Elizabeth and the Vampire's Cabin

Elizabeth and the Vampires
Cabin

Part 1: Time to Grow Up

Chapter
1: Who Are You?

“Who
are you,” she began. “What are you?” she asked more certainly. That was what
she really wanted to know. What was this impossible creature in front of her?

The
man stood in front of her, looking down with fierce black eyes.
 
As Elizabeth passed her eyes over him, she
suddenly realized that he was also sizing her up. She locked eyes with him,
realizing the best way to get his focus off of her slender, pretty physique,
was by having him focus on her eyes.

“I
am Aaron Ayro,” he responded.
 
“But you
already knew that. What you really want to know is what I am. I am a vampire.”
His eyes drifted over her body and Elizabeth had the impression that he was
undressing her with his eyes.
 
She
gulped.

Chapter
2: The Beginning of Adulthood

Months
before this exchange between Elizabeth Andrews and Aaron Ayro took place,
Elizabeth was living life fairly predictably in her apartment in Los Angeles.
Except for one thing…

That
man is burying dead hookers underneath his floor boards, Elizabeth thought to
herself about the man living upstairs. She decided to call her landlord in
order to alert him of this issue.

“Jim,
the man in the apartment upstairs is burying dead hookers underneath his
floorboards. I can hear all of this stomping, shoving, and general raucous
going on. When I went outside, I could see a bunch of psychotic children
jumping on his balcony. I think he is the leader of a tribe of demented serial
killers and their spawn.”

“It’s
probably just kids goofing off,” Jim responded. He then promptly hung up the
phone.

Elizabeth
grumbled unintelligibly to herself. It was a bunch of hrm, hmm, hum kind of
noises to express her displeasure.
 
She
simply didn’t have any real words to describe her feelings about the whole
issue. Sometimes, a feeling can only be captured by unintelligible noises.

At
18 years old, Elizabeth was boldly going nowhere. It was midway through the
month of May and she had finally finished home school for good. She didn’t
work, didn’t have any goals, barely had any friends, and had no romantic
interests. She supported herself on money she had inherited from her
grandfather.
 
He had, once upon a time,
created a beloved comic book character that eventually went on to star in
movies and several TV shows. You could find its action figure in toy stores,
buy its lunch box at Wal Mart, and find plenty of internet fan clubs devoted to
it. This character had made her grandfather a very wealthy man, indeed.
 
Elizabeth was only ten when he died, but he
left all of his money to her and her older brother: Austin. Much of her half of
the money was put into a trust where no one could touch it, even her, until the
day she turned 18. However, there was a substantial amount that was left
specifically for her brother Austin to raise her with. He was 11 years older
than herself, 19 at the time of their grandfather’s passing, and he had
grudgingly taken up the task of parent ever since. And now that she had just
recently turned 18 last week, she was still considering what to do with all
that money.

Elizabeth
had come to the apartment to get away from her brother for a little bit. The
apartment in Hollywood was a great little getaway from their sizable home in
Temecula. It was generally a quiet building in a very stimulating part of LA County.
 
That mixture of excitement and tranquil
isolation appealed to her. Unfortunately, that awful raucous upstairs was
making it impossible for her to concentrate. She was an adult now and she felt
it imperative that she decide what she wanted to do with her life. Elizabeth
had always thought that 18 was a magical age where people suddenly find out who
they are, what they want to be in life, and then embark on that magical
journey. Unfortunately, no such mystical epiphany had dawned on her and the
whole situation was becoming intolerable. Why was there no magical sign telling
her how her life was supposed to be?

And
then it happened.
 
She looked out her
living room window and saw several of her neighbors pointing upwards and
excitedly gabbing away. One of them shrieked. Elizabeth went outside to see
what all the fuss was about. She looked up and saw what had been causing her
neighbors to become alarmed. A group of four little kids, all looking to be under
the age of ten, were dancing around a fire they had started on their balcony.
Later, Elizabeth found out that they had been using a large candle that had
sunken in the middle from use. The wick, being quite long from the
deterioration of the inner wax, caused the flame to grow unintentionally large.
The kids had created a tiny hearth and decided to surround the wick with little
bits of paper and brush. They then tried to roast marshmallows over it.
Unfortunately, the children knocked the candle over on the wooden table it sat
on and began to panic. Only a moment after Elizabeth arrived on the scene, a
man darted out, scolded the children vituperatively, and put the fire out with
a fire extinguisher. The children, crushed at being reviled, cried, “But Dad,
we were just trying to make a camp fire!”

And
that was it. That was Elizabeth’s eureka moment. Now that she was an adult, she
was meant to go camping. She thanked God for finally revealing to her the
answer to her adult life.

Chapter
3:
 
Who Are You, Continued

“I
don’t believe you are a vampire,” she said obstinately.

He
smiled devilishly and bared his fangs.

“I’m
still not convinced,” she persisted. “Stop toying with me.”

And
then Aaron transformed into a bat right before her eyes. She nearly fainted on
the lounge. Before she could cry out, he had transformed back into his human
form. Elizabeth stumbled off the lounge and fell to the floor. He grabbed her
from underneath her arms and lifted her up. He threw her up in the air, caught
her, and wrapped his arms around her, looking at her ravenously. He bared his
fangs and she was certain that she would die in his embrace. She reached into
her pocket and withdrew the going away present from Arthur: the silver cross.
She pressed it against Aaron’s neck. Nothing happened. He released a cruel
laugh from his lips.

“That
only works if you believe in it,” he said.

He
grabbed her hand and lowered it. She dropped the cross in despair. Tightly, he
gripped her and then kissed her on the mouth. His mouth was hot. A fire
travelled up through her body as nerve endings were scorched by his kiss. When
he stopped kissing her she felt drunk. She licked her sore mouth and tasted
blood. He had bitten her lower lip. She swooned and thought for a moment that
she might pass out. As if sensing she was about to go down, he picked her up
and carried her into another room. He laid her down onto a giant king size bed.
He stroked her cheek with a hand. She realized a tear had been there.

“I’ll
be back in a moment. Don’t keep me waiting too long!”

Elizabeth
watched him walk out the door. And then she burst into tears. She sobbed
hysterically. And then she caught sight of the window. She ran to it and
quickly opened it. She jumped out and into the night. She had no idea where she
would go, but she knew it would be far away from this monster. However, before
she could take even more than a few steps from the window, a figure jumped from
the roof and dropped directly in front of her. The creature whirled around with
giant fangs, far larger than Aaron's tiny ones had been. This thing was a saber
tooth tiger in comparison. He actually hissed at her and Elizabeth saw that the
whites of the man’s eyes were blood red. She let out a blood curdling scream.
Suddenly, Aaron appeared miraculously at her side and struck the saber tooth
vampire. It went flying back. Aaron scooped her up and put her back through the
window. He followed suit a moment after.

Chapter
4: The Going Away Party

“Are
you coming in, Kitty?”

It
was now the beginning of June, and Elizabeth heard the question asked on her
porch. She was inside her home in Temecula's wine country, enjoying her bon
voyage party and standing by an open window. For the moment, behaving as a
wallflower. She needed a moment to catch her breath after all of that dancing.

“Nope,”
Kitty replied. Kitty was the same age as Elizabeth and had been friends with
her in middle school. Though they both lived in the same part of Temecula, they
had become distant since eighth grade. And it wasn't just because of Elizabeth's
frequent traveling. Still, she knew Elizabeth well enough to get an invitation
to her party. "I thought about it. I showed up here, thinking that I could
bring myself to wish Elizabeth well. But, I just can’t do it. This camping trip
idea is STUPID, and I will not celebrate it. This girl is going camping on a
deserted island by herself! This is one of the most reckless expeditions that I
have ever heard of, and I think it casts female campers in a bad light. She
should go with a group of women or take a family member. Going by herself makes
female outdoorsmen appear undisciplined and negligent.”

“Come
on, Kitty! It’s not that bad. I agree that camping or hiking alone is not
recommended. But what outdoorsman DOESN’T occasionally want to go hiking on his
or her own?”

“You
obviously never saw 127 Hours.”

“I
did see 127 Hours. James Franco was brilliant. But this is totally different.
She's not going out into the wilderness with only a backpack. She’s just
“homesteading” in a log cabin for a few months. Unless that cabin collapses on
her arm, and the only way for her to escape is to cut it off, she should be
fine. Also, take into account how she was raised…”

“I
know how she was raised,” Kitty jumped in. “And good for her that she survived
a childhood like that. But that is no excuse. She is an adult now. I was
friends with her, and when she was in middle school I pushed her brother to
take better care of her. I frequently tried to help Elizabeth be better
socialized and more responsible. But her brother is the biggest narcissist that
ever walked the earth. He won’t accept constructive criticism from anyone, and
Elizabeth isn’t any better. It’s like she just doesn’t get it. She’s putting
herself in a seriously dangerous situation, and if I even attempt to point this
out to her she turns into Medusa. I’m done with the both of them. I can’t
support this going away party. And if the noise gets too loud, I’m calling the
police.” And with that, Kitty gave an exasperated sigh and went back to her own
home across the street.

“That
was quite a monologue,” the man named Jack commented. “She could be an actress.
What a drama queen.”

“Women
are the biggest gossips on the planet. What was that Chris Rock joke?
'"Women could rule the world if they didn’t hate each other so much?”' I
remember when Elizabeth was in middle school. She’s always
been…well…interesting. That old woman is hateful. She could find a way to
backbite anybody,” replied Arthur.

“Elizabeth
is a healthy adult at eighteen and barely a female at that. She’s like a
teenage boy in a dress—a very beautiful teenage boy in a dress. And she’s just
as aggressive as they are, too. I saw her ripping a new one into one of her
brother’s friends this morning.”

With
a laugh, Arthur responded, “He was probably hitting on her. She hates that kind
of thing. She’s cold and doesn’t need anyone. All she thinks about is camping
and travelling. But she’s a smart girl and full of energy. She’s not like her
brother. She’s a hard worker. And she isn’t afraid of anything.”

“The
whole family is bizarre aren’t they? They have a bad gene somewhere. Both their
parents died in a murder/suicide.”

Arthur
hesitated before responding. “I wouldn’t say a bad word about their father.
I've lived in this area my whole life, and from what I've been told, he was a
good man who loved his wife very much. All I know is that his wife had a
history of mild depression. But, after the birth of Elizabeth, she became
psychotic from postpartum depression. Over the next couple of years, her
depression waxed and waned. Medications either stopped working within months or
were barely effective. Eventually, she completely lost it. For reasons that we
may never know, she went to bed one night with her husband, waited until he was
asleep, got out of bed, grabbed the gun out of the safe in their bedroom, and
shot him in the head. Then she shot herself. Austin heard the gunshots and
called 911. He was eleven years old and Elizabeth was only two. I can’t imagine
what that did to their psyches. They were then raised by their rich grandfather
for years until he died. Then Elizabeth became the ward of Austin, because he
was nineteen by that time, and he was exactly as Kitty described him: a lazy
narcissist. He didn’t want to be saddled with parenting a kid sister a
nineteen, so he treated her like a little brother. The result of that is a
cold, eighteen year old woman who dresses and behaves like an angry man. At
least, that's the typical gossip you can hear about their family. Though, as
you can see, she does make an occasional exception about her dress code. She's
got some great curves filling out that little black dress she has on.”