White nights

“I can bite you,” Indigo signs with a shrug.

The human, Jack, sighs. “I think, with my research, it wouldn't take long for me to turn.”

I growl. “Why are you helping that dumb human?”

“Jealous?” Indigo signs, her eyes wide. I sputter our a disgusted grunt.

“No. I just don't need another one to look after.” I still feel woozy from when I fell. My own head is driving me crazy. I really felt like I was being captured from the inside, like something was controlling my words I hear in my head. It couldn't be Rhetha, could it?

The idea leaves me feeling brutalized. Rhetha was always so excited whenever I was in any kind of pain, my supposed handler that was in charge of the Bloodletter’s full defense, mainly through her use of blood magic and fire alchemy.

Jack shakes his head, moving in closer toward us. Its already crowded in this cage of a cave, and he constantly tries to interact with us, despite us being Bloodletters. Bloodletters are Mortal enemies with all.

“No, I won't bother you anymore. I swear. I just wanna be someone else and be truly alone,” Jack’s indifferent look becomes sad. Maybe angry, I can't tell.

“I left my nephew, Ash, his partner and his daughter. I feel like a real shithead for doing that when I know they needed me.”

Indigo nods, “Welp, I would agree. Isn't your nephew a ‘Letter?”

Jack deepens his disgruntled look. “He got bitten last year in a battle. I was never able to tell for sure if it was a zombie or Bloodletter.”

I feel my disdain for the human grow deeper. Apparently Indigo has been talking to the human without me. “You left him cause he's a Bloodletter,” I sign in a accusatory way.

Jack almost violently shakes his head, his hair wild and greasy, as he pulls at it anxiously. “Oh God, no. That wasn't it.”

“Why?” I sign impatiently, giving him a glare.

“It doesn't matter,” Jack says in his hands, yawning.

“You better tell me the real reason you want to be a ‘Letter or I'm not doing crap,” Indigo signs to Jack.

I roll my eyes. “So dramatic, Go.”

Indigo sticks her tongue out, but bites a piece off and spits it out at my feet. “Do not call me that.”

“I guess it’ll be only white nights for you going forward, if you want to be undead,” I sign, surprised by my ability to freely share this. “No more sleep. Just endless white. The longest day that never turns into night.”

“There is always night,” Indigo counters.

“Not for us. We are shadows on the sun. We never rest with the night,” I sign with a pained growl.

Jack looks at me sympathetically. “I can’t understand that. I am only a human. But we have insomnia. People get that way. They can’t sleep much.”

“Not the same thing. Eternity of white. Never mind the attached fear of losing your mind,” I sign.

Indigo nods. “Well? He is right. My mind goes blank a lot.”

“Can you do it?” Jack asks her again, obviously undeterred by the truth of being undead.

She shrugs.

“Leave us alone!” I sign angrily to Jack.

“You're the one who told me,” Indigo points to her chest and then at me, “to leave you alone.” She grasps at the multicolored gold I gave her. “Maybe I will turn him,” she points to Jack. “And I will leave you.”

I feel a burst of hurt inside like a leak or a tear. I didn't say that. Something or someone else said it.

I can't say that. I'll look crazy.

“I didn't mean that, I promise. Just like on the mountain, remember?” I sign in an affirmative gaze. Her hard look softened. There was a shared look of remembrance, a shred of recognition. The day we ran off and my handler died. Died, or killed? Did we kill her? I feel so woozy from earlier still.

“When the witch stirred up the truth?” Indigo signs, looking at me in a stressed out gaze, meeting me sincerely. She puts the gold in her hollowed-out pocket near her hip.

“Not the truth. Just… twisted reason and reality…”

Indigo nods. “Emory?” she signs, looking small. Like a bird.

Jack sighs loudly. We both look at him, annoyed.

“What?” she signs with a look of impatience.

“I heard a rumor. Can you tell me if there are Bloodletters moving in on elite zombie territory?” Jack asks.

I blink. “That isn't true, just some made up baloney,” I sign.

“What in God’s green haven is baloney?” Indigo signs. Its weird how the way she talks changes at times. It feels familiar yet strange. Like a part of home has come back to me for a brief moment.

“I don't know. My handler would say it,” I shudder as I mention her. She nods, accepting the simple explanation.

Indigo frowns, “I have heard of a group of ‘Letters that are storming humans and Zombies still. They are hunting anyone outside of their supposed areas. They hate humans. Zombies. Everything not ‘Letter.”

Jack bites his lip. No pieces fall off him. Lucky human.

“I was afraid of that. My family and their friends always go out in the open.” Jack furrows his brow. “They are a group of Bloodletters, zombies and humans.”

Jack keeps talking, even as I turn my back. “My best friend died recently. Last year. He was the closest person to me other than my family.” I turn a little and see he's crying. “I can't stand it. I can't stand being without him.”

“Who was he?” Indigo is enraptured by the human talking.

“A Bloodletter. The first one. He lied to me about losing his voice. I shot him. To protect Bexley. And India. I killed him.”

I growl, “I knew you hated us,” I sign with venom in my glare.

Jack’s eyes go wide and then close tight, “I loved him. He was…” he starts to sob silently, slowly sitting on the cave floor.

Indigo’s eyes go wild with concern as she leaps over to me, like a bullfrog in a pond.

“Lemme help the poor thing. He's just a sad little sack,” she signs.

I growl. “If’n ya want.” I sign lazily. She claps her hands.

“I knew you were my mulkvisti.”

I give her a look. “What?”

“You know!” she signs. “You are the one I hate less than all others!”

“How do you know that word?” I sign, feeling a agony hit me, a pain for something lost.

“I don't know,” she signs and I shake her gently.

“It really means dickhead,” she taunts as I feel a heavy feeling of loss inside.

Jack understands this, looking at our minor commotion. He chuckles, wiping his red eyes, standing up.

“I'll help you.” Indigo stands in front of me. A defiant stance. She looks to Jack for an answer. The final answer.

Jack smiles sadly, nodding.

In a flash, I feel a whoosh of wind as she lunges at him in the humid cave, her angry teeth bared, claws at the ready.

—-

The chapter before this one. Here is my first book in the free app for Resurgence Novels, I am Bexley.