The Lost Girls (Chris Cerulli Vampire Story)

Chapter 8

I hadn't seen Chris for two weeks, but that wasn't why I was currently pissed off. As soon as I had gotten up this morning I realized that I was all alone in the house. I could understand my dad being gone, but my grandma and my sister were too? I sighed as I peered out at the large wooden posts that held up my grandmother's home made fence, deciding that I was just going to go back to bed. Before heading back upstairs I grabbed a box of Reese's Puffs cereal and scooped some into my mouth.

"Happy birthday to me." I muttered as I sat the box on my nightstand and turned on my small stereo.

I ended up falling back asleep after a while and slept for at least two hours before being woken by the house phone ringing. I hurried to the first phone I could find and answered it.

"Hello?" I asked as I did my best to fight off the grogginess in my voice.

"Ash, hon?"

"Yeah, dad?" I replied as soon as I heard his voice on the other end.

"How are you doing today?"

"Fine." I lied.

"That's good to hear, listen this might sound odd, but could you go out to the garage for me?"

"Sure." I say as I make my way outside. "So what am I doing?"

"There should be some tarp covered things to the left, look for the long skinny one."

"Alright." I say as I head of the sheet covered objects. A lot of it appeared to be furniture and I saw that whatever my dad had wanted me to find clearly wasn't. "Now, what?"

"Take the sheet off." He says simply.

I did as he said and underneath the dusty cover was a gorgeous black and silver motorcycle. I guess he heard my slight catch of breath because the next thing he tells me is, "It's yours."

"Oh my god, really? Thank you!" I cheered and he laughed. "How did you even get this?"

"It used to be mine. I took good care of her, didn't I?"

"I'll say."

"We'll have to get you a helmet first, so I would just say make sure everything is all clean and running. That should keep you busy."

I thanked him several more times before he told me that he had to head back to work, but he parted with, "Happy 19th birthday Ashlyn."

Once I was off of the phone I ran inside to put the phone back and changed out of my night clothes after I took a shower, I knew exactly how I was going to spend my day. I threw on some black jeans shorts and a deep red Eighteen Visons shirt before heading back out to my new bike. I guided it out of the garage into the bright August sun. I washed and polished until the sun started to set, seeing that still no one had shown up yet. I decided to hell with it, I was going to take the motorcycle for a spin.

I threw my leg over it and straddled the bike, before bringing her to life with a roar. I laughed at the sound of the engine and kicked off the ground to ride down the driveway. As soon as I was off the gravel I decided to see what this thing could do. The wind began to blow through my hair as I picked up speed and I felt my pulse quicken from the rush. The feeling was so exhilarating that I began mentally searching for reasons to stay on.

I saw a gas station in the distance and decided that's where I was going. I pulled the bike up to an empty pump, glad that I had brought my wallet with me. As soon as that was taken care of I knew I had two options now. I could go back home or I could keep going. The bike idled between my legs as I sat there, wondering what to do.

I ended up turning left out of the gas station lot, away from home. At first I didn't have a destination in mind, but when I started recognizing the way I was going something dawned on me. I knew that I only had to take a few more turns until I would reach that abandoned bar Chris had shown me. I zipped past countless trees, vaguely noticing the way they cast looming shadows. It provided a mock darkness, so I switched on the headlight for the rest of the ride.

I parked in front of the bar, glad to have the sunlight back in the clearing. Now I could finally see what it looked like in the dimming daylight. I could tell that the place was old and at one point it must have been nice, well as nice as bars go. Curiosity got the better of me as I approached the structure. The grass crunched under my boots, the summer heat had clearly not been kind to it and that's what made me notice how dead quiet this area was. There should have been birds chirping and bugs buzzing, but the only sound was the dead grass under my feet.

Some part of me willed me to not go inside, but I pushed my fears aside and slowly cracked one of the double doors open. The sunlight I allowed inside cut through the darkness, landing on the decorated wine bottle. The gems glittered in the light and I was surprised by my sudden urge to give it a taste.

"Ashlyn! What are you doing here?" Chris demanded from the shadows, nearly making me jump out of my skin.

"I... I'm..." I stumbled, failing to come up with words and reasons for my being here. It puzzled me then, why had I decided to come here? To be honest I hadn't been putting much thought into where I was heading. I had just gone with it mindlessly. So I finally said, "I don't know."

"Well you need to leave, now."

Danielle's soft voice spoke up then as she emerged from a doorway behind the bar. "Chris you don't need to kick her out. She has as much right to be here as any of us."

Chris's intense demeanor lessened, but as he moved closer to me I could see many emotions flickering in his golden brown eyes. "Why did you come back?"

"It's obvious that she likes hanging out with us Chris, it's not rocket science." Danielle states like it should have been clear to him. She then turned her attention to me, "So where did you get that killer bike out there?"

"It used to be my dad's, but he gave it to me as my birthday present." I explained as I turned to look outside at my newly acquired motorcycle.

"Wait, is today your birthday?" Danielle asked sounding like she was holding back her excitement.

"Yeah, I'm nineteen now."

"Aw you and Chris are the same age now!" She exclaimed with a bright smile. "We should all go out and celebrate, how's that sound to you?"

I thought about it for a moment, right at this someone had probably gotten home by now and knew that I was gone. So I figured, why the hell not? "It sounds like a great idea."

She grabbed her wine bottle and took a deep drink before tipping it in my direction. "You know, I've been doing some thinking and I really thing you should be included in the group officially."

"Danielle, don't you do anything to her." Chris quickly cut in, giving her a sharp look.

She rolled her eyes at him and spoke to me once more, "So what do you say, do you want to be a Lost Girl?"

I quirked an eyebrow at her, "You guys have a name?"

She shrugged, "It wasn't my idea, but yeah."

She held the bottle out to me murmuring, "C'mon Ashlyn, be one of us."

I saw out of the corner of my eye that Chris was making a start for me as my fingers wrapped around the neck of the wine bottle. He hissed, "Ashlyn don't, it's blood."

I gave him a look of disbelief muttering, "Okay, sure it is."

I lifted the bottle to my lips and drank.