Heartless

Heartless - Chapter Six

HEARTLESS 

CHAPTER SIX

I pushed the door to the diner open, stepping in from the cold. With only five days until Christmas, it looked like it was going to be a white one. It had just started to snow and little white snowflakes were clinging to my dark coat, already melting in the heat of the room. 

Luna rushed up to me, dressed in her waitress uniform of a dark black skirt and white top. She was smiling, which was incredible given the events of the night before. "I thought I'd be seeing you here at some point." 

"You still doing breakfast?" I asked as she walked me over to one of the booths. I sank into a vinyl seat with a sigh, shrugging off my coat. 

She glanced up at the clock. "It's two in the afternoon, Anne. We finished breakfast ages ago." 

"Any chance I could still have a waffle or something?" 

Luna sighed heavily, her exasperation apparent in her expression. "I don't see why you can't have lunch like everyone else here, but I'll see what Pete can do," she said. "Want some coffee? I'm on my break in a few minutes. We can talk about last night." At this she gave me a pointed look. 

After I'd stumbled into the apartment at four in the morning after several unsuccessful attempts at hailing a taxi, which had led to me walking most of the way back anyway, I'd hardly had the energy to do anything more than check Luna was okay and collapse into bed. I didn't even know if I could've mustered up the energy to save her if she hadn't been okay.  

"No coffee," I said. I was tired, but not tired enough to resort to coffee just yet. "Do you have any tea here?" 

"Yeah, I guess." 

I grimaced. "It'll taste horrible, won't it?" 

"I don't know," she said, a faint smile tugging at the edge of her lips. "I'm not British. I don't drink excessive amounts of tea." 

"That's so stereotypical. Can't I order tea without getting judged?" 

"Seeing as no one here has ever ordered tea except for you, yes, you can get judged," she said, already turning to walk away.  

"I still want that tea," I called after her as she headed to the kitchen door and disappeared through it.  

I leant back in my seat, unfurling the paper that I'd been carrying. There was no mention of what had happened last night, just as I'd expected. The bodies of the dead had either disintegrated or been carried away by the other vampires, and nobody in their right mind would own up to seeing a pack of wolves running through the streets.  

The headlines were all drearily normal - a baseball team had won some sort of important game, a huge charity collection was going on for Christmas, someone political had done something stupid and someone had written a long, demanding list about what they expected from the city next year, now that New Years was less than two weeks away. The festive articles only made me feel worse. I'd spent almost every Christmas since I'd run away alone. It was hardly what I'd call a holiday. All it did was remind me of how much I was missing.  

I threw the paper onto the seat next to me, sighing. Now that I'd started thinking about my family I couldn't stop.  

From my bag, I took out a ballpoint pen and a small paper bag. I opened the bag, taking out a stack of postcards wrapped together with brown string. I'd purchased the bundle for a few dollars down at a store that was full of all sorts of strange things. They were postcards from all around the states, perfect for someone who wanted to send mail but didn't want to be found. Of course, getting different postage stamps each time was difficult, and sometimes the office would stamp them, but you couldn't say I didn't try.