Unraveling Soren by Marisa Maichel (books under 200 pages txt) 📕

"Something weird happened to us, Louis," I said.

"What happened?" he asked.

I told him what had occurred with the ghost. He looked at the short blond man.

"Any thoughts, Paul?"

The short man shook his head.

"By the way," Louis began, "This is Paul. Paul, this is my cousin, Reese. He's more like a little brother to me. Reese, I met Paul at Club Shade. It's an underground club for supernaturals. Paul here is just a human, but so what? You have a human girlfriend."

"I didn't say anything about it," I said. "Nice to meet you, Paul."

The short man nodded to me, and I looked at Louis.

"Paul is also a mute," he explained. He looked at Paul. "Reese isn't normally so rude. He's usually disgustingly polite. At least Sarah is always polite. Thank you, Sarah."

"You're welcome, Louis," she said. "It's nice to meet you, Paul."

Paul started signing in American Sign Language.

"He says it's nice to meet you, too, Sarah. Well, I'd love to stay, but Paul and I have other plans that involve a bed and lots of-"

Paul smacked Louis upside the head before he could finish.

"Fine, fine, I won't finish the sentence. But Paul and I do have plans, and I'll get back to you on the ghost thing, Reesie Reese. I think it was just bad luck, but you never know. My dad might have some ideas. Toodles!"

With that, he lifted Paul up, bridal-style. Paul gave an audible yelp and Louis looked at him in surprise before running up into the house and up the stairs into his bedroom.

I sat on the porch, Sarah sat beside me, and I dug around in my pocket for a cigarette. I lit one up and took a deep drag. Sarah wrinkled her nose, but didn't say anything about it.

"My dad was a smoker," she finally said after a few minutes. "He smoked to deal with my mom's drinking. When he died, his lungs were black from all the poison."

"Smoking doesn't affect vampires the same way," I said. "It's more like a brief high to us. Our lungs are nearly indestructible, and our blood kills the poison in the nicotine. I can smoke for a thousand years and still be okay. But you're right; it does stink. I suppose I started back when I was fourteen or fifteen because my father smokes. I even stole a carton of cigarettes from him and lied about it. I don't think he believed me, though."

"I used to smoke," Sarah said. "Back when the Beautifuls were a thing. Dad would let me have a cigarette every now and then, and then I had a fake ID made when he died. I bought it from some guy named Cocoa. I think Cocoa's dead now, he got caught up in a neighborhood shoot-out."

"The one last year on Apple Drive? That was national news."

Sarah sighed and got out her phone, which had buzzed. She frowned, then showed me a text message from Mia Rayport.

"Rumor has it that Elliot tried to kill himself," she said.

"Your friend Elliott? The fat one who was in love with you?" I asked. She smacked my arm, then winced, shaking her hand.

"Be nice."

"Hey, guys."

I looked up and saw Mitra.

"Hello, Mitra," Sarah said politely. Mitra looked behind us.

"Is Soren home?"

"What's it to you?" I snapped. Mitra winced, and her eyes filled with tears.

"Reese!" Sarah punched my arm. "Don't be a jerk!"

"No, Sarah, he's right," Mitra said. She crossed her arms over her stomach. "I don't have any right to ask about Soren. The way I treated him..."

"But Katonah was your husband!" Sarah reminded her.

"Yes, that's true, but technically I knew I was still married to Katonah when I dated Soren. That was a crappy thing for me to do."

"But you're dead, aren't you? Until death do we part-"

"Undead is not the same thing as dead, Sarah. And Native American marriages are different from English Christian marriages."

Just then, a bright light blinded all of us. Mitra fell over, covering her eyes, and I covered Sarah, prepared for an enemy attack. The light became brighter, and it began to actually burn. Mitra started screaming, and so did Sarah. I heard male voice approach.

"Reese! Sarah! Mitra!"

Since Mitra was getting the worst of it, I started crawling to her, but then something like a force field stopped me. It felt like a psychic energetic field of pure power. Mitra continued screaming, and I opened my eyes long enough to see that her clothes were being burned away, and so was her flesh. My uncle was there, and he looked extremely panicked.

Finally, finally, the light stopped blinding us, and the supernatural force left just as suddenly as it had appeared.

I heard Mitra whimpering. Uncle Soren immediately went over to her, pulling her into his lap. She screamed when he touched the burns, and then whimpered again. She finally opened her eyes, and we were shocked. They were pure white. She had been blinded.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"So first a ghost attacks Reese and Sarah at the library, then some sort of...avenging angel, attacks a female vampire on my property," Father said. I'd explained to him what had happened earlier with the ghost.

"It's my fault," Uncle Soren muttered. "It's all my fault."

Mother was gently dabbing at Mitra's burns with a white cream while Ethan applied a minty green paste.

"Can you do anything about her sight?" Uncle Soren asked Ethan. Ethan shook his head.

"The thing that took her sight is beyond medical science. Only magickal arts can fix her eyes."

Katonah was there, too, but he was sitting, staring at nothing. I'd called him myself, and at first he was furious, then devastated when he learned what had happened to his wife.

"It's all my fault," Uncle Soren repeated, leaning against the wall, which cracked under his weight.

"Cholena? Is that you?" Mitra asked, sitting up and trying to look around.

"No, sweetheart," Katonah said. "Our daughter is dead, remember? She died two hundred years ago."

"Dead? How can she be dead? It was a white man, wasn't it?"

Uncle Soren took her tiny hand in his huge one, kissing it. Katonah glared at him, but Uncle Soren ignored him.

"I love you, Mitra," Uncle Soren said. "I'm so sorry that I wasn't kind to you before. I'm sorry."

"Soren? Get away from me!" she pulled back, and Uncle Soren's eyes filled with tears and he bit his lip.

"Why is she acting like this?" he asked the general crowd.

"She's angry," Mother said. "She blames you for what happened. She thinks it was Alga's spirit, taking revenge on her."

"Alga hated me," Uncle Soren argued. "Mitra, please, talk to me. What can I do to help you?"

"Stay away," she growled. Then she began to choke. Mother patted her on the back, but Mitra still choked. And then blood began to run out of her nose, ears, eyes, and mouth. Sarah gasped and I heard Father take in a sharp intake of breath.

Mitra threw up blood on the rug, and then gasped for unneeded air. "I think I'm..."

But before she could finish the sentence, she fell over, and didn't move.

"No," Uncle Soren, shaking his head, "No, no, no, no, no. This cannot be happening. She can't be dead!"

"She is," Ethan said, closing Mitra's white eyes. Katonah stood up and yelled out, then he ran out, bursting through the window, running away as fast as he could.

"No, no, no, no, no, no. She's not. She's just resting! She's only resting! Mitra, wake up!" Uncle Soren grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her, but her head lolled to the side. Uncle Soren held her and rocked her, sobbing.

"Let's go," I said quickly. I took Sarah upstairs to my room, where I started playing music on my stereo and she started looking at books.

Naturally, Mitra's family was distraught. Father had to tell them, as Uncle Soren was beside himself with grief. They decided to cremate her, and it was a short cremation. Her ashes were spread all around the reservation that she loved so much.

Katonah still hadn't returned after a week, and by then, her ashes had been spread and she'd been prayed over extensively. Uncle Soren refused to accept the fact that she was dead. He was just as distraught as her family. Her friend Ellis, also a vampire, was also there, although he stayed a good distance away from Uncle Soren.

All of us were dressed in all black, Uncle Soren especially. Sarah looked beautiful in a black flowered strapless dress and black stilettos. She took them off before she stepped into the mud though, and slipped on some old flat shoes instead.

Uncle Soren sat in a chair, which creaked under him, and Louis sat beside him, my father on his other side. I saw a couple of teenage girls dabbing at their eyes, and an older woman, which I heard was called Nana, and some little kids running around. The little kids gave us a wide berth, except for Sarah, who they liked. One little boy kept running up to her and tugging on her dress, then running away, giggling.

Overall, it was a good celebration of life/funeral/cremation, but it was also extremely sad for us as well. Sarah and Mother both shed a few tears, and Uncle Soren either cried or looked completely blank.

I was glad when it was over.

Uncle Soren paused just outside the front door to Father's house. The busted window had been repaired, and so did the cracked wall.

"I...I need to be alone for a while," he said, then he went up the stairs and shut the door hard. I heard him sobbing seconds later.

Grandfather put his hand on my shoulder, then said. "Let him be. It is always terrible when one loses a love. I am still grieving for Amalia, and she has been dead for a while now."

I hugged Sarah, letting a few tears escape. I didn't know what I would do if I lost her. Heck, I didn't know what I would do if Evan died, and he was not even my rightful soulmate. Then I realized Sarah was crying, and I pulled away from her.

"Baby, what's wrong?" I asked.

"Everything," she said. "My parents are dead, so many people are dead, I don't know who I am anymore, and my sister ran away this morning."

"Sabine ran away? You didn't tell me that, and neither did Mom," I said.

"We were hoping she would be back by now, but I guess...James' death was the last straw for her. So she packed her backpack full of clothes and food, and took off. She didn't even bring her phone so we could track her."

"I'm sorry, sweetheart," I said, kissing her forehead. "You have to calm down, though. Where's your Xanax?"

She took out a pill bottle from a pocket inside her dress, then tapped out two pills and forced herself to swallow them.

"Can I have some water?" she asked.

"Absolutely," I said. "You don't need to ask."

I fetched her a glass of cold water with lots of ice, just the way she likes her water. I kissed her as she gulped down some water.

SARAH

I felt like my heart was going to fall out of my chest and land on the floor. Reese looked concerned. I knew he was concerned. His big yellow eyes were full of love. I love his eyes. They're so interesting and different. Some of my friends say they're creepy, but I disagree. Some of my friends want me to stop dating him, but I know him well enough to know that he would never hurt me on purpose.

Yes, he's hurt me in the past, but it was when we were broken up or because he thought he was doing the right thing. He leans forward and kisses both my eyes, then licks his lips, and I realized he was tasting my tears.

"I'm going home," I said. He nodded and leaned forward. I stood up to kiss him on the jaw but he tilted my chin up and caught my lips instead.

"Call me later," he