11. Panic

Lilja nodded. It must have been days since she last ate something. She pushed back the thick blanket and slowly started to stand up. When she put her legs over the edge of the bed her vision slowly turned black, and she had a strange ring in her ears. “Take it easy”, she heard Jyrki say over that noise. “You have been lying there for more than a week now. Your blood circulation must be pretty much down”. Lilja took a deep breath and remained sitting on the edge of the bed for another while. When her vision was clear again she looked up to Jyrki another time. “Better?”, he asked, placing a hand on her shoulder. She nodded, making another attempt on standing up. This time successfully. Jyrki’s hand remained on her shoulder when they made their way towards the heavy-looking metal door on the other side of the room. It opened with a loud, creaking noise when Jyrki pushed against it with his flat hand.

A long, faintly illuminated corridor opened up in front of Lilja, looking anything but inviting. “You guys seem to like the horror ambience”, she tried to joke, but her voice did nothing in hiding her fear. “I am deeply sorry”, Jyrki said, “but we neither need the light nor do we like it. We can go outside during daylight of course, even in summer, but the more sunshine there is, the more it hurts our skin and our eyes. It is like a strange warning from our immune system that is telling us that we normally are nocturnal creatures and should sleep during the day”. “So”, Lilja started slowly, “all that stuff about vampires burning to ash in sunlight is nonsense?”. Jyrki nodded. “We also do not glitter in the sun if that is your next question”. Lilja snorted. “I never took the portrayal of vampires in this cheesy teenager romance seriously. But what about garlic? Crosses? Holy Ground? Is there any truth in that?” Jyrki chuckled. “I forgot, you only read serious literature at university. But to answer your question: I love garlic, churches have a wonderful ambience, and crosses are decent jewellery”. “Which means there is nothing true about most stories about vampires?”. “Exactly”, Jyrki answered. “Most of these stories were used in former time to scare children, to make them come home before dusk and such things. But they is no truth in them”. Lilja nodded. “That makes sense. I mean why would you spread news about any possible weakness?”.

She hesitated for a second. “But I have another question. You said it was another Undying that attacked me in the club, but you also said that it wouldn’t be safe for me outside. Did you kill him? Are there other beasts around?”. She saw that Jyrki bit his lip before he shook his head. “I do not know for sure if there are other beasts around, but it would be highly unlikely, as they usually travel and live alone. But I have not killed him. I snapped his neck, yes. But we heal fast and broken bones would never kill any one of us. It needs to be a stake in the heart or fire. But I did not have time for that, it was way more important to get you out of the firing line and to take care of your wounds”. Lilja slowly felt an old friend coming back: panic. She had hoped that particular beast would be dead already – or whatever you can call the end of existence for a species that was immortal. But it wasn’t dead. It was very much alive and waiting for her somewhere outside this building. There was just one thing on her mind: It wasn’t over yet.