Catrina Billowson by K. Weikel

  Chapter 6

  Well, turns out Vampires can’t sleep. 

  So I stared at the ceiling for about eight and a half hours, trying to push Harvey from my mind. I could feel my body weakening as I got more and more tired. Was I hungry? Not that I knew of. Did I need sleep? No. Tried that for about two hours straight, sitting in nothing but darkness and quiet. Was I thirsty? I had no idea. Maybe, if that fire in my throat is what that means. I had never been a Vampire before, thank God, and I wasn’t planning on becoming one any time soon. But, thanks to Harvey, my life is turned completely upside-down. And, what I mean by thanks, is a set of choice words I choose not to use for the sake of my soul.

  My alarm clock screeched and startled the living daylight out of me. The sound was too high-pitched, and gave me a migraine. I turned it off and headed to school once again. I walked into the living room and saw my dad sitting on the couch, watching the movie 2012, commercials blaring like they’re so important between scenes. I rolled my eyes, but I was also curious about why he was up so early. As I passed by him, a deluge of nausea washed over me. My nose worked, that was a fact.

  “Catrina,” I heard him say. 

  I turned toward him, holding my breath. I could smell the warm blood pulsing through his veins. I could hear his heart beating, and I could make out every contraction it forced. I could smell the cigarettes and the alcohol on him, along with an open wound somewhere on his body, sending my brain in a frenzy to find it. 

  “What I said the other day… I meant it. I’m going to keep my promise, and turn my life around.”

  “Sure, Dad. You do that.” I managed to choke out without blinking or even breathing. “What made you change your mind?”

  “I don’t know, Catrina. All I know is, I want to change my life before I leave this earth. I want to start going to church, and—”

  “We’re going to go to church?” I said, half excited. Only half because I want to go, and I’ve been wanting to go for years now, and we’ve never gone. But the other half, is because I’m a Vampire. 

  “Yeah. I heard how much you wanted to go, and maybe if I take you…”

  An awkward silence fell upon us and I could hear his pulse go up a few notches. 

  “Well dad, I have to get to school. Bye,” I blurted, then rushed out the door. 

  I heard him call bye behind me after I closed the door, something I wouldn’t have been able to hear before I was a… you know what. The thing I’d much rather be at this moment.

  I took my bike to school and Harvey was waiting at the front with a huge grin on his face, the kind that was contagious and tried to sneak between my teeth. I looked around, unable to avoid the eyes boring into me. I could understand why. I looked different. Way different. I didn’t even look at my face in the mirror because I was afraid of how different I would be.

  I started to walk up to the front of the school, when I saw the window that led into the office, and I saw I looked completely different. 

  I was still tall, and I still had the features of the old me, but my jaw was firmer, and my eyes were shinier, and they were… blue? I mean, they’ve always been blue, but they weren’t red like Harvey’s. Or brown like in the movie Twilight. They were a bright, glowing blue. My figure was curvier and prettier, and… larger at the top of my torso, and the bottom. I had more muscle, and I could see it through the Hollister jacket I was wearing. I was shocked, and slightly dizzy from the migraine my alarm clock had given me.

  I felt arms slip around my waist, and cold lips on my cheek, my body going stiff as a warm fire ignites in my stomach. Conflicting feelings were never good around someone… right?

  “Morning, Catrina.” Harvey’s velvet voice crept into my ear. “Did you sleep well last night?” I saw him smile through the window I was using as a mirror.

  “Actually, I realized I couldn’t sleep,” I said.

  “You can, actually. Only on certain nights though.” 

  I twisted my body around in his arms, toward him, wanting to rip away but physically unable to. Not because of his holding me, but because it’s like I also didn’t want to. “What ‘certain nights’?” 

  “You’ll see, I guess,” he said, smiling at me. Then he leaned in and kissed me once again on the cheek. My stomach knotted around itself in a sickening way, but my heart sped up faster than I wanted it to. What is this?