Not If You Were the Last Vampire on Earth Read Online Free Page A

up using after The Sweep. I even let out a whoop of joy when I hotwired my first vehicle and then felt sad that he wasn’t there to see it.
    I threw Wayne into a holding pond by a factory. I’d get another gun. I had plenty to choose from. But I’d wait. Wait until I it was a survival tool in my hand and not a friend or an escape.
    My father was an amazing teacher.
    But he didn’t teach me how to kill myself.
     

Chapter 6
     
    Her
     
     
     
     
    “Have you ever killed anyone?” I asked him softly. Did he hear me? His breathing was light on the phone. I waited for his answer.
    “Many,” he said.
    “Do you remember their faces?”
    “Every one of them.”
     

Chapter 7
     
    Her
     
     
     
     
    “How can anything be good?” I asked incredulously. I stuffed four saltines into my mouth and crunched loudly.
    “Can’t you eat before you call me?” he complained.
    “Did thu wanth ho waith another thenty minith before I callthed?”
    “What?”
    I swallowed the large mass and took a swig of water before repeating myself. “Did you want to wait twenty minutes before I called you?”
    “No.”
    “Then deal with it.”
    “You are so frustrating, Evie.”
    I nearly spit out my water. “Uh…no,” I said. “Adam never nicknamed Eve. You can’t just morph it into Evie.”
    “And yet I did. Come on, answer the question.”
    Oh, the question. What is something I found good in the aftermath of this whole plague?
    His questions were so infuriating. Innocuous upon first inspection but then they revealed themselves to be beastly as soon as I struggled to answer it. I kept trying to find complete answers that didn’t let him poke too far inside my head.
    “It can be anything,” he coaxed. “No matter how insignificant. If there was nothing at all, you wouldn’t be there. I wouldn’t be talking to you right now.”
    I did as he said and thought through the times when it was easier to exist. When I didn’t feel like I was struggling. I glanced around the room to seek answers in my dogs’ faces but they weren’t here. I could hear one of them barking outside, probably protesting his annoyance at an out-of-reach squirrel. I loved them. They were a beacon of happiness.
    But it wasn’t my answer. The answer came to me, rising up from within to be dusted off and shared for the first time with someone. His voice soothed me and made it okay. I trusted him today more than I did yesterday which is why I didn’t stow it back inside and throw him a safe “my dogs” answer.
    “My mom left when I was seven,” I started and I swear, I could feel him sober up on his end, knowing I was about to extend something fragile to him. “She just didn’t want a family anymore. I remember I was sent to the school counselor right after it happened to talk about what I was feeling. I talked about riding bikes and watching Wheel of Fortune with my dad and my friend Carla down the street who got a new hula hoop and let me use it whenever I wanted. I remember the counselor’s face the whole time, looking at me like I had a horn growing out of my forehead. And she said, ‘Why aren’t you crying? Aren’t you sad? Why aren’t you sad?’ and I didn’t know what to tell her. I felt like I was doing something wrong.
    “But the truth is, the truth I know now, is that kind of sadness can drown you. And sometimes, you have to not feel it. When The Sweep happened and everybody around me died and no one was here, it was devastating. A normal person would be sad. But I wasn’t. And there was no one here to care that I wasn’t or say than I’m a sociopath or try to make me cry over it. I’m really happy that it’s okay not to be sad.”
    He was silent for too many heartbeats and I wondered if I made a mistake with my honesty.
    “I thought you were going to say your dogs,” he responded finally.
    I pursed my lips. “I was.”
    “I’m glad you didn’t, Evie.”

Chapter 8
     
    Her
     
     
     
     
     
    I painted.
    After I came