Zania Castell (brokendoll) wrote in the_dome, @ 2013-07-15 00:53:00 |
|
|||
Entry tags: | 04-05-2017, clementine, clementine and zania, zania |
Crazy Little Secret
Who: Clementine and Zania
Where: Their House
When: Just before dawn
Clementine had been really nervous ever since Zania’s text. She wanted to run out and see if she could find Zania, Lochlan, Skylar, Mannix or any number of other people, but she had been fairly warned and staying inside seemed logical even if she yearned to make sure others were safe too.
She’d tried spinning yarn but she hadn’t been able to focus properly and gave up about as soon as she tried. Mostly she just sat on the couch, picking at a loose thread on one of her knitted wraps while she waited for Zania to get home.
It was close to dawn by the time Zania came in, blood on her hands, hair, clothes, and face. She’d found one more wolf after leaving Jack at the hospital, then stopped by Mickey’s to pick up the bag of blood she had in his fridge. Despite the amount of blood on her person, she didn’t find animal blood nearly as appealing as the human blood in the bag.
The lights had yet to come on when she stepped into the house, quietly slipping off her shoes. She’d expected Clementine to be in bed, but a heartbeat on the couch told her differently. “Are you still up?” she asked, realizing that if she was, she would have to explain her appearance.
Clementine was standing the second she heard the door open. "Yeah, still here. Wanted to make sure you were ok." She headed over to it, to make sure she could see Zania and saw something she didn't necessarily want to. "Holy shit, Zania…You're all bloody! Did they get you? Did the wolves get you? We should..you should sit down. We should probably go to the hospital or something…"
“I’m okay,” Zania said, trying to appease Clementine as she led them both towards the bathroom. She needed to get the blood off her hands. She wasn’t sitting anywhere as she was. “The wolves didn’t get me, but they got my brother. And this guy, Jack. I helped ‘em both to the hospital, then hunted down another.” Three wolves, yet she still didn’t feel satisfied.
"They got your…shit, Zania…Is he ok?" Following after her, the rest of Zania's story set in. "Wait…how did you..you hunted down three wolves, the kind of wolves that are dropping people apparently, and you're ok? Are you some sort of Rambo or something?" She went for a towel and wet it from the sink before she reached for Zania's hands to start rubbing at the blood there.
“Justin’s okay. I’m not sure about Jack,” she said, leaning against the bathroom counter as Clementine tried to help her with the blood. Zania thought it might be better to put her hands completely under the water, but she wasn’t going to turn down help. “Well, I had help with the first two, and the third, I just... needed to let off some steam,” she said, pausing for a second, before continuing. “Would you freak out if I was something? Not Rambo, but something else.”
That didn’t exactly make a lot of sense to her. What could Zania be that wasn’t Rambo but was something worth possibly freaking out over? After a moment, she looked up at the girl and shrugged. “I mean...I don’t think so...” She’d been brought up to not pass judgement on anyone, but this conversation seemed really strange. “This sounds ominous. Are you a really skilled zombie?” She asked, trying to lighten the heavy, heavy mood but thinking she might have failed.
“No,” Zania said with a little laugh. She was dead, though, or something like it. That wasn’t a comparison she wanted to use, since it was even more frightening, considering what zombies had done to the world. “Do you remember when people got bitten by bats and then died? I got bitten, but I didn’t die.” That seemed like the best place to start, though she knew things got a little strange from there on out. She wondered how long it would be before Clementine realized she had no reflection in the bathroom mirror. “Instead, I became a vampire.”
Clementine had angled herself so she was facing Zania and not the mirror. Her hands stilled when Zania talked and she was only now starting to realize that she was cooler than she expected. She hadn't thought much about it, hadn't even really noticed it, until now. The words filtered through her mind slowly and Clementine looked up to see Zania again as she tried to process. "Woah. That's…kinda crazy." She said, eyes a little wide, voice a little high. "Like…The Vampire Lestat and stuff? This is a real thing? I mean…zombies are a real thing, why wouldn't vampires be but still, you know?"
“It’s really crazy,” Zania said with a nervous laugh. She wasn’t worried about Clementine staking her, but she was concerned about freaking out a friend. It was a reasonable response, though, so she couldn’t really blame her. “I wouldn’t have believed it, except... well, there are some pretty obvious ways to tell. I can show you, if you want. If you don’t freak out on me? I didn’t want to tell you, but I was starting to think you should know.” She didn’t want to keep it from her roommate, but she was pretty sure that, if the situation were reversed, she would have had a small class meltdown.
Clementine watched Zania for another moment, letting the words roll through her mind again. She was a vampire. Her roommate was a vampire. It was a lot less frightening than it would have been if zombies weren't a thing, because they were horrifying and if vampires were like Zania then Clementine could totally get behind that. "…Yeah, I'd like to see. And I have some questions but you can tell me to shut up if you don't want to answer them. I'm…pretty glad you told me because this seems like something I'd want to know. What if I start cooking with garlic or something and didn't know, you know?"
“I can still eat garlic,” Zania smiled, feeling a little better at how calmly Clementine seemed to be. That could only be a good thing... unless she was quietly trying to remember where she put her wooden stakes. “Check out the bathroom mirror,” she said with a nod towards it. “It still freaks me out.” She was sure it was supposed to be a predator’s strength, but she just found it annoying. “Can I jump in the shower while you ask me questions? I don’t want to track blood in the house.”
Clementine turned and stared at her reflection and the nothingness beside it. "Woah….that is trippy. Really trippy…and yeah, I guess, really annoying too. That sucks! Well if you ever want someone to tell you you look awesome or if there's a hair out of place or something, I'm your girl." She put the towel down on the counter and looked back at the reflection before it started to weird her out too much and she turned to focus on Zania instead. "Want me to step outside while you get in?"
Zania smiled, appreciating the offer. She was slowly learning to put her makeup on without a mirror, but eye-liner was never going to happen. She’d never be able to tell if it was straight or not. At least she’d given up on her hair ages ago. “Thanks,” she said. “It’s taken some getting used to and I might need that sometime. Maybe just turn away for a sec?” She wasn’t body conscious in the least, so she stripped down to her bra and panties before climbing in the shower and shedding those as well. “So I know you’ve got questions,” she said, turning on the water. “Where do you want to start?”
"Well, I'm here," Clementine promised, even as she turned so that Zania could have some privacy. "Well…Ok, so garlic doesn't bother you but what does? I guess I should know the vampire pros and cons, or something? Right? So I don't inadvertently hurt you."
“Sunlight,” Zania answered, washing her hands under the spray of water as she let it get warm. “I was already a night owl, but now I can’t go out at all when it’s sunny. It burns and I think if I stayed out long enough I’d catch on fire.” In fact, she was fairly certain, since there were people that had caught on fire after the bat incident. They were probably vampires who walked out into the sun. “Otherwise, I’m not sure you could hurt me unless you tried to cut my heart out or something. Or cut my head off. I’m not sure.”
"Well, lucky I'm not trying to hurt you so that's good." She smiled a little as she settled back on the counter. "So you drink blood, real blood, I guess? Where do you get it from?" The idea of her friend starving, even if this unusual situation, had Clementine instantly concerned. "Do you have to drink it from people?"
Zania put her head under the spray of water and watched it turn red, washing the blood from her hair. She’d known she was a mess, but now she was surprised that Clementine hadn’t run off screaming. It would be nice to be clean again. “December and Mickey found out the day I turned and December was kind enough to donate some blood for us. I’ve been sipping on that for a week.” At least she didn’t have to drink it from the person, especially considering the new information she’d acquired. “I don’t have to drink it from people. In fact, so far all I’ve done is drink from a bag.”
“But you’re gonna run out of it after a while, right?” She asked, looking back at the shower curtain. “Because I can donate some. I...does drinking from a person change them into a vampire? I’ve always wondered that...” Maybe they didn’t know the answer yet, but Clementine wasn’t sure she was ready to be the guinea pig for that.
“I don’t think so, but the other vampire I know has tried it and I don’t think he created another vampire in the process,” Zania said. It was a good question, but she didn’t think they had that to worry about. She would have heard by now if that was the case. “He did say that the person he bit enjoyed it. Like really enjoyed it.”
“Huh....well, that’s good, because I have blood to offer but I don’t know if I want to be a vampire.” She said, looking back at the curtain again. “But you can drink from me, if you want. I mean..with all the craziness going on, what if you run out of blood and need to eat and I’m the only one around anyway? I wouldn’t want you to have to go hungry.” Besides, Zania was now officially the strongest friend Clementine had and if either of them had to protect the house from some crazy wolves, Clementine was sure as hell going to hide behind Zania as much as possible. She might as well give something in return.
Zania smiled to herself. It was a really sweet offer, one that she might have to take Clementine up on eventually. Justin wasn’t in a position to give blood now and Nic, well, she didn’t know how he was doing. Mickey had just donated to Mannix, so she didn’t want to ask him. That made her list of people who could donate rather small. “Thanks,” she said as she began to wash her hair. “I haven’t fed from a person before, so we’ll have to figure out the safest way for us to do that, but I appreciate it.”
"Yeah, we can figure it out. I trust you, though," Clementine said. "Never thought I'd be having this conversation, but I trust you." She grinned a little to herself, thinking of how crazy this whole thing was. Not necessarily any crazier than zombies, in her mind, but still pretty crazy. "So…Is there anything I can do to make living with a not-vampire easier?"
“Seriously?” Zania laughed, rinsing the shampoo from her hair. “You’re not inconveniencing me in the least! I was afraid you’d freak out and want me to move out. The only thing I have trouble working around is the sun, but otherwise things are pretty normal. Well, as normal as they can be. You don’t mind if I keep blood in the fridge, do you?” That was one of the things she’d needed to avoid until telling Clementine, but now she could do it, so long as she was okay with it.
“Why would I freak out? We just survived a zombie apocalypse. I don’t think there’s a reason to freak out when it comes to light that there are vampires too.” Clementine said, smiling. “Besides, if all vampires are like you, then that’s cool by me. Vampires are people too, right? And hell yeah you can keep blood in the fridge. It’s half your fridge, who am I to tell you not to? Besides, I don’t want you getting sick off of bad blood...which I intend to make a lot of jokes about from now on out, so just fair warning.” She smiled a little more, swishing her legs while she sat on the counter. “Hey, who’s that other vampire you mentioned earlier? Or...do you not want to tell me?”
“I guess I was afraid you’d jump to the whole ‘vampires are scary’ bit, which I really wouldn’t blame you for. There’s not a lot of movies out there where vampires are good, you know?” Zania thought that she might have been scared if she wasn’t one herself, but being one gave her a different perspective. She’d always been open minded and now she was even more than before. “I’m not sure I should say, since it’s not my secret to tell, buuuuut the trader who was over the other night? Mannix? He turned the day after I did.” And hopefully he wouldn’t be pissed as Zania telling Clementine his secret. She was taking it so well that Zania didn’t really see the harm in it.
"Vampires are only scary if they're the ones in the movies. Movies don't tell anything truthfully." Clementine shrugged again. "You still deserve the benefit of the doubt, you know? Not gonna automatically jump to thinking you're gonna kill me or anything." She listened intently to the reveal of the second vampire and gave a little gasp at the name. "…That little jerk, he didn't tell me either? And he smoked my pot!" She said, though it was mostly with a laugh and a grin on her face. "Well, I'll just have to let him know that I know now." Maybe Mannix could use the same offer, her blood when he needed it. "Is he the person that drank from someone already and they liked it? Maybe he could help us figure out the best way for you to drink from someone?"
Zania knew it was too much to ask for everyone to be as open-minded, but she appreciated that she was. It was nice not to have to defend herself or prove that she wasn’t a threat to anyone else, even if she wasn’t entirely sure of that herself. “It’s not exactly an easy thing to bring up,” Zania laughed, washing herself off one more time, just to make sure she’d gotten all the blood off. “But yeah, he was the one who drank from someone else. I’m not sure what he did to make sure it was safe, so I’ll have to ask him. I don’t want to try it without some kind of failsafe.” She wouldn’t risk it on anyone and was still confused about how Mickey had been offering it to Mannix.
“Well...soon as you know, I’m here for you,” Clementine promised, smiling again. “I wouldn’t want you to go hungry...especially not if you can like, bake me a pie or something if you need to drink. I would totally be down with that.” Clementine said, a laugh in her tone. “What else should I know? Does this mess with your senses and stuff?” Her voice adjusted to a whisper when a thought crossed her mind. “Am I being really loud right now to you?”
“You’re too sweet,” Zania laughed, turning off the water and reaching outside the shower for a towel. “I’ll let you know, I promise. I’m working out a rotation of who I can feed from and how often.” She knew that was something she had to be careful of and would do whatever was necessary to make sure that everyone had enough time to rebuild the blood they’d donated. “Um, I have much better senses, that’s for sure. I can hear your heartbeat, but it’s more like I can hear more, not that it’s louder, if that makes sense. Instead of a volume control, I need a filter.” She wasn’t sure if that’s what it was like for Mannix, but that’s how she saw it, though she was getting better at tuning out what she didn’t need to hear.
Clementine put her hand over her heart, staring at the curtain for a moment. "You can hear my heartbeat? That's wild…" She said, looking down at her hand before she smiled again. "Pretty cool, actually. Don't know how to help the filter thing, but let me know if you figure something out." She leaned back on the counter again and watched the wall. "…I'm sure I'll think of a million more questions, but…for the record? I don't care what you are, just as long as you're still Zania."
“I’m learning to work with it,” Zania smiled, wrapping the towel around herself and stepping out of the shower. She felt so much better now that she’d washed all the blood and muck off herself; she felt human again. “Thank you,” she said, a softness lighting her eyes. “I can’t tell you how much that means to me. I didn’t choose this for myself, but I have to live with it.” And it was so much easier if Clementine knew. Now she wouldn’t have to worry about keeping up appearances, which wasn’t too difficult, but wasn’t always easy either.
Clementine returned the softness in her smile and nodded. “Hey, I like you. Vampire or not vampire, whatever. You’re still pretty badass and it sucks you didn’t actually get to pick this, but I think it’s kind of cool. And I’m gonna help as much as I can, so you aren’t in it alone. Not that I really know what it’s like, but I’m a good listener,” She promised, smiling a little before slipping off the counter and toward the living room. “I’ll let you get dressed. I’ll just be in here if you want to come hang out, play Go Fish or something.”
“That sounds fun,” Zania grinned. “I’ll be out in a few.” She needed to go to sleep soon, but she could go for a round of Go Fish or two until the sun came up. It had been a bad night, what with her brother and Jack ending up in the hospital, but this was a good way to end it.