Just as I thought that my bedroom door nearly flew off its hinges with the force it was opened with. I was so frightened I nearly fell off my bed. “You scared me!”

Peter walked into the room and looked around before focusing on me. “Where did you go last night?” he asked.

“To a friend’s house,” I told him, repositioning myself on the bed.

“Which friend?”

“You don’t know them,” I said, annoyed. It’s not like he knew anyone in my life anyways. Asking me that didn’t make sense.

“You think I don’t know you’ve been fucking around, boy?” he asked, taking a threatening step closer to me. “Disgusting piece of shit. Start packing your things.”

“Again?” I sighed. This would be the third time in a week he’s done this. This was bad, even for him. Usually, I got a few weeks of peace before he found some bullshit reason to kick me out again. “When is this going to stop?” I asked him. “Why can’t I just live here? This week alone, I’ve spent more time sleeping outside than I have in my own bed. I don’t bother you, I don’t even ask for money or food, I stay out of your way. All I do is sit in my room and study. Why do you keep doing this?”

What the fuck was I doing? Something about last night must’ve triggered something I had buried deep inside me for a long time. I didn’t like living the way I did. I didn’t particularly like sleeping with strangers for money. I didn’t like depending on Jeff, especially when I knew that whatever feelings he had towards me were strongly linked to him being able to fuck me when he wanted.

Having a decent, homecooked meal, sleeping in a bed that wasn’t mouldy, not having to dissociate during sex with some creep just to not have to sleep outside, not being paid for how well I could blow some random guy. I didn’t have to worry about that last night. It was unexpected, but it felt good. Nothing was expected of me, nothing was held over my head, and I wasn’t in a constant state of flight or fight.

“You’re gonna talk back to me when you don’t even pay bills in this house?!” Peter yelled. It looked like he regretted it then because he winced and closed his eyes immediately. When he opened them again, he looked like he might murder me.

“Do you want me to get a job?” I asked. “I’m a full-time student. I don’t have time for one right now. When I graduate, I can be in charge of groceries or something.” I couldn’t cook, but if he wanted a beer every now and again, then I’d get that for him if he would get off my case.

“You’ve been using the school excuse for a while now,” he said.

I nearly rolled my eyes. Of course, I have, you imbecile, I’ve been in college for two years. “I graduate soon.”

“When?”

“In a few weeks. I just have finals, and then I’ll graduate. I’ll get a job then and help you out around the house,” I said. “I’ll take care of the light bill and buy you beer whenever you want.” While I figured out a way to get off this planet, I’d need a more stable income and I couldn’t be fucking around the way I was doing now.

“Alright. Fine,” he said. I almost fell for it until he continued. “Once you graduate, I don’t want to see your face again. A few weeks, right? That’s all I’m giving you. After that, if you don’t leave, I’m throwing your shit out. And even until then, you better stay out of my way. I don’t want to see you nor hear you.”

“Dad…” I had started to object, but his glare made me swallow my words. He never hit me before, but he looked like he might.

“Don’t call me that. You’re not my son. You’re not even a real boy, you disgusting defect. I’ve been stuck with you for two whole decades and I’m tired. Do you understand me, Zedikai? Once you graduate, pack your things, and get the fuck out of my house.”

I flinched when he slammed the door shut on his way out. The sound reverberated through my entire being like I was in an echo chamber. I felt so empty on the inside as if my body was void of all the necessary organs. It was as if I was just a husk of a being.

I sat there just staring at the door for so long that my vision went blurry. I felt something against my cheek and wiped at it, only for the back of my hand to come away wet. “Fuck,” I muttered to myself, wiping my face. “Disgusting defect,” I repeated with a humourless chuckle.

It was the weekend. I had no school until Monday. For me to stay out of Peter’s way, I needed to be out of the house. So, once my phone finished charging, I packed a bag and headed out the house through my bedroom window so I wouldn’t run into Peter again. Once I was safely out, I started the walk to Jeff’s.

“You took your sweet time getting here,” Jeff greeted once he opened the door.

“I need a line, your cock, and a cigarette,” I told him, entering his house and dropping my bag on the couch. “Preferably in that order, and I want the cycle to repeat over and over again until I have no strength left to conjure up a thought.”

Thankfully, I didn’t need to say anything more. I knew what I signed up for with Jeff. He was a simple man who wanted one thing from me. He wanted my body, even though I was a ‘disgusting defect’ as Peter had put it. It didn’t matter to Jeff though, and that was where I got lucky.

It felt wrong, but I let him do what he wanted anyway. I knew I wouldn’t be satisfied this time because my head wasn’t in the right place, but I wouldn’t complain. Like always, I could just pretend I wasn’t on my hands and knees getting fucked from behind. I could be somewhere else, or I could hope to pass out and never wake up.

When he finished, I grabbed his pack of cigarettes and a lighter and headed out to the back of the house. I thought I would have felt better, but I only felt worse. Sex usually cured everything, but I was being all emotional just because one guy didn’t demand sex from me. But I knew that wasn’t how things worked. Not in my world.

I spent the rest of the weekend with Jeff, having sex, smoking, and getting high. I only left his place on Monday when I had to get to school. I had taken a shower at his place, snuck into my room through the window at four in the morning, and left with my books and laptop to go to campus and nap in a gazebo until the sun came up and students started to pour onto campus.

“I’m worried about you,” Rikki said once we met up.

“Baby girl, I’m fine,” I tried assuring her, rubbing the tense spot between her eyebrows. “You’re gonna get wrinkles if you keep worrying like that.”

“You look like you’ve barely slept.” Rikki pushed my hand away and cupped my cheeks. “I don’t know why you won’t trust me, but I will be here for you when you choose to ask for help. I know a lot of guys think that asking for help is a sign of weakness, but it’s not. Everyone needs help. Zed, is there anything you need?”

A home, food, a friend, support, help.

I smiled and held her wrists. “I’m good. A few sleepless nights studying doesn’t mean I’m dying. Stop worrying so much.”

To change the topic, I brought up the cars I had seen that morning in front of the front office. There had been quite the commotion when they pulled up, but I hadn’t been interested enough to wait around and see who had arrived with such an entourage.

“Oh! Didn’t you see the guys that stepped out of them? There are vacuras here today,” she said. Her look told me she knew I had changed the subject, but she wasn’t one to badger me if I didn’t want to talk about something. “They’re supposed to be accounting for all the students. You heard about the human trafficking thing that happened a few years ago, right?”

“Yeah,” I answered. “That was awful.”

It had been all over the news. Human trafficking hadn’t really happened in decades as far as I heard and it had been a huge case. The vacuras were accused of kidnapping children and women who wouldn’t be missed and selling them. It turned out that it was humans who were doing the kidnapping, killing, even raping and impregnating the women they kidnapped and raising the children, grooming them to be slaves. They were all rescued, even those that had been bought and brought out of the country, but I’d heard that everyone ended up messed up in the head.

Though I didn’t look it, I loved children. Hearing that they had been kidnapped and raised in some underground hell that taught them how to be useful as sex slaves made me sick to my stomach. I couldn’t imagine all they had been through considering they came out so scarred.

“Well,” Rikki said. “Apparently there have been a lot of students dropping out of this school in the past year, so they’re here to do some investigation.”

It wasn’t strange for people to drop out of school, even though education was free. It was stressful, time-consuming, and sometimes students found other ways to get where they wanted to be. If Peter decided I needed to get out before I graduated, then school would have to take a back seat while I sorted my life out. Which probably meant I would miss my finals and fail my last classes. Which also meant I’d have to endure a summer semester of making those grades up.

“Have you ever seen a vacura up close?” I asked. I’d never seen one up close, but I heard they were scary.

“Yep.”

“How are they out today anyways? I thought they couldn’t walk in the sun.”

“I dunno. What? Are you curious?” she asked. “Wanna go see the big and bad vampire creatures?”

I shook my head. I had heard enough horror stories about them, though most of them had sounded exaggerated. “Nah, I’m good.”

“Want lunch? I’ll buy you whatever you want.”

I looked over at her wondering why the hell someone like her was ever nice to someone like me. It wasn’t as if I’d been a great friend. I didn’t even know how to be a good friend. She had just attached herself to me one day and she had yet to let me go.

“Thank you,” I told her sincerely.

One of these days, I had to repay her properly. I hadn’t eaten a proper meal since breakfast in Mr A’s hotel room. I had lost my appetite during my weekend with Jeff, but I was willing to take what Rikki was offering since I would need the fuel to study and actually absorb information.

I went with her to the cafeteria. The place was oddly empty, but in the corner of the room was a crowd of people around a table in the far dark corner away from all the windows. As we approached the line, I began to see it wasn’t much of a crowd at all. There were a few people, mostly men, dressed in rather fancy uniforms sitting at the furthest table. The uniforms looked familiar.

“What do you want?” Rikki asked, glancing up at the menu for today. “I think I’m going to get the pork dish today.”

“Huh? Uh… I’m not picky,” I told her, narrowing my eyes at the table.

“Shrimp then? What about a drink?”

“Mhm,” I responded, not really paying attention. There was something familiar about that group, but I was having a hard time putting my finger on what. “You think those are the vacuras?” I asked Rikki when she was pulling me off to pay for the food. If they were vacuras, they sure looked normal.

“Hmm?” she responded, looking over at where I had been staring. “Could be. They look just like us, you know. But with fangs.”

I couldn’t tell if they had fangs from where I was standing, but after one of them moved and brought my attention to the food they had on the table, I was convinced they weren’t vacuras at all. Wouldn’t vampires only be interested in blood?

Just as I was going to turn away and collect my food from Rikki, someone caught my eye. Tall, dark, dreads, green eyes. And he was staring right back at me with the most confused expression on his face. I saw him nudge the man next to him and indiscreetly gesture to me. The man looked up at me, his blue eyes meeting mine.

Oh, fuck me.