I had turned myself invisible. Weirdly enough I could still see my arms, although they lost their color. They looked like they were see-through plastic. To anyone else it would be invisible. My bag filled with Jan’s groceries and my own clothes rested at the end of the alleyway

Must be a skin hardener. Those were strong enough to knock a car off the road by using their own body as a battering ram.

I charged at him as he reached inside of the sports car window to grab the person inside. I could hear what sounded like a teenager screaming in fear. I needed to save him. I bent my back during the run and rammed my shoulder into the vampire’s side, connecting with his liver.

He got caught by surprise, thrown off his feet, and confused. I positioned myself on top of him and started punching onto his face. The first few hits felt like I punched a face, the last felt like I punched a stone statue. The vampire smirked when I groaned and kicked me off him. I rolled back and remained crouched. His eyes darted around in the dark, looking for me.

He stepped back and put his hands up. Skin hardeners usually only hardened the parts of their body they needed to save blood. In a fight like this it was usually the fists, face, and forearms. They always had some soft spots somewhere. The spots that were hard, could be shattered with enough force. I observed him throwing a few wild punches into the dark, trying to gauge where I was. As long as I remained still, he wouldn’t have a clue.

I silently walked to the side. I didn’t like being naked, but it did help with being silent and, well, invisible. I threw a foot forward and push-kicked him against the right side of the ribcage. He let out a sound of surprise and fell against the wall. I then grabbed his head with two hands and smashed the side of his head against the brick wall of a tall building. There was a hard clonk noise, but I didn’t seem to have hurt him. A few cracks trailed up a few bricks.

“Leave!” I yelled. I love to fight, but I really hoped he would leave. I had done enough grievous bodily harm this week.

He spat in direction but missed my face, then threw a kick. The hardened leg hit me against the thigh and I went down. My invisibility flickered for a bit due to shock, letting him see me for half a second. I quickly recovered my veil. I got up and limped to the car while holding my leg. There should be something I could use.

I looked in the window and saw a skinny boy with short hair, he couldn’t be older than eighteen. He had a vaguely familiar face, no time to remember who he was. I needed his help.

“I know you’re there!” I heard behind me. I looked for a weapon, then I saw the window breaker in the inside of the door. It was better than nothing.

“Window breaker.” I whispered to him. He briefly looked for it, then grabbed it. He threw an orange window breaker with a silver spike on top onto the driver’s seat and I grabbed it. I felt a rock hard hand on my shoulder. He pulled me back from the car. He then threw me backwards, hitting back first into the bricks. I fell on my ass, my back resting against the wall.

He approached me, but I’m sure he didn’t see me holding the weapon. He pointed his elbow towards my head and charged. I dodged to the side and his elbow burrowed itself into the brick wall. He looked around and when he turned towards me, I struck.

I pushed the spike of the window breaker into the skin hardener’s forehead. His skin fractured and a few pieces dropped to the ground. The vampire screeched. I couldn’t believe the plan actually worked. I had hit him with all my strength because I knew he was tougher than a car window, but even then it was risky.

Behind the shards of skin was blood, skull, muscle, softer stuff. He was weak now. I punched his fractured face. Like someone punched a 3D jigsaw puzzle, the shards of skin flew off his head and blood squirted out of the wounds. I smiled like a man possessed.

The vampire tried to throw a wild haymaker, but I blocked it. I then rammed the silver spike into his eye. It popped and he fell down to the ground and held onto his face. The pain was too much for him to bear now. He shrieked while rolling.

Blood ran in small rivers along the creases in the cement floor.

Now I needed to end his suffering. I ran over to the smoking car and tugged on the hood; it was pretty loose. Such a shame, it used to be a beautiful car. I pulled it off and turned visible. He needed to at least see his killer. I lifted the hood and smashed the edge down onto his neck. I screamed in rage. I hated vampires who preyed on the vulnerable, the vampires that caused the missing children.

Not on my watch

*Clang!*

The head separated from the body and blood pumped out. I dropped the hood of the car to the floor, causing a less powerful clang. I stared at the body for a moment, I then walked to the kid, who was still in the car. My leg was still hurting, I think the vampire bruised it with that killer kick.

“Hey, kid! I know you don’t experience this every day, but you need to come with me if you want to live.” I said, peeking through the car window.

“Uhm, ah, eh,” The kid mumbled.

I reached inside and slapped him on the cheek, “Your name!”

He had woken up, “Hans! Please don’t kill me.” His voice cracked.

Then it hit me like a freight train. This was Hans Julians, the son of the Butcher of Amsterdam. That is where I recognized him from.

“Ah shit,” I groaned, “ at least your father won’t be angry at me for letting you get killed.”

The kid’s face was white with fear. I couldn’t blame him, he just saw his buddy’s heart get ripped out, then saw me decapitate his killer with the hood of the car. Hans was shorter than me and quite skinny. His light brown hair looked messy. He wore a dark blue school uniform with a black tie.

“Please don’t kill me!” Hans shrieked.

I sighed. “Shut up! I’m saving you,,” I opened the door for him and he crawled out. The boy panted heavily and looked like he was going to pass out. “Get up and follow me.”

“What happened, why are you naked?” He said in confusion.

I grabbed his arm and pulled him with me; explanation came later. I recovered my clothes first and quickly put them on. Luckily it was just a shirt with sweatpants. I also picked up the grocery bag.

“Did you just turn invisible or something?” Hans asked. I didn’t have time to answer. I grabbed him by his arm and ran off. He followed as best he could. Now I needed to get out of here before any authorities showed up and caused me even more problems.

There were humans who knew vampires existed, but they were often under surveillance from them. Some, like Willem and Jan, knew only one vampire. That would be me, the vampire authorities wouldn’t care so much for our friendship unless they talked to anyone else. I knew they wouldn’t.

Hans would if the apple fell close to the tree. If he told his dad, he would either not believe it, or call for a vampire genocide. Understandable, if I was a human I would’ve done the same. Blood sucking creatures with superpowers are a danger to national health after all. From how scared he had been, I didn’t think he would.

We weren’t too far from my apartment. If we sprinted we could make it in fifteen minutes. “Run after me, Hans!” I started running and Hans surprisingly kept up with me.

He was fitter than I expected. His skinny physique proved misleading. It was late afternoon but if we kept to the alleyways we would be obscure enough to not be noticed. We ran and ran until we could see the lake in front of the large apartment complex. We went over the bridge and decided to take the elevator. Taking the stairs after all that running would be too much for the kid to handle. He was heavily breathing and struggling. The doors closed and I let go of him. He put his hands onto his knees. He was fast, but his endurace was significantly shorter than mine.

Hans Wheezed.

“I know this is very weird, but I am doing what is needed for you to see another morning. The longer you stay on the scene, the bigger the chance they’ll suspect you.”

“Y-you sound like you’ve done this before.” Hans said, out of breath.

“Nothing quite like this. I have saved people, but they weren’t quite as young as you. They also weren’t the son of Jacob Julians.”

“Are you some kind of Russian superweapon created to kidnap me?”

“Do I look slavic to you?” As far as I recall, I had a very Asian face.

“No, but you turned invisible! Are you Japanese?”

“That is even worse, but I understand the confusion.” I snarled.

I had pale skin, yet a full blooded Indonesian. Being called Japanese was the biggest insult imaginable. The kid couldn’t help it, he got raised in a world where there was only the Japanese Empire.

“Well, what is your name?” He asked with a high pitched tone. Poor kid was close to fainting.

“Nazril Fabri.”

Hans nodded, the arteries on his neck pressed through the skin, giving me hunger. Luckily I already had my fill.

The elevator doors opened and we walked out. We got to my apartment in peace. I locked the door when we were inside. Hans's eyes were drawn to the mini gym I had in the corner.

“Okay, kid. So the guy who attacked you is the same as me.”

“A bioweapon?”

“No! We are… “I paused for a second, then exhaled the word. “vampires.” Hans turned his back to me in disbelief. There wasn’t any reason why he wouldn’t believe it after what he has seen, but people are stubborn in their beliefs.

“Nah, gotta be bullshit. You’re bullshitting me,” He said softly. “Like drinking blood?”

“That is a part of it, yes.” I answered. Jan had a similar reaction when I told him.

I grabbed him by the shoulder and he shrugged it off, “I am not a Dracula or anything. I never read it but he’s more powerful than me, I suppose.”

“Oh my god,” Hans stepped forward. “Show your fangs.”

I shrugged, then opened my mouth and extracted my fangs. The pointy teeth grew longer and Hans’ eyes widened and his arms swung up, “What the fuck?” He said softly, in a shocked tone. His shoulders twitched as he let the sight sink in. He tripped over a table as he slowly stepped back, stumbled, and landed on his ass. He quickly sat back up again “How?”

“I don’t know either.” I answered.

***

I had fallen on my ass out of fear, vampires were real. Did the government know? How many were there on earth? My eyes fixated on the pointy fangs. They reminded me of those a bat had. Not as big as the fictional vampires I have come to know, but still terrifying.

I got up and put a hand on my butt. It ached from the fall. I slowed my breathing down and stared at Nazril’s chest. I had trouble with making eye contact with regular people, with this vampire I wouldn’t even dare to stare at his forehead.

“Sorry for my overreaction.” I stood up straight again.

Nazril chuckled, “I wouldn’t call it overreacting.” His fangs sank back into his gums.

He went on to explain about how he beat the skin hardener vampire. I felt good about helping him, even though it was the bare minimum. Nazril told the story without exaggerating, but clearly full of pride. When he finished he told me what we were going to do now.

“So, we are going to eat dinner, then I’ll bring you home. How does that sound?”

“You eat?”

He walked to the kitchen and came back with a plastic blood bag. I felt a sting in my heart when I saw it. He put the blood into a glass and sat at the table. “I drink blood, but you humans add stuff to your food that isn’t needed either.”

“Like what?”

“Oh you know, added sugar, fat, alcohol.”

He started cooking an omelet. “Food coming right up, I haven’t done this in a while so it won’t be the prettiest omelet. Better than nothing I suppose.”

I thought about Andy, god I didn’t even have the chance to think about him. I didn’t know him for long, and he definitely touched a girl at that party, but he was just gone like that. Nobody should have to die like that. He had been too wounded to fight back

“Thinking about your buddy?” Nazril asked.

I nodded.

“I know the feeling. I will warn you that these things will happen when you deal with vampires often. A lot of them are bloodthirsty.

Shit… a tear trailed down my cheek. I hurryingly swiped it away with my sleeve.

“How are you with the ladies?” He sounded genuinely curious, but I knew he wanted to change the subject. He drank his blood, it made my stomach turn. My mind went to Marlene for some reason, hell, if I had to ask someone for advice it would be him. Vampires were known to be old, maybe they’re wise too.

“There is a girl I like,” Nazril’s head perked up, “She is really pretty, kind and sweet, but I have never been with a girl before. She has had two boyfriends that I know of. I got initiated into her little school club. It’s kind of a… What do you call it? Mentally ill help group.”

“Watch out, don’t stick your-”

“No but that’s the thing, Nazril!” I interrupted him, “She doesn’t have any crazy thing she is dealing with. She does it because the people with those issues are her friends and she wants to help them.”

“Do you have such a crazy thing too?” Nazril asked.

“Not that I know of, I always saw myself as a normal guy. I’m not special aside from my upbringing, I guess. I am just there to get closer to Marlene and socialize with her friends. They’re really nice.” I flushed.

The vampire scratched his chin. “I would assume that makes you a friend of hers.”

“Yeah, I guess it does.” I confirmed. “Better than nothing I suppose.”

”You are friends with a very kind and considerate girl from what I hear, but if you keep treating her as a friend, nothing will happen. You need to make a move.”

I shook my head, “No, I can’t. That would be creepy.”

He sighed, “Tomorrow isn’t promised, kid. Next time I won’t be there to save you. I’d ask her out soon before she has a new guy, or you’re buried six feet deep.”

“But Nazril, I’m weird and socially incapable and fucking ugly.”

He started laughing.

“You’re not ugly, you’re just programmed to think that way. You see all these people online living perfect lives, but that’s all fake. Have you ever seen disfigured or disabled people with way better relationships than pretty people on TV?”

I nodded and remained silent.

“Good. See, they did that by relying on other things than looks to get a relationship, creating a connection with someone where the outside isn’t important. You could do that easily, but you’d have to start loving yourself first. You’re not ugly at all,” He squinted his eyes at me. “Okay, maybe you are now. You are

There was something in that. I had pimples like any other teenager, and it wasn’t like Marlene’s previous boyfriends were all Greek gods. Hell, one of them was a chubby guy.

He squinted his eyes at me. “Okay, maybe you are ugly at this moment. You have one nasty scratch on your cheek, plus your eyes are all red from crying. I assume you’re not like this every day.”

“Maybe you’re right,” I pondered, “I just don’t know how to ask her. Do I just ask if she wants to date me?”

Nazril finished his glass of blood. He looked satisfied.

“Just ask if she wants to watch a movie with you, or ask if she wants to drink coffee with you sometime.”

“As friends?”

Nazril grinned. “As friends, but if you ask something like that and she says yes, she is probably smart enough to see you do it out of romantic interest. If she says no, then that is fine.”

“How is that fine?”

“There are billions of girls, there’s bound to be at least one who likes you.”

“But I only like her.”

Nazril facepalmed and sighed, he then placed his fist on the table. “I swear, you’re your own worst enemy. You shouldn’t put all your hope in one girl when you’re not even sure if she likes you. If she doesn’t, you’ll find another girl sooner or later. You’re what, sixteen? When I was your age I was in the library, reading, not worrying about girls.”

“I read too, I have a library in the basement.”

“Of course you have a whole damn book depository at home.” Nazril muttered under his breath.

“What?”

“Nothing. Just ask if she likes reading too.”

“I like reading non-fiction. She likes period drama-regal dress stuff. A bit of fantasy too.”

Nazril stood up and walked to his book case. “You have good taste. I don’t read anything other than realistic stuff, which includes non-fiction.”

I frowned. “Why don’t you branch out? I like some fantastical works.”

“Things that can’t happen in real life are hard to get into for me.” He said with a certain amount of contempt in his voice. “I only have Biographies, historical, memoirs. Those things.”

“I’d love Marlene even more if I could talk about books with her. I may try to read some of her books.” I said, partly in dreamland.

“You throw that word ‘love’ around too much, you’re too serious.” Nazril said.

I thought about it, then Nazril continued.

“And let's be honest, she’ll probably -ahem- sleep with you if you weren’t so serious.”

I looked up in disgust. “What is wrong with you? Of course she wouldn’t.”

“Isn’t that common nowadays?” He asked, “Friends with benefits?”

“Ew.”

“No?”

“No. I don’t know if she rolls like that.”

“If you’re going to keep stressing about asking a girl out, at sixteen, in high school, while being the son of the minister of defence, she won’t roll into bed with you… at all.”

“This isn’t about sex, I just want her to love me back.” I sighed.

“Okay, trust me, tomorrow you ask if she’s up to watch a movie with you. At your or her place, whichever she wants. Get some snacks, just try to create romantic tension. It isn’t creepy at all, just keep cool. If she said yes, she’ll be into it. Whatever you do, don’t put pussy on a pedestal.”

“What is that supposed to mean?” I asked, raising one eyebrow.

Nazril held his chin. “Putting pussy on a pedestal is something types like you do. You think that sex is something you have to work hard for, or that you’re not worthy or some dumb shit like that. Ain’t true. Sex and relationships are a very normal thing, man. You seem to think that when that girl doesn’t want you, you’ll lose all the chance at romance,” He brought me the omelette and continued talking. “I’m just saying, if that girl doesn’t want you… you’ll find someone else.”

“Yeah I know, but now I am actually doubting whether I should ask her out or not,” I jabbed my fork into the baked egg. “You said that I should ask her out before she has someone new, now you have this whole rant.”

“If you like her, it would be wise to do it quickly. I just want to make sure you won’t feel shit when she rejects you. Keep your expectations at an all time low, and you will never be disappointed.”

I nodded and my heart started racing. I had to ask her out tomorrow, eating something somewhere would do it.

“In a way I’m jealous of you, you know?” Nazril said with his mouth full. “Jesus, I forgot how good this tasted.”

“How so?” I ate too. It wasn’t the best omelette, but I could tell there was love put into it.

“In 1930’s Indonesia,” Nazril started, “youngsters never really had the chance to choose who they dated. The norm was that parents would arrange marriages for us, sex before marriage was not done. Though I did have a secret girlfriend for a while.”

I scooped a chunk of omelette in my mouth. “How old were you, when you like…”

“Fucked?”

“Yeah.”

“Nineteen.”

“Wow, that is late.”

“See, that’s what the fuck I’m talking about. You’re lucky you get to explore like this. People in India or America don’t have that choice. You do need to choose wisely. You don’t want to give your virginity to a woman who will break your heart and stomp on it for pure sadistic pleasure down the line. I advise you to keep it slow, you have all the time in the world.”

I nodded and continued eating. Nazril did the same.

Nazril decided to wait for another hour to see if the coast remained clear, then we went to his car and he drove me home.

We exchanged phone numbers as a precaution, may something happen down the road. I said hi to my father and made the excuse of eating dinner at Damien’s house. He didn’t know him anyway. I went upstairs and fell onto the bed. I was in a deep sleep soon enough.