My Pet

“We’re just friends,” she said. “I don’t know why you always need to bring that up.”

“You’re always over his house!” her mother said. “He’s a grown man! It’s weird and I don’t want you hanging out with him.”

Megan rolled her eyes. “We don’t do anything and he’s fine, Mom. If you just took the time to meet him you’d see that.”

Her mother tensed and quickly said, “I’d rather not.”

“Why?” Megan started. “He’s so bad but you’ve never spoken to him and you won’t speak to him.”

“Megan it’s just not normal for grown men to hang out with young girls,” her mother said. “I wish you would just understand that.”

I stood just outside the house beneath the window with my back pressed against the wall listening to the conversation. The tension in her mother’s voice when she declined to meet me worried me. There was something she wasn’t telling her daughter.

“If he hurts me, trust me you’ll be the first to know, Mom,” Megan finished.

Before her mother could breathe another word I heard her footsteps leave the room. Megan had very little respect for her mother. Initially when I met the girl, it bothered me. A hot headed, temperamental teenager was hard to control, even for my kind. I wrote her off immediately until I saw her again at a library. She was calm, collected, and very different from the person she showed her mother. We quickly became friends until her mother heard. I understood the mother’s perspective but what could have made her so tense when it came to meeting me? I waited until Megan had retreated to her room before hurling myself carefully through the window and gently landing behind her mother.

Her mother ran her fingers through her hair in frustration and then turned around. Upon seeing me her eyes widened. Just as her mouth twitched to make a sound I snatched her body against mine and clamped my hand over her mouth. She struggled but I held her tight. My strength was greater than any human’s and even for a human she wasn’t very strong.

“I’ll let you go,” I whispered in her ear, “I just want to talk. I promise. If you scream, I’ll just leave. Sound good?”

Her muscles relaxed a little and she nodded into my hand. I took in a deep breath and let her go. She scrambled away from me and quickly turned to face me. I expected her to scream but instead she just stared at me. To show I meant no harm, I raised my hands in surrender.

“Why are you here?” she hissed.

I shrugged, “Why do you hate me?”

“You’re too old for her,” she said. “Keep away from my daughter.”

“That’s it?” I asked, “I’m too old? I assure you I mean no ill will towards your daughter. Like she explained, we’re just friends.”

Her face immediately grew grim and serious, “How many times did you drink from her?”

I felt my eyes grow heavy. She did know something.

“None,” I said, “and I speak the truth. I do not prey on children.”

“Lies,” she spat. “Your kind don’t know restraint.”

“Some do,” I stated. “If I had drank from her, don’t you think she’d be sore coming home a lot? You seem to know so much about my kind. When we bite it leaves a horrible feeling on the victim for hours afterward.”

“What do you want with her?” she asked.

“To be a friend,” I said, “She seems to need one.”

“She has friends,” she said. “What do you want with my daughter?”

I sighed. I couldn’t think of anything else the woman would believe. Obviously she’d had bad experiences with my kind. How bad I couldn’t tell but she harbored nothing but hatred and distrust for us. I could tell her my true intention but would she understand? Most likely not. Megan was still only a teen. It wasn’t like I could convince her to just leave. I swore off biting children. If I told the woman anything else she’d likely not believe me. I didn’t need this to get any more worse than it was becoming. Jumping through the window wasn’t my best idea. I didn’t want to but the best I could do now was cut my losses. The Fyres seemed to be a decent family.

“How about this?” I said, “I’ll leave your daughter alone. She’ll never see me again and you won’t have to worry about that. Sound good?

I saw the gears in her head turning and it almost seemed like she was going to agree when Megan stepped into the kitchen.

“I knew you weren’t normal,” she said.