Chapter 4

Katherine was late, like white rabbit late, running down the promenade trying to get to the restaurant before George had to wait too long for her. It wasn't really her fault, the driving class was late getting out, then she missed the first bus and to top it off she forgot the new phone that Uncle George had just bought her so she couldn't call. After living with him for four months now she knew he would be bothered by her tardiness but not actually say anything. He would just give her that disappointed look and ask her how her day was. The one time she asked him why he didn't punish her he just told her that she was an adult and it wasn't his place, but his disappointed look was enough.

That was probably why Kat never saw the bus as she dashed across the last street. Her Uncle stood up from the bench shouting as the impact took her off her feet. It didn't hurt really, it didn't have time to. One moment she was running, the next flying, everything twisting around; street, building, sky, waterfront, back to street, then dark.

George knew his niece was dead before he got to her, but he still ran as fast as he could to where she lay crumpled on the pavement a crowd already forming around her. The bus driver was in shock staring through the windshield at the young he had accidentally killed. Traffic was instantly jammed as those people who were walking along the waterfront came to see what happened. George could hear horns honking from people who didn't know what was keeping them from moving. She wasn't breathing, no pulse, he tried CPR for a minute but couldn't continue with sickening way her chest moved when he pushed on it. George just collapsed next to her till an ambulance took them both away.

Katherine woke up or at least thought she woke up a few hours later just after the sun went down. Everything was dark, she lay there for a moment remembering the accident before she opened her eyes. There still wasn't any light but she could see, not that there was much to see, being covered in black plastic sheet. No that wasn't right she was sealed in a black plastic bag. Katherine felt panicked but it was a strange surreal disconnected kind of panic. Her heart wasn't racing, her breathing didn't speed up, no sweat, no physical reaction at all just a few moments of mental panic. Till she realized that she wasn't breathing, then a few more minutes of panicking over not breathing.

Ten minutes later Kat was calm and thinking again. This didn't look like heaven or hell but she wasn't alive, who could be, not breathing and all. Then the talk at the kitchen table from months ago came back to her. Vampire, half vampire, or something; it looked like her uncle was right. It was easier to think about now without adrenaline and other hormones pushing through her, not so bad compared to the alternative. She kind of wished that she had asked more questions back then so she would know what to do now. Especially since she was getting hungry, a kind of all over body hunger not centered in her stomach.

Without any better idea she started to push on the bag trying to find the zipper. She was either in a coffin or a box of some sort because the bag only moved a few inches before she encountered a hard surface in any direction. God she hoped they hadn't buried her. That led to the thought of how long was she unconscious? In a couple of movies that she had seen it was something like three days till the new vampire rose up, but they were movies about people who had been bitten not born.

"Katherine, keep calm I'll have you out in a minute," said George's muffed voice.

She tried to call back to him but nothing came out, Kat thought she was mute until she remembered that she wasn't breathing. No air no sound, she took a breath and called out to her Uncle. Then she could see light through the teeth of the zipper and feel herself being pulled out on a tray into a brightly lit room. Not a coffin but the morgue. They had put her in the morgue, she almost giggled as she thought how rude. The zipper pulled down till she could see the ceiling and her Uncle stepping back from her. Katherine had to put a little thought into moving her hands and arms to finish getting herself unzipped they felt asleep to her, not pins and needles asleep, but numb to the touch.

When she did sit up and look around Uncle George was on the far side of the room haloed in faint shimmering light, the dark end of the rainbow was present all around him including colors that she couldn't name. Kat was mesmerized for awhile before she was aware that her Uncle was in his "business" clothes pointing a crossbow at her, large workshop floor lamps turned off next to him. It looked like he had been there for some time if the snack machine wrappers were any indication.

" ... Uncle George? " Katherine asked after a brief pause to breathe.

"It's me Kat, but the question is, is that you?"

"What do you mean? Who else could I be?" she asked ready to cry if she had been able to.

"That is what's been worrying me for the last five hours. After the accident your mother was on life support. When we went to pull the plug after waiting for months to see if she got better, suddenly she was awake before we did anything at all. She was never the same, I thought it was brain damage or something but then she started disappearing for days. A couple of months later the killings started. She wasn't Cheryl she was something in a Cheryl suit. Now I am going to ask you questions till I know one way or another who are."