The Nosferatu Adventures
page 300, chapter 300
Love Me Like a Candle in the Rain
Hitting the light switch, Edric flooded the nurse's station with harsh fluorescent light. "Out!" he said holding the door open with one hand, pointing with the other. The two teenagers jumped running past him back towards the gym rejoining the dance. Shaking his head, he returned once more to the coat room. He had only been gone for two minutes, but still he felt it was necessary to do another sweep of the room. The phone started to buzz midway through. "Yeah."
"So what happened? We were cut off." Seward said over what sounded like a blender.
"She walked in caught me on the phone, she heard you by the way." Edric replied as he returned to his desk sitting down again. Something didn't feel right. He began opening and closing the drawers of the old desk, finding a few paperclips, a broken pencil and some crumpled pages.
"Have you tried asking her out?" Seward said flatly. "Instead of just staring like one of your students in heat."
"No actually..." Edric let the sentence drop. He had never actually had to do the asking, which worked in his favour as he could be down right shy at times. He'd just been sitting back waiting for Nosferatu to make the first move. Getting distracted, the sandy-blonde male ran his hand over the back of his neck feeling a cold chill, his eyes drawn to the pieces of paper. Lifting them out of the drawer, he began to smooth them out, expecting to find some crude doodles or bad love poems. Instead, the pages were in another language with what seemed like occult symbols. "I'll call you later." hanging up, Edric's attention was absorbed into his new treasure.
"What you reading? Love letters?" our heroine's voice shattered his world yet again, causing Edric to jump. She crossed the room, two bottles of pop in hand, offering him one.
"Who's classroom is this usually?" he asked realizing he'd never seen the door to it open during school hours. Nosferatu shrugged.
"As far as I know, it hasn't been used this year. I think it's just storage. Why?"
"I just found this here in this drawer." he gestured to the entire desk. "Just wondering who these belonged to?" he asked holding up the pages. The female grabbed his hand forcing him to hold the pages still. Clearing his throat Edric pushed the little glasses up, his left knee bouncing.
"I think this is Russian. I think?" her hand lingering on his for a long few seconds, letting her fingers trail down his knuckles as she did.
"Would explain why I can't read it. Can you read this?"
"No." she shook her head. "I need to take another round of the halls." once again there was the briefest brush of her hand against his shoulder before she turned to leave the room. Leaning back in his chair, Edric ran his hands over his face, trying to remember his own lecture notes for the morning. His peace disturbed by the sound of footsteps hovering just outside of the door. Getting up, he crossed back to see if it was Nosferatu returning or just a student. Only, there was no one there. The hallway was completely empty, all the class room doors nearest to him closed. The music coming from the gym was a slow song informing him that the dance was almost over. Looking at the clock, Edric felt dizzy. Somehow it was almost 9pm.
"Where did the last forty-five minutes go?" he asked the empty room. The coat room was pretty much cleaned out by 9:15pm, allowing Edric to grab his own jacket ready to flee the building. One final look around the room to make sure no one had forgotten their gloves or hats, and he was able to turn the lights off, closing the door. He'd also stuffed the pages into the inner pocket of his jacket before doing so. There was just something about them that was digging at his subconscious. The door to the gym was still wide open as he past it. Peeking in, he spotted our heroine as she moved around the now fully lit room, a garbage bag in hand picking up pop bottles and chip bags. Edric was thinking he should offer to help clean, but the phone buzzed before he could find the strength to open his mouth. "yeah."
"The dance is over right? Is she still there?" Seward asked. Edric could hear what sounded like a fast food drive thru then Seward's voice muffled as he ordered a cheeseburger.
"Yeah, she is actually." he ducked out of listening range moving speedily towards the main doors of the building.
"Okay, I just drove past the school and you my friend are in luck. Other than a small mini-van that some parent is sitting in with what looks like eight of the students, your car is the only one left in the parking lot. So unless she's already called a cab, she's going to need a lift." Edric stopped in between the double set of glass doors, his hand already on the outer door handle. He heard the younger male drop the cell phone as he got his food. Edric ran his hand through his hair, pushing up the little glasses again. The heaters in the lobby were causing the glass door to fog up rapidly reminding Edric of just how cold the night had become. He looked back again over his shoulder seeing our heroine turning off the lights for the gym, closing the doors. "Dude, ask her out. Like a normal person in a normal situation." Seward continued. "The way you act sometimes, you'd think you were the tragic hero in one of those novels you have your students read. Or a character on Vampire Diaries, all broody and with the hair."
"She's not even my type." his voice was pinched as he regretted the lie the second it left his lips.
"Uh huh. Yet every im eeess aroff ooo urn into a belly kic." he said around a mouthful of fries.
"What?" Edric saw a set of headlights pull up into the parking lot, forcing him to open the door and face the cold.
"I said, yet every time she's around you turn into a jelly fish."
"I...I do not!" Edric crossed the length of the school lot meeting up with the cab. "Hi, I think there's been a mix up, the lady who called already has a ride." he smiled brightly at the driver; heading back towards the school's main doors. "Hanging up now." he put the phone in his pocket just as our heroine was locking up the inner set of doors. Edric suddenly remembered what it was like being a frustrated teenager, the awkwardness pulling his stomach in knots.
"You're still here? I thought you would have been gone ten minutes ago." the female said as she adjusted her purse strap on her shoulder, putting on her gloves.
"Just heading out now." Edric gestured towards the street. He watched as she stepped outside turning to lock the outer set of doors as well. "Are you waiting for someone? Cause it's freezing..."
"I called a cab, should have actually been here by now." she mimicked his gesture towards the street.
"I saw..." he brought his one hand up scratching his thumb across his forehead before running his hand through his hair again. "I saw one sort of circle through like it was looking for someone but didn't stop." Edric's voice dropped a notch as he closed his eyes, unable to meet her's. "But I have my car if you want a ride?"
"Don't you live on the far side of town?" she asked mindlessly reaching for her phone. "Haven't I seen you coming from that direction?"
"Yes I do actually." the sandy-blonde male cleared his throat pushing his glasses up again in a nervous twitch. "But you know what, um...if you're not having any...if you're not doing...do you want to grab a drink?" he blurted feeling the heat rise across his ears. Our heroine was about to answer when Edric caught the scent of something. "Do you smell something burning?"
Meanwhile...
Out of Time...
Edric woke coughing, his delicate nose twitching his eyes watering. Sitting up on the sofa, the hybrid found his sire standing over a hotplate in the middle of the attic. Stumbling across the length of the place, he opened a window, letting the smoke out. "What was that?"
"Too much mugwort. Sorry." the female replied trying to hold her nose. "Must have been some dream, you were talking in your sleep just before you woke up. All I got to say is, whomever you were dreaming of, lucky them." giving up, our heroine took the small pot off the burner turning it off.
"Just my subconscious getting my brain in sync with my dick." he mumbled grabbing a pen and piece of paper trying to remember the symbols from his dream. "Any idea what this means?" he asked handing them to her. Letting out a deep breath Edric rolled his eyes towards the ceiling. "Do you like westerns?"
TO BE CONTINUED...NEXT SEASON
Tune in again for another installment of the Nosferatu Adventures starring your heroine...me(straight up story. I've got the song 'Foolish Love' by Lord Tracy stuck in my head while writing this one)
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