Everyone in the family is here.
Kara is to my right, looking as radiant as she always does. Even when she is deeply fatigued, this creature just emanates light. No one would ever suspect this woman is a vampire; she looks like a teacher or perhaps a hospital volunteer. She looks like nothing in her body would ever harm another living creature. This illusion holds until you see the devastating beauty of her face as she rips the life from another. Then she shatters the rating scale and hits a number that has not been made yet.
Jade is to my left, looking like Naomi Campbell from the "keep it in the closet" video, had a baby with a strawberry. She is so alluring that any vampire would be able to live forever just by licking her skin. She has bright red hair and the softest freckles covering her exposed flesh. The vivid color shift in her vitiligo only adds to how alluring her entire essence is. Her moves are hypnotic, pushing you to touch her skin and make sure she is not a mirage.
Chad is bold and charismatic, as much as you can be playing the part of a mime or a mute—a man of very few words. He holds the room in a way that makes you feel safe, right up to the point where someone steps out of line or crosses his family. No one could ever be sure what he would do, or how quietly.
I look as I look most days. I have a gray—or, more accurately, Grigio Medio—custom-tailored Brunello Cucinelli pinstripe suit on. It's a two-button, single-breasted suit with double-vented pants and side-slit pockets. As always, I wear my classic flat cap, gray as well to match the suit. Purchased from Saks, it is also Brunello Cucinelli, and the cap alone cost more than the coffin we are all standing in front of.
The only light is being thrown from an old candelabra that sits by the doorway to our left.
The lid from the coffin slowly creaks open, and a wave of blackness from inside seems to fall out, darkening the room even more than when we started. A single body lies inside, stirring, as if fighting between the urge to move and the desire to stay. Slowly, the body rises up to catch the candlelight that misses everything else in the room. As the rogue light hits his spectrally absorbent skin, we are able to see exactly what the creature inside looks like. As his eyes open, a sly grin crawls across the inhabitant's face.
Johnny slowly wrestled himself up and out of the top half of the coffin, which had been custom-built for him. Bringing himself to a fully erect standing position, his sly grin snapped into a full smile, unleashing the twin, needle-sharp glints that adorned his mouth. He was dressed in a black-on-black suit that absorbed all available light, making him a walking shadow that he designed and tailored himself, I believe. He eagerly flashed his devastating new dental work to the rest of the family.
Once he reaches his oldest friend and now new sire, Chad, Chad opens his arms to embrace his newest family member. They separate slightly to end the embrace and move into a full, full-tongue kiss that gets deeper and more frantic with each breath they take. Tongues moving back and forth as though they were locked in a battle for their very lives. Kara, Jade, and I look at one another in total confusion, as though an entire world was moving in real-time in front of our very eyes that we only now see.
Jade is the first one to shatter the silence at this vamp christening. "Holy shit! You guys got all the leather and toys you need? Break it up! Let me show you two something that I put together."
Still melded at the lips, Jade starts to bodily shove them both toward the exit. She treats their deep kiss as an irrelevant distraction, instantly superseded by her own project. She keeps talking as her voice trails off from our vantage point: "I have designed and crafted some kick-ass shit for boys like you and…"
Kara and I exchanged a look that clearly communicated: we may have bitten off a little too much chaos this time. We put our arms around each other and casually walked out of the room, following our family. I told my lovely, "I hope this does not affect our door service. Who knows what those two could accidentally miss if they plan on keeping that up all night."Kara laughs as we walk away to our next adventure.