The Poison in Your Blood

We’ve been with Blair for a couple days. We were set to stay a week and this is day number three. She’s been so happy to have us and she’s been baking and cooking and making her “famous baked potato soup” and all of that motherly stuff. I’ve tried a couple times to talk to Annalise but I’ve not had much of a chance. Every time I’ve had a minute alone with her she gets quiet and then won’t tell me what’s going on. It’s really bothering me because I’m about a million percent sure I know exactly what’s going on.

“Lana, honey!” Blair calls from the kitchen.

I’m lying across the sofa with my head on Austin’s lap. He seems to get along pretty well with Blair and Anna…Fred on the other hand, well…not as much. I can’t decide if it’s mutual hatred or if it’s just Fred being Fred and the vampire being the vampire. I look up at him.

“I had better go and see what’s up,” I say. “You’ll be fine without me?”

“Pretty sure I can manage, babe,” he says and smiles. I smile back and sit up before giving him a quick kiss and taking my ass out to the kitchen.

Blair is at the stove putting some stuff in the pot for her baked potato soup. She’s dressed in jeans and a tank top and has an apron over her front. Blair has always loved to cook even though she’s all about how much meat she can fit into recipes that often times don’t even use meat. In a way, on this trip, I have to say I’m glad she’s been all about meat. The sloppy rare roasts and steaks seemed to have kept my boyfriend under control.

“What’s up, Blair?” I ask as I move closer to the pot and take in a deep breath. The soup smells like heaven and I’d like to just stick a spoon in it and go to town. She’s made a big enough pot to feed a small army.

“I just thought we could use a minute to talk,” she says cheerfully. We haven’t had much of a chance to catch up. Fred has been in Blair’s face the whole time we’ve been here. He has been bitching nonstop about how much he hates having company for extended periods of time. I have a gross feeling in my stomach of why he might hate it so much. It’s not my presence, it’s the “stranger” he doesn’t like.

“Oh, okay,” I say and dip a spoon into the soup when she turns to grab something. I stick it in my mouth and even though it burns the hell out of my throat it tastes so good I could cry. I miss her cooking, I have to admit.

“I saw that,” she says and I frown before putting down the spoon. “You haven’t changed much since you were a kid.”

“I just love it so much,” I say and smile.

She laughs. “I’ve miss you,” she says. “How have you been?”

“I’ve been good,” I say and lean with my ass against the counter top. “Can I help you out?”

“No, I’ve got it,” she says. “So, Austin…” she trails off.

“What about him?” I ask.

She’s thoughtful for a minute. “He seems nice.”

“He’s great,” I say. “I haven’t been dating him long…but I think I’m falling for him,” I say.

“He loves you,” Blair says. “I could see it the minute you two got here. I better be invited to your wedding.”

“Oh my god,” I say with laughter. “We have only been together for two months. I don’t think he’s thinking about marriage.”

“Maybe not yet,” she says and puts some green onions into the soup. She gives it a stir and puts a lid on the pot. “But he definitely loves you.”

“I’m glad you like him,” I say.

“So what happened to that guy you were seeing, Jon?” she asks. I frown.

“He and I couldn’t seem to overcome our differences,” I say. Like the part where I was in love with him but he had no feelings for me at all.

“I suppose it’s for the best,” she says. “I think you’ve found the right person for you. Anna seems to have accepted him pretty well,” she laughs. At dinner on the first night Anna finally filled Blair in on who Austin was and why she was falling over herself to wait on him. Blair still couldn’t see what the big deal was, since at the dinner table he wasn’t a famous singer, he was just “Lana’s boyfriend”.

“I’m surprised she isn’t trying to steal him away or something,” I say with laughter.

Blair laughs with me and nods her head before having a seat at the breakfast table with a cup of coffee. I sit with her and pick at my nail polish. I’m sure Anna will be all over fixing it for me tonight. “Could you imagine how big of a fit Fred would have?” she asks and laughs.

“Fred has a fit about everything,” I say. “I’ve never met an unhappier person.”

Blair laughs out loud. “I think you are right about that.” She gets quiet then and looks down at her coffee. “Oh…Fred…” her voice is sad.

I reach out and put my hand on her hand. “What’s wrong, Blair?” I ask.

“Oh nothing…” she says, but I can tell she’s lying. “I think Fred is having an affair.” She sighs. I get a creepy feeling up my spine.

“Why do you think that?” I ask.

“I don’t know,” she says. “We’ve been married for 11 years, but he’s been acting strange. I guess it’s the same kind of strange things he did before you moved out. He is out late at night, and we haven’t been…you know close…in a couple months. I don’t know what’s going on. I think maybe I should get a divorce. I can’t do that to Annalise. She doesn’t have any other woman in her life, and I mean legally she’s my daughter, but he could take her away I’m sure. He’s her biological parent.”

“I’m sorry,” I say and take hold of her hand. “Maybe you should confront him?”

“Oh that is never a good idea. You know Fred,” she says and sighs.

I frown. I do know Fred and I know their fights have gotten bad and violently loud. I hate to think of what will happen if she tries to tell him she wants a divorce. I wouldn’t put anything past Fred, although he’s kind of old and fat to murder somebody. But you never know, it’s always the one you wouldn’t expect to be a murderer that ties up women and tortures them to death in the basement.

“I don’t know, Lana. Maybe I’m just over reacting. It isn’t the first time he’s done this kind of thing,” she says and shrugs. She takes a sip of her coffee and then she pats my hand, the one that’s holding hers. “Enough about my problems! When are you going to have some kids, Lana? I want grandchildren you know.”

“Jeez, Blair,” I say and bite on my lip. I probably won’t ever have children if I stick with Austin. He told me before I couldn’t get pregnant from him. I don’t know why, but I don’t doubt him when he says shit. “I don’t know about kids. I’m already getting old.”

“28 isn’t old, Lana,” Blair says and laughs.

“It is when you think by the time Austin and I get married I’ll probably be 30, if we get married. And I don’t know if he wants kids. I’m not too good with kids anyways,” I say. “Babies cry when they see me.”

“Oh I’m sure that’s not true,” Blair says and laughs.

“Oh but it is,” I say. “I don’t know, I can’t see myself as a mother. I got a cat,” I say.

“Really?” she asks.

“Yeah, his name is Piggy,” I say and pull out my phone to show her a picture of Piggy. I asked Madison to take care of him while I was up here, and while she was reluctant she agreed to check in on him every night and feed him.

“Well I suppose I’ll have to settle for a grand cat until Annalise has some kids,” she says and smiles. We spend a little bit of time talking in the kitchen about everything I’ve been up to and how she’s doing. Then Fred gets home and the fun is over for the evening. He comes in and immediately starts his bitch fit about why does the house smell like onions and why is the dog barking and how he hates everybody and everything.

I make my way back to the sofa and sit with Austin. I put my head on his shoulder and he looks at me before putting his arm around me. “I hate him,” I say and sigh.

“I know you do, I wish you’d tell me why,” he says.

“I can’t tell you why,” I say. “It will get complicated.”

The front door opens and Annalise comes in with her backpack over her shoulder. She’s dressed in a purple and black net skirt and a black lace up corset with straps and some fishnets. She’s got on a pair of motorcycle boots and her burgundy lipstick and heavy black eye makeup. She is such a teenager. She looks at me and smiles lightly.

“Hey Lana,” she says. “Austin.”

“Sup, babe?” Austin says and she grins. It’s pretty late so I assume she went some place after school with some friends or something.

Then Fred comes into the living room and her face falls. “Where the hell have you been? How many fucking times I gotta tell you to get your ass home on time?” he snaps.

“I was doing homework with Helen,” she snaps back.

“Don’t talk to me like that! And what in God’s name are you wearing? You look like a fucking whore. Who let you leave the house looking like that?” He’s screaming and waving his arms around and I’m ready to take Anna and lock her in my room with me. But I’m more focused on controlling Austin right now, because let me tell you, his grip on me hurts.

“Fred, let her alone!” Blair shouts from the kitchen. She comes in and her face is red with anger. “She’s 15 freaking years old, leave her alone.”

“Stay out of it, Blair,” Fred snaps. Blair narrows her eyes.

“Fred, I’ve had it. You’ve been nothing short of an asshole since Lana got here. You could at least control yourself in front of our guests,” she snaps. “I swear if I here you shouting one more time I’ll throw you out of my house.” She turns on her heel then and stomps back into the kitchen. Fred puts his head down and follows her and I get up and rush over to Anna. She puts her arms around me and cries on my shoulder for a minute.

“I’m so sick of him,” she says against my shirt.

“I know, honey, I know,” I say and run my hand over her hair. “Come with me to my room. You can give me a manicure, I fucked my nails all up.”

She takes in a deep breath and nods once before wiping her eyes. All of the sudden Austin is next to us. She looks at him and at the sofa for a second in disbelief and I glare at him. He’s been good about not moving all over the house like the fucking flash. I don’t want to have to try and explain that to my family. But apparently this time he’s using his self control for something better.

“Are you alright?” he asks her. She looks at him and nods.

“My dad just…doesn’t understand me…” she trails off. And I know then it’s a lot more than his screaming and degrading. I take her to the guest room with me, and Austin follows us. I don’t blame him, I have a feeling if he has to look at Fred right now he’ll rip his face off and that won’t be good.

Dinner goes by pretty tense and silent. Anna sits between me and Austin and Blair sits next to Fred though you can see she isn’t happy about it. Fred never looks up from his bowl of soup or says a word, and once everybody is finished I help Blair with the dishes before heading back to my room. I hate that this day got so ugly, because we still have four days left in the house.

I’m lying in bed next to Austin running my hand over his chest. It’s getting late, probably close to midnight, but I’m not tired. I want so bad for Anna to tell me what’s going on, because I know what’s she’s going through and I know why she hasn’t told Blair.

“I need you to tell me, Lana,” he says.

“I can’t, Austin,” I say. “I can’t because it’s bad and…” and then suddenly he’s out of bed and at the door. I fall onto the bed where he was laying and have to lift myself up. “What in the world?”

“Shhh,” he hisses.

I can tell he’s angry but then I hear whatever he heard. It’s quiet at first, but it’s footsteps going towards Anna’s room. Then I hear her door creak open and I get out of bed. I go to the door and press my ear against it and I listen. I can hear Anna talking.

“Please, dad,” she says softly. My heart starts beating faster in my chest. “Don’t…I don’t want to,” she cries.

“Shut up,” he hisses and I’m on high alert.

“I swear I’ll scream,” she says. “I’ll fucking scream if you touch me!”

“Don’t do anything you’re going to regret,” he says.

“We have guests…” she says in a reasoning voice. Suddenly Austin has hold of my shoulders and his eyes are as black as I’ve ever seen them.

“Is he going to rape her?” he snaps. I’m cowering at the sight of him and I can’t find any words to answer him. I shrug out of his grasp because it hurts and I’m afraid.

“Yes,” I whisper and then I hear the sound of Fred’s palm against Anna’s skin and I open the door and run down the hallway to her room. This is going to get bad really fast if I can’t stop it. The door is locked when I get there and I throw myself against the door with my shoulder. All that does it hurt my shoulder and the door makes a soft thud sound. I throw myself against it again and nothing happens. Damn it! “Open the door!” I cry. I hear Fred laugh a little and I see a flash come down the hall. I grab hold of his arm, and I feel really accomplished that I was able to catch him. “Please, Austin, don’t,” I say in a whisper. But he just looks down at my hand on his arm and I’m suddenly so terrified that I let go.

The door slams open then and I’m left stunned. I look and see that the frame is broken and I wonder why Blair hasn’t woken up. Fred probably drugged her. That’s what he used to do when I lived here. I hear a slam and Fred is up against the wall, feet off the ground against the wall. He’s just above eye level with Austin and he laughs.

“What are you going to do?” he asks in a mocking tone.

“You shouldn’t have asked,” Austin snaps and I can see the fangs and I’m really really happy I can’t see his face because at this point even Fred looks a little afraid. Anna is sitting in her bed with her knees pulled up to her chest and I want to go to her, but I’m too afraid to move.

“You can’t do a damn thing to me,” Fred says and Austin slams him against the wall again. “You think I won’t call the fucking cops?”

He doesn’t answer him with words. Instead he lets out some kind of animal growl that leaves me shaking and for the first time in my entire life I see Fred looking like he could piss himself. He starts squirming and trying to break Austin’s grip on him but he can’t get away. Then he opens his mouth to scream but he’s cut off and all I hear is the sound of flesh tearing and that undeniable squish of blood. I think my stomach just did a back flip and I have to hold onto the door frame to keep from fainting. Then before I have a chance to regain my balance Austin and Fred are both gone. Austin dragged him off so fast I literally didn’t even see which direction he went in but I’m guessing it must have been out the window.

My next thought it Annalise. I look at her and she’s stunned. Her eyes are the size of dinner plates and her jaw might as well be on her comforter. I run to her then and pull her against my chest and she breaks down sobbing. I can’t tell if it’s a combination of fear and relief or if it’s more emotions, so I just hold her tightly until she stops crying.

“Oh my God, Lana,” she says and takes in a couple of deep breaths. “What just happened? What happened?”

“I can’t tell you,” I say and run my hand over her hair. “Why didn’t you tell Blair about Fred?”

“Because…because I was scared…” she cries. “I was so scared.”

I hold her against me for a long minute until she calms down and then she sits up and wipes her face. “You could have told me, Anna,” I say. “I went through the same thing. How long has it been going on?”

“About a year,” she says. “At first it was…little stuff. He’d come in here and watch me get ready for bed. And then it got worse and worse…” She sniffs and wipes her eyes. “What happened? I heard you slamming against the door and the next thing I knew Austin had dad up against the wall. I never even saw him come in.”

“He’ll have to tell you himself,” I say and close my eyes. I don’t think I, ever for as long as I live, will be able to get the image of him tearing Fred’s throat out out of my head. “But you have to promise you won’t scream.”

“Is he dead?” she whispers.

I hesitate. I don’t know how to tell her. “…Probably…” I say.

“I’m glad,” she says and leans against me. I hear the front door open and shut and I look up to see Austin standing at the side of the bed. I turn away from him because I might throw up.

“I need to take a shower…” he says.

Well that’s an understatement. It’s a good thing he wasn’t wearing a lot of clothes too or they’d need to be burned as evidence. There is literally blood run down his entire chest. Annalise is staring at him and I’m sure she’s getting ready to vomit herself. So it surprises me when she gets out of bed and hugs him tightly around his waist. I look at her and then up at him and I watch as his eyes change back to green blue and his teeth go back to looking normal and he puts his arms around her.

“Thank you,” she says against his chest. “Thank you.”

I don’t know if I’m feeling warm inside or sick, but this feels like a moment I shouldn’t interfere with so I sit and watch for a few seconds. She pulls away then and wipes her eyes again before looking at him and then she looks down at her own chest. Some of the blood has worn off onto her pajamas.

“Oh…you said you needed a shower,” she says. “I guess I should change too. What are we going to tell Mom?” She’s moving around the room, collecting new pajamas and trying to put the doorknob back on the door.

“Mom thought he was having an affair…maybe we can make it out like he ran off with his girlfriend. We’ll get rid of his car.” She nods and goes down the hall way to the linen closet and comes back with a towel for Austin.

“Here you go. So you can shower…” she says. I have no idea how she’s just talking to him like what happened was perfectly normal. I’m still trying not to vomit. But he takes the towel and he’s gone. “You know, I heard from a friend of mine at school that she knew a real vampire. I told her she was crazy, because you know, vampires aren’t real. Guess I was the one who was wrong,” Anna says and starts changing her clothes.

“You don’t find this strange?” I ask.

“I guess it’s…strange…” she says and looks at me. “But…he saved me. He could be a unicorn and I wouldn’t care.” She gets into a new set of pajamas and looks at the old ones. “I don’t know what to do with those,” she says. “They have blood all over them.”

“Give them to me,” I say. “I’ll take them home and get rid of them for you.” I take the pajamas from her and I look at the floor. How Austin managed to get Fred out of her without a single drip of blood getting on the carpet I don’t know. Maybe it was on purpose, but I don’t know nor do I care. He comes back from the shower a few minutes later and looks at Annalise.

“Are you okay?” he asks her.

“I think so,” she says. I wonder for a minute if he’s hypnotizing her, but I can’t smell him. “I hope you made him suffer…” she says after a minute. “If I was a vampire I’d have made him suffer. He deserved it.”

“Wow…” I say. Anna looks at me and then she laughs a soft laugh and I feel like my head is spinning.

“Would it be alright if I slept with you guys?” she asks then after a few seconds. “I…don’t know if I can sleep in here right now.”

“Of course,” I say. I get up and walk her to the guest room with Austin following and she lies down on the ground with a pile of blankets. I lie next to Austin and put my head on his chest. After a few minutes I can hear Anna is sleeping.

“I’m sorry,” he says softly.

“Don’t be,” I say. “I wanted you to kill that son of a bitch. I wanted him to suffer.” I feel weird saying it out loud. I shouldn’t want that.

“He suffered,” he says and gives my shoulders a squeeze.

“Just promise me something,” I say.

“What is that?”

“You won’t ever kill somebody in front of me again,” I say. He laughs.

“Old Fred wasn’t dead when we left,” he says. “He might have wished he was, but he wasn’t dead.”

“You are so fucking creepy!” I cry.

“I had to do something about his vocal cords, he was going to wake up the neighbors,” he says in a totally casual voice. I slap his chest and he laughs. “Okay, okay, I promise,” he says. “Go to sleep, Lana. And don’t go into shock on me.”

“Thank you,” I say then. “For saving Anna.” I yawn and close my eyes.

“You’re welcome,” he says and then I’m asleep.