Travis had this expression that was like guilt mixed with uncertainty. “I think if they hadn’t seen the news by now, then Dr. Sheng might have called them the moment you were brought into the hospital and identified. He told me and Monroe to keep low until we were certain that you weren’t exactly dead.”

“I see,” I mumbled. That made some sense to me. But the idea of my family thinking I was dead really made my heart sting.

I guess Travis sensed this and wrapped an arm around me—or at least tried to—to cheer me up. “I gotta be honest, I’m not the best with this kind of talk, but I’m sure that your family will be delighted to see you back home, whether they know what happened to you or not.”

“Wait, wait, wait,” I said. “I don’t wanna go home.”

It took me a second to process what I just said. Brains really do have a hard time jumping back into normal thinking after being dead, after all.

“I-I’m sorry. I meant like, I don’t want to go back there without understanding how I can control this.” I tried to rephrase my previous statement as best as I could to make them understand.

“And that’s totally okay,” Travis told me. “You can stay here for however long you need until you know when you want to go back.”

That’s if I don’t end up running into anyone until then, I thought. I couldn’t begin to describe how terrified I would be if they knew what had happened to me.

“I don’t know if there’s a way I could, like, hide it from them,” I told Travis. “I mean, what if they won’t let me live with them anymore? I could try to hide it, but what are the odds of them catching me drinking blood? Or what would happen if…”

The dread in my heart forced me to stop talking. I didn’t want to finish what I had to say.

“You won’t need to worry about that,” Travis told me. “Monroe and I are here to help!”

I began to wonder if Travis knew what would happen if I confronted my family. My sister Mila was probably the only person in the world that I could confide in about being a vampire, and she would probably think it would be badass. That’s just the type of person she was, so it probably wouldn’t surprise me if she reacted that way. I couldn’t say the same about my parents, but my real fear comes from the fact that I really have no idea how they would react. They tend to be surprising sometimes.

 “So,” Travis spoke up after I had fallen silent. “Do you wanna keep talking about this stuff? We don’t have to get everything done and figured out right away.”

My brain felt completely fried from all of my thoughts. “I think I’m done with asking questions,” I told them. I just laid back on the bed and let out a heavy sigh.

I had almost forgotten I was on Travis’s bed instead of my own. The way I just sank into the mass of soft plush blankets reminded me of the days when I just sank in my own bed, the days of when I was still alive.

And just like that, all I could feel is this deep emptiness. 

All I could think of was the fact that I died and am now an undead being. How could I have such little reaction to this predicament that I’ve gotten myself into? I wasn’t fuming by the thought that I was killed by a thing that I thought only existed in books and TV. And to find out that psychics and werewolves also existed in this world on top of that? Who knew what other supernatural beings existed in this town?

I was certain that I would end up meeting more people like me at one point or another. I couldn’t understand if I was ready to accept it or not.

Travis crawled over so that I could see them. “Do you wanna do something non-vampy? Just to take your mind off of this and just worry about it later?”

“Non-vampy?” The words left a weird impression on my tongue. “What do you mean by that.”

They shrugged and pulled me upright. “We could eat snacks,” they told me. “Or we could watch a movie or something. Or do both, or something else you might have in mind.”

I really couldn’t think about anything else except for the new reality I was living in, but I agreed to watching some movies. I liked to keep my mind empty so that why I wouldn’t be occupied while watching anything. Travis handed me a remote and told me to choose whatever I wanted to watch while they went to go get snacks.

I figured out how Travis’s TV system worked and found my way onto Netflix. I decided to add my account since I had a ton of shows and movies I wanted to watch, but I couldn’t remember their names.

Travis came back seconds later with arms full of chips and other snacking items and they dropped them onto the bed, spreading them out so I could see what they were. “I didn’t know if you liked any of these kinds of snacks,” they told me. “So I’m just bringing one of everything that we have.”

There were a number things that I liked eating and things I never ate but was hesitant about trying out (because a lot of them were dairy based and I was vegan). I contemplated on which snacks to take while Travis went to get more.

After several seconds of ethical and mental torture, I decided to stick with the stuff I usually ate. I was surprised that they had a wide variety of vegan-friendly snacks in the first place.

Travis came back with the rest of the snacks and I picked out a movie that Travis seemed interested in. We sat together on the bed and watched several movies back-to-back and ate our snacks for what felt like the rest of the night.

———————————————

It was almost eight in the morning when Monroe showed up after his shift ended. He texted Travis a few minutes before saying something about bringing someone over.

I wasn’t too sure of what the context of this conversation was, but from Travis’s reaction this was quite a common thing for Monroe to do. They explained to me that Monroe had a habit of bringing strangers over after work or from going out, so Travis would go out and not have to worry about “overhearing” anything.

I figured out what Travis was implying with the way their face looked as they were explaining this to me.

Although, I found it odd, not because Monroe did this often. I had no opinion on this, but the thing I thought was odd was that it was very early in the morning.

I had no idea what to expect once Monroe came home. Travis got out of bed and walked with me out of the room to greet him. I assumed that I would be going out with Travis, cause I wouldn’t know what to do if I stayed here by myself while Monroe had someone over.

Monroe met with us in the kitchen—which was just a section of the living room that consisted of a couple of counters and shelves, a fridge, a griddle, and a sink—and they asked Travis if they could talk in private.

So I was left alone in the kitchen, and from where I stood I caught a glimpse of the person Monroe brought over, sitting at a little table that I assumed was the dining area around the corner of the kitchen. Although it really wasn’t any of my business to see who this person was, I was tempted to see what type of person they were.

I leaned over to get a better look, and I felt my heart stop when I saw that it was my sister Mila.