Chapter 2
Amy drank enough of Ruthie's blood to satisfy her hunger, but not enough to kill her. She had become practiced at controlling her lust for blood as a tool of survival. One of the ways Robert taught Amy to prevent drawing attention to themselves was to share a victim between them so as to reduce the number of dead bodies they left in town and along the waterfront. In a busy port city like New London with men frequently coming and going looking for work and opportunity, some random deaths of strangers and drunks were to be expected before the townspeople would suspect foul play.
When Amy released Ruthie, she realized that Ruthie had fainted. "Wake up!" Amy patted Ruthie's cool damp cheeks and shook her narrow shoulders, "You need to wake up, Ruthie."
After a minute or two of being shaken and patted and pinched Ruthie began to stir. But before she could open her eyes, Amy quickly broke the skin on her own wrist with her teeth and pressed Ruthie's mouth to the wound, "There, there, Ruthie. No one will ever hurt you again. We'll be sisters forever and take care of each other and neither of us will ever be lonely again."
Blood still shiny and sticky on the two girls' chins and lips, Amy swiftly lifted Ruthie into her arms and partially hiding her with her cloak and staying hidden within the shadows of houses and other buildings carried her through the swirling autumn leaves back to her lair. Although the rock walled dirt floored cellar was damp and musty, the interior of Amy's coffin was soft and silky. Amy lay snuggled up to the temporarily dead Ruthie listening to the wailing wind rattle the window frames and the plank cellar door of the house as she waited for sleep and the next sundown when Ruthie would awaken to her new life.
Silence met Amy's ears as she woke up the following evening and found herself looking into Ruthie's still unconscious face. The wind must have finally died down, Amy thought, as she waited for Ruthie to wake up. Although her grief for her loss of Robert was as raw and intense as ever, she felt slightly comforted to wake up and not be alone. Carrying Ruthie's body into the cellar several hours earlier, Amy had hoped to find Robert waiting for her. But finding the spot still empty where his coffin had once stood, not even a rectangular imprint in the dirt where it once rested, her broken heart remained so and a sob caught in her throat as she lifted the lid of her casket and laid down with Ruthie by her side. She wondered if Robert had returned while she was resting and raised the lid of her coffin enough to see that, except for the unconscious Ruthie, she was still alone and incomplete. She began to worry after a while that she had accidentally drank too much of Ruthie's blood and it was too late to save her when she had Ruthie drink from her wrist. Maybe Ruthie was permanently dead. But before Amy could lose too much hope, Ruthie began to stir. She lifted the lid of the coffin to give them both some space just as Ruthie opened her eyes and looked at Amy with confusion but without recognition.
"Ruthie!" Amy exclaimed as relief and joy spread through her. She had never transformed anyone into a vampire before and was thrilled that she had succeeded with only a vague and long ago explanation of how it was done to go on.
"Where am I?" Ruthie asked groggily, "I feel funny, hungry-like."
"Yes! Yes!" Amy helped Ruthie step out of the coffin, "You're just fine. Don't you remember me speaking to you last night?"
Ruthie looked around for a chair and finding none, sat on the dirt floor. Amy sat facing her. This made Ruthie more confused, "This is the first time I ever seen a white girl like you sit in dirt."
"Where am I?" Ruthie looked around, "this isn't the cellar at my master's house but it looks like a cellar."
"No, it isn't your master's house," Amy smiled, "this is where I live."
Ruthie looked around and saw the coffin. Her eyes were wide in surprise, "did you just help me get out of that? Is that where you put me?"
"Well, yes, Ruthie, that's where I rest during the day. You see, I can't go outside in the daylight or I'll die and now so will you."