Vampire Residence

IX

The woman's words snapped Eleanor out of her inner turmoil.

"Try... what?" she asked, her voice still edged with frustration.

The woman let out a small huff of... was that impatience? Frustration?

"To fly. You try to fly."

The woman's statement sent a wave of disbelief through Eleanor.

"Fly?" she repeated, her voice growing more and more exasperated. "I don't know how to fly! You can't just expect me to become a bat on command!"

"Of course, you know how." The woman's voice was so casual, so matter-of-fact, that it only made Eleanor's frustration grow.

"Of course I don't know how!" she protested, her voice rising in pitch. "Just telling me to fly isn't going to magically make me sprout wings and take to the sky!"

The woman seemed unfazed by her protest, if anything only growing more impatient.

"It's not about growing wings." the woman said, her voice still even. "It's about changing yourself from within. Changing yourself into something... lighter. Freer. The rest will follow."

Eleanor was beginning to feel increasingly frustrated with the woman's vague explanations.

"Change me? What do you even mean? You keep talking in riddles, expecting me to somehow understand."

She shook her head in frustration. "I'm telling you, I don't know how to do what you want me to do. I cannot just... become a bat!"

The woman merely shrugged in response, a gesture that only served to infuriate Eleanor even more. How could she be so casual about something so absurd?

"It's not something that I can teach you," the woman spoke, "It's something you have to feel. Something that just... comes from within."

The nonchalance of her response only added to Eleanor's frustration. How was she supposed to 'just feel' how to become a bat? It was ludicrous.

"This is insane," Eleanor said, her voice rising in annoyance. "You're asking me to do something impossible. I don't know how to become a bat, and simply telling me to do it isn't going to magically make it happen!"

The woman stayed silent for a few moments, studying Eleanor intently. Her eyes seemed to bore into her, searching for something that only she could see.

Finally, she spoke.

"But you do know how. It's inside of you. You just haven't found it yet."

Eleanor felt a pang of frustration at the woman's cryptic statement.

"How am I supposed to 'find' it? I don't even know what I'm looking for!"

"You'll know it when you feel it." the woman responded, her voice still level and even, despite the obvious annoyance in Eleanor's voice.

"Close your eyes. It's a feeling. A small tug somewhere deep within. You simply need to follow it- release that tug, and let it transform you."

Eleanor closed her eyes, mostly to avoid the woman's intense gaze. She tried to focus, tried to find the feeling the woman was describing, but found nothing. There was no tug, no small feeling of transformation.

After a few moments, she opened her eyes and spoke, her voice laced with frustration.

"There's nothing there. I can't find what you're talking about. You're just wasting time!"

"You are simply looking too hard." The woman's voice was soft, almost gentle this time. "You're trying to force yourself to feel something that doesn't come through force. You need to stop trying so hard. Just release and let the feeling come."