The Vampire Joy by Alisa Freund (fox in socks read aloud .txt) 📕

them into her purse. (For those of you who don’t speak rave poi balls are balls that light up and are suspended from a string.) Joy was the best at them and hoped she would get challenged.
She bound out the front door. “Okay. I love you. Bye.” She said in a hurry.
“wait right there!” he boomed from the doorway as she was half way down the walk way. She turned around on her heel and looked at him. He was leaning against the door frame looking straight at her. “Aren’t you going to give daddy a kiss goodbye.” He said giving a cocky smile. She raced back to the doorway and gave him a kiss on the cheek. “be safe.” He whispered. And then a little louder, “why don’t you take your car? I did give it to you didn’t I?”
She smiled and yelled back to her friends “hey! Who wants to ride in my car?” all of her friends looked puzzled but Juliet was the one who volunteered because she was the only girl and David wouldn’t have any objections to her.
Joy opened the garage door exposing the black Lambo inside. She turned around and saw all of the shocked looks on their faces. Billy was the first to speak, “Wow Joy! Did you rob a bank or something?” he said still looking at the car.
“David gave it to me as an early birthday present.” She said looking at David and giving him a wide smile which he return and turned away to go back inside.
His last words before going inside. “Have fun kids and take care of my little girl.”
With that they were on the road getting disclosed directions as they went. They ended up in front of a large warehouse on Burnside. “well this is the place,” Billy said knocking on the door. It was a weird knock that had 8 beats. The door opened and inside it was loud and different colored lights swirled around. Once they stepped in there was a woman in a colorful maid outfit handing out tubes of liquid and another in a nurse outfit handing out pills. Joy refused both and went to a corner of the room and started with her poi balls. She had a good crowd watching her and cheering her on and as the praise got louder her tricks intensified. An hour had gone by and she was going to pack it in for awhile and dance with the rest of her friends, when a familiar voice spoke. “I challenge you.” His hair that was usually slicked back for class was up in spikes and his clothes were very 80's england punk. He looked like he belonged to this scene.
“On what terms?” she said smirking at him.
“I win you have to do one favor for me.” He said smiling slyly at her.
“And when I win you have to answer my questions.” She said giving a big smile agreed.
“agreed.” he said queuing the DJ to start a fresh beat.
Joy and Mr. f started their battle, “so.” Joy said spinning the balls at her sides to gain momentum. “what is your first name? I feel weird calling you Mr. f in this kind of environment.”
“it’s Alex.” He said doing the same motion to get momentum. The battle started and Alex was better than joy gave him credit for every time she did a trick he would match or one up it so she would one up that. This repeated for a half an hour until joy felt herself getting tired she went in to the side spinning for a moment.
“are you done already?” he asked doing a trick that joy had done countless times.
“I have not yet begun to fight.” She said quoting John Paul Jones and did a back flip. Her body went in sync with the balls and she landed on her feet with the balls still spinning around. She looked over at Alex. He was stunned, he had never seen that before the ball hit his leg and dangled at his side. The battle was over joy had won.
“now you have to answer my questions but first water.” Once she said that a bottle of water flew through the air towards her she grabbed it and looked to see who had thrown it. Joey was standing there with a big smile on his face. His pupils were dilated and she could tell he had taken e. she smiled at him and chugged the water until the bottle was empty. “outside.” She said, “nobody else needs to hear our conversation.”
They walked outside and Alex leaned up against the building lighting up a cigarette. Cinnamon? That why his breathe smells like that she thought to herself. She opened her mouth to speak but before she had a chance Alex cut her off, “has he bitten you yet?” she was taken aback by this.
“I believe I’m the one asking the questions here.” She retorted.
“just answer the question then you can start your interrogation.” He said seeming unfazed.
“I don’t believe that’s any of your business.” She said crossing her arms across her chest.
Without warning he slammed his hand on the wall around her head. His face only inches from hers and his fangs bared glistening in the glow of the street lamp. “just answer the question! You don’t have a clue how important this is to me!”
She looked him straight in the eye and said, “you aren’t going to hurt me. But since you insist no. he hasn’t bitten me.” She said exposing a flawless neck.
“how did you know I wouldn’t hurt you?” he asked stepping back from joy.
“I just knew. I have this feeling that you wouldn’t want to hurt me. Now my questions. Evidently you’re a vampire. So how can you go out during the day?” she asked.
“David hasn’t taught you yet?” he asked looking shocked. “doesn’t surprise me. He’s always been one to hold grudges. There are two types of vampires in the world. David is a night stalker he has the cursed venom surging through his system. I am a day walker I have the vampire blood surging through my system without the cursed venom.”
Joy was confused by all of this, “can you give me more?”
Alex smiled and looked at her. “A night stalker is a vampire that has both venom and immortal blood. The venom to a human is like a drug it circulates through the system but without the immortal blood it eventually dies in the blood stream. But imagine if you have the blood but not the venom.”
“I think I understand but how did you get David’s blood?” she asked.
Alex smiled looking up at the night sky reminiscing of the old days. “there was a rumor in Greece that if you drank the blood of the vampires you would become a god. That’s what ambrosia was considered to be and the gods were vampires. I was a guardsman at the time guarding Olympus and ushering the ‘proper’ sacrifices. It was early morning and I snuck into the palace. I opened the coffin closest to the entrance which happened to be David and stole a pint of his blood and fled. I ran to Sicily where I drank the pint. I hid there until law was passed that a vampire couldn’t kill unless in self defense. at that point I made my presence known. The council had to punish me of course so I was sentenced to a hundred years of servitude which I served as a guardsman.”
Joy thought for awhile about it for awhile then remembered, “the council passed that law in 1888 after jack the ripper so that means you finished your term in 1988. Right?” she asked already knowing she was right.
“ I guess David has taught you something’s.” He said smiling at her.
“he’s taught me a lot.” She said with clenched fists “but,” she continued and her hands went slack “who’s Constance?”
A smirk crawled across Alex’s face, “that’s the million dollar question,” he said and looked passed her, “isn’t it David?”
Joy whirled around and sure enough there was David standing directly behind her. He grabbed her arm and said, “let’s go!”
Joy ripped her arm from his grasp and said, “no! I have to know!”
He looked at her up and down then took a deep sigh, “very well. Then I will be the one to tell it. Long story short. She was my fiancé and Alex killed her.”
“no, you aren’t getting away from the subject that easily,” Alex said leaning up against the wall, “I will tell her, he loved this woman named Constance. He wanted to petition to get her turned but it was over turned by the council. Her blood wasn’t strong enough for the venom. David was enraged so he decided to take matters into his own hands and turned her himself. The venom took over her body destroying more blood than she could produce transforming her into a blood thirsty monster. The council found out and sentenced her to death and since I was the head guardsman I was told to carry out the order. She was killed and David was kicked out of the council.”
“you killed her right in front of me!” David said baring his fangs.
“I may have been the executioner, but you were the judge and jury in that case. It was your fault she died. Don’t try to pass the blame on me for doing my duty.” Alex said.
Joy looked up and saw a single tear rolling down David’s face. Vampires can cry? David had never cried for me. He doesn’t really love me as much as Constance. She thought. “come on, were going home.” He said she didn’t fight him this time just lowered her head and walked with him. The car ride home was quiet. That night was quiet the entire weekend was quiet. Neither one of them knew what to say to the other so they both decided it would be better to not say anything at all. Monday rolled around and they were both sitting across the table from each other.
Joy got up to get ready for school, “I don’t want you going to school today. You only have one more week until winter vacation. You can skip until next year.” Joy didn’t want to miss school but she didn’t argue with him. She just trudged up to her room and laid on her bed until sleep came to her.
She woke up with a jolt. The door bell was ringing. She looked outside and night had already come. She went to the door but once she entered the hall way she could see David already standing there. He opened it and took a bow. “Sabrina? What brings you to our home? Wont you please come in?” he stepped out of the way as head master Collins strolled in.
Joy was incredibly confused but she curtsied and pulled out a chair for her head master. “I believe.” Sabrina started not bothering with small talk, “that you have taken miss Stratton away from her studies is that correct?”
“Yes ma’am.” He said taking the seat across from her. Joy stood by the door not wanting to interfere with them. “surely you understand that with the circumstances we are facing it would be beneficial for everyone if she wasn’t influenced by that… teacher.” He said after a pause searching for the right word that wouldn’t offend her.
“I am more aware of the situation then you may realize.” She said arching an eyebrow towards him. His eyes widened with shock but she continued, “I am merely an observer. I wouldn’t want to mess with this game its far too much fun to watch.” She said, “but