Bloodlust

chapter three

-3-

I make my way to the park; the road is illuminated in halos by the streetlights and the windows in the houses are glowing. I get to the park and I see the playground in the distance and decide I’ll go there to think for a bit. This isn’t the first time I’ve spent the night here, so I’m not scared. I go under the covered part that luckily I fit under; the fact that I’m slightly below average height probably helps too. I mess with my backpack until it makes a decent makeshift pillow and look up at the scratched plastic ceiling above me.

Why can’t my parents just pretend to get along around me? I ignore my dad when I’m around him, and I avoid talking about him around my mom. My parents can at least act civil instead of my dad getting hammered and my mom starting arguments when she doesn’t even have the guts to defend herself. My parents do a good enough job of ignoring each other, sleeping in separate bedrooms and working different shifts. I don’t get why they always have to pick a fight every time they see each other, especially over the stupidest things. If they hate each other that much, I think they’re better off getting a divorce even if it means we’re shorter on money. I’ll get a job and I’ll help my mom out. My dad doesn’t deserve the help; he blows all his money on booze.

I always figure stuff out under this plastic dome. It’s why I always come here. I can just think, and sometimes I can just escape from everyone. I figure stuff out, no matter how unimportant it is.

I stand up and stretch; I need to walk around for a bit to get rid of some of the pent up energy. As much as I would have wanted to punch my dad back for hitting my mom and hurting me, I’m not that stupid.

My footsteps are the only sound in the park; even my own breathing is almost impossible to hear. There are only a few lights so I walk in the darkness a majority of the time. I hear a breeze rustle some leaves and I stop to look around, feeling suddenly nervous.

I sit down on a bench and take a deep breath. It’s just the breeze; I’m fine. All I need to do is calm down and zone out. I lie down on the bench and close my eyes.

“Hi there,” I hear a voice say right next to my ear. I jump up and move over to the opposite side of the bench. There’s a guy standing in front of me. Staring at me. His pale skin practically glows in the moonlight and, if anything, his shaggy black hair makes him look paler.

I scramble into more of a sitting position, wary of the guy. “What the fuck? What do you want?” I look at him again; he practically blends in with the night, clad in all black.

“I want a lot of things,” he says and he shrugs as he sits down next to me on the bench. He can’t be older than twenty so I want to say I’m not in that much danger but I’m not going to take a risk that big. “But mostly, I want to ask you questions,” he says, like it should be obvious.

“Well I don’t want to talk,” I say, giving him a signal to go away, “Especially not to some random stranger in the park,”

The guy stares at me again. “What’s your name?” he asks, already ignoring my attempt to blow him off. His olive green eyes burning into mine. It’s so weird, but he looks so attractive; he has an almost ethereal glow in the moonlight.

“I’m not telling you,” I say, snapping myself out of my thoughts. This guy is a random stranger in the park. I’m not telling him anything. I shouldn’t even be attracted to him! Maybe it’s just the pain from my arm. Or maybe I’m just too stressed out from what happened with my parents.

“Okay,” he says simply, skipping to the next question. “What are you doing here?” he moves closer to me and I have to fight hard against moving towards him.