Watching him freak out is oddly a good way to stay calm. They canât both panic, after all. And â well. Clearly he regrets it, and hadnât intended to hurt her. Sheâs too tired to summon up outrage over an accident that he â basically already fixed.Â
âYou arenât the first dead â undead? â man Iâve helped. Ghosts can be rather violent without meaning to be. Itâs⌠just how my life tends to go.â
Actually, she sort of wants to cry. But thatâs pathetic. So she wont.Â
âHow long have you been a vampire? Or â Iâll be very surprised if that isnât what you are. Considering the blood drinking.â
Maybe heâs a hallucination. That would be an excellent capper on her evening. Sheâs finally gone completely crazy. â Okay so. Maybe she is a little irate. Anger does indeed simmer under her skin. But what would loosing it on him solve? Nothing.Â
âYour dinner this evening is named Shiloh, by the way.â She swipes at her eyes, blinking back the burning sensation. Truly, she doesnât want to make him feel worse. Or prolong his panic.Â
     In some weird roundabout way, her being calm is helping his freakout subside. Heâs still panicked -- very much panicked, actually -- but making conversation seems to actually be helping him in a very small way.
     âGhosts...Iâm sorry, ghosts?!â And thereâs his panic attack again, along with his dear old friend a stomachache. He blinks, shakes his head, and decides to get to that later because what the hell?
     âAnyway -- yes, Iâm a vampire and Iâve only been this way for a few weeks. Not an ideal amount of time to learn how to...â He pauses and shifts uncomfortably, loosening the collar of his shirt around his neck a little. â...drink human blood without killing someone, I guess...â
     Chidi lets out a somewhat relieved breath, because this person isnât screaming for her life and calling the cops on him. Which is weird, but he isnât in any kind of position to question it, really. âShiloh...itâs nice to meet you. Even if I kinda made an absolutely horrible first impression.â And then Chidi sits down on the pavement next to her, because looking down one someone the way heâs been doing isnât something heâs used to.
     âIâm Chidi Anagonye, Iâm a professor of ethics and moral philosophy at St. Johnâs University in Australia. At least...I was. I moved here after turning into whatever I am because there was no way I could continue teaching classrooms full of students every day while also wanting to rip into their necks at any given moment.â