AUTHOR'S NOTE:
If you like what you're reading, let me know: SellarDhor@gmail.com. And let me know where you want the story to go and who you want Jake to end up with. And if you have any ideas for the future, let me know, I might include them.
APRIL 8th
"What the heck are YOU doing here?" I asked, looking at an unpleasant face as Helina and I stood on the front drive of Woodville Manor, both of us ready to go. "Nadeen told us Alik would meet us here."
"She meant me. My name's Alik too," said Alik Khorkov.
"The other Alik isn't coming to see us off?" I asked.
"Nope, it's just me."
"I never got to say goodbye properly."
"I don't give a shit about that. Both of you have a train to board in twenty minutes from the station two blocks from here. There's no time for anything but the train."
He handed us small bags.
"Everything you need is in those bags. You both have new identities."
"I hope you don't expect me to do a Russian accent."
"Nope, you're still an American. These identities have clearance to travel to 80% of the world's nations, since Alik knew that after you went to China, you'd need to travel to India, Africa, and South America. But for now, you'll take this train to a station right on the edge of the Carstvo, on the eastern side. This is map to a spot in the outlying fence that has been cut. You'll slip through there, and follow the map about a mile to a car that's waiting for you."
"With a driver?" asked Helina.
"No."
"Do you know how to drive one of those? If I've ever been in one, my amnesia is blocking it from me."
"I can drive it," I said.
"It will probably be least risky for you to drive to China from here," he said. "If you were in a pinch, you could always fly, but keep in mind that flights are more closely monitored than streets."
"We can drive there," I said.
"There's camping provisions in the car. Or, you can stay in inns. Each of you has a credit card under your new identities to purchase stuff with."
"What's a credit card?"
"I'll show you how to use one," I said. "What if the cards run out of money?"
"Nadeen has been taught how to load more cash into your accounts, so if you need to, call and have her do it. And that's it. Now, hurry up and get on your train!"
Twenty-five minutes later, Helina and I were sitting on our train, and I was looking back at the gorgeous Krasnyj Sneg, reflecting on my time there.
"You're definitely looking the wrong way," said Helina. "You're supposed to be looking forwards."
"I know, I know. I'm just feeling reflective."
"Is that tear I see in your eye? If anyone should be crying, it should be me."
"Because you're leaving the only life you've ever known behind?"
"No, because you know I absolutely hate trains. What's got you all wet-eyed? I know it's not the new factory job you're leaving behind."
"Honestly, I'm sad about leaving behind Alik. I have this odd feeling I'm never going to see him again."
"What you call an odd feeling, I'd call sound reasoning."
When we got to the hole in the fence, it ended up being overgrown with shrubbery, and we spent a half hour clearing it away enough for me to get through without scratching myself. And then we hiked to our car, and I felt relief as I turned the key and it worked.
"Do you have any modern clothes with you?" I asked once we were both inside and I had the heat on.
"I don't own any."
"Well, I'm going to change out of this old suit in the back."
After I had changed into the clothes I had before I had come to Russia, I took my spot behind the wheel.
"Wow, those are a lot of controls. Are you sure you know how to drive one of these?"
"Yes, I'm sure. I made sure this was an automatic, which was all that matters. Though I haven't driven since Christmas, and it's a bit weird to be behind the wheel again after so long."
"Well, do try not to kill us. Not dying today would just make my day."
I put the care into Drive and pulled forward onto the empty road. Almost immediately, there was a stop sign. I stopped, and then started to speed up again.
An imposing figure jumped into the road ahead of me, arms up.
"We're under attack!" I yelled, slamming on my brakes and turning sharply to the right at the same time. I ended up side swiping the figure, knocking them to the ground as the car came to hard stop.
"Five seconds of driving and you've already hit a pedestrian!"
"That's not a pedestrian! He was coming right for us! It might have been a vampire."
"Jake!" came a moan from outside.
"I know that voice!" I said, opening the door. "Oh my goodness, it's Alik on the ground!"
I jumped onto the pavement and went over to inspect him
"Please tell me you're okay."
"That fucking sucked." He sat up and got up to his feet. "But I think I'm okay."
"Why on earth were you running into the road like that?!"
"I didn't want you to leave me behind. I thought you were supposed to be in control over one of these things."
"Not enough to stop on a dime, I'm sorry. So, don't either of you ever get in the way of an automobile again."
"You're so angry at his way of making us stop for him that you haven't even asked him why he's here."
"I came because I realized I couldn't live with being left behind." He pointed to his backpack. "If you'll have me with you, I'll stay with you as long as you'll have me. I may not be as strong as Helina, but I'm about as strong as a human being can get, and a good fighter too, if it came down to that. I can be your bodyguard."
"Yes, even if you were the weakest human being on earth, I'd still want you to come. As long as Helina is okay with it, I mean."
"Of course I am."
"I owe both of you my life, so I am totally devoted to seeing you through your trials, whatever they may be."
"No, wait a second," I said. "If you're coming along out of some sense of obligation, then you might as well turn around right now and go home. We don't want someone here because they feel like they owe it to us. We want someone here only if they'd choose to be here regardless of any debts they feel are owed."
"No, this is not about obligation. I'm here because I care about you and I want to see you are safe. That's it."
"Okay, that's fine."
"I was lucky to have caught you. I spent way too long this morning than I should have saying my goodbyes to Nadeen."
As Alik put him things in the trunk and I showed him what a seatbelt was, I got a map out and started to plan our route east. I kept fingering that Anzhero-Sudzhensk mark. I went into my things and pulled out the notes Maxim had written down from what I had said in my dreams. Anzhero-Sudzhensk was the one.
"Listen, I have the strong compulsion to go to Anzhero-Sudzhensk before we go to China. It's sort of on the way. We should be able to get there with two days of driving. And then from there we could go towards Mongolia."
"Why would you want to go there?" asked Alik.
"I've had these dreams about it. I barely remember the details, you know how dreams are, but I really have a strong feeling that something important happened there."
"Let's go," said Helina. "You're the One, and that might mean your dreams are more important than the rest of ours. I say we check it out."
"Me too," said Alik.
"Anzhero-Sudzhensk, here we come."
We stopped at a gas station to fill up and get a cooler of ice to keep the month's supply of blood Helina brought with her fresh. It was so weird being back in modernity full of pavement and cars. Clearly it was even weirder for Alik and Helina, who looked at the modern conveniences like they were some alien technology. But they were invaluable to me in translating, as no one spoke English so far, and I hadn't learned any Russian. Of course, Alik's clothes and especially Helina's dress got a lot of stares, but I told them to tell people they were actors already in character and headed to the theater. That seemed to appease people, but even so, we got a lot of looks. I was the only black person some of these people had seen, Alik was the most muscular man they had ever seen, and Helina was the most beautiful.
Alik went into the men's bathroom to take a leak, and I followed him in, locking the door behind me when I noticed we were the only ones there. He was almost done peeing when I got there, and I went to the second urinal beside him and watched him shake off his big, uncut meat and start to put it away.
I reached over and grabbed it with my hand. "Just had to check. Yup, that confirms it. Your dick is just as hot as it was yesterday."
"Please, get off me," he said, turning red.
"Don't worry, I locked the door, so no one will walk in here and see us doing this."
I placed his dick against my pants and reached up to hug him, kissing him on the lips.
"I've been waiting to let you know properly just how happy I am you're here."
He pulled off me. "No." He shook his head.
"What's wrong?"
"I'm not here as your romantic lead, Jake. I'm here as your friend. That's it."
"It is? Is this because I told you I would only bottom for you that once, and you loved it so much? It's true, it's not really my thing. Do you need to be with someone who is a proper bottom?"
"I want to lie and say yes, just to make it easier, but that's not the problem. I never need to top again."
"Oh, do you have someone else you're interested in? Well, that's fine. I'm happy for you."
"No, there's no one else."
"Oh, so you're just not feeling me? Not attracted to me in that way? I totally understand. It's true that we have very little in common. And I might not be your type physically."
"Nope, you are totally my type physically, and I think you're an amazing guy, a real catch."
"Then what's the problem? I mean, before, the problem was that you could not be monogamous with me because of your situation. Is that still an issue with you now?"
"No, I don't have a wandering eye, if that's what you mean. The problem is that you're way too good for me."
"I am not!"
"Yes, you are. I'm already ten years older than you."
"That's nothing!"
"And I'm only getting older! You're not going to age. You need to find someone else who won't age."
"That's not an issue with me."
"You don't want me. I'm used up, Jake. You need someone as alive and vibrant as you are."
"No! I want you. I mean, I'm not talking marriage or anything. We're so different, I'm not sure if I'll fall in love with you. But that's why we should get together, to try each other out and see if we're compatible for the long term."
"No, I know that you'll find someone better than me. I'd be willing to just be together in a little fling that we both know would end as soon as you found someone else you wanted to be with, but I think you're not made that way. I think you'd put blinders on if we did that and not see the right man walking into your life. You'd miss him. So, I can't do that to you. I'm only here as a friend, and that's that."
"I'm so sick of people trying to make these important decisions for me without letting me chose."
There was a knock at the door, some guy yelled something in Russian.
Alik yelled back. "Sorry, this is the final word." He unlocked the bathroom and left it as the other guy came in.
"We'll see about that," I murmured to myself.
Late that evening, we stopped at a roadside inn. Alik tried to get us three separate rooms, but I convinced him that having him and I share a room would save money, a language he understood as well as I did with our lowly upbringing. But when the woman behind the counter refuted my claim that sharing one large bed would be cheaper than getting two beds, he defiantly chose the latter.
We ended up eating a late dinner at a pub type of place that was attached to the inn. Nobody else was eating food, all the patrons were there to drink. As we ate and talked, the only really attractive drinker came up and asked Helina something in Russian.
"Alik, you'll have to translate for me."
"He asked her if she was seeing one of us two. And now she's telling him no, that they are seeing each other. Which is not true, but whatever. Pleased, he's introducing himself and he's going to get her a drink."
When the guy came back with her drink, the two of them started to chat and flirt with each other for perhaps a half hour.
"I'm not in the habit of having one night stands... well, I don't think, anyway, but given my propensity for amnesia, who knows, really? Anyway, I might have to make an exception on my supposed standard given we'll never see this guy again and my collection of blood packets are limited."
"Go ahead," I said, loving how she was using English to keep him in the dark.
She turned to him and started speaking Russian.
"She's telling him, she needs him to know just what he's signing up for."
Suddenly, her fangs came out, and he looked completely astonished, yelling a string of Russian.
"Put those away!" Alik said.
"Why is he acting so surprised?" asked Helina. "Oh, I get it, he's never seen a fanged vampire woman before. He expected me to come in the standard, non-fanged variety of vampire female."
"None of these people have ever seen a vampire, Helina!"
"They haven't? Why is that, are these ignorant country folk who only see vampires on TV?"
"No one in my world even knows vampires exist, Helina. You have to put those teeth away, now!"
She did as I asked, but he kept on asking questions.
"Alik, tell him he was just hallucinating this. Tell him he's had too much to drink."
Alik did as I asked. "He says that he hasn't started drinking yet. He knows what she is, and he thinks it's terrific. And tomorrow he's going to tell everyone what he saw."
"Why is this a problem?"
" It's a huge crime for anyone from inside the Carstvo, or any other vampire areas, to tell outsiders about vampires or our home," said Alik. "If anyone found out about this, you could be severely punished."
"Really? Okay, well, I won't do it again. But what are we supposed to do about it now?"
"Anyone who we tell we are supposed to take back to the Carstvo, where they will be forced to remain for the rest of their lives."
"I'm not doing that. What other option do we have?"
"You can glamour him and make him forget," I said.
"I can do what?"
"Glamour, which to vampires, means you hypnotize them and make them forget the last few hours through the power of vocal suggestion."
"And how do I do this? Will I need to borrow your pocket watch or something?"
"No, it happens automatically after you sleep with them, bite them, and make sure they are sexually satisfied. Then, after the sex, for the next couple hours anything you tell them to do they will do, within reason. You can't make them kill themselves or give up information."
"Oh great, why do all these stupid vampire abilities require intercourse?"
"Good question," I said.
"Good thing he's so cute. Alright then, I'm doing my civic duty by sleeping with him."
She pulled him out of the tavern.
"You should have seen it last night, Jake. I threw away everything about my life that I despise. All the boxing stuff. The fencing things. My huge stash of condoms. All of it gone forever. It felt so good to do."
"Cathartic?"
"Yes."
We were in our bedroom getting ready for bed. By that time, he had already put me through a workout in our room, absolutely determined to get me back in shape, which I was very grateful for.
"What about the needles?"
"I wanted so badly to toss them as well and just go cold turkey. But I'm worried that if I did that, I'd permanently screw up my testosterone levels. So I've started to taper off on those slowly."
As I said my prayers, Alik sat on his bed, took off his boxers, and got into bed (being nude around me just those brief few seconds). I took my own clothes off, took one look at my cold, empty bed, and hopped into Alik's instead.
"You're in the wrong bed!" he said to me as if believing I must have made a miscalculation.
"No, I'm not. I want to be with you, Alik. And I'm not just talking beds here." I scooted my body over towards his body. "I want you to be my boyfriend."
Alik scooted his body back away from me. "I'm not fit to be your boyfriend. You have a life that has nothing to do with me."
"You can be a part of my life. After this mess is over with the Vampire Council, you can come back with me to college."
"You want me to go to your college?"
"Sure, we can study together. Remember, the Woodvilles are going to pay for you."
"I can't go to college."
"I thought you needed a university degree to enroll in the culinary school you wanted to go to?"
"I do. That's why I'm never going to Culinary school. I'm too stupid for college."
"I thought you said you were a wiz in high school?"
"I was. I used to be smart like you. But I got my head messed up from too many fights. I'm not half as bright as I used to be then, and there's no going back."
"Brain damage can heal over time," I said.
"I knew when Helina used all that blood to heal my brain injury and it still didn't improve my brights any that it wasn't going to happen. No, this is a permanent change. I'm like this for good, and I just need to accept it."
I almost argued with him about being like that for good until I realized it was me who was in denial, not him. "I didn't know the old you, so me falling for you has nothing to do with any IQ you've lost. You've got so many other great qualities that are much more important to me, Alik."
"No, don't you see? I'm broken goods, Jake. All I'd be to you is a ball and chain wrapped around your neck. A ball and chain that's getting old fast."
"You're not a ball and chain. And I think I could help you with the university stuff. We could help each other get through it together."
"It's not going to happen. And that's why we can't happen."
"I don't accept that." I wrapped my arms around his body.
"Please stop molesting me against my will."
"You just don't want me to know that you're hard. Which I can feel all too well. I think you need to listen to your body Alik and give into the idea of us."
"How could I not be hard when you've invaded my bed in this way? If you refuse to leave this bed, than I will be forced to sleep in yours."
"Alright, fine. I don't want to force myself sexually on someone who doesn't want it."
"You know that me not wanting sex with you isn't the least bit what this is about."
"I know. But Alik, please. I feel so much better with you like this than I would in my cold bed by myself. Can't we both agree just to be together?"
"Alright, fine. I'll let you treat me like a boyfriend as long as we are physically close."
"Even in public?"
"Even in public. But only if you if you agree that the second a great, single guy comes along, human or whatever else, that you'll drop me and go for him."
"That sounds awful."
"Those are my terms! Take them or leave them."
"Fine, I'll accept, but only on the condition that if I convince you to be my real boyfriend, those agreements go away."
"Yes, that's fine. Do you promise?"
"I promise then."
"Good. And there's no chance I'll change my mind, so I'm going to have you sent off with the first semi-attractive guy that comes across our paths."
"No, wait, it has it be my choice whom I go for. You can't have a say in it."
"Well then, if I'm going to agree to that, I'm also going to have to lay down a ground rule for sharing a bed with me. No sex. Because I don't want my sex with you to keep you so sexually satisfied that you won't have eyes for other men as prospective mates. So, you aren't allowed to use my body, especially not when I'm asleep."
"You do know how oddly bizarre it is that we've gone back to the rule you gave me the first time we shared a bed, don't you?"
"Is that a no?"
"No, I agree. But you must have a pretty high opinion of your sex if you think that me getting it will completely change my behavior." I laughed.
He didn't seem to find the humor in that. "It's not about my sex being so good. In fact, this is has nothing to do with me or my body. You can do anything you want to my body, and I'll gladly accept it. What I want from you is a promise that you won't get off. Not with me, not with yourself. So that when some guy comes along who is smarter than me, younger than me, more cut than me."
"What does that have to do with any of this?"
"I know you don't like how big I am, that you wish I didn't have this steroided, bloated look, that my body looked more like Maxim's. And that's fine, I agree, you deserve better than me."
"You're being ridiculous. You're perfect to me just the way you are."
"I need you to not get off so that after a while, you'll stop seeing me with rose-tinted glasses and you'll start seeing other guys as being attractive. Either you keep from coming, or I'm not going to be anything physically but your friend."
"Fine, I agree to this forced celibacy if it means I can do anything to your body I want and be as romantic with you as I feel like without complaint."
"Yes, you can. And just so you know I wouldn't ask you to do something I wasn't capable of, I'm also going to stop from orgasming. So, you can do anything you want with me, just as long as neither of us gets off."
"Fine, I agree." I kissed him, and this time, he actually kissed me back, and it felt entirely delicious.
His huge dick continued to poke me, being rock hard, so I decided I couldn't resist sticking my head under the covers and putting head in my mouth, licking along the foreskin.
"Whoa," he said. "If you do that, you know you're just going work us both into a frenzy that neither of us will be able to get release from."
"I know," I managed to say with the large piece of flesh I had in my mouth. I pulled off him in order to say, "But if you ever want to change that rule, have us climax, and become my permanent boyfriend, I'll be thrilled."
"I won't."
"Then I'll be fine with the thrills I'm allowed, even without having satisfying endings." And I continued to suck on him.
APRIL 9th
The next morning, I was delighted when Alik let me hold his hand while I was driving as he sat next to me in the passenger's seat, only when it was safe to pull my hand off the wheel, of course.
My phone rang while we were driving that afternoon. I looked at the number, and when I saw it was Maxim, I once again let the voicemail take it. After I got a new message, though, he sent me a text telling me he really had something important to talk about. When we were pulled over getting gas, I listened to his message while Alik and Helina were in the bathroom.
"I was over at the Woodville's today on business and met Nadeen Woodville, Alik's sister. She told me a bit about their history, and she told me that the two of you had run off together, that she thought you were an item. Listen, I'm not jealous, I think that's great. Alik's got a great body and it sounds like he might actually have a big heart too, which he kept concealed from all of us. But please come back to me. Alik can move in here too. I've got a bed big enough for all three of us, and you can sleep in between us. I'm not attracted to him physically and I'm sure he feels the same about me, but we could still enjoy and share your body, either one at a time or together, whatever both if you prefer. In time, we might all learn to love each other. Please just come back to me, my solnyshko. I haven't been able to sleep since you left. Once again, I'm sorry for all I did. I love you."
And that was the end of the message. I didn't want to talk to him, so I texted him back. I almost said something snarky to him before realizing how much he was putting his heart into his request. "No thanks," I said simply in the end.
I saw Helina coming back to the car, and I rolled down my window as she was walking towards the back door. "Alik has had the front seat all day. You can have it for the rest of the day, and he can take a turn in the back."
"Can I, Daddy, can I please sit in front?" she asked in a mocking voice.
"Since you've been such a good girl all day, you can."
"I would normally say yes, but I'm not going to agree to hold your hand like Alik has been doing all day if I take his seat. You can add hand holding to the long list of friendly public displays of affection that I refuse to perform on principle, along with hugging, kissing on the cheek, or even worse, on the mouth, butterfly kisses, daisy chains, etc."
"I don't think you really know what that last one is. If so, your definition of friendly' and public' need close scrutiny."
"You can just blame it on my amnesia, as usual."
A gust of wind knocked her dress and her hair all over the place, and she quickly sat down in the passenger seat as I rolled up the window. "Windy!"
"Do you always state the obvious?" she asked, her tangles black hair covering her face.
And then something happened that took my breath away. As I watched her, while she had her eyes shut leaning back against her headrest, her hair started to move on its own. As I watched, it went from messy to completely back in order. "Whoa, how did you just do that?" I asked.
"What?" she asked, opening her eyes.
"You just made your hair get all neat without even touching it."
"I did not!"
I put the passenger mirror down and pointed to it. "Look for yourself."
"I must admit, it does look flawless. But I couldn't have done this on my own, that's silly."
"Helina, I know what I saw. Try concentrating as hard as you can on moving your hair with your mind."
"This is so stupid," she said.
"Please just try!"
She concentrated on her hair for a few seconds. And then, without her moving, a strand moved on its own.
"Oh God!" she said. "You're right!"
"No wonder your hair is always so neat," I said. "I never see you brushing it."
"I guess I've been unconsciously fixing it all this time."
"I bet you are telekinetic!" I said. I grabbed a small coin and set on the armrest between us. "Without touching the coin, try to make it float."
She looked at the coin for a long time through squinted eyes, but nothing happened. "No, I must not be telekinetic. Just have the ability to move my own hair."
"I wonder if you can move other people's hair too?"
"Let me try with you!"
"My hair isn't long enough to do that with, and my body hair is too coarse for you to move."
Right then, Alik came back, and sat in the backseat.
"Alik, just in time," she said. "I know your hair is short, but can I try to move one of your chest hairs with my mind?"
He seemed unfazed by that bizarre request. "I guess you've never seen me shirtless, but I don't have any chest hair. But I do have other types of body hair. Do you want to use my armpit hair or my pubes?"
She rolled her eyes. "Oh Alik, as classy as ever. What an awful choice, but I'll take your armpit hair."
He took his shirt off and showed her his blonde, straight hairs under his muscled arm. She looked at them with extreme concentration, and after a bit, the hairs swirled around.
"Ha, that tickles!" said Alik, putting his arm down.
"You did it!" I said, clapping. "You can move any hair with your mind! We just found out your special power together."
"Oh my God, listen to him," said Alik. "This one loves putting his smarts to good use. I totally bet he has a boner right now."
"I do not!"
"Thank you for teaching me how to move hair with my mind, oh wise one," Helina said. "All these years trying to figure out what the hell my special ability is, and it turns out to be such an epic game- changer. I guess I should have known, given the family I'm from. My father's special ability was so powerful, if he hadn't been such a bastard, he could have used his power to rewrite the books on brain physiology and solve all brain disorders permanently. And my brother's telekinetic control over fire is so powerful, he's one of the deadliest fighters that ever walked the earth, possibly the most deadly. And outside killing things, he'd probably make employee of the month for the rest of his life if he ever took up work at a smelting factory."
"Plus he makes the best smores I've ever had. Yes, I really did make him make those for me. I wasn't going to let dating a fire-god go to total waste."
"Of course not," she said. "And then there's me, resident hair goddess in the family. My power is clearly as lethal as theirs is, given I can totally mess up their perfect coifs when I'm really angry enough."
"It's not all that bad," I said, trying to be upbeat.
"Oh no, as a productive ability, it's just as much a world changer. I single-handedly have the power to put a stop once and for all to every single bad hair day out there. My powers as a salonist will never be matched. I've found my calling in life, clearly, and I have both of you to thank for that."
"I did nothing," Alik said. "You have Jake and my armpit hair to thank." He laughed.
"You'd better not laugh at me, or I'll be forced to yank one of those pubes out with my amazing ability in retaliation."
"Jake, remind me next time we take a shower together to have you shave my pubes for me so that Helina won't have that over my head anymore and I can make fun of her as a please."
"I'm already refusing," I said.
APRIL 10th
"Does any of this look familiar to you, now that it's in the daylight?" asked Alik as we strolled down Anzhero-Sudzhensk's main drag. We had gotten in so late the night before that we only had time to find an inn and go to sleep, so this was the first time we were able to really look at the place.
"No, nothing here looks the least bit familiar. It's so weird. I guess these dreams are nothing more than a vivid imagination after all. I'm sorry for wasting both of your time like this."
"It's no problem," Alik said.
"We were going to have to pass through this way anyway," said Helina.
"Alright, let's get the car and take off."
I caught a glimpse of a bar down the street, and right away, a pang of emotion hit me. Instead of going back to the car, I started to walk towards it.
"Oh my goodness, I know this bar," I said as we approached the corner dive bar with a name in Russian that I couldn't read.
I felt compelled to go inside. The interior looked just as familiar to me as the outside, though none of few people there seemed to have that effect on me.
"Please, just indulge me with this," I said to my friends as I started to walk down the street away from the bar, the path seeming familiar to me.
"He's so cute," Helina said. "Just like a dog tracking down a scent."
"Well, the metaphorical scent is splitting in two now," I said, pointing down a fork in the road. "Which one should we follow?"
"To the leftt," Alik said.
We veered left, and my path dead ended at a farmhouse on the edge of town. "I know this place too," I said.
The horse stables were empty and abandoned, and the house itself boarded up. No people were in sight.
"Sorry, this led nowhere," I said. "Let's go back and go in the other direction."
We went back to the fork in the road and went left. Before long, we reached another house that was familiar to me, again boarded up and abandoned.
"There is still a familiar path from here," I said, continuing down the street. We came to a small but attractive home that was most familiar to me of all, and this one wasn't boarded up. "I'm going to knock and see if they will let me in."
"Jake, you can't just go around telling people you had dreams of their houses, they'll lock you up," said Alik. I remembered just how anti-religious, anti-spiritual vampire society was, where even a psychic dream might be cause for arrest, and I understood.
"Fine. I'll just tell them I used to live there and would love a tour."
"No one will believe an American who knows no Russian used to live here," said Helina. "I'll tell them it was me who used to live there."
Helina and I stepped forward, with Alik just behind us, and knocked on the door. A stern looking man in his late forties answered, who looked not the least bit familiar. He said something in Russian.
"He's telling us that they don't want any solicitors," translated Helina.
"We speak English too," said the man in English. "That's what got me so far in the army."
"Oh, great," I said.
"Listen, we are not here to solicit," said Helina. "I used to live here as a girl. Do you mind if we just look around the place?"
"She's come a long way," I said.
"Well, I can't say no to such a beauty," said the man. "I'll show her around, and you two can wait right here."
"Actually, we can't leave him here," she said, pointing to me.
"Why not?"
"Because he's, um, he's my, well, we just started dating. He goes everywhere with me."
"Oh, I'm sorry, I couldn't tell by your demeanor at all that you two were dating."
"Well," I said. "We were drawn together by our shared dislike for public displays of affection."
"He's very right."
"Still, I've never let an American into my house. This is not a West-friendly home."
"That's fine, because I'm not a West-friendly person. I hate the West. Why else do you think I gave up on America and moved here?"
"I like you better and better with every word. What about the other guy?"
"Just a friend. He can wait here."
Alik stayed near the entrance while the man led us through the living room and into the kitchen. "Does anything here ring a bell?" he asked Helina.
Helina glanced at me, and I nodded, feeling a deep sense of eerie familiarity about the place. It felt safe to me, somehow.
"Yes, it does."
"Who's that?" asked a woman's voice with a Russian accent.
A woman entered the kitchen from the other side and looked at Helina and me. She looked a lot like the man: Russian, white, in her late forties, and with a stern look about her. She did not look familiar to me.
She said something in Russian.
"This fellow is an anti-American American, honey," said the man. "You remember your English, don't you?"
"Yes. Who are these people, Vlad? Why have you let them in our home?"
"This woman in the funny dress used to live here," he said.
"When I was a little girl."
"That's bull," said the woman, giving Helina an evil eye. "I built this house with my deceased former husband. Nobody lived here besides my son, Vadim, and us. Tell us right now why you've lied your way into my home!"
The name Vadim really rang a bell.
"Well I, uh."
"She was honestly just lying for me," I said. "The truth is, I'm friends with your son, Vadim. "
"You know Vadim?" she asked.
"Yes."
"How did you meet him?"
"Well, in school. We talked just recently, but since then, I'm afraid I was in a car accident and now suffer some amnesia. It's hard me to remember some of our last correspondences, so I wanted to come and make sure everything was alright since it's been so long since he contacted me."
"Were you one of those bad influences at the University? One of those so called friends that turned my son's head from the conservative Soviet-leaning ideals that I tried, in vain, to give him?" She looked at me with a mean gaze.
"Absolutely not, ma'am," I said. "I'm a huge Soviet supporter, and all they stand for. If I had enough money, I'd get a statue of Lenin in my backyard. I tried my best to make him fall in line with my morals."
She put a hand on my arm, and at first I almost jumped, thinking she was trying to hurt me. And then I realized that it was just her clumsy attempt at comfort. Probably the most physical contact she had given anyone besides her husband in years. "I'm so glad to see my son had at least one true friend. I'm Rebekka Minayev."
"Jake Groves. Where can I find Vadim?" I asked.
"No one has seen him for months."
"I have this feeling that he was calling or texting me on the day he disappeared."
"Did he mention where he went?"
"It's hard for me to remember, but I think he was going to his Grandparent's place. In the wilderness, I think. Not anyplace in town."
"Yes, see, Vlad? That's exactly where I think he is, and there's no way to contact them besides going there, no mail service or phone line, they always tried to be off the grid."
"I'll go tell your other friend to come inside," said Vlad, moving towards the front door.
As soon as the woman saw Alik, she did a double take. She marched up to Alik and slapped him on the face. "You give me my son back!" she yelled, shoving him over and over again. "You give him back!"
"I'm sorry, lady, but I have no idea who you are."
"Don't lie to me! It hasn't been that many years since I left, and I haven't changed much. Give my son back!"
"I don't know anything about your son!"
"Lies!" She slapped him again. "You are such a liar, Petro Lebedev!"
For some reason, that name sent tingles down my spine.
"That is not my name. My name is Alik Grishan."
"Don't lie to me! You think you can come back here and pretend to be someone else because I haven't seen you since you were a teenager? The military put all this muscle on you, made you cut your hair. And clearly you've seen a battle or two, looking at how the handsome lines of your face have been flattened. But other than that, it's you, Petro. I'm positive."
"I'm not, I never knew your son."
"I always knew you were trash, Petro! Sure, when you were a boy, I was just as fooled by your sweet smile and your good manners as my husband was that you were good for my son. But then when you became a teenager, I could see how you started to look at him, with more that brotherly love. You wanted to taint him, I could smell your corruption. And now, it's because of you he's been missing for so long! If you're not here to tell me where I can find him, I want you out of this house forever before you infect it with your sickness!"
"Whoa, lady, I don't have any clue what you're talking about. This is the first time I've ever been to this town, I swear on my life."
I pushed myself between the two of them, protecting him from her hits. "How old is this Petrov you once knew?"
"Same age as my son. Twenty-three."
"Alik here is twenty-nine."
"Oh! I understand! You're Petro's older brother, aren't you?"
"I have one younger sister named Nadeen."
"But he's adopted!" I said.
"Yes, I was adopted. My parents never told me who my birth parents were."
"I know exactly who there were. Mr. and Mrs. Lebedev, who owned the horse farm around here. They became pregnant with you before they were married, back when they were practically kids themselves. They gave you up for adoption, then a few years later ended up having two more kids they planned and kept for themselves. You really do look just like your brother. Only on steroids, and with different hair. Some of your facial features are a bit off too, but still."
"You're telling me I have a whole family I never knew about? Where are they?"
"Your little brother Petro disappeared at the same time my boy did, Vadim."
"What about my parents and sister?"
"Your brother took all their horses with them, and never came back. They assumed he had been killed, and with no horses to keep them here, decided to travel to St. Petersburg where her family is from and live there. They were planning on returning in the spring."
"Do you know how to contact them?" I asked.
"I have no idea. You'll just have to wait for them to come back, I suppose."
"And what about my brother?"
"He disappeared, along with my son and a couple of my parents' friends."
"Could something have happened to them all?" I asked.
"I'll tell you what I told the police. They all got infected by my parents' insanity, and ran off with them. They went to my parents' remote cabin in the woods, I know they did."
"Yes, I think you're right," I said.
"Wouldn't the police have checked there?" Alik asked.
"I told them to, but they never did. Said it was because there's no roads there. But that's where they are, I'm sure of it."
"Have you tried calling their cell phones?" Alik asked.
"My parents were so delusionally paranoid, they thought vampires would be able to track them down with those phones, I kid you not. They would have destroyed them all for sure."
"If he's in this cabin, I have to find him," Alik said. "Jake, do you think you would know how to get there?"
I shook my head.
"You have to help us," Alik said to the woman. "Can you mark the cabin down on a map?"
"I'm awful with maps, and never used one," she said. "But I have the way there ingrained in my head. If you are going, I'd like to go too. Only I can talk some sense into my boy, make him turn his face away from my parents lies. I'll take you there myself."
"I'll go too," said Vlad. "I always stand by my wife, right Rebekka?"
" Yes, Vlad. But it's a long journey. We'll be camping a night there and one on the return trip."
"Jake, Helina, I want you two to stay here," said Alik. "I don't want you getting swept up into any of this. You're just innocent bystandards."
"If there's any danger, I can handle myself," said Helina. "I'm fine going along."
"And I'm not leaving you, Alik."
"There's no danger out there besides a couple of loony old people," assured Rebekka.
"Still, I'd feel better if all of us were armed. In case wild animals attacked."
"I can provide handguns to all of us," said Vlad. "But I'm not going to let you burn through all my camping supplies too. If you want to go backpacking, you'll need to buy your own gear in town."
"That's fine," I said. "We'll get all the gear and food we need, and meet you back here in a couple hours."
"And you'd better find some other clothes to wear. You can't go camping in a suit, and that Renaissance Faire costume dress needs to go."
"Renaissance?" asked Helina, looking down at her dress. "I think you are a couple hundred years off, Madam. What's wrong with camping in this dress?"
"You've never been camping, have you?" she asked.
"I have plenty."
"And what were you wearing?"
"Well, it might have been this very dress, or something quite similar. And it all went just fine."
"Wait a second, I know now what you are. You're a completely different species from the rest of us, isn't that true?" She looked at Helina with fear and repulsion.
"How did you know?" asked Helina.
"It's the way you dress. Clearly you're not a normal human being. You're one of Madina Volkov's fantasy obsessed Dungeons and Dragons friends, aren't you?"
"I am?"
"That's right," I said. "That's exactly who she is. Hence the funny clothing."
"Well, Madina is just as responsible to taking my son away as the rest of those crazies. So you keep your paganist little game to yourself. This is not a religious household, and that's the way it's going to stay."
"She's leaving the D & D at home."
"Alright, thank you," Helina said, hanging up her cell phone. "Jake's odd feeling that something could have attacked these people has been confirmed by Lord Renzo Giordano, who I met during my time working in the Sneg Dvorec, who is the military officer in charge of vampire threats. He said that if modern people are being attacked in the woods around here, it's not any approved Petrov Blood activity, and the Chinese Blood isn't let into Russia, so it can't be them. He says there are a few renegade vampires in Europe that have been thorns in the military sides because they kill indiscriminately for prey and they are hard to catch. The only one in Eastern Russia is a vampire named Chupalov who is a fairly young, weak vampire that has gone rogue from the Petrov Blood military and has been hunting modern humans for a few years, with the army never able to track him down. He's always been alone, as he hates other vampires, and isn't old enough to make new ones. Renzo is asking us to either kill or apprehend this man if we can."
"Does all of this jibe with what you dreamt about, Jake?" asked Alik. The three of us were walking down the town streets together towards the shops.
"Yeah. I feel like Vadim and his friends were going to his grandparents' cabin in the woods when they were attacked by something scary to them. Must have been a vampire."
"That would explain why those grandparents would already know about vampires. This Chupalov could have given them trouble before."
"Do you have the feeling that any of the people were killed by vampires, Jake?" asked Alik.
I thought about it. "I can't really remember, I'm sorry. I wish I could tell you I knew for certain your brother and his friends were all okay, but I just don't know. They might have all safely gotten to the cabin."
"Renzo said this guy thinks he's an animal. He runs around naked and never has any tools or weapons, he just attacks with his bare hands and fangs. With all of us armed, and me being a much older, stronger vampire, we should be able to take him down without much trouble as long as we stay together and won't let ourselves be surprised. We can play the parts of hapless, defenseless human hikers just to make sure he'll attack."
"If that's the case, both of you will need new, modern clothes to camp in," I said. "Right now, you two scream Carstvo."
"Can you help us with this?" Alik asked.
"Of course."
"But I still don't see why Jake has to come with us," Alik said. "Why put him at needless risk when none of this has anything to do with him?"
"Alik's right. You can wait here for us to return."
"No, I'm going. You guys need me there."
"We do not," said Alik.
"Alik, have you ever been camping or backpacking before?"
"No. Never left the city. But how hard can it be?"
"You need me. Trust me."
"What if this vampire gets riled up by the smell of your rare bloodtype and chooses to attack you first?"
"Alik, how many vampires have you killed?"
"Uh, zero."
"Well, I've killed more than a few. As long as I have a gun, I'll be able to at least slow down a weaponless, young vampire. I'm going."
While Helina was picking out modern clothes in a local women's store, Alik and I were looking through the gaps in the blinds of the Lebedev farmhouse, trying to learn as much about his family as we could.
"How does it feel to know you have this whole family you never knew about?" I asked.
"It's a lot to think about. I'm not sure how I feel. Are they good people?"
I tried to put myself back into Vadim's shoes. "Your sister is kind of a bratty teenager, I'm afraid, at least from Vadim's perspective."
"So different from how Nadeen was."
"She'll grow out of it, I'm sure. But your parents seem like great people. So different from Vadim's mother. Kind and supportive. I'm sure you'll love them."
"And my little brother? Rebekka makes him sound like a toad."
"Not at all, he's the best one of all. Vadim is completely in love with him, always has been." I looked through one of the windows into a well worn kitchen. "I was in there," I said. "Petro was trying to be a chef. Alik, how bizarre is that?"
"I wonder if somehow I've been genetically gifted as a chef this whole time?"
"And she was right, you do look like your brother. In fact, the first time I saw you, I had this weird feeling like I had seen you before. That's because I had dreamt about your little brother."
He hugged me. "That's incredible, thanks for sharing. And it just makes me want to find him even more."
"Should we take shifts on guard while the others sleep?" asked Alik. "Just in case we're safe from intruders?"
"You are just as paranoid as my parents are," said Rebekka. "There's no one out there to attack us."
"Still, I'd feel better if we took shifts staying awake."
"Well then, you'd three better do that, because us two appreciate our sleep," said Vlad.
"I'll take first shift," said Helina. "But first, I need to go use the bathroom." She grabbed her pack and started off towards the woods. "Here I am," she yelled. "A normal woman, going to the bathroom all alone in the woods, completely defenseless!"
Knowing what she was trying to accomplish, I rolled my eyes. None of the trip so far had been the least bit scary for me, as we travelled through pleasant, hilly tree-country, none of which seemed at all familiar to me, which somehow was reassuring. Rebekka had us stop at a stream for the night, and I helped Alik, who hadn't even really even gone hiking before, and Helina, who hadn't camped for more than a century, learn how to use things like water filters, Bunsen burners, and modern tents. If anything, it was all rather fun.
Vlad looked at our tent as he and Rebekka went into their own tent. "You only have two between the three of you?"
"Jake was going to get three, but I told him we should share to save money. I could not believe how expensive these tent things are."
"So, you have a boys tent and a girls tent?" asked Vlad.
"That's right," said Alik.
Vlad squinted, looking into our tent. "Is it my imagination, or do you only have one sleeping bag between you?"
"Again, Jake wanted to get two, but they were so crazy expensive, so I made him just get a large one that we could both fit into."
"Uh oh, that doesn't sound pleasant," said Rebekka.
"No, it will be fine," Alik said.
"Goodnight, thanks again for leading us!" I said, waving politely to Vlad and Rebekka.
"It was my pleasure," she said.
I zipped up our tent. I noticed that Rebekka, who had taken a night shower before bed with the stream water, was using a battery-powered hairdryer in her tent, making a lot of noise and keeping them from hearing anything we were doing. I decided to take advantage of the privacy.
I stripped naked and got into our sleeping bag, getting on top of him. I kissed him happily.
"This won't do at all," I said, noticing he was wearing boxers, and I pulled them off and threw them out of the bag. "Much better." I pushed our dicks together between us.
"Isn't this a little weird, to have sex basically outside like this?" asked Alik.
"You're looking at me like I have some bizarre fetish," I said. "A lot of couples have sex outside while camping."
"They do? Even with the uncomfortable beds, the lack of bathrooms, the cold, and the bugs?"
"Yes, even with all of those things. There's something romantic about it."
I kissed him, grinding our hard dicks together. And then I scooted down until my head was at his crotch level and started giving him some eager oral.
"Mmm, I think I like what being outside does to you."
I continued to suck him as he thrust into my mouth, and the hairdryer went off. That was my signal to be as silent as I could. I moved down to take his whole penis in my mouth.
"Mmm, yes."
I pulled the covers above me up so I could see his face. I pointed to the married couple's tent and I tried to let him know to be quiet.
"So what?" he asked quietly. "They are a recently married couple, and both partners are fit and healthy for their ages. I'm sure they are having sex right now too. We don't have to be quiet."
I shook my head, but he wouldn't listen, so I pulled off him, turned away from him on my side, and just went to sleep.
Immediately, I felt him spoon me from behind, wrapping his arms around me and putting his lips to my ear. "I finally see what you mean about being turned on by nature, as I'm sure you can feel poking you right now in the crack. The smells of the trees, the sounds of water and bugs. It's making me mad for your body."
I nodded.
"I'm feeling a huge desire to be inside you right now. I know you don't like that, but do you think we can try to slide just the tippy-tip inside you and see if it hurts too bad? I'd absolutely love that. And then I'll let you fall asleep, I promise."
"Only if you promise not to make another sound," I whispered.
"I won't."
I moved onto my stomach, a position I felt like I could get more of him inside me with less pain. He licked his fingers and used them to stretch me out and lube me up. And luckily, his unit was still plenty moist with my saliva.
I gave him a signal with my fingers that I just wanted a small amount, and he nodded excitedly.
He pushed his head inside me, and painful tears stung my eyes.
"Oh God!" he said, out of pure pleasure.
Angry, I covered his mouth with my hand, and he took it away gently, letting me know he wouldn't let himself make any noises again.
I started to fall asleep on my stomach, while he was definitely not looking like he was the least bit sleepy, covering me from behind. I could feel him flexing all his muscles on top of me, and even though he wasn't thrusting, he was breathing heavy. I wanted to remind him of his rule against climaxing, but I had to keep quiet.
Right then, I was surprised as heck when someone pulled down the zipper to our tent door and looked in. I could see it was Vlad standing there, holding a sleeping bag in front of him.
"I felt bad for you two having to share, and me and the missus are sharing her bag, so I'm giving you mine for Jake to sleep in." He seemed to see what was going on for the first time, and he gasped. "What are you doing to him?"
"Vlad, speaking to you man to man," Alik said, "I'm sure you'll understand when I tell you to take the other sleeping bag away. Because if Jake wasn't in my sleeping bag, then I wouldn't be having the wonderful feeling I am now of having him both inside my arms while at the same time, being inside him, if you get my meaning."
My face went hot with embarrassment.
"You're inside him? Right now?"
"That's right, Vlad. I guess the fresh air got to me."
"Faggot!" Vlad spat. "Faggot!"
"What did you say?" asked Alik. "Fuck it, fuck it? You mean, fuck his butt, is that what you want me to do? I would, but I don't want him hurting and getting upset."
"Not fuck it, I said faggot!"
As soon as I heard the word, I shut down, closing my eyes. I hated that word. It was just as bad as the N word to me. There was something about Vlad that reminded me of my father, and that took me to a really dark place. He would call me that word sometimes, just to bother me, not knowing that I'd end up being gay. If he had ever lived to learn about my sexuality, he would have littered me with those words.
As I saw my father in my head, the chaos around me continued.
"I don't know what that means," Alik said. "My English isn't so good. Does it have a Russian word?"
"Many." He started to go through the words in Russian, getting louder and louder.
"I don't know any of those either, sorry man. Can you just leave and let me get back to my work here?"
"Rebekka! Rebekka, we have a faggot here!"
I heard a tent door unzip, and I heard her ask, "What is going on?"
"Alik is raping Jake in his sleep!" said Vlad.
"Get away from him, you disgusting faggot! You are just as bad as your brother!"
"No, it's not like that, I--" Alik was cut off.
"I said, off, faggot!"
I heard her run up to us and spray something, and next thing I knew, Alik was screaming.
"That's my own brand of pepper spray, right in your face, you disgusting pervert!"
"Ahhh! It burns!"
Alik pulled out of me and got out of the sleeping bag, running naked out of the tent, screaming.
"Get ready for a second dose, you faggot rapist!" she said. "I'm going to spray this one on your genitals to make sure you never rape Jake or my son ever again, or anyone else!"
I snapped out of my dark place and ran out of the tent, sleeping bag around me, and blocked Alik's crotch behind me. "Wait, don't hurt him! He wasn't raping me, he's my boyfriend!"
"That's even worse!" said Vlad. "Just like his brother tainted Vadim with his gayness, Alik made you a faggot just in a matter of hours!"
"You are a disgusting pervert, Alik, and you should leave this poor, good boy alone!"
"Alik is gay, and so am I. And so is Vadim! He told me he was on the phone! And Petro loves him, and there's nothing wrong with that."
"If my son has turned into a faggot, it's only because Petro made him that way. Because I did not raise him like that."
"None of us turned gay or were raised like that. It's just who we are. Now, what kind of treatment can I give Alik?"
"If you must treat the pervert, my pepper spray is made with pepper and water."
"So, it's water soluble?"
"Yes."
"That's what I wanted to hear. Come on, Alik."
Since he was covering his eyes screaming, I pulled him away from the camp until we got to the stream, out of sight of the others. I pulled off my sleeping bag and led Alik into the water.
"So cold!" I yelled in pain.
"Yes, cold water, please!"
I pulled him down into the water and had him start to flush out his eyes. It was only then that he started to go soft.
"I can't believe they did this to you," I said.
"I can understand why," he said.
"You can?"
"Sure. They see what I see. A disgusting, used up, stupid, ugly, old man fucking a wonderful, bright, good looking, young man. They see how you are completely out of my league and the only thing that would ever make sense in their minds is that I must be forcing you sexually."
"That's not what's going on at all, and once again, your self-evaluation is atrocious."
"Then you tell me what other explanation could be true?"
"They are homophobic."
"What does that mean?"
"They don't like homosexuals."
"What? That's completely ridiculous! I hope they are the only freaks out there with such random dislikes."
"Then we'd better head back into vampire territory. Because humanity is full of completely randomly directed prejudices like that. People can be downright detestable, in fact."
"So, there's more people that don't like homosexuals?"
"That's right."
"And just as many people who dislike heterosexuals?"
"No, it's completely focused on anyone but heterosexuals."
"So, you're saying that they're hatred of me has nothing to do with thinking you should be with a far better man?"
"Not at all. They don't want me with a man at all. And somehow, they got it in their minds that you were really the homosexual, that I was straight. As soon as they realize I'm just as gay as you, they will start calling me names too, I'm sure."
"Well, they are the ones who are fucked up, not us."
"Yes, I agree."
"Then I say we don't let their craziness get to us. In fact, I say we stick our homosexuality in their faces."
In the distance, Helina appeared, walking towards us with her flashlight.
"Where have you been all this time?" I asked.
"Taking a long walk, trying my best to bait Chupalov into attacking me. You should have seen me, trying to look as innocent and weak as little red riding hood. I may have even managed to skip through the forest while humming a merry tune, but if so, I'll never admit to it." She got close enough to see us. "Ah!" she said, turning around and covering her eyes. "Why in God's name are you two stark naked? Did the naked vampire bandit finally realize how stupid he must have looked without any clothes and make off with all your outfits?"
"We still have all of our clothes," I said.
"So, if you're naked by choice, then eww, gross, I just interrupted you two having late night skinny-dipping sex, didn't I?"
"If that was the case, wouldn't you think we would be the least bit aroused or touching each other, perhaps?" I asked.
"Right, so I must have caught you after you were done with the sex, and you were both just cleaning off. Eww, I don't even want to know what liquid Alik is flushing out of his eyes right now."
I filled Helina in on what had happened while she was gone.
"You mean, humans will discriminate against people for things they can't control, like if they are homosexual or left handed?"
"It's so strange," Alik said. "They kept calling me this word."
"Faggot," I said. "It's the worst possible, most offensive word for homosexuals. No one should say it ever, even if they are kidding around."
With Alik's eyes cleaned out, we got out of the water, both jumped into the sleeping bag, and walked back to camp with Helina. While we had been gone, Vlad and Rebekka had been busy. They were just getting into their tent in a new location.
"Oh, yes," I said. "Do move as far as humanly possible away from our tent as you can, that makes perfect sense."
As we walked by their tent, Vlad gave Alik an evil eye. "You stay away from me while I sleep, faggot. Don't even think about raping my ass tonight."
"Riiiight," said Alik. "Because all homosexual tops like me are the same. We get tired of fucking willing, homosexual bottoms like Jake, so we are forced to prey on any and all straight men we come across."
"You may think I'm much smaller than you and therefore easy prey, but I'm warning you, I'm a light sleeper and know how to fight back. I have no problem gouging your eyes out."
"Well that still might be a price I'm willing to pay to get your scrawny, old, wrinkly butt in my hands." Alik reached out to touch the man's shoulder, but Rebekka stood up and blocked him."
"You keep your pervert disease to yourselves. Don't infect my poor husband!"
"You tell them, Rebekka!" yelled Helina. "Way to make them keep their diseases to themselves."
"Yeah, because being gay is totally something Alik and I caught from other gays. It's not something as ridiculous as us being born that way."
"Ahhh!" yelled Helina, her body shaking like she had just had a heart attack.
"Are you okay?" I asked, wondering if we were under attack.
"No, I'm not okay! I've been so close to you two homosexuals, I've just caught the homosexual diseases myself! I hate you both for giving me this curse! There goes all thoughts of men being attractive, gone forever! Now, all I can think about is women, yuck! That's right Rebekka, you'd better zip up that tent before I come over and force you into a storm of cunnilingus!"
"When are you going to face the facts? Vadim is gay. He was born that way, Petro didn't make him that way. In fact, if anyone was uncertain about their sexuality, it was Petro. Vadim tried to tell you, Rebekka, about being gay, but you were such a bad mother, you wouldn't even let him get the words out. And then you abandoned him before he was even an adult because you couldn't handle the idea of him being gay."
"Wow, with such a pair of bigots over there," said Alik, "I'm sure glad I'm the child of the Lebedevs instead of you two. Now, come on, Jake. Let's go back into our tent and have disgusting homosexual sex."
"Of course."
Once we were in our tent with the flashlight off and lying naked together again in our sleeping bag, Alik pushed his lips to my ear. "I'm not actually the least bit horny anymore, I'm afraid. Hope I didn't get your hopes up needlessly."
"No, I'm not either. Let's just hold each other and fall asleep."
I was scared awake that night by the feeling that our tent was being invaded. I opened my eyes and confirmed my suspicion, almost yelling in the process.
And then I turned to get a good look at our attacker's face, expecting to see the renegade vampire. Instead, it was Rebekka, which was almost as bad, and I hoped she wasn't about to spray both of us with pepper spray.
I nudged Alik awake too, and both of us stared at her, afraid of whatever onslaught was surely coming. She moved towards us sharply, and both of us winced.
Instead of striking us, though, she did the unthinkable: wrapped her arms around us and hugged us.
"I'm sorry for judging both of you," she said, starting to cry. "And you were right, I am a terrible mother."
"Does this mean you no longer hate homosexuals?" asked Alik.
"No, I don't."
"Thanks for apologizing, Rebekka," I said. "You haven't been the best mother for the past couple years, but most of his life, you were a great mother. You can still put all of the bad stuff behind you if you let Vadim know that you accept and love him for who he is."
"I will, and I do."
"And let my brother know you accept him too."
"I will. But what am I going to tell Vlad? He's so set in his opinions, there's no changing his mind."
"Can't he hear this? I thought he was a light sleeper."
"He lied."
"He'll come around with enough time," I said.
"Or maybe he'll never come around," said Alik.
"Either way, don't enable his prejudices."
"I'll try not to. Thanks again. Oh, do you think I should go climb into Helina's tent and hug her too? I don't know if she was kidding about the lesbian comments or not."
"She was kidding, and I really don't think you should wake her up in any surprising sort of way. You might not like the result."