Lost Humanity Short Story
This story is provided for free by H.S. Kallinger as part of the Lost Humanity universe.
Timing: After World of Lost Souls
Aria
I had had a rough night, so I decided that Aria was going to be on the menu. I needed her hyper-chipper personality. It was only a ten second run before I was in front of her condo from the house. I took a breath to let out all the stress and irritation that was weighing me down and used my key to let myself in, looking forward to her rainbows.
“Hey, did you see that study that came out?” Aria chirped at me when I walked in the door. She spun in her computer chair to look at me. Her impeccably maintained rainbow hair had a fresh coat of color on it, and I could smell the sweet purple scent that everyone was trained to call grape, even though we all knew no grape ever smelled like that. Vegan hair dye was so much nicer than the natural colored stuff.
“Hello to you, too. A-a-and you're gonna have to be more specific.”
“The one about vampire donors!”
“Again...”
“Really? There was more than one?” Her bright blue eyes grew wide.
“I've read three this month alone,” I confirmed. “One on the effects of synth on staving off VDIIHA, which compared it to whole blood, one on synth cycling that found it doesn't seem to have negative effects when kept to two week intervals, and one on perceptions of intimacy regarding feeding across various cultures.”
“Dang, all that, and you still missed the one on the medical benefits of long-term donation?”
“They found benefits?” I asked, thinking of the old question of why anyone should risk vampire drug-induced immune hemolytic anemia—what did humans get out of it? VDIIHA was used in the 'vampires are parasites' argument. I locked the door and leaned against the blue wall next to it. I could see the yellow kitchen through the doorway, and the blue, indigo, and violet stairs leading upstairs from where I stood. The rest of the staircase completed the rainbow, with some of the colors taking two stairs to stretch it out far enough. I always felt instantly happier being in her space.
“Yeah, so, did you know that no one has ever developed leukemia who's a regular vampire donor?”
“Or it's that no vampires want to feed on someone with leukemia regularly,” I mused, remembering how bad it tasted.
“No, no, no. It has no benefits to people who have active leukemia, but once it's in remission, donors who donate at least four times a year don't ever relapse. Acute and chronic. And no one's ever been diagnosed after becoming a donor!”
“Really?”
“Yeah. Although, no other cancers seem affected. Oh! And it reduces the risk of heart attack by, like, eighty percent! Or, I guess it said that only 20% of donors suffered heart attacks in the literature and none related to feeding? So, it definitely reduces risk. Not cardiac arrest, though; just heart attacks. It's your fault I know the difference.” She grinned broadly, and I could tell she was proud that she knew. I smiled back. I was proud of her, too.
“I knew that it was incredibly rare for someone to have a heart attack while donating, but it didn't occur to me that it could be preventative.”
“That's what one of the doctors in the article said! They went lookin' to find out how often donors had heart attacks overall, and discovered it's really rare. Again, they have to donate frequently—to the point of addiction. They also found the same donors have more robust immune systems. So, this does a body good!” She thumped her chest after pointing at me in emphasis.
“That's... kinda great to know. Send me a link, will you?”
“Will do! Now you need to explain why you haven't answered my texts in the last three nights. I've been highkey worried! I checked the house, and no one knew where you were. Three nights!”
“Can we not? I already heard this from my wife, my husband, my partner, my best friend, four kids, and Bonnie and Nicky tonight.” I frowned and considered leaving. I came here to get away from this exact drama.
“How'd I know you weren't just lying in a ditch somewhere?”
“No one has worried about me lying in a ditch since I moved in with Lukas.”
“Have you lied in a ditch?” she yelled.
“The past participle of lie is lay or lain,” I evaded.
“You have, haven't you?” she exclaimed, her face a mask of horror. I sighed.
“I suppose so.”
“Oh my god, there have been ditches?”
“Pretty much anywhere that there are roads.”
“But people aren't supposed to lay in them!”
“Lie.”
“Where's the lie?”
“People shouldn't lie in ditches,” I corrected.
“Stop correcting my grammar! And stop making me worry that you're lying in a ditch somewhere!”
“I'm going home,” I said, grumpy, and turned to leave. Normally, she laughed at all my jokes. That was what I needed right now, not this shit.
“Zack Michael Henderson, you get over here and bite me right now!” she called out as she jumped to her feet so she could stomp one. “Also hug me. Hug me a lot.”
“Will you drop it?” I asked as I walked over to hug her. She nodded against my shoulder as she squeezed with all her strength. After a few breaths, I felt better. “I'm okay. I just got really busy with a security issue that ended up being a lot more complicated than I thought. I didn't end up in any ditches. I'm totally unharmed. It was just a lot of stressful work. My phone died the first night, and I didn't have time to charge it. And don't you dare ask how I'd respond to Lukas saying that, because it's the truth, and I'm very sorry that I worried you.”
“It didn't occur to me to ask about Lukas. I take it your polycule did?”
“Yes,” I groaned. “It's a huge issue for me, so I really feel awful that I did it to anyone. I came over here because I wanted to be cheered up, though. I needed your rainbows, not your lecture.”
“But I was scared,” she whispered. Sometimes I forgot she could whisper. She looked up at me with watering eyes, and I sighed and kissed her forehead. She smiled, but it didn't really reach her eyes. I let her go and walked over to the plush, purple couch. There was a My Little Pony blanket thrown over the back. The throw pillows were black, though, and I moved one off to the side from the middle.
“Don't you go falling in love with me,” I muttered in German. She had followed after me to plop down in my lap.
“Too late,” she said.
“Since when do you speak German?” I demanded. She reached over to grab her phone and show me two different language apps.
“I already speak Italian from the neighborhood I grew up in, and then I learned Spanish in middle and high school—partly because there was a boy I grew up with who spoke it, so I knew a bunch already—so I started learning German as soon as I heard you speaking it the first time,” she answered, the bounce gradually returning to her speech.
“Shit, you learned it way faster than me.”
“It's not that hard,” she said, smiling up at me brightly. “See? Mastered it in this one, but this one's harder. I'm also watching a ton of t.v. and movies in German and did an online tutoring program.”
“'Too late,'” I repeated as what she said sunk in. I stared at the wall across the room.
“Dude, I caught feels at Nine Rings,” she said. “It's okay, you know? I'm legit chill with what we got. I get that it's one-sided and all. No need to 'let me down' or whatever. It's why Sarah hated me. She could tell, y'know? I didn't know how obtuse you were back then. You're hardly the first vampire I'd ever fed. It wasn't just that your bite's ahh-mazing, but it was you. I wouldn't have gone home with just anyone like that, y'know? Even though I was hella desperate to get away from my roommates.”
“I'm not sure she actually knows that.”
“She does. She asked; I told her.” Aria twisted to look up at me. “It was when she bit me. I told her I wasn't gonna chase you or nothin', and she asked me to tell her if that changed before I did anything, and I promised.”
“Did you tell Lukas, too?” I was confused about how I felt about that information. Sarah hadn't ever mentioned it to me.
“Yeah,” she said. “He thanked me for telling him.”
“Garret?” I asked, wondering how far this information had spread.
“No? Should I? Since you're not married, I didn't think it mattered as much? Are you upset?”
“I don't know. I need to tell you the whole drama-fest that was my first pet. But first, I'm going to eat, because that's what I came over here to do.”
“Sounds good to me!” She rested her head on my shoulder, giving me easy access to her neck as soon as I unbuckled and removed her collar. She was exactly what I needed. I sighed and held onto her as she came down and wondered just how complicated this was going to get. I didn't return her feelings, despite my own fear of falling for her. I had learned from Frieda. Aria was one of my closest friends, and if she could handle the love being platonic on my end, then I was fine with this. I loved her too much to fall in love with her. It was a strange thought, but it was the truth. I just hoped that she could some day focus that amazing heart of hers on someone worthy of it.
Someone far better for her than me.
