18Please respect copyright.PENANAMD5BR05X2K
The next day I was woken up by some knocking sound. I opened my eyes and saw Jack bouncing the basketball on the floor.
“Good…whatever it is now. What time is it anyway?” I asked.
“3 p.m. And I’ve been tiptoeing around you for four hours already so as not to wake you up. I got tired of being so quiet, so I decided to make some noise.”
“Sorry. So how long have I been sleeping then? Eight hours? Whoa. Usually, five-six hours is enough for me. It’s probably because of my adventures yesterday.”
With sniper-like precision, Jack threw the ball into the hoop and went toward the fridge.
“Soon you’ll need even less sleep. I sleep for about three hours a day. Another advantage of vampirism.”
I sat and started rubbing my eyes.
“Wanna have breakfast?” Jack asked.
I expressed my agreement with some unintelligible sound resembling mooing.
“Bacon or eggs?”
Jack was holding a bottle of blood in each hand.
“Bacon or eggs? What do you mean?”
“This bottle – pork blood and this one – chicken blood. I myself prefer pork, but sometimes I drink chicken for a change.”
“Is there any difference?”
“Is there a difference between chicken and pork?”
“There is, but that’s meat, not blood.”
“In some ways, you’re right. In the beginning, all types of blood will taste the same to you, but with time, you’ll learn to distinguish them. Sometimes I even create new blood cocktail recipes – like one part chicken blood, two parts pork blood, a pinch of dried up beef blood, and a bit of salt.”
“I see you’re a real foodie,” I smiled. “I’ll take chicken blood. I haven’t tried it yet.”
I caught the bottle that Jack threw to me and took several mouthfuls. It was very tasty and energizing like drinking ten cups of strong coffee. Although this time, I didn’t experience a powerful gust of emotions as I had previously. Either chicken blood was not strong enough, or I was already getting used to the vampire diet.
“This time don’t drink all at once. Usually, one bottle is enough for a whole day. Not that you’ll get fat from it, but still there are some negative effects.”
“Like what?”
“Like I told you before, we don’t get drunk from alcohol. But, it can happen with blood. It’s wild! It’s not really like being drunk, of course, so you don’t have weak legs, dizziness, or nausea. It's more like the opposite – blood acts like an amphetamine. At first everything is great – your mood improves, you become more focused and energetic, but with every additional drop the effect intensifies, and heightened attentiveness transforms into paranoia while increased physical activity turns into a true frenzy. I learned it the hard way. When I bought blood for the first time, I was so excited that drank three bottles at once. See how the wall below the basket is all dented?” Jack showed the direction with her hand. “I thrashed it unmercifully with my fists while I was, uh, under the influence. In the end, my heart started beating so fast that I thought I was gonna drop dead of a heart attack.”
I took several more sips of my “eggs”, drinking about one-third of the bottle, screwed the cap back, and threw it to Jack.
“So, how do you get money?” I asked. “All of this must have cost a lot.”
“To be honest, I don’t spend much. This place, as you see, was abandoned, so I don’t pay rent. Electricity and water are also free – I steal them from my neighbors. I made the connection to the textile factory, the only facility that still works here. I buy blood from the meat factory – it’s cheaper than human food. Yes, I have a great TV, a sofa, and PS, but in case you haven’t noticed yet, they are the only luxury goods in the whole house. Besides, I make some money doing one-time jobs. I could find a regular job, but I don’t want to risk it. You do the work, you get money, and you move on, without any paperwork and awkward questions.”
“What kind of jobs? I’d like to make some money – I don't have any cash left, and I don’t want to become a burden to you.”
“Who said I’ll allow you to become a burden?” Jack smiled. “Actually, tomorrow night I have a job, and I was planning to take you with me.”
“Great! Looking forward to it.”
“Deal. And now go brush your teeth. We’re going to town to buy you the stuff you need.”
I nodded and went to the bathroom. When I came back, Jack was already standing near the exit.
“Here, rub a bunch of this all over yourself,” she said and threw a tube of sunscreen into my hands. “Usually I try not to leave home in the daytime, but it’s not likely that we’ll find a shop that sells mattresses and pajamas 24 hours a day. Never forget to use sunscreen before going out during the day, even if it’s cloudy outside. Do you have sunglasses?”
I shook my head.
“We need to buy those, too, then. Unfortunately, our eyes are more sensitive to sunlight too. And also it’s cool to walk around in shades.” Jack took a pair of aviator sunglasses with gold mirrored lenses out of her pocket.
She pulled down the massive chain hanging near the exit and set the ‘door’ in motion. The iron gate started to crawl up with squeaks. I walked outside. In the light of day, Halen Street district didn’t look so scary, but it was still as deserted as it was last night. After letting me out, Jack let go of the chain, and the gate started to slowly come down, giving her time to run out beneath the gate.
“What about locking up? What if someone tries to rob you?” I asked.
“I have a lock. It’s anti-human. The gate has a counterweight of four hundred pounds. We can lift it, humans can’t... unless we’re robbed by Arnold Schwarzenegger.”
“Four hundred pounds? You can lift four hundred pounds?!” I exclaimed, surprised.
“And you can’t?” Jack asked.
“I don’t think so. It’s freaking four hundred pounds!”
“Have you ever tried?”
“Of course not! I’m not crazy you know.”
“You should stop thinking like a human. You are a vampire now – you have fangs, you like to drink blood, and you can lift crazy amounts of weight. Go try it!”
“I feel like that type of strain could untie my belly button…” I said, hesitantly.
“Come on, don't be a chicken! You can do it.”
I looked at Jack distrustfully, then at the gate, then at Jack again. She nodded toward the two handles, welded to the bottom of the gate. I exhaled, squatted, grabbed the handles, and prepared myself for the unfortunate scene of watching the gate stay put and my guts fall out.
“Come on, go for it! The key is to lift with your legs, and not with your back.”
I strained my muscles and pulled the gate up. It moved! It didn’t move very easily, but I managed to lift those four hundred pounds on my first try. And my eyes didn’t even pop out! Jack patted me on my back.
“Good job. And now lift that one,” she pointed to the identical iron gate a foot away from the first one.
“What? Another one? Why?”
“We, my friend, are going to town. Do you see a bus stop anywhere?”
I shook my head.
“So that means we need wheels, and they’re right there.”
I approached the second gate, squatted, and lifted it up.
“Wow!” I opened my mouth in surprise.
A beautiful muscle car with a polished black body and a firebird on the hood was looking at me from the depths of the garage.
“Yep, there it is, 70’s Pontiac Firebird. And under the hood is the most powerful engine in the history of the series. They say its exhaust kills one polar bear every hour,” Jack laughed. “Wanna drive?”
My jaw involuntarily dropped.
“Are you serious?”
“Of course. You know how to drive, right?”
“Yeah, I do. But I’ve never driven anything like that.”
“Don’t worry. This car in this condition costs just around a hundred thousand bucks.”
I swallowed nervously. She threw me the keys and sat in the passenger seat. I carefully squeezed into the leather seat and started the car. In the small garage, the roar of a huge engine almost deafened me. I stepped on the gas, and the herd of horses that lived under the Firebird’s hood, shot the car forward so violently that I barely had time to turn the wheel to avoid bumping into the wall of the neighboring building.
About an hour later, we got to the nearest mega mall where we bought everything we needed. Jack was dashingly sweeping everything that she thought I might need off of the shelves. At first, I tried to tell her not to choose the expensive stuff, most of which definitely wasn’t included on the list of essentials, but my new friend stubbornly rejected all of my complaints. We returned home at twilight. All night we played The Last of Us Part II, occasionally taking breaks to stretch our legs by playing basketball. At 7 a.m., Jack wished me ‘good morning’ and went to her room. I took off my clothes, lied down on the mattress, put my hands behind my head, and stared at the ceiling.
I was thinking about my home, Mom, Dad, Mary, and, of course, Chris. How are they? What’s my mom doing now? Is she crying into her pillow all night long? And what about Chris? Is he worried about my disappearance, or does he hate me and hope that I am already dead somewhere in a ditch? I felt very sad. I was well aware that what I did inflicted suffering on my nearest and dearest. But what else could I do? After all, I did it to protect them.
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