Cyrus and I sat staring at each other for what felt like an eternity. I swallowed the collective saliva in my mouth and spoke.
"What are you?" Stupid of me to ask that, in every horror movie, to ask the seeming predator what they are if they are evidently NOT human is the leading event to the main character's downfall. However, this is not a movie, and I am very much NOT a damsel.
"'What are you'? That's literally the cheesiest thing you could've asked me!" He doubles over laughing. See? I told you so.
I flush from embarrassment. "Yes. And? Are you going to answer or not?"
He collects himself then looks at me seriously. "Want a Kool-Aid?" He smirks, holding a cherry one out to me. I know in an instant what he is, and I feel the blood and color leave my face. He hadn't wanted me, a mere human, drinking the cherry ones for a reason.
I hesitate then walk over to the fridge and throw it open. Sure enough, like I hadn't noticed before, the only thing in here is the cherry Kool-Aid pouches. I pick one up and right as I stab a toothpick through the side, I'm tackled to the ground before I can even blink. I fight to a seated position once the weight leaves my body and I see Cyrus on the ground by the pouch lapping up off the ground, what looks like food coloring and corn starch..
Blood.
I back away fast, bumping into the table and knocking over a bowl of fruit, apples and oranges falling onto the floor. He looks up at me, his eyes glowing a tiny, silver ring in his iris, red spreads out from it in a spiderweb type of crack.
My mouth gapes open and he saunters closer to me. I scream. Big mistake, he lunges.
I feel no weight whatsoever. Just heat. I open my eyes, and see Cyrus on top of me and I feel a warm fuzzy sensation going throughout my body. His eyes change back to normal, and already he's looking at me with a mix of fear and revulsion, shaking his head in a panic.
"No, no, no, no..." He wipes on my neck and other points on my body, checking for a pulse.
I feel a little weak, it's almost funny. Suddenly his face hardens, resolved on something he was thinking about. Then, he leaned foreword and I felt his lips brush my neck. A little sliver of a sharp pain, but not so much pain, goes into my neck and a stinging feeling goes through my body. Something that feels like strings start tying to me, entwining me to something. The strings start to harden, thicken, into chord and are flowing out of my chest, then turn invisible. I look up to where I'm being tugged to.
Cyrus.
He stares into my eyes, his green ones shining bright. He has green eyes? I never noticed. Something else I hadn't noticed until now. He's quite attractive. He frowns, as if he knows what I'm thinking about and rolls his eyes, getting to his feet. I hop up to, the vertigo making me feel weak. I stumble. Cyrus catches me, again, rolling his eyes and sets me straight.
"Y-You're a... a" I stutter. Nervous as Hell now that I remember what just happened.
"Vampire. Which you are too now. Thank your stupidity for that."
"Wait, what?" But he didn't answer. He just got up, brushed off his jeans and walked out of the kitchen.
I followed after him to the best of my ability. Everything around me, fuzzy as hell. I make my way through the house as my vision gets clearer and clearer; everything more sharp, and defined. High definition blue-ray crap.
I find him in the living room, not far from where we just were, though it felt like an eternity. With no desire to sit, I stand there awkwardly, still looking at the creature that both saved and threatened my life...and by the sound of the last words I got from him... ended it as well.
Cyrus looks up at me with what appears to be... sadness? Regret? Why? For turning me? Why did he do it anyways? He has no need for me, but I feel like that might change. Regardless of how he feels for me, I have this strange need for him. And it's not like that "need" I had with Tyler when we had been together, no. It's not sexual, it's not even a want-to-be-high type of thing. It's just...
"You want to know why I changed you." He says. Not like a question, though, just a statement of fact. He knows my questions... but how? I think about the myths of vampires, how they came to be. Did he have all these questions when he was turned? Or can he read my mind?
" I cannot read your mind, in case that is what you're thinking. All of the fledglings, or newly turned as you might understand, have these exact questions rolling through their head. As such, I know what you're feeling too, and I will say this: we won't work out, so don't even try it. You don't know me, Casey." He's staring out into space, some distant thought in his mind, and I swear I see his eyes well up and cloud, but when I blink it's over, and he looks at me, eyes normal again, face pale again, too.
"If you know my questions, could you answer them? Without the uh.. add on?" I fluster, thinking about what he said. About me being attached, or getting attached; that it wouldn't work. Is that what that bout of emotion was on his face? Did someone turn him, then turn him away? Someone he loved? I don't have the heart to ask.
Cyrus looks down, thinking, think looks back to me to answer my question.
" The matter of your turning happened for two main reasons. One, it's harder to kill you when you're a vampire, and not a frail, fragile human. Two, you decided it was smart to be curious, test a theory and expose blood to the air when you already smell like it, then still stick around when you see me crouched on the ground DRINKING IT. So on part, my decision, on part also, your stupidity. I changed you, instead of killing you. Which almost happened, by the way. "
We sit in silence for a few minutes, then I get up the nerve to ask him the question I've been trying so hard not to ask.
"What happened after you changed?"
"Huh?" He looks at me, faking confusion but I could see right through him. He knows exactly what I'm talking about, and it hurts him to remember. I feel bad for asking, but I need to know. What is the reason he's been hurting since he turned me.
"It is a story for another time. A very painful, tragic story that has humans and vampires and death," he says solemnly before adding: " kind of like Twilight." He smirked at me then, a laugh escaping out of both of us, before it got serious again.
"I'm not sure if you can handle it."
"I can." I say quietly, wanting to make it as easy as possible on him to share his pain.
A few moments pass, and I hear him take a deep breath. Then he began.