Inside the tent, it was cramped and stuffy. The white plastic walls swayed slightly from the wind outside. The air smelled of plastic and the faint sharp scent of the nurse's perfume.
Two armchairs stood along the walls, with a small table beside them covered in blood bags, syringes, and cotton swabs. The bright lamp hanging from the ceiling was painfully harsh.
Amelia pointed toward the chairs.
«Sit down. The girl first, then the boy.»
Gina confidently walked in first and sat down, crossing one leg over the other. She tried to look calm, though Ethan noticed her fingers subtly locked together when she rested her hands on her stomach.
The nurse sat across from them, picked up a tablet, and quickly tapped across the screen.
«Name, age, blood type?» she asked professionally without looking up.
Gina answered first, almost defiantly.
«Gina Hitcher, eighteen years old, type B positive.»
Amelia nodded and entered the information. Then she looked over at Ethan.
He sat in the second chair. His heart pounded so hard it felt loud enough for the entire tent to hear. He swallowed and stammered:
«Damn it, why am I so nervous?»
«Ethan Hitcher… sixteen… also B positive.»
The nurse quickly entered the information without asking unnecessary questions. To her, this was just another workday.
Ethan sat staring at the white plastic wall of the tent. Fragments of conversations from the line kept circling through his mind: «heads on the tables», «equality pact» «civilization»… It all felt like some monstrous joke.
Gina turned her head and looked at him. There was reassurance in her eyes.
Amelia was already putting on gloves and preparing the first blood bag.
«Arm on the armrest, palm facing up,» she told Gina.
«You'll feel a small pinch.»
Ethan watched his sister stretch out her arm. From the outside, it didn't even look frightening.
Amelia finished entering the data into the tablet and looked up at the siblings. A mechanical, rehearsed smile appeared on her face — the same kind a cashier in a cheap store gives after repeating the same sentence for the hundredth time that day.
«Excellent,» she said cheerfully.
«Today's a special day. After donating blood, all donors sixteen and older are automatically added to the list and receive sweets. Chocolate, energy bars, sometimes even food vouchers. A little thank-you from the city, so to speak.»
She said it so casually, as if she were talking about birthday presents.
«Oh, sweets? Now that I like!» Ethan smiled weakly in the chair.
«Hey, wait, they're trying to bribe us...» Gina rolled her eyes.
The thought felt almost mocking. They were giving blood to vampires, and in return they got a chocolate bar.
Gina barely grimaced before quickly regaining composure and nodding.
Amelia continued, now in a more official tone:
«Do you have parental consent?»
Ethan and Gina nodded at the same time.
«Yes,» they answered almost in unison.
«Our father already signed everything beforehand,» Gina added.
«David Hitcher. He left a digital signature and confirmation last night.»
The nurse quickly checked the information on her tablet, nodded, and marked a check box.
«Everything's in order. Yes, I see it. Then we can begin. Gina first.»
She turned toward Gina, picked up a fresh blood bag, and skillfully tightened the tourniquet around her arm. Gina sat straight, trying to appear calm, though Ethan noticed how tense she actually was.
Ethan sat in the second chair watching all of this, feeling his palms grow sticky again. The thought that in just a few minutes the same needle would be pushed into his own arm made a nauseating lump rise in his throat.
«Chocolate and candy… hopefully they've got my favorites and it'll make this pain worth it...» he thought while staring at the smiling nurse.
Amelia was already wiping Gina's skin with alcohol and preparing the needle.
«Small pinch,» she repeated automatically.
«Try not to move.»
Gina nodded and looked at Ethan. A strange confidence flickered in her eyes as she winked at him.
«Everything's fine,» Amelia said softly.
«Feels like a mosquito bite. No need to be scared.»
Ethan only nodded in response. He didn't trust his own survival instincts anymore.
The tent felt smaller and smaller. The smell of alcohol was becoming unbearable. Beyond the thin walls, the noise of the massive line could still be heard, hundreds of people who had come to give their blood to vampires.
The procedure turned out to be simple, almost routine, and somehow that made it even more terrifying.
Amelia quickly and skillfully tightened the tourniquet around Gina's arm, then Ethan's. The rubber squeezed tightly against their skin, making the veins on their forearms rise in blue lines.
Ethan watched the needle approach his arm. His heart pounded somewhere in his throat. He felt the cold alcohol on his skin, then a sharp little prick. Not painful, just unpleasant.
And then the blood began to leave him.
It slowly flowed through the tube into a transparent bag. Ethan watched it with fascination and disgust at the same time. Every beat of his heart sent another portion of his blood into the bag marked with cold printed letters:
«For Pact Partners. Approved by the VCP (Vampire Control Protocol).»
Beside him, Gina's blood filled an identical bag. She grimaced slightly but still tried to look cool.
When the nurse stepped away to grab another bag, Gina turned her head toward her brother and winked at him despite her pale face.