“No, but he may.”
She gestured with the cigarette, pointing into the night. I followed where she was indicating, not seeing anything at first.
My eyes adjusted quickly. Vampires had superior night vision so it wasn’t difficult to see into the darkness.
I overlooked him the first and second time. He blended into the shadows quite well. If it hadn’t been for the bright red shoes, I might have continued looking right past him.
He was the size of a child and dressed in jeans and a wind breaker. His bald head said he was an adult, not a child roaming without their parent’s knowledge. His features were unfinished, like someone had started molding a sculpture before getting distracted half way through. His chin and cheekbones were blunt, his nose lumpy. His skin was gray with a waxy sheen to it.
I knew him. He was a hobgoblin and liked to play pranks on some of Dahlia’s customers. The pranks weren’t anything big or particularly vicious, just small things like switching their drinks with another’s or stealing their keys and putting them back in the wrong pocket.
“Is that Rick?” I asked as I walked closer.
“Yes.” Dahlia stayed in the bar’s doorway.
“Hey, Rick. What’re you doing out here?”
His eyes were dull. They had no life behind them. Any expression on his face had been wiped clean, as if it was a blank slate.
“Rick.”
I touched his shoulder lightly. When he didn’t respond, I shook him. Then shook him again harder.
“Rick, wake up,” I said sharply.
“It’s useless,” Dahlia said, appearing at my side. “He won’t respond.”
“Is this what you were talking about?”
She made a hm sound.
I didn’t know what that meant.
I frowned at Rick, not liking the total lifelessness of him. He might as well have been a statue. He was normally so animated, never able to stand still for more than a few seconds. His mouth always going a mile a minute. He considered silence the equivalent of torture and always felt the need to fill it.
This was disturbing. Anybody could walk up and kill him, and he wouldn’t be able to lift a finger to stop it. A normal could stumble across him and decide he made a good lawn ornament.
“How long has he been like this?” I asked
Dahlia cocked her head, her eyes studying the hobgoblin.
I waited, somewhat impatiently this time.
“Dahlia?” I asked again. “How long has he been like this?”
Her eyes shifted to me. “A few days.”
“And you left him out here where anybody could find him?”
I’d thought the two of them were friends.
She turned and walked back into her bar.
Well, that was helpful.
I turned back to the hobgoblin. This really wasn’t any of my business. Rick, unlike Dahlia, had never been particularly friendly, but he also hadn’t gone out of his way to make my life miserable.
I owed him nothing.
