Serum

-Twenty-Three-

Later that evening, the vampires began to “collapse” around the pool area, some lying down or reclining inside the pool, others on the pool’s walkways and edges. I was leaning up against a pool wall, when Conner came up beside me.

“It’s another of our traditions.” He explained. “We all practically exhaust ourselves, then stop as night approaches to watch the stars come out. They’ve left me my favorite spot.” He told me, and pulled me gently to where the pool’s floor dropped and became the deep end. There was a perfect spot to recline, tushie on the floor of the pool, back against the sloping tile and concrete. Conner and I stared up at the sky, his body right next to mine, so close I could feel the heat and pulse of him. His fingers tangled with mine as the stars began to show and he idly ran a thumb across the back of my knuckles. Watching the sky slowly wheel above us felt like an eternity, and yet it was like it was over so quickly. I felt a momentary loss for my old life as a human.

“Human lives are like that.” Conner said quietly, drawing once again on my thoughts. I rolled my head over to look at him, and noticed he was looking at me and from what I could gather, probably hadn’t been watching the stars for quite some time. “They burn so brightly and seem to take an eternity while they’re being lived.. but then their lives are over so fast.” He hesitated briefly. “That’s why...I can’t say that I’m sorry really… about what Lana did.” Conner told me quietly, then turned back to gaze at the stars before speaking again. This time his voice was softer, below a whisper. “Because I’ll have you much longer now.” My heart seemed to stutter in my chest.

Apparently an evening out with his friends also meant a meal. After dark had completely fallen and the stars had all peeked into existence, the group broke up. Everyone headed off in different directions, mostly in sets no bigger than two or three to go out hunting.

“We have a set pattern. We all have different sections of this place to hunt in, that way no two attacks are near each other or in the same location. We hunt only if we feel the need to. We don’t like to punish people for our foolish play. But most of all for the younger vampires, we never hunt alone.” Daniel explained to me. “My hunting partner used to be Conner, but we’ve made other plans since he disappeared, so I’ll see you guys soon, right?” I nodded at him, squeezing Conner’s hand.

“Hopefully.” I replied, waving good-bye to him as he turned, and disappeared over the fence. After a moment or two, I followed Conner over the fence, and caught up with him where he waited on the sidewalk by the road.

“Are you hungry?” I asked Conner at the same time he blurted “Do you need anything?” I huffed with embarrassment, then shook my head. Normally after exertion I would feel the emptiness that signaled the need to feed, but I felt fine.

“Me neither, it’s probably because we just fed before coming out here. We probably won’t need anything for a while, but if you start to feel hungry, or like you need to feed, let me know. Because we’ve used so much energy, it can sneak up on you incredibly suddenly, making you take too much or go slightly crazy. That’s why the younger vampires always hunt with someone else there. Young vampires generally exert a lot more energy and can take too much or not even realize what they’re doing and attack and kill somebody when they get hungry.” Conner mentioned, “As we get older, we show more restraint. Or are able to control ourselves a little better. I’m about the age where nobody would worry about me hunting on my own unless I was close to being driven mad by hunger.” I shook my head. This vampire thing was more complicated than I thought.

“How old are your friends exactly?” I questioned him curiously.

“Well, Daniel is about five years younger than me, the other’s range anywhere from my age to ten years younger, some of them I’ve never seen before. I’m sure the group has expanded since my days. I was sort of a ring-leader for a while there.” Conner told me, blushing slightly.

“Oh mighty Conner, leader of the vampire youths.” I teased, then stuck my arm through his, to let him know I was only joking. Conner’s blush deepened. Ooh, this would be a fun thing to keep ribbing him about. “If you don’t quit that, all the blood is going to rush to your head, and then you’re going to have to hunt.” I bumped him with my hip, making Conner laugh somewhat harshly.

“Sometimes I don’t know how to react around you.” He told me, and with that we rounded the corner towards home.

“You know, I don’t really feel like going home just yet.” I mused thoughtfully to Conner. “How about we walk around the track like we used to? It’s been so long since I’ve had any semblance of normal life.. I just think I’d like to go back tonight and walk for a while. If that’s alright with you?” I looked up at him hopefully.

“Sure, sounds good to me.” Conner responded. It almost seemed like he didn’t really want the night to end either as he gently pulled me in the direction of the track. As Conner and I entered the school grounds, I noticed a few cars were parked there. However, unlike before, I did not have any fear of meeting anyone out on the track. I was more dangerous than anyone I would meet, now.

We walked for hours, at first in complete silence. The soft padding of our feet was the only sound in the darkness. Even the other humans were quietly walking or running and left when they’d gotten in their obligatory mile or two. Conner and I started talking after a while, losing all track of everything else. But constantly, I felt the sunrise coming on fast in the back of my mind like some kind of countdown. When we’d had enough of the endless circling, we sat in the bleachers and talked like before, when I was still human. As dawn became unbearably close, I stood up and prodded Conner in the direction of home with a sigh.

“I don’t know about you, but I think I’d rather get back indoors. I hate sunglasses.” I joked, as I leapt lightly down the bleachers. Conner seemed reluctant to leave, as if saddened to give up a piece of our past. I felt a twinge in my heart as I watched him stand there on the bleachers, watching the sky slowly brighten. I knew how he felt. I hated to let this night end. To let my old life end. But maybe something better could be waiting for us in the future. I called his name gently and held out my hand, and he smiled softly, beginning to move as I stood at the edge of the track. When we reached the church, I tumbled into my corner and fell instantly into my dreamless slumber, my exhaustion finally catching up to me.

I woke about noon, trying to quietly rise so as to not disturb Conner. My mind was running a million miles a minute and I couldn’t slow it down. I floated to the windows and then wandered around the church, my body aimless as my thoughts ran in circles. An important question had just occurred to me.

“What do I do with myself now?” I murmured.

“What do you mean?” Conner asked. I turned around.

“You were supposed to be asleep.” I accused.

“Sorry to disappoint you.” He replied sleepily, stretching lazily in his pushed together pews. “But unfortunately I think our mental link is getting so strong that I can’t sleep when you’re floating around agitated. So, what’s wrong?” I thought for a minute or two, chewing on my lip.

“Well..I just thought of this, it’s really quite important, but it never occurred to me because I always thought of being a vampire as being temporary, and now I’m not so sure...” I answered swiftly.

“Are you going to tell me, or just keep speaking in circles?” Conner inquired from underneath the inside of his elbow, his arm draped across his face. I considered walking over and flicking him for it, but rolled my eyes instead.

“My turn to be sorry, I guess.”  I said sarcastically. “It’s just.. what do I do now?” I breathed.

“Still confused.” Conner groaned, sitting up.

“I mean, what do you do with yourself for all of eternity? There’s just nothing to do, no purpose, no meaning to my life.. It was bad enough when I was human, not knowing, wondering if my dead-end job was it, but now.. I don’t know, I’m not sure if I’m explaining this right, but there’s just nothing to do with myself, and there’s so much time, and I have no reason to.. live..” It tore out of me with anguish.

“You have me.” Conner whispered quietly. That stopped me in my tracks. I looked at him out of the corner of my eye. It was true that I hadn’t known Conner all that long, but what I did know of him made me think I couldn’t imagine a better person to spend an eternity with. But I still wasn’t sure what I would do with myself for the rest of my extended years. It’s not like I could devote my entire eternal life to a single person. That seemed ridiculous, and would eventually end in one or the other of us getting tired of it, surely. Conner seemed to sense my confusion and came over to stand beside me at the window. He hooked a pinky around mine.

“It doesn’t seem like much, I suppose. Sometimes it feels like there is no reason at all to our lives, even human lives can seem like they have no purpose. But for us, we try to choose something we enjoy, or that we might like to try. For me, I like restoring old places, especially places I used to know, so I chose to restore this old church. Maybe I’ll start a small business, and when I run out of business, or after it’ll be obvious that I’m not aging, I’ll move on to somewhere else. Or maybe I’ll just stick around this area for a while, ‘in retirement’. I liked working out activities for the young ones of our kind that will keep them out of trouble, or at least out of the attention of the human authorities, so there’s also that. There’s plenty of things that you can do. And you have time to try out anything that you’d like.” Conner reasoned. “And while you try to figure it out.. you could.. come with me?” It was said like a question and I darted a glance at him swiftly. He was looking resolutely out the window, as if afraid to face my answer, so I did the next reasonable thing I could think of. I leaned in and placed a small kiss on the side of his face. He stiffened almost immediately, then blushed bright red before pulling me into a hug under his arm.

“I think I’d like that, thanks.” I murmured to him, letting him tuck me into his side, looking out the window into the daylight.