Nightfall

Monster! Vampiric fiend! We should get rid of it before he eats our children!

I growled loudly and people backed away. Good, because if I accidentally brushed against another monster-hating person there would be blood. A lot of it. These people were afraid of me but were crowding me as if I were some circus act to watch closely. I glared at the plump woman, who I had just brushed against. She was a nasty one. Pretending to be cordial, while harboring dark thoughts about me. Bitch.

I walked toward the repository of memories and found it empty. There, I searched for the second and third parts of Lord of the Rings. Surprisingly they had it. Waaaay in the back. I hummed under my breath and perused the aisles. I checked out Frankenstein. I now knew how the big lug must have felt being called a monster. It hadn’t been said to my face yet, but…it would be. I added to my growing pile of to-be-read books.

Something moved within the shadow and I slowed down keeping an eye on the crack that was the entrance. I held the torch higher though I didn’t need it. I had to look as human as possible around here. The shadows shifted into a person. Five-seven, amazing brown eyes, gold skin, lush dark hair. Andromeda. She smiled wickedly.

“Fancy finding you here too?” she said scootching forward, her small shirt riding up her abdomen, and her shorts doing nothing to bar my sight of all her creamy skin. I saw her hand quiver and remembered her fear of me. I sobered up quickly. It was like a punch to the face and it hurt. Making sure my voice didn’t crack, I asked what she was doing there.

She smiled and held up the second part of Lord of the Rings. “I thought you might want this. I-I wanted to bring it to you.”

I turned my head slightly and cradled the books I had to me, before bending down and untying my pack from my waist and placing them inside. I stood and faced her again. “Thanks.”

I grabbed the book and our hands brushed. Hers shook as mine clasped hers and slid the book from her hands to my pack. It was a bitter pill to swallow. I turned and began walking away.

“Matt, can we talk? I want to… re-establish what we had before except…”

“You’re scared of me Andy. There’s no way we could ever return to the way we were before. You are too aware of what I’m capable of and that scares you…I get it, your fear but it hurts me to know I caused you of all people to quiver at my sight and not in a good way,” I said turning to her. I wanted to brush my finger across her face and comb them through her hair but instead, I clenched them and kept walking.

Footsteps followed me out of the repository and I saw a shaken Andromeda following close behind. I stopped in my tracks and so did she. This would have been amusing if I didn’t need space from her right now. The anthill was rather small when I thought about it and there were only a few places that fit the bill for escaping Andy. One was the repository and she had been there as unlikely as that was. Now she was following me like a scolded child who obeyed their parent!

I switched the pack to my other arm. “Fine, follow. I can’t make you not follow.”

She cheered but kept her distance and I wondered how we’d even get over the hurdle of her fear. Walking toward the gardens she showed me once before was a painful endeavor especially when the people who crowded me also wanted me dead.

Kill the Bastard don’t let it attack us first!

A preemptive strike wins the game always!

Andromeda and I laid out and sweaty after our activities just cuddling. I nuzzle her neck and tear her throat out.

Ouch! The harsh reality of what Andromely truly thought of me. I picked up the pace and thought about zipping to my destination, but Andromeda seemed determined as she grabbed ahold of my shirt. I gazed at her stern facade and tried shrugging her off without touching her. She hung on like a leech.

“You aren’t getting rid of me so easily,” she said pulling my shirt tighter in her grasp.

I clutched my pack tighter. “Then stop being so afraid of me,” I said shaking my head from the sight of her accusing eyes before me. This superpower came with a huge downfall in my opinion. I didn’t need to know what people were thinking if I brushed up against them. I didn’t want to know! Why couldn’t I have a new ability like making fireballs or something? This sucked especially now that I knew what Andromeda thought of me, of us. I didn’t want to see her right now.

Turning to the garden, I passed the bleeding Sakuras and the pea pods that held the Zinnias. I headed straight for the back past the HopdingI intended to lose Andromeda at the water’s edge once I hit the river. I heard the sound of running water and took a quick left coming upon the scene where I first took pictures of her and taught her how to take pictures. I stilled as she passed me and walked over to the three-petaled neon blue flowers. She picked one and smiled, turning to me.

Remember our time here?” she asked twirling the flower in her hands.

I glanced at her, wondering where she was going with this. “I remember.” I crossed my arms and gazed at her. I could somehow sense her steeling her resolve. Possibly the predator in me, warning me that I was fucked. I steeled my resolve and tied my pack to my waist again.

She walked towards me a bounce in her step. “It was the best day I ever had, and what made me kiss you afterward.” She leaned forward her lips almost grazing my own. I nearly whined when she pulled back some.

“We have our trials set for us, Matt, but I am willing to work towards us again.” She leaned closer. “That is if you’re willing.”

“I’m not the one with the problem,” I whispered. Catching her sight, I let my knuckles trail down her cheek, but when I traced down her neck, her pulse spiked in fear.

I pulled back and held her close. Her pulse lowered. “This isn’t going to work Andy,” I whispered kissing her ear and backing off. I turned around and began to walk in the opposite direction. She slammed into me running her fingers through my hair and cradling me to her.

“I-I’m willing to try Matt. Doesn’t that count for something? Please don’t leave me all alone here!”

I wanted to shout at her and cry but it was taken out of me with one look into her eyes. They were pained and scared. Two things I never wanted her to feel around me. She was trying but I too was scared. I didn’t want to see her revulsion when I returned to my base instinct. Feeding was as much a part of me as was my nose now. I needed to hunt and feed. I belonged out there with the others of my kind. A bag of blood would tie down my hunger but not my instincts. The others had it right. I was dangerous.

I sighed and pulled her against me. “Fine. You win. For now, we can be friends again and work from there.”

She smiled and I relented. It could’ve gone worse. We decided to start slow and talk about our favorite books. Surprisingly we both liked the fantasy genre most, though we read many other things. Lord of the Rings was a favorite of hers and mine too. As we started heading back, we noticed a few of the Hopdings missing but paid it no mind. As we crossed the garden we were in a big battle over who was better Mary or Pippin.

“Mary is better,” she said.

“They are a duo you can’t separate them but no Pippin is,” I argued smiling as she bit her lip and giggled.

“Nope, Mary. The beacons of Amun Dil would have never been lit if he hadn’t lit the fire on the tower and Faramir would have been a cooked goose if he hadn’t intervened either. In fact…”

“There’s the demon! He did it! Arrest him!”

“He’s responsible! Kill him!

“Those poor Hopdings! He ate them!”

“Say what!” I cried as we faced down a mob of angry people. In their eyes, I was an abomination and couldn’t exist. I was trapped due to not resorting to any violence. They already thought me a monster, I wasn’t about to prove them right under any circumstance. Andromeda watched confused by my side as the mob thickened.