Cursed Souls Blood, Brains & Rock'n'roll

Chapter 14 Confession without a Confession Room

Alice closed the door behind her.

"Okay," she said, and took a deep breath. "Now you're going to explain everything to me in order. Slowly, thoroughly, and in detail."

Simon sat at the kitchen table, a little uncomfortable in his role as a subject of interrogation.

"You know, I don't think Robert can do this on his own," he said, desperate to take the last ghostly opportunity to delay the moment of explanation with Alice. "I think I should be with them to make sure he doesn't make a mistake."

"He'll do just fine. I may not understand his speech well, but I clearly understood that he could deal with your friend's wound himself. The first-aid kit I gave him has medicine for every need. He'll do it himself. In the meantime, you can explain everything to me."

Simon squirmed in his chair.

"Shall we have a cup of coffee?" he asked, even though Simon didn't really want any coffee. "They say coffee makes any conversation more pleasant."

"No," Alice answered in a tone that said she wasn't in the mood for coffee.

"Good. Some doctors say that too much coffee is bad for your health. Let's not waste our health."

Simon continued to sit silently.

"Why don't you sit down too? It's awkward when the lady is standing and I'm sitting on a chair."

Alice didn't answer.

"Well, all right, my dear" Simon accepted his position. "What exactly do you want to know?"

"Everything."

"Well, you know. Everything's a bit wide open. Even I don't know everything, mostly because I don't remember. To know everything, my dear Alice, is impossible. For the weight of accumulated knowledge can break even the strongest minds, which, of course, my mind is. Only fools think they know everything, but..."

"Simon, what are you talking about?" Alice now looked more sympathetic than threatening.

"Is something wrong?"

"Why is there a bullet in Will's shoulder? Why is there a pool of blood in my hallway now? And who was that girl who jumped on my brother? This kind of thing doesn't happen very often in my life."

"The bullet was in his shoulder, because it was probably aimed at his head, but William tripped over me and somehow the bullet hit his shoulder. Poor guy was lucky, though you wouldn't know it at first glance. He lost a lot of blood, and in the sewers it was problematic to treat him. Well, the lady who attacked your sudden brother is named Julia and she's Robert's girlfriend."

Alice stared silently into Simon's eyes. She didn't say anything. Didn't even move.

"All right, all right," Simon couldn't take it anymore. "I'll tell you everything. But I have to warn you that you might not find the truth particularly pleasant. Are you sure you want to know?"

Alice continued to stare at him silently, clearly implying that she was sure about this one.

"As you wish, I warned you," Simon coughed. "You see, my dear, I can't say that I'm quite human. Or rather, I'm not human at all. I'm, how shall I put this delicately, a vampire. I was born in nineteen hundred and two, before the First World War. And when I was twenty-four years old, the events of my life happened in such a way that I became a vampire. And yes, before you ask, yes, I do drink blood. But let me say right off the bat that I only drink animal blood. Mostly. Of course, when I was starving and some five-liter bag of blood was at hand, I couldn't be picky. But I assure you that such cases can be counted on the fingers of one hand, because my manners and my education don't allow me to lower myself to the animal level. For me, it's just a matter of nutrition, just as it is for you or that... what's-his-name... your brother. You eat food too, don't you?