THE MOON AND THE STARS
Scarlet stood on the front porch. She was taking deep breaths before knocking on the door. She tried to relax her self and practiced the excuse fed to her by Kayla her reason for not attending the family gathering. Kayla had come up with a couple before settling for the job interview pretense. She chuckled at the other options that were thrown around.
It was the fourth Thursday of November thanksgiving day. Scarlet and Kayla always celebrated the holidays with Kayla’s family, but this year it would be different. Her grandmother as usual had called ahead to confirm that they would drive down to Napa for the weekend. They couldn’t confirm their visit, they tried to say no but they didn’t want to hurt her feelings. They promised to get back to her later, give them time to figure something out.
Her grandmother would only need to take one look at her to notice that something was different. She couldn’t go, not that she posed any threat to them but she had to get used to not seeing her family. Scarlet just thought of it as something else that Solara had taken away from her.
It didn’t matter how much Kayla defended him or how accustomed or happy she seemed to her new life, she knew it hurt her not to be with her family. She had never missed thanksgiving with her family and this would be her first. It was amongst many of the firsts she would miss, Christmas, Easter, birthdays, and reunions. Her family was important to her, now she had to abandon them for her new family with the immortals.
“Tell my Nana I have Spanish influenza and it’s highly contagious and I can’t be around anyone. I have been quarantined, locked down in a private hospital in Mexico.” It was ridiculous and immediately shot down when Stephan told her the last reported case was back in the eighties.
“How about you have been kidnapped by the government and they are doing genetic testing on you.” Vincent seemed like the picture of idiotism at that moment.
“Seriously Vincent? How about I just tell her you were called up to Washington for a job interview and you will see her on Christmas.” That was her idea and it was the most logical one in the room, the thought of lying to Nana didn’t sit well with her but what was her other option.
Nana Cooper, Kayla is in love with a vampire so he bit her and made her into the monster that she is.
Although she had only thought it both Solara and Kayla reacted to it. Scarlet couldn’t help the resentment she felt for him but was trying to overcome it because it only hurt Kayla. According to her Solara tortured himself about it every single day she didn’t want anyone else to help him in his guilt parade.
“Scarlet you are going to have to put it differently, one that’s more believable. You are not much of a liar but I will help you out so come with me.” They went into the next room where she got a crash course on how to lie with a straight face.
When the day finally arrived they were both nervous. Kayla gave her letters for her mother and grandmother, it hurt her not being able to see them it was something she had to deal with. They rehearsed for a while, Kayla never missing a chance to criticize her bad acting. Stephan drove her there and parked at the side of the road, he promised to sit in the car and wait for her there to take her home.
Armed with the two letters in her hand she knocked on the door. One of Kayla’s little cousins opened the door for her. She smiled up at her exposing her gap where her two front teeth should have been. She walked into the house and headed to the kitchen, she knew the two ladies would be there. She made her way through the crowd of people. Kayla had a large family but they were all so close. She had to get the lie out of the way before she got too guilty to say it or if she forgot it.
They were where she expected them to be, preparing food for the crowd that waited in the living room. She took one final deep breath and plastered a smile on her face before tapping Kayla’s mother on the shoulder. She was as beautiful as her daughter and resembled her in so many ways, except Kayla’s attitude. Anyone who didn’t know them would deny that such a sarcastic girl was the daughter of this mild-mannered woman who stood before her.
“Happy Thanks Giving Ms. Cooper, I see you have your hands full.” She gave her a quick kiss on the cheek and gave her way to the dining room.
“Hey pretty baby, where’s my little girl?” Nana Cooper’s voice rang in the air. It wasn’t hard to miss. She had the sweetest voice that she had ever had. It was reassuring and comforting, Scarlet loved talking to her because of it.
“Hey, Nana. Happy thanksgiving. Kayla couldn’t make it she has a job interview so she headed to Washington. She said to tell you she was sorry and she loves you so much.” She tried to sound cheerful and enthusiastic amid her lie. “But she did give me these letters for you and her Mum.”
“Oh no, but I know my baby is going to get the job, she only has to hold her tongue.” No one knew Kayla as much as her grandmother did. She often found Kayla’s attitude amusing but that never stopped her from scolding her for it. “That is fine as long as you are here to eat her share dear. That is one more thing to be thankful for.”
Scarlet let out a breath she didn’t realize she was holding. She was relieved that there were no questions about her friend’s absence, she wouldn’t know what to say. She had not been prepped for it. Once she gave the letters to Kayla’s grandmother she retreated for the living room, attempting to disappear into the crowd of people.
The dinner went on, as usual, everyone on the table got their chance to say what they were thankful for. Scarlet was thankful for the gift of life she knew its worth only too well. At around eight she decided to say thank you and leave, she didn’t think she could keep up the facade any longer.
She said her goodbyes and walked across the street where the Mustang was parked. She noticed Solara’s car in front of Stephan’s car. Kayla was inside watching her family enjoying each other’s company. She spotted the grief on her face she knew how she longed to be with her family.
Scarlet couldn’t imagine living like that, since she didn’t have a family she didn’t know it felt. But Kayla would have to watch her family from the outside, she will stand on the outline when they celebrated together and when they mourned together. Kayla would watch them all die one by one until there was nothing left of that big happy family.
She got into the car rage building up in her. There was nothing she could do about it, the choice had been made and they would have to live with it. She strapped herself in and avoided any eye contact with Stephan. They drove in silence the whole way back home, Solara and Kayla arrived before them. She watched them walk up to the house hand in hand, she didn’t know whether to call it true love or a joke, she sneered at the thought.
As she was about to get out of the car, the mustang lurched forward and they were moving again. “Where are we going? I am really tired and I need to lie down.” He stopped the car a few yards away from the house.
He turned to her his eyes slit, he had had enough of her attitude and was going to put a stop to it.
“What is wrong with you? Kayla is happy she is trying to get past his betrayal but you won’t let her why? Why is it so hard for you to accept that such a love exists? Don’t I love you enough for you to understand it? For how long are you going to behave this way to act like this towards Solara?” he had never talked to her in such a harsh tone before he was angry at her and it startled her. She examined his face for a while before she spoke.
“Did you see the way she watched her family? It hurt her not being there with them, and he… Solara took that away from her. So please don’t talk to me about love. Love is all about sacrifice and choice he should have told her and let her decide what she wanted. But no he went ahead and did what he wanted, sacrificed her for himself. She was not ready to give up all that she had but she had to, it hurts her. So please if you don’t mind don’t speak to me about love.”
“So what exactly do you want to happen? It has been done and she understands why he did it because she loves him enough to forgive him.” His harsh voice disappeared and what replaced it shocked her even more. It was a little voice of desperation one you would only expect to come from a little child.
“Answer me this, do you love me enough to forgive me. Forgive me for bringing Solara into your lives. Forgive me for loving you so much that I didn’t want to turn away from it. Can you forgive me because I feel a rift growing between us and I can’t handle it?”
The pain in his voice made her wince. She had hurt him in a way only she could. “I love you more than anything you know that, I am just trying to make sense of this all. My life was normal before you walked into it, I was a normal girl in a normal world. But now everything that I ever thought was real has been tumbled over. You have turned my world upside down. And at times I wonder where my life would be like right now if you weren’t-”
“If I was not in it is that what you mean to say. By all means, tell me when you need to walk right out of it.” He interrupted her and his furious voice seemed to occupy the space in the car.
She took what he said as an accusation, how he could think she didn’t want him in her life. The past year all her life has been about is him, and the past month it had been about him and the other monsters that never left him alone.
“After all this time I have been there for you at your lowest moments. By your side as you face these attacks from your world. Being there when… when Sotera was all you could think about.” She was annoyed and had to get all the weight off her chest, but she regretted it afterward. She knew Sotera was a sour subject to him but she still used it against him.
He was opening the door with such force she thought he would rip it off its hinges. “What! Don’t you dare talk to me about Sotera! She loved me and didn’t judge me for my past or the company I kept.”
“It’s always about Sotera. I’m fighting with a dead girl. Or is there a different term to use since she died twice?”
She could feel his anger build up as his grip around her arm tightened, she was frightened she had never seen him this furious. When she looked into his eyes a gasp escaped from her throat. She forgot the throbbing in her arm and stared at his eyes. They had changed color, from the twinkle color of silver to what seemed like blood red. She couldn’t hear what he was saying now although she could feel him tugging her hand.
“Stephan… Stephan your eyes.”
Scarlet raised her fingers she wasn’t sure what she was doing but she wanted to touch them to make sure they were real and not a figment of her imagination. He dropped her arms and leaped into the air and when he landed on his feet he was on fours. She staggered behind and stared at the black jaguar that looked right at her. She took a step towards the beast.
“Stephan?” her hand was stretched out towards him. He then turned around and ran.
When the shock passed, Scarlet started walking towards home more confused than ever. She walked into the room to find the three vampires playing a game of chess. She sat in the armchair across from them watching them yet seeing nothing.
Kayla and Solara were playing each other, Vincent had forfeited on the account of the cheating being done by his opponents. He was the first to notice Scarlet’s mood and that Stephan was not in the room. He walked up to her but she didn’t seem to notice him. She didn’t notice when the others surrounded her, she was still staring into space.
“Scar what’s wrong, what happened?” Kayla was tugging at her coat and Scarlet let her pull it off her, not offering any help. Once her hands were out of the coat she held her knees, still wondering what had happened out there a few minutes ago. If she wasn’t there to see it and if she didn’t know the existence of those worlds she would not believe it.
Kayla was grabbing at her arm and she winced in pain. “What are these? Who gave you these bruises? Where is Stephan I’m going to kill him?”
She looked down at her arm to see what she was huffing about. Blue-purple finger marks were forming on the front of her hand and at the back was a palm print. She saw where Stephan had grabbed her earlier on, she had forgotten about that and now that she mentioned it she could feel it throbbing.
“Someone needs to go find Stephan. He just… I don’t understand…” Her voice was like a whisper, she looked at Solara remembering what had just happened. She knew he would hear her, they would both hear her but she needed his friend to go be with him and she needed her friend to be with her.
“Where is he? Did he get taken by something is he harmed.” Vincent was worried, he was left out of the loop. Scarlet couldn’t find the voice to explain it to him. Solara grabbed a pair of his jeans from her room, he pulled Vincent behind him and they left the house together she knew he would explain it to him.
Kayla had taken her to her room and had insisted she take a bath. Nothing could make her feel better after what she said to him. It was malicious and cold of her to stab him where it hurt him the most. She was lying on her bed sobbing uncontrollably, Kayla had given up on comforting her so she sat next to her stroking her hair. It was not long before she fell asleep and even then she asked for him. Kayla stayed by her side in case she woke up again.