Chapter 9

After their last bungled field trip, the girls chose to play it safe, meeting up at a sushi joint just by campus. As usual, Liv didn’t order anything, insisting she’d had a full meal between classes. Rachel, meanwhile, had made the bold upgrade to a bowl of plain white rice. Cami decided not to comment and instead enjoyed her teriyaki chicken.

“We’re getting to the bottom of this, right?” Helena asked. “Because our Club President here...” She pointed her chopsticks at Cami. “Well, we all saw what happened.”

Cami laughed nervously. Somehow, she’d neglected to tell anyone about the world she’d seen while dreaming. Any other day, she wouldn’t have shut up about it, but something about this felt… dangerous, almost. Like if she admitted Trintio had taken her somewhere beautiful, they’d say it was a trap and forbid her from going again, lest she end up like Abigail.

Trintio. Abigail. There had to be a connection, right? Cami thought.

“I’m still in one piece,”Cami pointed out. “As long as we’re smart about it, I’m down to keep investigating.”

Olivia scoffed. “You’re still in one piece, but last I checked, Abigail wasn’t. These things have to be connected.”

So I'm not crazy, Cami concluded.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if that guy was involved,” Jane muttered. She’d barely touched her food, twirling a chopstick in her hand. “He doesn’t have murderer vibes, but he has accomplice to murderer vibes.”

“Right!” Olivia exclaimed, throwing her hands up. “Total accomplice vibes. Probably just doesn’t want to get his clothes dirty.”

Cami chuckled. The others turned her way, as if suddenly remembering she was there, and the mood took a definite shift.

“And all of this is happening right outside your house,” Helena murmured. “Are you gonna be okay, like, living there?”

“Yeah.” Jane nodded, a stony expression on her face. Cami knew that look: she’d seen it on Mrs. Cardinal whenever Jane had been home late from Drama Club, back in high school. It was the I’m worried about you and that may be irrational but I’m going to do something about it look, passed down in her family for generations. “If you want, you can stay the night at my place. I sure wouldn’t want to be where you are right now. No offence.”

Cami shrugged. “I’m fine. I’ll just steer clear of the woods.” Truthfully, even the woods didn’t scare her. Trintio had vowed to keep her safe. When Jane frowned at her, she quickly added, “Plus, I don’t want to leave my mom there alone, y’know?”

“We'll your her, too,” Jane insisted. “You know my family wouldn’t mind. We love you both.”

“No can do. Uh.” Cami wrung her hands together, gears in her brain whirring as they concocted an excuse. “Someone needs to water the plants. Or they’ll die. And we can’t have dead plants.”

Jane almost definitely knew she was lying, but, saint she was, she didn’t push it. She just smiled and reached for her phone.

“Anyways,” Cami went on, “we can keep meeting like this, probably. Once a week in the club room, and maybe every other week doing an outing like this?” She hadn’t been able to secure funding from Woodshore for weekly lunches, but there were other places to go. Parks, malls, et cetera. They’d just be unofficial.

Cami’s phone buzzed. She glanced down to see a message from Jane: We’re gonna talk about this later, right?

She met her best friend’s eyes and gave the tiniest shrug.

Eventually, she texted back.

~

She waited until her mother was asleep to sneak out and sit on the deck. The fresh air cooled her nerves. It was finally chilly enough to sit out in a sweater, and the familiar texture brought Cami a sense of coziness and calm.

Trintio’s probably out there, she thought. Watching me. In a protective way, not a creepy way. I hope.

It wasn’t like she expected him to leap out and tell her everything there and then. Actually, she wasn’t sure what she expected. But the idea of catching even a glimpse of him was too good to pass up. Something strange was happening, and in her own backyard of all places!

Plus, it was nice being alone with her thoughts for once. She’d finished her homework, so even that wasn’t nagging at her. Moments like this, where she was utterly tetherless, had to be treasured. If Trintio showed up, that was just a bonus.

So when she heard the distinct rustle of someone trudging through undergrowth, it was icing on the cake that was her evening. She stood, unable to hide her smile.

“Trintio?” she called out, drifting to the backyard’s edge. “I can hear you, you know.” It was the first time she’d heard him, come to think of it. The guy had a preference for silently floating about. “That is you, right?”

The footsteps came to a stop. Up close, she made out a humanoid shape. One too short to be the fey.

This was a trespasser.

“Hey,” Cami murmured. “Hey, who are you?”

The figure ran, and before Cami knew it, she was giving chase. They were faster, but she knew these woods. It was engraved into her: when to leap, when to duck, every sharp turn and dead-end. Her lungs were screaming for her to slow down, to stop, but how could she? She knew just how to get this weirdo cornered.

And the stranger must’ve caught on, because even though Cami wasn’t gaining, they stopped. Propelled by the adrenaline, Cami kept going until the two had collided, falling into a mess of dead leaves and pine needles.

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” the stranger shrieked, but she was already pinned. Cami had done it without thinking, legs straddling and hands lacing unconsciously.

The craziest part? It actually worked. Her captive strained fruitlessly. Which let Cami lean in closer, the little moonlight that leaked through forest canopy revealing…

“Olivia?” Cami murmured.

“Yes, damn you!” Olivia hissed. Cami let go, and she scrambled to her feet, dusting herself off. She wore a hoodie and leggings, both black. It was a stark contrast to her usual preppy getup. She didn’t even have her signature sunglasses on, revealing bright, golden eyes. “Is this how you greet people up here?”

Cami blinked. Why was she being interrogated? “Y-You were just outside my yard. I thought you were going to trespass. Because I thought you were a stranger.”

“You thought I was going to trespass?” Olivia snorted, fiddling with her hoodie drawstrings. “I never actually went onto your turf. Can’t go anywhere I’m not invited, after all.”

“What? Why?”

Olivia rolled her eyes. “A cultural thing. You wouldn't get it.”

“Really?” Cami exclaimed. “That must be a pain.”

Olivia’s smug look vanished as quickly as it’d appeared. “Wait, you actually believed that? Come on, Cami. I’m Mexican, not a…” She trailed off, groaning. “I was joking. You know what a joke is, right?”

Cami dodged the question. “What are you doing here?”

“I’m investigating,” Olivia replied, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. “It seems like the smart thing to do, considering all the weird shit that’s been going on. Something’s up.”

“No shit something’s up.” Cami avoided her eyes. There was something almost probing about the other girl’s gaze. “But there’s no reason to be wandering around alone at night. That isn’t safe at all.”

“I work better on my own,” Olivia assured her. She put a hand on Cami’s shoulder. It was ice-cold. “You would slow me down."

And for a moment, Cami found herself in agreement. After all, the woman exuded confidence, and how could she say no to eyes with such a confident glow?

“They’re literally glowing,” Cami thought aloud. “Your eyes.” They were. Like twin fireflies against the forest dark. She was sure of it now.

Olivia faltered, concern flashing across her face. “Shit. Did I do it again?” She shook her head, and the lights went out. “Okay. I’m not actually out here because I’m good on my own.”

And as she said it, Cami’s mind came to the same conclusion. It made sense, didn’t it? “Yeah, I caught you really easily. What if I’d been the murderer?"

“I mean, I still would’ve been fine.”

“You’re only human.”

Olivia smiled sadly. “Oh, Camilla. I wish.”

At first, the words didn’t register. “Okay, yeah, sure. You’re a fairy, then.” She forced out a laugh. This was ridiculous. So, so ridiculous.

“I’m being serious. Look at me. Really, Look.” Olivia pointed to her eyes. They were glowing again, and this time, Cami actually remembered eyes weren’t supposed to do that. How had she let it slide before? “And that’s not all.”

“There’s more?” Cami breathed. “What are you? An alien?”

Olivia snorted. “Seriously? If I were an alien, I wouldn’t be a college student in a nowhere-town. I’d be with the government somewhere, probably.” She looked Cami up and down, obviously revelling in her confusion. “I’ll give you one more guess.” She grinned, revealing fangs.

“A vampire!” Cami blurted out. She’d never really believed in vampires, but if Olivia wasn’t an alien, what else was there? Cryptids didn’t pass as human and go to college. And she definitely wasn’t like Trintio.

“We have a winner.” Olivia clapped sarcastically, her smile faltering. “Yeah. I got turned in the spring, moved here in the summer.” She sighed. “I had to feed weekly, and rumours spread--animals kept showing up dead and drained, after all. People were calling me chupacabra and shit, getting suspicious. Things got rough, so now I'm here."

Cami nodded as she spoke. That was all fair and good. But there was also the elephant in the room. Glowing eyes and fangs were vampire traits, but there was also, well...

“You’re going pale,” Olivia remarked. Her head cocked to the side. “Literally, I can smell the blood draining from your face.”

“Smell my blood,” Cami murmured. The elephant in the room had taken a step forward. “About that. You aren’t going to… uh…” She trailed off. There was no social script for this.

“Drink your blood?”

Cami nodded wordlessly.

Olivia laughed, hard enough that Cami’s face burned. “Oh, come on. If I was gonna suck your blood, I would’ve done that ages ago. We have a pact with the local blood bank: they give us a supply, and we don’t kill or turn anyone.”

“Is it killing or turning?” Cami asked. Fiction always changed the rules around, depending on plot convenience. Sometimes, victims woke up with nothing more than a pain in their neck.

“Depends on how much blood you take. And how deep you go. And if you bother to revive the person afterwards. I was revived, so now…” Olivia gestured vaguely to herself. "I'm changed."

And now that she’d admitted it, Cami could see the differences. It wasn’t just the obvious stuff, like the fangs or the glowing eyes. In the dark, Olivia carried herself like she was on a stage, poised and radiant. She was in her element.

“That you are,” Cami murmured. The truth sat over them for a moment, a heavy fog that Cami forced herself to breathe though. “So… what now? Does anyone else know?”

Olivia sighed. “Not yet. I was planning on telling the rest of the club--with all the weirdness, figured I'd fit right in. Maybe next time we meet.” She studied her feet, suddenly sheepish. “Would that be alright?”

“Sounds like a plan.” Cami smiled at her. Truthfully, she was honoured. I’m the first person Olivia’s told about her vampirism. That’s so cool. “Will you be able to get home from here?”

“Easily. I assume it’s the same for you?” Olivia nodded to Cami’s house, which still stood behind them, a beacon of normalcy.

“Indeed it is.” Cami stepped back slowly. “I guess… I’ll see you at our next meeting. And we’ll figure out--”

Before she could finish her sentence, Cami’s foot snagged on something and she tripped.

“Fuck!” she yelped, hitting the forest floor with a thud. No, not the forest floor. Too hard and too cold. Cami brushed pine needles aside with stinging palms to see steel, glinting coolly in the moonlight.

Olivia peered down over her shoulder. “Has that always been there?”

“Not to my knowledge.” Cami tried to sound calm, but it felt like the world was shifting underneath her. She’d lived here for years. If there’d been a freaky metal door literally in her neck of the woods, surely she’d have known about it. “Okay. One thing at a time. We can deal with the freaky door later. As part of a field trip that isn’t a field trip because I don’t want our club getting cancelled.”

Olivia beamed. “Cool. Because honestly, opening this in the middle of the night sounds like a bad idea.”

Cami looked up at her, frowning in puzzlement. “But you’re a vampire. What do you have to be scared of?”

“We can still die, y’know. Not as easy as you guys, but we can die.”

“I guess I have a lot to learn,” Cami murmured.

“And I guess I’ll be teaching you.” she helped Cami to her feet. It was more like a yanking, and when Cami teetered a bit, Olivia laughed. “Sorry. I’m still getting used to the, uh, vampire strength.”

When Cami’s eyes just about bulged out of their sockets, she added, “I’ll tell you everything before club, okay? Now, I know I probably just melted your brain, but…” She made a vague “shooing” gesture. “I need to get back home before my family’s worried, okay?”

“Okay.” Truth be told, Cami felt anything but okay. “I’m going to go scream into my pillow or something.”

“Sounds like a plan.”

And so, Cami stumbled back towards her house, trying to pretend her life hadn’t taken another radical change, and screamed into her pillow until she dozed off. She didn’t have any dreams.