Shorter days, Longer nights

Chapter 22 || Spencer

"And you won't," Eva spoke, "we don't feed on people, that's the perks of having one of us as a doctor." 

"What do you mean?" my eyes finally met her gaze, as I'd imagined, they were filled with worry along with a hint of something I couldn't exactly pinpoint. Was it maybe.. desperation? 

"She gets us blood bags," her shoulders slightly shrugged, "so no feeding on people, ever." 

My sight once more lowered as I found myself at a loss for words and then I realized, "Isn't that theft?"

"No... well yes... but you gotta do what you gotta do," I supposed it was better than hurting innocent people. Although stealing blood bags does technically hurt innocent people. What would happen if someone was in immediate need of blood but there was none because our lovely kind had used it for breakfast? 

"Can't we like," I paused, rethinking my words, "feed on animals?" 

"We can but it's much weaker, if all fed on animals, there would be none left for the humans, that's going to mess up the ecosystem, badly," she emphasized the word 'badly'. 

No matter what we did, someone would end up hurt. That's the misery of the natural food chain. Our kind had to hurt humans, humans animals, and animals other species. We needed each other for our survival. It had to be done. Except our existence wasn't natural. It was anything but. But perhaps blood bags were the safest path. 

"Was that.. Spencer?" her voice was light as she mentioned his name. Lighter than I'd heard in ages. She spoke so carefully that it felt as if she was scared that if she went any louder, I'd crumble. Which I supposed was fair. 

I nodded in response, the image of his face reconstructing in my mind. A tinge of pain formed in my chest like a dagger pushed through my heart. A nauseous feeling pooled in my stomach, as my mouth oozed with saliva.

"God," she muttered the very word I never thought I'd hear leaving her mouth, before nearing closer and wrapping her arms around me. I'd hoped that the comfort of her presence would help the throbbing pain throughout my body, the same way it had in the bathroom that day. But it didn't. It did nothing to dim the pain. 

My eyes flowed to my right, settling themself on Jaycee. She stood in the same spot and leaned against the wall. But now, her shoulders were tighter and her jaw clenched. It was as if she'd completely forgotten our previous moments as she glared right back at me, a strange look in her gaze. For a moment, I wondered if she knew about him. If Eva had told her. But the thought quickly went away. Eva had a habit of accidentally spilling people's secrets, but this, I trusted her with more than I even trusted myself. So how come Jaycee didn't ask?

"Why is he back?" she asked, my lips parted in response, only to be held back, "wait sorry, of course you don't know," her arms stayed tight against my shoulders as her head shook roughly by my side as if dismissing her own thoughts. "You know, you should just stay here," she finally, backed away, giving me some space to let out a breath.

"What?" I uttered at the suggestion, a mix of relief and panic washing over me. 

"I'm not letting you go back to him Liz, besides, we take care of our own," she shrugged, a hint of excitement once more audible in her tone, bringing ease to my own body. 

"Are you sure?" 

"Yeah of course, it'll be fun having you here," a smirk formed, widening from ear to ear, I noticed as her gaze moved past me, focused somewhere behind me, she continued, "Right? Jaycee?" my eyes widened as my head snapped toward Jaycee, the implication ringing through my ears, threatening to spread a smile across my own face, despite the constant misery in my chest. Her eyes seemed to have shot up, meeting mine. I caught a little twitch in her upper lip as her body shifted away from us, facing the front side as she set her gaze on the wall. "We can get all your stuff here," she added, drawing my attention back to her. 

"Okay then," I returned her smile. Despite the fear of my burden on all their shoulders pooling in my mind, I was relieved to have a place to stay, better yet with a friend. I'd just have to try my best to help with their matters and mind my business as best as possible. I had experience staying with strangers before, years of knowledge, so how hard could this be?

"Yeahh!" she exclaimed, "So we'll pick up your stuff after school?" another string of worry shot through my body. 

"Wait, what time is it?" I reached my hand over my jeans, reminded of the discomfort I'd slept in last night. I distinctly avoided the memory of Jaycee carrying me last night as my fingers patted my sides. To my surprise, the fabric of my pockets clung nicely to the rest of the fabric underneath. There was no trace of any rectangular-shaped object in my pockets or any objects for that matter.

"It's on the side table," this time, the voice was Jaycee's. The first sentence I'd heard from her since morning. A flutter ran through my chest, as her voice met my ears, leaving me confused about why. Could I have been..? I pushed the thought away, forcing myself to focus on more pressing matters. Matters that included the sheets of empty assignment papers in my bag threatening to ruin any free time I had today. In addition to the likeliness of snapping everyone's attention on me, as I paced in, late.

My hand quickly shot to my side, my wrist gripped the device while my finger perfectly rested against the sensor. The letters '7:49' met my eyes and then quickly switched to '7:50' as if I wasn't already going to be late enough.

"I'm late!" I glared up at Eva, not a single worry in her eyes, "I don't even have clothes!" 

"Oh I brought some this morning," she shrugged, "and we have english first period," she looked at me as if that was meant to relieve my worry in some way, "who cares about english?"