Elizabeth and the Vampire's Cabin(10)

Elizabeth went to her bow window and sat on the window seat. She opened up the large windows to let in the cool air and looked at the moon. She marveled at its shape and size. The moon was absolutely round. She spontaneously felt the urge to belt out a tune in honor of this full moon. She began to sing the song she had heard earlier: “Head Over Heels” by Tears for Fears.

“Shut up!” Austin shouted from his room.

“No,” Elizabeth shouted back. “There is a beautiful moon out tonight. Look out your window!”

“The moon can go fuck itself!”

“Okay, hate the moon, hater. Get yourself back to bed and under the covers. But I’m going to stay right where I am: at my window singing to the moon. I feel like I could howl like a wolf!”

“I hope you fall asleep at the window and fall out!” Austin shouted at her from his room.

“I love you too!” she shouted back.

It really was time for her to get back to bed, but she was too excited to sleep. Finally, she was going to be truly independent. She had always felt alone in the world, but without the autonomy that comes with adulthood. No one had personally concerned themselves much with her wishes unless they were paid to do so. She had no relatives in California, and they had barely acknowledged her throughout her life. Austin, who was crushed at having inherited a ten year old sister at nineteen, was a worthless parent. He was always self-centered, and he didn’t change for the sake of Elizabeth. So he took zero responsibility for raising her and hired a full time staff to care for her. There were three nannies as well as maids to clean up after her. These people were kind to her when she was young. But they weren’t family, and she never had that feeling of belonging to a family unit. She was like a solitary island unto herself. And soon she would be on an island to be a solitary adult for the first time.

Maybe she could have learned to form meaningful attachments if she had been in one place more often. But once she graduated from middle school, Austin had put her on home study. He wanted to travel, to be gone for half the year, and he could finally take her with him. As a teenager, she could be a true travelling companion to him. They went to Europe, Africa, and Asia. And while there, they would take hunting, fishing, and camping trips. Elizabeth fulfilled her studies via computer. Austin hired tutors to help her everywhere they travelled or, rarely, helped her himself.

Elizabeth looked at the moon and did not feel sorry for herself. She felt blessed. She had a great life. She spent her days fulfilling her hobby: traveling and camping. And she was convinced that life would only get better and better.

Elizabeth put on her pajamas and went to bed. However, only about an hour later she suddenly awoke. She had felt a sharp pain on her wrist. Something had bitten her. She sat up in bed and looked around with sleep filled eyes. She could barely see anything in the darkness. In her groggy haze she had a sense that someone else was in the room with her. She had seen, just vaguely, a shadowy figure by her window. And then she realized exactly what that meant. If there was a shadowy figure in her room, and it was most likely not Austin watching her, then that meant there was an intruder in her room. Elizabeth bolted out of bed and reached for the light switch on her bedside lamp. The light came on and fully illuminated her entire bedroom. There was no one. She ran to the window and looked down. There was no one. She wondered if her vision of a shadowy figure had been some kind of dream. Perhaps, she had been half awake and half asleep when she witnessed the figure by her window. Perhaps it was a hypnopompic state. She rationalized all of this to herself. And yet…she didn’t quite believe it.

Elizabeth inspected her room. Everything looked to be in place. All of her things were still neatly packed away. Her suitcases were where they should be. And her throwing knives, which she had laid on her nightstand, looked untouched.

And yet, she hadn’t just seen the presence in her room. She had felt it too. It was a palpable presence with an energy to it. However, there was no evidence that anyone besides herself had been in the room. She glanced down at her wrist and remembered the pain that had awakened her. Two small bite marks on her wrist. Maybe the presence she had sensed was a giant spider? She felt unnerved by the marks on her wrist. They looked too big to have come from a spider. Flabbergasted, but too tired to ponder the situation further, she turned out the lights and got back into bed. She thought no more of the mysterious presence and quickly fell into a deep sleep.

But then an unusual thing happened. Elizabeth almost never had dreams. But on this night, she had a very vivid dream of herself as a large dog. She could see herself in the wild, in the middle of the night, running through brush and barking at the moon. Flying up above her, blocking out the moon, was a giant bat with sharp, vampiric fangs.