Honest in Lies

The lacrosse stick dropped from her hands as they moved to cover her mouth. Candy wasn’t even caring about the extent of her wound, just the fact that she had killed a man. A man she had thought was normal. Jesse was dead now. It was when Charles had grabbed her by the arm and thrown her over his shoulder did she finally start to sink in a low isolation.

Candy wasn’t a killer. Yet she had just killed a man. A man she knew. A man she thought she knew, and thought she could trust. Her life was spiraling out of control and she didn’t even know if what was happening was real. Maybe this was all a dream and she’d wake up. But the movement of her thumping up and dead as Charles ran, was telling her this was reality. She wouldn’t wake up. She’d only fall asleep. Candy couldn’t cry, couldn’t fight, and couldn’t scream. She just let herself drift away.

The next time she opened her eyes, she was in a room, without windows. There was hardly any light, besides a sizzling one above her. “Charles?” she whispered, sitting up from a cot on the floor.

“I was beginning to think you were dead,” he replied from the other side of the room.

“What happened?” she mumbled, letting her arm fall over a blood crusted spot where Jesse had nabbed her.

“Werewolves attacked in attempt to kill you. Supposedly, Jesse had it out for you real good. Wanted to make you a werewolf, but couldn’t play the game fairly when he found out Gaspard had gotten to you first. After you killed Jesse, thinks got out of hand.” She almost vomited on the word kill. “Gaspard made me take you far, far away from there.”

“Where are we?”

“Far, far away from there.”

“No, seriously, where are we?”

“In a small house in Oklahoma.”

Candy blinked. “I’m sorry.”

She felt his eyes turn on her. “Excuse me?”

“For making your life so much more complicated. I mean…I’m sure the last thing you want to be doing is taking care of some little human.”

“Incorrect. This is the first thing I’d rather be doing. Keeps my mind off things.”

She chewed her lip before speaking again. “Things like your wife?”

Charles didn’t answer for the longest time. “Yes.”

“Tell me about her,” she said softly, knees curling up crankily to her chest. “I want to know what she was like.”

Charles paused again; Candy could hear him sigh inwardly. “I met her, at a bar a few years after I had been turned into a vampire. Still in my human years, mind you.” He said slowly. “She was the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. Just the way her hair tumbled in curls down her back as she sat there. It was weird enough she was at the bar, others steered clear of her, why I knew not. Our eyes locked and I knew she was going to be the girl I spent the rest of my life with,” he paused. “Or the time what I thought was the rest of my life. We started a friendly courtship, and I found myself falling so deeply in love. On the day I told her I was a vampire, she told me she knew all along. I asked how. She said the way I stared at her jugular like a rabbits stew,” he chuckled. “She had the best sense of humor. We married months later, and she asked me to turn her into a vampire. I denied, because I didn’t want to see her life wasted so early. And then…then a few months later they killed her.” His voice began to tremble. “I heard her screaming, she was out for a walk. I tried to run as fast I could, pushed myself beyond my limits to reach her.

“But it was too late, they killed her. Ripped her throat out, and started to eat her flesh. That’s what was left of her when I got there. Discarded flesh,” he sobbed loudly. “I couldn’t save her. I couldn’t save her from a death. I should have listened to her, changed her when she asked me. I could have saved her. She’d still be here with me right now and I wouldn’t be so alone.” He was sobbing hard and clumsily, his chest heaving and throwing itself around. “I’d still have her today.”

She moved over to him and hugged him tightly, rubbing his back in what she considered a soothing motion. “Charles…”

“What?”

“What was her name?”

“Piera.”

Candy froze, swallowing hardly. “Excuse me? Piera’s a vampire.”

He shook his head. “No, she’s not. Why do you think Gaspard’s giving her such a hard time? Because of me. Because I had to bite her and mix the werewolf and vampire venom. She’s the only half breed species, and she won’t even look at me. She’s lost all her love for me. She won’t even speak to me.”

Candy nodded, “Maybe she still needs time. Maybe she’s still trying to cope, Charles. If your love is true, it’ll fall neatly back into a perfect shape. I promise.”

He nodded weakly. “Promise.”

Candy pulled back, forcing him to look at her. “But I need a favor from you too.”

“Which is?”

“I need you to make me a vampire.”