Deadly Touch | Han Jisung

18 • Questions & Lies

After about fifteen minutes into our drive, I had fallen into a deep sleep. I think that all the crying had completely exhausted me, along with all the stress of the day. When I woke up, I felt startled and confused. Like before, I had about twenty seconds of where the memories hadn't come back yet.

I thought I was just waking up in my bed but soon the motion of the car became known to me, along with the music that Jisung was playing. I managed to keep calm, although part of me wanted to cry some more.

I listened to Jisung softly singing along to the song, finding the sound so incredibly soothing, and looked out of the car window, realising I had absolutely no idea where we were. Jisung finally noticed I was awake, smiling at me like nothing was wrong and greeting me with a 'hello'.

It was odd that he could act so natural and jokey throughout a situation like this. I wondered if I was the first person he had ever kidnapped and my blood began to run cold. I hadn't really considered that before, that maybe I was in a long line of victims.

Maybe this is what vampires do to survive. They have to get blood from somewhere, don't they? People go missing all the time. Surely vampires could be involved in it. But he had promised that no harm would come to me.

I wondered whether or not I could really trust him. Sure, he sounded genuine but if he was kidnapping lots of people, then he would get good at lying to calm them. I thought for a moment, finally thinking of something to ask.

"Jisung, can I ask you a question?" He let out a noise of annoyance at that. He probably thought I was going to ask the same question of what his intentions are with me. "Please?"

"Go ahead."

There was a pause before I finally managed to ask, "Do vampires need blood to survive?"

"Of course we do," He said with a laugh, as if I was supposed to know that. "That's like our trademark thing, Natalie."

"Well, where do you get the blood from?"

He looked at for me for a solid minute, meeting my eyes and it felt like he was reading me. I just let him, hoping he would just answer my question.

"We get it from a myriad of places. If someone is buried, we can get it from them. We have connections with doctors, so a small amount of donor blood from humans is taken for us. Of course, there are animals, too. However, they aren't very satisfying and you're usually hungry again pretty quickly. There are some vampires that, despite the fact you're not really supposed to, just take it from humans."

I felt like I might throw up at the thought of all that but I also didn't really get my answer. I wanted to know if he wanted my blood, but he hadn't mentioned it.

"How do you get your blood?"

We met eyes again and he smiled weakly at me. "I'm not going to take your blood, Natalie."

I felt a wave of relief hit me, but there was still that small part of me that didn't trust that he was telling the truth. Why would he?

I decided that I didn't want to dwell on it too much. If he was going to take my blood, then he would never tell me anyway. So I may as well just try to relax and hope for the best. I wanted to change the subject.

"So, how far away are we?"

"About five minutes," He replied.

I felt my stomach twist slightly. The idea of meeting other vampires was pretty scary, especially because I didn't know why I had to meet them. If he was just going to kill me, why did I have to meet his parents? Maybe all three of them would kill and drink me together.

"You've turned paler than me," He joked, laughing to himself.

"What are your parents like?"

"Are you nervous?" There was a tone of disbelief in his voice and it made me feel silly. "My Father is a lovely man. Very well respected. My Mother, well, she can be a little cranky sometimes. She also doesn't like humans, so I'd stay quiet and polite if I were you."

I felt myself drain of any colour that had been left in my face (which, granted, hadn't been much) and I got that urge again to just run, although I instantly pushed it aside.

"What do you mean she doesn't like humans?"

"Well, think about it," He started. "Vampires are super strong, humans are weak. Vampires can live forever, humans only live for like sixty years - I mean, humans just kind of suck."

"Human's suck?" I asked, trying to laugh through everything he had just said even though it offended me slightly. "Was that a pun?"

"Not one done on purpose."

I stared at the window and felt the panic began to boil up inside of me again. All these different scenarios began to run through my mind of his Mother, I wondered how much she really didn't like humans. Would she say something to me? Would she hurt me?

I felt like I was going to cry, but I tried to keep myself calm. I had done a lot of crying recently and I didn't want to start again because it felt like I wouldn't stop. I hid my face in my arm and tried to stop myself.

I don't want Jisung to see me.

"Natalie, are you okay?" He asked me, putting his hand on my shoulder to try to comfort me.

Of course, it was sweet of him to do. I had that normal voice telling me that he didn't really care about me at all and just didn't want to have to deal with my crying anymore. But what if he did really care?

We had spent a decent amount of time together and some of it got pretty intense. Maybe he was beginning to like me. I tried to be optimistic for the first time in forever.

He would take me wherever and it would turn out that whatever he needed me for wasn't bad. Then he would let me go and I would be okay. Perhaps we would continue to be friends. I almost smiled at that.

"Talk to me, Nattie."

"Your Mum won't hurt me, will she?" I asked, looking up from my arm.

I managed to catch a glimpse of worry on his face before it melted away and he lied, "No, she wouldn't do that."

I look out of the window at everything passing us by, zooming and shooting by the car as if we were going insanely fast. To be honest, we were going pretty fast. If it had been anyone else driving, I would have been worried but I trusted that Jisung was also amazing at driving. On top of being amazing at literally everything.

I began to think of Heather, and only Heather, because who else was there? Nobody else ever really cared about me but her, she was like a Mum to me and I hadn't realised that until now. I felt like I had completely taken her for granted. If I didn't have her, I think I would have went off the rails completely.

I knew for a fact I was like a daughter to her. She always said to us that the kids at the orphanage were like her children, since she never had any. I wondered what she thought had happened to me.

It was me: She probably thought I had run off or was sleeping rough somewhere for a couple nights. But then some more time would pass and then what?

Would she assume I had ran off for good, or that I had been murdered by someone? The idea of her worrying about me, never really knowing if I was okay or not. I had been such a hassle to her my whole life and now I would ruin it completely.

I wondered if Jisung had said anything to anybody, maybe came up with an excuse for why I was gone. He probably hasn't thought about it. I wished that he would, so Heather wouldn't have to worry about me. I wondered if I asked him to, would he go along with a lie for me? A lie that would make Heather think I was okay, so she wouldn't worry.

Maybe...he has been pretty nice recently.

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Hey kinda boring chapter sorry but I'll be uploading tomorrow to make up for it! Pls make sure to vote and comment my beautiful peeps💖