Who am I

Who am I
By Elizabeth Bisby

         I was being chased by crazy nuns and a priest. I didn’t care if they got hurt trying to follow me, who was running through traffic during rush hour. The only person I cared about was my twin sister, Bell, not about my mother, not about my father, only Bell. She was the only one who would believe me when I said that I was seeing demons in my room. Mom and Dad only told me that it was okay and that I was seeing things. What ever there flicking at me burns, badly, I can’t run for much longer. My legs are on fire. I think I’ll slip in this alleyway and see if they can find me. No! They found me, the holy water is burning my skin! Alright that’s it, I’m putting a stop to this right now!
*      *      *
         I wake to a bright, white hot, light shining in my face. I look around confused about where I’m at, suddenly I have a flash back from about three days ago. I was being admitted into a loony bin. When my small flash back was over a nurse was standing at the door. She walks over to me and informs me that I have a  guest, then she hands me three pills and a little paper cup filled with water. I finished swallowing the pills and followed the nurse out to a large room filled with tables, chairs and some couches. I instantly spot my sister sitting on one of the maroon couches, when she saw me she jumped up and rushed over to hug me.
         The nurse left my side and my sister led me over to where she was previously sitting. When we sat down she had a twinkle in her eye like something great was going to happen.
                “Guess what!” She said, her voice filled with excitement.
                “What?”
                “I’m able to bring you home today!”
                “Are you serious? You mean I get to leave this place and never come back!” This was excellent news.
                “Yes! You can come home and stay with me! Mom and Dad will be happy to see you!”
                “You mean I have to talk to Mom and Dad!” I said in disgust, they were the last people I wanted to talk to.
              “Of course you do. Their in the car right now.”
              “What! Why, it’s there fault I’m in here in the first place! Why did you let them come?” I yelled. I was suddenly on my feet, a few nurses watched me for a few seconds to make sure that I would be okay.
              “I tried to convince them not to come but they wouldn’t listen to me. Just do me a favor Brook, try to be nice.”
         I promised that I would try and she checked me out right after. When we stepped out of the building I was blinded by the bright sun. When Bell looked at me she noticed that I had to squint to see, so she look off her sun glasses and put them on me. I felt like my senses had been greatly enhanced, I could see every little detail of cars, like the red one we walked past had a tiny scratch on its bumper. I could also smell the light perfume my sister wore, Country Apple, the same perfume she wore since she was ten.
         We approached the car and I could see Mom and Dad sitting in the car smiling, I forced a smile and waved. Bell walked around the side of her car to the driver side and I walked around the other side of the car and slid in. I felt my dad set his hand on my shoulder and I shrugged it off, Bell muttered, “You promised” under her breath. I sighed and said hi with out turning around to see them, Bell only shook her head and started the car. I looked at her and shrugged my shoulders, for the first half of the ride home we all sat in silence. Eventually my sister tried to start a few conversations, but they all died out quickly. When we reached my sisters house I sat and waited for my dad to open my door for me, once out I stood beside the car and examined the house. It was a plain, white, two story house with a balcony overlooking the yard. The house looked like it was built for a hole family instead of just my sister, it had navy blue curtains, a black roof and a maple front door.
                “Are you coming?” Asked my dad from the front door.
         I nodded my head and walked into the big house.  My sister lightly grabbed my hand, as if I were made out of glass, and led me through what looked like a living room and a kitchen. She led me upstairs and finely into a bedroom with a large queen sized bed with dark red and black sheets plus a dark red comforter.
                “This is where you’ll be sleeping. I didn’t know if you would like the same thing you did before so I took my chances.” She said quietly.
                “That’s great. This room looks beautiful.”
                We both walked out onto my balcony and looked out over the small town. Not saying a word we both returned downstairs where Mom and Dad were waiting. My sister explained to them that she could handle having me here and that it was okay if they left, it took some convincing but they eventually went home.
                “So, what do you want to do? Are you hungry at all? I know you haven’t eaten yet this morning and they told me you didn’t eat much while you were there.” My sister was playing with her hair nervously.
                “I’m fine, maybe later. Right now I would just like to talk. Are you okay?”
                “I’m okay, just happy that you’re home. What do you want to talk about?”
                “When I was there, in the loony bin. Who were my nurses or whatever you want to call them?”
                “Oh you had two very nice nurses, there was a lady named Rachel and a man named Damon. They always made  sure you had every thing you needed and treated me like I was their kid.”
                “Tell me more about Damon.” It bothered me how his name made my neck tingle.
                “Oh he was a great guy. Always asking if I needed anything or if I was feeling alright.”
                “What did he look like?”
                “He looked like he was only twenty, he was also about five and a half feet tall with black hair. He was a hansom man. He had pale blue eyes, I think those would be the most beautiful eyes that you would ever see.”
                I nodded and opened my mouth to ask another question but I was cut short by the door bell, my sister stood up to answer it. When she opened the door she greeted whoever was there then offered them to come in. She stepped aside to let them in and they walked into the room I was in. I looked up to see a tall man about my age with bright eyes that looked gray.
              “Brook, this is Mr. Ross. He is going to be coming over about three times a week to check on you and see how you’re doing.”
              All I could do was nod my head, seeing his face caused a sudden flash back of when I was still in the loony bin.
              I see him looking over me telling someone that I wont make it if he doesn’t do it. I’m slightly confused about what “it” is, but before I could ask I hear a voice say okay, he bends over me and I feel two sharp pains go down my neck. Every thing goes black.
              My flash back ended and I raised my hand up to feel the base of my neck, when I did I noticed that Mr. Ross quickly looked from me to my sister and asked her to leave the room. She wasn’t to happy when he asked her this but he used the excuse that I might not talk with someone close to me in the room. She said she understood and exited into the kitchen, Mr. Ross grabbed my shoulders and looked at me sternly, “Ok what I’m about to tell you is something that you can’t tell anybody at all about. Understand?”
              “Yeah, I understand. I wont tell a single living soul.”
              “Good. While you were in the asylum you were very sick and almost fell into a coma, there was nothing we could do for you to keep you from falling into that coma so we were all worried about you. If you would have fallen into that coma you never would have woken up,”
                “So why am I hear now? What stopped me from that terrible fate? You said there was nothing you could do for me.”
                “I’m getting there. Well you see, me and my family are not like normal people. We live off of blood and we don’t like light. We can save people who don’t deserve to die,”
                “Why am I still here?” I asked losing my patience with this guy.
                “I’m getting there, I  would appreciate it if you wouldn’t interrupt me. The faster I can explain this the better.”
              “Okay. I’m sorry, please continue.”
              “So you must be wondering where those two small wounds on your neck came from, well you see the easiest way to say this is that my family is a bunch of vampires and we saved you from dying. You are like us now, you wont eat and you will never feel hunger. Instead you will fell what we like to call ‘thirst’. Also you will not sleep and you might have already noticed but all your senses are enhanced.”
              “So you mean that I am a vampire, like the pale, inhuman bloodsuckers with fangs.”
              “Well when you say it like that it sounds bad but yes, you are a vampire. This is all the information I can give you right now but remember our promise. I Will send my son here tonight around midnight so don’t panic or scream, just let him in.”
            “Okay.”
            Mr. Ross looked at his watch and said he had to go, I called my sister back into the room so she could tell Mr. Ross goodbye. After he left my sister looked at me and asked what we talked about. I only told her that he wanted to know how I felt and what I was thinking about.
            Later on that night I walked up to my room and saw a pale face looking in window. I gasped and jumped back, I suddenly remembered that Mr. Ross was going to send somebody over here. I walked over to my window and opened it for him, I stood back and he just sat there staring at me like I was stupid.
            “Aren’t you forgetting something.” He said in a sarcastic tone.
            “Um. I don’t know.”
              He rolled his eyes, “Haven’t you ever seen any vampire movies?”
            “I don’t really watch movies.”
            He put his face in his hands and mumbled to himself, “Why did I get stuck being the one to come here? Why couldn’t Amy come? I mean she’s better at this stuff then I am.”
            “What?”
            “Nothing. Look, I can’t come in unless you invite me in.”
            “Oh. Well come on in.” I stood back and held my arm out in an offering gesture.
              He jumped in and sat on the floor, “Your probably wondering what I’m doing here.”
            I only nodded and he continued speaking, “I have been sent here by my father who you met earlier today. You did meet him right.”
            Again all I did was nod.
            “Come on woman! You have to say something! Forget it, anywise I was sent here to take you on your first hunt. Also to teach you the basics of the way we live, but we’ll get to that later.”
            “Hunt? Way we live?” I asked confused.
            “Yes, hunt. You will need blood. Fresh blood. I hope your not a big animal lover, if you are then were not going to get along well while were out.”
            “While were out?”
            “yes while were out, were going to go to the forest behind your house.”
            “Um, ok.”
            “Don’t look so worried, I’ll give you some lesions when we get down there. We can be out all night practicing if you want, and it will take a while for you to get this right. I must warn you though, when dawn comes it would be in your best interest to go inside.”
          “What if my sister comes up here looking for me.”
          “That is where you come in handy. See all us vampires have a  special ability, it’s different for everyone and when my father was talking to you he realized what yours was.”
          “Okay, that’s kind of weird. So what is my ‘special ability’?” I ask not believing him.
          “Your are what we call a tracker, which basically means you can track people. You can identify and separate smells and you can see the person in your head.”
          “Ok, well how do I use this ability?”
          “Well think of your sister, concentrate very hard until you can see her clearly in a room. Tell me where you see her at.”
            I thought of what my sister was wearing the last time I saw her, what she looks like and even what she sounds like. I get an image of her in the kitchen sitting at the table.
          “Is she in the kitchen?” I ask hoping that I’m right.
            He shrugged and motioned for me to go look, I walk past him and creep down the stairs. I peek around the corner and into the kitchen, to my surprise I see my sister sitting at the table. I turn to go tell him that I was right but when I turn around he’s already right behind me. He heads back upstairs waves his hand for me to follow him, when we were back in my room he jumps out my window. I lean out my window and see him waving at me to join him, so I climb my way down the side of the house and join him.
          When we were safely out side in the woods behind my sisters house I put my hand on her shoulder so he would turn and look at me. When he did I asked him if he would be so kind as to give me his name.
          “My name is Johnny, I am the oldest out of my family.”
         “How is that possible?” I ask completely confused, “You father is obviously a lot older that you.”
                “He only appears to be, us vampires don’t age, so I am actually about four hundred years old while my father is only one hundred years old. And my sister Amy is only a day younger than me. You won’t get her to admit it but she was an accident.”
                “What do you mean by ‘accident?’”
                "Well, I hadn’t fed in a while so I was very thirsty and my brother brought home a snack and I took to much. So now she’s one of us.” He looked away from me and down at the grass under our feet, almost as if he were ashamed of what he had just told me.
                “That doesn’t make sense. You hadn’t fed for a while so you were thirsty?” I looked at him and he saw my confusion and just shook his head.
“I’ll explain it later.”
                He looked at me and his eyes were gray and dark instead of the bright blue they were a second ago. I stepped back in shock and he turned away from me walking towards the forest, “Come on.” He demanded and I did as I was told. When we were deep in the forest he spotted a squirrel and pointed at it, “Chase it, then catch it.”
                “You’re kidding me right?”
                “Do I look like I’m kidding?” He looked at me like he would kill me if I didn’t.
                “Why? If it runs up the tree I wont be able to catch it.”
                “Yes you will, just climb up after it. I’m not going to baby you like my family would have, you’re going to catch your own feed.”
                I sighed and knew that I wasn’t going to win this argument so I started running after the squirrel. After a minute I realized that I was running about three times the speed I usually do. I easily caught the squirrel, before I could turn around to go find Johnny he appeared right in front of me and showing me where to bite him. We argued for a minute about me biting and feeding from the squirrel. When I lost the argument I bit down and felt warm blood flow into my mouth, it sickened me to know I was drinking an animals blood but I couldn’t make myself stop. When Johnny pulled me back the squirrel laid limp and lifeless in my hand. I Just stared at it then looked up at Johnny, he took it from me and let it fall to his feet. We made our way back to my house.
                When we got there he sat under my window and looked around my room, “Nice place, So what else would you like to know about the new you?”
“It’s late, are you sure that you should stay here? You should really get back to your place.”
                “Nope. I was told to stay here with you tonight.”
                “What.” I said dully.
                “Yup. I have to stay here to make sure you stay in your house and that you don’t tell your sister about this.”
              “You seriously think I would tell her! I’m to afraid you’ll kill me if I do!”
              “Don’t raise your voice at me! I don’t want to be here, but I don’t have a choice!”
              “I can raise my voice at you if I want to, this is my room!”
                “I could care less if this was the presidents room, I will do what I want and when I want to!”
                “If you really think that than you can just leave! You can lie to whoever made you stay here!”
                “Yeah okay, I’m really going to leave you hear. Are you crazy!”
                “I just might be, I just came out of a loony bin!”
                “Shh. I hear your sister coming.”
                We both quit yelling at each other and listened. I could hear footsteps walking up the stairs, I looked over at Johnny and pointed out my window. He jumped out my window but I knew he was still right under it, my sister walked in right after I closed the window.
                “Are you okay?” She was looking around my room to see if everything was fine.
                “Yeah. Why?”
                “I though I heard yelling.”
                I grabbed her shoulders and turned her around, we started walking towards the door and I told her she was just hearing things.
                She believed me and left, Johnny was tapping on my window and I turned around to look at him. He noticed that I wasn’t going to let him in and just sat in the tree and looked at me. I rolled my eyes and grabbed some clothes and a towel then went to go take a shower.
                When I came back in my room Johnny was sitting on my bed and on his phone. I shook my head and waited for him to finish talking. When he hung up he looked at me and said, “Dry your hair and get ready.”
                “Get ready for what? How did you even get back in?”
                “You are going to come meet your new family, and you left your window unlocked.”
                “I thought you couldn’t come in unless someone invited you in, and what do you mean by my new family?”
                “Well you already invited me in once and that’s like a life pass to come in here whenever I want, and since you are a vampire you are related to the other vampires at my house.”
                “Fine.”
                He didn’t move from the spot on my bed while I dried my hair and searched my room for my cell phone. When I was ready he jumped out my window and I followed him around to the front of his house where I saw a nice, black Mustang. He walked around to the passenger side and opened the door for me, after I slid in he closed my door and rounded the car to get in on his own side. He put his key in the ignition but didn’t start the car, I felt like he wanted to ask me something so I asked him what was wrong.
                “I just don’t think we should go until I’ve answered as many as your questions as I can.”
                “Um, okay. Well first I want to know how you got such a nice car.”
                He smiled and replied, “My father, my sister Elizabeth and I work as either a doctor or nurse. When we get there, to my place, I don’t think you should leave my side until the family warms up to you. They didn’t like Amy to well when she first came into the house so just stay by me and I’ll introduce you to everyone.”
              “Okay. Does everyone you guys turn into a vampire come to live with you?”
            “Well, yes, but if you don’t want to that’s fine.”
            “I want to. I think it would be better for my sister, but I don’t want to have to explain to her where I’m at and why I left.”
            “Okay then, later on we’ll come back and you’ll grab all of your stuff. Then we’ll go back to my place and you can move on. We always have a empty room so you can just take it and stay with us. I think the family will like you. You have been able to put up with me and I’m the worst out of all of them so you should be fine. Sound like a plan?”
          “Yeah. Let’s go.”
          Johnny started the car and sped down the road, we were going so fast that I couldn’t see anything out the window except blurs. Within five minutes we were there, when Johnny opened the door he pushed me behind him and took a few steps in. I heard footsteps walking towards him and Johnny took a quick step back almost knocking me over. Johnny and whoever was in front of us were talking in low, quick whispers that I could barley hear. When Johnny spoke in a normal tone he asked where Todd was.
          “I’m right here. Now why are you two fighting.” I saw a man that looked the same age as me, he had short blond hair and green eyes.
            It was Johnny who spoke first, “James here thinks I brought home a little midnight snack, when really I brought home a friend.”
          “Well you know how we are about bringing friends into the house.” It was Todd who spoke.
          “I know, but this friend is special, she’s one of us.”
          “Oh well that changes things. So is she here to stay?”
          “Well, maybe. Were going to go back later and grab her stuff, that is if she still wants to.”
            “Okay, that’s great! Well lets have a look at her, you’ve been guarding her like she’s your afternoon feed.”
            I cringed at his comparison,  before I could think about anything else Johnny had a firm, and cold, hand wrapped around one of my arms and was pulling out in front of him. When I was in full view Todd had just stared at me, as if he was looking for something in my eyes. He raise his hand and put his hand under my chin and lifted my head up. I shook my head out of his hand and backed into Johnny, hoping he would keep Todd from touching me again. Johnny looked down at me and put his arms around my waist, “I don’t think she really trusts anyone but me right now.”
            Todd shook his head showing that he understood, “I’ll call the others down here to meet her, James,” James was still standing in front of me and he didn’t look to happy about the fact that I might be moving in, “you go sit down before I make you go back to your own place.” James gave Todd a dirty look and walked back over to where he was sitting before we arrived. I looked up questioningly at Johnny but he was looking in the direction the Todd left. He led me into a different room and sat me down at a table, I looked around but there was nobody else in the room with us.
            “Okay, just a little heads up, the others are going to be rough on you for a while if you do decide to stay with us. Especially James, we all mean good here. Well James doesn’t like anybody who lives here, but were only tough on new comers cause they need to be tough. I’ll tell you why later. You herd me mention Amy earlier right?”
            “Yeah. And I have one question for you whenever you’re done talking.”
            “Okay, remind me cause I might forget. Anyway, you have to be careful around her because she is quick to snap at you. I don’t know if you’re going to be able to meet my sister or not but if you do then I hope you like having your nails and hair done, that’s like all she’s does but nobody here lets her touch their hair.”
            “Why? Is she bad?”
            “No but she’s always wanting to play with someone’s hair! Well you will also meet one more person, his name is Mathew but you can call him Mattie like all of us. Todd is really nice and he’ll help me make sure that the others aren’t to hard on you, and my dad, Mr. Ross, isn’t here but he’ll be here tomorrow. He as to work late at the hospital tonight.”
            “Okay, well I’ll be happy to meet everyone. Oh and I do have a question.”
            “Oh yes, I remember you saying that earlier. So what do you want to know?”
            “I was just wondering what Todd was talking about when he told James that he should sit or that he would send him back to his own place?”
            “I’ll tell you later when he is gone, but right now we should get back to the front room before they start thinking that you ran away.”
            We both stood up and returned to the front room and a few seconds later Todd and three other people  came down the long stair case, Johnny immediately stepped in front of me and said, “What are you doing?”
            “Don’t worry, he knows what he is and isn’t allowed to do.” I heard Todd reply.
            “I don’t care. I don’t want him down here, I don’t trust him.”
            This time it wasn’t Todd who answered, it was a different, lower, voice, “What’s wrong big brother? I don’t bite, well not my own kind.”
            “I don’t trust you and I will not let here out from behind me until you leave.”
          “Why don’t you trust me?” When he spoke again his voice was a lot closer, “Are you afraid of what might happen, I promise I wont touch her. Really, you should learn to forgive, what happened last time was an accident.”