Love Bites Then it Sucks by Julie Steimle (story books to read txt) đ
- Author: Julie Steimle
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âPsst. Hanz.â Art tugged on Hanzâs arm, pulling him back a little as they went up the stairs to the next floor. Tom had made them walk the stairs rather than take an elevator, Hanz believed, to stall and quite possibly convince their stubborn friend that he was being ridiculous. âHanz, hold on a minute.â
Hanz halted, though Andy stayed back with them, mostly to support and protect Art whom he knew and was clearly worried about as Art was the only truly normal person there. âWhat?â
âHow did you get entangled in all this?â Art hissed at him.
With a heavy sigh and a glance to Andy, Hanz said, âThrough Eve.â
âYour fiancĂ©e?â Art paled.
Hanz continued on, but explained as he went up to stay with the group. âYeah.â
Art breathed hard. âHow?â
Thinking, wondering what was best to say, Hanz weighed each word in his mouth before speaking. âI knew Eve since I was a kid. We practically grew up together.â
Art went breathless.
âBut it was more like during summers as her family did not live in our town. They came to visit her grandparentsâthe Wilsons,â Hanz said. And since they had time, he decided to tell him the entire story. âOld Man Wilson was a nice enough guy. But the ladyâŠâ he shook his head. ââGranâ Wilson just got worse after his passing.â
Art lifted his eyebrows, incredulous that Hanz would judge anybody.
âGran Wilson was one of those pompous rich ladies that âmagnanimously bestowed her charityâ on others.â Hanz made air quotes. âShe had two kids. A son and a daughter. Her sonâs family were chips off the old block. But the McAllisters, from her daughter, were pretty cool. The McAllister kids used to play with us whenever they visited, mostly to escape their cousins, the devil twins.â
Staring more, Art choked, perhaps wondering if they really were devils considering what he had just seen.
âWe just called them the devil twins because they are these mean-spirited boys who always played the cruelest pranksâon our family in particular, though just around town in general. Little monsters,â Hanz explained. He then huffed, marching upwards. âThing is, Eve was adopted by the McAllisters and just as cool as the rest of them. But Gran Wilson is rather clannish. And she never really accepted Eve. Thing is, the McAllisters didnât even know Eve was a demon until after her fourteenth birthday.â
Art stumbled. âA⊠a demon?â
Turning around, Hanz gazed down on him. âWell, she didnât know either. She was abandoned with them, and being real Christians they took her in. They just assumed she merely had a health conditionâalbinism, a rare form.â
âBut a demon?â Art rushed up to get next to him, hissing low. âHanz. How is that even possible?â
Gesturing to Troy, Hanz said, âHow is it possible that there are vampires?â
âDisgusting life choice,â Art murmured, clearly not believing his eyes but obviously reconciled that the group he was with believed Troy had become a vampire⊠at least in that blood had been poured down his throat.
âThat it is,â Andy said quietly, plodding onward.
Art glanced sideways at him ascending the stairs with heavier feet.
âIf only we can convince Troy that,â Andy hissed. âHe can keep on living. Eve gave him a gift by sparing his life.â
âI donât understand that,â Art said. His bewildered stare on all of those marching ahead of him was like a guy dizzy after coming off a roller coaster.
âIâm glad youâre being honest.â Andy chuckled, slinging an arm around Artâs shoulder. âThere is a lot that you are going to see that you wonât understand.â
âWe donât want you to get sucked in,â Hanz said, nodding to Art.
âHow did you get sucked in?â Art hissed.
Andy weakly smiled at Hanz as Hanz said, âI told you. Eve.â
But Art looked distressed, like he had just lost a friend to drugs or something to that effect. âBut how did she suck you in?â
âI told you. I fell in love with her.â Hanz then shook his head, sighing heavily. âNah. Iâve always loved her.â
Art just stared.
Andy raised his eyebrows, a faint smile on his lips.
âI just didnât know she was a demon until that Christmas when she spent it at my house with my familyâwhen she was fourteen.â Hanz sighed. âThat Christmas, when they visited, Gran Wilson had kicked her out into the snowâthough I had not known the reason at the time. I saw her standing unprotected on the street in the freezing cold without coat and brought her home with me. And we agreed to let her stay with us that Christmas. I was already infatuated with her then. But⊠she was a freshman in high school, and I was out of high school working toward my mission at that time.â He glanced to Art. âIt was before I met you. At the time I was going to night school and stocking shelves early at the store. It obviously wouldnât have been appropriate at the time to pursue a relationship soâŠâ He lifted up his hands, showing the hopelessness of the situation.
Both Art and Andy listened intently. The group ahead were almost a floor above them, as Hanz, Art, and Andy had slowed down, while Troy seemed eager to die.
âEveâŠ.â Hanz shook his head. âMy world had shifted that Christmas. I had woken early to put in a brief shift at the store to put out fresh stock and buy a present for her. I had the perfect gift in mind and I would be there with manager so I could buy it. ButâŠâ He heaved a breath. âBut I looked out the window as I was changing clothes to go out, and I saw her with these huge bat-like wings, lifting up into the air one of her cousins who looked terrified. My bedroom is on the second floor, you understand. She was flying. Flying.â
Artâs eyes widened more.
âIt blew my mind,â Hanz said. Then he shook his head more, closing his eyes. âOur eyes met. She saw me. I saw her. And her eyes were as red as Troyâs are now. In that moment, I freaked out. I utterly freaked out. I admit it. The next thing I know, Iâm sneaking down the stairs, trying not to wake the house, going to living room where she had been sleeping to make sure I was not hallucinating.
âShe was not on the couch. Her blankets were empty. And when I went outside, I saw in the snow proof she and her nasty cousins had been there. I found blood in the snow, as well as broken boards in our back porch.â Hanz shook his head more, but he opened his eyes. âNone of us in the family ever played on that porch as the wood was old and weak. None of us. So I knew none of us had broken it.â He met Artâs gaze and said, âMy family had lived in an old derelict house at the time which my dad got out of a trade. Long story. We donât live there anymore as it had termites and we have to move into a smaller house with hardly any room for all of us.
âThe point is, I went to work with all this on my mind. I finished my shift, I got her the gift, and my mind was reeling over what I had seen. When I got home, she was back in her blankets on the couch, but I started to realize that I hardly knew anything about her at all.â Hanz continued upwards at a consistent pace. âI know Iâm rambling⊠but, that morning I pretended for my family that everything was fine. I gave her the gift. We had a brief exchange where she confirmed that what I had seen was real. And she promised to leave me and my family be. She meant no harm. And when we partedâŠâ Hanz sighed. âI felt off. Like I had done wrong. I was just trying to protect my family, but I was confused. Sad for her. And yet⊠I could not reconcile what I knew with what I had seen.
âI found out laterâmuch laterâthat Eve had discovered her cousins snooping around our house that night for yet another prank and she had gone out because she smelled blood. I got this from Gran Wilson herself who wanted to paint Eve in the worst light.â Hanz shook his head again. âFunny thing was, she confirmed that Eveâthough a definite demonâhad merely rescued her cousin who had broken his leg trying to walk across our rotten floor boardsâand took him and his brother to the nearest police station as the hospital was too far away for them to go by foot.â
Hanz closed his eyes. âI had been trying to reconcile what I had seen and what I knew ever since. I mean, our church does not talk about demons and monsters. We think of those kinds of things as evil spiritsâspecifically bodiless. So I had no explanation about what I had just seenâbecause Eve is flesh and bone, just like you and me.â
Art peeked to Andy and said, âHave you told anyone else about this?â
Nodding, Hanz chuckled painfully. âYeah. I was careful who told, but I had confided in one church leader who after listening a while and praying with me about it, said something that gave me pause. And he said âWe donât know all the mysteries of God. Who does?â Heâs right of course. The Bible said no man can know of all Godâs ways. We only get a portion of the truth. Nobody on Earth is ready for the whole of it. So, he explained it to me in this way, âLike a slice of cake, we get the portion we can handle and digest. But there is still the rest of the cake left which we canât possibly eatâ. So basically, Eve is one of those things beyond our capacity to understand. He also asked me to keep him updated. I had invited him to the wedding.â
âWow,â Andy murmured. âGreat analogy.â
Hanz nodded to him. âYeah. Which got me thinking, when Christ said in the Bible not to judge, he meant it. Nobody has all the information. But unfortunately for me, that Christmas was last time I saw Eve before we met again in college, as the McAllister family stopped coming together to visit their grandmother. So I could not reconcile with her. Their mom still came, but the rest did not since the day Gran Wilson rejected Eve. If Eve could not come, they were not coming. Thatâs what her mom told me.â
âThatâs amazing solidarity.â Andy nodded, impressed.
Nodding again, Hanz sighed. âYeah. And that sums up the McAllisters in a nutshell too. Theyâre awesome people. Gran Wilson lost out, blind to how good Eve really is.â
âGood, but⊠sheâs a demon.â Art peered at Hanz with one eye.
Nodding, feeling the ache in the legs as they went up yet another flight of stairs. âIâm not a genetic determinist, Art. Imagine being born to an addiction but not giving into it. Eve is half vampire, half imp. She would understand Troyâs situation better than anybody.â
âWhat?â Art looked like he had not heard Hanz right.
Halting, Hanz said to him, âShe was born with a blood lust. She just never gave into it.â
âShe rejected it, is what she did,â Andy said, nodding with appreciation.
âYou know her?â Art asked him.
Nodding, Andy continued upward. âSure do. She was born to kill me.â
Hanz closed his eyes. He hated remembering this part.
âWhat?â Art chased after him. âWhat do you mean?â
Andy replied with a great deal of patience, continuing his ascent. âDo you really want to go down the rabbit hole with this, Art? This
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