I really must be dreaming. This has to be another one of my weird ass dreams right? “How can I sit here and even listen to this. This is serious, Buck. I was just hunted down in the woods last night and you’re standing there trying to fuck with me?! I must have met a fucking lunatic or something!”

He throws up his hands in defense. “Listen, June, I’m not sure what you’ve been through in life to end up here but I’m really not trying to screw with you right now. I’m completely serious. How do you explain the things you’ve been going through, then? The dreams, the murder-dude, whatever else you’ve been experiencing?The uhh…the necklace! It shocked you so bad you passed out for over an hour! How do you explain these things, huh? It’s a rock! How does a rock do that??”

“Uhhh, I don’t know? But my first thought wasn’t ‘well this must mean I can’t be human, right??’” I rub my exhausted eyes. I’m so over whatever the hell my life is right now. 

He concedes. “Well, I guess a normal person wouldn’t really think that. But I’m being serious!” He pauses and thinks for a moment. “Come with me for a second.” He drags me out further into the lawn.

“What are you doing?” I tear my arm from his hand. 

“Look.” He stands there for a moment standing in a t-pose. Nothing happens. 

I stare at him for a moment. “I don’t get it. Is something supposed to happen? For the love of god please tell me this isn’t an Edward Cullen moment.”

He motions to himself. “Look closer. Really close.” 

I hunch over and squint my eyes waiting for him to start sparkling in the sun or something. I’m not even sure why I’m entertaining any of this. All of a sudden I see a flicker of blue, and then a wave of it covering his body like a blanket. “What is that?!” I exclaim.

He puts his arms down. “See? You can see it right? Humans can’t see that.”

“What is that??” I repeat, stunned.

A smirk spreads across his face. “Blue flames.”

“Are you a demon??” I question seriously, wondering if I’m hallucinating. 

The smirk disappears. “NO I am not a demon! I’m a Dokkaebi. It’s a Korean thing. I don’t really expect you to understand yet but the point is you can see it, can’t you?”

I nod. Still in disbelief. “I’m sorry this is all just happening all at once. It doesn’t really feel real.”

He points to the door. “Alyssa and David are Vampires, too. You wanna see them drink some blood? Do you need more assurance?”

I shake my head violently. “Absolutely not. I do not want to see people drinking blood.” I try to gather my spinning head together. I have so many questions, but I can’t grasp which one to ask first. “What’s Eleanor?” Is the first thing I could get out. “The other two are apparently Vampires, you’re a that, whatever you just said. What is Eleanor?”

“My sister?” His face drops for a moment. “I’m not sure. She hasn’t ever told me. She’s refused to for the past four hundred years no matter how much I ask her.”

“What am I? What did that guy want with me? He said something about a Cardinal, and he knew I found that necklace.” I ask next.

He shakes his head. “I don’t know. I’m not even sure who I should ask to find out. I haven’t seen any others besides the people in this house for decades. We’ve been closed off from our community for a pretty long time.”

“What do you mean?” I never thought I’d me having this conversation.

He shrugs. “It’s just we had a hard time in the 20th century and decided to live secluded like this. It’s been easier to live without people looking at us weird. You know, being able to live forever and all. Once you live in a place with lots of people and look twenty three for decades it looks suspicious.”

“Oh. What am I supposed to do then?”

He shrugs. “I guess we’ll figure it out. Don’t worry about it.” He dismisses. “Let’s just go in and eat. They’re probably waiting.” He walks past me and back into the house.

  I follow him back into the house and take an empty seat at the table. The four housemates chatter with each other as I play around with a piece of sausage on my plate, thinking about how unreal my situation is right now. I don’t want to believe any of this. It seems absolutely absurd. Me? Not human? Everything about me is human. I eat, sleep, talk like a person. I grew up exactly like everybody else around me. I had no trouble making friends in grade school and I never felt any different than anybody, and this man is telling me to believe all of this? On the other hand it all makes sense. It’s an explanation about my dreams, about the strange occurrence with the necklace in my basement, and that man coming after me. He wasn’t normal. He never once tried to go after my parents. Only me. That rules out sadistic burglar. 

What do I even do about any of this? Go home? I should, right? I need to see my parents and try to make some excuse about what’s going on, and find out some things myself. I need to know if what I remember in my dreams is how my parents really found me, or if my mind made everything up in order to cope with the fact that I have no idea about the life I had before this one?

Do they know about me? Would they know why people are looking for me? I’ve gotten an answer to my problems, but it seems like it’s only generated even more questions. I think for a few minutes before it suddenly hits me. Porter. Mr. Campbell. He also said something about the Cardinal in my painting reminded him of something. He was strangely interested in my adopted on and I wasn’t sure why. I think I need to talk to him, and soon.

“Are you not hungry?” A soft voice whispers over my shoulder.

 I jump a little. It’s Buck’s sister. “Uhh. I mean I’ve just got a lot on my mind right now. It’s nothing against your food or anything.”

“You’re lucky you even get to eat normal food.” Alyssa complains. “I haven’t had good breakfast food for, like, two hundred years.”

“Stop complaining.” David snips. “You’ve been a vampire for centuries you should be used to this.”

Alyssa scowls and sips at some water.

I cut a piece of pancake and stuff it in my mouth. “This is unbelievable.” I mumble. I set my fork down and rise. “I’m going home. Can somebody tell me where the road is? I can find my way from there.”

Buck rises with me. “No way are you going out there right now-”

I stop him. “I’m going home. I know you immortal beings over here don’t really have parents left, and I don’t mean to be insensitive-”

“No offense taken. It’s been a long time.” David chimes in.

I take a deep breath. “I have parents I need to get home to. By now they’ve probably told the entire town I’m missing or something. Especially since a stranger answered my phone my mom probably thinks I’m being dismembered in some basement. I’m going home.”

Buck runs over and grabs his coat from a hook near the door. “Fine. I’ll take you back then. I may have shot that guy in the chest but the bastard is probably still hobbling around somewhere.” He runs back to a different room and comes back with a hoodie. “Your clothes where in rough shape so I threw them out. Take this. It’s freezing out.” 

I grab the hoodie and slip into it before heading out the door.