So You Used to Be Human - Book 3 (Original Version)

Chapter 34: Forty-four Minutes and Counting...

"I kinda skimmed through. Most of the shooting was really amateur and I kinda figured you were using your phone—"

"Maybe someday I'll get to your level, but I doubt it."

I doubt it too, Chris thought, but didn't say because while he might be a complete dick at times, he wasn't a stupid complete dick. You don't insult the guy buying you dinner unless that guy happens to be a complete dickbag, and unless said meal has already been paid for.

"I started shooting everything and some of the things I thought I hallucinated actually showed up on screen, which was weird and all, but the thing that really got me was this chick I recorded one night. Perfectly ordinary looking girl, kind of plain, but you could tell she had some kind of money, right? But her eyes were what got my attention, these pale shimmery blue eyes. The dude I was hanging out with was going on about how fucking gorgeous she was, and there I was looking at this girl who looked perfectly ordinary except for her eyes, and I'm not seeing what the big deal is—"

"What does this have to do with me?"

"You made a crack on one of your videos two months ago about how you couldn't sleep and you were beginning to see things in a different way. Little things opened up a whole new world for you."

"Yeah, and?"

"Well then I figured that maybe you could relate to seeing weird shit." There was almost a plea in his eyes and Chris just nodded for Paul to continue. "I walked into this diner a week after I saw this chick and it was full of people in expensive suits and pale blue eyes. Some of them were very attractive, but a lot of them were just ordinary, but the thing was that they all acted like they were all drop dead gorgeous."

"This has got to be the worst pitch I've ever heard," Chris said and waved for the waiter.

"They were all vampires!" Paul hissed as the waiter, Jimmy came over to take their order.

"I'll have an ale, whatever you got that's local and red, your eggs and french toast special with bacon. Eggs over easy."

Paul waved Jimmy off and Chris knew for a fact that if he were to empty Paul's wallet, the only money he would find would be possibly two twenty dollar bills, enough to last Paul the rest of the week. And here he was talking vampires and buying dinner for someone who he didn't know and desperately wanted to partner with. Schmuck.

"Lots of people have blue eyes," Chris felt the need to point out. "Maybe it was a blue eyed people convention or meet-up. Besides, weird eyes don't make you into a vampire, but more importantly Paul: vampires don't exist."

"Humour me. Pretend they do."

"Fine. Did you see them biting anyone?"

"You suck at pretending. If you were a vampire, would you bite someone out in the open? I've seen some of the bad videos out there man. I know what kind of company I've put myself in just with the name of my channel, but at least I'm not going out and hiring bad actors and filming shit with extremely improbable footage, no matter how shaky it gets."

"How do you know they were vampires?"

Paul got really intense right then and Chris was almost scared at the focused belief coming off of the man in front of him.

"When you see them man, when you're in their presence, it's something that you just know. You don't question it at all. You just accept that they're perfect and it's something you will never be. And you would do anything at all for them. And the worst thing is that you're aware all along that there's something wrong about them but you can't help yourself."

"So what you're saying is... you never actually saw them bite anyone or do anything freaky like turn into bats or anything."

"Why are people always so obsessed about vampires and bats? That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard."

"What do I know about vampires? I'm just a dork on YouTube. You're the guy with the 'Real Vampires' show. Guess which one of us is the expert on things not dealing with vampires."

Paul spotted something outside the window and his eyes widened for a second. He very shakily placed the iPhone onto the table and pressed the RECORD button, then looked Chris in the eye.

"You'll see exactly what I'm talking about man. And you're going to want to tell all of your subscribers the truth."

Chris stared at Paul and Paul stared at Chris and it was becoming obvious that Paul was expecting something to happen, but nope, not tonight.

"Yeah..." Chris said. "That's not going to be happening. Like ever."

This was the exact moment that Claude and Hester entered the diner and changed their entire world.

The coming of Hester was like a low grade hurricane, all eyes turning to the door to greet him before it even opened. There was a waiting expectation for everyone, a moment where they all forgot to breathe and then the door was opening and the most beautiful man anyone in the diner had ever seen, was entering, a god walking among men. And there was Claude of course who was still trying to figure out if and how he could actually stop Hester from killing any random people.

In that moment, Chris Mannigan changed his mind about everything and was one hundred percent convinced that vampires walked the earth and that giving his blood to them would be the best thing that he could ever do with his life. He felt the idiotic grin growing on his face as he watched Hester, his only thoughts about how he could get Hester on his show and tell the world the good news.

If he had known about the countdown that had started the minute Claude and Hester had entered, he still wouldn't have cared that there were only forty-four minutes.

Forty-four minutes that were all recorded for viewing on YouTube.

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AUTHOR'S NOTE: I'm trying out something new here and I'm feeling my way along, but this comes from the thought that there are some huge questions still to be answered.  This means that we'll be spending a little more time with Claude and Beatrice, but the payoff is going to be huge.

Forty-Four minutes has begun.

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