Sullen and Haunted
II: Truth in Aggression
Someone was touching me.
Who is touching me?!
I felt the back of a finger graze my jawbone, then the padding of a fingertip sliding on my cheek.
This feels nice...but who is touching me?
"Alexa..." I heard a male voice whisper.
He ran his fingers through stray locks of my sun-blonde hair.
Oh yeah! It's Connor.
I opened my eyes slowly and smiled. "Good morning, Connor. Are you feeling better?"
"Yes, thank you. I'm sorry about last night...I shouldn't have done that."
He tensed up and sat up on the bed.
"Connor, it's all right. There's nothing wrong with expressing yourself." I put my arm around his shoulders and he turned to me.
"I want to tell you everything, but I don't know if I can...I don't know if you will understand..."
"You can tell me whatever you want to tell me when you want to tell me. Right now I'm just worried about you. To me, you're all that matters."
He smiled.
"Now, how about we buy you some clothes!" I grinned back, hopping out of bed.
He got up with me and I went into the kitchen to make breakfast. I realized I was still in my clothes from the art show, but it didn't matter. I was fixing this beautiful creature breakfast. I felt quite happy.
"Do you like eggs? Bacon? Are you against meat totally?"
"I'll eat anything," He stated as he sat down at the table, admiring the floral centerpiece.
Good, because I don't eat meat...
I poured the orange juice (thank God I had two cartons) before I conjured up pancakes and a fruit salad I made yesterday. I buttered his pancakes and poured syrup on them before I even made my plate. Carrying them to the table he smiled.
"Thank you, Alexa."
There he goes speaking softly again...
I smiled and watched him pick up his fork. He ate so delicately it was unreal.
What were you expecting? For him to savagely ingest the pancakes bare-handed with rough abandon?
I ate with him and become a conversation. "Where are you from?"
"Quar-toth." He said in between bites.
"Quar-toth...hm...I've never heard of that place."
"It's a hell dimension." He stuffed the last bite of his pancakes into his mouth and sipped his orange juice.
I stopped chewing for a second.
A hell dimension? What the...
"A hell dimension?"
"Yeah, one of the worst according to my father."
"Where is your father now?" I sipped my orange juice.
"He's dead."
"Oh, Connor, I'm so sorry."
"He was killed...he was the one on TV last night."
That old man?
"He looked very old.."
"In Quar-toth, the aging process is faster than here. He was in his forties when he took me there and I was only a baby."
"How long ago did you go there, earth time?"
"Probably two weeks or a month ago, but my whole life was spent there."
OK, back the dimension bus up for a second! This dude was in a dimension since birth...but it was only a month ago?
"Are you all right, Alexa? This is what I was talking about earlier...about things you might not understand..."
"I'm fine, Connor. This is a bit far fetched..."
Then I remembered him. The man in the night that saved my life.
"I know things like this exist, because a vampire saved my life once."
He stopped. A chill ran through me from the cold that emitted from him.
"He's a demon and deserves to die."
"Why, Connor? Why does he deserve to die when he saved my life from one of his own?"
"Because he killed my father." He proclaimed, placing his fork on his empty plate.
This doesn't make sense. Why would a vampire stab someone to kill them?
"Your father was stabbed, Connor. Vampires don't stab."
"He had bite marks on his neck."
"That doesn't make sense and you know it. A vampire wouldn't stab someone to kill them."
"He probably stabbed him to make it look like a real person did it."
"Why would he want to draw attention from the bite marks when they'd be there for the pathologist anyway?"
"I don't want to talk about this anymore." He rose from the table and went to the bathroom.
I sat back in my chair and exhaled. He had an argument for everything I said. He knows this vampire quite well and is out to shed his blood...if vampires have blood...
After a few more moments he and I went to a nearby department store. I briefly explained about how clothes are tried on and paid for if you like them.
"Why don't you just take them if you want them?"
"Because people made this clothes for money. It's their job to make us clothes. We pay for them because they worked hard on them. Not to mention if you just take them it's illegal because you would be taking something that isn't yours."
"There are so many rules here. Nothing like Quar-toth."
"It keeps everyone civil, most of the time."
He found a few pairs of jeans. He really loved sleeveless shirts. He must have picked out five different kinds of muscle shirts and tank tops.
"Maybe this place isn't so bad." He smiled after he tried on a pair of jeans.
I smiled back and paid for his findings.
Thank God I had some money put back...
This was going to be one hell of a ride.