AN: Thank you Phoenix, for editing my chapter. I hope that you all like this. :)
"Are you ok?" Eric asked, seeing that her eyes were still on the ground.
"Yeah," she said, looking up and shrugging. "Or at least, as ok as I'll ever be." She paused, biting her lip. "I'm just a little overwhelmed," she finished, running her hand nervously through her hair. She looked back down at the red carpeting, to nervous to look up anymore.
"Come on sis! How many times have I told you, I've got home work to do?" she asked her sister, Isabel.
"Come on, I want to play monopoly."
"Well, I can't right now, cause after homework, the gang is meeting tonight." She already had her clothes out…black and red…over her chair for the evening.
"Please?" her little sister whined.
"No! Now get out of my room!" Veronica yelled.
"Do you want me to talk about the jobs available in this place, or maybe…."
"Sure. Fine," she said, waking from her memory.
"Can you sew?" he asked.
"No." she replied. Her grandmother had tried to teach her once, but she was too busy going out on the block to bother with an old lady like her.
"Well, then all there's left is cleaning and bleeding," he said.
"Bleeding?" she asked.
"The vampires need to eat," he said simply.
She finally gathered the courage to lift her eyes from the ground. All the rooms were symmetrical, and intimidating. Everything was painted with either red or black. Jeez. She thought. Do vampires have something against color?
"Ahh..." she heard someone scream. "Shut the fuck up!" she heard a man yell...and then, banging and smacking became the only sounds she heard. She stopped, her eyes widening, as she stopped in front of the door the sounds were coming from. Eric grabbed her arm and they continued to walk on.
"How long have you lived…with…" she said, trailing off as the end of the sentence became too hard to say out loud. He knew what she was thinking though.
"Since I was eleven," he responded.
"Is it bad?" she asked.
"No. Not really," he said. Then he understood what she meant. "Jager is really nice. He pretty much lets us do whatever we want, as long as we behave." He finished speaking, drawing up to a halt in front of a door, opening it casually. She stepped into the room with catlike placing of her feet on the floor. She looked around her room. It was simply furnished, gray carpeting. There was a bunk bed on the top
"Here's your room…. Veronica?" he asked.
"Yes?" Is this where I'm going to stay forever...she thought, tears coming to her eyes.
"You might even find that you like it here, if you give it a chance," he said.
"Come on, let's do this." Her boyfriend, Rob, said.
"I don't know about this," she said, looking at the small electronics store. It had plenty of stuff that they could sell for money, and then they could start there dealing business.
"Come on, you know we have to do this. We're going to be run out of town by the Tigers if we don't do this." This new rival gang was fierce. His little brother was with them, but Veronica could barely call him little anymore. He had the eyes of an old man…the eyes of a hastened childhood.
Her boyfriend walked up, and was about to throw the first punch when suddenly, they heard a wailing that shattered their sirens…sirens that must have been silent while the police drove there because the cars were right behind them. "Shit" he said, turning to run. But Veronica just stayed; it was too late anyway.
"Maybe," she said, turning to look at him. "What do you have to do to be a bleeder?" she asked, her voice demanding an immediate answer.
"Oh, just keep healthy, exercise," he replied, closing the door behind them.
She looked down at his hand, wanting to see whether or not he would lock the door. She scolded herself for trusting him to come in her room with her...they were all crazy.
"You share the bathroom with Audra and Lucia," he said, pointing towards a brown door towards one corner of the room. "Next to the exercise room is where you get your towels, wash cloths, and other toiletries, and you put them in this closet." He pushed her aside to reveal a small white closet.
"I'd like to be a bleeder," she stated. I refuse to live in fear.
"Wow…/Why?" he asked, startled at the determination in her voice
"What?" she snapped.
"Just, with the way you reacted with Jager…."
"I'm not a wimp." She stated, her eyes hard.
"I never said-," he began, but she interrupted him with her glare.
"I've seen people get shot through the head, and then parts of their brain shot out the other side, so I'll be damned if I fear some bat with fangs," she said, shaking with anger. Why doesn't this fucker get it! He's a slave with no life! She thought.
"Well I use to live in the ghetto, until I was caught one night robbing an electronics store…then I went to live with my granny," she explained, her voice softening. Great, she thought. I've upset him, the only person who I've seen so far in this place that makes any sense. "I'm sorry," she said.
"It's ok," he said, nodding. "I went through this too." He added a thin smile. "But it does get better," he finished, wrapping his arm around her shoulder. She bit her lip, trying not to cry. I don't want to live like this. She thought. What about me? Oh god...why me.
"Could you show me where the exercise room is?" she asked, shaking off his arm. "Might as well get started on being healthy, heh." she said, feeling as if she had to explain herself.
"Sure," he said. "Right this way."