Paranoia #3
“Why are you so hostile?” He placed a hand over his heart in mock hurt. “I just wanna get to know you guys. You, especially.”
“I’m gonna call the police if you don’t get out of our house,” Ari said.
“With what phone? You left yours downstairs.”
“I’ll scream for my uncle if you don’t leave,” I said.
“Your uncle is gone.”
“He’s gone?” I echoed, glancing at Ari in a daze. Uncle Tom had been here barely five minutes ago.
“He went to a bar with friends,” she murmured.
“Right.” Dennis took a step forward while Ari and I took several back.
“So seeing as you both are pretty entertaining, I’m gonna let you guess what’s going on.
” He grabbed a nearby chair and spun it in one swift motion.
The chain on his pants rattled as he took a backward seat, placing both arms atop the back.
“Please, sit down.” He swept an arm out for us to take a seat on my bed.
“Take a load off. Don’t look so tense. Relax, lay back and—”
“Okay,” I snapped, dropping on the bed. “You don’t have to be so sarcastic.”
“I’m waiting.” He looked at Ari as she sat beside me.
“For…?” she asked.
“Tell me what’s going on.”
“How are we supposed to know?” I glared at him and the smug smile that was thoroughly pissing me off, wondering who the hell this guy thinks he is.
“I’m Dennis,” he answered out loud, eyes boring into mine. “I already told you.”
“Did I say that out loud?”
“I don’t even know what you’re talking about.” Ari’s voice was shaky as her eyes darted from Dennis to me, then back to Dennis.
“You said it loud enough for me to hear,” he said. “So any guesses?”
“You’re a serial killer?”
“No.”
“Are you a telepathic experiment that escaped from a governmental testing site?”
We both looked at Ari. “Is now really the time to give college lectures?” I asked in exasperation.
She shook her head. “I’m not. I just thought—”
“Nice guess, but no.” Dennis ran a hand through his multicolored hair, smirking at the way it made us flinch. “Are you both really that stupid?”
“I’m one of the top students at my university and I’m two years ahead of where I should be. Don’t call me stupid.”
“Alright,” he turned his attention to Ari, “since you’re apparently the smart one, why is this taking so long? You have enough hints to work with.”
She swallowed nervously. “You’re not human.”
“You’re getting closer.”
“You’re a vampire?”
“That I am.” He leaned forward in the chair. “And I’ve claimed your cousin as my own.”
“I’m not yours. Can you stop saying that?”
“Depends,” he started, “will you listen if I explain?”
“…what?” I’d been listening this entire time. He was making no sense.
“I’m making perfect sense.” His high-pitched laugh cut through the air as he stood and grabbed the knife. He nicked a finger on the blade and brought it to his lips, licking the blood.
“Can you read minds?” I was beginning to realize he was answering questions I’d never asked out loud.
He sat again but didn’t answer, still toying with the knife. Ari took a gentle hold on my hand and I immediately knew what it meant; we subtly inched back on the bed, trying to put more distance between us and the ‘vampire’ without making it obvious.
“Did you know,” his hazel eyes shifted up from the knife to land on me, “that I can see things most people can’t? Like you moving that fraction of an inch to get away from me.”
“We weren’t, we’re not—”
“And did you know,” he continued over Ari’s stammering, “that I can hear your heartbeat? It’s going about twice as fast as it should be. Why is that?”
“What is that?” I ignored his question and squinted at his knuckles, which had the word ‘bloodlust’ tattooed across them.
The ‘b’ was normal, but the ‘l’ was drawn as a stake, the two ‘o’s were written as dates on a gravestone, and the ‘l’ in lust was a knife dripping with blood.
Worst of all, the ‘t’ was drawn as a shredded cross.
“I think it fits, don’t you?” A boyish grin crossed his face as he stood and threw the knife over my head. I barely ducked in time—it stuck in the wall above my headboard. “I’m leaving. I’ll let you process this and figure it out.”
“Figure what out? The blood binding thing?”
“I guess you could say that.”
“Why don’t you tell us, then?” Ari asked.
“Because,” his lip ring caught the light as he gave her a twisted smile, “where’s the fun in that?”
“Hey, wait,” I called. He paused with a hand on the doorknob. “If you’re really a vampire, and I don’t believe you, for the record, shouldn’t you be turning into a bat to fly away?”
“No. We don’t do that.” Dennis gave me a bland look before a small smirk crossed his lips. “I’ll come back for you later.”
And then he was gone. Ari and I sat in silence for who knows how long before she asked, “Do you think he left?”
“Let’s go see.” I pulled her up and led the way from the room. When I glanced over my shoulder, she was nowhere to be seen. “Ari, hurry up. I didn’t finish taking shots and I wanna get to it before dinner.”
“Your psychiatrist would be ashamed.” She finally emerged from my room.
“Then she should’ve answered the phone.” I laughed, bounding downstairs the same as always while she stayed a few steps behind. We did a thorough search of the house but there was no trace of him. I collapsed on the couch once we were done. “Do you really think he’s a vampire?”
“I don’t know.” She stared at a wall, lost in thought. “There’s something off about him. If he’s not a vampire, he has to be some kind of something to be so intuitive. And weird.”
“And sexy,” I added.
“You’re such a mess.” She laughed as I grabbed the remote.
“What can I say? Normal people bore me.” I began scrolling in search of my favorite cartoon. “Did you see what he was doing with that knife?”
“Yes! I thought he was gonna kill us.”
“I know, right?” My voice was almost giddy as I recalled the thrill of it. “I loved it.”
“Are you kidding?” She stared as I propped my feet on the table.
“Not at all. Maybe next time he wants to act like a murderer, he won’t pick a girl with a death wish.”
“Maybe you have one, but I actually like life.”
“Eh,” I shrugged, “it’s okay. I’m good either way. At least if a wannabe vampire kills me, you can tell people I died an interesting death. Make sure you tell them he was attractive, too. Every detail counts.”
“Please tell me you’re joking.”
“Not even a little.” I grinned and went back to my show.