You've got Problems?

(Author's Note: Ok, I know it's been almost a month, and I'm very sorry that it took this long. I can't make any promises about future chapters, but I'll try to finish them sooner. Hope you all enjoy.)


“A vampire?” Cynthia asked. “Myer, you’ve totally lost it.”

Myer licked his lips. He was, in the true sense of the word, desperate. He didn’t dare to even leave his room all of yesterday, and he certainly didn’t go anywhere near the window to his room. Nothing seemed to make any kind of sense anymore. All he knew was that what he had seen Saturday night had nearly scared the life out of him. And he had no one to truly turn to. Except, he had hoped during the morning classes of the day, Cynthia. But even she didn’t believe a word that had passed through his lips.

“I know it sounds crazy, but you have to believe me.” He said.

“Myer,” Cynthia leaned closer to him, so that their eyes were only inches from each other, “Vampires do not exist, they are make believe.”

“But I’m telling the truth!” Myer said. “There’s no way that she could be anything else.”

Cynthia shook her head and waved her hand dismissively at him. “Forget this Myer. I don’t know what you’re on, but I don’t want to have any part of it. Understand?”

She turned her back to him and started to walk away. Normally, in fact, most of the time Myer would have just let her go. But he had no one else he could even hope to rely upon, and that was enough to force his next choice of action. With hardly any thought about it, Myer rushed after Cynthia and grabbed her arm.

“Please Cynthia. I know what I saw, and I need your help.” He pleaded.

Cynthia whirled around and smacked him across the cheek. The painful sting of the blow caused Myer to lose his grip. Cynthia pulled away from him, there was fire in the depths of her eyes.

“Don’t you ever touch me again.” She growled through clenched teeth. “You lay even another finger on me, and I’ll put my foot between your legs as hard as I can.”

“I’m sorry.” Myer said. “But I don’t have anyone else to go to, and I don’t know what to do. I already let her into my house. Sooner or later, she’s going to come after me.”

“You really want some advice?” Cynthia asked. Myer quickly nodded. “Go tell your dad or the school counselor that you’re going crazy. And have yourself committed.”

“But Cynthia…” Myer begged, taking a step towards her.

He didn’t get another word out when a rough pair of hands grabbed him from behind and slammed his back into a locker. Myer gasped as he felt the wind escape his lungs. Standing over him was a tall, well built guy in a football jacket. His buzzed head leaned down at Myer, and his blue eyes practically had murder in them.

“You better leave my girl alone.” He threatened, hitting a fist into the locker right next to Myer’s head. The large jock looked at Cynthia. “You alright babe?”

“Yeah, I’m fine Dillon. Myer here was just leaving, right?”

Myer took the hint really fast. “Yeah,” he said, trying to slide away from Dillon, “I was going right now.”

Dillon’s eyes narrowed at him. “Don’t touch her ever again. If I ever see you bothering her, I’ll break your legs.”

The way he said that and the look in his eyes was enough for Myer to know that Dillon wasn’t joking. If he dared to defy this brute’s demand, then he was going to regret it. And the last thing that Myer needed right now was an enemy.

“Forget it.” He mumbled. “I’ll fix this myself.”

He left the situation at that. If anything, all it did that was show him that there wasn’t anyone in the entire world that he could rely upon. He didn’t know what he was going to do, but he knew that he was going to have to go at it alone. First thing that Myer had to do was to find out exactly what he was dealing with.

Whatever Lilly was, she wasn’t normal. Myer was left with no choice by to assume that she was indeed a vampire. Instead of going home, he went straight to the nearest library. It took him over two hours to find any kind of books that were of any use on the subject. Myer couldn’t believe that something so popular as vampires could possibly be so unknown.

It was well after sundown when he wearily rubbed his eyes and admitted defeat. He had found next to nothing that was any kind of use for him. Mostly it was just a rehash of stuff that Myer already knew, other than a few little known cases over the past two hundred years in which some kind of vampirism was believed to be involved.

Scared and depressed, Myer drove home. He was alone and in the dark on the entire situation, and didn’t have the first clue about what he was going to do next. The only thing that came to mind was to lock himself up tight inside his room and not come out until dawn. As he turned onto his street, Myer felt the pace of his heart quicken.

The darkness of the surrounding houses suddenly seemed so ominous to him. So few of the homes appeared warm and homely. Myer didn’t dare to even look in the empty blackness that existed between each of the houses for fear of possibly seeing a specter staring back at him.

As he pulled into the driveway, Myer had to grip the wheel tightly or risk losing control because of his sweat slick hands. It was in that moment that Myer wished he smoked. A cigarette might possibly take away some of his nervousness. Easing on the brakes, Myer’s entire body tensed when he parked his car. There was no chance of him even wasting a single second for fear of being intercepted by Lilly before he could make it inside. Myer was out of his car and through the door with such a quickness that he should have received a gold medal for it.

He didn’t wait around to see what his dad was up to, nor did he want him to catch on about what he was going through. Locking himself inside his room for the countless time, Myer threw down all of his things and checked the window. A sigh of relief escaped him when he saw that the locks were still in place. That little reassurance did a lot to put his mind at ease. Myer attempted to drown out all of the thoughts, questions, and fears that flowed around in his head by submersing himself in endless television.

The spell was broken only when he heard a faint knock on the door to his room. Myer’s heart raced at the sound and he nearly fell out of bed. “Myer.” His father’s voice echoed from the other side. “Dinner’s in five. Get downstairs.”

Gently pressing his hand against his chest, Myer faintly passed the fear from his lips. He had become so high strung in just the last few days that he felt as if a pin drop would give him a heart attack. Somehow, though he wasn’t exactly sure himself how it had happened, but he managed to keep all the feelings that were running through him hidden. The most that his father seemed to even notice and mention of was that he looked slightly ill. Myer skillfully covered his tracks with a few off hand mentions of having a lot of work mixed with a bug going around the school. The story was terrible and full of so many holes, but his dad bought it.

When he had finished his meal, Myer sulked up to his room in silence. It went without question that he was still terrified of what he had seen at Lilly’s. But as he climbed the steps, he knew that other feelings were submerged just under his fear. More than anything, Myer found himself missing Lilly.

But as much as he felt a yearning within his heart to see her again, the fear of what she might be, what she might do to him, scared Myer just enough to keep him from going to see her. Myer buried himself in his room once more, and found himself totally lost. His heart was torn between his deep desire to glance into her mystic grey eyes once more and pounding of worry about his own fate.

Finding himself in a position that apparently damned him no matter which course he took, Myer put his head into his knees and began to cry. It was only the faintest of taps against the window panel that brought Myer out of the dark hole within himself.

Wiping away the physical signs of his sorrow, Myer looked towards his window. One part of him desperately wanted to see Lilly there, staring back at him. The other hoped with all the vigor that it possessed that it would just be branches scrapping against the panel. No matter what Myer wanted, reality was its own judge. Crouched on the thick limb just outside his room was Lilly. Her pale face was just inches from the thin sheets of glass that separated the two of them.

“Myer.” She whispered softly.

The wall that Myer had purposely built up over the last few days, the wall which might have been in the beginning stages of crumbling, came up with renewed strength. Turning to this girl who seemed as much a phantom as a real person, Myer looked at her eyes, and freaked. There was no way to mistake what he saw, a faint red hue radiated from Lilly’s eyes in the light.

“Holy shit!” Myer gasped, falling off his bed.

Lilly retracted from his window, pulling back into the darkness. “Myer,” she spoke to him in that eerily gentle voice, “calm down. We need to talk.”

“Talk?” Myer blurted out. “What’s there to talk about?”

Lilly sighed heavily. “Myer, a lot of what happened is my fault. I should have told you from the beginning.”

“What, that you’re a creature of the night.” He said.

Lilly pulled back by his words. Though he could see the emotional damage that he had just inflicted upon her, Myer remained steadfast against Lilly.

“Myer,” her voice was staring to show signs of cracking, “why are you saying this to me? Can’t you just open the window and let me in?”

“No way.” Myer said flatly. “Let you in so you can get me?”

“Please, Myer. Will you stop this and just listen to me.” She pleaded.

“Listen to what?” Myer felt himself becoming nearly hysterical. He didn’t know what her game was, but he was more terrified for his life now than he had been in the past few days. “That you’re a monster. A vampire.”

Lilly didn’t say anything. She didn’t even move. She just crouched on the limb for several moments. Myer reached blindly around him until he felt his fingers brush against a pencil. He readily snatched it up and held it in a defensive manner in front of himself. As he waited with mounting tension, he saw Lilly dip her head. He heard her exhale once before lifting he head skyward.

When Myer looked at her, all of his fear and suspicion vanished. Even at the edge of darkness outside, he could see clearly that Lilly was blinking away tears. The wall emotional wall began to fall apart in that instant, and Myer felt a deep pain enter his heart. Lilly bit her quivering lower lip as her body trembled and she fought to suppress even more tears.

“You…” Lilly started but her voice broke. “blind, insensitive asshole. I’m not a vampire. I’m an albino!”

Myer felt like someone had punched him across the face. “Al…albino?” he asked. He had heard about albinos before in science classes, but never thought about the possibility of there being human ones.

The sorrow had left Lilly’s face. A deep, nearly indescribable anger had replaced it. “I have an allergic reaction to sunlight!” she yelled at him through the window. “My skin blisters instantly. It’s called photosensitivity.”

Myer was nearly at a loss for words. “But…” he stammered. “But the blood.”

“I’m anemic too!” Lilly shouted, hitting her fist against the edge of the window. “I can’t make enough….I need transfusions to stay alive.”

Lilly seemed like she had a lot more to say, but her voice and strength were just sapped away. She dipped her head and began to sob. Myer didn’t know what to say. He didn’t know what to do. But he was certain beyond a shadow of a doubt that he hated himself. There had only been one other time that he had felt this way, and experiencing it again was tearing him apart.

“Lilly.” he croaked, trying to pull himself up. He could see tiny droplets of tears falling from her cheeks. Seeing her in such pain felt like a knife in his chest, and Myer himself felt his eyes begin to water. “I…”

“No!” Lilly shouted, glaring up at him suddenly. Again, he could see her eyes shining that faint red glow in the light. “I thought you were different Myer. I thought that you could actually….”

She said nothing more. Myer wanted tried to talk, more than anything to apologize for what he had done. Shedding many tears, Lilly shimmied down the tree so fast that by the time Myer scrambled across his bed and opened the door, she was gone.

“Lilly!” he shouted into the darkness. “Wait, I’m sorry!”

When there was no answer, Myer pulled himself back into his room, and broke down uncontrollably for the second time in his life.

(Hopefully the next chapter will be done soon so you don't have to wait on this cliffhanger. P.S.- I'm not making up anything with Lilly's ailments, they're very real things that affect people every day.)