Chapter 10 – Holes in the Neck

12:00

Katsu woke up but kept his eyes closed. He let out a profound sigh. He turned around and looked at the small clock beside his bed. Damn I slept through half of the day. He heard somebody flush the toilet. Katsu groaned. Oh God…please, not again.

Jun stepped out of the bathroom.

"Oh! You woke up!" Jun greeted Katsu with a smile.

Katsu didn't say anything at first. He was trying to see if there was any smell coming out of the bathroom.

"How did you get in here?" Katsu asked.

Jun drew out a key card and threw it over to Katsu.

"How did you get that?"

"You fell asleep so suddenly last night, I figured that you would wake up really late so I decided to take the key card."

"Right…"

Katsu went into the shower, brushed his teeth and dressed. He forced Jun to get out of the room while he was doing that.

"So…" Jun said after Katsu had allowed him inside again. "Did you think about using yourself as live bait?"

Katsu stared at the TV for a few moments. He thought of Anju. He wanted to get close to her, he didn't know why. He just wants to.

"Yes…I'll do it" he answered with a sigh.

A grin spread across Jun's face. He passed a pill to Katsu.

--

22:00 pm

Katsu stood in the park, with fresh cut on the side of his left hand. Jun did that just ten minutes beside sending Katsu off into the park. He still had no idea what kind excuse he would use if Anju actually appeared. I can't believe I'm actually doing this. He started to think of what Jun told him after he cut his hand.

Try to touch her with your wounded left hand. That should make her go crazy…

Katsu frowned when he thought of that. Whatever he meant with 'crazy', he thought.

He started to walk around in the park, both hoping to find and not to find Anju. If he found Anju, he would probably get bitten, if he didn't find her, his wound would heal and would half to make another cut on another night. Katsu let out a sigh. Just what the hell did I get myself into this…

He reached the center of the park and saw a vending machine. He fumbled around in his pockets and found three 100 yen coins. He got himself a can of lemon juice. He sat down on a nearby bench and stared to drink.

"Hello Katsu." Anju said with no emotion when she appeared behind him and touched his shoulder.

"AHH-" Katsu cried out in surprise and threw the can high into the air. He jerked his head around to discover that Anju was behind him.

"Dude! Anju, you gotta stop appearing just like that! That scares the living crap out of me!"

"I'm sorry…" Anju apologized quietly, her eyes averting.

"What are you doing here anyway?" Katsu asked.

"I was just taking a walk when I saw you." Anju answered. "I wondered what you were doing here, so I decided to walk over."

"Oh…I just came over here to visit a friend and get some work done for the newspaper club." Katsu said.

Even though she didn't show it, Anju sensed a strong scent of blood coming Katsu the moment she appeared behind him. She gritted her teeth together. She didn't want to bite Katsu. Ethically there was nothing wrong with biting Katsu, she just didn't want to. She didn't understand herself why she felt that way.

"And I was hoping to find you." Katsu added. "I guess I wanted to check if you are alright. Not every day somebody gets surrounded by kidnappers."

Anju felt her heart make a jump when he said that.

"You were worried about me?" Anju asked hesitantly, trying to keep the emotion out of her voice.

"Of course!" Katsu answered. "Not every day I save some beautiful girl.". Katsu let a laugh. Am I being too direct? He raised his left hand to scratch the back of his neck.

Anju had let her guard down because of Katsu's compliment, and used her hand to hide her growing fangs, effectively hiding her slight blush at the same time. It was the first time anybody called her beautiful so directly.

"Thank you" Anju said almost ecstatically. His blood smells deliciously.

Anju pointed towards Katsu's left hand. "What happened to your hand?" she asked.

Katsu looked at his own hand. A perfect lie came almost instantly to his mind.

"I made dinner at my friend place, and I cut my hand while cutting up the vegetables." Katsu answered.

"I never was good at cooking." he added after an extra moment of thought.

"I'm not good at cooking either." Anju said. Not that I need to be.

Anju walked past Katsu and drew out a few coins out of her pockets. She brought Katsu a coffee.

"For the can you threw high in the air because of me." she said as she handed him the can.

"Thanks." Katsu said with a smile. And that's the second time a girl ever bought me something.

Anju felt her heart make another exited jump. Something is wrong with me, she thought to herself grimly.

Katsu opened the can and threw away the lid. "So…what kind of food do you like to eat?"

Anju didn't answer. She hasn't eaten human food for over two years, she had no idea what kind of food appealed to her. Then a picture of Karin popped into her mind. She smiled.

"It's a special porridge that my sister invented." Anju answered.

Katsu nodded his head and they started walking through the park. Katsu took a deep breath of the fresh night air. It smelled a bit like the ocean to him. Fresh night air always made him feel peaceful, as if there were no worries in the world and everything is fine. He breathed out heavily and looked at Anju. Again he felt the temptation to wrap his arms around her and hold her tight.

Looking at Anju, Katsu noticed that she had her hand covering her mouth. I guess she is trying to hold herself back huh. Then another thought crossed his mind. If she doesn't want to bite me then why doesn't she just disappear like she just appeared? A smile started to form on the corner of his lips.

"You know," Katsu said. "I wonder if this cut is still bleeding". Without waiting for a reply from Anju, he swiftly took off the bandage. Of course, his wound was still bleeding. It was cut less than 20 minutes ago.

Anju instantly froze. Mechanically she took a step back. Her eyes widened and her pupils started to shrink. She stared at Katsu's hand in horror. She could almost feel her mouth water. Her fangs grew another 5mm.

Katsu noticed Anju's reaction. Dropping the bandage, he took a step closer to Anju to close the distance between them.

"Anju are you alright?" he asked hesitantly. Oh God…please don't make this too painful.

Anju starred at Katsu's hand in both horror and temptation. No! She took another step back. This was the first time since her awakening that she has been tempted so strongly towards someone's blood.

"Anju are you alright?" Katsu asked again. This time he took a step forwards and grabbed both of her shoulders. Anju's mind snapped.

She flung her arms around his neck and pressed her nose against Katsu's neck. No! No!

"Uhm Anju…what are you doing?" Katsu asked hesitantly. Here goes nothing…

Anju slowly opened her mouth. Her breathing got heavy, her mind was blank. All she was focused on was the scent of Katsu's blood. She licked Katsu's neck tenderly, savoring the scent of his skin. She let out a sigh as she slowly sank her fangs into Katsu's neck.

Time stood still.

And Chapter 10! Writing these chapters is getting thougher recently. First I have to show this new side of Anju (new side as in her gaining romantic interest for someone) without making make her out of character. I need to make the original Anju recognizable, keep that calm, emotionless personality while effectively showing that new side. Second, wrecking havoc in Paradise City takes a lot of time and is bloody addicting. Sorry that this chapter is shorter than usual, but I just felt that splitting the development goes better with the flow of the story.

Thanks for reading!