I woke up to the sun peaking between my curtains into my eyes. I felt awful, my body ached and I had the worst headache. Did I fall asleep on that bench last night? How did I even get back? I forced myself out of bed. I stood up a bit to fast and felt dizzy, something steadied me before I fell. I turned around to see who grabbed me. I see him.
He looked scared to see my reaction to seeing him, most likely expecting me to tell him to leave. I was too tired to fight right now, and honestly after everything that happened last night, I was glad to see him.
"You were laying on the bench in the freezing rain, I couldn't let you freeze to death out there", he said.
"Thanks for taking me home."
"I'll be gone now, I know you don't want me to be a part of your life."
I think he expected me to say nothing again.
"I know what I said... but can you please stay?"
I knew he was still one of those monsters but after reflection last night, he had to be different than them. He was too kind and gentle to be a murderer, and if he did kill, I knew that he would never hurt someone I didn't want him to.
I saw his lip twitch into a slight smile, "Of course."
I laid back in my bed, he laid next to me. I could tell he was trying to keep his distance and not push things too fast. I appreciated this gesture but I couldn't help but imagine how this situation would of been different if I didn't know what he was.
I turned to him, "What happened last night? Other than the fight."
"You somehow fell asleep on a rusty old bench in the freezing rain. You either passed out or purposely fell asleep, either way, I brought you back here. I don't know how long you were out there, I just had a bad feeling you didn't get home safe after everything."
"Thank you", I said softly. "I remember being confused and stressed, and thinking I needed to close my eyes for a second because my world had been turned upside down with the news."
"I'm sorry I did this to you. I should of told you sooner", he mumbled. "I was just afraid of your reaction, and last night went exactly as I feared."
I could tell he meant the words he said, he really was sorry. I knew he couldn't change himself. Instead of thinking about what he was I started to wonder how it happened. Was it like in "Twilight" when they inject venom, or like in the "Vampire Diaries" when they feed you their blood right before you die? What was different about him? Was he stronger and faster like in the stories?
"What exactly are you? Do you call yourself a vampire?"
He chuckled under his breath, "yeah, that's generally what we call ourselves for humans to understand , but we prefer night walkers."
"Why night walkers?", I asked.
"Well, during the day we're weakened, we're stronger and faster at night so most of us prefer the night to the day. The sun feels too bright and hot for some of us. The more you feed the less strong these effects can be. However, some of us cheat the system."
"How do you do that?"
"It's really complicated, I think that's a question for another day", he said.
"So what's different about you than humans? How do you become a vampire?"
He smirked when I said the word vampire. He must not be used to being called one.
"Well, we're a lot stronger and faster than humans like in the movies. But, we get stronger as we age. The oldest vampires are nearly indestructible. However, when you initially turn you're extremely vulnerable. You have the same strength and speed as a human. This is where most night walkers die."
"How old are you?"
"Do you really want to know?"
I hesitated to my answer. "Yes."
"I was born in 1672."
It is 2020, I thought. Trying to do the math in my head was difficult, after a couple minutes of calculating, he was 348 years old. I think he could see the shock on my face when I realized I was sitting next to someone who was there for almost every event in history I learned about in school.
"I'm an old man", he laughed. "I know this must all seem crazy to you, maybe you should get some more rest before asking anymore questions."
He was right, I felt exhausted. "Okay, but one last question. Do you drink blood?"
"Drinking blood gives us the most strength but we only need a small amount of it to survive. To stay strong we need more of it, the more we drink it the stronger we are."
I left the conversation on that note, since the thought of blood always made me a bit queasy. If I was going to let him be in my life I was going to have to get over that. I still had so many questions, but I decided to let them go for now. I felt the heat radiating off his body. Everything about him seemed so human at first. He wasn't cold and is eyes weren't a weird color like I would of expected of vampires. I felt my eyes start to get heavy again.