Elizabeth nodded silently
"Let’s eat," Aaron said. "I nabbed us some good stuff that I knew you would like the second I saw it. Teenager food."
They sat down on the cave floor and Aaron pulled out a couple of cheeseburgers, french fries, cans of soda, and paper plates.
"How did you get all of this?!" Elizabeth cried out in shock. He was right; she did miss typical teenager fare. Cheese burgers, pizzas, and giant pretzels galore had been dancing through her head at night.
"We're not the only cabin on the island, remember? Kyla had a barbeque and invited the other vampires on the island to eat. I said I wanted to take some to have dinner with you and she said okay."
"Aaron," Elizabeth began slowly. "Why is it that you keep me separated from the other vampires on the island? Just out of curiosity."
"It's not safe for you," he explained. "Vampires can be very cruel people. Very Neanderthal. I'm shocked there are any of us left in the world. I only trust them not to harm you while you're on my side of the island. Neanderthals have a pretty good sense of boundaries. We have a firm grasp of "his turf" and "my turf." In fact, I really think the only reason that Marnie and Lyle haven't been killed is because they own the island (it's technically "their turf"), and they're responsible for all the maintenance. They live with Kyla, and she instructs them not to come over to anyone else's side unless they're fixing something. She trusts me, but we can't take too many chances with humans roaming an island of vampires. "
"But Marnie and Lyle only come over during daylight."
"It doesn't matter. We can go out during the day and do damage. It's just that we're photosensitive so we prefer being nocturnal. Daylight won't protect anyone from a vampire. Don't take a risk. You don't want to get yourself killed during your last week on this island."
She stayed silent for a moment. The thought of herself leaving saddened her. So she changed the subject.
"How do you know those are dinosaur eggs?" she asked.
"I guess I don't really. It's not like I've looked inside for fossilized embryos. But when I was growing up, there were dinosaur eggs all over the place. During the Paleolithic, there were a lot more fossils lying around in general for us to look at and put together the pieces of the world's evolution. Personally, I like to think they're dinosaur eggs. There's something magical about them isn't there? I've never seen so many at once. And they all ended up in that perfect ellipse. It's like God had a hand in it."
"Are dinosaur eggs always so colorful?" she asked.
"No. That part of this little miracle is not so miraculous. Joe saw them, and being a very visual person, decided to paint them. I didn't have any cave drawings, so he wanted to do some decorating inside my cave. I should probably draw a picture or two for the sake of preserving this piece of time in my history. Before there were diaries there were cave drawings."
"I love it," she said. "It's like an entire wall of giant Easter eggs."
"You know, I think Joe might have actually painted them with the same dyes used on Easter eggs."
"Tell me something about the Paleolithic that I don't know. Even better. Something nobody knows unless they were there."
"Okay. There is actually something that I've been meaning to tell you, but I didn't want to say anything. It sounds too unbelievable, and I wasn't sure what your reaction would be. However, since Arthur was abducted, I could tell its been bothering you so...
"Yes?" Elizabeth questioned.
"Well, my hope is that what I'm about to tell you will help you. During the Upper Paleolithic, when vampirism began to take hold, it was actually brought to us by ancient aliens......"
"Shut up!" Elizabeth yelled.
"YES! Honest to God, there were aliens that came down from the sky, abducted a lot of Neanderthals, and turned them into vampires."
"I can't believe it. I've heard these wild theories about aliens building the pyramids. But I thought it was all bunk."
"Oh no. I kid you not; ancient aliens came to my old island and regularly made contact. They had a giant spaceship, shaped just like the one you saw, and they would beam us up."
"Start from the beginning," she begged. "I love it when you go into storytelling mode."
"Alright. I don't know how old I was, but the first abduction I was actually involved in was when I was a young child. I think I was around the age of six at the time. It was night and my mother was walking me to the beach. I had no clue what was happening, but she told me not to be afraid. There was a whole group of people already there. I would say there were about ten other people. I was the only child. I remember a woman scolding my mother for being late. She told her it had taken her a long time to get me ready.