EVERYBODY MISSES NINA 

NINA disappears.

KARINE checks her bank balance. 

ANDREW comes in to have coffee with Karine. Andrew says he was in love with her. Karine tells him she was in love with her, too, in a way that would have ruined their lives if it were ever realized. They sit across from each other. They go to the fridge and observe Nina’s bags of blood, and discuss how to sell them. Andrew knows she did it online, but not through which service. They look at the dated labels, the most recent one from a week before. 

They go to Nina’s room and open her laptop. It doesn’t have any programs installed. All the web histories are cleared. NEVE comes into the room and asks if they’re talking about Nina. They get into a brief argument about whether someone is concealing knowledge of Nina’s whereabouts, then all agree she’s dead. Karine takes a bandage off her neck and shows her roommates a healing tattoo of two dots that look like vampire bites. She says “I guess I knew what was going to happen.” They forget if it’s been a week or a month since Nina disappeared. 

Karine returns to the kitchen, the others follow. She remembers eating dinner with Nina, vocally. The light is fluorescent. 

Living room. They turn on a video game. Andrew says the mourning period is no longer financially realistic. He goes on craigslist and looks for jobs for everyone. They talk about money and Nina paying for everything, and what they did for money before. Karine walks out of the room.

Kitchen. Karine looks at Andrew and Neve playing video games. She goes to the fridge and takes out the newest blood bag. She pops the top open and drinks half of it. Her eyes dim. She puts the blood back. She walks outside, down the stairs into the garage. She looks around at the storage rooms. She opens one of the doors. White light. Horrific noise. 

She shuts the door and starts talking to herself in a different language about ships sinking full of treasure. Metric systems and revolutions. Karine sits on the concrete floor. 

Andrew and Neve come down. We were looking for you, they say. Karine apologizes. They don’t understand what she’s saying. They say come back upstairs, they pull her up, she lets them lead her. They get to the stairs where the sunlight touches her arm and burns it. She gets free and back into the garage. 

Karine becomes more sensitive to sound. She hears cars, motorcycles, ambulances, lawnmowers, computers, phones, electricity. People talking across the street. Andrew and Neve talking about her. What the hell is going on, the two of them say, should we go get her again, they go upstairs. They leave the door open, they say we’re leaving the door open. They try to figure out how Nina was selling the blood, they talk about various things they remember her mentioning. Who she got the blood from. 

Karine watches the corner of sunlight leaking into the garage until it recedes. Nina’s voice in a third language. I know you, Karine, I know everything you’re going to do, I want you to do all of it, I think you should. 

Andrew and Neve cook themselves dinner. They make enough for Karine. It’s dark. Karine sticks her burnt hand back out into the open without it being burned. She walks back upstairs. Andrew and Neve pretend not to have heard her, and smile when they see her. They ask if she’s hungry. She says no. Her face is pale. 

The two of them walk past her to the fridge. You know something we don’t about Nina, Neve says. Karine tries to respond, they don’t understand. Karine gesticulates. So you’re like Nina now. They corner her. How, they ask her, she doesn’t answer, tries to get past them. She shoves Andrew into the wall and runs to her room. 

Karine’s room. She hides. She locks the door. Andrew and Neve beat on it. The noise overwhelms her. White light. They run around the house until they find a key and unlock her door. A struggle. She cuts their faces. The two of them restrain her.

They cut out her heart with a kitchen knife. The two of them eat pieces of it. They hack and cough. Neve spits some out, then tries again. She gets it down. 

Bits of heart come back out of their mouths. Andrew vomits. Karine gets up, bleeding. You’re not doing it right, she tells them. They don’t understand. She takes the key from Andrew and her own, she walks out and locks them in her room. 

Nina’s room. Karine sits on the bed. She talks, she addresses Nina. I’m in love with you. Andrew and Neve beat and scream. 

Hallway. Two days later. Andrew and Neve beg for water. They scrape at the door. 

Andrew’s room. Karine looks around. Messy. A picture of Nina on the desk. 

Kitchen. Karine looks at the blood in the fridge. How long until this goes bad, she says. Not long. 

She takes the half-empty bag, poorly re-sealed, congealed at the opening, closes the fridge. Walks through the house. Talks to Nina. 

Karine’s room. Karine opens the door. The room is destroyed. Neve has cut a line into their forearm and sucks at it. Andrew is unconscious. Neve says it’s not working. You’re doing it wrong, Neve, it’s okay. Karine kisses their head. She hands them the blood bag. Leave some for Andrew. She feeds it to Neve like formula. She stops them from drinking it all. She shakes Andrew awake. You really messed up my room, she says. She pours the rest into Andrew’s mouth, holding his head back. 

Kitchen. Days later. The fridge is half empty. 

Living room. They all sit on the couch. Blinds pulled. Andrew says he thinks he’s found a website, a blood bank in Peru. 

White light.