The Beast in Man (Vampires in Berlin: Book One)

The Beast in Man Part 3

Paul fiddled with his fork, twirling long lengths of spaghetti around the tines aimlessly; he'd found that his appetite had long since deserted him since Richard had not joined the rest of the band at the table. Paul wondered, and snot for the first time, where Richard was, and why it was taking him so long to join them. Even a morose Richard needed his food, and he, like all of them, had not eaten since lunch time. Bob had deigned to eat with them, preferring instead to eat with his family in his own cabin next to the band's.

Across the table, Olli was watching Paul calmly, but wasn't saying anything; on either side of the quiet bassist, Till and Flake were arguing about one of the songs. Paul was barely listening to the heated conversation, thoughts too caught up with the missing Richard, to take in much more than the odd snatched phrase - 'shitty bass-lines', and 'crap lyrics' and 'keyboard riffs that sound like a bag of shit falling downstairs in slow motion'being some of the choice ones that Paul actually managed to catch. Finally, Olli's voice cut through the general melee.

"Where's Richard?" he asked, and that silenced Till and Flake quicker than a screamed curse could.

On Paul's other side, Schneider relaxed visibly, obviously a little perturbed about the continuing argument that had kept the rest of them silent and in fear of their general heads.

"I don't know," Paul replied, and it was all that he could say to Olli's question.

"He's been a little morose today, hasn't he?" Schneider observed and Paul was glad that it wasn't just him that had noticed that fact.

"I thought he was just bored," Flake said, with a shrug of slim shoulders.

"You're the one who's bored," Till said, and it seemed as though the argument was going to break out afresh.

"Enough with the arguing, guys," Paul said, sharply, pushing his chair away from the table with a loud scrape.

The argument fell silent and everyone stared at him; Olli and Schneider in particular looked as though they'd been verbally berated for some minor misdemeanor, all large, soft eyes and puckered lips that were in danger of forming pouts.

"Fuck this; I'm going to look for Richard," Paul said, as he angrily wiped at his mouth with his napkin and tossed the crumpled paper onto the tabletop.

He stalked away, worry for Richard tempering his growing irritation with the previous argument and general bad atmosphere that had held sway over the dinner table. Paul's spaghetti sat like a heavy weight in his stomach, and the sauce had turned into sour bile that burned at the back of his throat. Whilst it was not often that he ever truly got angry, he knew that he was apt to go like a rocket and hit the roof whenever anger gripped him.

"Maybe we should help," Olli suggested and Paul heard the large bassist scraping his own chair back.

He was glad for the familiar tall lines of Olli's body next to his own as the bassist joined him, even if Olli didn't immediately say a word. Paul nodded up at him, and caught Olli's brief, yet still nice, smile.

"Thanks, Olli," Paul said, quietly.

Olli nodded silently back at him, even as Schneider joined them, Till and Flake in noisy pursuit. They made their way through the doorway to the porch outside, yet Paul was surprised to see that Richard was not in the place where he'd left him. He frowned and cast his gaze out over towards the tree-line, just as Olli laid a hand upon his shoulder and pointed with his free one.

"Look, Paul, footsteps," Olli said, urgently, and Paul saw them, arcing away from where Richard had been standing and heading towards the far tree-line.