Chapter Two - A New Home

Erica was right about the quack shack being the first stop. I got my ankle wrapped, an ice pack, and some frowns over the forming bruises. Nothing broken but I am going to be black and blue for days. The doctor asked some questions about boyfriends and stuff. She gave me an excuse note, pain killers, and told me to go home.

No way was I going back to the dorm. I limped down to the small cafe in the clinic and sat at a table. I picked up a campus paper from the table and opened it to The Housing section. Dorm rules were out of the question. Howard Hall and Landsdale Hill were the only two that took in girls under twenty. I'm not old enough to qualify for the coed dorms.

I dug in my backpack, found my cell phone, and started dialing numbers. The first person told me that they already found somebody and hung up before I could say thanks. The second sounded like a weird guy. The third one was a weird old lady. The forth one...., Well, the fourth one was just plain weird. The fifth listing down read, Three roommates seeking fourth, huge old house, privacy assured, reasonable rent and utilities. I called and got an answering machine with a mellow-sounding, young male voice. "Hello, you've reached The Glass House, If you're looking for Michael, he sleeps days, if you're looking for Shane, good luck with that, cause we never know where the hell he is, and if you're looking for Eve, you'll probably get her on her cell phone or at the shop. But hey leave a message, and if you're looking to audition for the room, come on by, it's 716 West Lot Street. Yeah just look for the mansion, Gone With The Wind meets The Munsters. Laughter and then a beep. "My name is Claire, Claire Danvers, and I um... was um... Sorry" and I hung up. I checked the rest of the listings, and felt my heart sink a little. Fine I thought, and snapped my phone shut, then open again to call a cab.

It didn't take too long for the cab to get to the clinic to pick me up. I got into the cab and told the driver "716 West Lot Street ." "Gone With The Wind meets The Munsters right? You meeting someone?" The cabbie asks. "No. Why?" I reply. The cabbie shrugged, "Usually you kids are meeting up with friends. If you're looking for a good time," he starts off as I interrupt him. I shivered. "I'm not.. I'm... Yes, I'm meeting people. If you could hurry please?" I say. He grunted and took a right turn, and the cab went from college town to creepy town in one block flat. "Lot Street," The cabbie announced, and squealed to a stop. "That will be ten fifty," he said. I paid him the money I owed him and got out of the cab. I hoisted my backpack again, hit a bruise on my shoulder, and nearly dropped the weight on my foot. Tears stung at my eyes. All of a sudden I felt tired, shaky, and scared again. At least at campus I'd kind of been on relatively familiar ground, but out here in town it was like being a stranger all over again. I counted the house numbers, and realized I was standing in front of 716. I turned and looked behind me, and gasped. Because whoever the guy was on the phone, he'd been dead on right in his description. 716 looked like a movie set, something straight out of the civilwar. The place was huge. Well, not huge, but bigger than I had imagined. 

This was such a bad idea, I thought, and there were those tears again, bubbling up along with panic. What am I going to do? Walk up to the door and beg to be a roommate? How lame was that? I dropped my backpack, burried my bruised face in both hands, and just started sobbing. "Hey," a concerned girls voice said behind me. "Hey are you ok? My name is Eve," The girl said, and smiled. Her smile faded, and she took a good look at my face. "Wow Jeez, nice black eye. Who hit you?" Eve asks. "Nobody, I had an accident," I reply. "Yeah, I used to have those kinds of accidents, falling into fists and stuff. Are you ok? I can drive you to the doctor if you would like?" She says. "I.... Look I'm sorry, it's been an awful day. I was coming to ask about the room," I started to say, as Eve interrupts me. "Right, the room!" Eve snaps her fingers as, she'd forgotten all about it, and jumped up and down in excitement. "Great! I'm home for break, I work over at Common Grounds, you know, the coffee shop? And Michael won;t be up for a while yet, but you can come in and see the house if you want, I don't know if Shane's around, but..." she says. "I don't know if I should....." "You totally should. You wouldn't believe the freaks we see trying to get in the door. You're the first normal one I've seen so far. Michael would kick my ass if I let you get away without at least trying a sales pitch," she says. "Yeah, I'd like that," I reply. Eve grabbed my backpack and slung it over her shoulder. "Follow me," she says as she bounces away, up the walk to the front porch to unlock the door. Up close the house looked old, but not really run down. "Yo!" Eve yells, and dumps my backpack on a table. "Roomies! We've got a live one!" Eve yells. I stop moving, frozen, and just look around. Nothing overtly creepy about the inside of the house, at least. It smells like chilli? "Yo!" Eve yells again, and clumps down the hall. "Shane, I smell the chilli. I know your here! Get your headphones out of your ears," she yells again. I take a couple of hesitant steps down the hallway. Eve's footsteps are clinking off into another room, maybe the kitchen. The house seems very quiet. Nothing jumps out to scare me, so I proceed, one careful foot after another, all the way into the family room.

As I enter the family room, I spot a guy lying sprawled on the couch, the way only guys sprawl, yawns and sits up. He surprises me into silence by grinning at me and putting his finger over his mouth to shush me. "Hey," he whispers. "What's up?" He asks as he blinks a couple of times, and without any change of his expression, says, "Dude, that's a badass shiner. Hurts huh? So I guess you're gonna say the other chic looks worse?" He asks. "No, I um... How did you know it was?" I start to say. "A chick? Easy. Size you are, a guys would have put you in the hospital with a punch hard enough to leave a mark like that. So what's up with that? You don't look like you go looking for trouble," he says. "I'm Claire," I say and wave awkwardly. "Hi," says and nods toward a leather chair. I slide into it, feet dangling, and feel a weird sense of relief wash over me. "You want something? Coke maybe? Chilli? Bus ticket back home?" He says and grins at me. "Coke and chilli please," I ask. "Good choice," he says as he slides off of the couch weirdly, boneless for his size and padded bare foot into the kitchen where Eve had gone. I listen to a blur of voices as the two of them talk, and relax, one muscle at a time, into the soft embrace of the chair.

I open my eyes at the sound of Eves boots clomping back into the room. She calls me into the kitchen to eat the chilli Shane had made, sits an ice pack on the counter. "Ice pack first. You can never tell what Shane puts in the chilli. Be afraid," she says. Shane flops on a chair in the kitchen next to me, sucking on his own can of coke... Eve shot him an exasperated look. "Yeah man, thanks for bringing me one too," she says. "Dork! Didn't know if you wanted zombie dirt sprinkled on it or anything, if you're eating this week," Shane replies to Eve. "Go on and eat Claire, I'll get my own," says Eve. I pick up the spoon and try a small bite of the chilli, which is thick, meaty, spicey, and heavy on the garlic. Delicious in fact. "Well how is it?" Shane asks. "It's very good," I say. he gives me a lazy salute. By the time I'm halfway done through the bowl, Eve is back with her bowl of chilli, which she plunks down on the counter next to me. Eve sits in the chair next to me, crosses her legs, and digs in. "Not bad. At least you left the oh-my-god-sauce this time," she says. "Made myself a batch with it. It's got the biohazard sticker on it in the fridge, so don't complain if you get flamed. Where'd you pick up the stray? Shane asks. "Outside. She came to see the room," Eve replies. "You beat her up first, just to make sure she's tough enough?" Shane asks. "Bite me chilli boy," Eve shot back. "Don't mind Eve, she hates working days. She's afraid she'll tan," Shane says. "Yeah, and  Shane just hates working. So what's your name?" Eve asks. I open my mouth but Shane beat me to it, happy to one-up his roomie. "Claire. What, you didn't even ask? A chic beat her up too. Probably some skank in the dorms. You know how that place is," Shane says. They exchange a long look. "Is that true? You got beat up in the dorm?" Eve asks. I nod, as I shovel more food in my mouth to keep from having to say much. "Well that blows. No wonder you're looking for the room. You didn't bring much with you," Eve says. "I don't have much. Just the books and maybe some things back at my room. But I..... Don't want to go back there to get stuff. Not tonight," I reply. "Why not? Somebody still looking to pound you?" Shane asks. "I guess so. It's not just her, she's got friends and I don't," I reply.

We all head back into the living room so that we can carry on our conversation more comfortably. "That place is just.... well, it's creepy," I start off. "Been there, oh wait still there," Eve says. "What time is Michael getting up?" Eve asks. "Hell Eve, I don't know. I love the guy, but I don't love the guy. Go bang on his door and ask him. As for me, I'm gonna go and get ready,"Shane says. "Ready for what? You're not seriously going out again are you?" Eve asks Shane. "Seriously yeah. Bowling. Her name's Laura. If you want more details, you're gonna have to download the video like everybody else!" Shane says as he heads to the second floor. "See you later Claire," Shane says. Eve made a frustrated sound. "Wait a minute! So what you say? You think she'd do ok here, or what?" Eve says. Shane waves a hand. "Whatever man. Far as I'm concerned, she's ok," Shane says."Guys,"Eve sighs. "Damn, it would be good to have another girl in here. They're all like yeah whatever, and when it comes to picking up the place or washing dishes, they turn into ghosts," Eve says. "Um, I guess I should ask about the room? I ask. "Well, you have to talk to Michael, and he has to say yes, but Michael's a sweetie, really. Oh, and he owns this place. His family does anyway. i think they moved away and left him the house a couple of years ago. He's about six months older than I am. We're all about eighteen. Michael's sort of the oldest," Eve says. "he sleeps days?" I ask. "Yeah. I mean I like to sleep days, but he has a thing about it. I called him a vampire once, cause he really doesn't like being up in the daytime. Like ever. He didn't think it was very funny," Eve says. "You're sure he isn't a vampire? I've seen movies. They're sneaky," I say. I was kidding. Eve didn't even smile. "Oh pretty sure. For one thing, he eats Shane's chilli, which God knows, has enough garlic to explode a dozen high-quality Dracs. And I made him touch a cross once," Eve says as she takes a big swallow of her coke. "You what? Made him?" I say in shock. "Well sure.... I mean a girl can't be too careful, especially around here," She replies.

"In Morganville? You know? Eve says. "What about it?" I ask. "How can you not know? Morganville's full of vampires," Eve says. I started laughing because I don't believe in such things. Eve didn't find it funny at all. She just stands there with her arms crossed looking very serious. "Um... You're kidding? How many kids graduate TPU every year?" Eve asks. "I don't know. It's a crappy college, most everybody transfers out...." I reply. "Everybody leaves. Or at least stops showing up right? I can't believe you don't know this. Didn't anybody tell you the score before you moved in? Look, the vamps run the town. They're in charge, and either you're in, or you're out. If you work for them, if you pretend they're not here and they don't exist, and you look the other way when things happen, then you and your family get a free pass. You get protection. Otherwise...."Eve says. Eve pulls a finger across her throat and bugs out her eyes. "Right. No wonder nobody rented a room with these people, they're all nuts, I thought. "You think I'm wacko? I get that. I'd think I was too, except I grew up in a protected house. My dad works for the water company and my mom is a teacher, but we all wear these," she says. She extends her wrist. On it is a black leather bracelet, with a symbol on it in red, nothing I had ever seen before. "See how mine's red? Expired. It's like health insurance. Kids are only covered until they're eighteen. Mine was up six months ago. Might as well stop wearing it, I guess. It sure wouldn't fool anyone," Eve says as she drops it on the table. "Fine, think I'm nuts. Why wouldn't I be? And I won't try to convince you or anything, just....don't go out after dusk unless you're with somebody. Somebody protected, if you can find them. Look for the bracelet," she says as she nudges the bracelet on the table. "The symbol's white when it's active," She says. "But I... Is Shane?" I ask. "Shane? Protected? As if! Even if he was, which i doubt, he'd never admit it, and he doesn't wear the bracelet or anything. Michael isn't either, but there's sort of a standard protection on houses. We're sort of outcasts here. there's safety in numbers too," she says.

Without even knowing I was going to do it, I yawned. Eve laughed. "Call it a bedtime story," she says. "Listen, let me show you the room. Worst case, you lie down for a while, let the ice pack work, then bug out. Or hey, you wake up and decide you want to talk to Michael before you leave. your choice," she says. I dig into my pocket, find the package of pills the doctor had prescribed for me, and swallow one with the last gulp of coke. Then I head into the kitchen and help Eve with the dishes. When we finished, we went to head to the second floor so that Eve could show me the room. Eve turns around as we reach the top of the first step and says... "Hey do you think you can make it up the stairs? Because you know?" She says. "I'm ok," I reply. I lied. My ankle hurts like hell, but I want to see the room. As we reach the second floor, Eve pointed and named..." Shane's the first door, Michaels' the second door, the main bathroom is the third door. The second bathroom is downstairs that's kind of the emergency back-up bathroom when Shane's in there mousing his hair for like an hour or something," she says. "Bit me," Shane yells from behind a closed door. Eve pounds her fist on the door and leads me to the last two doors. "This one's mine. Yours is in the middle there," she says. When Eve swings the door open, I actually gasp. "Is that a TV?" I ask. "Yeah. satel-lite cable. You'd pitch in, though, unless you want to take it out of the room. Oh, and there's internet too. broadband, over there. I should probably warn you, they monitor internet traffic around here though. You have to be careful of what you say in messages and stuff. You don't have to decide right now. You ought to rest first. Here, here's your ice pack. When you get up, Michael'll probably be awake. I have to get back to work, but it'll be ok. Really," she says. "Thank you Eve," I say. "This... Wow," I say. "Yeah, well, you look like you could use a little wow today. Sleep well, and don't worry, the vampires won't come in here. This house has protection, even if we don't," she says. I turn that over in my mind for a few seconds as Eve left the room and shut the door. the pain medication kicks in and I fall into a deep sleep.