A Grave Problem

3. Hana's Confession

The next morning, Mia woke up in bed, feeling fine. In fact, she couldn't believe how good she felt. She normally wouldn't be up for another two hours, but she'd slept so soundly the night before that she wasn't even tired. She stretched and laid back down to relax a few more minutes before she had to worry about getting up for the day.

Her mind quickly drifted back to what happened last night. It was so surreal, she was having a hard time believing that any of it really happened. She thought back over everything she could remember, but a lot of it just didn't seem to make any sense. Big chunks of the night seemed to be missing, and the whole thing was so strange, she couldn't help but wonder if it was just a dream. She kept coming back to that face she'd seen; that had to be a dream, right? There was no way she could have really seen someone like that!

After successfully convincing herself that everything from the night before had been part of some strange nightmare, Mia decided to take a shower. She had more than enough time, and it would be a nice way to relax.

She pulled the covers off, but that was as far as she got. She couldn't help but notice that she was still wearing her jeans. And across the left knee was a rip from one seam to the other.

Mia pulled on the rip, trying to see if she still had that cut from the night before. Her knee was a little red, like maybe she'd run into something, but the ugly scrape that had stretched from one side to the other was nowhere to be found. Mia stared at her knee for a full minute. If she was still wearing her jeans, and they were ripped, then that had to mean that last night hadn't been a dream after all. But if it really did happen, why did her knee look perfectly fine? She knew she'd scraped it – that was how her jeans got ripped, after all.

Suddenly, Mia remembered the sweatshirt she'd been wearing the night before. Last night might have been a blur, but she was pretty sure she remembered her friends taking it off of her before tucking her in. She had to think back for a minute before she remembered they'd thrown it under the bed in case her parents checked on her. Mia quickly got on her hands and knees, peering under the bed. She had a lot of junk under there, but she could clearly see the gray sweatshirt wadded up and stuck in the back. Mia grabbed it with her fingertips and sat back on the bed with it. She spread the sweatshirt out in front of her and was horrified at what she saw.

It wasn't the fact that her sweatshirt was covered in blood. It was where the blood was that made Mia feel nauseous. The bottom half was almost completely clean. There were a few stray drops, sure, but they were practically unnoticeable next to the top half.

The collar of her sweatshirt was stained a deep, dark red. She actually couldn't even see the original gray underneath all that blood. It almost looked like someone had splashed it with reddish-brown paint or something. But it was especially bad on the right side; the whole shoulder area and most of the upper arm looked like they'd gotten drenched. She was pretty sure Hana had told everyone that she'd been attacked by a bear, and Mia could definitely see why they'd believed her.

But Mia knew that it wasn't a bear. That face Mia had seen last night flashed before her eyes. She tried to calm herself down, but her hands shook as she folded the sweatshirt back up, careful to cover the bloody top before shoving it under the bed again. She grabbed some clean clothes and hurried down the hall. When she got to the bathroom, she shut the door and ran over to the mirror. She pulled her collar down as low as she could, trying to see what kind of damage there was. She couldn't believe it when she looked in the mirror and saw that she was perfectly fine.

Even as she took a shower, Mia was surprised to find that despite all the blood from last night, she didn't seem to have a mark on her. And the fact that she was feeling completely fine only added to her confusion. Part of her wondered for a minute if maybe all that blood she'd seen was really someone else's, but she dismissed that thought almost as soon as it entered her mind. There'd been no one else around when she'd been attacked, and she knew everyone else who'd been out that night was fine. She might not remember everything that happened, but she knew she'd remember if anyone else had been attacked. How would she ever forget something like that?

Mia got dressed, still trying to piece together what had happened the night before. She kept coming back to that awful face she'd seen – how it lunged at her and how she'd fallen back. That was the last thing she remembered clearly. Obviously, that person had something to do with whatever happened. She wasn't a superstitious girl, but the way those eyes shone had Mia wondering vaguely if she'd been attacked by some sort of demon.

Mia ate a quick bowl of cereal before deciding to call Hana. It was still a little early, but Hana never seemed to sleep much. Besides, Mia really wanted to ask her friend about last night. Hana had been there after all – she'd know what happened. Hana answered the phone almost immediately and agreed to meet Mia. In less than twenty minutes, she was at Mia's front door, looking very concerned.

"I'm sorry about last night." she told Mia, sitting down on the front stoop.

"It's ok. I'm fine really." Mia said, sitting down next to her.

"I know you say that, but..."

"It's not your fault." Mia tried to reassure her friend. "Things just happen sometimes."

"...Actually, it kind of is my fault." Hana said, lowering her eyes.

"Why?" Mia asked.

She found herself trying to remember where exactly Hana had been when she was attacked. She tried not to think it, but maybe none of this would have happened if Hana hadn't run away.

"You don't remember?" Hana asked, looking up at Mia in disbelief. Hana's eyes were wide and her mouth was hanging open just a little bit. Mia stared at her for a full minute before she put it all together.

"It was you!" she almost shouted. She jumped up and slowly started backing away.

"Shhh!" Hana said. She stood up, gesturing Mia to keep it down. "I know. I'm really sorry. I didn't mean to – it just...happened."

"It just happened?" Mia asked, trying to figure out how you could accidentally attack a friend in the middle of the night.

"Yeah. I mean, I was fine. But then there was all that blood...I didn't plan on attacking you, I promise. It just came over me."

"I think you should leave." Mia said quietly.

Mia turned to walk back inside, but Hana reached out and took her shoulder.

"Look, if you don't want to be friends with me, that's fine. I understand. But seeing how injured you were last night and how good you're feeling today, I'd say you're going to be doing the same thing as me pretty soon."

"I'd never do that." Mia said.

"Yeah, that's what I thought too. But you will." Hana said it quietly, and something in her tone made Mia stop and listen. She could always choose to stop being friends with Hana later. Right now, she knew she'd better get all the information she could. When Hana saw she finally had Mia's attention, she continued.

"I was attacked almost a year ago when I went with my family to Fukushima."

"Attacked by what?" Mia asked, not quite following.

"A vampire." Hana told her.

Mia opened her mouth to make some comment about how there was no such thing, but Hana hurried on before Mia had a chance to interrupt.

"Look, I know you probably don't want to talk to me right now. But we need to – soon. And I promise I'll teach you everything you need to know, ok?"

"How do you know I'll need to know any of it?" Mia asked.

"I told you. If you weren't going to turn, you'd still be feeling as bad today as you did last night."

"So how long do I have?" Mia asked, still trying to decide whether or not to believe her friend. Hana thought for a minute before answering.

"Probably about a week." Hana told her. "I'm sorry."

Mia nodded but didn't say anything. All she could think was why me?