Elizabeth and the Vampire's Cabin (9 page)

About
a half hour later, Aaron showed up. Because dinner was always light, it was
ready by the time he showed up. Arthur had made two baked potatoes and a salad.
After he served them dinner, he left the cabin with a troubled look on his
face. It was now routine for him to serve dinner and then promptly leave. But
no matter how routine things became he still looked mournful. Without a doubt,
Elizabeth was certain that Arthur had always known what was happening to her in
the cabin once he left. She had wanted to believe that it was still a secret
that no one needed to confront (especially her). But tonight, with her own
feelings clawing at her insides, and Arthur's darkening his face, she knew it
was no secret.

She
had stopped fighting Aaron. Somewhere around week two on the island her
fighting had been more reflexive. She cried a little and weakly tried to push
him away.
 
There was no earnest attempt
to stop him from grabbing her. By week three, instead of making him force her
into the bedroom and roughly remove her clothing, she had begun to walk
silently to the bed and take her clothes off when asked. This made the whole
experience less physically painful. But she was always cold as ice, and she
hoped this would make him tire of her. Eventually, she reasoned with herself,
he would want to share a bed with a willing woman. Happily for her, he didn't
always ask to spend the night with her. Sometimes, to her relief, he simply
spoke to her over dinner and then said goodnight.

"Did
Marnie and Lyle stop by today?" Aaron asked.

Marnie
and Lyle were a married couple who worked for another vampire on the island.
Elizabeth had no clue who the vampire was. All she knew was that there was
another cabin on the island and it had a vampire, Marnie, and Lyle all under
the same roof. Marnie and Lyle were servants to their vampire master, like
Arthur, but they had different skill sets. Lyle was a handyman, and any time
something needed fixing in the cabin Aaron had him sent over. Marnie could sew
and clean house. She always came with Lyle and found something to do. She would
take Elizabeth's torn clothing, repair it, and bring it back to her within a
few days. Often she tidied up and cleaned for as long as her husband worked.
Neither Marnie nor Lyle spoke English whenever they came over. Elizabeth wasn't
sure what language they spoke, but she thought it sounded like French. However,
somehow, they always seemed to understand what needed to be done and non-French
speaking Elizabeth could understand them as well.

"Yes,"
Elizabeth replied. "Lyle unclogged the kitchen sink. Marnie took a ripped
pair of jeans with her to sew. Then they stopped by Arthur's guest house to
unclog the bath tub."

"That's
good. They are the perfect landlords."

"Landlords?"
Elizabeth was taken aback.

"Marnie
and Lyle actually own this island. The vampires on here are all renting space.
So whenever something goes wrong with the property, Marnie and Lyle take care
of it."

"And
how do they feel about working with vampires," she asked.

"No
clue." Aaron shrugged. "I can't speak French. The vampire they live
with is the one who talks to them. I imagine they must be frustrated by now. I
swear Arthur's guest house needs more maintenance than that broken motorboat
out there. I don't know why he keeps getting clogs. And he's probably ripped
half his wardrobe. They honestly go to Arthur's at least twice a week."

They
turned to their food and stayed silent for a time. Elizabeth hoped it would
continue for the duration of the meal. She hated talking to Aaron. Though she
wanted to press him more on the landlord situation, and exactly how long he was
renting the island for, she knew he would shut her down. Frankly, she was
surprised he even revealed that he had landlords and who they were.

"I
see you still won't wear any of those beautiful dresses you packed," Aaron
remarked, breaking the silence.

Elizabeth
gritted her teeth. It was her last bit of self-esteem coming through. She still
wore the most unflattering clothing in her wardrobe.

"You
don't wear anything nice either," she observed.

It
was true. For the most part, Aaron wore clothing built for work outdoors.
Occasionally, he might wear something that was surprisingly trendy, but tonight
he wore an old pair of jeans with paint stains on them and a white v-neck
t-shirt.

"Is
that what you like? Would that make you warm to me?"

Elizabeth
was silent. She closed her eyes. She wanted to escape. They were done with
dinner, and she sensed what was coming next.

But
then, instead of requesting (aka: ordering) her to the bedroom, he got up and
moved behind her. She found herself hoping he would break her neck. Instead,
she felt something cool slip around her neck and was disappointed that it
didn't feel like a noose. She looked down. It was a long string of pearls.

"Stand
up," he ordered.

Elizabeth
stood and Aaron led her to a full length mirror. He stood behind her as he
admired her image in the mirror.

"I
want to see you in nothing but pearls," he murmured in her ear.

Elizabeth
lost it. She pulled away from him, grabbed the pearls, yanked them over her
head, and threw them at him.

"How
dare you!" she screamed. "I hate you!"

He
stared at her with a genuinely bemused face.

"I
thought you would like them," he said. "I've never been with a woman
who didn't love it when I gave her jewelry."

The
idea of him abducting other women and then handing them jewelry made something
in her brain snap. And the fact that he actually looked crushed at her reaction
made her want to tear his throat out.
 
She felt like she was going to be sick. Dizziness swept over her and raw
emotion churned her stomach with acid. Was she going to throw up? And then it
felt like her whole body collapsed in on itself. She screamed. And then she
wasn't screaming. She was howling. She saw herself in the mirror. She was a
large golden retriever. But she was only a gold retriever for a moment. She
quickly morphed back into a human.

"Elizabeth!"
Aaron exclaimed. "You've become a half vampire!"

"But
how..." she started.

"Vampirism
is typically passed through exposure to a vampire's blood. But there is another
way. And that is through frequent exposure to the bodily fluids of a vampire.
We've been together, without protection, almost every night for a month now.
You're body has finally begun to change."

"I'm
not going to become a full vampire, am I?" she asked with alarm

"No,"
he responded quickly. "Have no fear of that. Members of your species are
unable to become vampires."
 

She
looked at him quizzically. Members of her species? What species was Aaron? He
led her to the chaise lounge and began to tell her his history and the history
of vampirism.

Chapter
11: The History of Vampirism

"I
grew up thousands of years ago. We'll guess 40,000 BP--"

"What
the heck is BP?" Elizabeth asked.

"Well,
you know how it used to be BC? Before Christ was not considered politically
correct; so it was changed to BCE, which stands for Before Christian Era. But
then I think people realized that didn't actually change anything, so the term
became Before Common Era. However, a lot of scientists have taken themselves
out of the mess by using BP. BP stands for Before Present. I didn't know what
"present" they are talking about or what marker they are using until
recently. I found out that the start of PE is January 1, 1950. 1950 is when
scientists, such as archaeologists, started using radiocarbon dating to
determine the date of ancient remains. I think this system of dating is well suited
to discussing anthropology. But back to my story. I grew up during the
Paleolithic era. But we didn't have any concept of time back then. I still
don't really understand the concept of linear time. We considered the world to
be cyclical. The seasons changed and then repeated predictably. Like a circle.
We didn't have eras. We were all simply traveling through the same circle of
life.

"I
was raised by a Cro-Magnon mother and a Neanderthal father, so we are only half
the same species. The Cro-Magnons were modern humans, but the Neanderthals were
not. I've read a bit on the differences and similarities between the two
species, and I don't know how accurate it all is, but I'll give you a little
synopsis. Genetically, all modern day humans are a tiny bit Neanderthal. It's
mostly in the skin and hair. We Neanderthals were a very fair species, because
we originated in Europe. Homo sapiens sapiens came from Africa. You can see our
genetics coming through strongest in those of European descent. I can't tell you
much about how my mother's ancestors came to Europe or why they migrated. She
spoke to me a little of her family but history was a circle and she only seemed
to have a firm grasp of her own place in that circle. She could tell me that
fourteen winters ago I was born, but we didn't even have a counting system that
went much past thirty.

"The
Neanderthals were barely able to speak. They weren't a stupid people mind
you.
 
They had larger brains than modern
humans. I don't have a typical Neanderthal skull, but you can see that my own
head is quite large. My father's head had a low forehead with thick brow
ridges, and his skin pulled back tightly across the long, flat crown of his
skull. At the back of that skull, like all Neanderthals, was a bun. The bun I'm
talking about is not a hair bun. It's actually the shape of the skull. In the
lower, back part of the head, the skull formed a bun shape on Neanderthals.
This attached to the short, powerful neck that supported their gigantic heads.
I don't have this kind of head or neck, and my head is quite human except for
the thick brow ridges I inherited, but my point is that they had huge,
elongated heads, with a shape that could accommodate a massive brain. And their
brains worked. I can attest to that. These were not big, damaged brains, in
large, brutish bodies. My father was smarter than me or any human in my tribe.

"Unfortunately,
Neanderthals weren't able to do much more than grunt, blurt out a name, or
mangle a small simple sentence. Most of their communication was through signing
to each other with their hands or using facial expressions. My father could say
my name, which was Ayro, and his own, which was Raka, but he had trouble even
forming a simple sentence. That was why our names were so short. The names were
purposely no more than a syllable or two with the Neanderthals. They couldn't
manage anything more complicated than that. My mother's name, Maressano, had to
be shortened to Marno. I grew up bilingual as a result. I could sign
Neanderthal and speak Cro-Magnon. And I never got the impression that my
parents had any trouble understanding each other's languages. In fact, I
sometimes wondered if their differences were what caused them to mate. My
father loved the sound of my mother's singing and the melodious sound of human
language. And she loved to watch him gently sign his affection to her with
graceful hand movements. When my father moved his hands, I used to think it was
like watching a graceful animal leaping across the savannah or a bird swooping
and diving in the sky. Now, I think it was like watching someone do ballet with
their hands instead of their feet. It was a complex language, and there was
nothing primitive about it.

"I
think this difference of communication is what separated Neanderthals from modern
humans the most, and I think this is why they tended to live in their tribe and
the modern humans in theirs (with my father being a rare exception). I have no
clue how my parents met or were even able to become mates in her tribe. All I
know is that Neanderthals and Cro-Magnon's didn't live far from each
other.
 
I don't know exactly where I
lived. If I had to guess, I would say an island off the coast of Europe, but
that's all I could tell you. My father was the only Neanderthal on my island.
But not far down the way was another island, and we called this the Black
Island because of its black sand. Our island was simply called Home. The Black
Island was inhabited almost fully by Neanderthals, but they had some Cro-Magnon
mates amongst them. They had quite a few half Neanderthal children as well.
Males from our island had regular contact with other males from their island.
That wasn't because we were visiting their island or they were visiting ours.
We had strong boundaries back then. It was because we would often see them on
the sea and hunt the same schools of predatory sea creatures. Back then, as in
today, sailors were afraid of being eaten by sharks if they fell into the sea
and we hunted them aggressively. We would also see them on the mainland, which
our islands were not far from. We could sail to the mainland within an hour by
canoe as could the Neanderthals. The Neanderthals and us hunted many animals
separately, but it wasn't unusual for our two groups to team up and take down
large game on the mainland. Especially if it was a mammoth. Mammoths were
prized game. Their bones could build many huts, and their furs kept us warm. We
were living in an Ice Age, and I've read that Neanderthals are possibly the
first group of humans to be regularly clothed. I would believe that. No one
could survive the cold without thick furs and strong fires kindling in our
individual hearths.