Free On the Edge of Humanity by S. B. Alexander Page A

Sam replied. “Mrs. Birch couldn’t have been in the house. Otherwise, there’s no way she wouldn’t have heard Jo shouting.
    “Jo, how’re you doing?” Mr. Jackson asked.
    It was hard to see his expression; his face was shadowed by the bill of his ball cap. I didn’t know what to say. How can I explain the way I feel? I can’t I tell him that I’m freaking out. And that I’ve nightmares about the taste of blood and some dude with fangs is chasing us. Oh yeah, and I might be a vampire.
    “Fine,” I said.
    “So what happened after you hit Mr. Birch?” Mr. Jackson asked.
    “Mrs. Birch showed up. She called the ambulance. I wanted to go to the hospital with Jo but the cops wouldn’t let me. So I managed to get out of the house while they were asking Mrs. Birch questions.”
    Mr. Jackson was rubbing his head when Sam stopped talking. “And they’re still looking for you?”
    “Don’t know,” Sam replied.
    The silence grew thick in the brightly lit kitchen. We didn’t talk about what we were going to say to Mr. Jackson earlier. We didn’t expect him to be home so soon. Was Sam going to tell Mr. Jackson about the guy chasing us? Or how Neil, the janitor, his employee, helped us?
    “I talked to the…cop.” My voice quivered trying to get the last word off my tongue.
    “And?” Mr. Jackson asked as he stared at me.
    “I think Mrs. Birch is accusing us of trying to kill her husband.”
    “You think?” Mr. Jackson removed his ball cap and ran his hand through his hair.
    What does he mean by that? Does he think Sam and me really tried to kill Mr. Birch? Anger started brewing to the surface. Adults were always quick to blame the kids.
    “We didn’t get a chance to hang around,” Sam said.
    “Why not?” Mr. Jackson asked in an unyielding tone.
    Sam and I looked at each other. I nodded.
    “When I got to the hospital there was a guy asking for Jo’s room. I’ve never seen the guy before.” Sam paused and dropped his gaze to the counter. It seemed he was trying to decide how much to tell Mr. Jackson. “When I was in Jo’s hospital room, we heard noises outside the door. Jo peeked out and saw the same man that I did earlier in the ER. He was fighting with the cop. We managed to get out of the hospital before we found out what he wanted with us.”
    “You don’t know why he’s chasing you?” Mr. Jackson asked.
    “No, sir.”
    “Let me see if I have this right. Mr. Birch stabbed Jo, then you hit him with a bat. Jo ends up in the hospital and is questioned by the cops. While at the hospital, you see a man in the ER asking for Jo. Then Jo witnesses this same man fighting with a police officer outside the hospital room. Then you two run out of the hospital and end up here at my house.” Mr. Jackson was glaring between Sam and me. “Is that accurate?”
    Sam nodded.
    “Is there anything else?”
    “No, sir,” Sam replied.
    “Are you sure, young man?”
    Was he going to fill in the gaps? It seemed Mr. Jackson knew Sam was leaving out something.
    “Why did you come here?”
    My anger was getting stronger. I didn’t expect Mr. Jackson to understand everything, but I was the walking wounded and shouldn’t that be proof enough at least for now?
    “Mr. Jackson, we have no one, no family whatsoever. We have no one to help us. You know I’ve been in trouble with the law before. The last time the cops showed up at school they threw me in jail. I couldn’t let that happen with my sister in the hospital. I did what I believed was right for us.” Sam pointed at me. “I was hoping that you could help us.”
    “Son, there are a lot of holes in your story. If you want me to help you—if I can even help, that is—you need to tell me the truth.”
    “It’s the truth. The pervert tried to rape me. Sam did the only thing he could to get the fat jerk off me. We didn’t do anything wrong,” I blurted out. I covered my face in my hands as the tears began to fall, my head pounding.
    Sam leaned in and