United Together

During my junior year of high school, I moved out of the Vincent’s household and lived above Mr. Sapping’s store; after finding a vampire angel hybrid malnourished and abused.

“Mama, the Vincents sent a letter,” my daughter, Jessica, yells.

“Can you put it on the coffee table?” I ask nonchalantly as I finish packing her things.

I then head towards the living room, and see her grab the letter as she’s watching cartoons and plays with her gorgeous lilac hair and baby blue bangs-

“Mama,” she cried out, struggling with her hair..

Finally, I wander towards the kitchen and read the letter.

’Raina, you need to pick up the following things from their places, and you MUST bring them before sundown TODAY!

Six packages of blood from Pure Blood

Molly’s supplies for college from Miss Sullivan’s Magic Books

Three anti-nausea potions and a pet cat from Mr. Sapping’s Powerful Potions and Magical Creatures

Inks from Karmay’s Inks and Quills

Remember BEFORE SUNDOWN!’

“Jessy, do you want to come with me or stay with Mr. Sapping?” I call out.

“I’ll come with you,” she says, walking into the kitchen.

“Mmm, get your shoes. I’ll be right there,” I tell her before heading to my bedroom to grab my skateboard and wallet. I then quickly head back to the kitchen area to discover Jessy listening to her music, so I nudge her to grab her attention. We stroll downstairs, hoping Mr. Sapping is not there. I eventually put my skateboard down. Jessy energetically jumps and rides off on the skateboard with soft laughter. I briefly jog to catch up to her. Not a minute goes by before she rushes in line at the Slender’s Sweet Stand. I suddenly creep up to her and softly yell,

“Boo!”

“Ahhhh!” she frantically yells until she eventually turns around and notices me.

“Mama, not funny.” she says while pouting

“Awe, did I spook you?” I ask with a smile.

She mumbles, “Yes.”

I kiss her temple and continue to wait in line with her. There’s shockingly only three people ahead of us; it’s amazing considering this is where everyone comes for snacks and sweets. The line continues to move, someone comes up behind us; I learned from a young age that if you’re not supernatural, it’s wise not to look others in their eyes unless given permission. I glance towards Jessy and see her glance behind us every few minutes until we are first in line.

“How are my two favorite customers doing?” Mr. Slender asks.

“We’re doing amazing; mama has errands to run for the Vincents,” Jessica tells him.

“Well then, I won’t take too much of your time. What can I get you two?”

“I’ll have the cinnamon twists, please,” she answers.

“My usual, thanks,” I tell him while handing him the money.

We grab our food and walk away from the stand, but I couldn’t help but glare back at him. I see him disgracefully shaking his head as he opens his bag of milk chocolate snowflakes covered in powdered sugar. I abruptly wave bye to him and overhear him rudely exclaim,

“Why did you serve them? One is human.”

“And?” Mr. Slender questions.

Their voices fade as we move further from the stand, but they’re loud enough for Jessy to hear. A look of guilt and shame fills Jessy’s face. I hate to see her upset, so I try to cheer her up with another kiss on her temple. Moments later, we reach the darkened building. A building that’s so dark even in sunlight, there’s still opaque darkness surrounding it. We cautiously walk upstairs out of nowhere, a dreadful gust of wind violently rushes behind us. Jessy immediately huddles close to me as I tremble fiercely from the draft. Finally, we push through the heavy doors. The door closes behind with a loud SLAM that echoes throughout the building while everyone pivots their heads toward the loud noise. Soon after, I immediately rush to the front desk and call out, “I’m here to pick up Hazel’s order and two packages of blood as well.” The guy at the front desk gradually hands me a medium size black box, then walks out of his office. There is a tug on my shirt, looking down to discover Jessica tugging my shirt; her eyes are wide and her shoulder tenses out of horror as she slowly looks away. I follow her eyes and see a male vampire licking his lips. Stepping in front of her, he locks his eyes on my face; his eyes harden and shift uncomfortably. I then hear footsteps and turn around to see the guy at the front desk handing me another package. I reach out to give him twenty dollars.We exit the building after he shakes his head.We take a deep breath and try to relax before we walk to the ink store ahead of us. We eventually see an elderly woman with light gray hair carrying a stack of books that towers over her face. “Good afternoon, Jessica and Raina. Have you received your letter from SGI?” the woman asks. “No, Molly did,” I tell her as Jessy runs into her store.

She passes her with laughter, then hands me the order as Miss Karmay comes out.

“Afternoon Raina, where’s Jessica?” Miss Karmay asks.

“She ran into the store next door,” I tell her as she hands me a bag.

In a rush, I yell out to Jessy. They both smile at me as I call for Jessy, then she comes running out with the board and a book. Letting out a laugh, handing Miss Sullivan some money as we head back home; walking into the building to call out, “Mr. Sapping?”

“In the back, dear,” he yells.

As we walk towards the back, we see a lot of new creatures, such as a Firerosy boa, Tigerwolf, Oear, Feaxer, Rouse, and Salynx; as we pass the magical creatures, Jessy looks at the Salynx in confusion.

“A Salynx is a mix between a Sable and a Lynx; sometimes it’s more Lynx than Sable, but rarely,” I explain.

We continue walking until we see Mr Sapping’s deep gray arm. Mr Sapping is a darker gray Dökkálfar. Svartálfars and Dökkálfars are often mistaken for each other, as Svartálfars are black elves. The Dökkálfars are commonly known as dark elves, making people wary of them. Mr. Sapping is the only one who sells potions in this town, so they can’t afford to avoid Mr. Sapping.

“Good afternoon, I’m here to pick up Mrs. Vincent’s order,” I tell him.

“Three potions of anti-nausea and a pet cat,” he says.

Nodding my head, just as Jessy asks, “Mr. Sapping, where did you find a Salynx?”

“They didn’t want to leave each other even though one was injured, so I took them both in. Sadly, I haven’t been able to get them to eat,” he states, then explains to us.

“If I’m not mistaken, Salynx eat mice, squirrels, rats, chipmunks, birds, eggs, fish, rabbits, and hares. Though it depends on what they are more of,” I state.

His eyes widen before he runs off; Jessy stares at me in shock as her mouth hangs open as he returns with a bird and a mouse. We follow him to the animal pen. Mr. Sapping unexpectedly takes the books out of my hand and hands me the bird and the mouse. I raise an eyebrow, and he nudges me to collect the animals. I finally relented, and carefully place the animals within a few inches of Salynx’s mouth, immediately taking a step back and wait for one of them to take a bite. The bigger one of the two comfortably nibbles the bird before devouring the rest of the bird. After that, the small one slowly eats the mouse. I found the Salynxs’ endearing and couldn’t help but smile at them. Shortly after, Mr. Sapping finally hands me the books as Jessy comes and hugs me while he teleports us outside, just a few feet from the front door. We unexpectedly see Hazel ahead. I immediately push Jessy behind so she’s out of her sight.

“Stay here. I’ll come back once I put everything down,” I whisper to her.

I quietly walk closer to Hazel with my eyes down, then gently put the pet down along with the rest of Jessy’s belongings. Suddenly, I turn around and see Mrs. Vincent near Jessy. Jessy’s is clearly uncomfortable, so I softly growl as I walk towards Mrs. Vincent. She fires a tch sound at me then bluntly ask.

“Why do you have that disgusting child?” .

“She’s not disgusting,” I snapped back.