AN: Thank you to Charles for my awesome playlist banner! Couldn't stop laughing when I realized that he really added the old man (aka. the music artist of the song) into the banner .____. thought he'd put some vampire-ish picture instead. LOL But it still looks really nice so thanks again! HAHAHAHAHA

Chapter 9: Little Encounter

We were all seated around the big LCD screen. It was night. My head cooled down after a few hours of thinking and moping on the rooftop. Hollie and Adan said that I had to let the death go, because it was a significant part of my world. It was still hard to accept but I was trying. They were talking about leaving just half an hour ago, but now they were silently waiting for something to arrive. Who knew what it was.

Patrick answered the telephone. “Is this the Krusty Krab?”

“No, this is Patrick,” the starfish replied.

Two of the most powerful demons alive were sitting on a big couch, watching SpongeBob SquarePants. It was strangely odd and interesting at the same time. I didn’t think that they were paying attention, since most of the time their expressions remained dull. Furthermore, they were propped lazily in their seats, looking too relaxed to be paying attention to anything. That was what I thought, until Adan talked.

“Get’s me every time,” he said, smirking. “Stupid starfish.”

He grunted, and then readjusted his position. The show was less amusing than the two demons. Every so often, I would peek at them, trying to see if they reacted anymore to the kiddy cartoon. I was expecting them to watch some supernatural television series, like ‘True-Blood’; they chose to watch a yellow sponge instead.

Too often was I glancing at Adan, thinking about what happened in the afternoon. I was unconvinced that I would like him, or condone his action. My lack of control was the reason for my wrong doing, but I still wanted to blame him and hate him wholly for it. The whole afternoon I was convincing myself to detest him, and to forget what happened. The images kept flashing up nevertheless.

The images of his warm crushing lips, oddly coupled with the blank stare of the bleeding corpse. Adan was starting looking attractive. I shifted uneasy glances at him, unsure of what to think. It was the beguiling kiss that did it—there was no other explanation. He caught me looking at him once or twice. When he did, he simply grinned at me. Sometimes I smiled back, before mentally slapping myself for doing so.

 I was sitting a large space away from Hollie. My argument with her earlier still made the atmosphere between us very uncomfortable. I could tell that she felt the same way. At times she would glance at me quickly, wanting to say something, before deciding that she should keep quiet and turn the other way.

“Hollie,” I said. I couldn’t stand the awkwardness anymore. “I’m so sorry about what I did earlier; you know that I really didn’t mean it.”

She smiled at me warmly, forgiving me immediately. It took me slightly off guard.  I saw her sighing with relief, like a heavy load was taken off her chest. “It’s okay darling,” she said. She patted the empty space next to her. “Come sit closer.” I slid closer to her and she held my hand.

Another hour went by. SpongeBob had ended and they flipped channels to watch Billy and Mandy. Watching television seemed so trivial it was comforting. It humanized the two demons, almost allowing me to forget about all the serious and heavy monster issues. It was a momentary superficial kind of peace. Because the taste of it was made bitter by my conscience, which told me that I didn’t deserve calm.

The peace didn’t last very long. The door bell rang, signaling the arrival of whatever we were waiting for.

Adan scrunched up his nose. “And we were just getting to get good part,” he said, disappointed, before making his way to the front door.

“Are we leaving after this?” I said.

“Yep,” he replied, emphasizing the ‘p’ sound.

I couldn’t see who he was talking to, but I could hear their voices. Adan was thanking the man for something, and the man was saying that it was no problem; that it was his job. There was a quick exchange of goodbyes, and then he left.

I turned around to face Adan. “What is it?”

“Mind your manners,” Adan said, waving a finger at me. “Not ‘what’; ‘who’.”

We were waiting for someone? All the while I was thinking that it was some sort of important document.

Adan pulled a timid little girl into the room, coaxing her gently as he did.

He looked at me smugly; obviously very proud of what he was doing. “You better be thanking me after this.”

She was cute brunette with endearing big brown eyes and rosy, chubby cheeks— the girl of the man I murdered.  

I was speechless and angry all at once. Adan was playing tricks on me. “Why is she here?” I stood up and pointed at the little girl. She looked slightly frightened by my action, taking a step back and holding tightly onto Adan. I flinched when I realized that I shouldn’t have done that.

Adan shrugged. “You said that you wanted to find her.”

“Yeah, but not kidnap her! What’s her mother going to think now?” I said.

His expression turned grave and serious. “She doesn’t have a mother.”

“Oh.” I drew my hand closer to my chest, too shocked to think. I had turned the girl into an orphan.

He looked at her and showed her a look of pity. “Her immediate relatives didn’t want to keep her either. I called one of my subjects to search for her; she was at an orphanage, they were trying to find her a foster parent.”

I felt so sorry for the girl, she barely looked six. “I’m so sorry. Are you alright?” I said, walking toward her before bending down to hug her tightly. I was hesitant to do so because I thought that she would try to run, but she didn’t move away or cry, like I thought she would.

Hugging her was the worse idea I ever thought off.

The scent of her blood was so sweet and enticing. I held my breath, trying to stop smelling it. But the thought of it continued to fuel my bloodlust, and it gnawed at my throat; the same way it did the last time, before I killed the little girl’s father. It was more controllable now at least— I was still conscious and well aware of my actions.

But that didn’t stop me from changing. I could feel the lengthening of my two canines. They protruded against my lips. It felt weird, uncomfortable even. My heart thumped faster. I looked at my hands, shocked to see my arteries show through my skin. What was I turning into? Whatever it was, it was invigorating. A sudden rush of adrenaline filled me. But it was disconcerting at the same time.

The girl was trying to wiggle out of my grasp.  “Um…” She didn’t know how to respond to what I was doing. I was just praying that I wouldn’t kill her, willing myself to stop the hunger. Control, I said to myself. Maybe I growled. I was hoping that I didn’t. And even if I did, it was better that she couldn’t hear it. Control. I kept telling myself to control over and over again. My skin and teeth returned to normal.

I let her go as fast as I could, not checking if there were anymore abnormalities showing. I just wanted to move away; the closer I was to her the more danger she was in.

I tucked a loose strand of hair behind my ear. She looked normal, not frightened at all; thank goodness she didn’t see me change. “Hello there,” I said and tried to smile, though I was still unable to control the quivering of my hands and lips. “What’s your name?”

The girl had a dazed look, like she was divided from her surroundings. I assumed that she wasn’t going to respond to me. Then, she tilted her head to me slowly. “Angie,” she said. “Papa said that I’m like his little Angel.” Angie looked down. Her blank expression turned into sorrow, which alarmed me greatly. Before I could do anything, she broke down into tears.

I stared helplessly at her, too afraid to bend down, because I might’ve succumbed to the bloodlust again. I turned to Hollie and flashed a pleading look. She nodded understandably, and extended a kind hand towards Angie.

“You need to rest,” Hollie said to the child. “I’ll bring you to rest, and then we can go get some ice-cream okay?”

Angie shook her head. She merely continued looking down and sobbed.

Hollie rested her hands on Angie’s cheeks. “Your daddy wouldn’t like you to be sad Angie. Your daddy wants you to be a strong little girl.”

“But daddy isn’t here anymore,” Angie said, sniffling as she sobbed. She was rubbing her eyes, like any child would when she cried. My chest tightened

Hollie gave her a warm smile. “He’s still here,” she said. “Daddy is watching over you, he’s your Angel now. If you follow me I’ll tell you all about what happened to him.” She was such a charm. I was going to have to thank her like crazy after this, especially with what I said to her the day before.

Angie nodded. “Okay,” she said with her soft, small voice. Hollie grabbed her hand and ushered her into the room next to mine. I was sure that she was going to work more of her calming magic on Angie. I should’ve been the one doing that, to offer Angie the comfort I tore away. But this terrible demon thing was being such an obstacle.

My attention shifted back to Adan, and that nonchalant attitude of his. He was sitting at the dining table, finishing off what was left of the glass of rum he poured for himself earlier. “That went rather well.” He stood up and straightened his shirt.

“You could’ve warned me,” I said, looking at him menacingly. “I almost killed her right there.”   

He laughed. “Well, I’m glad you didn’t cause you would’ve went all sad and antsy again.”

“This isn’t a joke Adan.” I sighed; talking to him was so tiring. “I needed to be prepared for this.”

He rolled his eyes and pointed his empty glass at me. “Just be glad that I actually tried to do something for you.” The demon placed his glass on the wooden table next to him and headed for the door.

I sighed, he really did do something for me. But he could have been slightly less rash about it, a little warning would have been nice. “Thank you,” I mumbled, not wanting to sound so grateful. There was a huge part of me that craved to be defiant towards Adan.

He swung the door open. “After you m’lady,” he said. He smiled at me and bowed, gesturing towards the gaping exit.

I looked at him, and then looked outside. “Huh?”

“I did say that we were going to leave after she arrived,” Adan said, “You were completely fine with it.”

I shifted my gaze towards the room she was in. “But I didn’t know that we were waiting for her.” I turned my head back and shot an incredulous look at Adan.

He reached out and grabbed my hand. “Well now you know, so let’s go.” I was tugged towards the door.

I pulled my hand back. “No!”

“What now?” He groaned, and slackened his posture in an exhausted manner.

I frowned, and shook my head. “Now that she’s here and lost, I need to be there to comfort her.”

“Oh please, you almost ate her up.”

My fingers were fidgeting. “I can control myself,” I tried to assert. Although my voice ended up slightly shaky and indecisive. I wasn’t sure about anything in this world. And control, was something that I was definitely not sure about.

Adan flashed me a look that said that he didn’t believe me at all. “Really?’ he said, raising a questioning brow.

I lifted my shoulders and bit my lip. “Maybe?”

“Sure,” Adan said, his expression saying that he totally didn’t believe me. “Just follow me; Hollie will take care of everything.” He grabbed my hand once more and dragged me out of the apartment. I didn’t object this time, and let him lead me obediently.

“Where are we going?” I asked; the streets were rather crowded down the apartment. It made me dizzy trying to ignore the delectable smells of all the… prey. The thought made me shudder. I licked my canines, trying to keep them down. A few loud growls earned me the stunned stares of some pedestrians.

Adan’s pace had slowed down. We were walking next to each other, at the speed of an average passer-by. Our hands were still locked together, mainly because I couldn’t get out of his iron grip. “Do you trust me?” he said.

“No.”

He chuckled. “We’re going for a stroll.”

I gave him a questioning look. “What?”

“Your stomach is churning and your pupils feel like dilating right?”

“Yeah,” I said, annoyed. All the pulsing veins around me were starting to make me feel very agitated.

“Normally, your cravings will lessen to considerably safe levels after a few months,” Adan said. So I had to wait a few months? That was too long. “Low enough that you’d be able to walk around here without tearing off anybody’s throat.” I so wanted to tear off the throats of all these people right then. I could almost see the blood pumping in their necks. Slowly, I nodded as a response to Adan, though my eyes were fixated on the jugulars of the passersby, many of whom gave me weird glances.

“But then, you need to hang ou—“ Adan wasn’t able to finish his sentence. All of a sudden I snapped. The pedestrians around me froze when I barred my teeth and struggled to jump out at them. Adan held my hand tightly, preventing me from killing anyone. Maybe the blue veins were showing; I was definitely able to feel my protruding canines.

“Forget.” I heard Adan say. The onlookers held still, nodded their heads, and turned to walk away. It all went by so seamlessly, like nothing happened at all.

He held onto my face and pushed me down toward the ground, hiding my grotesque form from others. “Shhh… Calm down,” he said. I was breathing very quickly, trying to bite through his hand ferociously, but it remained locked into place and his weight kept me down easily. “Calm down… calm down,” Adan repeated slowly. Soon, I did, and I felt my teeth recede to their human forms.

“Get me out of here.” I pushed Adan away to stand up, which he allowed me to do. “I can’t do this, my head hurts.”

“See, you didn’t let me finish,” he sighed. “We need to acclimatize you to this smell so that you won’t eat up Angie and get hurt another time— this is the best way.”

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. “Okay.”

I tried to hold it. I really tried my very best; but every once in a while I would snap. Once in a while meant like ten minutes by the way. I wouldn’t even know that I was going to. First, it’d be my hard breathing, and me telling myself to control. Then, before I knew it, I was a ballistic crazed blood-craving animal. For once I actually felt glad that Adan was there.

“I can’t,” I said, falling against Adan after the fourth or fifth time of an attempted crazed assault.

He lifted me up and let me steady myself on the concrete pavement. “Okay, we’ll do this again another time, now on to our next thing.”

“What is it?”

“Travelling,” he said, walking me towards the taxi stand. “Just make sure not to eat the taxi driver. Though I’d let you have him as a nice snack if you really wanted to.”

“Never.” I rubbed my hand against my forehead, thankful that this was going to be over soon.

We walked towards a nearby taxi stand and we got into a vehicle. The driver was an old man with a long wiry beard. He had a few freckles on his cheeks and a gruff voice. “Where may I take you?”

“The nearest port,” Adan said, leaning himself casually against the leather seat and placing his arms around me like I was his girlfriend. I tried to ignore it but it made my heart race, though probably for bad reasons, one way or another. The driver nodded and stepped on the accelerator. His blood was little compared to what was on the streets; it was much easier to control myself. Who knew? Adan’s method had worked considerably well. I’d be able to handle myself better in front of Angie now.

“So where are we going?” I said, jerking my left shoulder to get out of Adan’s grasp. His arm was firmly held in place. It didn’t even budge.

“The nearest port, weren’t you listening?”

“And what are we going to do there?”

He grinned at me. “It’s a surprise; you can try and guess.”

I leaned forward and rested both my palms on my eyes, fatigued by all that was happening. Guessing games weren’t really on my list to think about.

“You’re gonna love it, trust me,” he said, sure of himself. I was having butterflies in my churning stomach. I sighed, and prayed to the gods that Adan wasn’t lying that it was going to be some place I liked.