Say Your Prayers, You're Really Gonna Need Them.

★ ★ ★ - Indicates point of view change.

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We decided to sit in the park close to where I work and not too far off from where I lived.

I was freezing on the wooden bench, but kept thinking that the sooner I speak maybe the sooner this will all stop.

He sat close to me, which made me feel like a cat on a hot tin roof.
And just as he did at the counter, he moved aside my hair and began stroking the cross on my neckline.

I shuddered obviously, but hopefully it got fobbed off on the idea that I was cold.

“Do you know what it means?” he asked gently.

“I know that it shouldn’t be healed yet... I know that it doesn’t make sense.”

Harlan exhaled loudly before he began to speak.

“There are things in this world; things that people think are just...made up, figments of the imagination if you will. The problem is that people are so wrapped up in themselves they can’t see what’s right in front of them...” he paused thoughtfully looking not at me but around the park itself, as if searching for the right words.

“...those men, they were those things. The figments and the unreal.”

“How does that work out?” I enquired.

He didn’t speak for a moment, and then after the seconds ticked by turned to face me smiling.

“I doubt you’d believe me even if I told you” he laughed.

“Try me, you deemed this important remember?” I flashed, then watched as Harlan’s expression grew sour again.

“Vampires Ruse, those men were vampires and they were planning to make you into a hors d'oeuvre.”

I snorted, from disbelief and slight panic.

“You really are a sick fuck aren’t you?” I asked sarcastically and went to stand up, but he was in front of me in a flash, each of his hands on my shoulders pushing me back onto the seat.

“Think about it Ruse, think back to Friday.” he said with noted irritation, as I tried to struggle.

And I did, relayed it back.

To be honest all the signs were there, but being drunk at the time had made it seem so surreal.

And then it snapped; he wasn’t lying at all.

Everything he said was true.

I pushed him off me then, the strength surged by fury; and no matter what his power was I still took him off guard.

Because I knew what he was; he was explaining himself just like he was explaining those men.

“What the fuck did you do to me?!” I shouted, striking his chest with my fists and thinking back to the cross.

“That’s why you keep touching that thing,” I said pointing to my neck “it means something, doesn’t it?” I said hysterically.

Through my whole facade he had just stood silent; he grabbed my fists and put them down by my sides holding them there.

“I did it for your protection, when a human is marked by a vampire they become a vampire’s possession. To feed on another vampire’s private blood breaks a lot of rules that originate from before ancient times... From what I’ve been told anyway,” He took a ragged breath, running his hand through his hair.

“I’ve never marked anyone before in my life, but being totally honest there’s something about you that makes me need to stay close; if I hadn’t marked you... we would have both been killed right there and then.”

I just stood staring, mouth agape and as I felt my eyes fill with tears I closed them before turning my head away.

“Let me go.” I whispered frantically.

When he didn’t I began thrashing, “I said fucking let me go.” I shouted, my voice on the edge of emotion.

And when he loosened his grip, if only for a millisecond when debating what do, it was all I needed to escape.

I ran as fast as I could, not looking back to where I left.

God knows I was not the running type, it’s almost laughable.
But the pure panic was pulsing through my veins, making my whole head ache.

I saw the opening of the park and with new determination kept going, out the gates and down the street. Stopping only at the road crossing to look around and decide which route to take.

And abruptly I froze as a black car approached, tires screeching as it came to a halt right in front of me.
Harlan was out of it in milliseconds grabbing me before I even had a chance to think straight and pushing me into the passenger seat, he locked the doors and I was trapped.