, and though she shrugged it off as being foolish (vampires could only threaten her at night, right?), she sped up and tried to covertly glance at her surroundings out of the corner of her eyes. The landscape was the same as it always was, only made lonely through lack of one of her two friends either accompanying her home or greeting her as they passed on their way to class.
It struck her then, as it had many times in the past couple of days, that life would never be the same again. Even her regular life seemed foreign to her, out of sync with everything that had happened over the weekend. She felt inserted into a fake reality by just going to class – as if she were in the wrong skin – and it unnerved her how change could lead to so much of the same. The same thing had happened to her after the last time she had met Michel, only then everyone she knew was aware, in part, of what had happened to her. Everyone had treated her as if she was a different person, someone fragile and damaged, and she knew they all suspected her capture had been far worse than it actually was and that she was a different person. She didn't know if she preferred this solidarity, where she had to pretend that nothing had changed, or not, but Kerry felt aged and exhausted.
Sometimes, she felt as though her world, and her thoughts, just kept going around in circles until she was so dizzy she couldn't clearly see him, or anything, anymore.
Kerry crossed the last street in front of her apartment, walking on automatic so she didn't have to put much thought into her actions. A stiff breeze cooled her skin, but she enjoyed the nip of chill caressing across her body. It made her feel alive, and at peace in a way. Nature always seemed to have a way to calm her emotions, particularly when her mind refused to move on from one thought. Maybe because it was something real and tangible to focus on instead of herself.
Entering her apartment building, like she did every day, she really felt bereft of her friends. The last time she had walked through these doors after school, she had been joking with Nathaniel about the possibility of going out clubbing. Kerry shook her head, trying to rid herself of this maudlin mood she was in. It had to be from lack of sleep, she told herself. All she needed was a nap and then she'd be back to her normal, somewhat-cheery, partially-depressed self. A few hours of sleep never cut it for her, after all.
She trudged, eyes growing bleary through the elevator ride, into her apartment, pausing to lock the door behind her, and into her room. She fell on to her bed with her clothing, jacket included, still digging uncomfortably into her skin. She meant to set her alarm so she could wake up before her next class, but never got the chance. It was one of the rare times where she fell asleep almost immediately and she didn't even have time to relish the fact. Six hours later she awoke with a twitch to bed-head fuchsia hair and blue eyeliner staring down at her.
"Eughfff," she grunted, blinking at Nathaniel's brightness as he poked her again.
"Skipping class?" He asked, jumping onto the bed beside her. He landed on her foot, causing her to jerk back in pain.
"Jerk," Kerry muttered fondly, glancing over to her clock to see why he had mumbled something about not being in school. The red display shone the numbers 2:38 at her in a neon glow. For a moment she felt panic at the idea that she skipped one of her classes, but then she realized how inconsequential it was. His shocking pink hair remained in the corner of her periphery like a naked man through a window you just don't want to look at. Kerry couldn't help but smile as she looked straight at Nathaniel, realizing that this was the first normal moment she had all day, despite the fact that normal hadn't always meant having him wake her up, or even enter her room without knocking. "Your hair is back."
"Yeah," Nathaniel replied to her observation, bringing his hand up to pat at the bottom of fuchsia strands like a diva. "It was duh-ull."
She silently agreed with him, plus yesterday it had just been plain creepy how he had styled it after Nelle. She was more used to this, and knew how to deal with it. "It's a good colour on you."
"You think?" He asked. "I styled it after the first episode of Alias."
Kerry snorted, shaking her head slightly with a smirk still across her lips.
"You know hon, you could do with a little pick-me up. Get rid of those circles under your eyes, make your so-flawless-I'm-jealous skin a little shimmery, some lipstick, some hair colour, and voila, you're tres cute." While he was talking, Nathaniel had her chin between his pointer finger and thumb, forcing her face in awkward directions.
"Admit it," Kerry drawled. "You're flamboyantly gay."
"Only sometimes," Nathaniel agreed. "And one thing I know is you aren't going to get your man looking like you just crawled out of bed."
Since she HAD just crawled out of bed, and hadn't exactly made it to the 'out of bed' part, Kerry just stared at him. "I think you're wrong about that. He's seen me at my almost-worse, plus I don't think eau-de-Kerry is so great on the second day, so as far as I'm concerned how I look now is almost dressing up for him."
"It's sad you don't want to make an effort," Nathaniel pointed out. "Are you sure you even like this guy?"
Of course she did. She was about to answer him sharply when she realized that this was the closest Nathaniel ever got to girl-talk, and though he was doing a shockingly good job at it, he still wasn't satisfying the void he was unwittingly trying to fill. He could probably never talk with her like Nelle could, Kerry thought, and even as the words flowed through her mind she realized that she had never quite been able to share the topic of Ethan with her best friend.
"Kerry? The question shouldn't be that difficult."
"It's not that," Kerry promised with a dismissive flick of her wrist. "I was just thinking of how I never really got to talk about this with my best friend."
"You will," he promised, standing up from the bed. "Now the sun sets in a few hours. Take some time to put on a pretty shirt and some lipstick whydoncha. Even your downward frown would look appealing to a vampire if your lips are the colour of blood."
Kerry threw a pillow after him as he left the bedroom. Instead of leaving the apartment as if he were some sort of metrosexual Kramer, he started rummaging through the kitchen. With an exasperated sigh Kerry crawled out of bed and grabbed her towel. It had been days since she took a normal shower and her legs were starting to show it. A little bit of phobia over a scene where she had almost been killed could be quickly dampened by the idea of sasquatch thighs. And honestly, she had a better chance of being laid tonight than she did a week ago. Before leaving for the bathroom, she peeled off her jacket and rubbed the angry red creases in her skin from the folds and seams of the thick cloth.
Half an hour later she emerged fresh, only to find Nathaniel sitting on her bed waiting for her. "Eeeiii," Kerry screamed like a little girl, wishing she had more than a towel in her hands so she could throw something at him. "Would you leave. Now."
"Yes ma'am," Nathaniel said, clearly amused. "I picked you out an outfit to wear on your date."
"Fine!" Kerry glared at him, slamming the door behind him. It wasn't until she stared at the flouncy black skirt with a jagged, multi-layered hem that he picked out did she realize that he was being surprisingly supportive for someone who went after Michel with a fire extinguisher. She could still hear the muffled noises of him rummaging around her apartment, probably in the fridge again. She quickly put on the skirt and a soft flowing pink shirt. The boy did have a flair for fashion. "Hey Nate," Kerry called out, opening the door to her room and sticking her head out. "Why were you ready to kill Michel last night but are encouraging me to go out with him again today?"
"He and I came to an understanding," Nathaniel told her, stepping out of the kitchen so that he was directly across from her. Kerry stared at him for a moment, her eyebrow raised in an attempt to get him to elaborate.
"Oh?" She prompted when the eyebrow thing didn't work. Nathaniel remained silent, arms crossed over his chest. "Are you going to tell me about it?"
"No, not really," he responded, turning his back on her and walking back into the kitchen.
Gah! Kerry thought. Michel must have been sharing tricks on what annoyed her the most. If that was the case, she didn't want to know what Nathaniel had said in return. Of course, it was completely unnecessary for her to worry over the two of them powwowing over all things Kerry. She couldn't see Michel talking frankly to Nathaniel, because, hey, he didn't do that with anyone. Secretive, thou name is Michel. Also, she couldn't see Nathaniel getting over his initial distrust for Michel so quickly. That took at least three nights of bonding time over beer, football, and cheetos. Obviously, not a Michel thing to do. She shut her door loudly on her way back into the bedroom and whipped out her eyeliner. She managed to draw a relatively straight line beneath her eye, and wondered if there was something to this make-up while angry thing.
It wasn't until a few hours later, as she sat on her couch and nervously jerked her foot, did she realize that she was actually looking forward to what a date with Michel had to offer. Sure, it was likely he would add a few nasty surprises into the mix through his inability to be honest or open up to her. In a way, when she was able to think about it charitably and removed from the situation, she shouldn't expect him to give up years of survival strategy just because it might hurt her feelings. And really, she expected him to keep her in the dark about things. It was almost a game between them, and sometimes she thought he set up situations in order for her to find out the truth without him explicitly needing to tell it to her.
She wouldn't put it past him.
So Kerry sat on the couch, nervously staring at the time on the dvd player. The sun had already set, and her makeup was starting to wear off. She couldn't remember him specifying a time, or for that matter a code of dress. Picking at the lacy hem of her little black skirt, she wondered for the umpteenth time whether her clothing was inappropriate, or if he'd even show up.
"Stop it, you're making me nervous," Nathaniel grumbled, scowling at his new Wii as the controllers in his hand went wild. She had already kicked his ass at the bowling game which came with the machine, even dressed up for a night on the town, and he was now practicing so he could challenge her to a rematch when she got home. Kerry wouldn't be surprised if she stumbled into the apartment around three in the morning again and found him standing in front of the TV, his arms flinging wildly in all directions. "Do you think it would help if I wore a skirt?" he asked.
"Maybe," she replied distractedly, half amused because she knew it wouldn't and there was a forty percent chance he would try.
"It's probably this TV," he claimed as the bowling ball went into the gutter once again. Kerry hadn't even known it was possible to get a gutter ball on this game until she had seen him play. "I'm just not used to it."
"Then why are you even here?"
"Have you seen my TV? I'm not going to play the Wii on a 40 inch flat screen! I saw on the news that these little straps break and you can shoot the controller through the glass."
Right. And it was better to fry a 200 dollar TV than it was to break the one his daddy had just bought out of compensation guilt. "You break it, you bought it," she told him, looking at the time again as he flipped out of the bowling game in disgust and went to lose at baseball.
"He's not going to stand you up." Nathaniel swung and missed.
"It's not a real date."
"Suuuuure. YEEEEES!" Nathaniel exclaimed, hitting the ball and then watching in disappointment as it went out of bounds. "He didn't have to ask you out, you know. He could just show up and you'd gush in your panties all over him."
Kerry made a face. "That's disgusting."
"It's true though. He came clean and admitted the game he's playing."
"I caught his lie!"
"He's clever. He could have thought of something to cover it up," Nathaniel responded, striking out.
She crossed her arms over her chest, glaring at him. "Whose side are you on, anyway?"
"Yours, of course," Nathaniel said carelessly as he moved on to golfing. Dollars to doughnuts he didn't do any better with that either. Kerry did not want to watch him try to play the new Zelda game with his less than mad skillz. It would be an insult to the ultimate coolness of Link.
There was a hesitant knock on the door and Kerry jerked to her feet and started patting down her hair as she scurried towards the door before Nathaniel even registered the sound. "Give him a kiss for me, will ya? And don't come home too early."
Kerry stopped to stick her tongue out at him, instinctively knowing that Michel would be able to hear everything said from the other side of the door. Due to the substantial gape between the door and the frame, a normal human would have been able to hear Nathaniel as well. She twisted the knob, yanking the door open. Her skirt swished around her legs as she stared at Nelle. The two of them surveyed each other for a moment, Kerry slightly shocked to see her best friend on the other side of the door, her skin color looking far more healthy and alive – for lack of better term – than it had before she became a vampire. Kerry wondered when 'sickly' became the normal look for Nelle.
Kerry squealed, enveloping Nelle in a loose hug. "Oh my God, are you ok? You look ok. Healthy." Kerry laughed nervously as she pulled away from her friend, her hands still grasped around Nelle's wrists.
"You mean alive?" Nelle asked ruefully. "Because you know I'm not, right?"
"Yeah, I heard. But I don't mean because you're standing here talking to me," Kerry explained. "You've got this sparkle."
"It's because vampires have great skin," Nelle responded flippantly. She stopped her joking with Kerry and went still, and it was not unlike the quiet Michel adopted as he was paying attention to his surroundings. Kerry turned around sharply, worried about what could possibly be behind her which would make Nelle pause like that. It was only Nathaniel, and he too was standing still in the entrance way to the living room. He had a deer-in-headlights look as he took in Nelle, and Kerry could see him swallow audible.
"Hi," Nelle whispered.
"Hey." Nathaniel broke out of his trance, walking towards the two of them. "Oh God Nelle. I knew you were ok, but damn, girl."
Nelle laughed, a tinkling and unworried sound that Kerry had rarely heard since high school. She moved towards her sometimes-boyfriend, and he opened his arms for her to step in for a hug. As Nathaniel enveloped Nelle in his arms, Kerry felt a tingle of worry at the back of her neck, where her spine met her brain.
"NOOOO!" Kerry screamed as Nelle's head jerked towards Nathaniel's jugular, her mouth open and teeth exposed in order to rip a bite out of his neck. "Stop, Nelle." Kerry moved forward on reflex, not knowing what she could possibly do to help. Part of her was aware that if she interfered, it would likely be her blood spilling as well, but even though that was the case, she managed to get her hand around Nelle's shoulder before the teeth pierced through Nathaniel's flesh.
Nelle jerked as though she had been burned and she fell to the floor sobbing. Her hair trailed against Kerry's feet. "I'm sorry," she wailed. "Please forgive me."
"Nelle! What the…" Kerry took a step back when she realized it wasn't Nathaniel she was begging forgiveness from. Nelle remained prone, her forehead on the floor in a deep genuflect. "Get up!" Kerry demanded, both embarrassed and suspicious.
Nelle climbed to her feet, her head still bowed in contrition. "I'm sorry," she muttered again, behind a veil of hair. Nathaniel stood frozen where he was, face blank of all emotion. It was better than the condemnation Kerry had expected to find on his face, directed at either Nelle or herself.
"What happened?" A voice asked from the open doorway, tinged with suspicion and power.
"I'm sorry, Michael!" Nelle exclaimed, throwing herself at his feet in an act of contrition. "I lost control."
Michel looked at Kerry and for a brief moment their eyes met, and then he turned his attention back to Nelle. "I don't smell blood, so you must have regained it on time." His hand patted the top of her head, like a god forgiving his child for their sins.
"Kerry stopped me." Nelle still didn't rise.
Michel looked at Kerry again, and this time she knew he was hiding something. "Kerry?" he asked, and their eyes locked. For a moment Kerry felt as though she were falling into the wild blue of his eyes, but then the moment was over with Nelle's next words.
"Yes. She smelled of your power." Nelle's eyes were adoring and trusting as she looked at Michel for the answers. In turn, he and Nathaniel looked at Kerry with various degrees of suspicion and alarm until Nelle too turned her head. For a moment, Kerry felt a sinking feeling at the imagined hostility in the room, feeling as though she were trapped in their accusations without a lifeline.
"That's not possible," Michel said calmly, a reassuring smile on his face. "Your powers are new, Nelle." He bent over at the waist in a bow, fingers grasping around her hand as he helped her back to her feet. "You probably sensed my approach and got confused. It happens to the best of us. Now, we must speak about how and why you lost control." Gently, he led Nelle into her own living room, past Kerry and then Nathaniel. Kerry watched his effortless control, glaring at his back as he moved. He was hiding something. She knew it.
"That was strange," Nathaniel said, shifting towards her so they could talk in private. Neither of them honestly believed the vampires in the other room couldn't hear them, but both were hoping they weren't listening.
"I know," Kerry mused.
"I've never seen Nelle so subservient. Weird how she just kept bowing left right and center like some freakin peasant in the royal chamber."
"Oh! Yes, that was out of character—"
"I don't like what these vampires are doing to her. It's like some kind of non-democratic patriarchal hierarchy society bullshit."
"I'm sure there is a word for that," Kerry mused. "Too bad neither of us are political science students."
"How about Fascism?" Michel supplied from his seat on the couch. Kerry shot him a dirty look despite the fact a wall was hiding him from view and heard his suppressed chuckle. She had a feeling that if they still went on a date, it was going to be one horrible evening. There was only so much stifled silence she'd be able to take before hitting him over the head with her purse and demanding he tell her everything. Michel, she knew, would not take kindly to that.
Kerry drew Nathaniel further into the apartment, down the hallway which led to Nelle's room and the bathroom. Though the route was a familiar one she treaded multiple times a day, it was still stained with the stench metaphysical blood and fear. Maybe now that her roommate was a vampire, a little death would be more suitable for her. "I think you're missing the problem with Nelle bowing. I'm more concerned with the fact she did it to me first."
"She's new at this vamp thing, Kerry," Nathaniel said skeptically. "Like Michael said, it would be more strange if she was immediately perfect."
"He didn't say that," Kerry responded in her hushed whisper. "He said she probably made a mistake because she's new. I think he was lying."
Nathaniel's reaction surprised Kerry. Instead of agreeing with her, he gave her a sympathetic shake of his head, patting her shoulder in a way which made her grit her teeth. "Not everything he says has to be a lie. Life isn't all about you, and it's not all about him. I think he was telling the truth. Why can't you get beyond these petty suspicions and see that?" Nathaniel stormed out, leaving her whirling in a tide-pool of self recrimination. Why couldn't she? Kerry questioned herself. Why couldn't she take what Michel said at face-value? She knew why. It was because Michel lied prettier than he told the truth. If he was open enough to offer an explanation, it was likely the words were false. But even so, Nathaniel had planted a ripple of doubt.
When Kerry walked back out into the hallway, Michel was waiting for her outside her bedroom. Her heart tripped, and she knew that it didn't matter whether he told the truth or not. She could tell herself she hated liars, she could know he conned and manipulated more than he was honest, and still she ached when she saw his dark hair and pale lean body. He smiled as she drew closer, and Kerry knew she was in trouble. She believed in him, even if she didn't necessarily believe him.
And worst still was the fact that she wanted his lying mouth put to play manipulating her body.