My House, My Rules

"Is that really necessary?" the hooded man said. Cara couldn't see his face, but he was tall and broad shouldered, his arms thick under his long sleeves, gripping the vampire by her arm.

"I just came over to say hi," Judith claimed, though her voice was unabashedly disingenuous.

"Judith." Ethan called with an authoritative edge as he crossed the room quickly to join them. Cara didn't look away, even after Judith stopped looking at her and started pretending like she didn't exist. The hooded man let her go and made room for Ethan to circle up with them.

"Right, as I was saying..." Ethan jumped right back into a conversation Cara wasn't a part of to begin with. "Mel already confirmed Cara is not infected, which makes her our newest member of the house, and that means she's protected under house rules."

"Fine by me," the unnamed fourth wheel responded. There was something strange about the way he spoke. He didn't have an accent per se, but there was definitely something unusual about his inflection. It almost sounded like sarcasm except for the subtle warmth or wholesomeness beneath his words.

"Judith?" Ethan pressed.

"Yeah, fine by me as well." She said.

"Welcome to the résistance, Cara," Ethan announced, accent on résistance for what she assumed was supposed to be humor, but Cara didn't really feel like laughing. Her mind was spiraling. Nothing made sense, she didn't know any of these people or remember how she got here, let alone why this man was consorting with vampires. Then another shocking thought crashed through her brain. Did they live here, in this house, too??

"Who the hell are you people?" Cara bristled out loud.

---

Micajah frowned as he covertly watched the play of emotions crossing Cara's face from the concealment of his hood. He knew the moment she hit her boiling point, just as the question exploded from her lips. He wasn't sure what to tell her, but then again, it wasn't his place to tell her anything. Ethan was the ringleader of this little circus so the responsibility fell to him.

He knew it too, as he stepped forward and reached out a hand to place on Cara's shoulder for comfort. "Hey, hey it's ok, we're not going to hurt you."

"A little too late for that!" Cara jerked away from him, her back hitting the wall in the narrow space. Micajah could hear her heartbeat go into overdrive like a cornered animal. If he could hear it, Judith could too. He redirected his gaze as did the others to see Judith's reaction. There was definitely a spark of excitement in her eyes from sensing the girl's fear and he didn't blame her, given the thrill of the hunt was part of their nature, but they weren't zombies they were better than their base instincts. Plus they had their reasons for cohabiting, which meant indulging Ethan's house rules.

"Enjoy spending your day teaching Safe House 101," Judith quipped at Ethan, and gave Micajah a hard look that said she didn't appreciate being grabbed before she walked away.

"What if I don't want to be a part of your little safe house?" Cara lashed out, clearly still feeling threatened.

"Then Judith will find you and finish what she started-"

"Micajah!" Ethan cut him off, dismayed by his candidness. Micajah shrugged. Better they told her the truth. She was safer here than out there on her own, and if she chose to leave, all the vampires on the premise would know about it.

"I think I'll take it from here ,thanks." Ethan dismissed him. Micajah took one more look at Cara, who was starring back at him with a face full of fury that made him regret his words.

"I'll be in the basement if you need me," he said to Ethan before turning his back and walking away.

'There I go again,' Micajah thought, 'alienating myself on both sides.' Despite being the oldest living (if you could call it that) being in the territory, in all his years vampires had never needed this kind of unanimity with humans, and yet he'd never felt more isolated and alone than he did in this apocalypse.

---

"Rule number one," Ethan stated, "never go down to the basement." That got Cara's attention, considering that is exactly where Micajah just said he was headed.

"Why not?" She asked before she could help herself.

"Just like the vampires don't go upstairs to our sleeping quarters, we don't go downstairs to theirs."

'So that settles it,' she thought. 'He is a vampire too.' She shuddered at the thought.

"How many vampires are there?" She asked. Ethan didn't look like he wanted to answer that.

"Not as many of them as there are of us," he said. If that was supposed to sound comforting, it didn't. But he took advantage of her mind still processing the last five minutes to move on to other topics. "Rule number two: Everyone contributes."

"Contributes how?" She wanted to know what she was being forced to contribute if she was being forced to stay. It had crossed her mind that perhaps she was abducted and brought here for an indentured servitude to their vampire counterparts, which would most likely end in certain death whenever they got hungry.

"With chores, sentry duty, blood donations...." Sentry duty? Her mind flashed back to the weapons hand-off that morning. Blood Donations? Her eyes shifted to the medical table over Ethan's shoulder and she cringed. That was going to be a big NOPE from her thank you very much.

"Rule number three: always exit in pairs, we have a strict outdoor buddy system, which leads me to rule number four: if you or your buddy is bitten by a zombie...." he paused to make sure he had her attention. Cara crossed her arms and starred at him.

"Tell someone immediately." He stopped there, electing not to elaborate on what happens next. For someone with only four rules, he was asking for an awful lot from her.

"And I would agree to this why?" Not once did he mention what she gets out of this arrangement.

"Because..." he said, almost apologetically, "you'll die otherwise."