68. Cricket

Caeru looked at his laptop. He had been chatting for well over an hour by now. In fact, he had been chatting with the same girl for days on end. Weeks on end, even, if you counted the casual talks they’d had from the moment he took on chatting.

BlueBoy96: So she dumped me! Can you believe it?!

Lautier: Well, I mean you did make her sick.

BlueBoy96: Which was a total, complete accident.

Lautier: So no more StrangerVille?

Blueboy96: No more strangerville.

Lautier: Where will you go now?

Blueboy96: Have you ever heard of this place called forgotten hollow?

Lautier: Well, yeah.

BlueBoy96: How?

Lautier: My father grew up there.

BlueBoy96: Is your father a vampire?

Lautier: …yes.

BlueBoy96: Are you a vampire?

Lautier: No.

BlueBoy96: But you know about vampires.

Lautier: Well, obviously.

BlueBoy96: So what if I told you I’m a vampire?

Lautier: 🤷‍♀️

BlueBoy96: What about aliens?

Lautier: I know about aliens.

BlueBoy96: So… What if I told you I’m also an alien?

Lautier: 🤷‍♀️

BlueBoy96: Really? That’s all?

Lautier: My family is…. I’m used to their weird is all I’ll say.

BlueBoy96: So what if I asked you to meet up with me tonight in forgotten hollow?

Lautier: I’d say I’ll be there at 8.

BlueBoy96: 😊

***

That night at 8, Caeru found himself in Forgotten Hollow for the first time. It was…

Let’s just say it had potential.

When he felt a finger tap his shoulder, he turned around and saw her. She opened her arms and so he did too; and even though they were still, for all intents and purposes, absolute strangers, the hug they shared still felt comforting and familiar.

“So you weren’t lying about being a vampire and an alien… huh,” was the first thing she remarked.

“What can I say?” he joked. “I’m one of a kind.”

He liked her even more in real life than he had online. They ended up talking for more than half an hour, just like they had online—with time turning static as they did.

“You know,” he finally blurted out. “You’re even greater in real life than I imagined.”

A flush briefly rose to her cheeks. Then she smiled. “Well, you’re certainly no disappointment yourself.”

When she walked away, it took him a few minutes to catch his train of thought and catch up with her.

“No? Couldn’t even have dared to imagine beauty like mine, could you?” he teased flirtatiously.

“Hmm, sure… you’re almost as great as I am.”

“Same to you.”

***

He kept thinking about her all night… or, well, for as long as he could. Had just conveniently spotted an unattended Plasma Jane and was sipping it contentedly, acknowledging his happiness, when….

“Who the fuck do you think you are?” a woman—a vampire—said, pushing him aggressively.

“What…” Caeru was dumbfounded. “What do you mean?”

She knocked the drink out of his hand. “That drink was mine. You stole my drink.”

Oh. A grimace came to his face. A sheepish “sorry?” was all he ultimately offered.

“Oh, sorry ain’t gonna cut it, baby. You, me, outside. Now. We’re in Forgotten Hollow—which means we’re gonna settle this our way.”

He gulped. Followed her outside only reluctantly. He definitely wasn’t ready for this—even he knew it.

“Let’s see how tough you really are, you thief.”

Not tough at all, as he would prove in the next tortuously long five minutes.

As he fell on his knees to the ground, trying his hardest not to be overcome by the dizziness that last punch had caused for him, he only vaguely heard her voice: “Let this serve as a warning; but if you ever set foot in this town again, I might just change my mind… and destroy you. There is no place for impure thieves here.”

He was holed up in his trash yard in StrangerVille by the next morning, knocking back another drink. His senses had long since gone lost to him. But then, as he looked into the empty contents of yet another drink, and he placed a satisfied hand over his stomach only to feel it had grown,he made an at that time very sensible-sounding decision; and part of it actually was. He needed to stop with the drinks (that was valid, he’d later acknowledge). But his reasoning that he needed to do so in order to get in shape and avoid losing yet another fight, was definitively more debatable.

But it had sounded more than logical to Caeru, and that’s why he could be found at Del Sol Valley’s gym that same afternoon. He trained like he never had before, pushing himself to the very limits of his strength…

It was about 10 minutes later that he decided he’d done enough and deserved some relaxation.

Some.

He proceeded to spend the rest of the day at its spa.

***

Walking through the streets of Del Sol Valley that night, Caeru couldn’t help but like the city. So far, ever since his return to Earth he had only really seen StrangerVille, Oasis Springs and Forgotten Hollow; and already, he had been threatened to no longer set foot in two of those places. So he felt like he was at a crossroads here; it wasn’t like he’d had much of a home on Earth yet, but now he felt like he was completely without one. Maybe, Del Sol Valley could be his next destination.

Maybe, he thought, as he used the spray can he had found to deface the tile his grandfather didn’t deserve, his place was right here, among the greatest of the greatest.

Maybe Del Sol Valley was what he needed to show the world that watch out, here comes Caeruleum.

Yeah, Del Sol seemed to be a lot more deserving of him than StrangerVille or Forgotten Hollow could have possible been. He was looking for a place for giants. Planet Earth’s best of the best—and obviously, Del Sol Valley was where it was at.

***

He was still very much following the same train of thought when he walked up to the bouncer of the VIP area, convinced that once he saw Caeru’s greatness, he would immediately be let in.

At first, it seemed to be going well enough.

Unfortunately, the bouncer was ultimately unable to see his greatness. “It’s not happening, dude. Why don’t you get out of here, so that the VIPs can get through?”

So Caeru leaned in more closely, and took out a $5 dollar bill. He’d seen people do that, before.

“We’ll keep this between you and me,” he said confidently—he’d heard that line being used in a movie he once watched.

When the bouncer took his money, he was certain he was in.

Except that he wasn’t. And he took his 5 dollar bill, too! He could’ve bought another drink with that! The jerk.

So he resorted to more desperate measures; if his charm wasn’t going to get him through, then he was gonna have to use his strength.

He would blame his subsequent defeat on the fact that he was still a little woozy from his fight with the vampire. It had nothing to do with him or his strength whatsoever.

“Nice try, kid. How about you come back when you’re actually someone?”

Pfft. How dare he?

***

It was around this time that his thirst was starting to get to him—he hadn’t had a single drink (and by that he meant a real drink) ever since he found out that he should be cutting back on the drinks a little.

His inner vampire had always liked to lay low, but it was becoming harder and harder for Caeru to control it.

And so he did what any sensible person would do: he sought some distraction.

When that didn’t help, he called in an even stronger distraction.

Lauren pulled him in for a hug. “It’s good to see you again.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah… I would be lying if I said I didn’t greatly enjoy our last encounter… and kind of missed you since.”

“Yeah? I mean… I feel the same way. I’ve missed you too.”

They sat down together. Chatted casually for a while.

Finally, Caeru felt like it was time… and he made a move. It was another move he’d seen in one of those movies.

When she accepted it, the butterflies in his stomach intensified.

Some two hours later, when Lauren finally left and he had no distractions left, he found himself struggling like he never had before. His senses all but lost to him by now, he decided to go out for a jog—the sun burning his skin like fire. It was safe to say he wasn’t in the bestest of states.

When he walked back into the bar, he saw someone sitting there whom, even though he couldn’t possibly recognize him, he knew immediately was family. It wasn’t just the skintone that made him so sure (although he admitted it contributed for the most part); he felt like family, too.

Unable to hold in another growl he had felt coming on, he received a look from a woman walking by him.

She went and stood next to the guy. Caeru watched them—and as he did, he couldn’t help but feel badly. Lonely. He guessed the latter was the most correct term for the way he was feeling, right now. It had nothing to do with them, though. Nothing to do with him, even. He just wasn’t in the best of moods, that was all.

As he felt an increasingly intolerable need for sleep gnawing at him, he finally swallowed his dignity and laid down on one of the sofas within the bar. It wasn’t like he could go home now even if he wanted to: aside from the very obvious fact that he currently had no home, he also wouldn’t survive even one more minute in the sun.

Unfortunately, it was next to impossible to fall asleep in a packed bar with music playing from all sides. After about 30 minutes, Caeru gave up.

Instead, he walked back to the VIP area. Felt a little more confident when he found the last bouncer he had dealt with was gone and a new, significantly kinder-looking man had taken his place. He wasn’t going to fight him, this time. There was no way he’d win, not in this weakened skin.

He decided to appeal to the man’s kindness, instead. “Please… sir. I just really need some peace and quiet.”

“Sorry, kid,” the bouncer told him. There was a little sympathy on his face, at least. “It’s the rules.”

Finally, grudgingly, Caeru took a $50 bill out of his pocket. It was going to be transportation money, but he would just have to find something else for that. And luckily, this bouncer did not rip him off.

As soon as he got into the VIP area, he strode over to the sofa and lay down comfortably. It took all of a few minutes before he realized that even if the place was secured, it wasn’t in any way secluded and he could still hear the music from downstairs loud as anything. Those damned vampire senses, he thought.

So that was a bust.

On to Plan… Whatever the Count Was. With not much a clear idea in his head, Caeru approached the man with the skintone.

“Hey, uncle!”

The man looked weirdly at him. “Uncle?”

“Yeah!”

“Look, just because we look the same appearance-wise, it doesn’t make us family.”

“Oh, come on. I can feel it. Can’t you?”

“Frankly, no. I don’t know you.”

“Right. How rude of me.” He extended his hand. “Name’s Caeru.”

Dubiously, the man shook his hand. “Calder,” he offered brusquely.

“So Calder… I’ve got a favor to ask. I… well, I… I sort of need a place to crash. Just for a few days, really.”

“No way.”

“Alright, just one night then.”

This did nothing to lessen the man’s frown.

“No?”

“No.”

“You’d turn away your own family in times of need?”

“You’re not my family.”

“But…”

“Yeah, I have no idea who you are, dude…. or what you’re on… but this conversation is over. Bye, now.”

It was OK. The sun had finally gone away—and as it did, he found he did still have some energy left. At least he would if he had someone to muster it for… and it just so happened that he did.

“Lauren. Meet me at that Oasis pool tonight, at midnight. It’ll be a date.”

“Midnight? Are you out of your… man, if I’m gonna be dating you, I’m gonna have to get used to the whole vampire schedule, aren’t I?”

“So can you make it?”

“Alright. I’ll be there. I’m not sure I can say the same for my mental presence… but physically, I’ll be there.”

***

“I’m glad you could make it,” Caeru smiled at her as they sat down together.

Lauren tried her hardest not to contort her face too much in response to the stench coming off him. “Same.” She tried her hardest to keep her voice even.

But it didn’t take long for her to say those same words with earnest, when they had the time of their lives as they had had those previous times they’d met up (she could hardly believe she’d only seen him on two separate occasions yet… it already felt like she had known him all her life, etc. etc.).

They had spent a few more hours of flirtatious playing when finally, Lauren felt ready to take the next step.

“Caeru…” she whispered almost twenty minutes later. Her lips tickled against his as she spoke.

“Hmm?” came his response, before he pulled her lips to his again.

“Caeru…”

He smiled against her lips.

“Stop.”

The smile faltered. “Well, that wasn’t exactly the word I was expecting to hear.”

“I’m sorry. I just… I just know if I don’t stop us now, I won’t be able to stop myself anymore.”

“So why stop at all?”

“I like you too much for our first time together to be some quickie in a public bathroom.”

The smile reappeared. “That’s fair.”

Lauren sighed with relief. “I’m glad.”

So they went back to the same flirtatious playing they had spent their first part of the night doing—but now that they had finally felt the other’s lips on theirs, it felt different. There was less pressure, and yet more seriousness. It was even better than it had been.

It was only when the sun came up that morning that Caeru took his cue to say goodbye, lest he wants to fit in an ashtray—though he had to say, in the moment being ash felt almost more tolerable than having to part from her. “For what’s it worth,” he started, inching closer to her. “I really like you too.”

And he really did.