Blue Eyes, White Lies

Chapter 10

I woke up again. What a surprise. The adrenaline from last night was far gone. The eye bags I have are rearing their ugly heads. I may have slept, but the things I'd learned weren't things I could simply forget about. Things I couldn't not contemplate. 

When you spend nights contemplating like I do, you get a lot of what if's.

I just happen to have a few that kept bouncing around. What if there's more than one murderer? What if Julian if he isn't human like he says? What if this is all staged and I'm just someone's dinner? 

Scratch that last one, if I was supposed to die I would've already. The idea that the venison I eat in the mornings wasn't hunted with a bow and arrow still scares me, but you have to do what you have to do. It doesn't make Eric any less of a good cook.

The shirt I slept in smells like sweat and blood. There may not be any on it, but I swear I can smell it. 

I shake my head and brush it off, walking downstairs half asleep. 

Something feels different in today's air. It's tense. I can't stand it. The feeling I know as dread knots up. I take another breath. 

I can't hear the usual sizzle of a skillet. I can't hear the quiet turning of a book page. I can't smell the eggs. The lights are on, but they feel dimmer. Everything feels dimmer, just like the mood. 

You'd think the winter would warm up, but even inside, I feel like I need my jacket, even with the fire burning. Even with the house feeling lifeless, the fire is still there. 

My steps down the stairs creak more than usual. I feel relieved when I can hear speech. 

Eric hangs his head over his desk, half asleep. Looking at him, it's evident he didn't sleep. His bun had almost fallen out completely, his eyes look half alive. His eye bags show. 

The same map from last night sits in front of him. There's more colors. A black and a purple marker, along with the previous ones. More symbols were drawn. He'd been up all night doing this, if my hunch was right. 

Julian sat across from him, looking less dead. He didn't sleep either, going off of how scruffy he looked. 

He too, must've spent the night working on this. I'll give them a pass for the amount of detail that they've done. 

The conversation dies down as they see me. 

"Keiji." Eric bows his head to greet me. "Pull a seat up." 

He motions to another chair. I grab it and sit down, the uneasy feeling radiating off of both of them. 

"Breakfast is in the fridge if you're hungry." He exhales and dips his head back down to the map. "Now. We have things to discuss, Keiji." He grabs a pencil from beside him. 

He grabs a separate piece of paper, opening his leather bound journal to show an array of post it notes. 

"We have reason to believe this isn't just a single person, firstly." He starts, opening to a page about a quarter way through.  He lifts up his journal, using his pencil as a pointer.

"There's several iterations, as we have no reference to what it could look like, but I've plotted the  locations each body was found. It seems like there's a pattern."

Over his sketches are labels, numbers in different orders and colors. A red three, a blue one, a green two. Numbered bodies, if I'm not mistaken. 

"We're taking you with us again tonight. Getting some markers in the ground. Looking around again. I'm warning you. From here on out, all three of us are in danger." His stare goes from me to Julian. "The existence of O-" he coughs. "My species isn't more than myth, but that never excludes the madmen out there."

Did he... almost say our? We're there other wolves that were near us? Or was it something else? 

"We leave at dusk. I suggest finding a camera and snow gear."

He sets his pencil down, locking his book shut. 

Time slows to a crawl, until dusk approaches us. I'm wearing a black jacket and snow gear. The sun has just set over the horizon. 

Eric has a small mountain backpack on. It's got a journal I saw him put in it, I assumed there was some kind of first aid kit. The map was carefully folded in his pocket. 

Julian wasn't wearing his sunglasses. He wore the same jacket style as I did. He kept his hands in his pockets and his head down. 

We set out only a few minutes later, following the map to where we'd been. The snow continued to crunch as it did last night. 

The same eerie wind blows. It's not as quiet this time. 

"I'm warning the both of you. This could go poorly. You may need to fight. I'm aware Julian can fight. But you, Keiji, I'm not sure about." He takes something out of his pocket. "Keep this on you."

It's a knife of some sort, something dagger-like. It's pretty light, but sharp. 

I put it into my pocket with the sheath on. "I will." 

Besides the occasional mutter from Eric, it's silent there on out. 

When we arrive, the smell of death still lingers in the air. The body is still in the same place as before, luckily. Eric backs up as I try and inspect it. The metal plate in the middle has a small note attached. 

A small post it note, the lettering shining. I can see Julian back up. 

Nice try

There's a symbol beneath the words, similar to the one Eric had sketched in his book. It doesn't feel like graphite when I touch it. I set it back down, taking a photo. 

As I do, the bushes rustle. It's quick, but it's there. 

I can tell everyone hears it too. 

Then, the unexpected happens. Something flies through the sky, sticking to a nearby tree.

An arrow, homemade. A four pointed star arrowhead. 

In that second, Eric yells as loud as he can.

"Get down!"

I draw the dagger out of its sheath, crouching down. 

I look up, seeing Julian drawing a similar dagger. There's a ruby in the handle. 

But it's not the only red thing I see. His eyes are red. Almost a glowing red. I can hear the shouts of three men. 

And then I don't. In a flash, they stop. 

I can hear Julian's feet hurt the ground, putting his dagger back in his pocket. 

"We need to get out. Now. We can discuss when we're home."

His eyes aren't a trick of the light. They really are red. 

The night flies by me until we're home.

—-

We sit at the same table we did ton the morning. Julian's eyes have returned to their normal icy blue. 

"I've been trying to keep this as quiet as possible, but the world strikes without warning. The writing on that note was to deter me, just like the silver was to deter him." He sighs. "I lost myself. My eyes show that. After four hundred years, iron is still a major weakness."

I process what he's saying, knowing what he's going to say next.

"There's a little curse I have... you know it as vampirism."