A Halo of Light

I clutched the edges of the counter as I stared into my reflection; I thought I would look different, paler even. But no—here I go stereotyping, stupid fucking Hollywood movies, but I look exactly the same. Same eyes, same face, and hair. It’s as if nothing has changed, like it was all a horrible dream. I tilt my head off to the side to get a glimpse of the scars, but they're too faded out. They’re almost impossible to make out.

I sigh before walking out of the bathroom, the blinds of my house drawn down to prevent the sunlight from hitting my skin—there I go again. I plop myself onto the couch as I stared up at the ceiling, why did I have to fall for that bloodsucking bitch? Why didn’t I see past her disguise? I mean come on, she was flawless, way too perfect to be human, but why didn't I see that?

I ran a hand down my face, all these thoughts are useless. They do nothing but irritate me and make me want to slam my head repeatedly against a wall. I grabbed a pillow from the couch and covered my face with it, wishing someone would suffocate me and end my miserable life.

“Hey, Bill, where are ya?” Tré asked from somewhere within the house.

“I’m in the living room, trying to kill myself,” I replied, but it all sounded like humming with the pillow ever my face.

“Get that damn thing off your face. That’s the last thing we need, you turning all suicidal on us. C’mon, get up we have to meet Mike at his house,”

I looked at him as soon as he lifted the pillow off my face, his goofy grin plastered on his lips. I rolled my eyes and grabbed the pillow from him and placed it back onto my face. “No, go without me. I wanna be alone.”

“What’s with you anyways? You’ve been acting differently ever since we found you lying on the pavement back at the pub,”

“I was drunk and now I’m regretting the decisions I've made,” I replied smirking. He knows that’s not the answer, but I couldn’t find the courage to tell him straight up that I wasn’t really me. That I was something else.

“You’ll get over it, maybe a nice drink and fuck will get your mind off of things for a bit,”

I removed the pillow from my face and half smiled to him, shaking my head no. Tré looks at me skeptically, but then shrugs.

“Y’know, you can’t keep regretting what happened that night. I'm sure it happened for a reason, maybe it’s time you investigate,” he replies. I look at him, my eyes wide with surprise, how the hell did he know?

“How did you—have you been spying on me?”

Tré laughs and then sits next to me. “Nope, I saw those bite marks on your neck when you weren’t looking a while back. I didn’t it believe it either, but then I started following you around for a bit and found out you go to some weird 'vampire' club thing, it's honestly kind of freaky. Curious though, do they drink blood?”

I smiled slightly before looking at him, his face had an honest look of curiosity plastered on it. "Yeah, they do." His face shifted to disgust almost instantly. "But it's not human blood, it's blood from slaughtered animals,"

Tré's eyes were wide, but whether it was from disgust or surprise, I didn't know. "H-how can you eat—er, drink that shit? Billie, you could get really sick... can you still get sick?"

I smiled and shook my head no. "I know it's gross Tré, believe me, but that is the only thing to satisfy me. It's like when I drink it, it feels like I just quenched an extreme thirst, like it's the first time taking a drink of water in three days. It's the only thing to satisfy me,"

"Have you tried other things? Like, jeez, I don't know, food?"

I just looked at him then looked to the floor. I've thought about it, but I've always been terrified of the idea of being poisoned because I ate garlic. Damn movies have me paranoid to no end. But the thought of food made my stomach growl with hunger.

"Uhm, I've thought about it..." I lingered on the thought.

"But?"

"But I'm too much of a chicken shit to try," I replied. Tré laughed slapping his knee. I looked at him, feeling slightly upset that he wasn't taking me seriously.

"You've watched way too many Hollywood movies, Billie," Tré laughed, "I honestly don't think you'll die from eating food; your stomach wouldn't have growled if that wasn't an option."

I looked down at my stomach, feeling it growl again. "I guess you're right. But I do have a question, how the hell did you figure out I wasn't, y'know, me?"

"Well at first I didn't know, but then you started acting weird. So I just suspected something was wrong. I mean c'mon Billie, you only hung around us when it was fucking night out. It was weird,"

"Yeah, but how did you know I wasn't 'human?' How did you piece together that I'm a blood drinking vampire?"

"The whole cliqué, bite marks on your neck and then when I discovered you drank blood not too long ago kind of tied it together." Tré stated as a matter of fact. I just looked at him then down at my feet, I honestly didn't know what to do or say to him. I even forgot why were headed over to Mike's in the first place.

I sighed and threw my head back against the couch, my stomach growling in hunger but I was still terrified of the idea of eating then dying. Even if the movies are to blame, I'm still paranoid as shit. I shut my eyes and tried to ignore the hunger pains in my stomach until Tre finally slapped my thigh and made my eyes shoot open.

"C'mon, let's go to Mike's and then maybe head to a place where we can get some grub, I'm starving! And apparently, so are you," Tre smiled, I just looked at him then shrugged. What the hell, what's the worst that could happen?

"Alright, but promise me one thing?"

"Sure, what's that?"

"Don't tell Mike anything."