Lie To Me

Up and Leave

Chapter 25

The room fell silent after Val’s little statement. Mom stood staring at Dad but she didn’t say anything. She didn’t even move. Valerie stepped closer to him as his eyes rested on me. I didn’t know how to respond and I guess Mom didn’t either. My lips parted to speak and at that point he blew up.

“Oh so not only is my wife a monster but apparently so is my daughter?!” The shock had finally hit him. “When was anyone planning to tell me this?!”

Mom’s gaze fell to the floor. “Well, I was hoping that I would never have to.” I figured as much.

“Oh really?” His tone was getting sarcastic and aggressive. Why was he blowing this all out of proportion? “Any other monsters you forgot to mention? What is Valerie a little monster too?”

“No!” Mom shouted out of what I guess was instinct. She seemed all too eager to answer like that; was it that important to her as well? Maybe the reason she was so against all my vampire talk was because she was against me being a vampire. It probably crushed her to find out that I was now one . . . I don’t suppose she was very happy to know about my change at all when I think about it. “No, she’s not and to be honest I didn’t know that Jamie was a vampire too until she bit Valerie.” Yup, she wished I wasn’t.

“Perfect.” Dad said with a sarcastic undertone. “Just perfect, now she’s infected too!” he looked down at Val and pushed her away from him. She looked up at him with hurt in her eyes. How could he have done that? She was till is daughter. Did he hate me now too?

“No,” Mom took a deep breath, drawing on what little strength she still had. “Jamie’s not venomous.”

“How do you know that?” Dad challenged, not believing for even a second.

“Because,” She took a step closer to him and tried reaching out to touch him but he drew back sharply. I could tell that it hurt her but she just kept talking. “Her inner vampire only awoke this morning. It’s going to take some time for the toxins to develop.”

Dad looked away from her pleading eyes that were calling out to him. “Right now I’m not sure I can trust anything that you say.” His head suddenly whipped around to her again as if a thought had just gone to him. “Is your name even Helena?” I winced at his questioned even though it wasn’t directed at me. Of all the questions out there he had to ask such an incriminating one. The look on Mom’s face said that she thought the same.

“Well . . . no actually, it’s Julia, Julia Ceres.”

He blew up all over again. “Wonderful! Another secret kept from me!”

“Dad calm down, you’re scaring Valerie.” I tried after looking down at my sister who was cowering by the counter. More than likely she was unsure of what to make of the situation before her. It must have all been so confusing for her . . .

“I’m scaring her!?” He couldn’t help but ask. “Right now you’re all scaring me!” Val reached forward and tried touching him. He slapped her hand away quickly as he shot a disdainful look down at her scared face. “Don’t touch me!” with that she began to cry. I saw her recoil as she stood with the tears streaming down her cheeks. Dad had gone too far. He looked at her as if he didn’t even care. “Oh, apparently vampires do have feelings, and here I thought that you were all cold-hearted beings.” He looked over at Mom again who had begun pleading with her eyes once more. He rolled his eyes. ‘I’m going for a drive.” He turned and grabbed the keys from the counter. Valerie flinched as he had wooshed by her. I didn’t think that he would have hit her but she didn’t know that. “If I don’t come back you know why.”