Edith and Ben - Getting the Venom Out

[Originally posted at Ana Mardoll's Ramblings.]

"What happened?"

Edith turned her attention to me and quickly removed her fangs from the bag of blood she was holding, "Oh, hey," she tossed the blood bag on the windowsill and wiped blood off her face with her shirt, "You're awake."

"Where am I? What about ..." I was having some trouble finding words, "the thing? And the thing and the thing?"

"You're at a hospital, and... lets see. The thing is dead. And as for the thing, it's over. And in answer to your last question, you probably won't become a vampire but we're talking a wait and see approach."

That was a lot to take in, "How?"

"Well ... wait. Which one are you asking how about?"

"The last one."

"Well, I tried to suck the venom out."

"Does that work?"

"No idea, figured it was worth a try. We had to take the tourniquet off before we got you to the hospital because we were worried you'd lose the arm, then Jasmine did her thing and through a combination of urgency, fear and respect managed to get my mother cleared to do pretty much whatever she wanted. That's when we started up the transfusions and at this point most of the blood in your body comes from somewhere else.

"There's probably still some venom in you, but we're hoping it's not enough to do much of anything. So, that's the how."

I decided I'd asked the wrong question, "Why?"

-

[The answer depends on things that are still to be written. In particular I think that Ben and Edith, and possibly Caroline as well, have reached an agreement where Ben waits to become a vampire and tries solving his most pressing problem, a brutally painful clumsiness, through less extraordinary means. Also by this point they've talked about Edith's favorite foods and the fact vampires are utterly incapable of enjoying food.]

[I think I'd want her answer to be food based, "Because you haven't eaten X yet," where X is a food Edith tried and liked so much that, decades after she lost the ability to enjoy food, thinking about it still produces good feelings. And for some reason the food that comes to mind is one that I'm pretty sure I've never tried:]

"You can't become a vampire just yet."
"Why not?"
"Because you haven't tried pierogi yet."

[I think I just like the name. Pierogi.]

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