Midnight Falls

17: Arianne

“Make one noise, you die,” some man with claws for fingernails and a dark blue buzzcut told me the moment I went to the next aisle. I knew he was kinda lying, at least. There were too many people around and that would break the Exposure Laws set by both the hunters and vampires. Uncle gives Carl lessons sometimes, and Carl gives them to me when he has time.

The vamp’s partner elbows him, his red mullet bouncing with the force. They both had the same smell as Victor. Fresh baked cookies.

“Kontary can hide us and her, but he can’t hide her blood,” He mutters. Buzzcut all but slaps him. Probably because the force of it would have knocked Mullet into the aisle, creating a scene despite our current invisibility. Which is still confusing to me, but I’ll ask Victor if- when I get out of this. Think positive.

“She didn’t need to know- Don’t move!” he yelled at me. I had already backed up a little, using their fight as a distraction. Unfortunately, he was smart and predicted my plan. Everything about this was seeming familiar. Not the first dream I remembered, but the ones that followed the nights after. But even they didn’t show me this far. “If you try to run, I have permission to hunt you down.”

“By who?” I ask, stomping my foot. If they can’t kill me here and now and I can’t be seen, I can make as much noise as I want.

“None of your business, now shut up!” I knew I shouldn’t, but I couldn’t help it. It was my best bet on getting away.

I ran.

I could hear them yelling after me, but I ran as fast as my feet would carry me. The world was a blur. I only meant to go back to Carl and Victor, but when I turned left into the Halloween aisle, I was greeted with cereal boxes and pop-tart boxes. How had I overshot them by twenty aisles?

I poked my head out the way I had come. Buzzcut and Mullet are coming my way, but they’re walking. They look as confused as me, but I pull my head back before they spot me. Even though they’re being careful and are moving slowly, it’s only a matter of time before they find me. 

Think, think, think Arianne! Where can I run, what can I do? I can head to the front, but people are still walking around me like I’m invisible, so not much help there. Konta- guy must be the cause of it. He can warp reality, or something; though, I’ve never heard of a vamp doing that before. This is all so very strange. I wish I could have a normal childhood, one like the kids at my school. All they worry about are grades and what people think of them. 

Vampires chase after me.

But it doesn’t matter now; I had to do something, go somewhere, get to my brother and Victor. Sighing, I look up at the ceiling and rub a hand over my face. As I let my head fall back to it’s normal place, I notice something on the wall. Red with a white light at the ready to flash and blare at the pull of a small little lever. 

My dream….

Maybe it wasn’t just a dream.

* * *

That worked a treat. I’m running again, as fast as I was before. I would chalk it up to adrenaline, but I’m seriously starting to think otherwise since no adrenaline rush I’ve ever known has the world become a blur to the person it’s happened to. But I was still exhilarated at this speed. If I make it out of here, I’m joining track.

Aisle after aisle, I start to realize that there’s still people around, even though I pulled the alarm. Vamps, I think they are, because no human in their right mind would stay in a building they thought was burning. 

I have to become craftier, hiding until the coast is clear, then booking it to another spot. I guess it’s kinda like hide and seek in the playground, though those guys were never actively looking for me. They don’t seem to be bothered by the flashing lights or blaring alarm; they were just looking for something.

“Someone, little girl,” I hear from behind me. I had been hiding behind some clothes waiting for the next opportunity to move. I guess I waited too long. “Hey, it’s just me. The funny man.” I sigh when I recognize his voice. Victor….

“What do you mean, someone?” I ask, not taking my eyes off the vamps in front of me. I’ve yet to Buzzcut and Mullet again, but I don’t need to see them to know that they’re out there. I wonder if they’re mad, but with any luck, I’ll never have to find out. Quickly, I turn back to Victor, only he’s just a bit different than any of the times before. Instead of brown, his eyes are golden. I shiver despite the warmth in the store.

With a jolt I remember that he’s a vamp. It’s really hard to remember that sometimes; he acts so much like a human, with his kind words and demeanor. He’s even very protective of Carl and me. Victor seems to catch my slight fear and his look softens, sadness and some other emotion hiding beneath. His eyes faded back to his normal brown.

“Sorry,” He muttered, then looked at me with a sly smile. “That was some quick thinking of yours, Jackrabbit.”

“Jackrabbit?” I tilted my head, wondering why he called me that. Better than being called a girl, though I wish I didn’t feel that way.

“Oh, sorry. You’re probably like your brother in that you don’t like nicknames.”

“No, I actually like it. It’s better than ‘freaky loner girl’.” I don’t know what made me tell him that, but he softens even more. He better not pity me.

“Right, well listen to me Jackrabbit. There are more vampires than we see out there, all after you and me.”

“Why?”

“They wanted to use you to lure me to them. Now I think they’ll just-” He stops when he realizes that he’s talking to me. I glare daggers at him.

“Tell me, dammit. I’m not a little kid.” I know I said that louder than I meant to or should’ve because Victor glanced around worriedly. “Sorry.”

“We have to find a way out of here.” I give him a sarcastic look that just screams ‘duh’, and he scrunches his nose in a retort. “I can run fast, but while I’m carrying you, we’ll both be vulnerable.”

“You won’t have to carry me.” When he looks at me confused, I spill what happened today when I ran from the original two vamps and that it’s continued since then. That it was how I had gotten so far.

“How is that possible?” I hear him mutter. His eyes shine with the wonder that I see many kids around my school get when they’re trying to figure out a problem, in the classroom or not. He sniffs the air, making me just a bit uncomfortable. “You smell like a normal- wait-”

“I don’t know why I can, but I can. So listen,” I say, grabbing his arm. It was cold but strangely soft. Like real human flesh. “We can run together. Like I’ve been doing. And with you being able to read minds, it’ll work.” He’s refusing to meet my eye and I know what he’s thinking. “Dammit Victor, don’t do this too.”

“Do what?”

“Treat me like I’m some kid.”

“You are a kid.”

“Yeah, but I can do stuff on my own. And I can be trusted with more than you give me.” At this point, I wasn’t talking just to him. And I’m glad he realized that, because he told me that we would do it my way, but there would be rules. I would have to remain in sight of him, he would have to be reading my mind the entire time, and were anything to go south, I was to run like hell to the nearest exit. I said fine to all of it, even the mind reading bit. It just meant that I had to abide by all his rules and he would know if I wanted to go astray.

“Then let’s do this Jackrabbit.”