Finding Clare and (Sort of...) Fighting Vampires

This is Josefina. :-)

The good news is, we found Clare, and she's alive. She's currently in our house, taking a shower. This time we're a lot more wary that she might bolt, but there's no access to outside from the bathroom, so she'd have to walk past us. Not like we could probably stop her if she really wanted to go, but at least we'd know she was leaving.

The bad news is, it's becoming more and more obvious why Clare ran. Those human would-be vampire hunters? Not the only ones who want her blood. And I don't mean that in the harmless vampire fun way, I mean in the wanting her dead sense.

Here's the whole play-by-play of what happened:

Hunters

Hi, this is Kaya.

Still no Clare. Still searching. But today we found out for sure that we aren't the only ones on the hunt. We met some of the others today, and they definitely aren't just here to look out for what's best for her.

Kirsten, Bree, Felicity, and I had taken April (our dog) out to look for Clare, when we saw them.

There were three of them. All guys. Two of them looked like they were in their twenties, and the older guy looked maybe fifty. They wore dark clothes and long duster coats. I don't think they were vampires; the sun had made a brief appearance, and it didn't seem to affect them. When they saw us, one of the guys shoved something up his sleeve that had been in his hand. I'm pretty sure it was a wooden stake. Not good.

They seemed to recognize us, and they smiled - but it wasn't a smile that reached their eyes. The oldest guy said, "Hello, ladies. You haven't seen a homeless girl about your age hanging around here lately, have you?"

We shook our heads.

Another of the guys said, "You don't have to be afraid of us. We're her family. We just want to help her."

Yeah, right. They very well might be her family, but they weren't there for her benefit. Chasing her around with stakes because you want to help. Sure!

"We don't know who you're talking about," Kirsten said stubbornly.

He frowned. "It's not nice to lie, little girl."

"We met her," Bree said innocently, without any sign of concern.

I gave her a horrified look. What was she doing? Had she not figured out these people would be lethal to Clare?

The man grinned. "Where is she?"

Bree shrugged. "She was leaving town. I think she said Vancouver..."

The three men glanced at each other. Were they going to believe her? If she was telling the truth, Clare was headed for the complete opposite end of the country. They'd have to get moving to catch up. If Bree was lying, though, it was a major wild goose chase. Clare going to Vancouver if people here were after her made sense; on the other hand if she hadn't really left and they tried to find her there, they'd lose the trail here. Me and my sisters knew Bree wasn't telling them where Clare really was... but would they?

"Thanks," the oldest guy said, staring hard at Bree.

They left.

Did they leave town? We don't know yet. We tried. At the very least, we have a better idea, now, of who is after Clare...

Love,
Kaya

Following the Trail

Hey, this is Bree.

No Clare yet, and no sign of her. We've been searching around town, asking about her when we could do so discreetly, and looking up missing persons reports to try to find out where she came from. We haven't found her, and we still have no idea about her origins.

One thing we did figure out makes things harder. We're pretty sure that "Clare" isn't her real name. At first we assumed it was, and we also think she hasn't been a vampire very long because it still seemed like she felt weird about it - so we should have found a record of her disappearing from human life. We didn't, though, and we were confused.

We were discussing this absence of information, and suddenly Kirsten got a weird look on her face. "Bree, which landmark do you remember from when you first came to our house?"

I exhaled a kind of sigh. I didn't want to say it, but I knew what she meant. "St. Clare's Hospital."

"You think she made it up because she didn't want to tell us her real name?"

"Yeah," I admitted. "I do."

We still have an approximate age (we think she's between 14 and 16) and a description. Not knowing where she's from, her surname, or probably even her real first name... this will still be tough.

There was one positive development, though. I took Ev, Charissa, and Fiona to the park for awhile this evening. When we got back, there was a small parcel on our front step, wrapped in a grocery store bag. It had "Bree" written on the bag in black marker. Inside, I found my book, Wicked, the one Clare kept when she left.

There was a note:

Dear Bree,

Sorry I took this without asking. 

Bet you thought you'd never get it back. 

It was good and I wanted to find out what happened.

Not exactly a happy ending, huh?

Such is life.

Thanks for everything you girls did for me.

Sorry I had to leave, but it was too dangerous for you with me there.

You won't see me again but I won't forget any of you.

Love,

Clare

Downer letter, huh? 

Well, except for one thing. It didn't come in the mail.

If Clare left a book on our steps today, it means she's still in town. That means we still have a chance to find her. Maybe it's not too late. We certainly haven't given up! As long as there's a chance she's still alive, we aren't going to.

Love,

Bree

She's Gone

She's gone. Clare left.

After Inna's ultimatum, we talked to Blakeney, like we knew we were eventually going to have to anyway. Blakeney was very quiet while we explained the situation. When we told her that we weren't joking and there was a girl in our shed for real, she just raised an eyebrow. We said we'd show her, and at that point she seemed to take us more seriously. Then... the hard part. We told her Clare was a vampire. She just replied, "Huh." Like a statement, not a question. She was surprised - but not as surprised or disbelieving as we expected.

Then she said she wanted to meet Clare. We went out to the shed. Clare looked at us like we'd betrayed her. Blakeney said that our family would keep her safe, and asked her to come stay in the house with us while we figured stuff out. Clare said, "Alright." She said she would get her stuff together and then meet us.

She never came.

When we went to check on her, all her stuff was gone. (Except for most of the books we lent her. The only one she took was Wicked, because she was halfway through. I guess she wanted to know the ending. She left the rest behind. It was so sad to see the little stack of books in an empty shed.) Blakeney said more profanity than we've ever heard her use. Then she added more coherently, "Don't worry. We'll find her." We were skeptical. Blakeney added, "We found Bree, and she was on the other side of the continent. Clare is presumably still in our city. How hard can it be?"

Apparently, so far pretty hard. We still don't know where she is, or if she's still in town. She's probably long gone by now, still running. We screwed up. We feel like if she gets hurt or dies, it'll be our fault. We still don't even know who she's running from.

Clare, if you're somehow reading this, please just come back!

Love,

Kirsten and Sisters

What Inna did (or rather, what Inna didn't)

Hey, Kirsten here.

This morning, the doorbell rang. I answered the door, and Inna was standing there. After what happened yesterday I wasn't too surprised.

"Are you here to talk to Blakeney?" I asked with a lump in my throat, as I helped her hang up her raincoat in the hall closet. "Because she's not home, she's at work." That was true - but she would be home eventually, and then we were presumably sunk.

"Not at the moment," Inna replied. "I'm wondering what you girls think you're doing."

"What do you mean?" Lame. Laaaame. I knew exactly what she meant, but I was trying to buy time and I couldn't think of anything better.

"There's a girl in your shed."

"There is?" I was playing dumb.

Inna sighed. "Yes, and you girls know that. I think you've also already realized there's something... unusual... about your shed-dweller, too."

"Who have you told?"

In a way I didn't really want to know the answer to that, but I kind of had to. I had to figure out how much damage had been done.

"No one, yet. I figured you probably had a good reason to keep it a secret. I'm going to have to tell your guardian eventually, though. So I guess this is an ultimatum. Tell Blakeney today, or I'll tell her tomorrow."

I breathed a sigh of relief. It wasn't going to be an easy conversation... but at least it could happen on our terms. Obviously I was glad. I was also confused, though. Why hadn't Inna spilled the beans on us? Why was she willing to even temporarily keep our secret, when it could backfire on her too if someone found out she knew and didn't say anything?

I told my sisters about this after she left - including my puzzlement - and Bree gave me a weird look. "Really?" Bree asked. "You can't think of any reason why Inna might want to be absolutely sure she wasn't telling a secret that was going to harm someone?"

Oh yeah. Their family moved here to escape from someone and the fact they were found might turn out to be a huge problem for them. No wonder she wasn't in a hurry to blab about Clare - she came to the same conclusion we did, that Clare is hiding out because she's in danger too. Thank goodness for understanding friends!

Now we just have to figure out how we're going to tell Blakeney. This should be... interesting.

Love,
Kir

The Proverbial Cat is out of the Proverbial Bag

Hi there, this is Kaya again.

Ever since we first met Clare, we've gone to see her every evening. She hasn't really wanted to talk much about... you know... blood-sucking stuff. She's really interested in what we do during the day, though, and asks all about it. We figure it's a good thing because she's starting to trust us more. It's progress.

This evening, things didn't go according to plan. When we got there, Clare was clearly worried. Like, more than usual. She that said when she was leaving to... get food... the night before, there was a girl on the deck next door. It was Kiwi - our ten year old neighbour. Clare tried to talk to her, but Kiwi ran into her house; Clare could see through the glass door into their kitchen. Kiwi was talking to "a blonde woman" - who we know is her adult sister Inna. She pointed outside, at our shed, so it was clear what they were discussing.

We hadn't told our neighbours about Clare, obviously. They're like extended family to us, now, but we haven't even told our guardian. 

Now... we're waiting to see what's going to happen. What is Inna going to do? Who is she going to tell? By tomorrow, is our guardian going to know? Or the whole neighbourhood? Or, worst case scenario, whoever Clare is hiding from?

Not good. Not good at all.

~Kaya

In which things get more complicated and Lilly wins the guessing game

Hi, friends! This is Kaya.

So, you're not going to believe this. Like literally, NOT going to. I'm still not 100% sure I do. But...

It's looking like Lilly was right, in the comments she made. About... well, almost everything.

This afternoon, the sun was out, and our family went to the carnival that has come to the city for the week. We rode a few rides, had hot dogs, popcorn, and cotton candy, and played games to win stupid prizes. Yeah, we spent way too much of our allowance, but it was fun.

When we got home, we decided to go see Clare. I guess Charissa wasn't really thinking about the fact that we were early and she should really knock, because the shed is at least temporarily Clare's home. She didn't remember. She just threw open the door.

The sun was low in the sky, but it wasn't dark yet. Clare dived out of the way of the light that came in through the door, but we could see what she was doing. She was eating - or drinking, really. Blood.

It wasn't a person. It was a rat. Still, it was very unsettling. It was also the first time that Clare has seemed scared of us, not just scared about the situation. It was the most surreal moment of my life so far.

Clare is a vampire.

At least... you know... seemingly. She begged us not to tell anyone, and now the situation is more complicated. She's not just a runaway who needs some good therapy. She's a supernatural creature of the night. We're still kind of getting used to this whole thing.

It also begs the question - who scared her this badly? Other vampires? We may need to sharpen the stakes and ready the garlic.

~Kaya

More about Clare

(For those just joining us, Clare is the girl living in our garden shed and we are currently trying to figure out what we should "hypothetically" do about it.)

Hey, this is Bree. I'm going to write something, and your response is going to be, "Duh, Bree!" Here goes:

There is something up with Clare.

Duh, Bree!

But I mean... something beyond the obvious fact that she's living in a stranger's garden shed as opposed to, say, living with her folks and going to school. She seems really scared, and I don't think she's very healthy. She's very pale and thin. I have no idea what food she's living on, because she hasn't taken anything from our house.

We went to see her yesterday evening, like she said we could. Clare was really specific about that: in the evening, not the day. She said she sleeps during the day so she can get stuff done at night when no one can see. I guess that's when she finds stuff to eat. We offered to bring her food, but she said she didn't need anything and she didn't want our guardian to get suspicious that there was stuff missing from the fridge. (I tried to explain that with nine girls in the house, missing food wasn't exactly treated as a major mystery, but Clare was unconvinced.) I offered to lend her some books, though, and she did accept that, so I took her a nice stack.

Mostly she asked us questions, this time. Our ages, where we went to school, what we did for fun, how long we've each been part of the family. We tried to ask questions too - because we're seriously nosy about her but also because it's more polite - but she deflected most of them. She wouldn't tell us her last name, or where she came from. All she said about her family was that none of them were looking for her.

Then she got kind of a weird look on her face. Distant. She asked, "If someone came and tried to hurt me, what would you do?"

Kirsten immediately replied - and she speaks for all of us in this - "We would kick their butts!"

This was the second time we saw Clare smile. (The first time was when I brought her the books.) This was the first time we heard her laugh. She wasn't mocking us or anything, though. I think she liked Kirsten's answer... although I'm not sure she believed it.

Once again, we got permission to come back the next evening. So we still don't know why there's a girl living in our garden shed. She made us promise to keep her a secret from our guardian. Maybe if we can get her to trust us, we'll be able to help.

Love,
Bree

The Girl in the Garden Shed

Hey, this is Felicity. :-)

So after our last post, we decided we needed more information. For example: Why is there a girl living in our garden shed? Who is she? How come she doesn't live in a house? Doesn't she mind that it's still chilly and damp here this time of year?

Instead of telling our guardian right away (um... we still kind of haven't...) we decided to go get more information. Because here's the thing, you wouldn't live in our garden shed unless you were pretty desperate and had nowhere else to go. It's a fine shed... for a shed... but it's more suited as a place to store a lawnmower than as a bedroom. If she was in that much trouble, we wanted to be careful not to make it worse for her.

Our yard is very small because we live in the city. The shed takes up, like, a quarter of it. (The deck takes up another half.) The whole yard has a tall privacy fence so it's pretty secure, but the fence is climb-able, as we've discovered when we forgot our front door keys. I'm not sure why the shed was even built, because we don't really use it much, but we're renters, so you just have to accept what you get. Our dog, April, has been kind of weird about going near the shed for about a week, so we think that's how long the girl has been there. For the past couple of days, we've caught a few glimpses, but she's pretty good at hiding.

So this evening, we decided to go try to talk to her. We waited till our guardian was out getting groceries, then we all trooped out into the yard. Then we stood awkwardly. How were we supposed to proceed? Bree knocked on the shed door. Nothing. It felt weird to just open the door. I mean, it's someone else's house now. Sort of. But eventually we did.

We saw movement at the back of the shed. She was trying to hide, but there are only so many places you can go in a small area. She'd set up a sleeping bag and a little lantern, and had a stack of books. I guess reading is how she's been occupying her time during the day until the neighbourhood goes to sleep. That way no one will see her.

She was very reluctant to talk. But we found out a few things. 1.) It's not our imagination, there is a girl in our shed. 2.) Her name is Clare. 3.) She is hiding from someone.

That's about it so far. Then she got jumpy and said we needed to leave. We asked if we could come back tomorrow, and she said yes. Maybe we'll find out more then...

Love,
Felicity

What seems to be trouble may possibly be brewing

So, out of curiosity...

Say, hypothetically, that you had to break it to your guardian that a mysterious and very nervous girl of uncertain origin is currently hiding out in your family's garden shed? What is the best way to phrase that?

Just, you know. Hypothetically.

Love,
The Green Girls

School is out and summer beckons!

School is out for the summer for all nine Greens! The elementary school girls finished on Wednesday, and the rest of us were finally done yesterday/Friday. All exams, all papers, all homework... all done! It's very exciting.

Today we were supposed to have a picnic with our neighbours. (We should give them a pseudonym surname so we don't have to keep saying that. Maybe another colour to match The Greens!) The plan was to go to a park about six blocks from our house and eat sandwiches and salad and chips. There's a playground and a place to throw a frisbee, and our dog can run around. Unfortunately, it is raining! Maybe it'll clear up by supper time. We can hope. I don't think we're going to cancel either way, but we may have to eat inside at home. Better than nothing, though!

Now that school is done for the term, we should have more time to blog! Yay!

How about our readers - is your school done for the summer? What are you doing to celebrate?

Love,
Kaya and the Other Greens

Hey, remember the sun?

Missing: The Bright Thing in the sky

Last seen: Last weekend

Appearance: Lots of light, hard to look at directly, causes spots in vision

Date of birth: Quite awhile ago

Reward offered: Making nine Greens very happy

The weather here has not been cheerful. It's been misty, chilly, and dark. 

We miss the sun! It's June! I guess that's what you get when you live in the far north. It's nice that the days have gotten longer, and there's no more snow. Still, we'll be happy when it feels like summer! Or at the very least when we don't have to post a missing poster for the sun.

How about our blog friends? What's the weather like where you are?

Love,

Charissa :-)

Do you believe in the paranormal or supernatural?

So, this isn't a post where we talk about ourselves. It's a post where we open up the floor to our readers. Today's question is:

Do you believe in anything that is paranormal or supernatural? If so, what things do you believe in? Do you have any stories about it from your own experiences?

There's a reason we're asking this. ;-) For now, though, we're curious about what others think.

Love,
The Green Girls

Diggin' the Dancing Queens!

Hi! This is Kaya and Fiona, writing a post together! :-)

(The post title is from the the ABBA song "Dancing Queen," by the way.)

Kaya: So, the last two days have been our dance recital. We had our first performance Friday night, and the second tonight - Saturday.

Fiona: It went great! Everybody clapped!

A decision is made, dancing on stage, and a scary thing we learned

Hi, this is Bree. Like Kaya said in her last post, we've been really busy with school, so sorry we haven't been posting or commenting a lot lately! Also since she posted, Kirsten, Josefina, Charissa, and Evelyn got sick - just a cold - but they're feeling somewhat better now. So it's been a stressful time in the Green household.

Kaya and Fiona had their dress rehearsal tonight for their dance recital! Kaya wanted to tell you about it, but she was so exhausted when she got back that she just ate supper, did her homework, and went to bed. After the real recital, she'll tell you all about it. This was the second day they danced on stage, and the first day they danced in costume. Kaya said it looked really good! I'm excited to see the first real performance tomorrow night.

Also, Fiona's teacher finally made a decision about whether she was allowed to dance in the recital.

Well, actually, she didn't decide right away. On Wednesday, Fiona proudly showed how well Kaya had taught her the dance her class was doing. The teacher acted impressed... but she said, "That's very good. Too bad you don't have a costume! You still can't dance."

Fiona cried again, and Kaya got mad because the teacher has known for weeks that she didn't add Fiona to the list of costumes ordered and just never mentioned it, and then they came home and Kaya and Felicity sewed all night. Literally. All night. Kaya fell asleep in math class the next day, but Fiona had her costume!

So then the teacher made her decision! Fiona gets to dance with the other ten-year-olds! We're all really happy. (If the teacher had still said no, she would have had to explain it to all of us, because sisters stick together.)

We decided to invite our neighbours to the dance recital. We've been spending a lot of time with them, and they've become like extended family. When Inna answered the door, we could tell she was upset. I offered to help her in the kitchen for a minute, and while we were in there I asked what was going on. It turns out the police figured out who tried to break into their house.

I can't really say much about it right now... but what I can say is that it wasn't a stranger. It's someone they know. While it's true that one of the reasons they moved here was Inna got a job at the museum, they also came here to get away from a situation of domestic violence, but apparently they got tracked down. I was worried it was because we mentioned their names (although first names only) on the blog, but Inna says the police think someone found out by calling the museum and confirming she worked there by asking for her. I felt a little better that we didn't cause it, but it's really scary that the person knows where they live!

The one good thing is that now that they know, the police can protect them. For now, they aren't going to move again, which is good news for us. We've gotten attached to them already. We're worried, though. Hopefully they can stay safe! (And yes, they're coming to the dance recital!)

Love,
Bree