How to Start a Fire

CH1 [The Weird Aunt]

  July 17th 2014  

It had been exactly 31 years since the day that I was bitten.

Human technology had gotten better, the clothing style improved a lot and the music became more like something I actually enjoyed. The biggest downside was that David Bowie was, in fact, still alive and well... At least they didn't play him on the radio anymore.

I woke up, looking up at Millicents face. She smiled at me, nudging me gently. "Happy thirtyfirst anniversary, Nelly." She said with a big smile on her face. I squinted up at her, it was way too early to be talking to anybody... but of course I had to be bothered. I turned my head to the side to see Selem grin at me, blowing into a party horn in celebration. Selem was one out of three other colleagues I had here at the station. He originally came from india and his behavior was... rather peculiar. He always kept emotional distance to everybody else and not once did I feel like he was honest with me when we talked, but he still acted like everyone was his friend. He did office work with me, his photographic memory really helped with our paperwork.

I sat up and made noises of distress, rubbing my eyes while glaring at them. "The sun has barely even set..." I grumbled before yawning again.

"Yeah, but it has!" Selem grinned widely. "Can I give you an anniversary hug!?"

"No." I responded. Why did we have to celebrate this day? I did not want to be reminded of back then...

Selem hugged me anyways, as usual. When he moved back, Millicent held up a small paper bag in front of me. "It's from all of us!" She said.

I took it and threw a look inside. There was a card in there... and a small package. First I took out the card.

"Dear Nelly- Happy Anniversary! We all hope that you are having a great day and a fantastic new year." I read out. I couldn't deny the smile that made its way onto my face. This was cheesy. Then I took out the small package, unwrapping it carefully. My eyes lighted up as I could take a proper look at it. It was a collectable figurine! Wait, no... It was the figurine of my favourite character! "Oh my god... this is a rare one!" I exclaimed.

"Ya! I found it on some site, first thought it was a scam because it was more expensive." Selem explained, laughing. "I hope you like it!"

"Oh gosh..." I wheezed, taking the figurine out of it's box. She was gorgeous... I got up and placed it onto my shelf, together with a whole army of other figurines from all different sorts of series. "Thank you..."

They both grinned at me cheekily. "Now come on, get dressed. Breakfast is waiting downstairs... and I'm sorry, but I really need your help. Today they found a badly sunburned vampire in the streets and put him into the special visitor's room for us..." Millicent said, rolling her eyes. "They woke me up to take care of him a couple of hours ago and he..." She sighed. "I don't have time to handle him right now..."

I nodded. "Yeah, yeah... just give me some time."

They both left the room soon after, giving me the chance to change and get ready.

After putting on my clothes I went into the bathroom to brush my teeth and ended up looking at myself in the mirror.

31 years since I had left to get cigarettes for my brother. I wondered if he was still smoking, at least I never saw him do it. It hadn't taken him long to get back to work, though I figured he really had stopped smoking after that. By now he was married to the girl he was engaged with back then when everything has still been normal and had two children who had grown to be adults. Sometimes I went to see how he's been, just to see if he's alright- and he usually was, which was uplifting. I couldn't say the same about my parents. My father died from cancer at the age of 64 and my mother lived in a nursing home where she spent most of her time doing Sudoku alone. Judging by how she retreated into her shell after losing me, she obviously couldn't handle personal loss too well.