“I don’t want you to come in with me,” Julianna said.

“Oh,” Cheryl said. “Why not?” Her tone was meant to sound calm and casual, but Julianna knew better. This is what her mother always said when Julianna tried to set a boundary and it always ended in a fight. A couple of the other patients in the waiting room briefly glanced at the mother and daughter over their magazines.

“It’s my health,” Julianna said in a low voice. “The doctor should hear about my symptoms from me, not from you.”

“Why shouldn’t he hear from me?” Cheryl replied loudly. The eyes in the waiting room did not return to the magazines this time. “I’m your mother. Isn’t my opinion important?”

“I need to be able to answer his questions without you talking over me,” Julianna said.

“Well, I wouldn’t do that!” Cheryl exclaimed.

“You always do that!”

“I promise that I won’t this time,” Cheryl said primly. “I’ll just sit in the corner very quietly and let you talk.”

“Can you please just respect my privacy.” Julianna’s voice was raised now. Everyone in the waiting room was staring at them. “Please.”

“Okay, fine,” Cheryl said. “If that’s what you want, then I won’t go in.” She straightened her neck in what she thought was a dignified way.

“Thank you,” Julianna said. The gazes in the waiting room lingered on them for a moment before returning to the glossy pages that were resting in restless hands.

The doctor came into the waiting room. “Julianna Reed,” he called. Her mother shot out of her chair and zipped into the empty examining room.

Julianna rubbed the bridge of her nose and closed her eyes. A woman sitting across from her gave her a small sympathetic smile. She got up and followed her mother.

“Cheryl, Julianna,” the doctor said as he closed the door behind them. “What can I do for you today?”

“Oh, Dr. Lopez, I’m so worried about Julianna!” Cheryl cried. “She hasn’t been well at all.”

“I’m sorry to hear that,” Dr. Lopez said to Julianna. “Can you take one of your gloves off roll up the sleeve?”

“She’s been having all sorts of strange symptoms and behaviours,” Cheryl continued as Dr. Lopez wrapped the blood pressure cuff around Julianna’s arm.

“So what’s been going on, Julianna?” Dr. Lopez said.

“I…” Julianna started to say.

“She just hasn’t been herself at all,” Cheryl said as the doctor took Julianna’s blood pressure. “She’s been very difficult to reason with. She’s been wearing all black and going out to God knows where and staying out all night. She sleeps all day and won’t go anywhere before it gets dark. She says that she’s developed an allergy to the sun! Have you ever heard anything so ridiculous?”

“I got blisters from sticking my arm out for less than a minute!” Julianna protested. She ripped her other long glove off and showed the blisters to the doctor.

“That could be from anything,” Cheryl scoffed. Dr. Lopez put his stethoscope on Julianna’s chest.

“Take a deep breath in,” he said. “And out.”

“And her eating habits!” Cheryl exclaimed. “She doesn’t want anything but raw steaks! And she won’t eat at the table with me, she just takes them up to her room, and then later I find them in the garage all shrivelled and dried out.”

“Cheryl, would you mind stepping out so I can talk to Julianna?” Dr. Lopez said.

“Anything you say to her you can say in front of me,” Cheryl said. “Right, Julianna?”

“I specifically asked you not to come in,” Julianna said.

“I don’t understand why,” Cheryl retorted. “I think I’m being very good and letting you talk like you asked me to.”

“I didn’t ask you to let me talk, I asked you to not come in with me.”

“I only care about your health, Julianna!”

“My health is none of your business!”

“Of course it’s my business, I’m your mother!”

“Cheryl,” Dr. Lopez interrupted.

“What,” Cheryl snapped.

“Julianna is an adult. It’s her decision to have you present or not during my consultation with her.”

“Her decision is to have me here.”

“She just said that it’s not,” Dr. Lopez said. “I know it’s hard and you want to be there for her, but I have to ask you again to step outside.”

Cheryl looked from the doctor to her daughter.

“Well, if nobody wants me, I guess I’ll just go,” she said tremulously. She opened the door and slammed it behind her. Her dramatic weeping and bellowing echoed from the waiting room.

“Can I see that arm again?” Dr. Lopez asked. Julianna lifted her arm obligingly so that the doctor could examine it. The blisters were shiny and bright white and surrounded by raw, red skin.

“Do you think it’ll leave a scar?” she asked.

“I’m actually not sure if vampires can get scars,” Dr. Lopez said.

“So I guess you noticed that I have no heart beat even though my mother wouldn’t stop talking.”

“Well, if it was just the lack of heart beat, it could be a thousand things. But no heart beat and a sudden allergy to sunlight? Definitely a vampire.”

Julianna almost laughed.

“So tell me how it happened,” Dr. Lopez said.

“I went out for my birthday a few weeks ago and I met a guy at a bar and I brought him home and he turned me into a vampire.”

“And how have you been adjusting to that?”

“I’m a mess! I’ve made a terrible mistake.”

“And what mistake would that be?”

“I never should have let that guy turn me into a vampire.”

“Ah.”

“First of all, I just don’t feel like a vampire, you know? I like bright happy colours and making cupcakes and looking at sunsets. I don’t like vampire things. I tried to start wearing black to fit the role, but it’s just not working.”

“Well, I’m sure that you can wear other colours too. You don’t have to change your entire wardrobe now that you’re a vampire.”

“And not going out during daytime is really hard.”

“I’m sure it is, but that is definitely something that you cannot do.”

“I can’t eat anything that I used to eat. I don’t want to kill people or animals. I’m a vegan, I can’t be a vampire!” Tears were streaming down her face. “Well, I mean, was. I was a vegan.”

“I do believe there are different options to explore in regards to your nutrition,” Dr. Lopez said.

“And I cannot stop thinking about killing my mother!”

“That probably would not be very good.”

“I just don’t know what to do!”

“I know it’s a lot to take in, but I can help you navigate this,” Dr. Lopez said. “First we’ll run some STI tests for you just to be on the safe side.”

“Is that necessary?”

“That’s an excellent question that I do not know the answer to since you’re a vampire.”

“We actually didn’t have sex,” Julianna said. “We were getting there but then my mother walked in.”

“He did jam his teeth through your skin, though,” Dr. Lopez said. “Actually, can I have a look at the bite wound?”

Julianna lifted her hair off of her neck to show him the faint marks.

“That is healing very nicely,” he said approvingly. “Maybe vampires don’t get scars.”

“I guess that’s a relief?”

“The next important thing is for you to get acclimated to your new role with the help of professionals.”

“Are there vampire professionals?”

“There are, in fact, vampire professionals,” Dr. Lopez said with a smile. “There’s a place about an hour from here called Sunrise Vampire Sanctuary. It’s the perfect place for you and your situation. It’s run by a woman named Tiffany Stone, and she’s a very nice lady. Her father opened the sanctuary in the sixties. Everyone there is very nice.”

“That sounds okay.”

“You’ll be safe there,” he assured her. “There are other vampires who have been where you are now and people who want to help you. It would also be a great excuse to get out of your mother’s house.”