Misty Rose: Nature
Chapter 27
So all that was how I found myself on the back of Kaitlyn’s scooter on the way to go to church at around ten the next night. Not what I thought I’d be doing but… I didn’t used to think vampires existed. That was kind of becoming the base line for when weird shit was maybe not as weird as I’d have thought it was like a year ago. It wasn’t like I hated religion or anything or like I was… I don’t know, one of those guys who I guess were trying to save the internet from religion one troll post at a time. I mostly thought it was stupid, and… well, I had my Dad’s family who were all hardcore Bible Belt types. Every time I saw something online about some batshit crazy preacher saying something horrible, I found myself looking to see if any of my relatives were in the audience. My Mom was… well, I don’t think she ever really said what her family was like, but given that both my Mom and Dad outright refused to put me into any kind of religious programs to the point that it had made Christmas visits to my Dad’s parents really fucking awkward, I’m pretty sure she wasn’t any more in favor of it than my Dad.
Anyway, all that was going through my head on the way there, so me and Kaitlyn didn’t talk much, and we got to the place before I knew it. It was on the west side of the city… or, well, not really in the metro area, but more like in one of the outside neighborhoods. Not one of the better neighborhoods. Not like dangerous, but like… one of those areas that had a lot of immigrants, only now most of them moved or died or something so the area got kind of rundown and empty. And, yeah, Catholic church. Not like one of the really fancy ones made of stone, but still. Catholic church. My Dad’s side of the family hated Catholics because… well, it always seemed like it was because Catholics had been around for more than like fifty years and didn’t hate anyone enough. But sitting on Kaitlyn’s scooter on the street, looking up at a Catholic church, even one made of bricks… I started sort of thinking maybe this wasn’t such a good idea. Maybe Pops thought I’d be okay, but… holy ground? For a vampire? I started looking around, thinking that this Father Riggs guy might just be… near the place. In one of the other buildings I could see. But the only one that really looked like it was being used was the church. I mean, the place looked like it had seen better years, you know? Not like wrecked and falling down, but like they didn’t have a lot of money for fixing little things. And maybe Father Riggs wasn’t… actually in the church. So I wouldn’t have to go inside. I could deal with that.
Hey, the whole reason I was there at all was because of stuff that happened because I was a vampire. So maybe, I don’t know, maybe some of the religious stuff wasn’t totally batshit, and I could be walking into something that… really didn’t like vampires. So when Kaitlyn parked her scooter and got off, I didn’t move. I figured… well, that the street and probably the sidewalk weren’t going to be… holy, I guess. Yeah, yeah, vampire chick afraid of a building. But it was a church. I didn’t wanto to die.
“You’ll be okay,” Kaitlyn said. Guess she saw what I was thinking on my face.
“I’m not so hot on this idea now,” I said.
“Pops said you should come here, right? And you’re going to see a priest, right?”
“Yeah, but…”
Kaitlyn grabbed my arm and more or less dragged me off the scooter to stand on the sidewalk. Yeah, I could have resisted, but… I didn’t. Like I said, I didn’t think the sidewalk would be holy. But there was like this little walkway and the stairs up to the doors. That part could be holy. Kaitlyn kept pulling on my arm and I walked up to right where the sidewalk stopped. Then I stopped.
“You ever been to church?” I asked.
“Not really. Christmas and stuff with my family. If I had to.”
“Catholic?”
“Nope. Russian Orthodox.”
“What’s that mean?”
“Hell if I know. Weird looking priests, a few different holidays. Grandma was the last person in my family to really care about that stuff, and she’s dead.”
“Does your church say anythin’ about vampires?”
“No clue.”
That wasn’t a lot of help. And I was stalling by asking at all. Kaitlyn nudged me.
“You’ll be fine,” Kaitlyn said.
“Yeah, but what if…” I sighed. “What if… it works different for a priest? What if bein’ a priest means a vampire doesn’t get hurt by holy stuff? Or what if… he’s not a vampire at all?”
“I really don’t think Pops would send you here to die.”
I sighed and nodded. That was probably true. But I was still scared. “Could you… um… hold my hand? Maybe? Please?” I have to admit, I thought Kaitlyn would tease me, but she didn’t.
“Why?” she said. She looked serious. Like she wanted to help.
“’Cause… y’know,” I said. “If I… start meltin’ or… catch on fire, you could… pull me out.”
Kaitlyn looked at me for a moment, then took my hand in hers. I nodded at her, then turned back to look at the little walkway thing after the sidewalk. It didn’t look holy, but I had no idea how to tell. I lifted up one foot and told myself it was just concrete. Then I took a deep breath, and yeah, vampires still do that sometimes, and very carefully put my foot down. Didn’t catch on fire, so that was good. But I still had to go through the same thing when we got to the steps up to the door, then when we got to the top of the stairs. Then I was looking right at the door into the church. It was closed, but the lights inside were on, and there was this… message board or whatever on one side that said something about midnight masses and late night confessional and stuff like that. And that all were welcome at any time of the day or night. So maybe that meant me too.
But I still had to open the door. Kaitlyn squeezed my hand but didn’t say anything so… I raised my other hand and just barely touched the door… knob? More like handles, but I don’t know what to call those sort of metal loop things. Anyway, my hand didn’t catch on fire, so I pushed on the door. It didn’t move. I sort of had the idea go through my head for a moment that I wasn’t allowed in.
“You need to pull,” Kaitlyn said and squeezed my hand again.
She was right, so I pulled on the handle thing and the door opened without much problem. Then that left me with actually having to go into the church itself. Which was fucking hard. I finally managed after a few minutes by closing my eyes and telling myself that Pops wouldn’t send me somewhere I’d die because I’m a vampire, and that Kaitlyn could pull me back. But I still didn’t catch on fire or anything. So maybe either I wasn’t bad enough or… there just wasn’t anything there. I don’t know. I couldn’t feel anything but… that doesn’t mean there isn’t anything to feel. Just that I can’t feel it, you know? Just because someone can’t tell they have cancer doesn’t mean they don’t. And that’s a kind of shitty way to say it, but you know what I mean. Anyway, I didn’t die when I walked into the church.
Inside was… well, it was a lot fancier than what I’d seen the few times my Dad’s family was able to force him to take me to their church. Lots of wooden benches, but that was normal. Stained glass windows down both sides which were probably a lot prettier during the day with the light coming in, and candles all over the place. I wanted to stay away from those because fire. At the far side was the… altar. It was a lot more colorful than I expected. Lots of paintings all over the wall and ceiling and… statues of people that were painted, and gold everywhere. It… sort of looked like a castle with people standing in the windows. And a big old cross right in the middle of all the stuff at the other end with Jesus hanging on it. Which always seemed kind of weird to me as a kid. All this pretty stuff, and this guy in the middle who looked really sad and like he was in pain. I actually thought to myself he should try being a vampire for like a second, but I felt bad about that. But that sort of… made me not so impressed, so I noticed some other stuff. Like how the carpet on the floor was kind of worn out, and some of the benches looked a little worn down too. The walls sort of looked like they could use a paint job, too. Nothing terrible, just like… it’d been left a little too long, you know? But maybe I shouldn’t say that about a church.
Besides me and Kaitlyn, there was only one other person in the church, and unless Father Riggs was a little old lady with a shawl and a floral print dress, that wasn’t him. She was sitting on a bench about halfway across the room and sort of looked asleep. Kaitlyn gave me a quick hug then went to sit on one of the benches in the back, so I was on my own. So I walked down the aisle in the middle of the benches, trying to be quiet because it was a church, you know? Then it popped into my head that I was walking down the aisle but I wasn’t ever going to get married now, and yeah, my brain was not being all that easy to control right then. But as I got closer to the old lady, I could see she was totally human. So I had to be careful. She also wasn’t asleep. Her eyes were closed and her head was down, but she was… muttering under her breath and sort of… I guess feeling the wooden beads on this necklace she had. Probably something religious because it had a cross on the end. I didn’t want to interrupt her, so I cleared my throat and just stood in the aisle at the end of her bench and waited. After a little while, her hand stopped touching the beads and she looked up at me.
“I’m sorry to bother you,” I said quietly. “I’m, um… lookin’ for Father Riggs.”
The woman’s eyes kind of… jumped around my face, then looked me over, and I felt kind of bad for a second because I was just wearing my usual hoodie and leggings. But the woman nodded and gave me a little smile and pointed at this big carved wood box over on the right side of the church. Only now I could see it had a couple of doors on the side closest to me. And one of them was open enough that I saw that there wasn’t anyone inside, just this seat built into the box.
“Um… thank you,” I said and walked over towards the box. It was… well, about twice the size of a phone booth I guess. And it was obviously intended for someone to get into and close the door. They wouldn’t put vampire death boxes just right out in the open, right? And expect us to just get right into them by ourselves? So it was probably safe. I stepped into the box and sat down. Then I closed the door. I had no clue what the hell was going on, but the lady pointed me at the box.
After a moment, this shutter thing on the wall beside me slid upwards and I saw this sort of… mesh thing behind it made out of… wicker? What they make baskets out of, I think. And behind it was… well, if he was a priest, all the stupid clichés about the young handsome priest suddenly got a lot less unbelievable. The man in the other booth was… take one of the top five sexiest actors in the world and have him play a priest. Sandy blond sort of wavy hair, great cheekbones, strong jaw, just a bit of stubble, and piercing blue eyes that… sort of felt like they could see right through me. Looked, oh… early thirties. And I’m pretty sure the priest outfit was supposed to hide what his body was like, but… it couldn’t totally hide that he was pretty cut underneath. I mean, this is probably all kinds of wrong to say about a priest, but… damn. There’s all kinds of women who’d be seriously disappointed to know this guy was a priest, and for a few seconds, I was one of them. Not going to lie, and that was even with being a vampire. I’d probably have been a puddle if I was still human.
And he was a vampire too. I could tell right away. I mean, it didn’t really matter for a few seconds, but yeah, vampire. But somehow… more human than normal humans. Somehow… better? I mean, whatever it was that let me see that didn’t usually tell me anything about how… good a given vampire was, but this guy somehow felt like he was a good person. But all this made me go from having a little crush on him to feeling guilty to being suspicious, then back to crushing again and through it all a couple more times in like ten seconds. Then I noticed he was looking at me through the mesh too, with this little smile and a little sparkle in his eyes that didn’t help at all.
“You’re not really supposed to look through the grille,” the man said, smiling. Even his voice was attractive, that sort of deep but not really deep, smooth… okay, I’ll stop.
“Um…” It took me a moment to get my tongue working right again. “Sorry.”
“It’s okay,” he said, and smiled at me again, and I think I spaced out for a second.
“Um… sorry. Again,” I said, then tried to think of what to say next.
“I assume you’re Misty Rose?”
He knows my name, I thought. Yeah, total schoolgirl. But that made me suspicious again for a second or two. “I’m not Catholic,” I said. Then almost kicked myself.
“That’s fine,” he said. “It’s not required.”
“Um, I guess you’re…” Yeah, I forgot the name of the person I was supposed to meet.
“Father Riggs,” the man said, smiling again. “Pops asked you to come.”
“Uh… yeah.”
“He said you were a hugger,” Father Riggs said. “I’d prefer that you refrain. I’m sure you understand why.”
“Oh…” I said, disappointed for just a second. “The priest thing. Are you really a priest?”
Father Riggs nodded. “I took my vows before I became… what we are.”
“You don’t look like a priest,” I said.
“Even priests were young at some point.”
This was true. I looked away finally, down at my hands in my lap. I took a few deep breaths. Okay, yeah, vampires don’t have to do that, but I felt like I needed it. Then I closed my eyes.
“Take your time,” Father Riggs said. “I don’t mind.”
“Okay,” I said. “First thing I gotta ask. You’re not… doin’ anything to me, right?”
“Using vampire powers on you?” Father Riggs said. I heard him sit back in his seat. “No. I wouldn’t do that. Can’t, actually. I chose not to explore that aspect of my condition.”
“Okay, good,” I said. So it was just me. I could deal with that. “And I don’t think a friend of Pops would do that kinda thing to me. Prob’ly.”
“No,” he said.
“Sorry, I’m not tryin’ to be rude,” I said. “I just… get like this when I’m nervous.”
“Why are you nervous?”
I opened my eyes, then gestured at the rest of the church. Well, as best as I could. The box thing got in the way. “I’m in a church. Talkin’ to a priest. And I’m… what I am.”
“I understand,” Father Riggs said. “And don’t worry. No one would listen to us if they could hear, and wouldn’t talk about anything they heard. This is the confessional.”
“Well, I’m not Catholic,” I said. “So I dunno how that works.”
“It’s fine. Nothing leaves the confessional.”
“Oh…” I said. “Like Vegas.”
“Not the best parallel, but yes.”
“Okay. Then… why did Pops ask me to come here?”
“You’d need to ask him that,” Father Riggs said. “And because I asked him to.”
“Really?” I said. “Why?”
“Because from what he’s told me, you’re very unusual, among vampires.”
I gave Father Riggs the side eye through the grille. “If you start talkin’ about me havin’ some kinda holy purpose, I’m gonna leave. Got that already from a couple of missionaries.”
“I imagine you did,” Father Riggs smiled at me. “I take it you refused?”
“Oh, yeah,” I said. “Their pamphlet thing sounded like they were just makin’ up excuses to act like vampires. And I don’t wanna be a vampire at all.”
“That’s what makes you unusual. Not any sort of divine purpose.”
“Well, that’s a relief.” And it was. Things were shitty enough without me also being some kind of vampire holy person or whatever. Had enough to deal with as it was.
“Um…” Maybe not the best thing, but I had to ask. “You’re not, um… part of their…”
“Cult?” Father Riggs asked.
“Um, if that’s what… you want to call them.”
“That’s what they are.”
“Um, okay. Their cult.”
“You have a problem with what they believe?”
“Yeah. Um…” I was probably sticking my foot in my mouth again, but I’d already started talking about it, so… “I know we do a lot of nasty shit just to live, but… a bunch of vampire priests sayin’ they’re holy and… they do the stuff they do? It’s sick. And wrong.”
“I see,” Father Riggs said, then sighed. “Well, I suppose I have a confession to make of my own. Unfortunately, yes, I’m part of the vampire form of Christianity.”
“Unfortunately?”
“They decided that because I’m a priest, I’m part of their cult. But I don’t believe what they believe, and most of my contribution is telling them they’re wrong, so they leave me alone.” Father Riggs shrugged, then went on. “We mostly ignore each other.”
“They’re okay with that?” I asked. “I mean… they don’t really seem like the sort to allow freedom of religion. Um… I mean…”
Father Riggs smiled at me. “They have a hard enough time agreeing among themselves,” he said. “They consider me an annoying outsider who they can ignore.”
“Really?”
“For now. Until they have the time and interest to try to covert me.”
“Oh,” I said. Sounded like he wasn’t really a part of the vampire zealots. Even if they thought he was. And I was getting that a lot of vampire life was pretending to be one thing while you really were something else. Or something like that. Messed up social crap. “Um… why’d you tell me that?”
“Why not?” Father Riggs said.
“Well, it just… I’m not anyone special, y’know? And it could be a risk.”
“It’s a small risk, yes,” Father Riggs said. “But… it seemed to me that knowing you weren’t alone in rejecting their ideas and rejecting being a vampire would be helpful.”
“It is, actually,” I said. “Means I know people can do it. And, um… well, you didn’t seem the type. Too good, I guess. Dunno how to explain it. You and Pops and Ferret.”
“Well, I certainly try.”
“I can tell.”
“Do you mind if I ask how?”
“You can ask,” I said. “Dunno if I can answer. I can just… sorta see how human vampires are. Like… you and Pops and Ferret are mostly human, but the scary lady…”
“Scary lady?”
“Um… Victoria,” I said. I heard Father Riggs try to not laugh. “I say somethin’ funny?”
“Victoria can be a bit… difficult, yes,” Father Riggs said.
“Yeah,” I said. “Anyway, Victoria is… not as human. Not nasty, really, but… I can sorta tell she isn’t really human. Or like she’s pretendin’ to be human but she’s no very good at it. And it isn’t just seein’ things she does wrong, but it’s like… um… I can feel it, and ’cause I can feel it, I start lookin’ for stuff she’s doin’ wrong and so I see the mistakes. Does that make sense?”
“And some of the other vampires feel nasty?”
“Yeah.”
“Would you mind giving examples?”
I thought back over all the vampires I’d seen. Most of them, I didn’t know their names. “Well, okay. Baron Whatshisname and sword guy, they’re both sort of… hollow? Not human, but not nasty.”
“The Baron and his reeve. I see. Can you think of others?”
“Dunno their names, but I can point ’em out at the meetings, I guess.”
“If you wouldn’t mind.”
“Well, you guys’ve been helpin’ me a lot, so… I dunno how useful it’ll be really, but if it helps you guys, I’ll do my best,” I said. “Um… remind me next month. I forget things.”
“Of course,” Father Riggs said. “Thank you.”
“Welcome,” I said. I didn’t know how it’d be helpful, but if it was… yeah. I could do that. I’d mean having to go actually be around other vampires, but if Ferret made us invisible again, I don’t think it’d be all that risky. And my spot in the corner meant I could see most of the throne room. And, yeah, Pops and his friends had been helping me a lot. Not, like, giving me stuff, but… helping me keep my head more or less straight, you know? Which is fucking hard as a vampire. You got to deal with all kinds of fucked up shit as a vampire, and weird situations, too. Like being in a… confessional thing with a priest who was also a vampire. And the hottest guy I’d ever seen, easy. Which was also weird. Me being in the confessional, not that Father Riggs was hot. Well, okay, yeah, the hot priest thing was weird, but not as weird as… you know, I’m just confusing myself, so I’m just going to go on with the story.
“So…” I said once I’d gotten through another tangled brain. “Um… how does this confessional thing actually work? Y’know… if I were Catholic. Or even religious.”
“Well,” Father Riggs said. “People come in and tell me the things that bother them, and the things that they can’t figure out. I try to help them as best as I can.”
“Isn’t that like bein’ a therapist?” I asked.
“Well, as it happens, I’m also a licensed therapist. So yes.”
“I thought… it was about sin or somethin’.”
“It can be,” Father Riggs said. “But since you’re not Catholic or religious, we don’t have to get into the concept of sin. Just think of sins as things someone has done that they feel bad about.”
“I thought there was… penance? Or somethin’?”
“If I feel it’s necessary. People often create their own penance through guilt.”
“So why do they come to confession?”
Father Riggs chuckled quietly. “I’m afraid that’s quite a long discussion. The short version could perhaps be summed up as: it’s because they need to hear me tell them they’re okay.”
I sort of thought I got that, but yeah, maybe we didn’t have time to get through the whole thing. And… honestly, I had some stuff I wanted to talk about. It might help, you know? “Okay. Do I hafta be Catholic to do this… confession thing?”
“Like I said, it’s not required. Think of me as a therapist with a funny collar.”
“Um… okay,” I said. And I… just started talking. About everything that had happened, and how I felt about it. Wasn’t easy at first, but eventually just… stopped caring if it made sense, or really even what it made me look like. It was like when people talk about all kinds of personal shit online when no one knows their real name. It wouldn’t leave the box, right? So I went through all of it. Almost killing a couple people, Kaitlyn, the parties, having to do vampire stuff, my bed, all of it. Took a while.
I actually kind of thought he fell asleep. I mean, honestly, my problems couldn’t be worse than… trying to still be a priest when you’re a vampire. Or… well, actually trying to do something about how horrible vampires were like Pops and Ferret and Victoria, though I kind of doubted Victoria really had any major problems. I mean, she had a really nice limo, so she probably had money, and money makes everything easier, you know? Most of my crap probably wasn’t all that big of a deal compared to some of the other stuff going on. Aside from the vampire thing, my stuff was… mostly the normal kind of stuff that someone my age has to deal with. Well, okay, the vampire thing sort of… made the rest of it different. So maybe my problems weren’t really normal. And… that was where my mind went. But it turned out Father Riggs was just thinking.
“Let me see if I understand,” he said. “You don’t want to be a stripper?”
“No,” I said. “But I’m startin’ to feel like I don’t have a choice.”
“And you don’t want to hurt Kaitlyn?”
“No. God, no. If I coulda kept the whole… vampire thing a secret, I would’ve.”
“And you don’t want to be a vampire?”
“No. But I can’t really go back now, can I?”
“Hmm. Well then… would you prefer I speak as a priest, or as a therapist?”
“Um… therapist please,” I said. “I’m havin’ enough trouble without… y’know.”
“I understand,” Father Riggs said, then thought for a moment. “Okay. I think the easiest one to address is you being a stripper. And my advice is that you don’t have to be a stripper. You can choose to find something else. It might not be easy, but you can always make a different choice.”
“That… sounds too easy,” I said. “But… it helps. Pops said somethin’ like that too.”
“I’m glad,” Father Riggs said, then sighed. “The vampire problem… well, you have a choice there too. You can choose to find a way to manage the problem, or you can greet the sun.”
“You mean suicide.”
“Some see it that way. Others… have seen it as the only way to stay moral.”
That wasn’t so helpful. “Have you ever… done this for someone who made that choice?”
“I have, yes,” Father Riggs sighed again. “I tried to talk him out of it, but… he made his choice. I… still wonder if he would’ve made a different choice if I’d been a better councilor.”
“I’m sorry,” I said. “Didn’t mean to bring up somethin’ painful.”
“It was years ago, and I think in the end he was happy with his choice.”
“Yeah. Bein’ a vampire kinda changes some stuff.”
“It does,” Father Riggs said. “But some things don’t change, and one of those is that you still have a choice. You can’t choose to not drink blood to survive, but you can choose how you get it. Whether you take it by force, or by trickery, or from volunteers, or from animals.”
I made a face. “Yeah, Victoria said we could feed from animals. But… animals usually run away from me, and she said animals usually die and… I don’t wanna kill anything.”
“That’s a choice you can make. As is the choice you made to feed from criminals, and the choice to not kill anyone, or even put their health at significant risk. You even looked up how much blood a human could lose without being in danger. Also a choice.”
“Yeah.”
“So you can choose to not behave like other vampires. To act as little like a vampire as possible. You still have some things you must do, but the rest… you can choose how to handle. You’ve chosen to stay as human as possible.”
“Yeah.” It wasn’t easy, but that was the choice I made. To not be a monster.
“Which brings us to Kaitlyn,” Father Riggs said. “You’ve chosen to not hurt her. Also a choice.”
“Yeah,” I said. “I’d feel like shit. Like… a monster.”
“But with her around, you feel human.”
That was true. I didn’t say anything, I just nodded.
“One of the things that helps keep a vampire human is having contact with humans. As friends and associates, not just as meals. But most vampires find it difficult to transition from human to vampire. They don’t have friends or family that can accept the change. You do.”
“Guess I’ve been pretty lucky,” I said. “Even if she is annoying.”
“The choice in this situation is if you let Kaitlyn stay your friend or not,” Father Riggs said. “If you want my advice, I’d suggest you hold onto her. And… be honest. Don’t hide what you are from her. Let her know your fears, especially your fear that you might hurt her. But I think her being around you will help keep you from hurting her by keeping you human.”
Well, that was pretty easy to get. And yeah, I did usually feel the most human around Kaitlyn. Not all the time, but I guess… more often than not. “Okay. I think I get that. Thanks.”
“You’re welcome.”
“What about my bed?” It was shallow, but it still bugged me.
“That’s part of being human,” Father Riggs said. “The little things. Not giving into the vampire way of doing things simply because it’s more convenient.”
“Really?”
“Oh, yes,” Father Riggs said, then chuckled. “I’ll spare you the philosophical wrangling that’s been going on for centuries, but yes, one way to be moral is to do what’s right even when it isn’t convenient for you. Vampires often forget that… if they knew about it in the first place.”
“So do humans,” I said.
“Yes,” Father Riggs said. “Much too often.”
“Okay,” I said. “I’ll tell ’em to put my bed back. Nicely.”
“Glad I could help.”
I looked at my hands for a bit. “Is this how these usually go?”
“Confessions?” Father Riggs said. “Not usually. Usually the people I hear confessions from have decided they’ve done something wrong, and I only have to listen as they work themselves through the problem. Sometimes I nudge them a little, or assign penance if they feel they need to be punished. But my congregation aren’t major sinners, so it’s rarely anything terrible.”
“Sounds boring,” I said without thinking first. “Um, sorry.”
“It helps keep me human,” Father Riggs said, smiling.
“Um… do I hafta do… any penance?”
“Do you think you need to?”
I thought about that for a bit, and decided I didn’t. Not because I didn’t feel bad, or because I thought I was too good for that sort of thing. “Not really. I don’t think punishin’ myself any more than… what I already hafta deal with would help me.”
“I’d have to agree,” Father Riggs said. “You’ve chosen to stay as human as possible. You’re doing an excellent job with a difficult path. Adding to it would serve no good.”
“Coming from you, that means a lot.” Like I said, Father Riggs was easily the most human vampire I’d met so far, and he was… somehow better than just human. And if he thought I was doing a good job staying human, then… maybe I was. At least for now.
“You’re welcome,” Father Riggs said. “Did you want to talk about anything else?”
“Um… I didn’t really come here expectin’ to talk much so… not really. I, um… I might be back. But not because I’m startin’ to be religious. It’s… nice to talk. About stuff.”
“I understand. Take care.”
“You too,” I said and let myself out of the box. I glanced back as I walked away, but it didn’t look like Father Riggs was coming out of his side, so… I guess he had other… clients? I don’t know what the person doing the confessing is called. Didn’t think he’d have a lot in the middle of the night, but… who knows? He might. It’s not just vampires that stay up nights, you know? Anyway, I had a lot to think about. I walked towards the back of the church, where Kaitlyn was still sitting on one of the benches. Except now she’d fallen asleep. Didn’t even wake up when I sat down next to her, so I pulled out my phone and texted Ferret. Then I nudged Kaitlyn a couple times. She woke up, blinking at me like she’d fallen asleep in class or something.
“Sorry,” she said. “Not a lot to do out here.”
“Don’t apologize to me,” I said, waving my hand towards the other end of the church.
Kaitlyn turned and looked at the altar. “Wait… you didn’t become Catholic, did you?”
“Nope,” I grinned at her. “But who knows? If vampires exist, what else is true?”
“Uh huh,” she said, giving me the side eye. “Not awake enough for that conversation.”
“You awake enough to drive? I’m done here.”
Kaitlyn yawned in my face, then nodded. “Sure. Let’s go.”
We walked out of the church and back to her scooter. Kaitlyn got the old thing going and we started off down the street, back towards the city.
“Where’re we going?” Kaitlyn shouted back at me. Her scooter’s loud.
“Home,” I said. “I’m done for the night.”
