Not Another Vampire Story - 19
19. Friendly Denial
PG13. Tween, humor, middle school, angst, vampires, serial, teen, fiction, summer. #ReadFree
Read from the beginning.
Suggested Music: on AudioNetwork
Sylvia begins to doubt her senses.
Sylvia sat in the front of the Mustang, hand on the door side in a flight-mode setting even though they were only traveling at thirty-five miles per hour. There was a petrified look of shock on her face and she was oblivious to the neighborhoods they passed.
Beside her Terry was chatting blithely about Julia's upcoming birthday party. She looked over at him slowly, barely able to breathe since they'd left his apartment seven minutes ago.
"Are you going to hurt her?" she finally stammered out.
He looked at her, the personable grin on his face subtracting everything she'd seen in his apartment that afternoon. "Why, Sylvi, whatever are you talking about?"
"You know what I m-mean." The words fell flat and she choked at the end, de-emphasizing any impact she hoped they had.
"Never happened." He looked back at the street before them and slowed the car at the red light they came to at the intersection. "You shouldn't let your imagination run off with you. Bad habit."
Her teeth caught her lower lip and bit to keep from shouting him down with accusations. She felt a trickle of blood start at the wounded skin. Her eyes grew wide in horror as she realized what she'd done. She wiped the tiny spot of blood away from her lip with the back of her hand, brain freezing anew at the movement. Her eyes shot to Terry as he looked over at her.
"Another bad habit," he muttered, one hand reaching across her to the glove box and snapping it open. He withdrew a pocket-size bundle of tissues and handed it to her. "Don't be so nervous, Sylvi."
She scrunched farther away in her seat, hands trembling as she fumbled with the tissues. She pulled one out of the package and touched it to her lip, seeing the faint pink color the tissue. She looked back to Terry, who seemed unaffected by the blood.
"As for your question," he said, turning the car into another lane at the corner, "no, and I'm not going to let anyone else hurt her either."
"But that's what vampires do," she said, her voice muffled behind the tissue.
He chuckled dryly, shaking his head as the car made its way down the street. "Since you're so adamant about vampires this afternoon," he said, his grin broadening, "I'll humor you. Vampires—if you believe the myth and legend—have been around a long time, are nearly impossible to exterminate, and can coexist quietly among the living world." He flicked on the radio to a pop station. "Emphasis on quietly."
"But they're blood-sucking terrorists," she said for lack of tapping her imagination.
"You really think so? You don't think that after hundreds of years, something as far-fetched as the notion of real vampires alive today wouldn't have found a way to acclimate to a variety of cultures?" He awaited her answer, but she only nodded in a bobble-headed way. "Technology finds a way. So does the survival instinct."
"I don't want my sister anywhere near a vampire," she said. It was supposed to be a bold stand, even as her hand clawed for the door latch, but her voice only eked out like Matt's on a voice-changing day. "I won't let her get hurt."
He smiled, but there was a hint of threat behind his eyes. "Nor will I. I'll never let anyone hurt Julia. And I do mean never, Sylvia." He reached over and tousled her hair that was slightly windblown.
Sylvia froze at his touch, the tissue hovering near her lip, wanting to throw his hand away, but only able to manage a nod. "But you're . . . you're a . . ."
"Man in love with your sister, Sylvi," he said, leaning closer a little, eyes narrowing on her only momentarily. He straightened, the grin back on his striking features. "Is that so hard to believe?"
Her head wobbled in answer.
"Now," he said, slowing the car and turning into her driveway, "I want you to do something for me."
Sylvia's mind was already racing into a chorus of defiant 'Not on your life!' before he finished the sentence.
He stopped the car and put it into park, watching her terrified eyes go to the front porch steps where absolutely no one was watching out the windows to observe. He leaned one arm on the steering wheel and turned to her as she looked back with a numb gaze.
"I went over to Terry's apartment to talk about Julia's birthday gift," he said, his tone melodious, belying the previous panic she'd witnessed. "Now you say it, Sylvia."
The tissue dropped from her lip as she swallowed, her throat too dry. She opened her mouth, no words inching out.
"Say it, Sylvi," he urged, eyes on her lips. Or maybe the spot of blood lingering from where she'd bitten.
"I went over to Terry's . . ." she began against her will.
". . . to talk about the birthday gift," he said, voice sinking into her brain where it found the very back of her head and sunk down to her spine
She nodded.
"Say it, Sylvia." The low hum of words dropped farther down her backbone.
She nodded again, fingers groping for the door latch. "I went over to your place to talk about the pendant." She frowned a little as she said it, the words at odds with what she knew she'd seen.
"Good. Now, believe it."
She made another head bobble.
"No ghost stories, no werewolves howling, nothing else."
"It was—"
"A pleasant afternoon looking at the sapphire pendant," he finished, his voice but a murmur that hummed true in her ears, making her nod. "Good." He gave her a brilliant smile and sat back before opening the car door and getting out.
Sylvia sat immobile as he crossed in front of the car, tossing a wave to her mom who was peeking out the window. She glanced to Terry as he opened the car door for her. It was true, she thought through the fog in her brain. Vampires could hypnotize.
The door opened and she obediently got out into the chilly afternoon, returning a feeble smile to Terry's charming grin.
"Thanks for the ride," she forced herself into saying, almost believing it, embracing the fallacy over the truth, for the moment.
"See you later, Sylvi."
Thanks to Sakurapu for sharing her story!
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