by Ford, S. M.
The day before her birthday, Rosi and I were upstairs in my room, hunkered down over a copy of the curse. We had copied it onto a large pad of drawing paper, and numbered each line. That way, when we needed to discuss a certain line, we could just refer to it by it’s number, rather than reciting the whole line. A definite timesaver. The meaning of lines 1-26 was already pretty clear. We were focused on lines 27-41. The sun was sinking into the horizon, and we’d been at it all day. We had told Mom we were onto something, just because we needed a break from the intense party planning tasks that she was demanding of us. She had grudgingly agreed to give us the day off. I felt like this whole thing was going nowhere, and Rosi agreed. We both thought it would be safe to call it quits for the day without running the risk of Mom handing us more party chores. I pushed my chair away from the massive table just as Rosi shouted. “Cuz! Wait! Listen to this one more time! Live twice this moment Of your messy disgrace. Harlot thee wrought this so proffer thine face. Tis thine one chance at salvation, Tis thine one saving grace. I think I know what that means! I think that if we are to have a shot a breaking the curse, we have to reenact the moment when that witch squared off with Great Sophia on the beach that day!” Rosi looked expectantly at me, and I paused to think it through. I shook my head. “You mean, she has to have the blood of her dead lover spat into her face again?! That’s not gonna be possible Rosi. He’s long gone.” Rosi returned my head shake with her own. “I’m not sure who’s blood it has to be. But the witch said in her curse that we have a shot at breaking it during the fifteenth year of each of our lives. She wouldn’t have bothered to say that if there wasn’t some way to do it!” I sat back down and stared at the lines of the curse. Suddenly, it made perfect sense. “Rosi, she said Something from all, nothing from none. Habeus corpus, Let the fresh blood run! I know exactly what she meant! We have to have FRESH BLOOD from each and every family member! NOT toe nails or hair clippings! And then Great Sophia has to stand and relive that moment on the beach! I think WE have to spit the blood into her face! The blood of all her offspring!” My heart was racing now and my voice was barely a whisper. “Cuz. I think we just solved the curse. I can’t believe this, but I think we just freakin’ solved this thing!” Rosi stood stock still, her eyes wide. “But ... we don’t HAVE blood from every family member Cal. Pellegrino. He left. And who knows if HE had kids. We’d need blood from him AND any kids he had, and any kids THEY had. This is impossible. We’re right back where we were. Nowhere. And what’s the last line ‘Till then, till then’ mean?” It felt as if someone had sucked all the air from the room. I slumped forward and laid my forehead on the cool tabletop. “I don’t think that last line means anything...let’s sleep on this Rosi. Tomorrow’s your birthday, and our party’s on Saturday. Let’s get through that stuff and then we’ll figure out how to find Pellegrino and his kids.”
The next morning I woke early. The sun was barely lighting the sky. I sent Rosi a happy birthday text. The text I got back was puzzling. “Thx cuz! Look outta ur window in 5 mins!!!” I walked to the big windows that lined the wall of my bedroom and sat cross legged on a pillow, waiting. I heard it before I saw it. I knew that sound! Rosi came careening around the side of our house, hair flying, sitting atop a shiny, cherry red Moped Motobecane! She looked up at my window and waved wildly, grinning from ear to ear. I flew down the stairs and out the kitchen door. “Aaaahhhh! Happy birthday Cuz! This is sweeeeet! You’ve got a Connie too!” Rosi pulled her little red helmet off. “Can you believe it, Cuz?! I had NO idea! Our parents must’ve planned this all along! How freakin’ awesome is this?! Oh, and she’s not Connie, that’s yours. Mine’s gonna be Tobie! You know, Mo-tobe-cane? So, Tobie! Connie and Tobie, riding off into the sunset! Sweet freedom! Get dressed! Let’s get outta here!” We spent the day revisiting all the spots I had discovered on my first day with Connie. Downtown for ice cream and frappucinos. Then a much needed relaxing putt around Whiskey Lake, with a picnic on the northern shore. On the way home, as we passed the Family Tree, I suddenly had the urge to stop. I pulled Connie off into the dirt, and Rosi followed. “What’s up? Why’r we stopping?” I walked towards the old tree, and bent to examine it. “I just wanted to check out the wound. See how it looks.” Our makeshift clay and spider web bandage had fallen away, and lay on the ground below. To our surprise, the gash in the old tree had healed completely, leaving a bumpy, knobby scar in it’s place. “Wow, that was fast! I can’t believe it healed that quickly! Is that normal?” Rosi shook her head and placed her hand on the tree’s bark. “I’m no arborist, but I don’t think so. But then, nothing about this tree is normal. It’s so...warm and alive. I mean, I know trees are alive, but this one feels weirdly alive.” Still thinking about the tree, we climbed back on our Mopeds and headed towards home. I was off to my room for some research and Rosi was off to her house for birthday dinner.
Saturday morning arrived, and Donna with it. I wasn’t even out of bed, when I heard her little coupe pulling into the gravel driveway below my windows. Before I could pull on some sweatpants she was coming through my bedroom door. “Hey Cal! Wow, your not up yet? Today’s the big birthday shindig thing! I thought you’d have been up hours ago getting ready! You’r not wearing that are you?!” Without even pausing I reached behind me for a pillow and sent it flying. Donna ducked and the pillow flew past her. She shrugged. “I had a Red Bull on the way down. Nice try, but...” Giggling, I launched another pillow and headed for the shower as it connected with Donna’s still talking face. When I returned, Donna was chatting it up with Mom. “Calli, everything’s set! The family is going to meet at the old tree at 1 p.m. for the ceremony, then the real party begins! It’s going to be an all-day and into the night celebration girls! We’ve got food, and live music, and more food, and dancing, and then ... a fireworks show tonight! Hurry up!” Mom gave me an excited squeeze and then blasted out of the room, probably off to oversee some last minute details. I looked at Donna. “Ceremony? Jeez, I have no idea what that’s about. Hold onto your hat girl, you might see some serious crap today, based on the last ‘ceremony’ Rosi and I were called to ... you know, the Showing that I told you about?” Donna’s face lit up. “Really?! You think so?! That’d be freakin’ awesome. Bring it on vampire bestie!”
A few minutes before 1 p.m. Donna, Rosi, Greg and I headed for the old tree. As we walked, Rosi and I filled Donna and Greg in on the latest clues and information we had gathered. When we arrived at the tree, we found the entire family already standing around it. We must’ve looked quite odd to passers by on the road nearby. At least a hundred people or more, all hovering in a circle around a big olive tree. “Great” I whispered as we approached. “This is for sure gonna be all over somebody’s Instagram. I can see the caption now ... hundreds of weirdos staring at a tree.” The family parted like the Red Sea, and cleared a path for us. Standing nearest the tree was Great Sophia, dressed in a black bustier top and a long, flowing black skirt. She threw her arms out as though to hug us, but as we leaned in she quickly placed her hands on her hips. Typical, I thought, smiling to myself. I don’t think I’d ever seen her hug anyone, remembering the day we met when I had offered her a hug but received a gentle glove swat on the cheek instead. Great Sophia motioned for us to turn and face the family. Then she began to speak. “Welcome, dear children. We gather here at the hallmark of our beginnings, the great tree, to confirm the coming of age for our two newest vampiri, Callidora and Ambrosia. Let us begin.” Great Sophia reached out her hand, and both Mom and Aunt Thiya stepped forward, smiling quietly. They each held a small, velvet covered box in their hands. As they simultaneously opened the lids, I held my breath. Nestled in the red velvet lining of each box were two knives. One large, with a flat, chisel like blade and the other much smaller and with a pointed, needle-like tip. What the hell was about to happen?! I glanced at Rosi, and her face looked just as alarmed as I felt. “Step forward, young vampiri, and take the large carving tool in your hand.” Rosi and I stepped up, and carefully graspe
d the large, chisel-like knives. “Now, close your eyes, and move towards the great tree. Let yourselves be drawn to wherever the tree whilst take you. Do not be afraid.” I closed my eyes, and suddenly felt a warmth emanating from the knife, warming my hand. The heat seemed to pull me in a certain direction, and I followed. After just a moment I felt the rough bark of the old tree against my outstretched hand. Opening my eyes, I found myself staring at a spot on the bark which, surprisingly, had no names carved upon it. When Donna and I had inspected the tree weeks before and discovered the names carved upon it, there had been no empty spaces left. But here, now, there suddenly was an empty space. “Wonderful, my girls. You have both been drawn to the location of your mark. Please, take the blade in your hand and enter your names into the family tree.” Great Sophia watched carefully as Rosi and I both began to carve our names. “And girls, your FULL names please. None of these quaint nicknames you have created for yourselves.” The tree bark carved easily. As I applied pressure to the knife handle, the blade skimmed smoothly through the bark, like a warm knife through butter. Weird, I thought. “Excellent, girls. Now, place your knives back into their receptacles, and remove the smaller blades.” Now what, I wondered. “Raise your left hands. Place the knives against your palms. Swipe the blade swiftly. Place your palm across your carved name and hold it there. Let your life force become one with the tree.” My mind was exploding! I looked frantically at Rosi.
Her eyes met mine, equally frantic. What the hell was happening? Did this old broad seriously expect us to cut ourselves on purpose?! I looked at Mom, eyebrows raised. Mom glanced nervously at Great Sophia, did a funny little curtsy, and stepped towards Rosi and me. She stood between us and whispered. “It’s okay girls. You just need to make a tiny scratch, that’s all. It’s part of the ceremony. I’ll explain as soon as we’re done here. Please, just do it.” Great Sophia cleared her throat loudly, and Mom ducked back into her place with the family. Rosi and I exchanged glances, then each of us raised the knives to our hands. I ran the blade gingerly across my palm, barely applying any pressure at all. A thin line of bright red blood immediately appeared on my hand. I quickly placed my palm onto my freshly carved name, and Rosi did the same. As I held my hand against the bark, the warmth from the tree spread up through my palm, into my arm, and filled my entire body. My head felt light. I pulled my hand away from the tree, and saw that the few drops of blood I had placed upon it had spread to fill my name. Just as suddenly, the tree absorbed the blood, and it was gone. Applause and cheering broke out from the entire family around us. Great Sophia waved everyone to silence. “It is done. The next generation of hope has begun. Let these newest of our members be the end to our accursed days. Now, the celebrations shall begin!” With a wave of her arm Great Sophia ended the ceremony and the family began moving towards the tents that had been set up in the field with food and drinks. The sounds of a live band began to waft across the air towards us. The party was about to start. I looked for Mom, and we walked slowly together behind the crowd. Rosi appeared and linked arms with Mom. “So? What the heck was THAT Mom? Why did we just hafta CUT ourselves and smear it on the tree?! Why didn’t you mention in Divulgence class that this was gonna happen?!” Mom pursed her lips together. “I’m sorry girls. Honestly, I didn’t want to freak you out by telling you. And also, it’s not really that big a deal once you do it. I mean, look at your hands. They’re already healed, right?” Rosi and I simultaneously looked down. Holy crap. Mom was right. Where there had been a cut and blood flowing moments ago, now there was no trace of any injury. “I’m sorry Mom, but what the f@#*!” Mom frowned. “Calli! Watch your potty mouth. Honestly... I didn’t mention it because I knew it would heal instantly. It always does. On everyone. See? I don’t even have a scar. We only do it for tradition. You see, when Great Sophia carved her name on the tree so long ago, she accidentally cut herself. Since she was wearing a silk gown and didn’t want to bleed on it, she wiped the blood from her palm onto the tree. We’ve all done it since then, as a show of respect to her, I guess you could say. It really means nothing.” Rosi abruptly stopped walking. “You mean EVERYONE in the family has done that?!” I looked at Rosi, grabbed her arm, and we took off running. “Okay, thanks Mom! We’re off to party! See you later!” As soon as we were out of earshot I stopped running. “Holy crap Rosi! That’s it! If everyone has done what we just did, then you know what that means?!” Rosi was panting from running. “When Donna crashed into it that red stuff came out. Greg analyzed it. The tree bleeds human BLOOD! Of course I know!” I grabbed Rosi and we spun around like little kids playing ring around the rosie. “That freakin’ tree has Something from all and nothing from none! Unless Pellegrino had kids, we are about to break this curse wide open Rosi! Let’s grab Donna and head to my room! Oh, and let’s grab some of that food on the way too!”
Sitting in my room upstairs, we showed Donna the handwritten curse chart we had made, with each line numbered and with the meaning of each line written next to it. We had figured out what every line meant now, except for lines 27 and 28, which read Blood moon thine witness, Modesty thy foe! “We’re not sure what the reference to ‘blood moon’ means. Is it when the moon looks red? You know, like during a solar eclipse or something?” I pondered. Donna shook her head. “Okay, you know my parents are all into camping and mountain biking and stuff, right? Well, one of the other nerdy things they make us do while we’re camping is study star formations in the night sky at all different times of year. I know that a Blood Moon is another name for the Hunter’s Moon, and that it happens on the night of the first full moon after the Harvest moon, which is the full moon closest to the Fall Equinox. I know, so embarrassing that I know this stuff, right? Just don’t tell anybody, ok?” How could we have overlooked this? I was amazed and so grateful that I had a bestie whose parents made her do incredibly dorky things. “Are you sure, Donna? I assume the Fall Equinox is in the fall, right?” Donna nodded in agreement. Rosi threw hew arms around Donna. “So, that means we have roughly seven months to figure out if Pellegrino had kids. I mean, his name’s on the tree, so we already have his blood! But, if he had kids and they had kids, it could be almost impossible to find them all, let alone get some of their blood. I mean, can you imagine? Are we just gonna walk up to one of them and be like, ‘Hi, I’m your long lost vampire cousin Rosi and I need a bit of your blood and the blood of any brothers or sisters you might have?’ But at least we have seven months to do it!” Donna smiled. “I’m glad to have helped in some way! Hey, that was pretty crazy when Great Sophia told you to cut yourselves, right? I was thinking, man, don’t let me hafta come up on that woman! But you guys handled it like bosses, so I didn’t need to step to her! But, hey, I was just thinking...if you break the curse, what really happens?” I had to think for a minute before I answered. “Well, we won’t be vampires anymore. We won’t hafta do all the melanin supplementation and stem cell treatments, and no more Showing! We’ll just be regular!” Donna sat back, and shook her head. “But, Cal, if your whole family is gonna be ‘regular’ won’t that be bad for some of them? I mean, some of them are like 200+ years old. What’s gonna happen to them when they aren’t under a spell anymore?” Rosi and I froze. We hadn’t even considered that. We had been so busy just focusing on HOW to break the curse that we hadn’t really thought about what else might happen when we did. My throat felt like it was closing. “Ohmygod. They’ll all ... die. How could they possibly NOT die? Humans that are regular humans DO NOT live to be over 250 years old. What’re we gonna do Rosi?” This day had started out so full of promise, but now it seemed full of doom. End the curse and free the family at the cost of losing some dear family members? Or live forever under the restraints of the curse and save the lives of some dear family members? This was going to be an agonizing choice. But unless we could find Pellegrino, the choice was already made for us. We decided to continue our search, and make a decision when we had more information. Maybe we could find a way to do break the curse and not lose anyo
ne in the process. Honestly, did other 15 year olds have this much pressure, I wondered?
Chapter 16
THE SEARCH
Winter became spring, and then spring became summer. We hadn’t had any luck finding Pellegrino yet. Social media was the first tool we used, and we had continued to use it for several months, but without results. Time was passing quickly, and changes were definitely happening to both Rosi and me.
The first sign of what was to come for us happened one Sunday afternoon. It was late August. Rosi and I decided to take Connie and Tobie for a cruise around our favorite spot, Whiskey Lake. As we pulled up to our usual lunch spot, the sun felt good and warm on my face. The air was still and heavy with the smells of summer. The scent of sun warmed oak and eucalyptus trees was like nature’s perfume. “Rosi, let’s lay out the blanket here. It’s perfect. The sun feels great!” As we spread the old blue blanket across the warm earth, Rosi suddenly gagged. “You okay cuz? What’s wrong?” Rosi stood stock still, and the look on her face told me there was definitely something wrong. She gagged again, and then started to shake uncontrollably. I ran over to her, and helped her sit down. “Cal, I don’t know what’s happening to me. I think I might’ve eaten something bad. My stomach feels weird and...” Then it happened. Rosi’s shoulders began to pulse upwards and then heave downwards. She leaped to her feet in obvious terror. Her neck began to lurch forward and back, uncontrollably. The realization of what was happening hit both of us, but it was too late. Rosi was about to Show. The attack continued, and passersby started to stare. With each heaving motion of her neck, Rosi grunted gutturally and rivulets of drool ran from the corners of her mouth. A man in jogging shorts paused his run and started towards us. Rosi continued to gag, grunt, and spit. I grabbed the blue blanket and quickly threw it over her like a hood. The man had almost reached us. I waved him away. “We’re okay! Stomach flu... Everyone at our house has had it, and now she does too. You probably shouldn’t come any closer if you don’t wanna get it too.” The man stopped immediately, and with a wave of his hand he turned and jogged away. With Rosi huddled under the big blanket, we started walking. I steered her slowly away from the walking path and into the dense trees. After what seemed like hours, but it was surely only minutes, Rosi’s fangs burst from her gums, forcing her canine teeth to fall from her mouth in a bloody rain. She screamed in pain and dropped to the ground, twisting in agony. The first Show was always the worst, Mom had said. Once our ‘normal’ teeth had been removed our new, hollow teeth would quickly replace them. But losing your ‘permanent’ teeth was excruciating. Like someone ripping them out of your head with pliers.”It’s okay Rosi. I’m here with you. It’s gonna be okay Cuz. Shhhh. I know sweetie. I know. Crap, this sucks... It’s gonna be over soon... Just breath, honey.” Rosi just looked up at me, pain twisting her face into a grim mask. As her fangs fully dropped, she gasped for air, and grabbed my hand. I squeezed, just wanting to calm her down, but it didn’t work out that way. “Aaaaahhhhh! Aaaahhhhh! Stop it! Your breakin’ my hand!” Rosi frantically snatched her hand from mine, and then tenderly cradled it in her other hand. At first I didn’t understand. I had barely touched her! The bruises that immediately burst forth on Rosi’s hand made my stomach turn. “Oh sh*t, Rosi! Oh, sh*t! I’m sorry! I, I barely touched you! Ohmygod, I think I’ve Vitalized ... I looked at my own hands in disbelief. Mom had said that Vitalization happens without warning. I was shocked anyway. This day couldn’t possibly get any worse. The sudden burst of pain in her hand seemed to have stopped Rosie’s Showing, though. She lay back on the grass, and wiped the blood from her face with her tee shirt. Her fangs had withdrawn, leaving two gaping holes where her teeth used to be. “Holy crap, Cal. That was freakin’ terrible... I don’t know if I can handle this again. We’ve gotta find that runner, Pellegrino. There’s no way I can do this again.” I sank down onto the grass next to her. “Rosi, we’ve gotta get home. The moon must be in Apogee; this could happen again today. And if it does, we’ve gotta be somewhere safe.” We sat for a minute more, until we both stopped shaking, then climbed onto our Mopeds and headed quickly towards home.
