Misty Rose: Nature
Chapter 24
So, you know how I’ve said a couple times that not a lot happened in a month? Well, this month’s kind of the opposite. Don’t know why. Maybe because the nights were getting longer. Still don’t really need to talk about every time I went hunting or the times I spent just hanging out with Kaitlyn… and as it turned out, Ferret. Kaitlyn invited him back, and he came back a few times on his own, and… he just sort of became part of the home. Not like he lived there. But like a friend that would come over two or three times a week, so it seemed like he was just part of the family. We ended up telling him a lot about our lives. Not the… seriously bad shit, but a lot of the rest of it. And he’d tell us about some of the things he’d done since he’d become a vampire. I was pretty sure he was… exaggerating some of it, but he didn’t seem to be bragging for his own ego, so I didn’t say anything. But some of what happened I should probably mention, like I said before. Like the third time Ferret came over.
That night actually didn’t start out so good. I’d been counting what money I had and, well… thirty five dollars wasn’t enough to cover my half of the rent. Yeah, that wasn’t good.
“Kaitlyn?” I said. “I, um… might be a bit late with my half of the rent this month.”
Kaitlyn just shrugged, not looking up from her phone. “I can handle it for now,” she said.
“You can? Thanks,” I said. “Um… last few guys didn’t have a lot on ‘em.”
“It’s fine,” Kaitlyn said. “You can pay me back.”
“Yeah. Be easier if I had a job.”
“You have a job.”
“Beatin’ up assholes in alleys isn’t a job.”
“Yes it is.”
“Kaitlyn…” I sighed. “I’m not a vigilante.” Then I grinned. “The pay sucks.”
“And you don’t get dental,” Kaitlyn grinned back.
“Right, but the caterin’ is decent.”
“But the people you meet aren’t.”
“Ick, no,” I made a face. “But seriously, I’m just stealin’ from ’em. And it’s not like street thugs’ve got much money. That’s why they’re doin’ in the first place.”
“Why’re you so hung up on the stealing?” Kaitlyn asked.
“’Cause I don’t like doin’ it,” I said. “Bad enough I’m beatin’ ’em up and drinkin’ their blood.”
“They deserve it.”
“Maybe,” I said. “But I don’t wanna start thinkin’ I’m some kinda good guy for doin’ it.”
“But you are.”
I sighed. Kaitlyn had a weird idea what being a good guy was. I wasn’t doing it to clean up the streets. I was doing it because I’m a blood drinking monster who didn’t want to hurt good people. And I sure wasn’t a vigilante, no matter what she said. We went back and forth on that for a bit, until Kailyn got fed up and went to take a shower. I spent some time looking at stuff on my phone, at least until it rang. I looked at the number, which I didn’t recognize. I let it go to voice mail, but whoever it was called right back, so I figured it was probably an actual person and picked up.
“Who is this?” I asked right away. Hey, no reason to not know.
“Hey, Misty, it’s Ferret,” the voice on the other side said. Sounded like him, too.
“Oh,” I said. “Hey Ferret. Sorry, I don’t usually answer numbers I don’t know.”
“Good idea,” Ferret said. “Lots of weirdoes out there.”
“Yeah, and I’m talkin’ to one,” I said, grinning. “How’d you get my number?”
“Magic.”
“Oh, come on.”
“The world still thinks you’re alive,” Ferret said. “So you’re in the system.”
“Oh. Okay. That makes sense.”
“You busy tonight?”
“Not really,” I said. “Just hangin’ out.”
“Kaitlyn with you?”
“Sorta. She’s in the shower wastin’ the hot water.”
“Mind if I come over?”
“Nope. Any time is fine.”
“Cool. I’ll be there in a few minutes.”
“Okay,” I said, then shouted at the bathroom. “HEY, KAITLYN! PUT ON SOME CLOTHES! FERRET’S ON HIS WAY OVER!”
Ferret said something I didn’t quite hear because I’d moved the phone. “What?”
“I said Kaitlyn can stay naked, I don’t mind.”
I grinned and shouted again, “FERRET SAYS YOU CAN STAY NAKED, HE DOESN’T MIND!”
“YOU WISH!” Kaitlyn shouted from the bathroom.
“She says you wish,” I told Ferret.
Ferret laughed, then said, “Hey, you want me to bring anything? Snacks?”
“Um…” I said. “When you say snacks…”
“For Kaitlyn,” Ferret laughed. “Not for us.”
“Oh. Okay,” I said. “FERRET WANTS TO KNOW IF YOU WANT ANYTHING FROM THE STORE!”
Kaitlyn yelled something complicated I didn’t quite hear.
“WHAT?” I yelled.
“COOKIES AND FEMININE HYGIENE PRODUCTS!” Kaitlyn yelled.
“She says cookies and feminine hygiene products,” I told Ferret. Why not? Could be funny.
“Yikes,” Ferret said. “Okay. What kind?”
“I’ll ask,” I said. “FERRET SAYS WHAT KIND!”
“CHOCOLATE CHIP!” Kaitlyn yelled.
“She says chocolate chip,” I told Ferret.
“Okay,” Ferret said. “And the feminine hygiene products?”
“Dunno,” I shrugged. “Surprise her.”
“You don’t know what kind she prefers?”
“I do. But I think you should surprise her anyway.”
Ferret laughed. “Okay, but I’m blaming you if she gets mad. See you in a few.”
“Okay,” I said, grinning. “See you then.”
We hung up, and I spent the time looking at more stuff on my phone. Kaitlyn stayed in the shower, wasting the hot water like I said. After about maybe half an hour, there was a knock at the door. A normal knock, not like the army guy.
“I’LL GET IT!” I yelled at the bathroom.
I opened the door, and there was Ferret with a grocery bag and… some kind of black plastic box.
“Hey, Ferret,” I said. Ferret handed me the bag. “Thanks, I’ll just put this over here.” I dropped the bag on Kaitlyn’s bed because it was for her and looked at the plastic box.
“Is that a… game… thing?” I asked. I knew nothing about video game players.
Ferret nodded, coming inside and closing the door. “Game console.”
“Console, right,” I said. He seemed to think I knew what kind of game thing it was, and I didn’t want to ask him, so I didn’t. “Not a gamer, so…”
“It’s the latest one,” Ferret said and put it down on the dresser next to our little TV. He started pulling wires and… stuff out of the pockets of his coat.
“Aren’t those expensive?” I asked. “And, um… don’t they usually come in boxes?” I vaguely remembered seeing something like that in the window of a store at a mall, and I was pretty sure they came in this kit that kept everything together. Not just rolled up in someone’s pockets.
“They do,” Ferret said, then grinned at me. “But this one fell off the back of a truck.”
I gave him a flat look. “No one believes anythin’ just fell off a truck.”
Ferret just gave me an innocent face about as believable as Kaitlyn’s.
“Whatever,” I sighed. “Why’d you bring it here?”
“To play,” Ferret said. “I thought you might want to try it out. And it’s a better disc player than the old one you two have.”
“Well, I guess we have room,” I said, looking around. “Wait. Are the cops gonna come lookin’ for that thing? Do we need to hide it?” Valid question. I dated a guy for like two weeks once who gave me some stuff that he said I’d have to hide if anyone came looking for it. I dumped it instead, and dumped him at the same time. I’m not a fence.
“Nope,” Ferret said.
“Not fuckin’ with you, Ferret,” I said. “If that’s stolen…”
“Don’t worry about it,” Ferret said, grinning at me. “I stole it from a criminal.”
“You’re shittin’ me.” I glared at him for a moment, but he just kept grinning. So I turned towards the bathroom. “KAITLYN, GET YOUR ASS OUT HERE! WITH CLOTHES ON!”
“Actually…” Ferret said, but I shushed him. After a moment, Kaitlyn came out in her robe with her hair wrapped up in a towel. Which was a little weird. I mean, Kaitlyn didn’t really have much of a modesty thing, but she’d usually put on some kind of clothes and not just a robe when we had company.
“Hey, Ferret,” she said. Well, if she wasn’t going to make a deal of her robe, I wasn’t.
“So Kaitlyn…” I said, folding my arms. “Ferret wants to keep this stolen game thing here, which he says won’t be a problem with the cops ’cause he stole it from some poor criminal. Thoughts?”
Kaitlyn looked like she was thinking it over for a second, then shrugged. “Fine with me. Even better that he stole it from a criminal.” Then she grinned at Ferret.
I rolled my eyes. “Jeez, you two. Fine.”
Wasn’t the best thing to use on our tiny little TV, but Ferret got it working and he and Kaitlyn spent the rest of the evening before she had to sleep playing… some kind of fighting game. Kaitlyn lost a lot, but she didn’t mind, and Ferret was teaching her how to play some… blond catgirl character. Which was awesome because I kept seeing her look over at me with the look that I’ve learned means she’s thinking of some new embarrassing thing to try to make me wear. But overall the night was pretty good.
After Kaitlyn went to sleep, me and Ferret went for a walk. Had some time to kill before dawn, and I just sort of felt like walking after sitting around watching them play games.
“Thanks for bringin’ the game thing over,” I said.
“Welcome,” Ferret said. “It really shouldn’t be a problem, though.”
“With the cops?” I said, then shook my head. “I was just givin’ you shit.”
“It’s cool,” Ferret said. “It’s a top end console, and I thought you’d like it.”
“Not a gamer,” I shrugged. “But it’s definitely nice.”
“Don’t know much about video games?”
“Nope.”
“I do. Always been interested in them.”
“Tell me about ‘em,” I said. I knew this’d probably sent Ferret off on another long talk about something, and I was right. Basically a history of video gaming, and seemed like it basically covered everything from the beginning to now. I wasn’t really listening to be honest. But I didn’t mind. Just walking and talking was… something really human. And while Ferret was talking I kept glancing at him and being a little surprised at what he looked like because Ferret… didn’t feel like a vampire, you know? So I was expecting another human, not a half rodent. Not that it really mattered what he looked like. He just seemed like another person, and that was fine by me.
“Sorry,” Ferret said eventually. “I’ve been talking about this for a while.”
I shrugged. “It’s fine,” I said, grinning at him. “You’re a nerd. I don’t mind.”
“More of a geek,” Ferret grinned back. “If I’m going to be picky.”
“Nerd, geek, whatever. It’s cool.”
“You have a lot of experience with nerds?”
“Not really,” I said. “Didn’t have a lot of ’em at my high school. Low income kids. And that wasn’t the crowd I hung out with.”
“Really?” Ferret asked.
“Yeah. I was part of the popular crowd. Didn’t really talk to a lotta nerds. Maybe sometimes in class. Mostly they just… mumbled and stared at me.”
Ferret nodded. “They were probably intimidated by you.”
“By me?” I laughed. “I’m like one of the least scary people in the world.” I mean, honestly, I’m not that tall, I’m blond, and I’m stocky, you know? Plus there’s my resting dumb face, and that I guess I look adorable when I’m angry. At least Kaitlyn said so. No one took me being mad seriously.
“Not like that. How to explain this…” Ferret thought for a moment. “Okay. You were part of the popular crowd, right? Sort of like the social elite of your school?”
“I guess,” I said. “Mostly they were assholes and bitches. So was I.” I didn’t feel good about it, but that’s how it was. I like to think I’ve gotten better since then.
“Doesn’t matter,” Ferret said. “To nerds, you’d probably be unapproachable because they thought you were somehow better than them.”
“If you say so,” I said. “My grades sure weren’t better.”
“Still doesn’t matter. You were popular and… well, you’re an attractive girl. The nerds probably thought you were so far beyond them that they were intimidated and couldn’t really talk to you.”
We walked on for a bit while I thought about that. “Okay,” I said eventually. “I could see that. I wasn’t really paying attention to the nerds. I was mostly into jocks back then. And to be honest, I was pretty much a dumb blond. That was my thing.”
“Really?”
“Yeah,” I said. “Blond white girls were pretty rare at my school. Low income, like I said. So it was like… that was what I was. A dumb blond. Hot, but dumb.”
“I don’t think you’re dumb.”
I sighed. “But I am. See?” I let my face slip into my usual resting dumb face. “Lights are on but no one’s home. And that was my thing in high school. Dumb blond datin’ jocks.”
“Maybe,” Ferret said. “But that was, what, four years ago? Five? A lot of things can change.”
“I still do dumb stuff.”
Ferret shrugged. “You’re just a noob. Noobs do dumb things sometimes.”
“A what?” I looked at him.
“Noob. Newbie. It’s a gamer term. Everyone’s a noob at some point.”
“Even you?” I grinned at him.
“Oh, hell yeah,” Ferret grinned back. “I just got lucky. I had something useful to offer.”
“Like what?”
“Information,” Ferret said. “I teach old vampires that the magic box with the pictures isn’t an evil contraption that’s going to swallow what’s left of their soul.”
I blinked at him. “You’re joking, right?”
“I wish I was,” Ferret said. “But that’s what it seems like sometimes. Teaching some of the older vampires is worse than teaching my grandpa about the internet. It’s like learned helplessness is a communicable disease among the really old ones. I just hope I don’t catch it.”
“Wow,” I said. “So why d’you do it?”
“It’s a living,” Ferret shrugged. “Doesn’t come up all that often, and it generally results in some powerful old vampire owing me a favor. Or they pay me in cash.”
I thought about that a second, then suddenly remembered something Pops said. “You’re the one that forces Pops and his friends to watch modern movies and stuff, right?”
“Yep,” said, grinning at me. “Pops usually isn’t a problem. He’s mostly okay with cell phones, but he doesn’t like computers. Victoria thinks the movies are a waste of her time and insists she has people to handle modern contraptions for her. But she puts up with it. Eventually.”
“Uh huh,” I said, looking at him. “So… Pops and you and Victoria. Anyone else?”
“A couple more,” Ferret grinned. “But I don’t want to spoil it for you.”
“Anyone I’ve met?”
“Yep.”
I thought back to the vampires I’d met. “I’m guessin’ not the sword guy or the Baron.”
“Nope.”
“Sage?”
“Not Sage. Or Marigold or Skye, either.”
“Please tell me not Violet,” I said, making a face.
“Oh, god no,” Ferret said. “Not Violet. She’s way too fucked up.”
“No kiddin’. She’s even less human than Victoria,” I said, then shut my mouth quick. Great, there goes me saying stupid shit again. But Ferret didn’t seem mad at me.
“Victoria is…” Ferret thought for a moment. “Working on being human. Coming back.”
I nodded. “I’m sorry I said that. But she just seems… more vampire than human.”
“How so?” Ferret asked.
“I can’t really explain, but… some vampires just don’t seem human. Like they’re… pretendin’ to be human but doin’ a bad job of it. Victoria isn’t one of the worst, but I can still see it.”
“See it how?”
I thought about it for a bit. “Dunno. It’s just somethin’ I can see. Or feel. You and Pops and… Sage and a few others feel mostly human. But the Baron and Violet and sword guy and a few others feel mostly not human. Most of the vampires at the socials are somewhere in between, like Victoria. And some I just can’t tell. Like the Wicked Witch of the Dump.”
Ferret blinked at me, then started laughing. “Oh, I think I know who you mean. Yeah, no one knows much about her except that she’s a blood witch and really old.”
“Not even you?”
“I don’t know everything,” Ferret said. “I just look like I do.”
I grinned at him. “Uh huh,” I said.
“Still, that’s an interesting ability,” Ferret said. “Knowing how human a vampire is can tell you a lot about them. Mind if I tell Pops about it?”
“Go ahead,” I said.
“Got any other interesting talents?” Ferret asked.
“I can unwrap most candies with my tongue,” I said. “Does that count?”
“Why’d you learn that?” Ferret asked.
“I was a kid. I got bored.”
“Interesting, but not quite what I was asking about.” And for once, a guy I told about that skill didn’t try to turn it into a sex joke. Points to Ferret for that.
“I have double jointed thumbs,” I said, showing him.
Ferret looked at my thumbs and nodded. “I was meaning more… supernatural things.”
“Oh,” I said. “Um… I dunno. Still don’t seem to have any vampire superpowers.”
“That’s too bad.”
“Yeah,” I said, then I remembered the whole thing with the window latch. “Well… okay, there’s one thing. I don’t really do it a lot, ’cause it gives me a headache.”
“Really?”
“Yeah,” I said. “Hang on…” I took out my phone and set it down on the sidewalk. Then I concentrated on it, trying to lift it with that mind moving thing I’d learned. And yeah, I got a little bit of a headache, but my phone lifted off the ground a couple feet and hung there.
“Okay…” Ferret said. “That’s different.”
I nodded and made my phone fly back to my hand. Once I stopped using whatever it was, the headache started to fade, but I still rubbed my temples a little. Leave it to me to find the one way a dead girl can still get headaches. Must be a talent.
“Pretty sure I’ve never heard of a vampire being able to do that,” Ferret said.
“Really?”
“Yep. Tried it myself, actually. I have those movies, too.”
“Yeah,” I nodded, still rubbing my temples. The headache was fading, but not as fast as I’d have liked. “That’s where I got the idea. Didn’t think it’d work, but… yeah.”
“What can you do with it?” Ferret asked.
“Not much,” I said. “Flip switches. Move little things. And it gives me a headache.”
“Interesting,” Ferret said. “Maybe you were a psychic before you became a vampire.”
I rolled my eyes. “Sure. ‘Cept I was pretty much an atheist and I never had anythin’ like that happen while I was still human. So if I was, I didn’t know about it.”
“It’s still possible.”
“If you say so.”
“Well, it’s still unique,” Ferret said. “Which makes it pretty cool.”
“You really think so?”
“Yep. Telekinesis is… I’ve never even heard of a vampire doing that.”
“Tele-whatsis?”
“Telekinesis. Moving things with your mind.”
“Huh,” I said. I didn’t feel cool, but it was nice to hear. “Thanks.”
“Welcome,” Ferret said, then pulled out his own phone and looked at it. “We should probably start heading back. My car’s at your place and I need to get home before dawn.”
“Yeah,” I said, grinning at him. “If you spend the day, Kaitlyn won’t go to work.”
Ferret grinned back. “That’d be terrible.”
So we went back home. The rest of the conversation wasn’t anything important, mostly Ferret talking about some of the dumb things older vampires had asked him about tech stuff. Some of it was… well, I’m just going to say that I hope I never end up like them. I did finally give Ferret a hug, though, just before he left and I went back inside. Felt a little weird, since we were both the same temperature as the air around us, and neither of us had beating hearts. But it wasn’t a bad thing.
Back inside our apartment, I tucked Kaitlyn in a little better because she’d moved around some and had partly pushed her blanket off. Then I changed into my own sleeping clothes and curled up in my closet. It’d been a good night. I’d seen Ferret look at the dance pole a couple of times, but he didn’t ask, and Kaitlyn didn’t talk about it. I got to hang out and… just be human. Okay, a lot of it had been video games, and I wasn’t really into them, but that was fine. And yeah, I’d have to go hunting soon. Kaitlyn was starting to look too tasty for me to keep putting it off, and I was getting more thirsty anyway. But I could do that the next night. So, yeah, it’d been good.
