Elizabeth and the Vampire's Cabin (4 page)

The
man she had seen lounging on the swing outside was standing by the front door
and his hand was on the light switch. He was looking directly at Elizabeth. He
then took off his mask. It was Aaron Ayro. She should have known it was him
just based on his physique. How could she have not immediately recognized that
sizable build? He approached her. Elizabeth turned to him, knife still drawn.
He stopped a few steps from her with his hands raised.

"Good
evening, Elizabeth," he greeted warmly. Elizabeth couldn't believe he
recognized her with the face mask on.
 
That he knew her name was also surprising. They had never spoken.
"I'm glad to get a chance to tell you bon voyage. You're having a party
tonight, right? You look beautiful. Would you like to return to your
party?" And with that, Aaron stepped sideways and gestured to the open
front door. Elizabeth, knife pointed toward Aaron, slowly began to walk toward
the door. Then she turned towards the door and saw Arthur quickly moving toward
it. It took all of her will power not to look back to see if anyone was about
to jump her. No one did. When she exited the door with Arthur, she half
expected the bouncer to tackle her to the ground and call the police. But he
only stood still and stone faced beside the door. Only when they were off the
driveway and out onto the street did either of them feel like talking.

"You
carry a knife with you?" Arthur asked in disbelief.

"It's
one of my throwing knives. Normally, I carry pepper spray, but I accidentally
threw it out. I figured a knife would do just as well."

They
speed walked back to Elizabeth's party. They were practically running, and
neither of them spoke another word the rest of the way. The focus was on
getting back to her house and safely away from Aaron Ayro and his twisted party
goers.

Chapter
6: In the Bedroom

Elizabeth's
party was over by now. People were on their way out. Elizabeth and Arthur went
through the back gate of her house. No one had noticed Elizabeth slipping out
with Arthur, and they were surprised to see them finally turn up. Many said
they tried to find Elizabeth to let her know guests were leaving, but they
couldn't find her in such a large backyard. Elizabeth apologized to the
remaining guests for disappearing and said her goodbyes. Soon, it was time for
Arthur to leave as well.

“I’d
like to see you off tomorrow, Elizabeth.”

“You
don’t have to do that. I won’t have any time to spend with you. I’ll be way too
busy overseeing the people who need to transport my things and helping them
out.”

“I’ll
help you out. I can carry things to the moving van, so you can get out of here
quicker. It might be good having me around. You need to load up your throwing
knives after all. The movers might be freaked out by deadly weapons. I think
I've learned to deal with it.” He winked at her playfully.

“Thank
you so much!” she said happily. “But I’m actually not going to load up an
entire arsenal of knives. I gave a lot of them away. I just bought a new set of
six. I decided I don't need a whole collection. I can carry them down myself.
You saw the knife I pulled at Aaron's party. It's not big and they're all the
same size. I have them on my nightstand, so I can grab them tomorrow morning.
But I could use an extra hand tomorrow anyhow.”

She
and Arthur walked back into the house. She said her goodbyes to the guests and
then headed upstairs to her bedroom.

Elizabeth
looked around her bedroom with a sense of satisfaction. She was all packed.
Because the cabin was almost totally barren, she would have to stock it
herself. The cabin had only an electric stove, a bed, built in cabinets in the
kitchen, and a closet in her room. However, she had to supply the bedding and other
furniture she needed. She had a mini fridge, chaise lounge, microwave, pots,
pans, silverware, bookcase, books, toiletries, etc. Of course she wasn’t going
to be lugging all of those things herself. In the morning, her wilderness
guide's employees would load up her things into a truck, transfer it all to a
boat, take it to the cabin, and have the cabin all ready and set up for her
arrival. A few hours after the employees departed with her things, she would
leave with Austin and meet her wilderness guide on another boat. Austin would
go with them as far as the boat and then turn back. Her guide, the captain, and
herself, would travel to the island. They would escort her to the cabin, make
sure everything was as it should be, and then depart. However, the deal was
that her guide would make weekly trips to check on her. Austin insisted on
this. He or his employees would bring her groceries and whatever she needed.
There wasn't any phone service, but she had been trained in how to send SOS
signals. The cabin already had a flare gun stored away in a closet. Someone on
a neighboring island would see either her signals or the flare. All major
excursions that had a risk of bodily injury on the island (exploring of caves,
long hikes) would be done with her guide when he made his weekly trip out to
see her.

Elizabeth
went to her bow window and sat on the window seat. She opened up the large
windows to let in the cool air and looked at the moon. She marveled at its
shape and size. The moon was absolutely round. She spontaneously felt the urge
to belt out a tune in honor of this full moon. She began to sing the song she
had heard earlier: “Head Over Heels” by Tears for Fears.

“Shut
up!” Austin shouted from his room.

“No,”
Elizabeth shouted back. “There is a beautiful moon out tonight. Look out your
window!”

“The
moon can go fuck itself!”

“Okay,
hate the moon, hater. Get yourself back to bed and under the covers. But I’m
going to stay right where I am: at my window singing to the moon. I feel like I
could howl like a wolf!”

“I
hope you fall asleep at the window and fall out!” Austin shouted at her from
his room.

“I
love you too!” she shouted back.

It
really was time for her to get back to bed, but she was too excited to sleep.
Finally, she was going to be truly independent. She had always felt alone in
the world, but without the autonomy that comes with adulthood. No one had
personally concerned themselves much with her wishes unless they were paid to
do so. She had no relatives in California, and they had barely acknowledged her
throughout her life. Austin, who was crushed at having inherited a ten year old
sister at nineteen, was a worthless parent. He was always self-centered, and he
didn’t change for the sake of Elizabeth. So he took zero responsibility for
raising her and hired a full time staff to care for her. There were three
nannies as well as maids to clean up after her. These people were kind to her
when she was young. But they weren’t family, and she never had that feeling of
belonging to a family unit. She was like a solitary island unto herself. And
soon she would be on an island to be a solitary adult for the first time.

Maybe
she could have learned to form meaningful attachments if she had been in one
place more often. But once she graduated from middle school, Austin had put her
on home study. He wanted to travel, to be gone for half the year, and he could
finally take her with him. As a teenager, she could be a true travelling
companion to him. They went to Europe, Africa, and Asia. And while there, they
would take hunting, fishing, and camping trips. Elizabeth fulfilled her studies
via computer. Austin hired tutors to help her everywhere they travelled or,
rarely, helped her himself.

Elizabeth
looked at the moon and did not feel sorry for herself. She felt blessed. She
had a great life. She spent her days fulfilling her hobby: traveling and
camping. And she was convinced that life would only get better and better.

Elizabeth
put on her pajamas and went to bed. However, only about an hour later she
suddenly awoke. She had felt a sharp pain on her wrist. Something had bitten
her. She sat up in bed and looked around with sleep filled eyes. She could
barely see anything in the darkness. In her groggy haze she had a sense that
someone else was in the room with her. She had seen, just vaguely, a shadowy
figure by her window. And then she realized exactly what that meant. If there
was a shadowy figure in her room, and it was most likely not Austin watching
her, then that meant there was an intruder in her room. Elizabeth bolted out of
bed and reached for the light switch on her bedside lamp. The light came on and
fully illuminated her entire bedroom. There was no one. She ran to the window
and looked down. There was no one. She wondered if her vision of a shadowy figure
had been some kind of dream. Perhaps, she had been half awake and half asleep
when she witnessed the figure by her window. Perhaps it was a hypnopompic
state. She rationalized all of this to herself. And yet…she didn’t quite
believe it.

Elizabeth
inspected her room. Everything looked to be in place. All of her things were
still neatly packed away. Her suitcases were where they should be.
 
And her throwing knives, which she had laid
on her nightstand, looked untouched.

And
yet, she hadn’t just seen the presence in her room. She had felt it too. It was
a palpable presence with an energy to it. However, there was no evidence that
anyone besides herself had been in the room. She glanced down at her wrist and
remembered the pain that had awakened her. Two small bite marks on her wrist.
Maybe the presence she had sensed was a giant spider? She felt unnerved by the
marks on her wrist. They looked too big to have come from a spider.
Flabbergasted, but too tired to ponder the situation further, she turned out the
lights and got back into bed. She thought no more of the mysterious presence
and quickly fell into a deep sleep.

But
then an unusual thing happened. Elizabeth almost never had dreams. But on this
night, she had a very vivid dream of herself as a large dog. She could see
herself in the wild, in the middle of the night, running through brush and
barking at the moon. Flying up above her, blocking out the moon, was a giant
bat with sharp, vampiric fangs.

Part 2: Leaving the Nest

Chapter
7: Elizabeth Leaves Home

The
next morning was filled with hustle and bustle. It was an early morning, and
last night's party should have left her wiped, but Elizabeth was filled with
excitement as she saw her things being loaded up into the moving van. Mark
Taylor, her wilderness/travel guide, was supervising the whole process outside.
The movers all worked for him, and he had assured Elizabeth that all of her
things would be sent to the cabin and set up, ready for her arrival.

Suddenly,
Austin entered her room in a huff. He looked even more sickly than usual and
was furiously smoking a cigarette. He paced like a panther trapped in a cage,
slowly going crazy.

“Elizabeth!
Don't you see it? Now that you are finally leaving and danger is only hours
away? This trip is nuts!”

“I’m
eighteen and I will do as I please.”

“This
is dangerous. And I’m very uncomfortable. I would force you to stay if I
could.”

“No,
you would not try to force me to stay just because you are sooo worried about
me. You would try to force me to stay because you want me to be your personal
travel agent and serve as your fiancé’s wedding planner.”

This
was partly true. Austin’s laziness was only topped by his infamous lack of
attention to detail—something that tended to shock people, because he was
actually a very sharp dresser. Little did they know, he had his own personal
stylist. Indeed, he needed a personal staff for many aspects of his daily life.
This included someone who could handle all of the nasty details of his
elaborate camping trips. Elizabeth was this person. Bizarrely, even at
thirteen, when she graduated middle school and became Austin’s permanent
traveling companion, she was more organized than him. Once they decided on a
location to travel, Elizabeth made all the necessary arrangements. She supervised
the movers, worked with their private travel agent, directed the butler to book
hotel rooms or homes for them to rent, etc. At first, no one knew what to make
of her. This thirteen year old girl was the lady of the house, and they
couldn’t understand why her twenty two year old brother/guardian was not
overseeing these things. The butler had a word with Austin, but Austin insisted
the staff work with Elizabeth. At first, this was much to the chagrin of the
staff (liability issues). However, they quickly realized that she was an
unusually precocious thirteen year old girl. They thrived under her direction
in a way that they never could under Austin. The butler was always impressed by
the clear, written instructions that she would leave him. Within a year of her
brother pulling her out of school, the house was running more efficiently than
ever before. When the staff needed instructions while Austin and Elizabeth were
away, they never called Austin. They called Elizabeth. They would all be very
sad when she decided to permanently leave home, which would probably be very
soon. Austin was getting married in three months and she was now eighteen.