The Vampire's Apprentice

Clancy tipped his head. "What caused the panic attack?" he asked, soft and gentle. "What is in your past that so frightens you?"
 
She did not want to tell him. She didn't want to say anything at all, but she had yielded. There wasn't much choice. Still, Kitty let the silence linger for a long time, until it was uncomfortable, before she decided to answer. She wanted him to see her unwilling reluctance.

"When I left home," Kitty began, swallowing the lump in her throat, "I left in an argument. The sound of the door slamming open and the yelling brought a flashback of my father's anger towards me. He blamed me for something I hadn't done, something I was already terrorized about, and it only made things worse." She paused for a moment in effort to remain composed. "The events with the neighbors caused me to relive that moment, and I panicked. Are we good, now?"
 
Clancy studied her for a long moment. Then he gave a slow nod. "Thank you." He turned back to his computer and booted it up. While he waited for it to warm, he said, "Touch. I believe if I had to choose, the sense of touch would be the least detrimental."
 
His fairness in answering her question seemed minuscule by this point. She left without another word. Not even a "goodnight."
 
Sam followed Kitty into the bedroom and flopped down on the floor. He was content to sleep once more.

Clancy looked up and researched a few professional cleaners before settling on one. Normally, he would be fine with simply scrubbing things out, but with dog accidents and the house being shut up for that long, his highly sensitive nose was killing him.
 
In this instance, Kitty made an acceptation for chores on a Sunday. The floor would be cleaned by someone who could actually clean it, and a dog bone and a new rope—also some chewy rubber thing she thought was interesting—as well as some dog food were an order.
She also felt an obligation to apologize to the neighbors, having "randomly" disappeared for an entire week. Kitty went over there a while later in the afternoon.
 
After a moment of awkward silence, a new face opened the door. A tousled-haired boy of sixteen opened the door. He shared his mother's red hair, but that only showed at the roots of his badly dyed black hair that flopped greasily around his shoulders. He peered at her sleepily, then that sleepy look turned into a leer as his dark eyes registered what he was seeing. He leaned on the doorframe, the grey wife-beater shirt showing off his lank, fairly muscular form, his black pants hanging on by a thread and a ratty belt.
"Hey, how you doin', sweet thang?" said a voice of experience. Bad movie experience, that is.
 
Kitty stuck her thumbs into her pockets and let her arms dangle loosely. This, she assumed, would be the reason why it was so quiet. He read trouble. She'd have to be careful.
"I'm doing fine. I don't believe we've met."
 
"I'm EJ, but you can call me the best thing you've ever met," he purred, trying to push back his hair on one side smoothly, like a movie hero, and got his fingers stuck. To his credit, he managed not to lose face as he quickly shook his fingers free and dropped his arm. "And you are?"
 
"Old enough to know better, and old enough to care." She replied, hoping to get the point across that she was not interested. "Have you seen Norville around anywhere?"
 
The smarmy grin died into a sulk. "Dunno. Think he's in his room. Wanna go see him and kiss him good morning?" he snarked.
 
"Fine." EJ slumped away from the door and walked a few paces into the quiet house. "NORVILLE! YO! YOU GOT A GIRL WAITIN' ON YOU!"

"EJ, SHUT YOUR TRAP!" screamed what sounded like Mrs. Mooney from deeper in the house.

The twins took up the yells, but it wasn't long before everyone settled down again. Kitty was left standing on the porch for nearly ten minutes before sleepy-eyed Norville sauntered out.

"Hey, Kitty Cat!" he greeted with an easy grin. "Sup? Are you here to donate more soup?"
 
She bit at her tongue to avoid a snicker. "No. I came to apologize for disappearing so suddenly last time."
 
"Oh, that's cool. Mum was kind of mad about the soups, had this whole rant about not being a charity case and stuff, but the twins loved it. They built with the cans then ate the soup then built with the cans," Norville said nodding happily.
 
Kitty rubbed her neck. "I didn't meant to upset her; I didn't have a chance to explain. There was just a bunch of extra soup in the cupboard and I figured you guys might have more use for them than I would."
 
"Yeah, Mum's a bit touchy about things like that, but we used 'em. They are almost all gone," Norville chuckled. He glanced toward the red house. "I heard the dog barking a lot. That lady, the big one on your other side? She was over here telling Mum we ought to complain formally."
 
"Ah, so you've met Mrs. Pugglesworth." She nodded. "I'm sorry about the dog. We were both locked in the house for about a week...."
 
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