Trembling With the Strings

Not Mine

None of us went to school the next day. Marty was too upset to go, Johnny had gotten a fever, Marcus was getting paranoid about being around humans (he could slip up and kill someone), and I didn’t much feel like going. Darius hadn’t objected at all, but he also didn’t like the idea of staying at home with my mother, so we decided to get out of the house for a little bit. My mother didn’t let us go without a fight, but Darius had hit her where it hurt—by bringing up her dead husband. She had shut up and slunk down the hall and into her bedroom.

Darius told me that he needed to talk to his father and that he wanted to see Dante. He also said that we needed to talk to him about the name for the kid since he was going to be the father. I hadn’t said a word when he brought that up, but he didn’t make a spectacle of it.

The car ride was normal enough, though I’m sure neither of us was unaware of the thickening awkwardness in the air. I bet Darius would be glad when I had the baby so we’d never have to talk about it again. He had already told me that we were moving out once we were married, so I probably wouldn’t see my baby boy very often. He had even gone as far as to say that it was probably better that way.

“Darius, Gracie, it’s good to see that you two are doing well,” Drakken bid us as we walked in. Darius smiled, and I forced one when he elbowed me lightly in the side.

“Yeah. I needed to talk to you about our little situation. It just got even worse.”

“What do you mean?” his father asked, sending a fleeting glance my way. Darius looked over at me.

“Gracie, maybe you want to go talk to Dante?” he asked rhetorically.

I nodded reluctantly, trudging slowly up the stairs. I heard them start talking about my dead father before I had even made it to the second floor.

I knocked on Dante’s door, and Cameron answered. She smiled and hugged me before dragging me in and cooing at my stomach.

“How much time left?” she asked me, falling onto Dante’s bed. Dante pulled her onto his lap, kissing her cheek. I felt a little awkward to say the least.

“A little under three months,” I told her, placing a hand on my stomach. Three months and my baby wouldn’t be my baby any longer. “Darius said that I should talk to you two about names.”

“Oh, Dante: a name!” Cameron squealed in delight. “I know what I want!”

“Anything you want, sweetie,” he murmured, smiling softly. “What did you have in mind?”

“I absolutely love the name Lance! Can we name him Lance?”

My heart nearly stopped. Out of all the names in the world, why did it have to be Lance?

Dante smiled. “Lance it is. Gracie, that’s okay with you and my brother, right?” I forced myself to smile and nod.

“It’s a very nice name.”

It shouldn’t have mattered to me. Lance was just a name. But it had been a name that had ruined everything. I didn’t want to shudder every time I heard my baby’s name!

But, then again, he wasn’t my baby anymore, and that absolutely killed me.
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This story is pretty close to have 200 subscribers, and I love that you comment so much =] that provides inspiration to keep going with this (seriously lengthy!) story. I put up a new story, Learning How to Swim. If you're interested, please look. Trembling with the Strings became so popular, but I'm not sure how it happened exactly! I suppose vampire stories are popular, so my new story isn't thriving in that community. I know you read my vampire stories, but a story doesn't have to have immortals to still be a decent read =] I would appreciate if you would give it a chance.