Playing the Angel
I. In Your Room
5:12 PM
Adam was a drifter.
Adam was a lost soul.
Adam was slowly becoming a beggar on the side of the streets.
His current job wasn’t going that well and he couldn’t make enough tips where he sang in the corner bar every night. It was only a matter of time before he received a letter of eviction from the apartment manager. The eviction notice hit Adam hard, he’d tried his best to make ends meet, he barely made enough to feed himself every night but he tried his hardest to keep the roof over his head.
6:31 PM
Adam was singing again.
Adam was losing himself in the music.
Adam was staring out at the people that filled the bar.
Each one of them seemed better off than he, they had money to order shot after shot, glass after glass, while he had just lost his apartment and with the ten dollars in his back pocket, he knew that the streets would soon become his home. It was only a matter of time. The thought scared him, he could pick up what little he had and return home to his parents but he was a man now, he couldn’t return home as a failure. Like a baby that was running back to his mother and father because life was too hard for him.
So instead of feeling envious of all the people in what could be his last performance in the small bar, he sang his heart out instead. The only thing it resulted in was fifteen extra dollars in tips. That was not even close to what his rent cost and it wasn’t barely even enough to live a week off of.
8:46 PM
Adam was greeting the cold air of the night.
Adam was trudging through the darkness of the alleyway.
Adam was searching for somewhere he could stay the night.
He wasn’t aware that two gleaming eyes were watching him in the night. He didn’t hear the hissing that was growing closer and he didn’t see the being behind him until he was knocked to the ground. A throbbing head and a trail of something warm streaming down his forehead was the only two things he felt until he looked up to see a pale being looming over him in the darkness.
He heard the loud hiss that filled the air but it was the last of his worries as his vision started to fade to black and his world became caught in a dreamless sleep.
10:11 PM
Adam was in pain.
Adam was in agony.
Adam was lying on a… soft bed?
He pried his eyes open to see a candle-lit room before they closed again due to the throbbing of his head. It seemed to intensify when he moved even a little. The dimly lit room wasn’t as harsh as a hospital room would’ve been to wake up in, but that thought caused Adam’s mind to flood with worry, panic, and curiosity.
His eyes slowly opened and trying his best to ignore the pain shooting through his head, his eyes looked at his surroundings. It was dark and he could barely make out anything in the room, the only thing that was clear was the candles lit on little stands around the room. He looked to his right to see a bedside table, a clock with red numbers rested there, along with a glass of water and a bottle of, he thanked the heavens for it, Tylenol.
When he reached for the bottle, something caught him off guard about the clock. The seconds were on display beside the hour and the minutes but they weren’t moving at all. They were still. He figured that maybe there weren’t any batteries in the clock but it was an electric clock, the numbers wouldn’t appear at all if it was dead or unplugged, and if the power had gone off, the numbers would be blinking.
They were simply still. And the time that glared at him in angry red was 10:11 PM.
10:11 PM
Adam was unsure.
Adam was curious.
Adam was still in pain.
He disregarded the strange clock with unmoving time and grabbed the Tylenol bottle. Popping the cap off, he took two of the tablets and a sip of the water and laid back on the bed. He hoped the pills would kick in soon. His head still felt like it was about to explode.
Everything was quiet in the room for a few moments. Adam thought he had almost fell back to sleep as his head started to ease it’s throbbing but the sound of a door interrupted the gray area he was floating in. He looked up from the pillow to the direction and only saw darkness; the candle light was too dim to show anything.
10:11 PM
Adam was scared.
Adam was confused.
Adam was terrified of who just walked in.
He didn’t know if it was a murderer that just walked into the room or a rapist or some crazy person that might skin him alive. He rolled his eyes at that ridiculous thought but it didn’t calm him from freaking out.
“How’s the head?” A voice asked from the darkness, Adam could tell that it was a man and with the sound of footsteps against the floor and the candles casting shadow on the person’s stature, it confirmed Adam’s thought.
Adam couldn’t see the man’s face that clearly even with the candles and he didn’t answer, a knot of fear was constricting his throat so he couldn’t find his voice to answer. He heard a sigh come from the man and then a few more footsteps on the floor brought him close enough for Adam to see. Maybe it was the candles that gave the man’s eyes that effect but his eyes appeared to be glowing.
“You don’t have to be scared of me; I didn’t bring you here to hurt you. Although a few others of my kind might be after us now but I assure you that you’re safe.” A few more footsteps brought the man closer to Adam and he could see the man clearly now.
The guy looked younger than him and definitely shorter, his skin was ghostly pale and his eyes looked like they had huge black circles under them from not getting enough sleep. His lips were a dusty rose color and the hair that hung over the left side of his face was a whitish-blond that almost matched the color of his skin. The clothes he wore blended with the shadow but left two pale hands apparent by his side.
Adam would’ve found the guy attractive if he weren’t as pale as paste. That thought quickly dispersed when he recalled what the guy said, ‘his kind’. What the hell did that mean? He cleared his throat and was about to ask until the man spoke again.
“Did the Tylenol help?” Oh yeah, Adam still hadn’t confirmed the condition of his head.
He lifted a hand to his head to find a bandage wrapped around it but he did notice that the throbbing was gone and just a dull, distant soreness was left. The Tylenol had finally kicked in. “Y-yeah,” his voice, raspy from his dry throat.
10:11 PM
Adam was feeling better.
Adam was officially confused.
Adam was distinctly wondering if he was really safe or not.
“I’m glad; I thought you might not have woken up from the blow you took. I tend to forget how much humans bleed from just shallow wounds to the head or face.” Adam’s eyebrow rose at that, humans? Wasn’t this guy a human too? Sure, he looked like a dead guy but he was a human, nonetheless, right?
“W-wait,” Adam cleared his throat and tried to sit up the best he could with causing pain to resurface, “What do you mean ‘human’? You’re human too.”
The man’s eyes lowered from Adam’s in hesitance until he lifted a hand to rub his face, almost as in frustration. “Oh, yeah, I am.” It looked like the guy had something else to add to it but he refrained causing an awkward silence to fall over them.
Adam looked down at his hands that were resting on his lap and noticed that the front of his shirt had blood splatters littering it. “What happened to me? The only thing I remember is coming out of the backdoor to the bar and heading… home.” It dawned on him then that he didn’t have a home anymore; the apartment manager’s letter of eviction confirmed that.
“Well… you were attacked. I’ll admit now that I was following you but if I hadn’t then I really doubt we’d be having this conversation right now,” the man answered as he edged closer to the bed only to walk towards the armchair that was beside the nightstand.
“Oh… well, thanks for saving my life,” Adam replied awkwardly before asking, “But why were you following unless you were going to rob me… in that case, I’m almost broke so you would’ve only scored twenty-five bucks.”
The man laughed, startling Adam, “I wasn’t going to rob you; money holds no value to me.” The man’s light-hearted tone turned grim with a split second. “The truth is, I listened to you sing almost every night that I knew you’d be at that bar. Your voice… it’s rather delightful to hear, it’s soothing to a rambling mind like mine.” Adam noted something about the man’s tone as he commented on Adam’s voice, it sounded like he was in awe. “And tonight, your performance was different, I couldn’t find any happiness in your voice, I heard your ache and I heard sorrow but nothing that I came to love about your voice.
“So I tried to find some way of talking to you after your performance because you usually sat at the bar and one hopeless girl after another would buy you drinks in hopes of catching your interest. But you gathered up your tips and left out the back as quickly as you could. I didn’t like the vibe that I got from you either; it was as if that was your last performance at the bar.”
Adam interrupted him, looking over at the man, “It was. I had been evicted from my apartment, my job wasn’t going well, and I couldn’t make ends meet… I was on my way to either find a homeless shelter or a cardboard box to stay the night in. I’ll probably just give up and go back home to my parents.”
“A man like you sleeping in a cardboard box for the night? I’m sure the owner of the bar could’ve put you up in the backroom for a few nights, I don’t know if you’ve noticed but he took a liking to you. Was almost amazed as I was with your singing.”
Adam scoffed, “I doubt it. You’re just saying that to make me feel better.”
“I don’t flatter people, but believe what you will then, but I have ways of seeing past the surface with most hu–” he paused and corrected himself, “people.”
Adam turned to glare at him in irritation but the clock caught his attention again. The same numbers were displayed and he knew that the two spent more than fifteen minutes talking and to change the subject off his fucked up life, he simply stated, “Your clock is broken.”
“The clock has the right time,” the man replied as if it were obvious.
“No, it doesn’t. It said 10:11 when I woke up; it’s been well over fifteen minutes since we’ve started talking.”
The guy chuckled to himself after Adam said that, “In my room, time does not move unless I want it to. As I told you, I have rambling thoughts, time doesn’t move until I stop thinking or until I allow it to.” He repeated, “The clock has the right time.”
“If you say so, so who were the guys that attacked me? Probably–” he stopped himself from saying ‘gay-bashers’ because maybe the guy didn’t know about that part of his life, and he might throw him out if he did know.
“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you, no one ever does. Often it’s what gets them killed too; denial, ignorance, it’ll be the death of the human race one day.”
The look on the guy’s face made Adam convinced into believing whatever he was going to say. His expression was grim, of sorrow, of loss, and maybe he had lost someone special due to the guys that attacked him. Adam’s eyes trailed back to his hands in his lap that was covered with the blanket on the bed. He knew that some muggers only took your belongings but there were some that went to the extreme to take more than your belongings, they took your life. Most of the headlines in the news were proof of that.
But Adam still wanted to know who it was that attacked him. Maybe it was a gang that the guy had a previous encounter with? He sighed, “Just tell me who attacked me…” he trailed off in silence at the fact that he still didn’t know the stranger’s name that he’s been talking to for the past fifteen minutes. He wondered why he didn’t ask earlier.
“Tommy. My name’s Tommy,” The guy, Tommy, answered before he continued, “The people who attacked you,” he paused and stood up from the armchair, and quietly walked over to the side of the bed, edging closer to Adam. His eyes were still glowing and Adam knew that from the angle, his eyes were not reflecting the candlelight, and the guy whispered, “…are the same as me.” He flashed a grin and Adam’s eyes widened at the two larger and pointy teeth that resembled a dog’s canines.
Adam tried to back up against the bed since the lower half of his body was tangled in the blanket that was under the guy’s, Tommy’s, weight, but it only resulted in Tommy chuckling and himself still being tangled in the blanket.
“I told you that I wouldn’t hurt you. The only difference between me and the beings that were going to eat you is that I’ve taken a fascination to your voice,” Tommy’s grin slowly turned into a sad smile, and it sounded like he was talking to himself or thinking aloud as his voice lowered, “Why would I destroy something that makes me feel alive again?”
Adam didn’t know where he found the ability to speak because his entire body was radiating in fear and panic but his words trembled, “You… y-you’re not– vampires a-aren’t re-real.” His grey eyes staying on Tommy’s figure, terrified of any quick movements that the guy might make to hurt or kill him. Adam started to ramble, hysteria laced in each word. “You’re going to kill me, aren’t you? I’m going to die, aren’t I? This is just great. I get evicted from my apartment, I lose my job, I get attacked, I’ve been kidnapped, this is just fucking great. As if my life couldn’t get any worse, I’m going to die. I’m going to die. I’m going to die. I’m going to die.”
10:11 PM
Adam was hysterical.
Adam was losing it quick.
Adam was letting the pathetic excuse he called a life flash before his eyes.
A cold finger pressed to his lips silenced Adam from almost chanting ‘I’m going to die’ over and over again. “Shhh, you’re not going to die. I promise, I swear it on my undead life that I won’t hurt you. I’m not going to kill you.” He paused and Adam gasped as he felt the cold finger that was on his lips move towards his cheeks and it was only then that he realized he was crying. Tommy was wiping away the tears, “Why would I save you from almost getting killed just to kill you myself?”
“S-so you can b-boast about it o-or have m-me all to yourself,” Adam’s knuckles were turning white from gripping the blanket so tight. He was tempted to swat Tommy’s hand from his face but he didn’t want to do anything to result in his death coming faster, instead his eyes squeezed shut and he waited.
Tommy shook his head and sighed heavily, causing Adam to jump and his hand fell from Adam’s face, “I don’t boast about killing people, each kill deserves respect, every ‘vampire’ learns that from their creator. And if I could have you all to myself, I would, but not in the sense you’re thinking. I’d have you as the lover that those girls wanted but you denied since your youthful days of becoming a man,” Adam gasped, he knew about that part of his life? “I’d have you as my private entertainer to sing for me, I’d have you as my partner to walk the world with, I’d have you all to myself so I could shake the loneliness.
“I have the ability to give you a much easier life than the one you’re leading right now. I can grant you youth for the rest of Earth’s days, your bones won’t grow brittle, your skin won’t wrinkle, and your voice would always remain beautiful, never fade with time. You can still perform in the bar if you want as well. I can give you all this, if you want you’ll be my partner.”
10:11 PM
Adam was amazed.
Adam was still terrified.
Adam was debating on saying no.
Adam was quiet at first, the fear in his body was still there, but with each breath he was remembering to take, it was easing, his body wasn’t as tense, “Would you let me go if I don’t want what you have to give?”
Tommy’s smile never left his lips, even if he was hearing something he didn’t want to, “Yes, you’re free to go whenever you please. I wouldn’t force you to stay or say yes to me. But I can’t promise that I won’t stop following you around, especially after sunset, or that I won’t see you at the bar if you decide to go back.”
Adam’s eyes darted from Tommy to the area of darkness that he heard Tommy emerge from earlier. He believed that was the exit. The offer he made was a lot better than the shit deal that Adam would be walking back out into once he left but he couldn’t accept, he couldn’t even wrap his head around the idea that vampires even existed. Yet there was living… well, undead proof of it right in front of him, ready to give him everything he needed in exchange for his voice, his body, his freedom, and oh yeah, death.
Instead of giving Tommy his answer though, Adam voiced, “You’d still follow me around? To try to get me to say yes?”
The smile turned into one of amusement, “To protect you from a repeat of tonight, and sure, I could do that, too, if it’d change your mind.”
Adam couldn’t dislike the reason why Tommy was going to follow him. Hell, he didn’t want a repeat of tonight either now that he knew that there was something far worse to fear creeping in the night than just muggers or gangs. If that meant he was placing his life and safety in the hands of one of the creatures that could kill him at any given time, he felt like he could trust Tommy with that responsibility. Adam glanced at the clock and saw that it was still the same time as before; Tommy said he could allow time to move, didn’t he?
“Will you let the morning come soon?” He asked. The sooner the sun rose, the better. He could leave and probably be safe from any creatures of the night.
Tommy took that question as Adam’s answer, his smile disappeared and disappointment vaguely showed on his face. “Of course,” he looked at the clock on the bedside table and slowly, the seconds started moving again until they were rapidly changing, the hours keeping up with the minutes.
Adam wondered how Tommy was controlling the clock and he wondered if the guy was really moving time. His eyes glanced around the room to see that it was the same, until one of the flames on the candles dispersed, then another, and another, and so on until they were all out. Adam thought they’d be in complete darkness but he could see light coming from the edges of black sheets that covered what he assumed was the windows. He could feel the sudden warmth that was filling the room too.
He glanced to the clock again and saw that it read 9:36 AM. Adam’s eyes connected with the pair of dark brown eyes that were no longer glowing as Tommy spoke, “Have a good day, I’ll see you after sunset.” His tone was borderline disappointment and strained but he held a small smile.
9:37 AM
Adam had said no.
Adam left in a hurry.
Adam knew Tommy would keep his word.
Adam was a drifter.
Adam was a lost soul.
Adam was slowly becoming a beggar on the side of the streets.
His current job wasn’t going that well and he couldn’t make enough tips where he sang in the corner bar every night. It was only a matter of time before he received a letter of eviction from the apartment manager. The eviction notice hit Adam hard, he’d tried his best to make ends meet, he barely made enough to feed himself every night but he tried his hardest to keep the roof over his head.
6:31 PM
Adam was singing again.
Adam was losing himself in the music.
Adam was staring out at the people that filled the bar.
Each one of them seemed better off than he, they had money to order shot after shot, glass after glass, while he had just lost his apartment and with the ten dollars in his back pocket, he knew that the streets would soon become his home. It was only a matter of time. The thought scared him, he could pick up what little he had and return home to his parents but he was a man now, he couldn’t return home as a failure. Like a baby that was running back to his mother and father because life was too hard for him.
So instead of feeling envious of all the people in what could be his last performance in the small bar, he sang his heart out instead. The only thing it resulted in was fifteen extra dollars in tips. That was not even close to what his rent cost and it wasn’t barely even enough to live a week off of.
8:46 PM
Adam was greeting the cold air of the night.
Adam was trudging through the darkness of the alleyway.
Adam was searching for somewhere he could stay the night.
He wasn’t aware that two gleaming eyes were watching him in the night. He didn’t hear the hissing that was growing closer and he didn’t see the being behind him until he was knocked to the ground. A throbbing head and a trail of something warm streaming down his forehead was the only two things he felt until he looked up to see a pale being looming over him in the darkness.
He heard the loud hiss that filled the air but it was the last of his worries as his vision started to fade to black and his world became caught in a dreamless sleep.
10:11 PM
Adam was in pain.
Adam was in agony.
Adam was lying on a… soft bed?
He pried his eyes open to see a candle-lit room before they closed again due to the throbbing of his head. It seemed to intensify when he moved even a little. The dimly lit room wasn’t as harsh as a hospital room would’ve been to wake up in, but that thought caused Adam’s mind to flood with worry, panic, and curiosity.
His eyes slowly opened and trying his best to ignore the pain shooting through his head, his eyes looked at his surroundings. It was dark and he could barely make out anything in the room, the only thing that was clear was the candles lit on little stands around the room. He looked to his right to see a bedside table, a clock with red numbers rested there, along with a glass of water and a bottle of, he thanked the heavens for it, Tylenol.
When he reached for the bottle, something caught him off guard about the clock. The seconds were on display beside the hour and the minutes but they weren’t moving at all. They were still. He figured that maybe there weren’t any batteries in the clock but it was an electric clock, the numbers wouldn’t appear at all if it was dead or unplugged, and if the power had gone off, the numbers would be blinking.
They were simply still. And the time that glared at him in angry red was 10:11 PM.
10:11 PM
Adam was unsure.
Adam was curious.
Adam was still in pain.
He disregarded the strange clock with unmoving time and grabbed the Tylenol bottle. Popping the cap off, he took two of the tablets and a sip of the water and laid back on the bed. He hoped the pills would kick in soon. His head still felt like it was about to explode.
Everything was quiet in the room for a few moments. Adam thought he had almost fell back to sleep as his head started to ease it’s throbbing but the sound of a door interrupted the gray area he was floating in. He looked up from the pillow to the direction and only saw darkness; the candle light was too dim to show anything.
10:11 PM
Adam was scared.
Adam was confused.
Adam was terrified of who just walked in.
He didn’t know if it was a murderer that just walked into the room or a rapist or some crazy person that might skin him alive. He rolled his eyes at that ridiculous thought but it didn’t calm him from freaking out.
“How’s the head?” A voice asked from the darkness, Adam could tell that it was a man and with the sound of footsteps against the floor and the candles casting shadow on the person’s stature, it confirmed Adam’s thought.
Adam couldn’t see the man’s face that clearly even with the candles and he didn’t answer, a knot of fear was constricting his throat so he couldn’t find his voice to answer. He heard a sigh come from the man and then a few more footsteps on the floor brought him close enough for Adam to see. Maybe it was the candles that gave the man’s eyes that effect but his eyes appeared to be glowing.
“You don’t have to be scared of me; I didn’t bring you here to hurt you. Although a few others of my kind might be after us now but I assure you that you’re safe.” A few more footsteps brought the man closer to Adam and he could see the man clearly now.
The guy looked younger than him and definitely shorter, his skin was ghostly pale and his eyes looked like they had huge black circles under them from not getting enough sleep. His lips were a dusty rose color and the hair that hung over the left side of his face was a whitish-blond that almost matched the color of his skin. The clothes he wore blended with the shadow but left two pale hands apparent by his side.
Adam would’ve found the guy attractive if he weren’t as pale as paste. That thought quickly dispersed when he recalled what the guy said, ‘his kind’. What the hell did that mean? He cleared his throat and was about to ask until the man spoke again.
“Did the Tylenol help?” Oh yeah, Adam still hadn’t confirmed the condition of his head.
He lifted a hand to his head to find a bandage wrapped around it but he did notice that the throbbing was gone and just a dull, distant soreness was left. The Tylenol had finally kicked in. “Y-yeah,” his voice, raspy from his dry throat.
10:11 PM
Adam was feeling better.
Adam was officially confused.
Adam was distinctly wondering if he was really safe or not.
“I’m glad; I thought you might not have woken up from the blow you took. I tend to forget how much humans bleed from just shallow wounds to the head or face.” Adam’s eyebrow rose at that, humans? Wasn’t this guy a human too? Sure, he looked like a dead guy but he was a human, nonetheless, right?
“W-wait,” Adam cleared his throat and tried to sit up the best he could with causing pain to resurface, “What do you mean ‘human’? You’re human too.”
The man’s eyes lowered from Adam’s in hesitance until he lifted a hand to rub his face, almost as in frustration. “Oh, yeah, I am.” It looked like the guy had something else to add to it but he refrained causing an awkward silence to fall over them.
Adam looked down at his hands that were resting on his lap and noticed that the front of his shirt had blood splatters littering it. “What happened to me? The only thing I remember is coming out of the backdoor to the bar and heading… home.” It dawned on him then that he didn’t have a home anymore; the apartment manager’s letter of eviction confirmed that.
“Well… you were attacked. I’ll admit now that I was following you but if I hadn’t then I really doubt we’d be having this conversation right now,” the man answered as he edged closer to the bed only to walk towards the armchair that was beside the nightstand.
“Oh… well, thanks for saving my life,” Adam replied awkwardly before asking, “But why were you following unless you were going to rob me… in that case, I’m almost broke so you would’ve only scored twenty-five bucks.”
The man laughed, startling Adam, “I wasn’t going to rob you; money holds no value to me.” The man’s light-hearted tone turned grim with a split second. “The truth is, I listened to you sing almost every night that I knew you’d be at that bar. Your voice… it’s rather delightful to hear, it’s soothing to a rambling mind like mine.” Adam noted something about the man’s tone as he commented on Adam’s voice, it sounded like he was in awe. “And tonight, your performance was different, I couldn’t find any happiness in your voice, I heard your ache and I heard sorrow but nothing that I came to love about your voice.
“So I tried to find some way of talking to you after your performance because you usually sat at the bar and one hopeless girl after another would buy you drinks in hopes of catching your interest. But you gathered up your tips and left out the back as quickly as you could. I didn’t like the vibe that I got from you either; it was as if that was your last performance at the bar.”
Adam interrupted him, looking over at the man, “It was. I had been evicted from my apartment, my job wasn’t going well, and I couldn’t make ends meet… I was on my way to either find a homeless shelter or a cardboard box to stay the night in. I’ll probably just give up and go back home to my parents.”
“A man like you sleeping in a cardboard box for the night? I’m sure the owner of the bar could’ve put you up in the backroom for a few nights, I don’t know if you’ve noticed but he took a liking to you. Was almost amazed as I was with your singing.”
Adam scoffed, “I doubt it. You’re just saying that to make me feel better.”
“I don’t flatter people, but believe what you will then, but I have ways of seeing past the surface with most hu–” he paused and corrected himself, “people.”
Adam turned to glare at him in irritation but the clock caught his attention again. The same numbers were displayed and he knew that the two spent more than fifteen minutes talking and to change the subject off his fucked up life, he simply stated, “Your clock is broken.”
“The clock has the right time,” the man replied as if it were obvious.
“No, it doesn’t. It said 10:11 when I woke up; it’s been well over fifteen minutes since we’ve started talking.”
The guy chuckled to himself after Adam said that, “In my room, time does not move unless I want it to. As I told you, I have rambling thoughts, time doesn’t move until I stop thinking or until I allow it to.” He repeated, “The clock has the right time.”
“If you say so, so who were the guys that attacked me? Probably–” he stopped himself from saying ‘gay-bashers’ because maybe the guy didn’t know about that part of his life, and he might throw him out if he did know.
“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you, no one ever does. Often it’s what gets them killed too; denial, ignorance, it’ll be the death of the human race one day.”
The look on the guy’s face made Adam convinced into believing whatever he was going to say. His expression was grim, of sorrow, of loss, and maybe he had lost someone special due to the guys that attacked him. Adam’s eyes trailed back to his hands in his lap that was covered with the blanket on the bed. He knew that some muggers only took your belongings but there were some that went to the extreme to take more than your belongings, they took your life. Most of the headlines in the news were proof of that.
But Adam still wanted to know who it was that attacked him. Maybe it was a gang that the guy had a previous encounter with? He sighed, “Just tell me who attacked me…” he trailed off in silence at the fact that he still didn’t know the stranger’s name that he’s been talking to for the past fifteen minutes. He wondered why he didn’t ask earlier.
“Tommy. My name’s Tommy,” The guy, Tommy, answered before he continued, “The people who attacked you,” he paused and stood up from the armchair, and quietly walked over to the side of the bed, edging closer to Adam. His eyes were still glowing and Adam knew that from the angle, his eyes were not reflecting the candlelight, and the guy whispered, “…are the same as me.” He flashed a grin and Adam’s eyes widened at the two larger and pointy teeth that resembled a dog’s canines.
Adam tried to back up against the bed since the lower half of his body was tangled in the blanket that was under the guy’s, Tommy’s, weight, but it only resulted in Tommy chuckling and himself still being tangled in the blanket.
“I told you that I wouldn’t hurt you. The only difference between me and the beings that were going to eat you is that I’ve taken a fascination to your voice,” Tommy’s grin slowly turned into a sad smile, and it sounded like he was talking to himself or thinking aloud as his voice lowered, “Why would I destroy something that makes me feel alive again?”
Adam didn’t know where he found the ability to speak because his entire body was radiating in fear and panic but his words trembled, “You… y-you’re not– vampires a-aren’t re-real.” His grey eyes staying on Tommy’s figure, terrified of any quick movements that the guy might make to hurt or kill him. Adam started to ramble, hysteria laced in each word. “You’re going to kill me, aren’t you? I’m going to die, aren’t I? This is just great. I get evicted from my apartment, I lose my job, I get attacked, I’ve been kidnapped, this is just fucking great. As if my life couldn’t get any worse, I’m going to die. I’m going to die. I’m going to die. I’m going to die.”
10:11 PM
Adam was hysterical.
Adam was losing it quick.
Adam was letting the pathetic excuse he called a life flash before his eyes.
A cold finger pressed to his lips silenced Adam from almost chanting ‘I’m going to die’ over and over again. “Shhh, you’re not going to die. I promise, I swear it on my undead life that I won’t hurt you. I’m not going to kill you.” He paused and Adam gasped as he felt the cold finger that was on his lips move towards his cheeks and it was only then that he realized he was crying. Tommy was wiping away the tears, “Why would I save you from almost getting killed just to kill you myself?”
“S-so you can b-boast about it o-or have m-me all to yourself,” Adam’s knuckles were turning white from gripping the blanket so tight. He was tempted to swat Tommy’s hand from his face but he didn’t want to do anything to result in his death coming faster, instead his eyes squeezed shut and he waited.
Tommy shook his head and sighed heavily, causing Adam to jump and his hand fell from Adam’s face, “I don’t boast about killing people, each kill deserves respect, every ‘vampire’ learns that from their creator. And if I could have you all to myself, I would, but not in the sense you’re thinking. I’d have you as the lover that those girls wanted but you denied since your youthful days of becoming a man,” Adam gasped, he knew about that part of his life? “I’d have you as my private entertainer to sing for me, I’d have you as my partner to walk the world with, I’d have you all to myself so I could shake the loneliness.
“I have the ability to give you a much easier life than the one you’re leading right now. I can grant you youth for the rest of Earth’s days, your bones won’t grow brittle, your skin won’t wrinkle, and your voice would always remain beautiful, never fade with time. You can still perform in the bar if you want as well. I can give you all this, if you want you’ll be my partner.”
10:11 PM
Adam was amazed.
Adam was still terrified.
Adam was debating on saying no.
Adam was quiet at first, the fear in his body was still there, but with each breath he was remembering to take, it was easing, his body wasn’t as tense, “Would you let me go if I don’t want what you have to give?”
Tommy’s smile never left his lips, even if he was hearing something he didn’t want to, “Yes, you’re free to go whenever you please. I wouldn’t force you to stay or say yes to me. But I can’t promise that I won’t stop following you around, especially after sunset, or that I won’t see you at the bar if you decide to go back.”
Adam’s eyes darted from Tommy to the area of darkness that he heard Tommy emerge from earlier. He believed that was the exit. The offer he made was a lot better than the shit deal that Adam would be walking back out into once he left but he couldn’t accept, he couldn’t even wrap his head around the idea that vampires even existed. Yet there was living… well, undead proof of it right in front of him, ready to give him everything he needed in exchange for his voice, his body, his freedom, and oh yeah, death.
Instead of giving Tommy his answer though, Adam voiced, “You’d still follow me around? To try to get me to say yes?”
The smile turned into one of amusement, “To protect you from a repeat of tonight, and sure, I could do that, too, if it’d change your mind.”
Adam couldn’t dislike the reason why Tommy was going to follow him. Hell, he didn’t want a repeat of tonight either now that he knew that there was something far worse to fear creeping in the night than just muggers or gangs. If that meant he was placing his life and safety in the hands of one of the creatures that could kill him at any given time, he felt like he could trust Tommy with that responsibility. Adam glanced at the clock and saw that it was still the same time as before; Tommy said he could allow time to move, didn’t he?
“Will you let the morning come soon?” He asked. The sooner the sun rose, the better. He could leave and probably be safe from any creatures of the night.
Tommy took that question as Adam’s answer, his smile disappeared and disappointment vaguely showed on his face. “Of course,” he looked at the clock on the bedside table and slowly, the seconds started moving again until they were rapidly changing, the hours keeping up with the minutes.
Adam wondered how Tommy was controlling the clock and he wondered if the guy was really moving time. His eyes glanced around the room to see that it was the same, until one of the flames on the candles dispersed, then another, and another, and so on until they were all out. Adam thought they’d be in complete darkness but he could see light coming from the edges of black sheets that covered what he assumed was the windows. He could feel the sudden warmth that was filling the room too.
He glanced to the clock again and saw that it read 9:36 AM. Adam’s eyes connected with the pair of dark brown eyes that were no longer glowing as Tommy spoke, “Have a good day, I’ll see you after sunset.” His tone was borderline disappointment and strained but he held a small smile.
9:37 AM
Adam had said no.
Adam left in a hurry.
Adam knew Tommy would keep his word.