Reasonable

Amberle sat on her couch waiting for him. She stared down at her feet, every so often wiggling a toe to see it press against the top of her shoes. Her suitcase sat near by. There was no choice. He had given her none. He knew all her friends and could attack any one of them. There was nothing she could do to stop him.



Except for this. He had visited her last night (could she really have only found out yesterday?), but she definitely hadn't been in the mood for talking to him. Her cat, CJ, had hissed violently at the unnaturalness standing in her apartment reminding her of that one strange night. It was clear that this was not his first time in her apartment.

Henry had told her that he needed her to be ready to travel. Amberle cursed her own luck. She had thought it was getting better. The last time she had any sort of kitchen fire had been months ago. Most of her mornings had started out rather well which had only given her a false sense of luck on her side. Of course all her luck was simply piling up for this big doozy. Her first time and it's with a vampire.



Henry appeared before her, but she kept her eyes down.

"I'm ready." Amberle couldn't look him in the face. She knew she would search for those teeth that could rip her throat out. The ones that had killed three people, draining them completely of their blood.

Henry stood before her, uninvited, having somehow snuck into her home for a second time (that she knew of). "The cat?"

"I left him with Samantha." Amberle dared to look up. "He doesn't like you, you know. Especially when you sneak into my house."

Henry crossed his arms. "He's not the one I'm concerned about."



"I don't know if I like you either right now." Amberle turned her head away from him.

The silence between them bloomed like a mushroom cloud.

"Amberle..." Henry's voice was soft and deep the way it had been the other night when he had tricked her. But it seemed as if his words stumbled and faltered so that he could only say her name softly.

Amberle's anger brewed. She hadn't been acting like herself that night. He must have used his powers of persuasion to get her into bed. "I suppose you got what you wanted. Now what're we doing? Are you going to just drop off my body in the middle of the woods?" The words spit out of her mouth. She was sure her face was a twisted mass of anger, so she kept her face down.

Henry's voice tightened. "If I were going to kill you, we would have had no needs for these games." There was no response to that; Amberle kept silent. Henry sighed. "Perhaps when you are more reasonable, you will let me explain."

Amberle glared up at him. More reasonable? Was it unreasonable to be angry about being tricked? "I am reasonable." She stood up, but finding him too close, she turned her head. "Let's just go."