Young Forever

by Lola Pridemore

  She took my arm and touched it softly. “It will heal, little one. In time. When you become a full-fledged vampire, it will heal almost immediately. Well, as soon as you get out of the sun. If you stay in the sun, it won’t heal at all. You will burst into flames and die.”

  I didn’t blink at her blunt words. I was used to her speaking like this because that’s how she spoke. It certainly took the guess work out of what she was saying, to say the least. “Wait,” I said. “Are you…? What are you doing? You said you would never allow me to turn into a vampire.”

  She smiled and touched my face. “I know. But after much consideration, I changed my mind and thought it best to turn you. This is because I have grown very fond of you. More so than I ever thought. I want to spare you the pain of being a human. If I do not turn you, you will grow old and feeble. And then you will die. And then I will be alone again. So, I thought it best to turn you into a vampire, like me, so we might be together as a family forever.”

  “What are you saying?” I asked, still not quite understanding what was going on. “You haven’t bitten me.”

  “No, but I have been slowly feeding you my blood, putting drops into your food every day,” she said and smiled at me. “This is why we haven’t moved yet. I wanted to transition you slowly. I did this instead of just biting you because well… Biting is very painful and then I’d have to bury you and that is very messy and consumes too much time. Also, the transition is very painful and can be quite traumatic, especially when one finds themselves buried alive. I wanted to spare you this. And, besides that, I can’t really be out in the forest every night waiting on you to dig your way out of the dirt.” She stopped talking and shuddered.

  I guess that made sense.

  “Also, you are still very young and if I just turned you into a vampire, you wouldn’t have time to properly mature. You would stay as you are now, very immature.”

  I just stared at her. “I am not immature.”

  “No, not much,” she said and touched my face, smiling at me. “But it is better to wait and do it slowly. That way, you are as you should be.”

  “Ummm,” I said, thinking about what she’d just told me.

  “But soon, we will be as mother and daughter. Doesn’t that sound like fun?”

  I didn’t really know what to say, to be quite honest.

  Aloiki was totally against this. He said it was foolish and that Gerta was playing with something that might result in some sort of catastrophe. “This has not been done before!” he bellowed. “At least, I don’t think it has! Gerta, this might backfire! Just turn her the right way. Bite her neck and be done with it.”

  Gerta, of course, ignored him, as she does anyone who disagrees with her. She told me that over time, I would be a vampire. “This way is better,” she said. “Less pain and less mess.”

  Aloiki turned to me. “You do want this, do you not, Isotta? You do want to be a vampire, yes?”

  I thought about it. I didn’t know. I knew I wanted to be with them but I also fantasized about having a life of my own. I was torn.

  “Of course, she does,” Gerta said. “Don’t you, Isotta?”

  I stared into her eyes and thought about it. I suppose I did. Part of me knew I’d probably always end up a vampire and this was just the first stage of becoming one. “Yes,” I said. “I do. I want to be a vampire.”

  She smiled more deeply at me, then shot a glance at Aloiki. “See? I told you so!” She turned back to me. “It is a slow process. This will take years. Well, at least another one to two years. I want to make sure it works well. That’s why I’m taking it so slowly, so you have time to mature and be a woman. So, let’s give it time and when you are a full vampire, we will make our move to the colonies!”

  But it didn’t work exactly like that. I was still human, mostly, but I did slowly find myself gaining this insatiable desire for blood. I would have vivid dreams about it, too, some that were quite unsettling, such as the one where I found myself taking a bath in a tub filled with blood. Quite scary. I could even smell it all around me whenever I was around some warm-blooded being. In the forest I could smell it in the animals and in the stables the horse’s blood smell was so strong I ran from it. But it was unbearable when the person who brought my food came. After a while, I pinned a note on the door, telling them to just leave it so I wouldn’t be confronted with the smell.

  As I said, I was still mostly human and things like this did disturb me. However, I found myself slowly getting used to it as my senses became heightened and the thirst for blood began to take over.

  But Gerta’s methods didn’t work out the way she planned. It all came to a head one night. And it came down to the fact that either I would become a full-fledged vampire or I would die.

  The night it happened, I was out with Gerta and Aloiki for what they called “a hunt.” They wanted to school me in how to… Well, how to obtain blood. The first thing to do would be to find some hapless victims who they could attack and then eat. It was really quite simple. These victims came would usually come in the form of a small group of thieves or bandits who were moving around together, staying hidden. Sometimes they were in the forest or living in abandoned houses or wherever such people dwelled. Since Gerta had been turning me into a vampire, she wanted me to see firsthand how I would someday attack and then devour my prey. (If she’d shown me this when I was younger, before I had vampire blood rushing through my veins, then I would have probably fled.) Even so, it was gruesome what they did. And quite scary. But, because I was part vampire by then, it only bothered me slightly. I was like a student observing, watching, listening, trying to figure out the perfect technique when it was time for me to step up and show everyone what I’d learned.

  Well, the attack didn’t quite go as planned. We came upon a clan of bandits in the forest who were about as vicious as Gerta and Aloiki when they are in vampire mode. When they attacked, one large male came at Gerta with a large sword and slashed it at her. She ducked and, if she hadn’t, her head would have come off with one clean cut. The sword was that sharp. But, because she ducked and because I was standing close by observing, the machete cut across my stomach, slicing it open, almost to the point that my insides fell out. Everyone knows the saying “no guts, no glory.” I think this is what they meant. Because soon enough, I would have no guts and certainly not much glory.

  I fell to the ground. Aloiki roared with vengeance and finished the team of bandits off himself, all seven of them, before grabbing me up and literally running with me in his arms all the way back to our mansion. There, he and Gerta wrapped me up in a blanket and placed me in front of the fire. But before they could finish helping me, they had to retreat to sleep so I lay there all day shaking and shivering and thinking I was probably going to die. The blood from my wound soaked through several thick wool blankets. Yes, I was going to die. I knew it.

  But I didn’t. Maybe it was because I had enough vampire blood in me to keep me alive. I don’t know, but that night, just before they awoke, there was a loud knock on the door. I was able to drag myself to the window to look out. To my astonishment, there was a crowd of men with torches who were apparently there to kill us. They were carrying all sorts of weapons and things they intended to use as weapons. I saw mattocks, scythes, sickles, swords, even a few shearing scissors. This crowd was mad with blood lust and they meant business.

  At once, I knew why they were there. I assumed we had missed one of the bandits who, after his escape, had incited a fury by telling everyone he could about us. He’d probably tracked us back to our house and then found a team of men to come do us in.

  You had to really watch those bandits. They were quite sneaky. Now here we were, about to be torn to shreds.

  As the crowd began to bang on the door, demanding that we open up so that they could kill us, I crawled on my belly down to the cellar where I woke Gerta and Aloiki. Gerta, being a vampire, was prepared for this and had some supplies and quite a lot of gold and coins she’d coll
ected over the years packed and ready to go.

  We made it out of the cellar and crept quietly to the stables while the crowd was at the front of the house. They were battering on the old, four-inch-thick oak door with their tools and fists and soon it would give. Aloiki took me and put me in front of him on the horse. Gerta piled all of the things we would need onto another horse and then, together, we fled out the back, through the forest with the crowd none the wiser.

  I was able to ride for about three hours until I fell off the horse. Aloiki stared at Gerta, who nodded, then he left, came back a couple of hours later with a horse-drawn carriage and a driver who’d obviously been mesmerized by him. We got in and rode out.

  Over time, my wound got worse and worse. We traveled by night in that carriage and I’d moan with pain. The ride was bouncy and rough, every jolt made me hurt. Gerta and Aloiki were worried. They whispered amongst themselves that I might not make it, though Gerta insisted that I would, that her plan would work. She couldn’t understand why I wasn’t healing better, faster. Aoiki feared I’d take a turn for the worse.

  “She will die, Gerta,” he told her. “If we do not turn her completely.”

  “She will not die!” she roared and glared at him. “She is almost a vampire! This will work. I have been feeding her drops of blood for three years now.”

  “You are being quite stupid about this,” he said. “The blood will only make her have the thirst for blood. It won’t give her what she needs in order to heal like a normal vampire. Why are you doing this?”

  “I hated turning into a vampire. I hated being in the ground,” she hissed. “I do not want to put her in the ground. It’s horrible.”

  “It is no less horrible than the real death she will experience if you do nothing,” he told her, his eyes flashing with anger.

  Gerta huffed, crossed her arms and turned away from him. “The ground will take too much time. I will give her more blood soon.”

  He shook his head and said, “That is not enough. It has to be done properly!”

  She shook her head and I faded out as they went into yet another heated argument.

  After about a week of this, of traveling in that horrible carriage with those two, I did take a turn for the worse. I could feel the life seeping out of me. Gerta’s blood was no longer enough to keep me alive. One night, it was just Aloiki and me. Gerta had gone ahead of us on the pack horse we’d had tied to the back of the carriage to secure lodging. I fell to the floor of the carriage and stared up at him. He grabbed me up, looked into my eyes and said, “It’s your choice.”

  “What do you mean?” I managed to ask, thinking I’d never felt this weak, not even when I was starving in the woods.

  “You are dying, beautiful one,” he said. “Gerta will not believe this. She means well but she is stubborn. But you will die as she tries to prove her point. Tell me, do you want me to turn you into a vampire?”

  “What does it mean?” I asked.

  “It means you will be forever young,” he said and touched my face. “Young forever. No wrinkles, no aging,” he murmured, then moved the hair from my eyes. “No children. No sunshine.”

  No children… No sunshine… No wrinkles… Just us… Us three. I stared into his eyes and asked, “If I do, then will I be with you and Gerta forever?”

  “More than likely,” he said. “At least until you become tired of us.” He chuckled to himself as if he thought that would never happen.

  I stared at him, barely blinking. “I am so weak,” I murmured.

  “You will be stronger than most,” he told me. “You will have the blood of two vampires in you. You will come from two. That means the combined strength of Gerta and myself. It will be quite nice. I mean, if it works out the way I think it will.”

  “Will it hurt?” I asked.

  He nodded. “You will be in pain. I won’t lie. It will hurt. You’re dying, so of course it will hurt!”

  I started to say something else but felt myself fall into unconsciousness. I shook myself awake a moment later. I tried to say something again but no words would come. Aloiki nodded slowly. It was time. It was now or never and, so, it was now.

  “Forget it,” Aloiki said and grabbed me up in his arms, pushed the hair away from my neck and bit me. Then he began to suck blood out of the wounds his fangs made, suck so fiercely I felt even more pain than I did before. I screamed with it but then it was over and I was floating, floating, floating. I was above my body, lying there in Aloiki’s lap. I watched as he bit into his wrist, then held it quite methodically to my lips. I watched as I began to eat at his hand with this intense hunger, an intense hunger I would feel from then on, an undying hunger. I watched as my belly healed and was turned better than new. I watched as I sat up, smiled, then licked the blood from the corner of my mouth. Then I was, quite literally, sucked back into my own body and from there, I felt vibrant. Alive. Needing more blood. Awake. Alert. And quite a few other things I don’t recall.

  Then, all of a sudden, I blacked out. When I came to, I was digging my way out of the ground and towards my family, Aloiki and Gerta, who waited on the other side.

  That Was Then

  Gerta never wanted me to have a boyfriend. Never. Of course, I had a few here and there but none of them every really stuck. I loved them, they loved me, blah, blah, blah. When we inevitably parted ways, I wasn’t as sad as I probably should have been. And there were a few that I had to literally force out of my life.

  But I never gave up on thinking I’d find my real, true love. Many years ago, we were in our own coach driving across Oklahoma, headed for California. (It was the Gold Rush and totally Aloiki’s idea. Don’t ask.) Gerta had the coach altered so we could travel during the day, as well. It was winter and the sun was usually low. Usually it was just us but occasionally we’d meet someone interesting here or there and invite them to join us. And, no, it wasn’t for the purpose of eating them, either. We liked the company and it broke the monotony.

  We had stopped in a small town somewhere and I met the most handsome young man. I immediately blushed with excitement. I loved being around young men my own age and he, I could tell, liked me. He was so nice, too. So, I invited him to ride with us to the next town. We chatted for hours, almost until daylight. I found myself falling asleep and when I awoke, he was dead across the floor.

  “Oh,” I said, glancing over at Gerta and feeling sheer disappointment. “I liked him.”

  “He tasted nice,” she said and gave me a smile. “I saved a little for you.”

  She pulled out a small silver flask. This was her new trick, to save a little for me. It wasn’t as good as taking the blood from someone’s jugular, but it would do. I took the flask and threw it back, sucking the blood down. Unfortunately, it had coagulated a little. I hated that. And I hated the fact that she had eaten my new friend, someone who could have, quite possibly become my beau, as they said in those days.

  “You did that on purpose,” I said, almost seething. “You know I was enjoying his company!”

  She nodded. “Of course. You do not need to divide your attention at present.”

  “What does that mean?”

  She shrugged. “We are companions, Isotta. We will always be companions.”

  For a second, I could feel my blood boiling and I thought about taking her out, but then decided against it. I mean she got on my nerves, but that didn’t change the fact that I liked her. And she doted on me. She kept me on track and made sure I had the prettiest clothes. And while she tried to be warm and nice to me, she rarely pulled it off. She just wasn’t a warm and fuzzy kind of woman. She was a vampire. So, she was less like a mother and more like a… Well, like a manager, if that makes sense.

  “Besides,” she said. “How would you explain this to him?” She closed the thick curtains, resulting in the coach going almost black with darkness.

  “I do not suppose I could,” I muttered, putting a tap on my anger. It did no good to be angry with her. She really wouldn’t a
llow it. And I knew I couldn’t really have a beau. Not with her always around, anyway.

  “It is fine,” she said. “There will be others.”

  I was beginning to lose hope. I longed for love, longed to be in love, to see what that felt like. But I let it go as I always did and asked, “When will we be in California?”

  “Not soon enough,” she said, then started as the coach came to an abrupt stop then, out of nowhere, Aloiki burst inside. She shrieked, “What are you doing?”

  “I had to eat something,” he said, then stared at the young man on the floor. “Who’s that?”

  “You’ve been gone almost a week,” I told him.

  “I must have missed the best part,” he said, then picked the young man up and tossed him out of the coach, then shut the door. “There,” he said, sitting down. “How have my beautiful ladies been?” He stopped and listened, then knocked on the wall of the coach. “Move!” he roared. The coach resumed moving.

  Gerta glared at him. “I thought we were rid of you.”

  “No,” he said, shaking his head. “I am here. And, lucky for you that I am.”

  We watched as he pulled something out of his pocket. It was a map. He shook it and smiled.

  “What’s that?” I asked.

  “A map to a big gold deposit,” he said, grinning. “I can’t wait to be rich.”

  Gerta narrowed her eyes at him. “We have plenty of money. To most, we are rich.”

  “Yes, but not this kind,” he said. “We can build the most fabulous mansions. We can hire people to be our servants and then we can eat them and then pay off their families to keep quiet and then hire more servants. It will be marvelous.”

  I stared at him, then at her and felt tired. This is how it’s always going to be, I thought. Aloiki’s schemes and Gerta’s nitpicking. It was going to be their constant fighting. It was going to be the thirst for blood, the hunger that swelled up inside and was never completely sated. Always the undying hunger. It was going to be long nights of hunting and long days of sleeping. I suddenly felt jealous for humans, for the fact that they got to live their lives, have their children and then die. It was the circle of life but, being a vampire, that circle was broken. You were immortal and that meant you had a lot of time on your hands. You had days and nights and weeks and months and lots and lots of hours to fill with something. But what? What to fill it with? In my case, it was usually nothing.