WHO: Francis and OPEN WHAT: There's a new kid in town. WHERE: Out front of some house somewhere. WHEN: Friday, early afternoon
Francis was used to moving. In fact, he couldn't remember the last time his family had lived in one place for more than a couple of months since their parents had died. Mom and Dad had kept things quiet, kept things calm. They had been able to keep things under control. Try as he may, big brother David had just never really had that sort of luck. So Francis, and he supposed probably the others as well, had begun to develop a sort of science to packing.
When it came down to it, of course, Francis supposed that most people might think it was strange - how he could fit his entire life into one bag. He had a trunk as well, one he kept lugging around, moving from house to house, town to town, even though he could hardly remember what all was even inside of it anymore, but that trunk only stayed with him for all of the memories. His mother had driven home the importance of keeping the good things, however intangible, close to one's heart. It was a lesson that he liked to think that he'd learned relatively well before she'd died.
In the usual rush and with his thoughts wandering along those lines like wild things trying to avoid more recent memories, he stuffed old family photos and his cigarettes and the limited contents of his closet into his backpack, unplugged the lamp and sets it by the door in case David wanted to take it along. Then he hurried out of his bedroom, bag tossed over his shoulder and camcorder in hand, and decisively set himself on the path for the front door and, ultimately, the car. Hence the look of confusion on the face of the gangly youth who was then to be found staring out from under the pulled up hood of his sweatshirt, standing on the front porch of a little house with absolutely no familiar vehicles waiting for him outside.
In the wake of the greatest, most terrifying, and maybe the most life-changing event of a young vampire's life, confusion and panic can trade places quite quickly. It is not a good time to be alone. Francis, in fact, has never been very good at any time at being alone.
They wouldn't have left without him. They were more family now than they'd ever been. David had promised things would get better. The twins had gone out of their way to be nice to him. Fuck. They'd even brought Lenny out of The Box. There should have been a car and a pick-up and a pile of possessions waiting for him in the front lawn. They wouldn't have just... left.
His bag and his body both made a hollow sort of thunk against the wood of the step that he landed on when his legs gave out, and he curved his shoulders in to protect himself. He needed to think. In the process of that, he needed to blend in, just in case anyone noticed him. So he sat there, a hunched form, the perfect picture of your average, awkward, and very lost, sort of young man, watching a strange, new world go by on the fold-out screen of his camera.