Amy awoke the next day with the trench still wrapped tightly around
her.
She got out of bed and since it was Saturday, she didn't want to do
anything. She took off the trench and hung it back up in the closet
where
he used to keep it. She went into the bathroom and ran the shower as
she
stripped her clothes off. She got in and let the water run over her
body.
She washed herself and turned the water off. She reached out and
grabbed
her towel. She dried herself off as she stepped out of the shower.
She
brushed her teeth and mindlessly reached for her comb. As she brought
it up
to her hair she noticed several long strands of golden blond hair
hanging
from it. She grabbed them and disentangled them from the comb. ¡It
can't
be' she said as she stood there holding them in her hand. ¡I know
these
weren't here yesterday' she thought as she looked at them. She
carefully
placed them on a tissue and combed out her hair. She wrapped the
strands of
hair in the tissue, walked out to the bedroom and put the tissue in her
bag.
¡I'll check these out when I get to work on Monday' she said. She
worked as
a biologist at one of the hospitals and she knew that she would be able
to
find out whose hair it was once she analyzed them with the equipment
available there.
That brought her to the memory of the time she had playfully done
that
several years ago with a couple of strands of Edges hair just to see if
she
could do it. When she had told him that he was a natural blond, that
he
didn't dye his hair and that he didn't have to worry because there were
no
drugs in his system and he would pass a drug test if it were given to
him,
they had laughed about it and had a wrestling match on the bed because
she
had taken his hair and analyzed it without his knowledge. She sighed
as she
remembered that event and what had happened afterwards.
She went into the kitchen fixed herself an egg sandwich and a cup of
coffee. She ate then curled up on the sofa with a book she had been
dying
to read.
Edge and Christian sat on the bed as Edge explained to him what he
remembered and what had happened to him so far. Christian explained
that
when Jeff, Matt and him had gone to look for Edge they had found him in
the
ally barely alive. He had been rushed to the hospital where the
doctors had
pronounced him dead. He told him that when Amy had found out he had
died,
she could not believe it. She had stopped eating, didn't want to leave
the
house and had practically been hospitalized. Edge took all of this in
with
a look of sorrow on his face. When Christian told him that at the
cemetery
when his casket had been lowered Amy almost threw herself in after it,
Edge
could only hidehis face in his hands so that his brother would not see
the
tears spring to his eyes.
Christian pulled Edge's hands away from his face and looked at him
with a
shocked expression. Christian reached out and wiped one of the tears
away
with the tips of his fingers and looked a them. He looked at Edge and
then
back at his fingers, not believing that what Edge was shedding were
blood
tears. It finally hit Christian that what he had been told by Edge was
true.
Edge went into the bathroom and washed his face off. He came back
into
the room and told Christian that he would have to leave soon. "Why?"
Christian asked. "You just got here and we have a lot to talk about
still"
he added. "Because I'm starting to get hungry and I don't know if I
can
control myself if this hunger attacks me at full strength. I don't
want you
to be my victim if that should happen" Edge replied as he sat down
again. "I
can help you" Christian said. "How?" Edge asked. "There's a Red
Cross
Blood Bank down the street and you said that as long as the blood is
not
taken from a living human, you can still turn back" he replied.
"You're
right" Edge said as he got up from the bed. "I'll be back in a while"
Edge
said as he went to the balcony. Christian got up and followed him
outside,
but by the time he got there Edge was no longer on the balcony. When
Christian looked over the balcony he could see Edge rounding the
corner,
walking at a fast pace.
Christian got on the phone and called Matt and Jeff and told them he
needed to see them in his room. They said they would be there in about
half
an hour, once they had showered. "Okay, fellas, but do I have
something
that is going to surprise and shock you" Christian said as he hung up
the
phone.
Edge walked over to the blood bank and saw that it was closed for the
night. He went around to the back and with a twist of the wrist opened
the
door knob which had been locked. He entered and went directly to the
refrigerators in which the blood was stored. When he opened the
refrigerator and saw all the plastic packets lined up in rows there,
his
stomach growled. His eyes once again flashed red and the fangs
descended
from his upper gums as he grabbed one of the packets, sunk his teeth
into it
and drank from it. He repeated the procedure with several other
packets
until his hunger for blood was satisfied. When he was done, he looked
around and noticed some portable coolers sitting in a corner which were
used
to transport the blood. He loaded one up with as many packets as would
fit
and then got a freezer pack from the refrigerator and put that in the
cooler
also. He cleaned up the mess. Closed the frig and left the same way
he had
entered.
He arrived at the hotel and came via the balcony carrying the cooler.
When he entered Jeff and Matt were sitting on seats with their backs to
the
balcony talking to Christian. He was so quiet that they had not
noticed he
was there until he was standing between them. They looked up with a
start
and fell out of their seats. "Holy shit, tell me I'm dreaming" Jeff
said as
he crawled away from Edge. Matt just sat there on the floor with the
upturned chair lying across his legs as he stared up at Edge.
Edge laughed as he held out his hand to help his friends stand up.
Matt
reached up as if in a trance and Edge pulled him up into a standing
position. He went over to Jeff and tried to help him up and all Jeff
could
say was "Stay away from me" as he waved his hands around in the air as
if
trying to ward off evil spirits. Edge reached down and grabbed him by
the
wrist, being careful not to hurt him and pulled him to his feet as he
said
"Come on, little buddy. It's me Edge". When Jeff felt his hand on his
wrist he knew that he wasn't dreaming. He stood up and got closer to
Edge
as if to examine him. Edge laughed again as he put his arms around
Jeff and
then Matt in turn. "Come on guys, it's me. I'm back from the dead" he
said
with a laugh.
When it finally sunk into them that it really was Edge standing there
in
front of them, they hugged him. They fixed the furniture and sat down.
"Fellas, something really weird has happened to me and I'm afraid that
I'm
gonna need all of you to help me to get back to normal" Edge said to
them as
he sat down on the bed next to Christian. "Anything we can do to help.
You
know you can count on us" Matt said.
"Well here's what I need" Edge said as they all came closer to plot
how
they would proceed next.