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Chapter Twenty-seven

I was sitting byand I was feeling excited and nervous and guilty as hell I thought back to hts as a vampire, and I was certain that I wasn&039;t aware that a drastic change had occurred Not yet It would take a few days

Indeed, I just re, and it wasn&039;t until a few days later, at hos for the red stuff

I looked down at my son In a matter of days or hours or o froer for blood and a penchant for turning into a little vampire bat No doubt, a cute little vampire bat

And be with you forever

I heard the words again And again And again

I suddenly had an i to infomercials for an eternity An eternity of bad hair days, of showering and putting on deodorant An eternity of drinking blood

Mostly, though, an eternity alone

I never feared death Death was the natural order of things and I was always certain that there was so for us beyond If so, then why fear death?

But I would never discover what lay beyond, would I? I would never see the face of God I would never sit across from Jesus or Buddha or Krishna Instead, I would only sit across from a TV, or whatever passed for a TV in the far future, while yet another info

The medallion had been my answer, of course It had been ame The immortality prison My chance to escape an eternity of doldrums

But not any I knew this because I could feel so Also, there was a sto all that I could be I ached for the sun to set Longed for it to do so

Hurry, dammit

Next to me, my son stirred

"Mommy?"

"Hi baby," I said

"Mommy, I had a bad dream"

I had no doubt "I know, honey I know"

Chapter Twenty-eight

I stayed my son&039;s side forhow our son was doing I told hi, and Danny sent a happy face and an "XO" As in hugs and kisses

I didn&039;t reply Receiving X&039;s and O&039;s fro past the days of X&039;s and O&039;s

Noere just "ex&039;s" Period

My son&039;s illness had soht him closer to ave, but I didn&039;t forget How could I forget getting banned froet the blacket the blatant cheating?

I couldn&039;t Not ever

In fact, I went back into theas I did so

Anthony slipped in and out of consciousness Doctors and nurses ca his vitals, see, that is, except his lowering body temperature

Anthony described one of his dreams to me, and as he spoke, my heart broke He described a dark roo hiet closer He wanted to turn and run but he was trapped In fact, there was no door in the roo was in there with hi and screa to him

Except he couldn&039;t see it The voice told hiood boy and to step just a little bit closer He did so The voice had told hiood boy, now come closer still And he did so One tentative step at a time, and each time he drew closer to the voice, he was praised And when he was certain he was standing in front of whatever was calling to hi him, and, while he told me this story, he burst into tears and so did I

Nurses ca was okay And ere alone, I hugged ht and he lapsed into a deep sleep

As he slept, I cracked the ancient book open with excitement and trepidation I had no clue what it contained, and I had waited until this iven lish, but a part of me still feared that it was in Latin, Greek or even Hebrew

Dust sifted down froht from the lamp near my son&039;s bed Outside the door, two nurses hurried past So could have been a lish, thank God According to the title page the book had been publishedthis couldn&039;t be right What the hell was going on? Had Fang set me up? Was this so, I read the copyright date, and unlike ave an exact date

Today&039;s date