Chillin' With Selena

Selena knocks on my bedroom door." Come in." She comes in and takes a look around the room." Wow that light, what is it you call it again? A black light? It really brings out the vibrant colors of the posters. The things science has brought about are truly amazing." I have to admit I never thought of it that way before, as science. I only think about how cool it looks. I take for granted that at the flick of a switch I can turn on the lights. Or just by pushing a button I can turn on a television set or a stereo. I also just realized that I don't know Jack shit about Selena.

"Selena can I ask you something?"

"Sure Kristina-- I'm sorry Nicole. The new name will probably take both of us time to get used to, you more than me no doubt."

"Yeah it does feel strange being called Nicole instead. But the more it happens the quicker I'll get used to it. I was wondering um-- how old are you? I'm sorry for asking it's just that I know nothing about you." She sits down on the other bean bag chair opposite me." That's okay dear. We really haven't had the chance to sit and chat yet have we. I was born in 1703 in Barcelona Spain. I'm 274 years old. I became a vampire when I was twenty-three. I was given the dark gift and mentored by Elena Micalescu. She originally came from, don't laugh, the Transylvania region of Romania. Before you ask no she didn't live in a dark foreboding castle nor was she related to Count Dracula."

I get up to turn the stereo off then sit back down." I admit if I weren't a vampire myself now and you told me that I would have laughed thinking you were completely full of shit. Both about being a vampire and also about who turned you. Now however---" She finishes my sentence for me." Now it doesn't sound as much like as you say bullshit."

"Exactly. That's why on that first night I asked you about coffins. The only things I knew about vampires is from what I read and from watching television or movies. To me vampires only existed in fiction."

" I shouldn't have been dismissive about your question about coffins. It wasn't as silly as I made it out to be. Coffins do have their uses. For instance whenever we slumber for long periods of time like an animal hibernating. Then there's long distance travel. It's best to do so in a coffin. When I came too what's now Mexico from Spain my familiar placed me in my coffin and had me put into the cargo hold of the ship we traveled on. Of course nowadays that's more difficult to do. You need paperwork for this and identification for that. If you had been turned back then you wouldn't have had to change your identity."

She continues. "You could've traveled under your own name without such scrutiny or changed it only if you desired. That's why when I crossed the Atlantic to Mexico I was able to do so under my given name. Nobody knew me so nobody questioned it. With you however under your given name you're considered a missing person and therefore the police are looking for you. This way if say you were driving down the street and pulled over your new license would say Nicole Cohen and not Kristina Valentine. You wouldn't draw suspicion. That's the one thing I despise about this age. The amount of paperwork and identification you need just to breathe."