Karin's eyes burned. As if they had been dried and dipped in lemon juice, she could barely hold back the tears in her eyes. It wasn't pain that she felt from her eyes, it was more along the lines of intense stinging, something totally bearable, but yet uncomfortable beyond belief. Blinking away the pain she slowly opened her eyes. Her eyes blurred from the tears that were forming to satisfy her parched eyes; it was dark. She could faintly see the light of the moon peeking through a seam in the clouds overhead, a single sliver of light that was her salvation in the darkness.
She pulled herself up. Strain and agony screamed through her arms and legs causing her to wince against the pain. Giving up, Karin fell back against the pillow with a pained sigh.
"Pillow? My bed?" Karin jumped, startled by the familiar sensation. Her voice was hoarse; she felt the grainy texture of dirt and the familiar taste of iron in her throat. She reached up towards her face, bearing the pain. Reaching a hand up, she could feel the dry cracked texture of dried blood around her nose, a sure sign that she indeed had a nose bleed some time ago.
"I remember…chasing someone in the park, then tripping over…something. Falling…the pain…and then I was here…" she pondered aloud, reviewing her past few memories. "I guess someone found me and brought me back home, probably Anju." Karin silently thanked her little sister and apologized for yet another disaster Karin, herself, had wrought.
She pulled herself over the edge of the bed careful not to get tangled up with the blanket and cause another mess. 'Ow…my arms and legs are all sore…maybe a hot shower will help.'
0000
Shivering against the cold, Kenta roused from his nap. Well, not so much a nap. With a groan, he pushed himself off the ground, soft blades of grass tickled against his arms. "Ugh…what time is it…and what am I doing out here?" Dragging his body across the ground he sat against the cold bark of a nearby tree.
The sky was pitch; he could smell the moist, sweet scent of rain in the night air. A single glimmer of light shone through the deep folds of cloud overhead, the moon insistent on being seen punctured through the cloudy veil. The wind rippled through the dense trees of the park around him, the grass waving with each flurry. A sound not unlike that of an ocean's surf assaulted his eardrums as the grass swung angrily assaulting his legs as he sat against the tree.
"What happened? I was heading to work, I was late. With it this dark out, it's hard to imagine I'll be able to just waltz in and laugh this off." Kenta's face scrunched together in discomfort, the reason for his worry easily apparent. "Let's see, I was running. I need new shoes. Someone was behind me. I tripped. Sweat and dirt poured into my eyes, I couldn't see well. I saw someone that looked like a girl. Something sharp. I passed out" Kenta's eyes gaped at his memory. "Something sharp?! Was it Maaka?!" Frantically, Kenta reached to his neck, his hands grabbing, inspecting for what he could find.
Nothing. There was nothing. 'I know I felt something sharp before I passed out, but…there's nothing there. I saw a girl's face, there's the chance it could have been Maaka.' Kenta wiped his brow; a stinging sensation from his arm was all he needed to know how bad it was scraped up. Breaking into a cold sweat, Kenta sat under the tree ignoring the cold, ignoring the shivering his body was doing to counter the cold. The young man's mind raced.
'Maybe I imagined it then? If there's nothing there, wouldn't it be safe to assume that there was nothing that happened? Maybe I passed out from the fall and I just dreamed the rest?' The low howl of the wind the only response to his wordless questions, Kenta held onto the tree, the thick bark flaking off as his fingers picked through it.
'If it was a dream, why would I dream something like that? It's not like I particularly want to be bitten, even though I have agreed to it already. Maybe that's why I thought that. Tomorrow is Sunday, there's no school; I can't ask Maaka about it until Monday. I suppose that will have to do, if there's no bite mark, there's no reason to believe that it was her anyway.' With a sigh, Kenta shuffled his feet through the grass towards the lone one-room apartment he shared with his mother.
0000
"Remember what I told you, Boogie-kun." Anju spoke to her doll in her hands, the toy cleaver in its hand waving around as she sat waiting. While she had no real need for the light, she sat waiting under the brightness from above. Anju's eyes easily strong enough for darkness, it made herself wonder at times what it would be like when she actually did mature into a full vampire.
She sat contemplating her sister's choice for furnishing arrangements. While Anju had no dislike for the white curtains, the way the bed was positioned the sun must be hard to deal with in the mornings. The thin white curtains couldn't hide any trace of light through its translucent fabric; it would probably be more effective putting up paper here.
Atop Karin's table stood an empty spot where a TV used to be. While not one for watching television, Anju understood that Karin really did like watching it and felt a little upset at the disturbance her grandmother's recent visit brought.
"Ow…I thought that would help, but now I feel more tired than before." Karin entered the room rubbing her still damp hair with a towel. "At least now it doesn't feel like there's dirt all over me. I can't believe that, my shirt was covered in blood too." Karin complained. She refused to admit it, but she always seems to get a blood rush whenever she happened to be wearing her favorite clothes.
Anju quietly cleared her throat, "A-hem." Looking up, Karin finally noticed her little sister sitting quietly on her bed, and then she noticed the doll.
"Anju, why do you carry that thing around all the time?" Karin sighed as she tossed her dirtied clothes into a tidy hamper in the corner. One look at Anju's face told Karin what she needed to know. "Did you bring me back to the house when I collapsed, Anju? Thank you so much," Karin bowed. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry you have to keep looking out for your big sister, it really should be the other way around, it's just that I can't help it." Karin exclaimed, throwing out apologies.
"Karin," Anju's voice, calm and cold as ice, pierced through the warmth that permeated in Karin's room. Karin shivered slightly feeling a chill down her back. "It would be a lot easier on you if you think about things and decide who you will be biting before it is too late. I know you just bit someone last week, but with you, your blood reaction causes your natural timing to be off. You need to have several people planned ahead of time; I've told you that before." Anju felt satisfied getting the 'I told you so' off her chest.
"I'm sorry, Anju!" Karin wailed. She felt as if the eyes of both her sister and the doll were tearing through her. 'I don't think I can ever get used to being stared down by Anju.' Karin cried in her head. "I don't know why, but out of nowhere I just had my blood increase. I didn't have time to think. I ran after someone in the park, but I failed." Karin hung her head. Her still damp hair, dripping water onto the hard wood floor of her room, began to create a puddle at her feet. Karin stared at her face shimmering in the pool of water below her, each new droplet rippling out as imitating the discomfort that spread through her.
"I failed to bite the person I was chasing, tripped in the park, passed out from the blood loss and had to be taken care of by you. I can't say how thankful I am for you, Anju. If you weren't watching out for me, I don't know how I would be able to live my life." Karin spoke depressed watching the water drip down.
Drip, drip. Drip, drip. Drip, drip.
The two sisters stood silently, the slight sound of Karin's damp hair echoing in the silence.
"Karin, it's alright. As long as I've been able to control these bats, I've been watching out for you. Don't think of it as an added burden, it's always been the same burden from the start. I just came to let you know that I brought you back and that you really need to start keeping tabs on people you are going to bite in the future. I've gotten so used to it now, I hardly notice anymore."
Anju's words stung. 'Yeah, that's true. She's always been watching out like that. But that's…backwards. I'm the older sister, so I should be the one watching out for her. Just like how Ren watches out for…nevermind.' Karin shook her head with disbelief in her womanizing older brother who did nothing but get mad and yell at her whenever he was around. "Thanks, Anju."
"Anyways, Karin, it's night now, so I'm going to go." Excusing herself, Anju left the room. Behind her, she could hear Karin's groans as she worked the pain out of her arms.
"I'm sorry, Karin." Anju whispered silently as she wandered through the dark hallway of the Maaka house. Her footsteps the only sound she left behind.
Tap, tap. Tap, tap. Tap, tap.