By the time the panic at the family restaurant finally subsided and the traffic patrol arrived, Ildar and Lisa had given their statements as witnesses and left their contact information. It turned out that Ildar and Yesenia had taken food to go from the restaurant after what Lisa and I had done in the woods, just to avoid the judging eyes of the elderly diners. I didn't blame them—in fact, I felt genuine gratitude, especially given the recent events. This way, we could leave as quickly as possible. Besides, my appetite had completely vanished.
Our vacation no longer felt peaceful or pleasant. My girlfriend was a killer, and Ildar likely hid a secret of his own: there was no way he could have lifted that bus with a single surge of adrenaline just to save me. What had he been thinking? We had known each other less than a day, and yet he risked the lives of the passengers… One life for—how many? Twenty? Thirty? I didn't want to know. Thankfully, as far as I could tell, no one had actually been hurt.
On the drive back to the glamping park, no one dared speak. The radio sputtered, and for the first time, I truly regretted that I couldn't fill the car with music to ease the tension. It felt as though all three of them were watching my every movement and reaction, waiting for me to slip up, and it only made my anxiety worse. I couldn't settle, couldn't relax or process what had happened. I tried to convince myself that I had imagined it all: the bus hadn't lifted off the ground—surely a slightly strong guy couldn't make that happen—and my girlfriend hadn't drunk the blood of a new acquaintance, fangs glinting unnaturally long. Who could I tell? No one would believe me—and they'd be right.
But I believed my eyes. I believed what I had seen, even if I couldn't explain it.
"Finally got to eat, geez," came Yesenia's frustrated voice from the back seat.
Did she know who she was living with? What if she was just like them, and I had somehow stumbled into a troupe of mad shadow-players, some drinking blood, others wielding inhuman strength? From my seat, it was hard to see her clearly, so I cautiously glanced at Lisa and Ildar. They behaved completely normally, as if nothing had happened. I searched their features for any hint, recalling every vampire film I had ever seen—and to my horror, I found common threads: pallor, coldness, an unusual, almost magnetic beauty. Maybe I really was losing my mind. Vampires didn't exist. Any sane person with even a few years on this earth would know that.
And yet… no matter how my mind tried to rationalize the paradox, the strange, mystical thoughts kept taking root deeper inside me, and the familiar order of things no longer seemed unshakable. Reality itself was shifting.
"Yeah," Lisa said. "Good thing no one got hurt. You did well, getting Mark out of the way in time. I don't know how to thank you."
"No need, really," Yesenia blurted, as if the very idea of someone being indebted to her horrified her. "It all happened so fast… I don't even know how I managed to react."
"The important thing is that you did," Lisa said, gripping the steering wheel so tightly her knuckles went white. "The rest doesn't matter. Right, Mark?"
"Yes… yes, of course," I managed, my voice barely above a whisper. "Thank you, Yesenia."
"Too bad the food's completely cold now," Ildar said with regret. "Smells good, but the fries are probably mushy by now."
"You ordered fries?" Lisa asked.
"Yeah. Who could have known," he said, shrugging, then turned to examine the landscape outside the window as if there were something interesting there.
"One thing I still don't understand," I said, my eyes fixed on him. "How could the bus have lifted off the ground?"
"Probably just hit a bump at speed, that's all. You know, it happens sometimes. Physics," Ildar said monotonously, and I bit my tongue in time to stop any words from escaping. The three of them in the car were treating me like a fool. Maybe I was. How many such incidents had Lisa gotten away with while I stood by, oblivious? How many simple, logical explanations had hidden an extraordinary truth? I wasn't sure I wanted to know. Yet this incident concerned my life directly—because that bus could very well have hit me.
"But the road was flat," I insisted stubbornly. "I saw it. No bumps, no potholes. Just a normal road. And how much did that bus weigh? There wasn't nearly enough speed for that stunt. If there had been a ramp in the middle of the road, I might understand, but there was nothing like that. The bus couldn't have just… flown like that out of nowhere."
Silence answered me. It was so profound it felt as if I could hear their brains twisting and turning, collectively trying to invent a plausible explanation—anything to bury an inconvenient truth so deep that no excavator could ever unearth it.
"It's just stress, Mark," Lisa said suddenly, touching my shoulder, and I flinched, unable to control myself. "What's wrong?"
Her eyes widened in genuine alarm, and I thought my end had come. Now she would realize that I understood more than I should, that I had seen more than she intended.
I had witnessed something I was never meant to see. And what would happen now? Would she dispose of me? Bury me seven meters deep in the forest, where no one would ever find me? I was a convenient target—no family, no friends, no colleagues. A lone figure whose disappearance the world could accept without question.
"Sorry," I managed, scrambling for a plausible excuse. "I'm still shaking. Haven't quite recovered yet."
I forced a smile, even though the corners of my mouth betrayed me with a slight tremor. And that was enough to stir Lisa's sympathy—or perhaps she was simply skilled at feigning it. Could vampires even feel? Why had she involved herself with me? Was I just a cover? A convenient boy for the world to see, helping craft the image of an ordinary girl-writer, with her quirks, her personal life ripe for gossip, and some semblance of family?