Halfway to the Grave

“Catherine, what happened?”

 

 

My mother was outside the bathroom door. The thump or my shout must have woken her.

 

“It’s okay, Mom, I just slipped. I’m fine.”

 

I dried off with a towel while lashing myself under my breath.

 

“Stupid, stupid, stupid, thinking about a vampire. What is wrong with you? What is wrong with you?”

 

“Who are you talking to?” Apparently my mother was still outside the door.

 

“No one.” No one intelligent, that’s for sure. “Go back to bed.”

 

After changing into a pair of pajamas, I carried my dirty clothes downstairs and put them in the washing machine, reminding myself to start a load in the morning. When I went into the room I shared with my mother, I found her sitting up in her bed.

 

That was different. She was usually asleep by nine every night.

 

“Catherine, we have to talk.”

 

She couldn’t have picked a worse time, but I stifled a yawn and asked her what she wanted to talk about.

 

“Your future, of course. I know you waited two years to start college so you could help out after Grandpa Joe had his heart attack, and you’ve been saving for another two years so you can transfer to Ohio State University from the community college here. But soon you’ll be leaving. Living on your own, and I’m worried about you.”

 

“Mom, don’t worry, I’ll be careful—”

 

“You can’t forget you have a monster inside you,” she interrupted me.

 

My mouth tightened. God, she’d picked a great time to go into this! You have a monster inside you, Catherine. Those were the opening words she’d used when I was sixteen to tell me what I was.

 

“I’ve been scared for you since I found out I was pregnant,” she went on. The lights were off, but I didn’t need them to see the tension in her face. “From the day you were born, you looked just like your father. Then each day after that, I watched your abnormalities grow as you did. Soon you’ll leave, and I won’t be there to watch over you anymore. You’ll have only yourself to make sure you don’t become like the monster who sired you. You can’t let that happen. Finish school, get your degree. Move out of town, make some friends, it’ll be good for you. Just be careful. Don’t ever forget you’re not like everyone else. They don’t have evil in them trying to break out like you do.”

 

For the first time in my life, I wanted to argue with her. To tell her that maybe there wasn’t any evil in me. That my father could have been bad before he turned into a vampire, and my unusualness made me different, but not half evil.

 

Even as the denial sprang to my lips, however, I choked it back. It hadn’t escaped my notice that our relationship had dramatically improved since I started killing vampires. She loved me, I knew, but before that, I’d always felt like a small part of her also resented me for both the circumstances of my birth and the repercussions of it.

 

“I won’t forget, Mom,” was all I said. “I won’t forget, I swear to you.”

 

Her features softened. Seeing that made me glad I hadn’t argued. There was no need to upset her. This was a woman who’d raised the child of her rapist, and in this small town, she’d been alienated just for having a baby out of wedlock. No one even knew the horrible truth behind her pregnancy. As rough as that was, to top it off, I had hardly been a normal child. She didn’t need me lecturing her on right and wrong.

 

“In fact,” I went on, “I’m going out Friday to hunt again. I’ll probably be home late. I—I have a good feeling I’ll find one.”

 

Yeah. Did I ever.

 

She smiled. “You’re doing the right thing, baby.”

 

I nodded, swallowing back the guilt. If she found out about Bones, she’d never forgive me. She wouldn’t understand how I could have partnered with a vampire, no matter the reason.

 

“I know.”

 

She lay down in her bed. I got in mine as well and tried to fall asleep. But fears of my changing perspective and who was responsible for it kept me awake.

 

 

 

 

 

SIX

 

 

 

 

FRIDAY FINALLY ARRIVED. FOR THE PAST FIVE days, I experimented with makeup and different hairstyles to turn myself into more appetizing bait. The goody bag from Hot Hair Salon had been filled with cosmetics, gels, hair spray, hair clips, nail polish, you name it. Bones also bought me curling irons and hot rollers. After dolling myself up, I would spar with him in full slut gear, preparing myself to fight in a short dress.

 

Now Bones waited for me by the entrance of the cave, a rarity. From the looks of him, he was already dressed for the evening. Black long-sleeved shirt, black pants, black boots. With his light skin and hair, he looked like an archangel dipped in coal.

 

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