"What's wrong?" I aksed as I sleepily made my way down to the kitchen area in my pajamas.
"Our new neighbor, Mrs. Rudmore, came by our house this morning and told me that you had to hurry up and go see her because she needs to talk to you."
"Why? What did she say?" I asked, though I could only guess what she would tell me. I had found out that their son was a freak and I would need to have my mind erased.
"Nothing. She just said it was important."
Well, I guess I had to go see her after all. Though I'm hoping she won't be so mean. I didn't mean to cause such chaos for them. "I guess I'll go get changed and go next door, then."
I got changed quickly, but worrying, and left my house to see what I would encounter at the house next door.
Mrs. Rudmore let me in as soon as I reached the door and pulled me quickly inside.
"Good morning, Mrs. Rudmore," I said politely. She probably didn't hear it.
"You know, Anna, yesterday you caused a lot of trouble for my son. He wouldn't stop banging on the bars and he almost broke the wood. If that box weren't so tightly made and enforced, he would have escaped. And we can't have him running around all by himself. He's very dangerous, and I want to instill that fact on you. He will kill you instantly if he is ever allowed out of his cage and he could murder a dozen more. My son is very dangerous and I don't want to make trouble for you or your family, so it is best if you know that and promise not to tell anyone. Do you promise?"
By the time she had finished scaring me to death with the constant mention of murder, I was too stunned to reply. It took me a little while to finally answer.
"Yes."
"Good," she continued, "because I need to warn you about him before I let you see him."
"See him? Why would I go see him? You've already told me he's dangerous and that I would be better off staying away or he will kill me." I didn't get why she was saying I could see him if I had just made a big mistake.
"Well..." she started, "there's something about it, but first I must tell you what is... wrong. With him."
She led me to a chair in the living room and we both sat down.
"Patrick... has a very strange... illness, if you like, that makes him want to drink blood. It was a mutation of his genes, but it hadn't shown up until he was a teenager, and it had never gotten as bad as it did a couple of months ago, when he accidentally killed two people because he sucked them dry of their blood."
I gulped at the statement.
"Why isn't he in the hospital or a prison or something?"
He should be in the crazy people's place with all the other psychos, it's what I was thinking.
"He was in the hospital, but they couldn't figure out what was wrong with him, or at least a way to cure him, so they wanted to send him to an assylum, but my husband and I refused to send him there because we wanted him with us and we didn't want him stuck with crazy people all day. He's not like that."
Sure he's not. He just kills people because he hungers for their blood, but of course he's not crazy. I tried to keep from voicing my sarcasm to keep her from grief.
"So you keep him in that box all day?"
"Yes."
"And there's nothing anyone can do to cure him?"
"No. Apparently he will keep drinking blood until he dies. But we're not sure how that will be?"
I pondered on that for a second. He lives on blood?
"So is he like a vampire or something?"
"No!" she said, a little too loud to seem polite. "He's not a vampire, he just has a problem."
I could see that the vampire theory was not one they would like. They seemed the religious type, what with all the crosses around.
"So..." I decided that now that she had told me everything, that I would ask the most important question. "So why am I here?"
"I asked your mother that you would come for two reasons: First, because I needed to warn you about him and that you would keep it a secret. It's the reason why we moved to a small neighborhood: we didn't want the press to keep making a fuss about the '21st century vampire'. And we really would like to live a somewhat normal life, even if our son isn't. It's so hard on us, but mostly on him because he has to be locked in there all day without any friends or anyone that can help him or be with him. I feel so bad for him..."
She had started weeping a little and I couldn't do much about it except wait for her to continue.
"And the second reason is that he wanted me to bring you to him."
"What?" I asked astonished.
"Since you already saw him, it will be okay, and he begged me to call you and there's nothing I can do to make him see that it is best if you don't see him but he's so lonely in there and he needed a friend. And he wanted it to be you."
I was speechless. Though my mind was racing. Why would he want me? I thought. Why would he ask for me to come back? And why would his mother agree to it? He almost killed me yesterday, I couldn't possibly go back out there and face him. He would be trying to jump out of his cage to get at me. And what if it breaks? He could actually kill me.
"I don't think it's a good thing for me to go back there. He tried to kill me yesterday."
"He did?"
"Yes. He was trying to jump out of his cage and break the bars. And I even got too close. He could have killed me easily. I don't think I want to go see him now. He might try to kill me."
"Not if you stay away from him."
It would be an awkward thing to say if I told her how hard it had been for me to stay away from him yesterday. There was something about him that pulled me in.
"But he still won't be comfortable with me there. He seemed to be atracted to my blood for some reason."
"He was?"
Yes," I answered, afraid of what she was thinking. Maybe they were in on it and expected to have me for dinner. But the thought of his entire family being made of vampires was a little crazy. I continued anyway. "He kept mentioning how I had 'sweet blood'. It was really creepy."
"Don't worry about that, sweetheart. We just want for Patrick to have someone to talk to. He's been very alone in there."
I guessed the best thing for me to do was give in. It seemed that he really suffered, and if my being there helped, then I guess I had to do it.
"Ok. I guess I'll go see him."
"Thank you, Anna," she said, smiling now. "Did you know that all he did yesterday was talk about you?"
"No. I guess that's... good?" I had no idea what to think abou that. Except that maybe he wanted to eat me alive. Or just suck my blood out. Either way, I didn't see a long future ahead of me.
"Yes. It's very good."
She had a weird look on her face.
"So should I go out back?"
"Yes. And remember to sit away as far as possible."
"Got it."
She led me out the back door into the sunlit backyard where his box was and she closed the door behind me. I looked into the dark wooden box and saw a pair of green eyes looking out at me.
End of Part 2. heart
Sorry. But I expanded this part and it wasn't supposed to be this long, or at least not the part about them talking, but I'm too lazy now and I will write the next part soon enough.
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