Chapter 21: 21

I controlled my breathing all the way to Lee’s house. It probably made me look funny, walking with my mouth opening and closing. But I couldn’t let the band know how rattled I was.

When I got there, the garage door was open and they were talking anxiously between each other. Lee looked up when she heard my footsteps. “Lexi!” she called me over immediately.

I approached cautiously. Something wasn’t right.

Scarlet had climbed on top of one of the shelving units lining the wall. Her back pressed into both the wall and the ceiling in what looked like a very uncomfortable position. She perked up at the sound of my name. 

The others moved aside so I could approach her.

“Hey,” I greeted.

Lee looked up at Scarlet, then at me. “Can you ask her to come down?” she asked. “She won’t listen to us.”

I nodded and got up to the base of shelves and raised a hand up. I couldn’t reach her and she shrank away.

“Hey,” I said quietly.

She blinked slowly at me. There were dark circles under her eyes. Her skin was somehow even paler than before. And more evidently, she was lulling her mouth like she was two seconds away from throwing up.

“Come here,” I told her, “I’ll take you home.”

She tried to press herself away from me more and shook her head.

“What’s wrong?” I asked. “I can take you wherever you need to go.”

Her eyes roamed over us as she cowered.

“I– I don’t–” she shuddered suddenly and swallowed.

“She just kind of…. catted up there,” Lee explained.

“What? How did she ‘cat?’” I looked away from Scarlet to stare at Lee instead.

“You know, like how cats kind of launch themselves up things and cause mass chaos.”

That sounded about right. “Did you guys scare her or something?” I asked.

Lee shook her head. “We said hi, and I went over to talk to her and she catted away.”

I held back a sigh. Scarlet was watching everyones every move. I reminded myself of what she had probably done last night.

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I held my hand up higher.

“I’m not mad,” I told her. “But I can’t let you live on this shelf forever.”

She shifted, making the entirety of the shelf’s contents shake and tremble warningly.

“If you come down, I’ll bring you home and we can talk, okay?” I tried.

“I’m— not—” she licked her teeth. Her face was frustrated.

“I won’t tell anyone,” I whispered. “I know you’re afraid.” I stretched up on my tip toes and my finger tips were finally close enough to feel the unnerving lack of body heat from her.

She shifted, pulling away from my fingers but she unraveled herself so shecould jump down easier. I wasn’t sure if it was in preparation to come to me or run away.

“What do you need?” I asked. That’s really all I wanted to know. I was desperate at this point to just take her somewhere safe.

“Feed,” she said, almost under her breath. I doubted the others heard it.

I froze. After a long moment I saw her take a breath.

“Feed,” she repeated herself.

“.... let’s get out of here, okay?” I asked.

Lee was frowning behind me. I’m sure she was displeased about losing her test listener but frankly, Scarlet was more important than the band’s practice to me right now.

Right now, I had to figure out a way to help the vampire eat something that wasn’t a living breathing human. And that wasn’t going to be easy.

Scarlet jumped down, finally and landed again too softly to be healthy. She almost immediately swayed and I grabbed her arm and pulled it over my shoulder to support her weight. 

She didn’t really acknowledge it, simply drooled a little bit on my shoulder as I helped her out of the garage.

“I’ll be back later, I promise,” I told the others as I was going.

They stared at the strange sight before them. Scarlet struggled to walk in a straight line and a few paces from the street I crouched and guided her onto my back. Her weight was crushing, but it was still less than I expected. Her fingers dug into my collarbones as she kept herself upright.

I hefted her up and felt like a giant as I headed toward home, then thought better of it and angled myself toward the woods instead.

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