16- Friends Dine Together

Hannah is baking when we stroll in, V and I, from our latest collection.

A bus of high school kids and its driver, on their way to school. Hannah has the television on and I see on the news it was at no fault of the driver like I thought. A texter was in the other vehicle. He survived for his car had hit and swerved on impact while the bus went down a precipice.

We had spent hours with the young students convincing them it was time to let go and move on. They were mostly crying about their parents- hey parents; don't be so hard on kids, okay? These kids were worried about what their parents would do because they died and couldn't get good grades. Imagine; being dead and still worried.

After that stage, they wailed about missing mom's food and grandparents- kudos grandparents. One boy cried about not being able to spend his father's millions. And two tried to run away. Tiring really. My back and neck ache from chasing the teenagers.

Sad? Why would I be sad? Oh yes, it is a sad story indeed but I do not feel like humans do. It does not bother me, for your deaths are just a job to me.

Either it's cake or cookies, Hannah is baking. I sniff and close my eyes, loving this smell- home. Weirdly, I agree as I usually love the smell of death I know. But as I said earlier- I have the best of both worlds.

Yay me.

V sniffs Hannah making her giggle. She was smiling these days with us. Very rare and – I gulp as I look at Hannah's- her teeth, she has nice teeth- even the two front-centred twisted bottom row teeth are cute… why am I even looking at her lips?

"Dinner is on the table," Hannah says smiling as she raises her eyes to mine. Beautiful brown doe eyes.

Knowing what that look means. Hannah has a rule for us- when we came back from our 'death hunt' as she calls it, we had to shower immediately. She said that the thought of death on us spooked her out. I run upstairs to take a quick shower and change into a white t-shirt and black urban bamboo joggers, before coming back down. V still hasn't arrived yet.

Since the opening a month ago, Hannah has really warmed up to us. We watched a few shows together too when I wasn't working. She even comes to work with me at the restaurant when she isn't studying- voluntarily.

I look at Hannah as I take my seat. She is placing food on four plates- well raw meat on three and cooked food on one. She had taken off her pinny and fixed her messy hair. She has also washed her face I notice- was I actually admiring her mouth earlier? Lately, I find I have been having these thoughts about Hannah that sort of made me- Nah, I'm not entertaining that.

The doorbell rings and Hannah asks me to welcome our guest.

Welcome our guest? Ah- the fourth plate.

Opening the door showing my surprise as K greets me.

"Hi," his radiant smile greets me and he took my hand in a firm clasp and shakes it before walking in. My head follows his movement before he disappears into the house then I close the door. By the time I get back to the huge fancy dining room, V is there, taking a seat next to K.

"173J, I was very pleased with the invitation and I look forward to working with you," K says to me. I do not pay much attention to him because I did not invite him. I look at V and since she does not seem to be that excited to see him- I focus on Hannah. She is avoiding my eyes.

Culprit. I will deal with her later.

From my place at the head of the table, I look at K as I slowly chew my meat. Rare. Very, very, rare. How does it taste? Hmm…well, it's like eating tofu…no tofu is great actually. Like dumplings forever but no I don't mean the delicious Asian stuffed ones at all but the boiled dough alone, ones. Okay but usually tasteless on its own. Imagine that.

Demons like meat, rare as in not cooked -raw, but for Hannah- I like my meat very slightly cooked. So, does V. And our guest K. Hannah does not show her disgust although I know she probably has no appetite. I see her eating though. She has baked fish on her plate which none of us has touched. I see her finish almost half a bottle of my expensive wine. I would get angry if she pukes it up like she usually does.

Such a waste of a vineyard.

Years ago, when her grandfather was alive, Hannah was curious about what I ate, and when I told her she did not believe me. I saw the horror on her face and laughed, playing it off as a joke. She was curious because she had not seen me eat yet she had said. To keep her curious and somewhat annoying mind at bay, I had dinner with her grandfather and her that night- a regular meal. She was overjoyed.

I understand now that she had asked because she wanted to cook a meal for me- her crush back then.

Two weeks ago, she repeated the question and asked if I was telling the truth back then. I said I was. "Liar," she taunted me but I saw that she wanted to believe it. She knew it was true but wanted proof. Curiosity see?

I had taken her into the dense forest where V and I usually fed and tore into the throat of a deer. I turned away from her view for I did not want to terrify her more than she already was. After my meal, I even wiped my face and hands clean after washing off the blood with a water bottle, I usually took with me.

She trembled all the way back to our house.

"How often-" she had asked when we pulled into the driveway.

"Twice a week," V answered her as she took the bag upstairs to wash the two towels. Although the towels contained little to no blood on them, we washed them immediately to keep the fresh blood smell away from our humans.

"So- if I cook for you, would the food not be enough? Do you need to kill?"

"Hannah your food is like a snack to me. Can you eat a cookie and be full?"

She had nodded no. "I feel like a joke."

When I had asked her why she reminded me that she had cooked for us before and she was so proud of herself. I quickly assured her that we did enjoy her meals but we needed blood to sustain us.

"If you must cook Hannah, make it rare. Very rare." Of course, I disliked it but I was pretty confident that she got the real meaning… blood and gore rawness.

Hannah had puked that night. Missed college the next day too for she'd been visibly sick. I had stayed home from the restaurant to take care of her. V too.

K was about to pull off a leg from the raw flesh in front of him when V stood up grabbing his hand. He was going to just tear it off. I thank her with my eyes as she looks at me almost horrified. Grabbing a knife, she quickly made some cuts and then gestured with her hands for him to go ahead. When his baffled look still has him eyeing her, she places a few slabs on his plate for him, sitting back down, releasing a nervous laugh.

See last week I did that, what he was about to do and Hannah almost fainted. Tearing a piece of raw meat apart is a no-no to human eyes. How would I know this as I have never had someone like Hannah before? I thought she was okay with it- after all, she had seen me do it before- well almost. Clearly, I was wrong.

Then she politely asked me the next day to use a knife at the table.

I look at Hannah now as she ate, warmth spreading inside me. She was a bit startled by K's mannerisms but I see the grateful smile she sends V. She cuts into her fish with her tiny knife as I did also with my raw flesh. I would have finished eating by now but we were trying to be friends. Friends ate together. And V was trying her best and so is Hannah. She did not have to do this. She could have excluded us from her life, like the rest.

She knows exactly who we were and she did not run. In fact, she is trying to live in harmony with us. She did not have to sit here and watch two -no, three demons sit and eat raw meat. She did not have to be civilized with us. She was warm and accommodating and tried to get along with us. Hannah was really trying.

This is why I am sitting at the head of my table, in my house- our house, eating bite-sized pieces of flesh. The least we could do is adjust to her world for we were in hers, not in ours.