by Dylan Keefer
“My name is Doctor Wentworth. I’ll just perform some rudimentary tests, alright? What’s your name?”
“Prudence.” Prudence made an effort to sound vulnerable. She lowered her voice and glanced toward Charlotte more than she looked at the doctor. Charlotte nodded in sympathy if he looked her way, but otherwise smirked.
The doctor used a device that looked like the headphones a cop wore to listen to music while typing up reports, with a flat round end to listen to her heartbeat.
“Wow, that’s loud and fast.” He commented before wrapping her arm in a strange cloth band. “This will measure your blood pressure.”
He squeezed a little round ball, and the band tightened, pressing the flat end of the headphones into Prudence's flesh. The doctor stared at a metal round clock-like thing, whose arrow moved up with every squeeze. When he slowly started turning a knob on the ball he was squeezing, the band released, and the arrow dropped.
“Blood pressure on the high side of normal.”
He then checked her mobility. He asked her what her injuries were and where they were located. Prudence turned to Charlotte.
“She doesn’t really remember, but she had a concussion, some light whiplash, and a few impact injuries. The airbag absorbed most of the hit, and she would’ve been fine if she didn’t hit her head on something.”
“Well, you seem to be fine now. Let me check something else.” He flashed a light in her eyes, making them water.
“Response normal. How is your memory?”
“I remember little from before three days ago.” Prudence looked at Charlotte, who nodded. “And what I do is fuzzy.”
“You probably just need time.” The doctor turned to Charlotte. “I assume you did a complete exam at home?”
“Yup.” Charlotte lied.
Dr. Wentworth started writing something down on a notepad. “Okay then, I’ll put this on hold and then slip it through when you get me her info.” He seemed to be used to discussing things with Charlotte like this because as soon as he wrote down what he needed to, he added, “How about Saturday at seven?”
“Make it eight. I’ll pick ya up.” Charlotte grabbed Prudence by the hand. “See ya.” She gave Dr. Wentworth a quick peck on the cheek before leaving.
On the drive back, Prudence couldn’t help but ask. “So how did you manage to be in this… relationship?”
“Well, we had an official thing a while back, before I left for school. Then it turned into an unofficial thing when I got back. We see each other when one of us has an excuse, either a real or an imaginary one. We have dinner, end up at one of our homes, knock boots, and in the morning, we have breakfast. Works for me, especially since we mesh well in that department.” Charlotte turned to gauge Prudence’s reaction. “Ya don’t seem fazed.”
“Why would I be? That is not a new thing. I think you assume people from the past didn’t have any experiences like that, at least it looks like that from the things I’ve read.” Prudence looked at the road. “In fact, that type of relationship sounds familiar to me.” She didn’t mention her thoughts about the man immediately accepting Charlotte’s request. “I don’t know why it would be, but then I don’t know who I was. Maybe I was not ready to settle down either. Or maybe whoever I was with wasn’t.”
" Maybe that tall dark and maybe handsome man that put ya to sleep is one. That way, when you find him, if he’s alive, you can ask him what type of person you were. Maybe he can jog your memory.” Charlotte teased.
"Maybe I'll find out. If he or anyone else is alive, that is. I have a feeling they aren’t."
“God knows ya could use someone to help you deal with all of this. So, ya think you’re well enough to do that? Have a relationship I mean. Even if it’s just a physical one that will take your mind off your problems for a few hours a week.”
“I do not know, honestly. I am too busy trying to figure out who I am to think about it. I think I need to settle that before I jump into a relationship with someone, no matter how brief. Plus, I need to figure out what feeling is because I want to feed off of someone and which one is because I am attracted to them.” Prudence thought of all the times she had focused on someone’s heartbeat.
“Well, honestly we’ve all had that dilemma. Do I want to sleep with them, or do I want to kill them? Usually, it leads to angry sex and a hoarse throat from shouting.” Charlotte laughed. “Ya’ll be fine, that’s normal.”
“That actually makes me feel better. Though I still need to be careful; I am, after all, stronger than a human. I don’t want that to lead to accidents.”
“You’re good at controlling yourself, I’ve seen it.”
“The first time you met me I had eaten 3 people.”
“Because ya hadn’t eaten in four hundred years. Ya didn’t kill me. I am sure that when it’s someone ya care about, it will be even harder to kill them.”
“I sure hope you’re right about that.” Prudence closed her eyes as Charlotte drove back to work.
When inside Charlotte went with Prudence to her office and poured out the contents of her purse. It seemed Charlotte had copied everything she got her hands on.
“We need to pour over this and find a clue.”
"I have time; I can do it." Prudence gathered all the papers in one empty folder she found while working. It had the name Mackenzie on it. "This might throw people off no?"
“Yeah, maybe. Just don’t lose them.”
Prudence opened the thin drawer in the desk. It was empty aside from a pen and dust. “I’ll put it here when not working on it.”
“Wow, that drawer has been stuck for ages.” Charlotte turned to look at it.
"I just wiggled it a bit, and it opened. But no one else will think to try. And I can make it stick again by just hitting it here really hard." Prudence pointed on the underside of the desk.
“Good thinking.” Charlotte straightened up. “Now I have to go and pretend to be my usual self.”
When Charlotte left, Prudence started on the file. The first thing she did was put the papers in order by date and contents. Then she was left with four piles, each for a different identity. Joe Harris, Alexander Barneson, Grant Drayton, and Lens Mills. After repeating several times that she wasn’t going to take any of the things she read to heart, she read through each one.
Joe Harris was the one she started with. A few burglaries, and aggravated assault. Then an attempted murder in another state. The next few years were quiet until the police started chasing him again, this time for three murders, deemed accidental after a few months.
Alexander Barneson had a longer list. From what Prudence could understand, he was suspected to be an assassin for hire, since he only killed rather rich targets. This was the identity with the five counts of murder, one of which involved three people. He was arrested twice. But once he somehow mysteriously vanished from his cell, and the other time, a very expensive lawyer came in and freed him, giving him an alibi.
Prudence might have been new to this world, but she wasn't unfamiliar with the fact money could move a lot of mountains and open a lot of locked doors. She also saw the note a cop had left in the file. It said that if one dug deep enough and weren't being ‘stonewalled,' an expression Prudence could guess the meaning of within the context, they would be able to connect the man with a lot more cases.
Grant Drayton was what she assumed to be the man’s real identity. Mostly because his file had the most information, and shared a last name with the woman whose file was now missing. Grant was an only child, left in front of a church. Of course, he was, Prudence thought as she shuddered at the image of the tattoos on the man’s body. He had been in contact with the police steadily over the years. The first time being when he witnessed a murder but couldn’t identify the man responsible. As Prudence read the report, she was becoming surer and surer that the kid was there to learn and not just as an accidental witness. And that the holy man who had died was the murderer who failed at his job. The case had been closed since t
here was no evidence, and all the child had said was that it was a tall man dressed in black, trying to get money.
As the years went on, it seemed like Grant had fallen on hard times because of his experience, but Prudence saw skills being honed. While she didn’t quite understand the process of collecting the evidence and the way certain things were done, the end results were easy enough to understand and compare. Especially when looking at stabbings with wood shavings in the wound or being lit on fire. One beheading. What they all had in common was that the reports about the bodies were extremely scarce compared to a lot of other cases Prudence had read. She even pulled out a case from the same year and compared them. Any report connected to Grant Drayton left a lot to be desired.
Lens Mills was the identity the man used in this town. Prudence could see why. Lens had a few parking tickets, and an assault charge that was ruled as self-defense, but no heavy crimes. Prudence was wondering how the man kept his identities straight. It seemed that if he didn't use the correct disguise and remembered the name wrong, he would be toast immediately. When one compared the pictures of the four identities, three had different hair lengths, and two had different eye colors. All had completely different information when it came to a place of birth, age, and current residence. Well, to be fair, only one had a current residence. An apartment in Delaware. Prudence wrote the address down, hoping that she might be able to poke around somewhere.
At this point, she hadn’t realized how much time had passed. Then she looked at the clock above the door and saw that she had been studying the file for over three hours. She packed everything up and placed it neatly in the drawer, then took the piece of paper with the address and went to Charlotte.
“Well, we need to be careful how we search for this. We don’t want those guys in suits again.” Charlotte stared at the paper.
“What if I just search for news about Delaware at first?” Prudence was trying hard to picture the internet in her head. But invisible strings that somehow pulled data out of nowhere was not something she could understand. Though ‘the black box is the modern filing cabinet’ was easier.
“Well, yeah it might work. It’s not a stretch to think that if it was in those files, those guys know about it too. And if they were serious about cleaning things up, they’d do something about the apartment.”
“Now, I just need to figure out where to search from and how to do it. Can’t you do it?” Prudence asked Charlotte.
“Ya need to get used to stuff like this more than I do. Computers are pretty much the default equipment everyone uses. Maybe ya can ask someone under the pretense of your amnesia? John doesn’t know enough to contest ya on that, he was not involved in the case, and he’d pretty much do anything if ya ask him.” Charlotte snickered.
“And you’re alright with me using your friend like that?”
"He's not a good friend; he's just a friend. There's a difference. Plus, ya are good at pretending to be something ya're not. Not surprising since ya've done it a lot. Maybe if ya do it often enough, your memory will get jogged. It did happen with the vampire hunter dude."
Prudence's mind latched onto that idea, and with that in mind, she walked over to John near the end of his shift. She walked over to him, as he was throwing things in a backpack and got his attention with a wave.
“Hi, John.”
“Hey, Prue. You mind if I call you that? Or do you prefer your full name?” John beamed at her.
“Either is fine.” Prudence smiled in return. It was odd how calming John’s presence was. She assumed that was because of his posture and the fact he was not threatening at all. “I actually wanted to ask you something.”
“Yes?” He dropped the backpack down and leaned on his desk.
"Well, as you know, I have a case of amnesia, and unfortunately that means I have forgotten quite a few things I knew how to do before. Case in point, using a computer. Just drawing a complete blank." Prudence looked down. She didn't need to pretend she was embarrassed. She already was.
“Hey, that’s okay.” John jumped at the chance to make her feel better. “You want me to teach you?”
“Yes, and I was wondering if you could help me search for something. My cousin tried, but Charlotte gets frustrated easily.”
“Sure, anything in particular?”
“Well, I had a friend in Delaware, but I can’t seem to find her address or name. The doctor said if I see enough things that are familiar to me it might jog my memory.” Prudence wondered how she thought of that as fast as she did.
“Sure, sit down.” John pulled out his chair for her. Prudence felt flattered by the gesture. “Alright, you see this button,” he pointed at a large square on the black box under the desk, “this turns it on. Push it.”
Prudence turned on the computer. She was pleasantly surprised at the practicality of John's explanations. He put a hand on the back of the chair she was sitting on and pointed with his other hand. Prudence was hyper aware of that hand. The closer they were the more Prudence could smell John’s body. It had an oddly sweet note under the aroma of what she assumed was a shower gel. She chose not to focus on it and focused on the screen instead.
"Okay, now this is a keyboard where you type things. This is the mouse. When you move it," John demonstrated, "the little arrow on the screen moves. And when you click this button," John pointed to the left mouse button, "twice, you open stuff. Now, if you were to search for Delaware, you'd first need to open a search engine. Click twice on that little icon." John pointed at the screen with his finger.
Prudence moved the mouse and clicked. The screen changed. She did her best not to seem overly surprised. But she did find John’s explanations easy to digest. He might be worth keeping around.
"Alright, now we click here and type Delaware. Hold the key that says shift while typing a letter to capitalize it. Then press enter." John's voice was calm and steady.
Prudence did that. The screen changed showing a bunch of general information about the state.
“That thing.” John pointed at the end of the screen, “means there is something more down the page, so you use the little wheel to move the page up and down. To scroll.”
Prudence tried it, feeling more confident. She noticed that when someone stood this close to her for this long, she could feel their body heat more. She wondered how exactly advanced her senses were. She could also hear the steady beating of his heart. There was a weird warm knot in her stomach. She refused to focus on it, instead staring at the screen.
"Okay, so let's say you want the news to a particular region. You have any idea where your friend was from specifically?" John turned his face toward her. Prudence felt her mouth go dry. That was surely not how one felt when they were hungry, Prudence thought. Her brain was telling her to move, but her body was urging her to move forward. She compromised by staying perfectly still.
"Wilmington," Prudence said after she realized that the pause had become too long. Her heartbeat sped up.
“Okay, so above you type Wilmington and the word news.” John moved his glance to the computer screen.
When Prudence typed it up and clicked enter, the page changed. Out of the flurry of information, she focused on a title where it said that a fire had engulfed an apartment building. She wanted to open it, but she didn’t want to scare John.
“How can I open two things at once?”
"For that, you need the right button, you click it over the title, and you then click the other button over this option." John pointed at the button, and his hand brushed against hers.
Prudence clicked the thing she was interested in and then another title at random, about a park.
“Okay, now click over.”
Prudence clicked the news about the fire and read it quickly. She was unused to reading on a screen, but it didn't bother her too much. She saw the address was the same as the one she wrote down.
"Don't tell me that fire is where your friend lived," John asked. He stopped leaning on the chair and k
nelt next to Prudence, so he could look her in her eyes. She could tell his pulse sped up. He was worried for her. Prudence suddenly started to feel bad about using him. She decided to not follow her instinct to hug him.
Prudence kept her face neutral but avoided his gaze. She didn't know if it was only because she felt her eyes would give her lie away, or if it had something to do with the knot in her stomach. That knot was spreading. She could not stop focusing on his heartbeat. "I don't know; it doesn't jog anything." After a break that allowed her to read the whole thing, she added, "I don't think so, at least I don't remember it."
She clicked over to the park and after a few moments faked a smile. “Oh, I remember this park. I think I’ve been there.”
"That's great." John's voice sounded relieved, and he got back to his previous position. Prudence guessed that he was worried he had triggered a bad memory. And he had triggered something.
She felt unused to a man standing that close to her, sharing this type of moment with her, while having a beating heart. It was the one thing that was off, though it wasn’t enough for it to feel alien. Hearing his heartbeat made her remember her mission. But apart from that, the strange feeling was familiar. Warm. She read the article to its end, and even clicked on some pictures, making up a memory of sitting on a bench.
When she got up to go, John lightly grabbed her hand. “Hey, about my question this morning…”
Prudence could feel his pulse through his wrist. He was now closer to her, his body just a hair away from hers. For a moment she tried to double check if it was her vampire instincts taking over, but she didn’t feel hungry. The knot in her stomach became bigger and her face flushed. She imagined what would happen if she had actually said yes. Maybe kissed him. It brought butterflies to her stomach. And then a cold chill went down her spine. She couldn’t. She wasn’t human; she was a monster that fed on them. She couldn’t trust herself with him. She did not want to hurt anyone. So, she automatically said the first thing that she thought of, omitting the vampire part.
