Misty Rose: Nature
Chapter 25
The Friday after Ferret brought over his illegal video game console, I agreed to do something that probably wasn’t a good idea, but Kaitlyn kept pushing me about it. We went to another party. I wasn’t a fan of the idea, but she’d been invited and… well, I thought maybe she’d be happier if she went, but she refused to go alone. So I went with her. I did get her to agree to letting me wear normal clothes, so I was just wearing a hoodie and jeans, so at least there was that.
I’m… just not going to talk about Kaitlyn’s outfit.
Anyway, we rode there on Kaitlyn’s scooter. Yeah, vampire chick riding an old scooter. You’d think I’d either turn up in a limo or, like, appear out of a badly lit, moody spooky street. But nope, I turned up on an old scooter. With a girl whose outfit I’m just not going to talk about. Well, okay, that last one is maybe authentic vampire, but still. The place was… I really shouldn’t be bitching about raves held in old warehouses, but this place sort of looked like maybe it’d fall down if the music was too loud. And it was maybe three blocks from where I got attacked the second time. So, not a good part of the city. I think Kaitlyn felt me tense up or something because she told me to chill out as we pulled up.
“Sorry,” I said. “Just… bein’ careful.”
“We’ll be fine,” Kaitlyn said.
“Yeah, well… we drove past where I got attacked, so… be careful, okay?”
“I’ve got you here to protect me. I’ll be fine.”
I didn’t really have anything to say to that, so we didn’t say anything as we pulled up to park. Which was a lot easier because we were on a scooter, so we didn’t have to try to find a parking space.
“We’ll be fine,” Kaitlyn said as she got out her purse and locked up her scooter.
“Yeah… you’re prob’ly right,” I said. Maybe I just needed to chill, like she said.
“C’mon,” Kaitlyn said, taking my arm. We started walking towards the door and… well, I guess it was seeing some girl going in whose outfit was basically LED wires and fuzzy boots and electrical tape that made me realize that wearing normal clothes made me stand out. Which was a seriously weird thing to realize, but… yeah. Kaitlyn fit in fine. I looked like I shouldn’t be there because I wasn’t wearing party clothes at all. Really makes you feel like an outsider when you’re already feeling like you’re not supposed to be there because you aren’t human. Which is a seriously depressing thing to feel. I must have stopped walking because Kaitlyn tugged my arm.
“Maybe I should just… hang out by the bar or somethin’,” I said.
“You sure?” Kaitlyn said.
“Yeah,” I sighed. “Don’t feel like dancin’ and… I kinda stand out.”
Kaitlyn gave me a quick hug. “You’ll be fine. Don’t worry about it.”
Right about then, I felt someone walk up right behind me, and something sharp poked me in the back. Kaitlyn’s eyes went wide as she stepped back from the hug, looking behind me.
“Evening, ladies,” I heard a man’s voice from right behind me. “Don’t scream. Don’t even look around. We’re just gonna step over here to this alley like old friends.”
Goddammit. I’d been so busy feeling bad about myself that I didn’t notice a mugger. And yeah, I’d seen some guy leaning against the wall on the walk over to the door, but I just thought he was waiting for someone. And now we were getting mugged right next to a party. Shit. Well, he was going to have a really shitty night, but I was going to have to do vampire stuff right in front of Kaitlyn. I sighed and pushed my hair out of my face. I’d left it down because of the party. I mean, sure, I was wearing a hoodie and all, but I wasn’t totally against at least a little fancy, and hair down looks better than a ponytail. And now it was going to get all in my face because I was going to have to beat up some asshole and I didn’t think he’d like me pulling it back as we walked towards the alley, and I needed to get him out of sight of all the non-Kaitlyn humans I didn’t want to know about vampires before I thumped him. So I’d have to do my best with my hair in my face. Might as well get it over with.
The three of us went inside the alley, and the guy behind me put a hand on my shoulder and forced me to turn around. He was… he was too rough-looking to be going to the party. Well, most parties I’d been to. But he looked sort of like he’d at least tried to dress enough like a guy going to a rave that people wouldn’t look too closely. Mostly, that meant he had on some cheap green fake velvet jacket with a stupid fur collar, and some kind of cheap colored plastic beads. But otherwise he looked like a street thug. Maybe smarter than most because he’d tried to fit in. And he had… well, turns out it was just a little pocket knife in his hand. So maybe not so smart.
“Oh, you’re fuckin’ kiddin’ me,” I said. Couldn’t help it.
The guy just grinned at me. “Nope,” he said. “Hand it over ladies.”
“Hand what over?” Kaitlyn had moved sort of behind me and was up against my side, probably doing the scared girl thing. That was fine, meant I was in the way if he tried to stab her.
“Your cash and cell phones,” the guy said, waving his knife. “Hurry up, I don’t have all night.”
“What makes you think we have cash?” Kaitlyn asked.
“Gotta have money for the drugs, and I don’t think they take cards,” the guy grinned at us.
I needed to get the guy’s attention back on me, so I rolled my eyes. “You’re really tryin’ to mug us at a party? With that knife?”
“What’s wrong with my knife?” the guy said, looking down at it.
“Well… it’s kinda small, isn’t it?” I said.
“Size doesn’t matter,” he said. “Isn’t that what you sluts say to your rich boyfriends?”
“It’s a lie,” I said. “Prob’ly why no woman wants you.”
“I like you,” the mugger said, raising his knife to rest against my cheek. “I might just have to show you how wrong you are.”
“There’s two of us,” Kaitlyn said. She didn’t sound very confident.
“I know,” the mugger said. “Don’t care.”
“Oh, right,” I said. “’Cause we’re scared of a big strong man threatenin’ girls with a knife.”
“It’s a living,” the mugger said. “Now, are you gonna hand over your cash and phones, or am I gonna need to teach you your place first?” Behind me, I could hear Kaitlyn going into her purse.
“Smart,” the guy said, lowering his knife. “For a girl.”
“Seriously?” I said, rolling my eyes again.
“Looks like you need to be taught to shut up,” the guy said to me.
This guy was really getting on my nerves. “Just try it, fucker,” I said. “I’m gonna…”
I stopped because right then, Kaitlyn’s hands came over my shoulder holding a gun. Little black boxy thing, but very definitely a gun. That I didn’t know she even had. The guy in front of me looked at it, then grinned, but looked a lot less confident.
“That isn’t even loaded,” he said. Didn’t sound confident either.
Kaitlyn didn’t respond, she just… pulled back the slide thing to… load it I guess. It sounded really loud right next to my ear. Then she said, “Drop the knife, asshole.”
The guy raised his hands and dropped his knife, stepping back a little. “Okay, um…” he said.
“Run away,” Kaitlyn said. Her voice was kind of cold. I didn’t think she’d actually shoot the guy, but… she’d been a little weird since I got turned, so I wasn’t totally sure.
The guy didn’t say anything, he just turned and ran off down the alley and vanished into the dark. Kaitlyn lowered her gun, then grabbed my arm. “C’mon,” she said.
I just followed her back to her scooter. That was… well, I didn’t even know she had the thing. And where’d she get it? And why’d she pull it on the mugger? Okay, that last one I could answer. But still. This was really fucking strange, and my brain wasn’t keeping up real well.
Kaitlyn stuck the gun back into her purse and pulled out her keys. “I think we can skip the party,” she said, getting on her scooter. “C’mon, let’s go.”
I got on behind her and held on around her waist. “Kaitlyn…” I said.
“Yeah,” Kaitlyn said, pulling out and heading down the street. “I think we’ll just go home.”
“Kaitlyn!”
“What?”
“When did you get a gun?”
“A little while ago,” Kaitlyn said, shrugging. “Felt like I might need one.”
“Okay, yeah, sure,” I said, sighing. “But…”
“I figured I might need to defend myself too. Y’know, ’cause I’m just a human.”
“Where did you get it?”
Kaitlyn drove another block before she responded. “Oh… my brother got it for me.”
“Your brother’s a criminal,” I said flatly. “That gun’s prob’ly illegal.”
“So?” Kaitlyn said.
“Pull over.”
“Why?”
“Just do it,” I said, not bothering to hide how annoyed I was.
“Fine,” Kaitlyn said, braking hard and pulling her scooter into an alley. We both got off when she stopped and shut off the engine. I turned to her and held out my hand.
“Let me see it,” I said.
“Why?
“Just stop arguin’,” I said, still holding out my hand. Kaitlyn glared at me a moment, then opened her purse and took out her gun, handing it over. I took it and turned it over to look at both sides. Found what I was looking for almost right away.
“Okay,” I said. “This is a… Glock 43, see?” I pointed at the letters on one side of the gun.
“How do you know that?” Kaitlyn said.
“Looked it up.”
“Why?”
I sighed. This wasn’t really the point here, but… “’Cause I figured if I was gonna be feedin’ off street thugs, I should try to be able to guess what kinda guns they had, so I’d know what kinda bullets they fired, so I’d know how much it was gonna hurt to be shot.” Which was true. Still didn’t like guns, but I’d at least learned how to tell some of them apart.
“Oh,” Kaitlyn said, looking a little less annoyed with me. “That makes sense.”
“Glad you think so,” I said. “Bet this thing isn’t even legal.”
“How can you tell?”
“Look it up yourself. Not going down that rabbit hole again.” Other thing I found out while looking was that most gun laws were stupidly permissive, and half the people bitching about them anyway probably shouldn’t have guns in the first place. But, hey, I was a vampire. Who was I to call someone else crazy?
“Where’d you find out about this gun?”
“On a handguns for women site.”
“Didn’t know you wanted a gun,” Kaitlyn said.
“I don’t. Don’t need it, can’t afford it, and it’s a pain to buy one at night.”
“Can’t be that hard.”
“Oh, sure. I’m gonna walk into some Walmart or somethin’ and say ‘Hey, I need a cheap gun and I can’t show you ID. What’ve you got for women that isn’t pink?’ This isn’t Texas.”
“You gotta point,” Kaitlyn said. “But I still feel like I should have one.”
“Why?” I asked. “I can protect you.”
“You’re not always there.”
“Doesn’t mean you should carry a stolen gun from your brother.”
“We don’t know it’s stolen, and it’s only option I had.”
“Yeah, and it’s a stupid option. What if you get caught with it?”
Kaitlyn folded her arms. “I still saved you.”
“I can handle one dumbass with a little knife.”
“Fine,” Kaitlyn said, glaring at me. “I won’t save you next time.”
I raised an eyebrow at her. “Could you actually shoot someone?”
“Probably.”
“You sure?”
“If I had to.”
“Uh huh,” I said. “But what if… some thug comes out of an alley, and you tell him to stop but he doesn’t, and you point your gun…” I pointed the gun in my hand down the alley… and it went off. The shot sounded really loud in the alley, and the bullet flew away and bounced once off the wall a ways down the alley. Yay, butterfingers.
“SHIT!” I yelled and dropped the gun. “Why the fuck was the safety off?”
Kaitlyn looked away. “Mike said it doesn’t have one.”
“That’s stupid. And you were just carryin’ it around loaded in your purse anyway?”
“What’s the big deal?”
“The big deal is it could have gone off in your purse.”
“So?” Katlyn said. “You heal. Wouldn’tve mattered if it hit you.”
“No,” I said. “But it could have hit you.”
Kaitlyn just looked at me for a moment or two, then sighed. “Alright,” she said.
“Someone prob’ly heard that,” I said, looking around. Then I looked back at the gun. “How do you… unload this thing or whatever? Did Mike at least teach you that?”
Kaitlyn walked me through very carefully completely taking all the bullets out of the thing, and I handed it back to her. “Look, I’m sorry I got on your case,” I said. “But an illegal gun could be a problem, y’know? And I don’t want you to get hurt. By anything.”
“I get it,” Kaitlyn said, putting the gun back in her purse. “Thanks. I’ll be more careful.”
“Good. Just don’t be stupid with it, okay?”
“Okay.”
“And don’t keep it in your purse with a bullet loaded if it doesn’t have a safety.”
“I won’t.”
I sighed again and pulled Kaitlyn into a hug. After a moment, she hugged me back.
“Alright,” I said after a few moments. “Let’s go home.”
From there, we got back on her scooter and headed back. We didn’t say much. I could understand why she wanted the thing, but… this really wasn’t the best way to do it. I’d prefer she had a legal gun because… well, in case she got caught with it. But I could ignore it for now. But honestly, I didn’t think either of us were good people to have guns. Then again, I wasn’t a good person to be a vampire, so maybe I wasn’t the best person to judge.
In any case, Kaitlyn ended up looking up a bunch of stuff about guns, and about her gun. I looked up what the laws were in our state, and what was likely to happen if she got caught. Not pretty. So I’d just have to make sure she’d never have to use the thing. Easy, right?
