Without a Sound

(Mikey’s P.O.V.)

I couldn’t control these tears. We were living in a twisted world. Vampires shouldn’t have existed. Maybe I deserved to live like this, but Charlotte didn’t. She was more innocent than any human, yet she was forced to drink blood to nourish herself.

Then there was that evil man’s body lying in front of us. He deserved to be there. Humans who killed other humans were crueler than any vampire who only killed for blood. We kill to drink; they kill for sport, fun, revenge, or out of anger. What gave that man a right to take her life away from her?

And he wasn’t just killing her. What if she had a husband? Would he have to live on without her? What kind of a creature could willingly do that to him? The answer was simple: one who hadn’t felt the pain of losing the woman he loved. That male corpse didn’t even have a right to be called a man. He was more of a monster than I was, and that was saying something.

Oh, and her hair! Even caked in blood and completely motionless, I saw the beautiful red color it was: the same color as my Ivy’s hair. With her hair hiding her face, she looked just like Ivy. That alone would’ve been enough to make me cry.

When Charlotte looked up, I tried to wipe the tears from my eyes, but it was too late. She had seen. She walked over to me slowly, giving me room at first. Then she slid down the bricks and was sitting right next to me.

“What’s wrong, Mikey?” she asked. So much concern was in her voice that I was worried about how pathetic I actually seemed to be to her.

So, so innocent. She wouldn’t have – maybe couldn’t have – hurt a fly. And somehow fate had chosen her to live this life. Why someone like her?

“I’m just asking myself moral questions that can’t be answered,” I told her, trying to force a smile.

She put her head on my shoulder, saying gently, “Is it because of the girl?”

“Partly,” I admitted, enjoying the feel of her soft skin on my shoulder despite my efforts to suppress that feeling. “It’s also just… everything. It’s impossible not to wonder why everything happens.”

“You can wonder all you want, but no answer will appear,” she replied wisely.

I wiped away the last of my tears. “I know. Let’s get out of here before anyone shows up.”

As I helped her up, she asked, “Um… Shouldn’t we do something with the bodies?”

I had to give her credit. She was more observant than I thought she was. I didn’t think I’d have to explain this.

“Nope. All we have to do is leave them here. Someone will find them and report it to the police. Someone will come to investigate, but once they see that the bodies are completely empty of blood, the investigation will stop dead,” I explained wearily.

She raised her eyebrows. “Why?”

I smirked. “They’ll know what killed the man, and they’ll be terrified. They pretend not to know what we are, but they do. They can’t kill us, and they’re afraid they’ll be the next body on the street if they try to find us.”

“They know what we are?” she inquired softly, her eyes growing wide.

I nodded, continuing, “The police chief – the guy in charge of this part of the city – has talked to me personally. He was obviously afraid, but I think he’s grateful for what I do. The crime rate (not including the people I’ve killed) has gone down considerably.”

Suddenly I felt uneasy. I frowned. It was almost pitch black out now, but I could still make out the woman’s body. Would they think I killed her too? It shouldn’t have mattered to me what they thought, but for some reason I didn’t want them to think I was getting worse or changing my ways.

“I’ll leave a note,” I mumbled to myself, taking a sheet of paper and a pen out of my pocket. Charlotte watched silently over my shoulder as I wrote:

He killed her, but we didn’t want to let her go to waste. Give my sympathies to her family. I’m sorry for their loss.

After tucking the note safely in the body’s hand, I took Charlotte back to the car. All was silent while we drove home. Neither of us had anything to say.

When we were walking in, though, something occurred to me. “You can read, Charlotte?”

“Of course I can read,” she said indignantly.

I smiled, asking, “Do you like books?”

She got that frustrated look that she always got when she was trying to remember something. “Um…” she said slowly. “I think so. Why?”

I took her hand, leading her to a room on the first floor I’d never shown her before: the library. The look on her face was priceless when she first looked at all the books, and we spent the rest of the night going through them.

I fed her chicken for dinner. She was so reluctant to leave the books that I thought it was funny, but I wasn’t going to let her go without eating.

I’d probably eaten more in the past few weeks with her than I had in the year before that. I ate for her sake, so that she wouldn’t worry about me. I wouldn’t have forced myself to do it for any other reason.

She was tired that night, probably from walking around so much. I sat on the edge of her bed and smiled at her. “Celia was going to pick you up at noon, but seeing as that’s in five hours, I’ll call her and tell her you’re sleeping until tomorrow. Too bad they don’t have malls open in the middle of the night for vampires. Anyways, that’ll give you extra time to sleep.”

“Thank you,” she whispered gratefully.

I couldn’t help myself. She was too irresistible. I kissed her cheek, much to close to her lips for my mind’s liking, but my heart liked it, and I was desperately confused. Even so, I brushed her cheek with my thumb and was able to force out a “Goodnight.”

At least I wasn’t the only confused one. She looked the same way I’m sure I did when she replied, “Goodnight,” and then fell asleep.