I'll be busy all day tomorrow, folks, so Happy Halloween in advance!
Chapter 2
Lynn couldn't help but fidget in his place as he sat at the dinner table with his not-quite-girlfriend and her father, rolling a meatball back and forth across his plate of spaghetti. He'd heard from his friends that everyone had the jitters the first time they met their significant other's family, but that didn't help at all. The fact that, as a Hunter like his own father, Albert kept easy access to a crossbow loaded with silver stakes intimidated him greatly.
"Why so tense, kid? You look like you could jump through the ceiling any second," Albert noted. "If you're worried that I'm gonna kill you if I don't like you, don't be. If I put a stake through your heart, your old man would skin me alive! He speaks very highly of you, you know."
"H-he does?" Lynn stammered.
"Oh, yeah, it's always 'look what Lynn made me for Father's Day,' and 'the world would be better if all boys were like Lynn.' He makes the rest of us with kids feel bad, but he means well."
"R-Really? I never knew. He's always been kinda strict at home, always pushing me to do my very best no matter what it is that I'm doing," Lynn confessed, starting to ease up a little. They finished Albert's spaghetti and meatballs (Lynn was going to bring garlic bread until he remembered that Rita claimed to hate the taste of garlic) and moved on to Lynn's dessert, a moist Devil's Food cake with Creme de Menthe buttercream frosting. He packed similar treats in the form of cupcakes in his lunches in high school, and they became Rita's favorite dessert after he shared one with her.
"This is really good, boy! One thing's for dang certain; if you and Rita end up together, she's definitely not gonna starve!" Albert praised Lynn's cooking.
"T-thank you, sir," Lynn said humbly. The night ended on a good note, and Rita gave Lynn a peck on the cheek as she showed him to the door.
"Well? What did you think?" she asked her father when she returned to the living room. Albert smiled proudly.
"Lynn's a good kid. The choice is up to you, sweetheart," he said.
...
The next step Lynn and Rita had to take, now that they were an official couple, was for Rita to meet Lynn's family. Unlike her father, they wouldn't be empathetic toward someone from a vampiric background, so she needed to be extra careful not to reveal her true identity.
On the day she and Lynn agreed that she could come to his house for dinner, she started to dress in her usual long, dark dress with long sleeves, then stopped as something crossed her mind. Using the full-body mirror in her bedroom, she covered the Vampire Sigil on the back of her left shoulder with makeup for good measure before finishing getting dressed.
Something tickled the back of her mind, like she was forgetting something important, but she brushed it off as nerves and walked out to the front of the house, where Lynn's car sat idling in the driveway. Lynn was leaning against it, wearing jeans, a light-gray sweater with a red snowflake on the front, and a navy-blue sport coat as his breath plumed in the cold mid-December air. As soon as Rita closed the front door behind her, he walked around the front of the car and opened the passenger's door for her.
"Aww, such a gentleman!" she praised as she slid into the seat. Lynn backed the car out of the driveway and began the short drive to his parents' house. Rita gazed out the window with wonder; the sun had long set by that point, and the light of the full moon made the new-fallen snow glitter like diamonds. Combine that with the city's festive Christmas decorations on the streetlights, office buildings, and several houses, and it became a very beautiful sight.
"Beautiful, isn't it?" Lynn asked from beside her.
"Yes, it is," Rita admitted. "I...I think Christmas is my favorite time of the year," she said honestly.
"Mine, too. The crisp, cold air; the wonderful smells of all the delicious food; everyone so happy and smiling," said Lynn. They soon pulled up to his house. "Welp, here we are! Welcome to Casa Loud!" Lynn's father, Leonard Loud, was very wealthy from seizing the possessions of the vampires he killed, so Lynn lived in a grand three-story mansion that was just as festively decorated as the rest of the city. They stepped inside, and Lynn helped Rita out of her black Russian-style fur coat and matching hat, hanging them up with his family's coats on a line of pegs on the wall. This left her in a black-and-pink dress that somewhat resembled an evening gown.
"Ah, there you are, Lynn! And you must be the young lady who stole my son's heart," said a voice from the living room. Both young adults looked to see Lynn's father, a grizzled, wind-burned man with salt-and-pepper hair, a mustache just like Albert's, and a short scruffy beard. He wore a white dress shirt with the very top unbuttoned tucked into black slacks with black loafers and black suspenders. "I'm Leonard, his father," he introduced himself and held out his hand, smiling warmly.
"Rita Reeds. Nice to meet you, sir," Rita replied and shook his hand, returning the smile.
"The wife just finished cooking, so follow me to the dining room," Leonard said and gestured for both teens to follow him. The dining room had a blazing fireplace, multiple hunting trophies (thankfully, nothing as exotic as mounted vampire heads or the like), and warm wood paneling that was balanced by cool beige paint. A twelve-year-old girl with long black hair, fair skin, and a festive dress with red-and-white stripes was busy setting the ornately hand-carved wooden table, and a brown-haired woman placed steaming platters of food on heating pads dispersed across the tabletop. The girl looked up and waved.
"Hi, Lynn!" She then gasped. "Is this your girlfriend?" she asked with stars in her eyes. Lynn chuckled.
"Yup, this is Rita. Rita, meet my baby sister Shirley," he said, introducing the girl.
"You're so pretty..." Shirley said with a look of adoration.
"Aww, thank you, Shirley! You're very pretty yourself!" Rita returned the compliment, making Shirley giggle and blush.
"Typical boys. They introduce their father and sister before their own dear, sweet mother," the brown-haired woman teasingly scolded with her hands on her hips.
"Don't worry, Ma, I was saving the best for last!" Lynn defended himself.
"I would hope so," the woman said, walking around the table to confront the couple. "I'm Linda Loud, Lynn's mother. It's wonderful to finally meet you after hearing so much about you from Lynn," she introduced herself just as warmly as her husband had, clasping Rita's hand in her own.
"It's wonderful to meet all of you, too," Rita said. She was gradually allowing herself to relax; Leonard was certainly a little gruff, but all things considered, Lynn's family was very kind and welcoming. The five of them sat down to eat, with Lynn pushing in Rita's chair. The meal consisted of juicy prime rib; fluffy, buttery mashed potatoes; corn pudding; and steamed green beans with mulled cider to drink. They all engaged in conversation between bites of food, and Rita learned a great many things about her hosts. The same was true of the opposite, although Rita lied and said her father had found her lying in a box in the gutter as an infant and raised her from there.
During the delicious meal, Rita's stomach flopped, and she realized with a jolt what she had forgotten before leaving the house: she had forgotten to drink blood! If a vampire went without blood for too long, bad things happened to them, starting with withdrawal symptoms. The nausea and muscle cramps led to full-body seizures and fading strength. If symptoms were allowed to persist, the individual turned into a shriveled husk in a matter of hours and died.
Rita's arms and legs were starting to hurt, and she was starting to feel queasy. Her stomach grumbled loudly, and conversation immediately froze.
"Are you okay, dear? You look a little green around the gills," Linda asked. Rita figured that if she could just slip outside, she might be able to slake her thirst with a squirrel or two.
"I'm fine, Ma'am, it's just that this food is a lot richer than I'm used to. Will you excuse me for a moment?" Rita asked. She tried to stand up and leave the table, but her headache spiked and she collapsed. One look at her hands confirmed her fears; her muscles were already starting to atrophy, and she was too weak to move.
"RITA! Are you okay?" Lynn cried out, rushing to her side. Was it just him, or was the skin on her face starting to sag? Wait...it WAS starting to sag! Rita looked up at him from where she lay on the floor and opened her mouth wide so that her fangs were clearly visible. Up until that point, she had barely opened her mouth when she spoke, and she smiled but never grinned.
"B-blood...I need blood..." she whispered with tears in her eyes. Still reeling from the fact that his girlfriend was a vampire, it only took a moment for Lynn to make up his mind. Screw everything his father had told him; Rita was absolutely the furthest thing from a monster! Grabbing the steak knife off of Rita's plate, Lynn gritted his teeth before slashing open the palm of his hand.
Seeing what he was doing, Rita once more opened her mouth wide, and Lynn clenched his fist around the cut, forcing the blood to drip into Rita's mouth. After swallowing the first few drops and recovering somewhat, Rita grabbed Lynn's hand and licked the blood from his fingers and the slit on his palm with her long, pointed tongue. Pressing her lips to the wound, she coaxed just a little more blood into her mouth before swallowing and sighing in relief as she slumped back to the floor.
"Lynn, step away from her." Lynn turned around and saw his father standing over them, a scowl on his face and a silver stake clenched in his fist. Seeing that Rita was still recovering from her blood withdrawal, Lynn stood and faced his father like a man.
"No." Lynn had never once disobeyed his father like that before, and the experience was exhilarating!
"What part of 'move' do you not understand, boy? She's a vampire! She could kill all of us in a heartbeat if she had the chance!"
"No, Dad! I won't let you hurt her! Vampire or not, she's the woman I love!" Lynn yelled. "If she wanted to hurt any of us, she would have done so long before now!" Seeing that Lynn wouldn't back down, Leonard let out a loud growl and slammed the stake point-down into the table, straight through the remains of Rita's meal.
"Fine! If that's the way it's gonna be, then you're no longer my son! Pick her up, and get out of my house!" he roared.
With Rita in his arms, Lynn walked up the stairs to his bedroom (a task made more difficult by Shirley clutching his ankle and begging him not to leave) and shoved as many articles of clothing as he could grab into a large duffel bag. By that time, Rita had recovered enough to walk on her own, and they went back to Lynn's car together.
"I'm so sorry you had to find out like this, Lynn. I swear, I was going to tell you eventually!" Rita said tearfully as they drove off.
"I'm not angry with you, Rita. I don't even mind the fact that you're a vampire. I just wish my dad would look past your heritage and see you for the person you are now," said Lynn. "What we need to do now is talk to your dad and think of a plan. We should probably leave town before my dad gathers a posse and has you killed." They drove the rest of the way back to Rita's house in silence and explained everything to Albert. The response they got from him wasn't what they expected.
"I had a feeling that something like this might happen eventually, so I had a plan in place in case we ever had to skip town ourselves," Albert said, handing Lynn a slip of paper, a tarnished brass skeleton key, and a wad of money. Lynn and Rita looked at what was written on the paper:
1216 Franklin Avenue
Royal Woods, Michigan
"That's the address of a safe house I bought while Rita was in grade school, and the key opens the front door," Albert explained. "Royal Woods is over five hundred miles from here, so that should be enough cash for food and gas. I'll meet you there as soon as I get some affairs in order. In the meantime, you kids get some sleep tonight. You can head off in the morning." After draining the blood from a plump white rabbit she'd taken from a cage in the basement, Rita joined Lynn in her bedroom, and the two fell asleep in each other's embrace.
