I can’t believe this. She passed out. Damnit. Now I’m stuck here with this crazy looking dude dressed like some western version of a middle aged ninja, and an unconscious girl one puncture wound away from being classified as Swiss cheese. Before he can get back up I drag the girl’s unconscious body over to the ledge and prop her up against an exposed tree root. Not like she’s going to die or anything, but choking on your own blood isn’t a pleasant experience whether you’re human or not. Which I’m eight-five percent sure she isn’t given the energy emanating off of her, and the fact that she didn’t immediately die from blood loss and asphyxiation. Something that would have easily killed any normal human being.

I tap her on the face. “Hey, kid. I know we didn’t really hit it off this afternoon but I have a feeling you could use some help. Could hear your screams a mile away. You kind of sounded like a trapped bear.” The man rustles around behind me as he drags himself from the forest floor. “I haven’t fought anybody in a while so I’m kind of rusty.” I call out over my shoulder.

“I have no fucking idea who you are, but you’ve got nothing to do with this.” The middle aged ninja grumbles.

“Nothing to do with this? Well considering my house is a little ways that way-” I motion past him, “I do believe this has something to do with me. I’m not really a fan of listening to a defenseless college girl being murdered near my home. Not very pleasant. Plus I met this girl at a bus stop earlier and she was a fairly decent person. We don’t have very many fairly decent people around these days. Gotta preserve an endangered species am I right?”

“Shut the hell up. Endangered species my ass. That pathetic species of hers needs to be endangered. Anything that goes against the will and word of god needs to be vanquished.” He pulls another hunting knife from the inside of his. . . leather Trenchcoat?

“How cliché.” I scoff. “Couldn’t have found something less stereotypical to wear? Or are you just predictable? I haven’t run in to anybody as close to a cliché villain than you.”

He points the knife toward me. I think…threateningly? “Listen kid. Move out of the way unless you want to me to plunge this knife straight into your heart too.”

“You can try. Won’t work. Trust me I’ve tried a few times. Guess my fate is to stay alive until the sun blows up and sucks up earth like a kid drinking a juice box.” I reach behind me and pull a bow and arrow slung to my leather quiver. “Speaking of never being able to die I think I might be older than you. When were you born?”

“Shut the hell up already!” He lunges toward me but misses. 

I take an arrow from my quiver and load it into my bow. “By the immaturity I’d say you’re fairly young. What the ‘80s? 90s? When?” I aim it carefully between his eyes.

“What do you think you’re going to do with that bow, kid? And older than me?” He laughs in a menacing way that somehow makes him look even more corny than he already was. “I doubt it.”

I pull the bow back until the upper and lower limbs bend slightly. “Try the seventeenth century you bastard.” I switch my aim from his forehead to his thigh and let the arrow loose. It zips through the air and pierces right above his knee. He lets out a scream and collapses. “You know, middle aged western ninja man, if they were really trying to kill this chick maybe they should have sent somebody less half-assed than you. You really suck at this mercenary stuff huh?”

He’s absolutely seething. Like mad mad. He takes something I can’t really make out from the inside of his coat. It’s only when he has it swung back in the air that I realize what it is. A small explosive. Doesn’t look like something that could level the ground, but it could definitely blow an arm or leg off if somebody were to get too close to it. I sling my bow on my back and race over the the girl, scoop her up, and get out of there as fast as I can. I hear the grenade zoom through the air and land a few feet behind us. A second later it explodes. I can feel the hot air from it brush against my back, but I managed to get us both out of the way. I throw the girl over my shoulder and draw my bow again, load it with a few quick motions, and let loose another arrow into the guys chest. He falls to the ground once more but stays there heaving and struggling to breathe. I put my bow away once more and rush back to the cabin. 

***

“Alyssa! Open up!” I pound on the door three times. Alyssa should be home. David told her and I to keep an eye on the house. I mean…I was preoccupied with a few other things but technically I was protecting the house. “Alyssa!” I pound on the door again when she doesn’t answer.

The door swings open. “Damnit why are you so impa-!” She spots the girl on my back. “Who in the hell is that and why is she bleeding all over you???”

I push past her and to a spare room straight back at the end of the hallway. I kick the door open and drop her gently onto the unmade bed. Alyssa follows suit. “She’s some girl I met while sleeping at that bus stop. I was taking a walk in the forest and heard her screaming bloody murder. When I got there she was being chased by this weird dude dressed in all black. He was like some cheesy sci-fi villain or whatever. I have no idea what the hell is going on.” 

She grabs my arm. “Is that what that rumbling was earlier?! What was that??”

“That guy threw a small explosive. Like a grenade or something. He stabbed her just below the heart and in her shoulder. I have no idea what she’s done to provoke this but I don’t think it’s anything good.” I grab an old linen from the spare closet and wipe as much of her blood off me as I can. “You think David could take a look at her when he comes back?”

She shrugs. “Kind of a Doctor’s thing to not ignore a patient who is this hurt. . .but my question is why isn’t she dead yet? Normally somebody would have died from bleeding this much. Especially so close to the heart.”

“That’s the thing. I don’t think she’s any normal person. She doesn’t feel like it.” I place the rag on the night stand next to the bed. 

She cocks an eyebrow. “What is she?”

I shake me head. “I don’t know. Guess we’ll figure that out when she wakes up.”

“Can you go get some water and new rags? I’ll clean her up a bit. Makes me uncomfortable seeing all this blood.” She swallows like she’s trying to down a bag of rocks.

“Oh right. Sorry. Yeah I’ll go get some rags.” I rush to the bathroom and gather her what she needs and sit in the living room waiting for David and my sister to get back from their trip.

A few hours pass by. Alyssa finishes cleaning the girl and joins me in the living room not too long after. We sit in silence. Me contemplating what to do and her trying to distract herself from the scent of blood wafting through the entire cabin. Eventually we hear a few knocks at the door. Must be them. Alyssa hops from the couch and runs to the door to open it. David and Eleanor walk in and take off their coats. 

“We didn’t get much. The grocery store was out of that meat you wanted, Buck, so we got something else.” David sets a few grocery bags on the kitchen island. “And Eleanor managed to get a few bags for us Alyssa. It should last us a few days.” He states in his heavy Polish accent. 

Alyssa heads straight for the bags and ruffles through them. I rise from the couch and pull David aside. “Hey, D. There’s something I need you help with.”

“I know. I smelled it as soon as I got through the door. At the end of the hall, right?” He starts toward the guest room before I can reply. He opens the door revealing the girl. “Good gods what the hell happened?” 

“Heard some guy trying to murder her in the forest. Went to save her. She got stabbed a few times. Not dead. Hoping to find out more from her when she wakes up eventually. I was also hoping you’d be able to help her.” I stand behind him observing his expressions.

He sighs. “Yeah I can help. Obviously. I’ve been a Doctor for about half of my entire existence. My question is whether or not you’ve gotten us involved in something unnecessary. Again.”

“So what? We’ve been alive for centuries, man, and you’re saying you can’t handle a bit of conflict? You know I can’t let people just rot and die like this. It’s quite literally not in my nature.” I beg. “Come on man. Help the poor girl out. I don’t know what she is exactly but I do know she’s too young to die. Especially like this.”

He shoots me a side eye. “I’m far too old to be guilt tripped like this, but unfortunately it still works. I’ll help her, but you stay out here. I don’t need your input the entire time.”

I concede. “Good! Great! I’ll stay out here. Maybe cook whatever you brought for Eleanor and I.” 

David shuts the door and begins to work. I go back out to the kitchen where Alyssa is sucking on a bag of blood and Eleanor is taking the groceries from the bags and putting them away. “Hey you don’t have to put those away I’m gonna make dinner. I’m absolutely starving. Saving damsels in distress really works up an appetite.”

“Me too, though not the saving damsels part. I’ve been starving for the past day.” Alyssa says between sips. “Being a vampire SUCKS man. I eat like once every two days. It’s like David put us on war rations. I never wanted to see rations ever again after the Second World War.”

“Well. You guys aren’t exactly swimming in blood over here.” I take the meat back out of the freezer and unwrap it. “Maybe you should have lived in a country with less strict medical rules. Could’ve been easier to steal blood.” 

“Are you making that Neobiani dad always used to make?” Eleanor asks.

“Yeah. We barely get to eat any Korean food anymore so I thought I’d be brave enough to ask Mr. King David to venture into the meat aisle this time.” I get some sauces out of the fridge and put the meat in the pan to cook.

A smile perks at the corners of Eleanor’s lips. “I miss the restaurant sometimes, you know. It was nice cooking with mom and dad, and seeing all our friends.”

“I know.” I stare blankly into the pan. “I miss them too. I miss a lot of people.” 

I continue to cook the meat. 

***

David spent a lot of time back in the spare room. I didn’t think her injuries were so severe that he had to spend hours tending to them. When he emerges he instructs us not to go in there until she wakes up. She won’t wake up for a few hours anyway. Probably not until morning. Alyssa and Eleanor both head off to bed while David and I stay up in the living room to keep an eye on the girl. 

“I really hope you didn’t drag us into something nonsensical Buck.” David grumbles.

“Remember that time we got stuck in a mine shaft back in the ‘40s because you could have sworn mining our own coal would make us rich?” I laugh. 

“I’m not sure that’s an equal equivalent to being chased by a murderous freak.” He pushes.

“Well technically we weren’t the ones who were chased by the murderous freak.” I retort.

He leans his head back on the couch. “You are an insufferable asshole, you know that?”

“Of course I know that. I’ve been an insufferable, angsty jerk for the past four hundred years.” I laugh. 

“Well I’m gonna take a nap. Wake me up if anything happens, or if she wakes up.” He shuts his eyes and is out like a light within ten minutes.