Nasferas: The Begotten

4

Matt flipped through the pages of the book the missionaries had given him. The stories interested him well enough but the words sent shivers up and down his spine. Damnation, hell, and eternity were but a few. The books also spoke of carnal sin and Matt feared for his sister's immortal soul. All he knew was that he would have to do something lest his sister be dammed for all eternity. He made up his mind. Somehow, he would have to get invited on the weekend trip to the mountains.

A few ideas came to him. Maybe he could beg Katelyn to take him? No. She'd relish in his agony. What if he got someone else to invite him? Jason's younger sister Eve would probably be going. She'd be the perfect person to smooth talk into an invitation.

Eve was five feet tall and a bit husky for Matt's taste but she seemed like a nice girl. If he played his cards right, charming her into inviting him on the trip would be a cakewalk. The note went into his memory cloud: flirt with Eve.

Because he hadn't hit on any of the girls batting their eyelashes at him since he started school, some of the guys in the locker room had asked why.

"You gay or something? Not that I'm not with the whole Seattle gay thing," one of the football team's star wide receivers had asked.

Matt shrugged and said, "Nah, the girls here look like roadkill compared to the gorgeous babes of Seattle. Nothing like a girl with a tramp stamp and nose ring."

He then had to explain about tramp stamps to a jughead named Neal. The explanation had settled down the rowdy guy.

Matt set the scriptures on his bedside table and turned off the light. The next few days would be crucial in his goal to keep his sister from eternal damnation.

"What are you getting all gussied up for?" Katelyn asked as she passed by the bathroom the next morning.

"None of your business." Matt kicked the door shut.

Just trying to save your dumb soul.

After he decided the zit in his hairline had moved in with a lease-to-own option, Matt pulled on his Seattle Seahawks mock turtleneck and faded Levi's. He dabbed on some nasty cologne his mom had given him for Christmas. The fragrance smelled something akin to a mixture of gasoline and his sister's deodorant. Even after he'd cleaned thoroughly, the smell lingered.

At school, he found Eve standing by her locker in the freshman hallway talking to a girl he didn't recognize. He usually kept a cool head when talking to girls. But with his sister's soul at stake, his nerves started to get the best of him. He nearly chickened out as he hadn't found a common topic he could bring up to break the ice.

Then he remembered the freshman cheerleaders had performed a dance routine at an assembly the previous week. In the last few bars of the Lady Gaga song, Eve had completed a decent tumbling run. Matt had been in gymnastics as a sixth and seventh grader and recognized Eve's smooth technique. He'd found his icebreaker.

Once he'd taken several deep breaths, he strolled up and leaned against the lockers next to the two girls. Eve's back was to him.

"Hey, Eve."

The friend's eyes went wide and she flicked them towards Matt. Eve whipped around and lost control of her books. They flew out of her arms, plowed against Matt's chest, and crashed to the floor.

Several kids snickered as they walked by them.

"Let me help you with those." Matt smiled, bent down, and helped pick up the books.

Her face turned three different shades of red. "You scared the crap out of me."

"Sorry." His hand slapped against a piece of paper trying to float away.

She stopped picking up the spilled texts and looked at him. Curiosity crept into her eyes.

"What do you want?"

"To ... um ... tell you I thought your gymnastics at the assembly were cool."

"You've passed me in the hall at least ten times since the assembly and never said anything. Why now?"

"Well ... I was looking at some old pictures last night of me and my sister doing gymnastics in middle school." He sighed with relief, lucky he didn't have to lie.

"You did gymnastics?" She studied him from head to toe as if she couldn't believe his lanky body ever completed a tumbling run without snapping in half.

"Yeah, and I got to thinking about how smooth your handsprings were. And the front flip, wow. Impressive." Now he was talking her language and she ate up every word.

"The tumbling's the only reason they let me on the squad. Did you catch my dance out there? I'm such a spaz."

"Yeah. Couple left feet ya got down there." He teased.

"Thanks."

This time her eyes rolled and he felt he might lose her interest.

"I'm playing with ya. You weren't half bad."

Eve's eyes softened and her lips went from pursed to a smile.

"Yeah, I was." She stood with her books now safely back in her arms.

"Well, maybe I can show you a few moves sometime." In his mind, he slapped himself on the forehead. He couldn't dance for crap.

"What?" she asked.

The deep hazel in her eyes intoxicated Matt for a moment. And Eve, his ticket to saving his sister's immortal soul, drifted into a new light for him. A sudden realization hit. Her biceps stretched against her cheerleader's sweatshirt and her calves wanted to explode from her white stockings. This girl had a lot of muscle.

"Or, we could knock each other down and I could step on your toes a little." Matt stifled a guffaw.

"Are you asking me to go dancing with you?" Once again her eyes questioned his motives.

"Guess so. Someone said Roseburg's nightclubs are decent. You wanna go this weekend?" he asked with his fingers crossed.

"Oh, no. I can't this weekend. I'm going up to my dad's cabin with some friends."

Stuck the landing. Matt played it smooth, looked down at his feet as if disappointed, and shuffled them.

"Ah ... that's cool. Maybe some other time then. I'll catch ya later." Acting like she'd just stuck a javelin through his heart, he turned and started down the hall.

"Wait," she called out.

When he turned, she'd already glided up behind him. He nearly knocked her over but steadied her by the shoulders. Again, he couldn't believe how her eyes penetrated through his brain.

What in the world is happening to me?

"You wanna come?" she blurted.

Yes! he thought but played a little hard to get. "You sure? I wouldn't want to impose. You know my sister's going?"

"Yeah. I know she's coming with Brett. I wouldn't have asked you if I wasn't sure, silly." She poked him in the chest.

"Sounds like a blast." He smiled in triumph, rubbing the area on his chest she assaulted.

Eve took her phone out and scanned him. His phone buzzed.

The bell rang out like a day at the Portland Raceway.

After kissing him on the cheek, she skipped the other way, where a cluster of her freshman cheerleader friends swarmed her. Giggling, they carried on down the corridor.

Matt couldn't believe how easy the task had been. Later, he sat with Eve at lunch and she'd complimented him on his cologne. At one point, he caught Katelyn staring at them and took a long evil eye from Eve's brother Jason.

Gonna be a kick-in-the-pants weekend.

Please comment, vote, follow, share, and all that cool stuff if you enjoy the story so far.

Hmm ... wonder what the weekend will bring?