Bloodfang

Strangers at the Door

Ricky

Ricky made his way up the stairs and closed the basement door behind him. Though he left the basement hall-light on. He set the flashlight on the counter, before making his way over to the sink and turning on the faucet. He reached up, opened the cabinet and retrieved a small blue plastic bowl. He placed it under the running faucet and filled it with cold water. Ricky smiled to himself as he waited. "Poor guy is probably going to be really thirsty when he wakes up."

Once the bowl was full, he turned off the faucet and began walking very slowly to the basement, being very careful not to spill the water.

When he was almost to the basement door he heard an unexpected knock at the front door and he froze. Another, more demanding, knock followed.

Ricky stood for long moments, his mind finding it difficult to process his next move when sudden realization dawned on him. He let out a groan of frustration and glanced over at the kitchen clock. It was a little after twelve. Rosy must have gotten away from the restaurant earlier than expected, he surmised.

"Crud!" he exclaimed, setting the bowl on the kitchen counter next to the flashlight. He glanced down at himself, making sure that there was nothing suspicious about his appearance that would draw undo scrutiny and complicated questions. Happy with what he saw, Ricky headed out of the kitchen and toward the front door, yelling, "I'm coming!"

Ricky inwardly winced at the shortness in his tone. Whenever he was really frustrated or overtired or sick or overwhelmed, Ricky had the tendency to come across short and rude though he did not mean, too. It was like his mind was on a shorter fuse at these times and he was more apt to be less guarded in his behavior. It had gotten him in trouble a time or two in school and at home. This was definitely one of those times.

He only hoped that Rosy didn't think that he was yelling at her. She was a very nice woman and he didn't want to make himself look like a bad punk kid. He made his way over to the door, unlocked it, and opened it.

"Hi Ros..." Ricky started but clamped his mouth shout the instant he realized it wasn't Rosy.

Instead of Rosy, there stood two very large, very intimidating, very strange looking Caucasian men on the front porch. Very Caucasian, Ricky noted. Their skin was extremely pale. They wore black trench coats, black berets, black gloves, and black sunglasses. 'The new men in black,' Ricky thought crazily as he stared at the sinister looking men on his uncle's doorstep. Two strange men whom he had never met! Ricky felt shivers run down his spine, and it had nothing to do with the storm that was still brewing outside. Something wasn't right with these guys.

The one on the right was a short, middle-aged guy with grey eyes and grey hair. He looked kind of shifty despite standing military straight as if he was an authority figure to be respected.

The other man was younger, probably in his thirties. He was much taller than his friend, but whereas the other man stood tall this man slouched. He had piercing pale blue eyes and long brown hair contained by a rubber band in a ponytail. He had a wide toothy grin that revealed shiny white, but somewhat pointy teeth. It didn't help ease Ricky's nerves that the wide toothy grin was focused directly on him.

Despite the fact that he had never met these two men, Ricky couldn't help but feel that he'd seen them before. He just didn't remember where though. Before he could figure out from where a voice interrupted his thoughts, almost causing Ricky to jump in fright.

"Hello there young man. How are you today?" The shorter man asked in a rather proper manner. While Ricky tried not to be rude and gave the talking man a quick glance his eyes strayed over and over again toward the taller man with the creepy grin. There was something about how the man stared at Ricky that was freaking him out. Ricky likened it to a trapped, cornered mouse about to become the morsel of a starving, deranged cat. Ricky shivered again.