Garden of Pleasure

Chapter 5

I woke up with my head throbbing in pain, I tried to steady my vision to no prevail. “Take these” Charlie’s soft voice said from somewhere in the near distance. I then gathered that I was laying somewhere soft, a couch possibly, wait…where was I? I pushed the aspirin away, it wouldn’t change what I had seen or what had happened.

“Charlie, where am I?”

“My living room, you passed out in the car” his soothing voice already starting to make me feel better.

Suddenly my vision was clear and I felt ok, more than ok. I wanted answers and I wanted then now.

“What are you?” I stammered, afraid of his answer

“I knew this was unavoidable after that man pulled the trigger” Charlie’s head fell between his hands, curls peeked out between his fingers.

“Yea, that scared the living shit out of me. I need to know what’s going on and please don’t bullshit me” I begged, I felt crazy, more than crazy maybe I had hit my head really hard and was hallucinating. I held my breath waiting for his words.

“I’m a vampire, now before you freak out please let me explain” he softly pleaded

“Like a bloodsucking vampire?” I cut him off before he could say anymore

“No, I feed off of fear. I don’t drink blood at all and I don’t have to hurt people.” He explained

“You feed off of fear? Is that way you healed?” I questioned

“Yes, I’m basically human except I feed off of fear and can blast things at will, and a few other things, I’m still figuring things out.”

“I don’t believe you Charlie”

“Devlin look at my eyes, right now you’re scared and it’s intoxicating, my eyes are golden and blue aren’t they. I’m feeding right now and if you don’t believe me then look at that vase over there” I looked across the room at an ivory vase with flowers in it. Charlie raised his hand and a single flower rose from the vase and levitated to him. “Take it” the flower then landed in my open palms. Everything I thought I knew about the world around me suddenly look blurry. The line between fantasy and reality had not been redrawn, it had disappeared.

“What else is real” I asked calmly, suddenly not afraid. I knew he wouldn’t hurt me, if he wanted to he would have done it earlier when I was defenseless.

“Fairies, traditional vampires, witches, sea people, there is probably more that I haven’t seen” he carefully explained to keep from scaring me again “we walk among you hidden and in secret to live our lives. Many humans know about us but most don’t. Being hidden means our survival and preservation of out species. Many half breeds exist due to cross breeding. We live peacefully with humans, it’s all we want…well most of us.” He explained

“Where do you live, as in like…where do you come from?” I began tripping over my words.

“Ok, where do I start? We all originate from another dimension that has portals to this world. There are different dimensions for the different creatures but we all share them freely. Some dimensions are simply for recreational use like sex, violence, and meditation”

Naturally, I started picturing the sex dimension as some cheesy porn shoot where girls lounged in trashy red lingerie, wagging their tongues in a slutty fashion. It had me curious and quite surprised how easily I was taking this…maybe I was still in shock. Charlie sensed me relax and unwind and slid closer on the leather couch.

“Is this too much for you devlin?” concern pooled in his eyes

“Not at the moment, if I’m scared just hearing about it then maybe you won’t show it to me”