The Lost Girls (Chris Cerulli Vampire Story)

Chapter 18

The next night I snuck out as soon as my dad left for his date since my grandmother was still at bingo. As pointless as it seemed, I made sure to grab my pepper spray and a pocket knife before leaving. I tried to ignore the concerned expression on Haylee's face as I rode down the driveway, I had a feeling that she knew exactly where I was going. I didn't bother trying to look for Chris at the abandoned bar, instead, I went straight for the house he hid in. I shut off my bike right before I reached the subdivision, so I wouldn't draw any attention to myself. I slowly made my way to that darkened house, wondering how he would react to me searching him out.

"Chris?" I called out as soon as I brought my motorcycle inside and shut the door behind me.

A soft breeze fluttered through my hair and then suddenly I was shoved up against the wall by my shoulders.

"What the fuck are you doing here?" Chris hissed as he glared down at me.

My heart was pounding in my ears over his sudden appearance in front of me and I was at a loss for words for a moment. When I found my voice, it came out small, "I'm here to help you."

A puzzled look took over his features, "How?"

"I've been doing some digging and I had a conversation with Dawn yesterday that made me think that you were telling me the truth. That you've never hurt anyone."

His grip on me relaxed slightly, "What did she tell you?"

"It wasn't just her, I talked to Angelo too. They made it very clear that you never hurt Carly and if anything you're more of a danger to yourself."

He appeared to only become more confused at that. "What makes you say that?"

"Dawn told me that you've never drunk blood before, that you are starving yourself and that you might die soon."

He let me go at that and turned away from me muttering, "And that's exactly what I want."

"To die?" I asked, fear obvious in my tone.

"It would be the best thing for everyone else."

"And who is that? How would you dying benefit anyone?"

He turned back around to face me, "When I'm gone, my family will finally be safe. I won't have to trick anyone else into being those girl's victims."

Now I was the confused one. "What do you mean you have to?"

Chris sighed deeply before asking his own question, "Do you want to come upstairs and sit down? This might take a minute to explain."

I nodded and he gestured for me to follow him to his room. We sat down on his bed like last time, but this time he left some space between us. I gazed around at the shadows that were cast around his bedroom, thinking about how it was now clear to me that he must really miss his old life to go to all this trouble to simply have a room of his own.

"So, I'm guessing that Angelo told you about what happened between Danielle, Carly, and me; right?"

"He said that Danielle was basically obsessed with you and that Carly met you through her. Danielle apparently couldn't stand you two being together and you got in an argument with her. He told me that she wanted you all to go camping together as a way to apologize."

Chris nodded along as I spoke before saying, "Okay, so since I couldn't go with them that night because of Angelo's then-girlfriend being a bitch, I was told just to meet up with them later. I got a text from Carly telling me to meet them at the park entrance and when I got there only Danielle and Payton were waiting for me. They told me that she was back at the tent to make sure that a bear wouldn't raid them while they went to get me. I had noticed that they seemed like they were almost too happy. It was clear that they were up to something, but I just didn't expect it to be what it actually was."

Chris paused for a minute, and from the expression on his face, he seemed to be recalling what he had seen that day. His golden-brown eyes were haunted.

He cleared his throat before continuing, "It was like something out of a bad horror movie. She was just laying there, her empty hazel eyes staring right through me and there was so much blood. To this day, I'm certain that they didn't even drink from her. It appeared that they had torn her apart just because they could. I had thought she had been attacked by a bear and I started panicking as I rushed over to her, begging her to wake up. As I clutched Carly's blood-soaked form to me, Danielle then decided to show me what she really was."

"Which was?"

"Believe me when I tell you that the true appearance of a vampire is not a pretty one. To this day, she's the scariest one I've ever seen."

"What did she look like?"

"Her face was more animal than human and her teeth sat in such a way that it made it look like she was constantly snarling. Her eyes had turned this sickly yellow color that was rimmed with red. She truly looked like a demon. She started threatening me after that, saying that if I didn't do what she told me that she would kill me and my family. I was so frightened and confused that I just nodded. She handed me that fucking wine bottle and told me to drink.

"Once I had done just as she had instructed, she yanked the bottle out of my hand and then suddenly disappeared. I called my mom, trying to tell her everything that had happened, including the part with Danielle. Of course, she had thought that I was just hysterical over finding my girlfriend's body the way I did. It wasn't long after that I started feeling the burning in my throat and experiencing an unexplainable sensitivity to the sun. Danielle caught me after one of the few shows I had gotten to do with my band and she told me exactly what I was. I didn't believe her for so long until I had walked past one of our neighbor's kids, she had scraped her knee while learning how to ride her bike and I was so drawn to her blood that I knew that I couldn't deny Danielle's words any longer.

"I was determined to find her, to force her to make me normal again. She trapped me though, she told me that if I didn't stay to be a part of the clan she had built she would kill my family the same way she had Carly. She held that over my head, so I would basically be the bait for their victims. When she figured out that I had refused to ever feed, she told me the only good thing I had heard in nearly a year. If I didn't drink any blood I would eventually waste away and die. So that's what I intend to do. I don't want to be this monster anymore."

Tears swiftly dampened my eyes as I listened to his story. "I... I'm so sorry. I had no idea that she would do something so horrible to you."

Chris slid closer, wrapping his arms around me. "It's not your fault. I get why you didn't trust me at first."

I leaned against him as I rested my head on his shoulder, quietly confessing, "But I don't want you to die. Isn't there some way we can change back?"

"There has to be, but I'm not sure I'll even last long enough to try to find that out. I'm already so weak as it is."

"What if I could fix that?"

I felt him tense next to me and cautiously ask, "How do you intend to do that?"

I gulped slightly, "Well, I'm not fully human or vampire, so you could drink my blood and it won't have any negative effect on you."

I warily met his gaze, finding him giving me an incredulous look. "Where did you get an idea like that?"

"I know these two girls that are pretty obsessed with vampires, they were even the ones to point out that you were to me before I had figured it out myself."

"Are you talking about the girls Haylee is friends with?"

"Yeah, it surprised me too."

"But how can we know for sure that this won't fully make me into a vampire?"

"Even if it does, I promise you that I'll find a way to make you human again," I tell him, trying my hardest to be reassuring. 

He gave me a leery look before softly saying, "Okay."

I held my wrist out to him murmuring, "I'm all yours."