Ev

I wasn't sure what woke me up. But when I opened my eyes the sun had barely managed to start shining. It was way too early to be awake, especially since the previous night I had spent about six hours watching videos with Daniel. I tried to focus on my surroundings, hating the fact that I had to force my eyes open. Omen had dismissed the makeshift bed I had made her, with the new blanket, and was now sleeping right next to my face.

Daniel shifting around made me raise my head to look over her at him. He was still asleep, but his features at once alerted me. There was a crease on his forehead, and he seemed in pain. I sat up, squinting as the sun blinded me and leaned closer to him.

"Danny?" I muttered, trying to wake him up.

Instead of responding, Daniel turned around and coiled up in a fetal position. Seeing this, I hesitated for a moment, but my worry won me over. Slowly, I reached out and softly I tried to shake him awake. His breath came to a halt and I leaned forward a bit, opening my mouth to speak up again. But before I could utter even one syllable, Daniel moved, and his fist connected with my face.

"Fuck!" I yelled out as I heard my nose crack and my face flew back.

My voice must have snapped him out of it because when I could see him again, he seemed absolutely awake and responsive. I reached up to my nose and barely managed to touch it when I felt something drip. Immediately I shot out of bed and sprinted to the bathroom.

Once there, I leaned over the sink, so the blood would fall into it and reached to grab a handful of toilet paper. I shoved some up my bleeding nostril, keeping my head low and reached up to felt around my nose. Besides the general soreness, nothing hurt, so I sighed as I realised, I hadn't broken anything. I changed the paper and turned to Daniel who was standing by the door.

"That was a hell of a sucker punch," I said and chuckled. Daniel took half a step back. "I don't think anything's broken. It'll probably bruise though..." I went on.

He took a couple more steps back until his back hit the wall by the kitchenette. I switched up the paper again, noticing how the blood flow was already starting to get smaller. When I turned my head to Danny again, I saw that he had slid down the wall and was almost sitting on the floor.

"Hey, it's fine. I get nosebleeds easily... don't worry about it," I assured him.

His chest was moving rapidly, and he seemed to be on the brink of tears. I backed away from the sink and turned to him, lowering down so I could be on the same eye level as he.

"Don't hurt me," he muttered, and a tear ran down his face.

I lifted my hands in a surrendering manner and tried to look him in the eyes, something he was making extremely hard for me as he kept his gaze lowered. Instead of crouching, I ended up sitting on the floor completely and taking a few deep breaths myself as to not panic. He was panicking enough for both of us.

"I'm not gonna hurt you. No one is going to hurt you. Not anymore..." I said calmly.

I wasn't sure whether he heard my words, much less understood them, but I noticed Omen elegantly walking up to us, taking in the scene before her and then walking toward Daniel. I quietly watched as she went and rubbed her head to his outer thigh and all but forced him to pet her. As his hand moved over her back, I couldn't help but hear her loud purring, and a small smile tugged on my lips as I saw Daniel close his eyes and let out a breath through his mouth.

"God why does this keep happening to me?" he asked, the soft crack in his voice making me gulp.

"You really need to talk to a professional," I muttered and bit my words when he looked up at me. I hadn't been looked with such an intense look of betrayal before. Fresh tears started filling his eyes and I couldn't help but notice his jaw tremble. "Hey, Danny. Listen to me, you are not broken. You are just hurt. A doctor will be able to help you a lot more than I can..."

"They've never before," he said as he tried to not start sobbing. "Nobody has ever helped me... nobody but," a hiccup interrupted him., "nobody but you."

"I don't feel like I'm much of help," I said under my breath.

Daniel shook his head and wiped away the tears with the sleeve of his shirt. Then he took in a shaky breath and looked up at me. He had stopped petting Omen, but she was still curled up by his side, purring loudly.

"You've helped me in more ways than you think," he assured me.

I smiled and stretched my back. Slowly, I stood up and then reached my hand out for him to take. He eyed it for a moment, but then took my hand and I pulled him up on his feet. He sniffled his nose and let out a shaky breath, trying to control himself after crying. He still had a hiccup, but I could tell it was slowly subsiding.

"Coffee or tea?" I asked while yawning.

"Tea... I don't think I can handle coffee right now," he replied and laughed miserably. I frowned but cracked a smile at that. At least, he was making light of it. Or maybe he shouldn't make light of it? Oh, hell if I know.

"When did you start this one?" he said as he sat by the table and looked at my open sketchbook.

"Last night after dinner... I think," I said as I put some water to boil and went to the bathroom to check my nose again. I hadn't felt any flow, but I wasn't in the mood to just let it catch me off guard. "That sketchbook has drawings that I do for work," I added, and I came back to Daniel.

"For work? So, people get these things tattooed?"

"If they like it, yeah..."

He looked down at the drawing again, examining the creature. A lot of the shading and background -I would be doing some shadows and smoke to fill that in- were missing, but the creature was distinguishable. I wasn't sure what the actual name of these creatures was, I wasn't that familiar with Irish folklore even though I knew some of it, but the drawing was of a dead and rotten man with blueish skin, piercing eyes and prominent bones. It looked truly horrifying.

"What kind of monster is this?" Daniel asked me.

"What makes you think it's a monster?" I asked back, suppressing a yawn and pulling out two mugs.

"It's ugly and scary and... it seems dangerous," he said while looking at the drawing again.

"It's... um, God I can't remember what they are called, but these things are walking corpses. They go around asking for food. If you give them any you get wealth or whatnot, but if you don't you get back luck and poverty."

"Oh... okay that doesn't sound so bad..." he said sitting back in his chair.

"I don't think the word monster is right for any kind of imaginary creature," I said and sat by the table, setting the mugs with the tea on top of it. I took my sketchbook and looked through the pages.

"What do you mean?" he asked me, taking hold of the hot mug and keeping it in his hands to warm him up.

"All the creatures we call monsters... most of the time they can't help it. It's their nature to be like that. It's the nature of a demon to wreak havoc and it's the nature of a vampire to drink human blood. And sure, there are stories of them defying their nature, but that never ends well, does it?" I started and took a sip from the tea, regretting it immediately as it burned my mouth. "But let's say a human... we don't all agree on is right and wrong, but we do have some common points. Killing another human, harming a child, torturing someone... I don't know those things to me seem universally bad." I shook my head. "Only a monster can do those things without any remorse."

"Then I know many monsters..." he rasped.

"Danny..."

"You have work today, right?" he asked, changing the subject and clearing his throat.

"Eh, yeah... I have from two to nine and then one of my co-workers and friend, Teo, wants to go for a drink, so I might come home late," I told him. "If anything happens... you can call me," I said and pulled a pencil and a piece of paper before me. Quickly, I wrote down my phone number and after some thought, I wrote another number too. "This one's mine and this one... it's the, um, the suicide hotline. In case you need to talk to... anyone."

"Thank you," he replied and watched as I slid the paper closer to him.

"So, do you want to watch another video? That guy we watched last night was pretty funny. I wouldn't mind watching a different game he's played..." I told him and drank some tea.

Danny immediately lit up and turn on the laptop. As it booted up, Omen jumped up on the table and came to rub her head against my arm. I smiled at her and started petting her, taking note of the little smile Daniel shot us.

"Bloody hell, what happened to ya?" Marcie asked as I walked into the tattoo shop.

"I'm an idiot, that's what happened to me," I replied and cracked my neck as I sat down on the chair next to her.

"Well, yeah, but that doesn't explain a bruised face," she said back. I rolled my eyes at her remark and leaned back.

"I was getting out of the shower this morning and I slipped on the tiles and hit my nose on the sink," I lied.

"Geez, moneybags, that must have hurt..." Teo called as he came in from the back of the shop.

"Did ya get a nosebleed?" Marcie asked me, raising an eyebrow. I hummed and nodded my head.

"Wait, does that mean you want to cancel tonight?" Teo asked with a sad tone.

"Nah, I'm fine," I assured him with a wave of my hand.

"Great, 'cause I really need a wingman. I haven't been laid in almost a month," Teo said and let out a huff.

"A month? But you guys went out two days ago, right?" I asked. Marcie nodded.

"We did, but Derek came with and you know how she gets when he's around," Teo answered. I chuckled at that and raised one eyebrow.

"You mean how he gets when you're around..." I muttered.

"Hey, I just like to party. It's not my fault that he doesn't know how to have fun," Teo said trying to defend himself.

"Are you being serious right now? Have you forgotten what happened two days ago? That guy you were hitting on was trying to fuck me too. Sorry that my boyfriend wasn't having any of that..." Marcie snapped at him.

I shook my head just at the thought of how Derek would have reacted to something like that. Probably not as aggressively as he would have reacted if that other guy wanted him and not Marcie. That would have been a disaster.

"Teo's taste in men is shit, but Marcie you're not any better. Other than his good-looks I don't see what is so appealing..." I said.

"You say that 'cause you haven't seen him naked. Besides, he takes good care of me," Marcie replied.

I shook my head again and stood up, ready to go to the back room and put my things away. Marcie's argument was shit and she knew it. That was not a good reason to date someone. And the size of his dick didn't matter either. But then again, what did I know about dating someone?