Once Upon a Time in Veronaville

Tybalt came home in the wee hours of the morning, disheveled and discouraged. "I couldn't find her," he said, sitting down at the table where Nora had been unsuccesfully trying to read a book. She'd been up all night as well, waiting for news.

Nora made a little sound of distress and covered her mouth. Tybalt took her hand in his.

"We need to call the police, see if they found her," he said. He'd called them immediately after Liza hung up.

The phone rang and they both jumped. Nora went to answer it.

"Hello?"

"Nora, it's me, Liza. I'm home again. I'm sorry if you were worried."

"Worried doesn't begin to cover it."

Tybalt mouthed Liza's name and Nora nodded. He looked relieved and went up to bed.

"Tybalt was out all night looking for you," Nora said. "I would have been too, but I had to stay home with our girls. What happened?"

"I was scared," Liza said. "I thought I saw someone. I needed to be quiet until they left. Then I ran into some friends from school who were driving back to the university so I caught a ride."

Nora calmed down. "All right, then," she said. "I'm just glad you're all right."

"I'm sorry," Liza said.

"It's OK."

 

The house was stylish, with modern furnishings. He greeted her at the door with a kiss, and that didn't seem odd to her. He invited her in and she wandered through the front hall to the living area, knowing where everything was though she had no conscious memory of having been there before.

"Welcome, my dear," he said, handing her a glass of white wine.

She sat on the couch. Inside, somewhere, a voice told her to run but she ignored it.

"Who did you call?"

"My brother in law," she said.

"We'll have to think up a good lie for you to tell him," he said.

"He'll be worried." Something inside her stirred. "I should call him right now."

"You have plenty of time," he said, and suddenly it seemed that she did.

"Oh, all right," she said.

"I knew you'd see it my way."

"Aren't you going to drink anything?" she asked.

"I thought you'd never ask," he said, and came to sit next to her on the couch. He leaned in toward her and started to nibble on her neck.

She giggled. "That tickles."

"How about this? Does this tickle?" He asked as he sunk his fangs into her neck.

And Eliza began to scream.

 

"Liza? You feeling OK?" Hermia asked the next morning. "You've been looking kind of pale lately."

"I'm fine," Liza said. She wore a tight fuzzy sweater with a scarf around her neck. "I've just been partying a little harder than I should, that's all."

"Mmm, hmmm, and how is Romeo?" Hermia said, rolling her eyes.

"Who?" Eliza said, distracted, and wandered off.

Hermia watched her go, stunned. Romeo who? Apparently Eliza was even more fickle than she'd thought.

"She's seeing someone, isn't she," Puck said, looking gloomy.

"I honestly don't know," Hermia snapped.

"What's with you?"

"Nothing," she said, walking away from him.

 

Well done. It gave me chills.

 

She can't be a vampire, can she? It says Hermia asked her something in the morning...

 

She probably isn't turned all the way yet. She's being changed little by little, like in Dracula.

 

That's one of the things I don't like about the vampires in TS2. Surely such a significant change would take more than a few minutes! In one of my favorite vampire books, when a vampire bites you and doesn't take all of the blood, it takes three days of excruciating pain to completely transform. Seems a bit more realistic, no?

 

Certainly as real as vampires.

 

Romeo wasn't used to girls ignoring him, and he didn't like it. Eliza wasn't returning his messages, and the other day at the mall, when he'd run into her, it was like he wasn't even there.

She was seeing someone else, he knew it, and it bothered him a lot. She was his girl, didn't she know that? He liked her the best of all the women he'd seen since he and Juliet had split.

So he decided to go to her dorm to talk to her, clear the air. It was late when he got there because he'd had to work. He parked his motorcyle outside and was about to enter when she came outside, wearing a hot green sweater and a scarf. The girl knew how to accessorize. But she looked pale, almost ghostly, and he wondered if she'd been sick or was just trying some new makeup.

"Hey," he said, but she glided past him as if he wasn't there.

"Hey!" He said, louder.

Still nothing.

OK, this was just getting weird. Eliza walked away from him, down the sidewalk, almost like a sleepwalker.

So Romeo decided to follow her.

 

Ooooo - Careful Romeo!

 

I agree.

 

Liza started walking across a cornfield, toward Veronaville. Romeo knew something was up. Liza took a cab to go three blocks. She didn't like to arrive anywhere sweaty or disheveled, and she would never willingly step into a cornfield. Something was definitely wrong.

He followed her at a distance, always keeping her in sight. She reached a road and started to walk into town.

They had almost reached the town limits when he heard a wolf howl.

 

Romeo looked around. Running straight toward Liza were two of the biggest dogs he'd ever seen. Not dogs. Wolves.

Romeo ran for Liza, trying to reach her before the beasts did, his heart pounding with adrenaline. She kept walking as if she didn't notice them.

He had almost reached her when the wolves went around her and stood their ground, growling at him. She kept walking.

"Liza! Eliza Stone!" Romeo yelled. "For God's sake, stop!"

One of the wolves growled low in its throat and then they sprang at him.

 

Hey, that's not fair! Don't you have to wait until Pets comes out?

Anyway, GREAT TWIST! I hadn't even considered that.

I have a question, and I didn't feel like making a new topic. Searching the forums for this would be a pain. Is there a consequence to just not going to class in college, or can I just have my vampires skip class and do assignments all night?

 

You beat me to the punch Person!
I can't wait for Pets!!

Anyway, love the story!

 

You can skip classes, 123. It doesn't affect your grade as long as you can get the "study bar" up high enough before the end of the semester.

I use the college timer thingy for my vampires. I freeze the college timer and then tell it when they're ready to take the exam (at night, of course).

 

Romeo turned and ran. He was no match for two angry wolves, unarmed as he was. He tried to circle around, to follow Eliza, but the wolves seemed to anticipate his every move, flanking and herding him. He was running out of breath and they were still hot on his trail. Time to fall back.

He ran for his motorcycle, arriving panting and out of breath, and realized that the wolves weren't chasing him anymore. He hopped on and revved the engine, heading back to town. If he went about twice the speed limit he might catch Liza, still in her sleepwalking trance.

But when he got to town there was no sign of her. He drove up and down the streets, but iIt was no use. She was nowhere to be found.

He realized he was outside Mercutio and Juliet's house. He hadn't spoken to them since the wedding. He'd heard they'd had twins. He realized he wasn't angry at them anymore. In fact, he'd missed his brother a lot.

Maybe it was time to make amends.

Maybe they could help him find Liza.

 

Romeo's such a whiny bum in the play. I like him a bit better in your version.

And I tried skipping class. Not good. Her professor came by and rang the doorbell, which pulled both of them out of their coffins. Grrr. I didn't make either of them go down to greet him, I just had them meditate until sunset because they'd already been out of their coffins for so long. I guess if he had been able to talk to Iolanthe he would've lectured her or lowered her grade a smidgen.

 

Wow, SBW, great stuff with the wolves. This is really exciting.

 

"Romeo," Mercutio said, eyeing his brother cautiously. "Hi."

"Can I come in?" Romeo was still out of breath.

"Sure," Mercutio said. "Juliet, Romeo's here."

Juliet came out of the kitchen, looking every bit as lovely as she ever had, and Romeo realized he wasn't in love with her anymore. He was in love with Eliza. "Eliza," he said.

"What about her?"

"She's ... she's acting really weird. Like she's in a trance or something. She didn't hear me yelling her name and when I tried to follow her ... " Romeo stopped, knowing just how odd the next thing was going to sound.

"What happened?" Juliet asked, her hand to her throat. "Is she OK?"

"I don't know," Romeo said. "You aren't going to believe this, but I was stopped by wolves."

"Wolves? In Veronaville?" Mercutio stared at his brother.

"I know what I saw," Romeo said, and perhaps for the sake of their newfound peace his brother didn't contradict him. "I need to find her. There is something really freaky going on."

Juliet and Mercutio exchanged glances.

"What?" Romeo said.

"It could be completely unrelated," Juliet said, "But I thought I saw my Uncle Richard the other day."

Now it was Romeo's turn to be incredulous. "You buried him a long time ago. I remember. My family was blamed for his death."

"I'm almost positive it was him."

"But that's impossible. People don't come back from the dead."

"I know," Juliet said. "And wolves don't live in Veronaville. And yet."

And yet.

"Do you know where he lives?" Romeo asked.