Day Five:

I woke up around 1:30 PM, the kind of waking up that's more like being jerked out of sleep with the feeling that someone else was in my apartment.

This is true: most people can tell when their house is not empty. Every house has it's own feel, smell and sounds and it's something we all become attuned to. You know exactly what it's supposed to feel like at 3 AM when you suddenly have to pee so badly that you've almost wet the bed. You know what it's supposed to sound like at 9 AM when people are moving around outside and traffic is buzzing about and even that sound is so different than how it sounds at 5 PM. The house sounded different when there were six people inside, and it was such an alien feeling that if they stayed too long, you began to get a little itchy for people to get the fuck out so that the house and you could feel normal again.

The house especially feels wrong when you wake up in the middle of the afternoon and there is someone else there who isn't supposed to be.

I jerked out of sleep, my heart already pounding in my chest even though I was barely conscious, and I was aware more than I had ever thought was possible of someone else in the apartment with me.

The television was on and I could hear the sounds of someone playing on the Xbox console. They weren't doing so well and I could hear the impatient sounds of the controller being tapped and jerked around, but underneath that, the sound of a heartbeat that wasn't mine. It was the first time in days that I had been so acutely aware of my vampire senses, and as I focused on the intruder, it occurred to me that I could smell him, a mixture of sweat and cologne and... a lot of marijuana?

I fumbled on a pair of sunglasses and stumbled to my bedroom door. I carefully peeked around the corner at Julio.

"Dude, what are you doing in my house?"

"Playing Xbox yo. I was going to wake your ass up but then I remembered that you work the night shift you know? That new Super, Oscar, he opened up for me. A bit of a pendejo, but nice guy."

On the screen, Lara Croft missed a jump and plunged to a grisly death. Julio grimaced and then turned to me, laughing.

"Man this game is fucked up! You seen this shit?"

My heart was still pounding, more from the rush of adrenaline that was surging through my veins due to the clear danger of Julio, and I looked around my apartment, trying to get a full bearing on the situation and hoping against hope that Julio had not come to pick up his drugs.

"I'm gonna grab some cereal," I said. "You want anything?"

Julio looked me in the eye and he smiled slyly. "Naw, I'm good amigo. Just got back from a fucking sushi lunch. All-you-can eat is my favourite, you know? You get to choose from all kinds of good shit but I always go for the fucking unagi, you know?"

Julio resumed the game and I made my way over to the kitchen, still calculating my chances of making it out of the situation alive.

"I don't get much of a chance to go out for sushi these days man. That shit can get expensive and my job doesn't pay shit."

"Plus you got a drug habit to support, right Bobby?" Julio laughed a little at that and I hated him for it. Cocky bastard. "I feel you my hermano. It's all fucked up until it isn't, correcto?"

"One hundred percent," I poured a bowl of Rice Crispies and added just the right amount of milk, or at least so I hoped. Getting the right milk to cereal ratio is humanity's next great holy grail, and after achieving it once in my life, I was forever chasing that happy accident once again.

"What's with the windows Bobby?" Julio asked. "You trying to keep the light out? Or trying to stop people from looking in?"

"There's a funny story about that—" I said as I turned around.

BLAM! The cereal bowl exploded in my hands and I jumped, startled, as hard plastic fragments, milk and puffed rice flew everywhere.

"Holy shit! What the fuck dude?" I yelled and looked up at Julio, who was still pointing the gun at me, smoke rising from the barrel.

"I'm going to ask you once, and then I'm going to shoot you again when you lie to me, so don't fucking lie to me Bobby. Tell me the truth and I might even call you an ambulance and get you patched up, okay?"

"What do you mean shoot me 'again'?" I asked and Julio gestured at me with the gun.

I looked down at myself and for the first time I noticed the bullet hole in my shirt and the slowly spreading bloodstain as my body and brain caught on to the fact that I had just been shot.

Here's the funny thing about getting shot. Everything that you see in the movies about getting shot is about 99% bullshit. It's similar to vampires in that aspect. People don't get shot and go flying backward or flipping through the air like you see sometimes. It all comes down to physics and the fact that a small piece of metal is being powered by an explosion which sends it moving through the air so fast that you can't see it. It is so fast that some people report hearing the sound after they had already been shot, and in some cases they simply didn't have a clue that they had in fact been hit until well after the fact. That's just how fast bullets move, and everybody reacts differently.

I should have felt pain, should have felt something at that point, but there was nothing and it was almost comical to me. I had been shot in the stomach and all I wanted to do was laugh at the sheer absurdity of it all.

"Where are my drugs Bobby?"

I laughed then, a short barking laugh that caused fresh blossoms of blood to appear on my shirt, but still there was no pain at all.

"I knew it! I fucking knew that was why you were here!" I grinned but Julio didn't grin back. He either didn't get or like the joke. "I don't have your drugs Julio! If you want them, you'll have to talk to Harry but good luck with that one, let me tell you. I don't think he wants to give them back and I even asked nicely."

Julio really didn't get the joke.

"I can't figure out if you're lying to me or deliberately fucking with me, " he said. "Where are my fucking drugs?"

"Harry has them! Swear to God! You want his address so you and he can talk it out?"

"I trusted you Bob, and you go and sell them from under me? That was worth at least fifty thou easy, so you better had gotten a good fucking deal."

"See, here's the problem Julio. Harry's guys didn't buy the drugs as much as they took the drugs..."

Julio looked like he was going to cry.

"Doesn't matter, since you're just going to shoot me anyway!" I said and what the fuck was wrong with me anyway? Why was I in such a good mood after I had just been shot? It felt kind of like after I'd had one cup of coffee too many, the point where the jitters begin but before the shits kicked in.

"You're goddamn right," Julio said and shot me again.

Or at least he tried to shoot me again. I saw him aim and squeeze the trigger and I was already moving, jumping to the side and holy shit! I had actually dodged the fucking bullet!

A hole had appeared in the wall behind where I had just been standing. Not in me, but in the wall, because I had dodged the bullet! I looked from the hole to Julio, and he looked as surprised as I was.

"Did you see that?" I asked him excitedly. "Did you fucking see that?"

BLAM! Julio fired again, and I jerked my shoulder back as the bullet whizzed by and smashed into the wall.

Julio stared at me, astounded. "Chinga la madre, what the fuck is up with you?"

I felt amazing and wondered if this was what Harry had meant when he talked about figuring out what being a vampire was. It was a pity that Claude wasn't around to see this display because I knew he would have been as amazed at it as I was. I wondered just how fast I was moving. Maybe I was so fast I was just a blur like in the movies. Who the hell knew I could dodge bullets now? Why didn't somebody tell me about this shit?

I looked up at Julio and grinned the grin of a bastard son.

"I got bad news for you Julio. Only one of us is walking out of here alive."

Julio wasn't convinced. "I still got the gun dumbass!"

"And I can dodge bullets, you fuckstick. I'm a vampire now."

Julio just looked at me like I was stupid, but then something clicked in his brain and he looked around the apartment at the blacked out windows.

"Is this why you taped up the windows? Pendejo motherfucker! Holy shit man, what the fuck happened to your eyes?"

I had whipped off my sunglasses and Julio had finally given the response I had been looking for. About fucking time!

"I'm a vampire motherfucker. You can't kill me!" I announced triumphantly.

"Chingado motherfucking chupacabra!" Julio yelled and he was freaking out, just like I wanted, just like he should freak out when faced with a fucking vampire. God it felt good to get the right reaction; it felt good just to say it and have it out in the open and actually mean something.

Unfortunately, Julio's method of freaking out also involved trying to make a run for the door, while unloading his gun at me. The first two shots were very panicky shots and would have missed anyway, but the remaining eleven bullets found their mark, ripping through various parts of my body as reality reaffirmed its hold and reminded me what a bitch it was.

I looked down at the multiple holes in my legs, arms and torso and wondered what had happened to my sudden power of dodging bullets. I had been doing so well and now my body was just filled with so much pain. Pain and holes.

"Ow," I said and spat up blood.

And then Julio shot me again.

This time, that motherfucker shot me right between the eyes.

******** AUTHOR'S NOTE **********

The book is now AVAILABLE in Hardcover, Paperback and Ebooks. It's going to live here free on Wattpad, but if you love the story and want to support your awesome author (me), grab a copy from one of the lovely retailers below. Who knows: maybe it can become a bestseller with the help of you lovely WattPadders

Amazon - http://bit.ly/Amazon-SIMBAV

iBooks - http://bit.ly/iBooks-SIMBAV

Barnes & Noble - http://bit.ly/BarnesNoble-SIMBAV

Indigo - http://bit.ly/Indigo-SIMBAV

Check out the website: http://www.bobthevampire.com