CHAPTER FOUR
LILA MURPHY
This day could not get any worse.
BUD LEROY
Really? There’s an apocalypse prophesied for later, Lils.
LILA MURPHY
I stand by my statement.
Vampire Falls. Season three, episode twenty-two – “End Again, Again”
Charlie Chamberlain looks down at Sadie, frowns, then turns to look at Roxy and me.
I’ve read about red mist, but never really understood what it meant until the specific moment his eyes lock with mine.
He runs a smug hand through his smug hair and smiles a smuggy mother-smugging smile, and then he starts walking over.
Yes, I know. He’s walking over to me at my convention surrounded by my people. I might be turning green and bursting out of my clothes, I just don’t know right now. All I can hear is my hot, angry breath whistling out of my nose.
“Eliza?” I can just about hear Roxy’s gentle tone and feel her hand on my arm, but I can’t move. “Eliza? Be cool, OK? He’s probably just dropping Sadie off or something.”
The red mist clears like a pair of curtains. Of course, that’s definitely, probably it. He’s dropping his little sister off at a convention for her favourite show. Why else would he be here? Eleven-year-olds go to conventions on their own all the time, don’t they? Don’t they?
DON’T THEY?
Charlie Chamberlain stops in front of us and puts his hands in his pockets. I get a waft of his deodorant, the spicy one that celebrity/footballer/model person he used to bang on about endorses. The smell is like petrol on the bonfire of my emotional state.
“Hey, Rox.” He looks at me. “Eliza.”
I manage a noise somewhere between a squeak and a groan.
Roxy looks at me like I’m a child who was expecting a PlayStation on Christmas Day but has unwrapped a second-hand abacus.
She frowns and widens her eyes at me, but I probably shouldn’t move or say words until I know I’m in full control of myself.
“Hey, Charlie,” says Roxy, then steps forward and squeezes Sadie. “And Sadie!”
“She doesn’t really do hugs any more,” says Charlie Chamberlain.
“Shut up, Charlie,” says Sadie, pulling a face.
“How are you this big?” says Roxy, looking down at her.
“I know, I’m nearly as tall as Eliza!” says Sadie, beaming at us.
“What are you guys doing here?” asks Roxy.
“Well, Sadie wanted to come for her birthday and mum was going to bring her, but that sort of fell through. It was either lose the hotel deposit and the cost of the ticket, or guilt trip big brother into bringing her, so I figured, hey, day off school. So, here I am. Bonus.”
“Here you are,” I say, through gritted teeth. “Bonus.”
He smiles at me, oh-so-pleased with himself, standing here ruining my life. He’s lucky he’s got his little sister in front of him.
“Yep,” he says, doing subtle jazz hands. “Surprise.”
Is surprise the word?
“You’re here all weekend then?” Roxy asks, glancing at me then smiling back at Charlie Chamberlain and Sadie.
Charlie nods and rolls his eyes. “Yep, four whole nights of nerd fun.”
“Hey,” says Sadie, elbowing him in the stomach. Did I mention I love this kid? “Mum said you’ve got to be nice, and you’re not allowed to say nerd or anything bad about Vampire Falls.”
“Not even Damon Van Schwartz?” he says, bending down and making wide eyes at his sister.
“Especially not Damon Van Schwartz,” says Sadie, her eyes misting over at the thought of him.
“I don’t know why you’re all piss-takey, pal; you had a DVS haircut for an entire year,” says Roxy, raising an eyebrow.
“I did not,” he says.
“Oh, you so did.” Roxy pulls out her phone and waves it in front of him. “Would you like a little reminder, Charlie Van Schwartz?”
“Whatever,” he says, then looks at me. “You’re quiet. Something wrong?”
Roxy stiffens next to me. I take a deep breath, ready to launch a diatribe (yes, I said diatribe) into Charlie Chamberlain’s self-satisfied, friendship defector face, but as I form the first word which starts with a hard F, there is a slight, but not invisible to the experienced ear, change in background hotel foyer noise.
I look around, my convention senses tingling, and I’m right. Everyone holds up their phones in the direction of the revolving doors, which means that a Convention Guest has just entered the vicinity. I grab Roxy’s arm, but she’s already sensed it and is looking at the same person I am.
Damon Van Schwartz, aka everyone’s favourite morally grey vampire, Viggo Rassmussen, has entered the building.