Chapter 9

It was a funny feeling knowing that you were about to die. It was almost a calming thought, the finality of it all. All my life, I've prepared myself to die when these miracle cells in my heart gave out. Now that I knew that everyone in the world, all seven billion of us, was going to die within a span of a couple of days — for once, my heart seemed to be wholly unexcited. It hadn't been beating strangely at all since the last Blight Storm. For once, the lack of palpitations was worrying me.

Then again, with how fast the Blight Storm was eating up most of the world, maybe I wouldn't have to worry for long.

After we finally arrived in South Beach, the tension in the car was palpable. We were all wondering the same thing as we drove through the deserted city. The only lights were the high-beam LED lights that the national guard had placed all over to secure the evacuation route.

The roads heading into the city were empty. We were the only fools driving into the coastal area and not away from it.

"I didn't come back here for Andrew," Holly finally blurted out. "I came because the last thing my father said to me was that he was driving to Miami. He was bringing my mother and Jimmy. He wanted to meet me here. That was 36 hours ago. I wanted to make sure they weren't here. They would never leave without me."

Holly made her hand into a fist and pressed it against her lips as though she couldn't believe she had finally let that little fact slip. When we didn't reply, she rubbed her teary eyes and spoke again.

"I'm so sorry. I should have let you two evacuate."

"It makes no difference now," Jack mumbled, his words barely audible. "We might as well look for your family. We need to get gas, anyway. The tank is only a quarter full."

It was around 10 p.m. that we pulled into Andrew's driveway. As we came to the small row of pitch-black houses, I marveled at how quiet the neighborhood was. Was this what the world will be like in a couple of days when all of humanity was gone?

The first thing I checked for was a garage. Thankfully Andrew, bless his heart, had one. We couldn't risk having our car stolen while we slept. Also, if the Blight Rain came again, the car needed to be protected from the Black Waters.

I wasn't sure how we were going to get inside. The house was entirely dark, and the windows were boarded up. The entire block was deadly silent, so there were no neighbors to help us. I didn't blame them all for evacuating. Who knew what monsters the ocean could spat out next?

While Jack and I stared in dismay at the ghostly street, Holly jumped out of the car. She ran up to the house and found a spare key that was hidden under a rock in the modest daffodil garden. Within seconds, she opened the front door, went inside, and the garage door rose. The light from the garage was a welcoming sight in the darkness. Jack pulled the car into the garage, and all three of us made the garage door securely lowered behind us.

After we headed to the door into the house, Holly opened her palm for Jack to hand her the car keys.

"Do I have to? I gave Ailith my pill. Doesn't that mean the car is mine now?"

"No, that's not how it works, asshole," Holly said. "You don't get to keep the car."

"Why not?"

"Because I said so!" Holly yelled and made her hand into a fist again, this time waving it dangerously close to Jack's chin. "Who do you think would win in a fistfight, nerd? I was on the volleyball team. My baseline heart rate is like 50. What's yours, Mr. AP Physics?"

"Okay, okay," Jack said with a roll of his eyes. He threw the keys in her general direction. It was obvious he wasn't serious about hanging onto them. Holly, on the other hand, simply needed to be in control. I noticed while we drove that Jack was content to tailgate other cars, hesitating to pass even in the most favorable of circumstances. Holly needed to be at the front of the pack, always. She didn't respect the speed limit. She was antsy at the thought of a car being in front of her.

Holly shoved the keys in her pocket and waved at me.

"Come on, Ailith," Holly said as she held open the door to the house. "Let's get you out of those clothes. Lucky for us, Andrew keeps his frig stocked with enough alcohol to ride out the vampire apocalypse."

"When the end comes, at least we won't be sober," Jack muttered. "Can I call dibs on the Cheetos at least? I'm going to take those and make myself a blanket burrow in front of the TV. I guess I can relax now since as the sole white dude, I'll probably die last."

Holly rolled her eyes. "No, you'll die last because you're the only virgin here."

I laughed at that. Jack gave me a sour, hurt look in response. "You're on her side too, Ailith? I thought you were one of the nice ones."

"Don't pay any attention to him," Holly said as she herded me into the house. "His only purpose for living now is to convince some girl that he's the last man on earth so he can get laid."

"Hey, don't give away my plan!" Jack whined, playing along. He offered us one last, half-hearted wave and disappeared into the living room.

*

Upstairs, Holly started a shower for me. I guess I looked like such a mess with all the blood-caked over my hands and pants that she thought I was in a walking coma. She even went as far as to put out some clean jeans and a t-shirt on the bed for me. The clothes looked like they were several sizes too big, but I didn't care. Where ever Andrew was now, I doubted he cared either.

"Are you thinking about going back for your sister tomorrow?" Holly asked as she sat down on a squeaky armchair by the window. She put her feet up on the edge of the bed and twirled my car keys around her French manicured nails.

"I don't know," I said and peeled off my jacket. As I started working on unbuttoning my jeans, the sight of the blood over my hands suddenly nauseated me. I hadn't been able to see myself clearly in the darkness of the car. Now, I saw that my fingers were black with vampire blood.

Disregarding the fact that Holly was still in the room, I immediately slipped out of my filthy jeans and dropped them in a corner. I went looking around for a towel to bring into the shower with me when I noticed Holly's socks were stained with blood too. She didn't seem to mind. Her pretty eyes were still fixed on me. She threw my keys in the air and caught them with one hand.

"How can I not go back when there might be a chance?" I asked her, hoping that maybe she could at least look away while I undressed. "You would do it for your brother, Jimmy, right?"

"Jimmy is so young. He's only eleven years old," Holly said as she glanced out the windows into the darkness. In the distance, I saw the giant LED lights the MPD had set up along the beach to deter any vampires from coming up along those shores. The sight of humanity's light, even the strongest light, slowly fading into the darkness of the stratosphere filled me with a sense of loneliness.

Maybe this was what it was like to be dead — an eternal night where the faces of our loved ones faded into the distance until they are barely more than a tiny spark of fragile light.

"My parents always favored him more. Jimmy is going to be a doctor and Holly will be a housewife. They didn't even think I needed to go to college."

"I'm sorry," I said, standing there in my t-shirt and underwear, not knowing how to exit the conversation gracefully. I didn't know Holly was about to pour her heart out to me; otherwise, I wouldn't have stripped naked. The shower continued to run in the background. Holly didn't seem to care that the hot water was being used up.

"Don't be sorry," Holly said with a wave of her hand. "It's what happens; I don't think anything of it. But I'm telling you this now because I want you to know I don't think my life is worth less than Jimmy's. I will probably outlive him now. He was always such a weakling with his asthma and his allergies."

Holly chuckled, and her eyes drifted back outside. "It's the survival of the fittest now. Boy, girl, black, white — those vampires don't care. We're all the same. We are the prey."

"Yeah, true," I said and slowly made a gesture of reaching for the bathroom door. Holly didn't take the hint to leave. She started talking again.

"I'm telling you this, Ailith, because you believe your life is worth less than your sister's," Holly scuffed at that. "All just because you were born with a hole in your heart, and I want to tell you — it's not. Your sister didn't survive the Blight. You did. Don't throw your life away to save her out of guilt that you aren't perfect. I understand what it's like, I've been there too."

Now Holly touched a nerve. How could she possibly understand? She was Holly, the picture-perfect cheerleading volleyball star. For as long as I had known her, Holly was always strutting around, showing off her toned arms, her gorgeous tan, and her long, athletic legs. She was always wearing those stupid white Keds, the ones that were so fluorescently white — I couldn't believe she actually wore them out on the muddy court to practice. That was Holly; she was perfect.

She never knew what it was like to be like me. I had to stay indoors, had to wash my hands regularly because of all the immunosuppressants I took. I had to wonder with every Christmas that passed — whether it would be my last.

"You don't understand," I said as tears appeared in my eyes. "You have no idea. Grace is all I have left."

"No, we have each other," Holly said and approached me. She raised her hand with its graceful, slender fingers to my face. I felt her round, flawlessly painted nails stroke my cheek. "Have you ever been kissed, Ailith?"

I shook my head. The weight of everything I never got to have hit me like a tidal wave. I was always stoic; I had trained myself to be over time. Now, I was an emotional wreck. She had known precisely what buttons to push. Just like Jack, she knew exactly how to make me do what she wanted.

"No, never. Now I'm going to die without ever having—"

Before I could finish, Holly's lips met mine.