by Amy Mah
“To clear up your confusion, you should know that age is different for different creatures. If you were a dog or cat, you would have died of old age by now. If you were a human, you would be thinking about being nearly an adult, but you are not a cat, dog or human, and your age as a vampire means you are still a youngling in our society, a fact my brother did not take into consideration.”
“It was foolish of you to try and hide this from me. I had just thought you had a perverted sense of humor to want to look so young. The lullaby I put you to sleep with last night was the final proof to your age. It will only work on children and animals, so unless you are an animal, you are a child, and you will be treated as such. It goes without saying that I will not accept disobedience in a child. Do not test me over this; childhood can last a long time with vampires, and if you get on my wrong side, it will feel like an eternity.”
Amy sat back down in the bath with a splash and did not say a word.
“Your foot claws are disgusting, and you have dried blood in them. A female should always be very careful about her personal hygiene. You now have the choice of me scrubbing them clean or fetching a pair of clippers and cutting them off; which will it, be?”
Still trying to take in the age idea, she could at least answer this question.
“I would like to keep my claws. Will you please help me clean them?”
Now Amy almost drowned as the vampire grabbed both her feet; only by pushing both arms behind her could she keep her head above the water, which had cooled down a lot. She was not planning to wash her hair, but that decision was no longer hers to make. The most she could hope to hold above the water was her nose; a decision on washing one’s hair is automatically made as soon as someone lifts both feet for inspection. Could vampires drown? She didn’t know, and at the moment she did not wish to find out. What she did instead was grit her teeth, as claw cleaning was in no way a gentle process.
“Now the claws on your hands!”
Amy’s toes tingled where the brush had missed an intended claw and instead tried to remove skin; she sat up and held out both hands with claws fully extended, and these received the same painful attention.
“Please open your mouth and fully extend your fangs. That’s good!”
Now apart from a dumb rapist, Amy could not believe that someone would willingly place a hand in a vampire’s mouth! Vampire jaws were mega strong; all that had to be done was to bite, and all problems would be over. Okay, so I would be dead, but my problems would all still be gone. No, it would not be that simple. She would not kill me; more than likely, she would have my fangs filed blunt, or even removed. I would also probably be grounded for a month and sent to bed early every night without TV. People just did not realize how hard it was as a vampire to fight against the urge to bite, in addition to the urge to swallow, cough or move the mouth in any way when someone is holding it open. To play it safe, Amy held her breath.
“Your teeth and fangs are nice and clean; well done. Make sure you keep them that way. Later, I will show you how they can be polished to give a cleaner stab. Now, let’s get you weighed and measured!”
My Own Room?
At least Amy now had a towel wrapped around herself. For the life of me, how the heck does one stop it from falling down? She knew the theory of wrapping it around and tucking one edge in at the top between the boobs, so why did it still feel like it would drop down if I breathe? Amy was now holding the bath towel around herself.
She looked at what was apparently going to be her bedroom. It had one bed frame, No mattress! A wardrobe and a chest of drawers. The rest of the room was empty apart from two bins that were colorfully labelled “Whites” and “Colors,” and a large bin with a black bag in it, also labelled but this time saying “TRASH” in pink marker pen. More of a bedroom in the making, she thought. And when I say ‘in the making,’ judging by the size of the stalagmites and stalactites, I would say that would be on the lines of 100,000 years. Their being painted pink must have been a very recent geological event.
Still in shock from the bathroom experience, Amy stood very still in the center of the room (or should I say cave), wearing just one very large, pink, fluffy towel and letting the events of the past hour run though her mind. Nothing strange, really; it was nothing strange. If I had been about ten years younger, then maybe it would be normal.
The world had just changed, dragging Amy with it over a matter of hours. I had gone from an adult, sex-starved slut to a child, and this was normal? As soon as she could find a computer, Amy planned to Google the meaning of normal, as it is now very different from what, well, what normal meant. She liked finding out things; the world was full to the brim with things to discover, and the meaning of “normal” can be quite dynamic at times. Perhaps, if I concentrate really hard, it could just be a normal room: well, apart from the light-giving, glowing walls and the wonderful selection of stalagmites and stalactites (which were the cause of the dripping sound that reminded me of some Asian washrooms). Besides that and all the cave-like looks it had, one could say it was a bedroom, but only if you were a troglodyte!
What the heck is normal?
Is growing fangs and biting people normal?
Vampires owning their own blood bank normal?
Living in a nest, meaning that the nest decides your age.
normal?
Is having a bedroom with interesting strata as wallpaper normal?
The large female had gotten Amy to stand on some scales to check her weight. Okay, that was normal-ish; well, if I were a child or needed to go on a diet.
She then measured Amy’s height, bust, waist, and other parts of her body with a tape that had a very cold metal end to it. That was embarrassing but normal-ish as well.
Then the normal things ended when she started to go into more personal details about Amy’s body. Well, it is my body, after all, and I do know what all the bits do and why. And I have known all that since before 7th grade. Okay, so apparently I am wrong, as I only look human. My body, well, it is mostly a camouflage, and there are things like-err-well, like being in heat and what I am likely to want to do at some point in the future, when I do not go so red thinking about it.
Besides, Amy thought, she had said I would not need to worry about it for years, as they would be keeping me at my present age for a while. Okay, so that now answered all my questions: simple, really, and now so obvious. The large female was stark raving mad, so if I could act like a child when near her I may just stay alive a bit longer and maybe even win an Oscar.
Amy opened a drawer on the top left of the chest and saw it was full of brand-new packs of undies. She ripped open the plastic wrapping and quickly put on a pair of white panties, softly muttering, “Could be worse: they could have days on the week on them.”
Searching through the other drawers, she could not find any bras, but with my bust size that would not be such a formidable problem for this high school pencil-test winner. You know, you place a pencil under a boob, and if it fell to the floor, it meant you were something called “pert,” but in my case it just meant small.
Amy found packets of white t-shirts, which would do as long as I did not get too cold and start looking like a walking pair of coat hooks. From the wardrobe, she took out a boring, white ankle-length nightdress: one of a great number of similar boring nightdresses all shouting, “Look at me! I am a 19th century vampire!” Oh crap! As a fashion statement, it really sucks, but then that is my life all over. Amy pulled it over her head, thinking “Crap” looks to be the limit of my current swear-word vocabulary.
All nightdresses are of course designed for tall women with big boobs, so the dress just did two things for Amy; one is to make me look like a little kid off to bed minus her teddy bear, and the other is someone who is very likely going to trip over the hem and break her neck.
Vampire World
Look, why me? she thought.
What have I ever done to the world for it to do this to me? Here I am, dressed like
something between an extra in a 1950s horror movie and a little girl that has lost her teddy bear. Nineteenth-century nightdresses so do not do anything for my body shape.
It is not me this time; it’s the world, Amy thought. It has just gone crazy and decided to take me with it. In the human world, males were easy to understand; they just wanted you to raise your tail. (OMG! I am now thinking like a female!) and then thank them afterwards, but females here, like in the human world, are dangerous; I mean real dangerous.
Like the world, the large female is as mad as they come. And well, if I want to live a little longer, perhaps it would be best to humor her.
So she wants me to be a child; until I can find a way to escape, then that is what she will get: not only a child but a very clean child.
If nothing else, I now know that with all the practice I am going to get, I will have a wonderful chance of a career in acting when I do get out.
Oh well! Let’s start Act One, Scene One.
Phabian and Nyx
Amy started towards the door then changed her mind, went back and picked up the towel. She folded it neatly and placed it on top of the bin marked “Colors,” then collected all the plastic and paper packaging and placed it all into the trash bin.
As Amy opened the door to where she had nursed the vampire she called Uncle, she saw that the room was very different; all the plastic had been removed, and he was sitting up with a towel in front of him. It was a small towel, and it was pink; he was talking with his sister, who was standing with her arms crossed. They both stopped when Amy entered.
Amy had no idea what to do, but as they were looking at her, she had to say something. She tried to be extra polite, and gave a little curtsy.
“Lord and Lady, if I am disturbing you, I can wait outside until I am summoned.”
The sister turned and looked at her brother, and he noticeably moved back a few inches.
“See? That is what I mean! No idea of how to greet us or even act her station! You tasted her; you knew how young she is. What on earth did you think you were doing?”
Amy looked from the sister to the brother and felt sorry for him. He was always so dignified, and now he had to hold a very small towel in place as his sister scolded him.
“Look, we have discussed this already. I will not have you talk to me this way. She didn’t talk like a servant before she came here, and as I have now said a number of times, it was not my idea to bring her here. She is not branded, nor does she smell of the nest, so tell me just how the hell did she get in to be standing here anyway? You know full well it is not possible to enter the nest smelling like that! Go on, smell her! Then tell me how you think I can get her back out without being noticed!?”
His sister let out a breath, which sounded more like a huff. She turned from her brother and walked towards Amy.
“My brother has now decided what we shall do with you.”
Amy saw him raise his eyes at this comment, and she knew it was now going to be his sister running things but in his name.
“First, you will be pleased to know that you have never mated with him.”
She glanced towards her brother.
“You can say that you had the itch, but he did not let you scratch it. Being in heat does strange things to a female, but as I said, it did not happen. You are not his mate, so you can also forget your silly fears of being pregnant.”
“Second, you are far too young to live out in the wild on your own. Without proper supervision, you could come in heat again, so as a stray, we are in our rights to rescue you; and that is what we will now do.”
“Third, your status in the nest has to be earned, but in the meantime, you may call us Aunt and Uncle, as from today, we have officially adopted you.”
Again, she looked towards her brother.
“Fourth, your uncle has decided that you will be fully in my care and supervision until you come of age. I plan to teach you how to behave in polite society, and you will try to live long enough to appreciate it. Now, go to your room; I will let you have your daily schedule later. And please try and stay clean!”
Uncle Phabian
Amy closed the door of what was now her room and fell back on it. Slowly, her feet slid forward, letting her sink to the floor, where she sat in a state of shock. She went over the conversation in her mind again and again, but it always ended with the word “adopted:” her now adopted uncle?
The last comment she heard as she left was, “Go to your room. After I have spoken with my sister, I will visit you. Don’t look so worried; you are safe now.”
Look worried?! Of course she should look worried! It was bad enough having to act like a child without being told she had acted so well that they had adopted her!
Amy jumped as a heavy knock on the door vibrated through her backbone, and she clawed her way deeper into the room, turned and looked at the door as she answered.
“Yes?”
She relaxed a little when the door opened to show her master-turned-uncle standing in what must have been fancy dress. He looked so funny; surely no modern vampire would ever really dress like an 18th century vampire unless they were going to a party at the end of October?
He followed her eyes and looked down at what he was wearing before looking back to her.
“Sorry; it’s standard nest uniform, like your nightdress. We are forced to wear this stuff in the nest. It can only be removed when in private rooms: all for the greater good, we are all told. Rules over nest wear were laid down a couple of hundred years ago, and now no one can update or change them. I can remove the cloak if you wish.”
As he stepped, in he took off his cloak by undoing a chain clasp at his neck. He threw the cloak over her bed frame, followed by his jacket. After he took the jacket off, Amy saw that his shirt had puffy sleeves, giving the impression he should be sitting near a babbling brook reading poetry.
“Is that any better?”
It was true; looking like a poet was better than looking like an extra from a horror film.
“Yes, a lot better, thank you. I will keep my nightdress on if you don’t mind. Your sister has very strong views on what I should have on when I am near a male.”
A loud, musical laugh filled the room.
“My sister has strong views on everything, but she really is very kind when you get to know her.”
“Now, before we discuss your future, my sister has told me how you were mistakenly taken as my mate and brought here. She also told me how you had cared for me when I was in a weak state; I hope that was not too stressful for you.”
His laughter had somehow broken her glum mood. Amy was no longer frightened of him and expected she would never be afraid of him again. She was not his mate, which was a relief, but she had seen him naked, and she knew she could never be frightened of anyone she had seen naked. The last of his authority had vanished when they were both lying naked on sticky plastic. True, nothing yucky had happened, but they were closer in a different way.
“Your sister said you would die without my help. You have saved me so many times; how could I let you die? Besides, I would miss you, you are so ……. very un-vampire like. You just pretend to be pompous and cruel, whereas you are nice and kind, and I do like you, Uncle.”
She was now worried that he would bring up the idea of her needing a mate in the future, so she hastily added, “But not in any yucky way, so no more daft ideas of me needing a male. I agree with your sister. I am far too young for that sort of thing, and besides, I just want to go home and then back to school as if I were a normal kid. Okay, normal-ish, as I would still like to help protect a group of sex slaves and order takeout from the blood bank. You can’t keep me a prisoner here forever, and I really am too old to start being adopted!”
She felt his arm go around her shoulder.
“You silly little Hell Cat! True, it would be difficult for you to leave, as your body is changing due to the nest. You are slowly becoming what nature intended. You are not a prisoner; you will st
ay and make this your new home quite willingly because that is not only the right thing to do but also the only thing you can do.”
She tried to push his arms away, but he just tightened his hold.
“The reason you will stay is that if you leave, you will die. The nest has accepted you as a member, and the last event has killed off any idea of keeping you hidden outside. Besides, I would also miss your constant illogical female babble if you died, so before you think I am getting soft, you should know that it is purely for my own selfish reasons that I want to keep you alive.”
She knew that she would be safe outside and started to say so, but he cut her off.
“No. You are an oddity, and we vampires don’t like things that could threaten our way of life. If found outside, the best you could hope for is to be taken and forced to have children to see if your young breed true. If not, you and your offspring would be removed from the gene pool.”
“My sister is correct; it is best to hide you where you will be the safest, and that is not outside but in here as part of the nest. Nest living is all stupid rules, as without the stupid rules we would have killed ourselves off years ago. The same stupid rules that force you to wear a nightdress are the very ones that will protect you; why did you think we call it a nest? If you attack one part of the nest, you attack the whole nest, but if you are part of the nest, you are very safe.”
“Your cover has been well and truly blown. That is why you cannot return; it would not just be you they would be after. To flush you out, everyone you are near to would be killed, from the pets at school to the one you call Auntie. They would all die just to get at you, and their deaths will be your fault if you try to go back. It would be as if you had personally left their bodies to rot after you had drained their blood.”
