Unapologetic Apathy

"What the hell were you thinking?" Screamed Ray as soon as I opened the door to the base.

"It was the only way for me to get out of there alive."

"You coul have just stabbed him! What are you planning to do now?" Ray snapped. My eyes drifted to the back of the room, where Sam was sitting on a stool and looking awkward and curious. He gave him a little wave and the young boy smiled and waved back. "Okay, we're all glad you're alive-"

"Ray, I know. I dot like it. I don't like him. You saw him. He's different. And he stole my earpiece," I mumbled. I liked that earpiece.

"But he didn't take the camera. We saw him bite you. We thought you were going to die! We couldn't hear a word you were saying to him, and we had to get Sam to read his lips!" Ray brushed a hand through his hair, which was a lot of hair.

"Well, good for Sam. Glad he knows how to read lips," I smiled again at the boy. He was too young to be a part of our 'adult conversations', but I disagreed. He was a valued member of the team. I could ignore he was only in his second year o highschool.

"You're not going back."

"Hey! If I don't go back, we'll all be in danger!" He would track us down. He was stronger than us.

"Ugh. Fine. Find a way out of this pact you made, it can't be good for your health." I nodded and agreed. I walked across the big control room, and through a doorway to my left that led me to the kitchen. Kelsie was there, baking furiously. She spun around and raised a spoon at me threateningly. Frosting dripped from it and spilled on her pink apron.

"How dare you make a deal with that thing!" She said in a heavy Spanish accent, "do you know what we'd do if we lost you? You are so irresponsible sometimes." As she talked j emptied my pockets of all my weapons and threw them in the 'stab box', which was just a big box full of knives and other dangerous things near the door. I paced over an gave her a gentle hug. She pulled away and, still downing in disapproval, she handed me a warm cookie.

"Thankyou," I said through crumbs.

"Don't let this happen again," she told me and continued cursing under her breath in Spanish. I smiled and went to the bathroom to clean up.

The base wasn't big. The biggest room was the Control room, and it was an office with two laptops and some speakers and a rolling stool chair. From there was a kitchen and a bathroom, and that was it. There was a mini closet between the kitchen and the control room, but it was barely big enough for our jackets. The tiny bathroom had a sink, a shower, and a toilet. I looked into the dingy mirror and began to wipe off te blood from my neck and shirt.

Sam knocked on the door. I opened it and we started talking as I sponged the cut. I leaned one hand in the counter, which barely held the sink and a bottle of soap and antiseptic.

"That was dangerous," Sam said quietly.

"Everyone keeps telling me that," I replied. He nodded. His hair was messy and gold in contrast to his black tshirt. He looked tired. "It's late, you should head home."

"Yeah, I will. I have homework to do. I just wante to see if you were okay," he said softly.

"I'm great. You did awesome tonight. You kept the whole base from losing there minds, I heard," I smiled. He scoffed.

"they were freaking out anyway. Ray kept trying to reconnect everything. I just translated what the vampire was saying. But it was hard to look. He had your blood on his mouth."

"You did great. Get some sleep kid, there's school tomorrow." He nodded, said his goodbyes, have me a reassuring look and grabbed his jacket. He put it on in his way out the door.

The rest of the night, was me making coffee back at my house. It didn't feel like my house. I didn't really like it much. Ray and Kelsie slept here, too, but it was mostly mine. As they slept, I sipped my coffee and tried to think about my plan. Ray was going to get blood the next morning. I was going to go back the next night. I took a sip of my coffee. I was half-nocturnal anyway, to keep up with both humans and vampires.

I shivered. Something about the encounter really unnerve me. I didn't want to see him again, but at the same time I wanted to go over that night. Who knows? Maybe he's still there, or maybe he's roaming the streets of New Jersey. Nah. If he was outside on a regular basis, he wouldn't need to make a deal with me. That meant something was keeping him out.. If I could threaten him with whatever he was scared of, maybe I could get out of the deal.

but deep in my heart, I knew there was no way out of this one.

Notes