The rest of the week, I eagerly answer messages from Neil, and he responds back seemingly enthusiastically. It never fails to bring a smile to my face either.

That said, my body quivers with more changes every passing day. The bags under my eyes are darkening, and I don't believe it's from my general depression-insomnia combo I had prior to becoming a vampire. It looks permanent, and no amount of cover-up helps. My fangs also have noticeably grown longer, if that is even possible. It's hard to hide them behind my lips, and I wonder how other vamps do it. I make a mental note to ask Abby that as I finger-comb through my dark brown hair in the mirror.

Abby...

My fingers falter, sticking above a knot. I wince, trying to pull through it, but damn. Abby left pretty quickly a few days ago. Sure, she's texted me since then, but I can't help but wonder: what happened to Abby's family and friends after she got turned? Why won't she let me know?

Then, I decide to do something stupid. After tearing my finger through my hair-knot, I pick up my phone. There is a LINGR notification, but for once I ignore it. I go to the dial pad page, hesitating. I can't—

I grit my teeth. No, Vick. Do it.

Dialing that number comes to me more easily than it should. The telltale contact name pops up. My thumb hovers over the green call button, but then I press it.

Another moment where I believe if my heart could thump, it would. Sadly, it stays still, but my mind whirs, and the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. The incessant ringing—

"Hello?"

My eyes widen. It's her.

"Hello? Is anyone there?"

Her voice sounds the same, but I feel I can define its tone more clearly now: notes of a warm cello ringing through the room, the beep of the oven timer, and—

"This isn't funny. Don't call again!"

"W-wait!" I shriek. I gulp: am I really going to do this?

Too late now: she gasps. "W-who is this?! What joke are you playing on me?"

"M-Mom... it's me. Vick."

There is a silence punctuated by one sharp sob on her end. "Whoever this is, this is so cruel to play such a trick on us. How do you know us? How do you know our loss?"

I bite my lip, and my fang pierces it. I ignore the blood pooling at the site of the wound and press forward. "No, Mom. It's really me. It's Vick. I... I never died."

A loud clunk fills my ears, but before I can even ask if she's still there, I hear her sobbing out my father's name, followed by footsteps. Someone picks up the phone and places it to their ear, breathing out one slow breath. "Vick?" he says, his voice gruff and tight. When he sounds like this, I know he's on the verge of crying too. "Vick—how—"

"I'm sorry," I whisper. It is all I have within me not to cry, if I even can anymore, but there is a hollowness in my chest as I listen to them. "I'm sorry. I didn't... didn't know how to tell you—"

"Why would you keep this from us?" my mother says, and I know they've put me on speakerphone now. "This... we never even got your body back, so we assumed the worst—"

The blood from my lip has slipped into my mouth. Its metallic taste makes me hungrier, but I ignore the growl pawing at my throat and swallow it down. "Mom, Dad, I... I need to tell you something."

Damn. Why does coming out as a vampire feel even harder than coming out as nonbinary? (Probably because I let them think I was dead all these months... not good. My stomach's doing flip-flops.)

"What is it, honey?" my mom says.

My dad grunts. "You can tell us anything, Vick."

"I'mavampire," I blurt out.

Silence meets me on the other end.

"Honey, you know we can't understand you when you mumble," Mom says.

I rub the side of my hand across my eyes. This is giving me a headache. "I'm... a vampire."

This silence stretches on. That's okay: I give them time to process. I stay there on the phone (and make some small breathing noises, so they know I'm still there because for a while I wasn't breathing at all—damn vampirism), holding its weight against the side of my face. They, too, only breathe for a bit.

The guilt in my stomach pools, threatens to course up to my eyes and spill over—but then my mom says, "Vick, please come home," and the tears are loose anyway. It's more like my eye sockets gasping out and not producing actual, liquid tears, but the sensation sure feels like the real thing. At any rate, the most important part is hearing my mom coo to me like she did when I was a child.

"Shhh, Vick... it's okay... Mom's here."

Even at age twenty-five, hearing those words puts me at ease instantly.

***

After the call with my parents, I text Neil to tell him what happened. I spend a minute looking at our chat, wondering if he will respond, but then my stomach squirms. It's a bit creepy to wait for someone to respond, right? So, to distract me, I call Abby.

"Hey, hot stuff."

I roll my eyes at her usual greeting for me.

"I know you're rolling your eyes right now."

"How?! Is there another vampire power I should know about?"

She chuckles. "No, Vick, we're not that cool. I just know you after these few months."

"I guess," I grumble.

"So!" Her voice perks up. "What are you up to today? Martha's coming over later, but you can join us for pre-drinks if you'd like."

"Actually, there was something I wanted to tell you." I buzz my lips. "I want to check in, though, and make sure you're comfortable if I bring up the topic of family."

The energy on her end changes; I can tell even from over the phone. She shifts and clears her throat. "It's... fine. What's up?"

"I... called my mom and dad."

"O-oh. How did they take it?"

"They were fine. They asked me if I could come over to their house tomorrow evening for dinner."

"That's great, Vick," she says, and while I can hear an overall flatline to her voice, I also can tell she means it too. "So you're going?"

I feel the corners of my lips turn up. "Yeah. I think I'm finally ready."

"I'm happy for you, Vick."

That same hollow tone emanates from the phone. I grip the phone tighter. "Abby... can you come with me? I know this is a lot to ask, and I know you may already have plans, but—but I don't think I can do this alone."

She hesitates, which is not something Abby normally does. "W-why do you need me there? They don't even know me."

"Hear me out..." I pause, thinking. "I think if you come with me, they may be able to handle the vampire stuff better, you know? They won't be so freaked out if they see that I'm technically 'normal' by vampire standards, right?"

"Right."

"And furthermore"—I straighten up in my coffin, confidence building—"you know your vampire stuff, Abby."

"I should hope so, having been one for three-quarters of a century."

"And—you're my closest friend now." I wince, shrinking down from my confident posture. "Sorry, that might sound a bit weird."

Her soft laugh doesn't fill me with annoyance like it normally would because then she says, "It doesn't. I really value you as a friend, Vick. You're not like other vampires. But that's because you're still a baby fledgling."

My eyes roll again.

"You rolled your eyes again, didn't you?"

"Would you quit that?" But we both laugh, and then I say, "I know this kind of situation might make you feel uncomfortable, Abby, but I'll return the favor. It would be so much better to have you there. My parents will like you, and they'll see that what I'll become—once I'm not a fledgling anymore—isn't something so scary after all, you know?"

"Okay." She says it so softly and quickly that I almost don't catch it. "I'll come with you."

"THANK YOU!" I squeal.

"Jesus, Vick, your supersonic bat boom there might really fuck up my hearing this time."

"Bats?! We can turn into bats?"

We banter back and forth like that for a while. While we're talking, I get a notification on my phone from LINGR:

Neil: DAAAMMMNNN YASSS!!! I am so proud of you, Vick. I bet your parents were so happy to hear from you.

I grin. I reply with the most lovable heart-eyes gif I can find.

"Earth to Vick, earth to Vick. Are you fucking texting while talking to me?" Abby guffaws into the phone. "You are such a millennial!"

"Abby! Now it's your supersonic bat boom voice hurting my ears!"

By the time our conversation winds down, she tells me Martha is almost at her place. "Oh, I'll let you go then." I glance at the time on my phone. "It's almost sit-in-my-coffin-and-binge-watch-Van-Helsing-time anyways."

"A vampire watching a show about a vampire hunter..." I imagine her shaking her head. "Well, no Midwest good-byes from me—"

"Abby, don't make fun of us Midwesterners—"

"Thank you, Vick."

"For what?"

I know she's smiling when she speaks next. "For asking me to go home with you."

"You make it sound so sexual."

"Okay, I'm out—"

"What's wrong, Abby? Can't take the heat from your 'hot stuff'?"

She bursts out laughing. "You've gotten so much bolder, but you're still just a fledgling. See you tomorrow, Vick."

I smirk. "Have a good night."

The other end beeps. I bring the phone down from my ear. It doesn't have to be all angst-ridden, this eternal existence. Maybe there are still some good things to come.