Basic necessities

"Then why didn't we meet him before. He could have given us the location before, right?" Tanya asked. A lot of time and maybe even her sister could've been saved if they knew such a person.

"No, it's made possible because you went to the guy yesterday. Because we have his identity now." Zinbad replied.

"Vampire?" Tanya asked as she saw Zinbad's smile.

"Exactly! My guy can find it as long as he has the tiniest info on it. And being a vampire is in itself a very huge clue."

"Then what are we waiting for?" Tanya asked as she got up from her bed.

"For you to eat the porridge that I made painstakingly." Zinbad looked proud thinking about the porridge he made.

"Okay, fine. I'll eat it and come by within five minutes." Tanya laughed as Zinbad looked adamant about her eating the porridge.

"I'll be waiting by the car." Zinbad headed out and came back again. "Ah, by the way, the guy we're meeting is very smart. Like, super smart! Who knows maybe he could help you from the recoil?" A tiny ray of hope shone in Tanya's mind as he said that. "Meh, but who knows. Maybe I'm overrating him or something." Zinbad was quick to shut down that tiny ray of hope as quickly as he brought it up on Tanya's mind. At that point, Tanya could only sigh in helplessness.

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After an hour-long journey by car, the two of them finally arrived in front of a modest-looking house. "Is this it?" Tanya uttered as she got out of the car. She was amazed by the simplicity of the house. To be honest, she expected something quite the opposite, when Zinbad talked about a guy who can snoop out a vampire of all people. "Not bad! I thought it would be a spooky or geeky house of sorts when you said that the guy's smart." She replied, giving out her stereotypical mentality.

"Wait." Zinbad stopped her from going forward and opened the door lock on his own and smiled. "This is my crib. Get in."

Tanya was confused. "I don't get it. Why are we at your house again?" She asked.

"Ah, well I got some stuff to take before we go to the guy," Zinbad explained to her as he gestured to her to get in.

"Like?" She asked.

"This, for example," Zinbad replied as he dangled a box of cat food in front of her.

"Cat food? Why would we need cat food for meeting this guy?" Tanya was bound to get confused yet again.

"You'll know when you get there." He explained as he scrounged for other pieces of stuff.

"Okay, fine." Tanya chose not to worry and leave that subject hanging as she explored Zinbad's house. "Man, I've got to give it to you—the house looks pretty tidy. I wouldn't have imagined it to be this clean!" Tanya had a newfound respect for Zinbad in her heart, especially since her crib is dirty as heck.

"Better than your house, eh? Not that your house—the office, pardon me, is bad, it's just the fundamental difference between the people residing in it." Zinbad mocked her.

"Yea, fuck off mate!" Tanya flipped the middle finger to him. "By the way, you do have a phone, right?" She asked as she looked around once again.

"What, wanna make a call or something?" Zinbad chose to ask the obvious question. However, if it was a mobile phone she asked for, it could've been for playing games or checking live scores of some random sports game, who knows?

"Yea, something like that." Tanya, not so vaguely, explained.

It didn't take him much to guess what was on her mind. "To your mum, eh? Fine, just use the landline. I don't like to waste my precious phone balance." He said as he showed her to the phone.

"Okay." Tanya headed towards the landline and stared at it for a hot minute. She then snapped out of it and proceeded to dial the number. Her hands were slightly shaking as she pressed those numbers. She was afraid to make that call; she was afraid to accept reality. But as she heard the phone ringing, she gradually calmed down. She secretly hoped for her mum to not take the phone call.

But, reality tends to go in a different direction than we hope for. "Hello, Alice here. Who am I speaking to?" Maybe it was the guilt of not being able to save her sister. Or maybe it was the fear of the reaction she might get when her mum hears about Meghan's death. Whatever it was, the moment when Alice took the phone call was the very moment Tanya lost the courage she built up just before. She chose not to answer and hurriedly canceled the call. Beads of sweat rolled down her forehead. For her, this moment was more intense than meeting that weird vampire by the alley.

"So, ready to go?" Unbeknownst to the intense battle happening in Tanya's mind, Zinbad called out to her as he had already prepared everything he needed.

Zinbad's call broke her out of the internal struggle. It took her some time to notice her surroundings again. "Whoa, that's quite a lot of stuff." She was taken by surprise by the amount of stuff he had on him.

"Meh, just the basic necessities," Zinbad shrugged as he explained.

"Like the cat food?" She asked.

"Yea, like the cat food." He replied and changed the subject in an instant. "Did you call your mum?" He asked, to which Tanya gave out a complicated expression.

"Well, you could say that." Again, she thought to herself that she sounded vague enough for him to not know.

But, he knew. "You hung upon her, didn't you?"

"How did you?" She was surprised.

"Not like your family matter means anything to me. Get in the car." Zinbad chose not to make an idiot out of her and led her to the car.

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