Good Mourning
Since my father died, the house has been an empty echo of what it was. Even in the hours that he wouldn’t have been there when he was alive, like just after school. I still found it difficult to remain in the house. And now my mother, a nurse, picks up extra shifts to pay the bills, the house is a void I can’t escape.
So, I find myself over at my best friend Billy’s house most days after class. Where cookies waited, homework was assisted and sometimes a ball or two got thrown in the back yard until it was time to ride my bike back home. I needed to get in before my mother gets in.
The rule still stands that I’m to be in the house by the time the streetlights come on. I’m fourteen and still that rule hasn’t budged. Every evening I push the limit on getting back. That evening was no different. The streetlights were already on, but I knew too that Mom wouldn’t be home for another fifteen minutes and it only took me five, at full speed.
We’re watching the old movie, Dracula, and I can’t turn away from Bela Lugosi putting the moves on Mina. The caricature acting has Billy and me in stitches until I looked at the clock. My mom would be home in about three minutes.
“I’ve got to go. Dammit Billy, why didn’t you say something,” I yelled at my friend as if he were suddenly the watch-keeper.
“Bro, like she doesn’t know where you hang out at.”
“That’s not the point. She worries. A lot.” I think my Dad’s sudden death made her neurotic about the possibility of losing me too.
“Well, go through the park then. That should shave off a couple of minutes.”
I shivered at the thought of having to cut through the wooded area that stood between our housing complexes. There was a playground at the center of it but most children I knew avoided it and went the extra mile to go to the play area at the school. No matter how hot the day was, burning the flesh off your backside on the hot metal slide and jungle gym was better than hiking to the middle of a creepy wooded area to play where potheads and gangs hung out away from prying eyes. Two people were murdered there just in the last few years.
“Yeah, I guess I’m going to have too.” I was a fast bicyclist. Keep my head down, stick to the path and shoot to the other side, that was my plan.
With my backpack slung to my back I chugged the peddles to pick up speed before entering the patch of woods everyone called the park. The streetlights didn’t penetrate the edge of trees, but patches of dusk still broke through lighting the path enough to see where it led.
As I approached the merry go round and swing set, they were empty. No one was here at the park yet. And I could see the opening that led to my street beyond that was to my backyard.
Focusing on my destination, I didn’t notice the large pile of clothing hunched over like an old man in the center of the path. I swerved to miss it and caught my front tire on lumpy grass. My bike bucked me as it stopped but my body was still in the state of getting the hell out of there.
I stood and the sting of where my peddle grazed my ankle made me suck in a sharp breath. I bent over to pick up the bike intending to walk it the rest of the way when out of the corner of my eye the pile of clothing shifted then stood. It was a slow but fluid movement and I froze. Turning my head, I watched the now towering figure grasping something to his face. A ringed tail flopped to the side and a little clawed foot jerked, as the figure made slurping noises as if he was biting into a peach. It took my brain several seconds to take in what exactly the hell I was seeing. This man, if you’d call it that, was gorging himself on a …raccoon. Just then the horror rushed adrenaline into my heart and reanimated me. He tossed the limp critter aside and dragged the back of his hand across his face as he lifted his head to me. I could not make out its features nor did I want to. I chucked my bike back down and made a run for the opening to the street.
A rush of cold air washed over me a second before I was thrown to the ground my back cracking at being arched over my pack of books. I would have yelled out if there had been any air in my lungs. His face now was visible in the light from the streetlamp. His eyes dark and piercing were set in a cragged face that was slick with blood. The stench of it clung to clumps of his black hair. His fangs under sneering lips and his head rearing to strike jolted my limbs to kick and tear at him. There was no weight to him, but I was completely immobile. Terror rippled through me as my mother’s voice sliced through the night.
“Toby? Toby!” She called out for me from the back porch. “Tobias Matthew, you better be in that garage or so help me.”
She didn’t see us past the fence. And my attacker was no longer interested in me but with her. His face directed towards her voice. His lips relaxed covering his fangs. No way was I going to allow him to take my mom.
“Mom! Run! Get in the house!” I screamed at the top of my voice.
“Toby?”
I grasped the black shroud of my assailant, but it turned to smoke in my palm.
I bolted up and ran, scaling the fence like my pants were on fire. “Mom!” I yelled grabbing her by the arm and forcing her into the back door she’d left open. I slammed the door shut and turned the deadbolt. I yanked the curtain back to check if we were followed then ran to the front door and locked it.
“Would you mind explaining to me exactly what the hell is going on?”
“Mom, not right now.”
“No. Right this second. You’re starting to scare me.”
Good, she should be scared. My heart hadn’t stopped racing and I was doing my best to not completely freak out.
“Oh my god, you’re bleeding.” She pointed to my ankle.
There were bloody sneaker tracks across the linoleum floor.
“It’s nothing. I fell off my bike.”
“Your bike? Where’s your bike?”
“Are you kidding me right now? I’ve just been attacked, and it could still be out there. The last thing I’m worried about is my damn bike.” I slid the curtain aside to checked out the back window again. No black mist, tall menacing man. No bats. I couldn’t get this lucky, could I? Had my mom seriously frightened it off? She couldn’t even get the neighbor’s cat off our front lawn.
“Attacked? Who? We should call the police?”
“I was attacked by a … by a vampire. At least, I think it was a vampire. No. It definitely was a vampire.”
“A vampire. Is that so?” She crossed her arms in that I’m not falling for that sort of way.
“Seriously, mom. It had fangs, turned into a black mist. The whole nine yards. I almost ran it over while it was munching down on a raccoon.”
“Uh, huh.”
“Do you honestly think I’d make something like this up?”
“You know what I think? I think … you were supposed to be in an hour ago like we agreed. You know I don’t like it when you are out after dark. There’s been two murders, Toby. Two. Just a block from here. I can’t be worrying about your safety while I’m working. That wouldn’t be fair to my patients.” She went over to the sink a wet a clean dish towel.
“But I’m telling you the truth.”
She pulled out a chair and pointed at it for me to sit in. I sighed and did as she wanted. After wiping away some of the blood and inspecting my wound, she gathered the necessary supplies. Gauze, hydrogen peroxide. “I don’t doubt you were attacked. By a thug or one of those east side boys. And maybe the light was playing tricks on you. But that only proves my point. There will be no more going to Billy’s after school.”
“But— “
“We can make some arrangements to see him on the weekends. And you must promise you’ll never go through the park again.”
“But— “
“Promise.” She pulled hard on the last bit of tape.
I know what I saw, and half of me wished it would just float in here a prove it to her, the other half was going to have enough nightmares without it showing up again.
“Fine.”
She pulled up another chair and plunked herself in it. “Look. I know things have been rough since your father . . . I’m doing the best I can.”
“I know you are. You’re doing fine, Mom.”
“We’re okay. Right?”
“Yeah.”
“You know you can call Dr. Vinks if you need to talk, right?”
Ugh, she had to bring up the shrink that my school counselor suggested for grief counseling. I looked up at her through my lashes.
“Right. You hungry?” She stood up letting the subject drop.
I didn’t have the heart to tell her I’d already eaten at Billy’s. “No. I’m pretty tired. I think I’ll just head upstairs and get ready for bed. I’ve got a history exam tomorrow.”
“Oh. Alright then.”
I hadn’t let go of the events that evening and the thought of what loomed outside made facing the night daunting. Vampires couldn’t enter a home unless invited. Right?
“Don’t open the door to any strangers, okay?”
“Isn’t that my line?”
“Just promise you won’t.”
She nodded. I kissed the top of her head goodnight. “Love you.”
“Love you too, son.”
“We don’t have any garlic, do we?” On second thought, it was better to be safe than sorry.
She slit her eyes, then softened them and shook her head. “Sorry, I think all we have is garlic powder up in the cupboard.”
“Thanks.” I retrieved the powder and was tempted to sprinkle some on her, but then she would most definitely call Dr. Vinks. Besides, she wore the crucifix Dad got her last Christmas. She never took it off. And if anything we were taught about warding off vampires were true, then it would be enough. It would have to be.
I went to every room and checked to make sure all the windows were still locked. I shook the garlic powder across them. I only wished I had a wooden stake or two.
My room overlooked the back and I could see to the mouth of woods. There was nothing there. The street was empty. Nothing moved except for a few bugs attacking the light of the streetlamp. I wished I could believe that I’d imagined it, but I know what I saw.
I dragged my desk chair over to my window to keep vigil. I didn’t lie, I did have a history exam the next day, but it didn’t matter because no way was I going to get any sleep.
I don’t know how I managed to fall asleep, but I did. I awoke with my spine curved in ways it wasn’t meant to and my chin resting on my chest. After a moment of putting my body parts back in place, I blinked wondering what woke me. Was it only the uncomfortable position I found myself in? I cleared my vision with the back of my hand. The neon light of my alarm clock blared one in the morning. I scanned the street below. It was empty as before. Even emptier now that the temperature had dropped. The few moths that had buzzed around the streetlight were gone.
A low murmur came from somewhere in the house. Downstairs I believed. I swallowed and strained harder to hear what it could be. And there it came again, my mother’s voice. I opened the door to my bedroom so I could hear more clearly. A conversation in hushed tones. My mom’s laughter. I hadn’t heard it so long, but there was no doubt it was hers.
“Mom?” I called out walking into the hallway. The laughter stopped and it became quiet, as I descended the stairs.
“Mom?”
“Hey, sweetheart.” She met me in the foyer and set down her glass of wine on the hall table. “We didn’t mean to wake you.”
“We?” My heart quickened. Who could be here at this time of night chatting it up with my mom?
She looked nervously over her shoulder to the living room. A low light flickered silhouetting an empty end of the couch. I could smell the wood burning in the fireplace. When was the last time we had a fire in the fireplace?
“Yes, well. After you went to bed, I got a call from a very old friend,” she said, interrupting my incoherent thoughts. “He was visiting the area and I haven’t seen him in such a long time.”
“It’s after one in the morning,” I spat incredulously.
“Is it really that late? I didn’t realize. We had so much to catch up on and he’s leaving for Europe in the morning.”
My head spun. “Mom. This is not okay.”
There’s a vampire on the loose and my mother’s entertaining some guy at one in the freaking morning. Nothing was okay.
“Well, that’s not your call. I can have whomever, whenever I want over. Now go back to bed. He’ll be gone by morning.”
“Seriously? I’m not nine years old anymore. You can’t just shuffle me off to bed. And you’re not even going to introduce us?”
“Not if you’re going to be all huffy about it. No, you’re too upset.”
“You’re damn right I’m upset.”
“Excuse the interruption.” A husky Eastern European accent drew my attention to the man standing in the entryway. And holy shit he was tall, like unearthly tall. “How very rude it was of us to wake you?”
I couldn’t make out his features with the light at his back but something in his melodic voice rose the hairs at the nape of my neck.
He lifted his hand out to me which seemed to glow in the darkness between us, it was so white. “My name is Tobias Melnyk.”
We had the same first name, what in the ever-living hell? Stunned I lifted my hand to his. It was so cold that goosebumps broke out across my arm and a prick in the back of head screamed at me to run. But it was too late. He held my hand as he stood into the stream of streetlamp light coming in through the door window. The same face that had hovered over me in the park earlier that evening appeared in front of me. A cleaner version, the crags were now long sunken indents that might have once been dimples, hair clean and styled back and no sign of blood. Only white gleaming teeth. The Vampire.
My heart banged hard in my chest; my mouth completely dry. I was suspended, petrified. A glint of silver passed over his black piercing eyes. Black smoke entered my consciousness dragging me under. The last image to cross my mind was of my mother and the fact I didn’t see the tiny gold chain around her neck. Mom. Run. But no sound left me, as I slipped away.
I wiped the saliva that strung across my cheek. The light shone bright white on the other side of my eyelids. I laid in bed, my bed with no memory of how I got there. The terrifying memories of the night before flooded in. I bolted upright in my bed. Had any of it happened? I threw the sheets back and swung my leg over the side. The throb in my ankle told me it had. Mom. I ran down the stairs two at a time then skidded to a stop at the kitchen entryway. My mom sat at the table with her hands wrapped around the cup of coffee set in front of her.
“Mom.”
She looked up and smiled at me, “Good morning, Toby. Sleep well?”
“You okay?” I scanned the empty living room.
“Of course. Why wouldn’t I be okay?”
“Where is he?”
“Who Sweetheart?”
“You know who,” I said, on the brink of losing it.
“You mean Mr. Burrows, who brought you home after you fell off your bike yesterday? You didn’t expect him to stay here all night, did you?”
Mr. Burrows, my neighbor? What the hell was she talking about?
“No. I mean the vampire who attacked me. The same one you were having a soiree with just last night.”
Her brow furrowed. “You must have hit your head harder than I thought.”
“No. I know what happened. My bike . . .” I shivered.
“You mean that bike?” She pointed towards the window with her pinky, as she brought the cup to her lips.
I pulled the curtain back and there sat my bike in the yard. I felt nauseous. Had I only imagined it? I had been watching a vampire movie just before leaving Billy’s. It had been so real. But really would a vampire hypnotize me then just tuck me into bed. I sat across from my mother and put my head in my hands. “I honestly thought I’d lost you.” I let out a breath.
“Well, rest assured, Sweetheart, I would never leave without you.” She set the mug down. I looked up to give her a relieved smile. When she licked the blood from the top of her lip left behind from her mug and a silver glint crossed her eyes.
© 2019 Shadow Leitner
So, I find myself over at my best friend Billy’s house most days after class. Where cookies waited, homework was assisted and sometimes a ball or two got thrown in the back yard until it was time to ride my bike back home. I needed to get in before my mother gets in.
The rule still stands that I’m to be in the house by the time the streetlights come on. I’m fourteen and still that rule hasn’t budged. Every evening I push the limit on getting back. That evening was no different. The streetlights were already on, but I knew too that Mom wouldn’t be home for another fifteen minutes and it only took me five, at full speed.
We’re watching the old movie, Dracula, and I can’t turn away from Bela Lugosi putting the moves on Mina. The caricature acting has Billy and me in stitches until I looked at the clock. My mom would be home in about three minutes.
“I’ve got to go. Dammit Billy, why didn’t you say something,” I yelled at my friend as if he were suddenly the watch-keeper.
“Bro, like she doesn’t know where you hang out at.”
“That’s not the point. She worries. A lot.” I think my Dad’s sudden death made her neurotic about the possibility of losing me too.
“Well, go through the park then. That should shave off a couple of minutes.”
I shivered at the thought of having to cut through the wooded area that stood between our housing complexes. There was a playground at the center of it but most children I knew avoided it and went the extra mile to go to the play area at the school. No matter how hot the day was, burning the flesh off your backside on the hot metal slide and jungle gym was better than hiking to the middle of a creepy wooded area to play where potheads and gangs hung out away from prying eyes. Two people were murdered there just in the last few years.
“Yeah, I guess I’m going to have too.” I was a fast bicyclist. Keep my head down, stick to the path and shoot to the other side, that was my plan.
With my backpack slung to my back I chugged the peddles to pick up speed before entering the patch of woods everyone called the park. The streetlights didn’t penetrate the edge of trees, but patches of dusk still broke through lighting the path enough to see where it led.
As I approached the merry go round and swing set, they were empty. No one was here at the park yet. And I could see the opening that led to my street beyond that was to my backyard.
Focusing on my destination, I didn’t notice the large pile of clothing hunched over like an old man in the center of the path. I swerved to miss it and caught my front tire on lumpy grass. My bike bucked me as it stopped but my body was still in the state of getting the hell out of there.
I stood and the sting of where my peddle grazed my ankle made me suck in a sharp breath. I bent over to pick up the bike intending to walk it the rest of the way when out of the corner of my eye the pile of clothing shifted then stood. It was a slow but fluid movement and I froze. Turning my head, I watched the now towering figure grasping something to his face. A ringed tail flopped to the side and a little clawed foot jerked, as the figure made slurping noises as if he was biting into a peach. It took my brain several seconds to take in what exactly the hell I was seeing. This man, if you’d call it that, was gorging himself on a …raccoon. Just then the horror rushed adrenaline into my heart and reanimated me. He tossed the limp critter aside and dragged the back of his hand across his face as he lifted his head to me. I could not make out its features nor did I want to. I chucked my bike back down and made a run for the opening to the street.
A rush of cold air washed over me a second before I was thrown to the ground my back cracking at being arched over my pack of books. I would have yelled out if there had been any air in my lungs. His face now was visible in the light from the streetlamp. His eyes dark and piercing were set in a cragged face that was slick with blood. The stench of it clung to clumps of his black hair. His fangs under sneering lips and his head rearing to strike jolted my limbs to kick and tear at him. There was no weight to him, but I was completely immobile. Terror rippled through me as my mother’s voice sliced through the night.
“Toby? Toby!” She called out for me from the back porch. “Tobias Matthew, you better be in that garage or so help me.”
She didn’t see us past the fence. And my attacker was no longer interested in me but with her. His face directed towards her voice. His lips relaxed covering his fangs. No way was I going to allow him to take my mom.
“Mom! Run! Get in the house!” I screamed at the top of my voice.
“Toby?”
I grasped the black shroud of my assailant, but it turned to smoke in my palm.
I bolted up and ran, scaling the fence like my pants were on fire. “Mom!” I yelled grabbing her by the arm and forcing her into the back door she’d left open. I slammed the door shut and turned the deadbolt. I yanked the curtain back to check if we were followed then ran to the front door and locked it.
“Would you mind explaining to me exactly what the hell is going on?”
“Mom, not right now.”
“No. Right this second. You’re starting to scare me.”
Good, she should be scared. My heart hadn’t stopped racing and I was doing my best to not completely freak out.
“Oh my god, you’re bleeding.” She pointed to my ankle.
There were bloody sneaker tracks across the linoleum floor.
“It’s nothing. I fell off my bike.”
“Your bike? Where’s your bike?”
“Are you kidding me right now? I’ve just been attacked, and it could still be out there. The last thing I’m worried about is my damn bike.” I slid the curtain aside to checked out the back window again. No black mist, tall menacing man. No bats. I couldn’t get this lucky, could I? Had my mom seriously frightened it off? She couldn’t even get the neighbor’s cat off our front lawn.
“Attacked? Who? We should call the police?”
“I was attacked by a … by a vampire. At least, I think it was a vampire. No. It definitely was a vampire.”
“A vampire. Is that so?” She crossed her arms in that I’m not falling for that sort of way.
“Seriously, mom. It had fangs, turned into a black mist. The whole nine yards. I almost ran it over while it was munching down on a raccoon.”
“Uh, huh.”
“Do you honestly think I’d make something like this up?”
“You know what I think? I think … you were supposed to be in an hour ago like we agreed. You know I don’t like it when you are out after dark. There’s been two murders, Toby. Two. Just a block from here. I can’t be worrying about your safety while I’m working. That wouldn’t be fair to my patients.” She went over to the sink a wet a clean dish towel.
“But I’m telling you the truth.”
She pulled out a chair and pointed at it for me to sit in. I sighed and did as she wanted. After wiping away some of the blood and inspecting my wound, she gathered the necessary supplies. Gauze, hydrogen peroxide. “I don’t doubt you were attacked. By a thug or one of those east side boys. And maybe the light was playing tricks on you. But that only proves my point. There will be no more going to Billy’s after school.”
“But— “
“We can make some arrangements to see him on the weekends. And you must promise you’ll never go through the park again.”
“But— “
“Promise.” She pulled hard on the last bit of tape.
I know what I saw, and half of me wished it would just float in here a prove it to her, the other half was going to have enough nightmares without it showing up again.
“Fine.”
She pulled up another chair and plunked herself in it. “Look. I know things have been rough since your father . . . I’m doing the best I can.”
“I know you are. You’re doing fine, Mom.”
“We’re okay. Right?”
“Yeah.”
“You know you can call Dr. Vinks if you need to talk, right?”
Ugh, she had to bring up the shrink that my school counselor suggested for grief counseling. I looked up at her through my lashes.
“Right. You hungry?” She stood up letting the subject drop.
I didn’t have the heart to tell her I’d already eaten at Billy’s. “No. I’m pretty tired. I think I’ll just head upstairs and get ready for bed. I’ve got a history exam tomorrow.”
“Oh. Alright then.”
I hadn’t let go of the events that evening and the thought of what loomed outside made facing the night daunting. Vampires couldn’t enter a home unless invited. Right?
“Don’t open the door to any strangers, okay?”
“Isn’t that my line?”
“Just promise you won’t.”
She nodded. I kissed the top of her head goodnight. “Love you.”
“Love you too, son.”
“We don’t have any garlic, do we?” On second thought, it was better to be safe than sorry.
She slit her eyes, then softened them and shook her head. “Sorry, I think all we have is garlic powder up in the cupboard.”
“Thanks.” I retrieved the powder and was tempted to sprinkle some on her, but then she would most definitely call Dr. Vinks. Besides, she wore the crucifix Dad got her last Christmas. She never took it off. And if anything we were taught about warding off vampires were true, then it would be enough. It would have to be.
I went to every room and checked to make sure all the windows were still locked. I shook the garlic powder across them. I only wished I had a wooden stake or two.
My room overlooked the back and I could see to the mouth of woods. There was nothing there. The street was empty. Nothing moved except for a few bugs attacking the light of the streetlamp. I wished I could believe that I’d imagined it, but I know what I saw.
I dragged my desk chair over to my window to keep vigil. I didn’t lie, I did have a history exam the next day, but it didn’t matter because no way was I going to get any sleep.
I don’t know how I managed to fall asleep, but I did. I awoke with my spine curved in ways it wasn’t meant to and my chin resting on my chest. After a moment of putting my body parts back in place, I blinked wondering what woke me. Was it only the uncomfortable position I found myself in? I cleared my vision with the back of my hand. The neon light of my alarm clock blared one in the morning. I scanned the street below. It was empty as before. Even emptier now that the temperature had dropped. The few moths that had buzzed around the streetlight were gone.
A low murmur came from somewhere in the house. Downstairs I believed. I swallowed and strained harder to hear what it could be. And there it came again, my mother’s voice. I opened the door to my bedroom so I could hear more clearly. A conversation in hushed tones. My mom’s laughter. I hadn’t heard it so long, but there was no doubt it was hers.
“Mom?” I called out walking into the hallway. The laughter stopped and it became quiet, as I descended the stairs.
“Mom?”
“Hey, sweetheart.” She met me in the foyer and set down her glass of wine on the hall table. “We didn’t mean to wake you.”
“We?” My heart quickened. Who could be here at this time of night chatting it up with my mom?
She looked nervously over her shoulder to the living room. A low light flickered silhouetting an empty end of the couch. I could smell the wood burning in the fireplace. When was the last time we had a fire in the fireplace?
“Yes, well. After you went to bed, I got a call from a very old friend,” she said, interrupting my incoherent thoughts. “He was visiting the area and I haven’t seen him in such a long time.”
“It’s after one in the morning,” I spat incredulously.
“Is it really that late? I didn’t realize. We had so much to catch up on and he’s leaving for Europe in the morning.”
My head spun. “Mom. This is not okay.”
There’s a vampire on the loose and my mother’s entertaining some guy at one in the freaking morning. Nothing was okay.
“Well, that’s not your call. I can have whomever, whenever I want over. Now go back to bed. He’ll be gone by morning.”
“Seriously? I’m not nine years old anymore. You can’t just shuffle me off to bed. And you’re not even going to introduce us?”
“Not if you’re going to be all huffy about it. No, you’re too upset.”
“You’re damn right I’m upset.”
“Excuse the interruption.” A husky Eastern European accent drew my attention to the man standing in the entryway. And holy shit he was tall, like unearthly tall. “How very rude it was of us to wake you?”
I couldn’t make out his features with the light at his back but something in his melodic voice rose the hairs at the nape of my neck.
He lifted his hand out to me which seemed to glow in the darkness between us, it was so white. “My name is Tobias Melnyk.”
We had the same first name, what in the ever-living hell? Stunned I lifted my hand to his. It was so cold that goosebumps broke out across my arm and a prick in the back of head screamed at me to run. But it was too late. He held my hand as he stood into the stream of streetlamp light coming in through the door window. The same face that had hovered over me in the park earlier that evening appeared in front of me. A cleaner version, the crags were now long sunken indents that might have once been dimples, hair clean and styled back and no sign of blood. Only white gleaming teeth. The Vampire.
My heart banged hard in my chest; my mouth completely dry. I was suspended, petrified. A glint of silver passed over his black piercing eyes. Black smoke entered my consciousness dragging me under. The last image to cross my mind was of my mother and the fact I didn’t see the tiny gold chain around her neck. Mom. Run. But no sound left me, as I slipped away.
I wiped the saliva that strung across my cheek. The light shone bright white on the other side of my eyelids. I laid in bed, my bed with no memory of how I got there. The terrifying memories of the night before flooded in. I bolted upright in my bed. Had any of it happened? I threw the sheets back and swung my leg over the side. The throb in my ankle told me it had. Mom. I ran down the stairs two at a time then skidded to a stop at the kitchen entryway. My mom sat at the table with her hands wrapped around the cup of coffee set in front of her.
“Mom.”
She looked up and smiled at me, “Good morning, Toby. Sleep well?”
“You okay?” I scanned the empty living room.
“Of course. Why wouldn’t I be okay?”
“Where is he?”
“Who Sweetheart?”
“You know who,” I said, on the brink of losing it.
“You mean Mr. Burrows, who brought you home after you fell off your bike yesterday? You didn’t expect him to stay here all night, did you?”
Mr. Burrows, my neighbor? What the hell was she talking about?
“No. I mean the vampire who attacked me. The same one you were having a soiree with just last night.”
Her brow furrowed. “You must have hit your head harder than I thought.”
“No. I know what happened. My bike . . .” I shivered.
“You mean that bike?” She pointed towards the window with her pinky, as she brought the cup to her lips.
I pulled the curtain back and there sat my bike in the yard. I felt nauseous. Had I only imagined it? I had been watching a vampire movie just before leaving Billy’s. It had been so real. But really would a vampire hypnotize me then just tuck me into bed. I sat across from my mother and put my head in my hands. “I honestly thought I’d lost you.” I let out a breath.
“Well, rest assured, Sweetheart, I would never leave without you.” She set the mug down. I looked up to give her a relieved smile. When she licked the blood from the top of her lip left behind from her mug and a silver glint crossed her eyes.
© 2019 Shadow Leitner