The Donor House: Dominic: Arriving at the Donor House

[k_a_webb]

The donor house had once been a hotel. Everyone knew that. It was the first thing the local newspaper had mentioned, as though it had been the vampire’s fault that no one else had bought it first. Dominic remembered reading the article and then listening to his parents talk about it over dinner that night. Neither of them had been against the idea of the donor house, not in the way that some people had been, but they hadn’t exactly seemed happy about it. Having a hotel full of vampires less than a mile away was different to knowing that they existed.

At school it was a hot topic. The students talked about the donor house at breaks and lunchtimes, the teachers brought it up in class, and Dominic found himself looking at the website during one of his classes. He should have been researching vampires in general, in an attempt to work out what was fiction and what was fact, but he was more interested in who was going to be running the donor house than anything else. With a pen in one hand he wrote down the names on the screen in front of him. Nicholas Reeves. Alice Penhallion. Issac MacPherson. Lewis Knight. No pictures, just names, which wasn’t exactly unexpected at such an early stage in development.

Four weeks later pictures of the vampires were posted. Dominic looked at each of them closely, taking in their faces, and trying to work out whether he believed that they could be trusted. Since the day he had first read the article he had been seriously thinking about becoming a donor, because he knew his family needed money. His two older sisters both wanted to go to university and he knew that it was something neither of them would be able to afford. Going to university, doing what was expected of him because he was a good student, had never been something that had interested him, so he was looking for something else and until he saw that article he had no idea what that something else was.

Dominic never really believed that he would be accepted. The amount he needed, to get both his sisters through university, was more than anyone should lend to one person and he knew it wasn’t an amount he’d ever get from a bank. His parents probably wouldn’t have been able to get it from a bank. When he got a response from the house, three weeks after he sent in the application, he hadn’t been able to open it. It stayed unread until he could accept the disappointment.

Smiling, Dominic looked at the donor house. After three in-depth interviews he had been accepted as a donor, but until he was there, stood outside the house with his suitcase in his hand, he hadn’t let himself believe that it really was going to happen. Both his sisters would be able to live their dreams and that was all that really mattered to him. Finally he walked up to the front door, trying to seem confident. Although he was happy that he was doing something for his family he couldn’t help wondering whether he really had done the right thing. Nicholas had seemed normal, but he was a vampire, and there had always been something about him that had made Dominic feel like running away.

“Good evening, Dominic,” Alice said, as he entered the reception. “It’s nice to meet you.”

“It’s nice to meet you too, Alice,” he replied, trying to be polite, even though he wasn’t sure it was nice to meet her.

Alice looked at Dominic, and he felt as though she knew what he was thinking. Vampires weren’t telepathic, so he knew she couldn’t possibly know, but that didn’t stop him from worrying that maybe he was showing more than he wanted to with his body language or his tone of voice. He didn’t want her to know that he was scared of her, probably more scared than he had been of Nicholas.

“Are you sure about this?” she asked. “I know why you’re here, and I know what Nick thinks, but I want to know how you’re feeling. Being accepted doesn’t mean that you can’t back out now.”

“I have to do this.”

“No, you don’t.”

“If I walk away now then my sisters won’t be able to go to university and…” Dominic shook his head. “I made the choice. No one asked me to do this.”

“Being around vampires and giving them blood on a regular basis isn’t going to be easy, and no one would think any less of you if you did walk away.”

“I would.”

“Dominic…”

“Nicholas told me what it was going to be like. I understand.”

Alice smiled. “Nick doesn’t know what it’s like to give a vampire blood on a regular basis. I do. He uses my experiences during the interviews, but he doesn’t understand. It is, as far as I know, slightly different for every human, and I want you to know that being a donor isn’t going to be easy.”

Dominic nodded. “I never expected it to be easy, Alice.”

“I’m not trying to put you off, although it may seem like that. It’s just that you’re our first long-term donor and this is going to be a learning experience for both of us. While you’re here it’s my job to make sure that you stay safe and healthy, so it’s important that you really do understand what it’s like to give blood to a vampire.”

“The only way I’m ever really going to understand is if I do it, and if I take that step then I’m not going to walk away.” Dominic shrugged. “You put all the donors through a rigorous interview process to make sure that we’re going to be able to cope with living in the house, feeding vampires, and becoming nocturnal.”

“People can say all the right things, but that doesn’t mean that they actually believe what they’re saying, Dominic. It’s my job to be the final gatekeeper, at least until we’ve got some more experience at choosing the right people, and I need to know that the donors who walk into this building are actually capable of doing all the things they say they can do.”

“How many walked away?”

“Eight.”

“Out of?”

“Twelve.” Alice sighed. “They obviously weren’t right for the house, but it doesn’t make it any less disappointing. I like the four people we have left, and I’m happy they chose to stay, but right now I feel like we’ve done something wrong.”

Dominic looked at her and tried to work out how to say what he was thinking without making her feel any worse. “You’re vampires, Alice, and it’s going to take some time for people to get used to being around you.” He bit his lip. “I’ll be honest, because you’ve been honest with me. I’m scared of you. I’m not going to let that stop me from doing this, because I’m helping my family and that’s more important to me than anything else, but it wouldn’t surprise me if other people don’t feel the same way.”

“I don’t mean to scare you.”

“I think it’s just a natural reaction to meeting a vampire for the first time.”

“You’re probably right, but I don’t know how to stop people from being scared of us if they don’t give us a chance. Three people haven’t turned up, even though they went through the interview process, and it just seems like we’re fighting a battle we can’t win.” She shook her head. “I don’t even know why I’m telling you this.”

“To make the house a success you need to work with the donors.”

“Working with the donors is entirely different to telling a new arrival about all the problems we’ve been having.” She shrugged. “Take the week to make your mind up about whether you really want to be here. I know that you say you want to stay now, but that might change in a couple of days.”

“It won’t.”

Alice smiled. “Now that you’re here I need you to sign in. Whenever you leave or enter the house you should sign in and out, so we know who’s here in case of emergencies. Then I need you to fill in a couple of forms, that Nick should have told you about during the interviews, and once that’s done I’ll show you to your room.”

Dominic picked up the pen next to the signing in book and scribbled his name into the book, trying not to pay too much attention to the names above his. “Nicholas said I need to fill in a copy of the application form that has a couple of extra questions and sign a waiver.”

“The questions are so that we can make sure you’re comfortable here, but they may seem a little personal. We do need you to answer them.”

“It’s fine.” Dominic smiled, because Nicholas had already told him about the more personal questions on the second form and why they were on there. “I’ve had time to think about it and I’m glad that you’ve thought about it.”

Mirrored from K. A. Webb Writing.