By the time I woke up, the sun had gone down, but the pain in my abdomen certainly had not. It still felt like hunger, though, so I reached into my cooler to try something else.
Nope. The yogurt was definitely bad, too. I wondered what might have happened. I'd never had stuff in my cooler go bad before - and it made me wonder how long I'd been trapped in that coffin at the vampire's mansion. Maybe I'd been "out" for quite a while. It was the only explanation I could come up with.
Meanwhile, I most definitely was going to have to find something to eat. And going all the way to Windenburg in the state of pain I was in now was definitely out of the question. I tried to think of options, but my brain was as muzzy as the rest of me.
Finally, I grabbed my fishing rod and tackle and headed to catch a nice fresh fish. Halfway there, I doubled over in pain, and looked in horrified wonder at the purple glow that was emanating from my stomach. Moments later, the pain passed slightly, and I convinced myself I had been imagining things, and continued on to the pond.
Fishing while hurting is not something I recommend, I have to say. It felt like forever before I had a bite on the line, and the disappointment when I didn't catch anything was palpable.
What seemed like hours passed, and finally I managed to catch something big enough to eat. All the little goldfish I threw back. I still didn't know what goldfish were doing in the pond - but they could also stay there for all I cared. I grabbed up the fish and my stuff and started the painful journey back home.
By the time I got home, I needed to go to the bathroom - so I used my friendly bush. By the time I got done, the weird glow was back, and the pain had nearly doubled. Tears ran down my face, and I angrily wiped them away and set out to make some dinner. I couldn't remember ever being this hungry before. How long had I been trapped?? Days?!?
The fish took literally forever to cook. It smelled amazing, too. I wondered why I had been too busy to get fresh fish lately, and why I had just been eating out of my cooler. I guess I'd forgotten how good a fried fish could be!
Once my fish was done, I sprinkled it with some spices and sat back down to enjoy it.
The moment it hit my mouth, I knew something was terribly wrong. I couldn't imagine what it was - but there was no way the fish had gone bad in the short walk back from the pond. What was going on?? I dropped my head in my hands, and then decided I'd try one last thing.
Again, the hot dog took forever to cook.. but finally, it was done, and I braced myself for yet another attempt to eat something.
Nope. This was not going to work. Food was out of the question. Maybe I just had some sort of a stomach bug?
Miserably, I say there and looked at my weed-strewn garden and my sad little campsite. What was I going to do now? There was no way I could garden in the amount of pain I was in. ... Perhaps I should call the local landscaping company and see if they would send someone over just for the day. One quick phone call later, I steeled myself for the bill that would certainly be placed in my hand when the gardeners were done for the day.
I contemplated painting while I waited for them to arrive, but I couldn't think of anything to paint. I wondered if I even had enough red paint to depict the amount of pain I was in... and quickly determined painting was not in my near future.
The gardener arrived, looking a bit confused at the fact that he'd been called for such an extensive garden at what was, essentially, just a camp site. He clearly wanted his paycheck, however, and said nothing. He went about his business, and I asked him to pin the bill to the easel when he was done - I needed to rest. I crawled miserably into my tent, and fell, blessedly, into a deep sleep.
When I woke again, I stumbled groggily out of my tent and glared at the sun behind the clouds. After getting violently ill in the bushes, I headed back to my tent.. but I didn't quite make it there.
A force I couldn't deny pulled me into the air and spun me around. The glow was back, too, only this time it was all over my body. What, exactly, had happened to me while I was at Vlad's house? What had he done to me?!
Still airborne, I felt like I was being ripped apart from the inside out. I screamed out in agony, confusion and anger.
Then, finally, I was set back down on the ground. I nearly fell over in relief. Most of the pain was gone, and the only thing left was a dull pang of hunger. Which did make sense since I'd been sleeping for nearly an entire day. I made up my mind to go to Windenburg and do some more research on vampires. On the way home, I could stop and get something to fill my cooler with. I quickly cleaned all the bad food out of the cooler, trashed it, and headed for town.
I ignored the strange looks I was getting and went immediately to the section on vampires. I pulled out a volume I hadn't noticed before and began reading. I couldn't imagine why people were looking at me like I was cursed or something. I quickly lost myself in my research, though, and it was nearly dark again before I pulled myself back out of the books. I had learned quite a lot about Vampire feeding habits. They would hypnotize their prey and then drink their blood, and the victim would be left with no memory of the incident and exhausted. There was nothing mentioned about being ravenously hungry after such an attack, though, so I wondered why that had been the case with me. I was filled with anger that Vlad had apparently attacked me, though. Had that been his entire reason for inviting me to his house? Or had he had other motives?
I had skimmed over the section on "vegetarian" vampires who drank plasma fruit or the juice instead of feeding on humans, not seeing any reason why I would need to know how to make either. It did ring a bell, however, with the weirdly pulsing fruit that grew on my trees. No wonder it sold so well in my town....
Before leaving the library, my thoughts ran to Alex and my home. I headed to a nearby computer terminal, found the proper website, and started filling out the paperwork to apply for building permits. I was going to need a home to bring Alex to, after all, and I still hadn't told her about the fact that I was camping on my own land. I wondered what her reaction would be. Maybe if I got the building underway before I let her know, then she wouldn't be as upset. It wasn't like I hadn't saved enough to start building, after all - I just hadn't taken this final step.
I finished putting in the applications, and checked my email. There were a couple notes from Mariko, checking up on me, wondering where I'd been the last couple days, and the usual spam. I didn't know what to tell her, so I didn't reply. I would figure out what to say, and call her tomorrow. After I got some food in my stomach and had another nap. The nap sounded like the best part, however, and I packed up and started to leave the library.
Thinking about the trip home, I decided to make a pit stop at the bathroom. While washing my hands like normal, I looked up at the mirror.
The only thing in the mirror was the toilet behind me. I cast no reflection.
