I - They Are Real

Abby

"Unfortunately we don’t have any other vacancies in your area of experience."

I took a deep breath trying not to lose hope, if I collapsed now I would not be able to stop crying. I had been unemployed for two months and was desperate for a new job.

If my asshole boss hadn’t tried to get his filthy hands on me, I wouldn’t have quit and still be able to pay the bills and my mother’s treatment.

Normally I wouldn’t freak out like that, but my mother was going through an expensive treatment and also couldn’t work, just like my brother who always had a fragile health, so it was just me paying all the expenses of the house.

"Are you sure there’s nothing else? Can’t you take a look again?" I begged the clerk at the employment agency, I was desperate to get something.

"Unfortunately not, just as I told you yesterday and the day before that. There was no vacancy for a secretary, administrative, or anything like that."

It was stupid, I was too good for cleaning jobs and for what I was qualified there was none.

"Thank you anyway." I grumbled leaving and letting the next in line take the chair.

I didn’t know what to do. So I picked up the phone to call the one person who was helping me in the last few months, my cousin Olivia.

"Hi cousin, and then you got a job?"

"No Oli, I got nothing. I don’t even know what else to do." I let my shoulders fall in defeat as I walked down the street without a right direction.

"Oh Abby, I’m sorry. If you could come live here it would be perfect, one of Elijah’s friends are needing  a nanny."

"Nanny? It wouldn’t be a bad job, but I doubt I would be able to pay the bills and treat Mom as a nanny."

"They’re rich, Abby, money’s no problem as long as they get a trusty nanny and the little boy likes it." she added, making me even more excited about the idea. "I just think Aunt May would be a problem. But then you can tell her how useless your brother is."

Oh that was the problem. Olivia was dating a man of dubious character, no one knew where his money came from and after a while she started acting strange, until she went to live with him and did not come back. So these rich friends could only be involved with illegal things, he could be a thief or be in a gang.

"Olivia! Ben is not useless, he has fragile health and you know that I do not approve of your way to live, but of course this is your problem. I just wanted to understand why you think I’d work for these people?"

"Because you need money!" she screamed throwing the truth in my face. "Look, I understand you’re a good girl, a virgin in your twenties, and that’s fine, that’s your problem too. But how long do you think you can handle piling up bills and not getting a job? And even if you do, how much do you think you’re gonna get paid for it?"

Ouch, that hurt! It was hard to be forced to face the truth and I hated being wrong.

"Let’s wait a few more days ok? If I don’t get anything I’ll call you." I couldn’t make a decision like that without talking to my mother first, she and my brother needed me here.

"Well, I just hope no one shows up by then!" she said in that tone, that I knew there was a smile behind. I loved her, but some times, like that, I hated her. "And look at your account, I sent you money."

"I didn’t ask for anything, please stop doing that!" My heart pressed into a mixture of joy and apprehension. I hated asking for money or having to depend on the kindness of others, it made me sad on several levels.

"You didn’t ask, you never ask, and that’s why you’re my favorite cousin!"

Two weeks passed and I did not get the job, I even tried work as a waitress, but the payment could barely pay the bills. So I did what I was afraid of, I called Olivia and told her I was going to there.

When I arrived at the bus station I did not expect that she would be there waiting for me, with a wide smile, the curly hair swinging with each jump of animation from the moment she saw me.

"I can’t believe you came!" Oli threw herself into my arms before I even put the little suitcase down.

"It was you who disappeared, not me." I muttered squeezing her small body in my arms. "You didn’t even show up for a visit."

Oli walked away with a restrained smile, but changed the subject, it was always like that when we talked about her not coming home, this was one of the reasons for the family not to like this boyfrien.

"Things are just complicated, but you’ll see that it’s not like you think."

"That’s if I get the job, isn’t it?" I was no longer believing that I could, not after getting so many no’s.

"If the kid likes you, I guarantee you’ll get the job on time. Their mother died recently and the boy is only three years old, but he is very closed and this makes it difficult." Oli started telling me everything while she was dragging me to her car. "But first we have to go to where I live, for one quick thing."

I agreed without blinking, after all she was the one who had the contacts that was going to help me. Along the way we were talking, killing the longing and updating us of everything.

It didn’t take long to get to the front of a huge Victorian-style house, and shock took me when a tall, strong man, with black hair and whiter skin, slowly descended the front steps and opened his arms to Oli, who threw herself at him without hesitation.

They formed a beautiful couple and just to see the smile on her face I was happy, it was good to know that she was well treated there.

"So this is the famous Abbigail!" he smiled at me with his teeth perfectly white and aligned, the man exuded perfection in every pore. "Welcome to town, Oli talks a lot about you."

"How nice, at least one of us knows something about the other, since she always makes suspense about you. But it’s nice to finally put a face on the person."

He reached out and shook mine before leading me into the house. The place was even more beautiful inside, the furniture that looked like antiques, everything impeccably clean, tidy and perfect, demonstrating their class. I wasn’t even used to it.

"Well, I’m sure Oli told you about the babysitting job, but I have to tell you that things are not as you imagined at first."

I looked from Elijah to Olivia, extremely confused. What could not be as she had told me? And why would her lie to me?

"I didn’t understand, how so the things aren’t the way I imagined?"

"We’re not friends with the Hawkins, but we need a reliable person inside."

"And you need the job." Oli complemented her boyfriend’s line, but all I could think was that if they weren’t friends, they could only be enemies and that meant they wanted me to do something bad.

"We just need you to be our eyes inside, you won’t have to do anything bad." Elijah spoke back and I opened my mouth in complete amazement. How could he know what I was thinking? "That’s another part you didn’t imagine, we’re supernatural beings, I’m a vampire and I can read anyone’s thoughts, so I know all the crazy things that are going through your head right now."

"Olivia, is this some kind of lame joke? Why did you bring me here for this? I need a job and not waste my time on nonsense!" I exclaimed, getting up ready to get out of there in that instant.

That was the most ridiculous thing I ever heard in my life, it could even be something cool and that Oli and I played with when we are teenager, but now it was not the case, I had a lot to do away from here.

"You’re not going anywhere." A man who stood before me spoke and as if my body obeyed his commands I locked in place.

My legs didn’t move, nothing in my body seemed to work, I was completely paralyzed. My breath began to fail and my heartbeat shot right away.

How could that be happening? Was it some kind of illusion? A magic trick? Did I get drugged?

"Abby, that’s Liam, he controls people with the power of his mind." Oli explained to me, but nothing made sense in my head, it couldn’t be real.

"Don’t freak out, you just need to know we’re at war and..."

"Liam shut up!" Elijah shouted interrupting the man in front of me "Bring her here, now!"

"You heard young lady, move, walk back to the chair and hear everything quiet."

And my body did exactly what he told it to do, no matter how hard I tried, my limbs didn’t even move in the opposite direction.

"We don’t want to scare you dear, but as my brother did the favor of telling you, our people are at war, vampires and werewolves hate each other and live in war since the beginning of times, but now they have one advantage: money. Those damn bastards have managed to outrun our entire fortune and are expanding their territory, forcing us to retreat." He told me everything and I couldn’t even move my fucking head to the side, it was frozen with all my body paralyzed in place. "And that’s why we need you inside the house, it’s the only way we have to get information so we can destroy them."

"I’m not going to do that!" I screamed in amazement that my voice had finally come back. "I won’t, you freaks!"

"I don’t think you understand, we need you inside that house and we will do whatever it takes to achieve this." Liam approached me holding a lock of my hair, but this time there were no orders and I managed to move, so I slapped his hand away from me. "We know who your mother and your brother are, so either you do what we want or we will turn you into an immortal, a little thing desperate for blood and we will watch you rip the throats of those you love in your uncontrolled thirst..."

"Oli what are they talking about?" That couldn’t be true, I couldn’t believe I was being blackmailed by crazy vampires.

"Sorry Abby, but you are our last hope."

Since when Oli talked like that? Including herself in the gang, she wasn’t a vampire, she was still my cousin that was stamped on her face. So why act like that and drag me into this shit?

"So Abbigail? What will it be?" was Elijah who asked the final question as his eyes burned over me waiting for an answer.