The True Accuracy of Fortune Telling

Emma, Solz's girl, has been raving about a fortune teller in town. Apparently, she's the be all and end all of fortune tellers. "She's got, like, loads of celebrities as private clients," Emma says.
"Private clients?" I said over a mojito. We were at the Borderline Club. Solz was playing a set and Julie, I, Michael, Kristy and Paul were sequestered away in a corner at a funky booth with faux-leather seats that has some semblance of privacy thanks to a flimsy red curtain encircling the booth. A dim lamp painted with red tulips shone down on our table, which was crammed full of drinks. "Celebs? Like who?"
"I don't know," Emma admitted. "Like I said, they're private clients. And Madame Zara is a huge stickler for confidentiality. That's why the celebs go to her, because they know she'll never tell on them. But I have it on good authority that she has at least seven A-list celebs visiting her on a regular basis. Cat insists Geoorge Clooney, maybe even Kate Hudson, visits her. And that Jennifer Lopez wants her to be her very own personal fortune teller and travel around in her entourage but Madame Zara turned her down because she says her gifts are intended to be shared with all of humanity."
Julie rolled her eyes at me over Emma's head. We've met Emma's friend, Cat, and she is the ditziest thing to hit the world since Paris Hilton.
"You all have to see her," Emma insisted. "Cat took me for a reading yesterday and she was so accurate. She knew lots of stuff like what I was studying and that I had a musician for a boyfriend."
"Solz?" Julie raised an eyebrow. "Well, he's a DJ but I don't know if you'd call a DJ a musician."
"Close enough," Emma insisted. "And her predictions were really interesting too. She said that I would have a close encounter with a dark man on a moonlit night in the fall and to be careful of his words."
"A dar man on a mooonlit night?" Paul winked at us. "Did you tell Solz that?"
Emma ignored him. "And she said that I would live in two different countries before finally chosing to live on an island for the rest of my life. And that I would have three children."
Well, three children is usually the average, I thought, and Emma was pretty bronzed. Madame Zara might have taken that into account that Emma liked the sun, sand and sea and all that jazz.
"And," Emma said, her voice taking on a darker tone. She was about to reveal something big, or at least a good story. We all leaned closer. "When she did Cat's reading, she told her to be very careful on roads on dark nights. And sure enough, the next day, Cat was driving home from her cousin's on Gabba Avenue, where you all know they never put up enough street lamps and the trees always block out the moonlight, when a dog ran out of nowhere and she had to hit the brakes real hard. Her car nearly swerved into the other lane and into an oncoming Volvo but luckily, she managed to pull the car out of the way. She told me she could have almost died. Imagine! How accurate was Madame Zara?"
I bit my lip and exchange glances with Julie again, who wasn't even bothering to hide her skeptical look. We've seen Cat drive before and she drove like a mad woman. Half the time, she's on the phone or doing her nails or putting on lipstick or something and not even looking at the road. She's come close to losing her license because of this. It wouldn't be hard picturing her in constant almost-accidents. And that piece of advice about being careful on roads on dark nights, isn't that a common piece of advice like looking both ways before crossing the street and making sure you turn off the iron before you leave the house?
"You have to go see her," Emma was saying. "When she took my hand, I had chills up and down my spine. It was amazing."
Julie coughed. "I don't know," she murmured into her rum and coke. "I'm kind of a huge skeptic. What about you, Paul?"
Paul grinned. "When you've lived as long as I have, sweetheart, you don't really care to know what the future holds for you. You think it one day at a time."
Both Kristy and I had to keep from rolling our eyes. No one else at the table but us knew that Paul was 117 years old. But I suppose that when you are pretty much assured of your immortality, you wouldn't care what the future held for you. Your future is pretty much secure.
Emma wasn't giving up easily. "Agatha?"
I swirled a mint leaf in my mohito. "Hmmm," I said. "I wouldn't mind giving her a try. What's her address?"
Julie's and Michael's jaws had dropped to the table. "Are you serious?" Julie spluttered. "You go to a fortune teller?" She leaned forward, almost coming close to knocking over Emma's Long Island Tea as she reached out and put a hand on my forehead. "Are you having a fever? Is this truly my friend, Agatha, Queen of the Skeptics, Empress of Cynics?"
"Watch out, honey." Paul pulled her back before she could do further damage to the drinks precariously balancing on the tiny table.
I shrugged. "Hey, why not?" I said. "Let's give it a go. Try new things. Life's too short not to take chances." I threw that last one out for Paul.
Emma was grinning, openly thriumphant at having made a convert. Kind of. She was scribbling down the address on a napkin. She shoved it towards me. "You won't be disappointed," she promised.
I smiled sweetly, pocketing the napkin. "I'm sure it would be very interesting."

***

"Are you really, really, really serious?" Kristy said the next day as we stood outside the faded red-bricked building.
I shrugged. "Julie's right, I am a skeptic through and through. But then I was a skeptic about vampires and look what I am now. A vampire." I grinned. "Anyway, the real reason why I want to go is, well, if she's an honest to goodness fortune teller, do you think she'd be able to see that I am vampire and that I will live to who knows how long?"
Kristy caught on. She grinned.
I grinned too. "Come on," I said, shouldering my bag and starting for the dark green door with the gold elaborate Z painted on it. "Let's see how good this Madame Zara is."
We pushed the door open and stepped in. Instantly, we were greeted by a cloud of heavy incense.
The room within was dark and small. There were candles everywhere and dried herbs hung on the walls. Bookshelves crammed with all kinds of knick knacks and old junk. Two huge black cats curled up in wicker baskets. They were so still that if I was a human, I wouldn't be able to tell if they were real but as a vampire, I could smell their cat scent and sense their blood pumping through their veins.
Kristy stepped out from behind me. Instantly, both cats came to life. They narrowed their eyes at Kristy and all their hair rose on their backs. They let out simultaneous hisses.
"There, there, Emerald, Antoinette," said a low, husky voice. "It's just a couple of customers. There, there."
The low, husky voice belonged to a woman dressed in black seated behind your standard fortune-teller's table. It was round and covered with a heavy velvet cloth. She didn't have a crystal ball, which was a bit disappointing, but she had a pack of tarot cards half-sheathed in a black satin cloth, a round mirror and a complicated piece of thread and beads tangled up together.
"My name is Madame Zara," she informed us. "You seek my assistance, no?" she gestured with long red and gold talons. "Sit. I will tell you your fortune. Fifty dollars for an individual reading each."
Kristy and I looked at each other. Emma hadn't mentioned that she would cost a fortune.
"What happened to sharing her gifts with the world or some such?" Kristy murmured very softly so only I could hear.
I sighed and cursed Emma and sat down, preparing to kiss fifty bucks good bye. So. Fortune telling was indeed a profitable business if they could go around charging fifty dollars a reading off gullible people like Emma and Cat. I should go into fortune telling too.
"You will get your money's worth," Madame Zara promised. "First I will read your palm, then you will shuffle the cards and I will tell you what they say. Then I will cast the runes. Or rather, you will cast the runes and I will tell you what they say. And for another thirty dollars, you get this." She whipped out a tape recorder from under the table.
Kristy and I stared blankly at it. I had visions of Mafia and gangsters coming in and having their readings taped secretly by Madame Zara and turned over to the CIA. A little extra on the side for fortune tellers.
"For extra thirty dollars," Madame Zara clarified, "I will tape your reading for you and you can replay it at home. Many people find this useful. The reading is long and there are many details to remember."
An extra thirty bucks for a lousy cassette? I'm not even sure I have a cassette player anymore. Maybe Madame Zara should extend her sight a little further into the future and offer to make DVD or MP3 recordings. Anyway, I was a vampire, I remember minor details real easy now.
"Erm, no thanks," I said. "I have a good memory."
Madame Zara shrugged. "It is your choice." she whipped the tape recorder back under the table and cleared her throat. "All right then. We will start. Give me your hand."
I wasn't sure which one she wanted so I just stuck out my right hand. She took it and turned it over so it faced palm up. She stroke my hand slowly, closing her eyes. A relaxed, serene look came over her face. Kristy rolled her eyes at me.
"You have lived through a long, hard life," Madame Zara said. "You have faced many obstacles and because of this you have found it hard to trust people. You are often cynical but this is because you have found the need to put a shield around you, to protect yourself from other people. But when those who persist and are true and honest manage to win your friendship and trust, they also win your unending loyalty."
It was my turn to roll my eyes at Kristy.
"You are creative, faithful and kind-hearted. You tend to be pessimistic. Do not fall into this trap which would keep you from enjoying life to its fullest. You must learn to expect good things too."
I hadn't realised I was shelling out fifty bucks for advice I could get from an agony aunt in the latest women's magazine. Which would have just cost me maybe seven bucks for the whole magazine, recipes and knitting patterns included on the back pages.
"You have also matured greatly because of this. At times, you feel as if you are far more mature than your age group. Because of this, you tend to make friends with people who are far older than you are."
I thought of Paul and tried not to smirk.
"What's the future like for me?" I asked.
Madame Zara traced some random lines on my palm. I could feel the blood pulsating through her hand, her wrist, her fingers. "If you put in the effort, you will suceed greatly in life," she promised. "You will find it difficult to find a man who satisfies you. You will continue to hold out for the perfect man. In the end, the one you settle for will not be perfect, but he will be perfect for you."
"Erm, right," I said skeptically. Whatever that meant.
"You will lead a long and happy life," Madame Zara continued. "Though you might be plagued by colds and coughs and headaches. Always take plenty of organic herbs."
She was a fraud all right. Vampires are eternally healthy. I will never again suffer from cough or cold. Maybe the occaisonal headache from people like Emma and Paul.
"When will she die?" Kristy asked bluntly. I rolled my eyes at her. Trust her to get right to the point.
Madame Zara's hand froze. "You will be plagued by a long illness some time later in your life," she promised. "You will suffer greatly then. But with the help of your friends, you will come through this. And you will live until you are old and grey. I see grey in your future." She waved a hand theatrically in the air and opened her eyes and smiled serenely at me. "And you will have many grandchildren."

***

Half an hour later, Kristy and I stumbled out of Madame Zara's door. We barely made it into the car before we started laughing.
"Many grandchildren!" Kristy howled. "Grey in your hair!"
"I haven't seen any grey in Paul's hair yet," I spluttered. "But you never know. Maybe it'll come when he hits 200."
"Can vampires even have grandchildren?" Kristy asked.
I shrugged. "I doubt it. And who knows? Maybe I'll be some old senile grey vampire in the future and I'd have turned many humans into vampires and they would be my children. I could be Mama Vampire." I smirked.
Kristy laughed. "What about the illness that would plague you?"
"More likely the loss of $50 and the waste of thirty minutes of my eternal life will plague me," I snorted. "That prety much settles it, Kristy. She's a fraud. I half-hoped she would go nuts in the first five minutes and start calling me a demon and turning me out of her door. No such luck."
"Her cats are better at the business than she is," Kristy commented. "They picked up on me right away. Did you see that?"
"Yeah," I said. "They know dog when they see it." Kristy punched me in the arm. "And I bet they don't charge as much as Madame Zara does." I chuckled.

Supernatural Murder Investigators - that's what we are.

I've found out more about the Dale Creek murders. There were seven murders in all - two homeless men, two high school girls, a guy who was out walking his dog, a Dale Creek Hospital intern who was attacked on his way home from work and some old woman named Rose McKirk. All of the murders took place after dark and the victims were all attacked outside their homes except for Rose McKirk who was apparently murdered in her mansion, Grey Gates. I checked the local Dale Creek paper and apparently there was a lot of hoo-hah about the whole thing. People were getting freaked out and they nearly had a curfew enforced on the town. Then, nothing else happened and after a while everyone sort of forgot all about it. There had been two suspects - Jonathan Roberts and Oliver Plovers but they were never charged with anything.
It's all very intriguing. I told Kristy about it and she's interested too. We're now tentatively planning a drive down to Dale Creek to investigate further. Paul says we should leave it alone. But then, he's 117 years old and a boring old codger so we're not going to listen to him.

Dale Creek Murders

Most of today was spent shelving books in dusty aisles that have probably never been visited by anyone in years. Do the cleaning ladies even get that far?
I found a possible lead in the vampire research. Turns out that there were a series of mysterious killings in Dale Creek, which is about four hours' drive from here. There were no marks on the victims to signify how they died. Then, the killings just stopped. Very intriguing. I was about to find out more when my boss, Andrea, swooped down on me with a list of tasks as long as my arm. So tomorrow I intend to sneak into the microfiche room while she is busy with the Children's Reading Hour and research the Dale Creek murders further.

Southern Comfort

Tonight, Julie's on a date with Paul and Solz is doing homework (sucker!!!) for his summer classes - he failed two units. Michael is "out with the boys", meaning he's having beer and pizza and watching soccer while bonding over manly things like burps and farts with Fred and Wes. Or this is how I imagine his boys nights to be like.
I'm at loose ends so I invited Kristy over for a night of beers and Southern Comfort. One of the great things about being a vampire/werewolf is that you can really hold your licquor (although, as said before, this puts serious restraints on your licquor budget). Also that you can drink beer nonstop without getting a beer gut. Solz is still trying to figure out how I can drink whiskey and vodka straight up now. I used to be a real squeamish queen about that - I only took my whiskey with coke and vodka with lime. Now, I sit on the fire escape of my apartment with Kristy, each of us taking occasional gulps of Southern Comfort straight from the bottle. I think she's still more comfortable just hanging out with me, than if Solz and Julie or Michael and Paul comes along. Kristy is still Kristy, werewolf or not - she's still got that antisocial thing hanging off her like a mantle.
"Still no luck with the library research on our histories?" Kristy asks me.
"Not yet." I take a swig of bourbon. "But I haven't much time to work on it. My boss keeps putting me to work shelving books. I think I'm developing biceps from lifting books off the trolley and shelving them." I look out over the street. There was a light rain earlier and the air is now thick with humidity and the warm smells of garbage. The weather's been pretty hazy lately. It's a good thing I now spend most of my days in Greenwood, where it's air-conditioned. "I've tried researching vampires before," I added. "Didn't find anything."
"I haven't found anything on werewolves either." Kristy looks up at the sky. She is nursing a beer and taking occasional swigs of Southern Comfort at the same time. She's gone a bit melancholy tonight. Streetlight glints off her blonde hair, turning it yellowish-brown, reminding me of her fur when she turns wolf. "It's weird, isn't it? This makes me feel as if we're the only one of our kind on this planet. Where's the rest of them gone?"
I shrugged. "Trying to live their lives as best as they can, like we are, I guess."
Kristy snorted. "What, you mean by biting people and passing on their curse before taking a hike?"
I pass her the Southern Comfort; she's getting a little too bitter tonight. She takes a long drink of it. I can hear the sound of the bourbon going down her throat, extra loud to my sensitive vampire ears. "By the way," I saud curiously, "whatever did go on between you and Bryce Johnson? Not to pry or anything but..."
Kristy set down the bottle with a loud thump on the concrete. "You are prying," she informed me. Her voice is a little slurred now. This is our second bottle of Southern, she's on her sixth beer, I'm on my fourth. She's been drinking more than I have and I have a sneaking suspicion I can drink better than she can.
"Yeah, okay, so I am," I admit as I grab the bourbon. "Are you going to tell me or what?"
"Yeah, all right," she said. "Might as well."
I wait as she sip her beer. "Well?" I demanded.
She rests her arm on her knee. "Bryce used to come into the hardware store where I used to work. He came in all the time. He was always trying to get me to go on a date with him." She snorted. "Jerkass. He thought he was a real charmer, trying to be all slick and everything with me. He came off sounding more like a chauvinistic little prick."
"Yeah, that sounds like Bryce," I agreed.
"He knew this other guy who worked with me at the store. Got him to pass on my contact details and everything. I should have sued that guy for breach of privacy. Or torn out his liver."
"I opt for the liver," I said helpfully.
She laughed. "Anyway, Bryce began coming over to my house all the time. He'd drop by at all hours, used to really irritate the shit out of me. I was really rude to him but that didn't seem to discourage him. He used to like it, said I had spirit." We looked at one another and started laughing.
"Where did he get that from, his mom's romance novels?" I gasped through my laughter.
Kristy snickered. "Who knows. Anyway, he showed up at my house, unannounced like usual, on a full moon night."
I raised my eyebrow.
"Yep," she affirmed, grinning. "Poor old Bryce thought I had bought a rabid dog to keep jerks like him away. It totally changed his disposition towards me. He came into the store the next day, demanding that I pay for his medical bills. I had bitten his leg, torn out a good chunk of flesh."
"Ew," I said.
"Tell me about it. He tasted like shit. Anyway, I told him flat out that I didn't know what he was talking about and that there was no way I was paying for his med bills. But I kind of hinted that I had bought some crazy bloodhound and that I'd sic it on him the next time he comes around. I must have really scared him that night because that was the last I saw of him, except on campus when he scutters away like a frightened rabbit everytime he sees me. Good riddance to bad rubbish."
"He didn't give you any problems after that?" I asked.
"No, but his cousin did, the one I worked with, and so did all the other guys at the store. They had all been friends since childhood, including Bryce. I quit my job soon after that. Wasn't much of a hassle, I didn't like it there anyway. The guys were all jerks and they didn't like me because I never tried to be friendly with any of them."
"Can't be much of a loss," I agreed. "Not if they're friends with Bryce."
"Tell me about it."

The Latest

Kristy has been hanging out a lot more with me, Julie and Solz. At first, she was more than just a little wary (and so were Julie and Solz, who couldn't understand how we had gone from being enemies to friends overnight). But I wore her down with constant invitations and now she comes out with us on an occasional night. Like usual, everyone's a little more friendly after alcohol. Eventually, I introduced her to Paul. Needless to say, they were both a little wary of one another too, but it's all worked out well now. I think it helps Kristy to meet people who are like her ... different from everyone else.
Yeah, that's me. Agatha, the Vampire Therapist. *snort*
On the human-social side, Solz has been playing more sets at different clubs, which means we've been getting better treatment at more clubs. All right, Solz!!! Julie and I have been teasing him about being a minor celebrity now. Like usual, he's been a vain old prick.
It's summer now and I've gotten a job at the Greenwood Library. It's a pretty nice place and it's a job I can more or less tolerate. Much better than waiting on bossy grandmothers at Ulliver Cafe like last summer. I walked out within the first hour. And it's useful too. I've been making use of the research and microfiche rooms to look through history - to see if I can find out anything about vampires or werewolves or even witches or any other kind of supernatural creatures in the past or even now. So far, it's been interesting but I've turned up nothing useful. It seems that real vampires and werewolves are a pretty secretive group. Still, I'm looking. I'm pretty sure I'd find something eventually.

Myths and royalties and godfathers.

Last weekend, I headed down to Vargrave's with Julie, Paul, Michael and a couple of other friends. During Solz's second set, I managed to corner Paul and told him about what I had found out about Kristy Helleughes.
"A werewolf, huh?" he mused. "No wonder she's always in such a bitchy mood."
I frowned at him. "She's had a really hard time of it, what with the deaths of her friends and being responsible for her family's deaths."
"Yeah, I guess I'd be a bitch too if that had happened to me." Paul took a sip of his beer. "So, you fought with a werewolf. Are you okay? No serious injuries?"
I nodded dismissively. "I'm fine. But have you ever met any werewolves before? I never knew they existed."
"Oh, yeah, I've heard of them," Paul said. "Vampires and werewolves don't mix much, you know. I've met a few. They tend to stick to their own cliques, otherwise they're loners, like Kristy. I hear they've got their own royalty. Like, werewolf lords or something. Kind of like the Godfather of the mafia."
"A werewolf godfather? Are you kidding me?" I suddenly had visions of Marlon Brando at an Italian restaurant with a huge juicy raw steak in front of him and a long bushy tail sprouting from the back of his seat, looking kind of like the wolf from Little Red Riding Hood. Then a thought occured to me. "Do we have any vampire godfathers?" I asked curiously.
Paul shook his head. "Not that I know of." He frowned. "There have been rumors, though. Of a vampire king and a vampire queen. Supposedly they're the oldest living vampires in the world."
"Sort of like an Anne Rice Queen of the Damned type?" I gave him a doubtful look. It sounded too freaky and bad-fiction-like to be true.
He shrugged. "Those are what the rumors say. But I don't think most vampires believe that. It's just a rumor."
I sighed. The real vampire world was cloaked in myths and rumors, just like its fiction counterparts. What bullshit this was. Couldn't someone just bring everyone together and create, like, a proper vampire government with registered vampires and stuff like that or something? It would make things easier for a new vampire like me to find out about stuff.
Paul patted my hand. "There's never been any sign of them before, anyway, so I think it hardly matters whether they do exist or not."
I nodded, swirling the ice in my whiskey-and-coke. "So, anyway," I said. "Back to Kristy. She says she's never met any werewolves in her life - I mean, besides the ones that changed her. Do you know if there's any of them around town?"
Paul frowned. "I saw a couple of them before, months ago. On the streets. But that's all." He shrugged. "Like I said, they prefer to keep to themselves. They're an odd lot, they are."
"Yeah," I said. "I guess they are. Like vampires, really." I grinned at Paul.
He laughed, then we fell silent as one of the bar guys comes by and clears our table of empty glasses.
When he left, I turned to Paul. "So werewolves exist. Who else does? Witches? Elves?"
"I've heard of witches before, but I've never met one," Paul said. "Apparently you don't want to get on the bad side of a witch. I've never heard of elves existing." He laughed. "Maybe you'd want to run over to Ireland and check it out."
I sipped my drink. Paul was making a silly drunk joke but the idea actually had a sort of appeal to me. Traveling the world, discovering new creatures that I never knew truly existed before, meeting them, talking to them, finding out about them. It was like being an explorer from the old British Empire days or something.
"It's so freaky," I mused, "becoming a vampire and then discovering this whole new world - that vampires exist, and then now discovering werewolves exist too, and even witches, and who knows what else..." I glanced at Paul. "Aren't you curious to know more?"
He shrugged. "I've been around quite a bit in my time. Guess you could say I've become a bit jaded. Me, I prefer to keep to myself. Don't go looking for trouble and trouble won't find you."
I snorted. "I've tried that, and believe me, Paul, trouble always finds me, whether I go looking for it or not." I shrugged, took a gulp of my drink.
Paul looked at me over the top of his beer. "Well, I guess it makes life more interesting for you."
I laughed. "Oh, yeah, it does." I finished my drink and set down the glass, stood up. "Come on, let's go join the others before my boyfriend starts getting weird ideas about you and me again."

Guilty Secrets and dinner

Tonight I had dinner with Michael. It was so good to see him, I cannot tell you. I hadn't seen him in almost a week and a half because we've both been so busy with college and stuff. And it felt like we hadn't seen each other in years. Well, at least it felt like that to me, what with everything going on and that whole thing with Kristy, so much has happened.
And you know what really sucked? It would be so nice to be able to tell Michael what's been going on, to get his opinion of it, to just have him listen to me and talk it over with me. But I can't. This really sucks. Sometimes I just feel so guilty over the fact that I have to hide this big secret from him.
And he knows. Over our pasta carbonara, he suddenly asked me, "Are you sure everything's all right?"
"Yeah, everything's fine," I answered. "Just a lot of work, you know...my mind's all on college and classes and papers and reports right now." I laughed. "Not very exciting stuff, but that's college for you."
He reached over and took my hand. "You sure there's nothing else that's bothering you?"
"No...not at all," I said quickly. "What makes you think that?"
He shrugged. "Just... I don't know. You seem a little more distracted than usual. I'm just concerned about you." He shrugged again and smiled at me. "Don't mind me. I'm just happy to see you again after so long. I want to see you happy."
I smiled back at him. "I am happy, Michael." Shit, do I feel guilty right now! "And, you know, as I told you, my relationship with Kristy Helleughes seems to be improving, so all is really good right now."
He smiled again. "I'm glad to know that. Even though she does seem like such a weird chick. That's great, Agatha."
I shrugged. "Yeah, well, one enemy less is one friend more. Or something like that." I laughed. "So how about you? How's that big economics project of yours going? What did the prof say today?"
I wish I could be as open with Michael as he is with me. He tells me... everything. Sometimes I wonder...should I just tell him that I'm a vampire? Sometimes I just really, really want to spill my secret. But something always holds me back. I'm not sure what. I think I'm just afraid he might not love me when he finds out I'm a vampire. That he might think me a freak, something inhumane, like what Kristy thought of me. That he wouldn't love me anymore. I worry that Julie and Solz might freak out too. But I worry more about what Michael might think.
Jeez. It's difficult being a vampire after all.

Talking.

It was a pretty good thing that Kristy and I had our report to work on. Otherwise, meeting up again would have been one awkward situation and we wouldn't know what to say to each other.
As it is, when we first met up in class, we barely said a word to one another, and just handed up our draft and agreed to meet up in the library the next day to finally finish up that lousy report. In the library, our initial conversation consisted mostly of this:
Me: "Um... I think this should go on page six."
Kristy: "Yeah? You think so?"
Me: "Yeah. If that's okay with you."
Kristy: "Yeah, it's okay with me. If it's okay with you."
Me: "Okay, I'm putting it on page six."
Kristy: "Yeah. Okay. Cool."

Or:

Kristy: "I'll do the bibliography now. If that's fine with you."
Me: "Yeah, sure. If you want to do it."
Kristy: "Yeah, I'll do it. Unless you want to do it."
Me: "Yeah, I'm fine with it."
Kristy: "Okay."

Jeez, it was like, awkward, awkward, awkward.

Anyway, when we finally quit for a break, I just glanced over at her. And I just had to say something. So I said: "So are you feeling any better? I mean after that night? I mean, after our fight and all?"
She glanced over at me quickly. "Yeah, yeah I am," she said. "Werewolves heal fast." Her eyes flickered up and down me. "You heal fast too."
I shrugged. "Yeah. Apparently the myths about being killed only by wood are true." I looked at her curiously. "How about you?"
She shrugged. "I have no idea, to tell you the truth."
"What do you mean?" i asked curiously. "You don't know?"
She shrugged. "I mean I don't know. My story's not too different from yours. I was on a camping trip with some friends a few years ago. In a national park. We were hiking."
"Hiking. Jeez," I said. "Sorry. Go on."
"Some wolves - Some wolves - well, they were werewolves but I didn't know that, then - came along one night - the night of the full moon - and attacked us while we were asleep."
I thought about the moon that night that Kristy and I had our memorable fight. There had been a full moon too. So that story was true too!
"I woke up to the sound of my friends screaming," Kristy went on. There were a lot of dark shapes. I thought they were cougars or panthers or something. Something jumped on me, something with red eyes, and it attacked me and I fought back. For some reason, it didn't kill me. I passed out from the pain, and when I came to, I found myself lying in a pile of blood in the middle of the campsite. My friends were all dead and the park rangers had found us. They got me on an ambulance to the hospital, but for some reason, I was barely wounded. Just a bunch of scratches. Strange, because there had been so much blood around me. And I was in a shitload of pain and feeling totally nauseated. But somehow, I was okay. I wasn't seriously injured.
"They released me from the hospital on the second day. There was an inquiry into it. It was wolves that had attacked our campsite, they said. I was lucky to have survived." She let out a hollow laugh. "Lucky. I should have died. I wonder why they didn't kill me."
"Who knows why vampires and werewolves do these things?" I agreed. "It seems more of a random hit and run kind of thing. Bloody hell. We newbies should have a demonstration or a protest or something against that. We want guidelines. We want mentors. Or something."
Kristy cast me a doubtful look. "Anyway, I thought nothing else about it. I had some really bad nightmares, but we put it down to the trauma. I started seeing a counselor at school. Everyone was reassuring me that it wasn't my fault that I had survived and my friends hadn't. That I was lucky." She grimaced. "And then, exactly one month later, it was the full moon. I was feeling sick most of that day. I stayed home from school. And then, I changed." She looked away, her blonde hair falling over her face to hide it. "I tore down the door of my bedroom. The first person I saw was my mother. I remembered thinking that's my mother, what am I doing? but I couldn't stop myself. I killed her, then I killed my dad and my brother too." She buried her face in her hands. "Then I ran out of the house and into the streets. I was terrified and didn't know what had happened to me. It wasn't until dawn that I changed back into myself. I was miles away from home. I stole some clothes and ran home. I saw what I had done, that it was real. I was scared, horrified. I packed some things and took off. I left town."
She glanced away. "I had some savings from a part-time job, I took that and I went away. I just drifted for a few months. I met some other drifters, and I heard about this guy who would get you a new ID and new papers, no questions asked, everything stays confidential, as long as you deliver the cash upfront. I spent most of my savings to get the papers done. Then I took off to another town, got a job, started working. I've been changing towns every few months, until I moved here. It's been a few years, I had some cash saved up, I wanted to start afresh. I wanted a change, a routine life. Well, as routine a life as I can ever get. That's why I started college here." She shrugged. "Work and college, it seemed easy enough to handle. As long as I didn't get close to anyone, I figured my secret was safe. I only turn into a werewolf every full moon. By now, I had managed to control myself during my, um, werewolf stage. I didn't kill anyone anymore. Before that, I locked myself in my room. But soon, I managed to understand better what I was, managed to control myself." She heaved a sigh, a sigh of fatigue and regret. "I only wish I had learnt that control right away. Before I killed my family."
"That wasn't your fault, Kristy," I said gently. "You didn't understand, you didn't even know. If it was anyone's fault that you killed your family, it was whoever that was who first turned you into a werewolf. They had no right. It wasn't your fault."
She shook her head. "Don't you know how many times I've told myself that over and over again? But I can't really bring myself to believe it. So many ifs."
"Oh, Kristy," I said. "That's bullshit. You know you're not responsibly for your family's death."
She looked at me, then laughed. "Somehow, your bluntness makes me feel better," she said dryly. "Thanks. I guess."
"You're welcome. I guess." I sat back and looked at her. "So you're a werewolf," I said. "And I'm a vampire. First I find out that vampires exist. Then I find out werewolves do too. Huh. Who would have thought that? What next? Witches?"
Kristy shrugged. "You never know."
I thought about it. "So all this while, you've never met another werewolf or even a vampire?" I asked.
Kristy frowned, thinking. "No," she said at last. "I think I would have sensed it. I could sense that you were something. Not a werewolf, I knew, but something else. I have sensed it in some other people too, you know, people on the streets, or in a restaurant or something. That they were vampires, or something. But I usually try to avoid them. But you, I couldn't avoid. I saw you in class every week."
"It's so nice to know I really make your week," I said dryly. "So that means there are a lot more vampires than there are werewolves. Either that, or the 'wolves are all in hiding somewhere."
"Yeah," Kristy said. She frowned. "You know, that's really odd."
"Uh-huh. Tell me about it." I twirled my pencil, almost dropped it. I could never really twirl a pencil right. "So tell me," I said. "What's true about werewolf myths? Do you only change during a full moon or what?"
"No," Kristy said. "I can change any other time if I want to. I've tried it. But I don't usually do it. And I have to change during a full moon. No choice. Mandatory rule there."
"They should use you as a calendar in an observatory centre," I joked.
She gave me a startled look, then laughed. "You're really crazy, you know that?" she said.
"So everyone tells me," I said dismissively.
She laughed again. "Now it's your turn," she said. "Tell me how you became a vampire. You said the other night that you only recently became one."
So I told her. I told her all about how I became a vampire, all the stuff I went through, about the other vampires I've met, like Paul and Peter, and about the time I almost killed that high school kid, and so on. I think it was really good for Kristy to actually tell someone what's been going on, after the past few years of keeping it all in. She was way more relaxed after that. We made some vampire-werewolf jokes. Really bad ones. We didn't get much work done, though, but who cares. We're both immortal. At least, we think we are. We don't really know, see, since both our makers didn't bother to let us in on the secret. But we have a lot more time than your average human, so we'll get that report done later.

A very strange night.

I said I had no news for you yesterday. Well, that's all about to change because I have BIG news today.
You would not believe who Kristy Helleughes really is. Or, should I say, what she is.
Maybe I should start from the beginning.
Last night, I was in my flat, rushing to finish up my half of the report draft for Euro History. And I realized that I couldn't finish it without comparing it to some of Kristy's stuff. And I couldn't call her either because she doesn't have a phone. Or so she said. She practically swore at me when I asked her for her number. At that time, I was like "she-esh. Talk about snappish. Talk about being an ultra loner." But that's Kristy, hey, and the less time I spent with her, in person or phone or whatever, the better.
So that left me with basically no choice but to head over to her house with my stuff. Believe me, I didn't want to do that. Why should I take a bus ride and walk through a crummy neighborhood just to see Kristy Helleughes in the middle of the night? But, trust me, I need that grade for Euro History. Badly. So, no choice, Kristy's house. I had her address - she gave it to me pretty grudgingly - but hell, it wasn't as if I was going to be stopping by all the time. I don't want anything happening to me the way whatever happened to Bryce Johnson when he went over to her place back then.
So it was me and my pile of notes and report drafts heading downtown on a smelly bus to Kristy's. She lives in this crappy neighborhood where there is a high possibility of you getting your neck slashed as you walk down the street. I think there's a crackhouse a street away from her street. Anyway, I don't have any qualms myself about walking the streets, not ever since I became a vampire.
So I finally arrive at her house - to find that no one is in. Actually, I wondered if she gave me the right address because the house looked as if it had been abandoned for ages. Dilapidated, broken down, sagging porch, the garden looks like a real jungle. But the place reeked, man it reeked of dog. There was that smell of dog everywhere - so much the stronger to me, thanks to my vampire senses, and I recognized that scent as the same one constantly floating about Kristy. So it must have been her home. I half-expected a pack of wild dogs to burst out from the garden and take me down.
Well, it pretty much pissed me off that she wasn't around when I had come all this way downtown to see her. So I walked around to the back to see if she was maybe there or something - I didn't want to come all this way for nothing. So I snuck around to the back of the house, hacking my way through all those weeds and crap and constantly getting hit by the worst animalistic stench ever. Like, it was bad. And it was getting stronger and stronger as I got closer - and then I realized someone was at the back of the house. And not just someone, it was something. I don't know if it was basic instincts or my vampire instincts but I just knew there was something at the back of the house in that massive jungly garden and I knew it wasn't human. And that it was ba-ad.
I should have just left right away, but as you know me, curiosity got the better of me and I went the way I shouldn't. I was going to take one peek, just one peek, and suddenly this thing came flying out of the dark and landing on me, scattering my papers and stuff. And suddenly I found myself on my back (and on some horrible, gooey mass of leaves and mud or whatever), fighting this huge, massive dog. It was actually going to kill me! And let me tell you, having this huge beast thing on top of you a la Ginger Snaps is never what it seems like in the movies. You can't see shit, there's fur and bad smells and saliva and claws everywhere and I just basically hit out blindly. I swear, it was a good thing I was a vamp, otherwise I would probably be dead by now. As it was, I was strong and fast enough to hit back at whatever it was. It didn't go flying off me, like how a vamp can throw a monster off it and send it flying against a wall in Buffy. I just managed to push it off and scramble to my feet and block it as it came at me again. My fangs had grown and I was in full vampire mode, but it was big and growling and a mass of dark fur and strong muscle and I just had enough time to think, "Fuck, I'm fighting a wolf? before we were wrestling with each other all over the place. I was just too busy getting away from the teeth, but those claws really ripped my stomach and arms. And ruined my second-favourite denim jacket. Thank goodness it was only my second-favourite.
Well, wolf or whatever, it was freaking strong and it was cunning too. But, finally, somehow, I don't know how, I bashed it against the wall of the house, like several times, and as it was lying dazed there, I grabbed this huge stone nearby and was about to bash its head in for good when I suddenly saw its eyes. They were yellow. And they were Kristy's eyes.
I think I just ended up shouting, "FUCK, what the HELL?!?" in disbelief. I wasn't even sure of what conclusion I had to come to in my mind, I mean, the connection hadn't even properly clicked yet, but I was just blown away by the implications. Jeez, listen to me, I sound like a lawyer or something. And then those yellow eyes rolled up to look at me, and the hatred and rage in those eyes just stunned me. I mean, Kristy couldn't hate me that much. The expression in those eyes just made my vampire instincts want to kill her good with that stone while she was down, spill her brains and all, but something held me back. Maybe my human side. And I just lowered my arms (but I still kept the stone in my hands, like, I wasn't going to kill her anymore but I didn't want to be defenseless if she springs at me again, I mean, the bitch hated me!)
And as I was just standing there, wondering what to do, her yellow eyes rolled back and closed. And for a moment, I thought, "Fuck, I just killed her." Because, you know, even if she was Kristy Helleughes, badass bitch of the year, even if she was some weird kind of beast, I had just killed. I mean, I had never killed anyone before. Not even as a vampire. Not even that time when I drank too much from that kid.
But then, suddenly, all that black fur started shrinking and pale flesh and brown hair emerged and suddenly she was Kristy again, naked and unconscious. And man that is one predicament in which I would never like to be stuck in.
I couldn't leave her there, obv. So I picked her up and took her into her house and found an old housecoat to get her into. She had a whole bunch of cuts and bruises from our fight so I found some yucky old antiseptic cream and stuff from the medicine cabinet (It's got a lot of sleeping pills in there, I guess that explains her crappy mood most if the time) and I cleaned her up. Her injuries were healing fast anyway - and mine even faster. This is a good thing, being a vampire.
Anyway, I didn't know what to do after that. Should I just go home? What would I do tomorrow when I see her? Would I even see her? What about our report?!??? We still had a bloody report to hand up for Euro History, even though we are, like, obviously two warring races or something, like Underworld or something!
I was just sitting there, thinking about it, and wondering if I should call Paul or something and ask for some advice, but then how would he react? when suddenly something made me look up and I saw that she was stirring. And then those yellow eyes opened and saw me.
Honestly, that was one tense situation. We were just staring at each other for like, the longest time, wondering what each other was going to do.
Finally she said, "Why didn't you kill me?"
"What do you think I am, a bad guy?" I said bluntly. "I'm not going to kill you. Even though you are one major hell of a bitch."
She smiled a little, faintly. It wasn't a nice kind of smile, just a smile of acknowledgement that she knew she was one of the hardest people in the world to get along with. "You're a vampire."
"Yeah, but I'm not a bad person." I shifted my weight, gave her a hard stare. "How do you know I'm a vampire anyway?"
She shrugged. "The fangs gave it away, I guess." Her eyes turned away from me, staring into the distant. "But I kind of always knew you were something else. I could never figure it out. My senses told me you were something inhuman. That's why I hated you so much. You were different, you weren't human."
"Yeah, well, neither are you," I retorted. "What the hell are you anyway? Some kind of werewolf?"
Her eyes returned to me, she smiled faintly again. "I prefer the term lycan."
"Yeah, whatever, Kristy. The fact remains is that you're something inhuman and so am I. You were the one who was striving to win Miss Queen Bitch of the Universe and not me. So what gives you the right to judge me for what I am?" I crossed my legs and returned her gaze challengingly.
She looked away again, but there was something else in her yellow eyes. "Because I know what I am isn't right," she said softly. "I know it's not human, it's not normal. It just isn't." Her gaze flickered back to mine. "And neither are you."
I heaved a sigh of exasperation. "Look, Kristy, I don't know what you're talking about. In fact, I'll be honest with you. I don't even know if you're right or wrong. In fact, I just became a vampire recently. Yeah, I was just bitten by this guy and he ran off and never told me shit about anything. I had to figure out for myself what I was, what had happened to me. And that sucked majorly, all right? And yes I had to wrestle with the question: am I evil? Believe me, I didn't have an easier time of it than you did. But I knew myself, the real me anyway, the person I was before I became a vampire. The person I still am. I'm not a bad person. I'm still an ordinary college kid under all that Anne Rice vampire changes that has happened to me. And I've met other vampires, a few of them. They're nice people. There may be other vampires who are evil-as-hell and all that, I'll give you that. I don't know, there probably are. After all, it's like people, there are the bad guys and there are the good guys. But the ones I met are the good guys. They're just like you and me. I'm just like anyone else, and so are you, under that werewolf Queen Bitch exterior. So why don't you quit all this posturing around and just come to terms with what you are and get over it? I've dealt with it, so can you."
She was staring at me then. There was a look in her face, as if she wanted to believe what I was saying, but couldn't bring herself to do it. "I've done too much," she said hollowly. "Too many evil things. Too many wrong things. I can't forgive myself."
"Yes, you can," I said. "If you give yourself a chance. Put the past behind you, Kristy. Whatever's happened has happened. You were just unlucky, maybe you just didn't understand what or who you are. But, hey, everyone's more than a little lost sometime in their lives. But you can't just hide yourself away from the world like this." Where was I getting all this psychotherapy stuff from anyway? But I suddenly found I really wanted to help her. Something about her told me she was like myself, she had been human and then something had happened to change her and then she was suddenly unsure and had lost her way too. I wanted to help her. "Listen, you've got me now. I can help you. I understand what you are going through. I know someone else who does too. Yu don't have to be alone. You have friends now."
She stared at me for a long time. Finally she said, "You'd help me?"
"Yeah, of course," I said.
"Even though I've been a total bitch to you and tried to kill you?"
I laughed. "Well, I almost killed you too. But you really do have to work on your people skills."
She laughed too, and suddenly, it was as if the tension between us had dissipated. It was almost as if we were friends now. We had a bond now between us, borne out of our shared pasts and confusions.
This isn't a happy ending, mind you. After the tension was over, we both suddenly remembered we had a report draft due tomorrow that accounted for a major part of our grade. We both suddenly remembered most of my stuff was lying about in her backyard, wet and gross and covered with dead leaves. We spent most of the night trying to piece together our draft and put it together again. It was a crappy draft. We'll probably get a crappy grade. But I think, who cares, we both have each found a new friend. A friend whom we can trust.

No news is pretty much indifferent news.

All right, I know what you're thinking, the fact is that I haven't been updating any news for quite a while. Well, I have no news. Basically, what I have been doing is working, drinking, sleeping, working, drinking, sleeping. That's it, folks. And the occasional beers n hash. Pot is so much better when you're a vampire. Solz is wondering why I'm constantly nicking so much of his supplies these days and he's not very happy with it either. Michael and I haven't seen each other in like, forever, even though we're in the same college, because he's so busy with this big economics project of his.
Why on earth am I in college? The amount of work they pile on you is so heavy, it should be illegal.
And on top of that, I have to deal with Kristy Helleughes as well. Man, that bich pisses me off.
So, right, like the last I mentioned, Kristy and I were working on a project together. Man, she was one hell of a nasty bitch to work with. She practically bites my head off at every suggestion I make, is completely uncooperative and doesn't do shit. And this is coming from yours truly, a major slacker of the most majorly slacker-ish kind.
Well, we finally decided to split up the work between the two of us and go our own ways, researching and working on our own bits. That suited me way fine, I'm telling you, the less time I spent with her, the better. But I still had to see her in class and talk to her every now and then to make sure our parts matched up. That was a major bitch.
Well, it's going to be over soon anyway. We just have the drafts due this week, and the final project the next week or so. I can see us rolling on our way to a big F right now. I haven't even done much of mine yet, so I have to be on my way to the library with Julie. She's got a major report for her business class due soon too and she's done shit nothing of it. We'll be doing our best to work, but knowing us, we'd be doing shit nothing, haha. But we gotta, our drafts are due the next day.
It's going to be a full moon tonight. Plenty of light for hunting. I would like a good meal for once; I've been so busy that I just run out and drink from just about anyone who comes along. I have no time to be picky. Sometimes, getting a meal as a vampire is so much more difficult than having to cook an ordinary meal. We actually have to get off our asses and out the door to hunt for our food. No Insta-Noodles for us.

A vampire's work is never done.

Even though I'm a vampire, I still have to attend classes and do shitloads of homework and complete projects with a half-crazed girl who seems to hate me for no reason at all.
In other news, I've got two presentations to complete, three essays, and one heavy-duty report due in the next couple of weeks. Not to mention the fact that I have to meet up with Kristy tomorrow afternoon and spend hours in the library with her researching and stuff. Grrr-eat.
Actually, I'm pretty glad that she didn't like, make me come over to her house or something. Not after all those rumors about what hapened to Bryce Johnson. Matter of fact, she was pretty insistent on meeting in the library.
"Where do you wanna work on this? Do you wanna come over to my place?" I had offered kind of half-heartedly.
She narrows her eyes at me. "No way," she says in a kind of snarl-ish way. "We'll meet in the library."
"Ooo-kay," I say, spreading my heads. "No problem there."
Jeez. Talk about biting your head off.
Right, enough chitchat. Must get to work on those aforementioned three essays. AND complete the slides for Wednesday's presentation! A vampire's work is never done. Especially when said vampire is in college.

Mad Vampire Chick - the Movie.

Gad, I still can't believe that I have do a project with Kristy Helleughes. Even Solz and Julie sympathize with me on this one. Paul is no help, he says: "you're a vampire, you can take on any weird old crazy bitch." Paul just hasn't seen Kristy yet.
But it makes me think: yeah, I'm super strong and I'll never have another bad hair day or a pimple now and for petesakes, I'll never even die, but nevertheless inside I still don't feel very Lestat-ish, you know, all cool and confident and all. Inside, I still feel like the same old Agatha and all. I mean, I have my Lestat days, and they do happen more often than usual now but otherwise, I'm more Angel-from-Buffy-with-his-insecurities than Lestat-I'm-so-cool-I'm-like-Johnny-Depp-type.
Speaking of Angel and Buffy and Lestat, you know what? Ever since I turned, I've been really interested in vampire stuff - like novels and movies and all that shit. Anne Rice and L.J. Smith and Bram Stoker and all. Most of the movies are pure crap. Some of the books are all right. Most of the time, I sit there and go "You're wrong! Fuck, you're SO wrong about THAT!" or "Oo-kay, you're kind of right about that." Paul came over the other day after a feeding (we drank off a couple of security guards and I swear I could have tasted the raspberry Dunkin donuts they were nibbling on right before we took 'em down) we sat down to watch Van Helsing. We barely made it through half the movie, we were laughing so hard we had to hit the pause button ten times. Jeez, I'm so glad real vampires aren't like that. If I turned out to be like that, I would have thrown myself on a stake double-fast.
Cripes, I've got a Euro History lecture tomorrow. I'll have to face up with Kristy and sort out the project details with her and all. Gaaah. She'd better not go all psycho on me as she supposedly did on Bryce Johnson.

Noooo!!!

You will not believe what has just happened today.
Even I can't believe it.
The worst thing ever.
I've been assigned to a Euro History project with Kristy Helleughes!!!
This totally sucks, that's what this is.
I tried talking to PRof Higmy after class but he steadfastly refused to reassign us to other partners. Turns out he always gets tons of complaints about partner projects and he refuses to reassign anyone. That's bullshit, that's what I say it is. I had a sudden urge to bite his neck right then and there. But I refrained. Damnit, I refrained.
Great, now I'm stuck doing a project with Kristy. I hope she doesn't turn rabid on me or else I might just have to bite her.
Ew. Drinking from Kristy Helleughes. Yuck.

Freak me out, why don't you just try?

Kristy Helleughes is still weirding the shit out of me.
Today, I was racing out of class when I bumped into her in the waaay crowded hallway. She immediately stepped away from me, as if I had some kind of fatal and contagious disease, and - this is the weird bit - I could have sworn she nearly bared her teeth at me. Like a dog. At least, that was the impression I got. It happened really fast and for a moment, I thought I was staring at a real dog. Like, some rabid, mad, scary, fierce dog. And at that moment, I als had the urge to open my mouth and bare my fangs at her. (And Lord knows, that would create quite a scene in the hallway). But i restrained myself and in the next moment she was gone, had turned away and allowed the crowd to swallow her up. I was left with that tingling sensation in my teeth that happens everytime I get thirsty or want to bare my fangs, and with the smell of dog.
Jeez, someone get that girl some deodorant and a bottle of Chanel perfume. Does she live with a hundred dogs or what? Everytime she shows up in Euro History, she smells of wild feral dogs. Last week, I thought I smelt something like a dead mouse on her as well. It just makes it harder to concentrate on class - not that Prof Higmy makes it any easier, the way he just drones on and on. I'm glad that's the only cass we have together, because I don't know why, that girl just does not like me.

The Life of Solz

I went to Vargrave's last night with Julie, Paul and Michael. Solz played some really great songs. I swear, he's getting better and better every day. Someday that boy is going to get famous soon! He's also going to be playing Club Mitch and at the Lights Out Festival that's coming up soon. This is great because that means he can get us all in for free at Lights Out. It's one of the biggest annual music festivals ever down here in our hole of the world and Julie and me are looking so forward to it. All right, Solz!
More updates about Solz - after he'd finished spinning, he joined up with us at the bar where we'd settled down to take a break from some major dancing (after all, we had to show our support for Solz on the dance floor). And he's got a new chick with him now, some girl called Emma. She looks a little young - I think she's still in high school! And she's really sweet and anyone can see she's totally infatuated with Solz. Julie and I cornered Solz after a couple of hours and told him in no uncertain terms that when he dumped Emma - which he no doubt will after a few weeks, Emma is just one in a long string of girls who throw themselves at Solz ever since he got the DJ job in Vargrave - he should make sure that he did it as gently and tactfully as possible. Otherwise, us girls, in support for all womenkind, will just have to do something to Solz. We're not too sure what because we were a little too drunk to think of any suitable torture treatments but it would be something bad anyway. Solz insisted he was madly in love with Emma and would never dream of hurting her but Julie and I refuse to believe that (and we just laughed in his face). Hes' said that too many time times about too many girls over the past few months. Ah, Solz.