Next part out the 31st. Dec.
PART TWO
Charlotte stared blankly at the lights for a minute, trying to take everything in. She noticed this latest project was colour-coordinated. There were only reds, yellows and greens. That was something, at least. When they were about to paint his house, Cornelius had showed up with a dozen colours, suggesting rainbows because he'd seen one earlier that morning. Charlotte had shot down that idea, the neighbours would have made a riot, and soon she would have to do the same about this one.
"You know," Cornelius said, and Charlotte looked around for him, confused until she looked up. He was on the roof. Cornelius hated heights. His newest obsession had to be a strong one.
"I've never really celebrated Christmas properly before!" he said.
"Really?" asked Charlotte politely. Curiosity quenched her desire to tell Cornelius to yell a little bit louder, 'cause she didn't think old deaf Mrs Spitznogle five houses away couldn't hear him go on about his vampire unlife.
He scooted over to the edge of the roof, busy figuring out exactly which bulb on the long string of Christmas lights didn't work and cancelled out the rest of them.
"When I was young, or well, younger, I guess since I'll never get physically older, we didn't celebrate like this. When I became, you know, I thought it was unlike our kind to celebrate and ignored it, mostly. And then, from the nineteen twenties and onwards, I've happened to live in very artsy communities, struggling artists, that sort of thing - but even though all my friends claimed they hated their parents, they would still go home for Christmas and I didn't have anyone to celebrate with."
"And I guess your wives didn't approve of Christmas either?" Charlotte queried, already knowing the answer.
"No," Cornelius answered promptly. "They demanded expensive presents, though."
He finally unscrewed and replaced the broken light bulb, and the whole string lit. Charlotte noticed there were some huge, unlit lights around the house and wondered what they were for.
"I saw your snowman yesterday, and I just thought - wow, I've never really had the chance to decorate my house for Christmas."
Cornelius put the string in its right place, and got down from the roof, looking rather relieved to touch ground again.
"So," he continued, brushing snow off his pants, "I looked up some vids on YouTube, and they were really flashy, and then I found a few tutorials, and then I ordered some stuff from Ebay, and they had overnight delivery, and I just love the twenty-first century, it's amazing that you can just click and pay and then it shows up on your doorstep. You don't even have to talk to anyone."
Charlotte noticed he looked tired. "You've been at this all night, haven't you?"
"Yep," Cornelius stated proudly. "And this is going to be my first almost proper Christmas, and it's going to be so nice. I've already wrapped your present. It wasn't as easy as I thought. Mistoffeles tried to help and he shredded the paper twice."
At that Charlotte's resolve to tell him this was way over the top, melted away. The hell, she thought, let the neighbours think whatever they want to!
"What did you need help to?" she asked.
"There are only a few minor adjustments left," Cornelius said, and then turned to her with a serious look on his face. "You don't think it's too much, do you?"
Charlotte turned quickly away from him to hide her face and the shocked look she sported, pretending to scrutinize the decorations while scrambling for something to say. She didn't have the heart to tell the truth. It was just so Cornelius to ask about the obvious and expect an honest answer, and one that praised his hard work. He'd been at this for hours.
Charlotte had a theory that vampires who hibernated came out a little funny, and that it took a while for it to pass. Cornelius was normal most of the time, with the occasional crazy moment.
"It's very flashy," she started. And it can be seen from outer space, she continued to herself without plans to say that aloud. "It's not normal," she said frankly. "But it doesn't have to be. I think it's very you."
Cornelius tilted his head at the house, trying to figure out how the lights looked like him, but gave up.
Both vampires jumped at a loud cry of "HELLO!" behind them.
Mrs Spitznogle had ignored the advice from her doctor about staying indoors in bed while the ankle she had sprained two weeks ago healed, and instead headed off to the mall for some Christmas goodies. Helen Spitznogle had better things to do than listening to that young doctor man, he was nothing but a quack and she regretted not telling him so, but Cornelius Reading, that was something else, he was a nice young man, she liked him. He'd often drive her to the mall, but this time she'd had to go alone, otherwise he would have found out about his Christmas present.
Cornelius beamed at the sight of Mrs Spitznogle. "Hello!"
"IT LOOKS VERY NICE!" Mrs Spitznogle said, waving a shopping bag at them from the sidewalk.
"Oh thanks! I've been at it a couple hours!"
Charlotte found Mrs Spitznogle's volume too high even at this distance. Cornelius must have noticed too.
"You're shouting more than usual!" Cornelius bellowed at her. "Are you wearing your hearing aid?" he asked.
"YOUNG MAN, YOU NEED TO SPEAK UP, I CAN'T HEAR YOU!" Mrs. Spitznogle answered. Cornelius sucked in breath and repeated his question even louder. This time Mrs. Spitznogle heard him. "OH, THOSE USELESS THINGS. I DON'T NEED THEM!" she yelled back.
"Oh," said Cornelius. "Well, I'll let you know when I'm finished with the house, and then you can come and see the big finish!"
Charlotte tried to shield her face so Mrs Spitznogle wouldn't recognise her. She was about to breathe out when the old woman cried out to her: "SO CHARLIE, ARE YOU LOOKING FORWARD TO CHRISTMAS?"
"Of course I am!" Unlike Cornelius, Charlotte walked down to the old woman to carry on the conversation without shouting. While Mrs Spitznogle wouldn't tell her mom she had seen Charlotte at Cornelius' house, mostly because the two would never speak, the whole street would hear their conversation if they had to shout.
"HAVE YOU GOTTEN YOURSELF A BOYFRIEND NOW?" Mrs Spitznogle asked, casually trampling over what Charlotte considered private.
"Not yet, I don't really care about that kind of stuff."
"YOU'LL FIND YOURSELF A NICE LAD, OR GIRL, WE DON'T KNOW, THESE ARE NEW TIMES, YOU JUST WAIT AND SEE." Mrs Spitznogle adjusted her grip on the shopping bags. "I GOT TO GO NOW, I HAVE TO WRAP IN CORNELIUS' CHRISTMAS PRESENT."
The old lady actually lowered her voice. "I got him a nice-"
"No, no, don't say it!" Charlotte blurted, knowing not the slightest human whisper would escape vampire ears, not at this distance. "He's so curious about his presents, he's probably listening to what we're saying. Better keep it a secret."
"OH, MY KIDS WERE LIKE THAT ALL THE TIME, YOU SHOULD HAVE SEEN THEM," Mrs Spitznogle laughed. "YOU'LL FIND OUT LATER, YOU NOSY YOUNGSTER!" she bellowed at Cornelius, who was preoccupied searching through yet another box filled with assorted decorations from Ebay, actually too busy to even notice the conversation taking place on the sidewalk.
He looked up with a "Huh?", and when he didn't get an explanation, he went back to figuring out what colour the garlands around his door should be. Should he put up the green or red ones? At last he couldn't decide so he put both up.
After declining Charlotte's offer to carry the shopping bags to her house, Mrs Spitznogle waddled happily along, muttering about "young rascals".
Charlotte turned around to see Cornelius stringing up lights on his patio. Where the hell had he gotten all the lights from? The thought of Cornelius robbing some electrical store crossed Charlotte's mind. She thought against telling him about the absurd thought. Burglary was a hobby he would have picked up with ease. Best not to mention it, or she would be bailing him out of jail before the week was over.
Not that he would have to steal anything. Some of the funds he had placed money in during the late seventies had really paid off. Cornelius had taken an early (and secret, because it was über-nerdy back then) interest in computers. He spent most of his fortune on Ebay, and cat food.
Remembering what had woken her, Charlotte walked up to him.
"Why are you flashing the lights?"
"Oh, I'm trying to program it," Cornelius explained. "I want the flashes to synchronise with a song, I saw a video on the web and it looked really cool. Except I don't know how to do it and I didn't understand any of the manuals."
He opened yet another box and unpacked a reindeer from it. "Where should we put this?"
Charlotte looked around. "It'd look nice by the tree, don't you think?"
"Perfect. Do you want the honour?"
Cornelius handed her Rudolf and Charlotte put it in place. At a second glance, Cornelius' house and decorations didn't look half bad, she thought, and felt the fuzzy Christmassy feeling sneak up on her.
It wasn't easy to see Cornelius so psyched. Charlotte felt awful about it, but she would have to leave him all to himself during the holidays. Not that she had much of a choice. Her parents would certainly question it if she said she wanted to stay at a friend's place, and inviting that neighbour over was out of the question.
At least she would have the last years of pretending to be a human together with them. In a few years they would start to wonder why she didn't grow older, or change at all, and she would have to leave her old life and family behind, probably fake her death or something.
Charlotte cleared her throat and shoved thoughts of the future away. She'd have eternity to mull it over, no sense in starting now.
Cornelius carried a plastic Santa over to the garden gnome. "I'll have to fix the flash lights later," he said, thinking aloud. The Santa smiled despite his creepy companion, poor guy.
"Maybe you'll even bother to read the manuals?" Charlotte suggested.
"I did read them. I just didn't understand them," countered Cornelius. He walked over to her with a frown. "Now I think I have programmed it to flash every... fifth minute or so." He got a contemplative look on his face. "Speaking of which..."
He checked his phone and promptly turned around to ace the street, not the house. "I think it's roughly about five minutes since the last flash, maybe you should-"
There was a blinding flash and this time Charlotte cried out, staggering back in pain and sinking to her knees, both hands in front of her eyes. It had just been light, but the pain was like her face had been bashed in.
"... turn around," Cornelius finished meekly. "Five minutes till the next one!"
"Good, I might have regained my sight in five minutes," Charlotte muttered darkly, slowly scrambling up from the snow and waiting for her eyes to adjust. On top of the stabbing in her eye sockets, she felt a major headache forming in the back of her skull.
Cornelius helpfully dusted the snow off her legs. "You alright?"
"I'll be fine," Charlotte muttered from behind her hands. She had to keep her eyes closed. It still hurt.
"Let me see."
Cornelius was barely allowed to pry her hands away from her face and have a quick look. He frowned, with reason. Charlotte noted with worry that his face was a little fuzzy.
"The lights are unusually strong," he admitted. "They're meant to light industrial sites, maybe you need a dark room. Come on, we'll finish up things later out here."
Charlotte stumbled towards the house with Cornelius as a guide, instructed to keep her eyes shielded and everything would be fine.
When he suggested he could carry her up the stairs to the patio she outright refused on part of her already wounded pride.
"I might be blinded but I still have legs. Just look, they're there." Charlotte's face burned bright red underneath her palms, but hopefully Cornelius was looking at her feet.
"Under the snow, perhaps," Cornelius sighed, as she had just managed to slip from his grasp into a conveniently placed pile of snow. He was impossible at this, really.
"I'll be fine, thanks. Let's just get inside before anyone sees us and calls the cops or whatever."
Cornelius looked at her. She wasn't annoyed at him, just embarrassed, even though this was his entire mistake. He appreciated that about her. He was aware he had a few eccentricities, but she didn't point them out to him that often. Charlotte was a good person. He respected her.
He even understood why she didn't want to be carried. She already felt vulnerable and it would be a bit awkward. Even though they were friends, there was always a respectful distance. His right hand was resting on her right shoulder. The other held her left hand. They didn't touch that often.
A vampire sire would understand more of a fledgling than Cornelius had let on to Charlotte. All that worry she hid behind the tough exterior had to be maddening.
But the five steps up to the patio, in addition to the mere metre to the front door seemed like a mile. For all her admirable qualities, Charlotte was never any good at being told what to do, even when she could see.
"Why aren't you silent? No, don't you dare!"
"I'm abducting you again," Cornelius simply said and hoisted her over his shoulder, actually just like that time. Except that Charlotte had been out cold then, and unable to shout at him and protest and tell him to "PUT ME DOWN!"
"In just a moment," Cornelius grumbled, stepping over a few boxes in their path. "I think you've put on some weight," he commented, getting a playful but somewhat irritated smack on his back in response.
The moment Charlotte was sat down in a chair, Mistoffeles spotted an opportunity for pettings and sped across the room, navigating around wires and bulbs and glittering garlands before ending up on her lap where he curled up in a ball.
Meanwhile Cornelius had flicked off every light downstairs and drawn the blinds. The last light out, he waited just a moment for his eyes to adjust and then he was able to take on the obstacle course that was his living room. It was a bit messy, he had to admit. He'd have to clean up and remember to decorate before he invited Mrs Spitznogle over for dinner. He still had a few small things left to consider, like food and preparation. He was fairly sure he would make a good chef. He just needed to read up on all these strange human traditions. How did they keep track of them? And how did they manage without night vision?
Cornelius walked casually through the mess. "You can open your eyes by the way," he said.
"It doesn't hurt any longer," Charlotte said, sounding somewhat relieved.
"Good," Cornelius said. "I might have something that'll help. Just wait a minute."
He slipped out to the kitchen and got out the blood he kept refrigerated, hid amongst human food. He found he quite liked buying human food. It was fun to bring home the strangest fruits he could find.
Charlotte stared at him when he returned with a glass of blood. "Will that help?"
"I'm not sure. It helps with some injuries."
"You're fussing, I'll be fine."
"We are nocturnal. Light can be bad for us."
"Alright then," Charlotte sighed. "Gimme."
Cornelius didn't hand the glass over. "It would be best if you applied it directly to your eyes."
There was a beat in which the Magical Mister Mistoffeles' purring was the only sound that could be heard.
"I'll have to put blood in my eyes?"
"It sounds really weird when you say it like that," Cornelius sighed.
"It's so glamorous to be a vampire."
"I know," Cornelius said, dipping a spoon in the glass. He hadn't found anything else to use. It would have to suffice.
Charlotte grimaced in disgust but sank back in the seat. "Just get it over with."
"You know," Cornelius said, dripping blood into Charlotte's left eye, "Mrs Spitznogle usually spends Christmas with her daughter's family."
"They come over every year."
Charlotte blinked as the red liquid hit her eyes, and it ran down her cheeks. It looked like blood tears, Cornelius thought, the metaphor bringing back the horrid poetry he had written during the nineties.
"But this year," Cornelius continued, "they're going to visit their kids instead."
"So they're leaving her alone?"
"In a manner, I guess. But haven't you complained about how horrible it's to celebrate with a bunch of relatives you have to pretend you like?"
"Only a little."
Cornelius decided he and Charlotte had very different definitions of the phrase a little. "Anyway I asked her if she wanted to come over and celebrate with me."
"You're probably the nicest vampire ever."
Cornelius wasn't sure about that. He stared at Charlotte's body absorbed the blood on her skin. Really a fascination, if somewhat morbid, sight. "How does it feel now?"
"Better." Charlotte snorted and gave a short nervous laugh that startled Mistoffeles and made him leap off her lap. "Oh, that's a horrible thing, you just poured human blood all over my face and now I feel better."
Cornelius shrugged, "There are those who do worse," and walked into the kitchen again to wash the glass. It was best to dispose of all blood evidence at once, just in case.
Charlotte followed. "We're not that bad. But we're not normal either."
Seeing the giant turkey occupying a whole counter, she forgot about the philosophical struggle of being a nice vampire.
"You completely ignored Halloween," Charlotte grumbled, still remembering how she had, for once, been the cheerful moron who tackled a project with glee. But when she showed up in a witch costume complete with a green, hooked nose, bushy wig and long, large claws she had painstakingly glued to her fingernails, Cornelius had stared at her like... like she had a green, hooked nose, bushy hair and long, large claws.
Then he had explained that most Dark & Evil Creatures of the Night take the day off to avoid being mistaking for being in costume.
"You should have seen the look on Lord Nightstalker's face in 1986, when we forgot which day it was. He was hugged by a three year old girl in a sparkling pink tutu because she thought he was Count von Count - you know, the one vampire off Sesame Street!" Cornelius had paused to chuckle. "Then her mother made him pose for a photo with the kid. He complained about pink glitter on his cloak until January."
"Well," Cornelius said, rinsing bleach off the spoon, "you don't get presents at Halloween, do you?"
"I see the consumerism of the twenty-first century has gotten to you."
A merry ding-dong from the front door interrupted them.
Charlotte tensed up at once. This had to be a very bad thing. Cornelius never had visitors. Not many of his few friends would ever willingly visit a mundane neighbourhood, and worse, even fewer of them wouldn't stick out like sore thumbs. There was no saying what would happen if one of the neighbours saw them.
Cornelius looked like he had similar fears. "I guess I'll have to answer that."
"I have your back," Charlotte said. The visitor could be unriendly. Lord Nightstalker had been one of Cornelius' friends, but that didn't stop him from trying to murder Charlotte.
She was completely calm, ready for anything when Cornelius opened the door. Except there was no way she was prepared at all.
Charlotte's insides froze as she heard her mom say: "Oh hello, Mr Reading! Merry Christmas!"
Ingen kommentarer:
Legg inn en kommentar