Michael Griffo - Unwelcome

Looking at her eldest son, then her middle child, then her youngest, Edwige slumped into the chair next to the box that contained her husband’s ashes and nodded her head.

“Will you look at the way she’s sitting there?”

Brania was complaining about Nurse Radcliff. Standing next to her father in the anteroom to his office, she was looking in the mirror, watching the nurse sitting at her desk as Lochlan tottered in and out of the room. “She’s an absolute pig!” Brania cried out. “Slumped over, hair a mess, and I have no idea how she’s done it, but she’s actually gained weight since you had a lapse in judgment and brought her into the fold.”

Crossing his arms, David’s black eyes narrowed. “I think she looks lovely, like the women immortalized by Raphael in his oil paintings.”

“Which is the sophisticate’s way of saying she’s fat,” Brania corrected. Unable to gaze into the mirror any longer, she turned away and started to pace around the room. She noticed a few marks on the walls where the green paint had chipped away, a few places where the plaster peeked through the dark brown crown molding. Her father was getting careless, his typically fastidious nature pushed to the side while he continued on with his plot to restore Double A to its former glory. Brania wasn’t sure if she was impressed or disappointed. When she looked back at the mirror, she was merely disgusted. “She is slovenly, Father! A fat slovenly hog!”

Nurse Radcliff, still a newly converted vampire incapable of controlling her cravings, was holding her finger over her head and squeezing it so her own blood dripped onto her tongue, thanks to the paper cut she had given herself moments earlier.

“It’s quite resourceful really,” David said. “It will keep her satiated until she can properly feed.”

She knew her father was trying to be stubborn, but his attitude still infuriated her. Why is he constantly taking someone else’s side? Why is he defending this heifer instead of agreeing with me, his own daughter? Why can’t he just leave here so things can return to normal?! When Brania realized how she had let her mind wander in her father’s presence, unguarded and without caution, she was surprised that he didn’t react to her silent tirade. Was he not listening? Did he no longer care? Could he actually find this abominable excuse for a woman more interesting than me? she thought. “I cannot believe you slept with that hausfrau,” Brania spat.

Chuckling at his daughter’s envy, David thought one unwarranted comment deserved another. “She’s an educated woman, dear,” he said. “Maybe if you had spent more time in school as a child, you would know the difference.”

Staring at her father’s profile, Brania thought she could lash out and rip the flesh off his cheeks, slash her nails against his throat and expose the muscle and veins underneath. Not caring if he heard or ignored her, she let her mind react with all the fury she felt in her heart. How dare you?! How could I go to school when I was constantly doing your dirty work?! When I was acting like your henchman instead of your little girl!

“No!!”

Too bad if you can’t accept the truth!

But David wasn’t responding to Brania’s accusations, he hadn’t even been listening, he was calling out to his fledgling creation. “No, Margaret, I have bigger plans for the good doctor; he’s to be the centerpiece of the carnival.”

Confused, Brania looked into the mirror and saw Nurse Radcliff, her back to Dr. MacCleery, her fangs beared, her fingers in her mouth, and a look of ecstasy consuming her face. What Brania didn’t witness was the nurse giving herself another paper cut, this one much more severe, so when the blood oozed out of her finger, it overwhelmed her. She couldn’t stop her fangs from descending, she couldn’t stop herself from sucking the red liquid from her own finger even as the doctor watched. When she saw his horrified face, she knew it was too late. She knew he had uncovered her secret, and like any creature who wants to remain hidden in the shadows, she prepared to attack. Until David’s command prevented her from taking action.

“Leave the room, Margaret,” David ordered. “Leave now and come here so we can feed together.”

Together!? Now he’s going to feed side by side with this, this . . . thing! Brania couldn’t remember the last time she fed alongside her father, and as a result, she couldn’t remember why she was wasting her time standing next to him now.

When Nurse Radcliff left the doctor’s office, and the mirror returned to its natural state, David wasn’t surprised to see only his reflection staring back at him, Brania no longer by his side. “Oh, Zachariel,” he said. “Why must our children always disappoint us?”

Someone not disappointed this evening was Lochlan. One eye pressed against the microscope, he didn’t know exactly what he was looking at, but he hadn’t expected to either. When he took the piece of paper Nurse Radcliff had left behind, the one on which she deliberately cut herself, and placed it underneath the microscope’s lens, he instinctively knew the bloodstain wouldn’t be human. “Could it be?” he mumbled, the very thought that was infecting his mind making his hand tremble, making the paper shake. “Could this be vampire’s blood?”

The second the words were spoken, the doctor felt very cold. If what he had just stumbled upon was true, if what he overheard Michael and Ronan talking about was fact and not just the product of uncensored teenage imagination, he was in danger. He ran toward the door and slowly opened it, just a crack, to see if anyone was lurking in the darkness. No one, at least no one he could see. Slamming the door shut, he locked it and then closed and locked both windows, his panic not allowing him to peek through the blinds to check one more time for inhuman loiters. This is insane! Standing in the middle of his office, he marveled, “Could my mind be playing tricks on me? Did I really see fangs? Could all the legends be true?”

No! No, Lochlan, you’re a doctor, you don’t believe in supernatural nonsense! Ripping his glasses off his face and wiping them furiously with his shirttail, he repeated. You don’t believe in myth, you don’t believe in fantasy. And yet somehow, somehow he knew this was the truth. Vampires existed and they were living right here beside him, among the sculpted archangels, stalking the innocent students. But not all the students were innocent. Some of them understood, some of them knew exactly what type of evil had taken up residence at their school. It was time they understood their secret was out.

Ronan was perplexed when he looked at his cell phone. Why was Dr. MacCleery texting him? The message was straightforward—I need to see you in my office—but before he could respond, Saoirse yanked the phone out of his hand, turned it off, and shoved it in the back pocket of her jeans. “No texting at my birthday bash,” she informed.

“Fine,” Ronan said. “Just give me back my phone.”

Waving her pinky in his face, she said, “Do you vampire-swear that you won’t text or take a call?”

“Or make any more daft comments about our headmaster,” Ciaran added.

“That man is evil and you know it!” Ronan shot back.

Edwige knew her eldest son was right, but she didn’t have the strength or desire to support him. Just as David didn’t have the strength or desire to chase after Brania. History, being repetitive by nature, had taught them both that children, after a certain age, could no longer be controlled, so it was a waste of their time to try. While her children and their friends continued to shout and dispute the real purpose behind David’s brainchild, Edwige finally came to a decision. Her real purpose was not to be a mother, a guardian, a woman alone leading a brood. She didn’t know what her destiny was, but she knew it had nothing to do with her children, and so it was time to set them free. Starting with the most recent addition to her family.