Modern life

Time never stops, life and technology always dance around it without noticing. It’s just when someone stops and looks back when they realize that everything has moved forward with or without their intervention.

The next couple of days passed by with great speed, Hana learned how to use the tv and was amazed with the remote and started calling it “Magic wand” mocking the tales of witches that she always heard. “Magic doesn’t come from a stick, it comes from yourself… but this gizmo is surely powerful and amazing” she explained to a Valentine who was only happy to see her friend being able to change from channel 4 to channel 5.

Hana also learned where the most useful places were located, like the pharmacy, the bakery, the supermarket, and the convenience store. She and Valentine have been walking around mahougaoka at night but haven’t gone to another party since Valentine said: “It’s only fun at weekends”

In the mornings Hana is alone, she usually stays up until 3am keeping Valentine some company but after that she gets really sleepy. The Vampire goes to bed around 5am and doesn’t leave the basement until there is no sunlight which is after 6pm usually, before coming upstairs she checks the street camera with her phone. If she wakes up early, there are three main activities that she does:

Checking social media on the phone, this includes also watching videos or reading news. Even if it’s a flip model, it’s a smartphone and can take pictures and connect to the internet, it also has many apps. It’s not really popular with the average human but most of the undead without a heartbeat love them.

Taking care of the rat farm,she still likes human blood but doesn’t want to get into much trouble or bring unnecessary attention. A good replacement she found were rats, they have good amounts of blood and their speed of growth and reproduction is fast, the farm has three divisions: “child”, “adults” and “ready for consumption”. So if she is hungry, just reaches the last division and “grabs a snack”.

Working on dresses, there is a big room that she calls “Workshop” where all the patterns, designs and fabric of her dresses are stored. Around the 70s she used to walk at night in some of her Victorian dresses, many women were amazed by their cuteness and asked her to sew some for them, she agreed and without noticing created the foundation for the lolita fashion style. She always lies about how long it takes her to design or make a dress saying that one to two month, but in fact it only takes her 10 minutes to make one thanks to her vampire enhanced abilities, and before sleeping she always draws designs for later use. It could be said that she already has 100 years worth of designs in her notebooks. Even today, many big companies buy her designs that end up being the most sold, but it’s almost impossible to own a dress made by her and with the legendary embroidered tag “Violet Vampire Boutique”.

The witch’s life on the other hand hasn’t been that interesting, her sleeping hours go from 3am as stated previously, but sometimes she falls asleep around 2am it’s hard for her to stay up so late. There is this animation about a girl that travels around Europe searching for her mother that is broadcasted at 1:30 am on a local channel, this helps the time pass by since Hana has become really hooked with the story. But sometimes it’s really not enough. Around 10 or 11 am she is waking up, the silence around the house bothers her a bit so she just sets a record on the gramophone and plays it, which is changed after it plays three to five times. Valentine taught her how to use a CD but for Hana the sound that came from it is not as good as the vinyl one. She also spends her time reading, she has so many books but most of them she already finished so sometimes grabs the black and white comic books that her friend has, or “manga” as she once told her. At first Hana felt that those comics weren’t going to be good due the lack of color, but fell in love with the works of Osamu Tezuka.

Immortality for witches works differently, they aren’t undead as the vampires, in fact they are very much alive and can die like a usual human being does. But with magic and potions they can extend their lifetime without limits. But even so, time will play its part and they will age.

“Hello!” A normal afternoon like any other so far, Valentine leaves the basement and waves her hand at Hana who is reading a book while listening to jazz.

“Hi, did you sleep well?”

“Yeah, I almost forgot to eat something. I just spent too much time looking at memes on the phone”

“Meem… what?”

“Oh right, right. They are the funny pics on the net. Look at this one, it’s just so me”

Valentine extends her arm and shows the screen of her phone. It has the image of a black fluffy kitten showing its two big fangs and with a white font lettering that reads “I can haz da bloodz?”.

Hana looks confused at the image, then back at her friend and back at the image again.

“It’s… a cat, I think?” She finally says “And is it poorly written, like a lot… I mean why does it have a question mark if it is not a phrase in question form. Also, HAZ? What is that? Oh it also has some incoherent conjugation and… the more I look at it, the more pain I feel”

“You clearly don’t have a sense of humor… look” Valentine moves the phone near her face and tries to imitate the picture “See the resemblance?”

“I… I can’t, you aren’t a cat or transform into one. Your Vampire power is hypnosis, is it not?”

“Ugh, you are such a boomer. Pierre gets how funny is it”

“I’m what?... huh? Pierre laughs with that? Has our world become a wasteland with a poor sense of humor and you fell victim to it? Poor Pierre, his soul is bounded to such awful taste, suffering for eternity”

“We are just up to date” She sticks her tongue out “You are just jealous cuz you are half century behind, step it up grandma”

Hana opens her eyes and mouth while frowning “The nerve! I’m not a victim of jealousy. I can live happily without the need of one of your intelligent phones, or the need to check pages stuck on a spider web”

“You mean smartphones and… webpages?”

“My words exactly” Hana turns back to her book.

“Oh no, I’m not letting you live like this. A moment please” Valentine starts texting, some noises that imitate bubbles or a bird chirping come out of the phone in her hand “Ha! Pierre is such a nice guy”

“Why the sudden adulation?”

“You and him are going tomorrow to buy you a brand new smartphone. He’ll come around noon to pick you up”

“What? How did you…? Ah, again using your ethereal communication I see, you have grown stronger”

“No, instant communication by text message. It’s like a super fast raven mail, remember those? This is the new version. I’ve been chatting with Pierre almost everyday. Since he is a ghost, he doesn’t sleep and always gives a quick response”

“So you two are plotting together against me?”

“If by plotting you mean to help you adapt to the present, then yes, we are plotting. Also you both are daywalkers, so it would be easier than if I go with you. Take my credit card. Pierre should know how to use it, so don’t worry. And have fun on your date” Valentine smirks while handing over a violet card.

“It’s not a date!”

Ding, Dong

The clock strikes 11:58 am and the doorbell is already indicating the arrival of Pierre. Hana just finished getting ready a couple of seconds ago and is moving fast to the entrance. Today she wears a pair of black skinny jeans and a white blouse with a long white coat to match, she grabs her black purse before opening the door.

“Hello, you have a good tim…”

But she stops talking when she notices that at the entrance is not Pierre the one waiting, instead there is a woman in her 30s, she has long curly red hair, a tanned skin, gray eyes, and is wearing a green sweater and beige baggy pants.

“Good day Hana” The woman says in a sweet voice “How are you?”

“Uh, excuse me. Do I know you?”

“Oh Sorry, didn’t Valentine tell you? I texted her this morning telling her that I’ll be using a woman’s body since the one you guys know is still being… repaired”

“Well Valentine is asleep so maybe that’s why… Huh? Pierre?” Hana looks at the woman from head to toes, she is gorgeous and then thinks <Well, he is a ghost. It makes a bit of sense that he is using another body, I think he told us something about having multiple ones>

“Umm… Sorry Hana, Can I ask you a favor?”

“What is it?”

“While I’m using a more feminine like type of body… can you please call me Jeanne instead of Pierre? Jean-Pierre or Jeanne-Pierre is ok too… Does that make any sense? Is just that Pierre alone when I’m like this it’s a bit… well…” She nervously moves her hands.

“Oh sure Jeanne, no problem. I’m fine, how about you?” She decided to go with that name since she didn’t hear any difference in the pronunciation of the other options and was worried of doing it wrong.

“Well, now I’m doing great” She smiles from ear to ear “Shall we go then?, let’s have a fun day together”