Vampire Days

Chapter 41: Charmed

I flinched when Champion knocked on the window and caught myself scratching my thumbnail raw as I sat inside the car waiting for him to return from our room to fetch an umbrella, or anything to help me cross the parking lot to our dorm.

The weather was awful. I'd rip your vocal chords off if you start joking about how fun it is to be a vampire in the Philippines. This is the worst fucking country for the likes of us. The sun loves us too much and when it rains, it fucking pours like we're being hammered down by vengeful wasted water.

Champion opened the driver's side door and looked me over with a concerned frown. Hot air from outside mingled with the car's air conditioning; long, slender fingers caressing my neck and cheeks. The space behind Champion shimmered like a mirage and I instinctively winced at the thought of my skin melting away from my bones once I set foot outside without protection.

"There's no one in the receiving area. Try to relax, would you?"

"I'm just. . .not in the right condition to deal with people right now. My head's all cotton," I said, knocking my right knuckles on the side of my head.

"You will be fine. I'm here, I got your back," he reassured me just as he was opening the wide black umbrella to see if it was good enough for me. "Got this free when I bought a box of cigarettes," he said with a soft laugh.

With long strides, he circled the car and I opened my side of the door and gingerly accepted the umbrella. I didn't ask about those cigarettes. He didn't smoke, so it was probably for someone else.

"This is huge," I said, my eyes wide as saucers underneath the sunglasses. My right eye felt like new, as if it had completely forgotten the traumatic experience it went through last night. What was in that eye?

"And it's black. You could get cozy with Austin underneath the rain and you'd never get wet."

I immediately, and involuntarily, let off a goofy snicker at the suggested image. Someday I'm gonna walk with Austin when it's raining and we'd share an umbrella like how lovers would. Ah, my imagination was running wild.

The common room was deserted. Some of them must be in their own classes. The others were inside their rooms, either taking a nap or muttering under their breath to memorize terminologies and formulas. I stopped and closed my eyes, taking a long, deep breath just to double check and Champion was closing the door behind us.

"No suspicious unfamiliar scents," I reported and we hurriedly crossed the huge living room into the staircase that leads upstairs. I couldn't help but think of Depp and his presence that was suddenly snuffed out, leaving his possessions behind. The only evidence that he was once part of that dormitory. Remnants of his own unique odor still lingered in the halls, tugging at my anxious brain.

What if he suddenly appeared like nothing happened? What if nothing actually happened and I've dreamed it all up and then he'd be there, fidgeting like a scared little pig?

Would I still kill him?

Yup. I would definitely kill him again though. That fact was irreversible. Sealed.

Champion had opened our room and went inside without waiting for me as I stood in the corridor, watching the image of Depp's back as he tried to run away from me. I also watched the crazy bloodsucker with a mad killer's eyes. That stranger was also me, the one who was repulsed by human food and felt utter amusement in the chase. I didn't dare try to stop him from wanting. I saw no reason for it.

"Am I changing?" I asked Champion when I stepped inside our room and locked the door. He was in the middle of taking his clothes off and he paused, neck and arms still tangled inside his shirt. He was considering his answer and it was confirmation enough.