CURSE OF THE BLOOD MOON

Scarlet watched her phone as it buzzed around the floor. Kayla had been calling her for the past half an hour. She wasn’t ready to answer, she was in too much pain to speak. What exactly was she going to say to her best friend? She wasn’t sure that telling her that she thought she killed the old lady was a good idea. The noise outside had died down, Scarlet was sure that the police had already left and those who were left around the scene of the crime were the tenants themselves. Scarlet didn’t move from behind the bed, she was going to stay there for as long as she could. She didn’t want to come into contact with anyone who would set off the cravings again.

She thought of when Kayla had just turned into a vampire and how she almost killed her. She assumed that that was what she was going through, or what the baby was going through. But unlike Kayla, she didn’t have the support of Vincent, Solara, or Stephan to help her out.

She had made the wrong decision in running away from her family, the only support system she had. The proof of that had been carried away in a body bag. Scarlet caressed her belly when the baby began to stir, she knew what that meant. He was awake again and soon he would be kicking. She took a deep breath waiting for the first of many. When he did kick the pain ripped through her whole body.

“Shh!! It’s ok.” She didn’t know who she was trying to calm down or comfort herself or the baby who was restless inside her.

She curled up in a fetal position on the ground, one arm as a pillow for her head the other gently rubbing the bump in a circular motion. She was singing the lullaby her mother sang to her when she was a child, hoping that it would calm him down as it usually did her.

***

Archie walked up to the door. The coat was still hanging on the doorknob just as it did when he left it there a few hours ago. Gently he knocked on the door and called out her name. “Scarlet please let me in. I called your friend, Kayla and she is on her way here. Scarlet.” He continued knocking on the door, he didn’t plan on stopping until she opened the door.

Scarlet sat up when she had Kayla’s name. She got up and walked to the door, she thought she was strong enough to handle visitors. The baby hadn’t moved since she stopped singing to him. She assumed he was asleep.

She slowly opened the door but didn’t let him in immediately. “You can’t stay long. It’s already late, I want to get to sleep.”

When he nodded in agreement she opened the door wider and let him in. He was carrying her jacket and handed it to her.

“Why are you sitting in the dark? Is there something wrong with your lights?” He flicked them on.

Scarlet tossed the jacket in one of the armchairs in the room. She watched as he turned on the lights in the room. The brightness was hurting her eyes, so she followed him behind turning them off.

“I like the darkness. What did Kayla say?” she left the lamp on.

He stood at the center of the room and didn’t attempt to turn the lights back on. “She said she will be here as soon as she can. She is probably on the way here, I called her more than three hours ago.”

She didn’t know what to say about the liberty he took when he called her. It was something she wasn’t able to do. “Thanks.”

“I thought you would be mad, but I’m glad you are not.”

He sat in the chair while she stood against the wall near the door. “What’s going on with you Scarlet? You have been acting very strangely.”

She shrugged her shoulders, she wasn’t about to start a conversation with him. That would take too much time, time neither she nor he had. “It’s nothing, I’m just tired. All that blood got to me and I had to get out of there.”

“Are you coming back to work tomorrow? I can pick you up and the morning and we can go together?”

Scarlet didn’t like where the conversation was heading. She had always suspected that he had a liking towards her but she didn’t encourage it. He sent her flowers a couple of times before but she gave them away to the patients.

“No, I’m going to resign in the morning or afternoon. It depends on the time I get there.”

“What? Why? Don’t you like it there?” he moved as if he was going to get up, but she raised her hand to stop him.

“I have other things to think about. More pressing things to focus on and working at the hospital is getting in the way of that.” To an extent what she said was true, but the fellowship was all that she had dreamed about. What she had worked so hard for but now she had to push it aside.

“What could be more important than your work?”

“My son and the father of my son. I need to get him back into the picture, his child is almost here. Look at me.” Scarlet placed both her hands on her belly for emphasis.

She looked like she was about to blow and something inside her was warning her it was almost time. She was glad Kayla was on her way and hoped that she was bringing Nikki with her. Scarlet knew that the biggest issue besides the birth of her son was his father. She wasn’t sure whether Stephan had gone back home after seeing her with Archie at the coffee shop.

“I can help you with the baby. You don’t need him, he left let him stay away.”

Scarlet was taken aback by what he said. He wasn’t prepared to raise a child like hers. She wasn’t sure that he would make it out of the apartment let alone live long enough to raise her child.

He stood up and took a step towards her and she took a step back. She held her hands up to stop him from following her.

“Don’t come any closer.” The distance between them was already dangerously close.

“Why?” he continued towards her and only stopped when he backed her up against the wall.

“Archie please don’t.”

“Scarlet, I have fallen in love with you and I can’t bear to watch you hurt like this.” His fingers were stroking her face.

She turned her face away and tried to squeeze away from him.

“No please don’t.”

“Scarlet let me take care of you.” His hand cupped the side of her stomach. “Both of you.”

Scarlet could feel the baby stir again. He had been hungry earlier on and everything she had tried eating didn’t do it. He was his father’s son and what he wanted was blood. Human blood.

“You need to leave now!” Scarlet shoved him away from her, but he only came closer. He stared at her face

“You are so beautiful, so delicate and gentle. The color of your eyes is back, the beautiful hazel color that I love so much.” He leaned down to kiss her, his eyes closed slightly.

Scarlet bent over pushing him away, when the pain of the baby’s kick surged through her. She didn’t know what upset him more, the fact that he couldn’t taste his blood yet or that he was touching her like that. Scarlet fell to her knees when the pain became worse. She tried pushing him away from her but he wouldn’t let up.