The Donor House: Linnea: Living with a Vampire?

[k_a_webb]

Knocking on the door was the hardest part. Biting hard on her lip Linnea stared at the door, trying to force away her fear of the vampire on the other side, because it was time she moved out. Finally, drawing on her hatred of living with her older sister and the way her sister’s husband always made her feel like burden, she rapped on the door with her free hand, still holding tightly to the local paper with the other. Thankfully Gage didn’t take long to answer the door, because she quickly found out that it was waiting that was the hardest part.

“Good evening,” he said, smiling. “I take it you’re Linnea.”

Nodding, she told herself not to look at his teeth. “It’s nice to meet you, Gage.”

The smile grew. “Come in. I’ll show you the room and then you can decide if it’s worth spending your entire time being terrified I might try to eat you.”

“Is that likely?” Linnea asked as she stepped past him, doing her best to ignore the fact he was behind her and she had no way of knowing what he was doing.

“Free range humans are tasty, but I prefer mine to be willing donors.” As Linnea stopped Gage walked into her. “Look, I’m not going to bite you. If you’re really that scared of me then you don’t want to be living here.”

“It would be better than being at home,” she replied, her voice little more than a whisper.

“Is home that bad?”

“All I know is that I can’t live there any more and I can’t afford anything else.” A tear trickled down Linnea’s cheek. “Living with a vampire isn’t what I had in mind, but…” Breathing deeply she wiped the tear away and turned to look at Gage. “I have very few options. Right now this is what I can afford and if it means I can have some semblance of a life then I’ll take it.”

Their eyes met and Linnea could see the concern in his. “Will it be some semblance of a life though? You’re obviously terrified of me and that is going to affect you just as badly as whatever it is you’re running from.”

“My parents were killed by vampires when I was a little girl. It’s not something I can ever forget, but if you’re really not going to hurt me then I think it’s worth giving you a chance to prove to me that some vampires are good people.”

“Who do you know that was in the donor house?”

“My best friend was a short term donor, until she decided to become a long term donor, and she’s told me stories about the vampires who live there. I don’t want to enter the donor house, but I do want to learn how to live with vampires.” Linnea summoned a smiled from somewhere. “I can either spend the rest of my life being terrified or I can do something about it.”

Mirrored from K. A. Jones Writing.

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I love both of these characters! So fraught with challenges, yet so determined to forge ahead.

Man, I bet if Linnea's creeptastic relatives come after her at Gage's place, he'll punch them in the face. That would be fun.