Big Bend (g/t)

Scary Stories

Angie

"Penelope, Easton, and I were going to go stargazing. Do you want to come?" I asked as Dave, Penelope, and I walked down the trail. My vampiric friend had arrived to visit earlier that day, and, true to character, had wanted to see Easton again. I had been meaning to invite him to do...something again anyways, so it seemed as good as time as any.

Something being the operative word because there weren't a ton of recreational things to do off work to start with, besides hiking and going to a bar. Neither of those were activities Easton could really join in on, for probably obvious reasons.

Dave paused, then shook his head. "I have to be up early."

"Ah, c'mon, it'll be fun," Penelope said. "You only live once, right?"

"You did not just say YOLO in the year 2023." Dave laughed.

"It's practically vintage at this point," Penelope replied with a shrug. "Like 2010s fashion."

"That's not a thing," I said, frowning as it dawned on me that 2010 was almost 15 years ago.

Penelope shook her head. "It is, I saw it on TikTok. 2010s nostalgia and shit."

"No. Just...no. Fuck, we're getting old, aren't we?" I said, taking that in. It felt like that era had only been a few years ago. Not over a decade ago.

"At least I know I'll age gracefully," Penelope replied, giving us a teasing smile. "But, yeah. We're 24. I guess you're turning 25 in a few weeks. Wait, Dave, how old are you?"

"25," Dave replied.

"Dammit. Am I seriously the youngest?" Penelope said, huffing.

"Yeah, I thought vampires were supposed to be old," I replied.

"Well, it takes a while." Penelope laughed. "But...back to the original topic...Dave, you should come with us!"

Dave sighed, but smiled. "Alright. Fine. YOLO, or whatever."

"Yes!" Penelope cheered.

***

When we met Easton later - this time, at the trail, as Penelope and I took my car and Dave arrived in his - the first thing Penelope did was run up to him. Dave lingered back by his car, which I guessed was to be expected at this point.

"Ok, weird question, how old are you?" She asked.

Easton paused, as if considering. "In human years or aphirial years?"

"...yes?" Penelope replied. "Is that like a dog years and human years type of thing?"

"Sort of," Easton said. "Our days and years are roughly twice as long as yours, and I guess we have ten months, if months are based on the lunar cycle of the main moon but there's three moons so it gets a little complicated and then we don't have leap years which probably adds up so based on a human calendar 30-something I think, but I'm bad at math and it would probably make more sense to tell you based on an aphirial calendar anyways because that would match up with the rate we age at and stuff and-I guess you don't really need to know all of that. Effectively, I'm 21."

"I honestly did not follow the first part of that," Penelope admitted. "But what I'm hearing is I'm not the youngest anymore!"

"Unless you go by our years," I pointed out. "Then he's the oldest."

"Just let me have this," Penelope replied, with faux exasperation. "Besides, from what I did pick up, human years wouldn't be accurate for his age because it's like how puppies grow up within like a year but humans don't except we're the puppies. Like, okay, Easton, when did you finish school?"