Infatuated

The light was shining through the kitchen window, illuminating the figure standing in front of the large bay window. Her back was turned, but I could tell her face was slanted upwards, her eyes closed against the warm light. Her greying blonde hair glistened in the brightness cascading down her back in loose curls.

“Mom?” I asked hesitantly, stepping forwards. “Is that you?”

“I’ve missed you A.B, I really have. It’s been what, six years?” The figure didn’t turn to face me, but I knew it was her. My mother’s voice had not changed over the years; it was still soft and gentle. Now that I looked closer, I recognized the clothing she was wearing; it was her favourite blue sweater and black skirt. She used to wear this outfit to church every Sunday when I was a child.

“No one’s called me that in a long time Ma.” I smiled softly at the old nickname. “And I’ve missed you too.”

“So, anything new A.B? Any boys I should know of?” All though I still could not see her face, I could hear the smile in my mother’s voice.

“No Ma.” I chuckled, “There never has been, and probably never will be.”

“Now don’t talk like that A.B. You’re a pretty young lady; there must be one boy that’s caught your eye.” She scolded me gently.

“Come on Ma, not this again.” I grinned, “Why you so eager for me to get hitched?”

“Well your grammar certainly hasn’t improved while I’ve been gone.” She said dryly. “And I just want to make sure you’re well taken care of A.B, now that I’m...” She took a deep breath, her voice suddenly turning scratchy, “...Now that I’m dead.” She said it with such soul crushing certainty that I nearly burst out into tears.

“Oh Mom.” My voice cracked, and a warm tear slid down my face. “I can take care of myself, you know that.”

She stayed silent for a long while after I said this. Finally she broke the silence, “Come over here A.B,” She said sadly, “I haven’t seen my baby in over six years, I think I deserve a hug.”

I hesitantly stepped towards her and wrapped my arms around her small figure. She was even tinier than me if that was possible. I breathed in deeply, memorizing her scent of grapefruit and lemons. We pulled apart hesitantly and I started at her face, taking in every detail; the soft curve of her ruby red lips, the curious mole that was under her left eye.

“I missed you so much mum.” I smiled, “I didn’t know what to do when you left. I was lost for a long time.”

Suddenly my mother let out an ear splitting shriek and crumpled to the floor.

“MA! MOM!” I cried, kneeling down beside her. My hands were now slick with blood; her blood. Two large puncture wounds appeared on her neck, spilling the red substance all over the floor.
“You could have saved me.” My mother gasped, her eyes clouding over. “That day in the kitchen, you could have saved me and you didn’t.”

“No,” I sobbed, pressing my hands against her wound in a desperate attempt to stop the bleeding. “No mom I’m sorry, I’m sorry!” The blood spurting from her neck however did not care for my apologies. It kept coming and coming and coming. No matter what I did the bleeding never stopped. My mother’s eyes fluttered shut and her chest ceased to move unevenly up and down.

“Mom?!” I shrieked, “MA! COME ON YOU CAN’T LEAVE ME AGAIN!” Hot tears were now streaking down my face.

“You killed her.” A raspy voice said from the corner. “She’s dead because of you.”

A large black figure stepped out of the corner. My heart beat quickened in fear and I scrambled backwards away from him. It was the man from all those years ago, the man that had haunted my dreams every night... it was the vampire I had been hunting for all along.

He had killed my mother.

I terrified screech ripped through my throat, and I closed my eyes tightly, knowing he was back to kill me. He advanced forwards, arms outstretched----

“TESS!”

My eyes snapped open and I bolted upwards, causing red hot pain to shoot through my body. The pain was worse than before now, the raw heat had infiltrated my bones, lighting my skeleton on fire. I cried out in pain and crumpled backwards, not being able to stay in an upright position. Two cool arms wrapped around me, holding me upwards.

“Shh, Tessy it’s me, calm down, it’s Mikey.” I relaxed at the sound of his voice. “I need you to calm down okay? Please Tessy I need you to stop crying.” I hadn’t even realized that I was still in hysterics.

“Mikey it hurts.” I whimpered pathetically. All my previous self-respect had flown out the window, I was in too much pain to care anymore. My symptoms had not gotten better; my head still felt like someone was drilling into it, the room was spinning out of control, my lungs felt as if they had collapsed, and now the heat was way passed insufferable.

Suddenly the door of the room I was in creaked open and a fuzzy figure entered the room.

“She’s awake.” A smooth voice acknowledged from the door way. It was Gerard.

“Go away.” My voice was breathy. I did not want him to see me like this, weak and defenceless.

“Tess.” Mikey’s voice was hard. “You need to listen to me right now. All we know right now is that you have a high fever. Don’t be fooled; this fever can and will kill you soon if we don’t find a way to make you better. I need you to tell Gerard exactly what happened so he can help, okay? Can you do that for me Tess?”

I nodded and Mikey helped me into a sitting position so I was leaning up against his cool chest. His skin however was not as cool as I hoped it would be; it did next to nothing to help my burning skin.

“Okay Tess.” Gerard’s voice was cold and uncaring. “You walk into the kitchen and see a package sitting on the counter, correct?”

I nodded pathetically again.

“Then what’d you do?” Gerard inquired.

“I called Mikey.” My voice sound like sandpaper.

“Why?”

“I didn’t know who it was from.” My voice sounded small even in my own ears. I was disgusted with myself. “He said it’d be okay to...” I took a large breath, finding that the longer sentences were harder to get out; I was running out of breath halfway through. “...to open it. So I did and...” I winced at the memory.

“Then what?” Gerard probed.

“A red fog came out.” I gasped. “It felt like a summer’s breeze.”

“And then?”

“Then it got hot.” I whimpered, trying to ignore the pain coursing through my body. I had never felt like this before; not even when I fell off the roof of my house in grade four and broke nearly every single bone in my body.

“Son of a bitch.” Gerard muttered angrily.

“What?” I choked out.

“Tess right now it looks as if you’ve been...” Mikey trailed off.

“Been what?” I demanded.

“Cursed.” Gerard spit. “It seems that you have been cursed Tess.”

I felt what dwindling amounts of oxygen in my lungs leaving them in a torrent.

“Cur- cursed?” I sputtered. I felt a shooting pain travel through my lungs and I winced in pain.

“What can we do Gee?” Mikey sounded as hopeless as I felt. “The fever is climbing by the minute.” His voice cracked in desperation. I was too shocked to respond.

“We need to find a way to keep the fever down.” Gerard paced towards me and placed his hand on my forehead. Instead of swatting it away like every sane thought in my head was telling me to I sighed in contentment and closed my eyes, leaning into his hand. It was way colder that Mikey’s. Compared to his, Mikey’s body temperature was like Vegas in the middle of the summer, whilst Gerard’s was like the inside of an industrial freezer.

“What are you doing Tess?” Mikey asked, surprised. “Why aren’t you yelling at him to ‘get his hands off you’ or anything?”

“Mmmm.” I mumbled incoherently, dragging a weak arm upwards and pressing it against Gerard’s, absorbing its chilliness.

I felt Gerard squirm uncomfortably under my touch and pull away.

“No,” I gasped and wrenched my eyes open. Gerard’s face was one of pure shock.

“What was that?” He gasped.

“N-nothing.” I stammered, embarrassed. How could I object to Gerard going away? What the fuck was wrong with me?

“That’s it!” Mikey exclaimed. “You said all we needed to do was keep the fever down, right Gerard?”

“All we need to do?” Gerard’s tone was disbelieving. “You said so yourself that the fucking fever was rising by the minute!”

“Listen to me for a second.” Mikey said, exasperated. “You and I both know that it was Rache who did this Gerard, although I can’t understand why. We just need to keep Tessy alive long enough for Frank, Ray, Bob and I to find her and bring her back here and force her to cure Tess.”

“No way, I’m coming with you.” Gerard growled.

“You’re staying here with Tess.” Mikey gently held me tighter. “You’re the one that’s going to keep her alive.”

“What?” I gasped. I may feel like I was burning in the fiery pits of hell right now, but here was no way I was staying alone with Gerard, no matter how desperate I was.

“Tess,” Mikey said calmly, “Did you know that as a vampire ages their body temperatures drop? So the older a vampire is the colder they are?”

“So what?” I heaved a heavy sigh.

“I don’t know if you know this Tess but Gerard is about 2,000 year old.”

My eyes widened in total amazement.

“Meaning,” Mikey carried on, “That his body temperature if pretty much as low as you’re going to find. So I was thinking that while we go out and round up Rache, you Gerard would maintain... um... constant skin to skin contact with Tess to keep her fever down.”

“No way.” I hissed. “Michael Way you must be crazy if you think I’m going to be cool with that.”

“Well it’s not really you’re choice is it?” Gerard had a lazy smirk plastered on his face. “It’s not like you’d be able to fight me off, especially in this weakened state.”

“Why do you even care?” I growled, “You hate me remember? ‘No more Mr. Nice guy’ if I remember correctly.”

Gerard’s smirked slipped of his face. “Well... You’re important to my brother.” He glared at me. “So as much as I would love to let this fever ravage your body and kill you I can’t, cause it would kill Mikey too.”

“It’s settled then.” Mikey’s voice was grim as he stood up. He turned towards me and placed his hand on my face. “Hang in there Tess, okay? I want you alive and being a sarcastic pain in the ass when I get back, you promise me?”

“Promise.” I mumbled and he placed a gentle kiss on my forehead.

“Take care of her Gerard.” Mikey patted his brother on the back as he exited the room.

As soon as the door drifted shut after him Gerard started to shrug his shirt off.

“What the hell do you think.... you’re doing?” A large cough interrupted my sentence.

“Maintaining constant skin to skin contact.” Gerard’s smirk had found it’s was back onto his face. “Oh cheer up!” Gerard said dryly as he walked towards me. “You know you’ve wanted to get me shirtless and in bed since the moment you laid eyes on me.”

My face contorted into a grimace. “Why don’t you just drop dead?”