Monsters Are Forever

16. At the Grocery Store

Mia walked the three blocks from the bus stop to her house, feeling worse than she had in years. She was tired, sluggish, and having difficulty concentrating. And she knew she was going to have to go out tonight in this condition. She tried not to think about how Rudi was probably going to be there yet again to watch her fail.

When Mia had told Carmine that going out once a week wasn't enough, she'd actually been putting it mildly; she didn't think Carmine really needed all the details. It might have been enough to let her survive, but it didn't stop the cravings – at least, not long enough to make much of a difference. And after a few days, the tiredness would come back, the difficulty concentrating. It just wasn't a consistent enough amount to really keep the starvation at bay. She was just glad when she finally got that text from Carmine. At least now, she'd be able to do something about all this.

Carmine had sent her a message in the middle of second period almost three days ago. Mia had read it eagerly; she really needed to know if that mistletoe thing would work – and the sooner, the better. And when she read that one little sentence saying that it really would keep Rudi away, she was filled with nothing but relief. Of course, Mia had wanted Carmine to get back to her a lot sooner with the information, but at least she knew it would work for sure now. Besides, with Carmine going out of town for the weekend, Mia had known she probably wouldn't hear anything until at least Monday. She still didn't know how Carmine found these things out as fast as she did, but Mia was incredibly glad for it. She knew it would have taken her at least a week to figure something like that out; and even then, she wasn't sure she'd be able to say with one-hundred percent certainty that it would actually work. But now that she had a potential weapon in mind, Mia had just one problem – she had to figure out where she was supposed to actually find the stuff.

She'd tried looking online and she could order some, but it would take at least a week to get here. Mia didn't think she had that kind of time to waste. And she'd looked at every single one of the plant stores near her house, but none of them carried it. She just hoped she could figure it out soon. At least Christmas was coming – maybe someone would have some to sell for the holidays.

She dragged herself through the front door and kicked off her shoes.

"I'm home." Mia mumbled, making her way up the stairs.

"Miaka! Is that you?" her mom called out from what sounded like the living room. "Miaka?"

"Yeah?" Mia shouted back, trying not to sound as exhausted as she felt. All she really wanted to do was stay up in her room, do her homework, and pretend that she wasn't slowly starving to death. But how was her mom supposed to know that?

When she didn't hear anything else from downstairs, Mia decided to pretend like maybe it meant she was in the clear. Maybe she wouldn't have to respond to whatever her mom was yelling about. She had a lot of homework to do already; and with how tired she was, and that constant craving for blood, Mia knew it was going to take her a lot longer to finish than it normally did.

"Miaka!" her mom called again.

"Yeah?" Mia yelled back down the stairs. Why couldn't her mom just leave her alone?

"Are you ready?" her mom called.

Ready for what? Why couldn't she just stay here? She was exhausted. All she wanted to do was lay in her bed and possibly go to sleep. If she couldn't actually get blood, maybe a nap would help a little.

"Miaka! Get down here!" her mom called. And now she sounded mad.

"Coming." Mia called back. So much for getting a chance to relax for once. She stared up at the ceiling for a minute. Why did everything have to be so hard?