Beyond human part two

     Two days had gone by since Henry saved me. Henry's words were spinning in my head. What did he mean they used to be human? Am I gonna turn out like them? Am I gonna become a blood thirsty monster that roams the night? No, I thought to myself. It was just a bite. I can't lose my humanity from just a bite.. Right? And what about my uncle. What line of work did they work in together? And how did Henry know so much about these things? The whole thing confused the hell out of me. I was so deep in thought, I hardly noticed my friend knocking on the door. His name was Jacob k. Braun. He was a strong kid for his age. He had short dark blonde hair and blue eyes. He was about five foot ten. He was wearing a pair of dress pants and a white shirt and vest. I never understood why he liked that style. I usually just went with a simple dress shirt and jeans, even though teacher whooped me for it because it wasn't appropriate for school. As I opened the door he told me about something in the newspaper. He was talking so fast I could barely understand him. I told him to slow down and tell me what he saw.

"They say your uncle was shot the other day. Is it true???" he asked, still rushing.

I looked down at my feet and felt the feeling I had felt at that moment. I had repressed it the past two days. Now it was all coming back. The book store, the gun shot, the emotions... It all came flowing back into me. I started to cry. I didn't want to, but I couldn't help it. First I lost my father. Then my mother, and now my uncle. It was just too much. 

Jacob saw the tears run down my face and began to comfort me. 

"Oh. I'm sorry. I didn't think it was true", he said, trying to comfort me.

He looked at my neck and then back at my face. I was still crying. 

"What in the world did you do to your neck??", he asked, pointing at the scab on my neck. 

Shit. I forgot about the scab. I should have hidden it before I let him in. I had to think fast. 

"I fell. Landed on something sharp. Cut up my neck", I replied, hoping he'd buy it.

"Wow, that must have been one nasty fall", he said, making a falling down the stairs gesture with his fingers. I punched him in the arm. 

"Come on. We should get to the school house. Teacher is going give us another whoopin' if we ain't there on time for class", he said, rubbing his arm as if it hurt.

    After class me and Jacob walked home. We walked past the alley where I had been attacked and I shuddered. A few minutes later we passed Molly raché, one of the cutest girls in school. I've had a crush on her since 3rd grade. She had blonde hair and bright greenish blue eyes. She was about five feet tall and always wore a beautiful black dress which was unusual because most girls wear colorful dresses. As I saw her walk by, my head started to pound. All of a sudden I wasn't on the street anymore. I was in a home. Not my home. But someone else's. Just then, Molly stepped out of the bathroom covering herself with a towel. What was I doing here? How did she not notice me? I heard a crash and a scream. I opened the door to her room to find that she was gone and that her window was open. As I was about to call for help, it changed back to the street. Jacob was staring at me.

"Huh?", I said, unsure and a little afraid of what just happened.

"I said do u have any money on you. Damn it, tyler. You keep getting weirder and weirder", he said, obviously pissed at me for not answering.

"Oh yeah.. Sorry. No I don't have any money"

"That figures. I was gonna see if the new coffee house was open.. Maybe we could get a cup of coffee before we head over to your house", he said, starting to calm down.

"No. I'm sorry. Maybe tomorrow."

"Oh, well, what are you gonna do now that your uncle is.. You know...?", he asked, trying to stay off the subject of my uncle dying.

"I'm not sure. I'm probably gonna have to get a job at the steel mill or something to keep the house. They say once your thirteen your too old for foster care these days. So I'm on my own" I said, shrugging as if it was no big deal. Deep down I knew it was a big deal. It was a huge deal. "How am I going to stay in school and work to keep my uncles house?", I thought to myself. My head was spinning. My life was going great despite the loss of my parents until that man showed up two nights ago. Now everything's gone to hell and I didn't have any idea how I was going to make it.

    As we reached the house, I noticed something peculiar. The door was open. I didnt remember leaving it open. I ran inside to find the place ransacked. Papers were all over the floor, tables were flipped over, dressers were opened. As I entered the kitchen I felt a sharp pain in my foot. I balanced my self and looked at my foot to find a shard of glass sticking out of my shoe. I winced and pulled out the shard. My foot started bleeding and I took off my shoe and got a bandage to put around my foot. I started to rap the bandage when I suddenly stopped. I couldn't move. I just sat and watched as I bled onto the floor. I smelt something tangy. Had someone been eating here? No! It was my blood! How could I smell my own blood so well? Then I remembered the man. He could hear my heart beat. Could he have smelled my blood too? Is that why he sniffed at my neck. Am I going to turn out like him? No, i can't. I WONT. 

"Hey, you ok?", I looked over to see Jacob standing in the door way. Suddenly I snapped out of my trance. And continued to rap my foot.

"Yeah just stepped on some glass is all", I said, finishing off the last layer of bandages.

"Damn. You are a disaster just waiting to happen. First you fall and mess up your neck, now you step on glass and cut up your foot! Do I need to watch over you?", he said, chuckling.

"I think I can handle myself", I said, giving him a look that said, "don't push it".

As I got up, I saw that the glass came from the smashed mirror by the dining table. I looked at my reflection, distorted by the cracks in the remaining glass. I never knew why my uncle even put the mirror there in the first place.  

"What's that?!", Jacob exclaimed, pointing at a small piece of paper sticking out of the frame of the mirror. Could it have been what the robbers were looking for? I plucked it from the frame. It tore as I grabbed it. "Damn it", I thought to my self. I tried to piece the paper together the best I could. On it was what seemed like a corporation's name, "ㄙㄆ日了ㄇ区". 

"What language is that?!", Jacob exclaimed. Somehow I felt like I seen the symbols before. 

"I don't know", I replied, trying to remember where I saw it before. 

"Should we go to th—"

"Shut up! I'm trying to think!", I yelled. Then it hit me. I ran to my uncles old bedroom. The door has been shut since the night he died. I hadn't wanted to even enter the room, but now I had to. It was the only way to shed some light on what was going on. My hands shook rapidly as I reached for the door knob. I turned it slowly and opened the door, keeping my eyes shut. I didn't know what I was afraid to see. There wasn't anything in there but my uncle's bed and a desk. A desk.. That had the same symbols carved into it as on the paper. I opened my eyes to find that nothing was out of place. I don't know why I expected anything to be out of place. I was the only one to have a key to the bedroom.

     "So this is his bedroom?", Jacob said, walking through the door.

"Yeah. Look! The same symbols are on his desk", I exclaimed, pointing towards the desk.

I ran over to the desk and knelt down to get a better look. It felt like it was calling to me. I put my hand on the carvings and everything went black. Then, I saw my dad lying on his bed. He looked ill. "Could this be the day my dad died?", I asked myself. Then I looked to my left and saw... Me! I saw my 3 year old self sitting in the corner playing with my toys, not paying any attention to my dying father. Just then, my uncle came in. He carried a book and gave it to my mother. I didn't even notice she was there beside my father until I saw my uncle talking to her. She put her hand over the face of the book. As my uncle left the room, everything went black again. As I came back to reality I realized something. My mother gave me a book that looked a lot like the one I just saw for my 4th birthday. Being too young to read, my mother told me to just put it in a safe place. Where could it be now? Is it still where I put it? Or has it been moved or destroyed? I remembered putting it in a hole I dug in the backyard of my uncles house one day while I was visiting him. I ran out to the backyard trying to remember where I hid it. 

"What the hell are you doing, tyler?", Jacob asked, confused.

"I think there may be something I hid in the backyard that's important!", I yelled back at him, nearly running into the tree in the backyard. "Wait! The tree!", I thought to myself. I remembered burying the book by the tree. I grabbed a shovel and handed it to Jacob. I then grabbed another one and started digging. Jacob, with a confused face, started digging where I had already made a nice hole. An hour later we hit a metal box. "The book", I thought to myself. As I unearthed the metal box, Jacob went to go sit down. I opened the box and pulled out the book. On the cover of the book were the symbols on the desk and paper. I felt the cover with my fingertips. It felt strange, like something powerful was kept in it. I grabbed the cover and flipped the book open. "Damn", I thought to myself. The book was written completely in the same language as on the desk and the paper. I couldn't decode it one bit.

"I'm beginning to think your family was really weird, tyler", Jacob said staring at the book, his eyes wide open. I nodded and closed the book. After Jacob left, I was too tired to reach my bed. I lied down on the couch and shut my eyes. I drifted off to sleep. 

      I awoke the next morning to the smell of tea. My uncle was the only one to ever drink tea. I never did and neither did Jacob. Could he still be alive? I got up off the couch. I saw someone in the kitchen but I could only see their back. I had to get a closer look. I took a few steps forward, trying to be stealthy. I heard a loud crunch under my foot as I took my fourth step. I looked to see a piece of paper on the ground half crumpled up. "Good going tyler. Way to be stealthy", I thought to myself, rolling my eyes at myself. The stranger in the kitchen turned around.

"Good morning, tyler"