A Blessing, Not a Curse

         Ever since the girl next door moved in, my life hasn’t been the same. It’s been one crazy day after another.
         Her family moved in overnight. Literally. One day, the house was completely empty. The next morning, a Saturday, the “For Sale” sign out front was gone, and I could see furniture inside.
         “Well, I’m sure they just wanted to get settled in as quickly as they could. School does start on Monday, after all,” Mom had said.
         Mom, being ever the good neighbor, whipped up an apple pie real quick for our new neighbors. She wanted the three of us (her, me, and my dad) to take the pie over and welcome them to the neighborhood. I hate meeting people like that. It’s so fake and stupid.
         I tried to talk my way out of it.
         “But Mom, we have our biggest gig ever tonight! We need to practice more!” I argued. We really did need to practice, too. My band, Kodak Moment, was pretty popular in the local scene. Most of the songs we performed were originals, but we liked to throw in some covers sometimes. We had gigs almost every weekend, doing birthday parties, school dances, and whatnot. All 500 copies of our first CD sold in less than a month. That night, we were playing at a big club in the next city. It was truly our big break. If they liked us there, we could get signed to a label.
         “Nicholas Bailey, if you don’t come with us right now, you won’t have any gigs for a month! Do you understand me?” she threatened.
         “Yes,” I replied, a defeated sigh escaping. Turning to my bandmates, I asked, “You guys can function without a singer for a while, right?”
         Sarcastically, our drummer Wes replied, “I don’t know. We’d be completely lost without you!” I gave him the finger (in good nature, of course) and left.
         Walking next door, I could hear Green Day’s “Basket Case” coming from my garage. That’s one of our favorite songs to play.
         Mom knocked on our neighbors’ door. The instant it opened, I was glad that I’d come over after all. Before me stood the most beautiful creature to ever walk the earth.
          She had long, flowing hair: a deeper red than I’d ever seen before. Eyes as blue as a cloudless sky. Amazing legs, and the perfect build: not too skinny, but definitely not fat, either. I must’ve been staring, with that dumb look on my face, because she giggled a little when she looked at me. Once I realized this, I quickly stopped staring and blushed.
         Mom introduced us. “Hello! We’re the Baileys, from next door. I’m Stephanie, this is my husband Thomas, and our son, Nick. Welcome to the neighborhood!”
         “Thanks,” the girl replied. “Come on in.” We followed her inside, and she introduced herself as Kasey Kinder. Looking around, her living room looked just like any other. In fact, it seemed almost too normal. Especially since they’d just moved in the night before.
         “Mom! Dad! Our neighbors are here! Quit unpacking your stuff and come out here!” Kasey called. Mr. and Mrs. Kinder walked into the living room and introduced themselves. Mrs. Kinder took the pie Mom had baked into the kitchen, and we all followed.
         “Nick,” Mom said, “why don’t you and Kasey get acquainted with each other and let us adults talk for a little bit?”
         “That sounds like a great idea,” Mrs. Kinder agreed. Kasey and I went back into her living room. Small talk isn’t one of my strong points, but I managed to keep the conversation going.
         It turned out that we had a lot in common. We were the same age, liked the same kind of music, books, movies, and even were both video game fans. Call me crazy, but I was starting to fall for her after just that first talk.
         “Hey,” I said, about a half hour into the conversation, “my band is playing at the crash site tonight. You should come.”
         “Um, ok,” she replied, looking puzzled.
         “Oh, sorry. The Crash Site is a club in Maple Heights,” I explained. “I can give you a ride there, and even get you backstage if you’d like.”
         “I’d love to,” she told me. Unfortunately, I had to leave right after that. I did have a big show to prepare for, after all. We said our goodbyes, and I went back to the band.
         “It’s about damn time you got back,” Brad, our bassist, said.
         “Seriously,” Carrie, our guitarist, added. “Is there a cute girl over there or something?”
         I replied, “As a matter of fact, there is, and I invited her to the show. Now let’s get down to business.”
         We practiced for the next 4 hours, and it was time to go. Everything was ready for the show. While Carrie, Brad, and Wes packed their instruments in my van, I went and got Kasey. Twenty minutes later, we were at The Crash Site.
         There was only 1 dressing room (and it wasn’t very big), so we had to share. Luckily, all of us were already dressed for the show, and just had to fix our hair and stuff like that. As I was finishing with my hair, Kasey walked up beside me and kissed me on the cheek.
         “Good luck,” she said.
         “Who needs luck when they’ve got so much skill?” I asked in jest. I returned her kiss with one on the lips.
         Walking over to us, Wes said, “I hate to break you two crazy lovebirds up, but we’ve got a show to do, Nick.”
         We walked out onto the stage and set up. There were about 300 people in the club, and I was starting to feel nervous. I looked around the audience a little bit, sure that they could see my uneasiness. And there she was. Kasey was standing right in the front, and she gave me a big thumbs up. My nervousness eased a little, but not much. I knew that a lot was on the line that night.
         Our set lasted about 45 minutes. To start it all off, we played “Basket Case.” The fun energy of the song really got the crowd – and us – going. All of my nervousness was gone by then. Once the show starts, I don’t think about anything but jamming out to the music. I run around the stage a lot during the faster songs, and often I go right up to the edge of the stage and get right in some fan’s face. They love it. So do I. I wouldn’t trade those moments up there under the bright lights for anything. I was born for this.
         We finished up with “Dreams of You.” It’s a really slow song that I wrote when I was in a pretty tough spot. This girl that I was crazy for had a really crappy boyfriend. He was always trying to control everything about her, from who she hung out with to even her religion. All of her friends knew that it was bad, and they told her so, but she wouldn’t listen. Especially to me. She knew I had feelings for her, so anything I said was – in her eyes – obviously just jealousy. Maybe a small bit of it was, but I just couldn’t stand to see her hurt like that.
          The worst part of it was that I knew she had feelings for me, too. I wouldn’t have been the perfect boyfriend, but I know that I would’ve been better than him. So, one night, after a pretty heated argument with her (about him, of course), I sat down and wrote these words:


You say you love me
You know I love you, too
But still you stay with him
And give him control over you
He doesn't love you like I do
He can't and never will
So give us a fighting chance
And our dreams will be fulfilled

We're perfect for each other
I know you know it's true
But until the day you admit it
I'm left only with these dreams of you

Three strikes, you're out
The way it usually goes
He's buried to his eyes in them
Yet your love he still knows
You play with my heart
Remember that forbidden kiss?
True feelings must be why
I'm positive of this

We're perfect for each other
I know you know it's true
But until the day you admit it
I'm left only with these dreams of you

He treats you like dirt
You constantly get hurt
You know we'd work together
Last through the stormiest weather

We're perfect for each other
I know you know it's true
But until the day you admit it
I'm left only with these dreams of you
We're perfect for each other
I know you know it's true
But until the day you admit it
I'm left only with these dreams of you

         “Dreams of You” was the first song that I ever wrote. A friend of mine read it and said that it was pretty good. So, I started writing more songs, and eventually, I ended up where I’m at today. I did end up getting over that girl, with much help from my friends. It was a hard time, and I missed shots at happy relationships with other girls because I was too busy chasing this one. I really regret now those blown opportunities. I don’t think I’ll ever really be able to forgive myself for it. I can thank her for one thing, though: my future career in music.
         I was pretty happy with our performance, and I guess the crowd was, too. We left the stage to a considerable amount of applause. I even heard one person shout, “Encore!”
         Once I got back to the dressing room, the first thing I did was grab a can of Mountain Dew: Code Red out of the mini-fridge and flop down on the couch in there. Shows always take a lot out of me. I don’t know how the famous bands can do it every night, I thought to myself.
         A couple minutes later, Kasey walked in the dressing room and practically yelled, “You guys were great!” At a more normal volume, she added, “Especially you, Nick.”
         “Oh, don’t say that,” I replied. “I wouldn’t be shit without those guys.”
         “Yeah! And don’t ever forget it!” Brad yelled, smiling.
         “You sang that last song with so much emotion,” she commented. “Who put you through that?”
         “That’s a story for another day,” I told her. “When I’m not so tired and sweaty.”
         After we rested a bit, we repacked our things and headed home. I dropped Carrie, Brad, and Wes off at their houses. It was almost 11 by the time I pulled into my driveway, with Kasey in the passenger seat. All of the lights in the house were off, so I could tell my parents were in bed. Even on Saturday nights, they would be asleep before 9:30. How lame is that? I killed the engine to my van and sat for a minute.
         Kasey told me, “Thanks for inviting me to the show. You guys really were incredible tonight. I hope I get to see you perform again.”
         “Oh, you will. A front row seat, just like tonight,” I said, and I leaned in to kiss her.
         Suddenly, it was as if I lost all control over myself. What I’d meant to just be a simple kiss instead became a pretty passionate one. We were making out like, well, like teenagers. I’ve never gone that fast before. I mean, I’d just met the girl earlier that day, and already I was making out with her! What happened next was even crazier.
         We moved to the back. I went to take her shirt off, but she stopped me.
         “No, not tonight. I’ve got something even better for you,” she explained.

         The next thing I knew, I was lying in my bed, and it was 10 o’ clock in the morning. What the hell happened last night? I asked myself. Still groggy, I stumbled into the bathroom and looked in the mirror. There were two strange little marks on my neck.
         They looked like...almost like punctures in the skin. It took me a second to realize that they were indeed punctures, and only one explanation popped into my head. That couldn’t possibly be it, though. Surely, I was just being childish. But why else would those marks be there?
         Holy shit, I thought.
         I ran next door right away, bedhead and all. I’d thrown my hoodie on real quick so Mom and Dad wouldn’t see the little wounds and start asking questions. Mom and Dad will never let me outta the house again if they see these marks on my neck, I thought.
         Kasey’s front door opened just as I raised my hand to knock on it. She looked like she’d gotten a full night’s sleep and was ready for the day.
         “Well, good morning, sleepyhead,” she greeted me. “You look a little tired.”
         “What the hell happened last night?” I demanded. “I suddenly woke up in bed, several hours later, and with these two weird marks on my neck!” I lowered my hoodie collar a little bit so that the marks were visible. “What the hell are they? It looks like I was bitten by a vampire or something!”
         “You were,” she replied casually, as if being bitten by a vampire was common. “Oooh, and your canines are growing in nicely, too,” she added.
         “My canines? What the hell are you...”
         I dashed to the bathroom. Looking in the mirror, I could see them. My canine teeth were half an inch long! Now, that’s not as long as you see on vampires in the movies, but they were a lot longer than the night before. Kasey walked into the bathroom behind me, wearing a huge smile on her face. In that smile, I could see 2 long canine teeth. They must’ve been an inch long. I had no idea how I could’ve missed those teeth the night before.
         She put her arm around me and said, “Congratulations! You’re a vampire now.”
         I threw her arm away and backed out of the bathroom. “Uh-uh, no way. I am NOT a vampire!” I said, feeling confused and almost...panicked.
         Giggling, she replied, “Oh, yes you are, and there’s no use denying it. You’ll see the truth soon enough!”
         But by then, I was already out the door. When I got home, I immediately took a shower. The whole time, I had to reassure myself that there were no such things as vampires and that Kasey must’ve just been messing with me.
         After standing under the stream of water for a few minutes, I began to feel a burning. Not as if the water was too hot, but more like my skin was having a reaction. I turned the shower off right away. Vampires are vulnerable to water, I reminded myself. But they’re not real! I argued back. Vampires were just made up for scary stories. It was probably just something in the water.
         I was still a little soapy, but I didn’t dare turn the shower back on to finish rinsing off, so I just dried it all off and got dressed. Mom had made French toast and eggs for breakfast: one of my favorites. By that time, it was almost 11, so I was feeling pretty hungry. So I ate. And I ate.
         And I ate.
         I ate 8 pieces of French toast and 4 fried eggs, but I still felt every bit as hungry as I had before. What the hell is going on? I wondered. I’m usually stuffed after eating half this much!
         “Alright, Nick. That’s enough. Save some for your mother and I,” Dad told me after I’d finished my 8th slice.
         After breakfast, I went to my bedroom and put Korn’s Issues CD into my stereo. I turned it up loud (after all, if your music isn’t loud, then you might as well not even be listening to it) and sat on my bed. I had to keep myself from thinking about the whole vampire thing.
         I tried to write a new song for my band, but nothing good came to me. I was far too preoccupied. All I could think about were vampires. When that attempt to distract myself failed, I turned to my Xbox. In Halo 2, I was a killing machine. I rarely died, and while I was in “the zone,” nothing could get through to me.
         I got my ass kicked that day, though. I couldn’t concentrate on the game. Visions of vampires kept running through my head. Plus, there was the ever-loudening rumble of my still-hungry stomach. I made myself a sandwich (“There’s no way you’re still hungry after eating all that French toast,” Dad commented when he saw me) and scarfed it down, but to no avail. I was still hungry.
         Finally, I gave up. I thought that I would die of hunger, so I walked back over to Kasey’s house. By this point, I was scared, angry, confused, and still hungry: an incredibly lethal combination of feelings.
         I pounded on the door, she opened it, and I walked into her living room.
         “What the hell did you do to me, you crazy bitch?!? I’m starving to death, my teeth are longer, and I can’t even take a shower without feeling like I’m burning up, for Christ’s sake!” I yelled.
         She didn’t even flinch. Instead, she replied, “Maybe we should go to my room and talk in private.” She motioned to the couch, and to the two people sitting on it.
         In my anger, I hadn’t noticed Kasey’s parents sitting less than 10 feet away from me. My face instantly went red from utter embarrassment.
         “I...I...I’m so sorry,” I stammered. “I...I didn’t mean...”
         But, to my surprise, her dad merely laughed it off.
         “Ah, don’t worry about it, Nick. We get that a lot,” he replied. “Actually, you’re taking it relatively well. The last boy called the police. They didn’t believe him, of course.”
         As Kasey’s parents smiled, I caught a glimpse of their canine teeth. Long. Just like Kasey’s. God damn, I thought. It’s a whole family of vampires!
         I almost fainted right there. I couldn’t believe that I lived next door to a whole family of vampires. Kasey led me to her bedroom (She literally led me, as I was feeling kinda lightheaded by then), and we both sat down. Then, right on time, my stomach grumbled louder than ever.
         Hearing it, Kasey said, “Oh! I almost forgot! You said you were hungry, didn’t you? I’ll go grab something for you. You like Code Red, right?”
         “Yeah, it’s my favorite,” I replied.
         “Oooh, perfect!” she said, and left the room.
         I wondered what she could be making me. I decided that I’d sorta go with the whole vampire thing for now. I still didn’t wanna believe that I was a vampire, but in the back of my mind, I knew it was true. But if she brings back a goblet of human blood for me, forget it. I’ll let myself die, I thought.
         She came back a couple of minutes later with 2 ham sandwiches and a monster-sized glass of Code Red. I told her how much I had eaten earlier and how I didn’t think that a couple of ham sandwiches would help, but she insisted I eat it anyway. Still skeptic, I gave in.
         After taking a couple of bites of the first sandwich and a gulp of the Code Red, I started to feel...full! When I realized that my hunger was finally subsiding a little, I began wolfing down the sandwiches and washing them down with the Code Red. I was so happy to not be starving anymore that I didn’t even mind that the Code Red tasted a little off. In less than two minutes, I had obliterated the ham sandwiches and most of the Code Red.
         Right before I took my last drink of the Code Red, I said, “I’m stuffed! What’d you put in this?”
         “Chicken blood,” she replied, and her face denied any idea that that was anything but the complete truth.
         That was when I took a leaf right out of the book of classic comedic moves and sprayed the remaining Code Red out of my mouth and right back into the glass. It even came out through my nose. She obviously thought it pretty funny, because she burst into laughter.
         I saw her laughing and realized that it must’ve been a joke after all. Once I finished choking and sputtering and wiped my face off, I said, “Wow, you really had me going there for a minute, with that whole chicken blood thing. Please tell me I’m not the first person you got with that one.”
         She looked at me as if I was dumb and replied, “I wasn’t kidding. Didn’t you notice the metallic taste in the Code Red?”
         So, that explained it. The funny taste in my pop was chicken blood. Somehow, knowing what it was didn’t comfort me. So I asked her, knowing that the answer would probably make me feel sicker than before, “Was there chicken blood in the ham, too?”
         “Nope,” she replied, and then giggled for a second. “The sandwiches were just sort of a ruse. I knew you’d suspect something and not drink the pop if I didn’t bring any actual food, and there’s no way I could’ve hidden the blood in ham. Well, not enough to do any good, anyways. You needed sustenance pretty bad, so I figured that one little trick would be alright.”
         As if finding out that I just drank chicken blood wasn’t bad enough, a new realization set in. I was a vampire! There was no doubt about it now. If being filled up by blood doesn’t make you one, then nothing does.
         I looked down, feeling defeated. “So, it’s definitely true, then,” I muttered. “I’m a vampire. I’m probably gonna have to change my whole life around, huh? I won’t be able to see my friends, cuz I’ll try to eat them or something. I won’t even be able to sleep in my bed, cuz I’ll have to sleep hanging from the ceiling...”
         At this, she burst out laughing, even harder than before. This only made me mad. I got up and started to leave the room when she hugged me from behind.
         Still laughing, she said, “No, don’t leave!”
         “Why should I stay?” I retorted, turning around to face her. “If all you’re gonna do is laugh at my problems, then I might as well leave.”
         She still hadn’t stopped laughing. This really didn’t help my anger. She said to me, “I’m not laughing at your problems, because they’re not your problems!” Seeing the confused look on my face, she added, “None of that stuff has to happen. Yeah, you’re life is going to change, but it’ll be all for the better! Vampirism is a blessing, not a curse, or I wouldn’t have seduced (So that’s why I was moving so quickly with her, I thought. She seduced me, vampire-style.) and bitten you!”
         Hearing that, I calmed down a little. I figured I’d at least stick around and hear what she had to say. And as it turned out, she was right. The more she told me about vampirism, the more I liked it. Aside from the weakness to water (as I had experienced firsthand in the shower earlier) and the fact that I needed blood (Any blood would do. Human blood is the best, but is also very hard to get without drawing much unwanted attention, so we mostly drink chicken blood) for sustenance, there wasn’t really anything bad about being a vampire.
         You see, vampires aren’t exactly as we’re portrayed in literature and movies. We’re not evil, bloodsucking monsters who only come out at night. In fact, vampires can be outside whenever they damn well feel like it. We do happen to be stronger at night, though.
         “One last question,” I said once she finished her little explanation of vampirism. “How come I didn’t notice those fangs of yours last night? There’s no way I could’ve missed those.”
         “They were cloaked,” she replied simply. “As were these.” She closed her eyes for a second. Then, out of the blue, she suddenly arched her back and looked skyward. As she did that, two large wings on her back unfolded. My first thought was that they were the wings of an angel.
         I was so surprised by the sight of them that I stumbled backwards and fell into the chair that I was sitting in earlier. Right on cue, Kasey laughed.
         “They’re only wings, Nick,” she “informed” me, still giggling. “You don’t have to be scared.”
         “Ha ha, very funny,” I replied, standing back up. I walked over and ran the back of my hand down one of Kasey’s wings. It was one of the softest things I’d ever felt, and she closed her eyes as if she was enjoying it, too. As I was doing this, I asked, “So, what was this ‘cloaking’ thing you were talking about?”
         “Our fangs and wings are only seen by who we want. To everyone else, we look completely normal. It’s a neat little power of ours. I had to cloak them last night because you just weren’t ready to see them,” she explained.
         “So, when do I get my wings?” I asked, beginning to daydream. I saw myself soaring high above the night city, looking down at the lights below. Above me was a sea of stars and a beautiful moon. And by my side was none other than Kasey.
         “Be patient. You’ll get yours soon enough,” she answered, snapping me out of my fantasy.
         Just then, my cell phone rang. I didn’t recognize the number that showed up on the Caller ID, so I started to put it away. But then I thought, What the hell? I’ll answer it. I’m feeling pretty good right now.
         It was none other than the manager of the local office of Cooper Music, one of the largest record labels in the world. He told me to bring the band in immediately for a meeting. Kasey and I cloaked everything and hopped in my van. We rushed over to Brad’s, Carrie’s, and Wes’s houses. I don’t think I drove less than 10 over the speed limit the whole time.
         Brad and Wes were so excited when they heard the news that they dropped everything and got in the van right away. Carrie, on the other hand, didn’t. She took almost 20 minutes getting ready, and we all started getting impatient (“Typical girl,” Wes had commented).
         The meeting with the manager, Mr. Dylen, was long, but anything but boring. He told us how one of his scouts had seen us at The Crash Site and knew that we would be huge.
         “We’ll release your debut CD, with full media attention, as soon as you’ve got it,” he told us.
         I looked at my bandmates for approval. Luckily, they all knew what I was thinking and nodded.
         “Actually, Mr. Dylen,” I replied, “we’ve already released a CD locally. It’s got all of the songs that we played at the club last night, so could we just release that?”
         Before he agreed, he wanted to hear the CD. I foresaw something like this happening and had brung a copy with me. He put it in his CD player, listened to it, and exclaimed “Yes!” as soon as the last song ended.
         “This is a great CD,” he said. “It’ll need to be re-recorded and polished up, but that’s all. That’s nothing.”
         So we called our parents, and they called their lawyers (and Mr. Dylen called the company’s lawyer). Once everyone showed up, the talk became kinda legal, and I stopped paying attention to avoid confusion. After much negotiating (Brad’s lawyer actually threatened to pull him out at one point), the terms were finally met. Two CDs in 3 years, to begin with. A small 25-stop national tour. A couple million and a cut of all the sales. Everyone was happy. We all signed the contract, and it was official.
         Kodak Moment had made the big time.

         School started that Monday, and by the luck of the vampire, Kasey and I had every class together. I knew that she had something to do with that, but when I asked her about it, she replied simply (and with a sly grin), “It must be destiny!”
         Kasey held training sessions of sorts in the playground of the elementary school near my house. We only did it at night, and it was set back from the road and nearly surrounded by trees, so we didn’t have to worry about anyone seeing us.
         My wings were actually completely grown in by the end of my first week as a vampire. I was amazed by how quickly they’d come and how surprisingly natural they felt. It took a little while for me to get the hang of flying, as I’m a little clumsy and afraid of heights. I got over that quickly, though, and Kasey was a very patient teacher.
         She caught me off guard pretty well one night, but I’m actually glad she did. Out of nowhere, she hurled this fist-sized rock right at my head. Out of reflex, I moved my hands up to shield my face. Instead of feeling pain, though, I heard a loud metal clang! as the rock hit the slide. The slide was almost 20 feet away from me. And in a completely different direction than Kasey had thrown the rock.
         “What just happened?” I asked, very confused.
         “It’s a neat little trick called telekinesis,” she said. “One of my favorite gifts.”
         A huge grin showed up on my face. I’d always wanted to be telekinetic, and now I was. I had actually thrown a rock through the air...with my mind! This vampire deal is awesome! I thought.
         “And it only gets better,” she replied, grinning herself. Only, she didn’t actually say anything. No, we both thought those things, but we knew exactly what the other thought. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you telepathy!
         Over the next couple of weeks, we worked on my new telepowers. My TK needed a lot of help. I could throw a rock pretty well, but that was about all I could do. I couldn’t move anything semi-gently.
         Eventually (several dents in the playground equipment later), I caught on. I could move a rock without causing destruction. Because you don’t always wanna cause destruction.
         Luckily, my telepathy was much easier to develop. I was already naturally good at telling what people were thinking. The only difference was that before, it was intuition. A guess. Now it’s an actual ability. No matter who you are or what you’re hiding in your head, I’ll know.

         “Fuck Kasey!” Wes screamed. “We’ve finally been fucking signed to a label, and now all you do is hang out with her! We need to fucking practice, Nick!”
         In case you couldn’t already tell, Wes never took much of a liking to Kasey. It’s true, I was spending a lot of time with her, but he didn’t understand. He couldn’t understand.
         “You don’t understand! You couldn’t understand!” I argued.
         “What I don’t understand is why you’re ditching us for her! It’s always been your dream to make it big. And now that you finally have, you’re fucking it all away by spending every waking moment with The Girl Next Door!” he yelled.
         “Wes, calm down,” Carrie quietly said. Me and Wes have always had our fair share of arguments, and she always tried to mediate it. Usually, it worked. But not this time.
         “I’ll calm down when Nick stops thinking with his dick and comes back to his senses!” he argued.
         “You wanna know why I’ve been spending so much time with her?” I asked.
         “Yeah, I do, Nick.”
         This was not the way I wanted to show my friends my new gift, but I didn’t have much of a choice. Wes was right. I was spending a lot more time with Kasey than with the band. I owed it to them to tell the truth.
         So I uncloaked everything. The looks of awe on Brad, Carrie, and Wes’s faces were instant. But Wes didn’t just look surprised. He looked completely horrified.
         “I’m a vampire,” I said. “Kasey is, too. The night of the concert at The Crash Site, she turned me.”
         The look of terror and disgust was still on Wes’s face. “F...Fuck this. This is satanic stuff, here. You guys can deal with this, but not me. I’m done with this band.” He walked backwards out the door, as if he didn’t want to give me a chance to strike. Not that I would’ve.
         You see, Wes was a pretty religious guy. He swore a lot, but he still went to church every Sunday and prayed several times a day. Finding out that his best friend was a vampire (which would definitely fall under the category of “satanic stuff” by most standards, I must admit) was just too much for him too handle.
         Brad and Carrie, on the other hand, didn’t seem to have a problem with it at all. In fact, they thought it was pretty much the coolest thing they ever saw.
         “Dude, you’re a vampire!” Brad exclaimed after Wes stormed out. Brad’s always been pretty good at stating the obvious.
         “Yup,” I replied.
         “A fucking vampire!”
         “Yes. I am a vampire.”
         “Dude! You’re a –”
         “Yes, he’s a vampire, Brad. We get it,” Carrie interrupted, before smacking him on the back of the head. “But this is pretty amazing, Nick. How did it happen?”
         Just as I opened my mouth to explain everything about the past couple of weeks, Brad asked, “Dude, can I touch your wings?” I nodded, and he started to poke at them and pull his fingers back. Like when a little kid touches a gross bug.
         I told my tale, from the morning Kasey moved in all the way up to that day in the garage. They were both captivated, and it looked like they were having a hard time soaking it all in. They should try living it! I thought.
         I didn’t worry about Brad and Carrie telling anyone about my little secret. I could trust them with my life and come out completely unscathed. Wes, on the other hand, I wasn’t so sure about. I trusted him, too, and he was never one to gossip or anything, but this really bothered him. He would only be able to hold it in for so long, I knew. But when the next week passed by with the absence of any torch-carrying mobs outside my front door, I figured he’d kept the secret. Besides, who would believe him, anyways?

         Kasey’s parents went away for a few days. They were meeting a friend across the country who said he had fresh human blood for sale. No vampire could resist that call.
         “That Elliott always has the best,” Mr. Kinder had said before he and the missus left.
         I’d never had human blood before, so I couldn’t wait til they got back. Though I thought it disgusting at first, drinking blood isn’t that bad. In fact, it’s pretty damn good. And all I’d had was chicken blood! From what I’d heard, human blood is miles above it.
         The Kinders supplied me with the blood I needed. I still ate dinner with my parents every night, as they didn’t know about my vampirism (and you can’t beat my mom’s cooking anyways). But after that, I’d go next door for my real dinner.
         So, Kasey was left home alone. If Wes thought I was over there a lot before, he hadn’t seen anything. We spent some of the time working on my new powers, but most of the time we spent, um, doing other things. I’m telling you, those were the best few days of my young life.
         That is, until a week and a half went by with no word from Kasey’s parents. Both of us were getting worried, but Kasey was really freaking out. She’d called their cell phones, but they had been disconnected. And it was the same story with that Elliott guy’s phone.
         “Don’t worry,” I said, hugging her as she cried. “I’m sure they’re alright. They’re vampires. They can handle themselves.”
         “I know, but we’ve had problems before,” she choked. “The government is always trying to track us down. Just because we’re fucking vampires! Something bad’s happened. I can feel it.”
         The truth was, I could feel it, too. They were too far away for full-blown telepathy to work, so we couldn’t exchange thoughts. But I could still sense that something was indeed wrong.
         And it was about to get worse. Very fast.
         Late that night, I heard a commotion next door. My bedroom window gave me a good view of the side and front of Kasey’s house. Looking out of it, I could just barely make out a black SUV parked at the curb. Two men, dressed in black suits and armed with handguns, were pounding on Kasey’s front door.
         “FBI! Open up!” the first one, a buff-looking guy, shouted.
         “You have 5 seconds to come out with your hands on your head!” yelled the other one, who was several inches shorter than his partner.
         What happened next happened so fast, it was practically a blur. Kasey took off out the back, quickly gaining altitude. For some reason, though, she turned back over the house, trying to make her getaway by actually flying over the FBI agents. Unfortunately, this gave them a clear shot.
         Once I saw their guns trained on Kasey, I stopped thinking. I leaped out the window, newly grown wings extended, but it was too late.
         BANG! Muscles pulled the trigger, and I saw a little puff on the top of Kasey’s left wing (right where the bone supporting that wing was) as the bullet made contact. Kasey, who was almost directly overhead them when she was shot, dropped like a rock. She hit the ground with a sickening whump!, and lay there.
         Shorty was starting to pick Kasey up off the ground when I shoulder-barged him at full speed. I heard his head crack on the sidewalk. He was out cold.
         “Keep your fucking hands off her!!!” I screamed, despite knowing that he couldn’t hear me anyway.
         I kneeled next to her and picked her up, holding her in my arms. “Kasey! Kasey, are you okay?!? Answer me!” I begged. “Please answer me!”
         But she didn’t.
         As the tears started falling from my eyes, I gently kissed her forehead. Even dead, she still looked beautiful. An instant later, the butt of Muscles’s gun turned my world black.

         “Hello, 911? Yes, I’d like to report a vampire. What? Yes, I know prank-calling 911 is a felony, but this isn’t a – Hello? Damnit, she hung up.”
         Where am I? Where’s Kasey? What happened? Everything’s black...
         “WOPT? I’ve got a great story for you. These two kids I know are vampires. Huh? Stop laughing at me!”
         Wes, is that you? What are you doing, man? Stop telling people about us.
         “Principal Dodge, I don’t think it’s safe to allow Kasey Kinder and Nick Bailey at school anymore. They’re vampires, sir. Very dangerous. What? But...I’m not lying! I can prove it! Detention?!?”
         I could see every person Wes told about us over the past week. It was like watching scenes from an old movie, where some of the color has faded. I tried to stop him, but I was a ghost to everybody there. It was no more than a dream. Nobody could see me, hear me, feel me. I saw him tell person after person my secret, but to no avail. Everybody laughed it off. I wondered why I would have a vision of this of all things, but then I understood.
         His phone rang.
         “Hello? Yes, this is Wes Johnson. The FBI? But, I didn’t do any – You mean the Kinders? On the run from the FBI? Ha! I knew that bitch was no good! Yeah, they live at.....”
         It seemed that Wes’s big mouth paid off after all. He’d attracted the attention of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The Kinders had evaded them before now by using alibis. But now that Wes had told the FBI where they lived, they couldn’t hide anymore.
         You sold us out, Wes?!? You got Kasey killed! I’ll fucking kill you for that!!! You’re no better than the rest of those ignorant bastards!
         Of course, Wes couldn’t hear any of my screaming, but I didn’t care. He knew that the FBI wanted to hurt Kasey, but he still helped them. As far as I was concerned, he was no better than my food now.
         But before I could rage any more, my vision started going white. Pretty soon, I was blinded and in pain because of the brightness. But it didn’t stop. It only intensified. I couldn’t think or talk, and it seemed like I could actually hear the light, it was that intense. Just when I thought my head was going to explode, it began to subside.
         That’s when I woke up, my vision blurred. Looking up, I could just make out someone’s head. This someone had long hair. Long, red hair.
         My head was in Kasey’s lap.
         “Kasey?!?” I cried. I tried to sit up, but I found that I was still far too woozy, and I fell back down.
         She leaned down to kiss me and said, “Good morning, sleepyhead.” She wasn’t wearing her typical grin.
         “I...I thought you were dead,” I said softly.
         “No,” she replied, looking around the room we were in. “Only imprisoned, and I don’t think I’ll be able to fly for a while.”
         I took a look around, too. Cement walls and floor. No windows. A solid steel, barred door. Yup, we were definitely in some sort of prison.
         Huh? What was that? I wondered. Something wet had hit my cheek while I was examining the room. When I looked up at Kasey, I realized that a tear had landed on my face. She was crying again.
         I got over my wooziness right away and sat up to hold her. Her face was now buried in my shoulder. She was sobbing uncontrollably. It killed me to see her like this. I started to cry, as well. For at least a half hour, it went on like that: me holding her, her crying. Not a word was said. Nothing had to be said. I didn’t even need my telepathy to know why she was so upset. There we were, locked up, probably damned to execution. Just because we were different. We hadn’t done anything wrong!
         “They’re dead, Nick.” she whispered. The sudden break in the silence almost made me jump.
         “What? Who’s dead?” I asked, already fearing that I knew exactly who.
         “My parents. Some guy told me while you were still out. The whole trip was a ruse. A trap set up by the FBI. And now they’re dead. Why, Nick? Why?” She was begging for an answer, but I couldn’t give her one. Nobody could, really. The Kinders were great people who wouldn’t hurt a fly (only chickens), and their murders were completely unjustified.
         Clank! Clank! Clank! Chang! The cell door opened, and standing there were none other than Muscles and Shorty (who had a nice lump on his head where it hit the sidewalk earlier).
         “We’ve got orders straight from the President to kill both of you,” Muscles announced. “Vampires are a plague on humanity!”
         “People like you are the plague on humanity!” Kasey cried. “Killing innocent people? Do you pride yourselves in that? We haven’t done a thing wrong!” She started to stand up, as if to challenge them physically, too, instead of just verbally. I pulled her back down, though.
         The last thing we need right now is to provoke those two, I told her.
         “That’s right. Stay down,” Shorty said. I really doubted he would have that kind of confidence if Muscles weren’t standing right there. “We don’t want anybody to get hurt. We’ll make you a little deal: You tell us where more vampires are, and we’ll keep you alive, instead of just killing you now.”
         “Fuck you!” Kasey yelled.
         “Oh! Such a nasty word from such a pretty mouth? The deal’s on the table for 5 minutes. After that, it’s death,” Shorty said.
         What are we going to do? Kasey asked me. I’m not going to sell out my friends and family, but I don’t want to die, either! I ignored her, and blocked her out of my mind as well as I could. She didn’t need to see what I was planning. It didn’t involve her. I was getting out of that situation the only way I knew how. Maybe she’d get out of it alongside me. Hopefully not.

         Out of nowhere, I lunged at the FBI agents. They played right into my hand, just as I knew they would. Firing like mad, they emptied every last bullet into me. The pain as the bullets ripped through my body was unlike anything I’d ever felt before. My chest. My arms. My legs. All in screaming, agonizing pain. The final bullet pounded straight through my heart, and I collapsed, face-up.
         “NIIIIIIIIICK! NOOOOOOOOO!” Kasey screamed at the top of her lungs. She rushed to my side, her face paper-white, sobbing.
         “Get...out of here...before they...get...back-up,” I managed to sputter, before I died.

         The blackness that engulfed me was complete. I couldn’t see a thing, but I suspected that there wasn’t anything to see, anyways. I was in that version of Hell for what seemed like an eternity. I felt myself slowly going mad. There was nobody there to talk to, nothing to do. Only the memories of lost love to keep me company. My friends. Lost. My family. Lost.
         Kasey. Lost.
         Most people simply kill themselves when they feel like I did. But, ah, that was the bitter irony of my situation, wasn’t it? I was already dead. There was nothing I could do but sit back and enjoy my trip to insanity. Salvation was far beyond my reach.
         But one day (if days even existed in that place), I saw a door out. Quite literally. A door, beyond which was brilliant light, had opened up in the distance. From as far away as I was, it looked barely the size of a pencil eraser. I could feel it pulling me in, and I graciously accepted. I was finally headed to The Great Upstairs, also known as Heaven.
         Ha! Like you could make it to heaven, the voice that resides in the back of my head argued. You’re a vampire, a satanic being. That’s just the next level of Hell awaiting you.
         I knew it was right. I tried to turn away from the door, to run away, but I couldn’t. It kept its hold on me, pulling me toward it faster and faster. I tried to scream in resistance, but not a sound escaped me. There was nothing I could do. I was helpless.
         The sound as I was sucked through the door was deafening. It was like a thunderclap right inside my head. I felt as if my very soul would be crushed beneath the force of it. But it wasn’t, and with one last strain of resistance from me, I was pulled through the door.

         You will be rewarded for your sacrifice, Nicholas Bailey.
         “Huh?” I shot right up. What I saw when I looked about was not what I had expected at all. Instead of fire and demons, I saw bricks. Steel. Cement. And two FBI agents, their guns pointed straight at my once-dead body.
         Kasey screamed, partially out of fear but mostly out of surprise. Her boyfriend, whom she just saw riddled with bullets mere seconds before, randomly sat up. That would shock anybody.
         Examining the rest of my body, I found only one thing out of the ordinary. And it wasn’t the bullet holes. There were none. I didn’t even have any cuts or lumps on the back of my head from when I was knocked out earlier. No, the abnormal thing was the glow that now outlined my body. Not a white glow, like you’d expect to see on an angel, but a dark, purplish glow. As if my body turned into a giant blacklight.
         “N-Nick? W-What’s going on?” Kasey quietly questioned.
         “These motherfuckers are about to pay for what they’ve done. That’s what’s going on,” I replied. A little more macho-sounding than usual, I know, but a cool glow can make you feel pretty bad-ass.
         Muscles and Shorty knew that they were in big trouble. They turned around to run, but it didn’t matter. I mind-threw them against the wall 10 ft. behind them. I heard several bones (as well as some of the wall) crunch as they made impact, and I knew there was no way they’d survived.
         “Now’s our chance!” I yelled to Kasey. “Let’s go before this...glow...wears off!” She was so in awe by the events of the past two minutes, that all she could do was nod. I grabbed her hand and pulled her out of the cell.
         We bolted down the hallway, past countless other cells, most of which had their own prisoners. When we reached the solid steel door at the end, Kasey looked extremely dismayed.
         “We’re trapped!” she shouted. “We can’t get out!”
         “Wanna bet?” Using the awesome power of telekinesis, I ripped the door from its casing and hurled it at the guards standing behind it. I knew they were just doing their jobs, and I really did feel bad about killing them and all, but they would’ve killed us first. It was a necessary evil.
         Luckily, those were the last deaths that day. Our means of escape was just beyond that door. I shattered the small window and jumped through it. Hovering, I pulled Kasey through it, and we were off like bats out of Hell.
         I jetted away from the compound as fast as I could, with Kasey cradled in my arms, never looking back. Fortunately, it was still dark out, and we were cruising above a few low clouds, so it’s not likely that anybody saw us. Looking down, I saw the cityscape, and I knew that we were home free.
         The FBI hadn’t taken us far at all when they captured us. In fact, we were flying over Maple Heights. I could see the familiar lights of The Crash Site from my vantage point.
         Once I got my bearings straight, I headed for home. I had never wanted to just flop onto my bed and fall asleep more than I did then. And it was easy to tell that Kasey felt the same way, too. Looking down at her, I noticed that she’d fallen asleep in my arms.
         “If anyone’s earned a rest today, it’s definitely her,” I said to myself. She lost her parents, was shot, and saw her boyfriend get killed and then resurrected. I could only imagine what all that would be like.
         As I got close to my house, I saw several flashing red and blue lights. The police were at my house. What are they doing there? I wondered. “Oh shit!” I exclaimed, once I’d figured it out. No doubt my parents and neighbors heard the blast when Muscles shot Kasey out of the air. They called the cops, who must have wet their pants when they heard the words “shots fired.” My town is generally a pretty quiet, murder-free one.
         I was hoping to be able to at least stop by my house before I left for good. I realized that leaving was my only choice. The FBI knew who I was, what I was, and my house would be on constant watch. Still, it would’ve been nice to at least leave a note for my parents before all that happened.
         Tearing up at the thought of leaving, I whispered, “Goodbye.”
         But before Kasey and I vanished into the dark night, there was a score we had to settle.

To be continued...

Please keep in mind that this is a work in progress. I took a lot of liberties, with the vampire powers and with the record deal meeting. If you see a spot that needs a little more explanation, please let me know, and I'll work on fixing it. All reviews are greatly appreciated, and I hope you enjoyed reading it!