Even Monsters Get Lonely

Shannon giggled a bit at his protectiveness, even as she enjoyed it. She didn’t like the feeling she got from being separated from him though, it made her feel empty and antsy.

So, she quickly drank the juice he’d given her and slowly stood up. She then grabbed another t-shirt that belonged to André and put it on.

The shirt Shannon had been wearing the night he’d found her had been torn beyond repair on limbs and vines as she’d stumbled her way through the forest, but her jeans were alright. André had washed them and her underclothes, much to her embarrassment. So, she put them on with the t-shirt. After combing the snarls from her hair, she left the room.

André was standing tensely in front of his open front door talking to a... policeman?

“Is everything alright André?” Shannon asked as she walked up to stand next to him.

André turned to look at her, his jaw tight, as he said, “Shannon, the officer is here for you.”

Shannon frowned as she searched his eyes. He seemed to be upset and mad, but the anger wasn’t toward the policeman, it seemed to be toward her. What have I done to anger him? Turning to look at the policeman, she asked, “Me? I haven’t even left the house since I’ve been here. Why are you here for me?”

“Miss, your father has been frantic in trying to find you after you ran away. He received a call today telling law enforcement where they could find you,” the policeman stated. “Now, if you’ll just come with me, I’ll make sure you get home safely.”

“No, I like it here. I’ll call my dad later and tell him I’ll be back to visit... sometime,” Shannon told him.

“I can’t allow that Miss. You’re underage and therefore I’m...” the policeman said.

“Under-aged!” Shannon shrieked at him. This explained why André seemed mad at her. She turned to look at him to find him staring at her angrily. Yet looking into his eyes, she saw he was also sad and disappointed.

“I thought you said you were twenty-three Shannon. I can’t let you stay here if you’re underage,” André said in a cold voice.

“I am twenty-three André, I am! I promise I didn’t lie to you!” Shannon cried out, almost in tears at the thought of him sending her away. She knew he was only trying to protect himself, but he was being so cold to her and it hurt.

“Miss, your father listed you as a seventeen-year-old runaway in the report he filed,” the policeman then said.

Shannon turned to glare at him as the tears ran down her face. “Look, officer, I don’t know why my dad would say I’m only seventeen, and I honestly don’t care. I’m not seventeen, I’m twenty-three, and I’m not going back. I’d rather live under a bridge somewhere then return to that house!”

The policeman tapped his fingers against his hip where he had his hand propped. “I’m sorry you feel that way Miss, but by law, I cannot leave a minor in the home of someone who isn’t a relative or guardian. So, do you have proof you are not a minor? If you do, I will leave now and go back to the station. If not, I will be taking you home.”

Shannon’s face fell because she knew he would do exactly that, even if it meant putting her in handcuffs.

“No, I... wait! I do, I do have proof!” Shannon exclaimed as she wiped the tears from her face and turned to André. “My purse, I had it with me, what did your doctor friend do with it?”

After a moment of thought, André turned and left the room. When he came back, he was carrying her small black purse.

“Thank you,” Shannon said as she took it from him. Then, turning back toward the policeman, she pulled her billfold out of the purse. She then pulled out her driver’s license to hand it to the policeman. “Here you go, sir.”

He took it from her, glancing at it before saying, “Let me run this.”

Shannon nodded, and he walked over to his car. She then turned back to André. She hugged him as she said in a whisper, “I’m sorry, please don’t hate me André, and please don’t send me away.”

André pulled her close and placed a kiss on her forehead. “Non, I’m the one that should be sorry petite. I should have trusted that you had told me the truth, especially when I think about what kind of condition you were in all thanks to your father.”

Feeling better at his forgiveness, she leaned into him and sighed.

“Why would my dad claim I’m an underaged runaway? What purpose would that serve? Who called him and told him I was here anyway? Who even knows I’m here?” Shannon huffed, spewing out multiple questions at once. Then added, “You said we were a long way from where you found me, and I’ve not been out of the house; so, it’s not like someone saw me and recognized me.”

André hugged her closer as he rubbed her back soothingly, saying, “I don’t know petite, but we’re two states away from where you were. You’re in Louisiana now, so even if you had been out, nobody but me, the doctor, and Rick know...”

Shannon looked up as he tensed, to ask, “What? What’s wrong?”

“Rick, it had to have been him who called,” he hissed in anger.

“But why?”

André looked down at her. The anger left his face and a gentle look replaced it as he brushed his knuckles over her cheek. Then he sighed as he said, “Because I wouldn’t share you.”

Shannon started to speak but was interrupted by the return of the policeman.

“Here you go Miss Winters,” he said as he handed her license back. “I apologize for interrupting your evening. Be sure you tell your father he could find himself in a lot of trouble for filing false reports.”

“Yes, sir I will,” Shannon said.

Then, with a tip of his hat, he left.

Shannon gave a deep sigh as she leaned into André.

“Are you still hungry for a burger and fries?”

Looking up at him she smiled. “Always, but what about Rick?”

“I’ll take care of him, don’t worry about it,” he told her.

Then taking her hand, he led her down the steps to his car. After getting in, he took her out for dinner.

André took Shannon to a fast food place and she ate like a hungry piglet!

“This sleeping during the day and being up all night is really messing with my appetite,” Shannon told him after eating a second burger.

“Your body will adjust if you continue sleeping days. Until then, you should snack a bit if you can’t eat two large meals,” André suggested.

“Yeah, I know,” Shannon agreed. Then, after taking a drink of her soda, she cautiously asked, “André, is it really alright if I stay with you? I-I don’t want you to feel like I’ve been forced on you because of circumstances, especially after what happened earlier, ” she looked up at him then as he waited for her to continue. “I like you, André, you and that ‘alter ego’ of yours!”

André chuckled a bit, and for just a second his eyes flashed letting her know Vampire was listening and found it funny also.

“What I’m saying is, is that I’d like to stay and get to know you better. I’ll get a job and pull my weight, I’m not a freeloader. If you really don’t want me to stay though, then I’ll figure something out, because I was serious about not going back to my dad.”

André reached out to take her hand and said, “Shannon, I really like you also, and I really would like it if you stayed. My life has been somewhat lonely, and you have made me feel content for the first time in a long time. If it makes you feel better to work then do so, but do not feel as if you have to.”

His words made her feel better, so she said, “I want to because honestly, I’ve had to for so long I wouldn’t know what to do with myself if I didn’t work.”

“So, where have you worked before?” André asked leaning back in the bench and crossing his arms.

“I worked at a motel with a restaurant attached. I’ve done everything from cleaning the motel rooms on the motel side to becoming the short order cook in the restaurant. I like being a waitress the best, that’s what I was doing because I get really good tips. Since dad didn’t know about them, he didn’t take them from me.”

André nodded as he gathered up the trash, placing it on the tray.

“I’m going to use the restroom, and then I’ll be ready to go,” Shannon told him as she stood up.

He nodded, standing up and going one way to the trash bin while she went the other way to the restroom. When she came out, he was waiting for her and they walked to the car.

“I was thinking perhaps you would like some clothes petite,” André said as he pulled out onto the street.

“That would be nice,” she said. “I honestly don’t have many clothes of my own at home. If it wasn’t for my uniforms, I’d almost have to go naked.”

André turned to look at her.

Just for a moment, she thought she saw his eyes flare with heat, then it was gone.

“So, if I were to take you home right now, there isn’t anything you wish to have?” He asked.

“Well, I suppose there are a few things if dad didn’t destroy it all in a fit of rage. I have a bit of jewelry and some books, plus a special painting,” Shannon told him.

She looked down at her right hand and swirled the diamond and ruby ring on her middle finger around. It had been her mom’s engagement ring. When she knew the end was near, she had taken it off and placed it in Shannon’s hand.

Thinking back, Shannon remembered her exact words:

“My sweet Shannon, I want you to have this. When your dad gave this to me, I was the happiest girl in the world! I loved him then, and I love him now. He’s going to be so lost without me,” Mom had said sadly as the tears fell. “Remember that loving someone, and being loved in return, is a blessing. When you find your true love, hang on to him with both your hands and your heart, never let him go.”

“Did it belong to your Mére? Sorry, your mother?” André suddenly asked as he looked at her ring.

“Yeah, it did, her engagement ring. I wear it all the time so that she’s always with me,” Shannon told him softly, shaking off the memory as she tried not to cry.

“I still remember my Mére. She was very small, and delicate compared to my Pére. I remember her laughter the most, a sound so full of joy, and her hugs. I think the woman could cure illness with her hugs,” André said.

Shannon heard so much sadness in his voice. So, she softly asked, “You miss her a lot, don’t you?”

“Oui, petite, I do. You would think the loss of her would have eased after literally hundreds of years,” André murmured

“Did you get to say goodbye after you became a vampire?”

André pulled in to the parking lot of a big all-night store and parked.

They sat quietly for a moment, Shannon watching him, and him looking out the windshield.

“After a few weeks, when I could semi-control my hunger, I went back home. My hearing is enhanced, and as I neared the back porch, I heard her and Pére talking. Pére told her he was tired of her looking for me, that I probably had been the one robbing those travelers instead of my brother. He said that my Frére... err... my brother had more than likely died trying to get me out of the mess I had made of my life.”

“Oh André,” Shannon whispered, wanting to cry for him. Reaching over, she grabbed his hand.

“I heard my Mère cry as Pére spewed his venom, and I became so angry that...” He stopped speaking.

She heard him take deep breaths trying to stay calm, and something inside her broke for him, the man he had been, and the one he is now. Even after all these years, the words of his father continue to shatter his world. Needing to comfort him, she crawled over the console, and into his lap to straddle him. Then she pulled his head onto her chest and swayed with him the way you might a small child.

“Oh André, I am so sorry that happened to you. I know how it feels to have your father slander you to your face. I can’t imagine how it must feel to have him trying to turn your mom against you though,” Shannon murmured as she placed kisses on his head.

He slowly calmed, and his body relaxed.

Shannon sat running her fingers through his hair, her cheek resting on top of his head.

“I became so angry that I lost control of the monster side of me. I feared that I would kill him in my anger, so I left. I watched them from afar, watched my Soeurs... my sisters marry and my Pére die. Then, Mère became deathly sick, so I sent money to help with the bills. I heard my Soeurs talk about their mysterious benefactor. Then I heard them one night crying that Mère was almost gone. They mentioned how she kept crying out for me.”

Shannon heard the pain in his voice as he swallowed hard. She continued to gently sway with him.

“I couldn’t take it anymore Shannon, I had to see her. So, when my Soeurs left and it was just Mère, and her nurse I sneaked into her room. I saw her laying there so pale and sick, a shell of her former self. Then her eyes opened, and she looked right at me and asked, “André my son, is it really you?”. I told her “oui” it was me. She begged me to come closer, and I fell weeping to my knees at her bedside begging her to forgive me for not coming sooner.”

“What did she say?” Shannon whispered.

“She said there was nothing to forgive because I was her son, and she loved me. She told me how she knew I wasn’t dead because if I had been, she would have felt it. She knew it was because of my Pére that I stayed away. She said that...” He stopped and cleared his throat. “She said some evenings she purposely waited for Pére to go to sleep, then she would sit on the porch in the dark. She said she somehow just knew I was out there watching and hoped to catch a glimpse of me.”

Shannon pulled back then, lifting his head, so she could look into his eyes. “And did she? Did she see you?”

He smiled then, a full beautiful smile, as he said, “Oui she did, just as I saw her. Yet she never let on that she saw me, so I had no idea.”

“I’m so happy you were able to have closure, André.”

He nodded and told her, “Oui, I am too. We talked all night about anything and everything. As I felt the pull of the sun, I told her I had to go. She took my hand and said, “André, I know you are somehow different now, but I do not care that you are, because you are my son and I love you”. I told her she was right, I was different now, and I loved her also. Then she said, “Find someone who will love you unconditionally”. I told her nobody would love the monster I had become.”

Shannon felt her eyes widen at his statement and exclaimed, “That isn’t true André, you aren’t a monster!”

He looked at her wide-eyed. “That’s what my Mére said, that I’m not a monster.”

“She was a smart woman, your Mére.”

“She told me that when I find a girl that can see past the part of me that makes me feel like a monster, to the sweet man she raised me to be, then I will have the girl of my dreams,” he told her. He then added, “She then said that when I find that girl, to hang onto her with both my hands and...”

“Your heart,” Shannon finished for him, feeling awed. “My mom told me the same thing the day she gave me this ring.” She then took his face in her hands as she looked deep into his eyes. “André, I think our moms knew we would meet before we did, and maybe it was fate that brought you to the forest that night. Whatever it was... André, I want to hang on to you with both my hands and my heart. Will you let me?”

He stared silently into her eyes before saying, “Oui ma chérie, I will.”

Leaning in, she kissed him gently before leaning back with a smile to say, “I think I’m falling fast André and so far, I’m enjoying it.”

He reached up and brushed his knuckles across her cheek. “Me too chérie, me too.”