Karolina Life as a Vampire chapter 19

Karolina Life as a Vampire chapter 19

NINETEEN

I closed my eyes tightly shut. I was anxious to know what Alex had sent but at the same time I didn’t want to look. Like when you’re at the movies and you choose to see a scary movie. The music and the actor’s or actress’s movements and posture tell you something is about to happen and you start to shrink back into the popcorn and soda encrusted seats with your eyes like slits trying not to watch but you still want to see. You always end up jumping up and spilling your popcorn all over the poor movie-goer in front of you. Slowly I peeled one eye open and the then other.

I miss you too but I need time to cool down.
I’ll come back when I’m ready.

I breathed a heavy sigh of relief. He didn’t take my meaning the wrong way and answered diplomatically. Now what was I going to write back?

I understand. Take all the time that you need.
Talk to you later Alexander the Great :]

I thought the use of his nickname would put a smile on his face.

:] Talk to ya later

I smiled to myself. Alex and I will work this all out in the end and he’ll come home. I shut off my phone and hooked it to its charger, noticing that it needed to be charged badly. There was a knock at my door and I called to whoever it was to come in. It was Erik, or course.

“Do you still want to train?” He asked timidly.
“Of course, what will I be learning tonight?”
“First we are going to try a number of things, I want to see if we can flush out your secret power. Then you will learn how to,” He trailed off as he went out into the hall to retrieve something. He came back holding a small cage with a squirrel inside. He continued, “To posses this animal.”
“A squirrel?” I giggled.
“You didn’t exactly give me enough warning, now did you?” Erik scoffed.
“You’re right, I’m sorry. What’s first?”
“First we are going to see if you can control any of the elements, such as fire.” Erik placed the cage on the floor.
“In here?” I pointed around my room.
“I would have suggested in the kitchen, however, Evol and Vance are…” He searched for the correct words. “Rekindling their long lost relationship.” A wide smile spread itself like a wildfire across my face.
“They’re getting back together?!” I squealed.
“I came in from catching the squirrel and I see them lip locked, that would be enough evidence for me.” Erik chuckled. “Vance turned a bright shade of pink, Evol just laughed.”
“I’m so happy for them.”
“Anyways, I would like you to get comfortable and then try to set a piece of paper on fire.” Erik pulled out a folded blank sheet of paper out of his pocket.

Setting on my bed in front of him I concentrated on the paper’s edge. I thought of flames and burning the paper, but nothing happened. Not even a small smoke line appeared. I tried again but I remembered Raven’s eyes, how they glowed as if they were set a flame.

“Are my eyes glowing?” I asked. Erik shook his head. “This won’t work then.”
“Alright, how about water?”
“Erik, I doubt, Chris would be after me if I possessed abilities concerning the elements.”
“I’ve run out of possibilities.” Erik sighed.
“Let’s just put it simple, I don’t have what he’s after. Once he realizes this he’ll move on or leave me alone.”
“I highly doubt it’s that simple, he would still kill you. You were created by a vampire 300 years your senior, there’s chance you inherited some of my skills.”
“Memory erasing?”
“Why don’t we try that.”
“On you or me?” I pointed to each of us.
“Never mind, that was a bad idea.” Erik shoved the paper back into his pocket. “Now in order for you to posses a animal or a human you have to clear your mind and focus on coming out of your body and into theirs.”
“Is this going to be tripy?” I asked.
“Depends.”

Erik instructed me to close my eyes and clear my mind. An image entered my thoughts of Obi-wan instructing a young Anakin to clear his mind. I hadn’t seen that movie in a long time maybe I should watch it. I thought of my favorite scene at the end of Episode III when Obi-wan is crying and tells Anakin that he loved him. I giggled. Erik cleared his throat. My eyes fluttered open.

“I don’t think you are clearing your mind.” Erik scolded.
“Sorry.” I apologized.
“Don’t think of anything, but concentrate on making your soul remove itself from your body and placing it within the squirrel.”
“I still can’t believe you caught a squirrel.”
“I’m not the one going to posses it.” Erik put the squirrel up on my bed. “Concentrate.”

I would make a horrible Padawan Learner, my mind is always filled with some kind of thought. It’s hard to make the mind of an daydreamer calm and still. Ideas and thoughts bounced around my head all the time. However I tried to do what Erik said. I forced myself to study the back of my eyelids, think only of the eyelids. Amazingly it worked. There wasn’t a stray thought that metamorphed into an image that changed into a movie within my consciousness.
I began to think of unhinging my soul from its resting place within my body. I thought of flying around the room. I felt free, able to move around without a worry or care. Cirlces and summersaults. I opened my eyes, I was gazing at the floor. Below me I saw my body slouched over and Erik saving my head from smacking against the metal corner of the cage. I started to panic. Zooming about the room. How do I get back!? Is this permanent!? If I had thumbs, let alone hands, I would throw something at Erik. AS if he sensed my dilemma he looked about the room before speaking.

“Lina go into the squirrel, enter through the eyes. Temporarily the squirrel’s soul will be pushed aside to make room for yours. It’s easier to get in someone else’s body then to get out of yours.”

Enter through the eyes. Easier said than done. The squirrel was spasing out in his cage. I watched as he scampered to one corner to the next running up the sides and hanging upside down chirping. How do I get myself into these situations I’ll never know. I floated down next the tiny metal cage which looked like it was made out of the thinnest metal around. I waited until the squirrel came to my side of the cage before charging into his left eye.
When I entered the squirrel he was grasping the side of the cage in an attempt to climb up, unable to grab a hold of new limbs I fell back on my tail. Yes, I now have a tail. Nice and bushy to if I may say so. Erik’s head jerked to the now still squirrel.

“I’m amazed! You did it!” Erik exclaimed.
“I’m not a total air head!” I squeaked.
“I’m sorry I don’t speak squirrel.” Erik chuckled. “If you want to get back just do the same thing you did to get out of you’re original body. Don’t worry the rodent will not be harmed. He’ll be confused for a bit though.”
“I can’t move my arms how am I suppose to leave this body?” I squeaked again. I was laying on my back with my tail in a awkward position. It hurt a lot, but I couldn’t do anything so I had to grin and bare it. If a squirrel can grin that is.
“Lina?” Erik picked the cage up. “Why aren’t you moving?”
“I don’t know genius, maybe because I’ve never had this experience before?” I chirped and added an extra squeak at the end that made him flinch.
“Concentrate, Lina.”
“I rather like it in here I think I’ll build a summer home.” My foot twitched. Progress.
“If you don’t come out I’ll be forced to sell you to a zoo. The first Vampire Squirrel! Think of all the faces pressed up against the glass to stare at you.” Erik moved his face close to the cage to make his point clear.
“It’s kind of hard to clear my mind with you talking.” I rolled my eyes. I tried to block him out, which wasn’t as hard as I thought and found myself hovering above Erik’s head. I wished so bad that I had hands, I could have braided his hair while I was here. I re-entered my body. “Sell me to a zoo, Erik?” I scrunched up my face.
“Welcome back.”
“Let me take over your body.” I closed my eyes. I was going to make him braid his own hair and then I was going to take pictures. Before I could even get out of my body I met a strong force blocking my access. I opened my eyes. “What gives?!”
“It’s nearly impossible for a vampire to gain access to another immortals body.”
“Why? That’s no fun.” I crossed my arms.
“I couldn’t tell you why, no one ever told me. I just know of only one vampire who has been able to succeed in doing so.”
“Who?” I asked.
“He’s the head of the Council, the oldest living vampire.”
“Dracula!” I wanted to meet him so bad.
“Dracula is only a fairy tale.”
“You squashed all my hopes and dreams.” I slouched my shoulders.
“You should know by now that Count Dracula was a story created around the mortal Vlad the Impaler.”
“Okay, enough history, what’s next.”
“Well…I didn’t think you would grasp this method so fast. I didn’t plan anything else.” Erik scratched his head. “The only ability left is to posses a human, but it’s the same principle.”
“Wow. When do I get my diploma?” Erik rolled his eyes. I felt the thirst come on. Like an idiot I hadn’t fed again. I went over to my drawer and took out a blood pack.
“Would you like me to leave?” He asked.
“You can stay, would you like some?” I wiggled the pack in my hand.
“No thanks, I already ate.”

It still unnerved me to have someone watch me feed, but I didn’t want Erik to leave. Who knew when he would speak to me again. He could, for all I know, only talk to me on occasion after this. I liked talking with Erik, he always knew how to make me go through a range of emotions. I could be mad at him or laugh at him. I felt safe around him.
I pulled out a straw and poked a hole in the top of the plastic bag with one of my fangs. They could come in handy sometimes. I sipped at the blood, feeling it run smoothly down my throat into my awaiting stomach. I grinned as my stomach thanked me. Erik laughed at my idea to drink it through a straw like a Capri Sun drink. I thought it was ingenious, I should get a patent on the idea. Vampires everywhere will want to buy my brand of Capri Night.
I gulped down the rest and disposed of the pack, straw too, in the trash can by my desk. Erik just watched me. I flung myself onto my bed and made room for Erik to lie down next to me. He hesitated at first but complied. With my powers I brought the remote that controlled the DVD player to my hand, at the same time I pulled the Star Wars Episode III DVD out from its resting place on the top shelf. I floated down into my hand. Erik just watched not making a sound. I pushed the black button in the middle of the case to release the disc, closed the box and placed it on the floor. I pressed the button on the remote to open the slider, it groaned mechanically. I floated the DVD into place and waited for the menus screen to appear. I pressed play.
All the while Erik just watched.

“What?”
“Lazy.” He grinned.
“What else am I suppose to use them for?” I fast forwarded through the federal announcements and crap. Who actually reads them anyway? When the famous “A Long Time Ago, in a Galaxy Far Far Way…” came on I pressed play. John Williams is a genius. His music blows me away. No matter how many times I here it, it still gives me goose bumps. Syndie would be “dun duning” the music and I would be going right along with her. Every fan does it. Instead I hummed along, I didn’t want to embarrass Erik.

“Have you seen Star Wars before?” I asked. The intro still being reeled.
“No I haven’t.” Erik looked at me. “Shouldn’t I see them in order?”
“Why? I haven’t.” It’s the only way to watch Star Wars.
“How did you know what was going on?”
“I just did.” The star fighters made their appearance and I became immediately engrossed. Erik turned his attention to the movie.

I hadn’t seen this movie since Syndie and I had a Star Wars marathon back in the beginning of Senior year. We started with Episode IV and ended with this one. Hours upon hours of SCI-FI bliss. Syndie and I also had a huge crush on Ewan McGregor but that’s besides the point. We grew up on Star Wars, it was just a extra plus that he was Obi-wan. It was strange to watch it without Syndie, yet I didn’t feel sad. I missed her but I had Erik lying beside me.
I chanced a sideways glance at him. He seemed to be enjoying the movie, maybe not enjoying it as much as I was, but at least he wasn’t falling asleep. I would’ve had to slap him out of disrespect for Mr. Lucas. He balanced his chin in his hands propped up by his elbows, his hair falling about is face as gravity caused the strands to succumb to its will. He blew a few loose strand out of his line of sight. I went back to watching the movie, resting my chin on my folded hands.
Half way through the movie a knock came at the door. I told him to keep watching as I answered the door. It was Vance.

“Hello, would like to join in on the Star Wars fest?” I asked.
“Oh, um, no thank you. I just wanted to ask you how you’re stores were.” Vance looked over my shoulder. Erik gave a wave not peeling his eyes off the battle between Grievous
and Obi-wan.
“I have enough to last me through tomorrow.” Vance made a mental note and asked if he could talk to me for a minute. “I’ll be right back Erik.” Erik made a faint sound. I have created a fan. I smiled and followed Vance down the hall. He took me aside and told me the good news. That he and Evol were back together. I hugged and congratulated him.
“Evol and I plan to take a short vacation.”
“Where? When?” I asked excited for the both of them.
“Next week and we won’t be going far, just to the cabin. To be lone for a while.”
“Vance you naughty boy!” I playfully slapped him. His cheeks became so red that I could see, faintly, the color he was before he had been changed.
“N-no, nothing like that.” He stammered. “Just some time to be with each other.”
“Whatever you want to call it, I’m still happy for you both!” I hugged him again. “I should be getting back to the movie, I’ve missed one of the best parts.”
“Whatever you want to call it.” Vance winked.
“Not funny.” I said as I went back into my room. Erik looked up at me when I came in through the door.
“That was amazing! I thought he was a goner!”
“If he died there wouldn’t have been a forth one.”
“There’s more?” Erik looked up at my collection. “How many are there?”
“Six in total, you can borrow them if you want, but first lets finish this one.” I plopped myself back down next to Erik and the force of my descent onto the mattress made our shoulders press together. We looked at each other then quickly at the movie. Neither one of us glanced at each other until the end. I got goose bumps when Darth Vader took his first few breaths, it never ceased to have that effect on me. As the credits rolled Erik put his arms out in front of him in a stretch. I slid off my bed and put away the DVD, placing my finger in between Episode II and the Trilogy box set to make room for the third one.
“What’s next?” Erik asked.
“You want to watch more?” I turned around.
“I want to watch something different, something of a different genre.”
“How different?” I looked at my collection of movies. “You have to give me some rules because I can change it drastically.”
“Don’t scare me, how about that.” Erik sat up, he was getting worried.
“That takes all the fun out of it.” I pondered over my titles of movies. I needed something different but not scary. I needed an algebra equation to solve this problem. “I think you would like Brokeback Mountain but that could get awkward. How do you feel about musicals?” I turned the core of my body around so I could easily snap back to my original position.
“Not really a fan.” Erik got up and walked behind me. He was close enough to remind me of the club. How our bodies moved as one. I quickly moved to the other shelf to stare at those titles. Erik didn’t think anything of my change in position. He continued to read the titles.
“How about Alexander, is that about Alexander the Great?” He asked.
“It is.”
“Why do you have three copies of it?” Erik questioned pulling out the third version.
“I loved it so much that I had to own all three versions. I think you would like that one, but I’m not in the mood to cry.”
“Do I even want to know?” Erik slide the DVD back into place.
“We’ll watch it at another time.” I pulled out Sense and Sensibility. “How about this one? This is different.”
“Let’s not go that different.” He said after he read it.
“Then I don’t know, just close your eyes and pick one and no matter what it is we’ll watch it.”
“How about this big box thing.” He pointed to my Queer as Folk box set.
“No, that would be too awkward.” Giving up he closed his eyes and pulled out the DVD entitled The Island.
“Perfect, a familiar face is in this one.”
“Who?”
“Obi-wan Kenobi.”
“Pop it in.” Erik set himself back down on my bed, while I started the movie. It wasn’t drastically different, still futuristic, but it wasn’t Star Wars. I had to convince him that it was indeed the same actor in this movie. I told Erik to picture him with a beard and a light saber and after a few minutes he nodded his head. Then he told me that it was the same voice.
It was fun to spend time with Erik. Casually talking about the movie and not about anything that had gone on. All of our troubles seemed to melt away. I looked at the clock and noticed that the movie was going to cut it close to sunrise. I was going to say something to Erik but he seemed to be engrossed in the movie, so I didn’t mention my discovery.
I had forgotten that there was a intimate scene with Lincoln Six Echo and Jordan Two Delta. I tried not to look at Erik but my curiosity took hold of the reins and I found myself looking away form the movie. He was staring at the floor. I thought this was amazingly funny and I let out a giggle. Abruptly he jerked his head in my direction. He smiled and blushed an extremely pale shade of pink realizing that both of us felt awkward.
I had never been embarrassed to watch a movie with this kind of content with my friends before but this felt different. I couldn’t put my finger on it. Alex and I had watched his movie and countless others and I never experienced an awkward moment like this. When the scene was over we went back to watching the rest of the movie. I started to feel a prickle when the movie had about ten minutes left.
I reached for the remote and told Erik that we would finish it tomorrow. When I didn’t get a response from him I turned my attention to him. He was asleep. His head rested on his folded arms facing me. His long bangs had draped themselves across his beautiful face. He look angelic. I shut everything off not bothering to remove the disc. I reached out to tuck the loose strands of hair out of his face, my fingers gently caressed the smooth skin of his cheek. Carefully I moved closer to his sleeping form and laid my arm across his back, through his shirt I could feel that his skin was silky soft. I cuddled up to him and rested my head on my folded arm. I smiled and closed my eyes, letting the deep sleep take me over.