Vampire Days

Chapter 60.1 His head is a wonderland filled with ducks.

Conrad wasn't real. But he was watching when Mossberg first met the vampire guy. Conrad saw how that guy materialized in the water out of nowhere. Mossberg didn't mind. In Mossberg's eyes, everything in the world wasn't real until they proved their realness and sometimes, unreal things even try to insist they were. When he was younger, Mossberg believed them easily. Now, he chose to believe that everything, excluding the things that he definitely knew existed, were unreal.

Conrad knew that the happiest days of Mossberg's life were of him hanging out with Champion and Genesis and Lorenzo and Clifford. Tagging along with them was fun. Eating with them in the cafeteria was fun too. Mossberg didn't have friends his age back in his hometown. Old people liked him but they were too old to fool around with and they treated him more like a pet than a friend. They would pat his head and gave him snacks, which was okay because he liked receiving food, but that was it. All they wanted from him was to be still and be quiet.

When his parents sent him to college, he cried just like how he cried when they first sent him to kindergarten. Conrad knew that Mossberg was afraid of having to start explaining himself all over again and he's scared of having to deal with people's concerns all by himself. His parents thought it would be better to toss him in the middle of the crowd and let him fend for himself because he's a big boy now. At least bigger than most, physically. But Mossberg was a tender-hearted boy inside that tank of a body.

Mossberg's most treasured gift was Genesis' dorm key. He received that gift when he needed it the most, at the time when he's too frustrated with his school life because his roommates found it entertaining to dress up as weird characters and pull jumpscare pranks to provoke a reaction out of him. All he wanted to do, every single time, was go home.

It was when they were doing the laundry and Genesis asked him to hang the clothes. It fell off Genesis's pants' pocket and he tried to give it back but Genesis said he could have it, so he could come into their room even if he or Champion weren't home. To the vampire boy, it might be an insignificant incident not worth mentioning but it made Mossberg's day because finally, even if Genesis grumbled about him being too comfortable in his room, he still proved that he's actually a good guy deep inside. At first, Conrad thought he was dangerous and teritorial. Then he realized you can be dangerous and territorial and be a good guy too.

*

The chaos started one day, with an unexpected phone call. Mossberg was in the middle of his class when his phone rang, filling the classroom with the noisy intro of 00:00 AM by Acid. It was a rather unexpected song choice coming from him but he heard it once and decided it was the best song ever. His instructor gave him an earful and Mossberg apologized but not before bolting out of the door to answer the call. It was Genesis and Genesis has never once contacted him and he'd never contacted any of his friends since the restaurant incident and he was not about to ignore it just because of one class.

"Hello? -"

". . .think I'm dying."

"H-hello?" was the only thing to come out of Mossberg's mouth. It might be an unconscious way of warding off the ominous sense of dread that started taking hold of his tongue, a knock on wood, so to speak. Or to confirm that it was actually Genesis and maybe, to interrupt a prank and wait for him to burst out laughing from the other end.

"Who is. . .this? Help. . .dying. . ." It was Genesis and he sounded like he's gasping for air. His hoarse voice seemed like it was being forced out of him. The word dying left him stunned and he couldn't process all of the emotions raging out from inside his guts and crawling all over him, reminiscent of the anthill he accidentally stepped on as a child.

". . .bury. Bu-bury. . . I need-"

At first it was just a faint buzzing sound and he flicked a hand by his other ear to drive away whatever it was that made that sound but it only multiplied until the volume amped up and a dark cloud of gnats started to fill the air overhead. Mossberg ducked to avoid the incoming swarm while tightly pressing the phone on his ear, waiting for more words from Genesis but it was already quiet on the other end.