CURSED 1

CHECK IT YOURSELF

I’m not sure how long I was out. When I gradually came to, I heard Peter’s

voice...getting gradually louder.

“Txema...Txema? s**t, I think she’s waking up.”

He looked anxiously at Tyreen and her boyfriend, Johnny, as he said this. He

sounded shaken, and the concern in his voice touched me...pulling me out of a

dark cold place I’d fallen into. I’m not sure that I landed anywhere, just that I

was immersed in a sea of thick blackness. At one point, I felt constricted and

unable to move, held fast in close confines—like a coffin too small for my build.

But then I slowly became aware of whispered voices talking back and forth. It

was too hard to understand the words, though the accent and cadence sounded

French...and maybe a little Spanish? Several voices, most were male except a

pair of females. As they spoke, the constriction lifted. Drifting on my back,

softness now caressed me, as if I lay upon a lush feather bed. The voices echoed

upon one another, soon joined by others and they all sounded alarmed. A cold

A grimy hand seized my throat and that’s when I began to awake...just a moment.

before Peter spoke.

“Where am I?” I uttered weakly, trying to raise my head. Somehow, I had

moved from the floor near our vanity mirror to Tyreen’s bunk bed, directly

below mine. Someone had moved me...maybe Peter? But I did black out, so

Possibly I stumbled there myself.

“You’re in our room, baby,” said Tyreen, gently. Her bright green eyes were

aglow, perhaps from worry. It made me fear what I looked like, and I

suddenly remembered the miniature crimson rivers trickling down my neck. “It’s

okay...it’s okay...Shush-h-h!” She blocked my hand from touching my neck.

“Babe, you’re going to be just fine,” added Peter. Tyreen deferred to his

invasion into my personal space. If not for my disorientation as to what the hell

was going on, I wouldn’t have minded his closeness. He was dressed in his

favorite tailored suit—mine too, since it accentuated his powerful upper body.

Traditional dark blue, and wearing a light blue tie. “Just relax, and lay

back.....That’s it. Good girl.”

Normally, I would bristle at that last remark. But feeling as I did then, I gave

in and allowed him to baby me.

“What happened?” I asked, more to my roommate than my boyfriend, who

continued to fuss over me and fix my blanket around my arms.

“Peter found you lying on the floor by the mirror, and when you couldn’t

wake up, he called me on my cell phone,” she said, glancing over at Johnny,

who nodded an endorsement of her explanation.

“Well, that’s not exactly how it went down, but pretty close,” said Peter,

ignoring the sharp look, Tyreen shot him. “After you said you were coming to the

door, I waited. Then I heard something fall over in your room, and I thought you

might’ve tripped on something...a chair, a table, hell it could’ve been shoes.

You couldn’t find it for all I could tell.”

Definitely, this is one of the things I don’t care about...this need of

his to over-analyze and over-explain. It can make him seem like an overbearing

prick. I think if he’d pay more attention to the reactions of those around him.

more, he’d figure out when to shut up. Perhaps most of the qualities I do so love so

about Peter would shine through. More about that later.

“How long was I out?” I asked, looking for a question that wouldn’t

necessarily be my boyfriend’s exclusive domain. “What time is it, anyway?

“Seven-twenty,” said Johnny, his tone devoid of the compassion of his girl,

and even more prick-ish than my guy. But at least he had the good sense to defer

quickly, once Tyreen glared at him, perturbed. No doubt when Peter called her, it

ended up interrupting something going on....something intimate? That seemed

likely, as both he and Tyreen were dressed in sweats and matching UT

sweatshirts—disheveled, and not what either had been an hour earlier when I last

saw them. Besides, they both had that ‘FF’ look in their eyes.

“You were out for at least an hour,” Tyreen added, still worried though she

smiled compassionately at me.

I’ve rarely seen a smile that can light up a room like hers. Really, when both

She and her man turn it on. They look like frigging movie stars. With her big

green eyes, long braids, and soft ebony complexion, she could be Beyonce’s

younger sister. She possesses the same husky voice and vivacious curves.

Johnny’s chiseled face and ripped physique make him look like any of the

young stud rappers these days—especially when he gets a serious look at his soft

gray eyes. He’s got a great sense of humor, too...just not so much that night.

“An hour spent squirming around for the most part,” said Peter, again with

This obsessive need to clarify the specifics of what happened, though this time I

detected sincere worry and compassion in his voice. “I was ready to call the

paramedics but Tyreen stopped me. It looks like she was right, that you’d come

out of whatever this thing is.”

Hmmm ...to hear him talk like this. I’m referring to his tone—not the actual

words. I tuned out most of the messages. But the voice? I’ve seen other girls

nearly swoon over his chiseled looks and charming smile, but I must confess it’s

the sexiness in his voice that gets me...the warmth and assurance that he will

always be there when I need him. It’s what my heart confirms, when he finds the

The right thing to say and don’t obsess so much.

“But you seem a lot better now,” Tyreen added. “So as long as you take it.

easy tonight and rest up, you should be fine.”

“What about our date?” I asked, the disappointment in my voice really

apparent, I’m sure. “It’s not too late to make it to the restaurant before they stop

serving!”

“It might be pushing it, don’t you think?” said Peter, his tone even more

compassionate.

Little Pepino’s stayed open until eleven each night, and I knew firsthand that

The kitchen remained available for patrons until midnight. Best Italian food in

Knoxville...or so the staff will tell you. I didn’t wait for him to go on about how

This was a bad idea, and sat up...until the room started swimming around me.

again.

“See? I told ya’ll she can’t go anywhere tonight,” he continued, motioning to

me while Johnny and Tyreen looked on. “It’s best if she stays here.”

He sounded like a damned vampire, only worse.

“Well, I know you two have planned a special night in the town,” said Tyreen,

wearing her pained expression again while she nodded, like she could picture the

The swirling drain of my birthday celebration was being sucked. “We could

get you two something to eat and bring it here—how about that? It might not be

Little Pepino’s, but you could do a lot worse than Olive Garden. The birthday

The cake the girls and I brought here earlier should keep for a few days.”

“How about a couple of pizzas and a six-pack of Killian’s for us all?” Peter

suggested, looking over at me after nodding to Johnny, as if my preference for

The evening’s revised agenda was an afterthought. He blushed once he saw my

disdainful expression, thrusting his hands into his pants pockets while nervously

straightening his back with an ‘oh s**t!’ look on his face.

“Actually, I’d prefer a box of truffles and a big bottle of Chardonnay,” I

replied, offering a grimace that would’ve been a wry smile if not for the steady

throb inside my head. I mean, can a chocolate rush and wine cure an oncoming

migraine? Maybe that was a little ridiculous, but at this point nothing sounded

good...nothing but a long night of restful sleep. And just an hour ago I felt

totally jazzed to go out and celebrate the final phase of my teenager status.

It made me wonder even more about my earlier visitor.... if it was someone

from the netherworld that decided to show up tonight, on the last birthday that

announced the final stanza of my adolescence, it definitely marked the event to

which I’d likely never forget. I shuddered at the thought it might’ve been the

vampire’s intent in the first place.

“Hey, sweetie...Johnny and I should go so you two can decide what you want.

to spend tonight,” offered Tyreen, exchanging looks with Johnny before moving.

up to kiss my forehead. “But if you need anything, you call me. Okay? I don’t

even care how late it is. I’ll leave his broken ass and be here in a minute, or go out.

and get anything you need.” She chuckled, amused at her own joke, while Johnny

scowled.

“All right...sorry for the trouble,” I told her, smiling weakly. “Peter and I

should be okay, once we figure out dinner.”

“I’ll call you guys if her condition worsens,” Peter added, moving to the door.

Tyreen and Johnny followed him out. Then, after a hug from her and my brother.

handshake from Johnny, he closed the door behind them.

***

Peter stayed with me all night. Despite my early protests that I could handle

things on my own just fine, I was actually glad he didn’t leave.

He ordered a pizza for us after I declined his proposal to order Chinese...I

I just didn’t think my stomach could handle fried pork or anything like it. As if the

Pizza wouldn’t wreak havoc on my system either! But, it was good, and I started

to feel better. Not enough to go dancing as originally planned, but ready to enjoy

a night of backgammon, DVDs, and snuggling with him.

I did, however, sneak a peek in the mirror at my neck around ten o’clock. Not

Only was there still no sign of the puncture wounds that drew my blood earlier,

The redness around my unusual birthmark had faded noticeably. And no

tenderness. In fact, the twin tear marks were hardly detectable—just like normal.

Peter tried to sing Happy Birthday to me after dinner. At least no dogs or cats

were present to chime in, or it might’ve been a really awful serenade. Still, his

vulnerability made him so adorable, raising up the ante in regard to the push-pull

tug on my heart.

Sometimes I think about the tense excitement between us when we first

started dating, hoping to hang onto that feeling. Such incredible intoxication!

The beginnings of love, that tender bud of burning desire which nearly drove me

mad at times, even though I suspected the feeling was always a little stronger

with him rather than with me.

But that night it was almost impossible to think of any romance with him, or

reflect upon our best intimacies since September. Instead, I found my thoughts.

drawn repeatedly back to Garvan.... Garvan, tonight’s pale intruder. Garvan, the

messenger of doom?... Or, maybe he’s just some guy who happens to portray a

dashingly handsome vampire. That would make him more real.

For the moment, this single thought lifted my heart for him, this stranger,

while pulling a little bit more from my current beau. Not even my mysterious

illness and the dried blood absorbed by a handful of Kleenex tissues in my

The wastebasket could dampen Garvan’s allure. Nor did his inhuman ability to

appear and disappear in an instant, changing my attraction to him. If nothing else, I

desired to find out if he was an actual vampire, or something else.

What stayed most with me that night was not the wound to my neck, or our

brief conversation. It was his eyes. So unusual in their fiery luminance, as if

fueled by some unfathomable ocean of feeling. Magnetic, and yet dangerous.

Also it is very hard to get out of my mind.

But all of this engendered other questions as well...much more worrisome. If

He was a vampire, what would he want with me, a warm-blooded human being?

Other than to suck my body bloody, I couldn’t think of a good reason. And

Why would Garvan show up on the evening of my nineteenth birthday? Was that

merely a coincidence born out of concern for my welfare? It didn’t make sense.

At least not yet...so many more pieces to a puzzle I have just begun to put

together, but not nearly figured out.

I shuddered again as I thought about it all, and the swirling questions stayed

with me long after, Peter and I said goodnight. He slept in my top bunk while I

Take Tyreen’s bed below. Soon after midnight, I heard him snore. How I longed

for that same sweet solace, especially once the whispered voices returned. I

couldn’t help but listen, straining my eyes to discern elusive movement in the

shadows outside my window. Until finally, I lost the battle to stay awake.

TO BE CONTINUED....