Chapter 3
Vampires led to Laughter
For a second, I sat there stunned, then it hit me with what she said.
“BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!” I laughed so hard that I actually fell out of my chair, clutching my sides. I got back up, wiping tears away from my eyes, still laughing a bit. Plopping back onto the couch, I grinned at Anne and told her,”Oh my Freaking jeeze, Anne, I almost thought you were serious.” I thought Anne would break out in laughter or make fun of how gullible I was, but instead, she just grimaced again. Which was odd for her; usually she was all smiles and mocking-ness. She looked.....serious. Creepy.
“Well, uh, Malice, I’m not really joking....” Anne trailed off, and my grin started to fade. She wasn’t trying to prank me? I mean, I guess, if you thought about it, Shame could be a vampire. I mean, he always slept in REAL late in the morning, was a terrible cook, and liked “red wine”even when he was under-aged.. And the only time I had seen him outside was at night time....
No, the logical part of my brain pipped in, he couldn’t be a vampire....you must have seen him sometime out side in the daytime...
But all the times I could remember were when it was cloudy or evening.
Shame defiantly would be the perfect candidate for a vampire.
Wait, I told myself, first make sure you aren’t falling into a sicko prank that Anne and Shame came up with.
I focused back on Anne, who seemed to have discovered a fascination for patterns on the sofa .
“Let’s say,” I started slowly, and Anne glanced up at me,”That Shame is really a vampire.” Anne’s eyebrows shot up in surprise to something I said, but then she nodded, eager for me to try and understand.
“What, does that have to do with Haze.” Anne’s face went blank, and she let out a long
“Ahhhhh.” a.k.a, she wasn’t sure she was supposed to tell me. Anne looked at me, then beckoned for me to lean closer.
“Haze-“
“No, no, no, no.” Shame scolded Anne from behind, causing me to jump, but Anne only leaned back against the chair again.”You told her plenty, thank you very much.”
“She deserved to know,” grumbled Anne, crossing her arms.
Shame rolled his eyes at her, before turning warily to me.  Neither of us said anything for a while, until Shame suddenly spoke to Anne, still watching me from the corner of his eye.
“Wow. No flying objects coming towards my head. I’m surprised.”
Anne sent him an icy glare. It was obvious that she was getting ticked off at that comment being mentioned more than once today.
I just gaped at Shame. I was used to his silent comings and goings, but if you thought of him as being a vampire, well, it just fit in perfectly. But I still wasn’t completely convinced.
“But, y-you can’t b-be a vampire....” I pointed out, stuttering. And why was I stuttering?
“That- that’s impossible......” I trailed off again, while Shame stared at me solemnly.
“Not really, seeing as I am standing here, and I am a vampire, so it’s impossible for it to be impossible.” I never got how he said those things with a straight face.
When I didn’t reply, Shame sighed, and said,”Here, want proof?”
Shame opened his mouth widely. And I watched with fascination as his canines grew longer and sharper. So I was either seeing things, or Shame and Anne were telling the truth. I hoped it was option 2. The happy house wasn’t that happy.
My mind subsided in defeat. My brother was a vampire. I finally realized that. Well, that took a while.
“Oh, my, freaking...... you’re a vampire.” I sat there for about four seconds, before jumping up and hugging Shame.
“THAT IS SO COOL!” Shame looked taken aback, and blinked at me.
“Your not mad, hurt, or.....afraid?” he asked quizickly.
“HECK I”M MAD!” I stepped back and lightly punched his arm.
“Why didn’t you tell me before! That is so just...AAAAAHH! It’s just so cool!”
Shame burst out laughing, and Anne joined in, while I stood there like an idiot, staring at them.
“What?” I asked.
Shame kept chuckling, but answered my question,”It’s just a ....bit of different answer than I received in the past.” he glanced again at Anne, who rolled her eyes back, and it finally dawned on me.
“No fair!” I whined at Anne, still smiling like a dork.”You knew and didn’t tell me! You are totaly being taken off my best friends list on DA!”
Anne mocked a hurt expression.”Hey, it’s not like I didn’t want to tell you. Mr. Oh-She-Doesn’t-Need-to-Know over there wouldn’t let me!”
“Oh.” I said shrugging.”Fine. I’ll just take him off my best friends list.”
“Thanks a lot.” Shame said thick with sarcasm.
I grinned, but it slowly faded away when I thought of my earlier question.”Wait, what does this have to do with Harold?”
“Haze,” Shame corrected bitterly.”And I am not going to tell you.”
“Heh, it’s not to hard to figure out.” I said, trying to sound as if it wasn’t important.
Anne and Shame stared at me, frozen.
“He’s a vampire, isn’t he?” Yeesh, I sounded like a little girl who wanted a puppy dog! And I am not sure how that metaphor fit in with this situation, but oh well.
Shame nodded wearily, and I grinned triumphantly.
Plopping down on the sofa, I said smugly.”I knew it.”
Anne stared at me for a second before asking,”Is that all you know?”
I leaned forward, and exclaimed,”THERE”S MORE?! Tell me!”
Shame rolled his eyes.”Nice going Anne. Why don’t we just tell her what he’s up to instead of giving super-obvious hints?”
“Works for me,” Anne and I said at the same time. We grinned at each other. It was obvious she was on my side in this.
“No.” Shame said firmly.
“Well, why not?” Anne said, folding her arms across her chest.
“Because she doesn’t need to have nightmares for the rest of her life.”
I rolled my eyes.”Hell-oooo? I am RIGHT HERE!”
“Right, sorry,” Shame said absently mindedly, before turning back to Anne.
“Whether or not we are going to tell her is not the topic at hand,” Shame always started talking like an old English dude when he was nervous or stressed. I had a feeling that is was both. I had to struggle to tell what the heck he was saying,”What are we going to do to stop the matter is.”
Anne nodded grimly.
“What ARE we going to do? It’s not like you can solve it by running again.” she said with a sad note.”He already has a fresh sample of her scent.”
“ I know,” Shame agreed, nodding solemnly.
“Plus, I’d miss you guys to much,” Anne added, at an attempt to keep the mood light. For some odd reason, it worked, and Shame gave her a small smile. I rolled my eyes. It was to obvious that they liked each other. I just wasn’t sure if they saw it in each other.
“YE-ah, I still don’t know what your talking about. What, does Hank-“
“Haze,” Shame corrected again.
“Whatever. Anyways, does he want to kill me or something?”
Shame gave me an odd stare, and I flushed, feeling stupid.”What?”
“You read way too many vampire fictions.”
“Well,” I retorted,”I never found any non-fiction. How is that MY fault? Who didn’t let me know they were a vampire? That’s right, you. Not me. So Ha.” by the time I finished the sentence I knew that I had lost by a long shot.
Shame knew that too, and just rolled his eyes at me again. I sighed, and then, seeing as how they were not going to tell me about Haze, I decided to ask the all important vampire questions.
“Shame,” I said rather bluntly,”Do vampire’s burn in sunlight?” Shame gave me a wry smile.
“Actually, yes they do. We can stand small amounts of sunlight, but anymore gives us quite a nasty burn.” I looked at him dumbfounded, then asked another.
“Can you turn into a bat?” Shame laughed, and answered,
“Well, I can’t but I’ve heard that some other vampire’s have that power.” my eyes grew wide.
“What’s your power, Shame?” he grinned suddenly, and said
“Watch,” I watched him, and I think my eyeballs almost fell out of my head.
SHAME WAS DISAPPEARING!!!
Well, almost. He was like, fading into the wall! Everything of him was camouflaged, except his eyes, which were sticking out like bright brown gems (and yeah, I know, there is no such things as a brown gem. I think)
“Pretty cool, eh?” Anne asked, looking at Shame’s brown eyes, and I guess where Shame should’ve been.
“Awesome,” I breathed.
Shame appeared again, grinning.
“Thank you,” he said, mock bowing.
I sat there for a moment, thinking about his awesome power. Then a thought suddenly dawned on me.
“Wait,” I said slowly, “It was you who lifted the cookie jar when I was 4!”
Shame looked at me blankly, then realization lit his face. He grinned, and watched me fume.
“YOU IDIOT! I THOUGHT THE COOKIE JAR WAS HAUNTED FOR A YEAR!”
Shame just chuckled, and I thought my head was going to blow up from all my anger.
“Calm down, Malice,” he said, trying to persuade me. It didn’t work.
Not wanting to break something, I huffed and sat back down on the sofa.
“You know,” I growled,”If holy water does work on you, I’m getting it when I go out for groceries.”
“Ahh,” Shame said, still having that stupid grin on his face,” too bad it doesn’t work on us” he paused then added, “Neither do crosses for that matter,”
“Great,” I said sarcasm dripping from my tone.
“Besides,” he added, shrugging,” even if that did work, I would still be faster and stronger,” this piped my interest.
“You have vampire speed and strength?” I asked, anger forgotten.
“Yes, it came in handy when mom told me to go catch you when you ran off.”
“So that’s why I never won any of those races,” I muttered to myself.
“Pretty much,” he said shrugging again.
“Cheater,” I mumbled, to low for even Anne to hear it, and she was right next to me.
But I guess vampire’s have super senses, because Shame heard me just fine.
“Not really. I was just-“
“Okay, okay,” I said hurriedly, “ I get it.” we were silent for a moment, before I bluntly asked,
“What’s Haze’s power?” Shame grimaced.
“Shadow shifting.” he answered, icily. I gave him a blank look.
He sighed, before saying impatiently. “ He can melt into the shadows, sort of like me, only he can disappear completely, almost like he turns into the shadow it’s self.”
“Ohhh,” I said, getting it. Shame glanced at me and then Anne, and said,
“I think she knows enough now,”
“WHAT!?!” I yelled, and Anne said,
“No she doesn’t!” at the same time. But this time, Shame wasn’t budging.
“Malice, why don’t you go shopping?” he tried persuading me with my favorite activity.
“Nuh-uh.” I said, shaking my head.
Shame gave me a death look, but pointed towards the front door.
“If you don’t go now, we’ll make you leave.”
“And who is this we?” Anne asked snappily,”She has even more right to know now.”
Shame ignored the last part of Anne’s statement, and said icily,
“Fine. I”LL make you leave.” I knew he would too. When Shame wants something done, he get’s it done.
“GAH.” I exclaimed, throwing my hands up in surrender,”FINE. I’ll leave.” I walked towards the front door, then turned and said to Shame,
“Just so you know, I’m spending your whole credit card.”
Shame rolled his eyes, and said simply,”Go.” then added,”And if I even catch your scent around here while were talking.....”
I had to admit, that was the strangest threat I had ever heard.
Grabbing my purse(and of course, Shame’s credit card) I walked out the front door.