Call out to the Dead

That was how things went, for a few days anyway.

During the day Jo and I fell back into our human routines. Doing all of our typical human things so the town wouldn’t start to whisper and assume we disappeared just like Janet and Tiffany. So far neither of their bodies -remains- had been discovered. After the light had retreated from view, the house was guarded.

Some nights Michael wouldn’t come in until I was asleep. I’d just wake with him there seemingly preoccupied with his own thoughts. Others he and -usually- DJ would come in and give us some real company.

This night was like the former. I stirred -although Michael had kept himself from my dreams- finding myself not in the best of moods even before I opened my eyes. Waking up with head pounding reminding you that you didn’t drink enough water through the day still tired makes you behave far less than gracious.

He sat across from me in his usual spot in the lounge across from my bed. I was becoming far less afraid of waking up like this.

His eyes lingered on me attempting to look casual. His age -though I only knew it was more than a human lifetime- sometimes just rang through deep in his eyes. I read him today, I could see the intensity burning in his eyes making them bright green. “Hello Eliza.”

“Michael.” I spoke sleepily. “Am I not allowed to sleep through the night anymore?”

“Take off the rosary.” It was probably more of a command than a request but the words were soft.

For a moment I honestly considered it. Survival instincts told me no. So I gave him no answer.

“I want to touch your hair; not feel the push of the thing while I’m trying to figure you out. You should have figured by now that I’m not going to rip your throat out. If we were still trying to kill you we’d be ripping all your friends apart in your backyard.” Then as if he just realized how those words would effect a human. “Sorry that was more than I meant to say.”

“It’s shocking that speech didn’t convince me.” I didn’t mean to sound as sarcastic as I did but I just couldn’t stop myself.

“Damn it Eliza! I have done everything I can to keep you safe and you can’t even trust me enough to let me touch you!” His frustration bubbled up into shouts as he threw himself up out of the chair. The more rage that filled him the more venom shook through his voice. “I have put myself at odds with my own kind for you! For you Eliza I have put myself and my brothers at risk! I am only lucky that none of us are dead yet!”

I was shocked. This was quite the revelation from the fearsome vampire that had been lurking around me. “Why?” I couldn’t stop that from betraying me in the trip passed my lips.

“I need a favor.” He wanted me to believe that was the answer to the question. “I need a safe place for me and my brothers to stay through the day. You’re lower floor is partially underground, less windows? You don’t use it?”

Well if I was curious about why before I stopped caring right then. “Your brothers?”

“Three other vampires. The first being DJ obviously. The other two of them you’ve seen before. I’m sure you already really know.” He spoke easily. “No one will come to harm anywhere near your home.”

I knew he was at least trying to be honest with me. “For all I know you guys could have been down there the whole time.”

“That is as close to permission I’ll get from you isn’t it?” He just chuckled lightly. “We’ll be making it light tight. You won’t be kept up by us.”

He started on his way out my French doors. “We won’t come up. We’ll treat it like separate apartments.” I knew that really only meant they wouldn’t be anymore invasive than they already were. They would continue to use the exterior doors. They weren’t going to miraculously start knocking. I already knew that vampires never waited outside a door, they just didn’t. They weren’t wired to have that very human boundary.

***

After Michael, DJ, Aaron, and Phil started living right below me I seemed to see him less. My only guess was that Michael was avoiding me because he was feeling the slightest bit awkward after his little confession the only a few nights before.

Phil and Aaron were the other two vampires I’d seen with Michael the first night -not to forget the bar- Aaron the pierced man, Phil the lanky fellow with hair longer than DJ’s.

Aaron was the softer spoken of the two. Seemed that there was something weighing on him that kept me from really understanding his personality at that point.

Phil was their spaz. Although he had nothing on Kelsey. He made the crazy faces, insane jokes, and never let the silence fall.

I was in the kitchen cooking dinner for Jo and me -she was doing something for school I think- when I turned back toward the island Phil sat on the other side on one of the bar-stools just watching me.

I could have jumped out of my skin. “God, I hate the way you guys do that.”

He chuckled his very distinctive little chuckle, something about it was just perfectly unmistakable. “That’s why it’s fun.”

I relaxed and got back into what I was doing. “So what’s new Philip?”

“Nothing’ just trying to waste some time.” He spoke as he pushed his hair back so he could see without a curtain of black hair skewing his view.

“I supposed you have it to waste.” I didn’t think too much about what we were saying. I was off in another world. “Did anyone have tattoos when you were alive?”

Jo and I had a plan. We were working on tricking them all into telling stories so we could approximate their ages. It was mostly Jo’s brainchild but it was fun for me too.

He laughed. “No one in polite society. People who had no home but the sea.”

Then it was like he opened a door to the past that I could see into. I could see exactly what he meant even with so little said.

“You were a pirate?” I asked forgetting about dinner for a minute.

A wry smile slid halfway up his face. “It’s not as romantic as it sounds. Death, plagues, all of those things were running rampant on shore. The ships were so much worse. You had to have the stomach to toss a rotting corpse of someone you knew overboard.”

Not quite the picture invoked as Johnny Depp swaggers across the screen.

“But it was one hell of a party.” He almost sighed as he said it.

I laughed. After all of that it still came back to the party. “You still have one of those old fashioned tattoos don’t you?” I asked curiously.

His smile was criminal now. “Michael might not approve of this interest you are showing to my body.”

I scoffed. "Oh, Phil, I’m talking about antiques and you think I’m talking about your body... Oh wait.”

“You are vicious!” He said putting his hand over his heart. “And I’m the demon! Are you sure you don’t have fangs? I never have seen you during the day.”

He was ridiculous. You couldn’t not love him.

I rolled my eyes and focused back on the vegetables I was chopping. “That’s because you’re not out during the day, you crazy blood sucker!”

If there’s any one thing a human never gets used to it’s having new people appear in the room with no warning.

“That sounds a bit harsh.” I’d hardly heard this voice as of late which made it all the more jarring that it pierced the air before I was even aware of his presence.

I jumped. “Why the fuck do you all do that?”

“Because it’s fun.” They both spoke as if it was obvious.

“What were you two talking about?” He asked as he leaned his arms on the island forgoing sitting down.

“She wants to explore my body.” Phil blurted out shamelessly.

Michael just looked at me with his eyebrows knit together in an unreadable expression.

I rolled my eyes. “I asked if he still had any tattoos from his human pirate days.”

Michael’s face relaxed.

“Yeah, she called me an antique.” Phil said feigning hurt like he was tattling on me.

Michael laughed. “If you’re an antique then I must be a relic.”

I jumped on this, he’d never revealed anything about his age. “You’re older than Phil?”

He smirked. “I’m not helping you and Jo guess our ages.” Michael seemed to be one step ahead of us.

***

The only time my rosary came off was when I bathed. This day I’d gotten a late start. I’d slept late into the one day I actually had to go into town for a class and grab groceries.

When I got home and loaded all the groceries to their proper place all I wanted was a nice hot bath.

I ran my bath and pulled out all the stops. I added my bath salts, organic bubble soap that smelled like a mango martini, and turned the jets on full blast so the bubbles would be even more intense.

There are times when just the feeling of warm water cascading over your bare skin that just takes you away. It was almost like being in a trance. My body all but turned into jelly in the hot water.

I took my time and shaved. Put a hand towel over my face after dipping it in the hot water. It was like a really cheap spa treatment.

It’s funny the way the most surreal beautiful moments tend to be followed by nightmares. Life is balance right?

My my fingertips and the pads if my toes were getting prune-y and all the tension I’d been toting around was lost somewhere under the dissipating bubbles.

My head was still lulled against the back of the tub but my eyes were slowly sliding open showing me the low lit room blurred at the edges, getting clearer the more open my eyes were. One thing that didn’t change with my vision was the dark figure in the corner of the room. The corner with the door. A dark figure with bright hair and a vindictive smile.

Night had fallen and I might not get up.

Remember back to a time where some asshole gave you the advice, “imagine they’re all int their underwear,” when you had to speak publicly. They tell you to do that so they seem less intimidating. They never really said how vulnerable, hopeless, and at someone else mercy you felt when caught so off guard.

Erika eyes cool, fangs hidden, just looking at me like the cat who caught the mouse standing with her right shoulder against the locked door. It just let me know further any move I made she was the one letting me make it. She was right, there was no escape.