Preston Pearson knew it was a cliché, vampire loitering in a graveyard after dark. But, not everybody knew that Bridgeport’s graveyard had a mucho exclusive bar underneath one of the mausoleums, or that the barkeep, Becca Bijou, made a mean plasma shooter…for a human broad.
Preston: I just don’t get it, Becca. Why can’t I find a nice guy and settle down?
Becca: ‘Cause you’re a vampire and nobody trusts you?
Preston: Hath not a vampire eyes? Hath not a vampire hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions; fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by
the same winter and summer as a human is? If you prick us do we not bleed? If you tickle us do we not laugh? If you poison us – Becca: Okay, okay, Shakespeare. I get it. You want your usual?
Preston: Yeah. This place is dead tonight. What gives?
Becca: Vampire Diaries marathon is on.
Becca made his drink and gave it to him.
Preston: Are you using a different blood bank?
Becca: No.
Preston: Huh. This tastes weird. It’s not O-negative, is it? I know it’s the universal donor, but it makes me gassy.
Becca: It’s A-positive.
Preston: I know, it’s the vodka.
Becca: It’s not the vodka.
Preston: Well, it’s – I mean, there’s something not right about … is the room spinning to you?
Preston realized he’d been drugged. He tried to run, but made it two feet before collapsing on the floor.
The last thing he saw before passing out was a stranger in a gray fedora, staring down at him.
The sun rose over a pleasant Tuesday morning in Bridgeport.
In the Wellingtons’ kitchen, Charlie and Cecily Wellington ate French toast. Eve cleaned up.
Cecily: What’s gotten into you?
Eve: Nothing. I just want to be helpful. Rosa has the day off and you shouldn’t have to clean up on your own.
Charlie: She wants the car. You’re not going to fall for this, are you, Mom?
Cecily: I’m too stunned. I didn’t know she knew how to carry a plate.
Eve: And, I’m going to wash them.
Cecily: Charles, go get my heart medication.
Charlie: That doesn't count!
Eve: This is how Rosa does it.
Eve: Does the dishwasher usually start smoking and get all leaky when Rosa uses it? If not, I think I may have killed it, in which case my follow-up question is: Will repairs come out of my allowance?
Charlie: I’ll wash the dishes, Mom.
Eve: But, the dishwasher’s broken.
Charlie: The old fashioned way, like the pilgrims did back in the nineteen fifties. Watch closely.
Charlie: You twist the knobby things on the sink. Water comes out. Put the dishes in with this soapy stuff. Then, put your hands in the water –
Eve: I’m supposed to touch dishwater?!
Charlie: And, scrub in a firm but gentle manner.
Eve: How did the pilgrims live like this?
Charlie: So, Mom, since I did the dishes, can I have the car?
Eve: No, Mom, I need the car. I need to go shopping after school. I haven’t been to the mall in, like, three days.
Charlie: I have lacrosse practice after school. Plus, she drives like a girl.
Eve: I am a girl!
Cecily: Charles, don’t be mean to your sister.
Eve: Yeah, Charles.
Charlie: Sorry, Evelyn.
Cecily: Eve can have the car. But, Eve, you have to swing by after shopping to pick your brother up.
Eve: But, he smells bad after lacrosse.
Cecily: Evelyn…
Eve: Fine.
Eve and Charlie left, neither of them happy. They shared a womb, now they shared the car. Eve didn’t get it. They were rich. Why couldn’t they have their own cars?
Charlie: Hey, hold up.
Eve: What?
Charlie: Time out. Are you okay?
Eve: Fine, why?
Charlie: I heard you last night, in your room, crying.
Eve: It was the television.
Charlie: You don’t have a television in your room.
Eve: Look, I’m fine. Drop it.
Charlie: Okay. But, if it was because of Christine showing up at the party – I just don’t want you to be upset.
Eve: Every time I look at her, I feel like someone has just punched me in the gut. I can’t breathe and there’s this pain that radiates throughout my entire body.
Charlie: I’m sorry.
Eve: Is that all? Have you got the mushies out of your system, because if Mom overhears this, she’s going to get the wrong idea.
Charlie: End time out. Just so you know, I’m having burritos for lunch.
Eve: I hate you. This isn’t over.
Christine called Isobel four times that morning. She never called back. Christine was worried. It wasn’t like Isobel to not come pick her up, especially on a day when Christine had custody. She thought she might call her again, before first period, but Aidan approached her.
Aidan: Hey.
Christine: Hi.
Aidan: I just wanted to apologize.
Christine: For what?
Aidan: I feel like I caused some friction between you and your friend last night.
Christine: Right. Isobel was upset with me. Maybe that’s why she’s not taking my calls. What am I saying? Isobel would stab herself in the face before she’d ignore a call.
Aidan: She’s addicted to her phone?
Christine: She tweeted during her appendectomy last year.
Aidan: I just wanted to make sure things were okay before I went bold and asked you out on a date.
Christine: A date? Oh, I’m not so sure –
Aidan: I know, we just met and you hardly know me, but would a cup of coffee be entirely out of the question?
Christine thought about it. Aidan was nice, he was sweet, a little too mysterious for her tastes, but otherwise harmless. And, wallowing in how much she missed Josh wasn’t doing her any good. She loved him – part of her thought she’d never love anyone like she loved Josh. But, she had to move on. He was never coming back and maybe he would want her to move on and have coffee with someone else.
Christine: You know what? I think coffee would be okay.
Aidan: Yeah?
Christine: Yeah. Pick me up around seven?
Aidan: Great.
Christine: I’ll see you in class, I just want to call Isobel again.
Aidan: I hope she’s okay.
Christine: I’m sure she’s fine. She probably had too much to drink and is sleeping it off.
Isobel felt like a train had hit her. Her body was strange and unfamiliar, and overwhelmed by the most unusual sensation. Cold. Jittery. Like she was simultaneously on a caffeine high and a caffeine crash at the same time. And her heart was – still.
Suddenly, she remembered. Aidan came to the party with Christine. She met that hot guy with the bluest eyes she’d ever seen, brought him home with her and – he bit her.
She checked out the wound in the mirror. It was ugly. Why was she so pale? And, why were her teeth so sharp?
Isobel went to the window, but before she could reach it, the door opened.
Will: Uh-uh, cupcake. I wouldn’t do that if I were you.
Isobel: Why not?
Will: Sunlight isn’t our B.F.F..
Will: No. I killed you.
Isobel: I’m dead?
Will: Technically you’re undead. Or, in other words, a vampire.
Isobel: I can’t be a vampire. I have to go outside, I have a pop quiz today!
Will: You can go outside, if you want to turn into a pile of ashes.
Isobel jumped when someone knocked on her bedroom door. Her dad! She totally forgot about him in all the dying and coming back from the dead.
Alistair: Isobel? Are you still here?
Will: I’d get rid of him if I were you. I haven’t had breakfast.
Isobel: Shut up.
Alistair: Isobel? Is someone in there with you?
Isobel: No, no Daddy, it was just the television. I’m not feeling well. I thought I’d stay home today.
Isobel: No, I think it’s a stomach bug. Everybody at school has it, so you better not come in. I could be contagious.
Alistair: Alright. If you want to stay here, I’ll call the office for you. I’m going to go to work now, I’ll be late. I’m going out for drinks with some of the guys.
Isobel: Okay. See you later.
Will: Because, I need something from you. Well, not you specifically. I need you to get something from your little friend, Christine.
Isobel: Why don’t you get it yourself?
Will: Because Christine has seen me before and I’m pretty sure inviting me in won’t be on her list of things to do this century. You, however, are her bestie. She’ll let you in and you will get her mother’s spell book.
Will: Her mother hid something of mine. I want it back. I’m going to undo the concealment spell her mother did and, in exchange for your help, I’m going to give you a spell that will turn you back into a human.
Isobel: I can go back to being alive?
Will: And take all the pop quizzes your blonde little heart desires. Just, don’t eat anyone. You drink human blood, you complete the transformation and the spell to change you back won’t work.Isobel: Gross. Blood.
Will: You’ll change that tune shortly, when the hunger pains set in. When the sun sets, go to Christine, worm your way into that cheap apartment she lives in and get me her mom’s spell book. Got it?
Isobel: Got it. Wait, what did Christine’s mom hide?
Will: I would tell you, but then I’d have to kill you…again.
The man in the grey fedora took the elevator down to level two of the containment facility. The drugs should be wearing off and Preston would be waking up any time now.
When Preston woke, he saw the man in the gray fedora observing him through the glass, like he was a zoo animal or something.
Fedora: Who I am is of no concern to you. What you should be focusing on is how you’re going to get out of there.
Preston: What do you want from me?
Fedora: Just to talk.
Preston: You drugged me and locked me up to shoot the breeze?
Preston: Even if I did know anything about this Lansing guy, what makes you think I’d tell you?
Fedora: You have something of a reputation amongst your peers for being a snitch.
Preston: Hey, I’m a lot of things, but snitch ain’t one of them.
Fedora: Alright.
The man in the grey fedora took his cell phone out and punched in a number. He gave a command for someone to join him on level two, and minutes later, a woman with dark hair appeared next to him.
Fedora: Mr. Pearson, this is my associate, Miss Novak.
Natalia: He’s being difficult?
Fedora: Quite.
Natalia: You want me to perform an extraction?
Preston didn’t know what an extraction was, but he was pretty sure he didn’t want to.
Fedora: As I thought. Get everything you can out of him about Will Lansing and what brought him back to Bridgeport.
Natalia: You’re not hanging around? This is usually your favorite part.
Fedora: I’m going to go visit our friend on level seven.
Christine hadn’t been on a date in a long time. The sun was setting and Aidan would be there soon. She didn’t know what to wear, so she decided to just go in what she had on. Her father thought it was good that she was getting out in the world again, but Christine felt like she was being unfaithful to Josh somehow.
Isobel, meanwhile, hoped not to let on that she was presently non-living. She’d worn her hair down, to cover up the bite mark and Will had showed her how to keep up human appearances. So long as she didn’t think about how hungry she was, she would be okay…she hoped.
Isobel: I know, I was sick. Can I come in?
Christine: I’m actually about to leave. Aidan and I are going to get coffee.
Isobel: Oh. You and Aidan, huh? There’s a you and Aidan now?
Christine: It’s not like that. I’m just trying to move on from the Josh thing.
Isobel: Right. Josh. You know, maybe you should invite me inside and we could talk about Josh.
Christine: Are you feeling okay?
Isobel: Fine. Actually, no, I’m not fine. I should sit down. Maybe you could invite me inside and I could sit down for a minute?
Christine: Is, you don’t need my permission.
Isobel: I kind of do. Basic etiquette. You shouldn’t enter a home unless expressly invited. I watched Martha Stewart while I was sick today.
Christine: Okay, please come inside, Isobel.
Isobel felt the invisible barrier between them give way and she stepped into the Parkers’ home.
Christine: Do you want to sit down?
Isobel: No, I feel better. I should go now. Um, good luck on your date. You’ll do great!
Christine: You don’t mind?
Isobel: Mind? Nah. Aidan’s not the only cute boy in the sea of cute boy fishes. Bye!
Isobel gave Christine a hug and started to leave, but bumped into Aidan.
Isobel: Hi, Aidan! Bye, Aidan!
Aidan: Um – hi?
She slipped around the side of the house, waiting until they were gone.
Christine: I stopped trying to figure out how Isobel’s mind works in third grade.
Aidan: Are you sure everything is okay?
Christine: No, but Isobel is a trooper. So, coffee?
Aidan: Coffee.
When they were gone, Isobel snuck around back and let herself into the garage. That was where Christine’s father kept all of her mother’s stuff. She would find the spell book, give it to Will, become human again and forget this whole nightmare ever happened.
Natalia briefed the man in the grey fedora once she was all done with Preston.
Natalia: He’s sent the girl after Samantha Parker’s spell book, but she won’t find it. An old associate of yours has already gotten to it.
Fedora: Gallagher? I’ll handle him myself.
Natalia: What do you want me to do with Preston? Standard scrub and release?
Natalia: He’s harmless. We might be in the business of abducting supernatural creatures and experimenting on them, but we aren’t cruel.
Fedora: Fine. Scrub and release.
Natalia: Thank you.
Fedora: And, our friend on level seven is hungry. It’s time for its weekly feeding. Bring it something diseased.
Isobel went through box after box. She found everything from photo albums to Samantha Parker’s wedding dress – but she found no spell book. She was so frustrated she didn’t even hear someone come in behind her.
Isobel: Aidan! I, um, spell book?
Aidan: Don’t try to pretend. I know what you’ve turned into. I can smell it on you.
Isobel: I’m not a vampire, if that’s what you’re thinking because vampires don’t exist, except on television and this isn’t a television show, so I couldn’t possibly be a –
Aidan: There’s no cure. He lied to you.
Isobel’s human appearance slipped away and she whirled around to face Aidan.
Aidan: I know. I’m sorry.
Isobel: What am I supposed to do? Wait, how do you know about vampires?
Aidan: I’ve been dispatched to control the rise of their numbers.
Isobel: What does that mean?
Aidan: It means I have orders from the people I work for to destroy you. I’m so sorry.
Isobel suddenly became very afraid. She felt a surge of panic shoot through her and the next thing she or Aidan knew – she’d disappeared.
Aidan stood there, perplexed. He’d met a lot of vampires before, but never one who could teleport. Where did she get that power from? Where did she go? And, how was he going to explain this to the higher-ups?
Christine’s date had been nice. They went for coffee, listened to this beat poet at the bistro, talked about casual things like the weather and Mr. Ashford’s hideous toupee in fourth period. And, it’d felt good…and that was the worst feeling Christine had ever had.
She went to the cemetery, to Josh’s grave. Maybe if she told him about it, it’d ease the guilt.
Behind her, Christine heard a twig snap.
Christine: Is someone there?
Eve: Sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt.
Christine: Eve?
Eve: Looks like we had the same idea. Christine: How much of that did you hear?
Eve: Enough. You and Aidan went on a date, huh?
Christine: Coffee. Just coffee. You look good. Were you going somewhere?
Eve: Thought I might hit Plasma after I came to see Josh. I try to visit at least once a week, keep him up to date on the Vampire Diaries. I don't know if they have television in the afterlife.
Christine: Can we go somewhere and talk? Please?
Eve: I'm still not at the talking place, Christine. And, I don't know if I ever will be.
Christine: I love you, Eve. I know I made a huge mistake, sleeping with Josh behind your back, but hurting you was the last thing I ever wanted.
Eve: I believe that. But, it doesn't change the fact that my heart breaks all over again every time I see you.
Christine embraced Eve, in hopes she would remember how much they used to love each other, and against her better judgment, Eve held on for dear life. She chalked it up to nostalgia, to missing the way Christine felt in her arms. Neither of them realized they’d caught the attention of a paparazzi lurking around the graveyard.
Paparazzi: Oh, this is going to sell like hotcakes! I can just see the headlines now – ‘Wellington heiress caught in lesbian embrace in cemetery!’
Christine and Eve only rolled their eyes – neither of them aware that the paparazzi guy wasn’t the only person watching them.
The man in the grey fedora watched them, too.
She was hungry -- so incredibly hungry. And, she could hear the blood rushing through the veins of the humans. Was this what Will was talking about? Was this how she'd spend the rest of her un-life? Lusting after the plasma of humans?
One thing was for certain, she couldn't take it anymore. And, the old guy she saw standing a few feet away was looking mighty tasty.
Isobel: I'm so, so sorry.
Alan: For what, dear?
Isobel: This.
She sunk her teeth into the leathery flesh of his neck, savoring the sweet taste of his life's blood as it poured down her throat and satisfied her in ways she never imagined. She bled him dry.
Eve let Christine go and headed to Plasma 101. The bouncer let her in no problem. After all, the Wellington name was synonymous with importance in Bridgeport. Who cared that she was only sixteen? Her family owned half of the city.
Inside, she found an unwelcome face.
Will: Me.
Eve: Are you stalking me?
Will: Maybe it’s fate, you and me winding up in the same dead nightclub?
Eve: More incentive for me to leave and go try some other club.
Will: You want to dance with me.
Eve: Again with the squinting. Will: I don’t get it. How come you can’t be compelled?
Eve: Do you really think you’re that hot? I mean, really? You think you’re so cute you can tell me I want to dance with you and I, a weak-brained girl, will just do as you want?
Will: Something like that.
Eve: Well, I’ve got news for you. I don’t think you’re all that hot. Fortunately for you, I have a hookup goal tonight and the piano guy isn’t my ideal hookup partner. So, yes, I will dance with you because I want to, not because you’re hot and squinty.
Will: The Marquis de Sade. Although, arguably he was a better writer than he was dancer.
Eve: Right. Because, I’m supposed to believe you were alive back then?
Will: Alive is a subjective term. Has anyone ever told you that you have incredible breasts?
Eve: Smooth.
When Eve was tired of humiliating him on the dance floor, Will went upstairs and ordered her a drink. As the barkeep mixed something fruity and romantic, he called Isobel for a status update.
Isobel: I didn't get it. Aidan Gallagher has it.
Will: Oh, I hate him.
Isobel: And, I hate you. I killed some old guy tonight.
Will: I thought I told you not to drink human blood? The spell --
Isobel: There is no spell! Aidan told me.
Will: Aidan Gallagher, contrary to his own belief, doesn't know everything. I -- I'm sorry, Isobel.
Isobel: Tell that to the corpse in Marina Field.
Isobel hung up. He could hear the emotion crackling in her voice. He was evil, but this wasn't how he'd wanted this to happen. She'd get the book, he'd turn her back and compel her to forget it ever happened. Eve would never know.
He took the drinks back downstairs to Eve.
Will: I’m exceptionally observant.
Eve: Uh-huh. So, here’s the thing –
Will: I’m listening.
Eve: I have curfew. So, I’m going to make out with you. Don’t think it’s because I like you or anything, it’s just that the pickings are slim and you’re not entirely obnoxious when you aren’t talking.
Will: I can live with that.
Eve: And, if by some chance you get the idea I enjoy it, it’s the alcohol talking.
Will: Fine.
Eve: Fine.
Before she knew it, they were calling closing time. She’d missed curfew by two hours.
Will: You want to come home with me?
Eve: No squinting?
Will: I was asking. Do you want to come home with me? I don’t live far from here, over on Oleander.
Part of her was tempted. She could go home with him, have hot, sweaty sex with him and then sneak in before anyone was up at the Wellington House. But, this wasn’t how she wanted it to happen. She and Josh had never gone beyond a couple of forays to third base. She didn’t want her first time to be some random hookup with a guy she didn’t even like.
Her phone rung and any doubt she had vanished when she answered.
Eve: Isobel? Are you okay?
Isobel: No. I did something stupid. met this guy, Will, with these super blue eyes --
Eve: Blue eyes, huh?
Isobel: I'm in trouble and I don't know what to do. I can't tell Christine.
Eve: I’ll be right there.
She hung up.
Will: So, I take it you and I are going to rain check?
Eve: I wouldn’t have sex with you if you were the last boy on this planet. And, if you have harmed a hair on my Isobel’s head, I will personally see to it that you never have sex again.
Will: Call me?
In her room, Isobel changed back into her pajamas and looked at a picture of her and her girls on the wall. Would they think she was some kind of monster? She couldn't face them. She began to cry and called Eve back, telling her not to come.
As Will left, he heard a voice call to him from the alley. Aidan.
Aidan: Other than to put a stake through your heart?
Will: I’d like to see you try.
Aidan: I know what you came here for. I’ll die before I let you have the Orb of Oxala.
Will: You dying. That’s the best offer I’ve heard all day.
Aidan: I think she’d accept the truth about me better than Eve would accept the truth about you, especially after you turned Isobel.
Will: Hmm, I don’t think so, especially when she finds out you know what really happened to her beloved Josh.
Aidan: Eliminating Josh was for the best.
Will: I don’t think Christine will see it that way. Neither will Eve and the girl’s got claws.
Aidan: Stay away from her.
Will: You stay out of my way, I’ll try not to kill your girlfriend.
Eve went to Isobel’s anyway, but Isobel wouldn’t let her in. It was late, she was tired and they would talk tomorrow, Isobel said. Eve headed back home, snuck into her room and went to take a shower, in hopes of washing all the gross Will germs off of her.
But, when she came back to her room, she found the man in the grey fedora waiting for her.
Eve: Hi, Daddy.
Gabriel: You missed curfew.
Eve: Isobel was in crisis.
Gabriel: Is that all?
Eve: If you’ll believe it, then, yes. Sorry, I didn’t mean to miss curfew.
Gabriel: It’s alright. Get some sleep.
Eve: Okay. Goodnight. I love you, Daddy.
Gabriel: I love you, too, buttercup.
