Blood Candy by Matthew Tomasetti Read Free Book Online Page A

“the
Misfits.”
    “This is White Paul as you know,” he
said.
    White Paul grinned and winked before taking a
bite from his pizza. The nickname made Candy curious again (at
least she thought it was a nickname; he was a white guy after all),
but she didn’t want to interrupt the introductions.
    “Over here is Medium Dave,” Melvin said,
indicating with his hand the skinny guy with sandy hair and a gaunt
face. Medium Dave didn’t seem to notice he had been introduced. He
was paying way too much attention to picking stuff off his pizza
and setting it on the side of his plate. He looked a little
slow.
    “Last but definitely not least,” Melvin said.
The only guy who remained was the one with the shaved head and the
dark, tempting eyes. “This is Were-Jew.”
    Candy almost spit out her drink, she coughed
so violently. “Were-Jew? Should I ask what that means?”
    “Ask away, sugar,” White Paul said.
    “Don’t bother,” Jimmy said. He hadn’t yet
touched his pizza and seemed to be in a foul mood now that he was
back inside with his friends. “You’re not going to like the
answer.”
    “What’s not to like?” Felicia said. Both she
and Jimmy glowered at each other.
    “Oh, nothing,” Candy said. “It’s just you have
such interesting . . . nicknames.”
    “Jimmy’s is the best,” White Paul
said.
    Jimmy slammed his hand on the table. “Shut
up!”
    Everyone burst into laughter except Candy. And
Jimmy.
    Were-Jew offered up an explanation when he was
done laughing. “Unlike those heathen vampires, us shapeshifters can
have a meaningful relationship with God.”
    “Oh,” Candy said, supposing it made sense.
“I’m Catholic, are you too?”
    Everyone gave her blank stares. “I’m . . .
Jewish.”
    Candy blushed, embarrassed at her own dumb
question.
    “We should get started,” Melvin said, changing
the subject.
    Everyone other than Candy pulled out papers,
pencils, and dice. Medium Dave was placing his strangely shaped
dice on the table in some kind of indiscernible pattern. He picked
each one up and held it close to his eye before setting it back
down again. No one paid him any mind.
    Candy hadn’t a clue what to do. She looked to
Jimmy for help and she had to restrain from saying this was the
last way she wanted to spend a Saturday of her summer
vacation.
    “Okay,” Jimmy said. He had a sheet of paper
with numbers written in all sorts of boxes and lines. “Candy needs
to make a character.”
    “Have her roll up some stats,” Melvin
said.
    Jimmy placed three dice in front of her. They
were normal dice like the kind from board games. Then he put a
sheet of paper in front of Candy like the one he had, except there
wasn’t anything penciled into it.
    “That’s a character sheet,” he said. “You put
all of your information on it.”
    “You mean like when I was born?”
    “No. . . . Well, maybe when your character was
born, sure. Here, take the dice. You see the first box on the left
side? That’s your character’s ‘strength’ score. Roll the dice to
see what it is.”
    Candy couldn’t make heads or tails of what he
meant so she just did what he said. She picked up the three
six-sided dice and rolled them on the table. They came out 1, 2,
and 1.
    “Okay,” Jimmy said when she sat there looking
at the dice. “Write ‘four’ in the box labeled strength.”
    Candy did as she was told and noticed several
other boxes with titles like “dexterity” and “constitution.” Jimmy
had her roll the dice for each. When she was done, the six boxes
had the numbers 4, 7, 8, 7, 12, and 16 written in them.
    “Well, at least she’s charming,” Felicia
said
    Candy frowned and looked over at the other
girl’s character sheet. Her numbers were much bigger.
    “Don’t worry. Medium Dave’s character is just
as bad,” Jimmy said. “You should be a cleric or a
paladin.”
    “Why does my character have to be
bad?”
    “Because Melvin insists on playing with the
old rules,” White Paul