We walked back into the coffee shop with Del's bright cocoa colored eyes trailing our every move. I could tell he was confused as to what was going on.
"I usually know the answer to everything but I have to ask," He said leaning onto the table. "what is going on with you two?" He looked from me to Nick, then back to me.
"It's nothing." Nick said pulling out a chair for me to sit. He took a seat next to me. "Jennifer and I just need to talk."
"Oh, ok." Del said sitting back in his chair. Nick stared at him silently for a while. "What?"
"Privately." Nick said in an obvious tone.
Del laughed. "Right of course. I knew that." He said getting up from the chair. "I'll see you around."
I gave him a small smile as he left. "He's cute."
"He's a nerd." Nick stated calling the waitress.
I couldn't help but laugh softly and shake my head when I noticed that she fixed her bra and her hair before walking over to him.
"What can I get you?" Her voice was soft and a bit seductive. Her back was blocking my entire face while she gave Nick a perfect view of her front.
"I'll have a cup of black coffee...heavy on the caffeine." He said scanning her slowly from head to toe with his signature side lip smile. She blushed typically then turned to me.
"What about you?" She asked, all politeness gone.
"I'm fine thank you." I replied in a similar tone. Before leaving she took a glance at Nick once more and she was off.
"Are you sure you don't want anything? It's on me." He said.
"Are you sure you just want coffee? Or would you like the waitress as well?"
He laughed. "I was giving her what she wanted." He said. "Besides, she's a blond. I prefer...brunettes." He smiled touching the edges of my hair.
"Anyway, don't make this seem like a date because it's not. Let's get to what we really came back here for."
He leaned back in his seat. "It's always straight down to business with you huh?"
"Just like it's always games with you."
"If I tell you what I know−
"Here we go." I sighed. "Continue."
He smiled and leaned in closer. "What's in it for me?"
"What do you want?"
"Ok, if I tell you, then you have to go on a real date with me. No business. Just fun."
"Nick, I have a boyfriend."
"And? Football has a goal keeper but that doesn't mean you can't score."
"Come on this is serious." I said putting all games aside. "What happened to Helen Octavius?"
"My mother wasn't normal."
"I gathered that from reading her diary." I said. "She said that she heard the neighbors."
He took a deep breath before he spoke. "She was clairaudient. That means that she could hear things that weren't actually there; things that normal people couldn't hear; things that couldn't be seen."
"You mean like spirits?"
"Yes. When she said that she heard the women talking, she didn't actually hear them. The spirits used to communicate with her." He explained. "She was very hypersensitive and was strongly linked to the spiritual world. She had her beliefs which were different from those of others. She believed in good and bad and the spirits supported those beliefs."
"So she believed that the women were doing bad?"
"Beyond bad; especially the last thing they were working on." The waitress returned with his coffee and was disappointed when he didn't look at her. He took a huge gulp of the scorching beverage without even flinching then spoke again.
"Why did she stop writing in her diary?" I asked.
"She had nothing to write. The spirits stopped communicating with her just before the women started to create it." He said. "She always had the diary with her, but she never opened it. She isolated herself from everything; even her ten year old son. She was always by the window, looking outside and into that house. All the time she was worried and always stressing. She was obsessed with what they were doing. It was scaring her.
"Were you scared?"
"I was. But I was young, I didn't know much. I thought I would never see her move from that window ever again." He said, pausing. "Until that night." He stared at the table without even blinking.
"January 23rd, 1953." I recalled the date from the diary; the date written on the last entry; the one that Helen obviously didn't write.
"That was the night the spirits started talking to her again. I don't know what they said to her but whatever they did, she became more worried and paranoid than before. I remember that there was a storm that night; one of the worst storms in Californian history. I was watching TV and she was looking out the window as usual. Then the power went out so I went for candles and I lit them all around the house. While I was in the kitchen looking for more, I heard thumping and stuff dragging in the living room. When I got there I saw that she was moving all of the furniture and blocking the doors and windows with them. I remember tears in her eyes and she told me to hide but I didn't listen. It was not until we heard screaming from the house next door, then I knew that this was serious. One of the women was screaming. When she stopped I thought everything would be ok but I was wrong. As soon as the screaming stopped there was a loud pounding on our front door. Without thinking my mother pushed me under a table to hide and she grabbed her diary. She was gonna write something but it was too late. The man was already in the house." He paused again and I could swear that his eyes were becoming moist.
"Nick, if you don't wanna continue, it's ok." I said putting a hand on his shoulder.
He took another drink of the coffee, finishing it. "He looked like an ordinary guy. But he was far from ordinary. He walked up to her slowly and she never stopped crying. When he got to her he grabbed her by her neck and inhaled her scent deeply before he sunk his teeth into her skin. She dropped her book and he drained every drop of blood from her body. She fell to the floor with her eyes still open and even though she was dead, it seemed as though she could've seen me." He looked me in the eye now. "He took the book and he wrote something in it. After he dropped it on the floor and he turned to walk out but it's like he sensed that I was there. He turned around and walked back and stooped down under the table. He pulled me out, despite the fight I put up. He was strong. I thought he was gonna kill me too when he inhaled my neck like he did with my mother but instead he dropped me back on the floor and then left. He didn't hurt me."
"Maybe it's because you were a child." I said softly, my hand still on his shoulder.
"I don't think so. There was nothing humane about that guy Angel. He didn't leave me because of kindness. I think he left me because I wasn't what he wanted."
"What do you mean?"
"All the people who died recently, they were supernatural; all the deaths. My mother was not normal either. In a way you could say she was also supernatural. He left me because I was normal. Think about it."
"So, you think that it's the same man, and that his targets are supernatural beings?"
"I don't think so. I know." He said. "It makes sense, ok look. The women were angry because their sister created something I assume its werewolves because then they created the vampires to destroy it. That didn't work because werewolves and vampires are not enemies. They became acquaintances. So they created something else, something stronger to do the job that the vampires were suppose to do."
"Then why did he kill your mother?"
"Maybe he was angry that she was onto him, or maybe they have an ability to kill any supernatural being. All I'm saying is, they are not aiming to harm humans. If anyone is in danger it's us."
"So how do we know who this creature is if it looks like an ordinary man?"
"That's the catch. I don't even think it's one anymore. I think there's more than one out there. There was just one vampire and he found a way to create more of his kind. This creature could've done the same."
"Even if we do find one of them...how do we get rid of it?"
He sighed. "I don't know. The only person who'll know that is the other woman; the one who the man didn't kill."
"Well something needs to be done. We can't just sit back and wait for more people to die." I said while digging in my pocket for my ringing phone. "Hello?"
"Jennifer where are you, you need to get here now!" Avalon was out of breath and frantic on the phone.
Immediately I shot up from my chair. "Avalon what's wrong? What happened?"
"It's Ian! He's out of control! Just get here now!"
"Nick I have to go!" I threw my voice behind me as I ran out of the shop.
"Is everything ok?"
I didn't answer him but I could feel him running behind me.