Joke Or Not?

Olivia finds the next week very much the same. As soon as she finishes work she goes back there, part of her hoping that Alaric will come out of the shadows and speak to her, and the other part of her hoping she finds the answers she needs about Dan. She feels like she’s going crazy.

There have been no other issues since then. Had the man even been real? She could have sworn she was bitten, but maybe she wasn’t after all. Each day she hears Alaric following her, and while it’s a comfort to know he’s there, she wishes he would come into view so she could see him again.

She finds herself giving in slightly, sitting on the wide trunk of a fallen tree. She has a plan, and if she can get him to believe her she’ll get the answers she needs. If not, well, she’ll just have to keep trying. She glances around, waiting to see if he’ll appear now that she’s sat down.

“You should leave this place.”

Alaric’s voice startles her, even though she was waiting for it. She turns around to face him, watching him scan the area.

“Why? Like you said, it was just a fox. I got freaked out and fell and hit my head. No damage, no danger. I’m perfectly safe, aren’t I?” She looks at him, waiting.

“How did it go with the police?” He smirks at her, Olivia shaking her head in response.

“I decided against it. If I am going to go to the police, I’m going to make sure I have evidence.”

Alaric laughs quietly. “Evidence of what, Olivia? How do you plan to get this evidence of whatever you think is happening here?” He watches as she moves, slowly pulling out her phone.

“Well for one, sound is recorded from the moment I walk in until the moment I leave. My phone automatically uploads the recordings to the cloud every hour. So even if I go missing and my phone goes missing with me, there's proof.” She waves her phone in front of his shocked expression before pocketing it with a smug grin. Alaric can’t quite believe what he’s hearing. Why the hell is she doing this?

“Voices aren’t evidence; we could be here during the day.” He shrugs his shoulders. He knows she can’t do much with the sounds of growls and movement amongst the trees; it’s nothing particularly suspicious or extraordinary.

“I’m not stupid. Besides, we haven’t gotten to the best part yet.”

Alaric looks at her expectantly.

“This,” she says as she taps the pin on her coat. He raises an eyebrow amusedly.

“Nice butterfly.” Laughing, he shakes his head and turns to walk away.

“Actually, I saved up all my wages to afford this. There’s a tiny camera inside which is filming everything and instantly going to my phone, which is uploading straight to the cloud just like the sound. All I need is one small thing; one flicker of something strange and I’ll be able to go to the police.”

Alaric stops dead, his eyes widening in horror. Olivia smirks.

“Finally, you realise I mean it. You want me to forget this place, forget that I was bitten, but I’m telling you it’s not happening. I will get proof, even if it kills me. At least then the world will know what you are!” Alaric stares at her open-mouthed.

“You seem worried, Alaric. I’ll tell you what. You tell me who that man is, who you really are and what’s happening here, and you can take everything and destroy all the evidence. Don’t, and well, this video alone will make the police wonder why you look so guilty right now and why you’re so worried about me filming in here at night.” Alaric wants to call her bluff. He wants to tell her to just go to the police; that he knows the butterfly pin is just that, not a camera, but he can’t risk it just in case she’s telling the truth.

“Fine,” he sighs dejectedly. “Okay, I’ll tell you. Just- not here. As much as I don’t want anyone else hearing this, I’d prefer we were somewhere public considering the lengths you’re going to to incriminate me.”

Olivia follows Alaric to a local bar where they order drinks – a whiskey sour and a margarita – before sitting down in a cosy booth, tucked away in a quiet corner.

“What I am going to tell you is going to sound crazy, but I need you to listen to me. Don’t laugh, don’t run away, and don’t say anything too loud. I’m only telling you this because you’ve left me no choice.”

She nods her agreement and he begins to talk.

“The deaths and disappearances are not as straightforward as the papers and police claim they are. Something is causing them, but even if the police knew what it was, it’s not something that could be broadcasted. No-one has the power to stop it. There’s no good that could come out of anything being publicised.”

She listens attentively. This could be her way of finding Dan, of bringing him home. After all, his body had never been found, so there must still be a chance he’s alive.

“So who was it that bit me?”

Alaric looks around furtively, leaning forward and gesturing for her to do the same. He can’t afford any questions about why she was taken back to his place, or why he was wandering around the graveyard at night, or why he looked so worried when she mentioned it.

“I don’t know him, at least not that well. What I do know is that there are quite a lot of people like him around; people who need blood to survive, people who can’t come out during the day-”

“You honestly expect me to believe-”

Alaric’s hand covers her mouth quickly, cutting her sentence off before she can finish it. “Be quiet!” he hisses, “I told you it was going to sound crazy but you have to trust me. I’m not lying.”

Olivia just laughs, the sound muffled by his fingers still across her mouth. He rolls his eyes and drops his hand away, her laugh lost among the sounds of clinking glasses and murmured conversations that fill the room.

“You know what? Forget it,” he sighs, and shrugs his leather jacket back on, standing up to leave. “Look around you, Olivia. Do what you want with your so-called evidence, but everyone in here can bear witness to you being here with me willingly. You’ve got nothing. Your video is useless. Good luck with the police.” He strides out of the bar darkly, leaving her alone and staring after him in shock.

Had Alaric really just tried to tell her that vampires exist and that it was a vampire who bit her? She laughs again, even more hysterically, determined to find out the truth. Decidedly not going to waste their drinks, she finishes them both before going home.

Lying in bed she finds herself wondering about what Alaric had said to her. Maybe he was just hinting at vampires to make her scared, to make her not want to go back there? She looks around the dim bedroom, her mind telling her it’s his cover-up for something else.

He was clearly hoping vampires would scare her into staying away so he could continue what he does. Her mind goes back to that night; the man. Her head shakes as she laughs. He’s making her think they are real, she knows they aren’t. They’re just stories.

A week passes by the same as the last, Alaric once again hiding from her as she continues to walk through, still with the same questions she had before. She enters the cemetery, eyes glancing to the floor as she steps over the fallen branches of the tree. Looking up, her body stops.

Olivia’s eyes widen as she stares at what can only be described as a wolf, but it’s big and somehow different. Gazing in shock, her body trembles as she considers screaming. She has her proof now. Proof that something is happening here.

She moves to take a step back but her foot hits something hard and she stumbles, a low growl escaping from the wolf’s throat. Whatever she walked into is solid and cold; she feels hands gripping her arms. For a brief moment she relaxes. Is it Alaric?

She tries to turn but her body is still frozen, too scared to drag her eyes away from the wolf. Suddenly she screams as she feels the person’s nails dig into her arms; there’s a sharp pain on her neck and then- bliss. She smiles, no longer afraid of the wolf or able to feel pain. Her body is floating through the sky, her eyes flutter shut, and everything goes black.