A Close Cut

We walked out of my office building and over to where he had parked his car along the street. His car was fairly standard the kind you would usually see being driven by a moderately paid employee of most tech companies. He opened the passenger side door for me and closed it after I had seated myself in a way that didn’t drip blood onto his car interior. The inside of his car had a cosy feeling but was unusually dark, as in the inside was pure black and had things designed to give of a demonic atmosphere dotted all around his dashboard. This should have been my first warning sign but I still decided to give him the benefit of the doubt as I was sure it was all just a personal expression or something else like that. We made the drive to the hospital and signed in at the front desk. After waiting about 5 minutes a doctor came out to see us.

We entered the doctors examination room, a room that just gave off that classic hospital vibe with pure white walls, a hint of cleaning agent covered up by one or two air fresheners dotted around the room. He ushered us into a pair of seats and began to first examine my leg for any signs of infection or broken bones. All the time during this, Hiroto was being oddly fidgety but I was too distracted by the doctor to actually take any notice. He gave me the all clear after bandaging up my leg and just told me to take it easy and not use my leg for a few days as it healed up. I was given a crutch to use to help me out as putting strain on my leg would cause the bleeding to worsen resulting in another hospital trip. I limped back to Hiroto’s car and got in the passenger seat. He climbed back into the drivers seat and popped this surprise question on me. “since the doctor told you to rest up and all that, and since my house isn’t actually too far from here, how about we make a pit stop there first just so you can regain your energy before I take you home, I know you must have had quite a tiring day as it is and so I don’t really mind if your willing to of course?” normally, I would of refused to go to a colleagues house especially a male ones, but he did have a point, I was feeling drained.

“sure but no funny business you hear me? Im only going because I don’t have the energy to take the train home today” as soon as he turned the corner down to the street where he lived, it dawned upon me the mistake I may have made. He pulled his car up in front of his house, and all I could think of was how terrifying it looked. The front had vines crawling up the windows and ledges, cobwebs had engulfed what wasn’t taken by the vines, and the paint job had been basically stripped away by what looked like centuries of neglect. It was so creepy in a way that was subtle but at the same time amplified the effects of long exposure to the house exterior. Slowly, I pulled myself out of his car and stared in a state of perplexed fear at this building that stood before me. It was then Hiroto that broke the silence with a chilling statement. “not that impressive huh? Well the economy today isn’t exactly as forgiving as it was back in 1856 but then again, we didn’t have these new automotives back then either and they certainly beat our horse and carts, of course though they is another commodity that has been harder to get too, especially with all these new laws and security measures in place” he paused and turned to face me with a devilish smile spreading across his face as his eyes began to grow scarier and he began to slowly walk towards where I was standing, rooted in place by pure terror at this now unknown man who stood before me.

He continued his speech as he walked, pacing his words with his stride. “this commodity was of course what my people need to live, lest we go insane, a liquid known as blood. Back then you could kidnap and drain any unsuspecting human and blame it on disease or ghosts, but now with all the security this country has it isn’t as easy as it used to be but still, life finds a way” he spoke these last few words with a gap in-between each one before suddenly lunging out at me. I ducked as quickly as I could and covered my face fearing the worst when I heard a thud and the sound of crumbling bricks. I looked out from my arms to see the vampire I had met earlier standing in front of me, and Hiroto’s body hanging out slightly from a human sized hole in his wall. The vampire, who I still hadn’t learnt the name of yet turned and gave me a cold stare. “you shouldn’t be here human, you should be at your house resting why weren’t you doing that you could of gotten killed by this thing!” his tone of voice had gotten more angry as he spoke, and rage spilled out from him on all sides.

“you remember that shriek you heard? Well that was the sound of a humans blood being drained from their body, the only reason you heard it was because I had used some of my blood to try and replace your missing blood, which must of given you temporarily heightened senses.” he turned back to look at Hiroto who was starting to regain his senses. “we shouldn’t talk here its too dangerous especially with his presence I will meet you back at your house and explain it all, I guess you deserve to know that much” he clicked his fingers and suddenly I found myself at the train station with my ticket in hand. At this point, I was too tired to even question his powers and I boarded my train, to begin my long, long journey home.