Lunch (Interlude)

Probably the most immediate sensations on arriving inside the small shack of a noodle bar were the droplets of sweat swirled with spice that instantly began to line your cheeks as you pushed open the sliding doors, and the assault of almost thick, warm smells that coated your skin like a layer of film. There was nobody else sitting in the small booth seats that looked out into the damp street, overshadowed by the buildings across the alley, with just the right amount of sunlight filtering in at angles that resembled a criss-cross of wires. While the three of us sidled into the worn bamboo benches topped with pretty nice looking, soft and lavender coloured cushions, trying our hardest not to knock the already wobbly table further off kilter, the rattling of the dark red chopsticks nonetheless startled the older woman dozing off against the back of our booth. 
"Eh?! Ah?"
With an equally rattled expression she took a couple of seconds to reacclimate to her surroundings, then wandered off, scratching her shaggy, short-cut hair in a daze.
"So, Claris, how was your trip?" Sorrow began politely, in that same radio-smooth voice of his, somehow not dampened by the sweatiness or pinpricks of spice and heat.
"Ah, well, you know. Honestly, it was kind of cool getting to go out to the country you know. I mean, around here, it's still fairly modern, in the sense that most farmers are using technology manufactured here in the city and most buildings are the same stone, wood, and glass that you see around here. There were a few older looking bamboo and such buildings, but even they were modernised in one way or another, with sleek, cosy interiors or glass sliding doors which, I'm pretty sure Tanizaki was complaining about this, are surprisingly hard to install. I also checked out the toilets to see if his point stands and yeah, there's something to that. Well, anyway, more importantly, there wasn't that much to do in terms of leisure that wasn't hanging out at the mall in town or wandering beside the river, which was honestly pretty nice, but that meant that most of our time was spent on the mission, which is why we came back pretty early. It's nice that we get extended schedules for relaxation and stuff, but a lot of the time, it seems more like some dirty trick to lure us on to mission with the promise of spare time, only to find that there's nothing to do with that spare time. Like an employee in a remote village with incredible long-service leave that really can't go anywhere or do anything, so they're always at work. But whatever, we did the usual, most of us used our Rabbit Holes pretty often, since this was a majority information tracking mission, but we did have some combat support at times, nothing serious, blah blah... Is she bringing the menus? ...Yeah ...Not really ...Leave her alone, yesterday was karaoke night so there's always tons of annoying kids here. Oh, yeah, we cleaned up pretty well... Too vague? Well, there's not much to say before the cleanup. Honestly, tracking something that left burnt husks in its wake wasn't all that difficult, but since we were complete strangers to the town, figuring out motives wasn't very easy. We didn't really know who hated who, what the social circumstances were like, what the overpowering insecurities were in that place. So, actually, most of the time using our Rabbit Holes was just for things like worming the truth from those tight-lipped country folk. A lot of the kids, especially the ones that commuted here for work or on weekends, were more willing to help us out. One even knew about us, which was kind of wild, and I signed his erotic magazines for him. ...Bad image? Hey, it's not like it's the company's signature. Besides, as if he's going to show that to anybody. No, boys don't really do that anymore, at least the well-adjusted ones. The miraculous power of subsidised education. Diverting a quatre of the country's military funds was more than enough to give education such a big push forward that we're basically living in an education utopia. Anyway, we managed to track down our blazing man, which considering that most people blamed it on spontaneous combustion or something stupid, the local police I mean, it was hard to get any real, concrete picture of the guy. Uh huh, hopping bodies. Yeah, it was mostly discontent, you know, the usual for those places. I hate my dead-end job, made worse by an almost mute, apathetic family, exacerbated by the pestering, sticky-nosed locals, furiously ignited by failed romances chained together with backwards viewpoints. What happened to education? Well, not everybody can benefit from it the same way as others. Sometimes, people's ideologies just can be refit into society's. No, I don't think that should be the case. Would I consider a person who commits evil deeds with free will to have more worth than someone that is a slave to society's morals and commits good deeds against his nature? ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ ("I think you broke her" Sorrow chimed in. "Seriously, sometimes you don't know when to keep things to yourself" he chastised like an older brother. To be honest, it was more something that was weighing on my mind, something I wanted corroborating answers for, so of course, I felt a little guilty for so selfishly throwing that question in her face.)
...ask me another time."
"Uhm, excuse me, the menus" punctured the conversation, causing it to deflate, and the menus slid across the table towards us drew our attention away from the topic for a while.
She looked pretty tired, and I couldn't tell if those rims under her eyes were short-lived after-effects from her dozing off or indicators of that karaoke night Claris talked about.
I don't know if it was the image of a slouched, tired, beat-down older woman, who nevertheless greeted us with a smile through the haze of sweat and spice, happily took our orders and chatted with Claris while she figured out what she should try today, but as soon as she left, I let some uncharacteristic words tumble from my lips wet with perspiration.
"I'm sorry for asking something like that. I mean, I know it's not a big deal, but I get that you're annoyed when you can't give those kinds of questions a truthful answer, so I apologise."
But, like she was mocking my goodwill, Claris looked up at me with a scrutinising amazement, then let out the acid-laced words "what question?"
Uh huh, I see, shotting me with shotgun pellets laced with poison when I tried to do something noble, come out of my shell and apologise...
It was just like her, and I let that comfort me.
All of a sudden, another vibration rattled against my thigh, though this time I was used to it, and with a swift apology and wave of my hand, I quickly pushed between tables and made my way outside, walking a little towards the shade of the overhanging curtains of the front entrance, and pushed the cool metal against my cheek.
"Hey, what's wrong."
"The other one is losing it a little."
"?! In what way?"
"In the this is kind of bad and she's out of the house and you ought to come over here immediately."
Before she had finished, I had already slammed the phone shut, and was bobbing on my feet with an anxiousness to dash home, but the decision of whether to take Sorrow with me boiling away behind me.
Honestly, it would probably just cause more issues.
What if it was a false alarm?
I didn't want to leave Claris behind either.
That's right, I was already halfway back to the main street, and a quatre of the way home.
But, I guess, explanations are in order again.
It's not like it's an awful memory that I'm trying to forget by refusing to acknowledge, therefore remember, it, rather, I just haven't been able to muster up the energy to think about how to deal with it yet.
Uh huh, more than one vampire, that being me, and more than two vampires, that being the woman in my house, there was a third issue that hadn't been revealed.
That is, the remnants of this morning.
Perhaps, it's better to just remember the whole thing, from the beginning, that is, from the moment my canines gouged out chunks upon chunks, tore strips from that monster's heart, revealing something hideous, disturbing, yet all the while, maybe even accentuated because of it, beauty underneath.
Another girl taken into my care...
Really, was this the kind of reputation I wanted, the life I'm leading?
I mean, there's nothing wrong with saving girls, but there's a pattern emerging here, where I could be easily accused of only helping pretty women...
But is that really so bad!
Please, adolescence doesn't end until you're in your thirties, hell, the human brain doesn't even fully develop until then.
...maybe that's something we should leave aside.
Any sympathies I might have had would be crushed beneath the heels of anybody listening to this.
So, both to inform and to deflect, it's time to remember the rest of this heat-drenched, morbid, melancholy, violent morning.