To Forgive Is Divine, but I’m Not That Type

I had woken up an hour ago to find that I had slept all day (again), and it was now late at night. I instantly walked over to Marko and took my place by his side. I had never felt this way about another person before. Sure, when I went to school, I had had boyfriends. But they never worked out, and I never loved any of them; even after dating one boy for almost two years, I felt nothing except affection.

Yet with Marko, it was so different. My heart would beat faster at the sound of his voice, I had to remind myself to breathe when he smiled, and when he held me I was at peace. For the first time in my 17 years, I was in love.

But I knew there was something different about Marko and the rest of the boys, they seemed almost to perfect and they always had a twinkle in their eye as if to say something like ‘I know something that you don’t and you’re not going to find out’, and they all seemed to look alike, despite not being actually related. They all had the same pale skin, even Dwayne who was half-Cherokee Indian and half Hispanic. And then there was the scent, they all had a similar scent — one that, no matter how hard I tried, I could not place it.

I was pulled from my thoughts by Marko placing a kiss on my forehead. I looked up into his eyes (as he was at least four inches taller than me).

“How long have I been here for?” I asked him, not being able to take my eyes away from his.

“About 24 hours,” he replied. “The sun has only just gone down.”

I started to panic. “Oh no! Why did I stay here last night? Goshdarnit! Sally’s probably called the cops by now! And then Mom’s gonna find me, I’ll have to go home and then Dad’ll beat me again. And Sam will probably get it for sticking up for me, and Mike’ll kill me!” I said, barely stopping for breath.

Marko held me tight, soothing me “Shh. Nothing’s going to happen to you, Roxy. I would never let it happen to you, and don’t worry about your dad. He can never hurt you again, not now that...”

“Now that what?” I asked. I really wanted to know. After all, I was that curious.

“Now that you are one of us,” came David’s voice from behind us.

I looked at him, puzzled. I had to admit, the way that he was acting was seriously starting to creep me out.

“Which is what, exactly?”

David just smirked. “Oh, you’ll see. You’ll see very soon.”

Almost as if on cue, my entire body was attacked by an endless hunger shooting pain through my body; my thoughts traveled to the bag of crisps and chocolate bar that I had in my jacket pocket, but somehow I knew that it would not be enough to sustain me. No, I craved something very different, and I did not know what it was.

As if reading my thoughts, David said, “Close your eyes, Roxy. We’ll take you to get what you need.”

I shut my eyelids and hugged myself tighter in Marko’s chest. I felt the wind whip around us and heard the roar of the ocean crashing on the rocks fade as we passed over the cliff. I did not question what was happening as the pain was too great. I just trusted Marko with my life, and did not ask how we were moving so fast without traveling on our bikes.

Then as suddenly as the sound had started, it stopped and we became still.

“Open your eyes, Roxy.”

I did as David commanded, and saw that we were outside my old house — the very house that I had tried so hard to get away from. I pushed Marko away from me with a force I didn’t even know that I had. My temper flared and I shouted at them.

“AFTER EVERYTHING THAT I TOLD YOU ABOUT ME, YOU BRING ME BACK TO THE ONE PLACE I TOLD YOU I HATED? YOU’RE TWISTED, MARKO! AND TO THINK I TRUSTED YOU BOTH!”

Marko tried to talk but I brushed past him and ran into the house. Hell, if I was already here, I might as well pick up some of my stuff, and if Marko and David were still there then I would find a knife in the kitchen and attack them. However, when that thought came to me, I winced. I knew that I couldn’t hurt Marko, no matter what I still loved him.

I began to shove some of my clothes into a rucksack. I also found some of my old sketch books, which I added to the bag as well. Then I slung the bag on my back and started to walk down the stairs. When I reached the second stair down I heard the voice that I disliked a little (or rather, a lot).

And who was it, you ask? It was none other than Daddy dearest.

“So you finally came back, did you? You little brat. No wonder your mother left. I bet she couldn’t stand the thought of you finding her again. Not that I mind about her leaving. After all, Daisy is much prettier.”

I turned around to see my father standing there, bold as brass, sneering at me. After all he put me through, he had the courage to stand there and taunt me! Wait, hold on a tick... did he say that Mom left? And who is ‘Daisy’? His new girlfriend, maybe? Or maybe she was the SAT dad had cheated on Mom with. I wasn’t sure (so I made a mental note to find out later).

“Well, at least with your mother gone, there’s no one to stop me from getting rid of you once and for all, is there?”

He laughed darkly and pulled out a switchblade. “Now, do you recall when you tried to slit my throat? Well, now I’m going to slit yours!”

He lunged at me with the knife, but I was faster. I punched him on the nose causing blood to spurt from the now-broken nose and onto my face. Without thinking about it, I licked the blood off of my face, and instantly grew thirsty. Now I was not just thirsty, I was also angry. I pounced on him and snuck my teeth into his neck. Warm blood ran past my teeth and down my throat. I gnawed at his neck, and then decided that the blood was not coming to me fast enough. I ripped part of the flesh from his neck and spat it out only to sink my teeth in his neck again. Finally, after sucking away the last of his blood, I broke away from him and stared in sick fascination of what I had just done. I expected to feel remorse for what I did, but I felt nothing. After all, he had deserved to die anyway. And I was given my chance to kill him by four boys with the names of Marko, David, Dwayne and Paul.

“Now do you see why we brought you here? We weren’t being cruel, Roxy. We were trying to help you, and by the looks of it, we succeeded,” David said

“What am I?” I asked. I was so shocked at what I had done. I could not tear my gaze away from my father’s body.

“You’re one of us, Roxy. You’ll never grow old and you’ll never die, but you must feed. In other words, you’re a vampire Roxy, one of the pack, and we will fight to protect you,” David said.

“Yeah, Roxy. I would never hurt you, I told you I wouldn’t, Roxy. I love you.”

I was, for lack of a better word, completely and utterly gob-smacked.

“I... I love you too, but how? I’ve only just met you,” I stuttered, still unable to tear my eyes from the body.

David explained, “In the vampire world, Roxy, there are certain special humans who, from birth, are destined to be part of a vampire pack to love a vampire, this kind of love more powerful than any love that exists and you Roxy were destined to be with Marko. Not only that, but when we first saw you on the beach, we knew that we needed you in the pack the same way I knew that I needed Dwayne Paul and Marko in the pack, it was just how it was supposed to be. I don’t know how I knew. I just knew.”

I drew my eyes away from the body and stared at David and Marko, before flinging myself at Marko, wrapping him in a tight hug, he wrapped his arms around my waist and held me just as tightly.

“We should head back now,” David told us. “But first, we need to get rid of this body.” Marko nodded and slung me on his back; I hooked my arms around his neck and my legs around his waist. David picked up the body, and Marko and he took flight. I tightened my grip, afraid that I was going to fall. I felt Marko laughing at my reaction, and I couldn’t help but laugh as well.

We were flying over the sea now. David took the opportunity and dropped the body, and flew faster without the extra weight. Marko flew a bit faster as well, and before I knew it we were back at the cave, Marko set me down on the sofa and he sat next to me, playing with a piece of my hair. I linked my hand in his, and we just sat there like that, waiting for Paul and Dwayne to arrive from the place where they slept. Apparently they always slept the longest.

“Oh, there you guys are,” I called when they finally made their appearance, rubbing the sleepy dust from their eyes.

“Oh, you’re one to talk, Roxy. I need my beauty sleep,” said Paul, yawning.

“You’d better go back to sleep then, Paul, because I don’t think you got enough,” Dwayne said, laughing.

Paul slapped Dwayne around the head and glared at him, but then grinned, showing he was just being playful. Dwayne just laughed harder.

“Marko, does she know? Did she...?” Paul asked Marko. I noticed he looked serious for once.

“Yeah. Yeah, I know, Paul. And yes, before you ask, Daddy Dearest won’t be bothering me anymore,” I said with a smile on my face, Paul roared with laughter and ran and pulled me into a hug, swinging me around. He went as if to throw me, but pulled me back at the last minute.

“Don’t you dare!” I shrieked.

Paul smirked and threw me in the air, Dwayne caught me and set me on my feet. I smiled at him and childishly stuck my tongue out at Paul, then smirked at him.

“What are you smirking at?” he asked.

I laughed and held up his wallet. I flicked it open and read, “Paul Edmund Thompson. May I call you Edmund?” Paul glared at me, a slight blush on his cheeks. Then he giggled.

“Only if I can call you Louise.” He held up my wallet.

I blushed at my middle name; I’d always hated it because it was the name of my grandmother on my mom’s side. “I won’t call you by your middle name if you don’t,” I said.

Paul grinned and then nodded sagely. He then turned to Marko and Dwayne. “What about you guys? Do you have embarrassing middle names?”

“Massimo,” Marko grunted. Paul roared with laughter.

“Your parents named you ‛Marko Massimo’? Dude, I bet you paid for that when you went to school!”

Marko punched Paul on the arm violently. “Shut up, Eddie.”

“So, Dwayne, what’s your middle name?” I asked, trying to take Paul and Marko’s attention away from hitting each other.

“Jason,” he said.

“That’s so unfair. You have a normal middle name, and we have to have lame middle names that are our grandparents’ names!” Paul groaned.

Dwayne grinned at him and shook his head.

“If you guys think your names are bad, you wouldn’t believe my brother’s,” I said giggling.

“Why? What is his middle name, then?”

“Bernard-Jackson,” I giggled.

They all laughed as well. “Did your mom choose the stupidest middle names she could or what?” Paul asked.

“Yeah, but with Sammie’s, I insisted that she use a normal name. In the end, she let me choose it, so I just said ‛Matt’, but she insisted that he be called Matthew. Speaking of which, what about you guys? Do you have any brothers or sisters?”

“I’m an only child,” Marko said.

“I had an older sister, but she died when I was 10; she got run over by a truck, and I had a half-sister who lives with my mom. My mom and dad broke up after Cindy died. I stayed with dad, but mom left us. She wrote to me once and told me she had another daughter called Jessica; I never knew her,” Dwayne said.

I gasped. “I’m so sorry, Dwayne. I didn’t mean to bring that up.”

He smiled at me. “It’s fine. After all, it was a long time ago.”

“I had a younger brother. I ran away from home when I was 16; he was only seven at the time,” Paul said. “His name was Laddie. I don’t know what happened to him. I just hope that child services caught up with my mom; she was always drunk or high, and never looked after us, the way a good mother is supposed to. But I couldn’t take Laddie with me; there wasn’t enough time for me to do so.”

Tears fell down Paul’s face. All his joking aside now, he was hurting. I felt bad for him. I wrapped my arms around him and held him, just like I used to hold Sam when he got scared at night by Dad when he was drunk (despite the fact that that he was much bigger then Sam was, not to mention four years older than him).

“It’s not your fault, Paul. I’m sure Laddie got away, and if not, then we’ll just have to go and look for him, won’t we?”

Paul smiled at me. It was a weak smile, but it was a smile nonetheless. “I’d like that. To find my brother, I mean.”

I felt a twinge of pain at the mention of this. I knew that I would love to find my little brother as well. But I knew that I couldn’t, because that would mean going near my older brother and my mother, and I was nowhere near ready to do that.

“I know how you feel. I miss Sam all the time. He was the best little brother I could wish for, or better yet, the best little brother that any big sister could wish for if they were in my shoes. Plus, he was the only one out of my family who I trusted. I mean, sure, I loved my mom, but she was too soft to be there when I needed her. To be honest, she only divorced my dad after I left.”

Marko walked up behind me and wrapped his arms around my waist, resting his chin on my head.

“Don’t be sad, Roxy. After all, you still have us. We’ll always be here for you.”

I turned my face and kissed his lips gently. “Thank you.”

“Paul, if you want to find your house, then we will,” David said.

Paul beamed. “Awesome! Can we go now?”

David laughed at Paul’s enthusiasm. “Sure, Paul. We can go now,” he replied. “Whereabouts did you live, anyway?”

“Just outside of Los Gatos. You know, where Max is supposed to have that big store he runs.”

We hopped on our bikes and sped away.