The Last Summer

“Lee.”

“Huh?”

“Lee, wake up.”

“No. Go away, Gus.”

“Lee, wake up, it’s 4 pm. You told me to wake you up at 4.”

“Oh… oh, right.”

Elizabeth Thomas yawned before she rolled herself down from her bed, under the gaze of a vampire whom she had been housemate with for almost half a year now. Lee stood up, walking sleepily to the bathroom, before she threw the figure that was still standing next to his bed a wide smile through her messy blonde hair.

“Thanks for waking me up, Man.”

“Anytime,” Gustav Wood replied.

The end of semester was approaching, so Lee had to do plenty assignments. Her trick to make herself actually sit down and do essay was to do it right before she was going out to party or hang out with her friends—basically, to have fun. That was why she woke up at four and planned to leave the house by seven with her friends. Alarm was never done her good, so Lee was completely thankful that she had this strange, dead—in all literal sense—housemate to wake her up.

After washing her face, Lee brought her laptop to the living room. The whole first floor was dark because all the windows were closed, but by now Lee had already used to it. It was rather logical to close every place where the sun might shine through if you’re trying to keep a vampire alive at day.

Lee grunted while she scanned some journals she needed to read on her laptop. Gus joined her not long after that, sitting on the couch across the one Lee sat on. Lee glanced at him momentarily. He looked irritated—that means he hadn’t take his usual sleep on the day.

“Have you ever tried to sleep at night instead of day?” the blonde asked the vampire absentmindedly.

Gus huffed, “It doesn’t really work. I’m too alert to stay still, let alone sleep. Try to sleep at ten in the morning. That would probably feel the same.”

Lee nodded and started typing rough draft before she looked up at him again.

It was so very easy to forget that the man who lied with his legs stuck on the other side of the couch was actually not a human being at all. Sometimes Lee still thought that she was simply dreaming—dreaming an interesting but weird dream about living with a vampire. But then she woke up and Gus was there, talking to her or lying down somewhere, with eyebrows furrowed. So far, he had been nothing but helpful. Lee had this new hobby where he’d ask Gus to help her cleaning, but in reality she just liked to see Gus lift the whole washing machine or whole couch like it’s just a pillow. Lee believed that Gus could lift a car if he wanted too, but she had this feeling that he wouldn’t do anything unnecessary.

After struggling with the first paragraph of her essay, Lee allowed herself to glance at Gus again. His eyes were closed, but they were opened again the second Lee looked at them. There was something about Gus’ eyes. When they were under bright light of lamp, they looked pretty normal. But under darkness, his eyes could shine a little brighter than normal human’s eyes. As the days grew darker, Lee turned on the lamps and Gus was still there, lying like a big cat that was too lazy to move anywhere.

Lee felt like there was something missing with the way popular fiction depicted vampire as beautiful, immortal creature. What Lee saw when she saw Gus was the shadow of his former self. He was probably gorgeous as a human, but now he was very pale, with his veins under his skin looked black instead of blue. He moved almost with no sound and Lee never heard him necessarily breathing. People are warm and they have scent that Lee couldn’t pin down but she knew what human smells like. Gus had none of those. He was cold and hard as rock and he had no smell at all, except the times when he went home from having ‘dinner’ and he smelled like iron and blood before Lee protested and asked him to brush his teeth and use mouthwash.

But despite his inhuman quality, Lee could still see the human inside Gus. He was a kind person. He’d ask how Lee’s day. He’d help her when she needed it. He’d stay awake next to her the whole night when she feels unwell. He didn’t show a lot of emotions, but once in a while, something Lee said would make him laugh. The moment when Gus laughed was the only moment when Lee could see his fangs; sharp, longer than human’s normal fangs, and they looked extremely sharp. Lee couldn’t help but to think Gus was incredibly adorable when he laughed. Here was the creature that can rip you apart, who can lift car with one hand if he wants, but he laughed so gently, even though his fangs were showing.

Later that evening, after Lee somehow managed to finish her essay, her friends called and they said that the night out was cancelled. Lee didn’t mind. She never mind when she had someone else to accompany here in the mean time.

“Gus?”

“Yeah?”

“I’m not going out tonight. Do you want to do something? Watch movie, maybe?”

“That’d be great. Would you like to do it here or on your bed?”

Lee smiled as she answered, “I think the bed would suit me better.”

She knew that he knew that she was still tired. That was why Lee slept the whole day. If they watch the movie on bed, she could sleep properly whenever she wants too.

Fifteen minutes later, they were both in Lee’s bed, facing the screen in front of it. Lee was lying on her stomach, but Gus was sitting. Ten minutes into the movie about a group of guys doing thing and Lee felt like watching Gus watching movie was actually more interesting than watching the movie itself. Gus always preferred book than movie when he could choose, so Lee bought him plenty of books that was now pile up in his room at the attic. Lee thought that was an antique quality—who preferred read than watching movie? Sometimes Lee thought of Gus as an old, ancient vampire, but then she remembered that he was only thirty. He turned into a vampire on the age of twenty-five, that what was he said.

So what happened then?

What happened in that five years before Gus met her?

Lee couldn’t shake those questions off. Before he became the creature of the night, he must have been someone’s son. He must had friends and place to live. What happened with all those when you turn into vampire?

Gus was still staring at the screen. His brows were furrowed and he looked like he didn’t really enjoy what he saw, but he forced himself to watch it nevertheless.

“Gus?” Lee touched his arm.

“Yeah?” Gus now stared at her. “What is it? Do you want a cup of hot chocolate?”

Lee blushed a little because sometimes Gus was so kind to the point she felt like she was being spoiled. Once in the winter, almost six months ago, she told him that she’d wake up if he made her a cup of hot chocolate. Out of Lee’s expectation, Gus was pretty good in making hot chocolate, so she started to ask them in rare occasions.

“No,” she shook it off. “It’s nothing.”

He just smiled. His smile was barely there but Lee knew that Gus was smiling nonetheless.

“You probably have a lot on your mind right now,” his raspy voice was just a little above whisper. “But it’s okay to have a lot on your mind. You’re young, so I guess I can understand that. I was young too once, you know.”

Lee couldn’t help but giggle.

“You talk like you’re a century old vampire, Gus,” she lied with one side of her face on bed, head tilted towards where he sat.

“Maybe I’m an old soul even though I’m only thirty,” he shrugged a little. “My body is still twenty-five, though. Sometimes I don’t know how I feel about it. Maybe for now it’s okay because it’s only five—almost six—years apart. But what if one day, one day in the far future, I will be five hundred years old and my body is still a body of a twenty-five years old man? Would such contradiction drive me crazy? Or I simply wouldn’t survive past a hundred years old?”

Lee stared at him, hands twitching because she wanted to touch him, but at the same time she was scared to do so, because he looked so fragile and more human than most human Lee knew. She just wanted to embrace him, but she did nothing. It was a decision she regretted and thanked for at the same time.

Just like everyone, Lee feared the future, because if there were something certain there, that would be only certainty. But her frame of thoughts had changed now that Gus was there in her life. Future for her was probably just work after college, then job, then probably marriage, kid, more job, retirement, and then death. But future for Gus was nothing but darkness. Lee never realised how knowing that she would die by the time she was a hundred years old or less or maybe slightly more was something so relieving. It brought fear to her mind to think that she could live so long without knowing what would eventually kill her. If death is sleep, then vampire must have incurable insomnia—one that they could only solve by painful death under the sun that brings life to most of other living souls, but not them.

“Sorry,” Gus muttered and Lee woke up from her daydream. “I probably shouldn’t say things that depress me, because it might make you sad too.”

But Lee just smiled and she finally touched his hand; his cold, stone-hard hand.

“It’s okay. You have me. I don’t know how long I will be around, but as long as I am, you can always have me. I mean, that’s what friends are for, right?”

She said those words without really thinking about it, but now that she did say them, she was glad that she did.

“Thanks, Lee. You’re truly a blessing.”

And then Gus smiled that sad, awkward smile. Lee could see his fangs and how his eyes squinted as he did. And once again, she was happy. Everything was enough in times like that.


After final weeks were over, Lee got call from her parents who told her that they were going to go overseas for summer holiday. Lee rejected politely, saying that she’d spend her summer on her own, probably working or something. Her parents were a little taken aback, but they didn’t question her anything. The last thing she heard before his father ended the call was her mother saying, “Let her be, Honey, she’s young. She probably wants to figure her life out.”

But only they know that Lee wanted to figure out more than her life—and more than life itself.

Lee knew that Gus knew that she stayed for him. He was thankful and Lee could read that even though he said almost nothing, not until one night when he went home a little drunk.

Little knocks on Lee’s window room on second floor let her knew that Gus was once again home. Lee stood up to open the window. The last time Gus tried to open the window on his own, he broke the whole thing because he was simply too strong.

She opened up the window, “Come in.” But then Gus fell forward toward her, leaving Lee screamed because she could swear he was so heavy all her bones were broken by now.

“Gus!” Lee groaned.

“Sorry. I apologise, I…” he stood up, his legs were shaking and Lee was confused.

“You okay, Gus?”

“No. Not really. The woman I drink… I think she’s Australian or something… her blood must be three part booze,” he hiccupped and dragged himself to Lee’s bed. “I think I’m drunk.”

Lee’s mouth fell open.

“You’re drunk? Vampire can get drunk?”

Gus gulped, “Not in a good way, I think. I mean, it tasted like beer, but after sometime I feel lightheaded… and stupid.”

“… And stupid?” Lee repeated.

The blue-eyed vampire grumbled something incoherent as response.

“At least you made it home,” she patted him lightly on the shoulder.

Gus was laying awkwardly, half his body on the bed, but his legs were on the floor, with his hips hanging on the edge of bed. His hair was messy and the smell of blood that usually comes from him was mixed with the smell of alcohol.

“It will pass soon,” he said, more like to himself rather than to Lee, who now sat on the edge of bed, next to him.

She tried to help him lay properly on bed, but after struggling to hold his lower body properly, she gave up and came back to her laptop. After an hour or two, Gus woke up. It was probably one or two in the morning. Lee looked up, relieved to see that Gus was fine, but then she saw his eyes glimmered.

There were tears there.

“Gus? You okay?” she moved towards him and Gus shook his head a little.

“I just had dream.”

Lee waited. She had dreams all the time. What’s so strange about having one?

“I’ve never dreamed since I turn into…” the rest of his words were choked in his throat.

“Oh Gus,” Lee scooted closer.

He tried to smile but the result was a pathetic smile that made Lee wanted to cry somehow.

Gus stared at her, his expression was full of pain, “Do you want to hear about my life as a human, Lee? Do you want to know how it ends?”

She just looked up at him, not realising that tears were flowing down her cheeks.

He moved closer to her until they were agonisingly close, “Do you want to hear the story of how I died?”


It was probably the best night of Gustav Wood life. Young Guns just did an amazing show, in the middle of their tour in United States. They left their show place at sunset and went to the next city. The summer night’s wind felt cool and nice on his face as their van slowly approaching a gas station. There was a little bar next to it and the guys had agreed that they’d congratulate themselves with some drink.

The station was in the middle of nowhere, but Gus’ heart was too happy to care about that. He felt so pumped up and he felt like he could do anything. They stopped to fill the van’s tank and then preceded to order some drinks and they drank until they get drunk. Somewhere in the middle of the night, he woke up, finding himself lying around his sleeping, drunk friend. He chuckled and moved Fraser and Simon aside so he could go to the bathroom.

The bathroom inside the bar was broken, so he was forced to go the one outside, on the gas station.

Gus walked out the bar and there was nobody outside. It was calm, quiet summer night. He thought about how life has brought him to this point, from being in a band that nobody knew to the band who was touring in United States. Life felt amazing at that moment and Gus felt like that there was only way up from now.

Or so he thought.

When he opened the bathroom door, he almost screamed because someone was there—or at least he thought it was someone. There was a man, or something that look like a man, in there. He was in a ragged dark blue suit with silk shirt, but his hair was long, messy and he looked extremely ill and pale.

“So it’s night again,” he glared at Gus. He sounded like a monster from a horror movie, but what made Gus unable to move at all and completely petrified was the strong smell of blood that came from him—and then the realisation that there were at least three bodies with blood splattered all over the small bathroom.

Before he could think again, he ran. He ran and ran for his life. But instead of running towards the bar, he ran towards the road. Gus’ mind felt numb and he knew he couldn’t process anything at that moment, but he knew that if he brought this creature near his friends, they would get hurt too. So he ran further and further away, with the vampire behind him groaning and walking like he was drunk.

When Gus tried to look at it to know how far he had left him behind, he saw that the creature’s left eye had already left its socket and black blood were flowing from there.

“You running? You stupid bastard! You know that you can’t run away from me. You know that you’re going to die!” he yelled and Gus had never been more scared in his life because he knew it was true.

But he kept ran anyway, thinking that maybe this way he could save his friends. As the thought entered his mind, he felt like crying, because he knew that he would never to get to see them again if he died. Gus ran and ran until he felt like his lungs were going to explode from exhaustion. He didn’t know how long he ran. He didn’t know how far he had gone.

Finally his body gave up and the vampire caught up with him. As he laid his hand on him, Gus felt nothing but disgust and fear. He wanted to say goodbye, at least, that was what he thought. He wanted to say goodbye to his friends and he wanted to apologise to them too. He wanted to say farewell to his mother as well, and then his brother, and then…

Pain staked through his body like someone was setting his blood on fire. And did he burn. Gus screamed and screamed, trying to shake the creature off but he stayed there, sucking, tearing his flesh apart but at the same time the vampire cried with only one eye.

“I want to go home… I want to get back to my family… I have kids… I want to go home… I can’t go home again… what has happened to me?”

The first rays of sunrise finally hit them both and the vampire on top of him was shrieking, crying, and howling.

“What has happened to me? I want to go home… I have daughter I’ve never see… I want to go home!”

With one kick, Gus finally freed. He ran again, without knowing what was left on his body. The last sight he had on the vampire was his body on fire, turning into ashes and smoke. Maybe with that, he was finally gone home.

Pain was everything Gus felt. The rising sun didn’t help either. It felt like he could feel every single pain he ever had in his life before he finally fell to hard, asphalt road, knowing that he wouldn’t get back up again.

As the time flowed slowly and painfully, the pain he felt slowly faded into strange warmth. Gus knew he was crying but he couldn’t care less. Not when the last sight he ever saw in his life is sun rising in the middle of nowhere.


“… Then I woke up and I’m like this,” he gestured to this body. “I didn’t know what happened for some time, but then I saw and read the news. They declared me as missing first and then they dead after some time. I couldn’t get back to them, of course. I couldn’t get back to England as well. I lost everything. I have to live a new life. I figure that my power would come in handy when people ask me for annoying things like driving license or who I am or what do I do. I guess I just moved from one place to another for years, because I don’t want to go home like this.”

Lee blinked slowly, “So… you think you can go home once you’re human again?”

But Gus just smiled and Lee remembered the last things the vampire that turned Gus into one yelled at the end of his life.

She said nothing for a long time and so did Gus, who ended the whole thing by saying, “It hurts a lot the first time it happened, but now it has been years and I’m still here and I don’t feel too sad anymore.”

Lee then lied down to sleep, but all she could think about was how Gus’ friend and family were still around. They must’ve missed him a lot. Not to mention that he was famous too. A lot of people were surely missing him. And everyone knew nothing. They all thought that Gus was dead, but even though he was, he was still around as nothing more than a solid ghost.

A ghost who was now sitting on her bed.

Lee closed her eyes and cried. She didn’t know why she did, but she could see the loneliness of people who had their life ripped away from them just like that. Maybe death is better than living like that. But Gus was still there and Lee got to meet him. And she didn’t know what she felt about that.


The next morning, Lee woke up crying and when Gus saw it, she knew that he felt extremely guilty. She quickly tried to wipe her tears off but they kept on falling anyway.

“Lee, I’m so sorry,” he said.

She just shook her head, “It’s okay. It’s not your fault. I just… feel so sad for you. I’m sorry that has to happen to you. I’m sorry. I’m just… sorry.”

But Gus just smiled, “It’s okay—too. It was really bad, but it’s the past. There’s nothing we can do about it, right? It’s okay. Please don’t cry. I hate to make you sad.”

Lee finally looked up to the kind vampire who tried his best to smile. And as always, his smile eventually made her smile too.

They just hold each other for sometime until they both pulled back. Gus patted her in the head and smiled, “Shall I make you your favourite hot chocolate?”

Lee smiled once again and nodded. Maybe it wasn’t bad to be like this. Maybe despite what happened to him, or her, or both of them, they could always be happy if they want too.

“Yes, please."