Rebecca's father was waiting for her in the living room when she got back.
"Rebecca."
His stern voice made Rebecca flinch back slightly. She didn't look him in the eyes, ashamed of her behavior.
She had broken his rules - rules that were in place for her own good.
Yes, Rebecca thought that his rules were stifling, but they were for the greater good. She knew they were.
She was dangerous. She hurt people. She knew that for a fact. And her father just wanted to protect his fellow humans.
The only reason she could stand to be around him was because she was accustomed to his scent. Other humans….well. Like the man from earlier today - it was almost too much for her to take.
She had run because she was a hair's breadth from losing control, but she still could have texted him or left a note or something so that he didn't think that she was purposely disobeying him.
"What were you thinking? You know how dangerous it is to leave the house."
Rebecca shrunk further into herself with every word that was said, but some strange hint of boldness compelled her to try to explain herself.
"When Phil cut himself I thought that was going to hurt him, so I - "
"You should have come back sooner. It's been four hours , Rebecca, you know better than to be out for that long."
With that recrimination, her courage failed her.
"I'm sorry, I'll be better next time."
Her father shook his head.
"There better not be a next time."
"Yessir." Rebecca said quietly. Her father shook his head in response, and she took that as a signal to head up to her room.
She knew that he wouldn't want to see her until tomorrow, at the earliest, after what had happened.
Rebecca shut the door gently behind herself and flopped onto her bed.
At least her day wasn't all that bad. She had made her father angry, but she had met someone like her.
It was still amazing that there were others like herself in existence. She had thought that she was the only one for as long as she could remember.
And Alice had been outside , too, and maybe that meant that there was a way to control her thirst for blood.
And if there was then she could show her father that she was in control, and maybe he wouldn't have to be so worried about her all the time, and then he might be less angry.
…But that also meant that she would need to sneak out again tomorrow. After promising that she wouldn't do it again.
Rebecca began to nibble on her lip as she thought, a nervous habit she could never quite shake.
She didn't want to disobey, but…wouldn't it be worth it if she could learn more about what she was? Wasn't a little evil like this worth it, if it meant that she could potentially find a way to curb her thirst for blood?
A sense of certainty filled Rebecca at that last thought.
Yes, she decided, it would be worth it. She would meet Alice in the woods tomorrow. She would learn more about vampires.
And if she was lucky, her father would never need to find out about it.
The next day, Rebecca snuck out of the house and ran to the clearing she had met Alice in. Her father was at work today, and if she timed it right she would be able to get back to the house before he got home.
Apprehension rose in Rebecca's chest as she ran. What if Alice wouldn't be there, and she had left for nothing? And more importantly, what if there was nothing that could be done about her inability to control herself around blood?
She tried her best to cast the thoughts out of her mind as she approached her destination. She wanted to be on her best foot when she saw Alice again.
To Rebecca's relief, she caught a hint of that divine scent as she drew closer and eventually saw Alice standing in the middle of the clearing.
She was as breathtaking as the first time Rebecca had seen her. Enough for her words to once again abandon her. Especially at the sight of the dazzling smile the spread graced Alice's face when she saw Rebecca.
Thankfully, Alice seemed to have no problem speaking.
"Rebecca! I'm so happy you could make it."
"Hi," Rebecca paused to take a moment to gather her courage. She really talked to anyone but her father, and just like yesterday, the prospect was still overwhelming. "...So. You're a vampire?"
She cringed, internally, at her blunt wording, but she didn't know any other way to broach the subject.
"I am."
"And…do you drink blood too?" Rebecca fancied that her heart had traveled to her throat as she waited for an answer to the question. Maybe Alice didn't have to drink blood too, and Rebecca was a freak, but…no that couldn't be true. All of her research on vampires showed that they drank blood.
Alice grew more serious, but her voice retained the cheer that she had greeted Rebecca with.
"Yes, I do."
Rebecca hated herself for the relief that flowed through her veins. She shouldn't be happy that another person had the same affliction as she, especially one as bright as Alice, but she was so , so happy to not be alone.
Oddly enough, the crushing guilt she was feeling lessened slightly. Not enough for it to disappear, but enough that it was more bearable.
"And, you can control it?"
Alice nodded. "I won't lie to you and say that it's easy, but yes. I can control it."
"How?" The question was out of Rebecca's mouth almost before Alice finished speaking. Because if she could control it…then maybe she could convince her father to let her leave the house more often. That way he could have his space and wouldn't have to worry about people getting hurt.
"Practice. Spending time around humans, and resisting their blood. I always try to remember that they have hopes and dreams and families like I do, and it becomes worth it, no matter how much it burns."
That sounded like what Rebecca already did when there was someone at her house. She tried to remember that they were a person, and not food, and that other people would miss them if she murdered them.
Rebecca would endure the burn for a thousand years before she deliberately caused someone harm like that. She knew what it was like to miss someone so much that the entire world felt dim without them. She could never be the cause of that for another person.
But, as amazing as being around people sounded, Rebecca knew that it wasn't possible. Even if the risk of hurting someone was worth the reward of control, there was the fact that she wasn't allowed to be around humans.
She shook her head. "I'm not allowed to be around anyone. I'm too dangerous."
Alice's eyes narrowed at that, and Rebecca worried that she had made her angry, but the emotion vanished quickly enough she thought she had imagined it.
"There's also the animal diet."
Rebecca's eyes widened in shock.
"Animal diet? I - we can feed on animals?"
"Oh yes! It doesn't taste as good, but it works." Alice responded with cheer, former solemnity gone as if it had never existed.
That was… amazing. Rebecca didn't care if it tasted like the worst thing on the planet. Anything was better than killing someone.
"Can - can you show me how?"
Alice grinned, white teeth flashing in the sunlight. "Of course! Come with me."
And then she streaked off at a speed Rebecca found that she had to put some effort into to match. It was exhilarating to do something even as simple as running with someone who was her peer, to not have to watch her movement unless she wanted to out herself or scare her father.
Alice came to a stop a few seconds later. She pointed in the opposite direction of the sun, whispered quietly enough that a human wouldn't be able to hear it.
"Close your eyes. Listen."
Rebecca turned her head in the direction that Alice was pointing, and did as she was bid. It took a few seconds, but she could hear, ever so faintly, the rapid beating of numerous hearts and the sound of what she thought was tongues lapping up water.
Animals. A group of them. Perhaps deer? She couldn't think of any other creature that lived in the woods and would travel in a group quite as large as she was hearing.
"You hear that?"
"Yes," Rebecca replied softly, some part of her not wanting to startle the deer she was hearing even though she knew that they were too far away to hear her.
"It's a herd of deer. Carnivores taste better than herbivores, but you have to be careful to not overfeed on them. Its not good for the forest."
Rebecca nodded, opening her eyes to meet Alice's golden ones.
"Are you ready?"
Rebecca nodded, and they ran silently in the direction of the herd. The deer were in a clearing with a stream running through it. It was a smaller herd, only twenty or so members.
Rebecca found herself fixating on one doe in particular. She vaguely heard Alice back a few feet away, as she instinctively lowered herself into a catlike crouch as she prepared herself to go for her prey.
They didn't taste appetizing, as Alice said, but Rebecca hadn't drank anything in days, and her throat was suddenly burning at the scent of blood, herbivore through it was, and the sound of thrumming heartbeats.
She was so thirsty…
Rebecca watched the deer graze peacefully for a few more moments, before she tensed her muscles and sprung out of her predatory crouch.
The animal's back broke under Rebecca's weight as she sank her teeth into its neck, ignoring the taste of its furry hide.
The blood was lackluster. The nearly-expired bagged blood her father occasionally brought home for her from the hospital was immensely better, but Rebecca found that it quenched the flames - enough for her to stop feeding when she heard another deer's bones break and heart stop as the rest of the herd fled.
Rebecca paused about three quarters of the way into the deer as she watched Alice feed.
It was…quite beautiful, really. Rebecca supposed that she should have been repulsed by the sight of Alice drinking blood from an animal's fresh corpse, but the only even vaguely negative thing Rebecca felt was a vague sense of disappointment that she didn't see Alice kill the deer.
It would have been an amazing sight, she was sure. Alice was already beautiful, but to see her actually using the grace and confidence of a vampire would have been beyond comparison.
Rebecca shook herself out of her odd thoughts - honestly, she didn't know where they had come from - and looked down at the deer. The fire in her throat wasn't quenched, per say, but it was down to a manageable, forgettable even, burn.
But it would be a shame to let the rest of the deer's blood go to waste. Alice stopped feeding as the thought crossed Rebecca's mind. Her eyes were rather dark. An ochre, rather than their normal bright gold, and some part of Rebecca whispered that she could help with that.
After a moment more of contemplation, Rebecca nudged the deer over at Alice.
Alice looked back at Rebecca in shock, before a smile crossed her face and she accepted the deer.
Rebecca felt part of her relax as she watched Alice finish her meal.
Alice licked the remnants of the blood off her lips after she finished.
"Sometimes we bury the animals, but sometimes we leave them for other animals to eat."
Rebecca nodded her head. It made sense. She was sure that larger predators like wolves and mountain lions would love a free meal, along with whatever scavengers that lived in the forest.
Rebecca raised a hand to brush hair out of her face, but paused when she saw that it was splattered with blood. She looked down at the rest of her clothes, to see that she was completely covered in the red substance.
She felt a pang of panic race through her body - her father would see this, and then he would know and then she wouldn't be able to see Alice again, she needed to hide this, she shouldn't have come - but before her hands could start their tell-tale shaking, it eased slightly into something she could think past.
"I'm a mess," Rebecca commented ruefully, carefully keeping her turbulent emotions off of her face. Fortunately, she had always been good at keeping her emotions hidden from her face and body language..
"You could wash off in the stream?" Alice offered.
Rebecca nodded slowly. That would solve half of the problem. "But my clothes…"
Alice brightened up at that. "Don't worry about that! I planned ahead."
"What do you mean?"
Alice adopted a rather hesitant demeanor, her cheer subsiding slightly.
"Well…there's someone I wanted you to meet today, and I made sure that he would hold onto some extra clothes for you in case something like this happened."
Rebecca felt her anxiety surge for a moment at Alice's words and she felt her muscles tense up in preparation to flee, before the feeling died down slightly.
She took in a breath, and then let it out. Right. She could, and would, make choices without letting the fear of something new rule her.
Rebecca didn't think Alice would do anything to hurt her. In fact, she knew that Alice wouldn't do her any harm.
It was a bone-deep certainly, actually, though Rebecca scarcely knew where the assurance came from.
That could surely extend to anyone Alice would introduce her too, right?
After a moment, Rebecca nodded her assent.
If Alice wanted to introduce her to someone, then Rebecca would be happy to make a new acquaintance. Even though the thought of doubling her social pool was somewhat daunting.
Alice smiled, dazzling Rebecca briefly.
"I'll go get your clothes from him while you wash off, alright? And then I'll introduce you once you're dressed."
Rebecca smiled back, suddenly feeling rather excited to meet another person (the second one in as many days!) despite her apprehension.
"I would like that."