Blood Lust

Lee forgot where he was when he heard me. He pulled off the giant goggles that covered most of his face, "What!?" He shouted, causing the man behind the bar to look over at us.

I quickly covered his face back up before the sun could touch him. "Yes, the doctors confirmed it."

Lee went still, "We have to leave now."

Panic hit my gut harder than any punch ever would. Lee was telling me I needed to leave my parents...again. I had to leave everything behind all over again. I was not ready to disappear from a normal life.

"Honey, who's your friend?" My mother walked up and startled me.

"Who?" I looked back to find Lee had disappeared...thankfully. "It was just some crazy guy." I shrugged it off.

Lee's words stuck with me for the rest of the day. On the drive back from shopping, his words kept echoing back to me. I knew he was right, but I didn't want him to be. I wanted things to go back to normal. I wanted a normal life with family dinners. I wanted that normal job that I hated. Most of all, I wanted to forget R and find a normal guy to grow old with.

My heart felt like it was going to shatter. I was so torn on what to do. "Mom...Dad..." I stopped the two at dinner that night. "I wanted to let you know how much I missed you and loved you." That lump in my throat formed, "I hoped that you hadn't forgotten me everyday I was in that hell." The lump grew bigger. "When I was rescued and your faces was the first that I saw, I was so happy. I just want to thank you. Thank you for everything." I swallowed the biggest lump. My parents would never know that was a good bye speech.

My parents parents smiled, unaware. I couldn't help but to feel a little angry that they didn't catch on. A small part of me wanted them to beg me to stay. If they did, I would stay. I would stay just for them.

After dinner, I made sure to give them extra hugs and maybe held on a little longer than they wanted me to. Before I said goodbye to the house I grew up in, I stopped right at the edge of the front lawn and looked back. I took one last mental image of the house and mouthed 'I Love You.' As if my parents could hear me.

I didn't have to walk far before I saw Lee standing at the end of the block. He shared the sad look I had on my face. He knew I didn't want to leave, "You ready?" He handed me a bag.

"Where are we going?"

"R had a meeting place planned if we ever got separated. It's a bit of a drive, so we need to leave as soon as possible. I'll drive through the night until the sun comes up, but you'll need to drive during the day." Lee always had a plan.

Just like that, I shouldered the bag and walked away from the life I once had. In that moment, I knew I'd never come back.

The car had been a nicer SUV. I had gotten to lay down in the back while Lee drove, but I couldn't sleep at all. My mind raced with thoughts about my parents; if they'd be safe. I wondered if Martin and Dee had ever made it to the shore that day. It felt like I wasted hours on thinking of what ifs.

"Christi." Lee had woken me up. I didn't even know that I had fallen asleep. "Sun is about to come up. I'm sorry." He said. I blinked my eyes, trying to wake myself.

When Lee had said it was a long drive, he really wasn't kidding. We took turns driving for what felt like days. When we had reached the destination, Lee was driving at night. He had woken me up to see the town.

There was nothing to see. The whole street was dark. No signs of life anywhere in the little town, but Lee promised it would be different once the sun came up.

He pulled down a bumpy road, "Brick roads." He said. The road was quite long until he came to a stop, "We're here."

Salty sea air hit my nostrils when I opened the car door. "Where are we?" I asked. The night was still pitch black and the road had no street lights at all.

"R purchased this town some time ago. This is the oldest part of the town. It was considered the towns port, but now it's just some run down shack on the beach." He grabbed our bags from the back and guided me down a old wooden ramp.

Everything was dark in the shack. It didn't smell that great either. "Do we even have electricity?" I felt the wall for a switch.

Lee handed me a flash light, "Not yet, but hold this and I'll go turn it on." He threw down his bag and disappeared into the shack. I could hear him throwing things and objects clattering to the floors as he moved about the shack.

Old bulbs buzzed to life. They lit up the entry way, which was nothing but a small closet with some rusty hooks long since hammered into the wall. The floor boards had seen better days too. "It's working!" I yelled out to Lee.

I heard Lee clamber through whatever had blocked his way, "Okay so the place needs a little more work than I remember." He laughed.

"When was the last time you were here?" I questioned. Walking through the entryway and into the living space, it looked like no one had been there in years.

Lee dusted off some pots that laid strewed across a dusty couch, "Uhh, maybe sixty?"