Light and dark shapes mix, distort, and dance around you. How long ha-
“… coming to!” A voice echoes through the darkness, piercing with urgency.
“What?” Says another, quieter and deeper. “Melainey?” Now thumping echoes in the void. You open your eyes a crack, then abruptly shut them when pure light blinds you.
“Give her ssome ssspace, jesusss.” A tired, coarse voice hisses out from your… Left? A warm pressure lifts from your shoulder, sending a small, quick chill through your body. You blink a few times and catch a groan rumbling from a painfully dry throat escaping through your mouth. When the light above you isn’t stinging your eyes anymore, the shapes order themselves into a white room and three pale, sunglasses-clad figures.
“Mel…? How do you feel?” Says the hatted… Person beside you in a white sweater. Uh… They step closer to you, a smile tugging at their lips. Even though their violet hat is tilted to block the light, they still wear those sunglasses.
‘Weird…’
“Uh…” The grey hooded… Guy on the right fiddles with his own, turning away from you when you try to meet his gaze. He, nor any of the others, aren’t holding canes, so they can’t be blind...
‘Little creepy, but they seem to know me.’
“Give her the water, Sssam.” A short woman of dark curls orders, hoarse words slithering from her mouth. She nods to you when you lock eyes, a silver snake pendent glinting on her chest.
‘Creepy, yet appropriate.’
“Here, Mel.” Sam the Hatter hands you a cup of water. You take a sip, then chug the rest. God, that feels good! The water washes away the prickles in your throat, letting you speak.
“Uh…” Now, what can you say? “Thanks.” Uh, better something than nothing?
“So, how do you feel?” Sam asks. The Goth Woman continues to stare, while the Grey Hoody takes a seat on the neighbouring bed beside you.
“Better… Thanks.” With that, the room slips into an uncomfortable silence. Obviously, you have many questions to asks these people, but all you can do is stare at your hands and light blue blanket.
“You don’t remember us, do you?” You perk up at Goth Woman standing at the end of the bed. “The doctors said you got serious blunt force trauma...” She continues, taking care to pronounce her words clearly. “… And you will most likely experience memory lossss” A twitch of a grimace. “… Loss.”
“So, I… Really don’t remember any of you…” Sam’s smile disappears and their eyes widen from behind the shades. Hoody on the bed is a statue, his hands stuck in his pockets. “Are you guys my family, or…?”
“I am.” Goth Woman sighs. “A cousin. Aisling. Aisling McNiel.”
“Oh, okay, Aisling.” You smile. Her name rolls off your tongue without mistake, the syllables familiar to your mind. “And you two?”
“I’m Sam.” They reply, grin returning. “And that’s Hunter.” They gesture with their head towards the lanky, Hodded Statue. “The doctor said when you wake up, we can check out!”
“Ssam.”
“Oh, yeah, did you also forget that we're vampires?”
“Ssssam!”
It is still morning when you walked out of the hospital with three… Vampires, apparently. Explains the sunglasses, at least. Doesn’t explain why you, a human, is with them.
You follow them to a blue Acura parked in the Hospital buildings’ shade.
Again, how appropriate.
You slide into the back seat with a gym bag of your belongings. Aisling buckles her seat belt beside you, while Hunter takes shotgun and Sam checks the mirror from the driver’s seat. During the ride, you ignore the tense silence in the car to glance out the shaded window at the streets and buildings. At one point, you look into a pouch of the bag and take out a metal Crescent Moon pendent.
“Sam, where are going?” Aisling asks.
“To help jog Melly’s memories!” The guy exclaims. “You feeling fine, right Mel?”
“Uh, yeah.” You reply. You can’t recall much from these guys, but this scene flickers with casual familiarity: Sam and Aisling in a disagreement and you and Hunter watching from the side… Seems like a usual scene.
“Here we are!” Sam declares, turning off the engine, hopping out his door and opening your own in one swift movement. He did mention something about Vampire Speed in the hospital, before Aisling ‘ssssshussssshed’ him for speaking too loud.
He whizzes you through the flower park, dragging you away from the others and towards some kind of canopy display.
“Wow.” You couldn’t help but gape up in awe at the flowers hanging above you. There seems to be endless rows of purple and white suspended in the tunnel. The morning’s light from outside reflects off of them, making the dark petals shine like stars in the night sky. The white flowers look even more brilliant, appearing to glow and merge with the sky above.
“This here’s where we first met.” Sam explains from your side, walking through the brighter 'day' row. “You were walking along here after dark and ran into me while I was starting up my shift.” A crooked grin plays on his lips. “And then you maced me.”
“Oh, oh!” You cover your mouth with your indigo sleeves. “What? Why? I’m sorry!”
“Hey, hey, it’s fine!" He turns back to you, shaded by the 'night' row. "I kinda… Scared you, anyway, and, uh, you were looking for information on Aisling at the time.”
“Oh.” You turn away from him, gazing up to the white flowers. Hmmm, something about that story seems a bit off. A little feeling in the back of your skull buzzes with a message: ‘Lie.’ “… How long ago was that?”
“About over a year ago." His hat and sweater seems to protect him when he side-steps under a sunny day row again. "Ash wasn’t too happy on getting back in communication with her family after her turning, but… Well, she may not look it, but she was really worried about you. Heh, her ‘hisssssssing’ makes it obviousssss!” He bears his pointed canines, mocking your cousin’s lisp. Okay, you can’t help but giggle at that. “You were some vampire fanatic who pretty much stalked her, me, and Hunter afterwards, wanting to turn as well…”
“Really?” You frown. You couldn’t picture yourself acting like that, but your intuition wasn’t screaming ‘lie’ this time. Suddenly, three strangers in sunglasses didn’t seem so creepy anymore.
“Yeah, a bit. At first she hated you, but you’ve really been helping with her depression this past year.” Aisling has depression?
“Do I still want to get turned…?” Vampire Speed is cool, but it doesn’t really appeal to you. The sunlight hitting you from under the white flowers would be missed warmth.
“Nah. You actually told me that when we were hanging out here one evening, about five months ago? I think?” He scratches his dirty blond hair, glancing at his gloved hand. “Heh, maybe it was my food obsession that turned you off, or Hunter… Being Hunter.”
“You cook? Don’t you guys only need to drink blood?”
“That’s boring! Besides, I’m close to getting a good substitute that I can add to anything so I can eat anything!”
“You like to eat?” You have a feeling that’s not a shared hobby.
“Yeah, really sucked when I turned, but I’m over that now.”
You nod, taking it all in. So you were some vampire stalker that became less creepy after meeting up with strange vampires, who later became your friends. How could you not remember all that? “… Uh, hey, you guys never really told me about how I got hit…” Sam’s grin drops as you catch up to him in a shady row.
“Oh, you sure you’re not tired? Or hungry?” He’s dodging the question. Should you press him?
“Uh, I guess I’m a little hungry.” You’ll ask the others, Sam obviously doesn’t want to share. Maybe it was a bad accident… Or something…
“Cool! There’s a café a few minutes away! They know me, so I can sneak in there and bake you something.” He walks ahead of you, under a row of the sunny, day-white flowers, leaving you standing in the shadows of the night sky petals with even more questions.
Once again, how appropriate.
Looking at the picture prompt, I instantly thought of writing with the theme of contrasts. The vampire part came from scrolling across vampires tropes and cliches on the internet. As much as I don't like the amnesiac trope, it wouldn't leave my head.
Critiques are appreciated. -Monos DOA
ns 15.158.61.8da2
