by Rue Volley
Johnathan hunched his shoulders and looked at the boy.
“Where the hell did he come from?” Johnathan asked her.
Lizzy looked at the boy on the floor and stepped up to him.
“One of those magical boards… with the doohickey thingy that you push around on it… He was all trying to contact spirits, and he got me… Surprise!” Lizzy said, as she rubbed the boy’s head and messed up his hair.
“What...? So this kid was like sitting in his house... doing some witchcraft stuff, and you dragged him here with us?” Johnathan asked her.
“Yes… why not?” she said.
Johnathan laughed and started to pace around.
“Well… because that is abduction… with intent to kill,” he said, as he stopped and looked at her.
Lizzy shook her head and placed her hands on her hips.
“Listen… this boy wanted this. This is like the best thing that could happen! He wanted to contact a spirit, and he did! He was successful.” Lizzy said.
“No… he was probably some d-bag, trying to pretend like he was a wizard or some shit, and now he is… wherever this is, all tied up!” Johnathan said.
“Really...? Is that what you think...? No, in all actuality this guy is way into the supernatural… so much so, he killed his girlfriend.” Lizzy said, as she glared at him.
Johnathan raised his hands up and let them fall to his sides.
“How do you know?”
Lizzy laughed.
“Because… I could see it. He killed her out in the forest, slit her throat, and drank her blood; because he wants to pretend that he is a vampire… but he is not, I know that.”
Johnathan shook his head at her and pointed to the boy on the ground.
“You cannot just abduct people and drag them to this house… in ghost land, or whatever this is, regardless of what they do, Elizabeth!”
Lizzy looked at him and crossed her arms on her chest.
“You can call me Lizzy, Johnathan, and yes I can.”
Johnathan shook his head, and Lizzy stepped up to him and stared him down.
“Listen to me… if you don’t do this with me… we will be stuck here until our spirits are injected into some child in the womb… to be born again on topside. I am not willing to wait again. I am not going to do that. I need your help, and you will help me.”
Johnathan stood there, staring at her, and leaned over to see the boy on the ground.
“I can’t… I’m sorry,” he said.
“No good,” Lizzy said, as she started to pace back and forth in front of him.
She stopped and looked at him.
“Don’t you want to see that girl again… She loves you, you know?” Lizzy said.
Johnathan took a breath and stood his ground.
“I know… I miss her. I miss them all.”
Lizzy stepped up to him and touched his arm.
Her icy, cold skin shocked his system.
“Then help me and help yourself. We don’t have to wait here in purgatory. You see we are the same, Johnathan. We died for no reason, and we both have protector blood. Not enough to get us to memory… and not enough human blood to get to heaven. We are trapped here like dogs, no place to go. We only have one choice and that is it,” Lizzy said, as she pointed to the boy on the floor.
“He is dead already… I cannot get him back up there… no one can. We feed, or we watch him rot here with us,” she said in a low voice.
Johnathan looked at him and tilted his head.
“That sucks,” he said to him.
The boy started to yell something under his tape. Johnathan flashed to him and ripped the tap off. Lizzy raised her hands and rolled her eyes, as the boy coughed and spit on the ground.
“What the fuck!?” he yelled out to Lizzy.
Lizzy looked at him and grinned.
“You are a very nasty person… You deserve to be here,” she said to him.
The boy looked up at Johnathan and shook his head.
“She is a liar! I never hurt my girlfriend… I never would do that,” he said.
Johnathan stared at him and then glanced at Lizzy.
Lizzy shook her head and wiggled her fingers at Johnathan.
He looked down at the boy and sighed.
“There is only one way to make sure… if you don’t mind; I need to touch your head, I guess,” Johnathan said.
The boy looked nervously back and forth to Lizzy and Johnathan.
He looked up and bit his lip.
“I never did anything… You have to believe me,” he said.
Johnathan knelt down in front of him and looked him in the eye.
“Listen… it doesn’t hurt or anything. A friend showed me how to do it. I just touch your head and see memory… that’s all,” Johnathan said, as he glanced at Lizzy.
“See for yourself,” Lizzy said, as she nodded towards the boy.
Johnathan reached out, and the boy leaned back. Johnathan tilted his head at him.
“You have to trust me, okay?”
“Oh sure! Why not? I mean I am sleeping, and next thing I know, psycho bitch here has me tied up!” the boy yelled.
Johnathan stood up and looked at Lizzy. She shook her head ‘no’.
Johnathan looked at him and grinned.
“Well, just because… let me do it, okay?” Johnathan said.
The boy started to struggle with his hands tied behind his back, and Johnathan flashed down next to him, grabbing the back of his neck, as he placed his hand on the side of his head. The boy struggled and then went into a temporary trance, as Johnathan started to surf his memories.
Johnathan stood at the bank of a river looking out across the water; he heard laughter behind him. He turned to see the boy, accompanied by a very small-framed girl… very pretty, walking by his side in the woods. Johnathan stepped up to see them clearly, as they walked towards the water. The boy stopped the girl and placed his hand on her face. He leaned in and whispered something in her ear. The girl smiled, and he leaned back from her and they continued to walk.
Suddenly, Johnathan found himself in the boy’s room. The boy stood in front of his mirror, with his shirt off, taking a razor to his chest as he hissed and sucked in his breath. Johnathan turned when he heard a girl’s voice in the room; the girl stood up and walked to the boy in front of the mirror and got down on her knees. She placed her mouth on his chest and licked the blood coming from the cut the boy had inflicted.
Johnathan gritted his teeth, and his eyes fluttered as he continued to search the boy’s memory. The room faded with smoke, and Johnathan looked up at the night sky. They seemed to be in the woods again. He looked out as he saw a few teenagers walking around a bonfire. They all stopped, and a girl stepped forward and dropped her robe, revealing her naked body to the boy standing there with a knife in his hand.
The boy took her hand and walked her to a mattress in the woods near the fire. She laid back and grinned at him. Her image glitched in Johnathan’s head to that of Rue’s for a split second, and his heart started to pound in his ears, as he held onto the boy tightly. The image glitched back to the girl, and boy lay down on top of her and started to move, as the others stood around and watched. Johnathan tried to calm his heartbeat down, and the image smoked into another one.
The boy stood by the bonfire, and the girl stepped up behind him, with cuts on her chest and arms. The boy stood there gripping the blade in his hand staring at the fire. The girl wrapped her arms around him and bit the back of his neck. He turned to her and stood there breathing hard, with the knife in his hand and blood on his lips. He lunged towards the girl and stabbed her in the stomach. She screamed and stumbled back from him, trying to run. The boy raised the knife to his mouth and licked the blood from it, as he closed his eyes. She stumbled through the woods, as he started to walk after her calling out her name. She fell, as she held her stomach, and looked back at him, holding up her hand to him, as he quickly lunged on top of her and started to move…
She kicked her legs until he cut her throat and drank from it. Her legs slowly stopped, as her eyes lost their light, and he leaned up and cried out, as he swallowed her warm blood in his mouth.
Johnathan pushed the boy away from him with so much force; the boy slid across the floor and hit the wall. Johnathan tried to stand up and stumbled, as his skin started to swirl in color and his eyes blurred. Lizzy stood there and watched him with a grin on her face.
“As you see… he is no loss,” she said to Johnathan.
Johnathan shook his head and cried out, as the images burned in his mind like they were his own. He leaned over and coughed towards the floor. Lizzy shook her head at him.
“You are not getting sick,” she said.
Johnathan covered his mouth and looked at her.
He cleared his throat and tried to stand up straight.
“That was unnecessary,” he said.
“I didn’t tell you to do that, but now you know what he is,” she said.
“Uh huh,” Johnathan said, as he held his stomach.
The boy moaned and started to move on the floor. Johnathan looked at him and shook his head. He flashed to him and picked him up into the air, slamming him on the dining room table.
“How could you?” he asked him.
The boy shook his head at him.
“I don’t know what you mean,” he said.
Johnathan placed his forearm against the boy’s throat and started to choke him.
“You raped her and then killed her!” he yelled at him.
The boy opened his mouth, and his eyes started to roll in his head.
Lizzy placed her hand on Johnathan’s back and leaned over to look at him.
“We need to feed on him… not kill him straight out,” she said.
Johnathan looked at the boy’s face and shook his head, as he released him, and stepped back, pacing back and forth. The boy rolled over gasping for air, and then he started to laugh. Johnathan stopped and looked at him, as the boy pushed himself up and sat there laughing at the two of them.
“She was a whore, and I am a vampire,” the boy said, as he laughed.
Johnathan tilted his head at him.
“You are a vampire?” he asked him.
The boy raised his head and grinned as he licked his lips.
“That I am… I drink the blood of the weak,” he said.
Johnathan grinned and looked at Lizzy.
“You have no idea what a vampire is… You are an asshole who likes to pretend in the woods and then rape and kill girls,” Johnathan said.
The boy opened his mouth and showed his two fangs, fake as they were attached to his two canine teeth. Johnathan leaned towards him and shook his head.
“What the hell is that?” he asked.
The boy smiled and leaned his head back.
“These are my means of feeding on blood,” he said.
Johnathan crossed his arms on his chest.
“Really?” he asked him.
The boy shook his head and spit on the table.
“I am not only a vampire, but the head of a coven,” he added.
Johnathan looked at Lizzy and then back to him.
“Okay… so let me get this straight… you are a vampire and a witch?” he asked him.
The boy shook his head at him.
“I am a warlock, and I worship Satan.”
“Oh...! Wow, you are busy, busy, busy then huh?” Johnathan asked him.
The boy looked at him and laughed.
“Oh, you make fun if you like, but my Lord will take care of me,” the boy said.
Johnathan flashed to him, and he blinked, as he leaned back.
Johnathan smiled at him.
“Guess what I am?” he whispered to him.
The boy shook his head at him.
“Oh, what...? You don’t recognize your own?” Johnathan asked him.
The boy looked at Lizzy, and she grinned.
“I am a protector, and contrary to popular belief, that does not protect everyone… In other words, I am a vampire, and you are in deep shit,” Johnathan said.
The boy cried out, as Johnathan pushed him back and bit his arm. He drank the warm blood, as he shook from the adrenaline rush it caused him. Lizzy lunged at the boy and bit into his shoulder, and they both drank from him until his kicking slowed. Johnathan stopped and looked at Lizzy. She was drinking like an animal, and he touched her hair. She looked up at him, with blood dripping from her lips. Johnathan wiped his mouth and jumped down from the table and walked away, knowing that he shouldn’t have… but he had too.
***
Jonah stood up and looked down at Theo sleeping on the floor. He glanced over at Sophie and smiled, as he pulled his shirt on and started to button it up. He heard a foot tap behind him and turned to see Sam standing in the tent opening. He grinned at her and looked down at his shirt and finished buttoning it up. Sam stepped in and looked at Theo on the floor and sighed.
“I take it that you and my brother have been busy,” Sam said, staring at him.
Jonah sighed and looked at her.
“It would seem to be the case,” he said.
“Well, could you two do me a favor and start using a spell to dull the radar?” she said.
Jonah laughed and turned to her, as he placed his top hat on his head and tapped it.
“I apologize for the intrusion on your senses, Samantha,” he said, as he bowed to her.
Sam watched him, and then looked at Jonah and tilted her head.
“You feel different to me,” she said.
Jonah looked at her, and it hit him in the chest… a heavy weight, like a boulder had been dropped on his body. He fell down and moaned, as he held his stomach. Theo started to move and rolled over to see Jonah on his knees a few feet away from him.
“Jonah?” he said.
Jonah moaned again and fell to his side as he cried out.
Sam flashed to him and touched his face.
She looked at Theo and raised her eyebrows.
“What happened?” she said.
Theo scrambled to his side and placed his hand on his face.
“It would seem that our Jonah is starting his journey back to morality,” Theo said.
Sam looked at him and shook her head.
“You didn’t give him memory did you?” she asked.
Theo glanced at her.
“Seems that I did just that… he wished it.”
Sam stood up and rubbed her hair.
“Well, that is just great Theo...! I mean we are weak enough, now that we are missing Johnathan, but you go and put Jonah out of commission too!” she yelled at him.
Theo looked up at her and grinned, as Jonah rolled in pain.
“He will only need the night, Sam… He should be back to us in the morning.”
Sam raised her hands.
“Is that certain...? Or an educated guess on your part?” she asked him.
Theo stood up and looked at her.
“It is fact,” he said.
Lily flashed into the tent and lunged at Jonah on the floor.
She cried out and grabbed her stomach too.
“What have you done?” Lily asked through gritted teeth.
“Your brother wanted to feel my love,” Theo said.
“NO!” Lily yelled out, as she touched his face and fought her own pain.
“We are one… everything he feels I also feel; this was not my choice.”
Theo leaned over and reached towards her.
“I am sorry, my love. He wanted it, and I did not know that you were unaware of his plans.”
Lily hissed at Theo and pushed herself up, swaying on her feet.
“You do not decide for me,” she said, as her eyes rolled in her head and she dropped to the ground.
Sam flashed to her and leaned down to her mouth.
Lily started to mumble something, and Sam looked at Theo.
“This better not kill them, Theo,” she said to him.
/> Theo looked at Jonah and shook his head.
“I would never put him in harm’s way.”
Sam stood up and looked at and tilted her head.
“Are you in love, Theo?” she asked him.
Theo rubbed his hands and looked at her.
“We must get them to as bed, more comfortable that way,” he said, avoiding the question all together.
“Damn it, Theo… did you bond with him?”
Theo rubbed his head and wiped sweat from his forehead.
“There may have been a point that I let him feed,” Theo said.
“Oh shit,” Sam said, as she started to feel the pain in her stomach.
Theo did too, but he fought it off, as he reached down and picked Jonah up from the ground.
“I will never forgive you,” Sam muttered, as she fought back the shared pain.
Josh flashed into the tent with me and held his stomach tightly as he looked in.
“What the hell is going on...? My stomach is on fire,” Josh said.
Sam looked at him and then at Theo.
“Well, it seems that Theo here bonded with a rogue and then gave him memory,”
Josh flashed a look to Theo.
“You are kidding me right...? I mean, we all suffer now,” Josh said, as he leaned forward.
I stared at all of them and sighed.
“This is going to suck right?” I asked them.
Josh looked at me and shook his head ‘yes’.
I started to feel it then… a slow burning in my stomach that started deep and started to creep its way up.
“Oh,” I said, as I pressed on my stomach.
Josh looked at me and shook his head. He looked back at Theo.
“You have crippled us all,” he said.
Theo took a deep breath and stared at all of us.
“I will not apologize. I love this creature, and I am willing to do whatever I can to make him happy!” he blurted out.
“Oh! That is just great, Theo...! What if we have unwanted visitors tonight? I mean, who is going to fight them off?” Josh yelled at him.
“I have placed protection spells around us; we will be fine,” he said.
“Oh, like with Johnathan?!” Josh blurted out, as he pressed on his stomach.
Theo moved past us quickly and left the tent.
Sam looked at Josh and shook her head at him.