The stepsister

18> Final chapter

I woke up again little by little but this time it was different. I didn't feel any pain, which was a great relief, plus I was calmer. I wasn't cold either. I was fine, better than ever. I realized that I was not breathing, however I was not dead, on the contrary, I felt alive, very much alive and fully aware. I didn't understand it. It was as if I didn't need it, but when I tried it, I could do it. It was the weirdest.

I moved my hands a little, I felt softness and warmth. Quite the opposite of the forest floor. When my vision cleared I could see a white lighted ceiling, the walls, the white window with blue curtains... It was clearly my room. I was very calm to be there.

I got up little by little, more out of precaution in case something was broken, than out of pain, because I felt good and energetic. I had no wounds on my body, neither on my arm nor on my neck. Seeing that I was perfectly fine, I got out of bed without fear. I wanted to leave my room but before I opened the door, I heard murmurs downstairs, but not as usual.

They felt very strong as if they were very close to me but they weren't yelling, just talking softly. How could I have such good hearing? I even heard footsteps on the stairs, whoever was wearing shoes without heels, in addition, I heard how the rubber sole sounded with each step. Everything from my room and with the door closed. I smelled an intoxicating smell, sweet and addictive, like that of a young and attractive woman with good taste for expensive perfumes; It was accompanied by a smell of clean clothes, which made me look at mine. I wasn't wearing the same clothes, I was wearing pajamas.

I snapped out of my surprise as soon as the door opened right in front of me. I took a few steps back so fast it scared me, how slow I always was in high school that the slowest in class overtook me twice. I don't know why but I knew it was her. She burst in and closed the door. She brought my clean clothes, the ones I wore in the woods, and left them on the desk.

"I don't understand anything" I told her before she could say anything.

"How do you feel?" she asked, she seemed very calm and relieved, maybe seeing me well.

"Weird. Weird things happen to me. It's like my senses have been heightened. Everything is very intense and my..." I pointed to my belly "It's as if I didn't need it..."

"Breathe" she cut me off.

"Yes, why is this happening to me?"

"Obviously, now you're like me"

"You mean I'm a vampire? Really?" I sat on the bed "How...?"

"I had to do it..."

Melanie told me everything that had happened the night before. I was blown away. At last I understood the reason for everything I felt when I was half unconscious and the great pain at the end. I was literally dying. Somehow, I had just died and neither my mother nor anyone else knew or ever would. She also brought me up to date on what the news was saying. The sadistic murderer of the forest had died, they couldn't explain why or how, but at least our parents were calmer now. In fact, I still don't understand how Melanie managed to keep them from noticing anything. She was a real genius at those things.

As we talked and the way we did it, you could tell that something was still happening between us because of the serious and cold tone of both. We talked cordially, nothing more. It was incredible how, after everything we had suffered and with the great radical change that had happened in my life, we still looked at each other with the same resentment. It is supposed that after a bad moment people tend to reconcile and file laziness, but she and I were not like that and that gave a bitter taste to our conversation.

Minutes later we remained silent, the silence already spoke for us. We looked at each other from time to time knowing that it was not resolved, that we still had a pending conversation. The only one we avoided and the most important one, but instead of facing reality we chose to turn our heads and not bring it up again. She left my room and I just sat there on the bed, unable to get her out of my head.