Since it was not sunny, Jess wanted to play volleyball. Only she wanted to wait until Tony and his cousin got here, so we could play two on two. Her and Tony against me and whatever his name is. Great, just what I wanted. I grumbled the whole time we were setting up the net.
So when they arrived I saw that Andre really was a cute guy. We sat around the table in the back yard and talked for a while, while the boys had some leftovers. He even seems like a nice guy. If I were interesting in being in a relationship with a boy, I might be interested in him. Jess was right. But I’m not wanting a relationship with anyone right now.
“You realize I’m not letting you win.” I whispered to her. We were both at the net. Tony was serving and Andre was back to return it.
“Bring it on, little girl.” she said.
We were leading, but Jess tried to spike it at me. I returned it, and was at the net, waiting when Tony hit the ball back. I jumped up and spiked it over the net, putting us one point away from victory.
“Shorty's got ups!” Andre said.
“Yeah, but you wouldn’t be winning if the sun would come out.” Jess said.
She stopped moving and I stopped and she stared at me, her eyes wide. I can’t believe she said that. Around them!
“She, uh, has a skin condition.” Jessica explained.
“I burn really easily.” I said. “Like, really easily.”
“Are we going to finish this?” Tony asked.
We won on the next point. And then we quit. I made an excuse so I could leave, because I really wasn’t in the mood to be around people all of a sudden. I don’t know, I just get that way sometimes. I just have to be by myself. And sometimes it's hard to see Jess and Tony together and know I will never have that with anyone.
I sat at home and watched television with my dolls. I had the little stable set up on the table and the horses were grazing around it. Jenna was standing to the side, watching the horses. All her friends were sitting at a picnic table, waiting for their burgers.
“Jenna, why does life have to suck so bad? If I leave now then I’ll miss Jessica for the rest of my life. And that could be a very long time. And she’ll hate me for the rest of hers. I can’t have her hating me.”
A new show came on Disney, and I leaned back on the sofa to relax and watch it. And then my door flung open and Joanna and Julius were standing over me.
“Joanna was quite upset after our little conversation the other night.” he said.
“I... I’m sorry.”
“Sorry won’t cut it, bitch.” Joanna said.
“We decided to have a little talk of our own to explain to you how displeased we are with you interfering.”
He held me down and she started hitting me, punching my face over and over, and scratching. I tried to fight back, but he was stronger than me, and he held firm. She brought out the knife then. It was huge! She tore at my arms and legs with it, dozens and dozens of tiny cuts, and the she started on my stomach and chest. She plunged the knife into my stomach, poking all the way through me, sticking out my back. She slid it up, then twisted, nearly gutting me. And then there was salt. Lots of salt. I guess they know about the salt. I was fading in and out when they ran off.
“Brynne?” I heard Jess saying. “Oh shit, Brynne!”
I felt her hands on me, but it just caused more pain. She has to go! They’ll kill her. They’re going to come back and kill her. Then they’ll kill me. I don’t care if they kill me, as long as she gets out. I can't let them hurt her!
“You have to run.” I said.
“What honey? Brynne, what happened?”
“Gun. Jess. Gun.”
“What? You’re not making any sense.”
“Get the gun!” I shouted. She didn't respond as if I had shouted, though, so maybe it wasn't as loud as I though it was.
“What? Why? What happened, honey?”
“The ones from Wichita.” I struggled to say.
“Who? I can barely understand you. Oh my gosh, this is salt, isn’t it?”
“Yeah.”
“What do I do, Brynne?” She’s crying. Why is she crying, I’m the one in pain. “Do I take you to the hospital?”
“No.”
“Then what? I don’t know how to do this.” I was barely alert enough to see her, but I could tell she was beginning to panic. “I have to call Mom and Dad.”
“No. Dangerous.”
“You need help.”
I honestly missed a lot of the following conversation. All I know is that she was holding me up with one arm as we stumbled toward her front porch, and I could see that she had a gun in her other hand.
“You have to help her!” Jess shouted. I think her parents are here somewhere, but everything is a little blurry. Oh yeah, there they are.
“Barney, dial 911.” Mr. Sloan shouted.
“No!” I shouted. Or said as loud as I could, anyway.
“You can’t.” Jessica told them. “She can’t go to the hospital.”
“What?” Mrs. Sloan asked. “She needs help. She’s bleeding everywhere.”
“She can’t go to the hospital.” Jess said.
“Tell... them.” I said. I shook my head and everything cleared a little. “Just tell them.”
“She’s like a vampire.” Jess said. “Only not evil.”
“Jess, we don’t have time for this.” her dad said. “What happened?”
“She was attacked by other vampires.”
“Jess, have you been drinking?” her mother asked her.
“It’s true! We have to clean her up, we have to...”
“Call 911.” her dad said again.
“No. She’ll heal. I think.” She turned to me. “Brynne?”
“Just... bath, okay.” I said.
“Just help me get her in the bathtub!” Jessica told them.
“Jessica, be serious. She’s really hurt, we’re not playing games here.”
“Dad, I’m telling you the truth! Oh damn it! Just wait.”
She sat me down on the stairs and then disappeared for a minute. Everyone is staring at me. If I were more alert and able to move, I’d probably run away. For good. Because people shouldn’t know about me. It’s dangerous. For them and me. Mostly me, I think.
“Here.” Jessica said. She stepped up in front of me. She raised a steak knife up and cut her finger.
“Jessica!” Mrs. Sloan shouted.
“Open your mouth, Brynne.” Jess said.
“Ew, gross.” Barney said.
“What are you doing?” Mr. Sloan asked.
Jess stuck her finger in my mouth. In my daze, it took me a minute to figure out what she was doing. My saliva will make her heal more quickly. As long as it doesn’t make her forget everything that happened tonight, it’ll be okay. That tends to happen, the forgetting. There’s something in our saliva that causes it.
Now the only problem... blood. You put a bloody finger in my mouth and it is sort of hard for me to stop sucking. But I’m weak, and Jess was able to pull her finger out.
“See, it’s already healing.” she said, holding her finger up.
“I don’t understand anything that is going on here.” her mother said.
“I’m proving to you that she’s a vampire.”
“I’m not...”
“Oh, except she doesn’t like being called that!”
“No hospital.” I said.
The next thing I know, Jess and her mother were lowering me into the bathtub. It hurt bad. Really bad. But it washed most of the salt away. I sort of passed out somewhere in there.
Sunday, May 22
I woke up in Jessica’s bed. I could see the daylight coming through the curtains. Mrs. Sloan was standing in the doorway.
“Where’s Jess?” I asked. It hurt to talk.
“You’re awake.” Mrs. Sloan said. She’s not smiling, she’s not happy, she’s sort of gloomy looking. “Jessica is eating breakfast. Her finger is completely healed.”
“Oh. Good.”
/>
“So you are a... a... um, vampire?” she asked. She’s on the verge of tears.
“Not exactly, but close enough.”
“Does that mean that Jessica is... I mean you sucked on her finger. Will she... be one too?”
“It doesn’t work that way. She’ll be completely okay.”
“Oh.” She blew out a breath and let her tears come. “Thank goodness!”
“I should have never told her. I should have just gone away. I’m sorry.”
“Why did the others come attack you?”
“Because I tried to talk them into not killing people.”
“Jessica says you don’t do that, you don’t hurt people. Is that true?”
“No, or at least I try not to. I’m sorry.” I was crying. “I never meant to bring you guys into this. I should just kill myself so I don’t cause any more problems.”
“That would be incredibly wrong.” she said.
She was seriously scared of me, but she still came over and sat on the edge of the bed. That meant a lot to me. Nobody ever cared enough to stick around when they were scared. Not since my parents were killed, anyway.
“Brynne, I don’t think you’re a bad person, or a monster, or evil, or any of those other things Jessica said you’re worried people will think about you.”
“You don’t?”
“No. I know you too well, honey. You’re a good person, you’re just different. But God has a plan for you, I’m sure.”
“Thanks.”
“Let’s see how those cuts are doing.” she said. She pulled the sheet down and peeled back some of the bandages. “Wow. At this rate you’ll be all better in just a few days. I thought you would die through the night. How do you feel?’
“Really weak.”
“Jess said you’d probably need something to eat.” She took a breath and sighed. “Or drink, I guess?”
“She did?” She got the blood from my refrigerator?
“Her and Barney went to your house and got a few things. I’ll have her bring up your breakfast. Try not to get any of the blood on the sheets, okay?”
“They went to my house? No, that’s too dangerous, they can’t do that.”
“They’re fine now. You just relax.”
I tried to get up, but I couldn’t do it. I wonder how much blood I lost. I don’t think I’ve ever been this weak before. This is bad. I can’t protect them if the others come back.
“Hey B.” Jessica said. She bounced over to my side with a huge smile. “How are you feeling?”
“Not great. But I’m alive, thanks to you.”
“Would you have died?” she asked.
“I don’t know.” She has the packet of blood in her hand, and I see it make an appearance every few seconds, before it dips back below her leg again. “Jess?”
“Yeah?”
“Could you please stop waving that around in front of me.”
“Oh, sorry!” She jumped up and went to her desk, where she grabbed some scissors. She snipped a little hole in the packet and shoved a straw into it. “Here you go, honey.”
She held it out toward me, but I couldn’t lift my arm to grab it. I’m weaker than I thought. She must have seen me struggling, because she moved closer and held the blood near my mouth and she shoved the straw between my lips.
“First time I’ve ever used a straw.” I said between sips.
“What, so you’re not a civilized va... blood drinker?”
“This is a little like a juice pack.” I sucked the last of it out. “Crap.”
“That was all that was in your fridge, Brynne. I’m sorry if it’s not enough.”
“No, it... thanks.”
“Is there any way at all that I can get more? I mean I know you can probably just go in and steal it, but I can’t do that, and you’re not up to it right now.”
“I’ll be okay. Maybe a sandwich, if it’s not too much trouble?”
“Yeah, absolutely.” She dropped the empty blood packet in the trash. “I have something else for you, too.” She opened the drawer of the nightstand. “Here you go.”
“Jenna!”
“I figured she’d make you feel better.”
“I...” I couldn’t raise my arms to grab her. “I... can’t...”
“Shh, it’s okay.” She brushed the hair back from my forehead, then she nestled the doll in next to my side. “Don’t cry, honey, it’s going to be alright.”
Jessica headed down to get my sandwich. I could hear her in the kitchen. I could also hear a very definite quiet, which is out of place in this house. They’re always lively and vibrant and noisy.
“They’re scared of me, Jenna.” I said. It felt so bad to not be able to lift her up and look at her. “I can’t blame them. If they were smart they would have shoved me out the door and let me die. If they were smart they’d take a big knife and chop my head off while I’m too weak to do anything about it. I wouldn’t really fight it anyway.”
Jessica is still down there, making a sandwich. This is apparently going to be the most elaborate sandwich of all time. And so now this is Barney coming down the hall, I guess.
“Are you alive?” he asked.
“Yeah. Sort of.”
“So how many people have you killed? A lot? Do you tear their limbs off and suck the blood from their protruding stumps? Are you vicious and like a savage? Do you bite their neck and drink directly from them?”
“No.”
So that’s what he thinks I am? This really isn’t going to work. Somehow I have got to find a way to get out of here. I don’t even care about what happens to me at this point, but these people really hate what I am. They’re playing nice, or at least Mrs. Sloan and Jess are, but they really don’t want me here.
“So how old are you really?” he asked.
“That depends on how you mean that.” I can’t even roll over and look away from him. Oh yeah, and my doll is right here, and I really want to look like a little kid around people. I guess I don’t care so much about that, though. I love Jenna far more than I care about what he thinks. “Are you asking how old I am physically and mentally and emotionally, or what year I was born?”
“What year were you born?”
“Eighteen fifty-six.”
“Holy crap, you’re old.” he said. He laughed. “So Jessica said you age really slowly. So keeping that in mind, how old are you?”
“Um, like, fifteen.”
“Man, you’re just a kid.”
“Yeah.”
“You're jailbait.”
“Huh?”
“Uh, never mind.”
He retreated down the hallway. Jailbait? What a jerk. Typical.
“A sandwich fit for a queen.” Jess said. She sat the plate on my stomach, but removed it when I winced. “Still sore, huh? Anyway, how do you want to do this?”
“You know what, I’ll just get it myself. Just sit it on the nightstand and go.”
“No, I can hold it up for you, that’s okay.”
“I don’t need someone to feed me!”
“O-K.”
What is happening to me? I just snap at her when she’s trying to help, and all this crying lately, it’s just not me. And she’s trying to help! She’s my only real friend, and I’m taking this all out on her. She’s going to hate me. She’s going to wonder why she didn’t just let me die.
“You should have.” I said. “Let me die.”
“Get over it, you’re still alive. Damn, what a freakin' nightmare.”
“Jess, I’m sorry. I don’t mean to sound ungrateful.”
“Brynne, I know you’re not feeling well, it’s okay. Now open up.” She held a wedge of sandwich toward my mouth. “And no fingers.” she joked.
It is so humiliating to have her feed me. I’ve never been this low in my life. I never have had to be fed. And by her! Humiliating.
“Would some Tylenol even help?” she asked.
“Huh?”
“Honey, you’ve got to be in a lot
of pain. I can get you some Tylenol. I’m sorry, but we don’t have anything stronger than that.”
“Um, maybe. It’s really not so bad, as long as I don’t move.”
“There’s no reason to be tough, Brynne, you don’t have to put up a front right now. If you’re hurting I can get you something.”
“Um... okay.”
“I’ll go grab a couple of Tylenol and we can finish eating when I get back, okay?”
“Um... can you get... like eight.”
“Eight? Seriously?”
“It takes more than usual to have an effect on me.”
She brought the Tylenol in and stuck it in my mouth and dumped water in behind it. I want to move. I want so badly to be able to move my arms, at least. I’ve never been in such a sad state. Every time I try to budge my arms I can’t even stand the pain.
Brynne, Non-Vampire (The Non-Vampire Series Book 1) Page 7
