Page 74 of My Road Trip with a Vampire: Season One

“Send her away for her education. She’ll find her place. I know she will.”

The surroundings jump and blur. Now Martha walks the lawn of Huntingdon College. The young women seem to avoid her as they pass by, whispering behind their notebooks.

“She’s so snobby, hiding in her room all the time.”

“I understand that her grandmother passed away, but she refuses to let us do anything to cheer her up. I don’t think she likes us.”

Martha pretends she can’t hear them, but at night she opens her music box, and the lady in red stands beside her.

“I know they find you strange, dearie, but I’ll always be your friend.” She rests her red-gloved hands on Martha’s shoulders. “Let’s take a stroll together.”

Martha’s pupils grow until her eyes are entirely black. She walks the halls completely alone. She opens the doors, and the students pull their blankets up to cover themselves.

“She’s doing it again,” they hiss. “What is wrong with her?”

It’s daylight again.

“I’m staying away from her,” the girls whisper in the classroom.

“She was traipsing through our rooms again.”

“I wish she would go away.”

Martha runs to her room where her only friend is waiting.

“It would be so easy to be together forever. No one to say such awful things. You’d never be alone again.” Her painted lips quirk up in a horrible smile, and I’m pushed out of the memory.

I shake my head, feeling a twinge of pain at my right temple.

“Ok, Martha. She can’t hold you here any longer. She doesn’t get to use you anymore.” I bring the box back to where she’s sitting. “This is yours.”

Martha reaches out to touch the ballerina. The veil ripples around her, and I focus my thoughts on the void behind her, willing it to open wide.

“I can go home now?”

“Yeah. I’ll make sure no one else gets ahold of this. Go. Be at peace.”

She breathes out the dying end of a sob and disappears. She must have waited so long to be free of this place.

“Did you see that?” I call out to Dennis.

“Yes, it was very impressive,” he says in a flat voice.

He claps, and I hear his heavy footsteps moving closer. Darling growls at his side. I pull my shoulders back, feeling the urge to run. The back of my neck tightens up when I catch the smell of rotten eggs and strong perfume.

“Did you think you could take my plaything without paying me back, Beatrice?” he asks, cocking his head to the side. His eyes are pure black.

“Dennis?”

“He’s in here somewhere, but I’m going to have so much fun leaching off his misery.”

Fuck.

My knees wobble. I’m in over my head here. I'm always up for a challenge, but this is a bit much.

“He’s going to hate himself even more when he kills you.”

He laughs, but it’s not him behind it. I hold my pointed crystal out before me and tuck the box under my arm.