Don't Ask Me

Chapter 6: Reborn

        "I'm gonna hunt for the team...  I'll leave the explanations to you guys."  Harley sighs and runs away with super speed.

        Alfie looks at his naked wrist, "look at the time!" He smiles, "I gotta get home before my mother wakes up. All you, pups" Alfie then heads off as well.

        After they left Kieth took a shallow gasp and started to play with his fangs with his tongue,  then he turned his back to me and stared at his lap...  He looked so pitiful.  There was a long silence.  Being bored and impatient, I hit the side of Keith's head.  I hit him a lot harder then I thought.  He fell over and skid across the floor a few inches.  

        "Ow!"  He whined.  OK, I get it, vampires have super strength...  How cliché.  But still,  He shouldn't be that phased because...  he's a vampire too.  Right?  "Be careful! From the stories Harley told us, female vampires are more powerful then males are." 

        I attempted to stand up and fell to my knees.  I eventually stood up and walked over to Keith who was still lying on the ground.  I had to remember to gasp for air before speaking.  "What did you do to me?"  By now Kieth has held out his hand, I grabbed it and pulled him halfway up and let him go to see him fall again.

        "Seriously?!"  He asks  

         "I want some answers!"  I impatiently cross my arms and Kieth gets up on his own.  "you have no idea how much s**t I'm gonna get into when I get home!"

        "You want to know what I did to you?  Fine!"  He rubs his forehead and puts his hand back on his hip.  "I saved your life"

        "No, you didn't!  Alfie said I'm technically still dead."  I felt my expression change to sadness.

        "You don't need to breathe and the blood has stopped running through your veins but you can still move and you can still feel...  I like to think that I'm still alive."

        There was a long silence before I smiled "So how many of the clichés are true when it comes to being a vampire?"

        Keith laughed before answering  "Super speed, super strength, super sense of smell, and appetite for blood."  He laughed again.  "The glowing blue eyes aren't in the stories though."

        "What about sunlight?"  I asked

         "We don't burn up in flame but our super strength and speed turn off like a light and we become as weak as we were when we were human."  Great so I'm still weak in the sunlight.

        "The girls being stronger then the guys ain't in the stories either."  

        "Well, it's really rare for girls to survive the transformation in the first place.  Alfie and I have never met one before but you're the second for Harley."

        "What happened to her, the one before me?" 

        Keith sighed.  "She was killed by other male vampires...  Because they are the only things stronger than the rest of us."

        "What?"  They are going to come after me too, aren't they? "They are afraid of me?"

        "Don't worry,  I... 'We' won't let anyone hurt you."  His words were comforting but- "Your eyes will camouflage you from humans and from far away, vampires."  He walked closer to me.  His face was so close.

        "Are my eyes really that strange."

        "Vampire's eyes were always blue."  I could feel his breath on my nose

        "But you never met a girl vampire, maybe all girls eyes are green."

        "No.  Harley always said that the girl's eyes always glowed more beautifully blue than the rest of us'."  All I could do was stare at him...  I had a question I wanted to ask but I couldn't remember what it was.  "Are you going to go home and live with your mom like Alfie or runaway and live here like me and Harley?"

        "My parents are dead."  Kieth seemed to go into shock when I said those words.

        "Did they die recently...  Is that why you were walking alone at night in the rain?"

        "No...  They died 5 years ago.  I got detention after school.  My aunt was angry so she made me walk home.  I took a long way home because I love the rain." 

      "...  You're smiling"  I just realized the smile on my face and felt it fade as I realized how dumb I probably looked.  "You must really love rain if you smile just by talking about it."  I just looked down.

        "I want to finish my schooling so I'm gonna have to go home."

        Kieth looked confused again but began to smile after he remembered what we were talking about.  "Alfie said the same thing when Harley changed him." His smile got bigger.  

        As he said Harley's name, I remembered what I wanted to ask him.  "Why did Alfie call you Pups?"

        Keith's smile ran off his face.  He looked down and began to blush.  As he put his hand on the back of his head he said  "I work at the animal shelter and take care of the dogs there"

        "You like dogs?" 

        "You could say that."  His cheeks went from a hot pink down to a light pink.  "My turn to ask something."

        "What?"

        "What did you get detention for?"  Keith's regular mischievous smile showed back up.

        "It's a long story."

        "I got time."

        I sighed deeply and gasped for more speaking air.  "Well first the school counselor suggested I get a therapist and then I told this freshman to go back to the arts and crafts room to see his mom and-"

        "Poor kid."  Keith chuckled.  "What did he do?"

        "He was irritating...  He was warning me."

        "Of what?"  My eyes widened as I remembered the kid's exact words.

        "Of you."

        "Me?!"

        "He said you were a bloodsucker.  How did he know?"

        "I don't know.  I'm gonna have to speak with Harley and Alfie about this...  Here."  He handed me my phone.  I still remember when Farah gave it to me for my 13th birthday in secret because my aunt wouldn't let me have one.  She said I didn't deserve one.  She still doesn't know to this day I have one.

        "What were you doing with my phone?!"  I saw there was a small crack in the top left corner.  "What did you do?!"  I gasped as I pointed at the crack.

          "Well, I took your phone when you were passed-out. I was putting Harley's, Alfie's, and my number in your contacts before you threw me across the room.  The crack must have appeared then."

        "Wow, thanks!"  I said trying to sound as sarcastic as I possibly could.

        "You should come here as much as you can in your free time so you can do some training and we can explain more.  Harley and I basically live here so at least one of us is here at all times, but if we are both on missions we will text you.  OK?"

        "Okay but, where is here?"

        "We are under Starpark...  The entrance is under the bridge."

        "Wow this place is bigger then I thought"  I took a good look around the room.  It really was big. it was just a dim lighted room with two doors.  one I'm guessing leads outside.  The other door is open, leading to a hallway with other doors.

        Keith nodded  "It's goes under the entire park"

        I turned on the phone to check the time.  "6:54 AM... better get home so I can make breakfast for my aunt and get to school."

        "Wait!...  You need to eat something before you go so you can control your thirst."

        "No thanks, I don't feel like eating baby bunnies yet."

        "Harley said girls have better self-control but I'm pretty sure it's harder then you think."

        "Fine!  Get me something."

        "Be back in a flash."  As he said he was gone for 3 seconds and was back.  There was a hunk of some meat in his hands with blood seeping from it through his fingers.  Dripping to the floor.