How to Slay Vampires (Book 2)

Chapter 13

"I'm sorry I'm calling you in the middle of the night but I had a question but if you want to go back to sleep I think it can wait till morning---"

"No, no, Cindy, go on," I said, raising my head from the kitchen table. I wasn't going back to bed until Merry was home but I was also exhausted and I knew I had to get up early in the morning and she was responsible and I was so tired but I still was waiting up for her. This was a nice in between to running after her and wrapping her tight in my arms and not letting her go. Also, Bowie was up now. For good probably.

"She's got an interesting thread," Bowie said, frowning and looking down at his Book of Everything, which he'd been scribbling in furiously.

"Shhh, I'm on the phone," I whispered.

"Okay, so Merry called and asked me to give Enoch a message and it didn't make sense to me at all but she said it was in code so that makes sense that it wouldn't make sense because it's in code---"

"Okay, go on, tell me the message," I said.

"Not important to the fate of the universe, but interesting," Bowie said.

 I shushed him again. 

"You should care more about the fate of the universe."

"I do baby, I do, we'll save it in the morning I promise---"

"Nope it's going to take millenia----"

"Go on, what's the message," I said, plugging up my other year. I felt bad ignoring the rants of my youngest, in the same way you feel bad when you drive a car and know you're emitting gases into the atmosphere and slowly killing our planet. You know you have to do it in order to survive but it still feels a little bad all the same.

"Okay, so her message was---and I memorized it exactly because, it's in code, so here it goes: 'there are vampires attacking the school. Meet me there'---"

"FUCK!" that stupid girl she WOULDN'T. Oh yes. Yes she would. That is exactly what she would do. So nobody else died. But she doesn't understand I cannot have her die.

"Does that make sense to you?" Cindy was still on the phone.

"Um---no---no sense what so ever ask Matthew, um, I'm sorry, I have to go," I said, hanging up. I needed to think. I had three worst-parent-in-the-world decisions to make. All three made me The Worst Mom Ever. A) go to drag Merry out of there and bring Bowie with me to the vampires B) go drag Merry out of there and leave Bowie here unsupervised C) let Merry go to certain death and do nothing.

I wasn't doing C. I was so not doing C. I had to endanger one child to save the other. If their stupid fucking useless father owned a cell phone then I could contact him and tell him to watch one of them but he's a stupid fucking useless brain damaged idiot so he does not so I cannot. That left me with A and B. and I was not going to do A because I didn't know how dangerous it was just that it was definitely dangerous. So I was not taking Bowie with me. that left B. The thing was, Bowie was almost sort of old enough to be left at home alone. Except he was him and he would immediately climb out the window and try to climb up on the roof to work on his star charts or whatever the hell he always thought it was so important that he do. I knew this from experience. If he was not asleep or locked up, he was probably going to try to climb on something. or hide in his fort for eight hours at a time, that too. So potentially sacrifice one child to save the other? I was a horrible horrible person. Okay, I already knew I was a terrible person but now I was a worse person I shouldn't be allowed to have children why did God give me children if I couldn't take care of them?

I pick up my phone again, pressing the screen a few times. Please be up, "Tracy, can you come over here and watch Bowie please?" I asked, as soon as she answered.