The sleep Agatha had so desperately wanted to join Elle in didn’t last. She was already having a poor morning and this reprieve was supposed to get her in the mood for the rest of the trip, or at the very least the rest of the day, but clearly someone was not happy with that plan for no other reason than perhaps to spite her.
It’d been a little over an hour since take off and Elle was still blissfully asleep in the seat next to her and showed no sign of waking anytime soon. Elle looked so peaceful as she slept. Her blonde hair draped just over her shoulders, a single strand fell right in-between her eyes. Agatha wanted to just reach over and tuck the out of place lock behind her ear.
After half reaching over and pausing about a dozen times Agatha eventually gave in and brushed the stray hair behind Elle’s ear. This stirred Elle, not enough to wake her but enough to cause her to shift in the cramped seat. Eventually she settled with her head leaning ever so slightly towards Agatha. Gravity quickly pulled her down, leaving Elle resting against Agatha’s shoulder. It was nice.
To say Agatha had problems with people and further people touching her was a bit of an understatement. Even as a kid she was not to fond of people touching her in any capacity. There were a few exceptions, select close friends or the rare long term partner. And as Elle slid firmly into the close friend category, perhaps easily her closest and best friend she’s ever had, Agatha welcomed the slight touch. The weight of her body pushing against her own, their warmth spread out between them.
Agatha leaned into Elle, now both of their heads were resting on each other. The anxiety and stress of the morning all seemed to slip away. It didn’t take long until Agatha felt the onset of sleep once again.
***
The jostling of the plane landing wakes both Agatha and Elle. Agatha’s shoulder now slightly damp from Elle accidentally drooling on her while sleeping.
“Oops sorry about that,” Elle says straightening out her posture. “It’ll dry right up, no one will notice.”
Agatha doesn’t respond, not because she doesn’t want to but because she is unable to focus on any particular thing at the moment. The noises of the plane, the passengers starting to murmur and get ready to leave, the rapid descent leaving her ears not yet popped, all whirl around her head leaving her in a nauseas mess. The only sensation that manages to pierce that even for a moment is an urge that lays much lower— hunger.
Did she eat this morning? She had to have. There’s no way she would be so careless as to potentially endanger an enclosed space full of delicious food. Shit… thinking of people as food is usually not something she does.
What a fun way to start what was supposed to be a fun trip with her friend. Late, hungry, and covered in drool. That last one honestly shouldn’t even be on the list but Agatha felt the need to include some third tragedy. Although being covered in Elle’s drool is hardly a tragedy, a little gross perhaps, but there are worse bodily fluids.
The plane had fully stopped and the other passengers were beginning to rise from their seats and start collecting up the various bags and luggage they brought as carry on. Elle nudged Agatha gently with her shoulder.
“Come on I want to get out of here, if I stay much longer I’m afraid my legs will fall off,” Elle says.
The two slowly shuffled their way through the line of people making their way off the plane. Agatha tried to keep her eyes closed and her focus on places other than the man’s neck that was exposed in front of her.
At one point just as they were about to step out into the greater airport, hunger filled her completely and she had to bite down on her own tongue to calm it, the pain dulling the other terrible sensation. She wasn’t sure how much longer she could hold out, hopefully she would have some opportunity, anything at all. It could be some back alley corpse that had been left to rot in decay in a place no one would find it and to her it would still probably taste like a gourmet meal. She just needed something.
“You know I was kinda skeptical of this whole summer in winter thing, but I gotta admit wearing only a top and shorts is looking pretty appealing right now,” Elle says, pulling off some of layers she had on from when it still felt like winter.
“You could probably change real quick, it’s not like were in a hurry. Look there’s even a bathroom right there,” Agatha pointed over to where a small line of people were gathered hoping to get to pee after a long flight.
“First of all absolutely not, bathrooms are disgusting, second of all I’m not waiting in that line,” Elle began fanning her hand to try to cool off. “I’ll just suffer, pain is beauty or whatever.”
“I don’t get you sometimes,”
“That’s because all of your outfits and fashion sense seem to come out of the mind of some poor farmer in the 1800’s,”
“It’s practical,” Agatha huffed.
“Just because it’s practical doesn’t mean it can’ be cute,” Elle raised a finger to fake admonish her friend. “Sooo, if we aren’t in a rush where exactly are we off to? What fun plans did you make for today Aggie?”
“I don’t know, I’ll be honest I can’t really focus on anything other than this overwhelming sense of hunger and I am trying my best to suppress that,”
“It’s a good thing then that there is a food court right here, I’m kinda hungry my self, I wonder if they have chinese?” Elle squints slightly as she looks out to all the different options.
“One problem, I can’t eat any of that. How many times do I have to say this,”
“Frankly Aggie I really think you ought to loosen those diet requirements every once and a while. It can’t hurt to have real people food from time to time,”
“Believe me I would if I could, it’s not a want it is quite literally a medical necessity,”
“Ok fine, then where do you propose we go?”
Agatha sighs, there is only one possible option that she can see that won’t involve a felony of some sort, and she is not happy about it.
“I’ll explain later, I don’t want to talk about it, honestly I’m not even sure I could think of the words to explain at the moment, too hard to think,” Agatha rubs the bridge of her nose. “First thing we need to find a pharmacy, I refuse to screw up your life.”
“A pharmacy? Do you need like vitamins or something? I mean I might have some somewhere in my bag, give me a moment,” Elle begins sifting through her bag looking for the elusive vitamins.
“No, that’s fine, I’ll be fine… probably,”
twenty minutes. It took twenty minutes to get to a pharmacy and the whole time Agatha felt like her body was going to explode. Her hands were twitching, her legs couldn’t stay still, and her vision kept blurring.
Agatha wandered through with Elle close by, on top of everything Agatha had begun to trip over herself every few steps because sure why not pile on a few more problems. Finally they reached the counter.
“Oh my, you look terrible ma’am,” the pharmacist says quickly assessing Agatha’s clearly visible condition.
“Hi, yeah, I’m going to need like a syringe and stuff like immediately please,”
“Ran out of Insulin needles? Seems you made it just in time. You look like your about to collapse into a coma,”
“Yeah, sure insulin or whatever, needles now please,” Agatha almost growled, a combination of desperation and agitation.
It took a moment but the pharmacist quickly returned with a package of needles and a syringe.
“Do you need help with administration it wo—”
“Nope, thanks bye,” Agatha snatched up the things on the counter and turned to Elle. “You bathroom now,”
“Aggie are you diabetic? I’m sorry for teasing about that,” Elle says shortly after they leave earshot.
“No I’m not, but appreciate the sentiment,” Agatha pushes open the door to the bathroom and drags Elle into the largest stall.
Quickly she begins to unwrap the needles and twists the needle on to the syringe.
“If that’s not it then… Oh my god, my best friend is a drug addict,” Elle’s face dropped. “Aggie what the hell!”
“Shut up, I’m not a drug addict either, come here arm out,”
“What no, are you crazy?”
“Elle, please,” the strain in Agatha’s voice was clear, a mixture of pain and fear.
“Why?”
“I need your blood and I refuse to bite you,” Agatha looks up at Elle. “I only need a little.”
Elle began nervously pacing in the cramped space she found herself in.
“Fine, but you’d better explain yourself real well or I’m finding another plane and leaving right now,” Elle carefully stepped closer to Agatha and slowly stretched her arm out.
As soon as it got close Agatha pulled Elle’s arm in towards her and hastily traced Elle’s arm for a suitable vein. Elle couldn’t look anymore and turned to face the wall. Agatha steadied the needle over the largest vein she could see and with barely any hesitation plunged the needle in to her best friend.
“Ow!” Elle yelped
“Sorry,” Agatha muttered as she quickly drew as much blood as she could.
When the syringe was filled Agatha withdrew the needle. She tilted her head back and squirted the blood into her mouth. The sickly savory taste of iron coated her tongue.
“Oh my god that’s disgusting!” Elle gagged. She had grabbed a thick wad of toilet paper and was trying to use it to clot the blood still dripping down her arm.
“Fuck it,” Agatha said and got underneath Elle’s bleeding arm and peeled away the toilet paper letting the blood flow and drip down for Agatha to consume without fear.
“This is really weird are you done yet?” Elle asked, she had calmed down a little from the shock of what she was witnessing but was still shaking.
Partially satiated Agatha collapsed against the side of the stall, still breathing heavily. She pulled a few few more sheets of toilet paper and handed them to Elle who took them and placed them back on the wound.
“Shit, I’m sorry Elle,” Agatha tucked her knees up under her chin. “I swear I didn’t want this to happen I was going to bring my own, but there was just no way I could have kept it stable during the flight.”
“Aggie, just explain why did you need to drink my blood? I’m no medical person but isn’t that like super bad for you,”
“I don’t know probably? I needed it, it’s really all I can have, because well…”
“If you say it’s because your a vampire I swear I’m going to slap you,” the makeshift bandage Ella has been using is now fully saturated with blood and starting to dissolve into a coagulated mess on her arm.
“Please don’t slap me, I’m pretty sure I would probably pass out,” Agatha whimpers.
“You’re joking right?” Elle looks down at Agatha with a undiscernible expression on her face.
“You just saw me drink your blood and I’m not violently vomiting it back up right now, what other conclusion could you possible draw from that?”
“Well because what? I’m supposed to believe that my best friend is some immortal demon creature here to murder, enslave, and corrupt the world. That’s crazy and there has to be another explanation. You yourself have claimed before it’s some medical condition so I for the first time am actually prone to believing that over this non-sense.”
“Want to see me turn into a cat?”
“Or I was right, you are a drug addict, some freak who just gets off on drinking people’s blood. Your sick,” Elle turns around and practically kicks open the door to the stall and starts to clean the wound on her arm. She pulls a few paper towels and gets them slightly damp before wrapping them around her arm, then takes a stray hair tie and slides it up her arm to keep the towels in place.
“Your sick, and I’m leaving. Figure your shit out or I never want to see you again,” Elle’s vision is flooded with a barrage of tears making it difficult to make out Agatha’s form. She turns back to face the door and aggressively wipes the tears away. “Good bye!”
As she grabs the handle she feels something up against her leg.
“Agatha please,” Elle kicks off the touch.
“…Mreeow,” a black cat cries and gets back up and walks back towards Elle and begins pawing at her leg again.
“What the fuck,” Elle stares down at the cat then back over to where Agatha was laying. The spot is empty. “Am I high? Did you lace the syringe with something?”
A black vapor begins to pour from out of the fur of the cat enveloping it in a murky void of shadow. The vapors rise and churn creating the form of a human. The place where the eyes would be are marked by a set of glowing red spots. The shadowy figure reaches out and grabs Elle’s arm holding her in place. As the shadows start to fade into the ether so to does the glow of its eyes, which slowly fade into a pale blue.
“Please don’t leave,” Agatha tugs gently on Elle’s arm.
“I don’t know what you expected,”
“Maybe not to abandon me,” Agatha had joined Elle in crying now. “I’m not evil, I’m not some demon out to hurt people, I didn’t even want to hurt you!”
Elle could see the hurt in Agatha’s eyes, her emotions were now rapidly shifting back and forth between guilt and anger, but her anger was starting to be drowned out.
“I’m sorry,” Elle turns and hugs Agatha, trying to keep her wounded arm off of Agatha’s clothes. “This is just a lot.”
“I know,” Agatha leans into Elle “If it’d make you feel better you can ask me whatever questions you might have?”
“Yeah, actually,” Elle pulls out from the hug but is still holding on to Agatha. “H- how old are you?”
“I don’t know like seventy three-ish, give or take,” Agatha shrugs.
“Oh, really?” Elle says slightly puzzled.
“What?” Agatha asks.
“Well it’s just that I imagine vampires to be like old you know, I was expecting you to say like three hundred or something. seventy is, I don’t know, kinda mundane I guess,” Elle stares off into the corner of the bathroom. “Like my grandma is that old, you could just be someone’s grandma.”
“I never really thought of that, well give me a few hundred years then I’ll get there eventually… probably,” Agatha jokes.
“Not sure I’m going to live that long unfortunately, unless…” A mischievous smile starts to creep across Elle’s face.
“I’m offended, do you realize how much work and self control I just did to ensure you wouldn’t get turned. Trust me this,” Agatha motions at her body, ”… is not worth it.”
“Fine, I’ll take your word for it,” Elle pauses for a moment. “Soo if you can turn into a cat, what else can you do?”
“Come on let’s just get out of this bathroom. If we wait much longer than that pharmacist might thing I actually was using that needle for drugs and overdosed in here.”
“Hmm good point I suppose,” Elle frowns. “Can you turn into a ferret?”
“Lets go,” Agatha pulls Elle slowly towards the door smiling.
“Hey no dodging the question! I need to know if you can become an adorable little fur ball,”
“Are you saying I’m not cute as a cat?”
“No, I’m just saying you’d be cuter as a ferret, everyone would be, it’s just the truth,”
“Come on, I got what I needed let’s get you some food too,” Agatha pushed through towards the exit. “I’m sure there’s something good around here,”
“I’m not really all that hungry anymore, your little display back there kind of ruined my appetite, lets just go to the hotel or whatever,”
“Hotel?” Agatha looks back at Elle. “I did tell you we're camping right?”
Love your story so so f*cking much. I am looking forward to seeing petra again. keep up the good work, but don't stress it's done when it's done.