Pummeled.

“Hey, Morticia,” you hear Eva say as something smacks you in the face. You move your head from side to side as it comes down again, soft, but easily covering your whole head. “Hey, Rob Zombie’s Living Dead Girl.” You blink your eyes open to see Eva standing over you, rhythmically smacking one of her pillows against your face. “Hey, Anne Gwish.”

“I’m up!” you exclaim, sitting and raising a hand above your head as Eva lifts the pillow again. “I’m up, fuck!”

“Oh, good, I was starting to run out of goth touchstones to call you,” she responds with a sigh, lowering the pillow. “You’ve been just taking it for, like, five minutes.”

“Was smothering me next on the menu?”

“Do you need to breathe?” You pause and “hold your breath,” which immediately becomes just not breathing at all with no visible change. “Yeah, the big, scary vampire can take a few smacks with a pillow. Up!”

“What are we beating me awake for?” you grumble as you take in her choice of outfit. The black-and-pink zebra stripe leggings and sports bra suggest something athletic, but you’re equal parts not sure why and distracted when Eva bends over for a few seconds to gently place her pillow back on her bed.

“We’re going to the gym!” she says, turning and raising her hands up. “Put on your tights, we gotta’ go teach you some moves.”

“I assume not dancing.”

“Self-defense. I’d like to start on something more practical, but fun fact, I have no clue where to start looking for ‘what’s real and what’s not for vampires,’ or any way to ask around Kappa without looking psycho, soooooooooooooooo best idea I had was to prepare you for the eventuality of someone trying to Van Helsing you.” She pauses, then looks askance, clearly not entirely comfortable with the thought. “Or possibly us.” You give her a questioning eyebrow as you slip out of last night’s clothes finally, then start removing your underwear. “I sort of … broke open a locked door … on my way to get dinner. Without trying to. I guess it could be a coincidence, but given I just drank Dracula juice …”

“And I did that,” you add, pointing to the smashed drawer it looks like Eva swept into a corner to avoid splinters before you woke up. You throw your dirty clothes in the mesh basket for laundry before starting to look for your gym gear. “You don’t sound off-base.”

“Yeah, I didn’t think so …” she answers dejectedly, clearly not entirely comfortable with the idea of being hunted. “Can still walk in the sun, though. And I DO still need food and to breathe, so I don’t think I’m full-on vampo.”

“You’re not. I can … still sort of tell …” You pause pulling up the black yoga pants, looking over at Eva. She seems absolutely alight with life, warm and welcoming. It’s easier to concentrate now that you know what you are, but it still feels like she’s silently calling out to you. “I’m in. If something happens, I want to be able to protect us.”

“Then let’s get moving!” Hearing that seems to have put Eva in slightly better spirits. After you put on your workout top and both of you tie your hair into tight ponytails, you make your way across campus and to the gym. Eva suggests using the gymnastics area, mostly because no one ever does, and for the padding on the ground. Given neither of you are quite sure how strong you are now, it’s probably a good idea. There’s just one, tiny problem.

“You need to reserve the gymnastics room,” the absurdly-jacked man behind the check-in counter says.

“Oh, come on, there’s no one in there!” Eva groans, gesturing to it. The half basketball court it’s attached to has a few girls from the team practicing, but they’re not even sort of using the padded area. “Is anyone even scheduled to tonight?”

“That’s not the point,” he drones, not even looking up from his phone. “We only allow use of the gymnastics room if it’s submitted and approved. Liability.”

“It’s literally the safest room in the gym. It’s made of pads.”

“Need a reservation.”

“Okay, listen-“ Eva starts, putting both hands on the counter. The man looks up, clearly not intimidated by your very tiny best friend. You put a hand on her shoulder, then look him in the eyes, hoping to avoid getting campus security called.

“Look, we just want to practice some things for a bit,” you sigh as Eva fumes, but takes your lead all the same. “Think we can work that out?”

“… yes.” He answers you emotionlessly, staring directly at you without breaking eye contact. Huh.

“… and I also think you need to apologize to my friend for being rude.”

“I’m sorry, ma’am. I was rude.” Still no intonation of any kind, and he certainly doesn’t look away from you to say it.

“What are you doing?” Eva asks, leaning up beside you as she stares at the check-in guy. She waves a hand in front of his face, but he doesn’t even blink. “That is SCARY.”

“Okay … Jeff,” you continue, glancing at his name tag, “we’re going to use the gymnastics room for some practice. You’re going to keep anyone else out, because we reserved it and have been approved. Make sense?” He nods. “You’re a peach.”

“What the fuuuuuuuuuck?” Eva asks with a grin as the two of you walk away from the counter, Jeff shaking his head and returning to texting after a few seconds. “You just did a whole Jedi mind trick on that guy, that was awesome!”

“I didn’t mean to.” You feel it necessary to defend yourself, suddenly worrying that if you did that by accident, you may have done it to Eva. “I didn’t … did I do that to you, earlier? You know, before …”

“No! No, no,” she responds quickly, waving her hands a little. “You were just … very confident. And I was all worried, and stuff … happened. That’s all. Plus, I didn’t go full zombie like that. Unless I did?”

You shake your head as the two of you enter the padded room, the sound of the basketball team practicing drifting your way in steady thumps of the ball against that side’s wooden floor. You glance over, eyes lingering as you watch them. A few of the girls stand out to you, sweating and panting and absolutely awash in endorphins with hot blood pumping just beneath their skin. You bite your lip, then **** yourself to look away. If you can’t even focus on learning how to defend yourself, you don’t exactly have a lot of hope for survival, much less controlling the hunger welling up inside you.

“Okay, Jaq, square the fuck up!” Eva grins as she says it, assuming a position with her arms raised near her head, clearly to protect it as much as to move out and strike. You try to mimic her, but judging by the snort of laughter she gives, fail pretty miserably. “Sorry, sorry, I should be supportive. The arms are fine, but you want them a little lower. Goal’s protection, not blocking line of sight. As for your feet … they’re a disaster, sweetie.”

“Like … this?” you ask, moving them around. She shakes her head and steps over to you. When her hand runs up your thigh, you tense a little. God, it’s such a bad idea to be attracted to her. You live with her, she’s your closest friend, and she’s the only one who knows what happened to you. Get a goddamn grip.

“More this,” she answers as she finishes guiding you. “That way, your footwork should be better. Now, I’m not, like, a champion boxer or anything, but I know some basics. You ready for me to walk you through?”

As she shows you some basic grapples, escapes, and strikes, you’re stunned how little any of your mistakes hurt. When you overcorrect and Eva’s demonstration of a knee strike goes to your stomach, it doesn’t only not knock the wind out of you, you hardly feel it. When you wrench your arm miscalculating an escape, it just takes a quick snap to make everything feel fit back into place. You do note, however, that the gash from earlier is still on your wrist. It looks the same: dry, but not clotting. Fuck, how are you supposed to fix this?

“We can take it up,” you offer, panting just a bit. It’s only a reflex at this point, you can feel a little weight on your limbs. It’s almost comforting to know you can still get tired. “I haven’t felt any of this, I’m still good to go.”

“Well, that’s neat for you!” Eva breathes out after about an hour of practice straight. “Some of us still need to do the whole homeostasis thing. Okay, okay. One more. I recommend the other stuff most of the time, especially the escape and the elbow and knee strikes. Even if you can hit with a closed fist, it’s more economic to throw your strength into the sharper points on your body. But, if you have to, I can show you how to put someone off-balance and floor them. It’s harder, but it’ll give you more time to split. Or step on their neck, y’know, whichever.”

“You done both of those?” you tease, knowing Eva has much more experience with physical **** than you from a few protests-gone-bad she’s attended.

“I have done at least one of them!” she peps back, refusing to clarify. The move is fairly simple. She shows you slow first to get the principles down, using your leg to disrupt an oncoming attacker’s balance, then taking advantage of a quick grip near their butt and on their shoulder to toss them to the ground. The problem more comes when it’s time to demonstrate quickly. While both of you do as you rehearsed when you dash towards her, neither of you are prepared for exactly how much stronger either of you are. You feel yourself get lifted entirely off the padded floor, then fly a good seven feet or so before slamming into one of the walls and tumbling to the ground. Eva covers her mouth with both hands before running to you as fast as she can.

“By all means, don’t hold back,” you groan when she reaches you, that one having actually hurt a little. You manage to smile back at her as she helps you up. “We really need to start getting used to that.” She nods in agreement, a bit relieved, but still clearly feeling guilty.

“Jesus, are you alright?” While Eva helps you steady yourself, you glance over to the voice and see a woman you know is named Tanya. Judging by the basketball jersey, last name would be Cruz. She puts a hand on your shoulder to help you get your balance back, and you shudder as the sound of her beating heart enters your ears. She’s tall, pretty, with dark skin, eyes, and hair you can imagine tangling yourself all up in. Whatever you’re doing to hold your hunger back, it seems to be not working the right amount as she looks at you, confused, but intrigued.

“I’m fine, we’re just learning about stunt work. Theatre stuff,” you brush off quickly, trying to change the subject. “Thanks for the quick response, though. I’m Jaq, this is Eva-“

“We’re roommates,” Eva interjects. You turn to her as one of Tanya’s friends says something that makes her spin around for a moment. Eva nudges her head towards Tanya, then makes what looks like half of a quote marks gesture, which it takes you a second to realize is her way of signaling “bite.”

“Here?” you mouth silently. She rolls her eyes, then pointedly looks from you to the women’s locker room.

“Hey, are you done with practice?” she asks when Tanya addresses the two of you again.

“Yeah. The men’s team is almost done on the big court, but I was gonna’ tap out. Why?”

“Well, Jaq here looks like she might have sprained her ankle,” she says slowly, giving you time to consider it before you have to act on it, “and I have to move … our car before campus security tickets it. Would you mind lending her a hand?” Tanya shakes her head, then offers her arm to you. Eva prompts you to take it before she starts walking away. God, are you ready to try this on your own? You almost did so bad this morning, and if you’re alone …