Categories > Original > Romance > In A Darkened Room
In A Darkened Room
By Mishi
Chapter 5
Mindful Ambivalence
The rain was coming down in a fine mist that clung to his soft hair like morning dew on grass; and there was the tiniest of water droplets forming on the tip of his nose as he knelt, stalk still on the fire escape, just outside of her bedroom window. Like a looming, leather clad gargoyle he watched as she slept, paying extra attention to her breathing. She had risen once since he had started his watch, but she stumbled along not even opening her eyes at the time. It had been amusing to watch her fall over herself to get to the bathroom and fight to stay asleep at the same time. Now, for the first time since returning to bed, the young woman was breathing evenly. She looked harmless enough in her Eeyore pajama pants and tank top. He knew that looks could be very deceiving, but this human looked far too fragile to be a concern to his existence.
He turned to re-examine his surroundings. The building across the alley was a story shorter, and in worse condition, with visible cracks in the exterior wall. From the looks of the room he could see into, the building had been empty for quite some time. Wanting a closer look, he floated-as if gravity had no effect on his body-from the fire escape to the window across the alley. His body hung weightless in the air as he examined the window, looking for a way into the room on the other side. Finally, he decided to simply give the window a push upward and see if it would open. He had been happy to find that digging his fingers into the wood had worked, and the window opened as easy as a knife through butter.
Now inside, he gave the small apartment a good once around. He would have to clean the windows. Of course, this would have nothing to do with an obstruction of vision, but rather an annoyance that something was in his field of vision that was less than perfect. He could tolerate the floor being dirty, but he had to stare at the windows; and this he could not permit. Yes, the windows would have to be cleaned before he really got down to work. Other than that small annoyance, however, it would be the perfect place to watch from the shadows as she carried on her nightly activities. Surely, if he watched her closely enough, she would do something to reveal what she was up to, or the source of her strange power. After making a quick mental list of what he would bring to aid him in his stakeout, he set out to find a better way in and out of the building.
*****
The layout of Maire’s apartment was simple enough. There was a kitchenette, which was separated form the living room by a three seater bar. The kitchen was done in white with gold appliances to match the gold of the bar’s table top and the white of its bottom half. Like the kitchen, every room in the apartment was white. The floor was carpeted in a rich cream in the living room and bedroom. A large blue couch sat in the center of the living room, with the coffee table made of glass and light colored wood a few feet in front of it. Against the wall, positioned between the two windows, was the TV. Her cordless phone was perched on the TV with a small box of facial tissue, and her VCR/DVD combo deck sat on the shelf of the small wood-grain entertainment cabinet. Bookcases lined the available wall space, stacked full of books, CDs, and DVDs.
The walls were bare outside of the crucifix above the TV and a picture of herself, Michael, his mother, and her mother, which hung on the wall to the left of the door. The picture had been taken on the day that she had moved into the apartment, and showed the happy crew sitting around her bar enjoying a round of drinks. Michael’s father had said it was the perfect moment to capture the occasion. Michael had been complaining about all the books he had been forced to haul up the elevator and into the apartment at the moment the picture was snapped. His mother had made the joke that at least he was in plain clothes and not in his usual priestly garb.
Maire had decided to start the day off bright and early at 6 a.m. Still in her Eeyore pajamas, she grabbed a Pepsi out of the fridge, made herself a turkey and cheese sandwich; and then took a seat at her long rectangular coffee table in the living room. As she waited for her laptop to boot, she started in on the sandwich.
The laptop and a few beat up textbooks were some of the few mementos left over from her year and a half of college. After a bad episode with Iris at school, she had been forced to drop out. Looking at the laptop always seemed to remind her of the day she approached the Dean of Arts and Sciences and boldly informed her that Iris didn’t want the Dean to kill herself. The Dean had been shocked beyond words, and Maire’s academic career at the university was over the moment she left the Dean’s office. Stories started to fly around the small campus about the crazy girl who saw angels. The Dean had even gone as far as to call Maire’s Psychiatrist to recommend she be “locked up.” Maire still to this day didn’t know how she had gotten that number.
“Well, at least she didn’t kill herself. I guess making me miserable was a reason to go on,” she mumbled. Her black and gray striped tabby, Justin, had planted his front paws on the table and gave the sandwich a sniff, but she quickly picked him up and pointed him in the other direction.
The first task for the morning would be a net search on vampires. Being that it was the internet, she was sure she would find any number of sites to answer her questions. Question was, which one would be correct in its information, and how would she tell? There were sites of every variety on the web. There were sites about psychic vampires, life-style vampires, and roll-playing vampires. Hell there was even a vampire version of MySpace! However, most of the legends were the same, with drinking blood and an aversion to sunlight, in some form or other, being common. Super human strength and speed and hyper alert senses were also traits that vampires seemed to have.
Most of the morning had seemed to be uneventful until she stumbled across a website belonging to a local occult store in town. Unlike all the rest, it seemed to portray vampires in a very personal sort of way, as if the author had actually know what they were talking about, and was not just studying the topic for fun. As she looked at the rest of the store’s info page, she discovered that the owner was believed to be an expert in occult arts. She made a note of the shop’s address and made up her mind to get dressed, so she could go and check it out. She had the day free and it had been her plan, after all, to learn all she could about her mission.
Entering her bedroom, she was careful not to bang the door against the dark oak footboard of her bed. The queen size bed was in the left hand, inner corner. It had just missed coming in contact with the bedroom door and the doorway to her tiny bathroom, which was to the left when you entered the room. Next to the bed was a small table with a clock and phone. On the same wall was her chest of drawers, that just happened to be made of the same oak as the headboard and footboard of the bed; and all of which had been handed down from her mom when she moved in. The wall that held the room’s only window had room for two tall bookcases, which where crammed with books. The final wall was home to the closet and a single bookcase that held various knickknacks.
She picked out fresh under garments from the drawers and placed them on the bed. She then turned to the closet to pick out a peach, satin long sleeve blouse and a nice pair of blue jeans, soon to be joining the under garments on the bed as she took her shower. Before entering the bathroom, she pulled the blind down on the window. Shower time and changing clothes were the only times she ever bothered to close the blinds in the apartment, most of the time she preferred to have the light enter the rooms. She liked as much light as possible at all times of the day, it didn’t have to be sunlight just as long as it was bright.
The bathroom was a small square with a shower stall that was covered with a clear plastic shower curtain with coral and fish on the bottom. As you walked in, there was just enough room to walk between the toilet and the sink. Next to the stool was a litter box. There was a wooden cabinet over the toilet for towels. The cabinet under the sink was just big enough to hold toilet paper and a few necessities.
Her shower had been quick, because she was anxious to get going, and she padded out into the bedroom with a large powder blue towel wrapped around her. She dried her hair with the blow dryer before putting lotion on her arms and legs. Feeling fresh and clean, she was ready to put on her clothes. She never bothered with makeup. She figured her face was too plain and makeup wouldn’t help it anyway. Her hair always had a bit of a curl to it, so most of the time she let it hang freely-unless it was summer, and then the hair was just too much.
It was 10 a.m. by time she got to the bus stop, but it would take her some time to get across town to the shop. She got a seat across from someone reading the daily news paper, and she couldn’t help but notice that the cover story was about two women who had been found dead with strange markings carved into their stomachs. There had been signs that the women might have given birth, but sources couldn’t confirm that. She cringed and turned away. ‘This is why I don’t read the paper and watch the news. Oh God, please comfort their families,’ she thought. Trying to clear the image of the women from her mind, she turned her attention to the streets as they flew by.
Forty-five minutes, and one exchange later, Maire got off on the corner of Jefferson and Fifth Avenue. This was one of the nicer parts of town, because it was so close to one of the three colleges in the city. Walking north up Fifth Avenue, she reached the store after a two block walk. The building that housed the store was a funky mauve color that she fell in love with at first sight. The sign above the door read Avalon. To the right of the lettering was an apple tree. The displays in the windows were bright and cheerful with books and boxes of cards facing out, and foil half moons and stars hanging from the ceiling. There was a sign in the window that announced tarot and palm reading as well. Maire hesitated, but after a moment opened the door to enter.
“Hello, welcome to Avalon,” sang a young brunette, who was coming from behind the counter to greet her potential customer more personally. She was wearing one of those new age type dresses that had all the wrinkly material. It was made from swatches of several shades of green, and had long sleeves that billowed at the elbow. “Oh, my…”she gasped once getting a good look at Maire.
Maire’s eyes went wide and she spun round to see what had caused such a reaction from the woman before her. “What? I don’t see anything.” She turned back confused to see the woman reaching out for her hand.
“It’s you. You are surrounded by mystical beings.”
“Iris is here, and you can see her?” Maire was taken aback and looking over her shoulder again.
“No, no, I don’t see anything right this moment; it’s more like I see a residue of something that has been near you previously,” she explained with a smile. Taking Maire’s hand, she looked into the palm, and confirmed her suspicion, “And you will be surrounded with a great many more.”
Feeling very uncomfortable, Maire took her hand back and tried to force a smile. Picking up on Maire’s distress, the woman tried to explain, “I’m sorry. I must have scared you with all this. I’m Allison Scott, I own the store. I’m also a psychic, and I sorta see things that others can’t see.”
‘She knows about Iris? Is that good or bad?’ She struggled, trying to get a bearing on the situation.
“How about we sit down and talk for a bit?” Allison asked, pointing to a round table to the left of the counter. “You just sit here and I’ll get us a drink. Is grape juice alright?” She pulled the chair out for Maire and waited for her to be seated.
“Sure, that would be ok.” Maire took her seat and the psychic disappeared into a small doorway that was covered with hanging beads.
To nervous to sit still, Maire turned in the chair to take in the store for the first time since entering. There were rows for bookshelves heading towards the back of the shop. Tables and display cases were positioned close to the walls and in front of the room. The shop had to be half the size of the Shack, but things were vibrant with pretty table cloths on the tables. Even the display cases seemed fancy with bright cloth, glitter and confetti in them.
Allison soon emerged from the beaded curtain with two glasses of grape juice in hand. Placing one in front of Maire and the other on the table next to her seat, she sat down and questioned, “Did you come in with something in mind, or were you just curious?”
“Well, I was looking at your webpage, and I do have some questions.” Maire admitted anxiously after a sip of juice. “Could you tell me about vampires please?”
“You’re not the type who’d normally come in here. And you, certainly, are not the type to be asking about vampires,” she paused to think. Biting her lip and giving a quick nod, she had made up her mind. “How about this; first, you tell me about the mystic beings that surround you? Then you tell me why you want to know about vampires?” she suggested with caution.
“I guess that’s fair,” Maire replied sheepishly. She took a deep breath and prepared herself for the worst. “I see and talk to my guardian angel. I call her Iris, because when ever she is near you can smell irises.”
“How often do you see her?”
“I can’t say how often, because she comes and goes at weird times. But I have been seeing her since I was ten years old.”
Allison’s smiled just a bit, and tried to look sympathetic, “That couldn’t have made your teen years easy.”
This was going easier than expected, and some to the tension left Maire’s back. “No, not really. I had a lot of trouble with people believing me. Some people were just cruel about it.”
“How about the vampires?”
“That’s because of Iris. I need to find out everything I can about them, because…”she stopped and her eyes shifted from side to side, remembering where she was, “It’s my job to help one find salvation.” She finished in a small voice. It sounded impossible even to her.
Allison sat back with raised brows. “You’re going to convert a vampire?”
“Yes, in a manner of speaking,” she admitted, feeling stupid.
Allison took it in and turned it over in her mind for several moments, then stated, “You’re either insane, or you have even bigger issues going with the vampires than I do. Thing is, I don’t think you’re insane. I can plainly see the signature of the angel on you. If that’s what it is.”
“You don’t think that Iris is an angel?” Maire leaned forward, her surprise showing clearly on her face.
“There are things out there that can make themselves appear to be whatever we humans want to believe them to be. However, it is hard for them to pull off the scent that is said to accompany angels. I guess you can say I’m not one to believe in everything I can’t see. I do require some proof.” She leaned forward, “What made you so certain that I was the right person to help you with vampires? I guess since you were looking at the website, you were researching the topic online?”
“Something about your page seemed very personal. It just seemed like you knew something that the others didn’t. It was a feeling that I got, I guess.”
Allison smiled, but before she could talk a customer had walked in. “Give me a moment,” she said, patting Maire on the hand and rising from her chair.
Maire watched as Allison sold a tarot deck and a book on how to use them to the middle aged women in a black and gray pants suit. Within moments the transaction was over and she had returned to the table to resume their conversation. “Ok, I guess that leaves me to hold up my end of things, right? I’ll tell you what I didn’t put on the webpage. I’ll tell you, because I want you to be very careful with what you are about to do. And I think I can trust you with the information.” Maire nodded in response to the words and she continued, “It was so personal, because my father is a vampire. My psychic ability comes from his vampire blood.” She stopped and took up the ceremonial knife that had been setting on the table next to a deck of cards, and cut her palm with it. The cut closed almost instantly. She looked at Maire in acknowledgement. “I have some of their ability to heal. If the damage is small, I will heal very quickly. That’s my proof that what I’m telling you is true.”
“Do you drink blood too?”
“Oh, goodness, no. I’m human in everything else.” Maire nodded with relief. After a short silence Allison went on to explain, “Vampires aren’t the dead things you see in movies. They’re very much alive and their hearts do beat. So the walking corpse thing is an out. I do believe that they stay alive by the life force they get from the blood. But I’m not really sure how they get nourishment from it, it just works somehow. And they can go out during the day, as well as at night. If you have ever seen a very pale and weak person, who seemed to be livelier at night, then they might have been a vampire in disguise.”
“I thought that vampires were really strong and couldn’t tolerate the sun?”
Allison took a drink of the grape juice, then answered, “They can tolerate a bit of sun. It weakens them for some reason. It makes them almost as weak as a human. That’s one reason a lot of them don’t like to go out in the day. How would you like having the strength of 10 men at night, but then be as weak as one during the day? They would be easier to damage during the day too. Still, there are those who are trying to fit in with the everyday world. They can pass for human.”
“So you can’t really spot them if you see them in the day?”
“Well, they will seem a little faster and stronger than humans, but most people just over look that. It’s almost impossible to tell unless they want you to notice, though. They are very close to being human. I mean, most of them were at one point human, after all.”
“Most?” Maire’s eyes got a little wider.
“Yeah, I’ve heard stories of those who say they were born from vampire parents, but I’ve never met them. All I know for sure is that breeding between a human woman and a male vampire is possible. I’m not even certain that a female vampire can have a male human’s child.”
“Why would they have a problem?”
“I’ve just never heard of it, and there are not a lot of birth announcements in the vampire realm. And trust me, I do pay attention.” Seeing the next question in Maire’s face, she added, “Vampires are usually made by a sharing of the vampire’s blood.”
“Eww,” Maire’s nosed crinkled and she frowned, showing her disgust at the thought.
Allison laughed, “They drink blood to live and that little part grosses you out?”
“That’s them, not a human drinking blood. When the humans start doing it, it’s gross,” she answered in all seriousness. “So, if you needed too, how would you defend yourself against them?”
“Crosses will keep them at bay, and holy water will cause blistering of the flesh. Getting to holy ground should work in a pinch, if you need to get away from them. Silver will do some real damage to them. Something about the silver keeps them from healing,” she paused to have a drink of her grape juice. “They can only be killed by decapitation, burning or total destruction of the heart. And I do mean total destruction. Ramming a sharp object into their chest will not do it; you have to stop the heart from beating completely, or it will heal itself.”
Maire put her fingers to her temples and moved them in tiny circles, “This is all too much to believe.”
“I’m sorry that you got picked to do this. If your angel isn’t the real thing, this is a hell of a cruel joke. Hell, it’s cruel either way. Vampires really shouldn’t be messed with. You do understand that you are their primary food source?” Allison looked into her eyes for some sign of understanding. Not seeing the amount of caution she had hoped to see, she added, “I wish there was a protection spell I could set you up with, but something tells me you would object to that.”
“No, no spells.” She shook her head and started waving her hands back and forth. Then she stopped. “Wait, you do magic?”
“Yes, I’m Wiccan.”
“Oh, that’s someone who does witchcraft, right?”
“Sort of, but there is more to it than that. I worship the Goddess. It’s a nature based religion. Purely white magic, nothing that would be evil,” Allison said, trying to be reassuring.
“I’m Catholic,” Maire announced feeling more confident.
“You know, it just occurred to me that I didn’t get your name.”
She slapped herself mentally for getting so personal and not giving out her name to begin with. “Sorry, I’m Maire O’Fergus.”
Allison offered her hand to Maire. “Well, Maire, it has been a pleasure to meet you.”
Maire took her hand with a smile. “Yes, thank you.”
“You wouldn’t happen to know the name of your vampire would you?”
“No, I didn’t get his name. I’ve only met him once, and he was not in the most responsive of moods.”
Allison took a business card from the holder that had been sitting on the table with them, “Take this, it has my cell number on it. When you find out his name, give me a call; maybe I’ll know something about him.”
****
It was 3:08 p.m. and Maire was seated in a puffy, black leather office chair across from her psychiatrist, Dr. Palmer. She hated the yellow walls of the room, because they looked like mustard. It wasn’t a good color for interior walls. It wasn’t a good color for any kind of walls, for that matter. The plants that were spread around the room were nice, but they made the room look like a jungle. A big intimidating mustard colored jungle. She hated these visits. The man across from her in the expensive suit would ask her a bunch of questions and not believe her answers. Then he would put her on more medication that she wouldn’t take. It was a waste of time, but she was being forced to be here. The courts had been clear on that.
“Are you still seeing Iris?”
Her protective wall was in place and she was ready for the question. For some reason the sessions were always the same list of questions. She didn’t want to lie, so she told the truth. “Yes.”
Dr. Palmer was middle aged and going bald. He was tall and a little pudgy around the middle and in the face. He showed no emotion as he wrote on his notepad. “How many times have you seen her since our last meeting?”
‘That’s right, write it down. I’m nuts, and you know it,’ she thought before answering, “Twice. Once to tell me we needed to meet, and then we met.”
“What were you doing when you saw her?”
“The first time I was in my bed. The meeting was in the chapel like always.”
“What did she tell you?”
‘Oh, you would really love this one. Maybe I should tell you just for the sheer fun of it? No, that would definitely get me locked up.’ She took a deep breath and let it out. Calm was what she wanted to convey today, not anything that would get her in trouble. “That there was someone I was supposed to help find salvation. Same as always.”
“Miss O’Fergus are you taking your medication?”
Everything in her told her mind to lie. ‘Darn it, I have no choice,’ she thought. “Of course, I’m taking my medication.” She even looked sincere.
“You do realize, Miss O’Fergus, if you don’t take your medication that is grounds for me to place you back into the James Davenport Mental Health facility?”
She leaned forward in her chair. In a calm voice, rationalized, “I do realize that, and I’m telling you that I’m taking them. I’m not hurting anyone. I’ve been working and not causing trouble for anyone. There isn’t any reason to put me back in there. I’m not doing anything wrong.”
“Then, perhaps, it is time for you to take my recommendation for disability seriously. I believe you keep having these delusions because of your everyday stress. You’re employment is a part of that stress.”
“I don’t want to quit my job. I really am doing ok. I don’t think I am having any problems. What Iris tells me to do makes people happy.”
“I don’t believe that is true of every case. Remember Mrs. Roberts? She wasn’t very pleased with your actions.”
Tension was creeping into her back and it was harder to remain as calm, but she kept her voice level, “I regret that. I have tried really hard to make sure that doesn’t happen again. If the person refuses me, I leave them be.”
The room fell silent for a long moment. Maire looked at her hands as the doctor wrote on his notepad.
“Let’s try another medication.” He pulled out a prescription pad and started writing, “This is a new medication, but your insurance should cover it.”
‘Thank you, God!’ She looked out the tiny window. She felt the tension release a bit, but didn’t let the wall come down yet. She needed all her emotions to stay in check until she was out of the office and in her own home.
With new prescription in hand she walked out of the office, glad to escape the mustard colored jungle one more time.
By Mishi
Chapter 5
Mindful Ambivalence
The rain was coming down in a fine mist that clung to his soft hair like morning dew on grass; and there was the tiniest of water droplets forming on the tip of his nose as he knelt, stalk still on the fire escape, just outside of her bedroom window. Like a looming, leather clad gargoyle he watched as she slept, paying extra attention to her breathing. She had risen once since he had started his watch, but she stumbled along not even opening her eyes at the time. It had been amusing to watch her fall over herself to get to the bathroom and fight to stay asleep at the same time. Now, for the first time since returning to bed, the young woman was breathing evenly. She looked harmless enough in her Eeyore pajama pants and tank top. He knew that looks could be very deceiving, but this human looked far too fragile to be a concern to his existence.
He turned to re-examine his surroundings. The building across the alley was a story shorter, and in worse condition, with visible cracks in the exterior wall. From the looks of the room he could see into, the building had been empty for quite some time. Wanting a closer look, he floated-as if gravity had no effect on his body-from the fire escape to the window across the alley. His body hung weightless in the air as he examined the window, looking for a way into the room on the other side. Finally, he decided to simply give the window a push upward and see if it would open. He had been happy to find that digging his fingers into the wood had worked, and the window opened as easy as a knife through butter.
Now inside, he gave the small apartment a good once around. He would have to clean the windows. Of course, this would have nothing to do with an obstruction of vision, but rather an annoyance that something was in his field of vision that was less than perfect. He could tolerate the floor being dirty, but he had to stare at the windows; and this he could not permit. Yes, the windows would have to be cleaned before he really got down to work. Other than that small annoyance, however, it would be the perfect place to watch from the shadows as she carried on her nightly activities. Surely, if he watched her closely enough, she would do something to reveal what she was up to, or the source of her strange power. After making a quick mental list of what he would bring to aid him in his stakeout, he set out to find a better way in and out of the building.
*****
The layout of Maire’s apartment was simple enough. There was a kitchenette, which was separated form the living room by a three seater bar. The kitchen was done in white with gold appliances to match the gold of the bar’s table top and the white of its bottom half. Like the kitchen, every room in the apartment was white. The floor was carpeted in a rich cream in the living room and bedroom. A large blue couch sat in the center of the living room, with the coffee table made of glass and light colored wood a few feet in front of it. Against the wall, positioned between the two windows, was the TV. Her cordless phone was perched on the TV with a small box of facial tissue, and her VCR/DVD combo deck sat on the shelf of the small wood-grain entertainment cabinet. Bookcases lined the available wall space, stacked full of books, CDs, and DVDs.
The walls were bare outside of the crucifix above the TV and a picture of herself, Michael, his mother, and her mother, which hung on the wall to the left of the door. The picture had been taken on the day that she had moved into the apartment, and showed the happy crew sitting around her bar enjoying a round of drinks. Michael’s father had said it was the perfect moment to capture the occasion. Michael had been complaining about all the books he had been forced to haul up the elevator and into the apartment at the moment the picture was snapped. His mother had made the joke that at least he was in plain clothes and not in his usual priestly garb.
Maire had decided to start the day off bright and early at 6 a.m. Still in her Eeyore pajamas, she grabbed a Pepsi out of the fridge, made herself a turkey and cheese sandwich; and then took a seat at her long rectangular coffee table in the living room. As she waited for her laptop to boot, she started in on the sandwich.
The laptop and a few beat up textbooks were some of the few mementos left over from her year and a half of college. After a bad episode with Iris at school, she had been forced to drop out. Looking at the laptop always seemed to remind her of the day she approached the Dean of Arts and Sciences and boldly informed her that Iris didn’t want the Dean to kill herself. The Dean had been shocked beyond words, and Maire’s academic career at the university was over the moment she left the Dean’s office. Stories started to fly around the small campus about the crazy girl who saw angels. The Dean had even gone as far as to call Maire’s Psychiatrist to recommend she be “locked up.” Maire still to this day didn’t know how she had gotten that number.
“Well, at least she didn’t kill herself. I guess making me miserable was a reason to go on,” she mumbled. Her black and gray striped tabby, Justin, had planted his front paws on the table and gave the sandwich a sniff, but she quickly picked him up and pointed him in the other direction.
The first task for the morning would be a net search on vampires. Being that it was the internet, she was sure she would find any number of sites to answer her questions. Question was, which one would be correct in its information, and how would she tell? There were sites of every variety on the web. There were sites about psychic vampires, life-style vampires, and roll-playing vampires. Hell there was even a vampire version of MySpace! However, most of the legends were the same, with drinking blood and an aversion to sunlight, in some form or other, being common. Super human strength and speed and hyper alert senses were also traits that vampires seemed to have.
Most of the morning had seemed to be uneventful until she stumbled across a website belonging to a local occult store in town. Unlike all the rest, it seemed to portray vampires in a very personal sort of way, as if the author had actually know what they were talking about, and was not just studying the topic for fun. As she looked at the rest of the store’s info page, she discovered that the owner was believed to be an expert in occult arts. She made a note of the shop’s address and made up her mind to get dressed, so she could go and check it out. She had the day free and it had been her plan, after all, to learn all she could about her mission.
Entering her bedroom, she was careful not to bang the door against the dark oak footboard of her bed. The queen size bed was in the left hand, inner corner. It had just missed coming in contact with the bedroom door and the doorway to her tiny bathroom, which was to the left when you entered the room. Next to the bed was a small table with a clock and phone. On the same wall was her chest of drawers, that just happened to be made of the same oak as the headboard and footboard of the bed; and all of which had been handed down from her mom when she moved in. The wall that held the room’s only window had room for two tall bookcases, which where crammed with books. The final wall was home to the closet and a single bookcase that held various knickknacks.
She picked out fresh under garments from the drawers and placed them on the bed. She then turned to the closet to pick out a peach, satin long sleeve blouse and a nice pair of blue jeans, soon to be joining the under garments on the bed as she took her shower. Before entering the bathroom, she pulled the blind down on the window. Shower time and changing clothes were the only times she ever bothered to close the blinds in the apartment, most of the time she preferred to have the light enter the rooms. She liked as much light as possible at all times of the day, it didn’t have to be sunlight just as long as it was bright.
The bathroom was a small square with a shower stall that was covered with a clear plastic shower curtain with coral and fish on the bottom. As you walked in, there was just enough room to walk between the toilet and the sink. Next to the stool was a litter box. There was a wooden cabinet over the toilet for towels. The cabinet under the sink was just big enough to hold toilet paper and a few necessities.
Her shower had been quick, because she was anxious to get going, and she padded out into the bedroom with a large powder blue towel wrapped around her. She dried her hair with the blow dryer before putting lotion on her arms and legs. Feeling fresh and clean, she was ready to put on her clothes. She never bothered with makeup. She figured her face was too plain and makeup wouldn’t help it anyway. Her hair always had a bit of a curl to it, so most of the time she let it hang freely-unless it was summer, and then the hair was just too much.
It was 10 a.m. by time she got to the bus stop, but it would take her some time to get across town to the shop. She got a seat across from someone reading the daily news paper, and she couldn’t help but notice that the cover story was about two women who had been found dead with strange markings carved into their stomachs. There had been signs that the women might have given birth, but sources couldn’t confirm that. She cringed and turned away. ‘This is why I don’t read the paper and watch the news. Oh God, please comfort their families,’ she thought. Trying to clear the image of the women from her mind, she turned her attention to the streets as they flew by.
Forty-five minutes, and one exchange later, Maire got off on the corner of Jefferson and Fifth Avenue. This was one of the nicer parts of town, because it was so close to one of the three colleges in the city. Walking north up Fifth Avenue, she reached the store after a two block walk. The building that housed the store was a funky mauve color that she fell in love with at first sight. The sign above the door read Avalon. To the right of the lettering was an apple tree. The displays in the windows were bright and cheerful with books and boxes of cards facing out, and foil half moons and stars hanging from the ceiling. There was a sign in the window that announced tarot and palm reading as well. Maire hesitated, but after a moment opened the door to enter.
“Hello, welcome to Avalon,” sang a young brunette, who was coming from behind the counter to greet her potential customer more personally. She was wearing one of those new age type dresses that had all the wrinkly material. It was made from swatches of several shades of green, and had long sleeves that billowed at the elbow. “Oh, my…”she gasped once getting a good look at Maire.
Maire’s eyes went wide and she spun round to see what had caused such a reaction from the woman before her. “What? I don’t see anything.” She turned back confused to see the woman reaching out for her hand.
“It’s you. You are surrounded by mystical beings.”
“Iris is here, and you can see her?” Maire was taken aback and looking over her shoulder again.
“No, no, I don’t see anything right this moment; it’s more like I see a residue of something that has been near you previously,” she explained with a smile. Taking Maire’s hand, she looked into the palm, and confirmed her suspicion, “And you will be surrounded with a great many more.”
Feeling very uncomfortable, Maire took her hand back and tried to force a smile. Picking up on Maire’s distress, the woman tried to explain, “I’m sorry. I must have scared you with all this. I’m Allison Scott, I own the store. I’m also a psychic, and I sorta see things that others can’t see.”
‘She knows about Iris? Is that good or bad?’ She struggled, trying to get a bearing on the situation.
“How about we sit down and talk for a bit?” Allison asked, pointing to a round table to the left of the counter. “You just sit here and I’ll get us a drink. Is grape juice alright?” She pulled the chair out for Maire and waited for her to be seated.
“Sure, that would be ok.” Maire took her seat and the psychic disappeared into a small doorway that was covered with hanging beads.
To nervous to sit still, Maire turned in the chair to take in the store for the first time since entering. There were rows for bookshelves heading towards the back of the shop. Tables and display cases were positioned close to the walls and in front of the room. The shop had to be half the size of the Shack, but things were vibrant with pretty table cloths on the tables. Even the display cases seemed fancy with bright cloth, glitter and confetti in them.
Allison soon emerged from the beaded curtain with two glasses of grape juice in hand. Placing one in front of Maire and the other on the table next to her seat, she sat down and questioned, “Did you come in with something in mind, or were you just curious?”
“Well, I was looking at your webpage, and I do have some questions.” Maire admitted anxiously after a sip of juice. “Could you tell me about vampires please?”
“You’re not the type who’d normally come in here. And you, certainly, are not the type to be asking about vampires,” she paused to think. Biting her lip and giving a quick nod, she had made up her mind. “How about this; first, you tell me about the mystic beings that surround you? Then you tell me why you want to know about vampires?” she suggested with caution.
“I guess that’s fair,” Maire replied sheepishly. She took a deep breath and prepared herself for the worst. “I see and talk to my guardian angel. I call her Iris, because when ever she is near you can smell irises.”
“How often do you see her?”
“I can’t say how often, because she comes and goes at weird times. But I have been seeing her since I was ten years old.”
Allison’s smiled just a bit, and tried to look sympathetic, “That couldn’t have made your teen years easy.”
This was going easier than expected, and some to the tension left Maire’s back. “No, not really. I had a lot of trouble with people believing me. Some people were just cruel about it.”
“How about the vampires?”
“That’s because of Iris. I need to find out everything I can about them, because…”she stopped and her eyes shifted from side to side, remembering where she was, “It’s my job to help one find salvation.” She finished in a small voice. It sounded impossible even to her.
Allison sat back with raised brows. “You’re going to convert a vampire?”
“Yes, in a manner of speaking,” she admitted, feeling stupid.
Allison took it in and turned it over in her mind for several moments, then stated, “You’re either insane, or you have even bigger issues going with the vampires than I do. Thing is, I don’t think you’re insane. I can plainly see the signature of the angel on you. If that’s what it is.”
“You don’t think that Iris is an angel?” Maire leaned forward, her surprise showing clearly on her face.
“There are things out there that can make themselves appear to be whatever we humans want to believe them to be. However, it is hard for them to pull off the scent that is said to accompany angels. I guess you can say I’m not one to believe in everything I can’t see. I do require some proof.” She leaned forward, “What made you so certain that I was the right person to help you with vampires? I guess since you were looking at the website, you were researching the topic online?”
“Something about your page seemed very personal. It just seemed like you knew something that the others didn’t. It was a feeling that I got, I guess.”
Allison smiled, but before she could talk a customer had walked in. “Give me a moment,” she said, patting Maire on the hand and rising from her chair.
Maire watched as Allison sold a tarot deck and a book on how to use them to the middle aged women in a black and gray pants suit. Within moments the transaction was over and she had returned to the table to resume their conversation. “Ok, I guess that leaves me to hold up my end of things, right? I’ll tell you what I didn’t put on the webpage. I’ll tell you, because I want you to be very careful with what you are about to do. And I think I can trust you with the information.” Maire nodded in response to the words and she continued, “It was so personal, because my father is a vampire. My psychic ability comes from his vampire blood.” She stopped and took up the ceremonial knife that had been setting on the table next to a deck of cards, and cut her palm with it. The cut closed almost instantly. She looked at Maire in acknowledgement. “I have some of their ability to heal. If the damage is small, I will heal very quickly. That’s my proof that what I’m telling you is true.”
“Do you drink blood too?”
“Oh, goodness, no. I’m human in everything else.” Maire nodded with relief. After a short silence Allison went on to explain, “Vampires aren’t the dead things you see in movies. They’re very much alive and their hearts do beat. So the walking corpse thing is an out. I do believe that they stay alive by the life force they get from the blood. But I’m not really sure how they get nourishment from it, it just works somehow. And they can go out during the day, as well as at night. If you have ever seen a very pale and weak person, who seemed to be livelier at night, then they might have been a vampire in disguise.”
“I thought that vampires were really strong and couldn’t tolerate the sun?”
Allison took a drink of the grape juice, then answered, “They can tolerate a bit of sun. It weakens them for some reason. It makes them almost as weak as a human. That’s one reason a lot of them don’t like to go out in the day. How would you like having the strength of 10 men at night, but then be as weak as one during the day? They would be easier to damage during the day too. Still, there are those who are trying to fit in with the everyday world. They can pass for human.”
“So you can’t really spot them if you see them in the day?”
“Well, they will seem a little faster and stronger than humans, but most people just over look that. It’s almost impossible to tell unless they want you to notice, though. They are very close to being human. I mean, most of them were at one point human, after all.”
“Most?” Maire’s eyes got a little wider.
“Yeah, I’ve heard stories of those who say they were born from vampire parents, but I’ve never met them. All I know for sure is that breeding between a human woman and a male vampire is possible. I’m not even certain that a female vampire can have a male human’s child.”
“Why would they have a problem?”
“I’ve just never heard of it, and there are not a lot of birth announcements in the vampire realm. And trust me, I do pay attention.” Seeing the next question in Maire’s face, she added, “Vampires are usually made by a sharing of the vampire’s blood.”
“Eww,” Maire’s nosed crinkled and she frowned, showing her disgust at the thought.
Allison laughed, “They drink blood to live and that little part grosses you out?”
“That’s them, not a human drinking blood. When the humans start doing it, it’s gross,” she answered in all seriousness. “So, if you needed too, how would you defend yourself against them?”
“Crosses will keep them at bay, and holy water will cause blistering of the flesh. Getting to holy ground should work in a pinch, if you need to get away from them. Silver will do some real damage to them. Something about the silver keeps them from healing,” she paused to have a drink of her grape juice. “They can only be killed by decapitation, burning or total destruction of the heart. And I do mean total destruction. Ramming a sharp object into their chest will not do it; you have to stop the heart from beating completely, or it will heal itself.”
Maire put her fingers to her temples and moved them in tiny circles, “This is all too much to believe.”
“I’m sorry that you got picked to do this. If your angel isn’t the real thing, this is a hell of a cruel joke. Hell, it’s cruel either way. Vampires really shouldn’t be messed with. You do understand that you are their primary food source?” Allison looked into her eyes for some sign of understanding. Not seeing the amount of caution she had hoped to see, she added, “I wish there was a protection spell I could set you up with, but something tells me you would object to that.”
“No, no spells.” She shook her head and started waving her hands back and forth. Then she stopped. “Wait, you do magic?”
“Yes, I’m Wiccan.”
“Oh, that’s someone who does witchcraft, right?”
“Sort of, but there is more to it than that. I worship the Goddess. It’s a nature based religion. Purely white magic, nothing that would be evil,” Allison said, trying to be reassuring.
“I’m Catholic,” Maire announced feeling more confident.
“You know, it just occurred to me that I didn’t get your name.”
She slapped herself mentally for getting so personal and not giving out her name to begin with. “Sorry, I’m Maire O’Fergus.”
Allison offered her hand to Maire. “Well, Maire, it has been a pleasure to meet you.”
Maire took her hand with a smile. “Yes, thank you.”
“You wouldn’t happen to know the name of your vampire would you?”
“No, I didn’t get his name. I’ve only met him once, and he was not in the most responsive of moods.”
Allison took a business card from the holder that had been sitting on the table with them, “Take this, it has my cell number on it. When you find out his name, give me a call; maybe I’ll know something about him.”
****
It was 3:08 p.m. and Maire was seated in a puffy, black leather office chair across from her psychiatrist, Dr. Palmer. She hated the yellow walls of the room, because they looked like mustard. It wasn’t a good color for interior walls. It wasn’t a good color for any kind of walls, for that matter. The plants that were spread around the room were nice, but they made the room look like a jungle. A big intimidating mustard colored jungle. She hated these visits. The man across from her in the expensive suit would ask her a bunch of questions and not believe her answers. Then he would put her on more medication that she wouldn’t take. It was a waste of time, but she was being forced to be here. The courts had been clear on that.
“Are you still seeing Iris?”
Her protective wall was in place and she was ready for the question. For some reason the sessions were always the same list of questions. She didn’t want to lie, so she told the truth. “Yes.”
Dr. Palmer was middle aged and going bald. He was tall and a little pudgy around the middle and in the face. He showed no emotion as he wrote on his notepad. “How many times have you seen her since our last meeting?”
‘That’s right, write it down. I’m nuts, and you know it,’ she thought before answering, “Twice. Once to tell me we needed to meet, and then we met.”
“What were you doing when you saw her?”
“The first time I was in my bed. The meeting was in the chapel like always.”
“What did she tell you?”
‘Oh, you would really love this one. Maybe I should tell you just for the sheer fun of it? No, that would definitely get me locked up.’ She took a deep breath and let it out. Calm was what she wanted to convey today, not anything that would get her in trouble. “That there was someone I was supposed to help find salvation. Same as always.”
“Miss O’Fergus are you taking your medication?”
Everything in her told her mind to lie. ‘Darn it, I have no choice,’ she thought. “Of course, I’m taking my medication.” She even looked sincere.
“You do realize, Miss O’Fergus, if you don’t take your medication that is grounds for me to place you back into the James Davenport Mental Health facility?”
She leaned forward in her chair. In a calm voice, rationalized, “I do realize that, and I’m telling you that I’m taking them. I’m not hurting anyone. I’ve been working and not causing trouble for anyone. There isn’t any reason to put me back in there. I’m not doing anything wrong.”
“Then, perhaps, it is time for you to take my recommendation for disability seriously. I believe you keep having these delusions because of your everyday stress. You’re employment is a part of that stress.”
“I don’t want to quit my job. I really am doing ok. I don’t think I am having any problems. What Iris tells me to do makes people happy.”
“I don’t believe that is true of every case. Remember Mrs. Roberts? She wasn’t very pleased with your actions.”
Tension was creeping into her back and it was harder to remain as calm, but she kept her voice level, “I regret that. I have tried really hard to make sure that doesn’t happen again. If the person refuses me, I leave them be.”
The room fell silent for a long moment. Maire looked at her hands as the doctor wrote on his notepad.
“Let’s try another medication.” He pulled out a prescription pad and started writing, “This is a new medication, but your insurance should cover it.”
‘Thank you, God!’ She looked out the tiny window. She felt the tension release a bit, but didn’t let the wall come down yet. She needed all her emotions to stay in check until she was out of the office and in her own home.
With new prescription in hand she walked out of the office, glad to escape the mustard colored jungle one more time.
Sign up to rate and review this story