Infatuated

Her hair haloed out from her head, the midnight black colour of it standing out against the stark white of the hospital sheets. Upon closer inspection I saw hints of red buried in her hair. Her pale skin was waxy and her soft pink lips were parted slightly. Several machines were hooked up to her, all emitting slow, annoying beeps. Mikey slowly walked over to her bed side and placed some slightly crushed pink daisies in a vase by her bed, throwing out the pervious flowers into the trashcan.

“Oh, Mr. Smith, so nice to see you again.” A heavyset nurse bustled into the room, quickly checking all of the girl’s tubes and wires.

“Hey there Bettie.” Mikey gave her a wry smile, “How’s she doing?”

“The same.” Nurse Bettie sighed, “Poor girl. I wonder what did this to her, we never got a cause.” She tutted softly and wrote something down on the clipboard hanging off the edge of the bed.

“Yeah.” Mikey’s voice was nostalgic. “Such a shame.”

“It’s so nice she has you though Johnny. You come visit her every week without fail. You her boyfriend Mr. Smith?”

“Um, no.” Mikey looked embarrassed, “Just the guy who found her.” Nurse Bettie gave Mikey a sunny smile and patted his shoulder comfortingly.

“All right John, you let me know if you need anything, okay dearie?” She bustled out of the room, her regulation white tennis shoes squeaking along the floor as she went.

“John Smith?” I scoffed as soon as the nurse was out of earshot.

“Yeah, well,” Mikey scratched the back of his neck, “There was no way in hell I’m going to give them my real name.”

“But John Smith?” I pulled up a chair next to the bed, “It’s like me giving the fake name ‘Jane Doe’, it’s a given that it’s fake.”

“Whatever.” Mikey sighed and a silence blanketed itself over the room for a while, the only sound was that annoying beep of the heart monitor.

“She can hear us you know.” Mikey said after a while, his hand gently placing itself over hers. It was startling how close in colour they were.

“Oh,” I exhaled sharply, “Okay then. Um, hi Silver.” I waved slightly then promptly realized that she was in a fucking coma, and she couldn’t see me.

I don’t know why I expected a response. “Mikey I feel kinda stupid.” I whispered to him. He gave me a small smile. “Yeah, so did I in the beginning.” He said, “But she can hear you. I promise.”

I nodded dumbly, not sure what to say to the girl in the coma.

“So, hello again Silver.” Mikey started, his thumb rubbing soothing circles on her hand. “This is the girl I was telling you about; the hunter.”

My heart thudded to a sickening stop. The hunter. He told her? He fucking told a human that hadn’t been exposed to this underground world of the creatures of the night prior to her trip to the hospital.

“She knows?” I hissed, “You told her?!”

“She can hear you.” Mikey reminded me grimly, “And yeah, she knows. I thought she had a right to know why she’s here, and that kinda... opened a floodgate of information.”

“Anyways,” Mikey whispered in my ear, way too low for Silver to hear. “The doctors say she’s not going to wake up.” He said it with such certainty that I felt my heart break.

“Oh.” I sighed, and gently touched Silver’s hand, sending an electric shock up my arm. I muttered an ‘ow’ then continued. “Well then I’m sorry Silver.” I still felt kinda stupid.

“Why don’t you tell her about yourself.” Mikey suggested quietly, “I’ve already told her something’s, but maybe you should...” He trailed off.

“Um, sure.” I leant back in my chair and placed my feet up on the white sheets of the bed. “My name is um,” I placed my lips by her ear and whispered my real name to her, extremely quietly. I was tired of introducing myself as Tess. That was not my name. And anyways, Mikey said she wasn’t going to wake up anytime soon, so I might as well.

“You didn’t hear that, did you?” I questioned Mikey who sat with his arms crossed across his chest and his eyes closed. He shook his head .

“Yeah, so as Mikey said I’m a hunter.” It felt odd talking about something like this to another human. “That means that I hunt and um, kill the bad vampires.” I flashed my eyes over to Mikey who now had a small smile on his lips.

“I told her about your rules.” Mikey smiled, “I think she liked them.”

“Did he tell you how he fucking kidnapped me?” I laughed slightly, no longer angry.

“Yeah I did.” Mikey grinned, “I also told her about how you and Gerard hated each other.”

“You kidnapped me!” I exclaimed, “I was angry! And then they locked me in the house, can you believe that?” I asked Silver, but did not wait for an answer I knew I would never get before continuing. “So I couldn’t leave, and then Gerard, his older brother by the way, I’m not sure if he told you that, was all ‘Well what’s your problem? Why you being such a bitch?’ He kidnapped me! And he wanted to be friends. I still have no idea why they kidnapped me too; Mikey said it was because I’m ‘interesting’.” I scoffed slightly.

“Silver knows the whole reason.” Mikey smirked at me.

“Oh, no fair!” I protested, “How come she gets to know?”

“Si-Si can keep a secret.” Mikey laughed lightly. He called her Si-Si. This was not good. I had an itching feeling in the bottom of stomach; Mikey had gotten way too attached to this girl. He gave her a nickname for Christ’s sake! What if he was in love with her? He would only get hurt, I mean, he said so himself that she isn’t going to wake up!

“Yeah, I’m sure you are good at keeping secrets.” I laughed slightly.

“Anyways.” Mikey placed his hand on top of Silver’s again. “Tessy and Gerard have finally stopped fighting Si.” He grinned, “He actually saved her life!”

“Yeah yeah,” I rolled my eyes, “He’s a hero , I get it.”

“So now they’re talking to each other.” Mikey smiled.

“And the even better part is that I can leave now!” I smiled, looking down at my wrists. Oddly, the marks were still there, but they’re function was no longer in place.

“Tessy.” Mikey’s voice was laced with sadness. “You were serious about leaving?”

“Well yeah Mikes.” I shot him a hesitant smile. “I have a job. I don’t even want to think about how the death rate in New York has climbed since I’ve been on my little, uh, vacation.”

“Actually Tess.” Mikey cleared his throat. “Some other hunters have been handling it just fine.”

“Oh.” I couldn’t explain the crushing sadness that enveloped my chest. Hunting was one of the only things that I had ever been good at, and they were doing just fine without me?

“Come on Tess.” Mikey sighed, moving his other hand to place on top of mine. “Don’t leave us.”

“But my apartment.” I tried weakly. “The rent is due soon, I gotta pay it.”

“Already done.” Mikey said quickly. “Gerard paid it a while ago.”

“He did?” I gasped.

“Yeah, so you’re good for another year and a half.” Mikey smiled at me.

“A YEAR AND A HALF?” I shrieked, “THAT’S LIKE, $10,200!”

“We’ve got cash lying around, no worries.” Mikey said, “A perk of being around about 2,000 years.”

“I’m going to pay you back.” I said certainly. “I promise. Every last fucking penny.”

“So you’re staying?” Mikey asked excitedly.

“I don’t know Mikes.” I sighed and dragged my hands over my face, cleaning the sleep out of my eyes. “I think I’ve kinda overstayed my welcome.”

Mikey roared with laughter, tears streaming down his cheeks. “Tessy,” He gasped once he stopped laughing, “We kidnapped you. Remember?”

“Right.” I blushed, extremely embarrassed.

“Please Tess?” Mikey’s bottom lip slipped into a slight pout.

“Don’t give me that face.” I grimaced at him.

“What face?”

“That puppy dog look!” I growled at him.

“Please Tessy!” Mikey pleaded. “Come on, we’ll miss you if you go. Pretty please?”

I silently deliberated for a while, mulling over the pros and cons. “Fine.” I sighed after a while.

“YES!” Mikey cheered, turning to Silver, “You hear that Si-Si, Tessy’s not going to leave us!”

“Johnny?” Nurse Bettie popped her head into the room, an apologetic smile on her face. “Visiting hours are over now. Let’s give Ms. Silver some rest.”

“Yeah sure.” Mikey stood up quickly and kissed Silver’s forehead. “See you next week Si.”

“Uh, nice meeting you Silver.” I patted her hand and stood up, following Mikey out of the small white room.

We walked down to the car in silence, both of us deep in thought. The loud roar of the ignition snapped me out of my revere.

“Thanks for coming Tess.” Mikey flashed me a smile as the car sped along the countryside back to their house in the middle of fucking nowhere.

“Hey, no worries I had fun.” I smiled, “She seems...nice.”

Mikey laughed lightly but then sighed, “You know every time I go I wonder what she’s really like?” He asked me. “I mean, does she like horror movies? What’s her favourite colour? Does she like milk on her cereal? Does she even like cereal?” Mikey exhaled noisily. “I just want to tell her I’m sorry.”

“You haven’t apologized yet?” I asked in surprise.

“Of course I have!” Mikey exclaimed, pulling into the house’s long drive. “Several times. I just want to hear her say something back.” He hung his head as he yanked the keys aggressively out of the ignition.

“She’ll forgive you Mikey.” I placed my hand lightly on his shoulder. The moonlight was filtering into the car, leaching the colour out of everything.

“I wouldn’t forgive me if I were her.” Mikey sighed then stepped out of the car, stumbling slightly. He came round and opened the door for me, helping me leap out of the large sedan.

“It’ll be all right, you’ll see Mikey.” I pulled him into a hug. I felt him smile into my shoulder.

“I like you like this Tessy.” Mikey pulled back and smiled at me. “You’re smiley and happy. It’s a nice change.”

“You know Mikes.” I laughed as I stepped into the warm interior of the house, “You’re not the first person to tell me that.”