Blur

Chapter 4: Oops

Chapter 4: Oops

"What is it, Amanda? Spit it out," Jeffrey demands impatiently.

"I died." I throw my hand over my mouth after I blurt the words out.

"What do you mean? I'm looking at you right now, so obviously you are very alive," Jeffrey counters with an irritated eye roll.

"I-I-I'm a," I try again, but I am interrupted by sirens turning onto the street. "Shoot," I mutter as I turn for the window. I had forgotten about my dog's barking. She must have woke a neighbor up. The neighbor probably called the police and reported a possible break-in or just the disturbance.

"Wait, Amanda," Jeffrey calls. I pause, my hands braced on the window frame, one leg on the roof already. "I get it, ok. You have gotten yourself mixed up in some kind of trouble or something, right? That's why you are pretending to be dead? Whatever it is, I understand that you can't tell me. Just promise me you will come back to visit me again."

"I promise I will try my best to. Don't tell mom, though, alright?" I wait for his answering nod before I swing out the window and into the night.

This time I don't bother climbing around on the tree like a squirrel. I just jump straight to the ground in an unbelievably graceful motion. I look back up to Jeffrey's window one last time. He is standing there, watching. He definitely saw me drop from a height that no human should be able to walk away from unscathed.

Giving a small wave, I turn away and run as fast as my vampire speed will allow me to. I imagine myself a blur running the path I took to get here from the cabin, just like Mother Anne taught me to. In less than a minute, I open my eyes and find myself directly in front of the cabin. It seemed easier this time than it had the first time I tried this particular trick. I'm not as tired or exhausted and sweaty. Maybe practice really does make perfect.

*~*~*~*~*

Boredom. It's my worst enemy. Alone in the cabin at four o'clock in the morning, I have absolutely nothing to do. I really need to talk to Mother Anne about that. But she won't be back for a couple more hours.

I sit on the bed- which I'm not sure why we have since vampires don't sleep- and think about what I am going to tell Mother Anne when she returns. I have no doubt that she will ask how the visit went. I don't know whether or not to tell her the truth. If I do she might get mad and, as a vampire myself, I know what an angry vampire could do and it isn't at all pretty. If I lie, she could learn the truth, she always seems good at doing that. Lying would probably make it worse.

What if I tell her half-truths? I won't tell her everything, just enough to keep her from getting too mad. I could tell her about the dog spotting me and that the cops were called so I had to leave. That is true. I could tell her that I didn't see my mother, just Jeffery. That is also true. I will just leave out the fact that Jeffery saw me too. That should be fine.

I jump off the bed and pace as I think about what I will tell her. I want to have my recount of the night memorized when Mother Anne returns. There is no room for error and my nerves are jumbled and my conscious is wounded by the thought of lying. The combination could cause me to accidentally tell her the full truth or give myself away.

Before I have my story completely straight, Mother Anne enters the room carrying two large boxes- full of blood I'm sure. The corners of her mouth are turned down in a frown and she doesn't give me a chance to speak. She sits the boxes on the counter and turns on me.

"Come here, Amaya" she demands, her voice stern, as she ushers me toward the bed. I follow her orders silently, too scared to speak. "Tell me about the visit. I want the whole story."

Suddenly, I have the feeling that she already knows. This is just a test of my loyalty and honesty. I cave and tell her the truth, without manipulating a single detail. She listens intently and does her best to hold her temper until I finish.

"How could you let this happen, Amaya?' Mother Anne demands as she stands and starts throwing stuff in suitcases.

"I'm sorry," I murmur.

"No amount of apologizing is going to fix this one, dear," Mother Anne states. She doesn't say anything else as she continues packing.

I don't care about her frantic packing until she begins tossing my stuff around. "What are you doing?" I snap.

"We can't stay here any longer, Amaya. You have blown out cover. It's too dangerous for us now," she explains.

"I want to stay," I protest. "I can't leave my family. Even if you won't allow me to see them, I refuse to be even a town away from here," I declare.

Mother Anne stops her rushed packing and turns to me. "We are not invisible, dear. There are humans that know of our existence. They are very few, but they exist."

"They do?" I ask, bewildered.

"Yes, and many of them are on the police force. They stay well hidden, but they are always on the look-out for vampires," Mother Anne says. "I don't know if there is one here or anywhere in Louisiana, but I don't want to take any chances."

"So we have to go?" I ask.

"Yes, we do. Now how about you help me gather our things," she suggests as she hands me a bag and pushes me toward the boxes of blood. I open the bag to find empty containers of V8 juice. "Pour our supplies into those," she commands.

I do as she instructs and in twenty minutes, we are ready to leave our cabin. We take Mother Anne's beat up car hidden in the forest, since we have so many bags, and race out of the state, headed north. We don't know where we are going, but we know we have to get out of here.

Even though the tiny cabin always seemed covered in dirt and I was always bored, it was home. I knew that my family was somewhere close while I was here. That was a small comfort, but it managed to keep me clam and happy. Now I may never be able to get hold of that information again.

Oops... It looks like I have managed to mess up my own life, again. First the car wreck, now this. I really can't do anything right anymore. I sink into the filthy, torn up leather seat of Mother Anne's ancient car. The leather seat reminds me of Jeffrey's car, but that is where the resemblances end. Already I am homesick.

"It will be ok," Mother Anne assures me as she pulls onto the road and disregards every traffic law imaginable. "We would have had to leave one day anyway"

"I know," I answer. I know we would have had to leave one day. But that was one day very far in the future.

Thanks for reading

~fantabulous97~