Vampire World Takeover

Chapter 1

7am, Saturday, October 17th, 2020

Crossville, New Jersey.

The alarm clock began to buzz annoyingly. It was 7am and Amy Jones jumped out of bed feeling dazed and groggy, she was not a morning person... With a sinking sensation, Amy contemplated another day flipping burgers at ‘Burger Kingdom’, a run down rip-off burger joint, in her hometown of Crossville, New Jersey. Nineteen years old, living at home with her mom and in a job she hated. She sighed, it didn’t get much bleaker than this.

Then it dawned on her, today was Saturday, and for once she had the day off. Ordinarily, such luck would have called for a return to bed to luxuriate under the warm blankets. But today was different… she felt the excitement flare up in her as she remembered about tonight. She was on a date with perhaps the hottest guy in town. Travis Layton. Amy grinned slyly and ran downstairs, taking a few stairs at a time. Perhaps today wasn’t such a total washout after all.

As she thudded on the middle landing, she pictured Travis and felt a warm stirring. He had been the captain of the school football team and the best looking guy in the entire school. That was a few years back and he had only gotten better with age. Unlike Amy, he came from money and he went to college in New York. He had been back for a weekend visit when he had come into the restaurant, did a double take and after a bit of flirtation, he had asked Amy out on a date. It was like some something out of corny TV show, something starring beautiful people with perfect teeth and set in Beverly Hills. Then again, figured Amy, with a chipped front tooth and a career in fast food, perhaps the similarities weren’t so apparent.

In anticipation, Amy pictured her evening’s date. Travis had green eyes and toffee colored hair. Predictably popular at high school, the guys had envied him and the girls, well… he had dated one of the stuck up girls on the cheer leading squad, Lizzie something-or-other, a bit of a bitch but she had been drop dead gorgeous. Which begged the question, why had he asked Amy out? Like any girl, Amy had her own niggling self-doubt issues but she wasn’t going to let them get the better of her today. She pushed the question out of mind and gave herself a pep-talk.

“Oh well,” she thought shrugging, “he must like something about me, who knows? Maybe it’s my towering intellect and high powered career.”

When Amy reached the bottom of the stairs, she saw her mother in the kitchen. She was busying herself cooking toast and making fresh coffee. The smell was delicious and made Amy feel even more hungry.

“Good morning mom! How’s it going” she said suspiciously happy for such an ungodly hour.

“Good morning honey,” her mother said, “someone’s chirper this morning.”

Amy just smiled to herself, and decided not to open up about the whole date thing. She was not a fan of mother daughter hug and share moments, finding it somewhat embarrassing.

“What are you doing today, mom? she questioned, changing the subject.

“I have a lot of things to do at home, dear. I’m waiting for Jen to call later,” replied her mother too.

Jen was Amy’s fourteen year old sister. She was on a school trip in Nevada, camping in the Grand Canyon. Not too close in age to be competitive, the girls had a cool and friendly relationship. Although clothes related skirmishes had arisen, they were thankfully scarce.

“What about you? Any plans?” continued Christine, giving Amy a sideways look, which knew meant she was fishing.

“I’m meeting Anna at the mall. She’s going to help me choose a dress for my date with Travis tonight,” said Amy.

“Ah yes, your date,” Christine Anderson said, smiling.

Amy readied herself for some cringe inducing sex talk, but none came. That was a relief, she was one year short of twenty and very much not a virgin. However, since moving back home after Mr Prince Charming turned out to be Mr Pain-in-the-Ass, her mother had started treating like a kid again.

Instead of the mom-advice, Christine Anderson took out her purse, and gave Amy a fifty dollar note. Amy looked wide-eyed in disbelief. Christine and Amy Anderson were not rich. In fact, they were anything but. Every dollar was accounted for in the Anderson home. Amy didn’t even want to know how her mom had paid for Jen’s camping trip.

“I can’t accept this mom,” said Amy, in a quiet, incredulous voice.

Since Amy’s parents had divorced five years ago, her lowlife father had done a Houdini and taken the family savings with him. From that point on, they had had very little money. Or more accurately, they had zero money. Her mother had two jobs and they still struggled financially. Amy’s wage helped a bit but not much. She looked at the fifty dollar bill, crisp in her hand. Truth be told, she wanted it but yet she felt so many levels of guilt, she didn’t know if she could. What should she do?

“Amy, take it!” her mother said, “it’s important to me that you enjoy yourself. You have been such a great help to me since your father left. I just wanted to show how much I love you.”

Amy saw her mom’s eyes had watered and felt a tug at her heartstrings.

“I know how much you love me mom, and I love you,” said Amy.

Realizing how much it meant to her mother, she decided to accept the money. Mother and daughter hugged. Letting go of her normal aversion to emotional scenes, Amy felt warm inside. A different kind of warm the Travis-thoughts from earlier had caused, but nice nevertheless. She could smell her mother’s perfume and the shampoo she had used since Amy had been a baby. It made her feel happy and secure, kind of like when she was a kid and worries had been non-existent.

It was a moment Amy would cherish forever, and one which she would replay in her head many, many times, after that night…