Short Story Sunday: The Morning After

Andy woke up with a feeling his entire body had been taken over by a parasitic monster who was ready to consume him from the inside out in the most painful ways possible. He was barely able to make it from his bed to the bathroom to vomit up the contents of his stomach. A blurry reflection in the mirror showed him with his left eye swollen almost shut and the entire left side of his face covered in what looked like road rash.

His cat came in and called for breakfast in the most pitiful mewing noise it could possibly make.

“Hold on sweetie,” said Andy, who would never fuss at a cat. “Let me clean up and, holy shit, I’ll be right there.”

After a weak and painful attempt to clean up, Andy pulled back his long hair into an elastic pony tail holder and made his way downstairs to the kitchen. On the way down he was his friend James sleeping on the couch in the living room.

That was odd. James had his own guest room.

Andy poked James on the shoulder with his finger. He noticed blood under his nails that hadn’t gone away when he’d attempted to clean up. James opened his eyes.

“What happened? Why are you sleeping on the couch?”

“You don’t remember? You look like hell,” said James, now sitting up.

“Tell me something I don’t know,” said Andy.

“I was sleeping on the couch in case they attempted to follow us back here.”

“Who are they?” Andy sat on the couch next to James. The cat came in and jumped up on his lap. He put his hand on the soft fur as the tiny creature started to purr.

“Awwww man, you really don’t remember do you? Vampire Hunters. We’d gone to the Giant’s game, you know they played the Dodgers, and won. You wanted to celebrate and we ended up at Lola’s, and everyone wanted you to sing. We met some girls, we met some guys, we discreetly got our fill of alcohol fueled blood, then we went out in an attempt to get a ride. Then we were jumped by Vampire Hunters. They wanted you. They wanted you alive for some unknown reason. They didn’t want me. You’re the one they always want.

They just surrounded you, beating you to the point where you couldn’t move. You couldn’t fight them off. So I yelled at them to get their attention. With a calming voice I told them to stop. Andy it took all I had to get into their heads. There were five of them. FIVE. Anyway, they’ll have nightmares for years, and I should have killed them but without a car there was no way to get rid of the bodies. What a shit show. Do you have any idea what they wanted?

“No idea at all. Did you recognize them?” Andy asked.

“No, they were wearing masks. The weird thing is that they all had headphones and seemed to be listening to someone who wasn’t there. Let’s get you to the kitchen and get some ice on your face. I’ll feed the cat.”

In the kitchen James got ice for Andy and food for the cat.

“I’m so thankful they didn’t do more harm to you. Hold that ice on for at least 20 minutes. Oh, and I called your mom,” said James. “She’ll be over in a bit.”

“You didn’t have to do that James. I don’t want to worry her.”

“No worries. She said she’ll take care of everything. I’m sure by now she’ll have hunted down the whole gang and made them all wish they were dead. It would be far too easy, and definitely not as fun if she just eliminated them. Your mom is the best Andy. Don’t you forget it.”

“I won’t. Believe me. Um, do you mind making coffee?”

“No problem. I need some too.”

They heard the click of a key in the front door lock. The cat ran out of the kitchen with happy mewing to greet whoever, or whatever was there.

“Your mom is here,” said James.

Andy smiled. He knew he was fortunate and blessed to be surrounded by people who loved him, and that included his cat. Andy reached up, ignoring the pain in his shoulder, and grabbed another cup out of the cabinet.

Despite their wild night it was going to be a good day. Vampire Hunters think Vampires live so long because they are blood drinking undead ghouls. That isn’t the case at all. It is because of their love each other and positive outlooks, even in horrible situations. Of course having cats helps too.

~ end

Wishing you all a good week with a positive outlook. xoxo Thank you for reading another silly story about my brother Andy. xoxoxo ~ Juliette aka Vampire Maman