Hello? How Are You? (4)
1117 Words
Chapter 4: Hello? How Are You? (4)
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The following day I was so bewildered by everything that I zoned out in all my classes, I didn’t eat anything during the day either… The only time I snapped out of it all was when my father suddenly invited me out for lunch…
“Kid, you don’t seem to be doing too well…” My dad remarked while tilting his head to the side, he furrowed his brow a bit, I could tell he was worried about me.
“I’m just a bit tired…” I replied, it wasn’t a lie, it just wasn’t the truth either.
“Well, we can’t have that! It’s your birthday soon! And your old man wanted to make is special…” My dad said, a bit disappointed at my less than excited state.
“Ah… haha… sorry…” I apologized a bit. I knew he wouldn’t be angry with me, but my dad wasn’t the type of person I could tell stuff like these to. Even less the entire ordeal about vampires… then yet… “Hey.. um… do you believe in…” I paused for a bit, my dad looked interested and his eyes glanced at me with a questioning look. “Vampires?” I asked then chuckled.
But as I tried to play it off as an innocent joke, my dad’s expression grew more serious than ever before.
“So the time really has come…” Dad said in such a manner that it nearly sent shivers down my spine. I felt the tension in the air grow ticker but I didn’t understand why that was. “You must have had an encounter with a vampire, were you hurt?” He asked while grabbing hold of my hand and examining it.
“No… I nearly… stabbed it and I was fine…” I lied, somehow I couldn’t tell him I was actually dating a vampire, but I didn’t know why I told him I’d killed one instead.
“Really? Without any prior knowledge… you truly are my daughter, I’m so proud of you. I hope it was a good knife, vampires don’t die from just anything so you probably only bought yourself enough time to runaway.” The way my father began calmly analyzing the situation made me even more nervous.
“How do you know so much about them?” I asked, although at that point I didn’t even want to know the answer at all.
“Katlyn… I’m sorry it took me so long to tell you, and I hate you hate to encounter one of those beasts on your own before I could train you properly…” My father had a look of guilt plastered across his face.
“Train me to do what?” I asked even more concerned than before.
“Kill them.” He said as if it was obvious. “See kid… our family has been hunters for centuries, we’ve brought down some of the biggest pray with our own hands, it’s in our blood.” My father, a man that I had only thought to be a normal 45 year old man with his hobby of hunting once a year, was now talking to me as if we were some royal blood that mattered.
“We’re what? What about mom?” I asked a bit baffled by it all, it’s not like she could be in on it as well, right?
“Your mother, me, your grandparents, aunts, uncles… all of us are hunters.” My dad spoke in a manner that made me blink quickly.
“Um…” I hesitated to speak, scared I’d say the wrong thing unknowingly.
“The reason we had to wait until we told you about it, is because we didn’t want to involve you in our world… The extinction of vampires has almost ended and there are only a handful of them left now… They can’t reproduce anymore ever since-” Dad cut himself off as if he couldn’t speak on the matter. “Look… we shouldn’t be speaking about this out in the open, chances are there is someone listening in to us… so I don’t want you to worry, alright? We’ll talk about this later at home.”
“Right…” I agreed by nodding my head but that felt like my troubles had just began…
While walking back towards the University I noticed a familiar silhouette waiting for me out front, hidden in darkness, he stood there with a smile on his face.
“Why, are you here?” I asked, Daniel took a long look around and finally embraced me. It was so strange and yet comforting to be pressed against his chest at that moment.
Why did I feel more assured in the arms of a vampire than I did by the words of my father? I couldn’t really recognize dad by the way he spoke to me, I was left conflicted…
“I have to tell you something-” I uttered but he placed his cold hand on the side of my cheek and caressed it lightly.
“I already know.” He said without as much as a quiver in his voice.
“If you know then why are you here?” I asked while looking up at him, I wasn’t angry but I raised my voice a bit. I was frustrated and I guess it was him that I ended up letting steam on.
“I wanted to hear your answer… Do you want to be with me now that you know the truth?” Daniel asked, his voice was low, he didn’t dare step into the sun. His cold hand pressed against my cheek reminded me he wasn’t human.
“I…” Thinking back on everything that happened… The very short while I spend with this man and the electric feeling I felt each time he kissed me… combined with the warmth and reassurance that I’ve experienced for the very first time from him and no one else…
What kind of answer should I give him?
He said he’d never look for me again once I reject him… so I only have to give back that knife to him… but… I didn’t bring it with me…
Now that I looked back up at him… he glanced down at me again, I was crotched on the ground looking through my backpack to no avail. Even an i***t like me wouldn’t bring that knife to school, people would think I was trying to do something…
…but another part of me thought that I didn’t want to give it back to him…
So I had to make this choice now…
- Writer
