Coming To Terms With Eternity

20260414

Prompt from DailyPrompt.com

Guffy was first seen here. Steph's adventure started here.

Steph threw the empty blood bag away with a shudder. That had been disturbingly easy to get down, her body eager for something she still intellectually found gross.
Partly to take her mind off this, and mostly because the question had been eating at her, she headed back into the other room and asked Jackie “Ok, so… how did your family end up with a vampire parrot, anyway??”
“Um, well, I think Guffy was bought as a baby or something? That’s how they did it back then. I don’t know about… she’s basically just always been a vampire, y’know?”
Steph snorted impatiently. “She can’t always have been a vampire, that’s not how vampires work!”
She was strangely comforted by how Jackie shoved her in response. A very normal thing to do. And, despite how the other girl’s hands felt so warm that surely she must be noticeably cold, Jackie didn’t flinch away.
“Ok, but like a century or something, and while what happened might be written down somewhere in the big mouldering heap of family records, basically nobody knows.”
Guffy chortled and muttered something.
“Well, I guess you know.” Jackie tickled the parrot’s chin. “Are you going to tell us?”
Guffy gave a sharp clack of her beak and chirped “Guffy bit!”
“Uh-huh. But why did they bite you?”
Silence. Guffy turned her head upside down and gave a confused mumble.
Steph fought the urge to roll her eyes. “I don’t think she understands.”
After all, while Jackie had turned out to be right about Guffy being a vampire, she was still just a bird.
“That, or she doesn’t remember.” Steph shrugged. “Like I said, it was decades and decades ago.”
“So? Vampire don’t age, right? So they shouldn’t go senile or whatever.”
“Nooooo, but I don’t think they have perfect memories either. And you forget stuff that happened a long time ago, so… and for vampires that might be a loooong long time.”
“Oh.” Steph rubbed her arm.
Did that mean she was going to forget Jackie some day? Her parents, even? That was a lonely thought.
Guffy stared up at her. Those beady black eyes somehow sombre. “Sorry. Bad Guffy.”
“It’s ok.” Steph mumbled.
Guffy’s feathers fluffed a bit and she grumbled something. What, could she understand enough to spot a lie?
Besides, while it wasn’t ok, there was nothing anyone could do, and it’d been her fault more than Guffy’s, so… basically might as well pretend everything was ok.
Steph sighed. She really needed a drink. Except that wouldn’t work anymore. Damn. Was there any way for vampires to get drunk? She’d have a look online. For now…
“I really need cheering up. Can we start a campaign on Smash Sibs Ultra?”
“Sure!” Jackie gave her a one-armed hug and headed for the living room.
If this was all going to fade some day… best to live in the moment, right?

Prompt was “Write a story which could be titled ‘Eternally’.”