Cold Blood is Thicker

Orri was sure whatever had taken him down was going to end his life, but he felt the weight leave him in almost an instant. He looked up, scrambling to his feet, ready to run away. But he had to see what was going on, and when he did, he couldn’t move. Orri watched, wide-eyed in shock as Charlie had wrenched the attacker off him and had him by the shoulders, yelling at him. What made Orri frozen to his spot was what his attacker looked like. He was only slightly shorter than Charlie, with shaggy dark brown hair streaked with aqua green and purple. His face was what was frightening. He had bright green eyes heavily outlined in black eyeliner, and the light purple scars of a Chelsea grin stretching from each corner of his mouth to his ears. Orri touched his neck where he had felt a slight prick. He looked at his hand to see two small smudges of blood. Still, he couldn’t run as he watched Charlie and this other man arguing. His heart throbbed loudly in his chest and Charlie turned to face him for a moment.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t know he was the one you were talking about!” the scarred man yelled at Charlie.

Charlie’s head whipped around to look at him. “How could you mistake him with anyone else?” he growled back. “Do you think anyone else looks like that?” Charlie’s eyes met Orri’s again.

“I’m sorry,” the other man said sullenly. Charlie looked back at him, and almost smiled.

“How can I stay mad at you?” Charlie slowly pulled him into a strong hug. “Now go get the others.” Letting go of the freaky man, Charlie kissed him on the lips and then let him run off. He turned back to Orri with a sinister look in his eyes. He walked towards Orri who was still frozen in shock, and put a strong hand on his shoulder. “Sorry about Gage, he’s slightly impulsive.”

“W-what the fuck do you want with me?” Orri stammered.

“Just eternity.” Charlie smiled wickedly and laughed. “I’ve had my eye on you.”

Orri didn’t get time to respond, because Charlie was now dragging him by the arm down the street. An old Volkswagen van came screeching around the corner and stopped beside Charlie and Orri. The side door opened and a young woman with long pink hair appeared.

“Charlie,” she said courteously, and held out her hand.

“Carrie-Anne,” he said back, taking her hand and getting into the van, hauling Orri in with him.

The entire van was empty in the back, save for the three other figures inside. There was a battery-powered lamp, showing each of them. The same scarred man whose name was Gage, according to Charlie was there. The same girl with pink hair who had opened the door and a man with short layered black hair and a nose ring were sitting in the van as well.

“I told you, don’t call me fuckin’ Carrie-Anne!” the pink-haired girl seethed at Charlie.

“I told you, it’s nicer than Cain!”

“Right, and I am the very best example of nice, Charles.”

The car was driving forward now. Another woman in the passenger’s seat had turned around, smiling at Orri. “Ah, yes, there he is! You’re right, he’s adorable, Charlie!”

“Who are you people?” Orri finally managed to speak. “What’s going on?”

“Calm down, Snow White.” The woman gave him a friendly look. Not that she looked too friendly with a black leather jacket and blue pigtails. “We’re just taking you with us for a little trip.”

Orri shook his head, rubbing his temples with his shaking fingers. No, this had to be a dream. This couldn’t be real. He was seated in the van next to Charlie who had an arm around him. He didn’t even notice; he was just trying to take in what had happened in the past ten minutes. Blocking out the conversation around him, Orri tried to concentrate on reality. He had pinched his arm multiple times, and found that he was not dreaming. He started tuning into the conversation later as Charlie started stroking his bright blonde hair. Orri noticed that Charlie’s nails were rather long and looked tougher than fingernails normally looked.

“So, how did you get your hair that light?”

Orri looked up to see the man with the nose ring staring at him.

“I-it’s…” Orri said. “It’s natural.”

“Do you seriously think it’s unnatural?” Charlie barked at the man. “Look at him, he’s practically translucent.”

The man just looked away.

“This is Foks,” Charlie said to Orri. “He’s stupid as shit. Actually, he’s a goddam genius, but stupid in the ways of normal people.”

Cain frowned at Charlie. “He’s just different, okay! Let’s see you do nuclear physics.”

Charlie rolled his eyes. “Okay, here, let’s get introduced, since we’ll be together for a long time. Everyone, this is Orri, Orri, you know Foks, Cain, Gage…” Charlie pointed towards the two front seats. “That there is Julia, and out lovely driver is Allison.”

“Hey,” said Julia, smiling at Orri again.

Orri was speechless as all eyes were on him, save for Allison, who’s eyes were on the road. He looked around at all the faces. He opened his mouth to speak. “But… Who are you people?”

“We’re a group of night crawlers, you see,” Charlie began. “And we aren’t like normal folk.”

“We’re-,” Gage started, but was cut off by Charlie’s threatening look.

“We never see the light of day, and we prey on the blood of the innocent. We want you to join us.”

“You… you’re…” Orri couldn’t say it. He knew it now, when Gage had tried to nip his neck, and when Charlie talked about one hundred years.

“What are we, Orri?” Charlie was looking at Orri with a glint of menace in his eye.

Orri looked around for one more minute. He didn’t have to think anymore, he knew it.

“Vampires…”