Vampires Never Get Old - Zoraida Cordova Page 0,62

Do you realize what that means? I have never had a conversation with one of you. Not a single one. Oh, I’ve spoken to humans, but it’s usually as they’re fading away and I’m thanking them. Otherwise? Nothing.

8)  No anything.

Okay, maybe that last one isn’t an actual rule. But it feels true. My life is ordered and safe. I don’t think I’ve done anything dangerous since I was born.

It is exactly as boring as it seems.

ThrowawayOne: first

8 Notes

invisibleb0y

June 8, 2018

I shouldn’t exist. Isn’t that a fucked-up thought? But it’s not a thought. It’s who I am. I wasn’t joking about the whole breeding thing. As far as I know, there hasn’t been a child born to vampires … ever. Papi sat me down when I was real young and told me the whole story. Vampires have been around for a long time—maybe longer than what you would consider “humankind”—but the only way for new vampires to exist is to sire a human, to turn them into one of us. But then, despite the impossibility of it all, Mami became pregnant, and then I popped out nine months later. Just like a human.

But I’m not human.

I’m something else.

It’s cool, I guess. I can run really fast without getting tired, and I can see super far. I can’t turn into a bat; Mami said she doesn’t know where that myth about vampires came from. Even though I rest during daylight, I don’t get sleepy like you—just tired. It’s more like meditation than anything else.

I wish this felt more like a superpower.

Because it’s turning into a curse.

They left the clan the moment they found out Mami was pregnant. We disappeared up north in Appalachia, then headed west. We don’t move as frequently anymore, at least not since we found out how desolate it is in the desert. And so I’m stuck here. No real way to do anything but learn about the world instead of live in it.

I’m a secret.

I’m an impossibility.

I’m so fucking exhausted by it all.

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7 Notes

invisibleb0y

June 10, 2018

You know what I did this morning?

I waited.

There’s a moment as dawn arrives when light can fill a room without hurting me. I’ve only felt daylight once, when I was a kid. I was curious. Can you blame me? You’ve probably tested your parents’ boundaries before.

Okay, maybe not like this. I won’t forget the way the sun pierced through my skin that first time, sank deep into my bones, poisoning me for days. Mami brought me an old man, someone near death who lived alone, and I drank him completely dry to accelerate my healing. Even then, I was nauseous and sweaty for a full week.

Never again.

But I’ve found a sweet spot. I’m so close to making it work. There’s one brief moment as the sun rises in the east and is blocked by the branches of the willow tree outside one of the windows that’s not boarded up. It’s just the essence of light, and if I turn my face toward the window, it’s there. In the computer screen. The color of my face. A brief reflection of it. There’s no real shape there; it’s all blurry and rounded, and I haven’t made out any details yet. I don’t know if that’s because we have no reflection anywhere or because it’s just a terrible surface. But I’m determined to see myself.

This is what occupies my time some mornings, before the sun is too bright, before we all descend into the cellar we lock from the inside.

NoOneKissesLikeGaston: Ooooh, creepy. Love this. What a cool story!

4 Notes

invisibleb0y

June 12, 2018

I did something reckless today.

And I feel alive.

I told Papi that I wanted to lie on the roof and watch the stars. I’d read about a meteor shower appearing over the desert that night, which wasn’t a lie. He said I showed “initiative” by wanting to explore more of the world, and he smiled at me, and it made his dark, bushy mustache wiggle on his wide face. I got a funny feeling in my stomach, a tickling sensation, and I liked that.

Some days, my parents are not that bad.

Papi did not join me at first; he said he’d be out later. I climbed up to the roof in a few leaps. From the top, I could see for miles in every direction. It was a clear night, cool and quiet, and I could hear the coyotes far in the distance if I focused, blocked out everything in my mind. My hearing has always been better