04 Oct Vampires in Heaven

“Hot Damn!” John said looking out of my second floor window, eyeing my next door neighbor. My mother and I had recently moved here about six months ago. John and I were in the same high school Senior class and quickly became best friends. We were always at each others homes playing video games, watching movies and trying to figure out new and better ways of meeting girls. Being seventeen years old, that subject was foremost on our minds.

It was the Friday before The Fourth of July Weekend and he had come over to spend the night. There was nothing special about that day, other than it was the first time he had seen my new next door neighbor sitting by her pool. She had moved here from out West a few weeks earlier.

“Who is that?” John said, his eyes locked onto the scene next door.

“I know you told me you had a new neighbor, but you never said anything about her! She’s smoking hot!”

John could be a bit of a blow hard sometimes, but not about her. Claire was stunning. I met her a few days later when my mother made her a cake and took it over to say hello. Of course she made me go too.

“Mom, why do I have to go, can’t you just do it. I’m right in the middle of a game and…”

“Daniel, come on, when we moved here people showed us the same kindness. I doubt she knows anyone. Lets go say hi and make her feel welcome.”

“OK” I said grudgingly pausing my game and putting on a base ball cap before walking out the door.

My mother was a single parent, my father had died years earlier when someone ran a red light at a traffic stop. Guy said he didn’t see him, but it made little difference. So for the last ten years it has been her and me. Since we were fairly new to the neighborhood too, mom thought she and Clair may have something in common. So, she baked a cake and off we went.

Claire had bought the home just across the street from ours. It was the same kind of two story ranch home that lined our street, all built at the same time in the seventies. It was somewhat dated, but well maintained and the only one with a pool. I know because I could see over her fence from my room. Let’s just say after that first meeting I sat at my window a lot.

Mom knocked on her door and it soon opened. There she stood, wearing jogging pants and a t-shirt her hair in one of those messy buns. She had a pale complexion, but didn’t look unhealthy and those eyes. Memorizing green eyes. When she looked at you it almost hurt.

“Hello” mom said with a smile, My name is Barbara and this is my son Daniel, we live just across the street. I wanted to bake you a cake and say hello to our new neighbor.”

Claire took the briefest of moments and then said, “Thank you, it is very nice to meet you, would you like to come in?” and with that, we went inside.

Her home had the same kind of Hobby Lobby and dollar store decor that most homes do these days. Very neat and clean. She had one of those scented candles burning and the place smelled like the bookstore downtown. We sat there for about 45 minutes. She and mom getting to know each other and me trying to hide the fact that I had been ready to go after about the first five. Glancing around the room it was as ordinary as our home. There were some paintings on the wall and various pictures on the hearth, There was one, however, that caught my attention. I got up to take a closer look and saw that it was a picture of Claire with a young man about her age standing by an old Mustang. As long as she had been here though, I hadn’t seen anyone else here but her.

“That was his favorite car”, she said standing just behind me. “Crap!” I was so drawn in by the picture that I hadn’t realized she had gotten up and was standing right behind me. “Sorry”, I said, trying to hide the fact that I had almost relived myself right there in her living room.

“That’s OK”, she said with a smile. “I didn’t mean to startle you.” She had a very kind face, but those eyes, there was something about those eyes, an intensity that could not be hidden.

“Who is this?” I said before even thinking. I could see a change in her demeanor and immediately was regretting the question.

“He was my husband” she said with a bit of sadness in her gaze.

“He passed away some time ago” she said looking longingly at the portrait.

“I’m so sorry” my mother said as she got up and walked over to the hearth. Sensing that the mood had changed she decided it was time for us to head back home.

“Well, it was very nice to meet you Claire, you are welcome to come over to our home anytime”

Now, it was very subtle, but looking back I remember seeing the faintest wry smile develop for just an instant followed by, “I haven’t been invited into anyone’s home for a long time, thank you.”

Now, have you ever had that feeling in the back of your neck, the one where they say someone walked over your grave. At that moment, it felt like a herd of stampeding elephants stepped on mine and all I wanted to do was leave.

As we walked out of the door and onto the porch she said “Daniel, you are welcome to come over and swim anytime you like, I’ll leave the gate open.”

“OK, thanks” I said. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but she made me uneasy. I wasn’t afraid of her, I just had the feeling like I should stay on her good side. However, it was summer break, this was the only pool in the neighborhood and the thought that maybe she would be out there in a bathing suit made what ever misgivings or fear I had disappear.

“Tell your friend he can come too” she said with a smile as she shut the door.

“OK”, I said. Wait a minute I thought to myself. How does she know about John? This is the first time we’ve met. Now, he is always at the house, but for the most part we stay inside. He was starring at her the other day out my bedroom window. Could she have seen him then? No way. He was hiding behind the curtains. Since Summer has started he has been here at least a dozen times. She must have seen him coming and going, come to think of it, seems like he’s always here. Yeah, that must be it. A few weeks later, the terrifying answer to that question would change my life…

* * * * * *

The summer continued and week after week was filled with me and John trying our best to get into trouble. We went to Clair’s pool every chance we got. We didn’t see her much, but every now and then she would make an appearance and what an appearance she had. Once she even wore a bikini. I think she enjoyed driving us both crazy with that one. Truth is, neither of us could keep our eyes off of her, we sure couldn’t get out of the pool. And that’s how it went until Labor Day weekend.

“There was another home invasion in town last night, eyewitnesses say there were two men who broke in, tied them up and took whatever valuables and money they could find. The homeowners were roughed up a bit, but are recovering in the hospital.” It had been all over the news for the past few weeks. A string of home invasions in the area. No one had been killed, but they had gotten the crap beat out of them and were left bound on the floor. This last house wasn’t far from here.

“Daniel” mom said as I sat down to eat dinner.

“You and John need to be careful until the police catch these guys”.

“I know mom, we will”.

“Just keep an eye out and be aware of your surroundings especially in the evening time. These break ins are happening after dark”.
I rolled my eyes like teenagers do when grown ups tell them to be careful. Because we know nothing is going to happen.

“I want you two home by dark, understand.”

“Mom, come on, nothing is going to…”

“I mean it, be home before dark.”

“OK, OK, we’ll be here, we can watch a movie or something.”

John came over and we decided just to stay in. We always liked watching horror movies and tonight was an all night marathon of Nightmare on Elm Street. So Freddy it was.
The sun was just going down and it was quickly getting dark. We were getting ready to start the first movie and as I went into the kitchen to make some microwave popcorn, my mother stopped me.

“Daniel, could you do me a favor and take this cake pan back to Claire’s house. She left it here last week and I haven’t had a chance to take it back. It’ll just take a second, thanks a lot.” A little aggravated, but kind of glad to get out of the house, I grabbed John and off we went across the street.

Thirty seconds later we were at Claire’s front door ringing the door bell. After two more rings the door slowly half opened, Claire standing just inside, those green eyes looking at us much more intensely than I had noticed before.

“Hey”, I said.

“What’s up” said John. Trying to be cool.

“Mom wanted me to drop off your cake pan, so… um, here it is.” She looked at us both a few times her eyes darting back and forth before saying, “Thank you boys, I’ll see you later.” and started to shut the door.

John chimed in, “Maybe we could come over tomorrow and go swimming?” Now, we loved to go swimming, that was true, but if there was a chance she would be out there too, then we REALLY wanted to be there. We didn’t care what she was wearing. Fingers crossed for the two piece though.

“Um, not tomorrow”, she said, “I’ve got some things to do around the house. How about the next day.”

“Yeah, sure, that sounds great, thanks”, I said. John disappointingly said, “OK”. With that, we turned and started making our way back to my house. Street lamps were just coming on and twilight was quickly turning to dark.

We had just made it to the other side of the street when I remembered. “Oh man, I forgot to tell her about the home invasions”.

“Yeah”, John said with a smile, grinning ear to ear, “I guess we’ll have to go back”

Running back across the street we found Claire’s door slightly open. Looking at John I said, “It must not have latched when she shut it.” I would later learn that there was a man hiding around the side of the home and as we left, he went through the door accidentally leaving it slightly open. I pushed open the door at the same time calling, “Claire, hey it’s Daniel again.” The house was dark except for a single light coming from the kitchen and one from her bedroom down the hall.

“Maybe she’s changing into her PJ’s or taking a shower, I better go check!” John said excitedly as he quickly made his way down the hall.

“Taking a shower? John, wait a minute you can’t go snooping around…” and with that he was gone. Crap, I thought.

Making my way to the kitchen I called, “Claire, Claire, this is Daniel, I just wanted, um, I forgot to tell you that there have been some home invasions around here. I wanted to make sure that you locked all of the your doors and windows and just keep a watch for anything out of the ordinary.” I finished this statement just as I rounded the corner and the kitchen came into full view. “I hope you don’t mind I let.. myself… in….”

The next few seconds seemed to go on for hours. Claire wasn’t changing clothes in her bedroom, or taking a shower in the master bath. Now, the reason I wish she had been doing those things are obvious to any guy over about the age of thirteen and on any other day, that would have been true. But, not today. The reason I wish she were doing those things or had been ANYWHERE other than in that kitchen is because when I rounded the corner, I saw her on the floor, teeth buried deep inside the neck of a man whose blood was pooling all around them both. Just as I saw her, she looked up and our eyes locked. “Oh… Shit”

Now the sequence of events that happened next only took a very brief moment, and occurred in the time it took to say Oh and shit, but it seemed to take much, much longer. I was immediately, acutely aware that my next door neighbor wasn’t just a smoking hot, early 30 something, red haired, green eyed, busty milf with a pool, she was something entirely different. Something terrifying. I was also aware that I shouldn’t be there and was actively trying to make myself run out of the front door five seconds ago. Claire was aware of a few things too. She knew that I knew she wasn’t just my smoking hot, early 30 something, red haired, green eyed busty milf next door neighbor with a pool and she knew she couldn’t let us leave. Oh shit was right.

Claire instantly released her jaws from the mans neck and said “Daniel, wait!” blood dripping from her chin.

Wait my ass, I had already started to turn toward the front door and immediately saw John standing there looking right past me at the scene on the kitchen floor. “What the…” Claire moved. She had closed the distance between us almost instantly. Then, before I knew it, she was standing in front of and blocking the front door.

“Daniel, I know this looks bad”, Clair said looking between me and John. “Just give me a minute to explain and…”

“Bad?” John said standing there. “We are way beyond bad! You were biting that guys neck, you’ve got fangs, there’s blood everywhere! How did you, why did you,” and then all of the tumblers seemed to fall into place, Johns eyes got big and he looked at me, “Shes a vampire, you’re a vampire!” Now most of the ideas that came out of Johns head were mediocre at best, downright ignorant at worst. Come to think of it John was an idiot, but I knew what I was seeing and as unbelievable as it was, what he said made sense. I looked at Claire as she stood there looking back at me and I knew that he was right. My mind couldn’t fathom HOW he was right, but I knew he was. Vampires aren’t real, they are the stuff of scary stories, myth and legend. How could this be real? She looked like a normal women. She didn’t have long talons for fingers, huge fangs, oh wait, maybe the fang part, but she didn’t wear a cape. Her favorite seasoning is garlic and she lays out in the sun. How can she be this horrible monster, but my eyes were telling me, she was.

Having accepted the current situation for what it must be, I said “Claire, I promise we won’t tell anyone, just let us go home, Okay?”

“Daniel, you know I can’t do that” she said. Crap, I figured that’s what she would say.

“OK, maybe we can figure something out, yeah?” I said with a hint of desperation.

John who talked tough, but was usually the first to run from trouble actually stood his ground, looked up at Claire and said, “Wait, Claire, I know what you want.”

I looked over at John and said in a surprised voice,“You do?” Now I wasn’t sure where he was going with this, but I was willing to go along with anything to get out of there.

Claire looked at John with those piercing green eyes and also said, “You do?”

“Yes” John said with resignation in his voice. “Take me and let my friend live.”

“John, what are you doing?” I said, shocked that he would say such a thing. Was he going to sacrifice himself for me? A quick glance at Claire showed genuine surprise on her face too. Maybe I was wrong about him, maybe John was a much better person than I thought he was. Maybe he was actually capable and willing to sacrifice his life, possibly his very soul for his best friend. Maybe there was a lot more to him than I realized and maybe I’m a lessor person for never seeing it sooner. Maybe all of those things were true, but, turns out, he was just horny.

“You don’t want to be alone. You want someone to hunt with. A companion, someone who understands this lonely dark existence”

Claire shrugged somewhat, “I’m not that lonely.”

John continued, “Someone to spend the darkness of eternity with. Someone to hold you and satisfy your bodily needs like only one of your kind can.”

“Take my virgin body and fulfill your evil lustful desires, do with it what you will!” John exclaimed as I raised an eyebrow.

“Yes! Yes! I give myself to you freely! I will be your slave of the flesh every night for eternity!”

Now, Claire raised an eyebrow.

“Defile my body as you see fit!”

“What the hell?” I said.

“Use me, drain me of all my blood and other uh bodily fluids, just let him live!!!!”

“Now wait a minute, that’s your fantasy not mine…” Claire said almost as confused as I was.

John then fell down onto both knees with his eyes closed and arms stretched up high, “Let the long dark night of sinful debauchery begin!”

Looking across the room, I saw the same confused look in Claire’s eyes that she must have seen in mine. Then, she leapt across the room over to John, picked him up off of the floor with one hand and got right in his face, their eyes mere inches apart. I turned my head, she’s gonna kill him I thought.

“John, you look tired, why don’t you go lay down and take a nap.” she said staring deep into his eyes.

He looked at her with a dazed expression, like he almost didn’t know what was going on.

“Hey, I’m pretty tired, I think I’ll go and take a nap.” John said. He then turned, walked down the hall and into her bedroom, “the guest bed room John” she said sternly and with a bit of annoyance.

A moment later he stumbled out of her room and into the one across the hall “Oh, yeah, of course” he said shutting the door. She shook her head in exasperation, turned and looked at me.

“Was that some kind of evil vampire mind control you used on him?” I said.

“Do you think I’m evil?” she said with a look of surprise and a bit of disappointment, like her feelings were hurt.

I didn’t know what to say. “I, uh, but it’s just that…”

She looked down and then back up at me, “The only evil magic that I’ve used is the evil magic of psychology. See, he thinks I can control his mind, make him do what ever I want.”

“You can’t?”

“No”, she said with a laugh, “but his belief that I can makes him very impressionable. He can walk out of here right now if he wants”.

“Can I walk out of here right now?”

Claire looked at me, “We need to talk. Now, I’m going to deal with this situation in the kitchen and clean up a bit and I’ll be right back, Don’t, run, OK.” Now I wasn’t a straight A student by any stretch, but I’d watched National Geographic a time or two. I remembered that anytime a predator is stalking prey, the last thing you want to do is run. If you run, then you die. The act triggers the primal desire to kill and eat and she was already jacked up. So, with that realization, I looked at Claire, then at the front door, then at Claire again. She tilted her head ever so slightly and cocked an eyebrow like she was saying “really?” and then, I sat my ass down. “I’ll just wait here” I said. She smiled, tossed her hair, “drinks in the fridge” turned and walked into the kitchen. Come to think of it, I was pretty thirsty, but as I watched her drag that dead body across the kitchen floor and out of site, I decided it could wait.

* * * * * *

Claire was only gone for a few minutes, but sitting there in her living room trying to process everything that had just happened, those minutes felt like hours. I had no idea how to get out of this situation, but if she wanted us dead, then why were we still alive? Looking around the room and trying to frantically figure a way out of this mess, I found my eyes again focused on the mantel picture. The urgency to run and the gravity of the moment seemed to subside as I made my way over for a better look. It was her alright, standing arm and arm with a young man. They were smiling and looked like any other normal couple. They looked like they were in love. Was he a vampire too? She said he had passed away, but how? I suddenly realized there was much more to this picture and her story than I first thought. I was so entranced, that I almost didn’t noticed her come into the room.

Forgetting for a moment that she in fact was a vampire I asked, “Claire, who is this and what happened. I don’t understand.”

“His name was Jack and that was the happiest time of my life” she said, standing just behind me. With a longing look in her eyes as she stared at the picture, we sat down across from each other in the living room and for the next 20 minutes she told a story as old as time and just as boring. Boy meets girl and they fall in love, that was it.

“Wait a minute” I said, “that’s it?”

“Yeah, What were you expecting?”

“I don’t know, you’re a vampire, I just thought there would be, more.”

She smiled. “I know, I never thought that could happen to me even before I became, what I am. But, it did.”

“Did he know?”

“Not at first, but I eventually told him, showed him who I was” she looked down and with a tear in her eye she said. “But it didn’t change how he felt, he still loved me. I think that’s when I realized how much I loved him too. What a crazy notion, a vampire in love…”

“He was, human?”.

“Yes, he wasn’t a vampire, just a normal guy.”

“Did you still…hunt?”

“Yes, about once a month.” Claire said with a bit of an unnerving grin.

“I still had to a need for blood, so every now and then I would have to satiate that need.

I looked at Claire and she seemed to know what I was going to say.

“Jack made me promise to only hunt what he called “bad men”. Never the innocent and most certainly never children.”

“Did you ever…?”

“John!” she said looking surprised. “Of course not, I’m a vampire, not a monster!”

“Oh, OK, sorry.” I said hands held up in submission.

“He would tell me to be careful and never asked about it when I got home. He never showed judgment, only love and understanding.”

“If you loved each other, why didn’t you, you know…”

“Make him a vampire?” she said.

“Yeah”

“I was getting to that. We had talked about it. How we could live this life far longer than most get to.”

“Forever?”

“No one lives forever, Daniel.” Clair said, “But, close enough. There was only one thing keeping him from taking the plunge. You see, there was someone else in his life whom he loved even more than me.” she said gazing upon another picture on the mantel. One I hadn’t payed attention to, of a little girl, no more than four years old, who looked just like him.

“Is that your daughter?” I said sounding more shocked than I realized.

“That’s his daughter. You see, he was married before we met. They had a child, a little girl. I was jealous of his ex for a lot of reasons, but none more than that. My life with him was perfect. The only thing that was lacking was…”

“You can’t, can you.” I said.

“No, once I was transformed, I lost that possibility forever. The price of immortality I suppose.”

“Where is she?”

“She got sick, Jack didn’t talk about it much, but I know that she passed before we met and there was nothing he could do to stop it.”

“I still don’t understand…”

“Jack wasn’t the most religious man, but he believed in god, heaven and hell. Who deserves to go to heaven more than an innocent child? He knew that’s where she would be, waiting for him.”

Now, have you ever had a moment when something is said that completely opens your eyes and understanding. When one instant you are utterly oblivious to a certain fact and the next one you have complete clarity. A flash of genius they call it. My eyes grew wide and I looked at Claire and said.

“He was afraid he would never see her again, never go to Heaven if he let you…”

“Yes”, she somewhat interrupted, “he thought he would be forever separated from his daughter” Claire finished the statement. “I didn’t know whether that made me hate him or love him more.”

“So, you’re living out his greatest fear, that you will be forever separated from the person you love the most”

She looked up at me with tear filled pleading eyes, lips quivering, “I know what I am, that I’ve done terrible things, but do you think there are any vampires in heaven?” Claire asked. I started to say something and immediately stopped, realizing that I’d never thought of that.

“Claire, I didn’t think vampires were real until about an hour ago. I’ve never even considered the possibility of them going to heaven. I thought they were the evil hell spawns of satan.” I could see that statement didn’t make her feel any better and immediately followed up with, “Claire, what happened to him, how did he…die?”

She took a deep breath, “He was murdered, right in our living room. We were settling in for the night, it was about 11:00pm. I had gone to the kitchen to make some popcorn. I later learned that two men had been casing our home and decided that night to act. While I was in the other room, they had came in through an open window in the guest bedroom. Jack never saw them until…”

“But, don’t you have like ESP or something? Didn’t you sense, hear or smell them?” I said, careful as I could be not to sound judgmental.

“Normally, yes, I could have, should have known they were there before they got halfway across the yard, but I was suffering from the most fatal of afflictions for a vampire, complacency. You see, I was happy. Drunk with emotion and affection, I was blind and we both payed the price.” Claire stood, walked to the window and sighed. “When I walked back into the room, I saw jack sitting slumped against the far wall, blood flowing from his side. At the same time, I felt a searing pain in my back. Looking down I saw a large blade protruding from the middle of my chest. I had been stabbed through the heart and immediately fell to my knees. I knew that we were both going to die and I knew it was my fault.

“You can be killed like anyone else?” I said.

“Many injuries that would most certainly result in a humans death, I can survive, but being stabbed in the heart, not even a vampires ability to heal can guarantee recovery from that.”

“So then, how did you?”

She looked out the window again, “Jack somehow summoned every bit of strength he had and overcame the man standing next to him. He wrestled the gun from his hand and shot him. As he went down, the man who stabbed me pulled his own gun and they fired at each other, both were good shots. I watched Jack fall to the ground, blood pouring from his chest. His aim was a little better as the man he shot had blood pouring from the side of his head, as he lay eyes wide open and lifeless on the ground. I crawled over to Jack as he lay dying. “I’m so sorry”, I said, watching the life drain from his eyes.

“Claire” Jack said looking at the man laying beside him. “He’s still alive.” I looked over to see him laying there, still breathing ever so slightly. I used every ounce of strength I had left to crawl over and sink my teeth deep into his neck. Feeding immediately was the only hope I had. It was no guarantee, but it worked. I immediately started feeling better.”

“Ah-Ha! So drinking fresh blood does cure a vampires mortal wounds!”

Claire rolled her eyes and gave a little grin, “Yes, yes, that part is true.”

I knew he didn’t want me to, that he may hate me forever, but I wasn’t going to let him die. I took all the blood I could and turned to Jack. Our eyes met and he knew immediately what I was going to do. He shook his head ever so slightly and whispered “No”. I wanted nothing more than to save his life, keep him with me but, I knew that I couldn’t. My love for him meant that I had to let him go. He smiled slightly and his eyes widened in surprise as something caught his eye just over my left shoulder. “Hannah?” he said, and closed his eyes forever.”

Now, Claire had never told me his daughters name, but she didn’t have too, even I could read between those lines.

“After that night, I left, roaming from town to town. Never staying too long anywhere. I began searching for an answer to my question. I spoke with men of all different religions: priests, preachers, monks, anyone who I thought could help. I even joined a few churches.”

“Wait, you went to church?”

“Yes, I went to church and no I didn’t burst into flames. To tell you the truth, I wasn’t so sure that I wouldn’t until I step foot in one.”

“What did they say?”

“They all said that if you ask for forgiveness, then you will go to heaven.”

“No matter what?” I said.

“No matter what.”

“I ask every night…”

Claire paused for a moment, “So, since then I’ve just been trying to live, trying to find happiness. I know that’s what he would want. To tell you the truth, you and your mom have been the first people I have let into my life since then. Even John has made me smile, but not for the reasons he would like” she said with a snicker. Claire paused for a moment, “You have been very kind to me Daniel and I’m so glad we met.” She said with a smile.

“What happens now?” I said.

“Now, you go home. I am going to clean up this mess, gather up my things and move on, like I always do”.

“Do you have to leave?”

“Yes, now that you know about me and people are coming up missing, it’s really better for both of us”.

I thought for a moment about that statement. I wondered if she meant just this guy or if there were others, missing. I started to ask and then decided to let it go.

“Claire, I’m sorry, I really didn’t mean to cause you a problem”.

“It’s ok”, she said, “thank you Daniel for listening. I haven’t had the chance to talk about this for a long time”.

We both sat there in silence, pondering the moment. I finally looked at her and said, “You’re a good person Claire. I truly believe you will see him again someday.” Claire walked over to me, with tears running down her face and hugged me. She wasn’t the apex predator killing machine from an hour ago, she was just a grieving women who longed for her husband and a hug.

“Thank you Daniel” she said as she wept on my shoulder.

* * * * * *

True to her word, I never saw Claire again. Right after our hug and without another word I gathered up John from the back room still half asleep and confused and we went home. I kept an eye on Claire’s house for a week, but never saw anything. She called mom shortly after and said she was moving cross country due to a family emergency, but I knew better. Then, life happened. Weeks turned to months, then years. As we get older, time seems to move like a runaway train, the further the faster. I moved away met a girl, got married and then got divorced. One morning I awoke, sat on the edge of my bed and realized that 25 yrs had gone by since that summer. I hadn’t seen or heard from John in almost as many years. Friends come and go I guess. My mom had recently passed away and left me the house. Instead of selling my old home place, I decided to move back in. The old neighborhood hadn’t changed much. Aside from some fresh paint and a few new trees it was almost exactly the same. I had only been there for about a week when a moving van pulled into the driveway across the street. The next day there was a knock on my front door. Upon opening that door I was shocked to see those same green eyes and wry smile of the women from that summer so many years ago holding a cake, “hey neighbor” she said. I realized a few things in that instant: I had missed Claire a great deal over the years, she hadn’t aged much at all and was still hotter than the coal fired pits of hell. I also realized that my life was about to get a lot more interesting.

“good to see you again Daniel, want to go for a swim?”

Hot Damn.