My mind had shut down; becoming a jumbled mess of random thoughts and half memories, yet my training persisted. I’d made this trip a hundred times in my year and a half in Pelion, my mother saw to that, and my legs were now running, moving me through the unyielding black of the woods without my telling them to.
It wasn’t until I reached the clearing that my brain reloaded, focusing long enough to give me control of my own body. This clearing was my destination, where my mother would be waiting with a stopwatch and a frown. It was never fast enough, no matter how fast I ran.
I looked for her, not truly expecting to see her, but hoping just the same. Reality sunk in. I broke down, crouching in the tall grass as images of my mother flashed in my head. The pain was agonizing, as if my insides were on fire, my nerves scorched by the flames, the smoke choking my lungs so that I couldn’t breathe. I laid out in the grass and ignored my mother’s screaming voice in my head, the voice that told me to keep going…
Did I want to? Did I deserve to? I blocked out my mother’s voice—I blocked out the thoughts of her altogether. She was dead because of me; because she was trying to protect me—me, who had hated her for It. I closed my eyes and wished for the monster’s return. That it would come to reunite me with her, with my dad…
Suddenly, the insides of my eyelids became bright red and when I opened my eyes there was light against my face, disappearing for brief moments, but always finding it again. It was a flashlight, its owner a bushy brown-haired boy no older than ten or eleven.
“H-hello? Are you okay?” he asked as he approached. His eyes scanned the woods behind me.
“Who are you?” I asked. There was no indication that he was anything like my mother’s killer, but I wasn’t taking any chances.
He didn’t answer, instead he just stared. “Your eyes…you’re—Can you walk?”
Quickly, I got to my feet and took up a fighting stance. “Who are you? I won’t ask again.”
The boy backed away from me. “N-Nathan. It’s Nathan. I’m a friend, I promise.”
“Why are you here? How do you know about this clearing?”
“This is our property. We have a house on the other side of those trees. We need to get inside—it’s not safe to be out here.” He waved the flashlight across the woods once more. “Please miss.”
This couldn’t be a coincidence. My mother must have known about the boy’s house. Maybe even worked out something with his family so that if I ever showed up here they’d take me in, no questions asked. It certainly felt like something my mother would do. “Okay, I’ll come with you.”
Nathan picked up the first aid kit and turned for the trees behind him at a sprinter’s pace. “Come on,” he shouted. I followed. It was an even shorter trip than expected as the next bit of woods were shallow, a modest wooden cabin stationed in the next field.
Nathan led me up through the side door and into a small kitchen, taking one more look into the shadowy woods before locking the door behind us. The kitchen was homely; there was an old iron oven to my right, a wide square metal sink bolted into the opposite wall, and an icebox sitting in the middle of the room. He paced quickly for a few moments then abruptly stopped, turning to me and asking, “You wouldn’t have a phone, would you?”
I reached into the pocket of my sweats, pulled out the cell phone from the yellow envelope, and handed it to him. He took it and smiled at me; his smile faded when not returned. Instead, I moved to the far wall and took up a seat on the floor. I closed my eyes and tried to calm myself. It wasn’t working. I couldn't stop myself from trembling. My mother’s screams still rang in my ears. That monster’s face haunted the insides of my eyelids, snarling, inching himself toward me until I could feel his rancid breath on my face. “So pretty…”
My eyes snapped open. I forced myself to breathe. The terror my mother’s killer summoned in me was still fresh when the anger came—How could I allow myself to be so weak, so useless? My mother would be ashamed of how I was handling this. But that thought only reminded me that she was dead. That it was my fault. Guilt seized me. Then despair… I was alone now. My emotions spun like a wheel unhinged, grounding me as it ran off out of control.
Not until I heard Nathan's voice was I able to escape my own thoughts. I forced myself to focus long enough to watch him. Carefully.
“It’s me, Nathan…It’s her phone…Her, grey eyes…I know you told me not to leave the cabin for any reason, but…Well she was practically right outside the cabin….She looks okay, I guess…”
He nodded a few more times and then held out the phone. “My grandpa wants to speak to you.”
An irrational panic gripped me at that moment. I froze. Calm down, I told myself. It’s just a phone call. Hands shivering, I took the phone from his hand and held it up to my face. “H-hello?”
“Anastasia, I need for you to stay where you are. Can you do that?” The male voice on the line was calm but assertive, like my mother’s.
“I t-think so.”
“Good. We are in the process of surveying the area for additional threats. I’ll return to explain what’s happening as soon as I can.
“Okay.”
“It is an honor to speak to you, despite the unfortunate circumstances surrounding our finally having words. Allow me to speak to my grandson again.”
I handed Nathan the phone and he nodded some more, looking slightly annoyed. “Okay, I promise not to say anything until you get back.” His voice dropped low. “She already looks spooked if you ask me.” He rolled his eyes and then hung up the phone.
I got to my feet. “W-who are you people?” I asked as soon as he turned around.
“Sorry, grandpa said not to say anything,” he replied, turning his head. “Scared I might spook you into running away.”
“I won’t run away—I don’t have anywhere to go. Please...I just need to know what’s going on.”
He started to say something but caught himself. “I really shouldn’t.”
“Nathan...I'm really scared. I don’t know what’s happening. Or why it’s happening. My mother is dead.” Just saying that aloud caused me to feel light headed. I leaned back onto the wall to keep myself upright.
Pity shone out from his blue eyes. “Well grandpa says we’re kinda like the Secret Service. We protect like, really important people. We’re your guardians.”
Guardians? None of this made any sense at all.
“They got my mom too,” he muttered. He wiped his eyes and then put his head down. “It’s what they do, hurt people. I hate ‘em all.”
“Who are they?”
He looked me square in the eye, unflinching. “Vampires.”
A few seconds passed before I was able to speak. I searched his face, but found nothing to suggest that he was lying, or even kidding. Still, my mind rejected the possibility of it. It was absurd; vampires were the stuff of movies, bad Halloween specials… My heart knew better. It knew this boy’s pain was real, that our pain was the same.
“But why me? Why us? Why is mother dead?” I felt the anger seep into my words, but I made no effort to stop it.
Nathan’s face paled. “Because you’re one of us.” He sounded cautious.
I shook my head. Why couldn’t I ever get a straight answer? “WHAT DOES THAT EVEN MEAN?”
Nathan grabbed hold of my forearm; his grip felt like ice on my skin. A slow moving chill crept through me, radiating out from his hands. I could feel my heart slow, the tension ease in my chest, my fists, clenched tight at my side relaxing on their own. The anger receded, leaving only the hurt of tonight’s loss.
Hot tears streaked down my face. “What are you doing to me?” It was barely a whisper.
“Helping,” Nathan replied. He slid his hand down my arm until his hand covered mine. Quietly, he whispered a few words.
“You want to know who you are?” he asked.
I nodded.
He uncovered my hand and a small flame burst into existence, taking the shape of a butterfly. It flew up out of my hand and fluttered around my face.
“Anastasia,” he spoke, his eyes big and child-like, “you’re a witch.”