SLEEPSONG (BoyxBoy)✔️

Chapter 163

Chapter One Hundred and Sixty Three

I was being watched.

From the moment I left the house with Horst, Jak, and the Nereid twins... all throughout the drive to the Walmart in Wilmington, our destination, I'd had the creeping feeling that I was being watched. I knew it was okay to be a little paranoid after everything that had already happened with Jasper and previous vampire attacks, but I had a gut feeling that it wasn't just paranoia. 

I'd come to recognize the feeling of supernatural eyes on me, some primal instinct warning me that a being much more dangerous than myself was honing in on me, silently observing... sending the feeling of an ice-cold chill rushing across my skin when there wasn't a breeze to be seen. Nobody else seemed to notice, not for the entire car ride, which was about an hour and thirty minutes long heading south southwest along the ocean. 

They didn't notice even after we'd parked and gone into Walmart.

More eyes settled on me once I was indoors, the stares of normal every day people seeing something unusual and doing their best not to seem rude while they ogled. I could feel those stares on me, and see them on me, and it made me uncomfortable because even beneath all of those gazes I could still feel the one that made my hair stand up.

I chose to stay alert and pretend like I was oblivious.

I hadn't heard any telltale warning signs yet, but I was focused, listening for them while I shopped. People stopped dead in the middle of the Walmart grocery isles to stare at the two of us as we rolled our shopping carts past them. I saw people staring at my hair, at my face, everywhere I glanced was someone casting odd looks at me. 

Horst grumbled under his breath as he awkwardly hobbled his way across the stained linoleum tiles, wearing blue jeans that made his legs look crooked and deformed. 

His crutches were hanging off the side of the cart, but he drew just as many stares as I did. I kept an eye on him as I browsed the shelves, ignoring the blatant gawking. To the outside world, he looked like he had polio and I probably looked like someone with albinism. 

"Why the fuck does everyone wait until the last minute when they know this holiday exists?" Horst grumbled, snatching a bag of rice off of the shelf and twisting around to see me trailing behind him. "Why are there so many people here this late at night?"

I gave him a smile over the huge box of stuffing I was examining.

"Its Walmart, kiddo," I chuckled, putting sixteen boxes into the cart, "and to be fair, we're also here at a bad time."

"Yes but... fuck," he griped, steering his way around a chubby middle-aged woman with an 'I-want-to-speak-with-your-manager' haircut who blatantly looked down her nose at us. "There are a lot of people and these carts suck at turning."

I knew what he meant. My own grocery cart had a rickety wheel that kept turning sideways every few feet, annoying me with each rotation. I'd kicked it back into place several times during our run through the isles, hoping each time would be the last until it finally turned again.

"Just grit your teeth and bear it," I sighed, pushing my hair back to keep it out of my eyes. "We've still got a lot of shopping to do. Feeding seventeen people would be difficult even under normal circumstances, but seventeen people with appetites like our families? We'll need a lot of food."

"True. What sort of vegetables should we get?" he grumbled, scratching at his oversized beanie before he sifted through some huge jars of cranberry sauce. "Do we need this? Cranberry sauce is Thanksgiving food right?"