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Edna always told me that when she was a kid, she and her sisters had to walk a mile to the river to get water. She always warned me about the dangers that could be found in the woods, especially if you weren’t aware. That was only one of the reasons you had to be so prepared for anything. Most of the Eagleton residents stay safely within the walls. Unless someone has to go hunting, they don’t wander around. Edna always warned me that I needed to stay close, that it was important for me to remain around the community.
But I shouldn’t be thinking about Edna.
If I let my mind wander too much, I’ll start feeling lonely and sad and a bunch of other things that nobody should be feeling, least of all me. As a guard for my settlement, I have to always be on alert. I have to always be ready. I have to know exactly what I’m getting into, and I have to do whatever it takes to keep my people safe.
Daydreaming is something other people have the luxury of doing: not me.
More time passes, and eventually, Joe comes to relieve me.
“Anything happen I should know about?” The 25-year-old whispers to me. He’s tall and lanky, and honestly, he’s pretty handsome, but I’ve never viewed Joe as anything but a fellow guard. I don’t think he’s ever viewed me as anything else, either. Then again, nobody in Eagleton has. My romantic prospects have been...
Well, I’ve never had any.
For just a fraction of a second, I think about telling Joe what I saw, but I can’t tell whether I was imagining that or not, and I don’t need him to think that there’s something wrong with me or that I’m trying to cause trouble for the community.
Vampires are supposed to be ugly and scary. They’re supposed to be these big, winged creatures with sharp fangs that swoop down and take anything in their path. The men I saw looked nothing like the vampires I’ve h
eard about in stories, so why am I so certain that they were?
Why am I so certain that they’re the monsters I’ve been warned about my entire life?
I don’t tell Joe. I can’t. If I tell him what I saw, he’ll either think I’m lying or crazy. Both of these are offenses for which I could be banished from Eagleton. Our little village has no room for liars, and it certainly has no room for crazies. People have been kicked out of the community for less than this. I don’t want to go off into the woods. I definitely don’t want to be banished without food or water or hope.
“Nope,” I whisper quietly.
“Good,” he says. “Then it should be a nice, quiet night.”
The sun has finally set all of the way, and it’s dark outside now. When I look up, I can see stars shining down on our tiny little forest village: offering just the littlest amounts of light for us to see by.
“Of course,” I tell Joe, but something is stirring within me. I feel like something is going to happen, and I honestly can’t pinpoint why.
Why do I have the biggest feeling that something is about to change everything?
And why am I worried that I’m going to be involved?
I don’t get premonitions. Ever. I don’t believe in them. But I definitely did see something in the woods tonight, and I know that those weren’t the monsters I’ve been warned about. The monsters Edna spent my youth warning me about were different: fiercer. These men seemed like they weren’t only intelligent, but also calculating. That’s a deadly combination, and it’s not one I’m going to mess with.
“Be careful,” I tell him.
Joe is just as surprised by my warning as I am. He starts, turning back to me, and looks at me for a long minute. He opens his mouth, maybe to ask why I would say that to him, but then he closes it and shakes his head. Maybe he’s trying to pretend I didn’t just offer him safety advice.
Finally, he seems to calm.
“I always am,” he says.
“I know,” I tell him. “You’re the best guard we have.”
That seems to make him happy, because he grins and gestures for me to scurry off, so I do.
I climb down the narrow ladder of the guard tower, and then I start walking toward my home. It’s a small, tiny tent set up at the edge of the settlement. Most of the residents have shelters or little homes, but not me. I have a sort of miniature hut that I live in, but I don’t really mind. One day, I’ll actually build myself a place to live.
At least, that’s what I always tell myself.
When I reach my tent, I kick off my shoes outside and climb into it. It’s a small tent: barely big enough for my mattress, but I don’t really need much. When my parents died in our own village, Edna found me and took me in. I lived with her for many years. Then, after Edna died, her kids made it clear I was no longer welcome in her home, so I left and came here. The edge of everything might not be ideal real estate, but it works for me. I’ve always been a sort of outcast. You have to be if you’re chosen as a guard, anyway.
Guards are the people nobody misses when they’re gone.
They’re expendable.
