Without a Sound

When I woke up, I felt Mikey’s blood nearing the house. He wasn’t quite back yet – he was still a few minutes away. I got up, ignored the stinging in my feet, and got dressed.

I sat on the edge of the bed to wait for him. When he came into the room, he smiled at me as usual. He was holding that stupid thermos that I was far passed sick of. I was really thirsty though, and I was already finding it hard not to attack him on the spot.

For this exact reason, I shook my head when he sat right next to me after handing me the thermos. “No, go stand over there,” I said, clutching the thermos so tightly my fingers were turning white. I pointed to the other side of the room.

“Why he asked.

“Please, just do it. So that I don’t bite you right after I finish drinking.”

He frowned, but he walked over to stand by the door. Almost before he got there, I had already downed all the blood in the thermos. I was still unbearably thirsty when I looked up at him.

He was stupid. Why was he walking toward me with his arm outstretched like he wanted me to bite him? I knew if he took another step closer, I wouldn’t be able to hold myself back. Clenching my teeth, I said, “Don’t you dare. Just go back over there and wait for this crazy frenzy thing to go away!”

He paused, but he didn’t go back. “Are you sure?” he asked hesitantly. “I really don’t mind if you want to –”

“Well I don’t want to, so please?” I replied.

Reluctantly, he went to stand in front of the door. After taking a few deep breaths, I looked at him disapprovingly. “What is your problem? I don’t want to hurt you!”

He shifted his weight uneasily before answering, “I know, but if you’re thirsty, you should drink blood.”

“Not from you. Not if I can help it,” I retorted. I remembered him telling me he deserved to be bitten. I added, “No matter what you think, you don’t deserve that over and over again. Now that I can help myself, it is not going to be like that anymore.”

He nodded. “Okay. Maybe it’s time I take you hunting. Tomorrow night.”

Suddenly I felt scared, but I nodded. “Okay.”

He came back over to me and lifted up one of my feet. “But first thing’s first. We’ve got to get the splinters out of your feet.”

After picking up on of my hands, he added, “And your hands. I can’t believe you ran all the way to Gee’s house. You must be fast.”

Gee must have been a nickname for Gerard. He said I must be fast… but I didn’t know how fast fast was. “I have nothing to compare myself to,” I admitted, feeling ashamed. Shouldn’t I have know a little about myself besides my name?

Mikey looked troubled too. “I guess not,” he said curtly.

We looked at each other for a few seconds. Then I held up my left hand, which had two or three painful shards of wood stuck in the skin. “Is it going to hurt?” I asked uneasily.

“Probably. Well, for sure,” he answered honestly. “But you can watch a movie when I take them out. It might help.”

I tilted my head to the side. How would it help? “Does TV take away pain?”

He laughed at the suggestion. “No. Sometimes, if it’s sad, it causes it. No, nothing takes away pain. Sometimes things ease pain or take it away temporarily.”

“But people can heal,” I replied. “Can’t they?”

He got a faraway look in his eyes. “Yeah,” he said, “I guess they can. Usually that’s the best way.”

I nodded.

“Alright then. No more stalling. Let’s go,” he said. He picked me up and started to carry me to the room with the TV.

“Whew,” he grunted. “You’re getting heavier.”

I glared at him. Did he hear what was coming out of his mouth?

He bit his lip and looked panicky. “Um, I mean… You don’t look as skinny.”

I raised my eyebrows. That wasn’t much better.

He changed his expression. Looking like he was concentrating really hard, he said slowly, “Sorry. What I meant is that you look better.”

I smiled. “There you go. It took a few attempts.”

He grinned back. “I know. I got it though. Sorry it took so long.”

“That’s okay,” I replied. “You probably haven’t had to worry about offending a woman in a while.”

“No,” he agreed. “No, I haven’t. Well, occasionally I’ve had to be careful around Celia. She would wring my neck if I said the wrong thing at the wrong time to her.”

I grinned. “I like Celia a lot.”

“Oh, I like Celia,” he assured me. “She’s just a very… independent woman.”

“She’s funny,” I added. We both fell silent because we were at the end of the hallway. The door to the room with the paintings was slightly ajar. I looked up at Mikey.

His eyes met mine for a millisecond before he looked away and quickly took my through the door to the TV room. He set me down on the couch, said, “I’ll be back in a second,” and went to his bathroom to get something. On his way back, though, I sensed him stop by the door to the room with the paintings. I think he closed the door.

“Alright,” he said when he returned with tweezers, cotton balls, and a bottle of something transparent that I doubted was water. “What movie do you want?”

I don’t know why I asked it. It just slipped out, I guess. “What was her favorite movie? Sylvia?”

To my surprise, he smiled. “Believe it or not, it was Charlotte’s Web.”

“Let’s watch it again,” I suggested.

He nodded silently, put the movie in, and sat on the edge of the couch by my feet. After pulling my feet into his lap, he took the tweezers and started working as gently as he could on the biggest splinter. It was almost as big as a stick. I clenched my teeth and tried to pretend it didn’t hurt so that he wouldn’t feel bad, but I don’t think he bought it.

When he pulled my whole body into his lap and took my hand, I leaned into his chest. It was a lot more comfortable. Getting the splinters out of my hands hurt more. The skin wasn’t nearly as thick, and blood welled up in the holes. He always wiped it away very quickly.

“This might sting,” he warned when he poured the transparent liquid – alcohol – onto a cotton ball, “but it’ll clean it so that it doesn’t get infected.”

I nodded, clenching my teeth. He rubbed the alcohol on my hands and then on my feet. It did burn like hell, but I tried to concentrate on the movie. When that didn’t work, I closed my eyes and leaned into him more forcefully. I focused on his warm body holding mine and how I never wanted him to be mad at me again. I didn’t know if I could deal with that again.