Chapter Four

"Hey."

Esther woke from her sleep, inky black and dreamless, with more than a bit of a startle. It was a risk to sleep in front of AnnMarie, Esther knew that. The girl might realize that she had no pulse when she wasn't conscious and call the paramedics. Then she would really be in for a difficult situation.

"Hey." Esther said tiredly back to her.

She glanced out of the window above her and saw the sun had set long ago. She had been asleep for a while.

"You're a heavy sleeper." AnnMarie commented.

Esther frowned and pulled herself slightly up, onto her elbows.

"I get that a lot."

"You still feeling bad?" AnnMarie asked.

She had seemed to notice the decline Esther's mood and activity across the week, and had commented on it a time or two.

"Yeah." Esther said, already feeling herself wanting to fall back asleep.

"You think you'll be okay?" AnnMarie pressed. "You don't need to see anybody, or for me to get you something? Anything?"

Esther willed herself upright, and blinked at the woman. She seemed concerned. Very concerned. Previously, Esther was sure she knew what she was doing, as she'd caught the playful smile on her mouth every now and then.

"Yeah. I think I might have just caught something while I was traveling." She said. "I'll probably just have to sleep it off."

AnnMarie nodded, though she didn't seem any less worried.

"Alright." She said. "I'll be asleep. Feel free to come and get me if you need me."

That seemed to be an invitation, but in her weakened state, Esther didn't know if it was enough.

Sure, if she slept a little longer, Esther knew she could go three weeks or more without feeding just fine. But she didn't want to do that. She wanted blood.

AnnMarie stood, and began to walk away.

"Wait!" Esther said.

"Yes?" AnnMarie asked without turning around.

"I know it's a bit of an odd request, but could I sleep with you tonight?"

AnnMarie didn't answer for a moment, but then, all at once spun around, a broad and unnerving smile on her face.

"you mean like a sleepover?" She said it with the excitement of a child.

"Uh, Yeah. Like a sleepover." Esther said with a nervous laugh.

Something about her enthusiasm was unsettling. It wouldn't have been a normal person's reaction to her request.

"Okay!"

Esther pulled herself from the couch and followed her to the bedroom.

"I always find it hard to sleep alone." AnnMarie said as they laid side by side in the darkness. Well, it was surely dark for AnnMarie. "I've always been like that, ever since I was a child. My mama would always yell at me for getting scared, but even that didn't help me get over it."

"I have a hard time sleeping as well." Esther said.

"What do you do when you can't sleep?" She asked.

Esther swallowed. "Stay awake until I'm tired."

"But you're tired right now, right?" She asked.

Esther shifted under the covers, trying to avoid touching her as she moved. If nothing else did her in, the girl's body heat would definitely send her over the edge into unconsciousness.

"Yes, I am. Right now."

"It's nice of you stay awake with me then." She said. "I used to have horrible nightmares as a child."

"Yeah?"

"Yes. I would dream about this thing that was shaped vaguely like a man who would sit outside of my window at night, peering in. His face was like a cloud of black smoke, with small white dots for eyes that seemed to shine from somewhere far back in his head. He had a blood red mouth that always smiled, and hair that looked like snakes."

Esther shifted in discomfort, glancing nervously over at the window. It was pitch black this far out in the county, and impossible to see out on such a dark night. If there was ever something sinister out there, it would be impossible to see. Unfortunately, being undead didn't make her immune to feeling fear.

"Do you still have that dream?" She asked.

"Not usually. I sometimes have other nightmares, but I only get them when I sleep alone." She said. "But I sleep alone more often than not. I always have."

"It's kind of funny." Esther said. "When I was younger, I used to fear that a man was watching me outside my bedroom window. It was so bad, that sometimes I would have trouble sleeping and so I would sleep beside a friend of mine."

Esther told her the truth. However, this man wasn't a ghostly mirage, or a creation of her overactive imagination, bending gnarled tree branches into something sinister. This man had been real, and the fear she had felt not unfounded, and the consequences of this visit permanent.

She looked over at AnnMarie, but her face was placid, peaceful. She seemed not to care that the predator was inches away from her, not lurking outside of her window with writhing hair.

"Why do you think sleeping beside someone makes humans more comfortable?" AnnMarie asked, her eyes trained on the ceiling.

"You have someone to watch your back, I would think." Esther suggested. "Humans crave companionship."

"Mm. I agree." AnnMarie said, something of smile creeping up on her face.

She didn't seem to be close to falling asleep, so Esther tried a different approach.

"When I was younger and I couldn't sleep, I would always have my friend run her fingers through my hair." Esther said. She picked her hand up, and began to pick up a few strands of AnnMarie's hair, which, though she knew were light brown, seemed a pale white in the monotone of her night vision. "—Like this."

"Hmm." Annie hummed happily. "That's nice."

Esther focused on the young woman's breathing, and probably watched her a little too closely as she fingered her silky strands of hair. After some time her breathing became even and Esther drew her hand away.

She smiled to herself, finding it pleasant to lull someone to sleep without the use of her vampiric abilities.

She ran her hand across AnnMarie's forehead nonetheless, just to be sure she didn't wake up.

With the young woman finally out, Esther pulled herself upright. She took in a deep breath, and pulled the covers off of the woman.

She took her time, as usual, admiring the rise and fall of her chest, and the slight flicker of her eyelids as she started to dream. She pressed her hand against the side of her neck, and her mouth began to flood with saliva at the feeling of every gentle pulse.

Her eyes traveled down, and she dipped her head, this time to the space above her right breast instead of her left. Though she tried to savor the moment, spit was already pooling in her mouth, and she couldn't hold back long from biting into the soft skin.

As she started to lick up her blood, AnnMarie whimpered softly in her sleep. Esther reached up, and grabbed her hand, rubbing her palm in an effort to soothe her enough not wake.

She tasted a bit different today, Esther thought. A little less like longing, and a little more like uneasiness. Esther preferred the longing, though her blood was still just as sweet and as quenching on her tongue. It still left her wanting to force more out, though she knew better.

She finally pulled away. Tiredness left her, and the warmth in her stomach spread throughout her body. She sighed in content, and laid her head against AnnMarie's shoulder.

"Thank you for inviting me back in." She whispered. "I really needed this, and I know you could sense it."

She brought her hand up, and brushed her hand through her hair.

"The only thing that could make this better is if your blood tasted like hot cocoa." She said with a smile. "If I could taste it fully, one more time, oh what a day that would be."

She sat up, and ran her thumb across the girl's head once more for good measure.

"Sleep well, Annie."

With AnnMarie out like a light, and her energy renewed, she crawled out of the bed and started her investigation.

It was very messy, and therefore very hard to decide where to start. She looked in the closet, just in case there was a stairway to the upstairs room there. As she expected, the only thing inside was an assortment of clothing and a heavy layer of dust.

The more she looked, the more she started to lose hope. There were lots of things, sure, but none of them were things that offered any explanation as to the cause of the young woman's strangeness.

Eventually, on her dresser, she took notice of a small book of poetry. In the top left corner, a small bit of white was sticking out. Esther picked it up, and opened to the page it was pushed into.

Photographs. Three of them, to be exact. Esther fanned then out between her fingers, and glanced over them.

The first was of AnnMarie when she was much younger, a child really, at a birthday party. She stood with her arm around a sickly looking girl of similar age, who had black hair and hazel eyes.

In the second picture, AnnMarie was also there, but she was older, a teenager maybe. She wasn't alone in this one either. Beside her was another girl, tall and wiry, with her hair shaved into a Mohawk. They were doubled over laughing at some probably long forgotten joke.

The last picture seemed to be the most recent. This one featured AnnMarie with a pretty red headed girl, sitting on a couch together.

Esther was about to put the photos back where she had gotten them, when she noticed a smidge of black on the edge of the first. She flipped it over, and notice writing. Infact, the others had writing on them as well.

The photo of the frail girl read: Kacey Taylor. Met 2004. Died 2005. Pneumonia.

The photo of the girl with the Mohawk read: Shawna Harris. Met Jan. 2012. Died Aug 2012. Hit by a drunk driver.

The photo of the redhead read: Johanna Dixon. Met Dec 2014. Died Jan 2016. Stabbed outside of a bar.

Esther blinked at the three photos, taking them in with a touch a frown. Three girls. Three deaths. They seemed unrelated apart from the fact that they were all people AnnMarie had known. And yet, she had recorded them.

Perhaps, Esther thought, they were just coincidences. Losing three friends so young seemed uncommon, especially in the modern age, and it was possible AnnMarie just kept the pictures to remember them by. She had said she was lonely, after all.

But Esther couldn't convince herself that this wasn't her biggest clue yet. Each of these girls had died after knowing AnnMarie for around a year. It seemed like a pattern.

Once was an accident. Twice was a coincidence. But what was three? Murder? Had AnnMarie somehow caused these girls' deaths? Or was she just afflicted by a terrible case of bad luck?

Her mind came up with a plethora of possibilities, but with the limited amount she had to go off of, they were little more than assumptions.

Esther put the photos and the book back on the dresser, and slipped quietly out of the room. She grabbed her cell phone, and went out to stand on the front porch and make a call.

"Hello?" The man on the other end said. "This isn't a spam call, is it?"

"No, this is Esther."

"Esther! It's so good to hear from you!" The man said with a giddy laugh. "You always call me from different numbers, so I never know what to expect."

"Yes, sorry to bother you—"

"Did you want to finish our interview? I've still got a lot more notes I'd like to take if you—"

"Actually it's about something else, Peter."

"Oh? What's that?"

"Do you think you could come to Georgia?" She asked.

"Hm? Right now?"

"Soon, yes." She said, staring up at the moon. "I'll answer more of your questions, if you do."

"Why, what's going on?" He asked.

"I've found myself in a strange situation, one that I think may Interest you." She said. "There may be something supernatural going on, and I would like your expert opinion."

"Of course there's something supernatural going on if you're there." The man laughed.

Esther ignored him.

"It May be magical. It may have something to do with a witch."

"Oh, that would side greatly in my research. I could really—"

"Thanks." Esther cut him off. "I'll text you the address."

Before he could reply she ended the call and shoved the phone back into her pocket.

That priest really could go on for too long.