Elizabeth and the Vampire's Cabin (15 page)

"Sixteen!
At what age did you become a vampire?"

"Sixteen."

"But...why
do you look thirty five?"

"I'm
half Neanderthal. We age quicker than humans. Humans also aged quicker back
then but not as quick as us. We hit puberty at a young age. I would say puberty
started around seven or eight and between nine and ten we typically finished
the process. We reached the height of an average modern human by the age of
ten, but sometimes it was closer to eleven or twelve. We were lucky to not be
dead from old age by thirty five. Neanderthal bodies are very ephemeral. Even
without the harsh conditions of the Paleolithic, I don't know that we would
have ever had the long life spans that modern humans ended up achieving. I read
an article that there is evidence that our Neanderthal brains were fully formed
at adult sizes by the time we were just small children of five. Obviously,
modern humans have and did have a very different development."

"That
makes me see you in a whole different light. I always thought of you as older.
But you're actually two years younger than me."

"Believe
me. I'm not sixteen anymore. I may look the same as I did at sixteen, but I
have mentally grown quite a lot since the Paleolithic. Anyhow, back to my
story! I was abducted and put back in the little room I remembered so well. The
little woman was there, but she was very sad. She explained that they had done
an experiment on the Neanderthals of the Black Island. And it had gone terribly
wrong. They were being instructed by their superiors to immediately leave our
skies and go back farther away into the stars. But, they felt they owed it to
the people of my island to inform us to beware the Neanderthals. They had the
power of wild beasts, and the aliens were unable to reverse what had happened.
Their experiment was so new and unstudied that they didn't even know how to
kill the infected vampire Neanderthals that they had created. All they could do
was advise me to flee my island with my tribe and avoid the Neanderthals of
Black Island at all costs. She didn't render me unconscious. I was suddenly
beamed back down to the shore, with the rest of the group, and we went back to
warn our people. And that was the part of this whole vampire business that I
didn't want to tell you about. It sounds ridiculous saying that vampires are a
result of space aliens conducting experiments on Neanderthals. But there it is."

"I
don't have any problems with that story," Elizabeth assured him.
"This whole situation I'm in seems ridiculously impossible." However,
inwardly, Elizabeth did wondered if may be he was telling her a yarn. This was
his way of disingenuously reassuring her that the aliens were friendly.

"Tell
me something no one knows about you," he asked Elizabeth.

Elizabeth
thought for a moment. There wasn't anything in her past that could rival
Aaron's alien abduction story.

"I
blamed myself for the death of my parents. I felt I didn't deserve the love or
the money my grandfather gave me. And I felt like a burden to my brother. But
now I don't feel like that anymore."

"If
you don't mind my asking, I know people probably want to talk to you about this
subject all the time, but what was the comic book character that your
grandfather created?"

"You
don't know?" Elizabeth asked in surprise. She thought everyone on the
planet knew. She had never known anyone who didn't know the name of her
grandfather's comic book character. More people knew the name of the character
than knew the name of her grandfather. "The character is Sabertooth Kat.
Her real name is Katherine Smith. She's a woman who formerly suffered from agoraphobia
and lived at home with her ten cats until the age of thirty. She stayed with
her parents in her little home for fifteen years when there was a giant
earthquake. She lived out in the middle of nowhere, so the only building that
could come crashing down on her was her home. The house actually split in half
and she ran outside for the first time since she was a teenager. When the
earthquake was over, she went back to her house and saw the ground had opened
up. Inside the ground, she saw a giant, magical sword. And the blade was
actually bone. It was a fang from a saber tooth lion.
 
Whenever she held that sword, it gave her the
strength and agility of a saber tooth lion. So she decided to go into the city
and anonymously fight crime every night. She put on black spandex and a black
eye mask every night while she wielded the sword."

"Why
would she remain anonymous?"

"She
had a magical sword. She didn't want anyone else to have it. If someone knew
her identity, she would be targeted."

"This
story makes me really proud of you, Elizabeth."

"Why?"

"Sometimes
I forget how young you are. When I was growing up, you were an adult by the
time you were ten. But that's not the case anymore. You went out into the world
very quickly, nobody could keep you at the gates, and you did exactly what you
wanted to do. It took the character your grandfather invented until the age of
thirty to do that.
 
And while that's
excessively late, I feel your case is excessively early. What do people
normally do when they turn eighteen? Go to college, join the military, work.
They latch onto a formula and start out at the beginning. Freshman in college,
boot camp, entry level employee. Instead, you’re that kid who decided he didn't
want to go to college; he wanted to educate himself and then completely take
over his field of interest. Kinda like Bill Gates. Or instead of going to boot
camp, you create your own army. And why be an entry level employee when you can
be the boss? I love that when you started on this camping trip, you didn't go
with a group. You didn't pick some typical campsite like Yosemite, stayed for a
couple weeks, and then stayed with your brother until college.
 
You chose a remote island, cut off from the
rest of world, and decided to have the camping trip of a lifetime."

"Well,
I failed. I got kidnapped, remember?"

"But
isn't this so much better? You're camping on an island with vampires and
dinosaur eggs."

Elizabeth
had to admit this was true. If she thought her camping trip was going to be
unique while first planning it, then this was beyond anything she could have
hoped for.

"Let's
go fishing before it gets too early," Aaron said.

They
fished for a little bit. They ravenously tore at the fish they caught, bones
and all, and licked at the blood. Then Aaron walked her back to the cabin. He
walked her to the door, kissed her hand, and then said goodnight. She watched
him walk away for a moment, and then she turned and opened the door to the
cabin. She thought to herself, I think that was our first date.
  

Chapter
16: New Friends

Elizabeth
awoke sometime in the late afternoon. Not long after that she heard barking and
a knock at the front door. She opened the door and Lyle and Marnie were waiting
on the porch. Marnie held a couple of plain leashes attached to two beautiful
dogs. Against the backdrop of the cabin's quaint little yard and white picket
fence, Marnie and Lyle looked picture perfect. They could have been part of a
print advertisement featuring a married couple with his and her dogs, posing in
their perfect yard, underneath the bold, printed advertisement: Welcome to Our
Town! Elizabeth turned her focus to the dogs and recognized them as English
Foxhounds. Lyle smiled at her and handed her a card, a bag of dog food, and
another bag of doggy treats. Elizabeth opened the envelope and saw a card with
a sleeping golden retriever puppy on the front. Inside it read:

Dear
Elizabeth,

      
I have been thinking for quite some time
now that you should have a companion. I asked Kyla to have Marnie and Lyle find
you a nice hunting dog to help you track animals. Last night, they came to the
island with these English Foxhounds. They are both a year old. I think they are
perfect for you. Please enjoy them as a gift from me."

      
Sincerely,

      
             
Aaron

Elizabeth
took the dog food and treats inside. Then she took the leashes from Marnie and
told the couple thank you. The two left and went back to Kyla. The dogs barked,
jumped up and down, and stood on their hind legs. Elizabeth smiled happily at
their exquisite show of vivacious spirit. They would be perfect hunters.
 
She morphed into a golden retriever and the
dogs started in shock. They backed away whimpering. But she licked them and
they seemed to realize that she was okay. They began to play fight together.
She was much physically stronger. Being a half vampire made her more powerful
than typical dogs. Eventually, she felt herself get thirsty and realized that
they must be too. She transformed into a human and went into the house. She
looked for some bowls, and found two large ceramic bowls she had made long ago
in a ceramics class in high school. She had never used them for anything and
decided to make them water bowls. She filled them with water and then poured
herself a glass and drank it thirstily. She brought out the water bowls to the
dogs, which they lapped up with grateful smiles.
 
She went into the cabin and grabbed some
treats. They looked like little cookies in the shape of bones. She gave one to
each dog, which they wolfed down quickly, and then she left them outside so she
could relax and get ready for dinner. As she took her shower and shaved her
legs, she realized that her life was almost a stereotype. She had a man, a
home, a white picket fence, and a couple of dogs. All they needed was 2.5 kids
and they could be a typical American family. The distorted image she used to
have of herself as a screaming 1950s wife, being dragged to bed every night by
Aaron, with this idyllic surrounding as her prison seemed long ago. Now, this
place and Aaron were her source of peace.

She
decided to wear green tonight. She selected green underwear to match her forest
green dress. It was annoying to her that she didn't own sexy underwear except
for her one pushup bra. Of course she hadn't been planning on being intimate
with anyone on this camping trip, so the lack of appropriate underwear wasn't
really her fault. Still, Aaron had found ways to criticize her
undergarments.
 
He often made fun of the fact
that she was in America's "one percent" and didn't own any decent
underwear. All her panties were the cheapest money could buy. The same went for
nearly all her bras. The pushup bra was a whopping ten dollars. She owned a
couple of sports bras that offered extra support, and so were a little more
"pricey" than the others, but that was it.
 
The other criticism he often exacted against
her was that she could always just not wear any underwear if she didn't have
anything suitable...Elizabeth wasn't willing to go quite that far.

After
a couple of hours of lounging, she decided to feed the dogs before making dinner.
She fed them and then changed into her dress. Then she set about preparing a
meal. They didn't have much in the way of groceries anymore, because they lived
mostly off of blood and raw animal meat. But Lyle and Marnie still brought some
food items when they returned from their regular, weekly trips off island. They
had brought her some very delicious looking artichokes. I guess tonight's theme
is green, she thought to herself. Green underwear, green dress, green food.
Green is a fortunate color, she thought. It's peaceful; it's the color of
prosperity. I think it's a sign everything is finally falling into place. Aaron
and I will be together for a long time in this cabin with our white picket
fence and our dogs. And I'll cook him dinner every night.

She
was still boiling the artichokes and having domestic fantasies when Aaron came
in...both early and unannounced. Though he was half Neanderthal, he never
treated their dinner's with stereotypical Neanderthal behavior. He was
punctual, often knocked, made light dinner talk, and ate with a fork and
knife.
 
This barging in was all new.

"Elizabeth,"
he said. He looked distraught. She had never seen him upset like this.
"I'm sorry. I'm going to be direct with you. That's the only way to do
this. Arthur is here on the island. He was attacked and very seriously injured.
I'm not sure if he's going to make it."

Chapter
17: Whoever Did This...

Joe
had found Arthur's smashed, mutilated body on the rocks below the steep cliff
to Aaron's. While Joe was not supposed to hunt on Aaron's lands, it wasn't
uncommon for him to surface from the water at night, take a break along the
beach, and dive back in. Kyla was the same way. As she and Joe both frequently
morphed into sea creatures, they felt like the sandy beaches were part of their
general ocean turf. Aaron had only begrudgingly okayed this practice of
recognizing the beaches as part of the ocean. If it had been any other
vampires, he would have forcefully protested it. He couldn't trust any other
vampires, besides Joe and Kyla, not to hurt Elizabeth.

Aaron
had grabbed Elizabeth's throwing knives from her bureau drawer and handed them
to her. Though they were useless, the other vampires on the island were not
aware of this fact. He thought she would appear more intimidating with them
strapped to her leg. Elizabeth changed out of her dress and into hunting
clothes but almost didn't strap on the knives. However, Aaron insisted. That
last dream she had, where she was holding the bloody throwing knife, still
haunted her. She didn't know how to tell Aaron about the dreams because it
scared her to even acknowledge them mentally let alone aloud.