Conway, Massachusetts, 1984
Agatha banged her head against her desk with an increasing vigor. This was not how things were supposed to go. It should have been simple, she’d done this dozens of times before, honed her craft to perfection, yet here she was with a cacophony of words caught in her mind with no way to get them out.
Last week Elle had come up with the brilliant idea that Agatha should write her own novel. Having frequently found herself in the mindset of trying to impress Elle, Agatha instantly agreed. The concept seemed so perfect at first. After all, Agatha had practically read every single book in the library, it only made sense that she then add to it.
Of course that would be easier said then done.
Agatha had never really thought of herself as much of a writer. Sure she had written stories before, but those were always quick, maybe a few pages at best. This however was supposed to be a novel, a full book, potentially hundreds of pages far more than anything she was ever used to making in the past.
She didn’t even know where to begin. All her knowledge and interest of books and stories had fled from her mind.
Deciding that perhaps mind numbing frustration was not the most productive way to brainstorm a book Agatha decided to go for a quick walk around the library. Normally she would go outside, but there is currently quite the snowstorm pushing through and Agatha was not nearly bundled up enough to survive that kind of weather, vampire or not.
Well, actually she probably could, but she still didn’t want to test that theory.
The aisles of books went practically untouched today. The blizzard keeping everyone inside. It’d be a good time to feed if she needed to. Emergency services would take a long time to get to any body that was reported, if it was found at all.
Agatha let out a sigh and shook the thought away. She was glad her days of having to kill to eat are long over.
As it turns out there are plenty of other vampires that weren’t too keen on eating people everyday. About thirty years ago one of them got the bright idea to start an underground blood bank. Collecting blood and storing it in these huge ice boxes. Took a while to spread to other places but the idea seemed to stick with most vampires, especially the younger ones. Nowadays odds were if there was a collective of vampires in a city, that city had some kind of way to get blood guilt free.
Agatha had been more than eager to make the switch. The guilt and trauma from over twenty years of murder being plenty to sway her opinion.
There was a sudden gust of cold air that ran through the library, easily piercing through Agatha’s clothes. Looking towards the entrance she spotted Elle knocking the snow from her boots. She’s carrying a bag with a generic dragon logo on it. Agatha didn’t really understand Elle’s fixation with Chinese food, she seemed to get take out from that place several times per week.
Agatha watched through the book shelves as Elle made her way towards her little office space. Unlike Agatha’s, Elle’s desk was a mess. A collage of magazine cut outs, dozens of books dog eared to various pages, and various personal items she had collected over the years.
“Hey Aggie, you make any progress yet?” Elle shouted through the shelves.
“Why are you so invested in this fictional book,” Agatha said.
“Ah so you’ve at least narrowed it down to a genre, I hear that’s a good start,” Elle said.
Agatha smiled as she rolled her eyes. She wandered back around and leaned against her own desk.
“Also you do know this is supposed to be a quiet space right?”
“Oh relax, there was like a ninety percent chance no one had shown up in the what twenty minutes I’ve been gone,”
“Fair enough, and you’d be correct. Still you did rudely interrupt my valuable plot thinking,” Agatha said. “I could have been on the verge of a break through. We’ll never know now.”
“Eh, if you wouldn’t have remembered it it couldn’t have been that good anyway,” Elle started pulling boxes out from the bag and arranging them in front of her.
“So what culinary masterpiece have you got today?”
“Just the classic. Good ole beef and broccoli,” Elle said.
“Really? Again? This is the third time this week, and it’s Wednesday,” Agatha said. “Also on our paychecks? That cannot be good on your wallet.”
“But it is good on my stomach. Besides I don’t really have any other expenses, my husband is a kind and benevolent soul who grants me whatever my heart desires,” Elle places a hand over her heart as she fawns about her husband.
“Speaking of, Aggie when was the last time you went out on a date?” Elle pivoted to one of her favorite talking points. “You really should be getting on that. You won’t be young forever.”
Agatha stifled a chuckle.
“What, like you’re some poor old lady already?” Agatha said.
“Practically. Twenty seven is the new forty, or so they say,”
“I’ve literally never heard anyone say that ever,”
“Still you can’t keep blaming it on bad exes forever. And if not a man than why not a girl? I hear that’s a thing women have been doing recently,” Elle poked at Agatha. “Although that whole thing doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. I don’t see the appeal.”
“It’s not bad exes, it’s good exes. The first ma— person, I fell in love with was literally perfect I’ve been trying and failing to chase that high for literal decades,”
“Decades?” Elle giggled.
“Hyperbole, Elle,” Agatha bit her tongue a little bit.
“Well if he was so perfect why aren’t you with him anymore?”
“It’s kind of hard to date someone who’s dead,” Agatha slumped into her chair, trying to keep her churning emotions down.
“Oh… I’m sorry I asked,”
“It’s fine I’m over it,”
“It really sounds like you’re not,”
“Well I’m over it as much as I can be over it,”
“Would you like some fried rice?” Elle, not wanting to keep the mood in such a depressing state steered the conversation yet again.
“You know I can’t eat that stuff,”
“Yea, yea, your weak stomach or whatever. Come on just a little, this stuff is to die for,” Elle grabbed an extra plastic fork that had been thrown into the take out bag and held it and the box out towards Agatha to take.
Agatha sighed, lifting herself off her desk she rolled her chair a little closer to grab the fork which she methodically pried out from the plastic wrapper. She scooped an extremely modest amount of rice and made a little show of it as she put it in her mouth.
It was good, it had a mildly pleasant saltiness to it as well as a soft texture. For the most part Agatha had culled her desires of human food, but as the flavor washed through her senses Agatha couldn’t help but mindlessly smile ever so slightly.
“See?” Elle pulled the box back and ate some herself. “It’s good stuff.”
“If I don’t vomit in the next hour I’d be prone to agree,”
“Really, from only that much?” Elle frowned a little.
“My condition is quite fickle,”
“Well I wish it wasn’t, I never see you eat anything. I sometimes get concerned you don’t eat at all,”
“What are you my mom?”
“I like to imagine myself more as a cool aunt,” Elle beamed at Agatha.
“I’m older than you,” Agatha laughed.
“Yea but again,” Elle pointed to herself. “Married, so that gives me seniority or something.”
***
Agatha spun around in her chair stopping as she passed a window. The storm had calmed down, it wasn’t a complete whiteout anymore. Her eyes started to burn as she stared through the snow. She spun her chair back around and blinked a few times before holding her eyes shut.
She hated winter. Summer was bad enough with her skin burning twice as fast as a normal person and the sun staying up for much longer stretches, but winter was its own beast. She could barely see straight half the time. The glare from everything being perpetually painted white made her feel like she would go blind at any minute, yet she never did. Agatha was lucky too, for many vampires they handled the sun even worse than she did.
With the all encompassing white all over the region all Agatha wanted to do right now was be somewhere else.
“We should take a vacation,”
“A vacation, where’s this coming from?” Elle said.
“I don’t know, I think it might be good for me, head south, somewhere a little warmer, somewhere a little less bright,”
“Ooh, and it could be good for your book!” Elle excitedly jumps in her seat.
“And that too I suppose,”
“Can I bring Tom?”
“Eh, I’d rather it just be a girls trip, you know?” Agatha said. “Plus if Tom comes than I’ll just feel like I’m third wheeling the whole time which is not all that relaxing.”
“Lame, but sure. Where were you thinking?” Elle asked.
“Florida? Maybe the Everglades,”
“You want to go on a vacation to just hang out in a swamp?”
“Where, doesn’t really matter, it just needs to be warm, dark, and not here, all of which describe a southern swamp quite nicely if I’m not mistaken,” Agatha mused.
“If that was the effect you were going for, that can be achieved with just a comically large supply of blankets, no swamp needed,”
“Except I don’t want to burrow away into a depression cocoon. And it fails the vital ‘not here’ criteria,”
“Fine, I’ll consider it, but only if we can actually hit a real beach while we’re there and not some mud pit,”
“Wonderful. Let’s book some plane tickets,” Agatha said.
As the day winded down, so too did the storm. After a series of long and mildly stressful phone calls to a travel agency, Agatha had secured two round trip tickets to Florida. The incredibly impulsive decision would have taken a sizable chunk out of a typical librarian’s bank account; thankfully for Agatha she was not a typical librarian.
“Alright Elle, I am taking off, going to abuse this lull in the weather as much as possible.” Agatha said as she rose from her desk and stuffed her things into a bag. “Also we leave next Thursday, so be packed.”
“Oh that soon? Will we even be able to get that time off?” Elle asked.
“Don’t worry about, already talked to Steven and we are all good to go,”
“You seem strangely eager to get out of here, I thought you liked Conway,” Elle fake pouted.
“I do, I just despise winter,” Agatha curled her fists tightly in front of her as if to mime strangling the personification of winter.
“I really don’t get how you can survive living such a dull life,” Elle said. “You don’t like mornings, you don’t like summer, winter, huh pretty much anything to do with the sun really. You’re like a vampire, boring.”
Agatha flinched a little at Elle throwing out the term. Agatha knew Elle was joking of course, but it was still strange to be correctly called out for some of her reclusive behaviors.
“And I’ve been trying to work on it, thus Florida. I’ve been cooped up for a few years and it has been pretty nice, but I think I need to stretch my legs just for a little bit, see how the rest of the world has changed,” Agatha nodded towards Elle, “Plus you’ll be with me so there’s no way it’ll be dull.”
“Aggie sharing her emotions, how clandestine. I feel honored,”
“Oh shut up,” Agatha laughed and Elle quickly followed suit.
“Well see you tomorrow, let me know if you get any book progress!” Elle shouted out as Agatha walked out the library towards her tiny junker of a car.
