Dance

Chapter Four:1

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Alister and I continued to move on. We visited many cities I never dreamed of. I learned many more stuff about vampires as well.3

Vampires dwelled among us. They were everywhere. No one could suspect them. And, every time someone did, they were wrong. Innocent people got hanged, because of wrong suspicion. I wanted to yell out that they were wrong, that those people were nothing but innocent ones with families and friends who were going to broken hearted. But Alister made me quiet. Most of the time, I managed to let them escape.4

We traveled really quickly. It doesn’t take us very long to go from one place to another. We also tended to travel a lot in the night because it was more comfortable.5

Alister told me to try to stay out of the sun because it doesn’t burn us to our deaths but gets us really sick. And onions, that’s just a joke. It was kind of hard to not drink the people’s blood that would walk around us. It wasn’t that hard, because their skins blocked the strong smell. Occasionally though, there would be one or two where Alister had to hold me back.6

Alister was a veteran for 20 years. He was born in 1827 where he was 19 and about to take over his family business. He didn’t tell me what it was. Then he told me how he had become a vampire. One night, when he was working and there was pretty much no business, there was one man who came inside. He was dressed in a fancy black coat with a symbol of a star. He instantly knew who it was. It was Mr. Jonathon Hanes, a very popular business man. He had come in to have business with Alister. Everything had gone well when suddenly Mr. Hanes had dropped to the floor. Alister ran over to him and helped him up when…well you know what happened.7

Alister had sworn to look for Mr. Hanes and give him what he deserved because the day after that Mr. Hanes disappeared as well as the rest of his family. Alister didn’t know what had happened to him until he had killed his best friend. Shivers had gone down my spine. Oh dear.8

I was lucky that Alister had stuck by me when I was transformed. I didn’t even want to think of the horror of who I could have harmed.9

“How about we rest here?” Alister asked as we settled down in a town called Mafra in west-central Portugal. We were going to get ready to swim across the Atlantic Ocean, to the New World. I was excited because I’ve heard such great stories from the explorers and now I get to be one of them!! Except, maybe I might not have anyone to report back to.10

Alister said it was best to lay low until I was able to control myself, which would take months or years. Just when you think you’ve got the hang of it, you lose it. Blood was tempting, like a delicious cookie to a little child.11

I nodded my head sure. I was tired. We had just traveled around Spain and it was a beautiful country. Someday I might live there with my family or go on a vacation.12

Since I didn’t have any duties now…I had a lot of free time. It was nice at first but I missed the times when I would prepare dinner with a silent Mrs. Faulkner. Clean around the house work. I mean I was a girl and all of it was up to me. I miss the cute grins Michael would toss at me sometimes when he would feed the dog the dinners he disliked. Oh Michael. I missed him sooo much. He was the closest I got to a friend and lover.13

Alister got up from where he sat. He walked toward me. I just watched him until he stood in front of me and gave me his hand. I started at it puzzled. I let him helped me up and he asked, “Do you know how to do the waltz?”14

“Waltz? It’s been forever since I did that,” I told him. Alister smiled. He took hold of one of my hands and the other was placed on his shoulder. The one hand that was empty on his, was now on my waist.15

“Dance,” he said. I tried to remember the ways my Papa would dance with me. When he would come home after work sometimes he would teach me the waltz. My little feet were on his big ones and he’d bend really low. When that would get tiring, he would just grab me and fly me up around the air. Mama would cry around shouting not to drop me.16

I bit my lip. How were they doing? Was Papa’s sickness getting better? Was Mama taking care of herself?17

“Don’t think. Just concentrate on the music,” Alister whispered in my ear.18

“What music?” and then I heard it. It was far away but with my half vampire abilities I could hear things that are about four miles away. It was the Lagunen- Walzer or the Lagoon Waltz by Johann Strauss II. I remembered when I was 12, Papa had taken me to a performance. It was a magical night.19

“Oh, this is sooo lovely!!” I said with a smile. Alister grinned. We danced for a while until I couldn’t take it anymore. “You’re sooo serious! Why don’t you laugh, smile? I feel like you’re trying to burn a hole through my forehead, the way you’re concentrated on it,” I told him.20

“I…I’m just thinking about things,” he said.21

“About what?” I asked tipping my head to the side. I could hear Alister gulp.22

“Nothing!” He replied quickly and we danced like that for a while.23

I smiled and with my eyes closed danced softly and replayed memories through my head.