Innocent
You had known things could go wrong between the two of you. You’d imagined he wouldn’t be able to cope with you around because of your humanity – your blood. Or maybe because he simply didn’t want to be in a relationship. But nothing could’ve prepared you for the words that had fallen from his mouth that morning.
“I have missed you,” Layla said, hugging you tightly.
“I’ve missed you, too.” You clung to her like she could disappear any moment.
The terrace of the restaurant was buzzing with people, it was close to dusk, slowly covering the city in a veil of darkness.
You both sat down, facing each other as you pulled off your jacket. It was hot despite the cold weather; there were enough heaters hanging above your heads to mimic the sun. But it was nice to eat outside for a change – you hadn’t seen much of the city ever since your stay at Michael’s lab.
“How are you?” Layla asked as she picked the menu card off of the table, her fingers already flipping through the pages. You had both been here before, it was one of your favourite places, so you knew the menu by heart, and you also knew you were going to be unoriginal by picking the same things you always ordered.
“Where do I begin,” you said with a slight chuckle. Although there was nothing funny about the things you wanted to share with her.
The only thing you had on your side was the luck of having good make-up to cover the bruises on your face. After getting hit in the face by your ex-boss it was a given you’d end up with nasty blues and purples on your skin. Michael was a good doctor, but even he couldn’t prevent those from showing up.
Layla leaned forward a little, her eyes sparkling – or was it a reflection from the heaters? “So, your doctor didn’t want any visitors,” she said with her lips curling into a teasing smile. “Why was that?”
“What do you mean?”
“That’s what you told me, remember? That you’d be out of the hospital soon anyway, so your doctor didn’t want visitors.” She put the menu down. “Was he cute?”
You didn’t know what to say to her, or how to react, but apparently your face told her what she wanted to hear as she started to smirk. “Okay, so,” you started, seeing as she was eager to hear more, “something did happen. But it didn’t end well...” You let your words linger as you casted your eyes down to your hands in your lap.
There was a moment of silence before the waiter came to write down your wishes. When he left, you looked back up at Layla again. She was still leaning in towards you, but the grin was gone.
“What happened?” She sounded worried.
You sighed, looking around for a moment before deciding where to start your story.
Your ice cream was melting on your plate as you poked at it. You had ordered it but weren’t even sure why – you had lost most of your appetite after spilling everything about what had happened to you. Layla had told you a couple of times how sorry she was for not being there for you. But you quickly reassured her she couldn’t have known. You had kept her in the dark, after all.
“What did he tell you to make you run away from him?”
You hadn’t told her that part yet. The day after having slept with him, he chose to tell you something about his future. Or rather; the lack of it.
You took in a big gulp of oxygen, trying to keep those nasty tears away. “He told me he had brought it into the world. It would only be fitting for him to end it as well.” There was a bitter taste in your mouth, you still couldn’t believe he had said those words.
Michael had been making an antidote for Milo. But for himself as well. And it would most certainly kill them both. As was his plan – he couldn’t live his live as a living vampire, but he couldn’t survive his illness either. There was no winning.
And he had decided to tell you this after you had completely fallen for him. Love was a big word, but it came damn close to it when you thought about losing him.
You had been angry at him, your body trembling as you had told him you were not going to watch him die. You had wanted to scream at him, to tell him how stupid he was, but in the end, it wouldn’t have changed a thing. His mind was set; he had planned this from the beginning.
“What about Daniel’s organisation?” you’d asked him. And he had looked at you with his big blue eyes, his hands trying to catch yours as you had stepped back from him.
He told you then how Daniel’s organisation was already collapsing on itself, but no matter how close one would come to eradicating it, they would always rise again. Such was the nature of crime – of those men.
“So he’s going to kill himself,” Layla whispered, her eyes growing large as she couldn’t seem to believe it either.
You nodded.
“Wow,” she said, sitting back as she grabbed her glass of wine. “What an asshole.”
That comment somehow made you laugh a little. As if you two were just talking about a man who had dumped you, and not because he was going to end his life.
“You could say that,” you mused.
There was a shared silence. The sound of chatting, laughter and knives and forks on plates filled in the quiet of your conversation.
“This guy, Milo, is he really as bad as Michael makes him out to be?”
You shrugged. “I don’t know him. Only heard a few things about him... like how he wants Michael to drink real blood. And apparently, Milo has killed a few partygoers. It was on the news, I think.”
Layla drank the last of her wine before putting the glass down. “Ah, yes, I’ve seen it. Was that Milo? The headlines stated it was the doctor, or well, someone who wanted to be like him I guess.” She cocked her head a little as she seemed to think. “So Michael wants to kill him and then himself. But what if Milo wins the fight?”
You were staring at your melting ice cream, gathering your thoughts. “I don’t know.” You had thought about it yourself. Milo was drinking actual blood, wouldn’t that make him stronger? It wasn’t like there was a handbook about vampires out there – Michael was probably the first of his kind, which made things a bit more complicated to understand.
The waiter came again with the bill and you knew you could use a good night of sleep. No more partying for a while. Besides, you had to go look for a job. You’d stayed at Michael’s place long enough.
You looked around again, feeling eyes on you, but you couldn’t find anyone staring at you. At least, not from the restaurant. You were about to open your mouth to tell Layla you were going to order a cab, when your gaze lingered on two red eyes. They were far away, but easily spotted once you saw them.
Milo. He was leaning against a wall, arms crossed, his focus on you with a look that said ‘we need to talk’. Which wasn’t the brightest idea – you couldn’t trust him.
“Something wrong?” Layla’s voice broke the spell and you managed to turn your head.
“No, just lost in thought,” you quickly said.
“It’s on me tonight,” she said with a smile, “you can treat me to diner when you’ve got a new job.”
You genuinely smiled back at her. “Thank you, Layla.” It was good to have a friend like her, someone you could trust and whom you could speak your mind freely to.
After paying and each getting a cab (you both lived nowhere near each other, unfortunately), you hugged her and waved her goodbye when her cab drove off.
“You getting in or what?” the driver said with a scowl as you lingered next to the open door.
You looked at the black seats for a moment. “No, sorry,” you said, closing the door and letting the cab drive off without you.
“You’re so stupid,” you hissed to yourself as you walked through the busy street, your eyes going left and right to find a certain red gaze. “If you die, that’s on you this time,” you added, fully aware people were staring at you like you were crazy. And you were. But you couldn’t just go home and let things happen. There had to be some sort of way to keep Michael from dying. Milo? You didn’t care what would become of him, but maybe he could somehow give you information about their vampirism.
You ended up at the building he had been leaning against, but he wasn’t here. You spun around on your feet, trying to catch a glimpse somewhere. The man wasn’t exactly small, so he couldn’t be hard to miss. And yet it was harder than you thought as it was dark out and people mingled like ants on the streets.
“Looking for me?” a voice came from behind you. You quickly faced him as he was standing a bit farther into the alleyway.
You swallowed. He looked like any other man – normal, healthy. Not a monster. His eyes weren’t red at the moment.
You shook your head, “you were looking for me, weren’t you?”
There appeared a crooked smile on his face. “You weren’t hard to find, trust me.”
His smile in combination with those words made goosebumps appear on your skin. How could he be so scary while his human form seemed so innocent. You tried to imagine him with crutches, stumbling and moaning in pain every now and then – he had been like that his whole life. And now he was a monster. An actual monster as opposed to Michael who didn’t want to kill good people for blood or sport.
Your feet had slowly made their way towards the alley, towards him. And you managed to keep yourself in check just in time. His eyes were almost hypnotizing. He was absolutely dangerous. But if he had found you so easily, he could visit your apartment as well. Which was even scarier, because there would be no one to stop him.
“What do you want from me?” You lifted your chin a little, trying to look like you knew what you were doing, as if you weren’t scared shitless of him now that you were face to face. Michael could be scary, but you knew he would never hurt you. Milo, on the other hand, had no empathy it seemed.
He took a step backwards as he let his fingers touch the wall, his nails grazing the bricks. “I heard Michael is planning on killing me.”
Your eyes grew larger. Shit. He had overheard your conversation with Layla. How could you be so stupid? He obviously had super hearing as well.
He cocked his head as his smile seemed to be plastered onto his face. “Don’t beat yourself up over it, I would’ve figured it out eventually.” His human nails turned into claws, scratching pieces of brick loose as he kept walking backwards, his figure slowly disappearing into darkness.
“Wait -” you said, unsure what his plans were. You had already made it difficult for Michael, giving away his plans. Milo would be prepared for an attack now.
“You don’t want him to die, do you?” his voice sounded from the darkness. You could just about see the outline of his body.
You clutched your bag between your fingers to keep yourself from boring your fingernails into the palms of your hands. “No,” you breathed.
“Let’s make a deal, you and I,” he said.
“What deal?”
“Michael has to drink the red.” His voice was lower now. “And not just a few drops – he has to kill someone. That’s the only way to get him back to sanity.” He chuckled darkly. “He isn’t himself anymore, he has lost his senses thanks to the garbage he keeps drinking.”
You weren’t stupid, this was obviously Milo’s way of getting his friend back. But Michael wouldn’t be Michael anymore, he would become like Milo. Thirsting for blood every waking hour, addicted to killing people for blood. Addictions were hard to beat once started.
“You think he will stop trying to kill you and himself if he takes the life of an innocent person?”
Milo made a disapproving noise with his tongue. “Not just any person,” he said.
Everything happened in a flash then; his claws came out of the darkness, reaching around your throat as he flung himself at you. There was no time to scream as the strength of his fingers was blocking your airway. Your hands tried to pull him off of you, but to no avail.
His hot breath was fanning against your skin as he pressed you up against the wall, his body caging you in. “He needs to kill you,” he snarled.
The only noise you could make were choking sounds as black spots started filling up your vision. His red eyes, however, bored into yours, chilling you to the bone as his long canines seemed to grow even longer. His face was completely wrong; it was so sharp and alienlike, with his cheeks hollowed, his skin pulling tout against his deformed skull.
Your lips tried to form Michael’s name, but you couldn’t even produce the sound to call out for him. And before you could think of another plan to escape the vampire’s claws, you sank into darkness, the last thing on your mind was desperation. Desperation to save Michael’s life.