Dawn Chronicles: Chapter 2

Weeks passed and Vincent and I spent almost every night together testing our abilities and researching exactly what we were. It wasn’t a romantic relationship, but one of a mentor and a student. Despite his limited knowledge, his understanding of our condition vastly surpassed mine. I knew he often wanted our relationship to take a romantic turn. I couldn’t allow that though. If I was involved with him like that I knew I wouldn’t be able to remain objective.

So, I found a boyfriend. That upset Vincent quite a bit.

“You know this will only end badly, right?”, he said. We were sitting outside beside a man-made lake behind the housing development he lived in. As usual, it was nighttime.

“Probably”, I replied, “but I got to have some semblance of normalcy. And Brad is really nice to me.” I absentmindedly ran my hand across the blades of crab grass by my side. I enjoyed the way it tickled my palm.

“It’s a waste of time. He’s just going to end up hurt by you. Is that what you want?”

I frowned. “No.”

“Then end it. It’s impossible to be with someone who doesn’t understand what we are.”

“But I really like him.”

“Doesn’t he question where you go every night?”

“Sometimes.” I usually just brushed off the question by pretending I had a class of some sort. When my sessions with Vincent lasted later than 10pm I was ‘studying with a girlfriend’. Vincent didn’t need to know I was lying to the guy though.

“Look, if you really like him you’ll end it before you both get too involved. You will just make him miserable. And that other part of you has a way of sort of feeding off of him. It drains happiness and energy.” He had been lying in the grass but sat up to tell me this.

I turned my head to face him. “What do you mean exactly by ‘feed off of’?” You’ve never mentioned this to me before.”

“It was never something you had to worry about before.”

“You could have warned me. And you didn’t answer my question.”

“The other part of you latches onto whoever you are having sexual contact with and drains their energy. It gives them a power boost. Enough of it and they can take over your body for a short period of time.”
“I don’t believe you.” I’d never experienced this phenomenon before and Brad always seemed fine after we did...stuff.

“Fine, don’t believe me now. But the next time you are in the middle of sex with this guy I want you to keep your eyes closed and concentrate on the demon part of you. There’s a strong chance you’ll be able to see it clearly in your mind as it feeds.” He stood up and brushed off his jeans.

“So what, I’m supposed to avoid relationships and sex for the rest of my life now?”, I asked.

“No, not entirely. There is a loophole so to speak.”

“And what’s that?”

“As long as the person you are seeing is the same as us, the other you can’t feed. They negate each other.”

He held out his hands to help me up. I accepted and sprang to my feet. I didn’t like how this conversation was going. Mostly because I didn’t know anyone else like Vincent and I and as I previously said I had zero desire to be romantically involved with him.

“So what, I’m supposed to date you or something?” I wanted to see how he’d respond. Then I could see how much of this he might be bullshitting.

“Not necessarily”, he said. His hands were now in his pockets and he was swaying back and forth on the balls of his feet.

“Well, I don’t exactly know anyone like us besides you”, I pointed out.

“Then I’ll introduce you to more.”

“You know more people like us?”

“Of course.”

“You could have mentioned that like, I dunno, a month ago.” I was pretty annoyed he was just now telling me this.

“I didn’t want to scare you off. Most of them are a bit odd. But if you’d like, we can go meet one or two tomorrow night. “

“Sounds good,” I replied. I was definitely annoyed at him. I wondered how long it would have been before he brought up knowing others like us if I hadn’t pushed him on the relationship subject.

“Meet me at my house tomorrow around 9. You’re driving.” He started walking towards the development’s parking lot. I followed close behind.

“You got it”, I replied.

He walked me back to my Jeep and waited till I was driving away before he turned and went back to his house. It was a little past 11pm. Once I was out of sight I pulled over and took out my phone. I needed to text Brad.

Hey, I just got done studying. Want me to come by?

I flipped through my CDs while I waited for a response. His answer determined the direction I’d need to drive in. I found the Cursive album I was looking for and popped it in the player. “The Ugly Organist” started playing. I turned it up but not too loud so I could hear an incoming text. My phone chimed about a minute later.

You won’t be too tired for work tomorrow?
Nope. I’ll be fine.
Sure, come by then. I’ll make us hot cocoa :)
Great, see you in about 15 mins. :)

I headed west towards Brad’s apartment. Part of me wanted to test out what Vincent had said. The other part of me was just scared.