"–is that a thing from the books?"

He hopes witches are real.

"Oh, yeah. The vampire who got his soul back was cursed by a witch. But also sometimes they just, like, immolate people. Well, vampires. But also people."

"...so, you talk to the police, I talk to the witch? If they exist?"

She doesn't laugh, but she smiles a little. "If we find any. Then yeah, you can talk to the witches."

"Deal."

He puts out his hand.

She shakes it.

The vampires come back downstairs, apparently very pleased with themselves. 

"I do like the idea of eating babies," says Naomi, very matter-of-factly. "They're supposed to taste better the younger you have them."

"OK!" says Imrainai, delightedly bouncing up and down a little. "You can totally do the honors and find us a baby!"

...he really shouldn’t have given her the hint there, huh.

He guesses...he should probably try not to react, to stuff like this, right? Save a couple babies.

So he carefully clears his expression and pastes on a vague smile before he turns enough for Imrainai to see his face. Not like he hasn’t practiced enough.

Oh good, he's going to try to be noble. Destroying people who're trying to be noble is her favorite.

"It's been a long night, though. We kidnapped someone! We have totally earned some time off from terrorizing ignorant mortals. Anybody wanna play Smash Bros? I think we've almost unlocked Mr. Game & Watch."

"...fuck it," he says, resigned to his fate. "Might as well."

There are four controllers and five people, and the vampires do not take turns. Zana's willing to switch off every other game with Z, though. This is also good for keeping people from getting all that pissed at her, since she tends to win a disproportionate amount of the games she plays.

Z tries hard enough to be fun to beat, but is bad enough at Smash Bros that he doesn't win many games. He tries to keep the mounting terror of future psychological torture on the down-low, but this means his commentary is decidedly subpar.

According to the clock under the TV, it's well past sunrise when the vampires tire of their game. Imrainai snuggles Z. 

"OK. Someone needs to tie up the prisoners before anyone goes to bed, does anyone actively want to do that or is that gonna have to be a chore?"

This is fine this is fine this is fine this is fine this is fine this is fine this is fine.

"Can't you just lock the door?"

"Obviously not, then you'd have way more resources to attempt escape," says Imrainai, cheerfully.

"I guess I like tying people up," muses Naomi. "Though it's more fun if you get to cut off circulation and make people scared that they're gonna have to have things amputated. Especially if you go ahead and amputate afterwards."

"...can we maybe not?" he says weakly.

"No," says Imrainai, patting his head. "And no cutting off people's circulation for six hours, Naomi, you can play with your food later if you're into that."

He guesses he can probably sleep tied up. He's done it before. And it's been long enough since he last slept that he can probably manage it even with...all this.

"Is there a place for humans to sleep or is the floor part of the suffering?"

"Oh there's totally a place to sleep, we have a mattress on the floor in the other room. Naomi can get you all set up. Pleasant dreams!" she says, before kissing him on the cheek and leaving for the upstairs again.