Leave Me

I tapped my foot impatiently as the man in front of me waved his hands animatedly, obviously hoping to get his point across more clearly. He introduced himself as Dr. Frick or Dr. Frank, or something like that, and now he was certainly living up to that “Doctor” title. It seemed like he knew everything there was to know about vampires except for the one thing that really mattered: they were life-sucking killers, vermin that deserved to be crushed under the heel of the shoe of humanity and cast out of the world once and for all. After all, that was the point of the Base, wasn’t it? And now they sent us these crazies who wanted to study them. Kind of hard to study something that wants to kill you, Doc.

“A little long-winded, isn’t he?” Brandon muttered in my ear. He had been squiggling around in his chair like a little boy for the past ten minutes, and I was waiting for him to say something to me, because if he was talking, I knew it had to be almost time. I smiled and nodded without looking at him, hiding my eagerness as well as I could. I could sense other people in the room shifting around and whispering to relieve their boredom as well, a sort of buzz of irritation growing in the audience in the little conference room. None of us wanted to be there, but after them coming all that way, it would look wrong to send the scientists back home without letting them present their ideas. Then they would be invited to stay and observe their “specimens” from a distance, and we were so sorry, but there was no way we could allow them into the field because there would be no possible way to ensure their safety. They would only stay for a few weeks at the most, then they’d be out of our hair. It was the same every time.

“Raid this afternoon,” Brandon muttered, “Bobby going?”

“No,” I whispered, tilting my head toward him. “He’s going on the one the day after tomorrow.”

“First raid is always exciting,” Brandon commented, trying to make conversation. I nodded, pretending to listen to the speaker. It was a woman now, another doctor, but I hadn’t the slightest idea what her name was. She was a lot softer than the man who was speaking before, and seemed to be almost pleading, holding her hands clasped together. “Are you nervous?” Brandon asked, catching me off guard.

“A little.” I sighed. I knew he was talking about Bobby. “But he knows what he’s doing, he can take care of himself out there. He’ll be fine.”

I saw Brandon’s nod of agreement out of the corner of my eye before he looked at his watch and stood up. “Time to get ready for the raid,” he told me, but I could already tell that from the broad grin that was spread across his face. I could feel the one on my face growing to match his even as he spoke. To the scientists, he said, “Sorry to interrupt, but it’s just business as usual around here. There’s food to be picking and vampires to be shooting out there.”

“Oh, of course,” the woman said in her soft, high-pitched voice. “Good luck on your…mission.”

Brandon and I and a few other people there nodded in thanks as we all left. In the hall, a chorus of voices broke out as soon as the door shut. “Can you even believe it, Arianna?” Tristan asked as she fell into step beside me. “They’re planning on trying to trap one. As in, in a cage. They’ve lost it, finally! They’ve really lost it this time!”

“It won’t work,” I said shortly, trying to keep Tristan from ruining my good mood. “And they’ll leave. They always do.”

“But what if someone gets hurt, or dies!” she insisted. “We have to do something about this! You don’t want to have guilt like that for the rest of your life, do you?”

“I don’t care much either way,” I snapped at her to put her in her place. “But maybe if one of them gets hurt then they won’t come back again.”

“Oh, well, yes, I hadn’t thought of that,” Tristan said in a slightly subdued tone as she fell a bit behind me, probably to start harassing a new victim.

Brandon turned and shot me one of his silly grins as he asked, “How’s your best friend?” I shook my head and rolled my eyes, earning a little laugh from him before he turned back around. Everyone knew that I couldn’t stand Tristan, everyone, that is, except Tristan herself. I had long come to the conclusion that she was just extremely dense. That could get her killed some day.

This is just the beginning of something I'm working on right now. I'd love to get some opinions on it! Thanks!