Vampire Dream

Chapter 9 - Mistaken Identity

I awoke in a strange room. It was barely used, but had a few pictures on the walls of... me? I rubbed my eyes. It is me. I scrambled out of bed to find a change of my clothes on a chair at a desk. I changed into them - they fit - and checked the doorknob. Unlocked. I opened it and tiptoed down the hallway to a pleasant smell. The hallway opened up into a room that was half kitchen and half living room. In the kitchen portion was Kingston cooking what seemed like pancakes and bacon while whistling. I felt like there was someone else here, but I wasn’t certain. Kingston turned and I was startled.

“Hi honey,” he said. Kingston looked deathly pale and saggy, like his skin didn’t fit him. His eyes weren’t the same eyes I had known before, either. I stayed planted where I was.

“Would you like to come help me make break fast? I wasn’t sure what you wanted, so I found a recipe.” I felt danger everywhere. My skin prickled whenever I looked at this figure.

“I’m gonna go wash up first.” I delayed.

“Well, okay. I refuse to get started without you so hurry up,” he coaxed with a crooked smile.

I backed into the hallway and reassessed the path. There were three doors on the left and two to the right. I checked the first left door, which was a closet full of winter clothing and miscellaneous things. Then the next one, a second closet filled with janitorial supplies. Then the third one, the bedroom I came from. The right door closest to me was a bedroom, but a moral force kept me from going in there. Finally, the next door on the right. Opening it, the room was normal. A shower, a toilet, a mirror, and a sink. There was also a closet in there. I shut the door behind me and locked it. I mustered up courage and opened the closet door.

A body laid crumpled in the back of the closet. Stepping over the piles of towels and toilet paper, I rushed to the body. It was still intact and had its skin in it. Turning it over, it was Kingston. He was barely breathing and badly wounded. I racked my brain on what to do. I heard a knock on the bathroom door, making me rush for time. How do I heal? I grabbed a knife that was conveniently lying by and checked the blade. There were remnants of someone’s blood on it. I grabbed a washcloth and poured water on it. While I was quickly cleaning the blade, the knocking grew progressively louder and more powerful. I opened the window next to the shower and then shut myself in the closet with Kingston, barricading it with a tall stack of towels. I crawled beside Kingston, still unconscious and slowly losing breath. I checked the knife one more time to make sure I didn’t miss a single spot. Then, I slit the tip of my index finger with the knife, drawing blood. I opened Kingston’s mouth and let one drop of blood drip onto his tongue. Then I quickly shut his mouth, put my finger into my mouth to hide the scent of fresh blood, wiped the knife to clean it again, and cradled Kingston in my arms and hid myself with his body.

I heard the bathroom door bash open. Holding my breath, I listened as the figure looked around the bathroom. He opened the closet door and looked around. Satisfied with what he saw in there, he rushed to all the other rooms and checked them. A shrill and terrifying screech filled the place. The thing rushed back into the bathroom and saw the window open. It gave a screech and crawled out the window.

Ten minutes later I finally had enough courage to check the space. The bathroom was clear. I ran around the apartment and found no sign of the thing. Diving back into the closet I dragged Kingston out and into the living room where a couch was waiting for him. His breathing was normal, giving me a sigh of relief.

“Well, that was fun,” Gabriel said. I didn’t even turn around, just stared at Kingston’s peaceful face. It was already healed, probably due to the blood. “How did you get it to leave?”

“What was that thing?” I asked him wearily.

“It was an imperial officer of the Vampire king himself, searching for any existing vampires and kidnapping them,” he muttered, sitting beside me on the floor.

“I thought you were the vampire king,” I said. He widened his eyes with amusement, but shook his head.

“There used to be multiple kingdoms of vampires, but that wasn’t enough. People like our father wanted more and more power, and got more by selling off their children by marriage to other kingdoms until they were all combined. Then, they would find a way to slaughter the king and royal family of that realm until only their family remained in that kingdom and thereby inherited it.” There was bitterness behind his tone.

“How did I really die,” I asked. I leaned on him, my head resting on his chest. Gabriel put his arm around me and produced a large sigh.

“Father decided to betroth you to another kingdom’s prince. You agreed to it and became betrothed to him. His name was Elveen Iakovou. He adored you like a little princess toy, but you honestly hated him. Well, I was sent to an ‘embassy meeting’ to meet with another kingdom’s daughter and see if we could arrange something. When I got to the meeting with my escorts, there was only that kingdom’s messenger who said their kingdom had been overruled by Elveen’s kingdom and many humans that created an alliance with Elveen. Hearing this, I rushed back to our realm. Elveen had an appointment to visit you that very same day, and he did more than visit. He killed everyone in the castle including our parents and tried to make a deal with you, becoming his queen. You refused, and he tried to achieve your hand anyways through... other means. When you fought back, he gave up and locked you in your bedroom, setting fire to the castle with you in it. I arrived just after he left, so I was there when the flames got bigger. I broke the window to your room from the outside and found you tied to your bed, almost dead. You asked me to kill you. You knew the fire wouldn’t kill you, but refused to be bound to Elveen. You see, when you devour a single drop of another Vampire’s blood, you belong to them. Whoever has more of the other’s blood has more power. Elveen had taken a lot of your blood, and so he would know if you were alive or dead. I decided to drain you instead and bring you back another way.”

“Does it last forever?”

“No, but for at least a decade. Sometimes if you focus you can feel their emotions, or experience what they’re experiencing at that moment.”

“What if a human gets your blood?”

“Well I’ve never tried that.... wait, what?” He straightened, causing me to have to sit straight as well

“What if a human drinks your blood? Or has a drop of it?”

“Josie, please tell me you didn’t.”

“I had to, Gabriel. He was dying!”

Kingston’s eyes fluttered open, and he stared at Gabriel and I. He backed himself up to the couch.

“Kingston, are you okay?” I asked softly. Kingston would only stare in horror at Gabriel. Gabriel lifted an eyebrow and gave a confused look at me. “Kingston. Are you okay?” He looked at me, still terrified. I tried reaching a hand out to him, but he scooted away from me. I had never seen Kingston like this, at least not to this extent. I stood up and went to the kitchen. There was a sandbar and I slammed my fists into it in a tantrum. I had to catch my breath to block myself from the pain. Kingston had always been my one source of strength, of comfort.

Arms wrapped around me, and I looked over at who it was. Kingston! I let him hold me for a bit. Gabriel was leaning against the wall with his arms crossed, annoyed. Kingston reached his head next to mine and whispered in my ear, “I’m not afraid of you.” I was relieved, but confused. Could he read my thoughts? “Yes.” I pushed him away. s**t. My head was a messed up time bomb ready to explode already, I didn’t need him knowing what was going on in there.

“Josie, it’s okay. It seems I can only hear you when I make physical contact,” Kingston said. I looked at Gabriel, whose eyebrows raised. He clearly found this amusing. I glared at him, equally unamused. All three of us were equally spaced out.

“Kingston, what else can you do?” I asked him.

“That’s it, I think. I mean, I healed up really well from earlier so that might be a thing.” I began to pace, because that’s what I do when I’m nervous.

“I swear, if this lasts for a decade I’m gonna be pissed,” I said out loud. Gabriel hid his face to hide his brimming laughter while Kingston was confused.

“Wait, what’s going on?” He got angry suddenly. “Are you with him, now? Are you guys making fun of me? What did you do to me!” I put my hand to my forehead and stopped pacing. Rubbing my face, I walked up to Kingston and put my hand on his shoulder for some reason I had no control over.

“Kingston,” I said. “I found you almost dead. Some creature was here looking for me and tried to use you as a disguise. I gave you a drop of my blood to try and heal you, but it comes with side effects such as hearing my thoughts.” He lifted one eyebrow.

“Then why can I hear Gabriel’s thoughts, too?” I paused, and slowly turned towards Gabriel. He was staring at the kitchen, glaringly.

“Why can he hear your thoughts?” I asked him.

“I... may or may not have also given him a few drops of my blood since I found him right after the thing got here. It had actually torn off his skin so I gave him more of my blood, which made his skin all grow back quickly. But apparently this makes the side effects stronger if he doesn’t need physical contact with me.”

“That is the most noble thing I’ve heard you do.” I was slightly impressed by Gabriel’s actions. “I thought you hated Kingston.”

“Oh, he does,” Kingston chuckled. “But he did it because he knew it’d impress you and you’d like him more. When I woke up all I could hear was murderous thoughts and other things, but I was also really surprised to hear your voice in my head.”

“But we weren’t touching you.” I said.

“When one wakes up with vampire blood, their senses are heightened when they first wake up in case there’s danger around.” A glint was in Gabriel’s eye as he said this. Then his whole face changed, senses clearly heightened and on edge.

“What’s going on?” Kingston asked. There was silence, then a small pitter-patter on the roof.

“We have to hide. Now!”

Gabriel grabbed me and pulled me back to the bathroom. Kingston followed right behind us, having more of an awareness of this place than we did. Kingston grabbed my arm and pulled me back towards the room I woke up in.

“What is this room?” I asked.

“You were about to move in with me,” Kingston said, pausing to look around.

“Memories are nice, but we have to save them for later. What are we doing,” interjected Gabriel.

“Right!” Kingston went to the bed and lifted it up. Underneath was a trap door of some kind. Opening it, there was a cavern and trails leading someplace. Kingston basically threw me down into the cavern and climbed down after me. It was us alone, and yet I felt uncomfortable for some reason.

“Okay, we need to head down the second trail to the left,” he said.

“What about Gabriel?” I asked. Kingston had a dark glint in his eyes.

“He’s the distraction. We’ll get out safe.”

“Um, no.” I said. “We’re not leaving him alone with that creature!” Kingston sighed and walked up to me. He put his hands on my shoulders.

“Josie, you’re a vampire.” Kingston saying this was a clear slap to that face. “And so is he. However, we both agreed that your safety is the first priority. So since I’m human and receive more permanent damage than him, Gabriel said to get you to safety at all costs. And that was my plan to begin with.” He gave me a heartwarming smile and took my hand. Kingston tried to pull me towards the trail, but I didn’t budge.

“Who told you?” I asked. He didn’t answer, just stood there. “Kingston, who told you I was a vampire?” He bowed his head.

“I’ve always known, since that night we met Gabriel. I had a vision of us when I was carrying you to the motel, and it was of me carrying your undead corpse.” I pulled my hand from his, losing my breath. I felt dizzy, as if I had no oxygen. Kingston quickly caught me as I fell, predetermining what was happening, and the room transformed.

It was Kingston and I, alone. In a bedroom. Naked. I didn’t even have these kinds of visions with Gabriel that were so revealing. Kingston and I were laying together and communicating in some way. We were having an actual conversation, but not with words. The conversation was serious, but when it looked like one of us were about to leave something would be said and they would cling tighter.

We were back in the cavern, me lying in Kingston’s arms again. He was looking at me in the most lusting way, but I didn’t understand why. I pushed him off of me and stood up by myself. This wasn’t my Kingston.

“Did you not hear what was just said?” he asked, clearly mad at my reaction to that vision.

“No, I didn’t. And I have enough screwed up visions in my brain of this Josie chick who clearly gets around so if you have any way to make me feel better, you can try. Otherwise, we need to keep moving.” I turned to leave, but Kingston exhaled a sigh of exasperation. I turned back to see him holding the knife from upstairs - how did that get down here? - and he was drawing towards me. He didn’t look like himself, and I didn’t recognize my boyfriend in front of me. I quickly spun around and began to run through the trails. I didn’t know how to get through the maze, but some internal compass told me where to go.

I burst through the ground into the light but continued running. I forgot that my skin burned when I’m in the sun, but I kept running from whatever had possessed Kingston. My running brought me back to the graveyard where my grave was. When I made it, I found Kingston sitting on my grave, casual with his head down. I stopped running and paused, afraid of how he had gotten there before me. He sensed something and looked up at me, relieved to see me.

“Josie! You’re okay!” I was trapped in the shade of these trees at the picnic table and only stood there as he came closer to me. He stopped in front of me. “Josie, are you alright?” He looked around behind him, then behind me. “Did someone hurt you?” I shook my head no, still suspicious of this Kingston.

“What is something only you could tell me, Kingston. Something no one else could ever know?” He paused and had to think for a minute.

“You accidentally killed your pet horse Randy by feeding him your Halloween candy since you felt bad he couldn’t participate in the holiday,” Kingston chuckled as he stated. That was good enough. I collapsed in his arms again and he had to lower me to the ground.

“We seriously have to stop meeting like this,” he said.

“What happened? Where did you go?” I asked.

“What do you mean?” He asked.

“I mean, why weren’t you still at your apartment?” Kingston whitened.

“I never made it to my apartment,” he said. “We were ambushed last night by some weird creature right outside my apartment. You were out cold and it came out of nowhere. I woke up this morning on your grave, with a note saying I’d never see you again.”

“So... you haven’t seen Gabriel at all this morning?”

“Like I said, I woke up on your grave with no indications of the night before.” Kingston saw something behind me and bristled. I turned and saw the second Kingston still holding the knife, slowly making its way toward us still.

“So that... isn’t you..?” I asked.