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This book signing shit was easy.
At first, Shelby found it stressful. So many people from anywhere and everywhere, coming to see her and her alone for something she put her heart and soul into. Not to mention more people who might realize that "hey, you seem really pale" or "you seem young to have white hair already" or, God forbid, "you look an awful lot like that girl who went missing X-hundred years ago". Still, every time something came up, she was able to weasel her way out of an interrogation and make her escape. Being an author who only writes about vampires requires an air of mystery anyway, so the way Shelby figured it, it was perfectly reasonable for them to disappear in the middle of a book signing.
The turnout today was enormous, though, and she hoped she wouldn't have to leave early. She did truly enjoy talking to so many people and hear about all the ways her stories had helped people, as silly as some would say they were. They mattered to someone, and isn't that all that matters?
Shelby smiled at the next person in line, though he was much younger than the rest of the people they'd spoken to already, maybe eleven or twelve. He looked awfully familiar, too, with brown hair swept to the side and a face that looked eager to have Shelby's focused attention. He placed a beat-up copy of a book Shelby hadn't seen in quite some time on the table.
After restarting her life most recently, Shelby had attempted to write a middle-grade series for the first time, and it hadn't sold very well. She'd never expected to see any of those books at her book signing, let alone one belonging to someone who seemed so excited about it.
"Hello there," they said brightly, picking up their pen and opening the boy's book to the title page. "What's your name?"
"Jack," he answered, and Shelby paused with her pen just above the paper. She looked up and at the boy, Jack, her lips slightly parted as though there were a question she could ask that wouldn't have her sound like a lunatic. He smiled widely, showing a gap in his teeth, the same place he might have been missing one had someone punched him in the face.
Shelby shook her head. Kids lose their teeth all the time. "That's a nice name." She started to sign his book.
"I, um," Jack started, looking down at his feet in a way Shelby was oddly familiar with. He tugged at the ends of his hair. "I just wanted to say that I really like this series because the main character isn't interested in crushes or anything. I've never read a book with a character like me."
A sincere smile spread across Shelby's face, almost but not quite erasing the bizarre feeling in her chest. "Really? I'm so glad…!"
He nodded. "My friends keep telling me it's weird but I figure if there's a character like me then there must be other people like me, right?"
"Of course!" Shelby exclaimed earnestly. They inexplicably felt tears pricking at the corners of their eyes. "Please don't ever think there's something wrong with you just because people tell you that! There's always someone out there who will understand you, okay?"
Jack flushed and nodded again. "Okay. Um… thank you."
Shelby pushed the book across the counter and reached out to shake his hand, careful not to scrape his with their claws. However, the moment his skin touched hers, his eyes widened in fear and he jerked his arm back. He avoided eye contact, wiped his palm on his jeans, and turned and left the store without even taking his book back.
She touched her hand to her cheek. It was cold and stiff like a corpse's, and she realized that after sitting for so long her muscles had started to lock up again and her skin was stretched taut over her bones.
Shelby watched helplessly as the boy peeled across the street and disappeared, one of her bloodless hands raised slightly as if to call him back.
But she said nothing, and Jack was gone, and that was that.