Toddler Vampire

Beep! Beep! The alarm clock awoke Elise from her slumber. Be- She shut off the offending machine, getting up and exercising on the treadmill. She showered and had 15 minutes for coffee. Feeling quite accomplished, she went to get her son up. She expected an energetic toddler to greet her from his crib, so she was a little surprised when Brandon appeared to still be sleeping.

She prayed he wasn’t sick, as the meeting at work today was essential, and moved closer. “Brandon, sweetie, it’s time to wake up.” Nothing. “Brandon,” she said, leaning over to shake him gently.

As her fingertips graced his back, Brandon sprang up with a roar. He grabbed his mother’s wrist, holding it in a grip that a grown man couldn’t break. “Mama, mama, hungy,” he said, pulling it to his mouth.

“Brandon, no!” Elise said firmly. It fell on deaf, or in this case, toddler ears and was unheeded. She couldn’t believe her eyes as he opened his mouth and fangs sprouted from his normal baby teeth. She screamed as he bit her.

Violently pulling was instinctual, but Elise quickly learned got her nowhere. “Brandon, what are you doing?” she asked, even though she knew. He was drinking her blood. She got closer to him. “What are you doing?” she sing-sanged. She tickled him on the tummy.

Brandon dropped his mother’s wrist, giggling. “Fank you, mama,” he said, raising his arms to be picked up. Elise was freaked out however and went about as if she was looking for his clothes for the day. “NO!!” he shrieked. “I do it! I do it!”

Elise took a deep breath. “Sorry sweetie.” She looked at him. He looked normal now, although quite upset, about to have a tantrum over picking out his clothes for the day. She looked down at her wrist, coming out of her shock, it was still bleeding, two lines of blood amidst the messy lip stains.

“Did you bite me, sweetie?”

“Hungy,” he said, jumping up and down in the crib. Only his little hands warped the wood underneath them as he played.

Completely unsure of herself and everything in the world at the moment, Elise took another deep breath and headed towards her child. Somehow afraid she’d hurt him, despite evidence to the contrary, Elise gingerly lifted the toddler and carried him over to the changing table. He was dry. That would normally be odd, but all things considered, Elise decided to let it go. She set him on the floor. “What do you want to wear? It’s going to be cold out today.”

“Bluey!” he yelled, going to the dresser.

“At least that hasn’t changed,” Elise muttered to herself. “Bluey? We can do bluey.”

10 minutes later, a fully dressed boy ran from his bedroom and into the living room, a frazzled mother following. What do you say, she thought, when your son bites you and drinks your blood? Do you call the pediatrician? Probably can’t go to daycare doing that. Hungry rolled over in her mind. Brandon had said it twice. Maybe it was a growth spurt? Even though he’d eaten a good dinner the night before.

But being so strong? Drinking blood? Elise knew Brandon was her first child, but she was sure someone would have mentioned it if this was normal. Was he dangerous? Elise recoiled at the thought. This was her child. Her very young child. He couldn’t be dangerous. He could barely get his shoes on.

After watching her son push his cars around for a minute, she asked, “Are you hungry? Waffles or cereal for breakfast.”

“No hungy, just play,” he said.

“You said you were hungry earlier,” she pushed.

“No more,” he said.

“Okay,” she muttered to herself.

Brandon played with toys cars, unaware of his mother’s growing distress. She had no idea what to do, who to call. Finally, deciding on sticking to normalcy, Elise got up to make breakfast. She was hit with dizziness upon standing. How much blood had Brandon drank? She thought. Does he need to go to the doctor?

Knowing she needed to eat, Elise made scrambled eggs. She told herself the protein would be good after blood loss, but in reality, they were Brandon’s favorite. Maybe he’d eat breakfast despite proclaiming not to be hungry and Elise could pretend this morning didn’t happen.

However, Brandon wasn’t enticed even slightly. “No eggs,” he said. “Only ud.”

“Ud?”

“Ud,” he said, pointing to his owie from a week prior where they’d learned about blood after a kid at the park bit him.

“Right, ud,” his mother said, at a loss. She knew she couldn’t take him to daycare like this. Starting to panic once again, she called him sick into daycare. And then sat there and watched him play, until ring ring…ring ring. Her phone rang, her ex-boyfriend and Brandon’s father, Jeff, was calling.

Elise answered. “Hello.”

There was a pause. “I called to chew you out. I’m supposed to pick Brandon up at noon for our day together, but you sound…what’s wrong? Sick?”

“It’s…I don’t know. You should come over, take him for the day.”

“Why’d you call him out of daycare if this wasn’t a power play?”

“He…well honestly, he bit me, really hard this morning, drew blood, it was unsettling. Then he didn’t want breakfast. Something is wrong.”

“Take him to the doctor’s,” he said, sounding annoyed again.

“I thought about that,” Elise admitted. “I think I’m going crazy.”

“I’m coming over.”

“That’s what I asked you to do in the first place,” she said.

“Don’t start with me,” he snapped before hanging up.

“Great,” Elise muttered sarcastically, leaning back into the couch and looking at her little demon child. What had happened to him?