Chomp

I grunted from the twelfth swift punch to the lower torso that Agnes landed within the hour. Her punches were less about pain and more about making me feel like I was going to lose my lunch or pee my pants—depending on where she aimed.

She smirked as I got to my feet and sped off to the bathroom; I really wished she had told me not to drink anything before this session, because the blows to my bladder were near-mess experiences I felt Bryan wouldn’t be able to handle.

Ones I couldn’t handle, either.

“You’ve got to work on blocking,” she offered lazily through the door. I unzipped my fly nervously, hoping she wasn’t listening in. Thankfully, she kept talking while I let my stream go. “See, it’s great and all if you can throw a punch, but if you can’t block for shit, it’s game over.”

I finished up and turned the tap on. Squirting some of the daisy-scented antibacterial soap onto my hand, I replied, “I haven’t even gotten punching down. How am I supposed to block something I don’t know how to even do properly myself?”

I opened the door and nearly bumped into Agnes. Why was she standing so close to the door?

“Don’t be so hard on yourself. You’ve got a lot of power behind your punches, but your wrists are so damp floppy that it’s lost,” she replied, putting her fists up to show me. I was glad she had left her scythe out of this today. “See? Your fingers should be a little loose—you don’t want to break them—but your wrists should be braced for impact.”

I tried balling my hands into the fist that she made, even imitating her stance: both fists up, shoulder width apart, knees bent, also shoulder width apart. It was all good until she smiled; my wrists went floppy again, and she immediately frowned.

“You had it,” she confessed, placing her hands on her hips. It was definitely odd to see her in yoga capris or whatever they were, but I was definitely grateful. “But then your wrists just got ED or something.”

“ED?” I whisper, trying to ignore the heat in my face. Why—why was it always there?

“Erectile dysfunction,” she answered stiffly. Honest to god, it was a stiff answer despite the pun.

“O-Oh…” And there it was—the vicious heat in my face, ravaging me all the way down to my sorry little neck. “I promise—I don’t—I mean…”

My voice trailed off awkwardly, but Agnes didn’t seem to notice. Instead, she stretched her one arm before falling back into a defensive position. “Try again. Focus in your mind where you want to punch, just don’t let me see it.”

Still a little embarrassed about the ED joke—possibly about life in general—I took a lame swing and unsurprisingly missed her arm. With the slightest of side-steps, she dodged and swung her foot around and struck my back with a resounding thud. It was a powerful shot that sent me stumbling forward, causing me to collide with the wall.

“What are you kids doing down there?” Bryan’s weary voice called. “Is everyone okay? Do we need an ambulance?”

“We’re fine,” I groan, holding my head.

Stars danced in my eyes as Agnes grinned at me. “Come on, Buttercup. Don’t be a pussy.”

“So this week, I wanted to focus on positivity,” Jess said, smiling out at the group as she stood at the podium. There were confused murmurs from the crowd, but she put her hand up to silence them. “I want everyone to brainstorm with a partner or two, and think of two things. One thing good about when you were human, and one thing that you’ve discovered since turning.”

I sat in my seat numbly, not sure where to begin. The large lumberjack-like vampire, Duke, pulled my chair to face his. “Wanna be my partner?” he asked in a gruff voice, dropping me a toothy grin.

“Sure,” I replied. It wasn’t like he had given me much of a choice, and judging by his massive muscular arms, he didn’t look like someone anyone said no to. “I’m just not… I don’t know about my answers yet.”

He nodded. “I get it, it’s definitely hard. Well, maybe to get you thinking, when I was human, I had a baby girl. If there was anything good in my human life, it was definitely her.”

I stared at him incredulously. “Really?”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” he growled, leaning forward and towering over me. “You didn’t think I’d stick around once I got a girl up the pole or something?”

Raising my hands defensively, I shook my head with gusto. “T-That’s not what I meant…” I replied, slowing placing my hands back down onto my lap. “I just… I didn’t expect you to have a family. It’s nice, though.”

Duke rolled his jaw, cracking it as he sighed deeply.

“It was,” he admitted quietly. I nodded, wishing my empathy was stronger than my sympathy. “As for something positive about this life… The night life is pretty damn great!” His somber expression changed rapidly to its usual happy façade as he gave a hearty laugh. “Though I feel for you, Sammy-boy. Someone wasn’t thinking right when they changed you. Should have done it when you could drink, at least.”

I shrugged, not sure how to answer.

“Think of anything?” Duke asked, rolling up the sleeves of his shirt.

Before I was turned, huh? “Well, I…”

The sudden opening of the door shocked everyone, and we all whipped around to see who entered. I was personally glad to avoid the question, but the newcomer still grabbed my attention as he made his way up to one of the aisles. The short gentleman had a slower gait to him and brilliantly white hair that grew in patches.

“Excuse me, sir,” Jess called, getting to her feet. “You’re actually interrupting a therapy session here. We’ll be done with the room in about—”

“I’m not interested in the room.” The man’s voice was almost faint, like he was out of breath, and it had a slight accent to it that I was unable to place. He stood beside the podium, scanning the room. Slowly, Jess took her seat again, regarding him wearily.

The group went silent, no one knowing what to make of this man, or what was allowed to be said in front of him. A few people glanced at Jess for an explanation, and others, like myself and Doris, sniffed the air.

Whoever the man was, he smelled of… books? I took another sniff, making sure my nose wasn’t playing tricks on me.

“And just who do you think you are, barging in here?” Duke finally challenged, standing up. I had him pegged as six and a half feet tall, but as he approached the white-haired man, he looked closer to seven. “We’re trying to recover. This is therapy, buddy. Scram.”

The man gave a small, sincere chuckle; Duke was just as surprised as I was that someone wasn’t cowering. “It’s not therapy,” the man assured him. “It’s alright. We’re all alike here.”

Duke’s brows furrowed, unconvinced. The man offered him a small, wrinkled hand for a shake. “My name is Yacob.”

A chair screeched across the floor before clattering to the ground. “Y-Yacob Osgoode?” Jess whispered, approaching him slowly. “But you’re—”

Yacob smiled lightly with his mouth and watery blue eyes. “Do you mind if I hijack the session?” he asked politely. “And please, be a dear and bring me a chair. It’s been quite some time since I’ve sat, and these old bones aren’t seven thousand anymore.”

Flustered, Jess nodded. While she whipped around to grab her own chair, I looked over at Doris, who was watching the scene intently with a bland look on her face.

“Did I miss something?” I breathed, leaning into her. “Who’s—”

“It’s a wonderful time to be alive when there’s a vampire that doesn’t know my name, young man.”

I froze in my spot. Yacob grinned at me from many meters away; aside from myself, there wasn’t anyone who could have heard something as quite from so far away. “I-I-I’m… Sorry, I just… I’ve never heard of you,” I confessed awkwardly.

“And as I mentioned,” he continued, playing with a button on his sleeve, “It’s a wonderful thing to hear.”

I fell silent as people whispered about, catching only snatches of what they were saying; ‘uninformed,’ ’embarrassment,’ and ’shameful’ were a few of the crowd-favourites.

My face burned.

“Settle down everyone,” Yacob murmured, observing us. Jess finally placed a chair down beside him on the stage. Her smile was enormous—pure, unbridled joy. Whoever this man was, he was important and really well-liked.

“Thank you, dear,” he said, patting her on the arm. “Really appreciate it.”

Jess shook her head furiously, her usually narrow eyes wide. “Don’t mention it,” she breathed. “Is there anything else I can do for you? Anything at all? Just say the word, and I’ll—”

He laughed. “That’s quite alright. I have everything that I need in this room, right this second.”

I frowned, the unknown biting at my insides. What was that supposed to mean?

“I must confess, I’ve been to a few of these kinds of meetings tonight, actually. Large cities certainly have a lot to offer if you know where to look, don’t they?” Yacob began, easing himself into the chair. It barely made a sound when his bottom touched down, but he let out an enormous sigh. “I came here tonight to talk about exposure.”

If I wasn’t confused before, I certainly was now. The old man was tired and slow, but friendly, yet he wanted to flash everyone? What a thing to interrupt a group meeting for.

“Mister Osgoode,” Jess blurted. “We haven’t—”

“It’s Yacob, dear.”

“We haven’t exposed ourselves at all. That’s part of what this group is actually about,” Jess continued. If I didn’t know any better, she almost seemed offended that he would say what he did. “We’ve worked hard to keep ourselves under wraps, blended in with the rest of society. To accuse us of anything else is a slap to the testament and willpower of every single person in this room, and I will not stand for—”

“I’m not accusing you of anything, child,” Yacob soothed, grabbing her hand. If Jess took offense to the term, she certainly didn’t show it. “You have all done very well, the best that any of us could have hoped.”

“Then why are you here?” Duke blurted out from his new spot toward the front. He must have sat down after making his way up there.

Yacob cleared his throat, nodding in Duke’s direction. “I’m getting to it, child. We have a lot to discuss, but let’s keep it simple.”

In typical old man-fashion, he paused a while to clean his glasses, forcing everyone to wait. A full five minutes went by as he rubbed the lenses on his wrinkled white tunic, all while the crowd held its breath. “I came to talk to you about exposure, and how we’re going to make it happen.”

I felt the blood in my body go cold, colder than it ever had before.

That kind of exposure had never been a good thing; vampires exposing themselves to the ’real world’ were often dealt with before anything interrupted the day-to-day lives of humans. It was for the best; mass panic could only lead to disaster for both vampires and humans.

What game could he possibly be trying to play?

I studied him long and hard. Yacob still wore a large smile; undoubtedly, it was glued in place after years—apparently thousands of them—of keeping it on his face.

“W-Who do you think you are, making that kind of decision?” I asked quietly; as soon as the words left my lips, I regretted it. It had been a question from me, to me, not intended for anyone else.

Yet Yacob had heard it, and he zeroed his attention in on me again. This time, his watery blue eyes were narrowed, though not in any sort of threatening manner.

“Ah, yes. The one who had never heard my name before,” he surmised, nodding as he looked me up and down. The action made me feel a little uncomfortable, like I was naked. “Tell me, where do vampires come from, child?”

“Bites from other vampires…?” I answered.

“Moron,” Doris breathed under her sour breath.

Flustered, I stood up. “Is that not the truth?” I challenged.

“For the most part, yes,” Yacob allowed. “But that begs the question—where did the first come from?”

My eyes widened. “You’re the… the…?”

He shook his head, chuckling. “His son.”

“His son? But… we can’t… How?”

“A Cainist vampire can,” Yacob finished with a smirk. “Is my reason for being here appropriate now that my credibility has been established? May I continue, little one?”

Speechless, my mouth still hung open. I nodded and took my seat. Doris pushed a finger roughly against my chin, forcing it upward and me to close my mouth. “You’ll catch flies with it,” she hissed, smacking me with her purse. “And you really are a moron. Did you learn nothing about where you came from? How embarrassing.”

“Shh!” Doris’ partner hissed.

Yacob nodded before delving in. “It’s taken me years to finally come to terms with this decision, I assure you. When I first roamed this planet, cities hadn’t even sprouted—certainly not to the likes of New York. Villages were plagued by superstitious humans using a work of pure fiction as their evidence to burn anyone they thought was even remotely different from themselves. It wasn’t a time that allowed us to prosper, to live lives freely. Let’s be honest; even if you were human, they still had a chance of burning you at the stake.

“But I believe that time is changing. There are over seven billion people on this earth right now—seven billion. Let’s just imagine that right now, how much this planet has exploded with growth, with development, with positive change. We’re at a point in time where I think it’s more than safe, more than time. We’re more than ready to move about freely.”

My skin prickled with goosebumps as I listened to him. What he suggested sounded… What did it sound like? Perhaps it was my small mind or me being used to living this way my whole life—whatever it was, it felt too surreal to be possible.

The room had gone silent, or maybe that was just my senses cutting off. The only sound my ears would allow was the pounding of my own heart. I looked around the room from face to face, seeing others just as hesitant as I was.

I wanted to be excited—to start applauding, whooping, cheering Yacob on. But there was more to it. If history taught me anything, it’s that that sort of freedom didn’t come without cost.

A few people stood up slowly, their eyes wide, almost hungry.

It was Jess that finally answered, her voice a deep, dark lull. Perhaps other than Yacob, she was the oldest in the room. No doubt that meant she had been hiding the longest, keeping the secret all her two-hundred years.

“What did you want us to do?”

He smiled back at her, adoration in his eyes. “I want you to listen carefully.”