The wooden bat crashed through the passenger side window, sending glass showering down onto the sidewalk and setting the car alarm off, it’s lights flashing in a robotic panic. Adria didn’t notice her mouth was hanging open, until the night breeze hit her mouth. She looked up to Chace, utterly at a loss. His face was lit up as if it were Christmas, his head dipped towards her, his eye winked, and he bounced into an overly expressive jog towards the car. “Let’s get at it!” He called, pulling the baseball bat from the window and slamming it into the car door. Adria couldn’t move. This was, so wrong. Maybe? Chace said the mayor was shifty, perhaps laundering money. Chace swung the bat down from over his head, caving the top of the car. Then he turned, and tapped the car door with the head of the bat. “Wanna swing?” He asked, ignoring the lights coming on in at least one window of every house on the street. Adria looked to the window above the garage of the house they were at, a frightened older man stared down in horror. Chace followed her gaze and nodded as if to some inaudible beat before raising his hand and flipping the man off. “Fuck politicians.” The old man appeared to be fumbling with a cellphone, doubtlessly calling the police.
“We need to leave. We really need to leave.” Adria turned her gaze to the house across the street, a figure staring out of the window. “We’re going to get arrested. Or shot. Or worse. Oh the Sheriff is going to be so mad.” She knew that if she could breathe, she’d be hyperventilating right now. Chace nodded, much too casually, but seemed to agree. He made sure to bash his bat into the car door twice more before turning his head to her.
“Yeah, we’d best ditch.” He said, starting back towards her. “TAXES FUCKER. Fix ‘em.” He shouted, up at the window above the garage, before jogging straight past her. She nearly missed him, staring at him for only a second before bolting after him. She wasn’t nearly as fast at him, she couldn’t remember the last time she actually ran. No, she could. It was on the streets of Rome three years ago. She pushed the thought from her head and followed after Chace, nearly running into him as he skidded to a stop. Police sirens, they were running straight for them.
“This way.” She tugged him to the side, running into another houses backyard, climbing up a swing set and leaping onto the tall wooden privacy fence. Chace started at her as she tried scrambling up it, and shoved her over by the bottoms of the feet. She hit the ground unceremoniously with a loud thud and groaned as she thought of how dirty she must’ve gotten her blouse. Chace dropped from the fence gracefully, and offered her a hand, which she took. She was about to thank him, when she actually saw the police cars driving down the road towards the gate to the community. Chace was already prying through the black iron fence, climbing through and sprinting for the backyard next door to the community. Adria slipped through the fence and gave chase. He started to vault over the next privacy fence, but stopped halfway, headbutting the fence as he slid to his knees and hooked his fingers together to form a platform. Adria stepped onto his hand and was doing fine climbing, until Chace shoved her up and over. She managed to roll into the fall, and pushed herself off the ground with flat palms, glowering over to him as he dropped down beside her. It was impossible to be upset at him when he constantly wore the same expression of an excited puppy, though.
Three more backyards, thankfully only the third had another damned privacy fence, and that most everyone seemed to be out front of their homes goggling at the swarm of police cars blocking the main road. Just as she was about to attempt scrambling up the exterior fence to the third yard, chase grabbed her sleeve, and nodded towards the pool. “What?” Adria hissed. “You want to go for a swim? Are you insane?” Chace just looked amused, which was getting increasingly frustrating as the night went on. He stepped to the grill, hefted it quietly up, and picked up the brick that held up one of the wobbly legs before handing it to her. She hesitantly took it, squinting her eyes at him as he stepped around her. The next thing she knew Chace’s palm hit the small of her back and she was slowly sinking to the bottom of the pool, with water filling her mouth and nose. It was weird to feel like you were drowning when you knew you couldn’t. Chace didn’t join her. After a minute, she wondered if he’d gotten caught. It was silent in the depths of the pool. It was lonely, and almost unbearable to think of what might be happening up top. How loud had the splashing sound been? Did someone hear her falling into the pool? She told herself that he was just hunting for something to weigh him down, pressing her head back against the wall of the pool, staring upwards and waiting for the familiar black leather jacket and floppy green hair to come into view. It didn’t. She didn’t know how long she waited, but she knew dawn was coming. Her eyes were trying to close, her body was growing stiffer. Then a hand gripped the collar of her shirt and drug her up and she found herself flopping on the paving stones of the backyard like a dying fish. Water poured out of her mouth, and it tasted awful. She raised her hand to wipe her eyes, squinting up at the cheerful man. “Where were you?” She tried, brow knitted and lips down-turned.
“Oh, I was tryna get them off your tail. Didn’t want them catching you.” He said, clearly proud of himself. “And cops never catch me.” He grinned smugly, patting her on her shoulder and hefting her to her feet as he stood up. She dropped the brick and it hit the ground heavily. Like she had. After they jumped every fence.
“I thought you’d left me.” She hushed. “I thought you’d ditched me because I was slow.” Chace’s amusement left, and now he just looked confused.
“Slow? If you were slow I would’ve just carrie-” Adria sniffled, eyes watering - rather bleeding since she’d lost the ability to form tears after her death - and Chace frowned. For the first time that night. It made her feel even worse. He wrapped her up in a hug, and she almost thought about fighting the weird, stranger who didn’t even know her name off of her...but it’d been so long since she’d felt a hug, and he obviously meant well. She tried to pretend like she wasn’t crying into some chaotic strangers shirt in the backyard of a random citizen sopping with pool water after vandalizing the mayor's car. She did. And it worked for a moment, until a tapping caught their attention. They both turned to the glass sliding door to see a small, chubby, red-headed child with a cereal bowl in one hand, and his other hand outstretched to tap on the window. Adria immediately scrunched up her lips and bared her fangs, trying to scare the child - God knows no one would believe there was a vampire with bloody tears running down her face hissing at a child through his backdoor like a rabid opossum. The child dropped the bowl instead though, shouting something as his hand reached for the sliding door. Chace didn’t seem particularly concerned, but Adria was already trying to ditch.
“ARE YOU VAMPIRES?” A chipper young voice hissed out discreetly. Adria turned her head down to look at the door from halfway over the fence. A mousy brown haired boy with pale skin and dark bags under his eyes stared at the pair from further back in the room, a half eaten pop tart in hand.
“Vvhy yess, vve are childe.” Chace said in a terrible mock accent.
“Are...are you two home alone?” Adria asked, still atop the fence.
“Oh god, they’re awful scam artists Jules, close the door.” The brown haired boy groaned. The red head nodded though.
“Yeah, dad left for work half an hour ago and mom left to drop Mikey of-” The brown haired boy stepped up to the door, and slowly drug the door closed, staring Chace in the eyes the entire time, before turning and saying something to his friend. The red head didn’t seem to comply and slid the door back open. “Okay Liam says that I shouldn’t tell you guys so much but I just wanted to say it’s cool to meet vampires, thanks for dropping by.” He said, starting to slide the door closed.
“Kid, Jules, was it?” Adria tried. “Want to make a deal with me?” She asked and Liam sighed, staring at Julian like he was a moron.
“Oh, sure yeah, what kind of deal?” He asked, hanging his head further out the door.
“I’ll give you this,” She held up a silver ring with a small sodalite stone in it. “In exchange for not telling anyone about what we are, or that you saw us.”
“I mean, no one would believe me even if I did.”
“Well all good deeds must go rewarded, no?” She replied, tossing the ring to him. Julian stared at it for a moment, perhaps entranced by the fact that it appeared to be an expensive ring.
“Oh, hey, how are you guys going to get home before the sun comes up? Do you live nearby?” Adria looked up at the sky, which was progressively getting lighter, then back down to Chace. She didn’t have a home, and she didn’t know where his was.
“Eh, I mean...we might get a little toasty but I’m sure we’ll make it home.” Chace shrugged. The little ginger threw open the door.
“You guys can crash in the basement if you want!” He said, causing the other boy to completely give up, and walk in the other room. Adria actually considered, pursing her lips as she did so. “Don’t worry, we don’t use the basement for much of anything, it’s just a storage room and it doesn’t have windows, so you’ll be safe until tonight.” Julian said, smiling widely for just a second before his chunky electronic watch began beeping. “The bus!!” He shrieked, and started to run back inside. “OH yeah,” He halted. “It’s nice to meet you guys and you’re welcome to come inside. We don’t have any radishes or anything.”
“It’s GARLIC Julian.” the other boy shouted as he clicked open the front door.
“NO!” The ginger shouted, sprinting after his the other boy. Adria and Chace just stared for a second, unsure of what exactly just happened. Had a child seriously just invited them into his home? Had a child seriously not been terrified at the thought of a horrible creature of the night. Probably a twilight fan. Chace stepped inside the house, looking around, picking up a snow-globe from the assortment on the mantle.
“Seriously?” Adria tried. “Chace NO.” She groaned in complaint, trying to get him to understand how ridiculous this was, just as a beam of sunlight shot over the trees and hit her square in the forehead, sizzling the flesh, the pain causing her to lose her balance. It was only the sixth time of falling over a 7 foot fence that night, it’d stopped hurting so much after the fourth, not to mention she couldn’t feel much past the crackling burn on her face. “Okay, okay, we’ll crash in some kids basement.” She resigned, following Chase inside and closing the door behind her. It was a nice, pristine house. Your typical suburban family dwelling. Lots of family pictures on the wall, crocheted doilies on the tables, snow-globes - how tacky.
“You never told me your name.” Chace said, without the slightest bit of suspicion to it. In fact he seemed to be attempting to locate the remote control for the television. “You don’t have to tell me though, if you don’t want to.” He said, shrugging as he plopped down on the couch and channel surfing.
“Are you not tired?” She asked, furrowing her brows at him. He shrugged. Why did she have the urge to literally die and he seemed content to stay awake for the rest of the morning? “I’m...I’m Adria. It’s nice to actually meet you Chace.” She said, folding her arms as she turned her head to watch whatever he landed on for more than five seconds. He didn’t land on many, for more than five seconds.
“You can stay with me, if you want.” He replied, after a bit, pausing his channel surfing to look up at her. “I can help protect you from whatever it is you’re running from.” He offered, and Adria felt her face scrunch.
“I don’t know why you’d offer that to a stranger.”
“You’re not a stranger though,” He said gleefully. “you’re Adria.” She pursed her lips at him and he shrugged again. “Like I said, you look like you need somebody. I’m somebody. I’m not trying to force you into making any decisions though.”
“Thank you.” She hushed, and Chace gave her a serious look. “Not many people have given me the time of day since this happened. Not even people like you or me. I just.., don’t want someone who’s genuinely kind to get hurt because of me.” She said, wiping her cheek dry and staring at her bloody hand in disgust. Chace was silent for a second, then nearly fell off the couch laughing.
“After tonight, I think you getting me hurt would make us even, pal.” He said, recovering from his wheezing fit enough to stand up and turn off the TV. “Okay, okay we’d better find the basement, who knows when the kids mom will be home.” He said, starting off through the house. Adria was getting more and more confused to who this man was and what possible motive he could have for being so kind to her, but she was beginning to accept that he might genuinely be doing this out of the kindness of his heart. She didn’t want to get close to another kind person, just to realize she’d somehow tricked them into being her friend. She didn’t know if she wanted another friend. On the other hand, she didn’t think she could beat Chace in a fight, so maybe if it was a trick she wouldn’t have to worry about the outcome. She followed.
Chase was opening a closet when she found him, he closed it and moved on to the next door. “Do you think that kid is going to rat us out?” Adria asked. Chace stopped, thought about it for a second, then shook his head.
“Seemed honest.” He said, opening another door. A bathroom. He closed the door, and tried the next, the one at the end of the hall. A descent into a pitch black room. He started down it, turning on a light dangling loosely from the ceiling by a thin, beaded string. Adria followed him down stairs, closing the door behind her. It was a tiny room, filled with a bunch of junk. Enough space to spend the day though.
“Do you think there’s rats down here?”
“Ehhh….did you see how clean it was up there? I doubt it.” Chace replied, standing and investigating the state of the basement. “I mean, it is a trainwreck down here though. Maybe.”
“Augh.” Adria frowned, investigating for signs of vermin. She didn’t fancy getting gnawed on while she slept. Most of the things in the basement, didn’t appear to have been touched since they moved here. Boxes, plastic tubs doubtlessly full of things, tacky angels and knickknacks on old, falling apart shelves. She did find a moving blanket, and tossed it down beside the stairwell, which was hopefully out of sight if anyone opened up the door. A crashing sound caught her attention, and she turned to see Chace balancing most of a box on one hand and holding up one, purple rectangle with straps on it.
“MOON BOOTS.” He shouted, excitedly, ignoring the plastic dinosaur that had taken a hard spill from the box in his hand.
“What?” She furrowed her brows and he looked taken aback.
“Moon boots. MOON BOOTS.” He tossed one towards her, while he scrambled through the box for the other. The moon boot hit the wall beside her, and she stared at it on the ground. “I can’t believe you don’t remember moon boots. How old are you?” He asked.
“Twenty four.” She said, dryly. “This is not a boot. It’s not even shaped like a boot?”
“AHA.” He sent half a deck of Yu-gi-oh cards flying through the air as he pulled another boot out, and dropped the box on the ground next to the dinosaur, stumbling as he tried to strap the boot onto his too large foot. “Throw me the other one.” He said, and Adria did so. Soon, Chace was walking goofily around in circles. “They’re anti-gravity boots. It’s like walking on air.” He said dramatically. Adria tried to hide her amusement, which was short lived as the front door slammed closed. Both Adria and Chace halted all movement, and Adria climbed up the stairs from the side, clicking the lights off before whoever came home saw the light from under the door. Chace turned on his phone screen so that she could make her way back to the floor without falling, and she settled on the moving blanket. Chace moon-booted his way over to the side of the stairwell also, settling down against the conjoining wall. Adria wasn’t wholly comfortable with letting herself go unconscious in this strange basement. She trusted Chace though. She didn’t know why she did, but she did. If he felt safe, she supposed she could too.
“Hey, Chace?” She hushed, ensuring to keep her voice low enough that no one would hear her.
“Yeah?”
“I had fun tonight.” It felt dumb to say it, seeing as how her face probably looked like someone left plastic on the stove top, and she every inch of her felt sore. She heard Chace laughing, quite obviously physically forcing himself to keep quiet.
“Me too.” He wheezed, causing Adria to grin into the darkness, it was safe now that he couldn’t see her. What a dummy. Part of her wanted to tell him that she was glad she ran into him, the other half didn’t want to be so open. Truth be told this was the most she’d felt in a while. Even if most of it was utter shock and exasperation. She was happy to have a friend. She hoped he would be okay with being her friend.
