His Obsession
A Home for the Lost
The sun was beginning to rise as the last of the Jalapeno’s customers left. Felissia followed the weary sage to the door and began waiting for Talisa.
“She’s almost twenty, the same age I was when I married.” she whispered to herself. “Talisa is fine, most of the vampires in the area know not to touch her and those who don’t will get a fireball lobbed at them. She knows how to take care of herself.”
Felissia nodded but began pacing immediately after. Memories of her daughter drew her to the bar. Leona gulping down chocolate milk shakes when she was young. Her sitting on the bar after skinning her knee roller skating. Leona hugging her father before the night he died and Felissia was changed.
“She’s not like me.” she whispered as memories overcame her.
They were walking along the road and not a car was in sight. Her husband was cursing their rotten luck on getting a flat on the deserted stretch. Felissia was thankful Leona was being babysat by the Rosefires.
Then there was a car, a red streak really and Felissia felt searing pain. Her breath was knocked out of her. The stench of burnt rubber and blood was in the air.
“Oh God, ohGod!”
Then a car door slamming and the screech of tires. Felissia closed her eyes for what seemed a minute but when she opened them, he was there, as if from thin air.
“You look a mess, Miss.” he said with a smile and a wink. “But it’s nothing I can’t fix.”
He took her broken body up into his arms and as if by magic, they were instantly inside a motel room. Then the man gently laid her down on the bed and began his work.
“First I’m going to take over your mind so that when I set the broken bones, you won’t feel anything. Then I will give you my blood and put you to sleep. When you awaken, we’ll decide from there.”
She remembered only his jaunty whistling as he fixed her body. Then he tore opened his wrist and placed it to her mouth. He made her drink the blood and true to his words, Felissia did fall asleep.
Only to wake twenty hours later with a gasp.
“I called your daughter’s babysitter.” the vampire announced. “I didn’t want your daughter to think she was an orphan.”
“Orphan? Wha..?” Felissia croaked. He sighed.
“I couldn’t help your husband. He passed on instantly.”
“M-my husband…is...dead?”
“I’m afraid so.” he replied and tears filled her eyes.
“I’m sorry but there are more important things now than mourning.” the vampire said as he sat down on the bed beside her. “You need to do that later. Right now you need to know about what you are now.”
“W-what I am?”
“Yes, I turned you into a vampire.”
“A vampire?!” she exclaimed and shot up in the bed.
“Yes, which means don’t go out in daylight.” he replied. “There is the rare vampire that can go out but most can’t and I’m one of those.”
“Feel free to go to church, wear a cross and eat garlic, neither harms us. Fire, a stake to the heart, and removal of your head will definitely harm.”
“Will I be able to shape shift? Like into a bat or mist?” Felissia asked and he laughed.
“No, that’s bullshit Stoker made up. What you can do is bench press over five tons, see in the dark, hear for miles and sustain a great deal more bodily damage than an average human.”
“That’s nice. There are some punks down the road from me that need to be taught you don’t tease little girls like my Leona.” Felissia said with a smile.
“About your daughter.” he responded nervously. “You can’t live with her.”
“Why?”
“You’ve just been changed.” he told her, “You don’t know what your personal abilities are thus you can’t control them. You’ll be a danger to yourself and your daughter and, as the person who changed you, I’m taking responsibility of you.”
“I’m not a child.” Felissia snapped.
“It doesn’t matter, it is simply the proper thing to do.” the man retorted. “I decided to change you, so I must teach how to live as one of my kind.”
“How do I know this isn’t a joke? That you really are what you say you are.”
The man smiled, revealing very real, very sharp incisors.
School is now in session, he said inside her mind.
Felissia never learned her creator’s name, he never told it to her, but they spent ten years together. She saw her daughter grow up every weekend night. She learned her personal ability was to detect evil intent and telepathy. Both of which served her well.
“Talisa, where are you.” she murmured back in the present.
At that moment, the door opened and Nora trotted in followed by Talisa and Puck.
“Hi Grammy, we’re home!” the younger girl exclaimed. Felissia cocked an eyebrow and eyed Puck with distain.
“So I see.”
Talisa ignored the displeasure in Felissia’s voice and turned to her guest, “Puck, this is my Grammy Felissia.” she then turned to her grandmother, “Grammy this is Puck.”
Puck began nibbling on his lip and cowered behind Talisa.
She’s trying to figure you out. Let her see you.
“No, scary. Too scary.” he whispered back. Felissia grimaced and turned her attention to her granddaughter.
“Talisa, what have I told you about bringing strangers home with you?” she said calmly with an edge of anger.
“He saved my life, Grammy, and he needs me, you… somebody to help him.” The younger girl looked back at Puck and frowned at her grandmother. “Look at the way he’s acting.”
Felissia looked at the cowering boy behind Talisa. Then she slipped into his mind.
“NO!”
A roar of voices and pain overwhelmed her. She fell to her knees and grasped her head, screaming silently. Visions of red faces and red eyes flashed behind her eyes. Visions of red bodies, missing red heads and other red body parts. Voices screaming and laughing and talking filled her ears. Some loud, other soft but all Dead and Felissia somehow knew it.
“OUT”
When Felissia came to, Talisa and Puck were knelt beside her. Nora sat perched on a chair seeming to silently laugh at the vampire’s obvious blunder.
“Ms Grammy must stay out.” Puck told her. “Voices not for Ms Grammy. Voices for Puck, not Ms Grammy.”
“Voices?” Felissia said breathlessly as Puck and Talisa helped her to her feet. Puck nodded.
“Voices of the dead.” Talisa clarified. “Puck, why don’t you go upstairs and crash in my room. It’s the last door on the right.”
“Where will Witchy Poo sleep?” Puck inquired with a concerned frown. “If Puck takes Witchy Poo Talisa’a room…?”
“Grammy’s bed is big enough for the two of us.” Talisa assured. “Go on up, it’s cool.”
After one last backward glance, Puck went upstairs. Once she heard the door shut to her room she turned to Felissia.
“We have to talk.”