Turned By Him

After ordering a large coffee from Cup, she made her way towards the plaza. Eliza wondered how conspicuous she must look in her sunglasses. She wasn’t warmly dressed either. She wore gray jeans and a black peacoat with high black boots. Her dark sunglasses concealed her face while her hair had been tucked into a tight knit cap. Eliza felt fine in the January morning air. Every breath she took in of the crisp morning seemed electrified.

As she waited, she considered the possibility that Tom had not been the one in the park the night before. She quickly dismissed the idea however, as she was certain that regardless who the man was, Tom would find her. Her coffee was gone long before their time to meet so Eliza decided to order another and stroll through Central Park. She hadn’t slept since waking in the alley the previous morning and Eliza felt the coffee would help energize her. Regardless the effects of caffeine, Eliza seemed ready to handle the business of the day. She called out of work again and did her best to inspect the face of ever passerby. Eliza’s eyes darted from person to person behind her dark glasses. The park was mostly empty, save the occasional runner or homeless person. Eventually Eliza wound her way back through the park to the bench near where she had been. To her surprise there was a man sleeping on the bench. As she approached, she confirmed that it wasn’t the man from the night before. Obviously homeless, the old man with a thick black beard slept soundly, deep breaths mimicking snores.

Eliza felt a hand land on her shoulder. She turned on her heels to lash out. Her hand was easily deflected way however and Eliza felt her feet slip on a patch of ice. She caught herself before she hit the ground and rolled over to see who was there. Tom was standing over her, his hand outstretched to help her from the ground. She took his hand.

“Didn’t mean to startle you,” Tom declared. “I know you’ve had a very stressful couple days.” Tom was wearing a black shirt buttoned up to the white priest’s collar which wrapped tight around his neck.

Brushing the ice from her jeans Eliza responded, “What else do you know?” Her eyes fixed on Tom as she gauged his expression.

“I know you feel unwell. I know your name is Eliza. I know your father was a wealthy man and died many years ago. I know you attended the NuBlood gathering last night. I know that your friend’s body was discovered a block from where I found you yesterday and I know that you haven’t gone to the police.” Tom spoke confidently. His face betrayed none of his internal thoughts.

Her anger was too much to be patronized by a stranger. “Do you know anything useful?” In truth, Eliza hadn’t known where Heather’s body was found. She had simply assumed it was near the rave in Brooklyn.

Tom replied, “I know how to help.”

The two stood in silence for several moments. People passed on the sidewalk behind them and neither spoke or moved while assessing the other. Eliza didn’t feel that Tom was a threat. Still, she rested her hand comfortably on her purse to assure she was safe. Eventually Eliza said “How?”

“I can explain but it will be just as easy to show you.” Tom looked over at the man who slumbered on the park bench. Tom closed his eyes. Eliza watched as the man on the bench began to twitch and writhe. Then he jolted up, his bushy black beard matted with frost. The man breathed heavily and ran his hands over his weathered and wrinkled face. Opening his eyes, Tom returned his gaze to Eliza. “You are now something more.”

As the homeless man collected his things, Eliza tried to understand what she had just been shown. The man had been asleep and Tom had somehow woken him. It seemed to Eliza that he had, somehow, conjured a nightmare in the sleeping vagrant’s mind.

“What was that?” Eliza asked once the man had moved on to sleep somewhere else within the park.

“Fear,” Tom said darkly. “It is the second half to the affliction I suffer. An affliction you too now suffer.”

“Affliction,” Eliza said prudently. “What sort of affliction?”

Tom did not smile. He gestured that they sit on the bench where the man had been sleeping. She joined him on the bench. The pond had frozen around its edges. Eliza knew that all the water in the park would be frozen by February.

“To put it simply,” Tom said to Eliza though he looked out into the park. “You and I are vampires.” Eliza was shocked. Of all the absurd explanations she wasn’t expecting, vampires weren’t even on the radar. Eliza considered laughing but his tone revealed no hint of humor. “I know it sounds crazy but it is the closest thing to understanding what you are.”

“That’s the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard,” Eliza said.

Tom shrugged as he squinted up at the sun, “Believe it or not, there isn’t a whole lot of language to describe what we are. The sun can be painful but it doesn’t kill us. We are, as the legends say, blood drinkers. I’m sure you’ve found that you have had no appetite for solid food. We don’t really sleep much, at least not in a day-to-day kind of way.”

Eliza was flabbergasted by his commitment to Vampirism as an explanation. Could he really believe that they were vampires? She pressed him for more answers. “And what is the second half of your affliction?”

“My affliction is different from your own,” Tom said. “We are all different. United by half of our curse and stratified by the other half.” The answered seemed more vague than poetically cryptic. Sensing this Tom added, “I’m sorry. I’m not particularly good at this because, well, I’ve never made another. Training a youngling is difficult and there is a good deal to teach you and I’m not really sure where to begin.” Eliza sat quietly. She considered the symptoms that made her uneasy: sleeplessness, lack of appetite, anxiety, sensitivity to light. “Let me say this. No one is really sure where any magic-folk come from.”