After the events of last night, you're sitting in one of the bedrooms of the hotel room, sprawled out on a chair in front of the bed. When you and Sarah left the warehouse, she turned into a horse and you rode her to the hotel. It was your first time riding a horse, and you were a little sore after. Especially since the ride took so long. You didn't know where the vampires went after the two of you left, Henry might've gone to Sarah's house, or the video store/bar. Maybe Eric and Pam had extra coffins. That would make sense.
It took you a few hours to fall asleep when you came home. You were up most of the night, tossing and turning, thinking about the men you killed. It seemed insane to you, you turned into a professional as soon as you felt threatened. There was no explanation, other than humans do crazy things to survive. Like those stories you hear, about mothers who lift cars to save their children. Except the child you wanted to save, was a 300-year-old vampire.
You're not doing anything in particular, just watching the little TV on the dresser. MTV was on, playing a music video from some Pearl Jam song. After that would come the reality shows, something they started to do a few years ago. Probably didn't make much money off of 4-minute clips of popular songs. You changed the channel when one of the reality shows came on, The Real World, a stupid show with stupid people. You had a hard time keeping your eyes open, but the horrible channels you're shuffling through keep you awake. You stand and put the remote on the dresser, Seinfeld is on, a good show to sleep to.
You rub your eyes, turning around to face the bed, "What the fuck?!" You jump, backing away from the bed. You're wide awake now, and Eric is laying on your bed, his chin resting against his palm. He's smirking, he opens his mouth, and his fangs drop. You take a deep breath and walk toward him, climbing onto the bed next to him. Before you can clamber your way over to him, he grabs you and pulls you into his chest. You rest your head in the crook of his neck, breathing in his scent. He smells good, sweet, like honey.
"What are you doing here?" You grumble, your voice muffled in his shirt. It didn't bother you that he was in your bed, you didn't know how to feel about it. But you welcomed it. If he wanted to do it again in the future, you wouldn't reject him. It wasn't often you had a man in your bed. Eric strokes your hair, sitting up and positioning you so you're in his lap like earlier that night. When you drank his blood. It gave you butterflies and a warm feeling spread through your body, like earlier that night.
He guides your head away from him, looking into your eyes, "Will you allow me to drink from you?" He asks, the smirk has disappeared, he's serious. You wish you knew what he was thinking. His face was always a little hard to read. You don't know if you want him to drink your blood, but he gave you his. It seemed like a fair trade. And he was hot, unfortunately. You pull down the collar of your black shirt, exposing your collarbone and the top of your chest to him. You didn't want him to bite your neck, people at work would see, and Sarah would too. You couldn't wear scarves all the time, you didn't have any. It wasn't cold enough for them.
"Are you sure?" He asks, tightening his hold on your waist. You let yourself think about it again, the consequences of this. If there are any consequences. You remember Henry telling you something about a bond, Eric being able to feel your emotions. The bond would be stronger than it was if you did this. He would know if you were ever in danger, he would know exactly where you were. That could be useful, him being able to save you if you were ever in danger. The bond you had with Pam was probably very weak if it was even still there at all. You didn't remember exactly when you drank her blood, it was easy to lose track of time. Going to work helped with that. You were glad everything was done with, so you could go back to your life. Working and meeting Sarah's family. But you had a feeling it was far from over, the danger. You didn't know how nice another stray vampire would be. Definitely wouldn't be a vegetarian vampire.
"I'm sure." You reaffirm, pulling your shirt down a little further and turning your head to expose your neck more. He leans down, taking a deep breath and smelling your neck. Before he can take a bite, you take a deep breath, trying to calm your racing heart. You feel his lips move on your neck, and then you feel a slight pinch. He groans as he swallows a mouthful of your blood, gripping the back of your neck tighter. You're surprised it doesn't hurt, it feels kind of good. Very good. You sigh, falling limp against him. He takes a few more mouthfuls before detaching himself from you and running his tongue across your wound, stopping the bleeding. The feeling of it makes you shiver, and your eyes flutter shut.
You bolt up, drenched in sweat. Angrily, you kick the blankets off your legs and stand up, chest heaving. You turn around and look over at the alarm clock on the bedside table, it's 7 am. Of course, you had a dream about Eric as soon as your head hit the pillow. Last night was so draining, mentally and physically. But with his blood in your system, you felt stronger and more alive than ever. Sighing, you sit down on the edge of the bed, resting your arms against your thighs. Waking up this earlier came as a surprise, especially because of how late you got back. When you got back, you didn't say much to Sarah, you just went to bed. She did the same, presumably.
The man plaguing your dreams made you think of Freddy Krueger. What if you drank coffee every night to stop the insane dreams you were having? You can't remember the last time a vampire wasn't in your dream, you just wished someone like Sarah was in your dream. Anything but another sexually charged one about Eric or Pam. It made things uncomfortable when you were around them. But it was a one-sided sort of discomfort, they didn't know what you were thinking about. You stand up again and stretch, groaning as you do. Hopefully, you could leave soon, and get different clothes on. Maybe sleep in a bed you're more familiar with. It's not that the hotel bed wasn't comfortable, it was extremely comfortable. You spent almost a month in Sarah's house, and someone took that safety net away from you. Both of you. You couldn't imagine how Sarah feels right now. Probably horrible, and it was sort of your fault. Maybe it wasn't your fault, maybe it was Deb's fault. Well, it was directly her fault. But she tied Henry down in the woods in the first place, she took that risk. And then she followed you home and broke in when she thought you would be there. You were glad she didn't kill the cat or anything. Sarah would be devastated.
You step out of the room, you had to pee but you would wait until you saw Sarah. If she was awake, "Sarah?" You call out, voice cracking. Clearing your throat, you walk further into the hotel room, where Sarah's room is. You get close to the door, pressing your ear against it, listening for any sound of her. You don't hear anything, so you knock a few times. After a few minutes you open the door, Sarah isn't inside. You look under the bed, in the connecting bathroom, in the closet. But her bed looks slept in. So you know she was here. Maybe she went to school? It was Tuesday after all. Or maybe she went to work? You didn't know, but you would go to work as well. Your hotel room key is tucked in the pocket of your cargo pants, where you left it last night before you went to the warehouse.
After panicking about Sarah's whereabouts for a few minutes, you decide to take a shower. But before you do, you use cold water to wash the blood stains out of your pants. It doesn't work well, there are still dark brown outlines of where the blood once was. It reminded you of when you had your period and bled into your underwear. And then that got you thinking about whether or not the vampires could smell that. And that made you get into the shower before the water warmed up, so you could shock those thoughts out of your mind. That would lead you down another rabbit hole, something that seemed to happen a lot lately. Ever since you moved. The root of all your problems came directly from the move to Shreveport. While you lathered up your hair with shampoo, you thought about Sarah. Speaking of Sarah, her cat was outside of the bathroom door meowing at you. He did this sometimes when he wasn't with Sarah in her bedroom.
Shutting off the water, you press your hands against your face and wipe your eyes so you can see. Usually, you called or Pam called before you came into work. But you didn't care enough to do that. You were feeling the effects of being thrust into this world, it was emotionally exhausting. You'd have to remember to ask Sarah for her therapist's phone number. Or find a supernatural therapist so you don't have to hide anything. But Sarah's therapist might be one of those, that would make sense. She said she didn't need therapy anymore, but maybe you could both go together. You step out of the shower and into a towel, wrapping your hair up with another one. You open the door to let Sarah's cat inside and he mews happily at you, swishing his tail around. Reaching down, you stroke the top of his head and he leans into your palm.
After 20 minutes of drying your pants with the blow dryer, you dress yourself. The clothes are wrinkled from you sleeping in them, but they don't smell bad or anything. You're thankful for that, at least. You were anxious to get to Sarah's house and change your clothes, and maybe wash the ones you have on. Maybe you didn't want to keep them anymore. Just putting them on made you think about murdering those men last night. You let out a shaky sigh and step out of the bathroom, turning the light off. The sun was almost up, you wondered if Pam turned the video store into a bar by now. But it hadn't even been a day. They would have to pay extra for contractors at night too, it probably didn't matter though, Pam looked rich. Or she dressed like she was. She usually wore designer clothes and her hair always looked perfect. If she was rich, Eric was too.
You make your way over to the front door and grab your car keys, they're hanging on a hook near the door. Before you leave, you check if Dave has food, he does. Sarah must've left food out for him. You leave the faucet in the bathroom dripping so he can drink out of it too. The drive to the store was shorter than it was when you were coming from Sarah's house. It didn't leave you with much time to think, and soon you were pulling into the parking lot. Next to Eric's car. He's rich. You almost forgot about his flashy car.
After exiting the car, you walk up to the store's entrance, taking in the forest surrounding the area. In the distance, you see a wolf, and you turn around and walk into the store. Not today. You flip the sign and open the store, cleaning up some movies that are scattered on the floor. Looks like the bar wouldn't be happening yet. You were glad, you didn't know anything about bartending. Of course, you drank, but you had no formal experience in mixology. And you couldn't be a bouncer, you weren't all that intimidating. Maybe you could just work at the front, hold a clipboard and let people inside.
You're done cleaning up and you head over to the front desk, sitting in one of the chairs across from the tiny TV. You sit there for what feels like an extraordinarily long time, but it's just been 15 minutes. A customer still hasn't come inside yet. The time felt like it was passing so slowly. Every shift did. It was like torture, except not physically painful. But sometimes it felt that way. After a while, you stand and make your way over to the vampire movies. Before they turned this place into a bar, you'd have to ask for some of their movies.
"Did you dream of me last night?"
You jump and drop one of the movies on the ground, turning around slowly. Eric is standing there, leaning against the doorway to the basement. It's a question he already knows the answer to, and it annoys you. He said something similar after you had the dream about Pam. As attractive as he is, he was starting to get on your nerves. But since you're his employee, you'd have to get used to him and his behavior. You're back to thinking about whether or not you could be a bartender when Eric walks toward you.
"You know I did," You say, rolling your eyes. He bends at the waist and picks the movie up, holding it out to you. In your experience, older people were more respectful. This didn't translate to vampirism. Henry was the most respectful vampire you met, and that wasn't saying much. The movie he's holding out is Nosferatu, not the original. They didn't have that one. Not out on display. They had no movies from before 1940, which wasn't all that weird. But when customers came in asking for old movies, you had to send them away. You take the movie from him and walk past, feeling his gaze follow you to the counter.
As you turn around to sit in your chair, he's gone. There's no trace of him, if you didn't know any better you'd think you were hallucinating. But obviously, you weren't. It didn't surprise you that Pam and Eric light-proofed the store, but it was weird to see Eric so late in the morning. He must be going to bed right now, and Pam was likely already sleeping in her coffin. After around 20 minutes, you regain your senses and put the movie into the DVD player. And you're not paying attention to it.
While you watch the movie, you think about vampires, your perception of them before you knew them, how they're portrayed in movies, and how they even existed in the first place. Before you knew any, you never watched any vampire movies. The only thing you knew about them was that they drank blood. And that's it, pretty much. From the movies you've seen so far and the movie you were watching now, they're portrayed as ugly. But they still drink blood. That was one of the only things that was true, and that they burned in the sun. But a cross or holy water wouldn't work unless you had a silver cross. You had no idea how they could exist, god created man and that was it, right? Maybe you could ask Eric about it, he didn't seem particularly religious.
When your shift ends, it's 8 and the sun is already down. An hour earlier, Sarah called and you guys talked for a few minutes before a customer came inside and you had to hang up. It was a nice conversation, and you promised you'd bring some movies back to the hotel. Soon after sunset, at about 6, Pam joined you upstairs. She was wearing more black than usual, "When we start the whole bar thing, we need a dress code." She pipes up from beside you, busy checking a list of new inventory. You didn't know how long their store had been open but assumed it's been a while. She didn't seem sad that they were changing their business. She was intrigued when Sarah came up with the idea, it seemed fun to her. And Eric agreed with it.
"What do you mean?" You ask. You know what she means, wear black. You were more worried about how you would know to trust patrons. What humans would come inside and leave to tell the authorities? What humans wouldn't do that? That would be difficult to figure out. But that part wasn't your job, it was Eric and Pam's. Unless they stuck you out front with a clipboard. You prayed silently for the bartending position. You'd rather do that than stand outside all night.
Pam checks a few alcoholic drinks off of a list in front of her, "Well if you're working here, at a vampire bar, you'll need to wear more black. Like the outfit you had on last night, it wasn't terrible looking." She informs you, checking off more movies. Goth wasn't a new concept, it began in the UK in the 80s. When you were in high school, Sarah was goth. She listened to the music, she dressed the part, and she even shaved her thick eyebrows so she could draw them on thin. She got you into the music and the black clothes, but you never put on any makeup or anything. To this day, you still listen to The Cure and Bauhaus sometimes. You even have a few records of theirs. But Sarah didn't own a record player, something you wanted to change considering your collection. When you went to work at the bar, when Sarah was home, you'd ask her for help with makeup. You didn't have much experience with it, other than the times you put on your mother's lipstick. She'd usually scold you for this because her lipstick always ended up broken. And then she would show you how to apply it correctly.
Your mom put a lot of work into her appearance, something she'd done since her teenage years. She always looked beautiful, even when she was just waking up. And she was proud because you were beautiful too, like her. Thinking about her made you want to visit soon. You missed your mother very much, she was more of a friend than a mother sometimes. After her mother died, she threw herself into her work. She worked for the city, driving garbage trucks, patching up busted pipes, and pouring concrete. And she always looked glamorous doing it. If you told her everything you knew now, she wouldn't tell anyone else, but she might have a heart attack. Vampires are real. Not the words anyone would expect to hear. And if she found out, she would probably be in danger.
Speaking of danger, you were thinking about the men you murdered. You didn't think you were capable of such a thing before it happened. Before you reverted to your primal instincts, an uncommon occurrence, in your experience. A couple of fights in your high school years couldn't explain the way you handled those men. That was different, and the way you acted terrified you. You couldn't trust yourself to act that quickly next time, and you knew there would be a next time. You would need training from someone, maybe Sarah if she knew how to fight. And if she didn't, you'd have to resort to asking Pam, Eric, or Henry.
"You okay?" She half-heartedly asks, not looking up from her checklist. You realize it'd been a while since she gave you the description of the dress code. It was your fault, your thoughts usually got in the way of things. But MTV helped you relax and shut your brain off.
"Yeah, I'm sorry. And don't worry, I'll wear black next time I come to work," You shrug, wishing you had something to occupy your hands. You were just sitting there next to Pam, not paying attention to the new movie on the tiny TV, "What am I gonna be doing anyway?" You ask, taking a glance at the blonde woman. Every time you saw her, she looked amazing. Her secret? Immortality. One good reason to die and eat humans. You'd have to add that to the list. A very short list, with mostly negative things on it.
"Eric needs an assistant, you would answer phone calls, bring him humans you think he would approve of, take messages, sort his mail, and sit it on meetings," Pam explains, looking up from her checklist to tell you this. But after the last word, she went right back to what she was doing. Checking off alcohol that they already bought for the occasion. You noticed some of them, a lot of beer. Mostly beer, actually. A common drink for older Southerners.
You know what an assistant is, but you appreciated the details provided, "Oh by the way," Pam pauses, opening one of the drawers under the counter, "Here's your paycheck. Even though you haven't worked a full week." She says, pulling out a slip of paper and passing it across the counter in front of you. Slightly eager to see how much you made, you grab it. 2,100. It seemed like an absurd amount of money, especially considering the amount of time you worked. They were either feeling guilty or just had too much money. You didn't know which one. But you could get used to this.
