Misery County

Chapter 9 - Part 2

"Eric, I have something to ask you?" Cassie said timidly as she drove.

Eric grunted in response.

"I can see you're not in a very talkative mood, but something's been bothering me since I picked you up."

"Oh, something's bothering you. How quaint."

Cassie ignored the prickle in his response. "At Nirvana's house, the windows..."

"Yeah, what about them?"

"Was I imagining it, or were they all covered in black paint?"

"No, you weren't imagining it."

"So you noticed too?"

"Yep."

Cassie glanced over to him a moment, then back to the road. "You have no thoughts on that?"

"She says she works around the clock and sometimes sleeps during the day."

"And the solution to that is to black out every window in her house? Does that ring absolutely no alarm bells at all?"

"Why would it?"

"Eric, I think Nirvana is a vampire."

A sardonic laugh escaped Eric. "Well, this is certainly the most creative way you've ever tried to break up one of my relationships."

"Think about it! We've only seen her outside at night, her house windows are all blacked out..."

"Think about it!" Eric responded with more than a hint of hostility in his voice. "Vampires don't exist."

"After all we've seen in this world, you're going to just say that vampires don't exist?"

"Yes, I am, and you know why? Because neither of us have ever fuckin' seen one or even heard of one."

"Yeah, but what do we know? The average person doesn't know werewolves exist either, but that hasn't stopped us from being up to our tits in them these past few days."

"Listen, Cassie, I've been doing this a lot longer than you have – I'm talking many, many years here. I have never come across a vampire. I haven't even heard whispers or rumors of a vampire. They're not real. They're fiction."

Cassie tore her eyes away from the road for a moment to give Eric a nasty look. "How can you, of all people, be so closed-minded?"

"It's not being closed-minded – it's being realistic. Tell me this, do you believe in Santa Claus?"

"No, obviously not."

"Not even after all you've seen in this world?" Eric mocked.

"Don't be a child, partner. You know we're talking about two very different things."

"We're talking about two things that are fictional. That makes them similar enough in my book."

"I've got something else."

"Oh, here we go." Eric rolled his eyes.

"You were saying earlier that you feel mesmerized when you're with Nirvana."

"Yeah, look, I don't know wh-"

"Well," Cassie interrupted him, "I've heard that vampires can glamor people."

"Where'd you hear that?"

Cassie hesitated. "True Blood."

"True Blood? Fucking True Blood? You're basing this all on a pseudoerotic TV show?"

"Pseudoerotic? That's all you got from it?"

"What's there to get?"

"It was a good show!"

"Good show, my ass. If I wanted a constant barrage of tits, I'd just watch Cinemax, which is where True Blood belongs."

"You take that back right away!"

"No!"

"Take it back!"

"No! And Nevena's not a vampire!"

"Yes, she is!"

"No, she's not! Vampires don't exist!"

"You say that now, but you'll see."

"See what?"

"What I've got to show you in that house."