The Vampire Zone

Chapter 3

     Here I am again, dwelling, driving myself crazy with sadness. It doesn’t matter how many distractions I put in my path. I still can’t get past the sadness weighing on my heart. Josie stood wondering how much longer her little brother Emerson had left to spend with their mother. Would he fully remember her when he grew up? She closed her eyes and dropped her head warily. That poor little boy. He might not even have his father either. Jason and Josie were to possibly be his only family. I am now forced to accept the terrible reality that my mom is going to die. Emerson needs to know. Josie looked up at her calendar with the wheels of thought continuing to turn in her mind. Worrying so much was starting to make her mind feel like a fog. Her world felt as if it had stopped spinning completely. She stared at the dates on the calendar wondering which one of the tiny squares Victoria’s dreaded fate would finally take place on.

     She stood there as time passed around her. The doctors had said that her mother only had two months remaining to live. Emerson must know before the time comes. She ordered herself sternly. If Jason refuses to tell him, then I will tell him myself with or without our agreed understanding. She turned on her heal and slowly crept across her dim room. She picked up her shorts off the bed and slipped them on under her extra long t-shirt. She started thinking about the person or thing that had chased her to Beth's door yesterday morning. I can’t deal with all this. Josie felt like she was going to be looking over her shoulder on a constant now.

     All of the sudden, an eerie feeling came over her. How am I going to feel safe after that? This can’t be happening, not right now, not when I’ve already had all this other stuff to deal with. I must be going out of my mind. She braced the sides of her head with her palms of her hands. The feeling that was beginning to overwhelm her senses was foreign to her. It was a sensation that she understood the meaning of but had never experienced before to this magnitude. It felt similar to an instinct. She was sensing something now, something outside prowling around her house. Was she just being paranoid? She didn't know. But she somehow felt a strange connection to this lurker as if something had tied her and the stranger together with an unbreakable bond. She felt drawn to window like the pull of gravity. She could barely see a vague picture in her mind of the prowler. It was similar to when she had seen the vision of her mother while in the bathroom at her school. Only this time, there was no pain that came with the vision. Maybe she gone through some form of a metamorphosis, or was it better for her to stick to the normal form of understanding and just naturally assume that she truly was going insane? The biggest issue was that she couldn't deny what her mind was showing her. She seen what looked like the form of a young man, but she couldn’t see his face. It was far too dark in the shadows where he stood. He was staring directly at her so hard that she felt as if he were looking straight through her to her soul. She quickly walked across her bedroom and closed the blinds to her window not daring to look outside into the shadows of the woods. It stopped. The feeling went away. She instantly didn’t feel as if she were being intruded on anymore. Strange. She thought. She shook her head in denial. There was no other explanation. The connection had felt almost intrusive as if the lurker had been analyzing her. She felt violated. Moments went by as she stood by the window. Josie couldn't decide if she wanted to steal a peak through the blinds.

     Relief washed over her when she began to feel the distance between the lurker and the house growing. He was leaving. If the stranger hadn’t left soon, she was already planning to call the police or something. She must really be getting stalked. She thought back into yesterday’s incident after she left her house to walk to Beth's house. It was close to the same time as now. The time span was too similar. That concerned her, not only for her safety, but for the safety of her brothers as well. She refocused her attention on her senses again. She couldn’t tell which direction the man was headed to. She could only feel that he was leaving as the connection was weakening.

     All of a sudden, anger flared in her. She knew all too well that her emotions were becoming erratic. She felt like a ticking time bomb. Why couldn’t all these awful things stop happening to her? It was one bad thing after another on a never-ending basis. She wanted all these terrible occurrences to stop threatening her and her family. She felt like she needed to blow up. She felt unpredictable. As she continued to analyze the woods with her new power, she realized the intruder had stopped again. He was still there. He was at a distance but still there all the same. She had thought he was leaving, but she could still feel his presence teasing at the edge of her consciousness. She hated him. She hated his intrusion, and she was going to take care of it herself. She felt confident enough in her newfound powers to confront the issue herself. Before she even knew what she was doing, on a instinctual decision, she was running. She felt like she was running faster than the wind in a tornado through her house. She felt invincible. The back door to her house was the closest to the woods. That was the way she was going to go. She grabbed Jason’s pocketknife off the counter as she flashed through the kitchen at rapid speed. She jerked the back door open and stopped instantly when she felt a strange new energy flow through her.

     Her hands started to feel different. She looked down at them confounded. It felt like a tingle that slowly spread from her finger and up her arms. What is this? She thought. She watched in fright as her hands started to disappear before her eyes. What is happening to me? Horror ripped through her like a title-wave hitting land. Her scream caught in her throat when the tingling made its way up to her face. In her panic, an enormous serge of power burst from her. She squeezed her eyes shut tight, dropping to the ground, putting her invisible hands to her ears. She had to make it go away. She just didn’t know how. The strange feeling miraculously started to lesson to her relief and confoundment. She opened her eyes and looked up and around her. Trees were everywhere now. She was no longer standing in the doorway to her house. She was in the woods behind her home where she used to play as a child. She whirled around expecting to see the back door to her house. It was gone. She looked down at her hands again, observing them fully. She could see them again.

     “Oh my God……Did I just…no, no, no? I couldn’t have just teleported.” She whispered to herself astonished. There was a dark, perfect circle on the ground around her in the dirt. She stood in the middle of it. Her new ability must have caused it when she had brought it forth. How did she do it? Was it her panic that had triggered it, or maybe her rage?

     She wasn’t concerned about how to get back to her house. She knew the way. She looked around again. The woods were dark and bleak as she listened to the whistle of the wind blowing through the branches. All the trees were different shapes, exotic shades of brown and green. She could hear the cracking of the dry leaves underneath her feet. It dawned on her that her stalker was very near now. She could sense his presence. She stepped forward, listening for any sudden movement in the forest surrounding her. Was this the same person who had chased her the morning before? Could it also be the same person that had attacked Mr. Coolson’s wife? These questions continued buzzing about in her mind as she searched for the intruder. He could be watching me right now, she thought to herself. I’ve got to do something soon. No. Right now! She demanded herself. Some show of force may convince the stranger to leave and not come back, at least that was what she inwardly hoped. She reached into her pocket and jerked out the knife she had grabbed from the kitchen. Quickly, she flipped it open, holding it in front of her to protect herself.

     “COME OUT!” She challenged allowed. “I KNOW YOU ARE HERE!” Her voice echoed throughout the forest. She waited for his response. Her challenging request was met with silence. She spun around, frantically observing her surroundings again. Where was he hiding? What did he want?

     Alex sat in a tree watching Josie. He could feel her fear and her pain. He watched her in wonder. He felt a strange connection to this human that he couldn’t understand. He had stopped at her house while he was out hunting. He hadn’t been there very long, and he had realized that she had noticed him. Seeing that his presence had distressed her, he decided to leave. But the connection he felt to her piqued his curiosity. It struck him as odd that she somehow sensed him back. Humans were not supposed to be able to do that. She had caught him off guard when she had just mysteriously appeared in the woods so closely to him. It had been a very long time since anyone had been able to sneak up on him like that. He dropped down a branch to observe her closer. As he settled himself on the new branch, it made a cracking sound drawing her attention. It made her search for him even more off balance. She was going mad in her own fear.

     “SHOW YOURSELF YOU COWARD! I KNOW YOU ARE THERE!” She wailed through her anger and tears. Her voice changed to raw sadness as she accepted that she was not going to get a response. “What do you want from me?” She whispered as she slumped down into the dirt to cry. She was positive that she wasn’t alone. She had heard a sound from the trees. Someone had to be there. Was she losing her mind? She hadn’t been able to pin-point where it had come from. “Please come out.” She sobbed.  She felt like a helpless baby deer in a field of wolves.

     The sound came again. This time, she could pin-point its origins. She could feel the connection to the stranger still. It was strong and unwavering. It made her feel as if she were being pulled in the direction of the man. She realized that the more she embraced the connection, the easier it was to find the intruder. She stood back up to her feet wiping the remnants of the tears from her cheeks. She needed to learn to harness her new powers and focus them. She closed her eyes feeling the power within herself. The power grew and increased in strength. She opened her eyes again. She knew exactly where he was.

     Alex continued watching her. He couldn’t stop thinking about the day before when he had first met her. He was mesmerized with her beauty and courage while watching her confront what she conceived to be a danger to protect herself and her best friend. And now, no human in their right mind would run at a danger like a vampire, especially with only a little pocketknife. Vampires put of something that can make most humans cower in fear. He smiled, amused. But her pain was almost too much for him to bare back at her house. He remembered the feeling of closeness with her when he had met her. He himself had had trouble backing away from her touch when she had bumped into him. This was the first time he had ever been to her home. He couldn’t help himself when he had felt her presence. He felt so attracted to her in more ways than one. Then, he had seen her through her bedroom window. She was obviously wrestling with her own internal demons. She seemed very upset when he had first spotted her. Yet the questions plagued him. How had she been able to sense him? And how had she been able to find him so quickly in the woods? He needed to find out the answers to these questions. The bond he felt with her seemed to be getting stronger, and there was no explanation for it. One thing was for certain, he needed to get out of here without her spotting him.

     He looked back down at her. She was looking in his direction. She had found him. She started taking small quiet steps in his direction looking up the tree for him. He quickly sprang into action and climbed the tree like a cat, sinking his claws into it. He was at the top in seconds. He started jumping from tree-top to tree-top out of sight. She had almost found him. But how? He started making his way out of the woods.

     Josie’s feet were moving too fast for her own eyes to keep up with. She ran holding the knife away from her body, avoiding contact with the blade. She slammed through the thick brushes in the forest. She found that she was completely alone again. She could no longer feel him there. She had seen him jump up the tree with reflexes that no human could exhibit. She had to catch him. She tried chasing him, but she lost him in the trees above. She stopped and stood under a large oak. She couldn’t sense anything except for the normal habitat in the woods. It angered her that he had gotten away. The way he moved was unreal. She wondered if she would be able to move like that eventually also. Was she like him? Was that why he had been watching her house. Josie wished that she had answers. Was it strange that she wished that she were able to talk to the man? What if he had the answers that she was looking for? She shook her head confused. She wished that her life was normal again. She pressed her palm to her forehead. She needed to get home. She felt that it was safe to go home now. She could feel her follower had completely retreated. He was gone. She was too drained of energy now to attempt to pursue him any further. Getting home to Emerson was more important anyways. She turned and began making her way back.

     Josie set on her porch outside. She wanted to get calmed down before going in the house. She felt jumpy, and her nerves were shattered. She ran her fingers through her hair and took a deep breath. She bent over, wiping the dirt from her legs in frustration. She wished that she could ask her mother some questions, but she didn’t want to do that with her mother being in the condition that she was in. After wiping off all the dirt she put her hands over her eyes. She jumped when she heard Jason’s voice.

     “Josie.” His voice sounded worried. “Are you okay?”

     Lowering her hands and looking up, she was surprised when she saw that Jason and Addy were both there. Jason seemed very concerned.

     “Yes. I’m fine.” She sniffled and wiped her nose. She looked up at them both. “What are you guys doing out here?” They stood looking at her for a second, then Jason answered.

     “I couldn’t find you this morning, so I called Addy for help. She lives closer to us then Beth so.” He paused and them continued. “I just freaked out and didn’t know what to do.” He stopped talking and looked over at Addy.

     “You don’t have to worry about me, really.” Josie whispered looking away from them. She didn’t know what else to say to them. She didn’t want to put anymore extra stress on her brother. And she wasn’t ready to tell Addy what had been going on. Jason needed to be able to deal with the problems that he already had before she put new ones on him.

     Addy’s hands went to her hips defiantly. She could tell that something was terribly wrong with Josie. There had to be a reason as to why Josie wasn’t speaking. She was keeping secrets, and there had to be a good explanation for it. Addy was about to speak when Josie cut her off.

     “I can’t do this right now. I’m sorry. I’m going out for a while. Keep an eye on Emerson and make sure he is taken care of. Please don’t follow me.” Josie stood up quickly, practically using her legs as catapults. She straightened her cloths and left, walking up the road. Driving didn’t sound like the right thing for today. She wanted to be able to hear nature around her. Things couldn’t get any worse than they already were anyways.

     Jason watched her disappear in the distance. Josie’s form grew smaller and smaller with every step that she took. He glanced over at Addy who was very concerned for her friend. “She will be fine.” He told her warily. He placed a comforting hand on Addy’s shoulder, just before Adaline started down the steps to go home.

     Alex was with his brothers now.

     “How many do you think we will need tonight?” Alex asked, stripping off his shirt, showing his glistening muscles in the morning light. Nathanial and Joshua were never separated from each other, unless they were hunting, or one possibly went to school for amusement. Joshua never went to school. Nathanial would go occasionally. Joshua considered it beneath him. He only signed up for school so that it made it easier for them to stay under the radar. It was difficult to stay hidden in these new modern times. Nathanial glanced at Joshua, and then said. “I’m not really sure how many humans will be needed.” His voice carried a serious tone. “I can smell that you have already been near a human this morning. It smells divine.” Nathanial tossed Alex a new shirt from the dresser drawer. Alex slipped it on. Nathanial’s comment disturbed him more than he could say. Josie was not food. The comment upset him. But, if he were to let on that he had interest in a human other than for food, his brothers would hunt the human down and kill it for sport.

     “There’s one rule guys. I want to be able to stay in this town for a while. No killing here. Not at all in this town what-so-ever. I know that your beliefs are different than mine as you are Evelinic, but please. I ask this of you. You remember what happened last time you were killing too frequently in a new town we were residing in. I know one of you killed in the woods the other night.” Alex said.

      Fury burst out of Joshua. Joshua was not the type of vampire that exercised control well. “That didn’t need to be said Alexander! We aren’t without common sense! We are aware of that! We have been leaving town to feed.” Joshua threw his hands out in challenge towards Alexander. Alex knew Joshua had done it. He was expecting a fight. Alex had no desire to fight his brother. He had only wanted to make a point. Joshua was attempting to intimidate Alex, but Alex didn’t blink, not wavering from his brothers threatening glare. He just stood there unwavering. Anyone that could have walked in would have mistaken him for a statue. He had spent hundreds of years with his brothers. The years of Joshua intimidating him were long past. Joshua looked away, hissing with aggravation. Alex had in a way become the one to keep them under control since their parents had been killed by humans. The killing of their parents had destroyed any respect for the lives of humans in Joshua’s eyes. He had no care for them at all now. Nathanial wasn’t as bad off as Joshua. He still exercised some restraint. He only killed enough to feed himself.

     “Alright.” Alex said, demanding the attention of his brothers. “Time to hunt. Stay out of sight as best as possible. Joshua, you take the ridge. Nathanial, you take the town. Take caution with you. I will follow the roads, meet back at the cabin tonight.” His brothers nodded to him in agreeance with his plan. They walked out of the cabin.

     Josie stopped in the middle of the road after walking for a few hours. She was thinking about trying to teleport again. She wanted to test herself. It was difficult considering she wasn’t sure how she had done it before. She thought back on the moment when she had first done it. She had been thinking about the woods. She had been also thinking about where her stalker could have been in the woods. She had pictured it in her mind when she was about to run out the door. Maybe that was what had triggered it. She looked up at the sky. The sun was now high. It was mid-day. Where did she want to go? She thought about going to Alex’s house, but it would be weird for her to just show up there unannounced. She knew she was supposed to go to his house sometime that evening for dinner with Bethanne, but she hadn’t heard from him yet. Going to see her mother at the hospital didn’t sound like such a bad idea, especially since Jason wasn’t going to be there to interfere.

     She stood absolutely still. She clenched her fists and closed her eyes tightly. She squeezed her fists so tightly that it made her arms throb. She thought about the hospital. I can do this, she thought. She stood there for a minute, waiting. She peeked out one eye, leaving the other shut tightly. She threw her arms up exasperated. She was still in the same place. What was she doing wrong?

     “Damn it!” she cursed, angrily. “I swear. I am insane!” Both her hands went to her hips in aggravation. She paced around a moment in the road and then stopped. Determination welled up inside her. She shut her eyes again. Alright Josie, she thought to herself. You can do this. Just picture the hospital and nothing else. In fact, picture everything; the hospital workers, the gloomy hallways, the… Her mind began losing itself in the thought. She saw it in her mind as if she were there. She could now picture every detail, even the constant smell of alcohol that lingered in the air. She stood quiet with concentration.

     Suddenly, she heard noises; talking and voices rang in her ears. She heard female voices that had echoes to them. She opened her eyes to find herself in the lady’s room of the hospital. Excitement flowed out of her. She squealed happily, throwing her hands in the air in victory. “I did it!” She exclaimed with joy. Her voice echoed in the empty space of the bathroom. Embarrassment filled her as two middle-aged women stepped out of the light-yellow bathroom stalls and looked at her baffled. Josie dropped her hands and looked back at them. At that moment, she didn’t know if she should speak or not. She just waited to see what they would say. Minutes passed. How long is this stare-down going to last? She thought. The brunette spoke out first.

     “Um…Did what?” Her voice was raggedy as she spoke. Wrinkles grew on the older woman’s forehead. Josie realized what she had said and how it must have looked to them. She gave them a half smile, amused. She had no answer for them. She couldn’t just say, ‘Hey I just teleported into the girl’s bathroom from miles away. Didn’t I do a good job?’ They stood looking at each other. Josie was beginning to grow tired of this exchange of words. So, she looked away as if nothing had happened. To escape the awkward situation, she quickly turned and walked out of the bathroom. She walked up the dim hall. The floor itself seemed to need replaced as it moved under her steps. When she finally came upon her mother’s room, emotions spread through her; sorrow and happiness all at once. She ran to her unable to hold herself back.

     “Mom. You will not believe the week that I have had. It’s been a mess.” She sat down beside her mother and took her hand in her own. “Mr. Coolson’s wife was attacked in the woods. And I think I have a stalker and not the good kind.” Josie looked up into her mother’s eyes feeling comfort in them. “And something strange is happening to me. I can’t explain it.” She looked down at her mother’s frail fingers intertwined in her own. Sadness filled her. She was going to miss this; the feeling of calmness that came over her when she confided in her mother for something. “Do you have any idea what’s going on with me? Are there things that I don’t know?”

     Victoria hesitated. She knew the answers to Josie’s questions, but she couldn’t bring herself to say them. Victoria shook her head looking at the ceiling above herself. The tiles in the ceiling were white and incredibly old looking. They were in the form of large rectangles. She followed the lines on the ceiling with her eyes for a moment, before deciding what she wanted to say. She avoided answering the questions about Josie directly. She went straight to Josie’s worries about this stalker she had bothering her.

     “Just calm down and think for me. Did you see this stalker well? What did he look like?” Victoria asked squeezing Josie’s hand.