"I feel sick," Mokiri rubbed her stomach. She pressed her back against the wall watching Aleigha consume the body. His teeth pierced the white flesh, he slurped as blood seep out the wound. He looked up gingerly at Mokiri. "You hungry?" his eyes fading from pink to blue.
She shifted her feet, still rubbing her belly. "I'm not a vampire-like you. And it looks gross." she made a face.
"Firstly," Aleigha stood up away from the body. "Your fangs are short. You've been taking meds?"
She nodded which he feared. "Well, I'm walking with a normie." And he swore he liked her. He didn't know anything about changing vamps to humans but he knew it was done. It was a question of how.
His mother once said she went through a dozen treatments. As well as uncle Iarius. "I feel better," he said.
"You even ate the vampire that was hanging."
"I did." he looked at the ceiling. "Within reason."
Mokiri pouted, "Your such a cannibal."
Aleigha shrugged, "You never told me how you got here." he went and sat next to her on the floor and placed his hand on her thigh. "Where are you from?" And why did she always ask him for sexual favors? "I'm Mokiri Gains."
"Gains?" he noted.
She shifted on the floor again, sitting cross-legged, "When I was born, my mama didn't want me. I ate my twin in the stomach. Or so she said."
"Sometimes vampire babies do that. It's the first sign of a cannibal."
She lifted her shoulders. "I'm from Hawaii."
"Cool."
"So... when I was a baby, I ate my twin sister. But she didn't want to be eaten and I had a third leg."
"Your--you were a conjoined twin?"
"Yeah..." she swayed her head. "We were surgically removed. But..." she sucked her teeth. "ʻAuwana, or Wa-Wa, like my mama used to say."
Aleigha held a chuckle. "So, I and Wa-Wa were stuck together. However, the scientist that was studying vamps called it a process of canbalism. She was eating me."
"Damn, like absorbing your body while conjoined?" he grimaced. "Yeah..." she said. "I didn't wanna die and it's called Fairy dreams in toddlers, when they remember little happenings from the past and mama, is like 75." Aleigha arched a brow. He was starting to question if this is what he asked her. But it was interesting. "Like--" she sucked her teeth again. She looked at him, "You said you were a vampire."
"I am."
"You ever heard, of the Bath?"
"Like a fountain?" he assumed.
"Nah, like mama told me I needed a bath but she didn't take me to the tub. She laid me on the floor."
"It's a ritual?" he gawked. "What are you?"
She rolled her eyes. "A real bitch—or something. We used to have a dog and she said the shepherd is faithful to the master and I have on idea what that means."
"Bitch..." This was self-explanatory. "You a werewolf that likes to be jacked off?"
"I mean..." she rubbed her neck. "I wasn't molested but that's what mama told the dogs to do..."
"Werewolves are created for servitude. " he pointed out.
"That's why my last name is Gains," she told him matter a factly. "Resolved Gains is my dad."
"Your dad is white?"
"Well... it's more to it. Then I had a dad named Love."
"And?"
"Vampires!"
It took a moment to ponder on her words. "Mokiri, are you reincarnated?"
"I guess that's what you called it. Because I'm Hawaiian, so..."
"But you are dark skin-ish."
"That's what I'm saying, my eyes are fucking green." she leaned in her hand. "I'm not a vampire so, Growden couldn't use me anyway. Did you know that Vamps go on purges to collect bone and blood?"
Aleigha shook his head. "Well, my dad is a collector and when he was done. He enslaved his family because you can't force the unwilling a certain way in the soul."
"You traded a life?"
"That. And Wa-Wa is a vampire. She got cut off from me but she has one leg. But it grew back once the scientist took her."
"The DOHRCC?"
"Yep.
"They just showed up." He remembered the day the building appeared. A rectangle-shaped black building made from brick. At first, it appeared as a church, vampires often gathered around churches which brought the idea most came from angels.
Now, it stood has a square building. The words Department of Human Resources and Creature Comforts blinked in front of the building's face. He told his mother, he hated blue for some reason. She said, "That's funny because blue means sad or intelligence. It also depends on on hues. Who do you think the building is?" she asked. Aleigha blinked, "The damn devil."
Hanielle smiled, "How did you know?"
"What is it really?" asked Aleigha. Mokiri shrugged, "You said it. But what you don't know is vampires like churches, graveyards, and funeral homes."
"Is that why you don't believe in Hostipoles?" he said it strangely to be humorous.
"I got trapped in one." she lowly muttered, "It's happening again."
Aleigha grabbed Mokiri's hands. "I'm sorry your life is shitty."
"I'm on drugs and you've helped me deal with that."
"But you're a dog." said Aleigha
She yipped, grinning widely to show her pointed teeth. Aleigha showed his reddish tusks. "Hey, I got a question. Though he didn't think she would know the answer, "Have you heard of Changany?"
She blinked. "If I say yes, you also must know I'm not a worshipper."
"Ok." he shrugged. It was quite odd that they had such a conversation so casually. "My mama used to warn me about going out at night. Especially be wary of the street lamps."
"The lights turn red," she added. Mokiri waved her hands in front of her dismissing the conversation. "I don't like urban legends."
"But I got a theory."
"Nope." Mokiri crawled on her hands and knees away from him. "Nope. Nope. Nope. Fuck no, you tripping."
"I didn't even finish." he groaned. "Besides, werewolves look after graves."
"They also piss on graves!" she shouted. "The fuck you mean?"
He sucked in air and got off the floor. "Let's go grave robbing."
"Who!"
His shoulders lifted, "Everyone. Besides you need bone marrow."
.
.
.
That night. Aleigha and Mokiri left the safety of the house. As Aleigha traveled through the darkness on the street. Staying close to walls and wrapping around corners. He thought to himself, 'I can start a trap house'.
"Do you even know where the nearest graveyard is?" called Mokiri behind him.
"Uh...," Graveyards aren't that hard to find. He looked at a nearby poster, a picture of a man with a guitar surrounded by blue music notes. 'Showtime at Newington Green 20152, The Grandview Cinema. Friday 8th, 3:00 – 6:31 pm.'
Aleigha, performed a dangerous thing, he started thinking. "You like music?" he asked her. She nodded, "What are you thinking about?" she closed her lips and creased the bridge of her nose. "No." she said bluntly.
"Well, we gotta."
"You just killed people in the house."
"So. My mama told me, some people in this world need to die." he flipped his eyelids. His voice was so cold as if he believed in it. And he did, why wouldn't he? It made Mokiri asks questions about him. She never considered Aleigha anything but a pretty boy that just so happened to be a vampire. He's just a nigga from the streets.
But clearly, he wasn't.
He stuck around the house. Unnoticed by Growden and his guards. She needed to eat ad he drained every drop from them. He also didn't mind eating himself. He bit his legs and arms. On one arm he had a scar from the wrist to pit on the left side.
She asked him, 'Why do you eat yourself?'
'Why is the cure to madness in the bones of the living?'
It was a creepy answer, a riddle? She didn't ask at the time; all her head understood was to leave that crazy nigga alone. The way he broke his wrist and gnawed his skin off should have provided more evidence than welcomed.
"What are you planning?" she crinkled.
"It's gonna be good. Trust me." he smiled; a bedazzling set of fangs flashed at her. She tensed at the glare from the street lights on his teeth. "Do you know where Newington Green 20152 is?"
"Nope. Did you hear about the Psychopumh?" Mokiri flickered her eyes.
"What?" his brow twitched.
"It's a ghost street," her voice was so pompous, or in his own words, ghetto and conceited.
He groaned. "We ain't in the ghetto"
"But!" she grabbed his shoulders. "It's a back alley!"
"What--" he blinked rapidly; she couldn't possibly mean. "No. No."
"You wanna rob a grave anyway."
"Mokiri!"
"It'll be fun." she grinned. "Let's change our names. I'll be Wyleisha and you can be Dareion."
"No." he said assertively. "I'm not changing my name."
"Ok, what about Bibilio?"
"No." he pushed her.
"Well--we got to get in somehow. We can rob a grave there."
"I know I'm pretty fucked up but do you hear yourself?" his mother's words came into mind. He could hear her speak to him, that motherly tone that made him feel so close. 'Do you follow blindly and then say they know where they are going? Do you carry a flashlight yet, you don't turn it on? And say I can see in the dark, bleak cave? The same cave with a bear?'
"I'm not going with you."
She shrugged, "Fine. But I wanna find it."
He furrowed, "You'll find help..." Aleigha grinned like a Cheshire cat.
.
.
.
Mokiri went down the street. She left Aleigha behind after being told strictly to keep behind him. Mokiri came to the street corner, Saddlers Links. She could ask around but the streets were naked during the hour. She reminded herself she was still in Virginia.
Why did she want to find the ghost road? Why go into a world that wasn't meant for humans? Technically, she could call it home. Is that what she wanted? Acceptance? She wouldn't get it in the ghytto.
Aleigha is a nigga, he wouldn't understand.
What kind of name is Aleigha anyway? For a boy, at that.
Maybe he was born a girl and got put into a male boy. Because that happens but really, she was just being mean.
Mokiri gazed at the street sign. What was the ghost road? She knew the name; she didn't really know anything about getting to it. She grabbed her arm looking down the road. A vision flashed through her head. Mokiri winced in pain.
"Left?"
She looked to the left, the street with a large pothole. A dog on the curb and a crooked fire hydrant.
A pound at her left temple, another vision. She yelped, holding the side of her head. 'Mailbox'. Going left down the strip, she told herself to walk quickly past the dog. He didn't seem to notice or ignore her fully. She came to the end street, to the left, Edelweiss Lane. To the right, Saddlers Links.
She just came from Saddlers Links. The road she was on, Jedmoor. She made an L, coming from Saddlers Links, Turning on Jedmoor, and to the left of the Jedmoor street was Edelweiss. Across from Edelweiss was another Saddlers Links.
Mokiri drew in a deep breath. 'I have to go across' she thought. She didn't have to but something, ghostly, tugged at her. And what about the dog? Well, she would kick the dog. But what if she missed? She'd keep kicking until she hit it.
Moving to the other side of the street, she looked at the dog, begging for it not to move.
The vision came again, without pain. What was that scratching? "Mailbox?" It wasn't on the current street, was it on the other? She turned left; around the corner, she saw a strange mailbox sticking out of the pavement. Why would somebody build a mailbox on concrete? A gray mounted mailbox bending towards the concrete.
There goes the scratching in her head. She rubbed the back of her scalp, "Aleigha might need a gun."