Chapter 54: She and He

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Obie was standing underneath the showerhead, permitting the ice freezing water droplets to comb through her dry brown kinks and escape down the back of her nape. Despite the darkness of her awfully ruined skin, the water cascading down her body was camouflaged into her brownness and skimmed onto the white tile in forms of intersecting black streams. Mindlessly, Obie stepped back, not missing the cold touch of the shower's kisses. She grabbed the brand new bar of Irish Spring soap that she found in the bottom cabinet below the sink and rubbed it against an exfoliating loofah.

To the normal person, water, soap and privacy was the brilliant combination to make modern day heaven.

To Obie, they were simple matter.

They were material things as she thought about her legs tied down on the hood of a car.

They were unimportant substances as she counted the amount of men who took turns, while the small breaks they took was catered to her mouth.

They were minor uses of life as she recalled not being able to walk in days and hid inside her home as her parents tried to break in each night.

Obie looked at the nail indented scars on both of her high thighs, flinching as she remembered the squeeze. Her emotions took another turn as she felt an urge come out of her body in the form of a blasting chill and shook a large tile out the ceiling. Her instinct was to move out of the way, but her feet stayed solid to the ground for a reason she'd like to circumvent from speaking about.

As the tile touched the tip of her nose, it began floating in the air and rotating, causing Obie to back up and watch the tile in fascination. Around the white tile, there were colorful holographic waves projecting from the corners, where it disappeared and reappeared in a repetitive glowing motion. Curiously, she touched the corner with the tip of her finger and pushed the marble, spinning it around in full circles. The fluorescent lights circled with time and created a sphere of gleaming blues, purples, pinks, and yellows as the tile shaped like a diamond following the speed.

Suddenly, the tile shot right back up onto the high ceiling and slid off from her view.

Obie twisted her lip and looked at the silhouette created by the opaque shower curtains. Carefully, she peeked her head out of the shower. Her shoulders glistening with cold water, slight pooling within her collar bones and dripping over her scrawny physique. Her head poked out the glass to see the vampire cross legged on the floor with his chin in his hands. He was staring at Burrito who was huddled on top of a laundry basket beside him. Contrary to her beliefs, Burrito was sitting stiffly and not moving away from the vampire. Instead, she was on high alert, but waited patiently with him like a child who was sitting next to another troubled child outside the principal's office. Another surprise was the vampire's response to Burrito. She expected his look of immense disgust to paint on his solemn innocent face, but it was blank.

Empty.

Lost.

Lost in thought.

Of what exactly?

She bit her lip.

He wasn't thinking about what she said, was he?

No. Impossible.

His first reaction gave it away. No matter how many books he read or how much blood he shed, he couldn't grasp reality fully with the assistant of story lined pages. She suppose words with surface level meanings had the same effect as words without definition. If there wasn't any full comprehension behind the meanings of words and their influence, how blissful it might have been to understand the world with pure ignorance. Corruption nor violence nor happiness could seize his mind in any sort of justified or dangerous fascination.

Then again, he was enthralled with Obie.

Kind of made her wonder about herself.

But it also made her comfortable to know she didn't have to deal with pitiful and guilty stares. They asked her about her scars. They got it. Now they can live with it in the most insubstantial manner possible.

"Hey." Obie said.

His head continued to face the wall, but his eyes twitched back and forth towards the wall and her. "I no see."

She frowned. "English. You lose all literacy when we're secluded, you know that?"

"Your private areas." He squeezed his eyes shut.

"You can't see me." Obie murmured. "So you're fine."

"I see outline."

An outline of what supposedly? An outline of a woman who looked more related to hunching branches spouting out of the trees of fall than a homosapien. Normally, Obie was conscious of exposing the vampire to certain specifics about her, but she never thought those particulars would be physical. There were boundaries, yes. But boundaries in a limitless world of chaos were paper thin promises meant to be broken. Once they are crossed, the world didn't appear as precious anymore.

No longer pure.

No longer wanted.

Cursed with a ruined reputation that didn't necessarily matter to society anymore. Just battles between the weak and the strong and the casualties that occur within the conflict.

She was weak in that moment.

Her untouched virginity later became her gruesome causality.

So why should she care if he saw.

She knew the answer.

If she stopped caring, Obie would succumb to the destruction meant to compromise her mental state. She had to pretend to care to hold on to her humility, which was a sign of innocence.

Obie murmured. "I'm glad you're not seeing anything important."

As Obie switched her gaze to Burrito, she realized she wasn't the only one who needed a bath. She grabbed a bowel from outside the shower and let it fill with the cold water. Unlike her situation, she'll heat it up for Burrito. She shouldn't have to suffer what could be avoided for her.

The vampire didn't like the sudden silence. He reopened the sudden closed conversation and leaned forward with his hands brushing through his fresh platinum hair. "I see things. I see you."

In that instant, she went still.

Obie's mind abandoned her. Disconnected from her physical matter. Then, allowed control to habituate through her body as her skin rose with goosebumps and erected hairs. It was the calling of his odor, beckoning the blood in her body to rejoin with his. Her legs loosened like she was standing on stilts made of boiled spaghetti.

Obie drew in a deep breath and closed the shower glass completely. Not so much to hide her body from him, but her reaction to herself.

The vampire rushed to correct. "I see through you."

Breathlessly, she murmured and threw her head under the cold water to trigger some sense into her human mind as it tried to separate from her vampire-compromised body. "Oh dear God."

He whispered. "Your eyes."

Her head popped out again. Her sudden interest won against her biology, "What do you mean?"

"I see through your eyes. I see what you see."

"All the time?" She asked slowly.

He shook his head. "Sometimes."

"When." Invasion of privacy was a skill to this vampire man.

He tucked his knees into his chest and turned towards the white sink. She doubt he was admiring its pearly color. He mumbled. "At the market store..."

"Okay?" She prompted. "That doesn't sound like you are finished."

He held up two fingers. "Three times."

His counting was a bit off. "What did you exactly see?"

"You tied by Logan. You hurt by Logan. You hurt by those like me." He said in a strain. "You about to die."

Obie thought silently, recalling those times since they were only couple weeks ago. A light bulb lit in her head. "You're the one who made me nauseous."

"Uh uh." He shook his head.

"Uh huh." Obie said. "That shit was horrible."

"Don't understand."

Obie could have clarified, but she rather let him be oblivious as if she didn't know he was peeping on her. She was particularly surprised about not freaking out. That meant she been too long away from the normal. "What about home?"

"Home?" His dark brows furrowed over his sparkling blues.

"Yeah. I think you did it when I was home." It was the night Obie cuffed her arm to the radiator in case she turned into a vampire. When she woke up from the horrible dream of her father's turning, she found she was still human. Though, she was nauseous and saw an astral projection of a man's hand healing as she felt pain from the wound. "Did you cut your finger against my door some time ago? After we first met."

He nodded. "Yes. Sun came. I had to leave."

"And it healed the same moment?"

"Ye."

"You did link to me then."

"No."

What. How was it possible? Did Obie link to him? She couldn't have. He didn't drink her blood. She drank his blood, which was why he had access to her cognitive functions. But...she remembered the first day they met when he healed her wounds.

He licked her.

"Have you done it since?"

"No."

"Why?"

"You shock me." The vampire looked down, sorrowfully.

"What do you mean?"

"I saw your..." he tapped his chin. "Images in your head."

"What did you see?"

"Little Obie like Little Piper. Sit in car. With regular parents. They blurry. You clear. They talk about-" He began to stutter, taking the metal rod out of his pocket and twisting it anxiously. "Shock therapy."

Then, it occurred to Obie. That wasn't a dream at all. She was riding in the back of a car, wearing a baggy sweater with her parents in the front. Yet, the familiarity was different. Whereas for as long as she could remember, she found no other solitude than the familiar warmth from her mother and father. Whereas in the memory, the feeling was lost and the connection was underdeveloped in a manner that emerged as only friendly. She recalled their discussion about Shock Therapy with means to make Obie forget, but she didn't remember the actual session. The vampire experienced what she had disregarded. Not only he saw her memory, he took it too.

She pressed her head against the glass. "This life is...it's like a never ending spin. "

The vampire moped guiltily. "You're not mad?"

Obie said wearily, acknowledging her anger resided with her parents than him. "I'm tired of getting upset with you. It's not helping anyone but putting more gasoline to the fire. I have one goal."

"Find out truth."

"Right...that doesn't mean you can keep linking to me and giving me blood to get into my memories." She said sternly.

"I don't see images when I give my blood. That was one time." He shook his head. "I see images when I feed."

Imagining his teeth pressed against her skin made her eyes flutter and she cowered in shame. "For sure?"

"Mhmm." He side eyed Burrito and purposely hitting the laundry basket so she'd get off. She hissed at him and stayed.

What if...

Never mind. That wasn't an option.

"What else can you do? Ability wise."

"Why?" He asked, straightening his legs and leaning his arm on the basket top where Burrito made room; not to be nice, but to inch away from him.

"Because..." Obie didn't want to say it but she had no choice with how things were going. "I could probably do the same stuff. It's nice to know how to control them until I'm fixed."

"Fixed?"

"Yes. Normal again."

The vampire stopped twisting the metal rod. "Can I be fixed?"

She was shocked. "Why would you want to be?"

"Why would you want to be?"

Obie said in disbelief. "Smart ass. Getting worse every day."

"I want to be regular, regular Obie." He said seriously.

"Till then, learn how to be regular." Obie thought about the awkward sit down. "I know you don't like how they made me feel. Trust me, I don't either. But that's how the world works sometimes. It doesn't work on behalf of your feelings. It works on behalf of people's judgments and decisions. We don't have to like it, but you can learn something from reality. It's either blissfully cruel or unbearably invigorating. You can either experience both separately or choose to live in the gray area."

"What's that?"

"The gray area is... just hoping." Obie said faintly. "Hoping for more or less out of life while experiencing none of it."

"Is rape blissfully cruel or unbearably invigorating?" He tested her logic sensibly.

Her tone flattened. "Both. Depending on who is on what end of the deed."

He murmured. "So it's cruel to who?"

"To me. Not to them."

"Who is them?"

"Doesn't matter. Especially to someone who doesn't even know what rape is, but I doubt you're evil enough to even do that." Obie said doubtfully. "If you really want to know, look it up. I'm not in the right frame of mind to explain it to someone who will never understand."

"Because I'm not regular?"

"Because it never happened to you." Obie touched her inner thighs and pinched the scars to try to replace the memory with her self-harm. "I hope you don't lose that ignorance. Or anyone else for that matter. It's not something I want to share with someone."

He frowned. "You're so sad, regular Obie."

Obie's hand began to shake as the strength of her pinch couldn't go pass the limit. The bruise was taking time to arise, though she could break a brick wall, but not her own skin. "Do you feel that or see that?"

"Both."

"How ironic. I don't."

"What do you feel?"

"Nothing." She said hollowly. "Nothing at all."

The vampire sighed. "I happy I can feel anything from you, regular Obie. Sadness too."

Obie hung her head down as she began washing her body again. "You say that until I decide I'm done with this world."

He

Moments later, Klei was hovering over regular Obie as she waltzed down the hallway with nothing, but a bright red towel wrapped around her tiny physique. Burrito was hanging onto her shoulder as her body was pressed against regular Obie's chest. The disgusting animal stared at him for a few moments in protective mode, then casted away to other directions. For once, Klei related to Burrito. They could be enemies in private, but in public where their true opponents were, they were allies who wanted Obi safe.

As soon as they walked out the bathroom, Piper was waiting at end of the hallway with those two regular women. She tried to run towards Obie, but the regular women held her back in disapproval with reprehensible expressions on their weird faces.

"Klei! Klei!" Piper tried to speak out as the girls led her into the bathroom.

He ignored her, following Obie's detached deposition. Her eyes casted down the entire walk, avoiding the group members like they were death. It was only a few of them here, anyway. They dared not to overstep their boundaries and test his patience nor Burrito's. Although, as he looked at one female regular, he realized not everyone was able to be sane.

She belonged to Percy.

Her name was...

Darcy.

Darcy stepped in front of regular Obie with legs wobbling as if they were breaking down from weight. She brought a small green box and shoved it in Obie's chest before she could react. Obie opened her mouth to scowl as he sensed her heated passion seeping through, but the girl muttered three words. "This will help."

And when Obie looked at it, she didn't mutter three words back.

Swiftly, Darcy's blushed face ducked under her hair as she walked away. Obie's head trailed after her as she rotated the green box in her hand with subtle care. She looked over her shoulder with flat eyes and said to him, "Let's go."

"What's that?" He asked curiously.

"Tea." She answered stiffly.

"Tea?" He grunted in repulsion. "Pfft. Regular food."

They continued towards their temporary room. As soon as Obie turned into the threshold, he sensed an unacceptable living being walking up the staircase. Ew Logan had his dull eyes on Obie as she waltzed into the room. He was close to calling her name, parting his lips for a quick call of attention. But then Klei moved his body behind Obie's, blocking the regular male's view on her.

Immediately, he looked up in surprise and caught the intense glare of Klei's orbs. Feeling the threat of a teenage boy who took him down a step.

Klei turned away and slammed the door shut. "Dumb ass."

Obie said in confusion. "What did you just call me?"

"Not talking to you." He went to his side of the room to find a book he could read for the night.

So much for making friends today. "Where did you learn those words?"

He shrugged. "You called me that before."

"Yikes." She mumbled under her breath and raised her voice. "Face the wall and don't turn around till I say so."

Why couldn't he look at her?

He turned his head in confusion, realizing Obie's towel was drifting off her body and slapped on the ground.

Klei turned back around stiffly.

She was getting naked.

He couldn't look.

He could look.

He wasn't allowed to look.

In the shower, he saw a hazy brown figure, but nothing he could show the details in his imagination. He always wanted to know what regular Obie looked like naked just because he was curious. He knew what he looked like naked. Would it be fair to see her too?

His head started to turn again.

No!

He snapped his head back to the wall.

Private.

Obie's privates were private.

No one can see.

Not he.

Not anyone else, but Obie.

He cannot offend Obie.

But he wanted to.

Klei's head twitched back and forth as he fought his neck to stay still and not rotate. But his curiosity won as his eyes caught on to Obie.

He couldn't help but look at her and it was too late to see anything, but he always saw something extraordinary in Obie. His blue eyes glowing unnaturally bright in the dark as he gazed at her.

Her outfit was different.

She was wearing a black tight shirt, completely bare from the stomach down to her hips. Below, she wore baggy pants. She called them cargos. Their color was a milk chocolate brown, which was the color of her hair. However, Obie decided to shave her miniature cloud of hair till it showed her clean scalp. He tried not to complain because he admired her hair. He wanted it as big and full like the picture he had in his pocket. But she said it was uneven and dry to the extent the sun was lightening her hair to the color of sand. That was unhealthy and itched a lot. Come to find out, he liked her bald head. It wasn't bald bald, deceptively. She considered her new hairstyle a fade. She joked about having "waves" now and he didn't know what that meant, but he saw the transformation as she brushed it forward. It looked new, shiny and slightly lighter than her own very dark skin tone.

He started to acknowledge her facial features the way they explained in books. Her eyebrows were full, curved and blended into her skin from honey brown in the majority to dark brown at the edges. Her high cheekbones weren't pointy as he first met her. They were gradually blending into her skin, giving her a diamond shaped face than the oval. Her lips didn't look as full because her face was rounding out, but it was still big. His blood worked on Obie more than he thought. She was barely eating regular food, yet gaining weight.

Was this what Piper meant by Obie being pretty? How

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