Chapter 18: Chapter 18
Rohit decided it was best to head to the car first and then come back, since Ingrid and him carried a number of bags.
“Ah, that’s okay,” she replied sweetly. “I’ve got all I need for the time being.”
He nodded, “Sounds good,” and looked at his watch.
Only a few hours passed, since the whole fiasco with Colette took some time, and it was already pushing close to the evening. Since it was still the climax of summer, the sun continued to shine brightly in the sky, but had a slightly mandarin-colored hue.
‘I guess we should be heading home if we have nothing more to do here,’ Rohit mused, as he approached his car. ‘But how will dinner go on at home?’
“What’s that over there?” Ingrid piped up, looking at the plaza across the street, which had a multitude of people walking about, and a large fountain at the center. “Is there a festival going on or something?”
The young man looked over to where she was referring to and explained, “Oh, that’s the Blue Marsh Avenue.”
“Oh, I thought this was the Blue Marsh Avenue?”
He shook his head. “This is the Blue Marsh Mall, but the Avenue is an extension of it—equipped with artisan shops, a small strip to walk on, and a movie theatre too.”
The vampire heiress’s eyes glittered at the sound of each of those attractions, as she kept them glued to the scene before her. It was like time ceased to flow in that moment, while she continued holding her clothes.
Rohit smiled softly and suggested they spend some time over there. “I was even thinking we could have some dinner if you want.”
His comment made the young woman flinch and turn towards him, as she ecstatically gazed into his eyes. Her cheeks blushed a light pink too. “A-Are you sure it’s no trouble? I mean, shouldn’t we be heading back? I don’t wanna impede on your time… I know you’ve probably got a lot to do too…”
He casually shrugged his shoulders, “I don’t mind. It’s nice to get out of the house once in a while and actually go somewhere that’s not work,” and chuckled.
“Okay,” Ingrid anxiously exhaled with a smile, as her voice trailed off. “I just don’t wanna be a bother more than I already am…”
Before Rohit could reply, the vampire heiress bounced back to a more jovial expression and proceeded to place her belongings in the car. He didn’t say anything about this, figuring he’d be able to speak with her about it sometime tonight. ‘I could also use that time to find out exactly what I’m supposed to be doing to help her in her situation,’ he thought, placing his seatbelt on and starting the car. ‘Because right now, what else should I be doing besides taking her out to casual places like this?’
It was a short drive across the street, which involved a U-turn, since the road dividing the mall and the plaza ran both ways.
Rohit parked in the nearest lot on his right, which usually had plenty of empty spots, as opposed to driving further into the plaza. Especially behind the theatre, or the spots lining the strip, since they filled up first on any day, but Saturday in particular.
As the pair walked along the strip, stretching two blocks in length Ingrid was looking around, marveling at the different boutiques, restaurants, carry-outs, and other amenities hard to miss, like the bookstore and theatre that took up more space in their respective blocks.
“What’s that over there?” Ingrid wondered, pointing to a makeshift field behind the fountain.
“Oh, that’s an outdoor recreation center,” Rohit explained, listing the different activities to do on the large patch from tossing beanbags, lawn chess and checkers, and hopscotch.
Off to the side, there were some foosball and ping-pong tables beneath an open canopy strung with lights. And beside that were some kind of outdoor fireplaces, but with no real fire, and there were couches and tables before them as well.
“In the winter time, they transform that field into an ice rink,” Rohit finalized his verbal tour.
“Whoa!” Ingrid joyously bounced in place at the thought of all those things. “And they just let anybody participate?”
He nodded. “As long as you’re not being too rowdy, then it’s a fun time.”
The young woman took hold of Rohit’s hand. “Come on, Rohit, let’s play some foosball!”
He grinned and went along with it, taking his spot on one side of the table. “What do you know about this game?” he asked, adjusting the score sliders to zero.
“No clue!” she honestly blurted out. “It just looked fun! Especially with some kind of hand-eye coordination going on too.”
Rohit chuckled and briefly summarized that all that she needed to do was use her players to score the ball into the goal pocket on the opposite end.
“Seems easy enough!” Ingrid smirked, and sharply gazed into the young man’s eyes. “Prepare to witness my awesome skills!”
They played a biased match, since the vampire heiress had no problem scoring points, since her eyes quickly darted across the field, following the ball, and matched the coordination of her hands to spin her players in order to throw Rohit off.
‘Damn, I can’t keep up!’ he thought, continuing to grin sheepishly at how badly he was losing. ‘But I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. She does have an unfair advantage… or I just suck. Either way, I’m having lots of fun!’
About midway through their game, Ingrid finally realized how much of a disadvantage Rohit was at and decided to water down her skills.
“How are you gonna do that?” he wondered.
“I’ll use one hand and close one eye,” she stated. “And for every two goals I make, I’ll only count that as one point.”
The young man nodded, agreeing with the terms, because how much more of a handicap could she really do without her pretending to be bad at it? He didn’t want her to not try her best, but he definitely thought she needed to be restricted in some way so he could remotely stand a chance against a vampire’s reflexes.
Under the terms of the new game, Rohit actually managed to score four points this time, while Ingrid realistically made it to twenty, because of the rules in place. But even after that, they kept playing until the young man got to five points.
Throughout this round, people observed the odd way Ingrid was playing and took an interest in crowding around the table to see her in action.
“Sheesh, that girl’s got some skill!” one man pointed out.
“Look at her form! She’s practically calculating each shot!” a woman pointed out.
Some even began recording on their phones, and as soon as they did, the vampire heiress immediately froze.
When Rohit noticed her uneasiness being on camera like that, he stopped and led her away from the frenzy. “No more phones, people, please,” he stated, ushering Ingrid around the corner of a store
They turned and entered a public sitting area between two buildings.
The young man sat her down, like she was a doll that was stiff as a board. “Hey, are you okay?” he gently asked, clearing her hair behind her ears, and then placing his palm on her forehead. “What happened, Ingrid?”
The vampire heiress finally blinked and began breathing again, as she looked into Rohit’s eyes.
“What is it?” he whispered.
Ingrid shook her head. “I… I don’t know what happened back there,” she finally spoke. “One second I was gleefully playing the game, but then something triggered inside me that caused me to cease everything at once. I couldn’t blink or move, and was left in an involuntary state.”
“Did it have something to do with the people crowding around us?”
“I think so.” She placed a hand by her head. “I’ve never experienced something like this before.”
“Maybe it’s anxiety?” Rohit guessed. “There was quite a crowd of people admiring the style you played with.”
“Maybe…” Ingrid cast her eyes to her palms, which were lightly trembling. “Or I think it’s the fear of being caught… They were using their phones after all.”
It dawned on Rohit that that could actually be the case. If people post the photo or video of Ingrid’s skills, then the vampire hunters might be able to pin her location down in who knew how long. Especially if they knew her face already—which the young man assumed they did, after those hunters from last night showed him the picture on their phone. “We should probably leave then,” he decided.
“I’m sorry…” Ingrid muttered, “I knew I should’ve toned down my skills instead of trying to be a showoff,” then sighed.
Rohit placed his hand over the vampire heiress’s still trembling hand and held it firmly with security. “It’s not your fault. You couldn’t have perceived what they were gonna do.”
“But this could make you a target as well,” she said, turning to him. “I don’t want that to happen, even though the current circumstances might really lead to that at some point—” Ingrid abruptly stopped, casting her gaze back to the ground and flexing her cheeks in thought about how this could possibly transpire, especially after they encountered someone like Colette. So she ended up saying, “This was a pipe dream from the beginning… I need to get away from here,” and stood up, pulling her hand away from Rohit’s, as she proceeded to run away.
“Ingrid wait!” he called after her, but his legs couldn’t keep up with her swift speed.