The door bell rang. Keeping up with vampires means that when it rang, I was asleep. Like all sensible people do when the owner of the house is at work, you have a vampire sleeping next to you, and you went to bed only a few hours before, I ignored it. I tried to ignore it. It just kept ringing. Just when I thought it was stopping I’d drift back off and it would ring again. Who ever it was thought we were ignoring them.

I got up, pulled on a shirt and went to the door. It has been hot. Very hot. The man sitting on the other side of the door didn’t get the memo. He wore a suit but was obviously uncomfortable in it. Not just from the heat, but how it was a bit too small for his frame. Like he hadn’t put it on in along time. I say sitting because he was sitting on a large metal box that was attached by ropes to a two wheeler. I couldn’t tell if he was a door to door salesman or not.

I opened the door.

“Hello?”

He stood up really fast, rubbing his hand on his pants before offering it to me. “Hello ma’am, I’m looking for an Alexandra Bourgmont?”

“Who are you?”

“Oh Sorry, I’m an attorney with some business I need to talk about with her. My name is Mr. Howe.”

I could tell the sun was not being happy to him. A burn starting, sweat dripping so thick it was leaving little drops on the cement of the walk way

“You must be pretty sure she is here to be ringing the damn door bell this long, this early in the day.”

“Yes ma’am. Well no, I’m not overly certain but this is my only lead.”

“Lead?”

“It’s a long story, but if I’m in the wrong place I’d rather just get out of this sun.”

“nah you are in the right place good sir, come on in.”

I held the door open for him to lug that heavy box in behind him. Which is the only reason I let him in. Lawyers don’t haul around big old looking metal boxes. It seemed very much to be something hand made. The edges were sharp, and the rivets not hidden. I was curious.

I offered him a drink, which he accepted and when I got back I told him I was “Alexandra”. He asked for me to verify that with my ID which I didn’t have. I left it back in my loft and still haven’t gone back. Then he said, “that is alright, I have a photo” and he took out an envelope from his pocket, laid it on the table and opened the seal. It was filled with photos of me. Tons of them from my childhood until just a few weeks before. I about shit myself.

“hold up, what the fuck is that? How’d you get those and why do you have them?”

He flipped the envelop over and showed me that it was mailed to him, from Suzanne. I sat back.

“So Suzanne is your client?”

“Was, but not really, no, you were.”

“I’m fucking lost.”

“Let me explain Ms. Bourgmont. You were my only client but until now I was not allowed to contact you. My father was your families attorney. When your father gave us your inheritance we were bound in the agreement to not give it to you until such time as Ms. Suzanne was no longer amongst the living. Although your father made the agreement and named himself and Suzanne as executives on it, you were always our primary client. If you would of been told about us, you could of taken control earlier. I know that sounds pretty odd for attorneys, and it is. Then again according to my father, this was the last in a string of odd things we used to do for your family. I mean, we have never before seen any of your family members face to face, and I was pretty sure I wouldn’t find you, ever.”

“Why is that?”

“Suzanne never told me where you were, until a package arrived last week. It had your blog address on it, and a packet full of pictures, as well as a copy of Suzannes will. Guess she was afraid I didn’t have a copy. It had all the code for her communication so I knew it was from her.”

“So how did you find me?”

“I did what you said in your post the other day. I knew your real name, I dug around until I found Henry’s address. Took me a bit longer than you suggested it would.”

“Well at least I know how fucked I am. what is so important then? My dad died with nothing to his name when I was like one. I can’t receive much?”

“This box.”

“What’s in it?”

“No one knows.”

“You never looked?”

“I tried to open it a few times but it is stuck. I’m glad it was stuck, my father said that it was against our agreement to look inside, but you know boys will be boys.”

I leaned over to examine it but he put his hand up. “At this point I don’t want it opened in front of me. I’m happy with it being a mystery.”

“Don’t I need to sign anything?”

“No, Suzanne said she would give you the key?”

“Yes, but you’re a lawyer, don’t I need to sign anything?”

“No, like I said this is an odd arrangement. You technically have already owned everything except this box. Now that you have the box, that dissolves our relationship and I’m free to go never think of it again.”

“Babysitting a box is that bad huh?”

“Babysitting a mystery that killed my father is. He kept digging into your family and eventually dug his own grave I guess. I’m glad to be done with it.”

He stood up. “Use the key at Suzanne’s house, She said in her will that there is a list of everything that is yours on the kitchen counter.”

“What if I’m not Alexandra? What if I just look like her?”

He laughed. “Not possible.”

I walked him out and watched him pull away in his little black car. The air conditioning and the heat conflicting in the threshold felt nice against my bare legs. I was thinking about how absurd everything in my life had become when I spotted Henry crawling down the street near the gutter (no sidewalks in this area). He looked bad off.

I rushed over to him and helped drag him into the house. He could walk with help, but just barely. I got him on the couch, forced some water in him, despite it being hard for him to hold his head up. He kept just flopping it around and whispering “vampires” in my direciton. When his head fell back on the couch and he closed his eyes as if to sleep, I saw the bite marks.

Fucking vampires.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uK8O5UgX8Z8