CHAPTER ONE
THE MYSTIC MUSE
CHAPTER ONE
She sat at the computer wondering when and if he would write. Their conversations were generally one sided but tonight she wanted to get him to interact more to her. To respond to her as in a real conversation not just a one liner that could pertain to anyone but, a personal response that she would recognize as real!
Ever since Katrina discovered him on the net her hum drum world had changed from absolutely boring to intriguing and sometimes frustrating like now. “Respond to me damn you”, she growled at the screen but still no response. She slammed her hands down on the keys and logged off, he was probably busy with other things or other people.
Grabbing her tea she flounced off to stare at the mindless drone of the TV. When did all this start, how did she get dragged into his delusion, she thought, “oh yeah, I was bored at work and started searching for amusement”. Remembering back six months ago how she had stumbled onto his web site, (yeah web as in spider web), trapping her into his world of mystery.
His web site was based around a book character from Anne Rice’s vampire novels she had been reading. Lestat was the main character in the series and that is who he pretended to be acting like he was the “REAL” vampire from the novels, as if. But he was intriguing and something about him and lured her into his fantasy world which was expressed through his Live Journal.
At first it was kind of fun she would comment on his journal and sometimes he would respond but not always in a positive way, even though he was sometimes negative, she still enjoyed hearing from him. From the beginning she felt drawn to him, the first time she wrote to him she introduced herself to him and that night she heard him saying her name or thought she did, and from then on she had felt connected to him.
Katrina sipped her tea and smiled remembering how she felt a shiver run through her every time he wrote, it was as if this person and her were connecting through the internet. Odd, but she was used to odd things happening to her, they had been happening all her life.
When she was around ten she heard a voice calling her but it seemed to be right in her ear and it was only her first name. She would turn around and no one would be there but it didn’t frighten her because the voice was soft and gentle, just perplexed her. It got so bad that when she heard anyone calling her she did not turn around and people began to wonder if her hearing was failing!
At age 12 her sister, Tracy and her were playing with a Ouija board talking to a spirit, afterwards strange things began to happen such as the lamp near her bed began to act crazy, cutting on around midnight ever night. Tracy, who shared the room with her said the light had a short but, what kind of short would cut a lamp on around midnight every night? So, Katrina started saying that it was her guardian angel who was doing all the paranormal activity and she named him George, (mainly because she liked the name George). After about five months of the lamp acting weird, one morning the family got up and the front door was hanging open. Now the front door was made from very heavy wood and had a dead bolt lock on it which was locked by her father before he went to bed religiously every night. No one knew how it got open but after that night the lamp no longer had it’s “short”.
Then around the age of fifteen Katrina started having visions, they would be quick little scenes right before something would happen, like the time she was on the school bus coming home from a school function at night and right as she was about to doze off she saw a vision of the bus hitting a rail and sliding on the road. Within the next few seconds that is exactly what happened to the bus, she was so scared she had to get off and regroup.
The visions did not happen often but eventually they turned into dreams that would sometimes become true, like night visions. These she could handle better, because she would have to have the same dream more than once before it became real or the dreams would have to feel real, then she would know that dream could became a reality but she never knew when.
Needless to say Katrina was very much into the paranormal scene even before it became popular. She loved reading paranormal stores or books and now she had someone who was pretending to be a paranormal character and she was intrigued to see just how far this individual would go.
Katrina stretched and turned off the TV, maybe she was seeing too much into this little computer game she played with Lestat, maybe there really was nothing there but still she had heard a voice, hmmm. She sat down at the computer and began typing an e-mail to him saying how she would love to come visit him at his town house in New Orleans where this person was suppose to reside. And how she would fine it intriguing to be able to actually talk to him face to face. She asked him things like what kind of vampire he really was, did he really drink blood or was he the kind of vampire that only partook of auroras? She sent the message but was not sure he would respond, he rarely ever did but maybe this time he would.
It was late and her eyes were heavy with sleep so she turned in for the night, unlike her vampire friend she needed her sleep, she had to get up bright and early for her boring job. At thirty she had not done the things she wanted to do, like become an artist or travel, she had had to get a job soon out of high school to help support her family and now that her mother and father were gone she found herself helping her sister who was a struggling single mother of two.
Katrina always was a caring person but here lately she had become tired of everything landing on her shoulders just because she was the oldest. She was encouraging her sister to finish nursing school so she could get a better job and then Katrina could start living her life, she hoped. She was still young and active sort of, she thought, her body was sort of plump but curvaceous which gave her a youthful look and her lovely face was framed by golden red hair that was thick with wavy curls. Her lovely green eyes with long lashes could attract the eye of any young man she desired, if she desired. But she really did not desire the getting married and having kids thing, she watched her sister do that and it was not for her. Yes, she would travel and pursue an art career as soon as she could diminish her responsibilities. She guessed that was why she had found this Lestat character interesting, he was a good outlet for her frustrations.
Turning out the light and stretching out on the bed she closed her eyes for a bit of slumber. Soon she found herself on a dark street which looked like a street in New Orleans in the French quarter. The old street lights burned with gas and not electric, the people wore old 18th century clothes and there were horse drawn carriages moving down the street. She came upon an old town house that was lit up and had music flowing from it. She could see people dancing in the window in front of the balcony.
Looking down she noticed she was wearing a beautiful green shoulderless gown and her hair was pulled up and piled high on her head with beautiful jeweled hair fasteners. “Well”, she thought “I do look ready for a ball” so, she gathered up her dress and climbed the steps to the front porch and knocked. A dark haired, brown eyed man opened the door and taking her hand led her into the room.
The place was beautifully decorated with lavish furnishings and many people were there enjoying themselves dancing and talking. The man who had let her in was extremely handsome with dark wavy hair that hung to his shoulders and a trim lithe build. He was tall and moved with great grace and elegance, dressed in a fine suit with a lace frilled shirt. She couldn’t help starring at him, he was so mesmerizing with his dark bedroom eyes. Holding her hand so gracefully he led her into the ball room and they began to dance. Gazing into her eyes they twirled around the dance floor until the music stopped. They were alone in the middle of the dance floor, he held her tight against him. Katrina could feel the sexual energy flowing off him like water, she could not keep her eyes off his. He moved closer to her and began nuzzling her ear and down her neck to her breast and then he bit her!
Her eyes popped open and she found herself sitting straight up in her bed. Her pulse was racing and she felt hot all over, she ran to the bathroom to examine herself and that was when she noticed the two small punctures in here right breast! How had that happened, she remembered the dream but it was just a dream! She looked at the wound again and it did look like two fang marks and they were bleeding! She ran back to her bed and searched for some kind of bug or even a snake that may have gotten into her bed but found nothing. “Ok”, Katrina thought "it was just a dream somehow I injured myself, odd". After applying a bandage to her wound, she went back to bed hoping she would not have that same dream again although she did like the guy in the dream.
The next morning, she talked to her girlfriend at work about the dream. Tammy was a very good listener and was into the same things Katrina was but she knew Katrina was more into the paranormal than she. Still she was a good supporter of Katrina's whims, so after Katrina told her her dream and showed the bite mark (which was barely visible).
Tammy said thoughtfully “why don’t we take a trip down to New Orleans and see if we can find the on-line vampire you’ve been talking to and then do a vampire tour. We have never been and it would be great to get-away from Houston, plus it could help you with your dream about vampires” she laughed. “It wouldn't take us long to get there and we don’t have to get a ritzy hotel, maybe stay with my aunt, so what do you think, can you get away?”
“Yeah I would love to but I would like to take more time than just a weekend and when would “little Hitler” let us take off at the same time?” replied Katrina. They worked for a freight forwarding company and their boss Ralph was very demanding and hardly ever let more than one person take off for vacation at the same time in their department because it was small.
“Well, we will wait until it’s a down time like in a couple of weeks then make-up some kind of story where we both have to leave, like a family project or something” replied Tammy. Tammy was always good for making up a believable yarn so Katrina decided to let her do it, she herself was never good at lying.
After work Katrina went to the local coffee shop to unwind and asked Tammy to come but she had other plans. “Personally I just think you are lonely, why don’t you try one of those on-line dating services” Tammy teased Katrina as they walked out of the office.
“Yeah and get a real kook, like someone who really thinks he’s a vampire” Katrina laughed, waving good-bye to her friend and moving down the street to the Best Brewed Coffee Shop near her home. Entering she ordered her usual caramel creme latte and sat down with her book to relax a little. Going home right after work was always a little of a let down, although she enjoyed her little one bedroom condo, it sometimes felt lonely and right now she just wanted to be around people.
She sat looking out the window, when something flashed past the window, she wasn’t certain but it looked like the tail of a leather coat. It was spring time and the weather was cool but not cool enough for a long coat. She looked out the window again and noticed dark angry eyes staring at her. She jumped up from the table spilling her coffee and then looked out the window again and nothing was there. She felt relieved and cleaned up the coffee and left for home.
As she walked to her Condo which was just a few blocks from the coffee shop she thought she heard foot steps following right behind her. She turned to look back and no one was there, but she still felt unnerved so she grabbed her pepper spray from her purse and started walking a little faster.
“The bastard is going down with me” she thought as she stepped up her pace after hearing more foot falls. As she rounded the corner to her condo she felt someone touch her, she screamed and turned, as she turned around she started shooting the pepper spray. “Ugh, stop” she heard a rasping voice choking and coughing, shielding his face from the spray she saw a somewhat handsome young man holding her book out to her.
“You left this at the coffee shop” he choked, “I was just trying to return it to you”. “Oh, I’m sooo sorry”, cried Katrina digging in her purse for a wipe she knew she had and handed it to him to clean his eyes. “I heard someone behind me but I couldn’t see anyone and I got scared, sorry”, she apologized sheepishly as she took the book.
“Yeah it’s ok, I guess I would be scared too” he said wiping the tears from his eyes, “my name’s Mike, I work at the coffee shop and noticed you looked scared when you left and saw that you left your book and tried to catch up with you but you were moving too fast”. Poor Mike she thought here he was trying to help and she had sprayed him with pepper spray, she felt so bad.
“Listen do you want to come in and clean that spray out of your eyes before you go blind?” she asked. “Yeah, I think I better, I can barely see” he whimpered. She grabbed his hand and led him up the steps to her door and let him in and then took him to the bathroom where he could wash out his eyes.
Now it had been a long time since Katrina had a guy in her place, so she felt a little awkward but knew she had to help him. Mike wasn’t bad looking maybe a little young, reddish brown hair, brown eyes and a little on the thin side but he had that cute boyish look with freckles across his nose. She left him running water over his eyes in the sink and she went into the kitchen to get him something to drink.
“Hey would you like a soda?” she said as she opened the refrigerator door. No reply came from the bathroom so she grabbed a coke and went back to the restroom, “I guess he can’t hear me over the water she thought” as she knocked on the closed door.
Still no reply and she didn’t hear the water running either, she checked the door and it was not locked so she opened it and saw no one there. She walked into the room and checked the sink it was dry and the towel was dry, it seemed as no one had been in the restroom at all!
(Ok this is the beginning of my book, I need feedback but be kind)
P.S. it gets better!