Path of the Vampire forum

The paper stood stiff between her fingers. It had the feel and smell of official documents. With an uneasiness settling in her stomach, the printed charts and words didn’t quite provide the consolation that she had privately hoped for. A soft sigh escaped her lips as she set the results down on the table in front of her.

What was she expecting, truly? A road map with directions to the doorsteps of her birth father? What exactly was a DNA test that she ordered off the internet going to provide her? More questions; that was the answer.

According to the results, her ancestral background was: 65% Scandinavian, 16% Eastern European and 10% British Isles and 6% uncertain. So, her ancestors were Vikings?

Piper abandoned the papers and walked over to mirror that hung nearby. It was a weird and lonely thing, having a reflection and not knowing exactly who it was that was staring back at you. When your own eyes are strangers to you. The round shape and soft amber color stood out among the sea of green and blue-eyed family members of her mother’s side. Did her birth father have eyes like hers? Did they also squint when he was mad?

Stupid test. No, she really was no closer to knowing about the person that she had taken half of her genetics from. A quick turn back to the table, Piper threw a middle finger up in its direction.

Why did it matter so much to her? So many times, the question was presented to her and she was sick and tired of having to try to put the answer into words. The thing was, it wasn’t something she could even explain to herself. It was more feelings than a bunch of words stitched together.

She didn’t have the excuse of having a horrible life and needing to take shelter from the harsh world into daddy’s arms. No. Her mother was the superhero that filled the position of all roles in her life: mother, father, nurse, and best friend. In fact, one could even say she had a rather charmed existence. It could be argued that the reason that so many didn’t understand her need to go on this campaign to find the original possessor of her honey brown eyes, was just that. They didn’t see a need for it. Or maybe they loved her mother so much, they feared that she would be hurt by her daughter’s obsession of finding him. Maybe that wasn’t really their fear, but hers.

So many times, she pushed her mother for more answers, and every single time she was faced with the road block of “I don’t know.” Eventually Piper abandoned questioning her and took the small bit of information she did have and made a phone call to a private investigator.

Her mother met Dr. Charles Nilson in Hawaii in the summer of 1998, during a medical convention. At that time, her mother was still a medical student at UCLA. Little did either of them know, but her mother had taken home a very unconventional souvenir. That was how Piper was jokingly referred to when her mom would tell her the story of how she came to be.

That’s it. That is all she knew.

The sun was high above Golden gate park, as noon settled around San Francisco. The air was stagnant from the heat wave that had hit the Golden state. This made running in the park a little more unbearable than usual. Thankfully, a breeze would blow every now and then, giving a small amount of respite from the heat.

“Pipes! Wait…” Daniel could feel his heart beating hard and fast. So much so, he would have sworn he saw his pulse in his vision. He wiped some sweat from his forehead, that he knew was going to eventually get into his eyes. He hated when that happened. In fact, he hated running. How in the hell did he get talked into this, again? Just as the question crossed his mind, his sight zeroed in on the petite brunette that ran in front of him a couple of yards ahead of him. He couldn’t help but admire the muscles in her calves and thighs that supported her *** perfectly. ****. He shook his head and pushed the thought out of his mind. Piper was a good friend and he knew that there was no chance for anything more than that. Still, he could enjoy the view; even if it meant he was going to die from a heart attack.

“Piper, for reals…. I am ….dying.” With the ending of that sentence, Daniel headed straight for one of the benches that lined the running trail, which were just along the edges of the tree line and covered in shade. He all but collapsed onto it. His breathing has heavy and he sprawled out across its wooden surface, trying to not die.


Piper could feel her pony tail swinging from one side of her head to the other as she ran. When she was a little girl, she would often try to make her hair do that on purpose. Her mother would laugh and tug on it, when she did. “You are going to swing that off.” She would say to her daughter.

Apparently, old habits are hard to break, along with the fact that the swing of her pony tail kind of worked as a cadence of sorts, keeping up with her steps as she jogged. It had been almost a week since she was able to get to the park for a run. Hating to do so alone, she had talked her friend Daniel into going with her. She knew it wasn’t easy for him, being that he probably weighed fifty pounds over what he should for his height. But, she worried for her friend and wanted to help him get healthy. Having a cardiologist for a mother and hearing all the horror stories of heart disease and obesity, she couldn’t help but worry about him.

Looking back over her shoulder, to try to give him encouragement, she realized he was no longer behind her. Well crap. Piper stopped running forward and turned to head back to see if she could find her friend. It didn’t take long. He was only around the corner about 3 yards back from where she stopped. Shaking her head, a little at the sight of him sprawled out on the bench like a beached whale.

“Come on, Daniel. It’s only one more mile. You can’t stop now.” She said as she jogged in place, not wanting to break her stride, too much.

“No… you go…ahead.” He said between breaths. “I will… lay here and…die.”

Piper laughed and shook her head. “Aww. Come on, it isn’t that bad. You are so close.” She reached down and swiped at his knee.

“Pipes, you don’t understand…” He sat up and considered her beautiful amber eyes. God, she was beautiful. “I am a fat kid by choice. I love to eat and I hate to run. There, I’ve said it. I hate it. I do. I hate everything about it. If I must run to avoid being hit by a car, well I will just have to pray that the person that does my Eulogy does a good job making me look good.”

“Oh, come on…” Piper laughed and sat down next to her friend. “It isn’t that horrible.”

“Yes. Yes, it is.” He nodded and brushed some of his blonde hair from his eyes. His knee touched hers for a moment. Even covered in sweat, he still loved the way she smelled. The friendzone sucks.

“Okay, how about we rest for fifteen…” Her words were cut off by the theme song of Kim Possible. Piper pulled her phone from her pocket and looked at the screen. “It’s Mr. Grigson, the investigator.”


Daniel sat up. He knew that his friend had hired a detective to locate her birth father. She had confided that to him a few weeks ago. He leaned a little closer as she answered the call.


“Hello?” Her spine stiffened as she waited for the voice on the other side.

“Ms. Smith, it’s Jake Grigson. I believe I have located your father, Dr. Nilson.”

A tightness formed in her throat and she tried to swallow it down before responding. “Okay, great. Where is he?”

“We believe he is in Harper Rock, Canada. He is affiliated with a few companies there, which made it easier to find him. I want to go there tomorrow, to see what I can find and to verify that he is in fact your father. Is that okay, Ms. Smith?” His words seemed to run into each other for her, and then there was pregnant pause.

Daniel couldn’t define the look that had fallen on Piper’s face. She almost looked afraid. This prompted him to reach down and hold her free hand, hoping he could provide her with some comfort.

The young brunette could feel her hands shaking and was thankful for the warmth of Daniel’s hand as it covered hers. It helped more than he would have imagined.

“Ms. Smith, are you there? Can you hear me?”

“Yes, sorry. I hear you and yes, that’s fine. Canada, huh? That’s interesting.” She looked into the hazel eyes of Daniel and smiled.

“Okay, I will call you after I make contact and give you an address.”

“Thanks, Mr. Grigson. Thank you.” She hung up and put her phone back in her pocket, a bit dazed.

It had been exactly 2 weeks and 3 days since Piper had heard from Mr. Grigson. Trying not to worry too much, she avoided calling him. He would call her if he had heard something, right? Not sure if this was normal or not, it was difficult to not be concerned. It wasn’t often that a girl found her birth father that had been absent in her life for 18 years, after all.

Trying to give her entire attention to the bowl of Lucky Charms in her hands, proved to be harder than she would expect. Brown eyes would periodically cut over to the cell phone that sat on the side table next to the sofa where she was sitting and eating. Doing her best not to give in and call the detective, instead Piper went over the last things he had said. Mr. Grigson had told her that he thought he found Dr. Nilson, and believed him to be in a city called Harper Rock. A city in Canada. He also said that the doctor had businesses there. Not to mention, there were the other findings that she had come across on her own.

Shortly after getting back home from her jog with Daniel and the original phone call with the detective, Piper had immediately googled all the information that she could, pertaining to Dr. Charles Nilson in Canada and in Harper Rock. Eventually, she came up with obituaries of a Dr. Johnathon Nilson and Evelyn Nilson. Along with the obituaries, there were a multitude of articles reporting their deaths. They were apparently murdered and the entire incidence was rather sensationalized by the associated press.

Sitting on the edge of her seat, she tugged at her bottom lip as she read the words on the screen of her laptop. They were survived by their son, Dr. Charles Nilson. He was not only their son, but he was also the main suspect that they had for the murders. At this point, Piper had to step away from the screen and walk around for a moment, taking in all the information. Her grandparents were murdered (rather gruesomely) and her father was suspected as the killer. It was a lot to digest.

After sitting back down, she returned to the open article and continued reading. Her father was never charged due to him having a solid alibi. A hard knot in her throat was swallowed down. A sense of relief settled into her stomach. Of course, he wasn’t a murderer, how could they even think that. It was kind of funny how she felt compelled to defend a person she had never even met, immediately affording him the benefit of doubt. This was a luxury that she didn’t just hand out to anyone, very easily. In fact, it could be argued that Piper could often be critical of her peers.

As the mouse scrolled down the screen, she landed on pictures. There was a picture of their home, her slain grandparents and most importantly, a picture of Dr. Charles Nilson. It was obvious that the reporter used one from the hospital directory that he worked at, during the time of the killings. Dr. Nilson looked just as distinguished as her mother did, wearing a lab coat. But his good looks weren’t what caught her attention, it was his eyes. There they were, the eyes that had been staring back at her every moment that she had looked into a mirror.

It must have been at least an hour that she stared at his picture. She had even zoomed in on it, making it almost as large as her screen. Finally, she right clicked on it and hit ‘save as’. But save as what? Dad? Daddy’o? With a sigh, she typed: DrNilson.jpg.

Setting her bowl down on the coffee table in front of her, Piper turned to her phone, once again.
“I can do this.” She muttered to herself. Grabbing it, she quickly tapped on the screen and the phone began to ring on the other end.

“Hey, sweetie.” Dr. Olivia Smith answered. She had just sat down at her desk and was about to send her dictated notes to the transcriptionist. The call from her daughter was an unexpected treat.

“Hi, mom. Do you have a minute?”

“Actually, you got me at a good time. What’s up?” Dr. Smith leaned back in her chair and waited for her daughter to talk.

“First, promise me that you won’t freak out.” Piper winced a little at the last two words. That was always the worst thing a person could say and she realized that she probably should have said something else, after the fact.

“Piper, you are starting to worry me. What’s going on? Are you okay?” The wrinkle between her mother’s eyes deepened as her brows furrowed.

“Yes. It’s nothing like that…” She took in a breath before she continued. “I. It’s just that I want to go on a trip.” She decided to not tell her mom that she thinks she found her birth dad. The time just wasn’t right enough. “I was wondering if my passport was up to date.”

“A trip? Wait. You mean you want to go out of the country?” Her voice raised an octave of two, as it always did when she got upset or concerned.

“Yes. I wanted to go to Canada. There is a French language immersive program there that I want to go to. I figured it would be good to brush up on it, before college starts this fall.” Damn, she was good.

“Hmmm. When are you wanting to go?”

A smile crossed Piper’s lips. She knew she just got past the first hurdle. “It starts next week. I was wanting to leave in a couple of days, so I can get used to the place first.”

“That seems a bit soon. Where did you hear about it?” Her voice had a skeptic tone about it.

“My college advisor called and told me about it.” Lie number two.

“Okay. Do you have enough on your credit card to cover it? How much is this going to cost me?”
Bingo! Another hurdle jumped.

“No worries, mom. I have it covered. I had a couple of grand saved from working at the country club last summer. I also have enough room on my card.”

“Your passport should be good for another year. I want you to give me all the details and the name of the place where you will be staying. I know you are 18, but you are still my little girl. “

“I know, mom. I promise I will do that.” She smiled and bounced a little where she sat.

After the two hung up, Piper sat on her couch feeling a bit excited. She didn’t have to wait on Mr. Grigson to call her, now. If he did happen to call her between now and then, she would already be in Harper Rock.