“Hey”
She watched him texting her back.
“I’ll call you in 5.”
She used the washroom and brushed her teeth. As she was washing her face the phone rang so she quickly rinsed off and then answered.
“Hi.”
“Just listen please.” His voice was beyond tense, “I’m installing a cage outside the door with several locks on it. We don’t know if I’m still affected so I want to run a test. You can step inside the cage and see how I react. If it happens again you can duck back into the closet and shut the door again. The cage will stop me from hurting you but will let me scent you to see. We assume that I can’t be around you for a week but we don’t actually know for sure. We also assume that once your bleeding stops I can be around you but we also don’t know that for sure. We don’t know if any vampire will have the reaction I did or if it’s just me. So we will be doing multiple tests and Sam’ll help. Sam is a wildcard but he can’t get through the locks. We’ll add a camera inside, too, so I can see you in there.”
“You said you don’t know if you can trust him.”
“I have to try something. He’s the only one I can use right now.”
“Alright.”
“You mad at me?” he asked.
“No.”
“You’re not giving much away…”
“Can’t you feel what’s in my head? Do I need to say it?”
“No, I can feel you. I just want to hear your voice, hear your words. Talk to me.”
“What happened last night?”
Silence.
“Tristan?”
“I can’t get into it right now.”
“Fine. Keep me in the closet or cage and keep me in the dark, too.”
“Kyla…”
“I could use a coffee machine in here. Can you get me a Keurig or a Tassimo or something?”
“Okay. And we’ll talk more when the workers are done.”
“Whatever.” She hung up.
“Fuck!” She said aloud and proceeded to pace. It was only a few paces from wall to wall. This room felt smaller, suddenly. Not a safe cocoon, a cage, a jail cell. Her face got hot. She needed to run. She needed to run and run and run and run.
“Fuck!” She growled.
She started to jog on the spot. She closed her eyes. She tried to picture a path, a road. She couldn’t see it. She tried to envision blue eyes and dimples but they wouldn’t materialize. All she saw was his ashen looking face with black eyes and huge teeth. And walls. Stone tunnel walls with blood dripping down them. She collapsed into a crouched position and put her face in her hands.
She heard commotion on the laptop and looked up. The workers were leaving.
She saw him flop onto the bed. She couldn’t see his face. She could only see that he was on his back. She curled up on the bed and watched the screen. He didn’t move for a long time. Neither did she. After a while she heard him speak,
“Kyla?”
She leaned over and unmuted the mic.
“Yeah.”
He didn’t say anything. He didn’t move.
Kyla made the window for outside the closet door bigger. There was a tall metal dog run looking cage outside the door.
Lovely.
She watched Tristan get up. He looked shattered. He brewed two cups of coffee and came back upstairs and she watched him open the cage with five separate keys. He placed the cup of coffee on the floor in the center of the cage and put a keychain with the keys beside it.
“I used 5 locks,” he said, “It takes concentration for me to open a lock and I did it this morning and timed myself at 53 seconds to get through all of them so I figure five will give you time to get back in the panic room while Sam takes me down with a tranquilizer gun. I’ll put a gun in there for you so you, too, can take me down. And him, if needed. Sam is on his way now. I’m leaving the apartment so you can get your coffee. He’ll be here in half an hour.”
Kyla took a deep breath. What a stupid idea. Stupid stupid idea.
“Kyla?”
“Okay,” she said.
“Baby?” He breathed.
“Yeah?”
“I love you.”
“Mmm.”
“Damn it, talk to me!”
“What do you want me to say?” She croaked, “That this is a stupid idea? It’s stupid, Tristan. So stupid. Do you want me to tell you I’m scared? Cause on top of all of this shit I don’t know what’s going on with you that you’re not telling me. Fine, I’m scared, Tristan. Do you want me to also tell you that I’m going crazy and that these walls are closing in on me? Will that help you to hear that out loud as if you can’t hear it in your head already? Do you want me to say I think about pushing that button and running out the door every time you leave and that we both know I’m a fucking moron for not doing it? Do you want me to say that I don’t even care if you bite me and kill me because I just want to feel you again?”