Vampirism | ✓

9 | Sweetest Man

Usually, after a few hours, I would feel fine enough with what I had done to dry my eyes and walk out into the outside world the next morning as if I hadn't killed a person the day before, but it was different this time. I couldn't sleep. I laid down in bed and stared at the off-white walls of my bedroom as I listened to my alarm go off at six-thirty in the morning. I think it was after an hour that I reached out and made the sound stop, but aside from that, I didn't bother to get out of bed.

I wasn't mentally stable enough to suck it all in. There was no way I could have gone to work and look at my colleagues in the eyes. There was no way I could have smiled and waved at Haruto when we met up for a walk at the bus stop.

I just couldn't.

Mustering up the willpower, I had emailed work and told them that I wasn't feeling well. After that, I laid back in bed and remained there. Wide-eyed and still.

One.

Two.

Three days passed.

I knew that it might cost me my job. I had just gotten it, but I was too tired to care. Too horrified and disgusted with myself to do anything but curl up under the covers and punish myself with deprecating thoughts like I was doing today, on day four.

You're going to eat Haruto. I closed my eyes, taking a deep breath. He's going to hate you if he knew what you were.

I closed my eyes, trying to ignore the voices in my head, but the thoughts kept swimming in the depths of my mind, making me shiver and dry heave.

My eyes peeled open when I heard a knock, but I assumed it was for the other apartment since the walls here were thin. I laid still in my room, hearing the knock again. The light from the windows was becoming dim since the sun was setting and I had been too demotivated to get up to flip the switch of the bedroom's fluorescent light. The knocking stopped, and I was about to close my eyes when I heard it again.

"Wern!" A voice followed the knocking now, and squirmed under my blanket, wondering if I had just imagined it—if I had just dreamed his voice up in my head.

"Wern, it's Haruto, are you in there?" The voice was starting to sound desperate. "Are you alright?"

I wanted to say something, but my throat was dry.

Is it really him? I wondered, finding the will to sit up for the first time in days. I climbed out of bed, wobbling a bit, forgetting how to stand for a moment.

"Wern?"

"I'm coming," I said, walking out of my bedroom as if I hadn't been holed up in there for days. When I got to the door, I looked out through the peeping hole, half expecting no one to be on the other side as a confirmation that I was losing my mind and had just imagined that Haruto was here, caring about my well being.

I blinked, surprised when I did find Haruto on the other end. My breathing hiked, and I opened the door, hoping that I didn't smell bad or looked as emotionally exhausted as I truly was.

Haruto didn't say anything once I opened the door, he just stepped into the apartment and closed the door behind himself before staring at me. We stared at each other in silence for some time. In that period, I watched everything from concern, anger, and relief flash through his dark eyes.

"You weren't answering my calls or reading my texts."

I blinked, remembering that I had dropped my phone under the bed and hadn't bothered looking at it after messaging my workplace and saying that I was sick. It was probably sitting on the sofa, holding on to God knows how many missed calls and texts.