Her eyes lit up and she squealed, “Twenty questions! And if you don’t want to answer, you have to drink.”
Seemed safe enough.
“Alright,” I conceded. “You can go first.”
“Ooooh, okay, I’ve got it!” she said, bouncing lightly up and down on the bed. “Are you a virgin?”
I had just taken a sip of wine before she asked, and before I could swallow, I choked with it halfway down my throat. Spluttering, I cleared my throat until it was back to normal and laughed. “You’re not holding any punches, getting to the juicy stuff right off the bat! Yes, I’m a virgin.”
It wasn’t anything I was embarrassed to admit.
“I knew it! Okay, your turn!”
Hmmm, what did I want to know about her? I didn’t really care about personal details like that. I wanted to know what people thought of the world and everything out there.
“If you could go through the veil, which plane of existence would you want to go to?” I asked, excitement bubbling in my veins at the topic.
Humans couldn’t cross the veil into the supernatural worlds. There was some kind of monitoring system that detected what your species was, which kept everyone segregated to their own realms of reality.
There were exceptions to that rule, though, as the government had routine meetings with all of the leaders of each realm as we all supposedly worked towards a united future. Not for one second did I think that was possible, but it was cute that the humans were trying to act like they didn’t want to obliterate all of the creatures that struck fear into their hearts.
The prime example was Hannah’s horrified face as she struggled to answer. “I… Well, none of them. Honestly, I like to pretend none of it exists.”
Ah, how disappointing.I thought she might have been different from the rest for a brief moment.
Humans were creatures of habit, and unknown variables like learning about the veils was not an easy pill to swallow for the majority. It was a somewhat recent discovery within the past fifty years, and as new generations were born, they were becoming slowly more open to the idea of mingling with supernaturals. However, the majority of humans were still wielding their fear as weapons to keep us apart.
So far, we only knew of four planes. Hell was where the demons lived, Ordinarius was where we as humans resided, and Praeditus was where all of the supernatural beings like witches, vampires, and other cool creatures were. Last but certainly not least was Divinus, home of the gods and goddesses.
Suffice it to say, mortality smacked humans in the face with the confirmation of Hell and Divinus. It made my kind feel weak and helpless, knowing that Heaven and Hell weren’t places we could go in the afterlife—as we should, honestly. We were helpless if they decided to attack us.
“You know there are rumors that a club nearby has become a vampire nest?” I asked, chuckling to myself as her skin lost its glow, paling to a deathly shade.
“You can’t be serious,” she breathed out with wide eyes full of terror, before draining the rest of her glass in one go. She reached for the bottle on her nightstand and filled it up again.
Shrugging my shoulders, I answered honestly, “I really did hear that. If it’s true or not is beyond me. But don’t worry, the Van Helsing family always gets dispatched to deal with any nest or lone vampire on the hunt.”
She shivered as if deeply concerned about this before saying, “We’ve been told that no one can pass through the veils without having a shit ton of power like the leaders of each of the planes. How are they getting into our world?”
Knocking the rest of my wine back, I enjoyed the dull buzz I was building from my RumChata earlier and now the wine. “Now that, I have no damn idea.”
If I did, I’d probably risk it all to try to escape to one of the other planes.
Smoothing her hair down, she seemed to collect herself before passing me the bottle to fill my glass back up. “Okay, my turn.” As she thought of her next question, I filled my glass and put the now empty bottle down on the ground. “Hmmm,” she mused out loud, “Are you a lightweight?”
I rolled my eyes before answering, “Well, I’m not twenty-one yet, so all I can drink is the random shit given to me. Not the best scenario to build my tolerance up.”
Her jaw dropped before she screeched, “I’m serving a minor!”
“Oh! I’m sorry. I didn’t realize that would bother you,” I rushed to say, feeling so rude for not thinking of how this put her in a bad situation.
As I pushed off the bed to put my wine down, she burst into laughter. “I’m just kidding! Everyone drinks underage. But when is your birthday?”
Before I could answer that, I took another sip and groaned. “In a few hours,” I admitted begrudgingly.
“Wait, your birthday is at midnight and you were in your dorm room doing nothing?” she asked, horror written across her face.
I shrugged. “I’ve never liked my birthday. Growing up in foster care, it was never a big deal. And now I still don’t have anyone to celebrate with. It’s just another day.”