Institutionalized

Howie, Day 22

"GOOD MORNING ALL! I HOPE YOU ALL SLEPT WELL!"

I woke up the next morning to an oddly chipper Mac. His hair was messier than usual and his skin was pinker than usual .

"Hey man, how did you sleep?" He asked with a smile.

He just seemed happier than usual.

"I slept okay. Did you hear the person who took a shower in the middle of the night?"

"That was me actually. I had a nightmare and I got very sweaty and gross, so I rinsed off briefly."

"Oh okay, want to talk about it?"

"Ah, well-- it wasn't actually a nightmare, but it was... somebody else's nightmare."

"O-Oh. right."

"Its okay though. I'm okay now."

"You said that before when you weren't okay. Prove to me that you really are."

"Uh... well I'm just not hungry. They gave me another blood bag to calm me down in the middle of the night, and one this morning too."

"Fair enough."

I decided to believe him.

"So I have another question. I know you must be getting sick of them by now."

"It's okay, ask away." he smiled.

"So, I just want to know. I know you've been thinking a lot about, uh, killing people lately, so I was wondering. And I don't care either way, I just want to know."

"Know what?"

"...Do you, like, still feel guilty? About drinking blood?"

He paused.

"Yes."

I nodded, looking around the room briefly.

"Do you still want to live together and get a nice apartment downtown and stuff?"

I recalled our plans and goals for the future.

Mac looked over at me, so I looked at him.

"Yes. I still care about you. I know it'll be different than our original plan though. You can't cook dinner for us anymore. I won't be able to hold a job for a while, or finish college. There's no way I can become a doctor like this. At least, not for a long time. I guess i could try selling my art. And it might be awhile before I can be trusted around humans in general. And if I turn you you won't want to cook anymore. Your bass will be too loud for you play."

He right about all that. I didn't know what I'd do with myself. I had no other talents besides those.

"I don't know how we'd support ourselves. Well I have one idea, but it's not really an option."
Now i was curious.

"What is it?"

He shook his head,

" you won't like it, and like i said, it's not an option anyway."

"Just tell me what it is. Maybe we can work it out. I'm open to anything that would keep us afloat."

"Rafael told me that a lot of vampires get money by robbing their victims."

I swallowed,

"Oh."

"I told you."

Silence.
"Would you ever do that? If it was the only option?"

He looked to the side.
"I mean... if there's no other option, there's no other option."

Something seemed off about him today.