“So,” I urged as we entered into our apartment, “What did you think?” Gerard grinned and spun around so that he could wrap his arms around my waist.
“You know I thought it was fun,” He giggled into my ear. I laughed and pulled away.
“Yeah, but hearing you say it makes it official.”
“Whatever you say Frankie baby,” He called strolling off in the direction of the bedroom and the space that held his art supplies. “I wanna get started on the merch and on the idea for your hallway.”
I followed him into the room, leaning on the doorpost to watch him. The master bedroom itself wasn’t much. The walls were a pale grey with white trim and borders. The furniture was very minimal, consisting of a bed, a side drawer, a dresser, and a small desk for Gee in the corner. The desk was meant for him to do his art at, but oddly enough it rarely got used. Gerard usually got ideas for drawings or paintings at fuck o’clock in the morning and would act on them. After going through a couple of sleepless nights because of him moving around the room I finally complained to him. From there out he took all his late night ideas to other parts of the house, usually the living room.
I watched as he grabbed a sketchbook and sat down at the desk, staring blankly ahead for a moment or two before hesitantly touching the fresh pencil to the paper. I decided to leave him to it, full well aware of the fact that once he got started he would be fully immersed in his work.
Instead I walked to the kitchen, humming lightly under my breath a song that I couldn’t remember the name to.
I’m not quite myself these days
Guess we all come undone time to time in different ways
Well I have myself to blame
Guess I don’t understand I need help in many ways…
I stopped humming when I heard a light knock sound on the door. Glancing at the clock I was shocked to see that it was almost six pm and that we have been home for over an hour. It didn’t seem like that long.
I walked over to the door and peered through the peephole, trying to see whom it was. I hoped that it was Mikey coming to see his older brother to talk. However, the figure on the other side of the door was neither male, nor a relative of Gee’s. I flung the door open.
“Jamia?” She stood outside the door with a look of slight annoyance on her face. In her hand was a bag but she was holding it tightly shut to ensure that no wandering eyes would see inside.
“Well?” She still looked annoyed and uptight, “You gonna let me in?” I nodded and waved her inside. Once she was in and the door shut she relaxed.
“Frankie who is it?” Gerard called from the bedroom, probably still bent over his beloved sketchpad.
“It’s Jamia Gee,” I called back while ushering her over to a spot on the couch. “Please sit,” I told her, waving my hand at the couch.
Suddenly Gerard was beside me, using vampire speed to get from the bedroom to the living room. He saw her and seemed to pale slightly.
“Oh um uh…hi?” He stammered staring at her awkwardly.
“Hi” She said very friendly, standing up and holding her hand out for him to shake. “I’m Jamia. And you must be Gerard. Frank talks about you a lot. It’s a pleasure to finally meet you”
“Oh uh y-you too.”
I shot him a confused look but he just stared at his shoes. Jamia shot me a sideways glance and I just shrugged. I didn’t know what was up with him right now. He acted normal at band practice.
“Anyway…” Jamia began, breaking an awkward silence that I hadn’t even realized there had been until she had spoken. “So I brought you the blood early.” She handed me the bag in her hands. I took it and peered inside. There looked to be enough blood to last the two of us at least three months. Odd.
“There’s extra,” I pointed out, setting the bag on the coffee table.
“Well you see that’s another reason I brought it over to your apartment today. I really needed to talk to you.”
Welp, this didn’t sound good at all.
“Okay let’s talk.” I grabbed Gerard’s hand and directed him towards the love seat, which was against the wall next to the couch. I sat down and leaned forward, resting my elbows on my knees.
“So, I don’t know exactly why you need so much blood and so often, but I’m pretty sure I have a good idea,” I opened my mouth to speak but she held up her hand to stop me. “You probably think I’m way off but you’d be surprised with what I know.” She started pointedly at Gerard. “Also you might wanna lay of the speed when company comes over.” Gerard gasped and my mouth dropped open. He had used vampire speed to get to the living room when she had first arrived. “That being said I don’t understand everything and to be honest right now, I’d really rather not.”
“But you understand that we really do need the blood?” I asked gripping Gerard’s hand tightly. She nodded and both of us sighed in relief.
“Which leads to why I’m here early and why there is extra blood.” She paused for a moment and shot us apologetic eyes. “The day after tomorrow I’m leaving with the Red Cross to go to Tanzania for six months in order to provide aid to their citizens.”
We sat there for a moment, letting what she had said fully sink in.
“There’s only about three months of blood in that bag…” I began. She nodded in grim confirmation.
“It was the most I could get away without raising too much suspicion Even then I was really pushing it this time...”
I nodded. “Yeah, Jamia I really do. You tried your best it’s alright.”
“I’m really sorry.”
“Is there anyone else you really trust?” Gerard piped up next to me. He had a look of worry spread across him features and he kept glancing over at me. Jamia sighed again in defeat.
“My closest co-workers are coming with me on the trip. No one that I would trust that much or know well is staying behind.”
The three of us sat there, not quite knowing what to say. The silence stretched on and on. Finally Jamia broke it by speaking up very quietly.
“You don’t know how much I wish there was something I could do for you,” She whispered.
“Hey you tri-“ She cut me off mid sentence.
“A month and a half ago I was called on a trip to go to Haiti. It was a short trip, only lasting five days. Our job was to go down and build a small school for the kids. Obviously it wasn’t going to be too extreme, but it would be something so that they could learn. It was a small village but there was about thirty kids and they all ran around as we worked, watching us excitedly.” I began to feel dread coil up in the pit of my stomach. Her face was crumbling as she told the story and I knew there was going to be no happy ending. “We on the night before the final day we all packed up what we had to and headed back to our main camp for the night. We were going to move furniture in the next day and then the day after we would be on a plane coming home.” She paused to wipe away tears that were streaming down her cheeks. “When we showed up the next day though, nearly the entire village was gone. There were bodies laying all over the place and the school that we had built was half torn apart along with the rest of the shack houses. It was horrible. All that we could get out of the survivors was that men with the teeth had come.”
“Oh my God…” Gerard whispered. We were both paralyzed, sitting frozen in our seats while Jamia cried.
“I really wanted to help from there on out. I knew all along that something was different but it was after that day that it finally started to click together.” She told us, wiping away her tears and putting on her brave face. “I don’t understand what’s going on or why it’s happening, but I never want to see something like that happen again.”
“Jamia,” I breathed, still in shock, “I would-“ I paused and rephrased, “We,” I gestured to Gerard and I, “Would never do that.” Gerard nodded his approval of my statement.
“That’s what I’m counting on,” She said standing suddenly. I stood as well, pulling Gerard to his feet. We walked her to the front door where she paused. “Keep each other safe alright?” She told us pulling us in for a hug. “Please watch out for each other,” She continued. “Don’t let anything happen.”
I pulled back from the hug and grabbed her by the shoulders. “You keep yourself safe too alright? Come home in six months in one piece.” She nodded.
I thought for just a moment while she turned to leave out the door. “Wait a sec!” I called stopping her. “C’mere for a second.” She gave me a confused look but followed me nonetheless as I led her into the bedroom, Gerard trailing behind us. As soon as I opened the closet door his eyes lit up with recognition and he bumped me out of the way gently so that he could reach up onto the top shelf. I cursed my height as I watched him easily grab the box in the back corner and bring it down before presenting it to Jamia.
She opened the box and took out the gun inside, feeling the weight in her hand.
“Silver bullets,” I informed her when she went to check the ammunition.
“Thank you,” She told us returning it to the box. “It means a lot.”
“If something happens again use it,” I told her. She nodded once more.
“I promise.”

---

Later that night Gerard and I lay in bed. His art supplies was still scattered over the desk, forgotten after Jamia’s visit.
“She was a pretty girl,” Gerard spoke, breaking the silence. “And nice and caring too.” Something was off with his voice but I was too tired to figure it out.
“Yeah, Jamia’s a great person,” I agreed sleepily. I was warm and comfy cuddling up to Gerard and I just wanted to sleep.
“You are her dated.” He wasn’t asking, he was stating. Suddenly I didn’t feel so sleepy. I sat up, putting my weight onto one elbow and leaning over him.
“Yeah we did.” I told him honestly. We had already talked about this earlier and he had been cool with it. “What about it? Is it bothering you?”
He sighed loudly and the room fell into silence once more. I didn’t think he was going to respond and was almost about to lay down and go to sleep when he finally spoke.
“If you had just stayed with her none of this would have happened to you.” He sounded sad and it broke my heart.
“What do you mean?”
He sat up as well. It was dark so it was hard to see each other but we were close enough we could make out small facial features.
“I mean,” He began explaining, “That you would have stayed with her and might not have ever met me. Then you wouldn’t have been terrorized by Lindsey and-“ He cut off, sounding absolutely miserable and placed his hand over where my heart use to beat. “You might still be living today.”
“Gerard,” I pulled him down and kissed his forehead. “You’re still blaming yourself. I don’t regret meeting you even if it led to this life I’m not quite ‘living’ per se.”
He sighed again and flopped back down onto the bed.
“How much longer until you start seeing this life as it really is?” He mumbled under his breath. With that he fell fast asleep. I laid down next to him, snuggling into his chest once more and followed his lead, still feeling bothered by what he had said.
Gerard had more nightmares that night.

Notes

The power went out at my house so I was like oh okay I'm gonna write. So mother nature being a little bitch is the reason for the chapter. Oh and tbh Jamia was only suppose to enter this story for like a couple paragraphs but it kinda unfolded differently last night in my head