I started adjusting my clothes, which were beginning to wear out. My jeans were a bit torn and my purple hoodie was starting to have holes. Besides, the bloodstains from the different animals we hunted didn't want to come out, as we didn't use detergents.
As if he could read my thoughts, Tomás looked at himself and said, "How awful, I look like a beggar. Girls, we should go to the laundromat more often, we need new clothes."
Amalia wore very simple clothes, almost like a hippie girl. She loved that more shamanic and tribal style, which suited her well as a very spiritual woman. On the other hand, Tomás sought the most modern possible clothing. I noticed he loved polo shirts, sunglasses, brand jeans, and sports sneakers. I thought his clothes matched well with his face and his slightly pale olive complexion. He also wore shirts occasionally with a strange V-shaped neckline.
I asked Amalia to accompany me to find new clothes. I urgently needed a bra; it was very uncomfortable to run like this without anything underneath.
Amalia laughed and said, "We're vampires! Why would you need to wear that? You should wear something more comfortable, but if you wish, you can go with Tomás. He loves shopping! I have to wait to see if another vampire from the Egyptian coven comes."
"А де ж!" I said to myself. Amalia wears very light and loose clothing; she doesn't need those things.
Ой лишенько!" I thought. But Tomás looked so enthusiastic that I finally decided to go with him to the village. We carried some money, which I have no idea how he managed to get, and we went to a nearby market.
Inside the market, we arrived at a store where a human awaited us who seemed to recognize Tomás. She asked about Amalia, and he started browsing through all the clothing in the place. Since the invention of the bra, it seemed like a very good idea to me; it always bothered me to run without anything. My bust moved too much many times for my liking, and I hated Od's looks when we ran. Wearing bras helped me solve the problem.
"Oh, Barbie!" exclaimed Tomás. "We don't know your measurements! Or what sizes you wear."
"I'd like to see that, not you, Tomás," I said and started trying on some jeans and hoodies, looking at myself in the mirror.
Tomás grabbed a measuring tape and said to me, "Darling, you should know your measurements before finding the best for you, and let me help you find the colors that match you best."
As he looked at me with an enthusiastic smile, I got nervous. The idea of Mr. Adonis evaluating my body made me uncomfortable. Honestly, Tomás was an almost irresistible guy. Any girl would get very nervous having someone so close. Every time I looked at him, he reminded me of that sculpture of "David" by the artist Michelangelo.
I let out a smile, feeling guilty for Amalia. He was her guy, and I didn't want to get involved in drama. But I also didn't want to offend him. He took the measuring tape and began excitedly taking notes and collecting heaps of clothes.
"Let's see..." he said thoughtfully. "89, 66, 91... Do you want a B or C bra? One will look more stunning, but the other will be more comfortable. Ah! I have fantastic jeans. But you wear sportswear! Sorry, let me see around here..."
"Боже мій!" I thought. "He really enjoys shopping..." As he piled up more and more clothing. Finally, he arrived with a bunch of sportswear, and I started trying it on.
I went in and out of the fitting room, and he thought while I turned around. "I don't know, that color doesn't match. Try this one..." So that's how we spent several hours. I must have tried on more than eleven or twelve different pants, and as for the hoodies and shirts, I had lost count.
"Keep a red hoodie and a black shirt. Black and red go well with your skin and hair. The pants are fine. It's a shame that sports shoes don't last that long." Tomás emphasized the importance of dark clothing so that bloodstains weren't so obvious.
During the rest of the day, Tomás tried on quite a few garments of different colors, and even the saleswoman seemed to be falling asleep. As he walked around asking me questions, I occasionally sighed, and I couldn't help but compare him to Gonzalo.
While there were similarities in their faces, aroma, and tones of voice, being both cousins, Tomás was much more attractive than Gonzalo. His darker skin tone, perfect facial features, he was more handsome than Arthur, had Darius' perfect symmetry, and Arthur's sculpted athletic body. He really looked like an animated Greek sculpture. I could empathize with poor Amalia and how difficult it was for her to be around him.
On the other hand, Gonzalo was really shorter. His five feet something didn't compare to Tomás's six feet something. Gonzalo had much more delicate proportions than Tomás, which made him seem more like a boy than a man. Both had wavy hair, but Tomás's was shorter and perfectly styled, while Gonzalo used to wear it casually and never seemed to comb it at all.
What stood out in Gonzalo was his scent and voice. Gonzalo had a much sweeter body odor, and his voice seemed to sing. Tomás' gaze was much more open and transmitted an evident warmth; he was much more charismatic, with nothing to hide. Gonzalo, on the other hand, conveyed an aura of mystery, absorbed in his thoughts, always seemed to be working on something, calculating, imagining.
"Barbie, wake up! Stop staring at my butt!" Tomás joked while showing me a purple polo he had found.
"Ой лишенько! How embarrassing." I thought at that moment. "Yes, yes, it looks fantastic on you, Tomás. Are you ready?" I finally asked.
"Affirmative, dear Barbie!" He smiled.
We went to the checkout and left. It was already very late, and the saleswoman immediately sighed, looking at Tomás smiling, and closed the store. After a silence, walking this time towards the cave, Tomás asked.
"Do guys look at you like girls look at me?"
I smiled and answered, "All the time. It's fun sometimes, boosts self-esteem, but then it's difficult to know if someone appreciates you for who you are or for how you look, you understand?"
"Yes. But I'm sure you see beyond, right?"
I affirmed positively. Then I thought about the way Tomás observed me. Most human and vampire men looked at me with burning desire, just as women looked at him. "Goodness!" I found myself unintentionally smiling at him, and Amalia adores him. Gonzalo himself needed tremendous willpower to resist me, I could feel it, but my appearance seemed to have no great effects on him, outside of aesthetic and artistic appreciation.
While Tomás spoke about how he would have loved to be a clothing designer and his idea of opening a tailor shop for both men and women, I couldn't help but ask him, needing to know why he didn't look at me the way Gonzalo did:
"Why don't you want Amalia? She loves you."
He smiled and simply replied, "Because she doesn't attract me. I only see her as a friend, like a sister."
I sighed, looking into his eyes, and insisted again, "Why? Why can't you see me the way Gonzalo saw me?"
Tomás paused, looking uncomfortable, and gazed towards the horizon. He smiled and began to speak.
"Look, Barbie. I can't see you that way, or any woman. I'm not attracted to girls, do you understand?"
Stunned, everything suddenly made sense. Tomás talked about the fight with his father when he was human and how things improved when, as a vampire, he was saved by Amalia after escaping to the desert for not being accepted. Surely, his father thought they were together, and Tomás decided to go along with it.
It was hard for me to understand, as I had Orthodox Christian values ingrained in my brain by my parents, but "who am I to judge, having been a murderer for centuries?"
Finally, Tomás confessed before continuing our journey, "I'm not looking for anyone, I'm comfortable with you guys. Amalia knows this and has accepted it."
The fight Tomás had with his father made him reflect on the life of excess that he and Nacho had led. His father linked this lifestyle to Tomás's sexual orientation after the latter confessed it to his family.
Frustrated and feeling misunderstood, Tomás escaped to the desert and got lost. Almost dehydrated and dying, he stumbled upon a vampire, who was feeding on a miner. It was there that Tomás feared for his life and was finally rescued by Amalia, who, amazed by his appearance and desiring reinforcement to protect the town from the vampires beginning to encroach on the outskirts, decided to turn him.
"After spending more time alone in the desert, I understood that my father was only concerned about my lifestyle. I went from one adventure to another, delved into alcohol and drugs, but Amalia taught me the value of moderation, and without the privileges I had as a human, I understood that sometimes it's better to have a good friend than a thousand fleeting loves," Tomás concluded his story, finally.
When Nacho was turned after Tomás, he didn't take things very well since he had lost his cousin and party buddy. Nacho was a committed womanizer and wasn't going to give up his human life so easily.
"Nacho had a much stronger character, honed by how difficult his childhood had been. My dad, Pablo, had two siblings, Clara, Gonzalo's mother, and Jose, Nacho's father. My uncle Jose was an alcoholic and was violent towards Nacho and his mother. Things were very tense between my uncle Jose and the rest of us, until he finally died in a car accident, while driving his truck drunk, during his working hours. Nacho was still very young, and his mother, Aunt Rosa, left him in the care of my grandparents; she never saw her son again. Me, Gonzalo and my sister Sofia, avoid talking about my uncles, that's why nobody outside the family talks about them. My father saw in me and Nacho my uncle Jose, his brother."
Nacho mainly worked as a mechanic, and when Tomás wasn't helping in the mine, he spent the rest of his days fishing or diving. I felt flattered to finally get to know the more intimate side of Tomás, his story, and his family.
Amalia warmly welcomed us and said that there had been no news. I sat on the mat she had set out, took my pencil, and by the light of the faint candle on the nearby rock, took notes about Tomás and his life. I felt happy to have been able to share more deeply in his family's story. However, I still had one thing to do—write down the memories of my experience with the Andean coven, the bloodthirsty vampire couple who, along with me, orchestrated the attack in Santa Maria, the town where Gonzalo, Nacho, and Tomás were born.