I finally saved up enough to get a new car, and I mean a NEW one. Brand new from the manufacturer, top-of-the-line, 0 miles, etc. I’m very happy with it. Not that I’m a car gal or anything, but after hopping between cheap used ones for years, always running into some trouble or other with the engine, or the oil, or the brakes… Many of you know how it is, I’m sure. It’s just so very nice to have a new one. Even if anything goes wrong, it’s covered for like 6 years!
Since it’s a brand new one, it has all kinds of cool features that I didn’t even know existed. If I start to drift out of lane, it gently turns the wheel to keep me in. It tells me if another car is in my blind spot. It stops automatically if I get too close to the rear of another car, and it has a backup camera! This is great because I’m always afraid of backing into or out of a spot. Ugh, he’s beautiful! I’m calling him Ash.
So, I’d been driving Ash around for a few months. Smooth as silk, as expected. Until I uh… I ran over somebody.
The backup camera was turning out to be one of the most heavily used tools in my automobile arsenal. I can see a surprisingly large area around the back of my car. Probably a good… Like 120 degrees, and all the way to the ground close enough to the car to see the parking spot lines, in case of animals and parallel parking. That’s why it gave me the startle of my life when I was using it while backing out of my parking space to go to work one day and… I hit something.
I could have sworn there was nothing there! Adrenaline ran icy cold through my veins as I felt an impact and heard a terrible clomping sound. I couldn’t even stop fast enough and rolled over it, too. My eyes were suddenly wide open and time froze as thoughts sprinted through my head. What the fuck? WHAT THE FUCK? DID I JUST HIT SOMETHING? Shit shit shit I ran it over, too. Oh shit, oh no. That’s it, my life is ruined. I may have just killed somebody. KILLED?? Me? A person? That was no little chipmunk or something. That was a person. Maybe a deer? Somebody’s large dog? No way. Nonononon– I have to get out. Get out RIGHT NOW. GO CHECK. They could still be alive! Maybe it will work out!
I snapped out of it and opened the door, and I immediately heard a man groaning. Fuck.
“Holy shit, are you okay??” I asked frantically. I went to the back of the car and crouched down, and I learned that I definitely just ran this man over. “Shit, shit! W-where does it hurt? Please tell me you’re alright!”
He writhed and groaned some more, then pointed down to his legs. I went around to the other side of the car, crouched down to see the damage, and was horrified. His left ankle was crushed FLAT, like a cartoon.
“Fucking shit,” I gasped.
He choked out a laugh. “That bad, h-huh?”
“Yeah… Shit I’m so sorry, I was looking, I swear! I didn’t see you! Let me… Let me call you an ambulance.” I fumbled my phone out of my pocket and called. They asked me some questions, and I must have sounded like a lunatic with all my stuttering and apologizing. They told me several times that help was on the way. I tried to talk with him a bit while we waited, but he wasn’t able to say much. Gosh, the pain he must have been in… Well, I learned his name was Nicolas, at least. And that he didn’t have any family or friends nearby to call.
The ambulance and some police officers arrived. I answered a whole bunch of questions for the police while the EMT’s managed to get him, with some screaming and crying, up on a stretcher and into the back of the ambulance. I was just devastated by guilt and asked to go with them since he didn’t have anyone to contact, but they told me I could go there after they were done with me.
Another good half an hour later they went off on their way. I hopped back into my car, called in for the day, and headed to the hospital. I was going over it the whole time in my head, racking my brain for an explanation of what I could have done wrong, how I could have not seen a whole human being. It was pretty dark still. Maybe I was checking my mirrors? Was I looking around, did something distract me? Is there a blind spot in the camera? Was he out jogging and just ran by too quickly? Did I just not register what I was seeing as a person? I had gotten up not long before, was I that tired? All were fruitless trains of thought, though. My panic turned everything into a blur and I just couldn’t remember exactly what had happened.
I met up with Nicolas in the waiting room. They had gotten some painkillers going for him and we could talk a little bit more. He insisted that it wasn’t my fault, that we both must have just had bad timing, but it didn’t really make me feel any better. He was being so nice about it! But how, why? I was the driver, it’s always the driver’s fault. Who knows, he may never walk again!
Over the next few hours in the ER, even though he must have still been in excruciating pain, he kept reassuring me until I kind of came to terms with the accident. When they eventually came to take him in, he told me to go home and get some rest, and we exchanged numbers so he could let me know how it was going.
I visited him every day for the rest of the week. They performed surgery and put a cast on his leg, and by some miracle, they told him he might just recover and regain the use of his leg. I told him that it had looked so, so bad at the time, but we came to the conclusion that it must’ve just been the panic and the early morning light that made me think it was worse than it was. At the end of the week they sent him home with crutches.
I offered to drive him home, and as we came up to my car, he patted it and said, “It’s okay buddy, it wasn’t your fault.” That sent me snickering. So he’s funny, and kind. And… Cute? Uh-oh.
We got to his house; a pleasant, old building. Two stories, ivy creeping up the walls, brown stone and shingles on the roof… Wow. He said he inherited it a while ago, and you could tell it was old, but he kept it in good repair. It was kind of beautiful. He thanked me profusely and headed inside.
A few days went by, and I was of course still agonizing over the accident and this poor, sweet guy. I decided to give him a call. He said he was doing all right, aside from a little trouble getting around, and we got to talking. We actually just sat there and talked for two hours. We talked about life, family, hobbies, business… It was so entertaining, I didn’t even realize how time was flying by. I practically leapt up when I glanced at the clock, apologizing for keeping him so long over nothing, but he said that it was alright, that he was having fun and really hadn’t had many people to talk to, so it was kind of nice. He said he was bored being out of work for his injury, and he wouldn’t mind talking more another time.
I don’t know what prompted this, but as we were getting ready to get off the phone, I blurted out that I could come over and help him around the house, if he wanted. You know, do some dishes, clean, or other things he was having trouble doing. I winced right away at my forwardness.
He hesitated for a moment, which made me think he did kind of want me to, but couldn’t ask it of me. He tried being all dismissive, saying things like “thanks, but I’m fine, really.” After saying it aloud though, it seemed more and more like a good idea.
“Yeah, really, it’s ok! It’s my fault you’re in this situation, so please let me come over and make it up to you!” My heart was beating a little faster. I really did want to make it up to him, but my ulterior motives were lying just beneath the surface. I wanted to spend more time with him.
He hesitated a bit more, but my will was stronger. “Ahhh, okay, what the heck. Thank you so much! I… Don’t think most other people would be so… Nice, haha.”
I giggled back. “Alright, great! How about… Some groceries? Let me pick something up and come over to make you a nice meal.” I closed my eyes and raised a finger in a motherly way. “Eating well will help you heal faster.” I guess the finality was apparent in my voice, so he agreed. I got off the phone and did a little victory hop. Shoot, maybe this is going to happen?
Our little dinner date went well. I think we really hit it off! I can’t believe I met a romantic interest by running him over with my car. I think he could tell that I was coming onto him a bit, but he didn’t shy away. I was getting really excited!
I went over a few more times just to hang out and help him with stuff, and about a week later I went back for another dinner date that went just as well, if not better. We got to talking about movies, and it turns out our interests were similar, and then he offered to show me one that he had upstairs in his dvd collection! Movie night!!
He got up and walked on his crutches toward the stairway, but I said that I’d go get it, since climbing stairs with those things must be annoying. He began to protest, but I gave him a stern look that he had likely come to know already. I started taking the stairs two at a time, and I heard him call out, “Wait, careful of the–”
But it was too late. There was a hole in the stairs underneath the carpeting. Not big enough for my foot to fall through or anything, but enough to make me stumble. I fell kind of hard against the wall and was stunned for just a second… But Just a second was enough for me to start falling backwards, and my brain caught up just past the point where I could no longer stop.
I screamed and my arms set to flailing, desperately reaching for something to grab onto. My knees bent, my core muscles tensed up, my eyes opened wide and cast around for an anchor, all in a vain attempt to stop myself from falling backwards down the stairs in this man’s house.
As I fell, one of my feet found the edge of the stair below, keeping me a little more upright and turning it from a tumble into a stumble. Nevertheless, I half fell down the stairs and as I hit the last step with backwards momentum and no balance, I was about to land on my back when a strong pair of arms caught me, stopping me there.
I put my hand on my chest and closed my eyes, feeling my heart race and breathing heavily. “Holy shit,” I panted. “Thank you.”
I opened my eyes and looked up into Nicolas’ handsome face and my heart raced for different reasons. “Uh–” I straightened up and turned to face him, embarrassed. “Thank you, so much,” I began, but stopped when I saw that he had dropped his crutches to catch me, and he was standing on his cast just fine.
“Woah, are you okay?” I walked over and picked up the crutches for him. “How are you…”
He took them and thanked me, but he just stood there holding them. “Ahh… I guess the cat’s kind of out of the bag huh?” I wrinkled my forehead in confusion.
“C’mere,” he said, and started leading me to the kitchen, walking on the cast. He sat down at the dining table and said, “Alright, have a seat,” and gestured to another chair. What is happening right now?
I sat down and he bent over, grabbed the cast and pulled it apart. There was a cut down the side of it that I hadn’t noticed before. “Check it out!” He picked up his foot and was rotating it. It looked completely fine.
“So… I can tell that you like me.” I blushed and averted my eyes. “And I like you too.” I looked back up at him and swallowed. “But… I have to tell you something before we continue.” I was confused, happy, and a little scared, so I waited a moment for him to talk.
“I’m… Not like other people,” he said eventually. He held his hands up to his face, did these weird finger motions, and smiled… But something was different. He had fangs.
“There, I took my glamour down,” he said. “You see, I’m a vampire.”
I wonder what my face was doing for the good 20 or 30 seconds I was staring at him, trying to process what he had just said. I probably looked dumbfounded. Finally I said, “Like… From the movies?” Stupid question in retrospect, pretty awkward, bad job, Me.
“Oh yeah, the inspiration had to come from somewhere, right? Yeah, we’re real. Buuut there are a lot of things they got wrong. Like, any wounds and broken bones heal pretty quickly. We’re not undead, I love garlic, churches and religious things only make me mildly uncomfortable, the sun only makes my skin crawl and itch… There’s plenty more. And yes, I am immortal… Unfortunately.” He must have heard the gears in my brain grinding and said, “It’s alright, take your time. Oh and I’m not going to hurt you, promise.”
He patiently let me sit there for a long time while I figured out what to say, what questions to ask, and if my feelings had changed.
“Then,” I began. “Um… How long have you been alive?”
“Three hundred and seventy-four years.”
“Woah…” I responded weakly. “Do you, um… Have like a soul?”
“I… Think so?” He shrugged. “Do you?”
“Yeah… Oh, I guess? I’m not really sure, am I?” He laughed.
“And, how did you end up…?”
“I was cursed. Some… Silly land dispute way back in the day.”
“Oh, so you weren’t like… Bitten?”
“Nope. Well, you know.” He winked. I wanted to laugh at his stupid joke, but I was still in a bit too much shock.
“And then…” A moment of clarity made me lift my head. “Wait. What about mirrors, and cameras?”
He smiled and shook his head. “I don’t show up.”
“Then– You– That’s why I hit you! I knew I was careful, I KNEW it!.”
He replied, “Yep, I figured it was something like that.”
“And-and that’s why you were so chill about it!! You’ve probably been run over hundreds of times!”
“Not hundreds!” He laughed. “…But yeah, it’s happened before. And hey! It’s how I wound up meeting you! Worth it.”
I slapped him. “You idiot! You scared the shit out of me! What were you doing running around behind cars knowing that they can’t see you!? I thought I killed someone!”
He hung his head. “Sorry… It’s the kind of thing you don’t think about when it’s such a common feature of your life. I was in a rush that day, but I should have been more careful. I put you through a bad time… I’m sorry.”
I pouted at him. “No fair, you’ve had hundreds of years to practice communication. How am I supposed to stay mad at you now, you… Ass. Handsome ass.”
He chuckled. “Does that mean… Maybe you still want to… go out?”
“Yeah… Yeah I guess so.” My voice was dripping with sarcasm as I said to the world at large, “Yeah I GUESS I’m gonna go out with a freakin vampire, sure! Why not?” He laughed at that.
We talked on and on for hours about vampire stuff. No, drinking blood is not necessary. Apparently they can, and it feels amazing and can be addictive, which is where vampires get the bad rap. Yes, it can be a sex thing, which ah… Well, we haven’t crossed that particular bridge yet and we’ll just have to see what happens when we get there. Not that you all need to know the details. And then there’s the whole outliving me thing, (distant) past relationships, and a few other things that we decided we’re just not going to worry about for a while.
Anyway, that was all four years ago. We’re getting married next month, hurray!
Forged In Hellfire writing 