Beautiful Monster 2

"Like Connor?" I said, before I could stop myself.



Amy rolled her eyes. "Ignore him, he's drunk. Sarah?"



Sarah took a deep breath, meeting my eyes. "No, he's right. Connor is the problem. I'm pregnant."



The coffee mug I was sipping out of fell out of my hand, falling to the hardwood floor and shattering everywhere. Amy's jaw nearly scraped the same floor.



"What? How is that possible?" Her head swiveled from Sarah to me, and I could see that she had paled as well. "I thought vampires couldn't... even when they were in their human form, I thought they were infertile. That's what you told me."



"And that's true," I replied, trying to gather my thoughts. "So it's not Connor."



"Of course it is," Sarah said, bitterly. "There isn't anyone else."



I laughed, harshly. "Well, it can't be, Sarah, unless there's immaculate conception happening."



"I'm a Shield," she replied, and silence hit the room. "And I make him human when I touch him. Fully human. I figured it out sitting in the nurse's office. There's no other explanation."



"But..." Words failed me, and my mouth opened and closed like a fish. "No, Sarah, there has to be someone else. Porsche and I..."



"You slept with Porsche?" Amy's head swiveled towards me, and I tried to backtrack.



"Once or twice. It was before, Amy, before you, and we had both had a metric ton to drink..."



"And I assume you didn't even know which end to stick it in." Sarah's words were crude, but they shut me up.



I didn't remember either of those nights, years ago, with any sort of certainty. “Are you sure there’s been no one else? Because…”



“Liam, I took sex ed class. I know how this works. There’s been no one else.”



“Jesus.” I buried my head in my hands, trying to think.



“I assume the child will be human?” Amy asked, her voice surprisingly cold.



I nodded. “There’s nothing I know about vampire human half breeds. Although, I’ve never heard about this ever happening before, so who knows?”



“What are you going to do?” Amy asked Sarah, taking her hand.



Sarah shrugged, both hands on her stomach. “I don’t know. It doesn’t even seem real right now.”



“How far along are you?”



“6 weeks. Barely detectable, but there. Explains why I’ve been a giant puke machine. And why I’ve put on weight.”



“We can… deal with this,” I said, carefully. I realized the words were taking longer to come out than I meant them to, and upon standing, my head spun. Some headmaster I was, setting a great example for my students. “If you want.”



“I don’t know what I want,” Sarah replied, drawing her knees up to her chest. “My parents would kill me.”



“But they don’t have to know,” Amy pointed out. “Christmas is only two months away. You won’t really be showing by then. When you go home, you can hide it well enough, if you really don’t want to tell them. And then what about adoption? There are so many good people who want children, and can’t have them.”



There was a note of sadness in her voice, and I knew she was speaking from her own heart. The one time Amy and I had discussed children, she was firmly set on adoption. With her blood being infected, she would be guaranteed to affect her child too, and that was not something she wanted to do. I understood, and yet, at the same time, I was sad, to not be able to look ten years into the future and see a little version of Amy running about, even if it wasn’t with my genes.



I had never given any thought to children while I was human. I was too busy living the lifestyle of the rich and the famous. But now that the possibility was taken away from me, I considered it all the time. Not now, of course, now I’d be a horrible role model, but maybe if this curse was broken, there would be something I could do about it.



“It is a good option, Sarah,” I found myself saying, surprised at the emotion that came out in my voice. “Amy’s right, there are so many people who don’t have a choice in having a child. This is a huge undertaking… but if that’s the choice you make, I’ll help you keep it a secret.”



“And what about Phantom?” she asked.



I grinned. “Ah, well that will just add another layer to the plot. A pregnant Christine, by whom, we wonder?”



“Yeah, providing I don’t give birth on stage,” she said, dryly and Amy managed a little giggle.



“The show must go on. It’s actually kind of fitting. Death and life on the same stage. We’ll win a Tony award for sure.”



“Oh, God.” Sarah buried her head in her hands. “Are you guys seriously considering this?”



“We’ll consider whatever you choose to do,” Amy said gently, but I knew in her heart she didn’t want to be responsible for any more death. “Your child didn’t choose anything, Sarah. Why should we condemn it?”



Sarah met her eyes and something silent seemed to pass between them. But then she looked away, glancing out the window and sighed.



“Yeah, I guess,” she said, but something in her voice told me that she wasn’t being quite truthful.



My heart leapt in fear, and I bit my lip, the words locked in my throat. I had a horrible feeling Sarah was going to do something stupid, and that there was nothing I could do to stop her.



Chapter 11: Amy



My alarm went off at 6 am and I sat upright. It was the only way I knew I was going to get up. Last night, Liam, laced with booze and calmed by Sarah, had actually managed to be safe to be around until midnight, which was far later than my usual bedtime. Years of living with my father and never going out had taught me to live the life of a 60 year old, in bed by 10 pm and up with the sun.



Today was going to be a busy day. In between classes, I had a lunchtime audition for Ranger, and I prayed that I'd make it back in time for afternoon rehearsal. Sarah had been especially down in the dumps this last week and I wanted to be there for her in whatever way I could.



We still hadn't made any choice about her baby. We had spent hours looking at adoption websites and discussing possibilities. When she told Connor, he had looked fearful of her, as if she could hurt him, this age old vampire of unlimited strength. Until they made a choice, they weren't going to tell Isabelle anything.



I glanced at my audition notes as I walked into the bathroom, setting them on the ledge as I brushed my teeth and washed my face. Liam had drilled into my head that auditions wanted to see me, not my makeup and hair skills. Still, I couldn’t help but put a little extra effort into my appearance this morning. They may want to see what I look like without hiding, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t look pretty.



Ranger was holding several auditions today, which made it a bit difficult to decide what to do. Once we submitted our headshot and resumes, we had been given several sides for various characters that we fit, and none of us knew anything about them. Even if we kept up with the show, we didn’t know where these new characters would be placed, nor did we know whether it was a small or large part. They also asked us for a monologue, which made me want to tear my hair out, because without choosing a specific character, I had no idea what type of monologue I wanted to do. So, I went with my default of Beauty’s monologue, assuming that it had to fit something.



I folded the sides into my back pocket and went out the door, pausing on my way to class to knock on Sarah’s door.



“Sarah?” I called through the door.



There was a pause, and then she answered it, opening it up to let me in as she went to get her school bag. Her eyes looked red rimmed, and she looked exhausted.



“Are you ok?”



“Sure,” she replied, shrugging. “Morning sickness.”



“Ah, Sarah,” I said sympathetically, reaching out to rub her back as we went out the door. “You going to be ok?”



“Of course, Amy,” she snapped.



I was taken aback. I had never heard her snap at me before.



“I’m not the first woman in the world to be pregnant.”



“I didn’t mean that,” I said, hurrying to catch up with her. “Have you thought any more about what you’re going to do?”



“What is there to do?” she replied. “Connor comes from a time when men take care of things and women stay home and pop out babies and all that. Problem is, first of all, this is 2013, and second of all, he’s already got a wife who I suspect is catching on rather fast.”



“You’ll figure it out. You always do.”



“Yeah,” she replied quietly. We walked in silence for a few moments before she changed the subject. “So, are you all prepared for your audition?”



“Think so.” I nodded, patting the sides I had slipped into my back pocket reassuringly. “I mean, it’s a huge TV show and there are a hundred parts or something, which means like ten thousand people are auditioning. Seriously, Sarah, even getting one part means I should consider joining the actor’s union. Really, I’m just looking at it as practical experience.”



“Ranger’s such a… gritty show,” Sarah said, as we made our way to the main lecture hall. “Do you think you could do it? I mean, there’s some pretty heavy content in it.”



“Hmmm,” I replied, thinking of some of the episodes I had seen. “I’m sure I’ll figure something out.”



The truth was some of the content on Ranger was so heavy that I wasn’t sure I could even act it. The actresses there were intense, pouring tears out of their eyes on the drop of a hat. Also, the show wasn’t exactly rated for children. It had never occurred to me to consider my boundaries of sexual exploits on camera, but if I got any part on Ranger, I would have to think about it.



“Hey, I’m going to see Liam for a moment. I’ll catch up with you.”



“Sure.” She turned to the side to say goodbye to me.