But then just as quickly as it came, the feeling and the vision snapped away. He hissed loudly as he stepped back, baring his fangs at the person who had just touched him.
Harlow cut off the sound when he realized what he was looking at, just eyeing the terrified teen standing in front of him. “Ah…shit…”
The ‘alien’went down. Foxx went to say something to Harlow, but found the dhampir staring, one hand covering his left ear as his gun remained pointed out. The dhampir’s muscles were twitching a bit. Foxx frowned on realizing that Harlow’s heart was starting to race.
“Harlow?” he asked in confusion.
The man didn’t respond, and Foxx didn’t say more because someone walked into the room. He eyed the tall, lanky, blond-haired teen who was drawing nearer to them. Laser gun by his side, the kid eyed them back with clear interest…or rather, he eyed Harlow with interest.
“You two…aren’t human, are you?” the teen asked, his gaze still on Harlow.
Foxx snorted. “And?”
He didn’t like children…and to be honest, on his dislike scale…teens were higher than babies and toddlers.
The kid sneered. “What’s wrong with the big one? Head broken or something? Has he gotPTSD?”
Foxx wrinkled his nose. “Excuse me?”
The little shit didn’t even glance over at him. “I didn’t know you vampires could get old. Is that why he has PTSD? He's toooldto function?”
If the questions weren’t stupid, and frankly disgusting, enough, the little bastard decided to top it all off by pokingHarlow in the chest. At the touch, the dhampir reared back, and with his fangs flashing, Harlow hissed threateningly. A sound the dhampir cut off when the man must have finally snapped out of whatever trance he’d been in.
“Ah…shit…” Harlow sighed.
Eyeing the terrified teen, Foxx aimed and fired, setting off the sensor strapped to the kid’s chest.
Harlow looked over at him, as the human brat finally snapped out of his stupor and took off. “Really, Foxx?”
“Well…he shouldn’t have touched you,” Foxx drawled. “You were obviously not doing well, and he decided to be twat and poke at you with a dumbass sneer. He even had the audacity to ask if you had PTSD for being old, or some nonsense. Disrespectful little wanker.” Frowning, he asked, “Are you okay, Harlow?”
The dhampir grimaced. “I had a weird flashback to that damn house…”
“Flashback, as in?”
“I was there, and I was seeing what I did. Or rather, watching what I did. This happened a few times when I first woke up.”
“Do you still not remember everything that happened that night?”
Harlow shrugged. “I remember the beginning parts of it, before my change. But…after that…just bits and pieces.”
Well, he supposed that fit with the state Harlow had been in. The man had been out of his mind, and out of control, working on pure instinct, fully submerged in blood burn. But even then, it had still beenhim, so his mind trying to remember wasn’t too strange…
“Maybe the combination of the lights and the noise brought the memories to the surface?”
“Yeah, I’m guessing.”
“Welp,” Foxx hummed. “Now that you’ve thoroughly scared the shit out of some snot-nosed brat, we should probably get out of here.”
Harlow grimaced. “Sorry.”
“Eh…it’s fine. It wasn’t as much fun as I thought it would be… In such an enclosed space, it's hard to ignore all the noises enough to make it surprising when things and people pop out.”
That and…they hadn’t bothered adding soundproofing between this building and the restaurant. Or the outside. Which was odd, as the restaurant itself had always seemed pretty insulated, even if the noise in there could be on the louder side, atmospheric wise. Hell, had they removed the soundproofing when building this new addition?
Shaking the thoughts away, Foxx smiled and looped his arm through Harlow’s as he started tugging him through the maze-like fake spaceship towards the weapon return desk. “You know, maybe we should try paintball, but like, find a paranormal team or something! There will be less lights, less noise, likely in a wooded area, and real competition.”
Harlow eyed him. “When exactly could we even do that?” The dhampir was wincing a bit, the noises were obviously bothering him more now. Or, more likely, the man had just been trying to hide how affected he was before.
