Iðunn's Apples

Anubis

My heart skipped when I noticed the figure sitting inside it, and my blood froze when I realized that he was staring right at me.

How long had he been sitting there, I wondered. Watching me. I stood up, my arms crossed over my chest tightly, wrapping me in. I stared back at him. It was obvious now that I had seen him. For a few moments, everything went still and we stared back at each other - our eyes not able to meet through the tinted windows, but clear that we both knew that one had seen the other. For those moments, I wondered what he'd do. Would he come out of his car? Was I in danger? Had this anything to do with Riley?

And then the engine came to life and the car smoothly drove up the road and disappeared around the next corner. I let out a sigh of relief before returning to the funeral wake.

When I came home, I showered just because I felt like having a reason to lock myself away from my mother's empathic eyes. I washed my face, redid my make-up and pulled on a sequin jumper and a pair of black jeans.

I heard the door open downstairs. "I'm going to pick up Jamie now," she called. "Be right back."

I finished dressing and stuck in a pair of earrings before running down the stairs and turning on the telly. Less than a minute had passed by when my phone rang. It did no good to look at the display - the caller was secret. For a moment, I considered not answering, but taken that the alternative was watching a rerun of Masterchef, I picked it up.

"Hey, it's Melissa," I said.

"It's Riley." I recognized his soft, round accent immediately.

I drew in a deep breath. "Been a while, hasn't it?"

"I thought I'd give you time."

How about some more? I thought. After a while, I'd stopped thinking so much about the mysterious visitor in my hotel room. My name had been cleared and no messages about weird vampire leaders had entered my inbox, which was fine by me. Now, it seemed, the peace was over. "Well, thank you."

"All your friends have been buried now, correct?" he asked.

"Yes," I said, not sure where he was going.

"So you're free now? To complete your end of the deal, I mean."

I wondered for a moment what would happen if I refused. Would he be able to return the blood samples to the police? Then I realized that he'd killed my best friends; he could do worse than that. "My brother just came home from Leeds, but he'll be back at uni by Sunday."

There was a moment's silence. "You want to spend time with him?"

"Yes," I said. "But then I'm all yours. I don't have school this year. Gap year, y'know."

"I'm glad to hear it."

When he fell silent, I asked, "So, what's going to happen?" Just then, I heard the sound of my mom's car parking, so I cut off his answer and said, "Hold that thought. My mum's home, so I can't really be caught talking about the Varkolak and stuff like that."

I could tell that he was about to make an argument against my dramatic way of saying 'Varkolak', but then the door opened, my mom called out, "We're home," and I hung up and pocketed my phone.

My brother came into the living room, and I instantly jumped up from the couch. He was tall - always had been - and broad-shouldered. His hair, the same middle brown as mine, was sloppy and had obviously not been cut for a while, and his eyes, the same dark brown as mine, were shining as he smiled.

I wrapped my arms around him and pulled him in tight. When I let him go, I slapped his shoulder in as manly as fashion as I could. "How's my littlest brother?"