CHAPTER THREE: Fangs

Holy, er, Cat Dirt.

The kid was a vampire, by far the most volatile species of T2’er. I’m a demon- One of the most common. The most common, actually. Ella and David are angels, Evangeline is a shape-shifter, Nox is a cat, obviously, although he comes under the “Bestial” division (In short, at the time they were changed they srsly lacked humanity.) and I do believe Niaeky and Luna are another vampire and a fairy, respectively.

The stereotype is that vampires have fangs. They don’t really, just slightly overlong and VERY sharp canine teeth, that they don’t use ‘em. I’ll quote Niaeky. “Ew. Why would I bite them? That’s sick…It’s like giving someone a blood test. Hypodermic needle, a few vials, they’re all right, and you don’t have to bite anyone. ‘Sides, salt water with some iron dissolved in solves the problem.”

Don’t look at me like that-- It does work. Really. It DOES. Hell, why am I convincing a book on vampire’s systems?

“Ei, Sianze, what is he? You’re standing there like a dead duck!” Ella stopped just to the side, trying to keep a whine out of her voice. I yawned. “Another one of those annoying bitey types.” My reply was supposed to sound relaxed, but I think Ella twigged, since she went a rather interesting shade of blotchy magenta. “Dammit. We don’t need any more of these lil suckers…but It’d do Nix good to teach someone.”

“WhaaaaaaaaaaaatTHEHECK?”
“She’s a vampire, too. Someone’s gotta teach him the basics.” Evangeline (modern day ninja!) remarked. “Yanno, like controlling himself at the sight of blood and things. Just like Ella can’t sing, you have to block your pain so plants can’t sense it, I have to concentrate to stay in this form, and Lord knows what Nox has to do to stop himself from causing trouble.” She mimed her brain dying, then wandered off. Probably to speak to Niaeky.

Speaking of Evangeline and Niaeky- They’ve been arguing a lot lately. Well, neither of them are the easiest people to get along with, but usually they don’t get too vehement. Funny thing is, they have no qualms about argy-bargy-ing in front of Ella or Nox, but stop whenever I come into the room.

Something’s definitely up, there, but I’m not going to investigate now. I’ve got better things to do then wonder on the workings of female minds. Although knowing would be highly useful. Coping with Evangeline’s mood-swings, Luna’s bizarre ideas, Ella’s constant enthusiasm, and aforementioned Niaeky weirdness takes a lot of dumb luck. Actually, it takes an obscene amount of dumb luck.  

While contemplating that fact, I felt myself be teleported. David’s magic surrounded me, pulling in a thousand different directions. Before I knew it I was back in the living room, spouting again.

“Guys…we have a new recruit. It’s too early -not even lunchtime- for Theo to be around. I say we play the cause game.”

We all groaned. I’d only been a part of the cause game twice- Once when I arrived, and again when Luna came in. It was somewhat depressing, and a bit shocking at times.

We all sat at the kitchen table. I leaned back in my chair. The kid looked completely baffled. I really don’t blame him. “Game? Are you serious? Is there something wrong with this guys head?” There was a long, awkward silence, then Evangeline started laughing. I mean, like an evil-maniac laugh. She’s good at it. Last Halloween, we snuck into the Orion cabin and cut the power and spent ages making noises and stuff. Their reaction was hilarious. Thyral never figured out it was us either.

“Kiddo, here in Second Chances, something’s wrong with everyone’s head.” Niaeky put in. “The Cause game is the cause of our individual deaths. Not the method but the choices and events leading up to it. Who’s starting this time?” I tilted my head to one side, amused. “David always starts.” I pointed out wryly. “Oh. Uh, yeah. Sometimes I wish you guys would forget it’s my job, sort of. Uh… malnourishment, lax parenting.”

Ella was next. She shook her head ruefully. “For your benefit, Shai, I was the first T2’er. I was abandoned when I was around a month or so old. When Theo found me I was already dead- imagine his surprised when he tried to bury what he’d thought was a wasted young life and found that it hadn’t gone to waste after all.”

Luna, who being only six inches tall couldn’t see over the table top, perched on the edge of the table. “Child abuse.” She said, indifferent. I knew otherwise, not that I was going to mention that the first two weeks she came here she cried every night.

Nox (a cat again) jumped onto the back of Evangeline’s chair. “Awful parenting, eating disorders, bullying.” He rattled off. Like Luna and Evangeline, he doesn’t seem very upset by his rather unpleasant history. He just pushes it to the back of his mind like we all do.

Inspecting her nails, Evangeline snorted. “I’ll tell you all someday, but it ain’t pleasant. I’ll be lenient today- corrupt justice systems.” We all stared at her, surprised. Could she actually be hinting at what had apparently pained her so much to remember before? “And, also- I can’t really remember what happened to me. It’s there but I can’t remember the details.”

Niaeky folded her arms. “Teenage pregnancy, and alcohol abuse.” She muttered uncomfortably.

I was next. “Malnourishment, drug use, bullying.” I’m not ashamed of it. Just a bit to fill you in: My dad walked out when I was six, my mother had several nervous breakdowns afterwards, and from then on we survived on next to nothing, money-wise. We couldn’t afford anything even remotely healthy hence the fact I had a deficiency for iron, among other things. Then peer pressure fell into the mix and things got real messy from there.
Not to mention the weird dreams I had then. I used to think it was the heroin, but now I’m not sure. Because we all dream now. Of what none of us are sure.

I’ll leave you to make sense of those sentences.

Shai looked pensive. “I don’t know. I remember, but everyone’s faceless, I can only hear one word of three and what I hear sounds like gibberish. For all I know I could have been knocked out and in three seconds it’ll be happy twee pony land.”

There was a long, awkward silence. By long, I mean about fifteen minutes. We all sat there twiddling our thumbs. I fell asleep for a few minutes, then a voice cut through my drowsy-fog.

“Happy twee pony land sounds fun.” We all looked around, trying to discern who had spoken. Evangeline seemed to think it was me, Ella and Niaeky were both looking at David with amused expressions, David appeared rather confused, and Luna was totally unreadable.

“It was me, not Happy-face over there or Sianze, who was asleep. Jeez, you guys, I’m ashamed to say you are excellent at maintaining awkward silences.” Nox glared at us (as much as a cat could) and stalked off, completely ruining the atmosphere when he tripped over a stray power cord and fell.

Gradually, everyone made their excuses. Niaeky muttered something about homework (But of course we have schooling- We don’t want to be idiots, do we?) and left, Ella wandered off for no given reason, and David followed soon after. Luna vanished out a window to bask in the sunshine that had drenched the compound after the snowstorm had gone, and Evangeline just left without a word.

Leaving me alone with the kid.

For a while, neither of us spoke. I stared out the window. For some reason, I didn’t want to leave that solitary table. It was somehow like the “safe” spot in a game of tag.

“She likes you.” The child’s voice pierced the silence like one of Evangeline’s scalpels.

“Pfffffwhat?”

“Stop playing stupid. You seem like an intelligent person. The vampire girl likes you.”

Does not compute.