Valley of the Shadow

Chapter Seven

Carmen expected the car ride to be silent, but it seemed Mitzi had other plans. It was okay for thr first half, but eventually it seemed that Mitzi just couldn't hold herself back. 

"How have you been?" She said after a while. 

"Don't try to make smalltalk with me." Carmen snapped. "I'm taking you to a doctor's appointment, not agreeing to be your friend or anything." 

"Okay." Was all she said in response. 

After another long stretch of silence, she spoke again. 

"What's wrong with your skin?"

Carmen looked down at her clenched hand which was gripping the steering wheel very tightly. It was starting to turn pink where the morning sun was shining through the windshield. 

"I'm a vampire. This is what happens when I go out in the sun." She said as if it should have been obvious to Mitzi. "I should be asleep right now." 

"Oh." She said, "Does it hurt?"

Mitzi reached out to touch her arm, but Carmen snapped at her before she could make contact with her skin.

"Don't fucking touch me." She said. "Of course it hurts, but you touching it will only make it hurt more." 

Mitzi flinched, and recoiled as if Carmen was going to hit her. 

"S-sorry." She stuttered out. 

A pang of guilt shot through her, and she sucked in a soft breath. 

"I'm sorry for yelling at you." She said, "—and you don't have to react like that. I'm not going to hurt you." 

Mitzi didn't say anything, and she stayed quiet for the rest of the ride. 

Carmen pulled up to a small women's health clinic in a strip mall. She watched as Mitzi walked inside, a few other pregnant people followed behind her not long after. 

Carmen parked under the shade of a tree, and pulled her arms and legs into her seat to keep them out of the sun. She ran her palm over the skin, which was struning from red to pink and sighed. It stung quite a bit, and she knew Maria would fuss over her later. 

Her phone vibrated and she pulled it out of her pocket to see a text from Maria, asking if she was okay.

Yes. I'm fine. Please try and get some sleep. 

After she sent the text, her eyes landed on the contact picture of her and Maria. She thought Maria looked so happy in it. She was almost always smiling, but Carmen thought it was rare that she looked genuinely happy like that. It made Carmen feel good about herself that she could make her smile like that, even if it was just sometimes.

She deserves a better life than what I can give her.  

On the ride back, Carmen tried to ignore Mitzi the best she could. Whenever she would ask her something, Carmen would just pretend as if she hadn't heard it.  

Eventually, they pulled back up at the house and Mitzi out a frustrated sigh. 

"Carmen, can we talk at least?" She said quietly. 

"I don't have anything to say to you." Carmen said. 

"What if I have something to say to you?" Mitzi asked. 

Carmen bit her bottom lip. Did she even want to hear it? What could she possibly have to say that Carmen would want to hear? She couldn't think of anything productive that could possibly come from talking to the woman.