Vampire Days

Chapter 2: Nurgis

Nobody dared to speak as we sat side by side on the park bench. I jumped down from the statue but he didn't seem to notice that what I did was beyond human. The statue's stand was pretty high up after all.

It started to drizzle but he still held his tongue. No matter how annoyed I was, berating him for killing me, when I'm obviously not dead dead, felt so embarrassing. Sometimes I hate myself for being so happy-go-lucky.

"Are you making fun of me?" I asked.

He didn't answer. He didn't even lift his head to acknowledge that he understood or even heard what I said. Maybe he wasn't so comfortable sitting right in front of the spot where I broke my skull. But he chose the spot and sat there first, I just followed.

He began sniffing in a snotty kind of way. Fuck! I can't even react according to the situation. After a while, he started bawling like a lost child and wiped his face with his shirt.

"What did I ever do to you?!" I asked in a loud voice, just in case someone was watching us thinking that I was bullying a child. "What is wrong with you?"

He shook his head rapidly while wiping his tears with the backs of his hands. Not knowing what to do, I patiently watched him and waited until he calmed down. Maybe it was the shock of accidentally killing another person, especially one that's definitely dead when you left and then finding him alive on the same spot the next day.

"How old are you, anyway?"

"Fourteen," he answered in a surprisingly deep voice.

"No shit?! I thought you're like, ten," I said, chuckling a little bit. He looked younger than fourteen. He raised his head slightly and stared at me too intently until I felt that it was getting awkward.

"I was looking for you."

I raised an eyebrow. He sounds so serious.

"You wanted to go to my funeral? Searched the obituaries?"

He closed his eyes and shook his head, gently this time.

"No. I wasn't looking for a dead person."

He smiled and that was when I noticed his fangs.

*

Based on our lifestyle, being a vampire isn't so hard. Maybe I was being dramatic due to the shock of waking up craving a glass of fresh, warm blood. Maybe it was the distress of realizing that I can't relate to my past self anymore and I had to put some value into my own humanity. What would become of me if I wasn't me? Maybe I was pretending to myself, telling the dead human inside me that I don't want to let him go.

But when you look at it carefully, there's really not much difference except the food choices. Once fully adjusted to this new way of existing, maybe I could go on with my life as a dead person without a hitch.

"Do vampires still have fate?" I asked him.

He frowned before grinning.

"You have a weird sense of humor."

Nurgis isn't so bad after all. Of course I'm still pissed at him for turning me into one of him. Just like any other, he told me that he only did me a favor because I begged for my life.

"You prayed to any god who was listening and I'm closest to a god who happened to be next to you."

"You little shit! You talk like you didn't end my life!"

He smiled apologetically and scratched his head.

"You were wasted. I tried to avoid you but it all happened so fast."