by Dylan Keefer
“Excuse me Mrs. Sweet. I am Milo’s cousin Prudence.” She stated, cutting Mrs. Sweet off. Her voice was incredibly formal, and that seemed to do the trick.
“Why have I been handed over to you?” Mrs. Sweet’s voice was incredulous. Prudence could see the eyebrow raise even through the phone.
“Because my cousin is still healing from an abdominal wound a robber gave him when they broke into our house.” That sentence was all it took for the voice at the other end of the line to fall silent for a moment.
“Robber?” The voice was now a lot softer, and Prudence had to stop herself from smiling.
“Yes. My cousin had surgery and is currently living with me because the house is not fit for anyone at the moment and I am the only family that can take care of him right now. I realize that a delay is not really what you wanted, but he is working at a speed that will allow him to both live on and get you the work in time.” Prudence felt her voice growing sharper. She couldn’t stop it, it was something that came naturally. And as the time went on she started trusting her instincts.
“Alright, thank you for explaining that.” Mrs. Sweet was suddenly super nice, and Prudence felt awkward. It was what she wanted, but the fakeness rang out so loudly it was deafening. “I did not realize the situation was that complicated. Can I be notified of how much progress he has made?”
Prudence didn’t know how to answer that, so she handed the phone to Milo with an encouraging thumbs-up. Milo gingerly put it on his ear. “Yes? Oh, I am about eighty percent done with it. I just need a week if everything goes well. Thank you, you too. Goodbye.” Milo hung up and looked at Prudence. “You are way better at talking to people than me.”
“You managed just fine," Prudence said defensively. She didn’t want to be good at talking to people especially after she saw herself running from a mob. But if it helped Milo she could handle it.
“I just responded ‘you too’ to someone wishing me a quick recovery," Milo smirked. “I kind of wish you could talk to the clients, and I could just do my work.”
“What is it that you do anyway? I know you translate things, but you said you don’t speak other languages.” Prudence frowned.
“I translate things from long dead languages.” Milo checked the food, sighing in relief when it wasn’t burnt, just a little overcooked. “Books mostly. Mrs. Sweet is in charge of a museum, and I am translating something people found while digging through ancient Rome. It is just boring stuff though, about the culture. You have enough culture to study now without me getting you interested in anything else.” Milo dumped half the food on one plate and the other half on another plate. “After this and coffee, I’ll be ready for work. Later this evening we can send a message, that way we’re both at home, and we can even chat a bit with her.”
Prudence couldn’t help but smile at the thought. If she couldn’t see Charlotte in person, hearing her voice and seeing her face on a screen would be the next best thing. The laptop was growing on her even after the awkward scene. “I’ll try and see what I can find out today. Mr. Worth might be calmer and ready to talk. He seemed very shaken today.”
“I can understand why. From what you’ve told me about him, he is barely keeping an end to end. It might be easier for him to just close the store and rent out the property to someone. It does sound odd that he didn’t call the cops, even if it was just some kids.” Milo finished his meal. “Maybe he’s not as sweet as you think he is?”
“Maybe I can also walk around and check out the other places where the symbol is.” Prudence shrugged. “and he is a wonderful old man, he reminds me of a grandfather.”
“I’d hold off on that until we know what we are dealing with. I wouldn’t like you to get hurt when we can stop it.” Milo walked over to Prudence and put a hand on her shoulder. “The only reason I even want to get involved with this is that you are near it.”
“Okay, I will go to the bookstore and get right back," Prudence promised. She kissed him goodbye, and he held on a little longer than she thought he would. She could tell he was worried, so she knew she would be extra careful. She was not leaving him alone.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
The store wasn’t open, but Mr. Worth was still inside, so Prudence walked in. The window was still boarded up, so there wasn’t that much light coming in from outside.
“Good morning Mr. Worth. How are you today?” Prudence rattled off that before she saw Mr. Worth hunched over the counter, a bunch of papers all over its surface. Mr. Worth held his head in his hands. Prudence could tell he had been there for a long time. Prudence cleared her throat, but Mr. Worth didn’t notice her. Prudence then walked over and walked into his field of vision then nudged him so that she wouldn’t freak him out.
“Oh!” Mr. Worth looked at Prudence. His eyes were red. “I didn’t hear you come in. We’re not open today, I need to fix the window first.”
“I can still help you.” Prudence shrugged. “I assume the people will need room, so I can move the books from the display. You shouldn’t lift heavy things, you have a bad back.”
Mr. Worth smiled a ghost of a smile. “Thank you.”
“Not a problem.” Prudence thought about how to start the conversation without hurting Mr. Worth. “I’m just glad they didn’t take anything or hurt you. A window can be fixed.”
Mr. Worth got up. His voice turned automatic. “Yes, they didn’t take anything.”
Prudence knitted her brows, but instead of asking more questions she walked over to Mr. Worth and checked the laceration on his hand. It was a comforting touch that wasn’t too intimate, and she assumed that would help him. “But before we do anything we need to re-bandage this.”
She made sure Mr. Worth’s wound was clean and healing well, then re-bandaged it with the things she got from the first aid kit. Then she swept the store and removed the books from the display. She was careful not to cut herself since there was glass all over the books. She didn’t know what her blood did yet. As she was sweeping the pieces of glass away to dump in a bin, she saw that on some of the glass there were red droplets. She picked up one of the bigger ones and smelled it.
There was a strange smell on the glass. When she came close to a piece covered in it, she realized it was blood. Prudence picked up the piece and smelled it from up close. It didn’t smell like Mr. Worth’s blood. And considering that the smell wasn’t making her hungry but making the hairs on her neck stand up, she didn’t think it was human. Thoughts that the gang was full of vampires shivered up her spine, but she shook it away. Why would vampires be in a gang? There was a weird tone in the smell that Prudence couldn’t place. She picked up the shard and put it in her purse so that she could smell it again later and decide where she had smelled it before. And she might have been able to send a sample to Charlotte and have her check. She found other pieces of glass covered in blood. The more she looked around this store, the more she felt like Mr. Worth was lying to her when he said a brick went through the window.
As she carried the books to a table, she observed Mr. Worth. He seemed even more frazzled than usual. He kept forgetting where he had put something he was just holding and seemed nervous and distracted. It finally made her so anxious that she decided to just ask.
“Are you okay, Mr. Worth? You seem a bit out of sorts today.” She was trying to sound as gentle as possible.
“Oh, I’m fine. Just nervous about the window I guess.” Mr. Worth rubbed his hands from his pants. He had just reached for a stack of books he needed to scan when Prudence decided to cut to the chase. She would have grabbed his hands if she didn’t think that would scare him.
“Is it because it wasn’t really a brick that broke the window?” That sentence made Mr. Worth dropped the book he was holding.
“What do you mean?” His voice cracked.
“The window wasn’t broken by brick," Prudence repeated.
“Are you going to call the police?” Mr. Worth leaned on the table. His hands were shaking, so he placed them straight
next to his body.
“No, I just want to know what happened. I am not going to call the police if you don’t want me to.” Prudence came closer to Mr. Worth.
He shook his head. “The less you know, the better you’re off. This is a dangerous area, and there are a lot of things that you should avoid. Those that don’t, they change. Become violent.”
Prudence felt a wave of frustration. She was capable of defending herself. She fought off a vampire. The one bright side that came from the monster within her was that she could protect people. But she couldn’t just tell Mr. Worth that. So she decided to go another way. Her instincts worked before. “I would still like to know what to avoid.”
“Maybe you should just not work here for your safety.” Mr. Worth tried to leave, but she cut him off.
“I would still come here anyway, you have my favorite books.” Prudence smiled.
Mr. Worth took a deep breath and rubbed his eyes with his palms. “There is a gang that stalks these streets.”
“Is the symbol connected to them? The one on the brick wall next to your store.” Prudence asked.
“Yes. But,” Mr. Worth got up and wagged his shaking finger at Prudence, “do not seek them out. People that do never come back alive. Their corpses are just found by the side of the road, tortured and burned.”
“What did they want from you?” Prudence was happy she was getting something out of him.
“What all gangs want. Money. I was fine until Tiffany…” Mr. Worth choked. He didn’t mean to say that apparently.
“Who is Tiffany?” Prudence grabbed Mr. Worth’s hand because she felt he was going to fall down. He leaned on her, and she led him to a chair. When she finally released him and sat down next to him, he seemed ready to talk.
“Tiffany is my daughter.” Mr. Worth’s face turned wary. He pulled out a photo from his wallet. It was a slender blond woman in a blue dress. She was smiling in the sun. Prudence looked up at Mr. Worth and suddenly felt like he was even older than her. “She was off to college and then she dropped out, and I didn’t see her for four years. And then yesterday, I saw her threaten me and punch through my window. She looked so odd.”
“How odd?“ Prudence asked.
“She was too pale, too thin, too angry. I don’t know what I did wrong. I wanted to hug her, and she hissed at me. She seemed like a starved animal.” Mr. Worth said.
That description made Prudence think back to the vampire she fought. Could Mr. Worth’s daughter have been turned into a vampire? The thought made her shiver. Why would vampires want money? He thought back to the butcher that acted oddly around her. Was that the reason?
“Promise that you won’t go out looking for them. You are such a nice girl, I don’t want you to fall to the same monster.” Mr. Worth fully turned towards Prudence. His eyes were wet with tears, and kindness.
Those eyes made Prudence want to promise anything he wanted her to. She didn’t know if she wanted to give him peace of mind and then break the promise she would make or promise and then go against her morals. She settled on a half lie. “I promise I won’t go out of my way to search for them.” She didn’t consider it ‘out of her way’ if they were planning on hurting innocent people.
Mr. Worth got up, shaking. He reached her and gave her a hug. When he let her go, she made sure that he sat down. As she did, she looked at the clock and realized it was after four. “I have to go home now, are you going to be okay?”
“I will be fine. Telling you this has made a weight come off my chest.” Mr. Worth seemed better, so it was easy for Prudence to leave him till tomorrow.
“Okay, goodbye.” Prudence went to pick up her bag.
“Oh wait.” Mr. Worth got up and picked up a wrapped package from behind the counter. “I wanted you to have this.”
“A gift? But why?” Prudence took the gift from Mr. Worth. It was heavy.
“Because you have made my days a bit lighter. I thought you might like this.” Mr. Worth said.
“Thank you.” Prudence decided to open the gift at home.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Prudence came home and opened the present while making food for Milo and drinking some blood. It was a set of books about the history of Europe and Asia. Prudence smiled at the thoughtfulness. She had spent so many hours reading about this because it has been interesting to learn things. It made her feel better about her lack of memory too.
Milo ate, and she drank her blood. That was when she remembered to show Milo her drawing of Charlotte. She decided to start with that.
“Wow, that is really good. It looks like you’ve taken classes or something. Maybe you were an artist when you were younger or something?” Milo smiled at the very detailed and shaded drawing and then to Prudence’s horror, he immediately turned the page and frowned at the young man’s face. “Who’s this and why is he in pain?” Milo looked up at Prudence. “Is this the guy from your vision?”
“Yes.” Prudence sighed. “I keep seeing him from different angles. So I that maybe if I drew him, it’d stop.”
“Did it?” Milo asked.
“Well, no.” Prudence took another sip of her blood. “I got another vision when I last stared at it.” She took a deep breath.
“What was it of?” Milo asked. “Maybe we can figure out where you were and find out something about you.”
Prudence decided that not telling Milo about it this time, it would make him worry a lot more. Plus, if they were doing this, she needed to be honest just like he would be with her. So she told him about being picked up and carried over to a carriage by the man that brought her to the Davenport’s in the first place. She then told Milo about the crowd and the people hanging on trees. After she was done, there was an uncomfortable silence for a while. She told him about the feelings she felt and showed him the picture she had on her phone.
“I can see why you wouldn’t want to talk about it," Milo said finally. “I am grateful that man saved you. Do you think that is when you fell asleep?”
“Not sure. But I wouldn’t be surprised. It seems about the right time.” Prudence finished her blood and then got up. “Let’s see what the symbol means first. We need to see if we’re in trouble or not. And I want to know if Charlotte is okay.”
“Yeah, she wouldn’t tell us if she wasn’t.” Milo got up, and they both sat at the computer.
Milo took the piece of paper where Prudence had drawn the symbol and took a photo of it, then searched for it. After a few seconds, an article titled “Gruesome death leaves only one clue behind” popped up. Milo clicked it. Prudence hoped that no pictures would pop up. It was bad enough she had to smell the blood she was drinking. Looking at Gore gave her a mix of hunger and disgust that she didn’t like.
There were no gruesome photos, only photos of a store with its windows broken. Prudence got reminded of Mr. Worth’s bookshop.
“The article speaks about a small local shop that got raided. One of the clerks was found dead with a…” Milo trailed off then cleared his throat, “with a gaping wound they think was made with a fork-like object, among other scratches. The other one looked like he was ripped apart by an animal. I am kinda glad there are no photos now, I don’t want to lose my lunch. There was a lot of blood on the scene, and the money from the register was missing. Not only that but the entire shop was completely wrecked, including the recording equipment. So no trace. There is an update here…” Milo trailed off again as he clicked another link and waited for it to load. “They found some fingerprints, but they didn’t lead anywhere. Huh.”
Prudence felt her stomach clench up. “Not sure I am an expert on it, but that sounds like a vampire attack.” She remembered how the ambulance looked after she killed the drivers. Whoever it was covered their tracks. Or did someone else do it, like Charlotte did then?
“I thought that when I read about the wound. Then we really need to stay away, or we need to nip it in the bud.”
Prudence would have continued thinking about it, but Charlotte calle
d.
“Hey, ya guys. What’s up? Milo said you guys wanted me to run something by the police?” Charlotte’s face showed up on the screen. She looked better, and her hand was differently bandaged now, as far as Prudence could see. The details on the computer were far sparser than the detail Prudence could see in real life, but Prudence was beginning to suspect she had better eyesight than Milo even in general light because he didn’t seem uncomfortable at the lack of detail. Either that or he was used to it.
“Hey, we need ya to search for this symbol. We’ve seen it around here, and we want to know if it’s anything serious.” Milo said.
“Isn’t the whole point of this for ya two to keep your heads down? Go and screw your brains out instead of playing a superhero.” Charlotte huffed.
“Yes, exactly, and danger near us would be bad, which is why we want to know if we’re near any danger.” Milo retorted.
“We don’t chase the symbol, it shows up at places that I visit often, and I want to know if I need to be on guard or not," Prudence added.
“Okay, send what you have my way, I’ll see what I can do.” Charlotte conceded.
“I also have a sample I can send to you. How are you?” Prudence asked.
“Fine, Philip thinks I’m making good progress with my arm, and we haven’t had any trouble with attackers," Charlotte said.
“But don’t stop taking precautions, they might be waiting on that," Milo said.
“Don’t ya worry Rick, John, and Phillip, are still on guard duty. And when they can’t be, I’ve even stayed at the police station, effectively being protected by every single cop on duty. Everyone is freaking out, just like overprotective people do at times.” Charlotte said. “How is your health, Milo?”
“I’m doing well, and the wound is healing fast. Prudence has been taking good care of me.” Milo grinned.
“What about ya, Prudence?” Charlotte asked.
Prudence felt it easy to start talking. She spoke about all of the things that she had learned and laughed at the jokes Charlotte cracked about history. Milo had handed the laptop to Prudence at that point and left, then he came back with Prudence’s notebook.
