OJTTEG-Chapter 41: Short Story - A Night of Vampires, Revivers, Investigators, and Officers (Part Two)

...

The door creaks open, and a wet figure steps into the darkness.

"Is no one home yet?"

An had gone to the explosion site in the wealthy district to look for Ormond, so the house should be empty.

"I need to burn these shredded clothes quickly, and An's too. What a terrible day, my head is killing me. I need a good sleep."

The figure mutters, reaching to turn on the light. Then he sees Ormond standing there, holding a cat and reaching for the light switch.

"What the fuck!"

Haunter is clearly startled.

"What are you doing here? You're alright?"

"Of course I'm fine, but you shouldn't use foul language."

"It's just a habit, like when some people get punched in the butt, they might say 'no' or 'yes.'"

"You never say anything serious," Ormond says with a squinting smile. "Did you just say burn the clothes? Yours and An's? Are you saying your date tonight was with An?"

"Uh..."

"Was An also on a date with you? What exactly did you two do?"

I really need to kick this habit of talking to myself!

"Ahahaha," Haunter laughs weakly, covering his lower half as he steps in, showing off his hobo-like attire. "I'll go change and shower first, then you can scold me, okay?"

"Go ahead."

Ormond sighs, muttering behind Haunter, "I should have known you and An have a good relationship but wouldn't tell me. Why use the guise of a date to meet An?" Ormond laments, "Your bloodlines are five generations apart, if not more; you could easily fall in love with each other."

Yeah, it's a great relationship, so great I almost died once. How do I explain this? If I lay it all out, who knows what the consequences would be?

Haunter scurries off to his room in a sorry state.

"Leave the phone."

"……Ok"

...

…

Ormond quietly unlocks his phone to check the house's surveillance. For safety reasons, he has installed cameras in all important areas—though, of course, not in places where privacy would be invaded. The Reed family lives in a three-story cottage: the first floor houses the living room, kitchen, and study; the second floor contains the bedrooms and bathroom; and the third floor is Ormond’s studio. To ensure the security of his workspace, there’s a discreet camera in the second-floor hallway.

"Let's see what happened," he murmurs to himself.

What are these two kids hiding from me? Ormond wonders, puzzled. He wouldn’t normally invade their privacy unless absolutely necessary, but this situation seems serious. Both came back with tattered clothes, and heaven knows what they were up to. If he wasn't mistaken, Haunter had a bruise on his face and his mental state was not good.

In other words, they must be planning how to deal with me. I want to see how they communicate. To be honest, I haven’t really seen them chat much before.

The screen lights up, showing a hallway. On one side are An and Ormond's bedrooms; on the other, the bathroom and Haunter's room. An has just entered the bathroom, with the light spilling out from under the door.

Haunter comes up the stairs, passing by on his way to change clothes in his room.

"Knock, knock."

He gently taps the door twice as he goes by.

"Knock."

An, inside, hears and taps back once. Haunter, satisfied, heads to his room.

An showers quickly, not at all like the leisurely pace usually associated with girls. In under five minutes, she exits the bathroom and heads to her room, dressed casually in just underwear, unconcerned about her pale skin being visible.

As An returns to her room, Haunter, carrying clean clothes, opens his door and slips into the bathroom.

"How are they doing this?" Ormond wonders in confusion. "Some new kind of code? Morse code? No, it’s too brief for that."

An reappears on the surveillance, now in loungewear, and casually kicks her door lightly.

"I got it," Haunter replies from inside the bathroom, tossing something that hits the bathroom door.

"Alright," An responds.

What did he throw? It looked like a bar of soap. Wait. That’s not the point.

"How are they communicating?" Ormond frowns, spreading his hands as he glances at Senior, the cat. "Telepathy?"

"Meow," the orange cat scampers away.

"Why am I trying to get answers from a cat?" Ormond sighs.

……

"Uncle."

"Dad."

Haunter and An sit obediently in front of Ormond. They're both dressed in casual clothes, the kind you could either lounge around in or wear out. These two really dislike fuss, Ormond thinks. Haunter, sure, but An not being interested in dressing up is surprising. Then again, their experiences are so unique that even living a thousand lifetimes, most people wouldn't encounter the same. It's pointless to use common logic to interpret their thoughts.

"Alright then, it's family meeting time."

Ormond places two mugs of hot cocoa in front of them.

"Alright, celebrating the successful launch of our first family meeting," Haunter claps.

"Yeah, the first," An echoes, looking a bit weary as she squints her eyes.

"Let's be serious."

"Yes."

"Okay."

"So, tell me, what exactly did you two get up to last night?" Ormond asks calmly, settling the cat on his lap.

"Actually, we were researching An's abilities tonight," Haunter replies, staring into Ormond's brown eyes as if every word he says is the absolute truth.

"Oh? You know An's secret?" Ormond turns his gaze to An.

An casually brushes the hair sticking to her forehead back.

"Yes, we were conducting experiments at 128 Peace Street, over at St. Andrew's Park—you know, turning into a vampire is pretty cool," An answers.

"And then we accidentally collapsed the nearby derelict building."

"That's quite dangerous."

Ormond takes a sip of his hot cocoa, exhaling the warmth.

"Yeah, I had to save Haunter, and my clothes got completely torn, it was really risky."

For some reason, An's mouth makes a sudden crunching sound, then she puffs her cheeks and takes a sip from her mug, wincing at the heat.

"Then we heard about the explosion in the wealthy district," Haunter adds, unable to hold back his laughter, "Pfft."

What's so funny?

"I came back first and found you here," An says, shooting Haunter a subtle glare while taking small breaths of cool air.