Chapter 10

Kiran

Audry was the first to wake up. She moved a little and I scooted my arm from where it was draped over her.

I could lay next to her like this forever.

At some point yesterday we’d gone to Wendy’s to get food. I’d finally felt a little hungry but took just a bite or two before I was full. I had a hunch it was actually our encounter in the woods that had filled me up.

“So what’s on the docket today?” I asked as she flipped over to face me. “More impressive feats of strength and agility?”

“Maybe… I’m still really tired.”

Oh.

“I guess sleeping in a car two nights in a row probably isn’t the best sleep.”

“Mm,” she nodded as she pressed into me.

“You don’t think this has to do with me maybe sapping a little bit of your soul yesterday... does it?”

“What? Maybe… More the car thing.”

She tucked her head under my chin and I pulled her in.

“I really don’t want to hurt you.”

“I know. That’s why I trust you. Jack would’ve killed me by now.”

“What? I mean… I guess if he killed me over the weekend I judged him kinda wrong. He just always seemed so… gentle-hearted.”

“Trust me Kira, you don’t want to know who he is underneath.”

Huh. You think you know a guy.

We spent about an hour simply laying there. I scrolled through my phone while she stayed curled up until finally she decided to stop giving sleep a chance and pulled herself up.

“First stop, gas station.”

“We low on gas?”

“Well, yes. But also I need a shitty donut.”

“Heard you loud and clear.”

I climbed into the driver’s seat and we pulled out of the hidden parking lot we’d been in and over to the main road.

“Need anything?” Audry asked as we pulled to a stop at the gas pump.

I just smiled at her frizzy bedhead. “Only you.”

“Heh, simp.”

She dawdled over to the gas station shop while I filled up the tank.

A few years ago I broke my right index finger and it had never healed right. So at gas pumps, I liked to hold the pump with only that finger to try and use it as a strengthening exercise.

I stood with my back to the car, flexing and releasing my hand. It seemed easier than usual.

The car on the other side of the pump had been without a person for a moment, I presumed because they were inside grabbing something, and I watched as a girl about my age walked over.

I looked down, not wanting to look like I was staring.

“Hey,” she said, trying to get my attention through the space between the pump and the little wall next to it with the trashcan and windshield cleaner. “Do you know how to get this thing to work? It’s not taking my card.”

“Oh. Uh…” Mine had worked without issue and talking to strangers was stressful. “Mine just kinda worked.”

“Shit! I think my card is stuck now.” She attempted to pull it out to no avail. “Could you help, I’m running late for something and don’t want to run in and ask the guy at the counter.”

Wow. Uh… weird. I guess this was like a girl code thing. I’d never been approached like this before.

“Yeah, here.” I put up the little flap thing on my pump so it would continue to go while I helped her.

I walked around to the other side of the pump. “You said the card is stuck in the little reader thingy?”

“Yeah, I think so.”

“Okay.” I leaned in forward to see if there was a card and failed to see one. “You sure you put your card in?”

Then I felt a firm pressure in my back, and her voice on the back of my neck.

“I know this is sketchy as fuck, but I know who you are, demon girl.”

Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck.

“I need your help.”

“Well if you know what I am, you’d know to back off.” I tried sounding way more confident than I actually was in hopes I could scare her off.

“You’re not the only freak of nature around here.” The pressure in my back quickly began to hurt and I grimaced. “And I’m not the only other one either. Like I said. I need your help.”

“And threatening me is going super well for you. Look, I’ve got my own problems.”

“Trust me. Your problems are my problems. I’ve been… following you.”

Oh shit.

“You’re that girl from the other night. You didn’t show up in my camera. Holy fuck… you’re a vampire.”

“What? How did you figure that out?”

“Can’t take a picture of a vampire and you said you were a demon. Well, demon adjacent.”

“Dumbass, I just moved out of the way before you saw me.”

“Oh.” I was losing confidence fast.

“Okay, cut the shit and come with me.”

Nope. If after-school specials taught me anything, it was to be wary of secondary locations. Shit. But I wasn’t anywhere near as powerful as I’d been yesterday. Unless… the one thing that had worked before I’d even kissed was the weird seduction exercise. Maybe I could try that?

“Uh… kiss me.”

“What!? Are you crazy?”

“Shit! Uh… I mean… Turn around and take your hands off of me.”

“I can see what you’re trying to do. You’re way worse at this than the other guy.”

“Other guy!?”

“Shit. She’s coming back.”

“Huh? Just… get off of me and stay away!”

And just like that the pain in my back lifted and I whirled around to see the girl had once again vanished, whisps of wind blowing around me.

“Kira? Everything okay?” Audry was back. She looked worried.

“Well…” Should I tell her? Would it worry her?

“When I got out I saw you talking to some redhead.”

“Yeah… her card got stuck and…”

“You really shouldn’t be talking to strangers. We don’t know who or what could be after us.”

“You think someone is after us!?”

“No. I’m just…” She walked over and wrapped her arms around my waist. “I don’t want anyone else to try and hurt you.”

I laughed a little bit. “I’m the one with superpowers and you’re afraid for me.”

“Gotta protect my girlfriend.”

I went wide-eyed. “Girlfriend?”

“Yeah, I mean… we already said we love each other. I feel like this would be a step backward if anything.” She got up on her toes, leaned in super close, and turned at the last minute, planting a kiss on my forehead. “That is okay, right?”

“Uh, hell fucking yeah! Yeah totally of course!”

She flashed me a small smile. “Good.” Then she looked around and walked around to get in the car. “Now, no more talking to strangers.”

I almost did a dance. “Hehehe. Girlfriend…”

“You really are a simp,” she said as I turned the key in the ignition.

Brianna

Well, that hadn’t gone… well.

I watched the girl drive off and let out an annoyed sigh, knowing I’d have to spend a good long while following them.

Why couldn’t she just… go with the vibe. Fucking understand! Was that so hard? I felt like the other guy had been almost reading my mind, but this girl still thought vampires didn’t have a reflection.

That’s just on old-timey silver mirrors… idiot.

If I’d had my full strength I could’ve kept her around. Or run off with her long enough to actually explain.

But my arm…

Hours later and it still hadn’t healed totally. It felt weak or something, I dunno. It’d been so long since I had a serious injury that I kind of forgot what they were like. Maybe I was being a baby.

Speaking of my arm, I used it to grab onto a tree branch and it gave it out. My fingers loosened and I fell to the root-laden ground rolling over myself a few times as I watched the car drive out of view over a hill.

I screamed.

Then I started banging my fist into the nearest rock. The rock eventually split. My hand was as fine as it was pre-rock.

“Fuck that stupid knife! And that stupid guy! And—”

Thank goodness I wasn’t hungry. This would not have been the best time, and I worried what a hangry me might turn to.

Two years of feeling invincible. If I couldn’t be hurt then maybe that night didn’t hurt me. Two years of being as different as I could. If I was a different person then that night happened to someone else. Two years of being a predator. If I was the hunter, then I couldn’t feel the fear.

Why had I even come back?

This place meant nothing but hurt to me.

I watched people die. Brutally. Repeatedly.

I was forced to kill someone. Bloody. Murder.

He’d gotten in my head. That asshole had gotten in my head and… maybe I still didn’t know what was me anymore.

What did I owe this girl? She didn’t want my help. The last time I tried helping someone… it ended in several deaths including my own.

Why did I come back here?

Why did I leave the enclave? I was comfortable there. I got along. Kara was a mother and a friend.

It had only been two fucking years.

Sure I was immortal, so two fucking years might as well have been a day. Which means in the last minute I’d had my ass handed to me and rejected.

That girl had powers.

Kind of.

If she got a better grip maybe she stood a chance against the other guy.

Fuck…

I started coughing. It was the prelude to tears that I was holding back.

Fuck!

What good was I? I couldn’t be the predator. I didn’t have the strength when I fucking wanted it. I was still that scared kid or worse… the confused airhead my grandfather had tried to make me into.

I picked up my phone and stared at my favorites.

Maybe it was time I went home.

blue98

It's interesting pacing two different characters so that their arcs are intersecting without lining up and still feeling properly done and well-motivated. Also, the scariness of the story is kind of getting away from me and I feel like it's more of a like emotionally distressed super-power story than a thriller or horror, but maybe that's just in my head. Let me know.