Vampire Holiday - Completed

7. Getting there

Daniel's POV.

A few days before St. Valentine's

After the confusing New Year's party, I pushed myself into work, trying to focus on something I could control and have a good grasp of.

Periodically, I kept looking into my computer's and phone's history. I was bewildered why I would be interested in such a thing as vampires. Who were these people? They might have some obsession with blood and were obviously not quite right in their mind. Why would I want to look into it? What was my purpose in getting acquainted with them, and why could I not remember anything, not just the event, but everything that led me to it?

I missed my wife. I didn't even know whom to talk to. Yet when the night would come, I had my dreams. Sometimes it was about my wife. In my dreams, we would spend time together on our quick getaway vacations or have dinner at home. Then I'd wake up all alone and with an empty heart and think about her.

Some other night, I had that mysterious girl in my dreams. I could never see her face. But once I heard her voice, I was sure it was her, and she was telling me to forget it.

"Forget what?" I asked, but instead of an answer, I was jolted awake in my bed in the middle of the night. The guilt and confusion were eating me alive. So I lay in bed, awake for the rest of the night, wondering why I was having these visions.

On top of it all, St. Valentine's holiday was approaching, and seeing my coworkers discussing what they had to do for their wives and girlfriends to not piss them off this year was hard to bear. Most were getting chocolates and flowers and trying to book restaurants already booked out weeks in advance.

I considered taking time off to avoid all the office preparations and chatter. Yet I was there because my project had to be done.

Caleb popped into my office. "Hey dude, it's Friday, special time!"

I usually had my lunch in my office. Then, I would quickly go to the cafeteria and take something back so I would work during lunch hour. However, once a week, Caleb would convince me to go into the little Italian place at the corner because he didn't want to go alone, and they had a "Try three appetizers for the price of one" event on Fridays. I was pretty sure he just wanted to get me to check up on me at least once a week since my wife died. I was not the most social person.

"So, how are you doing?" he asked me, looking over the menu he already knew by heart.

"I am doing fine, same old."

"You know, I wanted to ask you this for a while. In fact, I asked you this before." He looked at me with a particular expression that he had when he was about to kill it in a work meeting or pick up a new hot chick at the bar.

"Is this the Grob project?"

"No, it's not work-related." He winked. "I asked you before how you spent New Year, and you have not told me a thing, so I was wondering..."

He had asked me about it before, but I changed the subject as I could not imagine he knew what had happened. I had not felt well for days after the New Year's event. I felt out of place like I had forgotten something, and guilty because of my dreams with that girl. These dreams kept recurring, and while I enjoyed her in my dreams. He looked at me because I must have drifted away again.

"What do you know about the New Year?" I asked this time, trying to figure out whether he knew what had happened to me then. I should have asked him long ago, but I didn't want to tell him I was possibly in some vampire mess. That would be completely ridiculous. Although, out of all the people, Caleb might have understood. However, he would then make fun of me for the rest of our lives.

"The party you went to, we were supposed to go together, but I got back with Jennifer right before and skipped, and you dodged my questions every time, so I stopped asking." He spat out quickly.

I was surprised, but I should not have been.

His life was erratic. He kept getting back together with and breaking up with Jennifer. They were always on and off, having fun in between. Neither could stick around too long, yet they would always get back together for a wild reunion, only to argue about something unimportant in a day or two and have yet another breakup, after which Caleb would be in pieces for weeks.

"So, since we are both single again," he continued, "what do you think about getting back into the vampire party?"

Of course, it had to be Caleb. How was I so blind? He always looked into something weird, kinky stuff and kept trying to make me go with him as a companion. He insisted I needed fun in my life.

"But you never brought up the vampires before. I thought that would be too crazy, even for you." I told him what had happened to me after the party. The only detail I skipped was the girl in my dreams. She was for me only. I didn't want to share her and was not sure it was relevant.

"Weird..." he paused, "We talked about this, I tried to convince you for weeks to go, and you always refused, then there was this one time when we chatted, something had switched in your mind, and you just went for it, you filled the application in the app, and you were in, passed all their criteria. I am sorry I dropped out at the last moment. I got swamped when we got together with Jennifer. You know how it is."

I didn't understand how I could have forgotten everything about this. I started feeling nauseated. How could this be erased from my mind? Of course, this vampire s**t was not significant. Some party I forgot about, but still. I trusted Caleb, and we worked together for years. When either of us found a better company, the other would follow. We had each other's backs, always.

Then we talked for a while.

Caleb told me that vampires were real. He told me they could have also messed with my mind, so I forgot about the party. It was surreal. I trusted him, but I would have to see it to believe it. However, I was unsure why I would want to see any of it.

"You think they messed with my mind?"

"Well, maybe you had too much to drink that night, possibly? I know they could make you do stuff you would not want to do."

"How do you know that?"

"I have my sources and have been around," he replied.

I wanted to ask more, but I could tell he wanted to keep this to himself.

"You know," he continued, "I finally brought this up because there is another party, and I wanted to go together this time."

"I don't think that worked well for me last time I went," I replied, but I felt curious.

"Think about it! It's completely different from whatever you have ever experienced, and you may find the answers or jog your memory when you get there."

I knew it was stupid. I knew it was a bad idea, and we talked for a long time and way longer than we should have, and we went back to the office way later than we were supposed to.

Yet I said yes. It was like a persistent voice in my head was pushing me to go there! What the hell is going on with me?