Your Own Human

by Arizona Tape

“I wouldn’t say no to that.”

  “Hmmmhmmm…” She bobbed her head up and down, still half asleep. She scratched her cheek and searched her closet.

  “Here,” she said, handing me a towel that, unsurprisingly, had leaves on them. Hers had little trees though.

  “Nice,” I commented. My blondie was a true nature fan.

  “Thanks. I printed them myself.”

  Of course, she did. Cute.

  She closed the doors of her closet and pushed a button on the panel against her wall. With a hum, the closet moved to the side, revealing the smallest of bathrooms.

  A toilet stuffed behind a glass wall, a sink with a mirror and a tiny cabinet underneath. But stuffed in the corner, a decent-looking shower. Better than decent even, with sprinklers coming out of the sides and a nice tile on the floor.

  “Tadaa. The bathroom,” she said sarcastically, looking a tad embarrassed. What she was embarrassed about, I didn’t understand either. Oh well, I liked some mystery.

  “Neat.”

  “Yeah, it’s a bit small. I’m sorry. Anyway… You want to go first, or…” she asked, staring at a patch on the wall.

  “Or…?” I inquired, nudging her to continue. A short silence followed and it seemed like she was contemplating something inside her head.

  “Or…” she trailed off, a beautiful shade of red appearing on her cheeks. “Or we could shower together?” she blushed, looking at me from under her eyelashes.

  “You don’t have to ask me twice,” I smirked, kissing her temple before pushing her inside the small bathroom.

  Chapter 11: Flowers

  “You smell,” I muttered, wrinkling my nose as her scent penetrated my nostrils.

  “Bad?” she asked worriedly, discretely sniffing her armpits. Silly human, her whole body emitted scent.

  I shook my head. “No. Not bad at all. Just… Distracting,” I pondered, staring at her beautiful face as I tried to figure out what exactly she smelled of.

  “Distracting?”

  “Hmmm… Distractingly good. I’ve been trying to place it for days now. It’s so familiar, but I can’t put my finger on it.”

  “Flowers,” she smiled, tossing her blonde hair over her shoulder.

  “Flowers?” I repeated, trying to remember how they smelled when I passed by them in the park.

  “Well. Flowery. They don’t really smell like a flower, it is just a flowery scent.”

  “Aha.”

  “You don’t like it?” she asked, biting her lip in concern.

  “No, no, no, no,” I said quickly. Damn, she thought I didn’t like it.

  “No?”

  “No, I mean yes. I meant yes, not no. I said no, because it isn’t that. I like it. I do like it. It smells good. The flowers. And you. You smell good. Flowery you smell good. You smell—” I stammered, falling over my own words, before being interrupted by her crystal laughter.

  She was holding her stomach and her shoulders were shaking. She tried to talk, but all she did was open her mouth soundlessly as she slapped her knees. She hiccuped a little and tried to compose herself. She wiped a single tear from her eye and sighed loudly. “Oh my. You’re so funny when you get all flustered. You should’ve seen your face,” she giggled, kissing my cheek.

  “Hmmpff. I was just—”

  “I know, Ade. Don’t worry, I’m not offended.”

  “Good. Now stop smelling so nice. I’m trying to read here,” I said, in mock anger, making her giggle a little more before she returned to her book and I focused back on mine.

  Like the previous days, we wandered around her world, trying not to attract any attention, while discovering anything and everything there was to see.

  We were on our very own adventure.

  And like all the days before this one, eventually, we always ended up in the museum. It was as dusty and quiet as the first time I saw it, but it was growing on me. Even being greeted by the portrait of the creepy smiling lady didn’t phase me as much anymore.

  I was growing quite fond of her. She had the little smirk like she knew a big secret nobody else knew. I had to admit, I did like that.

  I already explored all the statues and paintings and the little glass boxes with plants and spores. Despite it all being beautiful and interesting, the library part was easily my favourite spot.

  We were alone here. It seemed the humans were not interested in history at all. Why not, that baffled me. It was fascinating. I was drowning in new kinds of knowledge about my world. Well, actually, the more I read, the more I came to one conclusion.

  Our world.

  It was mind blowing to read everything I thought I knew through the eyes of another. I knew about the human race and the animals and plants that lived during that time. I knew about architecture and economies, about dictatorships and holocausts.

  But when reading it again, I couldn’t help but notice in what a condescending way our books were written. I went centuries back and read about the humans when they still lived on the surface on the earth. Before vampires saved the world.

  That was how I always learned the stories. But somehow, parts of me began to doubt the wonderful stories of how the vampire race saved the dying earth. The more I read about the world before we inhabited it, the more it seemed to have been… Alive.

  Endless acres of forests, with all sorts of unimaginable plants and animals coexisting inside of it. Oceans filled with sea monsters, fish and the strangest kinds of seaweeds and plants.

  The one thing we learned was that humans had been the cancer of this world and when they destroyed everything around them, vampires rose from the ashes of their destruction as a superior race. We learned they were a pest on the earth, that they drained resources and that by ridding the planet of those, they consequently made it so that vampires were the only species able to thrive. We learned that all animals were wild and dangerous. That the only good thing about them, was the meat they provided.

  That was why we were above eating like animals and made our own food. That it was much safer to live without them and we shouldn’t long to have pets. We were only trying to look out for our own race.

  I read about dogs, how they could kill anything around them with their sharp fangs and how they abducted newborns. But the little doggie I saw, was as much a killer as the plants dancing in the wind.

  The ocean used to be filled with dangerous sea monsters, that would kill anything that entered. Sharks that could smell blood from miles away and long eels that would electrocute anything that touched them. By polluting the ocean and filling it with poison, it was made safe for the humans.

  But here I saw pictures of a coral reef, filled with colour and fish. It had orange and pink, blue and green, shells and seaweed, and fish in more colours than I could even imagine. It was beautiful and for the life of me, I couldn’t understand what was so horrible about the reef that it needed to be destroyed.

  Parts of me believed every word I learned about the horrible human. How they destroyed the planet and Mother Earth. Another part of me began to doubt this theory. The more and more I read, it seemed like part of the human race had tried to save the world.

  I read about people chaining themselves against buildings, protesting various things. Groups gathering on the street with boards to make their voices heard. Political parties fighting for the preservation of green, for cleaning out the oceans of all the junk the humans had been dumping in. People gathering to bring awareness to the hole in the ozone, how the air was becoming more and more polluted. Desperate pleas to come together and save the earth from overheating and to keep the polar caps from melting.

  I was taught there was a big time gap between humans and vampires, but it made no sense whatsoever. The Flood we learned about, the beginning of our history, seemed not to be the last of human history. Not at all. It was towards the end, for sure, but it wasn’t.

  “Heather?”

  “Hmmhmm,” she muttered, looking up from the book she was reading. Something about a
guy named Plato who wrote about shadows on the wall. A simple theory, but I guess that was all they could come up with at that time.

  “The timeline isn’t right. Is it possible… Do you think… Have humans and vampires coexisted on this planet?” I asked slowly, racking my brain. Everything I read, leading up to the big Flood showed no signs of vampires, yet we should have shown up at that moment and all the humans should have died from the Flood. At least, that is how our history told the tale.

  We rose from the waves as the masters of this planet and rebuild it better, stronger, and bigger than any other species ever could have.

  If I thought about it logically, it didn’t make sense, but what origin story did? After all, humans wandered the earth believing that they had been moulded after the image of their god. Just one god that created everything in just seven days.

  It wasn’t that hard for me to believe we were born after the lands dried up. There was always the question of where exactly we came from, but we were never able to figure it out.

  Or were we? Did we know where we came from, but had that knowledge been kept from me?

  “Ade?” the sound of her voice snapped me out of my deep pondering and I looked questioningly at Heather.

  “Yeah?”

  “I answered your question, but you were lost in thought, I think.”

  I slowly nodded my head. “Oh yeah. Sorry. I was… Thinking.”

  She grinned, her smile lighting up the depressing, grey walls.

  “I figured. You had those wrinkles on your forehead. If you don’t watch out, your face will get stuck,” she grinned, poking my forehead.

  “Oi!” I swatted her hand away, protecting my face.

  “Sorry,” she chuckled, before looking at me again and scratching her head uncomfortably. “Well… I know you asked these things before and I always said I had no idea, but well… I lied… A little bit?”

  “Lied?” I echoed, not liking that word at all. I knew she probably did it to protect her home, her family, and her kin, but it stung.

  “Well… You remember when we first met?”

  I bobbed my head up and down. “Sure do. I kept calling you “The Heather” and you kept making me mad.”

  “I was scared of you,” she sighed, like this was something big to admit.

  “Yeah, I remember. Why were you?”

  She scratched her head again, something she did every time she felt awkward, so I braced myself.

  “Wellllll…” she trailed off, purposely avoiding my eyes. “The reason we live underground… Well… We fled from the vampires.”

  I choked violently on the air, sputtering and coughing. I grabbed the table in an attempt to keep me up right. Heather looked at me in concern and softly patted me on the back, rubbing between my shoulder blades. Why she did that, I wasn’t sure, but it was soothing.

  “You okay?”

  “Excuse me?!” I exclaimed.

  “Yeah, we ehhmmm… We fled from the vampires. There was a time when vampires and humans lived together. Although, those vampires were different from you. Not just you, but all of you. At least, that’s what we were told. They formed squads and would raid houses, steal goods and, well... Kill and eat any human they found.”

  I was stunned beyond belief. An eerie silence hung between us as I choked on more air. A human error I never thought we were capable off.

  “Excuse me?” I coughed, looking at her, hoping she was kidding. But somehow, I knew she wasn’t. It all made sense. Her first reaction to me, the reason humans lived underground, why we looked so down on the humans. The similar DNA sequences, how humans and vampires were related.

  Did the vampires win the war against the human race? Had our triumph inflated our egos to the point of us spouting glorious stories about our victory? It made sense, but it sounded very much like a human thing to do.

  Heather nodded slowly, scratching her head again. “Yeahhh… The stories about your kind… Well, vampires… They aren’t pretty.”

  “There are stories?”

  “Well, stories, myths, legends, that kind of tales. Told to scare little kids in behaving or as horror stories for thrills. Before I came up, I never saw another living being, but I also never ventured out. So when I saw you, when you told me you were…” she looked over her shoulder, making sure we were alone, before whispering. “A vampire.”

  I chuckled, she was being so careful, all worried about me. It was cute.

  She checked again, before continuing. “Well… I freaked out. I thought you were going to… Ehmm…” She blushed cherry red.

  “Yes?” I asked, partly curious, party amused. She seemed really embarrassed for believing those stories, even if it was just for a moment.

  “I thought you…. weregoingtokillandeatme,” she blurted, her cheeks heating up.

  “Tell me those legends, please?”

  She crinkled her nose, obviously debating if she could tell me or not.

  “Alright. But I’m going to tell it like my grandmother always did. So, humour me, okay?”

  “Ehmmm, okay?” I frowned, wondering why I needed to humour her.

  She got up to turn off the lights and reached for a flashlight. With a click, the illuminated her face from underneath.

  I pulled up an eyebrow. “Am I supposed to be scared?”

  “Shhhh, I said, humour me,” she swatted me. She pulled her scarf over her head and tied it up like a grandma.

  “Yes, grannie,” I said in a childlike voice, making her smile widely at me.

  “Hush now, dear. I’m going to tell you a story you’ll never forget!” she shouted with a cracking voice as she waved one finger in the air.

  I muffled my mouth to stop the laughter and let her get on. The cheekiness disappeared from her voice and she coughed, getting ready to tell a story.

  Chapter 12: Red

  Long ago, when the earth was still green and the oceans still blue, we lived on the surface of the earth. It was in the middle of war time, but in a little house near a tall hill, lived a little girl. There was a large, beautiful forest on it.

  The grown ups struggled, but for the kids, it was a wonderful time. They didn’t have school and the little girl had time to play with all her siblings. Her name was Red Riding Hood, because she always wore a beautiful, blood-red cape.

  During the day, the forest was a wonderful place to play in. Especially in autumn, there were gorgeous red and orange coloured leaves. The woods were a great place to play, but when dusk set in, they better left the forest far behind. It was rumoured there was a monster hiding deep in the heart of the forest.

  Red Riding Hood was a good girl, making sure to always eat everything on her plate, help her mother with the dishes, and the most important one, come home on time.

  And like every day, she was in the forest. She didn’t care too much for the other games children played, so she was collecting berries for dessert in her little wicker basket.

  And then she heard it, a cry coming from somewhere down the hill.

  “Help!”

  Red stood up and helpful as she was, walked towards the cry. “Hello? Is somebody there?”

  “Help!!” she heard again. With her little legs, she ran down the hill as fast as she could, the leaves cracking loudly under her feet. It was that quiet.

  Down the hill, she found a man lying on the ground.

  “Are you okay, mister?” she asked, looking at him. He was clasping his leg and motioned her to come closer.

  “No, help me. I hurt my leg. Come here, little girl.”

  Red cautiously walked closer. Her parents had warned her about strangers, but this man was hurt. And she was also taught to help when it was needed.

  “Are you hurt?”

  “Yes, I am. Can you please help me stand?” he groaned, pointing to his leg.

  She nodded and grabbed his hand, helping him stand up.

  “Aahh!” he screamed in pain, sinking down on one knee again. Worriedly, Red patted him on the back, pulling h
im up again.

  “I think you’ll need to help me walk,” the man said, placing his hand on her shoulder for support.

  Red looked at his hand. “You have big hands.”

  He chuckled pained and dug his fingers in her shoulder blade. “That way I can carry a lot of firewood,” he spoke, pushing Red in front of him.

  “Where is your house, mister?”

  “It is close, just up ahead that hill,” he said, pointing in the distance.

  Red looked at him confused. “You live in the forest?”

  The man nodded, groaning in pain again. For the naive girl, this was enough to decide to help him. She left her little basket behind, vowing to get it when she returned, and helped the grown man limp up the hill.

  And sure enough, there was indeed a little house. With smoke coming out from the chimney, a big supply of dry wood under a shed, and an axe sitting out on a chopping block.

  Red helped the man in the house and that is when her fate was sealed.

  He pushed her down in a chair and stared at her, studying her face. Red stared back at him, wondering if it was the light that made his eyes look purple.

  “You have big eyes, mister.”

  “That way I can find my way home in the dark.” He studied her a couple of seconds more, before deciding something. He nodded and stood up, walking past her. His limp gone. His pained face conformed into a grin as he locked the door behind his prey.

  “You’re a good little girl, aren’t you,” He spoke with a deep voice, a menacing smirk plastered his face. His lips curled up in amusement and revealed two sharp fangs protruding from under his upper lip.

  “You have some big teeth.”

  “That way I can tear you apart better,” he growled, excitement clear in his rumbling voice.

  And so Red realised, he was the monster in the forest.

  The day turned into night and Red’s parents had grown worried about their little girl. They ventured out into the forest with flashlights, hoping to find her, trying to keep hoping. But despair crept into their hearts and they knew it was a lost cause. Anyone that got lost in the forest after dark, stayed in the forest.