How to Train Your Vampire

The red light winked on and off as I sat with my hands on the cold hard table.

My mom was there, too. Required to be, to be exact. Because this was an official interrogation.

I swallowed as Detective Esther stared me down across the table, not believing a single word that came out of my mouth.

“You got in a fight with him earlier in the day…” he repeated. “And he got attacked that night. Do you expect me to believe there’s no correlation between the two?”

I shook my head. “Whether you believe me or not, it’s the truth. I don’t know how Josh was– why he was–” I let out a slow, measured breath to get my thoughts in a proper line.

The truth was, I had a pretty good suspicion of who, why and even some understanding of how. But I didn’t know anything. Not really, and I was going to leverage that as much as I could.

The Detective shifted on his chair, looking frustrated. 

Mom reached over to pat me on the leg in some form of comforting gesture.

“Do you have any new questions for her?” she asked in a bitter tone. “We’ve been here for the better part of the night and it’s not helping anybody for you to be harassing her.”

Yes, my mom could be a major Karen. But in this scenario, I was grateful for it. I really wanted to go home and just breathe. We had been here for hours.

Detective Esther could hold me much longer anyway so he rubbed his temples and then took us out to the front.

Officer LeBlanc was there, looking worried at our presence here. He surely knew I was involved somehow. But I doubted he’d push me the same way the Detective had. Which was probably why he’d been denied guard duty for my interrogation.

Mike was waiting on the bench, scrolling on his phone anxiously until I stood in front of him to catch his attention.

He looked up.

“Oh hey,” he said and hugged me.

I was exhausted. Sleep had been difficult and on top of that, the police thought that I had somehow attempted to murder Josh. Because he was attacked the other night.  I was just glad he wasn’t actually dead and that the band had managed to pull their performance together before all of this other drama happened.

It still sucked right now, as Mike got up and pulled his keys out as my mom finished some paperwork at the front desk. She said something foul-sounding to the poor woman just trying to do her job. I mouthed an apology to the woman once my mom’s back was turned and then headed outside with them.

In true New England fashion. It was now fall. Just a couple weeks ago had been blazing heat and sweat and humidity and misery and now, a refreshing breeze blew across the street, carrying with it a few of the crisp leaves that rattled along the ground.

If I wasn’t riddled with crippling anxiety, I might have enjoyed it.

Mike drove us home and I was glad to have my space back. No cameras staring me in the face, no mom interjecting for me to say some things and not say others. It was just my room… and the vampire that lived under my bed that was also my girlfriend.

Scarlet waited for me to get settled on the bed, I think to be certain I was alone, before she crawled out and climbed up next to me, pressing her face against my shoulder in some form of affection.

I pet her hair and took a deep breath, released it, and laid back on the mattress, my feet dangling over the edge at a somewhat awkward angle.

“Are you ‘kay?” she asked.

Her voice was quiet. Mike didn’t know she was here and my mom didn’t even seem to know she existed.

“I’m okay,” I told her. “Just stressed out.”

“I’m sorry if I–”

I put a finger to her lips. “The less I know, the better,” I told her.

She went silent again and curled up next to me, throwing a hand over my stomach like I was a teddy-bear for her. I really wished that this moment was all that mattered. But there was so much more than that. I’d have a hard time accepting some parts of her, of her family, who I knew very little about,  and what she even liked about me.

This is a moment, I reminded myself. There have been other moments but they are not this moment.

I laid my hand on top of her head and she shifted with a sweet mumble I couldn’t make out.

This was a good moment.

AN: Oh my god I missed writing this so much. It's been a long, difficult year for me (and a difficult night) but I get to now settle down and hang out with my bestest children (these chars).

Thank you for reading this far, we are starting this season's run with a shorter chapter but don't worry, there's more good things coming.

Hope y'all have a happy fall!

(Also, if you haven't already, you can check out my profile page for other works to browse while your waiting for the next update (which is usually every other day.)  or just leave me a comment down below, I always enjoy reading what people's thoughts are.)