Vampirism | ✓

20 | Understanding Heaven

For the next few days, I paid attention to Haruto and took care of him. I changed his clothes and wiped him down with a warm rag whenever I felt he needed it. I watched his body change. I noticed the fangs and red eyes when he had tussled in bed once. His skin had grown so pale that it made his black hair look like coal tar. The thin film of memory was starting to thicken up again, growing in mass. It was darker and had started to move.

His brain was making new memories and patching up old ones. That was the clearest sign that Haruto was alive.

Most times I slept on the floor beside his bed, but sometimes when Haruto would say something or tussle too much I would join him in bed and hold on to him. He was colder than before, and his heart pounded a lot more slowly behind his ribs, but it was still Haruto, and I was glad for that.

Seven days passed, and soon it was ten. Haruto was alive, I could see that, but he wasn't waking up and I was starting to get worried. On the twelfth day, I grew desperate and called Vincent. Since our talk before the meeting Haruto had invited me to, we hadn't talked, but today I was in my pajamas sitting at the foot of the bed, crying my eyes out as I explained that Haruto hadn't woken up yet.

"Maybe you need to call him," Vincent had offered.

"Call him?" I mumbled into the receiver. I wasn't sure what Vincent meant by that.

"If he's lingering on the tightrope, you might need to call him back to earth if it looks like he can't do it alone. You can call his name, or you can do something to stimulate him."

My face grew warm, and I remained quiet.

"Get your head out of the gutter, Wern."

I got snapped out of my thoughts when Vincent scolded me. It felt like a bucket of water had been poured down my head as my body shivered one shame. "If you knew what I was thinking about, then we both have our heads in the gutter."

Vincent laughed, and it made me laugh a little too. "I don't know, kiss him, call his pet names, remind him there's someone back down that's waiting for him, I don't know," Vincent suggested, and I nodded my head.

"I can do that," I said. "Thank you."

"Good luck, Wern, and if he wakes up, we can finally meet," Vincent said and I smiled, thanking him again before I hung the call. I put my phone away before getting up from the floor and staring down at Haruto. He was still deep in sleep with a blank look on his face.

"Stimulate him..." I trailed under my breath, getting on the bed before hovering over him. I brushed the hair away from his face and I stared at his lips, touching them with the base of my thumb before kissing his forehead.

"Come home, I miss you," I missed, letting my guard down so that he could hear the vulnerability in my voice. "I love you," I said in an even lower voice since those were words that I felt more than I said, and they always had a surrealness to them when I spoke them out loud. They were tangible. Real yet overshadowed by their limitations. Words weren't enough to express how much I needed and wanted Haruto, but my words were all that I had.

Haruto stirred a bit, and so blinked, shocked that Vincent might be right.

"I love you," I repeated, and this time Haruto reached out a hand, flaring it about until it found my back and pulled me closer.

"Wern?"

My heart leaped at the sound of my name. This was the first time he had said anything directly to me since his blackout.

"Yes, Wern," I reinforced, leaning closer to him until our noses touched. "It's Wern," I repeated, kissing him—doing the thing I had avoided out of shyness and a strange sense of respect for him in his sleeping state.