Nasferas: The Begotten

2

"Race you to the house."

"As if. I'm wearing pumps, dickweed."

"Guess you're gonna lose." He tightened his grip on the straps of his backpack and trotted up the dirt driveway, making an awful sound. Katelyn thought the feeble attempt to mimic a motorcycle sounded more like a long fart.

So immature.

Their two-story Victorian-style house looked like a renovated old church. She swore it was, but her dad wouldn't come clean and she kept forgetting to ask the kids at school. She and Matt had spent the past few weeks helping their mother paint the outside of the house. Her mom insisted on keeping the house white but went with a chartreuse trim. Katelyn gagged every time she looked at it, so she tried not to.

The sun peeked through dark clouds and for a moment, a halo of light surrounded the house.

"A church. I knew it," she said under her breath. Then she stepped through the ripped screen door leading to the kitchen.

She draped her leather coat over a chair at the table and rummaged through the cabinets for an after-school snack.

Matt had claimed the TV in the living room adjacent to the kitchen. A small breakfast bar separated the two rooms. He tapped incessantly at some first-person shooter game on his PS4. The game machine had proven an effective bribe to lure him away from his friends in Seattle. Katelyn had folded at the excited glint in her daddy's eye having found a new job.

"Suck on that, ass hat," Matt said.

"What happened to, 'I'm never cursing again'?'" Katelyn had two Oreos in her mouth. She took a swig of milk.

"Not talking to you! Bring me some cookies," he demanded.

Katelyn rolled her eyes, gave in, and threw him a couple. He caught both cookies in one hand.

"You're welcome."

He mumbled and went back to his game.

Her cell phone went off, sending a buzzing sensation through her right thigh. She fished it out of the front pocket of her jeans. The phone showed Nancy from school.

Katelyn answered."Hey."

"Kitty Kat," the voluptuous redhead on the other side of the line said. Her high-pitched voice sounded like a bad Kardashian impression, which annoyed Katelyn. Besides, she hated the new nickname.

"Ughh ... Nancy. Stop calling me that."

"It's your new name. Wear it like a man." Nancy giggled.

"Don't worry about it."

"Anyway, Kitty Kat. A group of us are going to Jason's dad's huntin' cabin this weekend. Wanna come?"

"Maybe."

"Brett's coming," she sang a little out of tune.

Being in a cabin with Brett didn't scare Katelyn. The fact that Nancy and Jason would be there as well unnerved her. Nancy had been out of town the weekend Jason took Katelyn to the movies. He'd put his hand on her knee and tried to kiss her but she nipped that in the bud by quickly turning her head in the other direction. If he had hit, he would have kissed her somewhere near the left temple. He'd wisely taken the hint and veered away at the last second.

On her date with Brett, she'd gone a little further. They'd spent the day at a local park. He pushed her on the swings and they'd shared a large fry and drank milkshakes. His kiss had been soft and polite with a hint of a chocolate shake, which she'd enjoyed immensely. Having had intimate experiences with both boys, the thought of having them in the same cabin made her insides ache. Sooner or later, Nancy would find out about the dates.

"Well?" Nancy asked.

Katelyn thought she heard a foot tapping on the floor.

"Sounds fun." She lied and rolled her eyes.

"Cool. We're motoring after school. Your parents give you any shit, tell 'em you're staying with me at my Aunt Ingra's. She's cool."

"Gotcha." Her parents wouldn't care because her mother was a bit of a hippie and believed in expressing yourself freely, especially when the human body and lovemaking were involved. The day Katelyn started her period her mother taught her everything about sex ... safety first and all that. Though she did think of herself as somewhat of a prude. She hadn't fallen in love, so she hadn't gone all the way--yet.

Matt had different views. He'd taken up with a couple of religious kids at the high school and had gone to church with them a few times.

Katelyn could care less about religion.

When the cute guys with white shirts and ties came over, she always made sure she was busy. She'd heard a few things during Matt's lessons with the clean-cut boys, their name tags neatly clipped to their shirts. "Matt's going through a phase," her mother had said.

A few minutes after the family sat down for dinner, Katelyn announced the weekend plans to her parents. Her dad shrugged and turned on the Monday Night Football game. Her mom asked her how cute the boys were and if she liked any of them. Matt acted disinterested and retreated to his room.

Katelyn told her mom all about the boys and promised she would be safe if anything happened. The women hugged and Katelyn loped up the stairs to her room. 

She flopped onto the bed and whipped open her laptop. In a blink, she tweeted, stating she hated her new house and the school but the kids weren't bad. Then she Facebooked a couple of her friends in Seattle, who 'LOL'd' her but didn't have much else to say. Katelyn closed her eyes and dreamed of football players and wrestlers.

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