One Vampire's Journey

Chapter 14: The Offer

"Iris," I said, "you're not making any sense."

"Violet, or Emma," she said spitting my aliases. "Whoever you are... whatever you are," she stammered. "You are not my aunt."

"Iris, clearly I'm alive," I told her sidestepping her accusations and making a futile attempt to calm her down and lower her gun. "Whatever Rosemary showed you..."

"DON'T SAY HER NAME!" She screamed.

"Iris, please calm down." I said keeping my voice steady and calm. I was afraid of unwanted attention. "I can explain everything."

"Start with your name." The gun didn't falter.

"I changed it to Emma Cross, but I used to be Violet Emilia Duncan." I said slowly, "My middle name was given to me for my Grandmother."

"Are you really my aunt?"

I nodded saying nothing. Never once did I take my eyes off her weapon.

"Who's buried in the grave with your name on it?"

"No one." I swallowed hard looking down the gun's barrel.

Iris smirked, "My mother told me everything." She pulled back the hammer on her pistol. "Violet died of Diphtheria thirty years ago. My mother tossed a yellow rose into the casket. My father proposed at the funeral."

My face fell as realization overtook me. "Rose...Rosemary threw the yellow rose?" I asked carefully, "the one with the yellow ribbon?"

Iris assumed I was trying to distract her, "Does it matter?" She squinted at me, her voice still angry but beginning to waver. She seemed more confused than anything. "Tell me the truth."

"It matters to me." I turned from where I was standing and headed towards the door.

"I will shoot you." She said.

I turned back to face her, pressing my chest against the barrel of her pistol. "I doubt it. If you do you'll never know the truth about me." I exited the room and went to my room where I got my journal. The journal was a soft pale yellow colour and it held flower petals and ribbons glued in its pages along with the names of people who were at my funeral. While I slept William collected them for me so that I could save them as a keepsake. I had identified nearly all of the pieces and who they were from. There were love notes from several gentlemen once interested in courting me, a very long letter from my mother and various flowers and well wishes. There was only one note I couldn't identify. A single card tied to a yellow rose with a matching ribbon. I grabbed the journal and headed back. Iris was surprised that I had come back into the room.

"Look," I opened the journal and pointed at the card.

"I'm not sorry you're dead." She read aloud.

"Your mother wrote that and tossed it into my grave."

"So it was your grave!"

"Yes, Iris. It was my grave." I sighed. Clearly she was missing the point of why I had gotten the journal in the first place. Rosemary hated me so much that she wasn't sorry that I had died. And even in death she couldn't come up with anything nice to say about me. "Do you remember I told you I would tell you the secret of eternal youth?"

"Yes..." she said nervously.

"Well if you put the weapon away, I'll share it with you." I closed the journal again and held it close to my chest, "I'll tell you everything you want to know."

Iris thought about it for a moment before lowering the gun. I let out a sigh of relief I didn't even realize I was holding.

"Thank you."

"I still might shoot you." She warned.

"Fair enough." I sat on the bed with the journal in my lap crossing my ankles femininely. "Anything you'd like to know before I begin?"

She thought for a moment. "I'll save my questions for the end, thank you." She sat down on a chair nearby still holding onto the handgun.

"If you insist." I sighed and dove into my tale. I regaled Iris of my entire story just as Bastian had done so many years ago. I told her about how her mother and I had fought endlessly over boys, our parents' love and often for no reason other than to fight. Several times it came to blows and scratches and hair pulling were involved. I told her about the diphtheria and how it made my parents wait on me hand and foot and Rosemary's jealousy and the spike driven even further between us. I told her about William, I called him my guardian angel, who found me after my family had buried me alive after I had passed out from the fever. There was a lot of bad blood between us and I chose not to go home and instead I decided to set out and find my own fortune. Most of it was made up and as much as I wanted to share with her the truth I wasn't sure she could handle it. She had listened patiently for the entire story. We sat in silence for some time before she spoke again.

"So are you dead or not?" I wanted so badly to tell her the truth. To bring her into the fold and adopt her as my own but it was better this way.

"Not." I told her. "It was a misunderstanding and I'd rather not tell your mother that I'm alive." I held out the journal to her, "especially after what she said about me."

Iris thought for a moment then she took her hand off the revolver.

Suddenly a pain came over me, a pounding in my head like I had never felt before. It sounded like a hornet's nest had been released into my ear and they were trying to fight their ways out in whatever way possible. My heart pounded in my chest and my palms got sweaty. I felt as if I was going to explode, but instead I threw up on the floor. Then came the whispers. Iris was trying to talk to me, but as much as I could see her mouth moving her words weren't making it to my ears. I collapsed on the floor holding my head. The whispers were indistinguishable from each other.

"Tell her the truth," was the only thing the whispers seemed to be saying, but I couldn't tell where they were coming from. The hissing was too much for me. And I screamed loudly causing Iris to take a step back and collect herself. And as quickly as they had come, the whispers were gone.

The silence overtook the room. I released my head and looked at her, tears streaming down my face leaving red streaks in their wake.

"Are you alright?" Iris asked.

"I think so." I sat up and rubbed my head and wiped my mouth. I had thrown up on the floor and sadly Iris would be cleaning it up.

Bastian burst in, ready to fight whoever had made me scream. "What's wrong?" he said seeing me sitting on the floor in the pool of my own vomit.

"Nothing." I said simply, trying to stand up.

"Aunt Violet told me everything." Iris announced.

"Everything?" Bastian looked at me quizzically. My eyes widened, but he didn't notice anything except Iris nodding emphatically.

"I know all about her now!" She said enthused.

"So will we be adding another Vampire to the family then?" Bastian asked gleefully. "You'll be joining us I presume." He took her hands.

"Vampire?" Iris asked backing up and pulling away, "what do you mean vampire?"

"I didn't exactly tell her everything." I sighed.

"You're a vampire?" She asked looking at me.

I sighed both sad that my secret was blown and happy that the air was clear. "Yes." I told her. "Would you like to be one?"