The Ultimate Vampire Resource and Directory

Punk Rebels of Rome
01:11 Feb 08 2008
Times Read: 703








I didn’t mean to do it.



It was an accident, to be sure. A mishap. Just one of those things. Father left instructions with his miserable toady, that decrepit dwarf, Suetonius, who spies on me constantly, that I was not to leave the villa except to take exercise on the grounds surrounding it.



“Grounded you are, and grounded you shall be, until the right path is followed to wisdom and peace,” Suet said, dripping with sarcasm and drooling out of the left corner of his crooked mouth. He handed me a parchment left by my father.



It contained Father’s usual rebukes: study history, take wine in moderation, bathe more often, stay away from the ruffians in the merchant area, befriend the hoity-toity son of this or that noble family, make a sacrifice to the Gods. Do this, don’t do that. Vile, contemptible, controlling bastard.



“You’re ruining my life,” I said, not too loud, but tightening my lips around each word. I tried to rip the parchment, but the fibers were too thick. I crumpled it into a ball and threw it across the room, crossed my arms and turned my back on it. I could hear the velvety snap of it slowly resuming its former shape.



Without thinking, I grabbed it and ran from the villa, never stopping until I’d reached The Grotto, the place where the poets and musicians of a new age gathered to talk. The talk, as usual, was of the old ways of our fathers.



We burned the parchment as a sacrifice to the new Gods. We added oil to the fire and danced around it. We drank wine and added whatever fuel we could find until all that was left were our togas.



“I gladly give the cloth on my back. Let this be our sacrifice to the toga god!” I dropped it on the fire, and others followed suit shouting, “Toga, toga!”



The fire grew and the flames licked the wooden buildings around us. I ran back to the villa as fast as I could, and Suet saw me.



“Fleet-footed streaker,” he called after me, “whose whiskered cock tells no lies.” I looked down to see the hairs there singed and gone completely from some areas.



The city burned, but our villa was saved. Father shook his head. I cowered in my room, my life over. My fate rested in the dwarf’s stumpy hands. Hands that insisted on applying oil to my secret burns, my secret parts.



“Grow strong, my little Apollo. Grow hard, my little Pyro. Spill your secret into me,” he said, his crooked jaw unhinging like a snake about to feed.

Homeward Bound
04:52 Feb 04 2008
Times Read: 704

After the sequestered months in Texas with her dad and stepmom, Lydia was returning to New Mexico at the beginning of her fourteenth summer. In Texas, with its blanketing humidity and fungal prejudices, she stayed inside the house with its thermostat-controlled people. She stayed inside herself, too.



In New Mexico, she'd be in the mountains again, back home with her mom and brother and the unexpected little sister. Well, unexpected to her dad, since he wasn't the father --- wasn't even married to her mother anymore.



"Don't say anything to your father," her mother had warned. "I'll deal with him when you get here."



Her father loaded the Oldsmobile. Thin and dry, her stepmother gave her a bony goodbye hug. She had no scent and walked soundlessly. "It's for the best," she said. Her expression darkened. "Of course, I hate sending that check every month."



It took forever to get out of Texas. Lydia and her dad listened to country-western music and made a game of identifying road kill as they sped by doing 70.



Her father had flirty aquamarine eyes. "Why do all the country singers sound so sad?" Lydia asked his profile, hoping he'd turn and wink at her.



He was quiet for a moment, sucked his teeth.

" 'Cause they're singin' about love, sweetheart."



Love is sad, Lydia thought.



No, she corrected herself, studying his profile again. He thinks love is sad.







Appears in Lines of Velocity: Words That Move From WriteGirl (2008). This is a mentoring organization working with teenaged girls through their writing to keep them in school. It has the girls' writing, and a few things from the mentors, plus writing prompts. It's available through Amazon.com. Teachers and home schoolers and teenaged girls seem to enjoy it. I've changed my piece slightly from the published version. Always editing.