I know a guy

Tanya opened her eyes. She couldn't cry thinking about last night. Nothing came forth. She had this sadness, but tears stopped rolling after getting beaten mercilessly. But she was surprised to see herself back in her room. "What the hell? Why am I back here?"

"Hey, good afternoon. Had a good sleep?" It was Zinbad who wore an apron that her mom gifted her last spring.

"Zinbad!" She was quite surprised to see Zinbad in her house without her permission. But she chose not to question the situation further. "You look weird."

"Thank you. I'll take that as a compliment." Zinbad flaunted the apron which made Tanya creep out a bit.

"It's not." She decided to jump straight to the point. "Yesterday. What happened yesterday?" She had no idea.

"Wait. Aren't I the one who's supposed to ask that question?" Zinbad was in a similar situation.

"How did I get here?" She asked.

"What do you mean? When I got here in the morning, since you said that you'll settle things, you were in front of the house looking like this." He replied.

"Looking like this?" She didn't quite understand what he meant by that.

"Ah, you haven't seen your face yet, have you? Here you go." He placed a mirror in front of her.

"Wow, it's quite beaten up." It was bad; real bad. However, considering last night's condition, it seemed a bit better.

"Yea, that's why I wanted to know what happened yesterday," Zinbad spoke as he sat down.

"Well…"

"Wait. I'll get you something to drink." Zinbad straightened himself up and ran out of the room to come back in a few seconds. "Where's something to drink?"

"In the fridge." She answered.

"Oh, obviously it would be in the fridge." Zinbad laughed and ran again. This time, he came with a beer can. "Don't you have anything else other than beer here?"

"No."

"You're weird." He threw it to her as she opened it and took a sip.

…

"You know what? I know you don't have a fever and stuff. But I made some rice porridge. I had to buy the ingredients since you had nothing. But that's not the point. I'll just bring it to you." Zinbad looked excited as he began to head back.

"Later. I'll eat it after telling you about yesterday's events." Upon hearing Tanya, he came back and sat on a sofa nearby.

"Okay. Then what happened yesterday?" He asked.

"I found my sister," Tanya replied.

"Wow, that's good news." Zinbad cheered as his original task seemed to be over.

"I found the guys who took my sister," Tanya said.

"Hmm. How were they?" Zinbad asked.

"They were—weird." Tanya dawned an odd expression on her face which had both fear and rage.

"Weird, like how you are weird?" He asked again.

"No. They're not normal. They're not human. At least the main one." She replied as she took another sip from the beer can and looked out through a window in the room.

"Should've expected that from the guy who didn't even appear in a single frame of CCTV footage. And what about the other guys?" Zinbad asked all the questions this round.

"There's his butler. And a few hundred guys who were being controlled by the main one." Tanya answered it as well.

"Hundred! Well, it doesn't matter. What happened to your sister?" He got to the main point.

"Ah, she's dead." She calmly dropped the first bomb. The emotion rumbling inside was not expressed as a stoic face was the one Zinbad saw.

"What?"

"And I'm dying too." Tanya dropped the second bomb.

"The hell?" Zinbad had too much difficulty in comprehending all this information since it came fast.

"And the main guy's a vampire." Tanya finally dropped the last bomb which rattled the usually calm Zinbad.

"Ho!" Zinbad regained his calm demeanor as he continued asking. "Too much stuff to process. So, why are you dying?"

"The guy injected his blood into me."

"Blood?" Zinbad looked confused by her answer.

"It gives me some powers that he has, I guess." She clenched and unclenched her fist while she answered.

"But it will kill you?"

"Within eight months." The time that the vampire discussed. Tanya chose to believe it.

"Then don't use the powers," Zinbad said what he felt like was the most logical.

"Regardless of whether I use it or not." She explained the condition for the recoil.

"So, does that mean you can use it for an infinite time for the next eight months?" Zinbad pondered about the usage of said power since it could make Tanya a superhero for eight months.

"Yea." Tanya calmly replied.

"Hmm, I see." Zinbad processed everything and got to the next question. "So, what do you want?"

Tanya remembered what the vampire said. He was going to destroy everything she cherished. She closed her eyes. She could see the faces of everyone she cherished; Mom, her dead sister and for some odd reason Zinbad's face popped up too. She had many emotions like revenge and stuff surging through her mind, but she was sane enough to deduce what was more important for now. "Protect. I need the power to protect. And if possible, not die from the recoil."

"The very same power which is gonna kill you within eight months, you want to use it as your power, huh? And you don't want to die within eight months? A pretty big task that you're willing to achieve." Zinbad sighed and answered. "Well, the answer to both remains in the hand of one person."

"Who is it?" She asked.

"The same guy who placed his blood in your body and gave you the powers. He can give you the answer." Zinbad knew that the answer might disappoint Tanya, but that was the truth.

"Well, it's not possible to find a person who's faster than the wind. Even yesterday, I saw him because he wanted to." Tanya gave out a desperate laugh.

But, Zinbad sounded confident. "No, it's possible. I know a person that could find him."

#