'You are a vampire, too?' Frank asked excited.
The stranger gave him a look, clearly not in the mood for games or jokes. 'Can you shut up?' he whispered. 'You don't want the entire neighborhood to find out who we are, do you?'
Frank shook his head, not because he understood, but he was kind of scared of the guy. He was almost twice his size, and kind of intimidating. 'Wait – aren't you the bartender who was hitting on me back at the bar?'
'I wasn't hitting on you! You're not my type!'
'Whatever,' Frank said laughing.
Yet, the guy was nervous. 'I was keeping an eye on you! I knew it the moment you guys walked in that you were vampires. I had to keep my customers safe from idiots like you! And now there's another vampire on the loose!'
'I'm sorry, okay?' Frank apologized. 'I'm new at this.'
'Clearly.'
'What is that supposed to mean?' Frank was getting angry, and Gerard had to hold him.
'I mean that you have a lot to learn.' He paused. 'I'm Ray, by the way,' he said, and leaned in to shake hands with them, all proper.
'Frank,' he said, not trusting Ray just yet.
'Gerard.'
'Well –' Ray continued. 'I know this is weird, and we don't know each other, but I just want to help. For everyone's sake. So – if you want, some friends and I have a place, you can stay with us for a while, we can teach you some basics. Before you turn the rest of New Jersey into children of the night.'
Frank turned to Gerard for reassurance, as usual. 'And why should we trust you?' he asked.
'Because I've been around for hundreds of years. I think I have more experience than you.'
'Fine. I'm listening.'
'Let's go to my place. Take some clothes with you.'
***
'Are you sure following a complete stranger to their place is safe?' Frank asked Gerard, as they followed Ray to a house at the end of the street. It was dark, but they could see an old Victorian house looked old and unkempt, with wooden boards covering the windows. There were no lights on outside, and it looked pretty much abandoned. 'This is how every horror movie starts, Gee.'
'Frank – we are vampires! We're already a walking horror movie!'
'But he's way older than us, and more likely, way more powerful!'
Gerard didn't say anything, but it was obvious he agreed. They noticed Ray got out of his car and was waiting for them. 'What should we do?'
'I don't know! Get away! He could kill us!'
'We're dead!'
'Fine!' Frank yelled, and got out too.
'I promise it's not as bad as it looks from the outside,' Ray told them, sounding a little worried. 'It's just to keep appearances, and keep people as far away as possible.' He led them to the porch, and took out his keys. 'Some vampires love the whole haunted house aesthetic, and even leave the spiderwebs. But some of us are clean freaks.'
Then, he opened the door, and they entered a long corridor, lit and clean, its walls painted a cream color. Definitely not what they expected.
'Not even my mom has her house so clean and organized,' Frank mentioned.
'Like I said,' Ray told him, leading them to the back of the house, and into the dining room, and then the kitchen. 'Some of us are clean freaks.'
