Chapter 30: What Did You Do?

It was early Monday morning when Sarah Price started to rouse from her death sleep. The sun had yet to rise, but the glow of its presence had just begun to appear along the eastern horizon. Mary Thistle, who was sitting at her bedside, quickly addressed Sarah by taking her hand.

“What—what—what happened?” Sarah mumbled.

“Sarah,” Mary whispered. “It’s me, Mary. You’re okay.”

It took Sarah’s mind a moment more to clear enough to understand where she was, who was speaking to her and how she came to be where she was. Soon after that information had coalesced into a memory, Sarah pulled away from Mary and began looking at her with a terrified expression.

“What are you?” Sarah cried out as she cringed away from Mary.

“I’m the same person,” Mary softly assured as she reached for Sarah.

Sarah rolled away from Mary’s hand and then began crawling toward the far side of the bed. Her movements were feeble and laborious.

“What’s wrong with me?” Sarah huffed as she began climbing off the edge of the bed. “Why am I so weak?”

“Your body needs food,” Mary mildly asserted. “You’re going through a transition, and you need to eat.”

“You tried to kill me,” Sarah exclaimed as she crawled off the edge of the bed. “You—you bit me,” she continued while crawling toward the corner of the room.

“I’m sorry, Sarah,” Mary pleaded as she walked around the bed. “But you’re okay now. I promise.”

Sarah gradually began to relax as Mary approached with repeated promises that she was in no danger while holding out her hand. Thirty seconds later, Sarah took Mary’s hand and stood up with her assistance. Sarah then walked around to the end of the bed and sat down.

“What did you do to me?” Sarah queried with insistence.

“I’m sorry, Sarah,” Mary apologized. “I lost control. I was so hungry, but you’re okay. I made you like me. I made you better than the way you were.”

“What are you talking about?” Sarah disputed.

“You’re immortal,” Mary asserted. “You can’t die—at least not from natural causes.”

“You’ve gone mad,” Sarah stridently countered.

“Look at me, Sarah,” Mary insisted as she stepped back. “I’m getting younger by the minute, and so are you.”

“I can barely stand up because of you,” Sarah screamed back with rage. “I’m not getting younger. I feel like I’m dying, you bitch.”

“You’re not dying,” Mary gently disputed. “The change is draining you of energy. You just need to eat something, and I promise, you’ll feel better.”

Sarah paused to consider Mary’s words. As Sarah pondered, Mary took a step back so that all her person could be seen.

“Look at me, Sarah,” Mary pleaded. “When was the last time I looked this young.”

Mary twirled about so that Sarah could see all sides of her. Sarah was impressed with Mary’s appearance, and it showed in her expression. She could see that Mary was looking much younger now than she did the day before.

“How are you doing this?” Sarah huffed out with a disbelieving shake of her head.

“I promise, I’ll explain everything later,” Mary said as she took Sarah’s arm and began helping her up onto her feet. “The first thing you have to do is eat,” she added while leading Sarah toward the bedroom door.

Sarah was in the hallway, starting toward the stairs outside her bedroom when she noticed the door to the spare bedroom was slightly open. Keeping that door shut was a habit with Sarah, and she immediately jumped into the suspicion that Mary had been in there. After pulling away from Mary’s lead, Sarah pushed the door open all the way to see if anything had been disturbed.

“Kenneth!” Sarah cried.

The sight of her son lying on the bed in the spare room shocked Sarah. She had no idea why Kenneth was there or why he was lying fully dressed in his childhood bed. Sarah turned and went into the bedroom without any resistance from Mary.

“I’m sorry, Sarah,” Mary beseeched as she followed her into the bedroom.

“What did you do?” Sarah exclaimed as she moved to Kenneth’s bedside.

“Sarah, I’m sorry,” Mary continued to plead. “I lost control. I was hungry and I couldn't stop myself.”

Sarah could hear the words coming from Mary, but the horror of seeing her son lying motionless was suppressing thought and comprehension.

“What did you do?” Sarah continued to cry in dismay.

Sarah sat down on the bed next to her son. Fearing that he was dead, she touched her hand to his neck.

“You killed him,” Sarah screamed with a look of terror on her face.

“No, Sarah. No,” Mary quickly contradicted. “It’s okay, I gave him my blood. He's turning. He's going to be okay. He’s going through the change.”

Sarah turned to look at Mary with a mix of confusion and hope.

“What do you mean, you gave him your blood?”

“He's going to be like us,” Mary explained in a tone filled with regret. “When his heart stopped, I fed him my blood. He's turning into an—immortal.”

Sarah was confused by Mary’s answer. That was the second time she heard Mary refer to herself as an immortal. The first time she was content to let it pass without explanation until later, but she was not prepared to let it go now that her son was involved.

“What do you mean, immortal?” Sarah raged at Mary. “What the fuck is an immortal?”

Mary hesitated to answer. She knew that Sarah would not believe her at first, and she feared how she would react at this moment.

“Kenneth is turning into a—vampire,” Mary carefully replied.

Sarah was stunned by Mary’s answer. She could not believe that Mary was choosing to joke with her now.

“You have to be kidding,” Sarah declared with a look of dismay. “You think this is funny?”

“You saw my fangs,” Mary quickly countered with a slight flair of hysterics.

Mary paused to give Sarah time to recall the event that turned her into an immortal.

“Look, he’s dead,” Mary continued with a point at Kenneth. “Just like you were dead.”

Sarah tried to resist believing what Mary was saying, but she could not help but notice that everything she said supported her claim.

“And just like you, Kenneth will awaken in a few hours,” Mary added with finality. “But you’re going to need to eat. That’s why you’re so tired. Your body is still changing, and the change is sapping your strength. You need to eat to fuel the process—Kenneth too—meat will do, but blood is best.”

“That’s what you did? You fed on me?” Sarah questioned in commanding tones.

Mary noted the anger in Sarah’s voice more than the question. She quickly decided that answering would make her angrier, so she elected to ignore it.

“You have to eat, Sarah,” Mary plaintively urged. “The longer you wait, the hungrier you’ll get. And if you wait too long, you’ll lose control too.”

Sarah fumed over Mary’s assertions, and her anger grew as she considered her words.

“You bitch,” Sarah roared after a pause. “I want you and this craziness out of my house.”

“It’s true, Sarah,” Mary stridently proclaimed. “You have to believe me.”

“I don’t believe you,” Sarah yelled back as best she could. “I don’t believe any of it. I want you out of here.”

“Sarah, you have to listen to me,” Mary shouted in a rush. “He was going to call the police. I had to stop him.”

“What are you talking about?” A discombobulated Sarah challenged.

“Sarah, if you tell the police they will arrest you and Kenneth,” Mary warned sternly. “To everyone else, we’re monsters. They’ll put us in cages.”

“I don't believe you, and I don't believe this vampire crap,” Sarah insisted hysterically.

“You know it’s true, Sarah,” Mary vehemently argued. “You can feel it inside. I know you can. It’s like your senses are hyped up ten-fold.”

Sarah took a moment to assess herself and the accuracy of Mary’s analysis of what was going on inside her. Shortly, she concluded that her senses were in a heightened state, and her facial expression changed into a look of amazement in reaction.

“What did you do to me?” Sarah shrieked with a look of shock.

“I told you,” Mary said with regret in her voice. “And I did the same to Kenneth—Just give it a few hours, he will wake up. I promise.”

“I want you out of here,” Sarah screamed with a point at the bedroom doorway.

“Okay,” Mary agreed as she backed toward the doorway. “But you can’t tell anyone, Sarah. I know you smell it, the difference between us and the world around us. And I know it’s producing a—sensation in you—a feeling of us versus them—vampire versus human,” Mary stressed with desperation in her speech. “I know you feel it, because I felt after I woke up—like being a wolf in a forest full of hunters,” she added with a questioning inflection. “We’re the same. You can’t go to police for help—or any human—they’re not us—and we’re not one of them anymore. They’ll put us in cages—or worse—you and Kenneth.”

Sarah hesitated to consider Mary’s warning.

“Go,” Sarah insisted after the pause.

Mary was terrified of leaving, but she did not know what else to do. She could see that her presence was distressing Sarah, and that leaving was the only way to calm her down. She knew that once she was gone, there was nothing she could do but hope that Sarah did not call the police. When she did leave Sarah’s house, Mary hurried back to her home. Initially, when she was back inside her house, Mary did not notice any difference inside. That was wholly because she did not take the time to check her back door or look to see if anything was out of place. Her mind was still fixated on Sarah and Kenneth. For more than five minutes, Mary paced her living room with worry. She watched and waited for sight or sounds of the police arriving at Sarah’s home. When she was mostly convinced that Sarah had not called the police, she went to her bedroom, took her cellphone in hand and dialed Lola’s new cell number.

Mary avoided telling Lola about turning Sarah and Kenneth into immortals. She knew Lola would have no choice but to tell Tony about her own transition if she learned what she had done with Sarah and Kenneth. She also feared how Tony would react if he found out that she had turned Sarah and Kenneth. To avoid Tony’s wrath, Mary elected to tell Lola a convoluted lie. She told Lola a story about an exhausting walk in the sunlight, a bus trip and a stolen purse. When she got to the end of her story, Mary was more than a little surprised that Lola accepted her lie. She was even more surprised when Lola said that she and others were coming to her house straightaway.