Smith, L J - Night World 01 by Secret Vampire (v5.0)

Author:Secret Vampire (v5.0) [Vampire, Secret]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

One thing about it, Poppy thought—not many people were privileged to know exactly when they were going to die. So not many people had the chance to say goodbye the way she planned to.

It didn’t matter that she wasn’t really dying. When a caterpillar changes into a butterfly it loses its caterpillar life. No more shinnying up twigs, no more eating 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. Her family, her hometown. Her entire human life. She was starting out into a strange new future with no idea 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 road stretching in front of her, and not being able to see where it went as it disappeared into the darkness.

No more Rollerblading down the boardwalk at Venice Beach, Poppy thought. No more slap of wet feet on concrete at the Tamashaw public pool. No more shopping at the Village.

To say goodbye, she looked at every corner of her room. Goodbye white-painted dresser. Goodbye desk where she had sat writing hundreds of letters—as proven 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’t leave them; I can’t….

But of course she could. She would have to.

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

“Hi, Mom,” she said shakily, in the kitchen.

“Poppy! I didn’t know you were up.”

She hugged her mother hard, in that one moment aware of so many little sensations: the kitchen tile under her bare feet, the faint coconut smell that clung to her mother’s hair from her shampoo. Her mother’s arms around her, and the warmth of her mother’s body.

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

Poppy couldn’t stand to look into her mother’s anxiously hopeful face, and the thought of food made her 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 be able 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 like everyone else—unprepared.

“Just remember I love you,” she muttered into her mother’s shoulder, blinking back tears.

She let her mother put her back to bed, then. She spent the rest of the day making phone calls. Trying to learn a little bit about the life she was about to exit, the people she was supposed to know. Trying to appreciate it all, fast, before she had to leave it.

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