The following morning, just like the other days, Charlotte begins talking with me, letting me use her as some sort of training partner for speech. I'm surprised that I picked up on a lot of the language during all my years in the white room, making it a much more smoother experience, being able to use words I've learnt as reference to learn new ones. Slowly but surely, I'm starting to be able get more comfortable with speaking with her, as even my speech isn't stuttering as much as before.
"Alright, let's take a break."
"Okay." I reply back to her, but I can't help but find it amusing. She says to take a break, yet we'll still be talking regardless. And that thought becomes true as I follow her to the fridge where she pulls out another pouch or bag of blood.
I watch as she slowly drinks the blood from it's transparent container, the blood disappearing past her lips. She said yesterday that vampires drink blood, and that my father was apparently a vampire. So then maybe I should also?
"U-uhm. Could I try?" I hesitate for a moment before getting my question out to her. It's not that I'm afraid of her, far from it. But I worry that if we're to approach this topic again that she'll make that same face I saw yesterday.
"I know that you're part vampire, but considering we don't know the rest, It'd be dangerous." She says it in a clear tone, as if to say that there's no chance for me to try some. "Hmmm. But I guess you could smell it if you're curious?"
"Smell it?"
"Yeah. If something happens then it won't be as strong if you were to drink it directly." She stops drinking from the blood bag she's holding as there's now about a fifth of it left inside. "Here, have a smell." She extends her hand out to me, along with the blood bag. I definitely do smell something coming from the blood inside the bag, but I wouldn't say it's anything special.
"Hmmm. Maybe try and breath it in deeper?"
"Okay." I reply before inching closer to the blood bag in her hands. I gently take hold of her wrist for some support as I lean in closer to smell the bag; my face now directly above it. I take in a deep breathe, but again, there's nothing that special about it.
"Huh..." Charlotte seems to be a bit puzzled at what just happened, looking back and forth between me and the blood bag. "Are you sure you took a deep breath?"
"Yes. Maybe this mask doesn't let me smell?"
"Hmmm. I don't think that should be a function of that mask... But you're feeling okay?"
"Yes." I reply firmly with a nod. I did smell the blood a bit strongly when I was up close, but if anything, it gave off a weird stench. It wasn't foul by any means, but I feel like tasting it would be a bit unpleasant. That said, the taste could be completely different to the smell, but these are Charlotte's blood bags, so I shouldn't bother her about it.
"Who's blood is this?" I decide to ask a question when I suddenly think to myself whether this blood is actually my blood that the people have harvested. It's possible, but I don't think I remember my blood smelling like that.
"That's what's strange about this. The blood inside this bag is human. See?" She then shows me the other side of the bag where a big letter, 'H' was imprinted on it along with a smaller letter, 'O' underneath it.
"H, O?"
"'H' is for human, the 'O' here is the blood type. Demi-humans would be marked with the letters 'DH.'" She began explaining while taking out other blood bags. The one's that were stored in the top half were all from human blood, while the bottom half was filled with demi-human blood.
"Are human blood more delicious?" I say that as I notice that there's clearly less of the human blood bags than there are demi-humans ones."
"For vampires, human blood is the most desirable. Which is why I find this strange." Ah~ So that's why she looked puzzled earlier. If I'm indeed part vampire, then I should've reacted to the human blood from before.
"Alright, let's try give this a go then-" She then pulls out a demi-human blood bag before opening it in front of me. I proceed to take in a deep breath like before, but again, nothing too strange. But I do get the sense that it's a bit more appealing.
"Smells better..."
"Really?!"
"Yes." I reply at her shocked expression. I guess I do understand why she reacted like that, considering that we're meant to like human blood more according to her, but as I take in another whiff of the demi-human blood, I'm more than certain that it smells better than the human blood.
"Fascinating... This might be good news..." Her words trail off as she lifts a hand to her chin, seeming to be talking to herself. Well I guess if it ever comes to us sharing one day, I can have the demi-human blood and Charlotte can have the human blood. Maybe that's what she's talking about when she said "good news?"