Call out to the Dead

He sat there unflinching, hands resting on the knees of his crossed legs.

Not even thinking about it I grabbed the gun out of the night stand and aimed it at him.

“Eliza,” He spoke softly, an entirely different tone from the night before. “Put the gun down I’m not here to hurt you.”

I didn’t budge. “How the hell did you get in here?”

“Door same as anybody else.” He might as well have evaded that question. The door was locked just as it was when I fell to sleep. How could that have been the way he came in?

“Don’t worry about it Eliza. Just put the gun down you know it won’t do any good.”

Maybe it was the stillness, the soft timbre of his voice but something in me relaxed. I sat the gun down and slid up to sit with my back against the headboard pulling my knees to my chest.

Realizing I wasn’t going to speak he decided it was time to carry on with whatever he had to say.

“You listened to me.” There was still a tone of disbelief in his voice. “Everybody gets the dreams after they invite us but I can’t recall a single time they’ve listened. It’s intriguing.” His voice didn’t change.

My hand unconsciously wove around the rosary. “What are you talking about?”

He chuckled a light nonthreatening little laugh. “Your hand seems to already know. You protected your neck.”

“The rosary is what kept you away?” I was amazed.

He nodded looking at me, trying to figure me out. “You don’t strike me as the religious type though. Tiffany thought she was. She was wearing that gosh gold crucifix. Obviously whatever motivated her to wear that wasn’t faith in the symbol.” It was like he was unloading, like I was a friend he could share with.

I wasn’t meant to be a friend to this. Humans aren’t meant to listen to someone basically admit to a murder without having some reaction. I couldn’t move, I probably didn’t even blink.
If I thought I was scared before my trembling voice proved it had only gotten worse. “What do you want from me?”

His face softened even more here. Something in his face showed some hint of confusion. “I don’t know. I don’t know what I’m intended to do with the only person to ever heed the warnings. We’re designed to hunt where we’re called. We haunt for fun.”

I felt all the blood drain from my face. “You’re hunting?”

“This town is so small we’re doing most of our hunting in the neighboring cities.” He wasn’t looking at me anymore. He was gazing off trying to look inside himself really. “The one’s who called us. That’s who we’re pulled to.”

“Stop saying, ‘Called you’ I made a fucking douchebag remark!” I was freaking out again, this all seemed to be pointing in the direction of it all being my fault. “If we called you can’t we get rid of you too?!”

“Call it what you will.” He spoke softly in attempts to calm me. “It doesn’t work that way. You’re stuck with us until we are called elsewhere. I’ve already told you you’re safe, no one else in this city should have to worry. Three deaths in a town this small is already too suspicious.”

“Does that mean people are dropping like flies everywhere else?” It was more detached the farther from home but the blame still felt like it hit my shoulders.

“It’s not as large of a body count as you’re imagining.” He kept his rational tone. “We d0n’t have many young ones to worry about. It’s only newer vampires that make unnecessary kills.”

I was sitting in my bedroom surrounded by all the things that kept me most at ease. The things that I’d decided to surround myself with in the room you’re supposed to feel the safest in. Shaking though, as a horrible new fixture had joined us.

“Please stop shaking.” He asked hopelessly. “I honestly couldn’t hurt you if I wanted to. I can feel the pulse from your rosary from here. The closest I could get is the edge of your bed.”

He asked for something far easier said than done.

“So then this is going to be the last time I see you?” Wishful thinking.

He laughed. “You should hope not. I will be the most interesting person you’ve ever met.”

“I don’t care how interesting you think you are!”

He stopped me before I could say more by quickly raising his hand and shh-ing me. He stood rigidly and moved to the door.

His eyes were burning their bright intense color again. He saw something out there. “Shit.”

“What the fuck is out there?” This was someone I shot three times and made glib remarks. When he said ‘shit’ you should be fucking worried.

“Someone obviously more relentless than me.” He spoke mostly just for himself then muttered. “Fucking Erika.”

He focused so intently out the door that I knew I could have said anything and he’d have been oblivious.

I watched him assuming he was the only thing between “Erika” and me.

His eyes slid closed and his lips formed a few short words before his fangs dropped into place and he snarled just a bit.

He was communicating with her telepathically. Maybe Jo did have some competition for most interesting person I’d ever met.

He re-opened his eyes and turned to look at me. “Eliza just go back to sleep and remember not to take that rosary off. She won’t come near you while I’m around.” He moved back to his seat. “Vampires think they’re too good to fight amongst themselves in front of breathers.”

He expected me to sleep while he was sitting across from me. What was he on dope or dog food?

“You really don’t want me to leave. Just because she can’t touch you doesn’t mean everyone here is safe.”

Jo. Shit. I put my best friend in danger. Yeah, I’m pretty much going to hell.

With that in mind I resigned myself to crawl back under the covers and stiffly laid back down.

I couldn’t stop the question from forming on my lips. “Are you stronger than her?”

He chuckled lightly. “You should assume so if she’s not moved a step closer that I am enough.”

“She won’t try to climb into Jo’s window?” I asked trying not to sound as worried as I was.

“I promise you everyone under this roof is safe.” His eyes were still glowing.

I got the feeling there was something lurking under the surface, he wasn’t still intense because of Erika.

I didn’t think on it anymore and managed to fall to sleep.

Nothing was like a dream that had haunted you turned into something that felt light, peaceful, calm, blissful in comparison to the life I was currently living.

I walked through the woods this time, a nighttime stroll through my woods. Though I was still adorned in my horror movie heroin -or victim- outfit I was more serene.

Then I heard the rustling through the woods. My heart raced. I didn’t move though. I knew who was to come out of those woods and I didn’t trust him for a minute but I was frozen.

Michael, my friendly neighborhood vampire, emerged smiling his fangy smile eyes glowing as I was so accustomed to.

Then he was in front of me with his vampiric speed. His eyes just locked with mine. I assumed this was the moment before he lunged for my throat. I could all but see him tearing my neck to shreds savagely.

I could feel my rosary wasn’t there. It’s weight wasn’t present in it’s place. This definitely wasn’t my lucky day.

Except I was wrong.

Michael grabbed my waist with his left hand and put the other on the side of my neck using his thumb to push my chin up to allow easier access to my lips. His full lips were soft against mine and he drew me in easily. I was nothing more than a moth to his flame like the old vampire cinema where they had to do nothing more that catch your eyes and they could have you in their throws.

My blood pushed through my veins faster as the beating of my heart accelerated. Never did his hands leave me and even though I could feel his immeasurable strength buzzing through him never did his firm grip hurt me. He could have probably crushed my bones but he was being careful with me.

His hand trailed down my hip to the slit on the side of my dress and with one swift tug he ripped the slit even higher and grabbed my thigh hoisting it up over his hip. It was like something from a romance novel, at the very least it’s cover.

My left hand ended up at the nape of his neck and the right in the middle of his back as if I could hold him to myself if he tried to pull away.

The hand that had been lingering on my neck slowly slid down my body. Down my neck, lingering as it lightly traced down between my breasts, slowly veering off to come to the side of my body resting at my hip. He broke the kiss, my head fell back looking up toward him. His mouth open fangs glimmering in the moonlight eyes still locked with mine.

“Il tuo cuore è mio.” He spoke in only the lightest of words before his face attached to my neck.

Again I awoke covered in sweat all but flying out of my bed.

Sunlight now poured through the windows and the lounge Michael had been on when I fell to sleep was empty.

I let my body slump back into the bed trying to rest if even just for the moment but my mind went back to the dream. What had he said to me?