In Love With a Vampire

Chapter Twenty Three

Jim



I scrolled through my phone while nervously glancing at my door. There had been no quip from my father since his bizarre interrogation. Deep down, I knew he had not just given up. I knew he was re-strategizing, he wanted answers, and frankly so did I. The moment my adrenaline had worn off I had started looking at my situation logically.

There was a strong chance I had killed a man.

There was something strange about roof girl.

Somehow my father and roof girl were interconnected.

I had no idea where roof girl lived.

I forced my mind to go through all my interactions with roof girl. Had she mentioned where she lived? I let out a frustrated sigh and continued to scroll through **. All the “Donna’s” I found were either strippers from Vegas or models from Seattle. I did the same thorough search on all the other social media pages; nothing. I furrowed my eyebrows; everyone I knew, even the kids who claimed that they were not defined by social media, were in social media but roof girl, roof girl was practically a ghost. I stopped scrolling and closed my eyes for a minute, this time forcing a memory of redhead to resurface. Had she mentioned where she lived? The two were inseparable so maybe if I found her she could take me to roof girl’s house? I recalled her anxious demeanor in class. Where had she run off to? And how come she was not at the party despite the fact that they were inseparable?

Why was roof girl at the party in the first place?

I had posed this question to her but she had breezed by it and when we had started dancing…A smile made its way to my lips as an image of the two of us swirling around the room painted itself in my mind. Our movements had been so natural, so synced; it was as if we had been doing it all our lives. The peace that I had felt in that moment, the utter bliss; I had only felt such joy, such freedom as a child. My gaze flickered to my full-length mirror; my heart leaped to my throat when I saw a pale girl with stark white hair staring back at me. I snapped my eyes shut and placed my hands over my ears muttering,

“It’s not real…It’s not real…It’s not real…”

When I opened them, Sara was gone. I suddenly felt guilty. How could I be happy while she was not? How could I allow myself to taste tranquility while she sat in chaos?

“I’m so sorry Sara…” I whispered to no one in particular.

After a while, after my guilt had dissipated a little I began scouting for my phone. I had tossed it earlier to free my hand so that I could calm myself. I found it at the foot of my bed. I picked it up and continued with my search. I paused as I typed in the word “redhead”, this was not an actual name. I stared ahead trying to remember what the English teacher had called her earlier in the day. As I did, the memory of two men hurriedly making their way across the school lawn flashed in my head. Yes, they had caught my attention because of the suits. My heart accelerated as the image of the man I stabbed surfaced in my mind. He too was wearing a suit. I rapidly shook my head; of course, he was wearing a suit. It had been a dinner party, what else was he meant to wear? Still, I could not help but feel that there was a connection. Did I want there to be a connection? Was that why I was connecting two things that could simply be a coincidence? Things that could easily be explained?

I returned to my earlier task having recalled the redhead’s name, Maria. The English teacher had yelled it so many times that the name had sunk into my subconscious. I sighed when a list of women and girls named Maria showed up on **. I did not know her last name so I immediately knew that the search would be futile. I flung my phone across the room in frustration; there was no way of finding Donna and I needed to. I had to make sense of what had happened tonight. I had to warn her that my father would come after her if at all she was a threat or a means to an end. I had to…I had to see her. This last admission came as a surprise yet it was true. Above all else, I wanted to see roof girl. I wanted to feel that peace that I had been scouting for the past year.

I shifted my body weight to stare at my door. A cold shiver trickled down my spine. If I opened it, would I spot the stranger’s body in our hallway? I physically shook my head, I could not have killed him. If I did, I would currently be in jail.

Have you forgotten who your father is?

I chuckled humorlessly. Mayor or not, my father was one of the most powerful people in Scanton. He had proven this before all too well. My thoughts drifted back to roof girl. She had been at the event, as a guest. Surely she was not there alone, she had to be escorted. I tried recalling if I had seen her with somebody. The image of a tall man with a large frame came to mind. Yes, the man with an orange scarf around his neck had suggested that we dance, and then he had simply vanished. I sighed, I had no idea who he was. He looked familiar, like someone I had seen at the convenience store in town several times but other than that, I had no idea who he was. I once again, invested all my focus in tonight’s events hoping to remember something useful.

The slap.

Lory, my aunt who I had not seen in years, had been at the event. My father would never have invited her, my mother certainly did not invite her. So what was she doing there? Perhaps escorting roof girl? It was a stretch, an implausible theory but Aunt Lory’s presence was certainly bizarre and unexpected. Even if she did not know roof girl, maybe she could tell me who the man with the orange scarf was. She had always possessed this unique quality of knowing who was who in Scanton. Ever since she lost Clarissa, however, she had become withdrawn. My mother had begun referring to her as the crazy, bitter b***h and my father had refused to be associated with her, saying that she was deranged. This was after she showed up at our house one night and snuck into Sean’s room. My mother had found her rocking Sean back and forth, singing her nephew a lullaby. My mother had screamed so loudly all our neighbors had woken up. Aunt Lory had been dragged from the house by my father and I had watched from my window as she was yanked through the crowd that had formed in front of our house. She had been hysterical, flailing her free arm vigorously in the air, yelling at the neighbors to stop looking at her, screaming that her baby had been murdered and that her own brother did not care. As they climbed into the car, I recall catching a glimpse of Aunt Lory. She was staring at my window with a sad smile on her lips. Before they drove off, she had blown me a kiss. I had never seen her again since. At first, I had blamed my parents thinking that they had forbidden Aunt Lory to see me but then I had gone to her house a few months after the incident and no one had opened the door.

I decided to follow my gut. I would go to Aunt Lory’s place and demand to know why she had suddenly reappeared in our lives. I would then ask her if she knew roof girl or the man with the orange scarf. Set on my mission, I walked towards my door, placed my hand on the doorknob, and twisted it. My door swung open and I stuck my head into the hallway. No sign of father or a dead body. My heartbeat accelerated as I closed the door behind me. I stealthily walked toward Sean’s bedroom. At least my father had been telling the truth about my little brother not being in the house. I assumed that my mother had been too shaken to remain there after seeing Aunt Lory. I suddenly felt guilty for not approaching mother after the slap, a good son should have asked if she was okay but I had not. I decided I would apologize, that I would be a better son, or at least that I would try to.

I yanked Sean’s window open and stared at the grass-padded ground. Even if I fell, I would not get seriously hurt, right? I gulped before pushing one leg outside and finding a footing on the jagged wall. After I succeeded, I did the same to my other leg. Soon my whole body was hanging against the wall, exposed to the night’s biting cold. It was drizzling and a closer glance at the ground told me that it had been raining earlier. How come I had not heard anything? I let myself plummet to the ground after muttering an inaudible prayer. After sticking the landing, I had to bite my lip to stop myself from vocalizing my victory. I then lifted my gaze to stare at Sean’s open window one last time before I vanished into the night.