Chapter 4.28 – Our Identity

“It’s overcast,” April sighed, looking out to the horizon. “The first day we can go outside in forever and it’s cloudy. Boo.”

“Boo,” Melinda echoed with a smile. “We’re still outside aren’t we? Let’s make the most of it. “What shall we do first?”

“Arcade! Oh, wait, there isn’t one here. Um. Get an ice cream! No, there’s no one serving them here and we can’t eat it anyway. Darn!” April stamped her foot with a little huff. “This is no fun! I wish we could go to the proper seaside, but we can’t because someone might see us. Maybe we should just go home.”

“We’re not going home; we’ve walked all the way here,” Melinda said calmly. “And this might not be a ‘proper seaside’ but it is a beach. I’d argue that it’s prettier than the pleasure beach anyway, we can still have lots of fun here.” She walked off the jetty and across the sandy shore. “Look, somebody has left a bucket and spade – let’s build a sandcastle, like we used to do.”

“Okay, fine.” April huffed and plonked herself down on the sand. It didn’t take long for her spiky attitude to change and for her to start humming to herself as she haphazardly heaped damp sand into a pile.

Melinda instantly regretted wearing jeans with holes in them as she joined her girlfriend next to the sand mound. 

“What’s that tune?” She asked, knowing it from somewhere but unable to place it.

April dropped her head to hide her giggle. “It’s the jingle from the super yummy nut munch advert.” She lifted her chin and sang sweetly, “Super yummy nut munch, every mouthful goes ‘crunch!’, keeps you full until lunch, super yummy – clap twice – nut munch. It’s been stuck in my head all morning.”

Great, Melinda thought. Now it’ll be stuck in mine.

“Sorry,” April whispered, but she was still smiling as she scraped the side of her sand blob with the abandoned plastic spade.

“Oh look, here’s another spade, what a coincidence!” Melinda gasped, pulling a near-identical one from the sand by her butt. “I’ll work this side – what are you envisioning?”

“Mermaid castle,” April replied, looking thoughtfully at the shapeless heap as she pointed with her spade. “This’ll be the tower, this’ll be the moat—”

“Do underwater castles have moats?”

“Hm. I guess not,” April pouted.

Melinda shrugged off that ever-present party pooper within her and smiled. “Let’s give it a moat.”

She pressed her fingers into the cold grit and began shaping delicately with her thumb and fingernails, as April slapped and patted randomly. Melinda’s artistic talent definitely lay more with drawing than with sculpting, but she liked to think that she had a bit of a knack for it.

“Super yummy nut munch…” she began without thinking.

“Every mouthful goes ‘crunch!’…”

“Keeps you full – you know it actually doesn’t keep you full until lunch at all; I was hungry all morning and had nuts stuck in my teeth.”

April shrugged. “I’ve never tried it.”

“You’re not missing anything. Hey, does this look okay?”

April peeped round. “That’s so cute!” she gushed. “You’ve detailed bricks and windows and… is that a seashell? I’m sorry. My side looks so crappy.”

“It’s nice.”

“It looks like I sat on it.”

“It’s an underwater castle – it’s not going to be perfectly preserved. Just pretend… pretend a boat hit that part.”

“…You’re rubbish at pep talks, Mel.” April got to her feet and looked down at the lopsided castle. “I’m bored of castles, what shall we do next?”

“We could look for seashells?”

April pretended to yawn, but she was still smiling. It seems that nothing could bring her down today now that she had finally nailed the potion that allowed them to stay in the sun. They could be out for hours now just like before. Better than before. Now Melinda could have April all to herself without Broof lingering in the background, now April didn’t have to worry about smelling of ‘outdoors’ when she went home to her mother, she was free to plonk herself into any of nature’s pits and to explore the great unknown.

Within reason, of course. She was still technically in hiding.

Speaking of which, Melinda did a quick scan to check – were they still alone?

“We are,” April answered Melinda’s unspoken question and then flicked her gaze away shyly, “Sorry, you’re so easy to read. This beach is deserted. I think we’re safe here. In fact…” April whispered in that voice that made all of the tiny hairs on Melinda’s body stand up. “I’d say this beach was secluded, private…”

Melinda sighed. “April, if you’re implying that we get intimate here I’m sorry, but no. I’ve already got sand in my jeans and boots; I don’t want it in my nether regions too.”

April flashed Melinda a sweet smile. “I was going to suggest taking our jeans off and going for a paddle.”

“Oh, okay—”

“But now my mind’s on other things…”

Melinda gulped. “Something other than the super yummy nut munch jingle?”

“Maybe…” April took Melinda’s hand and caressed her fingers. “You know. I think I saw an old picnic blanket left over by the dock. Shall I go get it?”

Oh god. She was so close. She smelled so good, especially now she’d washed and dried her clothes properly.

“I’ll get it,” Melinda gasped into the wind, returning a second later with the discarded blanket – more of a weather-beaten tarp, really, in hand.

She laid it on the sand, partially shielded by the dunes, just in case, and pulled April down into a hungry kiss.

“What the fuck is that bastard doing here?!”

Kitty nearly dropped the teapot she was holding. “Oh! Faith, you startled me!” she turned to face the younger vampire, wearing a not-quite-all-there kind of smile. “Which ‘bastard’ are we talking about?”

“Seth, of course! Ugh!” Faith kicked the old piano. “Why have you let him stay here? What is he doing here?”

“Reading,” Kitty said calmly while adding something to her teapot and eyeing it carefully. “Worry not. He assured me that he would not be stopping long.”

“He won’t?”

“No?” Kitty sat back in her chair and smiled. “Faith, you are one contrary. I think your heart and your head may be in disagreement. Sit with me.”

“My heart and my head both know that he’s a twat,” Faith huffed and plonked herself into a chair. “I didn’t know that he came by to visit whenever he felt like it or I wouldn’t have come here.”

“Is that so?”

Faith threw her a stare that could cut glass. “I hate him.”

“Hate. Is that the issue, or…?” Kitty laughed at Faith’s incredulous face. “Oh my! You truly do still hold a flame—”

“I don’t! Fuck him! I hate the arsehole and if he’s staying, I’m leaving.”

“So you say.” Kitty poured two cups of tea and pushed one cup across the table towards Faith. “He has some unfinished business to tend to in his former chambers, is all. I am sure that come nightfall he will abscond, as always. Besides, he appeared to have very little interest in you being here, or in your relationship with Caleb, if one could call it that, so I rather think he will stay out of your way.”

“He said that?”

Kitty shook her head; her frizzy curls falling in her eyes. “His exact words on the matter were ‘great! Good for them!’.”

“He…” Faith screwed up her face. “Good, because Caleb is a million times better in the sack than that crusty tosser ever was.”

Kitty only smiled. “To each their own.”

“I’m not staying if he’s here. Thanks for lending me Caleb for a few hours. I’m taking your fancy toiletries with me.”

“Taking the essential oils. You must be deadly serious. Faith, you cannot leave a situation that suits you because of him.” She pushed the tea closer towards her. “Do not give him that satisfaction.”

“You don’t get it, do you? I hate him, he really hurt me, and you think I just want some fucking tea?”

“Faith,” Kitty said softly, settling in the chair opposite. “I know that he hurt you, truly. I understand what you are saying, I do. But you cannot honestly tell me that you do not care for him. Nor he you. You hurt him too.”

“He deserved it.”

“I do not doubt that. But the way I see it, there is a vast chasm between you full of sorrow and unanswered questions and, perhaps, you need a bridge back to one-another—”

“I’m not getting back together with that cu—”

“I am not trying to reconcile a romance here, Faith. More an amicability. Seth, for all his demons, is an interesting man who brings fine company and you… well, you are certainly a firecracker, I rather enjoy your spark and I would like to keep you around. See, our numbers are limited and we vampires, well, we need to form bonds, not rifts, if we are to survive.”

“Can’t you just make some new vampires who aren’t rotting arseholes?”

“You miss my point. If it was about numbers, we would look to your former friends, or set Caleb to blood-swapping with his beauties. The dark power that thrives within us would become diluted, meaningless. We would lose our identity, our inimitability—”

“We’d be just like everyone else,” Faith concluded. “Boring.”

Kitty nodded. “Seth may be a ‘rotting arsehole’ on the surface, but deep down he is a small boy, motherless and jaded. Alas, all these years he has been told that green is the sky and, thus, green the sky has become.”

Faith groaned; her head hurt and she had no idea what Kitty was on about. “I don’t care. He can go fuck himself.” She ran her fingernail into the table, surprised at how easily the old wood flaked off into her lap. “I can’t forgive him. He made me attack my sister then he throttled me for doing it – I think I passed out at some point.”

Kitty tilted her head and squinted as if trying to understand. “How ghastly.” She stared thoughtfully at Faith for a while. “Yes, I can understand your ire. I see that this will take time – thankfully, that we have. Oh and it will naturally take a gargantuan – and sincere – effort on his part.”

“He’d have to make a bloody big effort,” Faith huffed. “He could gift me the moon and let me set it on fire and shove it up his arse and I’d still be pissed at him.”

Kitty, who had taken a sip of tea, spat it out around her laughter. “Oh my!” She reached for her napkin and gently dabbed at her lips and at the spill on the table. “Faith, I have never had a friend like you, I do so hope you will stay. Seth, he is my baby, I am sure you can understand that my heart is torn! But know that he will repent for his treatment of you and, if he hurts you again, know that the repercussions will be severe,” she said with a slight smile.

Faith couldn’t help but smile back. It was kinda nice having someone wanting to watch her back, even if that someone was a demonic sadist. She idly played with her tea cup and thought about what Kitty had said.

Kitty took another sip of her tea and smacked her lips together. “Delightful. Do try it; it is simply divine, my own special blend.”

Faith looked at her cup of dark pink liquid. She wasn’t a fan of tea and this one looked awful, and smelled worse. She looked back up at Kitty who was watching her intently. “I don’t really like tea.”

“You will like this one. Drink up.”

Faith lifted the tiny cup to her lips, taking the smallest sip. To her surprise, the liquid was stone cold and tasted… well, it tasted like flowery ash tinged with the metallic edge of something far more familiar.

Despite its coldness, it hit Faith’s stomach and warmed her from the inside. She startled.

“Pleasant, is it not?” Kitty smiled and sipped her own. “Dark berries, liquorice and, of course, a little something to nourish the soul. Savour it.”

“It is pretty good,” Faith agreed, taking another tiny sip, feeling a calmness wash over her. She sighed heavily.

“You seem sad. Do you want to talk to me, Faith?” Kitty asked genuinely, cocking her head to her shoulder.

Faith rolled her eyes. “I dunno. Kinda? I just feel like… like I don’t really know you very well. I don’t know if I can trust you.”

“That makes sense. Trust is an earning that takes time but oh!” Kitty gasped. “Of course! How very presumptuous of me, expecting you to open your heart to me when we have yet to learn any one thing of the other. I feel as though I know you so well yet I am but a stranger! All right, you go first, ask me anything you choose.”

“Anything?”

Kitty nodded; her face bright with glee. Faith thought for a moment then asked, “How old are you?”

“Forever twenty-one.” Kitty laughed. “Or five hundred and one, if you wish to get technical about it. Anything else? That does not really tell you very much about me.”

Faith shrugged. She looked around the room at the selection of shredded portraits and a question came to her. She thumbed at the portrait hanging behind her. “The pictures of this dude are the only ones that aren’t defaced, well besides yours of course – who is this guy? An ex?”

“That’s Layne October,” Kitty replied quietly.

“And he’s a vampire, right? Is he the one who turned you?”

Kitty glanced up at the portrait and her smile flickered. “No, he was not my sire, although he should have been…”

Faith was immediately intrigued. “What do you mean?”

Kitty sighed wistfully and for a moment Faith could’ve sworn the room became dreamlike, Kitty’s imagery playing out before Faith’s eyes.

“I was, I suppose, betrothed to him in that terrible circumstance that the ancient vampires used to do. Steal a bride, make her his eternal captive. But Layne… oh. He was never one to abide with expectation.”

She stared at the candle before her. “Back when I was alive, I used to perform musical numbers for private parties. Layne used to hire me regularly to perform for him. He would hire a whole venue only to hear me sing. Naturally, we would talk between sets, but he would never divulge a thing about himself, other than he was being pressured to marry. I could empathise, as so was I.”

“One evening, I met Layne as agreed in the venue of his choosing and was surprised that he had in his company two men who were jovial and boisterous and two women who were mute and still. It struck me as extremely odd, but I did as I was paid to do, and sung my little heart out!”

“At the end of my set, I sought Layne for conversation and was abruptly stopped. His voice echoed in my head: Run for the hills, girl, lest you be promised for an eternity of servitude and humiliation at the hands of a heartless monster. I faltered – what magic was this?”

“I wondered if I could hear his thoughts – could he hear mine? I see that you have met my fiancé. His face a picture.” She laughed a little. “I did not realise the gravity of the situation. I did not realise what he was, what they all were. I did not understand what would become of me.”

“I may have stood a chance against one, but I stood no chance against their combined power. They robbed me of my freedom, of my family, of my life and ultimately they would rob me of my soul. Yet, when it came to my turning, he refused to do it. Layne refused to bind with me.”

“So who did turn you?”

Kitty shuddered a little. “Layne’s sire, Wrathwyn Galloway. Took me as his second ‘wife’.” She spat the word wife and looked away. “Fortunately, he lost his head…” she smirked.

“Good.” Faith looked back at the portrait. “Did you run off together?”

“We did, although not, as you might be thinking, as lovers,” she smiled shyly. “Although always I wished it, he did not find such appeal in the fairer sex.”

“So what happened to him?”

Kitty fixed Faith with a soft stare. Her eyes were glassy. “He is long passed. Taken so very young by vampire hunters.” She sobbed. “Woe! This topic makes me so very sad. Please, let us move on.”

“Okay,” Faith mumbled, feeling bad. She looked around for something to distract Kitty with, but there was nothing else to pass comment on except broken chairs and dust covers and she felt a little too intimidated to ask anything else personal. “Uh, I guess it’s your turn. You can ask something really personal, make us even.”

Kitty dabbed at a tear in the corner of her eye. “We perhaps should learn of each other the more natural way – this inquisition is tiring; do you not think?” She set her cup down and rose to her feet, managing a small smile. “Let us move to the dressing room. You can help me set my curls and tell me all about your life and, perhaps with another tea, I will share more details of mine. How does that sound?”

Faith downed her remaining tea, feeling the warmth in her belly and the lightness in her head. She could barely remember what she’d crashed in there to whine about, she just knew that she wanted to know more about her new so-called ‘bestie’.

“Sounds good,” she replied.

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