House Of Pain | Marko

nine

The doors to my family's shop were open to welcome customers who wish to browse the comic books. Edgar and Alan were rearranging some of the collections while I sat on a stool by the counter, reading Edgar's favorite comic, Vampires Everywhere.

Footsteps grew louder as a body approached me. I closed my comic to look up at the new presence to see if they needed any help.

My eyes locked with Marko's big blue ones and I widened them at the sight. Vampires really were everywhere.

From the corner of my eye, I saw Edgar and Alan go into a defensive mode. I knew what their thoughts were on Marko. I turned Marko around and pushed him out of the store, me trailing behind him.

"Are you crazy? You're going to get yourself killed!" I hit his arm. "Don't come in here again. Next time you show up, I may not be there to drag you out in one piece."

"Paul bet me a blunt if I walked into your store to retrieve you." Marko gave a cheeky grin.

"Oh, so this is a game to you? Next time, I really won't help you. I'll just stand there and watch my brothers push a stake through your heart. How does that sound?" I raised an eyebrow with a fake smile, but it quickly faded so I could go back to being serious. "And I'm still angry at you. Why are you here?"

"At least I'll die looking at you." Marko tapped the tip of my nose before turning on his heels to walk away, completely dodging my question. "Come on, little raven!"

Before I could take a step forward to follow him, Greta came running up to me while crying. I pulled her aside to ask what happened.

"Greta, what's wrong?" I grabbed her hands and gave them a squeeze. "You know you can tell me anything."

"David- he lashed out on me." Greta let out a whimper. I widened my eyes at the news.

"He hit you!?" Was the first thing that came to mind. Meanwhile, Marko had come back to see why I wasn't following him.

"No! Not like that! We had an argument and it upset me. He's angry at me, Poe." Greta explained. "He said I was too clingy, but you know why. I didn't want to tell him. I was too scared to."

"Greta, what's wrong?" Marko gave her a look of concern.

"Nothing." Greta let go of my hand to wipe away her tears.

"I'll talk to him, Greta. He needs to know. I won't let him off this easy." I gave her a nod. "Where can I find him?"

"The beach." Greta mumbled out and I looked over at Marko with a pleading look.

"Take care of her for me, will you?" I asked the curly blond. He gave me a nod before holding his arms out for Greta. She accepted his gesture and he pulled her into a hug. "Thanks, Marko."

And with that, I took off for the beach to confront David about his actions. It took me a few minutes to find the boy in all black, but I eventually did. He was smoking a cigarette as usual.

"Hey, David." I greeted before sitting down next to him on the sand. "Can we talk? It's about Greta."

"I'd rather not." He blew out smoke between his lips.

"That's too bad. We're talking anyway, because it's important that you know this. I promise I won't pull a stake on you." I joked, but soon realized my mistake. He hadn't any idea that I knew their secret.

"You know?" David snapped his head in my direction. "If you dare tell your brothers, I'll-"

"Shut up!" I cut the vampire off. "I'm not going to tell them and you know it. Now let me talk. I'm sorry you think Greta is too clingy, but that's just how she is! When we were in high school, she had this boyfriend who she was utterly in love with."

"How is this relevant?" David inhaled his cigarette.

"Would you let me finish the story? God, David. You're starting to piss me off! I get that you don't like me, but I'm trying to be mutual with you here." I spat out at the boy. I was starting to grow impatient with him and was wishing I actually had a stake to use on him. "As I was saying, the boy broke her heart after everything they had been through, and now she fears this will happen again with someone she's fond of, like you. Greta's not clingy, she's just a little scared. Give her a break, David."

David was just silent. I looked out onto the ocean, waiting for him to respond with some form of apology, but it never came. I was tired of the silence and stood up to leave.

"Think about it, okay?" I gripped his shoulder and gave him a reassuring shake. "She'll be pleased to hear from you."

I looked at him one last time before walking back to the boardwalk, kicking sand up behind me as I did so. I had hopes David would come around.

When I returned to the boardwalk, I had lost Greta and Marko and decided on entering my family's store after returning from the beach. A boy with dirty blond hair was leaving and I thanked him for coming before taking my post back at the counter.

"Portia. Remember what we told you?" Edgar called out from a few feet away. I wasn't sure what he was talking about until I remembered Marko walking in here earlier.

"Yeah, yeah." I rolled my eyes. "Give it a rest! The boy is not a vampire!"