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Home
The lease was signed the keys in hand, Josh felt relief. Aidan was right the thought of a place of his own gave him a new sense of hope. Josh chose the back bedroom with the view of the reflection of river; besides the front bedroom had belonged to the couple and it give Josh the willies.
After a week of living in the apartment Josh stopped his cleaning long enough to make a list of stuff they needed, he tacked it on the fridge before he headed out to work.
After working a double shift because the hospital was short handed. Josh was relieved to see Aidan waiting by the car to give him a ride back to the apartment. Strangely attached to the car was a small trailer, and soon it became apparent to Josh that they were heading in the wrong direction.
"Were we going? Where are you taking me?"
"Well I saw your list I got an idea. So I thought we take a drive, l want to pick up a few things."
They reached the gate to the self-storage place just as the evening was starting to grow dark. The place was empty it was after hours and there was not even a guard at the gate only the keypad for entrance. They made toward the back of the lot until they reached the last set of storage units.
Aidan pulled the car up close left the headlights on as got out and unlocked the door.
As he sat in the car Josh felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. With a loud metal sound Aidan tossed open the garage door and motioned for Josh to get out of the car.
The unit was dark except for the headlights Aidan reach up and pull the chain on a small overhead bulb than want back to turn off the headlights. After his eyes adjusted all Josh could see a bunch of furniture and stuff in front of a large wall of neatly stacked brown moving boxes. To the right of the boxes was an opening about three feet wide blocked by a rack of clothes. Aidan started searching in and among the items for what he didn't say.
"Wow, Aidan where did you get all this stuff?"
"You know, here and there"
Josh wonder over to the clothes rack and started looking thought it. At first he saw a few shirts he recognized. Then his gaze wandered to the stack military uniforms all hung neatly and preserved in heavy plastic. "Wow, are theses all yours" there we several different styles and colors some very old and faded "they are so cool. Are they real? Did you collect them?"
"Yes they are real and no I did not "collect" them there're all mine."
Like a joyful kid who just a discovered that his neighbor was an astronaut "Your kidding? Did you wear them?" at first Josh thought no way that was possible that they were all real. All the uniforms looked so pristine but upon closer inspection Josh noticed all held faint stains of blood.
Looking up from his search Aidan glanced over to Josh "Yes, every one."
Josh knew that the vampire was older than he looked but had never had the nerve to ask him just how old he was. "But Aidan there must be dozens here all different types. I didn't know you served."
"Yeah well that was a longtime ago." He muttered continuing his search.
"Wow this one looks really old like it belonged in the civil war or something."
Aidan stopped what he was doing a in a flash was standing between Josh and the rack of cloths looking a bit defensive.
"Revolutionary actually, ….if you don't mind" he said through gritted teeth with a hint of anger that startled Josh.
"Sorry" Josh said sheepishly as he released the garment.
And just like that Aidan was back to his search his head buried in plies of boxes and stuff.
Next Josh moved from in front of the rack to behind it and the wall boxes where it was extremely dark. Josh couldn't quite make out much of anything but he thought he saw a very large looking table. Josh heard Aidan moving things from the locker into the truck of the car. So he searched his pockets for his new set house keys remembering that he had put a small flashlight on the ring. He found it and glanced over his shoulder looking for Aidan who was still involved in making several trips to the car carrying large objects.
As he shown the light across the bottom of table Josh noticed that the legs looked more like that of a saw horse than a table, and as the beam of light reached the top portion Josh gasped and jumped back a bit as he realized it was not a table at all but a simple wooden coffin resting across two pedestals. Its construction was solid looking and its lid was clean and tight fitting. Looking round the back room some more Josh noticed how this portion the locker was completely empty and clean. Only one other very large item was in the space. It was leaning up against the wall covered in canvas cloth, thick with dust. Josh slowly reached out to uncover what was underneath the canvas. He could see the intricate carving on what appeared to be another coffin.
"I would prefer if you didn't" came Aidan's loud voice causing Josh to practically jump out of his skin.
Josh spun around quickly and accidently shown the light directly in Aidan's face. Aidan winced and hissed a bit as his black eyes struggled with the light, as they were completely adapted to seeing to the dark.
"Yeah sure…no prob…uh sorry." Josh stuttered a bit "Aidan do you…do you live here?"
Stepping closer and sounding completely normal and unfazed "No I just store my stuff here."
"Do you sleep …in..in that?" Josh voice rising higher as he gestured with the light toward the coffin
"What? No! That. That is just for ya know…emergencies." Aidan lied.
"Right yeah emergencies" Josh sounded unconvinced. What kind of emergencies he was afraid to even ponder. What the hell was he thinking agreeing to be roommates with a vampire? It just that Aidan usually seemed so normal. All day at work he blended in so well even Josh often times forgot what he was. But right here, right now in this deserted facility it was terrifying.
Aidan sensing Josh's unease decided to quickly wrap the trailer up with a tarp and headed back to the car. "Well I got what I came for we can go now."
"Great" replied Josh "lets do that, let go home."
The ride home was filled with an awkward silence.
Josh broached carefully "So that was a coffin right?"
"Yeah it was."
"Is it really true, like in the movies, do you sleep in there?"
"No" sounding softly defeated "not anymore"
"Than why do you have it?"
"It's mine. I was buried in it." Sounding very sad "My family bought it for me, my real family."
"Oh." Josh continued pushing a bit further "and up against the wall, what was that?"
"That?" he sighed, "That was a gift." Who the hell gives a coffin as a gift? Josh thought to himself.
"It was a gift from my maker." Aidan said as if that explained everything.
Josh just let it go, the rest of the ride was silent as both men sat lost in their own thoughts.
By the time they arrived back to the apartment Josh was exhausted. Partially asleep on his feet he took a box from the back seat stumbled up the stairs and placed the box in the entrance. Needing to unwind and de-stress from long day filled with bedpans and coffins he garbed a beer from the fridge and than made a b-line to the couch where he chugged it and almost instantly collapsed into a deep sleep. Aidan shook his head and smiled to himself as he made several more trips and quietly continued to unpack the vehicle.
At about 1am Josh woke up still buzzed and exhausted from the couch with a kink in his back. He decide it was probably best if he want up to his room and crawled into sleeping bag he was using on the floor rather than trying to fight the couch any longer.
When he arrived at his door and opened it he was surprised to see a bed where his bag had been. The room had curtains and a rug along with bed and fresh linens. A small table sat beside the bed with a light it, the milk create he had been using was gone. Not sure if he was drunk or dreaming he walked over and sat down on the edge of the bed, bouncing up and down a bit testing the mattress for firmness. When he looked up from the bed he had a giant smile on his face as he saw Aidan leaning against the doorframe.
All sleepy-eyed and innocent he asked, "Aidan how did you? When did you?"
"I thought you needed a better a place to sleep beside the floor."
With that he crossed the room and sat down on the bed next to Josh.
It was the nicest thing that anyone had done for him since he had turned. Unable to find the words and overwhelmed Josh grabbed Aidan's hand and gave it a quick squeeze.
Now it was Aidan's turn to be emotional he leaned forward and gave Josh a light a kiss to his forehead. To his surprise Josh returned it, on the lips and with more than he expected. The next thing he knew he Josh was pushing him down onto the bed his body working its way on top of his. Almost instantly Aidan could feel his fangs starting to poke into his bottom lip, and he could feel the tightness growing in his pants. Josh was grinning with delight and Aidan was unsure how to react he knew how Josh had felt about being mistaken for a couple and wanted to be sure.
"Josh, are you ok you seem a bit off "
"Don't worry I am fine just fine a bit tired is all. "He slurred with a silly grin.
Seconds later Josh was above him straddling his chest and ripping at this shirt. It must be close to the full moon, because before he knew it Josh had removed almost all of Aidan's clothing as well as his own. Aidan knew this wasn't right so he wrestled Josh down with a firm grip, and held him there, after a few seconds of struggle Josh gave up. Aidan pushed aside his thoughts and gently lowered them both them down on their sides spooning Josh as he did so. As Josh drifted off to asleep in the vampires cold arms, he thought how right Aidan was; sleeping in ones own bed was better, it had been too long since Josh had felt like he belonged anywhere and now at last he felt like he was finally home.