Love or Codependency Chapter 6

Eric leads you through the passageway of your world into his. You look around taking in all the beauty you never thought could have existed until now. You walk along a silver stone walkway admiring the tall yellow grass playing with the wind, the hills in the back made of Autumn leaves that begged to be jumped in. A head of you a stone wall with huge wooden doors, open, welcoming you into their city.

"This is the most beautiful place I have ever seen." You tell Eric.

"This is just the beginning, wait til you see the city." He tells you, his hand on the small of your back leading you through the entrance you saw moments before.

The city was everything you could imagine in a movie then more. Pumpkins lined both sides of the street, street poles decorated in all things Fall and along the streets were street carts filled with fruits and vegetables. People browsing cart to cart that not only had just produce but caramel apples, coffee, pie and anything else you could have wanted.

The inside of the city looked vintage, classic as if you went back to the 1800's but everybody was wearing modern day clothing. Everything about Harvest Hill you loved, honestly you wouldn't mind staying forever if you could.

You followed Eric through a back alley until he stopped at a door, "I live here." He tells you. The building didn't look very big, but that didn't bother you, your studio apartment wasn't that big itself.

Stepping through the doorway, it seemed that everything instantly got bigger. You followed him up a long staircase that you knew for sure was taller than the height of the building you just saw. At the top was a long beautiful hallway that you followed in silence when yet again you followed Eric to another door.

"Let me guess Disney World is behind this one." You said jokingly.

"Of course not, I told you I live here." Eric said, sliding a key into the lock and ever so easily opening the door. Pushing the door open, he stepped aside motioning you to step in. Even though you were a bit nervous, and hesitate, you slowly made your way to the doors entrance.

In front of you was a driveway that led to a gorgeous house with beautiful trees like the ones you saw when you first arrived in Harvest Hill. His house was like the size of a mansion. Wrapped around it was a white porch lined with pumpkins and hay bales.

How was all this even possible? You felt like you were taken to a magical and and yet being nervous you were completely okay with this.

"You gonna walk in?" Eric said, snapping you out of your trance.

You walked through the doorway, that somehow led to his home. Eric coming in behind you, shutting the door behind him. When you turned to see what had happened to the door, you saw it was gone. Replaced with a street and more houses that looked like the one before you. How was all this even possible? You must be dreaming still, there's no way any of this is real.

"Oh it's real alright, and no, I can't read your thoughts," Eric said, answering your question from earlier. "Your face is very easy to read." He said chuckling lightly as you walked beside him to the front door.

He opened the door leading you into a dream home you only dreamed of having someday. It was modern decor, classy and yet fun at the same time. His whole living room was twice the size of your studio, leaving you to imagine what the rest of this house left to the imagination.

As if on cue, something big flew into the living room rushing straight towards you. You dove at the ground hoping to escape whatever had attacked you. As you took for cover you heard Eric laughing, then barking. Barking? Slowly you peek from around the couch you dove towards to see Eric petting what looked like a flying puppy.

"Trish, this is my puppy, Midnight. Midnight, Trish." Eric said while reuniting with his puppy that was overjoyed to see him.

You stood up collecting yourself, this has to be a dream. Dogs don't fly. You looked around double checking for anything else flying around this place.

"What is this place?"You finally ask him, "What are you?" None of this was normal, Eric wasn't normal. As you look closely at his face you see his eyes have turned back to their greenish blue shade. "And why do your eyes change colors?" You demand.

The awe of this world you have gotten over, you were ready for answers, who knew a flying dog would bring you to the breaking point.

Eric now holding his flying puppy walked over and took a seat on a huge black sectional that looked softer than your bed at home.

"Why don't you take a seat and collect yourself. If I knew Midnight would have scared you I wouldn't have let him come in. My apologies."Eric says, you could tell he was sincere and decided to take a seat on the couch across from him. And you were right about the couch, way softer than your bed. If you weren't careful you could easily fall asleep here.

"What is all of this, Eric?" You ask again, more calm than before. It's not like you were scared of the unknown. Your whole life you believed there was more to this world than what meets the eye. But it was different now. You were confronting the unknown instead of imagining what it was like.

This whole time you were so caught up with seeing all this beauty and now all of that was gone. You weren't mad, angry, scared, you just wanted answers.

"Harvest Hill is a magical sanctuary for vampires. It has kept us safe from humans since the beginning of time." He tells you. His eyes locked on yours, and for the first time you could tell he was nervous, nervous to tell you the truth and how you would react to it.

You take a deep breath soaking all of his words in. "So, you're a vampire, and this is where all vampires live?"

He nodded, "Some of us, there are sanctuaries all over the world, this one just happens to be my home."

Wow, all this time you had no idea. It makes sense why Eric took your phone on the way in. One picture could ruin the lives of so many people who have been living in secrecy for years. If not that, no doubt the person who tried to convince people of this place would be sent to the physic ward.

Suddenly, you remembered on the way in the fruit carts and food outside, from what the movies told you all vampires drink blood. So who was the food for? But most importantly would you become food for him? Was that why in the car he pulled away from you?

"Tell me what's on you mind, please?" Eric asked you, his puppy was long gone and he sat on the edge of the couch watching you with pleading eyes. "Anything you want to know I'll tell you, I meant what I said earlier."

"Are you going to eat me?" You ask him, seeing a small smile come to his lips you wonder what could possibly be so funny.

"No, i'm not going to eat you. But yes, I do drink blood."

"Human?"

"Oh yes, has to be, animal blood is truly disgusting." He said. As if I cue he went to the kitchen and returned holding a thermos, the thermos was black so you couldn't see what was inside.

You're a smart girl, you knew what he was drinking, and yet you weren't disgusted. Still more curious.

"Where do you get that stuff from?" You ask him as you watched him sit back down taking sips of what you knew had to be blood.

"Donors, it's law that we don't drink from humans. So if you were wondering, yes your safe. I'm not going to hurt you."

You felt at ease hearing him say that, and while you both sat in silence for a while the most important question of all came to the surface. This place was a secret, humans weren't allowed here, so why would Eric invite you to this place.

"So, why did you bring me here, to your home?" You finally ask him.

You watched how he stiffened, not surprised by your question, but looked like he was trying to find the right words to say.

"I brought you here, because I want to be with you. Only I can't do that until you know exactly who I am. Now that you know some, the thing is," he paused rushing his hands through his hair. You didn't understand, he looked so upset, but was you both being together a good thing?

He stood up, walking over to the window and stared out into the openness for a while before picking up where he left off.

"This thing is, if you want to be with me, you have to become like me. Humans are not allowed to stay here, unless there coming here for that reason."

So that must have been what Eric was discussing with the man with the red eyes before you both walked in. He told him he was bringing you here to change you into a vampire. Suddenly you felt a dizzy wave come over you, taking deep breathes you finally calmed down enough to ask him another question.

"I thought you said the choice is up to me?" You said, which Eric did say that, he said it was going to be your choice.

"It is, everything you decide to do is your choice. But if you choose to go back to your normal life I would have no choice but to erase your memory. I know it's difficult, you have friends a life. But that's the way it is. If decided this isn't for you, it would be like we never met, you would never see me or remember anything that happened between us."

You could hear the sadness radiate from his voice as he spoke to you. You felt bad, but this was a huge decision. How could he even expect to bring you here, dump all this on you, then expect you to make a decision. That's not how things worked, at least for you they didn't. You stared at the floor, looking for answers that weren't there. If only there was someone you could discuss this with, but you knew you couldn't. Eric didn't even have to tell you that.

"Will you give me a few days, to think all this over?" You ask him.

He turned to you, a small smile on his lip as he said, "Of course, and if you have any questions which i'm sure you'll think of, don't be afraid to ask."