Bloodstone Heart Read Free

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    He worked for a while to distract himself, but after several hours, he decided to surf the net to try and figure out what kind of creature he had seen.  
    He was hyper alert. The tiniest sound would set him on his guard.   Nothing had ever rattled Josh like this had. He was a levelheaded guy. For the first time in years, he wished he had someone to talk to. He hadn't felt so alone since he had been a boy.  
    On the computer, he looked up 'vampire,' but that seemed so ridiculous.   How could such a creature be real? Search after search on every search engine imaginable, for hours, only gave him more of the same crazy results. Vampire lore, folktales, movies, thousands and thousands of hits and sites, but nothing that made what happened that evening make any sense.
    The rest of the night and all the next day he searched for answers, only to find more questions.   Exhaustion was setting in.   He hadn't slept now for more than twenty-four hours, which made him increasingly paranoid as darkness crept back in like a fog engulfing the house.  
     

    Josh spent the better part of a week this way. His favorite time of the day was now painted with fear of the unknown. But when there was absolutely no food in the house, no toilet paper or toothpaste, he knew he would have to venture back out to the store. He decided his best bet was to avoid the darkness, so before the sun went down, when most people were home eating dinner, Josh took a deep breath and headed for the corner store.  
    Looking extremely paranoid, checking over his shoulder every couple of seconds, and walking at a faster pace than usual, he found himself at the lamppost near the alley where it had all happened.   Maybe if he checked it out while it was still light out, he'd see that it was all just a hoax, a hallucination or maybe there would be a clue as to what had happened.   His hands clenched into fists, he took a deep breath, and took a few steps into the alleyway.   He saw the bag of groceries he had dropped splayed on the ground near the wall.   The smell of sour milk made his stomach turn as he headed towards the back of the alley.   As he neared the corner he could see the pallet that he had been thrown into. There were broken splinters everywhere.  
    One more step and he cleared the corner to see the back of a man dressed all in black squatting down and touching the only remaining patch of ash from the creature that had exploded.   As if reading Josh's mind, the man jumped up, turned towards him, and landed in a stance that could only be construed as defensive.   Josh too, could hear his thoughts, and he didn’t want to stay around for a discussion with this guy.   He turned on his heels and sprinted out of the confines of the alley and was halfway to the store before turning to see the dark figure of the man standing at the entrance, leaning up against the wall staring at Josh.
    Josh continued to the store, but had decided he was definitely not going home that way. The dark man's thoughts had been jumbled and hard to decipher but they all pointed to 'What happened here?'  
    Josh opened the door to the store and grabbed his necessities as fast as he could.   He was standing at the counter when a gloved hand came out from behind him and touched him on his right arm.   He just about jumped out of his skin. Quickly turning around, he defensively put up his fist, ready to fight whatever had been there only to find he had knocked tiny Melanie backwards off her balance and she fell onto the floor.
    "Aw, geez. I'm sorry.   Are you okay?" Josh said.
    "Wow, remind me not to surprise you ever again," Melanie said, shaking her head.
    Josh helped her up and in doing so he grabbed one of her wrists above her gloves, touching her skin.   Like before, a crack of lightning sounded in his head and all went silent around him. Her hypnotic eyes stared at him and the embarrassed smile all but faded from her lips, but with the departure of it, came a