.101 Best Mistake

Riverview, present day
still National Vampire Day...

She was still in Riverview, three hours after her arrival, when she should have been on her way to Barnacle Bay. She paced the cramped, stuffy room, snuggling the still screaming baby in her arms, trying to buy his silence by singing long forgotten lullabies.

After a while of her incessant pacing, and Blake’s screams, Candy, the receptionist, politely asked her to sit down and keep the baby quiet. The baby’s screams weren’t good for business. Soon the other tenants in the neighboring offices would call the cops, and the last thing everyone wanted was the men in uniform poking their noses where they shouldn’t.

Tamsyn glared at the other woman for a long time before making her way over to the worn couch. 

She hesitated, wondering if she should sit down or not. The couch looked filthy, and she shuddered when she thought of the millions of invisible germs crawling on the cushions.

When she looked up she found the receptionist’s eyes on her, daring her to say something stupid. Without uttering a word, Tamsyn dropped in her seat, tugging Blake close to her chest.

What was I thinking? Tamsyn wondered as she went over the past few hours in her mind. The reality of what she’d done was only sinking in now.

You did the right thing. He should have been yours from the start…Devon too. Eloise doesn’t deserve him. Her alter ego replied, assuring her she'd done the right thing, and she’d had no other choice. She couldn’t sit by and watch Eloise steal her life.

No, this is wrong. I should never have taken him…

You can’t take him back now. Devon will kill you, if the cops don’t take you out first.

Somewhere in the dark recesses of her mind, a battle between good and evil raged on. Voices she didn’t recognize fought to be heard, emotions screamed to be released. 

A part of her knew what she’d done was wrong, the guilt was all too much, and the pain she knew she’d caused Devon and Eloise rocked her hard, she slumped back in her seat and closed her eyes, silently pleading for forgiveness, wishing her throbbing headache would go away.

I have to do the right thing. Take him back.

No! He’s yours. Nothing will ever come between you now! Nothing!

In the end darkness took over, banishing the weak ray of light.

In the end evil won. It always does…

With her head held high, and the screaming baby still nestled in her arms, Tamsyn rose from the sofa, and approached the makeshift reception area. She wondered why they kept up the act, pretending this place was anything other than what it truly was, a shady establishment.

“What’s taking him so long?” She asked Candy.

“He has other clients too, you know!” The other woman didn’t bother to look up from her magazine. Apparently the gossip on Brangelina on page three of HEAT magazine was much more interesting than anything Tamsyn had to say.

With a disgruntled sigh she returned to her seat and waited her turn. The receptionist turned on the television set in the corner of the room and flicked through the programs. The news channel caught her attention and Tamsyn’s too.

They watched the live broadcast from Bridgeport’s Medical Center where a two week old infant was nabbed by a woman pretending to be a nurse. The cameras zoomed in on a snort-faced Eloise and a grief stricken Devon. Both parents’ eyes were red and swollen, like they had been crying since the terrible tragedy had struck. They pleaded with whoever took their son to return him home safely. An identikit of the suspect was shown briefly.

Thank heavens I look nothing like that. Tamsyn mumbled a small prayer of thanks, of course she didn’t forget to ask God to make sure her friend, nurse Susan, didn’t get into too much trouble since the identikit looked a hell lot like her.

Without uttering a word the receptionist peeled herself away from the TV and scurried off to one of the backrooms beyond the metal door. When she came back, she had her boss in tow, the man who had kept Tamsyn waiting.

Shark, as he was affectionately called by those close to him, looked like a real shark. A hunk of a man, with small beady eyes, an almost nonexistent nose slapped carelessly in the middle of his large face, and a huge mouth full of sharp teeth, an unlit cigarette protruded from one side of his lips. As if he wasn't scary enough, the huge scar on one side of his face added to his "criminal" look. His grey suit jacket, shiny pants, thick gold chain and bracelets yelled “pimp”.

He shook his head, all the while smiling knowingly at Tamsyn before his eyes returned to the screen. He’d just discovered a gold mine. Usually his price for fake papers was decent, but his silence came at a much higher price. And he knew, without a doubt, he’d hit pay dirt.

He motioned for Tamsyn to follow him. She did, reluctantly, dragging her feet slowly on the grey carpet. She had a bad feeling about this one. It wouldn’t end well.

“Take a seat,” he barked, dropping his heavy frame in the chair across from her. A desk lamp flickered weakly, briefly lighting up the gloomy room before it died, reminding Tamsyn of life. How fleeting and brief it is. How quickly it can end.

Shark scribbled a figure on a grimy piece of paper and slid it across the rough surface. Tamsyn glanced at it before passing it back, shaking her head in disagreement.

“No. I want my papers. That’s all I came for. I don’t know what the rest of that amount is for!” She replied stubbornly. But she knew full well how their conversation was going to end.

“Your papers are ready.” Shark replied, and he made a huge show of taking them out of his drawer and slamming the envelopes on the table.

“But I’ve decided to throw in a few extras,” he added softly, his lips still hanging on to the unlit cigarette.

“What do you want?” Tamsyn asked after a minute or so of eyeballing him.

“That’s how much my silence will cost you. I won’t tell if you give me what I want. I know it’s you. I don’t see a lot of white ladies snuggling a screaming black baby. So what do you say? Do we have us a deal?” Still the deceptively soft voice.

Tamsyn stood up from her seat, tallying up numbers in her mind, wondering if she could afford to spare so much money. She honestly couldn’t. She needed every penny. But she made the mistake of looking at Blake and the decision was made for her…