Vampires of the Sun (3 page)

              Weirded out by all three of them, Norah left without saying a word, happy when none of them followed her or tried to stop her. She thought she saw Dawn inch slowly towards her but a warning look from the girl made him stop and pout. She glanced back at the group only once as she neared the next set of stairs that would take her out of view. All three of them stood there looking at her with various expressions etched out in their faces. When she was out of sight, Norah took off in a sprint, moving as fast as she could, noticing how hard her little heart was beating. When she reached her car out of breathe from running the half-mile back to her car, Norah climbed in and locked the doors before the feeling of relief actually hit her. She had to wait for her heart to calm down and it hurt her lungs to breathe as the air pumped in and out.

Norah didn’t want to make any hasty claims about what the event she’d just partaken in meant but her mind still created a fantasy of a serial killer family. She didn’t feel like she had much in common with those three people anymore. She was horrified with herself that she’d thought her fashion aesthetics meant a whole lot when it came to personality. How dumb could she be?

Heading for home, finally ready to be showered and in her bed, Norah drove carefully back in dead silence. She didn’t want to listen to any music, focusing solely on the road. It was a curious thing that she could see the moon and the stars now but the haunting giggle that Dawn had copied from her resounded in her head repeatedly.

It took Norah until 3 a.m. to fall asleep, just like she’d predicted earlier in the night but for completely different reasons. The difference was she couldn’t stop thinking about the meaning of her night. What had she almost fallen victim to? Were they trying to rob her? Were they just crazy people and off their medications? She didn’t understand the things they mentioned and the thing that worried her the most was the marking they mentioned. Despite whether they were crazy or not, they had deemed she had a marking on her. How and why would she be marked? What did the marking mean? Was it a visible marking? Norah checked herself all over for one with a mirror before she went to sleep and didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. Norah thought about calling the police to report what almost happened so they could go and check to make sure the three weren’t out terrorizing someone else that fit whatever bill Dawn wanted. She ended up deciding against it when the more she thought about it, the dumber she sounded. Who would believe her? No, she didn’t want to invite that kind of crazy into her life.

Morning came quickly and with a bright and waking sun shining through her open window to keep Norah from becoming Sleeping Beauty. Norah was more tired than when she went to bed and would have loved to just skip school but her grades weren’t the best. She knew she couldn’t afford to skip.

Groggily she went through the motions of getting ready. The bathroom was first; teeth brushed, face washed, and then it was into the kitchen to pack a lunch and pour a glass of water so she could take her pills and vitamins. Swallowing the chalky chunks of rubber filled with medications, Norah couldn’t help but make a face in disgust as she could feel it slide all the way to the back of throat and down into her stomach.

When her whole wardrobe was black, it was easy to put clothes on. A long black Free People dress with a wide cut collar and lace sleeves, 2-inch Kate Spade kitten heels, and a black wide-brim hat fit her taste. She paired it with some hand-made jewelry she’d bought at an artist’s market and headed out the door.

With time to spare, Norah stopped to grab coffee and sat in her car sipping it in the school parking lot. Looking around, she knew she was lucky to have her own car. She’d never been a private school brat and she knew a lot of her classmates didn’t have a lot of money. If Norah had gotten along with any of her classmates, she would have given them a ride home every day if they asked, knowing the terrors of the bus system. For the most part, people had left her alone but once in a while there would be that creep who’d make gestures at her or leer. She didn’t feel unsafe riding the bus but it was better to not have to deal with people.

Draining the last dregs of the steaming cup of energy, Norah headed inside, stopping to grab books from her locker and toss the empty cup in a garbage can. Stepping into the main hallway where all of the lockers were located, it felt like stepping onto a red carpet. Every single time, her heart started jumping and it felt like everyone around her was staring and talking about her. She knew it wasn’t the case but it was still a strange anxiety that hit her daily either way.

Taking a second to take deep breaths with her head inside of her locker, she masked her need to do so by making it look like she was looking for something deep in the back of the locker. Pressing her head on the cool metal while focusing on the sound of her lungs and the pounding speed of her heart, slowly Norah could shut the door gently and walk to her first class with her emotions under control.

Not exactly the epitome of the perfect student, Norah had an even harder time paying attention to the words coming from each of her teacher’s mouth. After school she was supposed to go to the food bank to work but instead, she found herself driving back to the coffee shop in San Marcos. She felt obsessed, unable to think of anything else but the trio and she didn’t know what she expected to find but she ordered her regular drink and sat down at her regular table. Norah thought she must have a death wish.

Norah brought out her school books but trying to focus on her schoolwork was hard. She didn’t want to fall even further behind than she already was and not paying in class was a good way to do that. She had to re-read everything that was already read and discussed to play catch up but her mind began to wander again despite all of her efforts.

The sun had been set for an hour when Norah gave up, giving a deep huffing breathe at how useless she felt. She sat up, kneeling to pack her books back into her bag and load up her tray with her mug and napkins to return to Maria before heading outside to her car. Looking up in the direction of the school, Norah wondered if she should try going back there but she decided against it, thinking she should have a little more self-preservation than that because whatever had almost happened was definitely nefarious.

“It’s good you didn’t go back up there. If you did, the sight you might behold would be far worse than you could imagine.” A voice spoke to Norah from the darkness and as she turned, a face began looming up to look at her. “I knew you would come back. While Dawn and Summer may have missed the look of curiosity and confusion in you, I did not.” His voice was soothing and if she had to choose where he was from, Norah would have chosen Puerto Rico.

“I only came back because I need to know about the marking you mentioned.” Norah protested that she was so easy to read.

“The marking keeps you safe. If you knew what it was, you would plan to destroy it. What could you gain from destroying it?” The brown-haired boy looked up at her with his own glance of curiosity.

“Who says I want to destroy it? I looked all over last night for this mark you mention but I saw nothing. I think I would like to know what kind of marking is on my body that keeps people in the dark of the night from attacking me.” He was right though. She did want to destroy the mark. She had been fairly sure she wanted to anyways but with his words of protection and safety, Norah questioned herself.

“The marking isn’t something you can destroy so easily. It isn’t something you can see or hear. It’s only something you can smell. Well, not you personally, but if you had a heightened sense of smell you would be able to. This might be a weird question but have you ever ingested someone’s blood? Maybe by accident?” He looked slightly embarrassed at having asked about blood but he looked serious enough that Norah didn’t laugh in his face. She had a strange and uncontrollable urge to giggle that wanted to escape from her voice but the reminder of Dawn mocking her kept it down.

“That would be a big fat no.” The giggle rose higher and higher and she couldn’t help but let the nervous giggle pop out after her words had finished transmitting but she masked it with a cough.

“Can we sit down or something? I could get you a coffee? My name is Jack by the way.” He offered her his hand to shake and she took it, eyeing him strangely. His hand felt cool to the touch but not unpleasant. In fact, it felt rather good to her overly hot and anxious hands. They missed the coolness when their hands dropped.

“I’m Norah. I could go for a bite to eat? I haven’t had dinner yet. I was about to head home but I wouldn’t mind eating something in town.” Her stomach almost grumbled to match her words.

“I have already eaten but I shall sit with you. I’d like to talk with you and figure out how you might have to come to have this mark on you. It is rather a strange thing when you seem so unaware of what it is. Please, lead the way. We can go anywhere you like.” Norah liked the thickness of Jack’s accent. It had was warm and endearing and reminded her of a commercial starring Fabio.

There was a Chinese restaurant Norah liked near campus. It wasn’t one of the ones directly on the square but off of it near the Campus bookstore. They walked in silence, playing dodge with the student-driven cars that broke traffic laws and swerved around in the alley ways where they weren’t supposed to be.

Vegetable fried rice was Norah’s favorite dish and she loved how this restaurant always put extra eggs in for her without her having to ask. She ordered with a smile at the chef behind the register, taking in his gigantic white chef hat that stood so tall it almost hit the ceiling before taking her normal seat, thinking she was truly a creature of habit as she always aimed to be in the same place everywhere and every time.

“Can you go over your normal schedule? I don’t mean to pry or intrude but I’d like to establish how this could happen considering you didn’t even know. I hope I can discern something from the details.” Jack put his hands together all business-like, as if it were an interview they were doing.

“It’s pretty boring. I go to school every day. On Tuesdays, I visit my therapist Mauve and Wednesdays I typically work at a food bank. Honestly though, I skipped today because I wanted to come here instead. On my free days, I go around to different places and do different things. I go to the movies sometimes, visit book stores, coffee shops, amusement parks. I have a dog. Her name is Maxine. She’s a toy poodle and I take her to any outdoorsy places that allow pets. I don’t really take her to the dog park though because there are much bigger dogs who aren’t always nice to little lap dogs. There isn’t any pattern to any of that. I do what I feel like doing.” Norah explained. “I don’t hang out with other people and the only person I see regularly besides people at school is my therapist.”

“What do you eat? Is there anything you eat every day? Maybe something someone gives you as a gift?” Jack seemed to be staring at her chest but she could tell his eyes were unfocused rather than checking her boobs out and he was listening to what she was saying with great attention.

“Not really. I make my own food mostly. I’m not exactly a vegetarian but I don’t really eat meat so it’s easier to just make my own food rather than pick out the meat from dishes. I don’t really eat breakfast. Sometimes I stop for coffee on the way to school. I don’t have a favorite shop. It’s wherever the line looks smallest. Lunch is whatever I bring or if I stop for coffee, whatever I buy. Dinner is something at home that I make or any restaurant I go to. I take daily vitamins and I have a prescription for anxiety.” The waiter brought over her dinner and she took a hearty big bite, offering some to Jack who waived it off.

“I can’t be certain but I think either your vitamin or your prescription is the common denominator here. They are the only constants as far as I can tell. I would like to see them and figure out which it is. Learning which one would tell us more about who has been potentially feeding you blood.” He paid no heed to Norah dropping her fork and spilling rice everywhere.

“So I’m definitely being fed blood? That’s how there is a mark on me?” Wiping up the rice with a napkin, Norah wanted to go off on Jack for being so mysterious sounding. “I have a couple of questions of my own, Jack. How do you know all of this? How can I be sure you aren’t some crazy person who is having a psychotic break or a bad person who is just pulling my chain?” Clearly thinking over Norah’s words, Jack took a few moments.

“Essentially you don’t. But I know that even if you had no clue what was going on, you sensed something off about my- for lack of a better word- family. Dawn is a cruel man. He’s narcissistic and sadistic. He’s the type to eat you up and spit you out without any warning. If you didn’t have that marking, I’m not sure what would have happened to you.” Jack’s eyes were narrowed and focused on her own. Norah didn’t know why she did but she believed him. She chalked it up to his no-nonsense attitude.

“I guess my next question then is, what does this mark really mean? If you figure out which one contains the blood, why am I being fed blood? Why can you smell it but I can’t? I don’t think my sense of smell is all that worse than someone else’s.” Norah tried to not let her frustration cloud her reasoning. She put the fact that it was unbelievably cryptic to the back of her mind for now.

“I can’t answer everything. I had hoped you would know the answers to your own questions but I can tell you don’t. Your sense of smell is perfectly fine but there are those who have the ability to go above and beyond that either from an accident or for some other reason. You’ve heard of idiot savant? They can do things that you can’t although their ability to function in other ways is limited. That is the closest that I can get to explaining why I can smell better than you. The blood is essentially a marker for someone like Dawn or myself who can smell it and might mean you harm. It means to not mess with you because you belong to someone else, someone like us. Usually you would know that you are being fed it and what it means because it should be a choice. It’s rare that you don’t which is why you are so curious to me.” Jack looked strained trying to find words to explain without explaining everything. “What can you tell me about this Mauve person? Does she give you the vitamins or anxiety pills?”