A warm summer breeze welcomed me as I pulled open the door and stepped outside, hurrying down the grass in bare feet, the twigs digging at my feet as I moved so the sun was in my views past the trees. I was pretty sure it was summer, by the way everything bloomed and it was heat, true heat. We had seasons back home, but they were only barely felt by the temperature changes.
The sun was a beacon of golden rays, glittering and contorting in my view as it passed the trees and became harder to look at straight at it rose, spreading light over everything. Golden and orange retreated away from the bright yellow ball, glowing and shimmering until it hung in the sky and began to rose where I couldn't see it move, setting light into the valley. I gazed at the dew drops sizzling away by the sun's heat, the valley casting it's shadow across the other side as sunlight gathered in, spilling into small cracks and warming everything.
I felt full.
I must've been squinting, because when I heard Lilac's voice behind me, she sounded amused. "Hard to look at, isn't it?" When I turned to her, she was smirking and holding out a pare of sandle in my direction, plain back but looked comfortable. I dusted off my feet and slid them on, before allowing her to bring me back into the house. The grin on my face made my cheeks heart and felt real.
"So she really hasn't seen the sun?" blondie, the guy, asked. He was sitting on the couch beside Emily, his arm around her shoulder with an easy grin on his cute face.
"Jake, what do you think?" Emily retorted, rolling her eyes but smiling brightly at me. "How was it?"
"Dazzling." I replied softly, feeling suddenly shy for no reason. Strangers. No one had ever been strangers to me, and this new experience was kind of humbling. I didn't know what they thought of me. I wasn't perfect like they all were, but then again I was human. I looked at my feet.
"No doubt. Others always say that." Randall said, sitting on a stool in the kitchen, eating a chocolate bar. I was confused, but then I remembered what Mom had told me in one of her stories. They eat human food, too, sometimes. If they're not hungry they can actually be normal, so they look so normal to people.
"Others?" I asked.
"Yeah, we-"
Lilac glared at him, sharing some secret that I didn't understand. He froze, then changed his words. "Yeah, the ones that came to be changed, y'know." He sounded a little nervous.
"Is he afraid of you?" I asked Lilac, serious, but Emily and Jake started laughing, bursting with it as Randall's face flared with anger. He flung the chocolate bar at them, but Jake caught it and his fingers dug into it, and he shoved the whole thing in his mouth with a childish grin like he was a cookie monster, devouring it. I would've thought he would choke, but he chewed and chewed until he just swallowed.
"Yeah, Terrin, he is. I'm scary." Lilac grinned at me. "So today.. We're taking you to do stuff. You might know stuff from your books, but you gotta live. Wanna listen to some music?" She asked.
"Music?" I had heard people play guitar and sing, but never the music that used to play in radios. I nodded wildly, and she chuckled, walking to a black round stereo and turning the dial up on the side. Smooth, clear music came through. "What is this?" I asked as she sort of dance-skipped her way back to me.
"Smooth Jazz. That's the clarinet.. All kinds of saxophones and instruments." I heard the instrument blare of a horn, but softer than people had played down in the tunnels. I found myself swaying as if in a trance, and almost broke out of it as I saw the brown-headed boy enter the room again. His eyes seemed to swallow me in one second, and I swallowed. Must be Luke. The one that I hadn't been introduced to. He looked from me to Lilac, both of us swaying about in a weird way to the music, and then looked away. I turned away, too, feeling weird about the way I felt like his eyes could absorb me into them, and I might never look away again. It was scary.
"We're gonna swim today, Terrin. It's time you learned. I forgot to ask.. How long are you staying?"
"Six weeks."
"That's so short when we have fun, though!"
She seemed so different from the Lilac I knew. The other Lilac had been sweet, but never fun. This place could change people, this world we were meant to live in. Music, culture, and art.. It could change you forever. I liked it.
"It's pretty long away from the family." I said softer. Lilac frowned but nodded, knowing that it would be hard for me. She just didn't fit there like I did. I had to get Mom back on track, and it required me returning human.
"Also pretty long for us to hold a human." I heard a voice say, like he was just adding to the conversation. Casual, not harsh. I looked at him, at Luke. His eyes were focused on mine, narrowed, as if he were irritated.
The music suddenly filled the silence as everyone looked at him. He stood up from the place he sat, walking away slowly and my eyes followed him, my mouth open slightly.
"I thought you said he knew I was coming." I said to Lilac.
"He did. He worries, that's all."
"About what?"
She looked at me for a minute, as if trying to decide whether to tell me. "Let's go for a walk."
I was all up for it, and I waved at the others as we left. "So what? Why am.. I know I'm human, but-"
"Just listen for a second, okay?" She waited, then began to speak again in a word overflow. "I didn't tell you immediately because I don't want you to worry, just know that. But there was someone here to visit him once, his sister. She stayed for awhile and didn't want to go back, but she wouldn't let anyone change her. He was sixteen. He still is, because.. We don't age. Some do, but we don't. So basically, she was fourteen. She got careless and let a vampire lure her in..."
"She died, didn't she?" I asked, my voice sounding super small. I watched my feet as we walked through the woods, the sunlight dazzling me still but I was calm as I listened, the breeze blowing my hair. I still felt crisp just by it, amazed by nature.
Lilac nodded slowly. "She almost didn't. Luke was about to kill the vampire when he had her by the throat, but she screamed at him to stop. She loved the vampire because of the spell on her. Luke couldn't help but pause- and the vampire tore out her neck." she finished quietly.
I felt pain in my own being for the feeling. I know what it felt like just to have Lilac leave. But watch your sister's own death?
"Anyway." Lilac said, clearly done with sadness. "Don't take it personal. He just thinks you might end up the same, and he doesn't like death, believe it or not. So. We need to teach you how to swim."
I cleared my mind, and followed her home.
...
I gazed at myself in the long mirror. I was clearly too skinny, but after fattening up for two days we were finally going swimming. I got to sleep in an actual bed.. It was heaven on Earth. Now I wore a bikini my sister called it. It navy blue with ruffles over the bodice and bottom, and reminded me a lot of the fancy bra and underwear. I felt sudden strange embarrassment. I'd never felt this before. I realized that I didn't have a super flat chest, but a couple more meals would definitely do me good. I looked fragile compared to my sister's figure, and I longed for it. Now that I could live, I had time for things like wanting that. But beside all that, the bikini didn't fall off, which was good. Besides the fact that I felt completely naked after wearing sweats and t-shirts all my life.
My sister brought me in her car, where I felt like I was dreaming. We drove to a pool that was completely empty, but clean and fresh. A sharp smell I knew was chlorine filtered into my nose. That was how they cleaned pools, according to my knowledge. She took my hand as the others followed in their bathing suits. I felt like a ghost compared to everyone else, with cream colored skin.
For a second, my eyes trailed over Luke. I hadn't thought he'd go swimming, but he was wearing just the swim shorts, and maybe not realizing it, but showing off the contours of his skin. He had a defined chest, complete six pack.
"Terrin?" I turned at Lilac's voice, biting back the feeling to blush. By the look she gave me, I shouldn't. I don't know why I did- I'm not a kind of girl that goes after guys, especially ones that hate me. "How do you feel?" Lilac asked as we stepped into the freezing water, but I was no stranger to cold.
"Terrified." I replied honestly.
"Good." she smiled.
I think it took four hours or so, but finally I could do it. I never got a break until I could doggy-paddle, and I finally understood the consept of moving your arms. Quick training and I could swim in the deep end. You probably assumed I already knew how to swim, but just because we bathed in rivers, doesn't mean they were deep rivers.
I heard another sly comment in a deep voice, and I turned my head. "This is dangerous." He had said.
"I think you need to cool it, Luke. Go with the flow." Emily said, and grinned as did something amazing to me. She grabbed his hand and literally flipped him over, dragged him an inch, and threw him into the pool.
I stared.
"Demon tricks." She said slyly, smirking as she jumped in after him, along with Jake. The three got into a splash-war, starting with Luke irritated but a slight smile reached him and it struck a chord with me. Why act so alone when he had friends like this? I never had friends. By then I was done, and Lilac could tell. Hungry. We all left, my hair dripping onto my towel as I was allowed to get into Lilac's car wet.
"Gosh, couldn't dry off a bit? Fine." She had said.
All and all, today was successful. Amazing. The first fun day in my life, like I was real. I wasn't just a shadow under the ground anymore.
I wished I could share it my family.
But as I lay in bed that night in a gown lend by my sister, I could think of only one thing.
The slight smile Luke had given at such a simple thing, and how much I envied him for being able to enjoy the simple things in life and yet barely showing it.