Chapter 9 | Chapter 11

By the end of my day I had nowhere to go, and nothing else to do but to run to Sonia again. I relayed the rest of my day's story to her through tears.

"She's truly gone, Sonia!" I wailed. "I've looked everywhere for her. Even her cellphone is disconnected, and all her personal things are gone from her home. I don't understand how a person can move so fast. I mean - she left all her furniture, but it's clear from what her landlord said that she has no intention to come back for it."

"And the worst part is - I just sat there on my cooler as she left, and I said nothing. I didn't even TRY to apologize. She's gone. And I did nothing." Miserably, I broke into more tears, and Sonia quietly patted the couch next to her. I made my way over there and sat down, still bawling like a baby.

"Dušan..." she began haltingly - "I'm not sure what to say."

She shook her head sadly, then continued, "I had a feeling she wasn't right for you from the beginning, but I didn't want to step on your happiness. Now I feel like I should have said something. Anything. Maybe you wouldn't be hurting like this."

"But she seemed so perfect! Why did I let myself fall so hard, so fast?" Once again, I buried my face in my hands, but the tears seemed to be drying up.

"Ah, that's a question we all ask at least once in our lives, I think, Dušan." Sonia said with a smile.

Then, the smile abruptly disappeared. "I think you have more to worry about in your life right now than a runaway fiance. Aren't you forgetting a little something about your new diet? How are you going to deal with that?"

"I wish I knew, Sonia. Despite the temptation, I doubt I'll be feeding off of humans. And I don't need Vlad to show me how to make Plasma packs. I learned that in my research ... I just wish I didn't have to know. Moot point, I suppose, right?"

"Mroooowll." I heard behind me, completely interrupting my train of thought. I turned around, expecting to see Prissy. I was shocked to see a black cat, wearing - of all things - a top hat and a neon green bow tie. I stared at him for a moment, wondering if I was just really hungry again and hallucinating.

"Sonia, do you see the cat with the hat and the bow tie??" I said softly, and heard her chuckling behind me.

"Of course I do, Dušan." Sonia replied, "I'm not blind! He's been hanging around since Prissy came to live with me. Him and a few of his friends."

As if on cue, a dirty white cat jumped up onto the cat tree to join the black one. This one ignored me, though. "Mrrroooowllll" The black cat insisted, this time much louder. I got up and walked over by him, never losing eye contact. This was weird. I wasn't really a cat person, but this cat clearly wanted something from me.

I put out my hand to let him smell it, and he jumped down off the climbing tree and approached me. After a brief sniff, he twitched his tail and ran out the cat door that I hadn't even noticed until now. Blinking in confusion, I stood there for a long moment, then turned back to Sonia with a sigh.

"I don't know what to do now, Sonia." I said, miserably remembering the sight of Alex's crumpled form at my feet. "I thought I had everything worked out. Now it's all a big mess."

Sonia stood up and came over to me, taking my shoulders in her hands. "Never fear, Dušan," she said, "You will figure that out in time. You will, perhaps, even forget Alex. However - you should never forget the lesson that she taught you."

I sighed, and looked away. "I don't think I'll be forgetting her. At least - not any time soon."

Noticing that the sun had gone down, I suddenly realized the time. Sonia was probably exhausted. "I should go." I said, and turned back to her. "It's getting late for you."

She smiled, and patted my shoulders one more time. "Yes, it is. But remember, you are welcome here at any time of day or night, my friend."

After giving Sonia a quick hug, I headed home, thinking furiously to myself. My world had been turned upside down too many times in the past couple of days, and I felt disoriented, like the snowflakes in a snow globe after it's been shaken violently. I was so befuddled that I apparently couldn't even start a fire in my firepit without lighting my arm on fire. I quickly put it out, and tried again.

Something about sitting by a fire is comforting, and even though there was no real reason to have it lit - it's not like I needed to cook dinner or anything - it made me feel better. I pulled out one of my limited supply of Plasma packs and drained it, then sat pensively looking into the fire. After a while, I realized how tired I was, and I extinguished the fire carefully and climbed into my tent.

The next morning, I tried to go back to my routine. Gardening, painting, saving money for my house. Because I truly didn't want to live in a tent forever. However, I had forgotten one small detail.

As the sun rose in the sky, and the clouds moved away, my skin started smoking. It felt a little bit like the worst sunburn you've ever had. There was no way I could stand outside and paint all day like I had been doing. I retreated to my tent for a while, trying to figure out what to do - at least in the short term. My thoughts finally turned to the Windenburg library - and I made up my mind to go and expand my knowledge of vampires. I was going to need to know more now - a lot more.

By the time I got to Windenburg, a massive thunderstorm had rolled in. At least my skin isn't burning, I thought wryly and headed inside.

After finding the section on vampires, I settled in to read... only to realize I had an audience.

"Are you Dušan Bratan - the artist??" the young boy asked.

Sighing, I put the book down. "Yes?"

"Can I have your autograph!?"

Inwardly, I sighed in relief. At least he hadn't taken one look at me and noticed that I wasn't human or something. I reached out and took the pen and autograph book he held in his hand. Smiling in the least threatening way I could, I quickly scribbled my name and handed back the autograph.

Thankfully, this seemed to mollify the boy, who ran to a woman I suspected was his mother, jumping about with excitement.

I turned back to my book, and lost a few hours in reading. I found out a little bit more about vampires, but nothing hugely exciting. I had a feeling that I was going to have to learn how to be one from an actual vampire.... and there was no way I was going to approach Vlad willingly again.

Sighing deeply, I put the books away and returned to the chair, wondering what to do next. The question of the ages, I suppose. The storm still raged outside, and the after school crowd seemed to have dissipated. It seemed that not many other people were out and about, braving the weather.

Looking around, I noticed that one of the library computers was available, and it occurred to me that I should check on the status of my house permits. Surely I had gotten some sort of answer by now?...

I sat down, typing in the password to my email, and scanned through the junk mail. Unfortunately, there was nothing from the city. And there was nothing from Alex, either. (I mean - I had to check. There could have been something...)

My stomach chose that exact moment to remind me that I needed to keep myself full, so I signed out of my email, returned to my chair by the window and pulled a plasma pack out of my pocket. As I started drinking, I heard a loud gasp beside me. A red-haired woman was sitting in the other window seat, staring at me in horror. In confusion, I stared back, then I glanced down. That was when it dawned on me that my snack didn't look anything like something that was consumable by humans. Embarrassed, and, yes, a little afraid at being found out, I left the library as quickly as I could. I finished my snack on the way back to Forgotten Hollow, glad to see that my new enemy - the sun - was going down.

In the dark, I took care of my garden and my bees, and stared miserably at the half finished canvas on my easel. There was no way I could paint in the dark. How was I going to survive if I couldn't paint. I needed that house. At least I had plenty in savings now, but I really didn't want to have to spend it on everyday expenses.

At a complete loss, I finally crawled into my tent, and fell into a deep sleep.

The next morning, I checked my mail. ... And yes! There it was. A note from the city.

I stared at the letter for a long moment, rereading it several times. Things just couldn't get any better, could they?! My anger started bubbling up inside me slowly, and I don't know what I might have done if Sonia hadn't chosen that exact moment to walk by my campsite.

"Dušan! What's wrong?" she asked, immediately concerned.

Wordlessly, I showed her the letter. She read over it, then frowned. I walked to my tent, and pulled out the copies I had of the house plans and the application. Everything was filled in, the plans were complete.. there was nothing wrong with them. Both of us were baffled. After a long conversation, the only thing we could figure out was to re-contact them, to try again... but to do that, I would need to go back to the library. And I wasn't ready to do that yet.

I lit the fire again after Sonia went home, and sat there miserably. Poking at it with a long stick, I sat there most of the next night, lost in thoughts that kept going in circles. I couldn't help thinking that I must have made the worst mistake of my life - moving here to Forgotten Hollow. At the same time, I still wasn't ready to give up on rebuilding my mother's legacy. There had to be something I could do....

Blooper:

Mid-conversation at Sonia's house, one of the stray cats attacked her. And yes, the cat with the hat really did just show up out of nowhere and interrupt the conversation.

Chapter 9 | Chapter 11