Serum

-Nine-

The boy had disappeared by the next time I looked up, but Conner was still in the room. He looked at me apologetically when Lana insisted I practice some more on my speed, explaining that it was an instinct that I could use to my advantage if I practiced with it. At least she no longer brought out the knives, but I was under attack from both Lana and Conner. After the last bit of trauma Lana had put me through, I let myself disappear into the movements of my body, and was surprised at how much easier it was if I just let my vampiric side take over. And it was so willing to do that, that it was terrifying. But Lana and Conner kept me busy, grilling me with questions, shoving information down my throat, forcing me to exercise my new body, that I barely had time to worry about it.  Eventually, evening faded into night and night opened into morning when I finally realized...

“I’ve been gone two whole days!” I suddenly exclaimed. Lana and Conner just looked somewhat puzzled.  I knew I had yelled it out of nowhere, but honestly.

“My mother!” I explained, “She doesn’t know what’s happened to me. She probably has the police out for me already!” I rushed towards the door, throwing it open to a lovely sunrise, which was, I discovered shining right in my face. I hissed, throwing my arm up to shield my overly delicate eyes, I stood in place, shock running through my frame. Someone came up behind me, shoved me out of the way and slammed the door.

“Always cover your eyes when going out in the sunlight!” Conner yelled desperately, blinking his eyes over and over to remove the sun-spots. “You can damage your retina beyond repair, and most of us, when we end up staring straight at the sun, become blinded and stunned because we’re not used to it or made for it!” I had landed on my rump on the floor, and sat there for a few moments, confused. Everything had changed so much!

“Now why are you so desperate to go and tell your mom you’re all right?” Conner asked quietly.  He still blinked like he was having trouble with his vision. “It’s the weekend won’t she just think that you stayed over at a friend’s or something?”

“No, you said it yourself, I’m not like other people. I never do things without letting her know, in fact she wouldn’t let me do things without her knowing. She’ll be one of two things: completely frantic or plain outright stark raving mad. Let’s hope it’s not the last one.” Shoving myself to my feet, I brushed off my backside.

“All right, fine. So before we do anything else, we’ll go and let your mother know what’s happened. We need to make up some excuse that she’s going to believe, especially to explain your appearance..but we can do that on the way. First, sunglasses.” Conner fished in a drawer in a table beside the door, then tossed me a pair of dark sunglasses that I caught easily.  He donned his own and gestured for me to do the same.  Lana made a dissatisfied noise behind us as we headed for the door, but I could care less.  Conner yanked open the door and grabbed my hand as soon as it was shut behind us.  I looked down at our clasped hands in surprise, but didn’t pull away.  Instead, I let him pull me swiftly down the street, a feeling of rightness thrumming through my veins.

As Conner and I neared my mother’s home I began to worry about her reaction. All the lights were on, and she appeared to be pacing back and forth. I wondered how long that had been going on. Her blood-rush was loud and frantic, her steps barely covering the doorway to the kitchen. Softly I knocked on the door before entering the house.

“WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN!?” Shouted my mother. “And who ON EARTH is that?” She pointed an accusing finger at Conner.  Her face was pinched tight into a scowl, and even though she looked like she was wearing the same clothes from two days previously, something in me started getting angry. “You better not be in any kind of trouble missy, because you’ll be out of here in a second!” My blood began to boil, I felt the vampire in me rising to the surface.  I could smell her.  Her distress, her anger, the way she had paced this room for hours on end. The sound of her pulse increased, making me itch inside my own skin. Trying to control myself, I repeated the story Lana, Conner and I had rehearsed.

“I’ve been at Lana’s house, she’s a friend of mine, and this is her brother. He decided to walk me back when I realized I had forgotten to call you and let you know I was sleeping over this weekend. I knew you were probably frantic so I wanted to come over and let you know in person that I was all right, and…” I hated lying to my mother. I almost never lied, actually Lana had chased after us when we left, offering us a ride, and then had dropped us off down the street in her car, Conner and I had walked the rest of the way (with our sunglasses) just to make it appear as if Lana only lived a few doors down.  Conner had pulled away from me and withdrawn again, as soon as Lana appeared.  I wasn’t sure how to take it.

“I don’t care! You’ve left me here all alone, not knowing what’s happened to you, having to take care of everything myself, thinking you were dead, and what’s with the stupid appearance anyway!? Have you been tanning? How dare you dye your hair! My goodness girl, do you have any idea the trouble I’ve gone through? You should have just stayed away for good. I can’t believe you would have done such a thing!” My mother continued to shout. The smell of her anger and stress sparking something inside me, made worse by the way she flung her arms. Finally, the vampire, ever happy to be let off the chain in a stressful situation, took complete control of my mind and body.

“That’s fine mother. I don’t need to stay here any longer. I have a job and money to take care of myself, not to mention people who truly care for me. I’ll just go and get my stuff and be out of the house and out of your hair today.” I coolly turned on my heel and walked to my bedroom leaving her sputtering behind me and Conner staring awkwardly. 

Opening the window slightly so I could come back later and retrieve some of my stuff, I gathered what clothes might suitably fit on my newer slender frame, my hair-brush and a few other essentials and shoved them in a backpack I had laying around. Then I scooted out the door right past my mother, tugging Conner’s sleeve to get him to follow. With my new body I felt like a svelte cat as I slipped through the door with just inches to spare while my mother stood gaping in the doorway, an arm raised as if to block my exit.

“Ma’am.”  Conner offered his greeting and farewell in that one word to my mother and followed after me out the door. I don’t know how long she watched us, though I swore I heard the door angrily slam behind us a few seconds after we left. A few blocks down the road, Conner burst out laughing and turned to face me. Confused, I raised a brow.  Nothing about this was funny to me.

“You know, I just love your new accent. You have this soft slurring undercurrent that gives an exotic hint to your words and makes everybody speechless! And especially just now with your mother, priceless!” With a happy grin, he leaned in and I thought he might kiss me, his lips inches from mine as he stole my bag of clothing.  He laughed out loud again and raced down the street with it, forcing me to race after him to catch up. I imagined what we must have looked like, two comet-blurs racing down the street in the sunlight.  Perhaps.. Perhaps everything would be alright.