CHAPTER SIX
ROBBIE DIDN'T KNOW WHAT to expect upstairs in the large shed, but it especially wasn't to find other people. An Indian lady with a large belly sat on a makeshift couch, like Delia's bed downstairs. There's a girl about his age sitting next to her, rubbing the woman's stomach and giggling to herself.
They both pause when they realize he's standing at the top of the stairs, unsure whether or not to pursue. Surely these are nice people. Robbie didn't think the kind vampire would save the bad guys, and he didn't think the vampire is a bad guy. If he is, why had he saved Delia?
"Hello," says the Indian lady with a gentle smile. "Did he rescue you too?"
Robbie offers a single nod of acknowledgement, but he's frowning while being deep in thought. No way is the vampire a bad guy. Not if this lady is implying he saved the both of them. Is he so lucky that he found someone to protect him?
He doesn't let his thoughts get too hopeful. He used to think his sister and him were safe in their camp with their uncles and aunts. It had been nearly the whole family holed up together in a rundown apartment not far from this neighborhood. Things were smooth and he was happy and he was hopeful.
And then the treacherous gangs struck. A big lot of them with pistols and sharp knives, threatening his family out of the place. His family had begun to fight back, but the commotion caught the attention of the beasts lurking close by and...
He shut his brain off. There's no need to relive the rest.
The Indian lady's voice brings him back to the present. "I'm Nivedita, but you may call be Nive."
"Ne-vay," repeats Robbie slowly.
She chuckles and bobs her head approvingly. "And this is Sasha," she says, placing her hand on the girl's head.
The girl had dark hair but bright brown eyes. She gives Robbie a sheepish smile and a small wave.
Robbie doesn't have time to return it before he hears Delia scream.
He covers his ears and pinches his eyes shut. Poppy whines and wiggles in between his ankles. His hands can't block out her piercing scream, though. It rattles every bone in his body, send chills down his spine. He can practically feel the agony she's experiencing because of how brutal the scream is.
When Delia quiets down after a long few minutes, Robbie realizes he's crying. He hadn't meant to, hadn't even felt wetness on his cheeks. Sasha is crying too, he notices, and even Nive looks very stricken. She's rubbing her big belly and pulling Sasha close with the other arm. She closes her eyes and whispers something under her breath. Robbie thinks she's praying, but the words don't make sense to him.
"What happened to the poor girl?" she asks in a soft tone, peering over at him.
"A vampire threw a branch really fast, and it went through her thigh," he says, swallowing roughly.
Nive frowns, but somehow looks amused. "Vampire?"
Robbie nods. "That's what they are. Haven't you seen their teeth and their red eyes?"
"I have, unfortunately."
"See, they're vampires."
"Whatever you say." She smiles. Robbie likes her smile. She reminds him of his mother with her sweet eyes and smile. He misses his mom a lot.
"I'm Robbie," he tells them, sitting down and crossing his legs. "This is Poppy." The pup climbs onto his lap and curls up.
Sasha looks at Robbie timidly. "May I pet her?"
"Oh sure. She's real friendly."
A few minutes later, Robbie hears feet stomping up the stairs. He's frightened for the smallest of seconds and then he sees it's the nice vampire with Eve behind him. Robbie likes Eve. She scared him at first, but she saved him before herself back there in the forest. And she kept Poppy safe. Robbie thinks Eve is just afraid so she tries to act like she doesn't care. That's how his own sister had been, yet she sacrificed herself to protect him.
He deflates a little, his hand on Poppy's back. He misses his family more than anything. Why couldn't they have ran with him instead of staying to fight?
The nice vampire walks over to a cabinet, opening the doors to reveal a bunch of canned goods. Robbie sees a can of peaches and quickly asks if he can have them. He loves peaches. The last time he had them was at school, but the school's peaches were too mushy. The canned peaches in the cabinet is exactly the kind his mother used to buy him.
"Thank you," he says happily when the vampire gives him a nod. Then Robbie gapes in amazement as the vampire pops the lid off with his bare hand. "Wow!"
Eve goes to scan the items, her eyes looking excited even though she keeps her lips pressed together. She grabs a can of oranges. Sasha snags some green beans, and Nive asks for some baby carrots.
"What's your name?" Robbie asks the vampire with his mouth half-full of peaches. They're so good and made him think of his mom. He could probably cry if he let himself.
The vampire glances over at Eve, who is struggling with the can. "Harry," she says. "He liked that one."
"So you named him?"
"More or less."
Harry almost looks like he's stifling laughter as he watches Eve with the can. She reaches to her belt, but then huffs when she doesn't find what she's looking for. Harry holds his hand out to take the can. Eve hesitates, then reluctantly allows him to open it.
"Is Delia okay?"
"She will be."
"She was screaming pretty loudly," mumbles Robbie.
Eve shoots him a look of sympathy.
"Are we staying here?" he asks.
Eve gives Harry a long look, seeming unsure, and he shrugs. She purses her lips and turns back to Robbie. "We'll see how Delia's doing tomorrow and go from there. Sound okay?"
Robbie smiles. "Okay."
***
Evelyn doesn't sleep. After Harry spread out more beds of hay, Evelyn claimed one but merely laid on her back staring at the ceiling. She couldn't bring herself to close her eyes in a beast's presence, even if he had helped them. Trust doesn't come easily for Evelyn, especially when it's towards the enemy.
She wishes she had her dagger. It had become a comfort to clutch it while she slept. She hasn't been a night without it since she found it a couple days after the attacks.
It all happened so quickly.
America had already been getting bombed from the opposing countries, and it wasn't unusual to see gangs in the streets robbing people in broad daylight. There had been a draft called, and most of the policemen were enlisted in the war either voluntarily or selected. There wasn't enough of them to protect the streets. Some citizens took up the role of being an officer, but there still wasn't many of them. So many had been sent to war.
Evelyn had witnessed a murder last year. Right under the bright, gleaming sun in the middle of the dirty street. It was over food. The government had limited each household a certain amount of groceries, depending on how many residents there were, so they could send more food to the troops. A lot of people hadn't liked being given a strict amount. A lot of people didn't like being told what to do in general.
It was a teenager that got shot between the eyes by another teenager.
She'll never get his face out of her head--either of them. One had fallen down with a frozen expression of terror, and the other mimicked the feared look with tears running down his cheeks. He couldn't believe what he'd done, yet he took the dead kid's wallet and lunchbox before darting down the street.
The war had apparently reached a standstill a few weeks later, but as soon as the war against humans ended, the war against abominations took over. There hadn't even been a week break between the two.
The sound of the barn doors opening tore Evelyn from her thoughts, and she's slightly grateful it did.
But then she's confused when she sees Harry slipping out of them. Where is he off to? To get his friends? To set the place on fire?
Evelyn bites her lip, contemplating whether following him would be smart or stupid. If he's getting friends, what's she going to do? She can't take on more than one at a time with all their inhuman advantages. And she doesn't have her dagger. All she has are her martial arts classes and some sharpened sticks.
She stands from the terribly itchy hay-bed, but she doesn't follow him. Instead she takes his absence as a chance to look around. First she grabs her pack and heads upstairs, opening the food cabinet to stuff as much of it as she can into her bag. She takes out a book she finished the other night to fit more.
Her pack is heavy from all the canned foods, but it's a great supply and she'll manage. She needs to be prepared if he is getting friends, then she can grab Robbie (hopefully Delia) and bust out of here fully loaded. She doesn't know about the other two, Nivedita and Sasha. Leaving them would burden her conscious, but taking them might be the cause of her fall. You have to be strategic, and unfortunately, strategizing doesn't leave room to save everyone.
She tiptoes back down the stairs after searching upstairs thoroughly. She wants a weapon, a good one. She has little hope of finding something decent in a barn that probably used to be owned by cheery farmers, but she keeps looking anyways.
Some tools would be useful... She doesn't find any.
When she hears the doors opening again, she hunches her shoulders and falls stiff, but there's no way he can miss her silhouette. She's practically right in front of him in the middle of the barn. She wants to slap herself for not being faster.
She hesitates before looking over Harry, expecting an angry expression or some other beasts flanked on either of his sides.
Instead, he raises his eyebrows as if he's about to laugh. He doesn't laugh, and Evelyn still can't figure out if it's because he can't or he won't. Just like with speaking. Does he choose not to or does something about the beasts prevent them from doing so? Their abnormal teeth, maybe?
Neither of them move for a moment, then he takes cautious steps towards her as if to say he means no harm. She watches him closely. When he's in arm's reach, he takes something out of his back pocket. Evelyn steps back. He notices and holds up his free hand, then hands her the dagger with the other by the blade so she can grab the hilt.
"Really?" she asks in disbelief, keeping her voice low because of the others sleeping. "You're trusting me with a weapon?"
He wiggles it in front of her and she snatches it, sheathing it in her belt once more. She feels safer feeling it's weight.
"I could kill you," she points out the obvious.
He shrugs and turns his back on her, as if daring her to try. He walks over to the stairs and sits on the bottom one. She can hear rain start to clatter on the roof. Something about it eases her nerves. Perhaps because it's something normal in a world so opposite.
She drums her fingers on her thigh. "I won't, though. Not unless you give me a reason to."
Harry looks at her as if he already knew she wouldn't.
"Consider it a thank you," she grumbles, walking back over to the hay-bed and plopping down on it. She takes off her jacket and lays it down, hoping to make it a bit more comfortable. She doesn't lay down, not yet.
Not when she sees Harry still sitting there.
"Don't you sleep?" she inquires.
He shakes his head.
"Because you can't, or because you don't need to?" She sighs when he doesn't answer either, so she asks them separately. "You can't sleep?"
He nods.
"Do you need to sleep?"
He shrugs.
She rolls her eyes. "You've got such a way with words, you know."
The corners of his lips twitch, but he doesn't full out smile. She can just barely make out his features from the moonlight creeping in through the cracks in the walls.
She doesn't know why she feels like smiling, and it annoys her, so she switches the subject. "You're not going to kill all of us in our sleep, right?"
He tilts his head, frowning.
"Just because you saved us doesn't mean I trust you."
Yet again, he shrugs and stands to go upstairs. He doesn't come back down the rest of the night.