The Last of the Twenty: Broken Pawns

Chapter 17

Kelly listening silently to the sounds Keith's breathing while he slept on the couch. Half of her wanted to sneak in and tear into his throat, the other half was struggling to hold back an entirely different set of desires that she wasn't used to dealing with so intensely. Everything normal teenagers dealt with seemingly so easily were multiplied a hundred fold. Hunger was almost painful, sadness was crushing, fear was paralyzing, and as for lust, well she could only assume that mamma wouldn't approve.

The thought of her mother sent fresh waves of sadness and anger through her body, threatening to send her out of control. The thought of never seeing her parents again made her want to crawl into a corner and cry until she died, and the anger of what that other vampire had done to her to cause that sadness made Kelly want to tear something, or someone, apart. Her body shook from the effort of trying to control herself, she had to do something to distract herself.

"Breakfast..." she whispered determinedly to herself.

Keith had never gotten a chance to eat, she had kind of ruined those plans when she came in and scarred him half to death. The thought of eating normal food may have repulsed her, but at least the act of cooking it would take her mind off things, and hopefully suppress some of her mixed emotions.

Going through Raymond's kitchen, she pulled out Raymond's last package of bacon, she also managed to find some pancake mix that didn't require the eggs she had just mopped up off the floor. Humming to herself, she turned on a small radio on top of the fridge and busied herself cooking. It worked. After a few minutes her body had blissfully stopped shaking with rage and sadness, and she found herself dancing in place to some horribly old song on the radio.

"Smells good." Raymond said behind her.

Kelly squeaked and jumped in place, gripping the frying pan so tightly she managed to bend the handle. She turned around to see Raymond smiling at her from the doorway, more surprised that he had managed to sneak up on her than of his early return from work. He looked exhausted, grey hair was sticking out in random spots on his head, and dark circles under his eyes gave him the eerie look of a zombie from one of the old movies she had watched with friends on Halloween. She made a mental note to remember the cooking trick when she got angry, almost happy she had been so distracted as to not hear him.

"Sorry, didn't mean to scare you like that." Raymond said as he sat down at the table.

"It's ok, I kinda deserved it." She said smiling. Raymond looked up at her and raised his eyebrows, Kelly just shook her head. "Long story." She said.

Raymond nodded. "I thought you didn't eat food anymore." He said, looking at the plate of pancakes on the counter.

"I don't, I just needed something to keep myself busy, and Keith didn't get to eat this morning. You want some? I think made too much."

"Sure," Raymond said, sitting back with a sigh, "Where is he anyways?"

"Sleeping in the living room." Kelly said, putting a plate in front of him.

Raymond started to get up. "I better go wake him, we all need to talk." He said. Kelly gently pushed him back down into the chair.

"It's ok, I'll get him." She said, hoping she didn't sound too eager. Raymond looked and raised his eyebrows again. Kelly looked at the floor, hoping she wasn't able to blush.

Before anything else could be said Kelly disappeared into the living room, leaving Raymond to dig into his food. After all the coffee he had taken in that day, he had a serious case of the jitters, he hoped the food would help. A few minutes later Kelly came back in and piled food onto another plate, Raymond couldn't help but notice it was a lot more than had been piled onto his own.