Chapter 23: 23

Scarlet watched me, awkwardly.

I was panicking. She was still covered in blood. She’d wiped most of it off but no matter where I looked there were dark smears on her clothes.

My brother was at work but my Mom was just in the other room, probably watching her soaps and drowning in wine.

I didn’t want the questions, but Scarlet was starting to go for the bed and I didn’t want the blood anywhere near my bed.

“Come with me,” I said, keeping my voice as low as I could.

She tilted her head and started to follow. “I’m sorry,” she whispered back.

I didn’t respond and brought her into the bathroom. She sniffed curiously at the damp air in here.

The room was small so we had to squish in pretty close together. This was made more apparent by her affinity to me. She held my sleeve in her fingers and stared with those wide pinkish eyes as I went about starting the hot water.

“You should uh…—” I looked down at where she was clinging to me. “You should take those clothes off and get in the shower,” I explained.

“Hm? Why?” she asked. She eyed the now steaming downpour with distaste.

“To get clean,” I said. I made a point to tap against one of the dark splotches on her hand. In the movement I saw that her fingernails were dirty again, that dark crescent of dried blood caked underneath.

“But… I don’t want to,” she said. She hugged closer to me, forcing me to take the remaining half step back to lean against the wall.

I didn’t like this. She even smelled like blood this close up. That was probably from getting both human blood and now animal blood on her.

“Listen,” I said sternly. “If you go out and about like that, people will be suspicious.” I patted her head, messing up the black hair that fell so luxuriously over her shoulders.

The air was steaming up now, thick and hot.

“But…” she trailed off, then nodded.

“Get in and I’ll get you some clean clothes,” I said and started to scooch past her to the hallway.

She pressed herself against the shower’s glass door as I freed myself from getting squished between her and the counter.

The door creaked, everything in the house creaked, but my mom wasn’t paying enough attention to question it.

I slipped back into my room and pulled some clean clothes from my drawer. My hands were shaking. It surprised me because I’d thought the adrenaline had worn off, but evidently not.

With a few steadying breaths, I reminded myself, circle of life. You eat meat too, you just don't do it so… naturalistically. 

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Another harrowing four steps across the hardwood floor to the bathroom brought me face to face with Scarlet.

I shut the door completely before turning around and freezing in place. I’d asked her to strip down, and she’d obliged. She blinked at my stunned expression. She wasn’t classically voluptuous. But she was still very cute and pretty in her own way.

When my brain finally snapped back into modesty, I covered my eyes and put the clothes down on the counter.

“You— you should get in the water and rub– wash yourself with the soap,” I managed. “You know how to wash right?” I asked. Mentally, I was praying she would say yes, she did. A shower with her was not something I was ready for. She’d just murdered an innocent animal, I couldn’t even think about that kind of thing right now, even if part of me was crushing on her.

“Okay,” her voice was quiet but I heard the shower door open and close. I let my hand fall away. Even though the shower’s glass and steam censored her pretty well, I didn’t let my gaze linger. The pale color gave my imagination enough of a prodding.

I sat on the toilet. I could smell my brother’s bar soap, probably because the body wash I used was too alien for her.

“I’m sorry, Lexi,” her voice said from the other side.

“You didn’t do anything wrong,” I told her. “I know— I know you have dietary needs.”

She was quiet. But her silhouette didn’t move, either. The hot steam was making me feel drowsy.

“I have,” she said. And her silhouette bent over so she could scrub one of her ankles down.

“Have…?” I asked. I let my eyes close and leaned back against the cold porcelain. Even through my clothes it was uncomfortably hard and cold.

“I’ve done wrong things,” she explained.

I tried not to think too far into that. That security guard had been dragged into that darkness that belonged to her. And presumably there’d been another just last night. Part of me that was very ableist wanted to dismiss it as survival of the fittest but the more human side of me knew I’d never be able to completely deny that it was wrong to murder people. 

“Do you need human blood?” I asked. 

“Yes,” she said. “Animal blood helps but without the human part…”

I understood. Humans could survive on bread and butter alone for a long time but eventually the nutrition deficiencies would be too much.

“We’ll figure something out,” I decided. “I– I like you.” I covered my face with my hands again. My skin was hot, only in part from the steam now oppressing me.

I heard her open the shower door and turned my face away so I wouldn’t have to see anything. “I like you too,” she said.

My flush deepened.

“You should get dressed,” I said. 

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