"Holiday" written by Green Day

October the Second

Hear the sound of the falling rain

Coming down like an Armageddon flame

The shame, the ones who died without a name...

The sun set at 7:28 PM Eastern Time. Eire did not have to go to work tonight. Which was just as well, since she certainly couldn't have been expected to simply get up and wander away and leave the vampire in her closet to his own devices. She had taken a chance in trusting that he wouldn't cause any trouble during the day when she'd been at the newsstand, and it was a relief she'd been right. Although she wasn't brave enough to actually go into the closet and see if her undead guest was still sleeping there, there wasn't any blatant destruction, and she was willing to accept that as proof that all (or at least, most) was well.

As she did every morning when she came home from work, Eire made herself a sandwich and had a glass of milk with vanilla extract in it. The sandwich was turkey and cucumber, the milk an old habit she'd inherited from her mother, who had learned the practice from her own mother. It provided a calming finish to the refreshingly light sandwich. After the meal, Eire changed from her white shirt, green apron, and jeans into a tank top and pajama bottoms, closed the curtains on the windows in the kitchen and living room, and retired to her own room. Situated across from the bathroom, it had only a small window directly above the bed that Eire kept covered by a green tapestry batiked with a black celtic knot pattern. When she turned off the light, darkness filled the room.

Eire slept for almost ten hours. When she finally emerged from the blackness, she glanced out the window just in time to see the last reflection of the sun off the parking meter in front of the house. As that too faded to darkness illuminated by streetlights, she glanced at the closed door of the linen closet. There was no sign of movement within, which was fine, she supposed. Her hand stole to her breast, where she could feel the cross resting warm against her skin. She hadn't removed it once since putting it around her neck, even wearing it when she showered before that morning. After all, Nathaniel was going to be hungry when he woke up...

The thought of his waking reminded her of the clothes she had thrown in the wash the night before. They were still in the dryer. Grabbing a woven wool blanket off of the couch and wrapping it about her shoulders, Eire shuffled down the hall to the little nook where her washer and dryer were secluded. Opening the door to the dryer, she was surprised when she pulled out actual clothes. She had expected the mass of mud to fall apart in the washer, and when it had emerged as a soaked heap of cloth from that ordeal, she had expected it to all fall apart in the dryer. But no, they had held up. And then she saw why.

Since Nathaniel had died in 1764, Eire had expected him to be wearing clothing from such an era. But in her hands she held a pair of jeans (raggedy as her own, and still stained, but not too badly) and a black t-shirt from Iron Maiden's 1983 tour. Undergarments were noticeably missing, but she didn't think it would be a good idea to ask. Still...what was with the (fairly) modern clothes? Had Nathaniel lied to her about his age?

"You want to hand those over to me, love?" a cynical voice asked.

"NATHANIEL!" she cried, turning around and instantly averting her eyes when she saw his bare skin. Color rose to her cheeks and she unconsciously hugged the bundle of clothes to her chest.

The vampire rolled his eyes. "Stop being such a prude, girl. I'm covered." Indeed he was. He had taken a towel from one of the closet's shelves and wrapped it securely about his hips. Striding over, he plucked the clothing from the girl's arms. "Do excuse me," he muttered, disappearing into the bathroom and shutting the door behind him. Eire was still standing there looking flustered when he returned.

"Um...sorry..." she apologized lamely, following him as he moved back out into the living room. "I just, didn't expect..."

"Don't bother yourself with it," Nathaniel answered gruffly. Turning around, he took the inventory of the room he'd failed to get last night. The room was large, but it really served as a kitchen, dining room, and living room all at once. The front door and windows were opposite the arch that led to the hall where the bedroom, bathroom, and laundry nook were, and on the other two walls hung paintings. Quite appropriately, on the eastern wall there was a scene of a sunrise over an ocean, and on the west wall, a sunset over mountains.

"What are you staring at?" Eire asked, a hint of cynicism in her voice as she followed his gaze. Apparently, she was over seeing him half-naked, and back to her usual annoyed self.

"Those paintings." To her surprise, Nathaniel turned to her with what could have been considered a small smile. She was somewhat taken aback at the action, but not displeased. The lines in his face softened when he smiled, making him look younger, more human. "At least you have taste in art."

Eire liked his little smirk so much she answered it with one of her own. "Well I'd be a pretty bad artist if I disliked my own work, wouldn't I?" she responded, turning her back on him and going to the refrigerator. Grabbing a can of soda, she turned around and was more than a little smug when she saw the look on the vampire's face. "Didn't know I was an artist, did you?"

Nathaniel barked out a laugh. "Sweetheart, all I know about you is that you're meddlesome, you're up at hours when you should be sleeping, and you have a hand for painting," he remarked matter-of-factly. A paused, and then another grin. "And you go all to pieces when you see a naked man."

"Hmph," Eire sniffed, turning her back on him and sitting down at the table. "You're one to complain. Here I am with a creature who makes a habit of eating my species living in my linen closet, I have no idea if I'm really safe from him or not, and even though he's supposedly over two-hundred years old, here he is wearing clothes from the 80s. Who do you think is more confused here?"

He rolled his eyes. "Well for one, I stole these clothes off of a man I killed. I've been doing it for years. The uniform I was buried in rotted away centuries ago," he explained, moving behind her. To Eire's surprise, he rested his hands on her shoulders and lowered his voice, giving it an almost sensual tone. "Secondly, you can be assured that if I were capable of killing you, I would have done so already." A sigh escaped the vampire's lips, making a shiver course through Eire's body as the sweet, warm breath caressed her skin, and he straightened and circled around to the other side of the table. "Unfortunately, that cross..."

Eire reached into the top of her tank and pulled it out, examining it closely for what had to be the millionth time. "It really does keep me safe from you, huh?" He said nothing. A small smile crossed her face and she shook her head, then deposited it safely beneath the fabric. Finishing off her soda, she stood up and tossed it in a paper bag next to the garbage can. "So what are you going to do tonight then? Go off on a rampage of mayhem and murder?"

"You're a very funny girl," Nathaniel muttered, crossing his arms over his chest. "I'm going to follow you to work. No doubt I'll be able to snag drunkard or two on the way out. And that way, you won't be far out of my sight in case you should try anything."

"Oh for Christ's sake!" Eire gasped. "For the last time, I'm not going to try and blow you up or anything! I don't know how, I doubt it would work, and on top of all that, I'm not even going to work tonight! Wednesday's are my day off!" She turned around just in time to see a stunned look on the vampire's face. The girl burst out laughing. "Aw...sorry Dracula. Guess you're on your own tonight. You could always hit the blood bank."

"That's it."

Before she knew what was happening, his hands were around her neck. Grabbing her hair, he yanked her head to the side and dropped one arm to wrap around her waist, holding her tight against him. Eire saw him open his mouth, saw the beautifully sharp white fangs there. The cross was burning against her skin. What was going on? Why could he suddenly do this? Was the whole thing a lie?

"Stop it!" she cried, struggling against him. "Let me GO!"

The cross erupted into fire, and Nathaniel screamed. Dropping her, he fell back against the wall and grabbed his head. The cross began to cool against her skin, but the vampire kept screaming and writhing. Relief washed over her, but as soon as Eire realized he wasn't going to stop, panic began to boil up anew. If he didn't shut his mouth, people were going to start knocking on her door. And she couldn't guarantee he wouldn't jump at them the moment she opened the door.

"Be quiet will you!" she hissed. Feeling reassured that the cross would protect her, she moved in front of him and put a hand over his mouth. She assumed it was the sheer shock at her daring that made him cease. A second later, he pushed her hand aside and glared daggers at her.

"Woman, do you even know how lucky you are that you have that cursed thing?" Nathaniel snarled. But the rage faded from his face when he saw the solemnity on Eire's.

"Yes, actually. I do," she murmured. Turning around, she walked across the room until she stood in front of the sunrise painting. "I can see that this cross hurts you if I tell it to. Whatever else you're hiding, Nathaniel, your suffering isn't part of it." She glanced over her shoulder at him, trying to read the expression on his blank face. Seeing nothing, she looked away again. "I understand what you are. I'll admit, I had my doubts before, but...seeing your fangs...feeling you restraining me like that...I understand. It's like you said. Everyone has to eat." Eire took a shaky breath. "But I don't want to die yet, Nathaniel. And I have a really strong sense of self-preservation. If you want to go find a drunk guy to feed off of, be my guest. I'll look the other way."

She turned around and stared back at him with a gaze of matching ferocity. "But I won't let you kill me, get it? If I have to use this cross on you to keep myself alive, I'll do it."

Neither of them said anything. What more was there to say? Eire turned around and walked to her bedroom. "I'm going to work out in the studio if you need me," she remarked, closing the door behind her. She emerged wearing paint-stained jeans and a tank top that was in slightly better condition than the one she'd slept in. Going out to the shed, she pulled a key out of her pocket and unlocked the door.

The whole building was about ten feet by fifteen feet, with a concrete floor and cement block wall. There was a heap of scrap metal against the far wall beneath the lone window, and the beginnings of a mosaic mounted on what appeared to be a car hood on the largest wall. Walking over to her workman's table, Eire pulled on a pair of steel wool gloves and opened a large tool cabinet. But rather than tools being inside, there was an array of...well, a lot of things. Bottle caps, pieces of broken glass, wires, plastic jewels, bits and pieces of jewelry, and other small things were organized in the top trays, and in the larger drawers aluminum cans, glass bottles, unidentifiable pieces of metal in varying condition, dead light bulbs, and even a ceramic coffee mug that looked like a man's lederhosen-clad stomach and bottom.

Turning around, Eire examined the mosaic on the wall. Done in bits of blue and white metal and glass, it was an image of the moon surrounded by clouds and stars. Well, surrounded by blank areas where clouds and stars would go, once she figured out what to make them out of. She had considered using the fragile light bulb glass for the clouds, but then what would be the stars? The little fake jewels were too obvious, just like the shiny pieces of metal were. She turned on the overhead lights and the radio, catching an oldies station and turning up the volume.

After breaking a few light bulbs into larger pieces and beginning work on her clouds, the idea for the stars came to her. Mirrors. She had half a dozen large ones sitting in a drawer on the work table that were just waiting to be used. And if she took the mosaic outside on a sunny day, the light would definitely make a dramatic effect on mirror stars. Eire only waited long enough to use up the rest of her cloud-shards before getting to work with the mirrors. These too she broke into irregular shards, but made sure to carve the edges enough that they fit into the outline she'd scored into the car hood. Heating up her soldering iron, she began to fill the sky with stars.

So enthralled was she that she didn't even notice Nathaniel enter. She had no idea how long he'd been there before finally speaking.

"What on Earth are you doing?" he asked.

Eire yelped and nearly dropped both the soldering iron and mirror piece. Whirling around, she brandished both like weapons, then relaxed when she saw who it was. But no sooner had she done that than she recalled what had happened in the house, and suspicion blossomed on her face. "What do you want?" she asked, hand moving ever so slightly towards the chain on her neck.

Nathaniel hesitated, then took a step forward. "I...wanted to apologize for attacking you in the house. And not just because I was hurt." Staring into her eyes, he saw she wasn't quite convinced. Another step. "I realize this must be difficult for you. Usually I consider myself better mannered, especially around women. But if I haven't been eating...I get a little crazy."

"So did you eat?" Eire asked. Her face was still wary, but her body had released its tension. Setting down the mirror and iron, she wiped sweat from her forehead with the back of her hand and fixed her ponytail. Never once did her eyes leave his.

The vampire nodded. "Yes, I'm fine now. And I won't let it happen again. For both our sakes." Now he was directly beside her, but his gaze was focused on her mosaic rather than Eire. "After all, no good can come of me attacking you. All you'll do is use that damn crucifix on me and you'll end up traumatized."

She huffed. "I wasn't that scared," she retorted, picking up the iron and mirror again. "Excuse me," she muttered, pushing him out of the way.

Nathaniel stared at her in surprise for a moment, then laughed. "Are you serious? Girl, you were terrified in there! I was certain you were going to wet yourself!"

"Don't be gross!" Eire snapped. "Now do you mind? I'm very busy!"

He didn't leave, but instead sat on the work table and watched her affix another piece of a star. "It's the sky," he stated, sounding rather interested. Eire could feel his eyes on her back, but she knew he wasn't looking at her. Rather, he was looking through her, at the mosaic. "But you made it out of..."

"Lots of things," she answered. "I just figured out the stars a little while ago. Like them?" Raising her head, she stared into one of the mirrors and saw her own black eye reflected back at her. And within her eye, the mirror. And within the mirror, her eye. And so it continued on into infinity. But when she moved her head, there was something strange. Something missing.

"No reflection..." Eire murmured, turning around to look at Nathaniel, whose gaze was now wandering all about the little room. "You don't have a reflection," she stated. He looked back at her and raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah...I'm a vampire..." he answered. "Don't tell me you haven't heard the folklore..."

"Well yeah, I've heard it, but I didn't think it was true," she replied. Nathaniel continued to stare at her blankly. Rolling her eyes, Eire turned around and grabbed another piece of mirror.

There was silence for a few moments. "Why didn't you just paint a picture of the sky?" the vampire asked finally. "Those ones in the house were so nice..."

"You don't like this one?"

"Well, no, I do, but...it's just strange," Nathaniel explained. "I've never seen anything like it before."

Because her back was turned to him, the vampire couldn't see the smile on the young woman's face. "Well, that was why I did it. Because it's strange. I like strange things." Maybe he saw her smile in the mirror. "Like you," Eire added.

He jerked his head up. "I beg your pardon?"

"I like you," Eire remarked. "You still scare the crap out of me, but then again, so do a lot of things. It's part of being strange."

Nathaniel grunted.

They stayed out in the shed all night. At 3:00 AM, Eire shut off the lights and radio and locked the door.

"Now what?" Nathaniel asked, following her back into the house. She went into the kitchen and pulled out some milk and cereal, as well as a bowl of grapes.

"Now, I am going to eat. And then I am going to shower, and then I am going to get dressed for work," she explained, setting her food on the table. The coffee-maker, set to brew at this time every morning, was emitting a delicious aroma of some of Colombia's finest beans. Pouring herself some cereal and coffee, Eire sat down at the table. Still acting ever like her shadow, Nathaniel did the same. She stared at him for a moment while she ate, and her eyes fell on his right hand. On the middle finger, a ring was glittering under the illumination of the hanging light.

"Were you always wearing that?" she asked, pointing to it.

The vampire blinked, then followed her gaze to his ring. "What, this?" he replied, raising his hand. "Yes, of course. I've had this ring forever. It was gift from my older brother."

"You had a brother?"

"Three."

"What happened to them?"

"All killed in the American Revolution. They fought on the side of the British."

"Did you?" Eire asked, taking a sip of coffee.

The vampire shook his head. "No. But I would have, had I not died so early."

"How?"

His gaze hardened, and Nathaniel said nothing. Eire sucked in a sharp breath. Apparently, there was a limit to what you could ask a vampire and what you couldn't. Nathaniel, obviously, wasn't even close to comfortable discussing a matter as serious as his death with her, and honestly, she couldn't blame him. He'd known her what, two nights? For the most part, they were strangers.

She tried again. "What kind of a stone is that?" Eire asked, still eying the gem. At first glance, it appeared black, but under the light she saw color in it, all colors. It was the same effect as seeing a rainbow in a puddle where oil had dripped in, but solid, and captured in a pea-sized ball.

"Rainbow obsidian," Nathaniel remarked. His voice sounded much more relaxed now. Whatever shadow had passed over him was gone. "It's a symbol of strength. It's also supposed to help you forget your fear and focus your mind."

Eire grinned at him and set the coffee mug down. "Come on. Don't tell me you believe that. A two-hundred year old vampire believing in gemstone superstition?"

The vampire met her cheerful gaze with a quizzical one. "Who cares if it's real or not? It's the last bit of human I've got. That alone is reason enough to keep it."

A thoughtful expression crossed the girl's face. "Yeah...I guess..."

When she'd finished eating, she went into the bathroom to shower. After emerging and changing, she went back out into the living room just in time to see Nathaniel vanish into the linen closet without so much as a goodnight. Rolling her eyes and shaking her head, Eire grabbed her jacket and went out into the fading night.

Neither of them got to see the sun shining through the window of the shed and reflect off the mirror stars.

I beg to dream and differ from the hollow lives

This is the dawning of the rest of our lives

On holiday