Beautiful Monster 2 (11 page)

"How are you feeling? Did they find out what it was?"

Sarah nodded, sitting on Amy's window ledge, but not saying a word.

"Well?" Amy prompted. "Did they say it was something you ate?"

Sarah swallowed.
"They said it was something inside me, for sure."

"Like Connor?" I said, before I could stop myself.

Amy rolled her eyes. "Ignore him, he's drunk. Sarah?"

Sarah took
a deep breath, meeting my eyes. "No, he's right. Connor is the problem. I'm pregnant."

The coffee mug I was sipping out of fell out of my hand, falling to t
he hardwood floor and shattering everywhere. Amy's jaw nearly scraped the same floor.

"What? How is
that possible?" Her head swiveled from Sarah to me, and I could see that she had paled as well. "I thought vampires couldn't... even when they were in their human form, I thought they were infertile. That's what you told me."

"And that's true," I replied, trying to gather my thoughts. "So it's not Connor."

"Of course it is," Sarah said, bitterly. "There isn't anyone else."

I laughed, harshly.
"Well, it can't be, Sarah, unless there's immaculate conception happening."

"I'm a
Shield," she replied, and silence hit the room. "And I make him human when I touch him. Fully human. I figured it out sitting in the nurse's office. There's no other explanation."

"But..." Words failed me, and my mouth o
pened and closed like a fish. "No, Sarah, there has to be someone else. Porsche and I..."

"You slept
with Porsche?" Amy's head swiveled towards me, and I tried to backtrack.

"Once or twice. It was before, Amy, before you, and we had both had a metric ton to drink..."

"And I assume you didn't even know which end to stick it in." Sarah's words were crude, but they shut me up.

I didn't remember either of those nights, years a
go, with any sort of certainty. “Are you sure there’s been no one else? Because…”

“Liam, I took sex ed class. I know how this works. There’s been no one else.”

“Jesus.” I buried my head in my hands, trying to think.

“I assume the child will be human?” Amy asked, her voice surprisingly cold.

I nodded. “There’s nothing I know about vampire human half breeds. Although, I’ve never heard about this ever happening before, so who knows?”

“What are you going to do?” Amy asked Sarah, taking her hand.

Sarah shrugged, both hands on her stomach. “I don’t know. It doesn’t even seem real right now.”

“How far along are you?”

“6 weeks. Barely detectable, but there. Explains why I’ve been a giant puke machine. And why I’ve put on weight.”

“We can…
deal with this,” I said, carefully. I realized the words were taking longer to come out than I meant them to, and upon standing, my head spun. Some headmaster I was, setting a great example for my students. “If you want.”

“I don’t know what I want,” Sarah replied, drawing her knees up to her chest. “My parents would kill me.”

“But they don’t have to know,” Amy pointed out. “Christmas is only two months away. You won’t really be showing by then. When you go home, you can hide it well enough, if you really don’t want to tell them. And then what about adoption? There are so many good people who want children, and can’t have them.”

There was a note of sadness in her voice, and I knew she was speaking from her own heart. The one time Amy and I had discussed children, she was firmly set on adoption. With her blood being infected, she would be guaranteed to affect her child too, and that was not something she wanted to do. I understood, and yet, at the same time, I was sad, to not be able to look ten years into the future and see a little version of Amy running about, even if it wasn’t with my genes.

I had never given any thought to children while I was human. I was too busy living the lifestyle of the rich and the famous. But now that the possibility was taken away from me, I considered it all the time. Not now, of course, now I’d be a horrible role model, but maybe if this curse was broken, there would be something I could do about it.

“It is a good option, Sarah,” I found myself saying, surprised at the emotion that came out in my voice. “Amy’s right, there are so many people who don’t have a choice in having a child. This is a huge undertaking…
but if that’s the choice you make, I’ll help you keep it a secret.”

“And what about
Phantom
?
” she asked.

I grinned.
“Ah, well that will just add another layer to the plot. A pregnant Christine, by whom, we wonder?”

“Yeah, providing I don’t give birth on stage,” she said, dryly and Amy managed a little giggle.

“The show must go on. It’s actually kind of fitting. Death and life on the same stage. We’ll win a Tony award for sure.”

“Oh, God
.” Sarah buried her head in her hands. “Are you guys seriously considering this?”

“We’ll consider whate
ver you choose to do,” Amy said gently, but I knew in her heart she didn’t want to be responsible for any more death. “Your child didn’t choose anything, Sarah. Why should we condemn it?”

Sarah met her eyes and something silent seemed to pass between them. But then she looked away, glancing out the window and sighed.

“Yeah, I guess,” she said, but something in her voice told me that she wasn’t being quite truthful.

My heart leapt in fear, and I bit my lip, the words locked in my throat. I had a horrible feeling Sarah was going to do something stupid, and that there was nothing I could do to stop her.

My alarm went off at 6 am and I sat upright. It was the only way I knew I was going to get up. Last night, Liam, laced with booze and calmed by Sarah, had actually managed to be safe to be around until midnight, which was far later than my usual bedtime. Years of living with my father and never going out had taught me to live the life of a 60 year old, in bed by 10 pm and up with the sun.

Today was going to be a busy day. In between classes, I had a lunchtime audition for Ranger, and I prayed that I'd make it back in time for afternoon rehearsal. Sarah had been especially down
in the dumps this last week and I wanted to be there for her in whatever way I could.

We still hadn't made any choice about her baby. We had spent hours looking at adoption websites and discussing possibilities. When she told
Connor, he had looked fearful of her, as if she could hurt him, this age old vampire of unlimited strength. Until they made a choice, they weren't going to tell Isabelle anything.

I glanced at my audition
notes as I walked into the bathroom, setting them on the ledge as I brushed my teeth and washed my face. Liam had drilled into my head that auditions wanted to see me, not my makeup and hair skills. Still, I couldn’t help but put a little extra effort into my appearance this morning. They may want to see what I look like without hiding, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t look pretty.

Ranger was holding several auditions today, which made it a bit difficult to decide what to do. Once we submitted our headshot and resumes, we had been given several sides for various characters that we fit, and none of
us knew anything about them. Even if we kept up with the show, we didn’t know where these new characters would be placed, nor did we know whether it was a small or large part. They also asked us for a monologue, which made me want to tear my hair out, because without choosing a specific character, I had no idea what type of monologue I wanted to do. So, I went with my default of Beauty’s monologue, assuming that it had to fit something.

I folde
d the sides into my back pocket and went out the door, pausing on my way to class to knock on Sarah’s door.

“Sarah?” I called
through the door.

There was a pause, and then she answered it, opening it up to let me in as she went to get her school bag. Her eyes looked red rimmed, and she looked exhausted.

“Are you ok?”

“Sure,” she replied, shrugging. “Morning sickness.”

“Ah, Sarah,” I said sympathetically, reaching out to rub her back as we went out the door. “You going to be ok?”

“Of course, Amy,” she snapped
.

I was taken aback. I had never heard her snap at me before.

“I’m not the first woman in the world to be pregnant.”

“I didn’t mean that,” I
said, hurrying to catch up with her. “Have you thought any more about what you’re going to do?”

“What is there to do
?” she replied. “Connor comes from a time when men take care of things and women stay home and pop out babies and all that. Problem is, first of all, this is 2013, and second of all, he’s already got a wife who I suspect is catching on rather fast.”

“You’ll figure it out. You always do.”

“Yeah,” she replied quietly. We walked in silence for a few moments before she changed the subject. “So, are you all prepared for your audition?”

“Think so
.” I nodded, patting the sides I had slipped into my back pocket reassuringly. “I mean, it’s a huge TV show and there are a hundred parts or something, which means like ten thousand people are auditioning. Seriously, Sarah, even getting one part means I should consider joining the actor’s union. Really, I’m just looking at it as practical experience.”

“Ranger’s such a…
gritty show,” Sarah said, as we made our way to the main lecture hall. “Do you think you could do it? I mean, there’s some pretty heavy content in it.”

“Hmmm,” I replied, thinking of some of the episodes I had seen. “I’m sure I’ll figure something out.”

The truth was some of the content on Ranger was so heavy that I wasn’t sure I could even act it. The actresses there were intense, pouring tears out of their eyes on the drop of a hat. Also, the show wasn’t exactly rated for children. It had never occurred to me to consider my boundaries of sexual exploits on camera, but if I got any part on Ranger, I would have to think about it.

“Hey, I’m going to see Liam for a moment. I’ll catch up with you.”

“Sure.” She turned to the side to say goodbye to me.

I winced as I could see the bulge in her belly. If you were looking for it, you could tell she was pregnant for sure. She headed off down the hallway, and I could tell that she was already beginning to walk differently, her hips widening already.

Liam’s office was open, still too early for the secretary to be in, but he was there, changing from his nightly struggle and grabbing something to eat. To my surprise though, Nina was sitting in his desk chair.

“Oh,” I said, hovering by the doorway.

Liam turned, giving me a tight smile. “Amy. I didn’t expect you so early. You should be on your way to class.”

“I uh…” I glanced from him to Nina, who gave me a frosty look. She was leaning back on his chair, idly flipping through some papers like she was comfortable and belonged there.
“I just thought I’d stop by and chat with you. My Ranger audition is today.”

“Oh
.” He turned from the mirror where he was making sure all traces of fangs and dark eyes were gone. “Sure. Are you nervous?”

“Um…?” I glanced to Nina again, and met Liam’s eyes. “Do you think we could talk alone?”

“Sure,” he replied. “I’ll be right back, Nina.”

Once we were in the hallway, I reached up on my tiptoes to kiss him. He drew back, looking around.

“Not in the hallways, Amy, ok?”

“Why?” I asked, a little miffed. “Everyone knows.”

“Sure, but we can still maintain an aura of professionalism,” he replied. While, on occasion, he tried to keep a bit of professionalism, it was usually me trying to fight to keep Liam’s hands off me.

“Right. This doesn’t have anything to do with Nina? What is she doing
there anyway?”

Liam raised an eyebrow at me.
“I think the answer’s obvious, Amy. I’m just trying to help her out, you know she’s been having a hard time.”

“Right, but she’s always around you,” I retorted. “Every time I look, there’s Nina by your side, Nina clinging to your arm.”

“Amy…” He reached out for me now, but I drew away slightly.

“Whatever. You could have told me you were going to help her last night. I thought you were going down to the basement to transform by yourself. But she was there?”

“I didn’t know that I needed your permission?” Liam snapped back at me.

It seemed to be a day for me to get in fights with people, and it
was the last thing that I wanted. Sarah and Liam were the people I loved most in the world, and I didn’t want to fight with them. But today, nobody seemed to be getting along with me.

“You don’t. But it’s nice to tell your girlfriend when you’re spending all night with another woman.”

“Amy.” Liam looked shocked. “It’s not like that and you know it.”

“Whatever
.” I shook my head. The conversation with Sarah had put me on edge and I didn’t want to discuss anything with him anymore. “I have to go to class.”

“You don’t want to talk about your audition?”

I shook my head, readjusting my backpack shoulder straps. “See you later,” I said, turning and leaving. I was already late, and it only added to my bad mood.

Trying my luck, I took a short cut through the empty
Red Theater to get to the main lecture hall. The theater was dark and I stepped quickly through the aisles that I knew well, going up the steps and heading backstage to take the stage door exit to the other hallway. My emotions were boiling over, and I had so much on my mind that I almost missed it.

There was a flash of light, out of the corner of my eye. I turned my head out of instinct, and just for one moment,
I thought I saw a swirling white mist.

I froze
and blinked, not trusting my eyes. The white mist was getting taller and branching out. I shook my head and closed my eyes, counting to five.

When I opened my eyes, it was gone and the only thing still there was the memory I had in my mind
’s eyes.

Over six months ago, standing
on that very spot, I had prayed for Porsche’s life in the wake of Selene’s murder. Liam had hovered over her broken body, sobbing, frantically trying to change her into an immortal. The floor had been cleaned, the blood had been wiped away, but the white mist had been over that exact spot.

I took the other stage door exit, my heart thundering loudly. I felt a weight on my chest that wouldn’t lift until I was back into the hallway that was busy with students.
Once among the masses, the fear disappeared and I felt like I was safe. I didn’t know what I saw, and I couldn’t make sense of it. I just know it had made me afraid. And that I would never forget it.

I sat on the opposite side of the lecture hall from Sarah, wanting to keep my head clear. She gave me a few glances, but I didn’t meet them.

When class was over, I bolted towards my audition, not wanting anyone who was coming from school to catch up to me. This should be one of the more exciting days of my life, but instead, it was turning into a disaster.

The only bright spot in the da
y was that Drago would be there as the new stunt coordinator for Ranger. Technically, there was no reason for him to be at the auditions, but when he found out I would be auditioning, he found an excuse.

I wasn’t expecting a paparazzi mob when I approached the building, but I guess, with Ranger being a popu
lar show, there was a reason for them wanting to capture the next future star. Trying to maintain a cool head, I ignored them, keeping my head low and slipping around them into the doors. Cameras flashed at my back, but I didn’t turn around as I headed down the long hallway, following the signs.

The last TV audition I had was an absolute disaster. Film acting is so much different than stage acting, and it had taken me quite a
while to grasp that concept. But I feel like I have learned a lot in the past year, and I was ready to give it another go. Heck, the camera time alone on
Sites
, which would air tomorrow, had taught me more than I needed to know. Film was long and tiresome work, but what I liked about it was you could play up little things that a theater audience couldn’t otherwise see, like a flicker of a smile or a flash of the eyes. Those things were all captured in minute detail on a camera.

I signed in and joined the other potentials in the waiting room. Liam had taught me to ignore what everyone else was doing and just focus, but today, I couldn’t. I was thinking about what I had seen in the
theater, and the fight I had with Liam and with Sarah.

I pulled
out my phone and I selected both their names and sent a peace offering text.
Sites premiere party, my room, tmrw? I’ll bring the food.