The Bloodsucker Next Door

A decade ago: It was a cold winter's night and as usual my mother took me on a midnight stroll to the park. I was only seven and, just like any other child, I loved to go astray when it came to going places. The woods were only a couple yards away and I just couldn't resist. So, as my mother sat down by our usual tree to read a book, I ran towards the woods in wonder of what I might find. Splinter by splinter, I could feel myself getting deeper into the woods. The air was fresh and the animals were out. I saw some rabbits, a duck, and even caught some light-bugs until I had finally reached an empty space. It had nothing in it, it was like a small part of something big. It looked like a grassland and it had trees surrounding it. You could also see a lot of grass and dirt and even some fallen leaves from the hovering trees. A big log had been sitting there in the middle of the space and if you were to look up, you could see the moon staring down right back at you. And that night it was a full moon which made the sight to be even more beautiful. "What are you doing?" I heard a voice come from behind me immediately causing me to jump. I spun around to see that no one was there. Furrowing my brows in confusion, I spun back around and shrugged my shoulders. Must've been in my head. "I asked you a question," the voice had said again, "no one is supposed to know about this place. Who are you?" It sounded as if the person were a boy and had an English accent. I spun around once more and still there was nothing. I started to get a little scared so all I did was stand there petrified. "Are you going to answer my question?" he sighed, "I'm not going to hurt you unless you continue to ignore my question" That sounded a little stern. I knew he wasn't an adult because his voice was squeaky and underdeveloped, but the fact that I couldn't put a face to this voice or see him was still scary to me. "I c-came here through the w-woods!" I shouted, "please d-don't hurt me" "I won't" the voice came, once again, from behind me feeling closer than ever. I then felt a slight tap on my shoulder causing me to jump and screech out. Behind me stood a boy. He had black hair that was flipped to the side and he was just a little bit shorter than me. I was a tall kid so that wasn't very shocking. He didn't have on shoes and he was pale, very pale. His eyes were silver but you could see his black pupil peeking through in the middle of it. In my seven year old eyes, he was just another human being walking through the woods. The fact that he was barefoot never bothered me because I had already made an analysis that he was just homeless. "Hello" I waved to him and he just looked at my hand confused. As always, I thought nothing of it and adjusted my glasses. "Hello" he said slowly repeating my hand gesture, "What is your name?" I laughed, "My name is Jessica" "Jess-i-ca, hm?" he sounded out my name as if it were the weirdest name in the world, "Want to play a game?" I nodded and stifled a giggle. The boy ran over to the log and pointed up at the stars, "the game is called star-count. Whoever can count the most stars in 30 seconds wins the game okay?" This was a weird game but all I could do was run to the log and smile. "You first and you must point to every star you count. I will be counting to thirty" he finished, "ready. Set. GO!" "1...2...3" I began trying to go as fast as possible. I ended up counting fifteen stars. This game was almost close to impossible to play due to the fact that stars were so small and my vision was not the best. "15. Good" he was lying. He ended up counting over 50 stars. I mean of course he had more practice than I had but it was almost unnatural the way his hands and mouth both moved so quickly and in sync with one another. After we played counting stars, we played some more games and talked alot to one another. I found out many things about him. His favorite color was green. He was eight years old which of course, was beyond me due to our height situations, and he was barefoot because shoes irritated him. "What's yours?" Right now we were both out of breath from playing a game of tag. He was very fast by the way. He stood there confused, "What's my what?" I huffed, "Your name, what is it?" The boy said nothing and began to look past my standing figure. I could tell that he was now frowning causing me to then spin to see what he was looking at. I saw nothing. "I must go" he quickly said from behind me. "Wait!" but by the time I was finished turning around, he was gone. I stood there in silence. What happened? What did he see? Why did he leave me? Those were the thoughts circling around my mind as I walked back towards my mother. That night, I went home thinking about the mysterious boy in the woods. My mother also had a heart attack which involved the police. I was apparently a missing child, but that scene comes with another flashback. ••••••• "Honey!" my mother hollered from out the window, "are you ready?!" I grabbed my kitty ears and placed them above my head. "Ugh, do you really have to wear those things?" my mother spoke in disgust gesturing towards my head-band. I nodded, "Mom we've been through this. It's a statement" She rolled her eyes and loaded our stuff onto the U-Haul van. We were finally leaving this place. It had been a long 4 months and I was ready to leave. You see, my mother and I move every four-six months for a various number of reasons. Even though she always says that we'll stay somewhere, I always know that the move won't last. This time we were moving to a small town in West Virginia. It was supposed to be very beautiful. The entire ride there my mother spoke of how it was surrounded by woodland creatures and the town was nice and quiet. She said that the school was even better. My mother spoke of how great the curriculum was and how the teachers were so nice. She was almost sure that I was going to make new friends on the first day of school. Where as I on the other hand, knew that I was not going to make any friends. I'm way too socially awkward to make friends and the amount of moving that my mother and I do just make it impossible to keep them. "Do you like it?" That was then when I saw it, my new home. It was a house. "Mom, this is a house. You know that right?" I looked to her and perked up a little. Were we staying? "I know sweetie. Say hello to your new house, forever. Well you know till college" I looked to my mother and smiled. It wasn't much, but I was happy to finally have something permanently. Some place to call home.