Those Who Live in the Shadows

Chapter 9

"So what really happened yesterday night?" asked Camelia, changed into daily clothes, eating her breakfast. Her parents had left to go to work. I had looked after on her the whole night, without any incident, and when she woke up, she was as energetic as ever. She was lucky my feeding hadn't had bigger consequences.

So I had avoided talking last night's incident till she was fully woken up. But now was the time to tell her.

"What do you remember exactly?" I questioned, wanting to know her point of view.

"Well, I was sleeping, and then I woke up because I thought I heard screams outside. It seemed like your voice, so I went to the window because I was stressed something had happened to you," Camelia narrated, "And then someone fell down beside me, and I was afraid it was you and that you were injured, so I went to take the person's pulse on his wrist... I don't remember what happened next."

If she hadn't touched me, I would have died.

"I'll try to explain to you as simply as possible," I started. I told her last night's attack, and finished by; "Thank you. I owe you my life."

"What...? I saved you?" she said hesitantly.

"Yes."

"Are you sure you are fine?! Are you still injured?!" she asked worriedly.

"Yes, I'm perfectly fine, thanks to you. We Nightmares can heal very fast, if we have enough energy to do it." I smiled, even if she couldn't see it.

"Thank god." she sighed of relief.

"Why do you worry so much about me?"

"What kind of question is that? I worry because I don't want you getting hurt!"

"Why don't you want me getting hurt?"

"Well, because you are my friend, idiot," Camelia continued. She considered me as a...friend? Really? "And don't worry about you owing me something. You defended me against Fabian, and... Think of it as an accidental payback."

"Okay then," I answered. Camelia took the last bite of her toast and went to put her dishes on the counter.

"There's just one thing I don't understand," she commented, "Why would another Nightmare want you dead?"

"It's...complicated."

"Can't you tell me?"

"I guess..." I took a deep breath. "She wants revenge because I had to kill her hunting companion."

"Who was...?"

"My best friend." There was a long moment of silence.

"I'm...sorry..." finally said Camelia. "I shouldn't have asked."

"It's okay," I assured. I would have had to tell her one day or another. There was another moment of silence, a little more awkward.

"Don't you go to school today?" I asked, breaking the silence.

"No, it's the week-end. We don't have school for two days.

"What do you do during two whole days?"

"What about you? What do you do during your free time?" she returned the question. "Oh, I never asked, but how old are you?"

"How old...? I don't know. I've always been there, since a very long time," I answered. "In my free time... Well, before my best friend...died, we used to read, invent stuff, role play, create the most imaginative nightmares, look at the sky and talk...We even tried to bake a cake once."

"You tried to... bake a cake?"

"Yeah. We had been really bored. It was his idea, and a complete disaster. We had used the ingredients and oven of a house were its occupants were away. We had tried to follow the recipe, but it was really complicated, and we didn't know what was what... Like, what's the difference between sugar and flour?"

"One is sweet, the other not. You just have to taste," said Camelia.

"We couldn't, 'cause human food tastes disgusting to us, whatever it is." I grimaced. It makes me sick just thinking about eating human food. "Anyway, when we finally managed to do some kind of cake, when it went in the oven, it turned into a bubbling blob, and exploded in the oven."

Camelia giggled. "When the owners of the house came back, it must have been a total mess!"

"Yep, it was. Poor them. We never tried to cook again after that."

"You guys really contributed to the legend of ghosts, didn't you?"

"The majority of the time, it wasn't our fault," I said, remembering some adventures me and Wish had. "One time, we were reading calmly some books, and then a girl comes out of nowhere and starts screaming. I jumped and my book fell, while my friend threw his book at the girl by reflex."

"Scarred for life," whispered Camelia.

"Hey! She just didn't have to come in randomly! We didn't know she would freak out!"

"Excuses, excuses..." she continued.

"Pff! You didn't freak out when I told you I was a Nightmare!" I defended myself.

"Hm, true."

"Anyway. What do you want to do?" I asked her again.

"What do you feel like doing?" Camelia responded with another question, again. I felt like I wasn't going to win an argument with her, so I just answered.

"I would like to know more about humans, I guess."

Camelia smiled.

"I know exactly what we can play." She walked to the living room and I followed. I was intrigued by her idea. She opened a cupboard and pointed some colorful boxes. "Could you please take out the box written "Laughing Cards" on it?" she asked me.

"Sure." I did as she asked, and she closed the cupboard. I was a rectangular shaped box, with the slogan: "Have fun with trivia facts!" I had no idea what that meant. I followed Camelia to the living room's table and put the game on it, while sitting down on a sofa, the blind girl across me. I opened the box and placed the little pieces and cards where she told me to.

"Is that a kind of society game?" I said, curious, recognizing a little bit the style of game, having seen some humans play it.

"They are called board games, Des." Camelia answered. "Now, let's play!