Stay the Night

[greenportal]

Title: Stay the Night

Fandom: Original Universe

Characters: OC Laurie (Human), OC Anya (Vampire)

Word Count: 1,900

Summary: Laurie encounters a delay on her way home from Thanksgiving with her family. During her night at the hotel, she has an unexpected guest.

Warnings: Paranoia Fuel, Abandonment, Possessiveness, Strong Language, Suggestive Imagery

November 28

     Fuck. I’m never going to go back to sleep now. I need to write this down. Looks like I fell asleep before tonight’s journal entry, so I have to catch up anyways.
 

     For starters, I’m not back home like I said I would be in the last entry. I’m not even in the right state.
 

     The plan to skip the airport delays by taking the train worked for the first couple of hours, at least before the winter storm finally blew in. The train could plow through the ice, snow, and gusting winds just fine. What it couldn’t cross was a semi truck that had slid off the highway and onto the tracks. I had been watching the news to see if the driver was okay, but for now the only thing I know is that it’ll take some time to clear the cargo out of the way. So everyone on the train has been put up in this nowhere hotel for the night.
 

     I called Anya as soon as the sun set to let her know about the delay. There was an excited little crack in her voice when she answered with, “Laurie, how have you been?” that made my heart flutter. I hadn’t realized how much I missed hearing her speak. Her tone settled down as I explained what happened. By the end of the call she was lamenting about how cold it was back home without me. After I hung up I was feeling far more homesick than the past week combined.
 

     At that point I gave up on staying awake. The sooner I slept, the sooner it would be morning, and the sooner I’d be back on the train. I turned on the heater and curled up in bed with Meepers in my arms. But the longer I lay there, the more my brain took notice that everything in the room was unfamiliar and uncomfortable.
 

     I pulled the blankets over my head to block out light reflecting off the snow and into the window. The thin covers smelled like the overworking heater, which smelled like musty hotel room. I buried my face in Meepers’ side, and could almost detect the smell of my own room deep within his stuffing. I tried to pretend that his fur was Anya’s soft hair. If I thought hard enough I could almost create a phantom weight against my back, like she was lying next to me.
 

     And then there really was someone next to me.
 

     “Hello?” I said as the bed shook from them climbing on, “Who’s there?”
 

     “It’s me, Laurie.”
 

     My heart skipped. I sat up immediately. The first thing my adjusting eyes could see was the familiar outline of her halo of soft, white hair.
 

     “Anya! How did you get here?”
 

     “You wanted me. So I came,” she said. She leaned in and squeezed me. I could smell her floral perfume and her French lavender soap, and even the faint scent of rotting flesh that the more vibrant odors were trying to cover up. I felt her cold skin as she nuzzled my throat.
 

     “But that’s impossible. You-” I put a hand on her back, and my fingers traced the curve of her spine. She felt so real. Yet my paranoia brain was screaming. Something wasn’t right. Something wasn’t right. I leaned back to the nightstand and turned on the lights.
 

     She looked like Anya, just like I remembered her. Her lacy, pink nightgown. Her flawless makeup. Her fangs glimmering from behind her red lips. Her bouncy, white hair curls framing her face. Her soft, chubby body that I wanted to hold so tight.
 

     It was her eyes that gave her away. They weren’t Anya’s ocean blue or her brain window red. They were a pale, green-ish teal, and almost looked painted. They had some odd property where they always seemed to focus on me no matter the angle of her head. It was like they were made of concave plastic.
 

     “You’re not Anya.”
 

     She smiled. She even had Anya’s mischievous smile. “No. But I’m better. I’m the Anya of your dreams.” She inched towards me and held my body down to the bed so that I couldn’t inch back.
 

     I wanted to get away. But I wanted to hug her. But I wanted to get away. But I wanted to hug her. “I, um, I don’t actually, like, know you? How did you get in here? How do you know Anya?”
 

     “Oh, I’ve always been here. This is my room. I was created here. I was left here. Now I live here. I don’t know your friend. I do know your every thought. I see everyone who crosses your mind. I can make them real. I saw how much you wanted your Anya. So I came to be with you.”
 

     I took a deep breath and squeezed Meepers’ arm for emotional support. “Okay, I’m- You just admitted to reading my mind and watching me get dressed, and I’m not cool with you invading my privacy like that.”
 

     “I didn’t say I watched you dress. I said I was in the room.”
 

     “Oh. My bad.”
 

     “I can’t help mind reading. It’s what I was created for. It’s all I can do. I know you want me to turn it off. I’m sorry I can’t.”
 

     “So, when you say ‘created’ what does that… you know?”
 

     She leaned against my leg. “Oh, boring stuff. I don’t want to bore you.”
 

     “You wouldn’t. I’m just curious.”
 

     “I know.” She smiled again. Was she teasing me like Anya would?
 

     “If you can read my mind, then you know you can’t leave me guessing like that,” I said, which made her playful grin grow. “I want to know what you are.”
 

     She finally took her hand off me and put it on her hip. “Excuse me? ‘What?’ You know it’s rude to ask that.”
 

     “I’m sorry, but so is mind reading, you know? I can’t stop my curiosity any more than you can stop that.”
 

     She gasped, and then squealed. “We have something in common! Oh, I like you already!”
 

     She leaned in to kiss me. The real Anya would have known better. I put my hands on her shoulders and gently pushed her back to a sitting pose.
 

     She tilted her head, and then gave me a crooked smile. “Ah, I see. I’m used to visitors wanting… you know. You only wanted your friend to hug. That’s very sweet.”
 

     “Yeah, my friend. Not a stranger who looks and acts like her.”
 

     “I don’t know the difference.”
 

     “I figured.”
 

     She scooted over to put her back against the headboard. That left me looking directly at her butt, so I sat up for a different view.
 

     “Master told me there isn’t a difference,” she said, “I’m as good as the original.”
 

     “Master, huh? So are you a genie or something?”
 

     She was quiet for a moment. I wish I knew how to read her eyes. The pupils stayed perfectly still the whole time, not darting about or dilating and contracting like Anya’s do when she thinks. Was this creature even looking at me, or at something over my shoulder?
 

     “I’m a tulpa. Created to be the perfect companion.” She smiled once more as I leaned closer. She must’ve known she was giving me what I wanted. “I’m the ideal version. The perfect Anya. The Anya you’ve always desired. The one directly from your mind. You’ll never want the real one again. You’ll want to stay here. With me.”
 

     I wanted to get away from her again, but if she was willing to cooperate then I might as well try to stay polite. For a moment I wondered if she shared Anya’s glee in making me squirm.
 

     “I can if you’d like,” she said. ADD brain had already dropped the ball on remembering the mind reading. She leaned in closer and whispered, “I can do anything you like.”
 

     “Well, if you don’t mind me asking, why are you here if you can do all that? Where is your master?”
 

     “Hmm. I don’t know. I don’t know. All I know is I’m bound to this room. I can’t go through the door. I’m stuck here. Forever. Watching so many come and go. Meet me and leave me. Going on with their lives.”
 

     “That’s awful.”
 

     She sighed. “But that’s in the past. And what’s the past when we have all the now in the world? I’m a lonely spirit, you’re a lonely soul. Surely we can help each other out.”
 

     She flopped onto my lap and put her cheek against my chest, just like Anya does when she’s cold. I looked down into her lifeless eyes, and I swear I could see brush strokes in the color of her irises.
 

     “Let me stay tonight,” she said, “Just one night. We can keep each other company. Keep the dark away. I can make you happy. So happy you’ll never want to leave. You’ll stay right here with me. We’ll never be alone again.”
 

     I thought about it, and thought, and thought some more. I’m sure she heard all of it. I hugged her. She wrapped her arms around me like she wasn’t going to let go.
 

     “I’m sorry,” I said, “I’m really sorry. I feel bad for you, and you seem nice, but I can’t. It wouldn’t be fair to Anya.”
 

     She went limp in my arms, and then slowly pulled herself away. Then I could tell she wasn’t Anya. I’ve never seen Anya’s face contort in anguish like that. She clenched her teeth and fists until a breathy sob burst from her mouth.
 

     “Fine! Be like that! What do I care?”
 

     “I… I’m sorry?”
 

     She turned away from me and climbed off the bed. “I’ll never understand humans. You hold one thing so close and precious. Throw another in the trash. Fickle, awful beasts.”
 

     “Hey, wait,” I said, “No, it’s not like that. I mean, it’s not- I mean-”
 

     “It’s fine. It’s fine! I’m fine!”
 

     I climbed after her, but she was already marching towards the door.
 

     “Please wait,” I said, “I’ll still talk to you, Miss… Miss… Y-you didn’t tell me your name!”
 

     “It doesn’t matter. Nothing matters.” She pivoted and opened the closet door. Then she turned again to point a finger at me. “You’d better not snore either! I have to sleep too!” And with that she stepped into the closet and slammed the door behind her.
 

     “Of course it matters. You can’t- Just because- Ma’am, listen!” I opened the closet door. “Or sir? I mean, just because you’re-” It took me that long to realize I was talking to a dark, empty closet. I turned on the light, and then it was a poorly lit, empty closet.
 

     “Where’d you go?”
 

     I checked the front door. It was still locked. I checked the bathroom. It was empty. I went back to the bedroom. It was empty too.
 

     I looked up to the bare ceiling and could only say, “I’m sorry.”
 

     The response I got was the heater shutting off.
 

     I turned off the lights and climbed back onto the bed. I just sat there, listening to the nothing that filled the room. I think I stared at the wall for an hour before I finally picked up my journal.
 

     The heater is back on now. I swear the fan almost sounds like someone crying.