James Moore - Blood Red

Jason looked from her to where the Lister family was sleeping, pale, yes, but far better nourished than she was. They had barely decayed at all. “Oh, Danni.” He patted her pale blond hair and felt a few strands fall out at the light touch. “I already know who’s been escaping.”

He did, too. He knew by how healthy they looked. The children normally managed to figure it out first. Sometimes they even caught on to the limitations of their abilities and got back before the sun incinerated them.

Yes, he was very pleased with how this was going. There were more of them surviving and getting stronger. He rubbed the hairs off his fingertips and smiled. Danielle was crying again. She cried a great deal of the time.

“Danielle, my dear, only until tomorrow night and then you will be free.”

“Do you really mean it?” Suddenly another day or two in the ground seemed like a small price to pay to her, and she was smiling.

“Of course, child. I would never lie to you. Tomorrow night, and then the world will be yours for the picking.”

She wept again, this time they were tears of joy.

It was almost four in the afternoon when Maggie woke up. She stretched and realized that Ben’s bed was empty, except for her.

With just a moment’s concentration she realized that he was in the kitchen, cooking something that smelled absolutely heavenly. The scent of coffee coming into the room didn’t hurt either.

She was wearing a pair of his pajamas. Mostly they fit, but she had to hold up the waistband with one hand and her chest was straining a few buttons.

She walked down the hall and into the kitchen where he was just finishing with his preparations. Grilled cheese sandwiches on rye bread and a pot of cream of tomato soup.

The room was bright, but not uncomfortably so. She sat down at the table and watched him while he finished up the last of the sandwiches.

“Good morning, Ben.”

“Afternoon, sleepy head.”

“Thank you.” She looked into his eyes and he quickly looked away. He was cute. She’d never known a college-aged boy who was so shy around her.

“You haven’t tasted it yet.”

“That’s not what I mean.”

He finally looked back at her and flashed a tentative smile. “I know. You’re welcome.”

They ate in almost complete silence. The food was good and she was ravenous.

When they were finished, he cleaned the dishes, waving off her offer to help.

Parts of his apartment were messy and looked lived in. The kitchen and the bedroom were the exceptions. In those two places he was a bit of a neat freak.

“So, what happened last night, Maggie?”

She had to think about that, because, honestly, she didn’t really understand it all herself. “I don’t know. I have a few suspicions.”

“You don’t know what happened to Tom?”

“That I do know.” She looked him in the eyes and this time he didn’t look away. “I killed him, Ben. He went too far and I killed him.” She looked away from him for the first time, suddenly worried. “Do you hate me for that?”

“I don’t think I could ever hate you, Maggie. No, I think he got what he deserved.”

“He did. He definitely did.”

“Then why would you think I would hate you?”

“I killed a man.” She’d killed several, actually, but he didn’t know about them and she wasn’t sure she wanted to tell him.

“Well, no, I don’t hate you. I’m just a little worried about you.”

“So am I.”

“I didn’t know if I should take you to the hospital or what, Maggie.” He was starting to get a look of panic on his face. “I was afraid the blood was all yours and I was afraid you were going to get sick and die on me.”

“I didn’t, though.”

He nodded his head and closed his eyes for a second. “I know. I just… I don’t normally get close to people. I’m not used to it. So when I do, I get a little weird.”

“Well I don’t really go out of my way to meet new people either. My profession doesn’t really encourage it.”

He nodded again. “Yeah, what are you gonna do now? I mean, you don’t have Tom there to help you set things up or whatever he did.”

She smiled. He was very diplomatic when he wanted to be. “I’ll figure something out. I’ve got some cash stowed away.”

“Yeah, well, about Tom…”

“Yeah?”

“I sort of stole his money. All of it.”

“You’re shitting me.”

“No. No, I stole it and put it in a safe place. Not easy to access, but I figured if you wanted to check into it, I can give you the account numbers.”

“What the hell made you do a thing like that, Ben? That’s just dangerous.”

“Yeah, well, him kicking my ass the other day sort of made me angry.”

“So you robbed his accounts?”

“Yeah.”

“Why are you telling me this?”

“Well, I don’t know if it maybe caused whatever had you so pissed off at him.”

She had to think about it. Yes, it probably had been an influence, but not the biggest one. “No. He was just a dick.”

“Good, because I would hate myself if I did something that hurt you.”

“Don’t hate yourself. There’s enough of that going around already.”

“You hating yourself for what happened?”

“Which part?”

“Don’t. You’re a good person.” He got really bold and touched her hand.

“Don’t count on it.” She shook her head, remembering the blood from the night before. It didn’t seem completely real, but she could remember it in vivid detail.

The thing was she really didn’t feel badly about it. She should have, that was the part that bothered her. She was actually very surprised that Ben wasn’t ready to head for the hills instead of being anywhere around her.

“So what’s next?”

“I think I have to talk to a man I met. I think he might have done this to me.”

“What? Did he hide you in a secret lab?”

“Something like that.” She smiled. He probably wouldn’t want to hear the details and she really didn’t want to share them anyway.

“You need someone to cover your back?”

“I don’t know. Maybe.”

“Well, if you want help, I’m not really planning on doing anything special right now.”

“Okay. So it’s a date.”

“Might want to go by your place first. I mean, I like the pajama look on you, but it’s going to be hard for him to focus on answering questions with you in that.”

She punched him lightly on the shoulder and laughed. “Goof.”

Kelli went into town and started shopping. She had to go trick-or-treating tomorrow and there was no time for being picky. She needed a costume ASAP.

Of course she’d heard about the fire. She was just not going to think about it. She was starting to get very good at avoidance. Having people dying all around you did that to a girl. At least that was what Erika said and she should know; she was a psych major, after all.

Erika Addison was a svelte redhead with big baby blue eyes, a devastating pout, and a passionate love of parties and the morbid. Halloween was her kind of gig and she insisted that Kelli have a good time. She was also right, so Kelli was listening.

“What do you think?” Erika was holding up a witch outfit that would get most girls thrown in jail for public indecency. She could not only get away with it, she would probably get a marriage proposal or two.

“I think you might need one of those for each boob.”

“Prude.”

“I am not.”

“Not a total prude, but you’re working on it.”

“Family values do not make me a prude, Erika.”

“They don’t make you any friends with guys, though.”

“Not all of us need a ‘Now Serving number’ sign on our doors.”