Chapter 30: Chapter 30
PRESENT
CHAPTER 22: LOST AND FOUND
DIANA
I woke up with a feeling of longing and sadness, I feel like I had lost something so important to me. And when I opened my eyes, I realized what they were: my memories.
What am I doing here? I thought as I sat up and looked around the hospital room, I was laying in. I found a button next to my bed that said “CALL NURSE” on it, pressed it and continued to look around as I waited. There were flowers, stuffed animals and get-well cards strewn about the room. I read a few of them and saw that they were mostly from people I knew from school. Classmates and professors, but no one I was very close with. Weird. What had happened to me?
A nurse walked into the door and gasped in surprise. “Ms. Aguero, you’re awake! Please sit back down, you need to take it easy when getting up again. I’m Nurse Rivas, by the way. I’ll just give you a quick checkup and then call the doctor for a more thorough examination. How are you feeling?”
“Confused,” I said, doing as I was told and sitting back down on the bed. Nurse Rivas began to examine me a bit as we talked, taking my vitals and such. “What happened to me?”
“You were attacked. You don’t remember?”
“No, I don’t remember anything.”
She peered at me for a moment and then nodded grimly. “The doctor said that might happen as a result from the trauma.”
“What trauma?” I asked, looking down at myself. “I feel fine.”
“That’s because you’ve already been recovering for weeks, but you definitely weren’t fine when you were left here,” she replied.
“I’ve been here for weeks?” I asked, perplexed. “Who dropped me off here?”
“An anonymous stranger,” she shrugged. “We never saw them. We guessed that it was a shy person who found you after the attack and didn’t want media attention. This has been a highly publicized case, you know.” There was a hint of excitement in her voice that didn’t quite rub me the right way. I never did like it whenever news reporters appeared excited about being part of whatever tragedy was currently occurring. It seems that some hospital workers weren’t so different.
“Why?” I asked, pushing my annoyance aside for the sake of wanting answers. “What is so interesting about this case? What attacked me, exactly?”
Nurse Rivas hesitated, probably more for dramatic effect than anything else, then responded. “Honey, you were attacked by a serial killer.”
“What?” I asked, eyes widened in horror.
“Well, that’s the speculation at least. He hasn’t been caught! At first everyone thought it was some kind of animal, you know, like a bear. But it just kept happening and in all kinds of places too, places an animal wouldn’t possibly be.”
“You mean I’m not the only victim?”
“Diana, you’re the only survivor…”
“Who were the others?” I asked, remembering the lack of get-well-soon cards from my friends and suddenly dreading her answer.
My gut feeling was right. After Nurse Rivas left and I had been examined by a doctor, I spent the rest of the afternoon glued to the news while waiting to be discharged. The case was still being covered thoroughly and I learned all of the gruesome details not only of my own attack, but of my friends. Roman, Oliver, Zari, Jake, Dan and… Anastasia. That one hurt the most. My best friend, my roommate, gone. Who could have done this? It didn’t make any sense. We were just a bunch of college kids who minded our own business. Who would want our group of friends dead?
I cried for the lives of my lost friends. I felt guilt over being the only one who survived the massacre, and most of all, I felt utterly alone in the world.
That feeling only intensified when I went home to Anastasia’s empty house. Our neighbor was a kind old widow who had tended to the house while I was gone and watched over my cat, Lucky. I didn’t even know I had a cat, I supposed I must have gotten him shortly before the attack. He was very sweet and seemed happy to see me. I had to be honest, it was comforting to have something to hold and cry on, even if it was just a cat.
That night I curled up in bed with Lucky and cried for hours until I eventually fell into a surprisingly peaceful sleep. I dreamt I was in the arms of the most handsome man I’d ever seen in my life and that he loved me dearly.
“I love you, Diana, I will always love you,” he whispered.
***
5 YEARS LATER
OXFORD, ENGLAND
I woke up from that strange dream again. The one with the beautiful man proclaiming his love to me. It was strange, ever since I had been attacked by that serial killer (who was never caught, by the way) I had been having dreams about this man about once a year. I supposed it was that time of year again.
I got up out of bed and stretched, peering around my hotel room for the coffee machine. I was attending a veterinary convention at Oxford University this afternoon and would have to make a speech in front of hundreds of people. Someone as jet lagged as I currently felt needed all the caffeine they could get.
I made my coffee and set it down, allowing it to cool a bit before taking a sip. Looking at the full cup of untouched coffee triggered some sort of memory for me.
A date. An untouched cup of coffee with some money folded next to it and a crashing noise.
That had been happening a lot since my attack. I would get flashes of memories – at least I thought they were memories – of random things. There wasn’t usually much context around it. I’d see a flash of something and just felt deep within me that it was something that I had seen before. Something stored in a secret compartment of my brain that I didn’t have the key to.
I often wondered what it was that I had forgotten about that time before my attack. I was sad to have lost the last few memories I’d had with Anastasia. I remember when I turned seven, I made a birthday wish to never forget my memories. It’s too bad that it didn’t really come true.
Despite my difficulties after the attack, I picked myself up. The killer might still be out there, but he didn’t succeed in taking my life and I had decided that I was going to live it well. I studied very hard, graduated at the top of my class, and became a successful veterinarian. I even made a few new friends along the way. The one thing I never had much luck in was in the love department. It’s not that I didn’t have suitors or that I didn’t go on dates – I wasn’t a nun. I just never found anyone who gave me that spark. The kind of spark that I felt for that gorgeous man in my dreams.
Maybe I was crazy for holding my standards to a literal dream guy, but I couldn’t help it. Something inside of me told me that he was out there and that he was the one for me. And if I knew something, it was that my gut instincts were rarely wrong. Besides, not having feelings for anyone that I’d met outside of my dreams made it very easy to be loyal to my dream guy anyway.
I readied myself for the convention and went off to do my job. The speech went well, and my colleagues were all very interesting and kind. Everyone stayed behind afterwards to chat and partake in a casual dinner that the university held for us, which, starving as I was, I was very grateful for. When I finished eating, a man named Kenneth approached me, complimented my speech, and asked me out for a drink.
“That sounds lovely, Kenneth, but I’m actually very tired and have an early flight to catch tomorrow. Maybe next time,” I said, flashing him a smile and knowing fully well there probably wouldn’t be a next time.
While I did have an early flight to catch in the morning, I wasn’t actually feeling so tired anymore. I took a leisurely stroll around the beautiful Oxford campus and then headed back towards my hotel on foot, checking out all of the little shops and restaurants along the way. I laughed when I came upon a movie theater advertising an “International flops night.” Its showings consisted of some of the worst rated movies of the past decade. One title in particular caught my eye, though I couldn’t remember ever having watched it. Although it was possible that I did during my memory gap. It did come out about five years ago…
I suddenly had another flash of memory.
An empty theater. A bag of sour patch kids. Playful laughter.
I stood there lost in the meaningless memory for a moment and then shook myself off and continued on my way, not noticing a man walking by and crashing right into him.
“Oh my god, I’m so sorry!” I said, looking up at his face. I froze.
He was frozen solid as well, staring right back at me.
“It’s you,” I said, mesmerized. It was him. The beautiful man from my dreams. A sudden flood of memories came pouring back into the surface of my mind. Looking at this man, I began to remember everything I had lost from that short period of time five years ago. Vampires, hunting, Anastasia’s betrayal and…
“Gualtiero,” I breathed.
He stared at me with an alarmed, somewhat scared look on his face.
“Diana, how…” he shook his head. “No, no I’m sorry, you have the wrong person.”
He tried to walk away, but I grabbed him by the sleeve and pulled him back.
“I don’t have the wrong person, I know it’s you, Gualtiero,” I said, choking on the sob that I was fighting hard to hold back. “I’d know your face anywhere. I’ve been dreaming about it for years now.”
“How?” he asked. “How do you remember? I compelled you to forget me.”
“You compelled me to forget?” I yelled, hitting his chest. A few couple across the street looked over at the commotion but continued on their way, probably assuming we were a couple in the middle of a lover’s spat. “You mean you left me!”
“I had to, Diana. Your life was in constant danger because of me. It was selfish of me to be with you in the first place. Compelling you to forget me was the right thing to do,” he explained.
“How dare you!” I yelled, hitting him in the chest over and over. He didn’t flinch, of course. A small human’s fists did little against a vampire’s strong body. Still, I needed to get rid of this rage that was building inside of me. “You left me! You left me alone! How dare you compel me to forget because it was the ‘right thing to do.’ I know what the right thing for me was and it was being with you! I asked you to turn me into a vampire, not compel me to forget you! The nerve!”
“Diana, you don’t want this life. You don’t want to be a monster like me. You’re good. You—”
“You’re not a monster, Gualtiero. And I wouldn’t be one either.”
He looked at me for a long moment, taking in my professional appearance. “You should know that I’ve never stopped loving you and I’ve thought about you every waking moment of my life. It has been very difficult, existing without you, but you seem to be doing well and that makes me happy. All I ever wanted was for you to be safe and happy,” he gave me a sad smile. “I am not going to come back into your life and ruin things again. I love you too much for that, Diana. I don’t know how we ended up running into each other like this, or how you came to remember me again, but I’m going to compel you to forget once more.”
“Like hell you will,” I said, grabbing him by the collar and pulling him close to me, planting my lips onto his in the sweetest kiss I’ve ever tasted. Gualtiero quickly shoved me away though.
“No! Diana! Have you any idea what you’ve just done?” he shouted in alarm, tears forming in his eyes.
“I know that it was fate that brought me back to you…” I said, suddenly feeling weak as the effects of Lilith’s curse started to take hold of me. “Turn me, Gualtiero…”
It was the last thing I remembered before everything went black.
---
When I came to, I felt… different. There was a stillness across my body, as if my organs had all shut down, yet it didn’t hurt. In fact, I felt great. I felt strong. But hungry. Well, thirsty was more like it.
And my senses! My senses felt so sharp. Before I even opened my eyes, I could tell a lot about the room I was in before I could hear and smell so much from within it. I knew Gualtiero was right beside me, I could hear his quiet sobs. But why was he crying? I opened my eyes and looked at his beautiful sad face.
“Gualtiero, what’s wrong? Don’t be afraid, I’m okay. Everything is okay,” I said, sitting up and going over to his lap. He stared up at me in surprise.
“You remember me? You remember your life prior to turning into a vampire?” he asked.
I nodded. “I do. Are you crying because you thought I’d forget?”
“Yes. I was so scared you would not remember me. I do not understand how you do…” he said.
“I made a wish as a child and I think it came true. Right now, though, I’m wishing for something else…”
He leaned over and began kissing me hard and passionately. I laughed against his lips and pushed him away.
“That’s not what I was referring to, although it was very nice. You’re a very good kisser,” I winked at him. “But we have eternity for kissing my love. Right now, I think I need some blood.”
--END--