?

He was glad to do house chores, such as vacuuming the floors. He washed the few dishes he dirtied, but he was puzzled to never find any dishes from the others in the sink. It had been two weeks, and he had only ever seen them drink water. He didn't want to probe, they'd been so kind. But he never saw them leave on masse to go to a restaurant, either. ''What do they live on, air?''

He thought maybe they drank the raw milk from the cows, and he sat his suspicions down for a while. Jonny did like talking to each of them. But their eyes had never ceased to creep him out. They bore right through you. Even gentle Goldie had eyes like that. Jonny made up his mind to be more observant.

By the third week, he'd still not seen them eat. And they never, ever went out in the sun. A creepy feeling was coming over him. He'd not watched much TV, but he'd read books about people like that, he was certain. He'd devoured books so rapidly though, they all just blended together in his mind. He forced himself to sort them out. One was about an interview with a, a, no, he didn't want to think THAT WORD. Still, sun sensitivity was one of the interviewee's features.

While Sebby was sleeping peacefully, Jonny had to do some research. He crept over with a pair of scissors and carefully cut a piece of his hair. With his massive mane, he'd probably not notice any missing locks. Then he took the sizable strands and went outside, into the sun. He placed the hair sample in the sun, and sat down in the shade and faced it while he waited.

It grew uncommonly hot at first. Then it grew so hot, it ignited and caught fire. Within a half hour, all that remained of Seb's red hair strands were gray ashes. Jonny's heart pounded. They were nice people. Vampires could be nice people. Not one of them had looked at him like he was dinner. But without a doubt, they were vampires.

Did they know? He went to Sebby, and shook him awake, ''I've got bad news. I took a sample of your hair and put it out in the sun. In a half hour, it was burnt to ashes.'' Seb's eyes bulged, as he grabbed his hair protectively, ''My HAIR? My HAIR?'' he squealed. ''I've known my skin was sensitive, but my HAIR, too?'' Jonny noticed the man looked truly troubled.

''I'm sorry, I didn't want to tell you, but I thought you should know.'' Seb tried to calm himself, ''Well, I suppose I should have suspected this. It would be odd like the rest of me. I hope you aren't scared of me now.'' With this, he looked into Jonny's eyes pleadingly. Jonny noted again Seb's desperate fear. Seb continued, ''You won't tell anyone, will you? It's real important. Don't tell anyone!''

With the skinny man so beside himself, Jonny had not the gumption to ask him the other questions he'd had in mind. He'd just observe them closely. ''No, I won't tell anyone,'' he promised. But Jonny found he could not sleep well. Neither could Sebby.

Later, during the evening, he kept a wary eye on each of them. From a distance, he observed the farm workers. He was certain he could see one put his head to a cow's neck and remain there a long while. They WERE blood drinkers! Jonny felt triumph at solving a mystery, and he crept back into the house, to return to his Stephen King novel. But he really couldn't focus on King's strange worlds, when his own world was equally as strange.

Go to Chapter 23, Fitting In
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