See Me

1. The House is not Home

Cover by @illyna16 Thank you so much!

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My head snaps up as the door creaks open, and I roll me eyes.

"It's not dark yet," I inform the idiot who's trying to sneak in an almost-dusk snack. I'm not on the menu. Not now anyway.

"Chill," replied the person, and I smile. "I just wanted to know if you wanna plays cards, geez. I'll go ask Lindsay if you're going to be such a stick in the mud." However, even after she was done giving me a smart remark, she made her way over and sat down on the worn-out cushion in front of me. She dumped the cards in her hand and began shuffling expertly.

"I didn't know it was you Meg, calm down." Meagan passed one card to me, then to herself, me, herself, me... And so on and so on until we each had half the deck. "War?" I asked. She nodded, and we each flipped a card over. She had a seven and I had a four. I scowled as she grabbed the cards. Even though there were no lights on, we could see the cards perfectly. We were used to it.

"Alright... Vamp or... Night creature?" She asked. It was a small question game we made up while playing card games that were usually silent.

"Um, duh, vampire," I replied without thought. Night creatures swallowed light and ate bunnies. Vampires got to live forever. No contest.

"Same," Meagan sighed. "Your turn."

"Person, or night fire?" I had to think for a moment as I took one of her kings with my ace.

"Ummm person. I don't know, I think it would be weird to glow," she shrugged. I nodded thoughtfully. Night fires were small fish that glowed at around 2 a.m. on one night of each year. Sometimes we were allowed to see them.

"Sa-- hey! Jack is higher than a nine, idiot," I corrected her as she put my rightful cards into her pile.

"Uh, you snooze you lose, Leah Anne," she sneered, using my full name. She always calls me Lee.

"Whatever. Look, it's war," I pointed down at our two eights. We each counted out three cards face down, until she won the war with a five. I had put down a two. "Cheater," I muttered, setting my cards down.

"Is someone a sore-"

"Leah Anne! Meagan! Your shifts are going to start soon!" A voice we both knew all too well yelled to us from behind the door.

"We'll be ready!" We replied automatically. Bret and his younger cousin, Anthony, ran things around here. Meg got up, putting all her cards back in her beat-up box, the corners of which were frayed, the bottom edge even had a piece of tape holding it together. Meg, was opening the door when she turned around.

"Oh, have you looked into the other world lately? Some dumb family is actually moving into this old dump," she laughed. I furrowed my eyebrows.

"It looks different in the other world, you know that."

"I know, I just think it's funny that humans are actually moving into The House. Anyway, good luck. I heard it's pretty busy tonight." And with that, she went back to her room, and I rolled up my sleeves.

The House is a main hangout place for vampires. They come here to drink and mingle and generally have fun. The opposite is true for the few humans that live here. We are used as blood slaves, and I have been one since I was six. Meagan is around my age, but she was brought here about four years ago, when she was ten.

People here can see a different world. Before my parents died of Night Creatures, they told me it was a different dimension, where there were no vampires and kids went to a thing called school. Vampires cannot see this other dimension. I think it's due partially to them having black eyes, though nobody else has ever mentioned it, so I keep my mouth shut.