28. Lunatic

The next night, all evidence of the deaths was gone from Arin's lawn. It sat quiet and still in the darkness, shrouded by the few trees near it and loomed in the darkness, somehow menacing.

Eric crossed the lawn and stood at her door. She was sitting on the floor in front of the sofa, tapping her fingers and muttering to herself over and over again. Unexpectedly, she looked up, right at him.

She got up, still tapping and muttering and sank down beside the door, still tapping the fingers of her right hand in order against her thumb as she sat on her heels.

She put her left hand against the screen, leaning against it.

"Eric...one... I can't control it anymore... two, two...Can't... three, three..." then she stopped, her eyes focused inward. Her head twitched. "Start over." Twitch. "Start over. One, two, three... I think it's killing me... four." With each number, a tap of a different fingertip to the thumb tip.

It unnerved him and he stepped back.

"No, wait, wait." Her head jerked, her eyes unfocused. "Start over. When he comes, have to explain. Four steps, easy to remember. One." Her other hand clutched at the screen as she muttered again, counting and flicking.

"Eric, I'm sorry. One. That was one... Start over."

He shook his head. She was falling apart right before his very eyes.

"One, two, three, four. One. Finished one. Two. Two. One: apologize. Two: explain. One, two, three, four. Two: I stole your soul, Eric. Two." Still with the tapping as she talked.

Shock flickered through him. "What? You did what?" Denial rose in him. He was a vampire, he had no soul.

"One, two, three, four. One. Two. Two. Finished two: explain. Three, three, three. Three: elaborate. Elaborate, three: He'll come for you... One, two, three, four... When he comes for you, it won't be there. He can't take what isn't there."

Then, she started hitting her head with her left hand, "No. No, no, no. Not finished. Didn't finish four!"

A switch came over her and she practically purred, rubbing against the screen door and looking at him with unbridled, perverse lust. "He'll come for you, Eric. But I'll have your soul." Her smile was devious, evil, malicious.

"Tasty soul, Eric. I took it." She laughed, a low, cruel laugh.

"No," he denied it.

She curled against the screen and rubbed on it like a cat. "Oh yes. I took it. It was easy." She looked sly, feline, ferine. She dropped to all fours, "You practically threw it at me. You didn't value it. Didn't even want it."

She rose back up until she was on her knees a few inches from the door. Running her hands across her body in a lewd, degrading manner, she smirked at him. "All of this power, Eric. All mine now." Her voice left mocking behind to become openly disgusted and derisive. "Wasteful, Eric." She shook her finger at him. "Very, very wasteful."

Her head twitched again, and her eyes unfocused. He stepped back again; it as almost as if he was watching two wholly different people—neither sane.

She counted. "Start over. One, two, three, four," tap, tap, tap, tap.

Another jerk of the head, "No, no, no!"

A low laugh that made him step back yet again. "She's trying to warn you, Eric. Step four, warn him." She laughed. She twined sinuously up the screen door and back down. "No warning, Eric. It's my soul now, and I'm not giving it back." Laughter, maniacal yet lyrical.

"No!" another switch. "If he turns me, Eric, I won't be like a new vampire. I will be as strong as you." Lucidity, sweet and warm and earnest.

"No. Not possible." The other one was back, derisive and repugnant. "Insanity. Quite insane. Only old vampires are powerful, not new ones."

He turned away, unable to face the lightning fast changes and the strangeness of it all. He flitted toward Fangtasia, her mocking scream echoing in his ears, "Yes, run away, Eric. Run away! And don't come back!"