CHAPTER: 10
1777 Words
"Your last name is kind of contradictory, Alex," Tanya said, speaking out her thoughts again. "I think some parts of the Vampire stories are true and that you have been a Vampire for a long time..." She was prepared to ramble, but he stopped her.
Alex smirked. "I suppose you are right. However, how do you know that I am not as young as you are?" he asked.
"The way you talk and dress, your love for classical music and books, and maybe a little that you can't drive a car," saying that Tanya laughed. "Those are all very valid reasons," she replied. "Of course, how ancient must you be to love classical music and books as well?
"Ha! That has nothing to do with how old I am," Alex replied.
They then laughed for a couple of minutes, but she stopped abruptly and glanced at him. "Well then...how old are you, Alex?"
"I was born in 1900," Alex replied, bracing himself in the assumption that I would freak out."
"You are 120 years?" Tanya gaped at him, quickly doing the math in her head.
"More or less." He shrugged. "It is hard to keep track after all this time. After dozens of years, they start to blend together."
Tanya glanced up toward the auto shop window and saw James glaring out at them. She wondered if he could see Alex despite the glare on the windshield of her car.
"We should probably get out of here..." Tanya muttered and Alex followed her gaze.
"Let us go to your house," he said quickly.
"Why should we go there?" Tanya asked as she pulled the car out of the parking lot.
"Don't you want to?" he asked.
"I guess..." She sighed as she turned left onto the road. "Not that there is anything left for me now, though."
"All your belongings are out there, Tanya."
"Yeah. That is true."
"It will make you feel better," Alex assured her, but she was certain that it would do the opposite. Nevertheless, she agreed to go home...at least temporarily.
The house was cold, vacant, and quite depressing. She wanted to run to her room, collapse onto her bed, and just go to sleep until this nightmare was over. Alex followed her inside, although uninvited, admiring his surroundings as they passed through the kitchen and into the living room. It was incredibly dull and shabby in contrast to his house. She groaned when she smelled the sour milk that had spilled across the dining room floor the prior morning. She quickly gathered the mop and cleaned it up, spraying the area with the cleaner to eliminate the wretched smell.
"You never mentioned how you afford to live in that mansion of yours," Tanya commented as she watched him look around her place.
"It is hardly a mansion, and technically, I did," he said as he looked at the TV set. "I told you I can make things materialize at will."
"So you are telling me you created a whole house?" She said to Alex with sarcasm.
He laughed lightly. "No, of course, I didn't. The house was abandoned when I arrived here. The furniture and touch-ups, however..."
"How do you do it?" Tanya asked him.
Alex was still fascinated by the TV. She grabbed the remote off of the brown coffee table.
"Magic." Alex grinned up at her.
She glared at him. "I am serious, tell me how?"
"I think of something, and it appears. It is really simple," he replied.
"Anything?" Tanya asked him.
"No. I can materialize a wide variety of objects. The smaller they are, the easier it is for me. I definitely could never manage anything as large as a house. And it is not something I am in constant control of," Alex said.
"What do you mean?" Tanya asked him.
"I only discovered the special ability of mine a few years ago, and sometimes it works...other times, it does not work as much." He then laughed. "Initially things used to backfire. For example, if I were to imagine a lamp...it would materialize, though disfigured or broken. I eventually figured that out, though."
"And what happened when you first figured out you could do this...magic?" Tanya asked him.
"Well, I was...startled, as anyone would be." He appeared to be deep in thought. "But considering who and what I am, it didn't affect me as much as it would have affected others, I suppose."
Tanya hit the power button on the TV remote and a news report spread across the 36-inch screen. Alex jumped back.
"Please tell me you have at least seen a TV before?" Tanya asked him.
"I am 120 years old Tanya, of course, I have seen a television." He shook his head and said, "I just wasn't expecting it to come on."
Tanya was not paying attention at that point, she was watching the news intently. The news-reporter behind the screen was talking about an incident in 'North Surrey, 21 km from Vancouver' where a lady had a near-fatal car accident. Her heart sunk as a picture of a woman was flashed on the screen, my mom. "No!" She screamed.
Alex's voice reached her ears again. "Tanya..." It was a gentle whisper, right behind her ears.
"No! Don't you dare to speak to me or touch me!" Tanya shouted, pushing him away. "Daniel did this! I know it!"
Alex looked taken aback by Tanya's allegation. "You think Daniel did this?" He frowned. "We are not like that, Tanya. There is no evidence of his involvement."
"That doesn't make him innocent! It could all be some sort of cover-up!" Tanya said angrily.
"You are just upset Tanya because Daniel took her away from you."
"That has nothing to do with it!" Or did it? Tanya wondered. It was more of James' fault than Daniel's wasn't it? She fell back on the sofa. "Did it say...Did it say if she was still alive?" Tanya asked.
"I didn't hear anything about her dying," Alex replied while sitting beside Tanya on the leather couch. "I assure you, it has nothing to do with Daniel."
"I won't believe it until I hear it from mom-Adriana, I mean." Not calling her mom was going to take a while to get used to.
"Why don't you call her ?" Alex suggested.
"Right." Tanya nodded, relaxing just a little as she stood up and got the cordless phone from the kitchen. So much for crude accusations the first time she called her mom after she had left. Tanya dialed her cell phone number. It rang once, twice, thrice.
"Hello?" A deep male voice answered.
"Is Adriana there?" Tanya said.
"She cannot come to the phone right now. Who is this?"
"This is her daughter, Tanya," she said, ignoring the fact that she was not really her daughter anymore...or never was, Tanya supposed. "Please just put her on the phone."
"She is a little out of it right now, but I'll see if she is able," the voice on the other end said to Tanya.
"Thank you," she said.
Silence followed and then muffled voices were heard in the background.
"Tanya?" Her mom's voice was different, scared, weak. "I was about to have Daniel call you," she said to Tanya.
"How are you?" Tanya felt relieved to hear her voice, but something about the way she spoke made her uneasy.
"I have been better." She heard her laugh, which was cut through with a hoarse cough and groan. "Happy Birthday, sweetheart."
"Thanks, Mom..." Tanya muttered. "Tell me what happened."
She then heard the muffled voice of Daniel in the background, but she could not decipher what he was saying. "I was crossing the road, when this car came at a great speed and hit me, throwing me off gear. I lost consciousness. After that I don't recall much, except that I have survived that accident," her Mom replied.
"Did Daniel do something to you?" Tanya blurted out anxiously.
"Of course not!" Her voice unconvincing, almost as anxious as Tanya's. "He is right here with me in the hospital, making sure I am taken care of."
"How badly were you hurt, are you going to be okay?" Tanya asked her.
"It is not as bad as the TV might make it sound. I will be better, don't worry Tanya."
"The news reporter said you were brutally injured, Mom."
"The TV was over-exaggerating like they always do. You know that." Tanya then heard another bout of coughing, then Adriana's voice was replaced by Daniel's voice again.
"Adriana needs to rest. I will have her call you back again when she is feeling a bit better." Daniel then hung up.
Tanya crumbled onto the sofa, crying her eyes out in frustration.
"What did she say?" Alex asked tenderly as he sat beside her.
Tanya filled him in on the entire conversation, that she had with her mother. It must have been difficult to comprehend through her sobs.
"Perhaps she is just hazy like she said..." Alex said with the faintest hint of doubt in his voice.
"You don't believe it any more than I do, do you?" Tanya said, sitting up and looking into his eyes.
He glanced down at her and said, "I believe that Daniel was in no way responsible for this."
"I need to go to her," Tanya said suddenly, angrily.
"No, you don't. Everything will be fine, trust me," Alex said.
"Trust you? I don't even know you."
"Tanya, you need to calm down. Relax."
"Calm down? First, my mom left me, then I hear all this unbelievable crap about James and Vampires, and now my mom is lying in some hospital bed with some monster supposedly watching over her."
"Even if it were true about Daniel, you would not be able to do anything, Tanya," Alex said.
"I could help her," she replied back.
"No, you couldn't. And besides...you are too important to risk, regardless of my insistence on Daniel's goodness."
"Important? You barely even know me, Alex."
"As far as you think," he whispered.
"What are you even talking about?" she said.
"I cannot explain it right now." He sighed. "Your friends are expecting you to be bright and cheerful, as they are going to arrive at any moment."
"What?"
"It is your birthday, remember?" He attempted a grin. "They are coming over to celebrate, Tanya."
"How do you know?"
He shrugged his shoulders. "That blonde-haired girl might have mentioned it."
"Of course she did..." Tanya grumbled. "Is this the real reason you wanted me to come home so badly?"
"That might have played some part in it, yes," Alex said.
- Writer
