Secret Vampire by LJ Smith

Author:LJ Smith
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Horror & Ghost Stories
Published: 2010-05-20T18:44:53.344000+00:00

One thing about it, Poppy thought-not many people were privileged toknow exactly when they were going to die. So not many people had the chance tosay goodbye the way she planned to. It didn't matter that she wasn't reallydying. Whena caterpillar changes into a butterfly it loses its cater pillar life. No more shinnying up twigs, no moreeating leaves.

No more El Camino High School, Poppy thought.No more sleeping in this bed. She was going to have to leave it all behind. Herfamily,her hometown. Her entire human life. Shewas starting out into a strange new future with noidea of what was ahead. All she could do was trust James-and trust her own ability to adapt.

It was like looking at a pale and curving roadstretching in front of her, and not being able to seewhere it went as it disappeared into the darkness.

No more Rollerblading down the boardwalk atVenice Beach, Poppy thought. No more slap of wetfeet on concrete at the Tamashaw public pool. Nomore shopping at the Village.

To say goodbye, she looked at every corner of herroom. Goodbye white-painted dresser. Goodbye deskwhere she had sat writing hundreds of letters-asproven by the stains where she'd dropped sealing wax on the wood. Goodbye bed, goodbye misty white bed curtains that had made her feel like an Arabian princess in a fairy tale. Goodbye stereo.

ouch,she thought. My stereo. And my CDs.I can'tleave them; I can't....

But of course she could. She would have to.

It was probably just as well that she had to dealwith the stereo before she walked out of her room.It built her up to start dealing with the loss ofpeople.

"Hi, Mom," she said shakily, in the kitchen.

"Poppy! I didn't know you were up."

She hugged her mother hard, in that one momentaware of so many little sensations: the kitchen tileunder her bare feet, the faint coconut smell thatdung to her mother's hair from her shampoo. Hermother's arms around her, and the warmth of hermother's body.

"Are you hungry, sweetie? You look so much better."

Poppy couldn't stand to look into her mother'sanxiously hopeful face, and the thought of food madeher nauseated. She burrowed back into her mother's shoulder.

"Just hold me a minute," she said.

It came to her, then, that she wasn't going to beable to say goodbye to everything after all. She couldn't tie up all the loose ends of her life in one afternoon. She might be privileged to know that this was her last day here, but she was going out just likeeveryone else-unprepared.

"Just remember I love you," she muttered into hermother's shoulder, blinking back tears. She let her mother put her back to bed, then. Shespent the rest of the day making phone calls. Trying to learna little bit about the life she was about toexit, the people she was supposed to know. Trying to appreciate it all, fast,before she had to leave it.

"So, Elaine, I miss you," she said into the mouthpiece, her eyes fixed on the sunlight coming in her window.

"So, Brady, how's it going?"

"So, Laura,thanks for the flowers."

"Poppy, are youokay?"they all said.

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