September 1
Got called into the hospital today. A boy who thinks he’s a girl vampire. Caught the virus at college, he says. Makes sense. All the colleges do these days is turn good kids into Democrats. Lucy still won’t talk to me. The boy was completely physically healthy. Claims to have cut himself in the past. Doctors didn’t find any scars.
I watched him for a few hours in the night. Spilled water on the floor at some point, so they took his water away. Said he was “making the room his own” and was gonna clean it up with his sheet. Loud. Said he could read nurses minds. Only got 4 hours of sleep. He got.
September 2
Second night. He started making sense, crazy as that sounds. At some point he asked to use the bathroom, and I followed him to and from. He asked for water and I started talking to him. Something in his eyes.
He asked if I had seen that vampire show. I had. Said he was like Lestat and his dream was to turn his hometown into a place of culture like how Lestat and Louis shaped New Orleans. Said he wasn’t literally a vampire, but he prefers night to day. I work at night. Said he was scared of me because when he sees me he sees a cop. I’m not a cop. The people in this town know I’m not a cop. My badge says “public safety,” but he still saw a cop. Saw my bulletproof vest and gun before my badge, he said. Got me all fired up, talking about how following a procedure puts people in places they don’t really belong. Reminded me of how Lucy used to talk.
He said he poured water on the floor because being in an “emergency room” is scary, so the water was a religious ritual to turn the room into a place that belongs to him. Got me all fired up. The nurses rushed in and took the water away before asking why he was doing what he was doing. Got me all fired up. Foot tapping like crazy, listening to this kid. Could be in a movie, this kid.
He was in a sterile glass box, being watched by a cop. Said he’d seen videos of people who look like me beating and shooting people that looked like him. Makes sense, this kid. Got me all fired up. Said he felt like he was gonna be burned by a witch when they handed him the court summons. Witch trial, he said. Burned by the sun because of the pale skin, he said. For hundreds of years smart young women are burned by men, this kid said. Fucking kid. Not old enough to get into a bar. Old enough to be put on trial.
I told him. You’re not going on trial, I said. You’re gonna go to a place where there are other people like you, I said. Went and talked to the sheriff. Convinced him the kid needs to go to one of them mental wards. Kid thinks he’s a vampire. What would’ve happened if he went on trial? Didn’t want to find out.
Next day, someone local guy drives him 45 minutes to the ward. Kid convinced the guy he’s the antichrist. Took 45 minutes. Fucking kid.
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