Bright Are The Stars
Chapter 2 Getting Better
BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP!
“Mmph…” Paul smashed the pillow over his head with one hand, searching blindly for the alarm clock with the other. He slapped down the snooze button and there was peace.
As he lay in the darkness half asleep, his mind began to wander.
Did he put the fire out last night? He did. Didn’t he? He thought back to the night before and remembered falling off the couch and that crazy dream.
Linda.
He pushing the pillow away and scrubbed his face with the palm of his hand. There was something about a sunset, and breaking it off with Nancy. Apparently, his subconscious was trying to tell him something. It was true that they lived on opposite sides of the world and neither would truly be comfortable moving for the other. He had thought of marrying her but in the end had decided that she wouldn’t be comfortable living that far away from her company. Not that he could blame her. Besides, he didn’t like the idea of ripping Beatrice out of school and shipping her off to different one in a strange country. She had a hard enough time trying to be normal.
Speaking of Bea. His bed room door squeaked open. He could make out light little birdie steps as his little girl tiptoed across the floor and climbed up the side of the big bed wriggling under the blankets, she snuggled up close to him
“Daddy?” she whispered.
“What are you doing up Bea-Bea? Aren’t you supposed to be sleeping?”
“How am I supposed to sleep with your alarm clock beeping its head off? It’s loud! And- it scared me awake!” she whined.
“It’s suppose to scare you,” he teased gently.“It’s an alarm clock, sweet.”
“I know daddy, don’t be so silly.”
“It’s so hard,” he said yawning. “When I have such a silly daughter.”
“Hey!” She pushed him with her bony shoulder.
“It’s true,” he said grinning and throwing back the cover, exposing them both to the
cold morning air.
She squealed, burrowing back under the blankets.
“It’s time to get ready f or school now, come on out.”
He heard her muffled giggling then a loud, “No!”
“I’ll just have to come and get you then.” sticking his hands in under the covers after and tickling her little feet.
She let out a giddy shriek of laughter and squirmed, pushing up the covers up and off the bed; exposing her belly. He stuck his fingers into her sides, laughing with her.
She kicked and screamed before giving in, “Ok! Ok I’m gonna pee! Let me up!”
He laughed then, pulling her into his arms, he took her back to her own room to fetch her clothes and to change out of her pajamas. After changing into black chinos and a blue button down himself, he went down stairs to make her breakfast. His mind began drifting again to the dream from the night before.
“Beatrice?” he called as she came down the stairs and into the kitchen.
“Yes daddy?”
“Do you like Nancy?”
“I already told you I did.” She looked up at him, confused.
“Would you mind if she was here all the time?”
Beatrice wrinkled her nose, “I don’t think I‘d like that. When would we get to play
together daddy?”
He smiled. That solved that problem. “Thanks love.”
“For what?”
“Helping your daddy decide something very important.”
She looked at him suspiciously. “Ok…”
“Eat up! Don’t want you to be late for school.”
****************
Two in the morning on the other side of the world Sophie was startled out of her sleep by the sound of yowling cats outside her window…And something else.
“Hold still you stupid, useless thing!”
There was someone outside her window! She tried not to scream or make any noise
at all as she got out of bed and tiptoed to her sister’s room, the only other person in the house. With their mother being called away for business for a few weeks, and left them to fend for themselves, again.
“Rory!” she whispered loudly, “Get up! Please get up! I’m really scared!”
“What?” Rory mumbled grumpily into her pillow.
“There’s someone outside. I wanna check it out. Come with me.” Sophie pulled at Rory’s limp arm dangling over the side of her bed.
“No!” She slapped Sophie away quite violently before rolling over.
“I want to see who it is! Just get up! Come on, I don’t want to go by myself!” Sophie pleaded, pulling at her shoulder.
Rory slowly moved to her elbow glaring red-eyed murder at Sophie, “I love you, but right now, I need my sleep. And if you don’t leave me alone, I will kill you. I don’t care what you’re hearing. It’s probably just the cats.”
“No! I heard voices! Well a voice. It sounded like it was hurting them. “Come on!” She pleaded, “Don’t make me go alone. I mean you’re already awake…”
“Fine.” Rory sighed. “But if there isn’t anything out there, something very bad will happen to you.”
“Whatever, just get up.”
Rory swung her legs over the side of the bed and grabbed her slippers. Sophie began to pull her away out of her room, out the front door, and into the yard.
They could hear the cat meowing pitifully from the other side of the house.
“Shut up before someone hears you and comes out to check what’s going on.” A women’s voice yelled angrily, louder than the cat’s call.
Rory suddenly grabbed Sophie’s hand, looking terrified. It took all Sophie’s might to not say I told you so.
She and Rory snuck around the corner of the house, peering around the edge. There, they saw her, a beautiful auburn haired girl about their age, only a bit taller than Sophie’s short four foot eleven. The girl was holding their precious kitty, Snuggles, up to her face. She opened her mouth and it looked like she was-
“HOLY GOD! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?” Sophie leaped out behind the house, terrified and outraged over the sheer crazy of what she was seeing.
The girl dropped Snuggles and smiled sweetly. “Hi! Isn’t it a nice night?”
“What the frick is wrong with you?! Were you- were you going to bite my cat?!” What are you-some kind of vampire or something?”
The girl laughed indulgently “What? Vampires don’t exist. You have been reading one too many books.”
“Then what were you doing?” Rory asked quietly, stepping from her place in the shadows.
“That little cat looked like she had something stuck around her neck, and so I thought I’d try and help her get it off.”
Sophie scoffed, “With your teeth? Right.” She turned to Rory, “I’m going to call the cops, don’t let her leave.”
“No! Wait, I lied, I was hungry and I didn’t want to hunt for something difficult or stupid, like a cow, I thought maybe I’d just-”
“Eat my cat. Instead of a cow. Because that makes sense.” Sophie said coldly.
“Listen I know you’re scared, and I can’t blame you but just let me go. I’ll make it up to you. What’s the one thing you want more than anything else in the world?”
“Paul McCartney,” Sophie said automatically.
The girl arched a thin red eyebrow.
“Oh you can’t give me Paul McCartney? Well I guess I’ll just have to call the police. Sorry.” Sophie said, turning to go.
“You can’t! Ok. You were right. I’m a vampire. Don’t tell. Please don’t tell.”
Sophie laughed, but Rory’s eyes widened and she spoke up, “Prove it.”
The girl walked over to the crab apple tree in the middle of the yard, jumped and grabbed a large branch near the top, breaking it off with a crack.
“That doesn’t prove anything! I bet you’re taking P.C.P or something!”
Rory pushed her. “Dude! Get your eyes checked! That was crazy!”
“Yeah well, I’m still calling the cops.”
The girl seemed to suddenly appear in front of her, “Wait a second there- what if I could get you Paul McCartney? If I could give him to you would you leave me alone?”
“What do you mean? It sounds like you want to kidnap him or something. I’ll shut up. Leave him alone.”
“That’s not what I mean!” The girl huffed, “What if you could have him? What if you could be with him forever?”
Sophie could only dream of such things. Surely it wasn’t possible.
“You want him don’t you? Enough to become a vampire? To turn him yourself?”
“I-I-”She stuttered, if this was possible, would she really choose that life? She wanted to. To be able to say Paul was hers and for it to be true.
“It’s not an easy way vampirism, so choose carefully.” The girls golden eyes scrutinized her. She rubbed at her nose and tucked a wisp of red hair behind her ear.
“Wait,” Rory piped up, “What about me?”
The girl rolled her eyes. “You want in too? What, are you in love with Bob Dylan? Keith Richards?”
Rory gave a small smile, “Ringo Starr, actually.”
The girl starred and sighed. “Whatever.”
Rory joined them by the tree and looked at Sophie, “You wanna do this?”
Sophie took a deep breath. “Yes. Let’s do this.”
“Shall we get down to business then? I’m Andria Fleming,” She stuck out her hand, “But if you don’t call me Andie, I will rip your head off.” Sophie wasn’t sure she w as joking.
“Let’s go inside and get started.”
Something in the back of Sophie’s mind told her not to let the vampire in but she dismissed as paranoia. They walked back to the house and interred the living room.
She was talking about turning them as if it was some sort of business transaction. That scared Sophie enough to find her voice, “Wait, um, you’re not going to leave us after you bight us are you? And how can we be sure you’re not just going to kill us?”
Andie wrinkled her nose, “I’m not going to eat you. You’re people. That’s gross.
“But don’t Vampires, you know, eat people?” Rory asked shyly.
“I don’t. And if it makes you feel better I’ll bite you one at a time, so you know I’m not going to leave.” Andy said briskly, “But be warned, it’s very painful.”
“I’ll go first then,” Sophie said standing on her tiptoes next to Andie, “Just get it over with.”
Andie looked into Sophie’s eyes with her unearthly topaz ones, “you’re sure you want to do this?”
It’s for Paul, she thought “Yes.” And before she could take another breath, she was stabbed. She could not cry out. She could no longer breathe. There was nothing but pain. She could think of nothing else as her world went black.