A Vampire Tale

Epilogue

  Christmas
Hailey had finished working on my hair and placed a Santa hat on it. "See how pretty you look in that holiday dress? Taylor's going to love it."

I smiled as I looked in the mirror. The red Mrs. Claus dress looked really good on me thanks to Hailey.

"What time is it?" I asked. "Why did I have to dress up?"

She winked and said, "follow me and find out."

I followed her toward the lobby of the Association, hearing Jason's voice complaining about something. As soon as we walked in, I noticed that everyone, even my dad, was standing around the incredibly large Christmas tree.

"Brenda, wait here for a bit. I need to get Megan." I nodded but felt a bit embarrassed to be the only one dressed up. Hailey came back a moment later and shouted, "They're here!"

Megan and I looked at each other before watching as a path separated for us. Sitting on a chair was an angry looking Taylor dressed like a cat. Jason was standing behind him, keeping the rope nice and tight so Taylor cat won't run away.

Megan's eyes lit up as she ran over to Taylor. "Your alive!" she shouted out as she rapidly peeled off the packing tape from his mouth.

"Ouch!" he said with clear discomfort, his face red from the tape. "Careful next time, Megan!" His eyes met mine as my heart sped up. He clearly was impressed with the dress. I swear, if his face wasn't already red, he could have been blushing. "Brenda, you look amazing," he said, unable to take his eyes off me.

"So Brenda, your choice. Should I let him run around free, or keep this cat on a leesh?" Jason joked.

"Take a picture first. Let's all take a picture so we can remember this," I answered.

Megan smiled and said, "he looks funny as a kitty. Who did this to him anyways?"

Everyone held up their hands before Taylor said, "I was ambushed at home."

I walked over to stand beside him and scratched him behind his left kitty ears head band. "Let go of me! This is humiliating!"

Mr. Anderson came back with a camera in his hands. Everyone posed by Taylor until the flash came on. That was when I began to untie Taylor.

As soon as he was free, he grabbed my hand, and ran towards the living quarters. We ran into his room where he immediately dropped my hand and pulled off a fake tail and the head band.

"Can you help me get this stuff off?" I sat him down on is bed as I walked into his always clean bathroom and grabbed a new rag. I dumped it in the water before heading back to him.

"You know, you make a very cute kitty cat," I joked.

He shook his head no slowly before I stopped him. "I don't want to look like a cat," was all he said before closing is right eye as water dripped from his face. I rubbed his face until the marker they used was completely gone before leaving it to dry in the sink.

Taylor made no movement to move from his bed, so I kneeled down onto my knees and looked up into his dark eyes.

"What are you thinking about?"

His eyes met mine again before he said "nothing. I'm fine, but you should probably avoid borrowing that again."

"Why? What's wrong with it?" I asked.

He pulled me off of my knees and into his lap. "People were staring, and I don't want to compete with my family for my girlfriend," he whispered.

I couldn't help but laugh at hiss jealousy. I kissed him, passionately long, before saying "I love you, Taylor. Not them. I was told to wear this for you."

He kissed me again. "Remember this, I will love you even if you didn't dress up for me. I told you once that you could do anything to me for keeping me alive, and that still stands."

I shook my head no. "I don't want to be the one in control of your life, Taylor. You're here now, and even if you're not human anymore, you still have the responsibility to continue living for everyone else. Your mom and dad wouldn't want you to live the rest of your life being told-" he covered my mouth before I could say thing else and looked me in the eye.

"Please, don't tell me how they would want me to live. Even I'm not sure how they wanted me to grow up, especially since I spent the first and only four years of my live with them, surviving."

I could see sadness swirl in his irises, making me want to help him even more.

"Have you ever visited them? Their graves?" I asked.

He looked away before shaking his head no. "I haven't seen them since I was a kid. I just don't know what to say to them."

"You can tell them anything you want. They are your parents after all," I made him look at me, keeping a smile to lighten the mood. "I'm sure your parents are very proud of you. I know for a fact that they are not the only ones."

His smile lit up his face, making his strong face look kinder. "I worked hard everyday in order to become strong. I had always told myself I had to destroy Samuel Marcus for what he did to my family, but that's not the case anymore. Ever since I met you, I felt like I had to protect you from a world hidden in the shadows of your own. You're the reason I kept fighting."

Before either of us could say anything, there was a knock on the door. Everyone waited by the door when Taylor opened it.

"Relax kitty boy, we're not here to play dress up," Jason teased with a playful grin on his face. "Your parents want to give you something, but you ran off before they could."

Before Taylor could close the door, Parker grabbed him by his shoulders and pulled him out. "Let's go Ebenezer. You can wait for Jacob Marley later."

I couldn't help but giggle as I followed them out. Jason once again started an argument with Taylor, and hearing them argue like old times, made me take both of their hands.

"You two really are like brothers. The only difference are your masters." That got them to frown.

"We're not brothers. We're co-workers and classmates," Jason said as he turned to me. "Besides, his parents know what he is. My mom is going to flip out when she finds out I'm a vampire."

Taylor shook his head no. "Actually, you don't have to tell her. You're a vampire now, which means you will have to leave everything from your human life."

In response, Jason shook his head no. "I'm not leaving my mom. I'm not going to take her only child away."

No one said anything until we came up to Taylor's parents. "Taylor, don't run off on Christmas. Everyone was waiting to see you open your present." His mom handed him a box wrapped up in a striped paper.

"Is something going to jump out?" he asked, eying his parents suspiciously. "Every time you guys try that, it's never funny."

She shook her head and held onto Mr. Harrison's arm, a smile planted on her face. Inside the box was a picture of a man and woman holding their baby boy in their arms, smiling and a sheet of paper with a woman's name and address on it.

"What is this?" Taylor asked, looking up from the picture to his parents. He seemed confused about how to react.

"It's your real family. We felt that you should have at least a picture of your mother and father, and figured you would want to find your real family. That name, Abigail Campbell, is your grandmother."

He shook his head no. "I don't want to meet her. You guys are my parents, and everyone here is my family. I wouldn't change this for anything in the world."

As he placed his gift back into the box, I took a step closer to him, but tripped over my own feet. I fell on top of him, pushing us both to the ground.

"You know, you don't have to push me for your gift," he said with a teasing smile. He leaned forward and kissed me.

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