Thirsty (novel)

Thirsty is a horror book written by M.T. Anderson. It is set in modern New England, specifically Massachusetts, in a parallel universe where vampires and other such creatures exist. The main character, Christopher, just wants a normal life; to date his crush Rebecca Schwartz, stay up late, and other teenager things. Unfortunately, Chris has much more to worry about than puberty- he also has to deal with his vampirism.

Synopsis

Template:Spoiler The story is set in the town of, and in the areas surrounding Bradley, Massachusetts. A Vampire Lord, Tch'muchgar, was trapped in his own universe, and the town performs annual rituals, or The Sad Festival of Vampires, to maintain the bonds holding Tch'muchgar in his own world.

In the exposition, the main character, Chris, witnesses a vampiress being lynched. Soon after, he then starts to feel a strange sensation in his chest. This turns out to be his growing thirst for blood.

Chris first realizes his vampirism when he is in a physical fight with a friend, Tom. Tom's reflection is seen clearly in the water below, yet Chris' is not. Chris is soon confronted by a person dressed in black, whose name is described as a "pattern of thought that cannot be repeated". For the rest of the story, he is referred to as Chet the Celestial Being. Chet says that he is part of the Forces of Light, and that he can cure Chris of his vampirism if he can place a holy object, The Arm of Moriator, in the world Tch'muchgar is trapped in. Once activated, the Arm cannot be moved or unactivated by evil beings. Chet explains that if Tch'muchgar tried to jump between worlds, the Arm would immediately shift Tch'muchgar's world slightly out of place, trapping Tch'muchgar between worlds. This is described as "opening an elevator between floors". Chris soon realized that he shouldn't tell anyone, not even his friends, because vampires are killed immediately after they are found out about in the community.

Chet leaves for two weeks to retrieve the Arm. In these days, Chris' vampirism grows at a steady rate. He starts sleeping during the day and staying awake at night, drinking warm water to simulate drinking blood, and even considers his family as potential "beverages". Chris also receives letters through mail from vampires living underground in the community, which he appropraitely calls "vampire letters". One of these letters is from an adolescence female vampire named Lolli, who acts like how a stereotypical girl in modern society might act.

Chris starts to notice he is being stalked by a "Thing with the One-Piece Hair", or The Thing. Chris is in the woods with his friends on a "vampire" hunt, but when he is separated from the group, The Thing finds him. Before anything evolved from the situation, Chet appears and "kills" The Thing. He says The Thing will rematerialize within a few minutes. He brings Chris to a congregation of vampires in an abandoned church. Chris is able to be in the Arm because he is still human, but is accepted as a vampire by the others. There, he enters the world of Tch'muchgar and drops the Arm.

Chris returns to his "normal" life, waiting for Chet to return with further instruction. During this time, his vampirism starts to increase. He almost bites his friend's dog. Directly after this, he goes hunting for raccoons to drink from. He also resorts to drinking blood from himself. After he cuts himself shaving for the first time, he drinks a few drops of blood. He also eventually resorts to biting himself in the arm, which pulls off his braces (leading his mother to worry about him even more). The Thing is also seen again, but, like last time, Chet "kills" him.

At the Sad Festival of Vampires, Chris is talked into going to a party. Chris has other plans to stop the vampires summoning Tch'muchgar. There, he is told, by vampires Lolli and Bat, that he has to make his first kill that night and smear his blood on his cheeks as an initiation into the vampire community. Chris shys away from the challenge, saying that he couldn't find anyone yet, but Bat quickly calls his bluff. Chris escapes from the party shortly after and finds his crush, Rebecca Schwartz, in the area. He tells her that he needs to talk, but is interrupted when his teeth start to grow in bloodlust. He goes back to the party, only to find it empty, save one high student.

The student tells Chris that Bat and Lolli didn't show up in a video camera, and that Lolli killed a student. Outside, she was slammed into a tree by a car, breaking her back. The authorities arrived and took her to be killed. Chris hears Bat still pursuing him, and runs outside. He runs into Chet, who confirms the story about Lolli's death. Bat hears this and attempts to kill Chet, who kills Bat with a wave of his hand.

At the climax of the story, Tch'muchgar escapes into the humans' world for a brief moment, until his world shifts from the Arm of Moriator and seals his fate. Chet reveals that vampirism is incurable, and that he works for both the Forces of Light and Darkness as a double agent. He tells Chris he has three options: kill for blood until he is killed by the humans, starve to death from lack of blood, or join a group of vampires to hunt with (which is unlikely to happen as he just killed their god). The book ends after this with no hints as to what Chris' fate is. It is only hinted as to how Chris even got his vampirism, when his mother tells him about how when he was born he was choking on an umbilical cord and then a "nurse" comes in and takes him for a few minutes, and comes back with him and he's fine, and when Chris' mother is telling him this he imagines the nurse casting some sort of spell or possibly biting him in order to save him as well as turn him into a vampire. Considering that's the only real theory that is put forth about his particular case, it seems likely that that is how he contracted his vampirism.