Gina nudged him with her elbow.
"Hey, don't think so hard," she said.
"You look like you've already decided to blow this clinic up."
Ethan gave a weak smile.
"It's just… I don't like any of this."
"Neither do I," his sister replied, growing more serious.
"But we'll get through it together. Like always."
The line slowly moved forward. Somewhere ahead, the clinic doors opened again, and another group of people was allowed inside.
Ethan took a deep breath.
They were standing almost at the very end of the queue.
He shoved his hands deeper into his jacket pockets and hunched his shoulders slightly. He was cold, though not because of the weather.
Gina stood beside him, rocking from heel to toe, clearly nervous even though she tried not to show it.
Nearby, the same two nurses kept smoking and talking quietly. The brunette exhaled smoke and shook her head.
"And did you hear what happened during first contact?" she asked.
"When the vampires officially reached out to the authorities. They say an entire central police station got scraped right off the walls."
The older nurse shivered.
"Oh, come on. Seriously?"
"Seriously. They say the negotiations hit a dead end, so they just… came in during the night. Nobody even had time to fire a shot."
"In the morning, all they found was blood and scraps of uniforms on the walls. After that, everyone suddenly became a lot more cooperative."
"And that's how this whole 'equality pact' started. They've got some important vampire leader named Berthold. Weird name. And there's another one always following him around, not old exactly, just… rough-looking. What was his name again…?"
She lifted the cigarette to her lips, stumbled over her words a few times, then coughed reflexively.
"Oh, right. Gerard. Showed up recently under Berthold's control. Really hot-headed."
Ethan felt a chill run down his spine. He swallowed involuntarily.
Gina tensed too, but quickly regained control and nudged her brother with her elbow.
"Hey, don't listen to their gossip," she whispered, even though she was obviously listening herself.
"They always love telling horror stories."
But Ethan couldn't stop listening. The nurses' words stuck in his head like splinters.
«An entire police station… scraped off the walls…»
He stared at the endless line of people ahead of him.
«And now we're standing here like cattle waiting for slaughter, willingly giving blood. Because of equality. Otherwise they'll be scraping us off walls too.»
The line crawled forward little by little. Every few minutes, the clinic doors opened and another group of twenty people was allowed inside.
The atmosphere felt suffocating.
Somewhere farther ahead, someone was quietly crying. A girl around seventeen wiped tears from her face with her sleeve while her friend held her by the shoulders.
Gina took a deep breath and looked at her brother.
"Listen…" she said quietly so nobody else could hear.
"Whatever's waiting inside, stay close to me. If something goes wrong… we push through and run."
Ethan nodded, though a tight knot sat in his throat.
"Got it."
Slowly, they continued moving forward. The line was long, incredibly long.
And with every step, the moment drew closer when they would have to sit down in that chair and hold out an arm.
Ethan stared at the backs of the people ahead of him and thought:
«We're all just meat here. Voluntary meat. And nobody's even resisting…»
Gina stayed silent beside him, but Ethan could feel that she was thinking the exact same thing.
His gaze drifted toward several large medical tents set up directly outside the clinic entrance.
The white canopies with red crosses swayed slightly in the wind.
Inside, he could see rows of chairs, bright lamps, and medical workers in white coats. The line moved steadily toward them.
Gina noticed where he was looking. She lightly bumped his shoulder and spoke quietly.
"This is necessary, Ethan. Don't look at it like they're leading you to a slaughterhouse. If our city wants to cooperate peacefully with vampires, then everyone has to donate blood."
"It's the law now. We have to listen to them and cooperate, just like they say."
Ethan didn't answer. He only clenched his fists harder inside his pockets.
He was only sixteen.
And today was the first time in his life he would donate blood.
He nervously shifted from foot to foot, feeling his palms grow sticky with cold sweat. His heart was beating too fast, and his throat had gone dry.
The fear was stupid, childish even, but very real.
He imagined the needle sliding into his vein, imagined his blood flowing into a transparent bag, and the thought made him feel even worse.
«What if I pass out?» he thought while staring at the people ahead.
«What if they need more than I can give? What if after this… something happens to me?»
As if sensing his fear, Gina wrapped one arm around his shoulders and gently pulled him closer.
"Hey," she said more softly than usual.
"It'll be fine. I donated last year, remember? It didn't even hurt. Just a little poke, that's all."
"Five minutes and we're free. Then we'll go home, order pizza, and pretend this whole thing was normal."
Ethan managed a weak smile.
"Yeah… totally normal," he muttered.
"Donating blood to vampires so they won't eat us. The most normal Tuesday ever."
Gina snorted, though nervousness lingered in her laugh too.
"Exactly. Welcome to adulthood."
The line shuffled forward again by a few more steps.
Now they were very close to the first tent.
Ethan could see a nurse inside motioning for the next group of five people to come in.
One of the teenagers ahead of them let out a quiet sob.