▲ My Vampire Best Friends ▲

Chapter Six: Lucky Bitches!

My Silvia was dead. She wouldn't wake up. But then... Her brown eyes snapped open, all swirled with chocolate. She looked up at me and grinned.

"I smell blood."

  "What?" I whispered.

  Silvia moved to sit into a sitting position. Her nose was high. She wrinkled it into the air.

  "Don't you smell that?"

  "Smell what?" I asked. "Silvia, you're not making any sense. You were dead. We were dead."

  Silvia's lips curved in her old smile, which felt so strange in this situation. "Yes, and you saved me, June. I'm so proud of you. Good job."

  "Were you... Already awake?" I asked.

  "A little," Silvia said. "But you wanted to save me, didn't you? It was cute. Good job, June."

  I stared at her for a long, empty moment. "We have to go to the cops," I finally said.

"Are you crazy?" Silvia murmured. Her voice was low and sulky and cool. "That vampire was a cop. Didn't you see him?"

  "But they're dangerous," I whimpered, and she put her arms around me. Her skin was still ridged and grooved with ugly, patterned bitemarks.

Our phones were gone. So were our purses. So was my car.

  "How can we not call the cops?" I asked.

  "No, we can't," Silvia said. "Trust me. Not yet."

  "Don't try to take control when I was the one in control last night," I whispered. "You were out of your mind."

  Silvia laughed, very softly. "I was? Is that why we woke up today in body bags?"

  "You can't blame that on me," I said, lurching back.

  "Whose idea was it to drive drunk?"

  "I was just trying to protect you," I murmured.

  Silvia smiled, revealing cool white fangs. "And you did a hell of a job."

  I jumped back, tears filling my eyes. Around us, even the grass seemed to stand on end. I couldn't think. I couldn't breathe.

  "What the fuck are those?" I yelled to her teeth.

  "Fangs." Silvia clicked them with one finger. "I think that they killed me first. I woke up way before you, but had no desire to go anywhere."

"You wanted to keep drowning?" I asked.

  "We can't drown, we're dead," Silvia murmured. "Anyways, yes... I had a lot to think about down there."

  "It's not my fault," I wailed.

  That's when somebody walked by, walking their dog through the early morning brightness, looking at the early beauty of the river. That's when the trouble started. We turned to see an old man, leaning over his dog. He had a soupstrainer mustache and slacks. As he walked closer, he turned to us and his eyes bolstered open.

"Very funny," the old man laughed at us, after a moment. "It's July. But Happy Halloween, girls-"

"Oh man," Silvia whispered. Then her fangs popped out.

I screamed. I launched backwards, away from my best friend. I stared at Silvia- my glasses-clad, round-faced friend, whose dress was once white and so conservative, she had practically been a nun in it. Her fangs were already out, and she was watching the old man, drooling with an open mouth.

Silvia had been driving before. The vampires grabbed her before. She was the first one they attacked...

The old man hooted, and clapped at us. Like he thought that we were still joking.

But Silvia's round body was trembling so hard... Greenish blue veins trembled near her eyes. Her whole face turned red, like she herself was about to pop. Fangs. And she had the biggest fangs I'd ever seen. Like an animal's.

I froze, stunned. I just stood there, frozen, cradling my beaded necklace in my hands.

"Silvia!" I yelped out, finally. "Bathroom! Now!"

With that, Silvia snapped back to reality. I launched onto my friend, dragging her to the side of the little park. We entered the tiny, Family Style bathroom, and I dragged the lock shut behind us.

It was a gross facility. Since it was right on the side of the river, it was only for old people who got the runs every ten minutes. It was dirty, and scummy, and disgusting, like it was home to cockroaches.

Silvia sat down on the toilet. Panting, panting, and shoving her hands into her mouth. Truth be told, when I saw the new fangs, glistening in her teeth, I didn't believe it.

"Oh God," I cried out. "This is a dream. We're all dreaming."

Silvia shook her head, wordlessly. Her limbs all shivered.

"Maybe your fangs are fake," I said, kneeling down to look into Silvia's mouth. "No, wait. They look real."

I touched Silvia's tooth with the tip of her finger. With that, I shivered. At the tiniest poke, my fingers began streaming with blood.

"Did the strangers really attack us?" I whimpered.

"Yes. And they bit us," said Silvia.

"Oh God..." I said.

"Come on, June," said Silvia. "Be logical. It doesn't matter what happened. What's done is done and here we are now."

"That's right," I said, my ever-calm voice threatening to betray itself. "So let's call the cops on them."

"Why would we call the cops if we're vampires?" Silvia giggled, laughing hysterically. "They can't change that!"

Silvia ran to the bathroom sink, to stare at her fangs in the mirror. Then she ran back to the toilet, dropped her head into the seat, and vomited.