Scene Immortal Read online

  Sleepland was velvet, cotton, plush, and all warm-fuzzy touchy-feelie. The sky of my sleep-scape was the color of grape ice cream, the setting sun was as orange as a grocery store carrot, and clouds made of puffs of smoke drifted through the air, carrying gossamer-winged Goth girls on their airy humps. I was in a bed. A huge fluff of a tension-sucking bed. I was a sinewy, naked flesh mound in a field of other-worldly cotton. All on the bed was white. White sheets, white comforter gathered at the bed's foot, 'cause I was too damn hot to need that, for sure. A white pillow supported my head. Everything was spot-on. Everything felt like perfection. My skin, pale with shades of flush from my recent feed, almost matched the bedding in places, making me into some kind of camouflage in red-white in this slumber-jungle of comfort. There was music. The same music that had played during my transformation.

  Then everything tilted. Sleepland became like the gravity house down on that one pier in SoCal. Everything down-side-up-back-asswards.

  The nightmare was trying for a return engagement.

  There was dark, confusion, and panic. Then discovery. Horrible discovery. Of something, something...

  Roads, rain, disorientation. A couple, not young, not old, terrified for their lives and the lives of their children, skidding this way and that to avoid oncoming peril. And all these thoughts in screaming milliseconds. I couldn't take this dream again, and I willed my mind to shift gears. The nightmare faded, and the regularity of sleep returned. I was back in beautiful Slumberland.

  And somebody was here with me. I couldn't see the who-ness of them. I just heard the voice. I didn't care so much to move my head to look, at first. Being still felt so sweet.

  "I'm going to tell you what I can. What I know. In what limited time I have."

  Tell me, I thought to the beautiful voice. I willed myself to look to the right, in the direction of the angel sound.

  Mom.

  Mom, in the same outfit she'd been wearing that night she and dad had gone on their last "date" together. Mom looking all perfect, made-up, happy... alive. I was not sad. I was not confused. Mom had just decided to visit my dream and chat me up. Cool. I liked that.

  Mom, it's so good to see you. How rad is this? I've really missed you. You look great.

  "Shh. There's not too much time, but there's so much to say. Though, I'm sure much of what I should tell you will be silenced, or censored, somehow."

  Huh?

  "Kyle, you're different now. Vastly different. And I have some answers for you. Some answers."

  I'm not surprised at all. You always had answers for everything. I've missed being able to talk to you.

  "You remember the sounds in the woods, in the housing development, in your room? And the cold that came and went, and the shadows?"

  Yes! That was you, right? Sweet! I totally should have known.

  "No, Kyle. That was a scout. A prepper. You were being sniffed, checked, approved of. You see, Andrew already knew he wanted you, but a drone vamp had to go out and inspect you, to make sure you could take on what Andrew was determined to give. Some humans just can't take the change, and they die miserably in the process. Andrew couldn't have had that. He needed you as progeny, as a carry-on. To try and transform you and kill you in the process would have actually broken his heart. All smart vamps, really, check on their potential transromees, if you will, before they go ahead with the action."

  Sounds sound to me. But why me? I mean, why was I chosen as his... whatever?

  "His next of vampire kin?” my mother smiled. "Well, I would have thought you'd have that much figured out."

  Sue me, I'm slower than Josh and Jackie.

  "You're a bright kid. I've always been proud of you. But you're not thinking."

  I'm tired. I had a lot hit me in one day. I'm not gonna decipher any dream-time riddles, I don't think. What're you trying to tell me?

  "Just that it's simple. A matter of vanity, actually. More than that, of course, but vanity is at the core. Andrew Vandridge wanted a rebellious vampire creation who looked just like he did in his teens, when he was in his first band, before Alphatwyn, before everything exploded for him. Before he'd been turned, and found a fellow walker of the night in Victoria. He had only just turned eighteen when it all happened."

  Hold it a tick, then. If he was in a band, and eighteen...wait, why does he talk so...?

  "High-born? Lofty? Pretentious? It's airs. He thinks it makes his persona more complete. He even thinks it impresses the council, but..."

  The what?

  "Nothing, Kyle,” her voice wavered, "just know that while he is what he says he is, there's also a lot of swagger and acting going on. Be impressed, but try not to be enthralled."

  None of what Mom was saying was any stranger than the fact that I, myself, was a "walker of the night." Nothing she said sounded too far-fetched, and it did make sense. Andy had seen something in me that reminded him of something he'd been, and wanted to pass it on. To see it reflected in another creature. But then why leave me?

  So why did he go? Why did he leave me with so many questions? Why did I wake up in that ditch with almost zero point of reference to what the hell was going on? Seems like if he'd wanted to pass something on, he'd also want to see it in action, and to be able to know that the... person he had changed...was getting along, was carrying on the bloodline...? I guess.

  "Of course. But the decision to abandon you was not totally his. He did want you left a bit clueless, so you could toughen yourself; become a strong and fierce vampire on your own. And he wants to keep tabs on you, but something is holding him back." There was a crisp crackle in my head. "Dammit!,” mom's voice hissed. "Kyle, I have to go. Theres—"

  No. I still don't know anything. Well, not really. I mean, I have to—

  "I'm sorry. I have to leave." The voice changed completely before hissing, "Shit!"

  Everything broke apart.

  Before I let the dream, hallucination, visit, whatever it had been fade, I forced myself to let four words echo off the inside of my skull: that was not mom.

  I woke up, all grogged and gross-mouthed. I guess vampirism didn't cure morning breath. And of course it wasn't morning. Well, yeah, it was, but not in the sunny sense. It was the middle of the night. Two-thirty to be exact.

  This was my time now. I was supposed to be awake. I was thinking I was supposed to be awake all the time. And I wouldn't mind, if my dreams continued like that last one.

  What the hell? What was all that info? Why did I buy for a second that my mother had returned from beyond to talk to me about vampires?

  Simple, 'cause I needed something safe to hold onto. Something warm and comfortable. That was, right or wrong, part of why I agreed to the date with Jackie. The other part, clearly, was that I was still in love.

  A vamp in love. Rawk! How much of a Scene Synsation couple would we...

  Damn! The date with Jackie!

  I needed to talk to Josh. About Jackie. About Shannon. About me. And, could I even begin to hope that he'd started formulating his master-plan of Goth Greatness to get some of my questions answered? Stupidly, well, romantically, that actually wasn't my biggest concern. I had to suss this Jackie thing. And who knew Jackie better than my night-loving friend? I knew he'd be awake. He slept less than anybody I knew.

  Except me, of course. Now.

  I dialed. He answered on the second ring.

  "Well hello, my sanguinarian social stormtrooper!"

  "Cut it. And before you go into an explanation, I know what you're saying. I know it gets you off to use flowery words when possible, but why dont'cha just call me a blood-drinker and be done with it?"

  "But the S-word is so much more fun! Kinda languid too, don't you think? Sort of elegant? How did you know what 'sanguinarian' meant?”

  "I've read just as much vamp fiction as you, dude. Well, almost as much."

  "Fine, spoil my fun. Anyway, what's up?"

  "Me, for one."

  "And that's a surprise? You're different now. Vampi
re-different. Didn't you think that might mean you'd be logging some more night hours than usual?"

  His casual attitude about the whole sitch was disturbing and comforting all at once. Kinda funny, really. Josh was so odd that he could make the most awkward and creepy times turn to dust with a few simple comments about how "normal" everything was. "What...” he loved to shout in those times, "the hell... is NORMAL anyway?!"

  A question that was becoming more and more impossible for me to answer, for sure.

  "Okay. You'll be happy to know, and not even a skosh surprised to find out, that I've already printed out about twenty pages worth of research on everything from Modern Vampires to autobiographical highlights of Andrew Vandridge's life since the '80s."

  "My friend works quick! He also uses the word 'skosh'..."

  "He does! But, plowing on..."

  "Wait."

  "What?" He sounded agitated, 'cause I was obviously interrupting his flow. But something else needed addressing first.

  "I need to talk to you about Jackie."

  He shifted gears like a Hipster on the highway his first time outta the city.

  "Ohhhhhhhhh. So that's what she was so desperate to talk to you about! Well, I suppose the, ya know, minor things like what your future might hold in store for your vampiric life can wait, while we discus... you and my sister's potential rekindling." I could almost hear him scrunch his face up, like that day they'd been standing together at school, when things were so different. When I drank energy drinks instead of blood.

  "Does it gross you out? I mean, you are cool with me discussing your sister in these terms?"

  "Only mildly,” he smiled. "Go ahead. I'm your friend. This is what we do for each other."

  "Well, yeah, she talked to me all serious. And... she asked me out."

  "Wow, Jackie, way to cut to the chase! See, we Daltons move fast!

  "Yeah ya do... Well." Big sigh.

  He could tell I was brooding, moping, being Emo.

  "Kyle. I wouldn't let you do something that I knew was going to hurt you, whether or not involved my family. I've got your back in every way possible. At the same time, I love my sister, and I want her to be happy. And in this case..."

  "In this case?"

  "Well, it's a win-win situation. I've heard way too much about you recently, and watched the way her face changes when she talks about you, to think she's being insincere about her wants. Kyle, she misses you. She knows you're better for her than Arthur, she knows how amazing you are. Who wouldn't?"

  He looked at me with his blue puppy-dog half-sunken peepers, and I got the subtext as clearly as I'd gotten the blatant message. "Just try. Try to let her back in. I don't think any of us will regret it."

  "Alright, Josh. But you know I have like ten ultra-diff kinds of hesitation about this, no matter what you say. The proof, ya know, can only come in time."

  "Yeah. Well, until then, try having a little faith. If not in Jackie, at least in my judgment?"

  "I think that's all I can do at this point. Vampire or not, I'm still pretty powerless against your sister's ways." He gave a short laugh across the crappy connection our cells allowed us. "Well hey, one of us still needs sleep before school, my neurotic nocturnal friend. At least try and grab an hour or two before sunrise. It's been a hell of a weekend, for both of us."

  "I am pretty tired. So, wait, you don't need sleep? Or? I mean, how is that working out?"

  "It's hard to tell right now. It seems I've needed less and less since... the change. Speaking of that, don't forget to bring whatever you have with you to school tomorrow."

  "Wouldn't dream of it,” he said. "Hey, actually, how 'bout if I pick you up? We can get a head start."

  "Sounds great. See ya in the morning. Um, later in the morning. You know what I mean."

  "Goodnight, Kyle."

  He didn't hang up, though. "Hey. What are you going to do to fill the time at night? There's really only so many times you can jam through the 750 songs on your player."

  "Well,” I didn't really wanna admit this; not so soon. "You asked, remember that, but... Right now, I think I know exactly what I'm gonna do. Let's just say your thumb won't be in any danger when you see me in a few hours. "'Night, Josh."

  He hesitated, just for a second.

  "See you at sunrise, my friend."

  I put the phone down on the bedside table, then looked out my window, and focused.

  I started listening and watching for signs of life in the brush at the bottom of the back yard.

  It didn't take long. I spotted movement, and could see waves of warmth, from about 150 feet away, right where the yard met the brush, just before the gully. I wasn't sure what it was, but I'd discover that soon enough.

  I threw on some sweats and a tee, opened the window, and set my body into a coil to make the swift leap through, so as not to make noise by trying to climb stealthily out. I probably could have managed, but I didn't wanna chance anything yet. Everything still felt too new in this body; there was too much I was still getting used to.

  My bedroom door opened.

  "Kyle?” Shannon's sleep voice called from the door. Nice time to forget to lock the door. I was still crouched as I turned to face her.

  "Uh, hey?"

  She rubbed her eyes. "You know, you're eighteen. If you wanna leave, you can use the front door. All I'd ask of you is a note."

  "Yeah, but I didn’t want to wake you up."

  "Well, too late. Come here." She sat down on my bed and waved me over.

  "What's up? What has you weirded out?” she asked, emerging little by little from her sleep.

  "... Nothing."

  "Right. So, what were you just getting ready to do? I know you take walks to clear your head. I just wasn't aware they were taking place at 4 am these days."

  She'd thought I was going for a middle-of-the-night walk to "clear my head”? Was it really going to be that simple? Was that really all she thought? I ran it by her.

  "Well," she said, "it was either that or you were going to meet some slut for a hit-and-run."

  Damn! Ouch!

  But my out was there, smack-boom easy, in front of me. Plus, I couldn't hide Jackie forever.

  "Okay Shae, you ready for this?"

  "As ready as I'm going to be." She flopped down on my pillow.

  "Alright. Look. I was going to go for a walk, but not necessarily to clear my head. Just to...refresh myself. (see, so I didn't really lie, just kinda didn't tell the whole truth) But that's not really... shit. Look. There's a lot on my mind."

  "I can tell. Spill. Now."

  I could lie. I could stall. I could putter around with the impending date and possible relationship burning up the sides of my mind, or I could just tell her. She was my blood. She had to understand, right?

  "Jackie Dalton and I are going on a date this Friday."

  There it was. Fact. And I was an adult, and what could she do about it? Nothing. Except give me a million kindsa hell.

  "I kind of figured something like that was going on." She just lay there, tired, almost despondent. "Look kid, in the end, it's your heart."

  "I know that. I only want one thing from you."

  "Kyle, I can't pretend to love the girl all over again just like that."

  "No. Just, civility, ya know? Because she will be coming over here, and I will be spending a lot of time with her." Maybe.

  "I'm your sister. And I want you to be happy... and comfortable. Plus, you know me better than that. If you're hanging out with her, and you think it's the right thing to do, I won't go mega-bitch about it. You have my sisterly word." She peaked out from behind the pillow she'd been holding partway over her face.

  "Thank you, Shae."

  She sat up and gave me a hug. She smelled like mom. And I almost cried.

  I had to give her something back. Had to tell her something good, or ask her something important. I decided to take a chance on a murky topic.

  "So...not to shove myself too quickly out of t
he glare of the Truth Light, but, how's your love life? You've been spending a lot of time at home, even for you."

  She lay back down, and hid her entire head behind the pillow this time, sat still and almost breathless for long seconds, then poked out.

  "Oh Kyle, please don't go all guilty little bro on me. You don't need to worry about my situation. And before you launch into your schpiel about how I'm only twenty and should be living life more...I know! But I've been damaged too many times. Well, God, I mean, too many times to be concerned as to whether or not I'm partying every weekend. I'm too... guy shy, still. I've dated maybe two decent guys in my life, and even that wasn't glass smooth. Besides, if I went out as much as you wanted me to, we'd have a hell of a time sharing the car,” she tried to joke.

  "I was just wonderin' is all. You're a pretty girl. Guys call here all the time for you. Hell, like at least ten of my friends have had crushes on you."

  "Oh, there's an endorsement of my hotness!” she said.

  "Hey, shut up. My friends are all Grade A Scene Hotties. Admit it!"

  "You're such a dork. But I love you." She turned over on her side and fiddled with my MP3 player. "And since when do you refer to your guy friends as hotties?” she smirked at me.

  "Ah hey, I'm culturally edgy, I'm 'aware', and I heterosexually recognize the hawtness of those I hang with."

  "Ha ha, yeah, either that or there's something you're not telling me."

  "OH! Funny you should lamely joke about that... Josh came out to me yesterday. It was very...sweet and... hmm, kinda friendly. It was cool."

  "Good God, finally. That poor kid. I was wondering how long he was going to keep that little non-secret bottled up."

  I felt so stupid.

  "Fuckin' a, did everybody know about this but me?"

  "No darling. But I have incredible gay-dar. You develop that after two of your exes have gone 'mo on you."

  "Ouch,” I said. Feeling for her. Though that was kinda dumb, in hindsight.

  "No, no. It has zero to do with me. They were just confused high school guys, who hadn't come to terms with themselves yet. I'm still friends with both of them. I actually kinda set them up on a date once. It ended disastrously, which was rather funny, because I got to hear about it from both sides. MeOW!"