Authors: Tim Miller
Chapter 29
They all ran up to the infirmary. When they arrived, Steven and broken loose and was pounding on the door. They could see him
through the thick, glass window; his teeth were bared, eyes glowing bright.
“What’s going on?” Anna asked. “He was so calm earlier.”
“He’s hungry.” Adam said. “Like I told you, they’re animals. They have no control over the hunger.”
“Th
at door won’t hold him for long,” Cedric said.
“But if we open it, he’ll come flying out here,” Adam explained.
Jessica came running up when she heard the commotion. She saw her dad pounding on the door, growling and snarling.
“Daddy!” She cried. “What’s wrong with him?”
“He needs to feed, Jessica. I told you he isn’t your dad anymore.” Adam said. Before he could stop her, Jessica ran to the door and pulled it open. Without any hesitation, Steven jumped on Jessica, biting into her shoulder. She screamed as Adam and Cedric jumped on Steven. His teeth bit and tore into her suit and flesh as blood sprayed everywhere. Finally Adam pulled Steven off, but Steven began to cough and twitch.
Anna and Dr. Rothstein ran to Jessica, pressin
g towels over her wound. She laid there crying as Anna pressed the towels against her shoulder. Dr. Rothstein helped her up and walked her into another room.
Adam lost his grip on Steven, who was now vomiting something that looked like blood, only it was much thicker, and darker. Adam noticed it smelled like rotten fish. Cedric came running up with a large wooden stake and raised his hand. Before he could thrust it through Steven’s back, Adam put his hand out to stop him.
They stood and watched Steven convulse and cough up more of the nasty substance, and finally he lay still. He let out another couple of coughs, and then sat up looking around, his eyes no longer white or glowing. His irises were blue, and his had turned a normal pink color.
“What happened?” Steven asked,
as he looked around. “I feel so tired, and hungry. Like, I want to eat actual food.”
Adam and Cedric looked at each other. Adam knelt down next to him.
“Open your mouth,” he said. Steven opened as Adam examined his teeth. “Your teeth are back to normal. No more shark teeth.”
“Am I human again? What’s going on?”
“Her blood.” Adam said to no one in particular.
“What?” Steven asked.
“You attacked Jessica, bit into her and drank her blood. Now you’re human. Her autism prevents her from being hypnotized or turned but her blood can cure vampirism. That has to be it.”
“That’s impossible.”
“No it isn’t. I used to be a vampire, remember? I didn’t know how I turned back, but maybe that’s what happened. If I had drank from someone with autism that could have done it.” Adam said. “We’ll have doc take a look at you.”
“Wait a minute, I attacked Jessica. Is she ok?” Steven asked.
“I think so. The Dr. walked her into one of the rooms.”
“I have to see her.” He jumped to his feet and followed Adam to one of the exam rooms. As he stepped inside, Jessica was sitting on the table. She had a blanket over her upper body with her left shoulder exposed. She was crying and cringing as the doctor was cleaning out the wound. It was a good sized bite.
“Is she ok?” Steven asked. Dr. Rothstein looked at him and stepped back, but Adam nodded to him, letting him know its ok.
“Yes, she’ll be fine. I just need to clean this out to prevent any infection. She lost a fair amount of blood though, but not as bad as it could have been.”
“Daddy?” Jessica said. “Why did you hurt me?”
He ran over and took her hand.
“I didn’t mean to sweetie. It wasn’t me, I wasn’t myself. But I am now, look.” He showed her his hands, and opened his mouth. “I’m better. You made me better.”
“I did?” She said, smiling.
“You sure did. I always knew you would be special. Now you get to be my hero,” he said as he hugged her close to him.
Chapter 30
Dr. Rothstein examined Jessica’s blood samples under the microscope as well as running various labs on them. He had given her some pain killers, so she slept soundly in the exam room as her dad looked on. Adam came in as the doctor stepped away from his work station.
“So what do we know doc?”
“Not very much. I looked at Steven’s blood and he’s definitely no longer a vampire. His blood looks similar to yours. So it’s likely he’ll still be immortal the way you are, which I still can’t explain.” Dr. Rothstein said.
“Well, that’s good at least. She was right. We could help her father, except it was her.”
“True. So looking at her blood and here’s the thing, there is still a lot we don’t know about autism. We don’t fully understand what causes it or what physically makes them different. Not to mention there are so many variations across the autism spectrum. It affects each patient differently. What we do know is, autistic patients have higher levels of serotonin in their blood. Jessica’s is no different. Serotonin is a neurotransmitter that causes good feelings or happiness. That’s why for depression patients, we give them SSRI’s which help people increase their serotonin. Vampires on the other hand, have very little. At least it appears that way from the samples you’ve brought me. So I don’t know if that is what makes the difference or not. It could have something to do with it. But the fact is, Steven was a vampire, he drank Jessica’s blood, and now he’s not.”
“That is strange,” Adam said. “He mentioned earlier how he never slept, even during the day. Any thoughts on that?”
“No clue. But you said yourself many vampires were different and had their own quirks. Maybe this was his.”
“Could be. Is there a way to use this against them?”
“What do you mean?” Dr. Rothstein asked.
“like, if this can make them human. Is there a way to say, put it in a syringe, or on the tip of an arrow or something, so when used against a vampire, it makes them human?”
The doctor looked away thoughtfully while rubbing his chin.
“You know,” he said. “That’s a good question. I suppose I could work on it. It would help if you could capture a few vampires for me to run tests on.”
“Oh yeah, no problem. I’ll just go ask them for volunteers,” Adam said.
“Right. Well, you’ll have to field test it then. I also need Jessica’s consent.”
“For what?”
“I’ll need a few pints of her blood, given over time.
For that I need her consent.”
“But she’s just a kid.”
Dr. Rothstein turned to face Adam.
“Her age is irrelevant, as is the cause. I’m a medical doctor, and she is the patient. I will not take pints of blood from her or run any further tests without her consent.”
“Fine.” Adam said.
“Look, she’s agreed to everything so far. I’m sure she’ll be fine. But we need to let her rest and let that would heal, it’s a nasty one, but there shouldn’t be any long term damage.”
“Good to know.” Adam turned and walked out as Dr. Rothstein stepped into the room to check on Jessica. Steven looked up as he stepped in.
“How’s she doing?” Dr. Rothstein asked.
“She’s sleeping pretty hard.” Steven’s eyes were red and watery, with dark bags under them. His whole face sagged as he spoke.
“Are you ok?”
“Just started feeling really tired all of a sudden. Not used to feeling this way.”
“Well, you haven’t slept in over ten years, so I imagine
you would be. How about you lay down? I can have a bed set up for you.”
“That actually sounds good.
I can’t promise I’ll wake up anytime soon.”
“That’s all right. Your body has been through a lot, so get some food and some rest.” Dr. Rothstein said as he stepped out. Anna came in right after the doctor left.
“You must be Anna,” Steven said.
“Yeah, that’s me.”
“I heard you’ve taken really good care of Jess.”
“She’s a good kid. So it’s been fun. She really loves you and her mom.”
“Oh, Joyce.” He said, putting his hands over his face. “I can only imagine what she thinks.”
“She think
s you’re dead,” Anna said. “She never remarried.”
“I knew she hadn’t remarried, I’d look in on them from time to time, but I’m sure she hates me.”
“I don’t think so. You should talk to her.”
“I don’t know if I can do that. Would she even want to see me?”
“You’re her husband, and the father of her daughter. Nothing will ever change that. I don’t know if you guys would get back together, but you should at least try to talk to her.” Anna explained.
“Maybe after my nap, I can barely hold my head up.”
Chapter 31
Jessica woke up the next morning in the exam room. Her shoulder was sore and throbbing, but not as bad as the night before. She felt groggy from the painkillers and felt her stomach growling to the point of physical pain. She climbed out of bed and looked around. There wasn’t anyone around so she headed downstairs to her room.
She changed into a t-shirt and jeans and headed to the cafeteria. It was hard to lift her left arm, so using he
r right hand as best she could she filled her tray with eggs, bacon and pancakes. She sat down then went back for a glass of orange juice. As she scarfed her food down, she heard a familiar voice.
“There you are,” her dad, Steven said. He was standing on the other side of the table holding a tray.
“Hey daddy!” She jumped up and hugged him. “So what happened? I don’t remember much other than you bit me. But you look different.”
“I’m sorry I bit you sweetie. I wasn’t myself. That’s how it is as a vampire, you can’t control yourself. The hunger for blood just takes over, and you just go on instinct no matter what you actually want to do.”
“That doesn’t sound very nice.”
“No, it isn’t at all. But the doctor says I’m better now.”
“You mean you’re not a vampire anymore?” She asked.
“Nope. The doctor said it was your blood that made me change back.”
“Yay!” She squealed and clapped her hands. “I knew there was a way to fix you. I told Adam, but would he believe me? No, not at all.”
Steven laughed. While he found her child-likeness cute, at the same time he felt a little sad. His little girl was becoming a young woman, but because of her Asperger’s
she behaved years younger than fifteen. Though he was still proud of her for all she had done since joining Adam and his team.
“Well, you were right Jess
that is for sure.” Steven said.
“When I first got here, no one thought I could do anything. But because of my Asperger’s, I can fight vampires easier than them. Now I can even cure them!”
“That’s right. So we really need to protect you. If they find out what you can do, they will come after you for sure.”
“What for?” She asked.
“If they know you can make them human again, they won’t like that. They’ll want to kill you.”
“But won’t they want to be cured?”
“No, they are what they are. They don’t know of anything else.”
“What about you? Didn’t you want to be cured?”
“I didn’t know what I wanted. When people become vampires, they leave their old life behind. Some of them even killed or turned their family. I left mine behind to protect you. It’s very rare we ever run into our family again. When I saw you, it was weird. I’d had no feelings for so long. Then I saw you, and suddenly I was confused. Like my old self and new self were fighting with each other. That’s why I came with you. I was curious.”
“Oh. H
ey! Did you know they have Froot Loops here?”
He paused at the quick subject change, but before he could reply he saw Anna walking up to them with an older woman.
“Hey guys. I brought you a visitor.” Anna said.
“Mommy!”
“Joyce?” Steven said.
“Hello Steven.”
“Well,” Anna broke in, “I think we should let you guys talk for a bit. Come on Jess.”
“But I’m not done eating,” she protested.
“Then bring it with you. Let your mom and dad talk.”
“Oh, right. By
e mommy and daddy!” She stood and hugged them both, grabbed her tray and followed Anna.
“Anna told me you had been turned,” Joyce said. “That’s why you never came back. Not even to say goodbye?”
“Vampires don’t say goodbye Joyce. There was still a little part of me left, but it wasn’t in control. I just knew I had to stay away. I would look on from a distance, watched Jessica grow up over time. But no way could I approach either of you. Besides, I was way too scary looking.”
Joyce was holding a cup of coffee and wearing a pink sweater. Steven couldn’t be
lieve how much older she looked though he looked like he’d barely aged since he was turned. She looked like she’d aged enough for both of them.
“I’m sorry Joyce
I didn’t know what else to do. But I’m back now. And Jessica is doing great. She cured me. She might be able to cure the others. Our little girl can save lives.”
“I know. It’s amazing. Her whole life I just herd how slow she is, how messed up she is and how she’ll never amount to anything. Not that you’d know anything about that.”
“That’s low Joyce.”
“Now she’s here, fighting these vampires, like you did. It’s just a matter of time before they get her too.”
“But she can’t be turned.”
“So they’ll just kill her, e
ven better.” She took a sip of her coffee and looked around.
“I suppose you’re going to stay here with her?”
“I think I have to. I can’t let her fight them alone. I have a lot of knowledge about them. Jess can help us defeat them for good.”
“That’s what I figured. I always suspected I’d lose her on
e day, the same way I lost you. This vampire thing, this is your thing, her thing. It’s not mine.” She said.
“What do you mean?”
“You fought vampires and then became one. Now you’re human again and will still fight them. She fights them. It’s something you two will do together. She doesn’t need me anymore.”
“That’s not true.”
“I’m afraid it is. I’ve known it since she first left.”
“Joyce—“ he started
but she had got up and began walking away. Steven thought for a moment about the young woman he once knew, loved and married. Thought about the sweet young wife and mother he’d shared his life with many years ago. He now realized that woman had died a long time ago. He didn’t know this woman who came to see him today. He just knew he’d never see her again.