This Boy
It was dark and it was lonely. And I waited. I waited by the grave I’d dug for my beloved and I waited for him to claw his way through the dirt and into my arms. I waited, wondering what the new him would be like, how we’d live our lives together, young forever, together always.
It wasn’t supposed to happen like this. I hadn’t wanted to turn him into a vampire but I had no choice. Once it all started, there was nothing I could do but submit to the process. But it had all started out quite differently than from where it had ended up. If I had been able to look into the future, I might have handled the situation differently. I might have backed off and ran from it, from him. But I’d been bitten by love. And him? He had been bitten by me.
He was younger than me. By about a thousand years. Wait a minute. That’s not right. No, about three to four hundred years. That was about right. Yet, it seemed as though I had loved him that long, for at least a thousand years. Well, not really. I loved him from the moment I laid eyes on him. It took all I had to keep from eating him up, quite literally. He smelled so yummy.
I hid the love I felt from him. I did. I admit that. It wasn’t right. I should have been more upfront but I didn’t want him to see me like that, like some love-sick fool. I didn’t want him to know. It might have frightened him off. My being a vampire would have been even more damaging. He might have run had he known. Besides, I didn’t want him to be afraid that I might bite him. But he’d bitten me already. Yes, I’d been bitten by love. And it hurt in the most delicious way possible.
It’s just that he was just so… Oh, he was the best. He was such a good young man. He was better than good; he was a doctor, a young doctor, but a doctor nonetheless. He was fresh out of medical school, starting his residency. That was very impressive, yes? And I’d never had a doctor before.
That’s where I met him, at the hospital where he worked, several months ago. It was this whole thing. I’m a vampire and I needed some blood. Where better than a hospital to get it? So, yes, I was there to get some blood, dressed in nursing scrubs, in disguise. He just assumed I worked there, that I was a nurse, even convincing me. But once I looked into his eyes, I knew life would never be the same. I was lost, lost from myself, from my past, un-tethered from what I was. He made me feel like someone else, someone who could have a different life, a better one. He was handsome and manly and well-groomed. And good-hearted. I only had good things to say about him at first.
His name was Otis. That’s a really cool name, yes?
My family couldn’t stand him. Well, they’re not really my family. We’re not related by blood. But then again, I suppose we were. Gerta and Aloiki and I have been together for a long time. We’re stuck with each other. We’ve all exchanged blood, that’s how each of us became vampires in the first place, a long time ago in Europe. We still have thick accents, too, though I try to blend in by using American slang and what-have-you. I have worked on lessening my accent throughout the years, but, while it was more toned-down than theirs, I still sounded a little foreign sometimes. It doesn’t really work and people look at me like I’m crazy most of the time, like when I said, “Totally rad !” or “Dude!” or even “OMG! I love your cool kicks!” But I love the slang. It just does not love me.
But my family… Ugh. It’s this whole thing. Sometimes, they really got on my nerves.
“Have you told him the story of how you came to be a vampire?” Aloiki asked once. “Or how we became vampires, Gerta and I?”
I had not. It wasn’t a story I wanted to bring up anytime soon. “No, and I do not plan on it, either.”
He considered this, his dark features growing even darker. He was a handsome man/vampire. He turned heads. He was strong and tall and, well,
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