The Vampire Zone

     I woke up in my dark, dreary room to see the gleaming purple numbers on my alarm clock. The bright numbers read ‘6:00 a.m.’ as I slowly sat up looking at it.  Sadness filled me as I reached my arms up high to stretch.  I was constantly wondering when, or if, my mother was going to get out of the hospital.  How many times have I set up in the morning thinking about mom? All my constant worrying is going to make me sick, I thought to myself, concerned. I can’t keep doing this to myself.      I sit completely motionless for a few minutes, and then rolled my neck to relieve the built-up stress. Slowly, but sadly, I dragged my sore legs to the side of the bed, putting my feet on the floor. Easily moving my tiny toes around on the carpet, I searched for my house shoes. When I finally found them, I used my small hands to slide the fluffy, blue flip-flops into place so that I could put them on. I stood up feeling as if I might collapse back down on my bed for lack of energy. I hadn’t slept very well for all the thoughts that had been lingering on my mind all night. I tugged my nightgown down to about my mid-thigh and stood there a moment trying to get my wits about me. I was so dreadfully tired. I looked around my feet trying to make out my messy bedroom floor in the darkness. I didn’t move fearing that I might trip.  Let’s just say I’m not good at keeping up with my room. There could be anything there that I can’t see. Not being able to see was one of my biggest phobias.      I hated the dark. I always felt a strong feeling of unease when the lights were off like something was watching me. Almost as if it were waiting for me to move to make an attack, like a fox catching a rabbit for morning breakfast.      I frantically searched the walls on the opposite side of the room for the light switch. It was exceedingly difficult to make out with the lack of light. When I finally spotted it, I quickly, but carefully, walked across the room to the door. I paid special attention to the floor to make sure I didn’t step on anything or trip. I put both my hands on the walls feeling relief. I ran my hands along it slowly. It was rough but I didn’t mind the feeling as my hands searched for the switch. Finally, my tiny fingertips found two small buttons: one above the other. I pushed the top button in until I heard the small click like the sound that reminded me of a freshly sharpened pencil tapping a table.      The ceiling light in the middle of the room flashed; flickering as it came on. Never taking my hands off the walls, I felt slightly dizzy to the sudden brightness. I blinked my eyes a few times to adjust them to light. I turned back around to face the calendar beside the switch. I was remembering the morning when my mother had given me that exact same calendar. Mom had said to hang it beside the light switch so that I could see the beautiful pictures of horses every morning when I turned on the light. I ran my pointer finger across the sleek paper. My finger dead stopped on Thursday, November 4th, 2010.      Today is a Thursday, I told myself wishing it were Friday. I turned around to see that my room was a complete disaster as usual. My carpet was a colorful design of yellow, green and sea blue square patterns with white roses in only the blue squares. It was a shame that such a beautiful design could hardly been seen under the mess that was the piles of clothes that set all over my floor. I always had so much other things to do around the house that I never had the time to keep up with my own bedroom. Also, I didn’t see my clothes as important considering I was just going to end up wearing them again whether they were in their rightful place or in the floor. No one else was ever in my room other than me anyways. So, what did it matter?      My family lived in a beautiful two-story log house. Unlike normal houses, our walls weren’t done in drywall. They were done with natural cut, light colored logs with dark spots in random places. Now that I could see, I easily stepped over the mess and headed to the bathroom.      When Josie Johnson saw her bed-head reflection, she saw that her reddish-brown hair was extremely tangled and frizzy. Her thick waves fell past her shoulders in layers all the way down the small of her back. Her bright green eyes twinkled in the mirror. She glanced at them while she searched for her bobby pins. She had some work to do to fix this mess. She found her bobby-pins on the far-right side of the sink. When Josie pulled back the top layer of her hair, she exposed her beautiful tan complected skin.      Leaning closer to the mirror, she could see every detail of her eyes. A star-like shape of dark green surrounded each of her pupils and the outer parts of her eyes. The remaining parts of her eyes were a lighter shade of green that made the darker parts stand out in her reflection. She wiped the sleep from them. That definitely made her feel more awake. She picking up the makeup she had chosen the day before. She had chosen colors to match her eyes: dark and light green eye shadows plus black eyeliner and mascara. After finishing that task, she straightened back up and turned on her hair straightener. While waiting for it to preheat, she fiddled with her hair, spiraling the ends around the tips of her fingers.  When the iron was ready, she went over every small piece of hair to tame her frizz and tangles. When she finished, she neatly folded the cord around the bottom of the straightener and laid it to the side.      I need to get dressed. It’s already 6:30. I want to get to school early, I told myself, frustrated. If I would have gotten up at five, I would have had more time to work with.      She walked out of the bathroom, and searched the tall, folded piles of clothes for an outfit. After about ten minutes of searching, she had finally made her decision on what she was going to wear for the day. She had picked a light blue-jean skirt that came to her mid-thigh, a white belt with a green shirt, and a white pearl necklace that belonged to her mother. She had a pair of three-inch white heals downstairs to wear with them.     Before walking out the door, she took one last glance at her appealing reflection. She then headed down the hallway listening to the light thumps under her own feet. The sound felt like echoes in her mind as she turned and walked down the stairs with her mother's condition continuing to assault her thoughts.      What will happen to us if there’s nothing the doctors can do to rid her of the cancer? Is she going to? … Her thoughts trailed off. NO! She stopped her herself. She wasn’t going to think such things. She refused. She wasn’t going to drain herself of all hope. Don’t even think of that! she told herself, desperately. I need to be strong for her and my family.      When she reached the bottom of the stairs, she could see the kitchen to her left. She stopped, and took a long deep breath, bracing herself to be strong for her two brothers. Walking slowly to the kitchen, with her head held high, she tried to look proper, but all she could think was, “How am I going to deal with my day?”      When she reached the kitchen, she saw her brothers; one younger and the other older. They sit side-by-side at the kitchen table. The older sibling was Jason. The eighteen-year-old boy was dark complected with golden blonde hair that came to the tip of his nose. His eyes were as brown as dirt, almost black in appearance. Little Emerson was four with little blue spheres for eyes. His three inches of hair had not yet turned completely brown. It was a dirty blonde. He was in his booster seat nibbling on a small bowl of dry lucky charms. Jason was eating on, what looked like, a pop-tart. His eyes looked as exhausted as ever, most likely from lack of rest. The older boy glanced at Josie from the corner of his eye as she approached. He fidgeted in his seat uneasy at her presence. He was always agitated, and she knew why. Josie reminded him of their mother. She was the spitting image of her before the cancer tragically had struck. Josie said nothing to his reaction towards her. She knew all too well why Jason was so uncomfortable.  Josie walked up to the table looking at them both. Emerson’s blue eyes were beginning to fill with tears as he reached for another handful of cereal. Instead of eating it, he decided to grab a handful of it and throw the pieces across the kitchen.      “I want mommy! I miss mommy!” He exclaimed. He dropped his head with a scowl on his face. He knew he wasn’t going to get his way. Mommy had been gone so long. Josie had started handling things at home with chores and caring for Emerson. “Where is daddy?” He asked. The boy was clearly very upset. He didn’t want his other parent going away too. He lifted his tiny head up to look over to Jason for an answer.      Josie wasn’t sure if Jason knew where Michael was for the expression he bore on his face: pure surprise. She certainly didn’t know either. Jason was hesitant to respond.      “Dad went out for a while. Don’t worry. He will be back soon.” Jason patted Emerson on the back. He hoped that he wasn’t lying his little brother. He had no idea as to his father’s where-bouts. Maybe he’s at the hospital…or the bar, he thought to himself.      Josie looked away from her brothers. Poor Michael, Josie thought with discomfort. He may be a worthless drunk, but I still feel bad for him. He had gone downhill extremely fast after mother’s diagnosis. She shook her head in pity at the thought. He was hardly ever around anymore, leaving Josie the only person responsible for their home along with Jason, and she had to talk Jason into helping most of the time.      “When is mommy coming home?” Emerson questioned again. Josie’s eyes met Jason’s. Josie nor Jason either one knew whether Victoria was going to make it home at all. That was a question everyone wanted to know the answer to. It would take a miracle.      Will Emerson be able to handle it if she dies? Josie thought, devastated. How much longer can mom fight this? How long does she have left? For a moment she wished the doctors had more answers. Then, she changed her mind. She was happy she didn’t know. She didn’t know what she would do if she had those answers. What if the news would more than she could handle? She didn’t think she could stand knowing that her mother wasn’t going to make it. Emerson may be young but, he did deserve to know the truth. Victoria was just as much his mother as she was theirs. Josie looked into Jason eyes pleading with him. She mouthed the words to where Emerson wouldn’t hear.      “How much longer are we going to keep this from him?” She begged. Her older brother slowly shook his head, as he turned to see Emerson’s sad tear-filled eyes on him searching for comfort. He leaned down and braced the back of his head with his right hand. He pulled the small boy to him and kissed him on the forehead. Jason squeezed his eyes shut tight not allowing the tears to fall. He quickly stood up grabbing his binder off the table and walked past Josie to the front door. Jason turned to look at her before going out the door to the car. He shook his head at her again implying for her to keep the secret.      Josie looked down at Emerson. She lifted him up out of his booster seat and put him on the floor. “Grab your things dear. Are you ready to go to school and meet some new friends?” It was Emerson's first year in Pre-K. Her heart ached for him when the small boy done his best to smile. It was awful that a child at this age couldn’t enjoy his first year of school. The tears on his face were beginning to dry. She took him over to the sink and opened the creaky cabinet above the faucet. She pulled out a clean, dry washcloth and wet it under some warm water. “Here angel” she said, wiping his face clean. “It’s going to be okay. Don’t worry about mommy anymore.” She picked him up softly wiping his cheeks with the warm cloth. She dropped the cloth in the sink. “See”, she said. “There. Good as new.” She was doing her best to cheer him up. She pointed to Emerson’s backpack and smiled at him. His face brightened a bit more. That relieved her. He was most likely not going to be asking anymore questions for now. She sit him down, and he joyfully ran to his bag. Josie was glad to see that the sad thoughts were temporarily leaving his mind. He snatched up his bag from the living room couch and quickly ran back to her. She picked him, swinging him as she plopped him on her hip. He giggled happily, sticking his pointer finger in his mouth. She slipped on her heals. She turned on the house alarm, and locked the door, grabbing her purse from the hook. She went out the door carrying Emerson with his bag and her purse. She set her purse down beside the driver door to the car and opened the back door for Emerson. She carefully set him in his car seat and buckled the belt across his chest. He set his bag beside him. “Are you ready to go?” She asked forcing a smile for him. He nodded his head happily and Josie desperately wanted to cry, but she held back her tears.      As they drove up the road, the car was silent as night. She dropped Emerson off to his teacher at the end of the walkway and turned to leave the parking lot. She stole a hesitant glance at Jason in the passenger seat.      “School starts at eight. Why did we leave earlier than usual? We don’t live far from the school. We usually leave at seven fifty. Why did we leave at ten past seven?” Jason asked with his face turned towards the window.      “Because.” She answered sharply.      “Because why? I was just going to wait in the car till it was time to leave.” Jason asked again. This time she could hear his aggravation. His face turned from the window and directly on her.      “Because I heard that there was supposed to be a couple new kids in school today.” Her eyes remained on the road, but she could feel Jason’s boring into her. There was a moment of silence.      Jason spoke with disbelief. “That’s a really stupid reason to leave so early for school.” He said smirking. Josie knew what he was doing. He was trying to make her mad. He wanted to fight to get his feelings out to make himself feel better. She didn’t have the energy to bicker, and frankly she was dealing with enough. She didn’t want to argue. In her thoughts, she knew it was an odd reason to leave early for school. Jason was right, but she didn’t want to feed into the argument. The thing was that she had a feeling today was going to be different. And besides that, she didn’t like being home, considering her mother’s absence was everywhere she looked. The car was silent for a few minutes.      “Well, do you at least know their names?” He said with sarcasm, but in a more passive manner.      “No. but I hear that all three are guys, and that they are really nice. I also heard that some of them are in my grade.” Josie waited for him to answer, but he never did. He just quietly laughed at her. Still keeping her eyes on the road, she switched the radio on. “So, have you actually talked to Michael?” She asked. She finally turned her face to look at him.      “You mean dad?” He paused and looked at her questioningly.      “No. He’s not my dad. He’s your dad. I call him Michael. That’s what I have always called him. But anyways, have you talked to him or not?” She asked, hoping and praying for good news.      “Umm…well yeah. He didn't say when he was coming home, and he talked to the doctors yesterday morning.” He answered gravely and hesitantly. He turned away from her quickly. At that moment, Josie lost all hope for the good news. The tears came before she had a chance to stop them.      “What did he say about mom?” She begged, half sobbing. She pulled the car to the side of the road and put it in park so that she could talk to him directly. “Tell me!” She bellowed through the tears when Jason didn't turn to address her questions. “PLEASE!”      Jason whirled on her. She observed him seeing no emotion on his face. It was almost as if he were dead inside. She didn’t know what to say. The look on his face stunned her. She expected to see tears or at least watery eyes, but there was nothing. His eyes met hers in that moment, and her sobbing came to a halt. Then his answer finally surfaced.      “They don’t think she will survive the next two months.” He said. Josie sat back in her seat with a thud. She knew the news was bad, but she hadn’t expected it to be as bad as it truly was. She put her head down and closed her eyes. A single last tear trickled down her left cheek. What were they going to do? There had to be something that could save her. It couldn’t be the end. After all the fighting her mother had put up, it couldn’t just end like this. The world felt like it was imploding on her. An overwhelming since of responsibility was building up inside her. Nothing was going to be the same. She was going to do anything, and everything, it took to save her mother no matter the cost. She wiped away her tears and raised her head to look up at her brother once more.      Jason was so distant. It was almost as if his body was a shell and there was nothing left inside. He sat motionless looking straight ahead. She saw no sadness in his demeanor, no tears, no fear. She couldn’t even tell if he was alive for how still he was. How did he do that, just completely shut off like someone pushed a button?      Josie knew that there was no way he was going to be able to talk to her about it anymore. He was broken. His heart had had enough. She wished she had someone she could share all her problems with. She felt like she was bearing all the pain on her own. Jason was blank. Emerson was clueless. Her true father was gone, and she was alone.      “Jason,” Josie said, trying to hold no fear in her eyes when he turned to her. Finally, she saw it. He was holding back the urge to scream, to let it all out. He held his mouth shut tight. His eyes were red, but he wasn’t crying. “Is this really happening to us?” She asked. There was a silence between them before he responded. She didn’t actually expect him to answer. She just wanted to get the words out and wanted someone to hear them.      He answered, “Afraid so.” He lifted his left hand to rub the sweat from his right eyebrow. Suddenly, words came pouring out before she had a chance to stop them. “Jason. What are we going to do? We can’t lose her! She’s all we have other than Michael. No offense, but I don’t think he’s going to be able to take care of us. And what about poor little Emerson? He is completely clueless to all this?"      “You don’t know that he can’t take care of us, and Emerson will be fine.”      “Seriously Jason. Think rationally. Michael drinks all the time. That’s all he ever does now. If he really cared about us, then he would be the one taking that four-year-old little boy to school. Not us. I mean, how many times have you seen Michael tuck Emerson into bed at night since this started? That’s what a father should do. That man is just using us so that he can have a place to live now. Don’t you see? He’s never going to change. And…”      Jason cut her off. “Josie. Don’t you think I am dealing with enough? Can’t you just stop?” He exploded in despair.      Josie went quiet. She gave up and turned to put the car in drive. Jason’s father was going to be the only parent he had left. No matter how the man was, he was still his father. Josie realized that she shouldn’t have been acting the way she was about the situation. She regret what she had said for the rest of the drive, but she didn’t apologize because everything she had said was true. The car was silent until they pulled into their destination.      Arriving at school, Jason quickly got out of the car, slamming the door behind him. Josie sat there. She didn’t attempt to get out of the car. She was daydreaming about what life would be like if her father hadn’t walked out on her as a child. He had left when she was only 5 years old. She knew what it was like to have a father that didn’t want there. She wished she hadn’t been so hard on Jason. What Michael was doing wasn’t Jason’s fault. Her mind was beginning to wonder even more. She daydreamed about what her life would be like if her own father hadn’t walked out on her and her mother, Victoria. He had left her when she was very young. She remembered him always calling her mother ‘his Victoria’. She could see it like it was yesterday, Calvin leaning over her in her bed. He kissed her on the cheek. Calvin said, “Goodnight dear”. He got up to leave the bedroom.             “Daddy” Josie called after him. He turned back around to look at her.      “Yes angel” he said, smiling. Josie set up in the bed grinning up at him.      “You forgot something” she giggled. Calvin looked down at the floor, then to her. He smiled, then there was an expression on her face that she couldn’t understand. She observed him when he walked over to her and set down beside the bed.      “You’re right. I did, didn’t I?” He paused, then continued. “I forgot our special poem, didn’t I?” He began.      “You will always see and understand what is to come.”      “Never forget what night brings.”      “For, I will always be here to watch and guide you.”      “I love you dearly my little angel.”      Josie wondered if her father would still be reciting to her the same poem if he were still around. It was strange how the situation had turned out. Michael had ended up moving in right after her father had left. Her mother had never spoken much about the situation.      She was spooked by a knocking sound on the window of her yellow mustang. She looked up to see, bright and smiling, Bethanne Hall. Beth always was smiling when she talked to everyone in the mornings. I guess she’s just a morning person, Josie thought, stepping out of the car to greet her friend. She tried to act as if nothing was wrong. The last thing she wanted was the 'Beth train of pity' running over her.      Beth was always dressed beautifully. She was one of the richest kids in the eleventh grade. Josie was a grade below her, but they had always been best friends, because they had known each other since birth. Beth was wearing white high-heels with a yellow skirt, a white tube-top with a yellow over jacket, and a white pearl necklace that matched her pearl stud earrings. She and Beth had similar taste in clothes, but Beth went a lot more out with it. She was definitely a sight for sore eyes. Her silky blonde hair had shimmers that danced in the morning sunlight, and dark brown highlights lined through it. The waves went halfway down her back. The ends were curled as always. She almost looked like she was glowing. Her gorgeous hazel eyes glistened as she spoke. Beth was five feet’ seven and almost as tall as Josie.      Josie started thinking about the time when Beth had dated her brother. It was so odd because they were like brother and sister in Josie's eyes. They had always known each other. They weren’t related. But, to Josie, it had just been plain weird. The poor boy had been crushed when Beth dumped him for the football guy. It was a cheesy move, Josie thought honestly, shaking her head slightly. They’d dated for at least a year and a half. I guess, later in their relationship, she thought she could do better. I was upset with her of course for doing my brother that way, but on the other hand, there was also nothing that I could do about it. She was my best friend, and he was my big brother. Any guy in school would date Beth in a heartbeat. How can you get any better than a boy with a heart of gold? Josie had thought at the time.      “Hello? Hello? Did you hear me? Josie?” Beth was bothered. She didn’t like the feeling of being ignored. Her eyebrows knit together and then went up. Was she getting mad? If she was, then why was she getting mad?      “Yeah. Sorry. I wasn’t paying any attention. What did you say?” Josie was having a hard time putting on a good face for people at school. She could barely recall even getting out of her car. So many thoughts were going through her mind at once and it was difficult to process at times. All she could think about was her family, their past, and what their future was going to look like here soon now knowing what she knew.      “I asked how your mom was doing. I was thinking about your family last night. I’ve been really worried. I just hate to see my best friend go through this. I can tell it’s taking its toll on you. You look exhausted.” Beth said. Josie could see Beth's concern, but she couldn’t do it. She couldn’t tell her the truth. For some reason, they just wouldn’t come out. It was like saying them made them more real. Josie’s face instantly lost all emotion. She acted as if nothing was wrong at all, but inside she felt as if the pressure was going to make her explode. This must have been how Jason had felt. And she had forced it out of him. Her gaze fell at the notion. She felt horribly guilty.