Not Human

Hi, this is Bree again. I had two conversations today that are kind of... blowing my mind. I'm going to share them with you, so you can help me think them through.

The first conversation was with Clare. She came to my room to bring back a book I lent her, and before she left, she said casually, "By the way, you know your new friends are vampires too, right?"

I'm pretty sure my jaw literally dropped. No, I did not know that, and I'm fairly sure Kaya and Fiona didn't either. "You mean Cécile and Marie-Grace?" I asked stupidly, although I'm not sure who else could fit the title of 'new friends' at this point.

"Yeah." Clare raised an eyebrow. "You can't tell?"

I shook my head, still trying to take in this information. I was about to ask her why she hadn't said something before, and then I realized she hadn't actually met them before last night. The first time Marie-Grace and Cécile came to our house, Clare was out hunting. Then the day they went sledding with the younger girls, Clare had gone to the snowball fight with the rest of us older ones. The tree lighting at the park was the first time Clare had been introduced to them in person, so she hadn't really been holding out.

If it was a vampires-recognize-vampires thing, why hadn't Tabitha...? Oh, wait. Tabitha totally freaked out when they were over here. At the time, we thought it was the strangers with unfamiliar human blood issue. But what if it was really some kind of territorial thing, or something? Tabitha still hasn't talked about that night. Maybe she assumed we already knew.

We didn't, though. All of us were totally surprised. I mean, we haven't seen them during the daytime... but in Newfoundland in the winter, "daytime" is over by around the end of the school day. There are a lot of regular people we haven't seen in daytime either. Plus there's the way they dress. We figured it was just personal taste - but what if they dress in older styles because they really are old? Which they must be, because they have no reaction to being around humans at all, even at ballet where the occasional bleeding injury is inevitable. They must have been practicing self-control for a long time to get that good.

I talked it over with my sisters, to decide what to do, and we decided... we're not really going to do anything. They aren't a danger to us. Kaya and Fiona are going to tell them we know, just so they won't have to worry about it anymore, but there's no reason for it to affect our friendship.

This new news was something to get used to. Mainly just because it was weird that we didn't figure it out on our own, and Clare had to tell us. Vampires aren't really very surprising to us anymore, which is an odd thing to realize.

Then came... the other thing. Which for me was even more mind blowing.

I decided to talk to Inna about the possible fairy incident over the weekend. I figured if she knew about vampires, maybe she knew about fairies too. Worth a try, right?

It may seem like a weird thing to have a conversation about, but talking about fairies was in some ways easier than vampires. Here in Newfoundland, a lot of people believe in fairies. For some people, it's even seen as sort of... disloyal... to say you don't, because it's part of the local culture. I'm not originally from here, and neither is Inna, but somehow it makes a difference.

When I asked Inna about fairies, she kind of sighed, and leaned on the kitchen counter. "I thought you might ask," she said, and she sounded kind of tired. "Bree, there's something I think you should know. I don't think you're entirely human."

I just kind of blinked. Of course I am! What else would I be?

Inna went on, "I think the reason they showed themselves to you is that you have fairy blood, yourself. I've wondered about it since I met you and Fiona, but I wasn't sure till now."

I suddenly flashed back to the earlier conversation. (Now you see why I wrote all that down for you? It was so you could follow my flashback. :-P) Clare had said she could just tell Marie-Grace and Cécile are vampires because she's a vampire herself. And that might mean...

"You know because you're one too?" I suggested tentatively.

Inna smiled, and said, "Yes. Very good, Bree."

Tomorrow, Inna is going to tell me some things I need to know about fairies. I just couldn't handle more information today. I'm still kind of in shock. Cécile and Marie-Grace aren't human. Inna isn't human. And if she's right, my little sister isn't human... and I'm not human either.

I might not be human.

This is crazy.

But it feels...

True.

Love,
Bree