Pretty When She Dies (13 page)

“Sorry,” she muttered.

Her grandmother looked at the spot of bean slowly sliding down her clean wall and looked back at Amaliya sadly.

“So you are dead,” she said with strange satisfaction.

“Grandmama,” Sergio said in surprise. “I told you not to watch the news.”

“Oh, like that is going to stop me,” Grandmama responded.

Amaliya was so shocked she couldn't move. She pressed her hand against her throat as she stared aghast at her grandmother.

“On TV they said she was dead. Your Uncle Samuel told me the same thing last night. And now she sits here, pale as a ghost, not able to eat, and as cold as the grave.”

“If she's dead, you are taking this really well,” Sergio joked, and shoved half a tortilla in his mouth.

“Unfinished business,” his grandmother assured him. “I watch TV.

Touched by an Angel, Medium and the Ghost Whisperer. She has unfinished business.”

Slowly, Amaliya put down her fork. Her mind overwhelmed by her grandmother's words, she didn't know what to say.

Sergio rolled his eyes. “C'mon, Grandmama. She's sitting right across from us.”

“Did the bad Satanist kill you?” her grandmother asked in a soft voice.

“Do you want us to tell the police who they are so you can go into the light.”

Amaliya opened her mouth to answer, then shut it, still not sure what to say.

“She's not dead,” Sergio said again.

“Yes, she is,” his grandmother answered, and looked very sad. “All my girls die young.”

“Mae is still alive,” Sergio pointed out. “And Kelly Ann.”

“Mae is too mean to die and Kelly Ann is too stupid,” their grandmother decided, and crossed her arms over her ample chest.

“You do realize that is your daughter and granddaughter you're talking about,” Sergio said with a smirk.

“Stop being a smarty,” Grandmama said and smacked his arm.

Leaning toward the completely stunned Amaliya, she said once more, “Do you want us to tell the police who killed you?”

“Uh. No.”

Looking disappointed, her grandmother sat back. “Why not?”

“Uh.” Amaliya sat with her mouth hanging open, then shut it firmly. “I am not dead.”

“Exactly. She has a pulse.” Sergio leaned over and gripped Amaliya's wrist firmly. “See, Grandmama, she has a...” He hesitated, then looked at Amaliya with shock. “Where is your pulse?”

Amaliya stood up sharply and put her hands on her hips. She opened her mouth to talk, then closed it again.

“You need to go to the light,” her grandmother finally said.

“I can't,” Amaliya answered automatically.

“You're really dead,” Sergio said softly. “No way. We talked on the phone. I picked you up off the bus.”

“Maybe she thinks she's alive, so she acts alive,” Grandmama considered.

“I'm not....dead. Like that kinda dead.”

“But you're dead?” Sergio finally stopped eating. “No way.”

“Oh, shit, this wasn't the way I planned this to go down.”

“Don't swear,” her grandmother said automatically, pointing an accusing finger at her.

Pacing back and forth in the kitchen, Amaliya ran a hand over her hair. The holy relics were starting to make her want to run away. They weren't right next to her, but she could feel their power pushing on her. “This was supposed to be our tearful and emotional loving farewell.”

“Well, you still need to go to the light,” her grandmother said firmly.

“There is no light!”

Sergio looked terrified. “You mean the Pope was wrong?”

That got him a firm slap on the cheek. “Don't blaspheme.”

“I'm not!”

“Look! There was no light! Professor Sumner killed me and buried me in the forest! I woke up three days later and...and...”

“Your professor killed you?” Sergio looked ready to fall over. “What do you mean he killed you?”

“This is the part where she tells us what happened, then disappears,”

their grandmother said confidently.

“He killed me! He....” she made slicing motions across her throat. “-

killed me! And buried me! But I woke up in the grave, crawled out and...and...it all went to hell-sorry, Grandmama-it went to hell from there.”

Sergio took a long swig from his coke. “I don't believe it.”

Amaliya hesitated, then darted across the room, and grabbed his coke from his hand before he could set it down. The world had strangely stood still as she had willed herself to move faster than her family could see. By their sudden look of terror, she had moved to fast for them to track. Both Sergio and her grandmother jumped to their feet.

Setting down the coke, Amaliya tucked her hair back from her face and looked at them sorrowfully.

They stared at her for a moment, and then they both ran out of the kitchen down the long hall to the living room.

“Oh, crap.”

***

Amaliya tentatively crept down the hallway to the living room, past photos of her two aunts and her mother as children, of all the grandchildren, and the great-grandchildren. As she stepped into the living room, she found her grandmother and cousin standing in the middle of the room, Sergio clutching an enormous crucifix from off the mantel over the fireplace.

Wincing, as she felt smacked by invisible white fire, she stepped back into the shadows of the hall. Her voice quivered when she said, “I'm not going to hurt you.”

“Well, you kinda scared us shitless,” Sergio answered, and that was followed by the sound of their grandmother smacking him.

“I was just trying to show you that I'm not what I was,” Amaliya snapped. “You think I'm dead. Well, I am. I'm not a ghost. I'm something else and it’s not any fun! I hate it!” She burst into tears and her sobs filled the narrow hallway. The pictures of her family, the living and the dead, bore her no comfort. “I hate it! Okay! I hate it!

And I...I...”

“Put the cross away,” her grandmother's voice said softly. “She's family.”

“What if...we can't trust her,” Sergio said in a stricken voice from the living room.

“Just put it away,” Grandmama repeated. “If she wanted to hurt us, she would have killed you when she had you alone and already offed me when she got here.”

Sliding down the wall, Amaliya covered her face with her hands and felt her body quivering. Her heart was sluggish and she would have to leave soon. The great need would come and she would have to feed.

“I don't want to kill anyone! All I wanted to do was say goodbye,” she wailed softly. “To say I'm sorry for not being a better granddaughter.”

Tender, gnarled hands patted her hair gently. “You've been a good girl, Amal. You have. I'm so sorry you are...what you are.”

“What is she?” Sergio whispered, and got smacked again.

Amaliya slowly raised her head to look up at them. Her pale face was streaked with blood tears. “I think I'm a vampire.”

Sergio and Grandmama both took a step back, gripping each others hands. The fear in their eyes made Amaliya miserable and she sighed.

“I won't hurt you. I promise. I was a little fucked up, sorry, Grandmama, the last two nights, but tonight I'm much better,” she said, trying to calm them.

Sergio raised one finger. “Define a little fucked up.” He oofed as he got nailed in the stomach with an elbow.

“Remember Pete?”

“Yeah? What about hi-Oh,” Sergio said, his eyes widening. He thought this over, then said slowly, “Well, at least you didn't kill him.”

Amaliya stood up and wiped her cheeks with the back of her hand. “I just wanted to come and tell you that I love you and I don't understand what is going on.”

“Professor Sumner made you?” Her grandmother was clutching what looked like a rosary tight to her chest. It made Amaliya's head hurt.

“Yeah. He did. And then he just left. Told me to figure it out. So, I plan to go to Austin and try to find someone like me. And if that doesn't work, New Orleans, and maybe New York. I have to find out how to deal with this. I'm not even sure of what all I can or can't do.”

“How are you going to get there?” Sergio asked.

“I guess the bus,” Amaliya said, and looked down at her hands stained red from her tears. “I better go. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have come here.”

“No, no! You should come here!” Her grandmother grabbed her arm tightly and pulled her into the kitchen. “We are your family and we love you even if you are-is Dracula real?”

Amaliya laughed, then shook her head. “I don't know. I don't know anything!” She flung up her hands, then collapsed onto a kitchen chair. “That is the problem! I don't know anything! It's all been by instinct.”

“So, maybe you can get fixed!” Her grandmother rushed over to the kitchen counter and began to fuss with the flour jar. “You can go talk to another vampiro and ask them how to get back to normal.”

“Grandmama, I don't think it's that easy. He killed her! And all those people in the frat house.”

Amaliya looked at her nails and tried not to look guilty.

“Look at her! He did this to her. Killed her and left her for dead. She just happened to come back as a...hey, can I see your teeth?”

“No,” Amaliya said firmly, and shook her head. Sighing, she covered her face with one hand. This was not going the way she expected, but when did thing's ever go the way she planned? Her luck was notoriously bad. The last few days had proved that over and over again.

Sergio looked a little hurt by her refusal, but, by the way his body was tensed to flee, it was obvious his fear was the overriding emotion.

“Here, take this.” Grandmama thrust a wad of cash into her hands.

“It will help you. Buy food--um...what you need. And take this.” She grabbed up a cellphone from the counter and unplugged the charger as well. “You buy minutes to put on it with a card and I don't think the policia can track it.”

Amaliya took the cash and the phone with a stricken look on her face.

“Grandmama, I can't.”

“Hey, I gave you that phone,” Sergio protested.

“I never use it,” Grandmama said, dismissing his comment with a wave of her hand. “Take it, Amal, and call me when you find out something.”

“Here, keep the money,” Amaliya said. She tried to hand it back to her grandmother, but was quickly rebuffed.

“Look, nieta, I know that something bad happened to you. I am sad that you aren't a ghost, because I think we could have fixed this a lot easier. But you are right. You need to go find answers and get this curse taken off of you so you can be at peace.”

“I don't know if it can be fixed,” Sergio said softly. “All the movies and the books-”

“I never watched those movies!” Amaliya shook her head with frustration. “I was terrified of vampires growing up, remember?”

“Oh, yeah. I remember that Felipe and I scared the crap out of you by wearing big plastic fangs that one time,” Sergio said with a laugh, then saw her expression and stopped. “Sorry.”

“So you go to Austin and you find a vampiro. Make them tell you everything, and then fix it. And if that doesn't work, maybe you should go to the Catholic church.”

“They might stake her.”

“Would that kill me?” Amaliya looked horrified.

“A stake through the heart would kill anyone,” Sergio responded.

“No one stakes no one, okay? So you take my car and you go to Austin and you find a vampiro to help you.” Grandmama shoved her car keys into Amaliya's hand. “You go find a way to find peace.”

“I can't just take your car and your money and go to Austin!”

“Why not?”

“It's not like she did it when she was sixteen,” Sergio muttered under his breath.

“Hey, I wanted to see Ozzy in concert! And I was stupid. And your brother is the one who talked me into it!”

“Look, it doesn't matter. You go and find answers. Then you call me and tell me you are okay.”

Though they looked quite calm, Amaliya could feel the tension in her family members. They were both watching her like a hawk. She didn't blame them, not after the things she had done.

Standing up slowly, she tucked the money into her jeans. Amaliya looked sadly at her tiny grandmother. “I'm sorry I screwed up.”

“He killed you. And made you into a vampiro. You didn't ask for that.

And, I have hope for you. You're not killing people left and right and doing bad. You're good in your heart.” Her grandmother made a step toward her, then hesitated. Seeing the hurt expression in Amaliya's eyes, she gave up caution and hugged her granddaughter tightly. “You go now. You go and take care of yourself.”

Amaliya clutched her grandmother to her and relished the soft, warm comforting feel of her little body. Kissing her grandmother's cheek firmly, she let out a soft sob, then drew back.

Sergio hesitated, then flung his arms around her and held her close.

“Take care of yourself...and don't bite me.”

Laughing softly, Amaliya kissed his cheek, then drew back. “I love you, you know. Both of you.”

Her grandmother was still holding her rosary tightly and Amaliya realized it was glowing around her fingers. It sobered her considerably to see that. She had never considered the condition of her soul or the hereafter before, but, suddenly, she felt afraid.

“I need my bag,” she said softly.

“I'll get it,” Sergio said quickly, and rushed down the hall.

“Grandmama,” Amaliya whispered softly. “I am trying very hard not to do anything bad.”

“I know, baby.” Her grandmother was looking down at her rosary.

“You always were a good girl, just lost.”

“I don't know how I always get into trouble,” she confessed.

“You don't think. You just do,” Sergio answered her as he reappeared with her bag.

“Do not.”

“Yeah, you do. You never think anything out. We used to have so much fun just suggesting random stuff just to see you go along with it.

Amal, let's go jump off the roof. Amal, let's go grab the mule's tail.

Amal, go stick your hand in-”

“Okay, okay,” she said with a pout. “Maybe I'm not too good at the whole plan type thing.”

“Going to Austin is a good plan,” Sergio said. “Just, you know, don't just...”

“Fuck up,” their grandmother said.