k_a_webb | The Donor House: Midna: First Visit to the Donor House

Sitting in the coffee shop, they sipped their hot drinks, even though they couldn’t taste them, and readied themselves to tell the other the name they’d chosen. At least that was what the vampire who’d chosen the name Midna was doing. She had no idea if her sister was procrastinating because she hadn’t yet picked a name or if she was just drawing out the tension. They smiled at each other and that was when Midna knew. She tapped her fingers on the table impatiently, half wishing she’d ordered something to eat. For the first time in months she felt hungry for human food.

“What name have you chosen?” Midna asked, finally, even though she had a feeling she knew.

“Sheik. You?”

“Midna.” Midna sipped her drink again, wishing she could taste it. “Are we going to choose a family name?”

“I think we’re going to need one.” Sheik smiled. “I’m tempted by Quarterstaff.”

“Sheik Quarterstaff? I don’t know.”

“Midna Quarterstaff would work.”

“They sound made up.”

“We have made them up. Making up names is part of being a vampire.”

“Still, maybe a more normal family name would be better.”

“Like Smith? Or Jones?” Sheik shook her head. “If we’re going to take our names from something fictional then we might just as well make it obvious that we chose our names. Plus, it’s not as though we’ll be using them that much. Having a family name will just be useful when we sign in at the donor house.”

“Okay, Sheik. If you like Quarterstaff then we’ll be the Quarterstaff sisters.”

“Thanks.”

“Don’t. If it wasn’t for you we wouldn’t have a chance to go the donor house, so thanking me for letting you chose our family name…” Midna shook her head. “We’ve been through too much to thank each other for such pointless things, when I know that I wouldn’t be the girl I am now if you hadn’t chosen to follow me, and I should thank you every day for what you did.”

“Now you’re being silly.”

There had been a time when Midna had followed her creator’s instructions, wanting to make him proud of her, even though she’d never wanted to be a vampire. She could still remember the look Issac had given her when they first met and when she looked back at that moment she was just as disgusted with herself as he had been with her. Back then, though, she’d had no one else to look up to. Not until her creator had made Sheik. Sheik hadn’t tried to make their creator proud of her, hating him because of what he’d done, and Midna had finally had someone else. Someone who was a better person than their creator, who had made her want to be a better person.

Issac returned to the place they were staying about a year after their creator made Sheik. There were just the three of them. Sheik, who was doing her best not to let their creator corrupt her; their creator, a vampire who had apparently been chosen by one of the first and used that as an excuse for his hunger; and her, Midna, feeling torn in two because she wanted to make two very different people proud of her, but she knew she was going to have to pick one of them. Even then she had no idea why Issac had convinced both her and Sheik to follow him, leaving their creator behind while he was still asleep.

It was possible it had been Sheik who had convinced Issac to take Midna along with them. Maybe that had been why Issac was so angry a month later when he returned to find Midna with a human who wasn’t a willing donor in their home. She’d never had a home before, or people she thought of as family, and when he told her to leave, because she disgusted him, she realised what she was going to lose. If he’d never wanted her in the first place his reaction made sense. When she woke up at sunset the next day, having slept in an abandoned factory, Sheik was there waiting.

Midna bit her lip. “Are we making the right choice? I’ve heard good things about the donor house, but Issac will remember me and I’m not certain he’ll be happy to have me there.”

“Issac is going to have to deal with it. He doesn’t know you, he never did, and he should never have made you leave. I told him that when I left, that he no idea what you’d been through in the time you’d been with our creator, but I never waited to see what his reply was going to be because I was so angry with him. I still am a little.”

“Maybe we should have rung him first. There was a phone number on the website. Then you could have asked him if I’m welcome there.”

“You’re worrying about nothing. The Issac I knew…” Midna watched her sister blink away tears again, because she was still in love with Issac decades after she’d walked away from him, choosing to watch over the vampire who needed help. “He believed in giving people second chances. You made a mistake back then, but that doesn’t mean he’s going to chuck you out the door because of it.”

Nodding, Midna chose to believe her sister. It was obvious that Sheik had known a very different Issac to the Issac Midna had known, but then it was easy enough to understand why. Midna, when she thought back, had no idea why she had wanted to make their creator proud of her. At the time it had seemed like the only thing she could do, because he’d changed her into a vampire, and she knew that he was what he believed an archetypal vampire should be like. Unlike Sheik Midna had never had the courage to fight him over what a vampire should be like. She was scared that he would toss her out if she had and she didn’t think she’d be able to cope alone.

“Come on, Midna,” Sheik asked, downing the rest of her coffee. “If we sit here you’re just going to talk yourself out of going, because you’re scared of what Issac’s reaction to your arrival is going to be.”

Midna looked into her mug, thought about finishing it, and then decided not to. The taste of nothing was never going to grow on her, no matter how long she lived. Standing, she wrapped her jacket around her body, and let Sheik lead her out of the coffee shop. It seemed like the walk to the donor house took no time at all, because they were stood in front of it long before Midna thought they should be. With Sheik still tugging her forwards the two of them stepped into the place that Issac had helped create for vampires who had never had a choice in what was going to happen to them.

The reception did make Midna think of a hotel. She glanced around it as they made their way over to the desk, where a female vampire was sitting watching them. Apart from her it was empty, probably because it was one of those rooms that saw a lot of coming and going but nothing more. If Sheik hadn’t been there Midna knew that she would have turned around, feeling uncomfortable in the reception room that seemed very unwelcoming, although that could have just been her own worries.

“Hi,” Sheik said, “my sister and I are here to see what the donor house is like.”

“It’s nice to meet you. I’m Nadia and if you would both sign in I’ll get someone down to give you a guided tour.”

Just as they took a couple of steps towards the book that was next to the reception desk a male voice said, “I’ll do it, Nadia.”

Recognising the voice Midna kept her eyes on the floor, not wanting to see the same disgust in her brother’s eyes that always seemed to be there when she saw him. “Are you sure, Issac?” Nadia asked, sounding surprised.

“I know them.” Issac sounded a little sad. “A long time ago I made a mistake and told a vampire who needed my help to leave my home, so now that I have a chance to make it up to her that’s exactly what I’m going to do.”

Lifting her eyes Midna let herself look at Issac for the first time since he’d told her to leave. His eyes were full of the same sadness as his voice and she knew that he did regret the choices he’d made. Biting on her lip she pulled her hand out of Sheik’s, gathering together all the courage she could to walk over to her vampiric brother. Gently she touched his face with one hand.

“It’s forgiven, Issac.”

“Thank you, sister.” Issac looked over at Sheik. “What names are you both going by now?”

“I’m Sheik,” Sheik said, happiness filling her voice.

“Midna,” Midna replied, still unsure of her welcome at the house.

“Why did you decide to come to the house?” he asked, shaking his head and gently taking hold of Midna’s hand.

“It seemed like the best place for Midna to be and I promised myself a long time I was never going to leave her.” Sheik’s honesty startled Midna, but it wasn’t a surprise. “She needs human blood in a way that I don’t, because of what our creator did to her, and finding donors out there isn’t an easy job.”

“If you want me to leave…” Midna started.

“You aren’t going anywhere, Midna. We have humans here who would be happy to feed you and hopefully I can make up for the choices I made when I was still a young vampire who believed, stupidly, that it was easy to abstain from human blood as long as you had the willpower.”

“Over the years it has got a little easier.” Midna sighed. “I still can’t survive off animal blood for longer than a month though.”

“That’s a real problem?” Nadia asked, making Midna jump because she’d almost forgotten that the receptionist was there.

“It is for vampires who were changed by one of the older vampires. Our creator always said he was turned by one of the first vampires, but back then I didn’t know anything about them. I thought they were a myth. Now I’ve talked to someone who probably was one of the first vampires I find it easier to believe that he was telling us the truth, which is why Midna, as one of his first children, needs to drink human blood in a way that most vampires don’t.”

“You were one of his first children, too,” Midna said, unsure why he didn’t have the problem.

“I left him not long after he turned me. Even though I deal with the hunger more often than a lot of vampires here do I never spent enough time with him that my body got used to what yours did. It’s partly nature and partly nurture.” Issac squeezed her hand. “If I’d realised back then I would have made very different choice, but I was young and stupid and didn’t know anywhere near as much about vampires as I thought I did.”

“The choices you made then don’t matter any more.” Midna squeezed his hand back. “What matters is that you want to make up for them, brother, and I am grateful for that.”

“I’m actually glad you came. We’re trying to learn as much about vampires and what it’s like to be a vampire as we can, so having you here as an example of someone who literally has no choice but to drink human blood will be very useful.”

Raising an eyebrow Midna took the pen Sheik offered her and scribbled her new name into the signing in book. It was strange to write Midna Quarterstaff when it had been just hours before that she’d had a different name, but Midna felt right, like it was the name she’d always been meant to have. Sheik took two small books off Nadia, which Midna guessed were probably the rule books that the website mentioned, before the three of them made their way through one of the doors.

“Have you had anyone else like me here before?” Midna asked, still holding Issac’s hand as they made their way down a corridor.

“Not yet, but our numbers keep growing so I doubt it will be much longer, and then we’ll have to work out some new rules for the vampires who need to feed more often. Having you here should help with the addicts though.”

“You really have addicts here that you’re trying to rehabilitate?” Sheik hadn’t believed it when they’d heard the rumours. “I thought that would be too difficult, even here.”

“It’s not easy.” Issac sighed. “A lot of addicts don’t want to be rehabilitated, even though they don’t like the life they’re living, so we have to wait for them to come here. We have three, one male and two female, who all came here at different stages, and Caleb is the worst off because he happened to belong to Bianca.”

“She’s still alive?” Sheik’s eyes met Midna’s and it was possible to see the surprise she felt reflected in them. “The last we heard our creator was going after her because she’d stolen something from him.”

“When Caleb arrived she was, but that doesn’t mean she still is now. We all know he plays the long game.” Issac shrugged. “Although if he has gone after Bianca and failed then at least it means we won’t have to deal with him ever again.”

Midna wasn’t certain how she felt about that. Even though she didn’t like the vampire who had made her into something she never knew existed she wasn’t sure she wanted him to be dead. There had been a time when they’d left him behind that she missed him, more because she’d got used to him than because she cared about him, and it was almost nice to know that if she did ever need to go back to him that she could. She hadn’t, thanks to Sheik, but that didn’t mean she never would. If he was gone… she bit her lip.

“I know, sister,” Issac said, gently squeezing her hand again. “It’s hard to think of him being gone for good, even though we all hate him.”

“Do you think we go to an afterlife?” Midna asked, as they stepped into a room that was obviously the dining room, and everyone looked over at them, which made her shrink into Issac’s side.

“I don’t know.” Issac led them towards a table where there was a large mixed group of vampires and humans. “More because I don’t know if I believe in an afterlife. I’ve never seen any proof that one exists.”

As they came to a stop next to the table Midna took the time to look at each of them in turn. There was a female vampire she recognised as Alice from the website and a male vampire Midna recognised as Nick. It was nice to recognised them, even though she didn’t know them, because it made her feel a little more comfortable. She still stayed close to Issac, grateful that he was there to rely upon while they were at the house. It was strange that he had been so open to her being there but he’d changed from the bitter vampire he’d been when they were both younger and trying to learn what it meant to be a vampire.

“Midna, Sheik, these are my friends. I’m sure you’ve looked at the website, so you’ll recognise Alice and Nick. Next to Alice is Morgan, then Blake and Caleb.”

Midna’s eyes met Caleb’s and it was easy to see that he was an addict. Part of her wanted to go over to him and sate the need he had for someone to bite him, because it would sate her need at the same time, but she didn’t want to undo the hard work that had already been done. Biting hard on her lip she forced herself to look away.

“Well done,” Issac said, squeezing her hand again. “Then next to Nick we have Georgina, Dominic, John, Kisten, and Jean-Luc. Everyone, these are my sisters Midna and Sheik.”

From the raised eyebrows on Nick’s face Midna could tell that Issac had never mentioned them before to him and they’d come as a surprise. Alice looked more questioning, which told Midna that Alice knew all about them. Midna wasn’t sure exactly how she felt about that, but it was good that Issac had been talking about that time, because talking was something that vampires weren’t all that good at.

“It’s nice to meet you,” Alice said, even though she didn’t seem too comfortable with them being there. “Issac, can we talk for a moment?”

“Anything you need to say can be said here, Ally.”

Nodding, the blond vampire looked at Midna and then at Sheik, before turning her attention back to Issac. “Are you sure they can both be trusted?”

“Midna’s just proved she can be trusted. A vampire of her type who met an addict would normally be all over them, but she managed to stop herself from going over to him. That means she’s learnt how to deal with the urge to drink human blood in a way that a lot of vampires don’t bother to.”

The mix of disappointment and true happiness Midna felt wasn’t entirely unexpected. She knew that they wouldn’t all trust her immediately, and she was entirely surprised it was Alice who’d brought up her worries because she was in charge of the donors when they entered the house, but she was a little surprised with Issac. Midna hadn’t expected him to stick up for her, even though it was obvious he’d become a very different vampire to the one she’d known all those years before. It was nice.

Mirrored from K. A. Webb Writing.

The Donor House: Midna: First Visit to the Donor House

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