Sweetie You Had Me

Rage, hatred, and pure disgust were the only three things on Julie’s mind as she sat there with her head in her hands. Small, quiet sobs were let out every now and then as she thought about how much she just wished to go back to the way things used to be. Her life was so boring and normal, but she had never had to go through as much pain as she had been going through at that very moment. Julie had never had to loose a friend before, and because she had never really felt pain, she didn’t know how to handle this.

Julie had been crying silently for a few minutes when Jon heard her from inside of his room. Rushing out of the bedroom, Jon seated himself on the couch next to Julie. He sat there stroking her back. When Julie realized Jon was there, seeing her in such a week state, she began to cry even louder from humiliation. Leaning her head against his shoulder, she let the salty water droplets fall onto Jon’s shoulder, too upset to even try to run away from this humiliation.

“What happened?” Jon asked, in a voice that was just above a whisper. Julie slowed her breathing slightly and wiped her eyes before sitting up and grabbing the nearly shredded piece of newspaper, handing it to him without looking up at his eyes. Jon studied the piece of paper. He didn’t need to look for very long to figure out what was going on. Jon saw the picture and he knew all that he needed to know. Wrapping his arms around Julie’s shoulders he rubbed the side of her arm comfortingly.

With every fabric of her being, Julie hated William. That man was pure evil. Not even the spawn of the devil, he was the devil himself. What kind of sick, twisted sadist do you have to be to kill and hunt innocent people for the thrill of a game? That was all this was to William. It was just a game. He only wanted to show everyone that he was superior when it came to such things, as killing and destroying and murdering.

Julie felt weak and brittle as she rested her head on Jon’s shoulder and let her tears drip out of her eyes. She never liked it when people saw her cry, but she had no other choice. She didn’t want to be alone, not ever again, because if William could do that to Marissa, he could do it just as easily to Julie.

A week passed and Julie only felt worse. She fell into a small state of depression. She missed Brendon. She wanted to see him so bad. She fell ill with want. Her whole body ached with fear and guilt; she could hardly bare it. She hadn’t breathed the outside air since that day she had found out that William murdered Marissa. She hadn’t seen sunlight except through the cloudy windows when she would occasionally open her eyes when she was tired of sleeping.
She was a pathetic lump of blood, bones, and flesh.

Jon was starting to worry. He had been keeping an eye on the newspapers’ reports, and he was finding that with every new day, came another death, and it was obvious that William was sending a message. Jon didn’t know who the victims were, he also didn’t know if they were significant to Julie in any way, but he didn’t have the heart to tell her what was going on.

Jon discovered that William was using the deaths to send messages. He was counting down to a day in the year, but only the vampires who saw the papers would have known. On every victim, written on their necks was a special inscription that was an old sort of vampire hieroglyphics only used in very early vampire cultures. It was first established around 24 BC in Rome. Jon really didn’t know what the symbols meant, as he wasn’t a very old vampire, but he knew that they were ancient vampiric numbers.

Jon assumed William was using these symbols to still be able to intimidate both Jon and Julie while also being unsuspected by the authorities. He really didn’t think he had it in him to tell her about the deaths and the numbers. What was he to do?

A few hours before, Brendon had called and had said he would be coming over later that day to check up on Julie. Jon was nervous to let Brendon see Julie like this, but what could he have said to stop him? Nothing, that’s what. Brendon was never going to be stopped from seeing Julie, and this immensely worried Jon. Brendon was going to get himself killed.

Jon tentatively walked over the to the bedroom door and knocked softly. There was silence for a few moments before a very soft, “Come in,” was heard through Jon’s skilled ears. He slowly pushed open the door, and looked over at Julie, who lay in the bed under the safety of his blue covers. She was looking out of the window, her eyes only barely open. She didn’t look at Jon as he walked over and sat at the end of the bed. She was almost too ashamed. Here she had sat for the past 24 hours, sulking like a five year old. She hated herself; she hated everything about herself. She had gotten Marissa into this mess. She shouldn’t have gone to that bar the night. She should have just stayed inside.

With a sigh she tuned to look over at Jon. She blinked at him a few times as to ask him what he wanted.

“Maybe you should get some air, Jules? You know, like take a walk or something,” he calmly suggested, trying to be as gentle as he could. Julie nodded. She was getting really tired of lying in this bed. She sat up in bed and then subconsciously looked down at what she was wearing and cringed. She was still wearing what she had been in since last week. Thankfully she had the chance to take showers and was able to wash her clothes once, but other than that she hadn’t changed in a few days. Jon seemed to read her mind.

“My girlfriend leaves her clothes around here all the time,” he started, “You can borrow some, if you like,” Julie smiled lightly and nodded.

“That would be great.”

Twenty minutes later, Julie was dressed and walking out of Jon’s apartment. It was still cold outside and she was dressed for it. She was surprised that the weather wasn’t heating up yet. It was nearly May! With gloves on her hands and a scarf wrapped tightly around her neck, she walked through the cold Chicago streets as the sun stood fairly low in the morning sky. It must have been only about nine o’ clock. Clouds fogged up the air as the feel of rain came upon Julie, even though not a drop had fallen.

She walked with her mind silent, not really thinking anything at the moment. But as she crossed a closed clothing shop she gasped. What had happened with her job?! What we people thinking happened to her? Julie didn’t know if there was anything in the newspapers about it. She supposed she would have to ask Jon about it later.

After her small crisis passed, her mind again became quite silent. She didn’t want to think about anything at the moment. She just wanted to clear her mind of all stress. She was succeeded for a short while, as she walked through the more deserted part of town, where most didn’t venture to. She tried to pretend she wasn’t afraid and outwardly she didn’t look scared in the slightest, but on the inside she really didn’t want to be there. In her mind she was screaming at herself to walk faster as she passed large dark alleys and shady homes. Her face, though, remained indifferent, that is, until a voice scared her out of her wits.

“Goodness. Darling, I could hear you screaming from miles away,” a voice, to sinister and confidant to belong to any creature other than William Beckett himself. Julie stopped dead in her tracks, eyes wide with fear and surprise. Turning her head towards the dark alley to her right, her eyes become even larger as she spotted the vampire hidden under the safety of the shadows. Julie face soon turned from fear to hate, as she realized that he couldn’t harm her as long as she stayed in the sun. She growled at him, tired of him living and playing mind games with her.

“Go to hell,” she spat at him, much out of character. ‘I hate you, I hate you, I hate you’ she thought. She heard William laugh as she walked away from the alley.

“Love you too, Doll face.” He replied. Julie growled as she came upon another alley and saw him there.

“What do you want?” she asked him in all seriousness. He pretended to think about it. He didn’t answer for a long time. Julie stood there, in plain sunlight as he though inside the alley. With her arms crossed she looked at him maliciously. Minutes passed and Julie was about to walk away, but a large, evil grin suddenly spread across William’s face. It was so large, that it made the Cheshire Cat’s look only mediocre.

“I. Want. You. Dead.”