Bitten

By SilvrWingsDragon and Marcus I.N.D

“Jason, stop it.”

He chuckled and only continued.

At the time, he had pulled me into his lap and was tickling me, but I was not in any disposition for him to touch me at the time.

“I mean it!”

He ignored me completely and prodded my gut some more.

“You ass!” I choked back, trying very hard to keep back the laughs he was trying so desperately to force out of me. “You asshole!”

I couldn't keep a straight face, and every bit of air that escaped my lungs came out in a burst of chuckles, every breath in was a gasp anxious to give way to the uncontrollable laughing.

“You're enjoying it, see?” he said with a grin. I saw that stupid grin on his face and just hated him at that moment.

“Stop it now!” I panted, my laughter giving way to a harsh resolve burning deep in my chest.

“You're laughing,” he said nervously. “Were laughing.”

I pushed myself out of his lap and got onto my feet, and turned around to glare down at him.

“If you were laughing, you must have wanted it,” he muttered, looking at me apologetically.

“No, Jason,” I replied sternly. “I don't want that.”

He shifted around, looking embarrassed, and his hands tapped at the floor, scraping distractedly at a fleck of dirt.

“I don't want you.”

His face went white and his every muscle tensed and froze as the words struck him, and I felt I was looking into a mirror as they struck me just as hard. I couldn't believe I had said that, but somehow kept my eyes baring straight down at him, my mouth lips pouted firmly.

I could see his watery eyes glinting, his whole face trembling as he croaked “Chelsea...”

I wanted more than anything to tell him that I hadn't meant that, and as I watched his head slowly collapse onto his shoulders the regret stung my face, a slap so real that I could feel where the fingers had been.

I'll never know why I did what I did, but I nodded to him, as if to confirm what I had said, to lie to him and tell him I had meant every last one those horrible four words.

I never did.

I'll never understand why I turned around and left him sitting there and strode to the other side of the building, as if running from him in slow motion. As if running away from what I had said.

Escaping. That's what I was doing. Escaping down the halls of the high school, away from those words. I needed someone to talk to. Anyone.

I don't remember how far down those halls I walked until I saw the group. A bunch of kids huddled around a corner, everyone muttering and shouting. A bunch of tough guys, jocks and creeps. Whatever was going on was not good. Maybe a drug deal, maybe someone was getting beaten, maybe someone was getting shaken down.

Instinctively I crept up, carefully moving to where I could hear and see what was going on, but still far enough away so that if one of them burst at me I'd have enough room to start running.

“Alright fucker,” one of the larger jocks snarled. “You got two seconds to tell me why you haven't gotten your ass out of here. You and all the rest of your filthy kind.”

“Ya goddamn freak!” burst one of the paler, spindlier creeps, his eyes brimming with hatred, a barely constrained fury. I could see his awkward form jolt into the air with the force of his pathetic shout. “You and all the other goddamn mutants!”

“I'm not going anywhere!” the kid in the middle shouted, holding his arms out as if to shield himself from any blows that they might throw at him.

One of the kids from the football team stepped in towards him, puffing his chest out intimidatingly towards his captive.

“Yes you are, creep,” that jock snarled. “You're going straight to hell, and you know it. And I'm gonna send you there.”

His arm came back, tensed and ready to strike.

I screamed.

Almost as loudly as the jock shouted when that kid reached out suddenly, grabbing his wrist and giving it a sharp twisting. After he let go, the jock collapsed onto the floor, writing in pain and clutching at his arm, holding it a most awkward angle.

Everyone else began looking around dumbly at each other for instruction, and then, just as quickly as I had stumbled upon this scene, they all fled like cockroaches that had gathered around a light that had just flashed to life.

“Kevin! You fucker!” the jock shouted between anguished groans. “You'll never get away with this! They'll fucking fry your ass for this!”

Everyone else gone, I could finally see the kid clearly, standing alone in the corner, as if the creeps that had surrounded him were still there.

Seconds ticked by tensely, and then as if coming out of a daze, Kevin knelt down next to the jock and gripped his ruined wrist tightly.

As expected, this caused even more tormented shouts from his victim, and I could see him bring back his good fist at Kevin, just barely grazing his shoulder.

Kevin dropped the jocks wrist and stepped away hastily and the jock relaxed, curling up into an oversized heap on the floor.

“Your wrist better now?” Kevin asked, almost conversationally.

The jock groaned in reply.

“If it's not, you should let me know, I can heal it,” he added.

I stepped forward, peering at the jock's crumpled form. His wrist looked fine, and seeing me, he leaped to his feet, glaring angrily at Kevin.

“This isn't over, fucker!” he snarled, quickly turning his back to us and storming off. “I'm gonna see your ass in court! I'm gonna watch them throw your mutant ass in the chair!”

I stood there frozen, watching the last of the jocks vanish down the hall.

“What did...”

We both turned and faced each other at the same moment, our eyes meeting perfectly.

“I think I broke his wrist,” Kevin replied with a slight shrug. “But I healed it, so it's all right. I can heal things, you know. When I hurt someone I can always fix it.”

I bit my lip, the memory of what I had said to Jason still lingering in my head.

“I wish I could do that,” I muttered.

“Well, you'd have to be a mutant, like me,” Kevin sighed. “And then you'd have to deal with those kind of people a lot. It's the third time this week they've come after me.”

I nodded sympathetically and patted his shoulder gently. “It's alright, who needs people like them anyway.”

He made a slight coughing noise as my hand rested on his shoulder and reached up gently, taking my hand gently in his and lowering it off of him. He didn't let go though, just held on gently.

I echoed his coughing noise and looked around, growing slightly flustered.

“You want to go outside? I think they might come back out here,” I said quickly.

He smiled weakly and nodded. Then froze.

“Wha.. with you? You mean?”

I nodded and tugged at his hand, pulling towards the west exit.

“You... you sure?” he whispered. “If you're seen with me, people will think you're a mutant sympathizer, they'll be after you just like they're after me.”

I looked him straight in the eye and smiled. “I guess I am one.”

Over the next few days, I started hanging out with Kevin whenever possible. After I had met him at the fight, I felt I had known him all my life.

Just one week after I had met him I felt I could talk to him about anything and had to talk to him about everything.

Even Jason.

“So you just broke up with him? Like that?”

I nodded, shifting at my seat at the buss stop, anxious to get to town, feeling slightly sorry for Jason after I had told Kevin about the incident. “Well, we never actually...”

I looked at him, and saw an almost crestfallen look on his face, and couldn't stop myself from blurting “Yeah, it's over between us.”

Just saying that made me feel a bit alone.

He sat still, and the bench beneath me felt slightly colder.

“I'll bet that really hurt,” he said slowly.

I took a slow, deep breath and nodded. “Yeah, I should have maybe given him another chance. I've been through way worse and stayed by him before, I don't know why I flipped, all he was doing was...”

He shook his head and patted sympathetically at my shoulder. “I meant for you.”

I felt a cough hit me, and tried to suppress it, but almost gagged.

“Are you alright?” he asked tensely.

“Fine,” I choked, my eyes watering slightly.

He shrugged, wearing an unsure expression. “I think maybe you should talk to him. You know, straighten things out. He might think that you're just taking a break for him or maybe that you still like him, I dunno...”

My head fell and I watched my toes grind at the sidewalk for a few seconds.

“Well, it's really none of my business,” Kevin sighed finally, scooting down the bench slightly, away from me.

“No, you're right, I just...”

He cringed slightly, turned his head away, and then looked back at me, and out of the corner of my eye I could see him shift uneasily.

“His house is just a few blocks that way, I could just... right now.”

He nodded slowly. “Go do what you have to, then.”

I pushed myself onto my feet and started off towards Jason's house.

I didn't turn around to face where I was going, but stayed facing him until I was a block away.

I didn't stop looking over my shoulder to him until I was around the corner and couldn't see him anymore.

I finally realized I was doing this when I tried to look for him through the walls of one of the houses, as if it was supposed to simply vanish under my gaze so that Kevin wouldn't leave my sight. I froze, wondering about what I was doing, and found continuing on with my slow trudge to Jason's house to be like starting a car with a dead battery. I should have never stopped.

Finally I leaned forward, and my body was forced to put a leg in front of me to keep me from falling over, and then the other, and then the first one again, and I was back on my way.

“Come on, that wasn't so hard,” I whispered to myself, shivering and pulling at my coat as a herd of leaves scuttled across the street, crackling menacingly in front of me.

I turned around, staring at them as if I was just staring at Kevin.

Just dead leaves.

I shook my head, watching them disappear into someone else's yard some ways behind me, and with a start realized that it was Jason's yard, and that I had walked right past his house.

Not even turning around, I trudged backwards until I found myself at his driveway and examined his house slowly. It looked very different than it had been before.

It was the same exact shade of paint that covered the walls, except now it seemed grayer. The garden in front that his mother tended to every day somehow seemed withered, dead, abandoned.

And there was the door. It was painted a vibrant sky blue, and to me before was as solid as the sky that it had been painted to match. It would always open at my knock before, sometimes even before then, but now seemed so cold and forbidding.

My lip quivered, and I could feel my eyes grow hot and watery.

I tried to step forward, down his driveway, up to his door, knock on it.

It would still open for me this time.

But I couldn't move, my feet were heavier than lead.

I tried to lean forward, but found I couldn't even do that.

Another cough came at me, and I tried to suppress it, but it came out as a dry sob.

I turned and sprinted back.

“Hey, how did it go?” Kevin asked, standing up abruptly when I neared. “Are you okay?”

I shook my head, trying to quickly blink the tears out of my eyes. “I... I'm fine.”

I wiped my eyes on my sleeve and looked at him. “Who's....”

“My friend Patheos,” Kevin replied.

Patheos waved and casually brushed her jet black hair out of her eyes.

“She just came to bring me something,” he said quickly, handing a thermos to her.

She quickly took it and stashed it in her jacket, out of sight.

“Needed a drink,” Kevin explained quickly, and looking up and down the street exaggeratedly. “How come the bus never comes, it's at least ten minutes late now.”

“There's a water fountain just over there, why'd you need her to bring it to you?” I asked, not really caring but anxious to talk about something else, anything else.

“Well, I, uh...”

I looked at him slowly, trying not to show him my red puffy eyes, thinking that they'd look better from the front instead of the side.

“Kevin, you got something right there,” I said, dabbing my finger at the corner of my mouth.

He quickly turned away slightly and wiped his mouth on his sleeve, looking embarrassed and slightly nervous.

“You bite your lip or something?” I asked him.

“No, that was just some of that v8 stuff,” he replied quickly.

“I know what v8 looks like and that wasn't-”

“He needs the vitamins and minerals that only v8 provides,” she interjected hurriedly. “He's got a deficiency in some of them, probably because of the fact that he's a mutant.”

I nodded. I got the sense that I should have been impressed by Patheos's explanation, it seemed quite rehearsed, as if she'd had to explain it a lot.

“Alright, I gotcha.”

“So, did you and Jason work things out?”

I froze, the sentence sending me straight back to the end of that driveway.

Once again I felt myself completely unable to move.

“I....”

Kevin looked away apologetically. “Sorry, it's really none of my business.”

“No, it's...” I groaned.

Patheos looked from me to Kevin, and then back to me. “Who's Jason?”

I really didn't feel like explaining the whole thing to her, and I hopped to my feet. “I.... I think I should go back there and try again. To kind of tell him it's over, it's...”

“Chelsea, don't-”

I had already forced myself into the street and was about to start walking down towards his house when I heard that sound.

Brakes.

I shivered, feeling every bone of my body stiff and aching with a dull, gnawing pain.

“Kevin?” I called hoarsely, opening my eyes, everything a blur as I lifted my arm, reaching around clumsily with the heavy, deadened appendage. “Jason? Patheos?”

I groaned and shuddered, a heavy stinging shooting up and down my wrist. “Anyone?”

Something closed around my wrist and my eyes tried in vain to focus on it, finding only a blur of skin tone. It was probably someone's hand.

“Don't try to move, you'll just hurt yourself some more....”

“Patheos?” I whispered. “Is that you?”

“It's me, don't worry.”

“Where.... wha....”

“The bus finally came, about fifteen minutes too late,” she said slowly. “Thankfully Kevin was there to kinda patch you up a bit. I just wish that the bus driver didn't recognize him.”

“The bus dri....”

“Yeah, he recognized Kevin as the guy who hurt his kid, even though he was the punk who started it.”

I groaned and started to roll over, but Patheos stopped me and held me down.

“He saw Kevin, a mutant, and me, a mutant, and you.... he didn't even call an ambulance or anything. They hate us all.”

“Where's Kevin?”

“He's been healing you for hours now, I had to have him stop and take a break,” Patheos sighed. “It takes so much energy on his behalf. But he's so worried about you, he wouldn't stop, even when he almost passed out.”

“You're.... you're kidding, right?” I asked, feeling myself become completely limp.

“No... he's asleep now though. And you probably should be too.”

The leaves danced around the ground. They were everywhere, swarming the bench.

I could see them as I was running, running with every bit of me there was, sprinting for dear life.

The concrete wobbled underneath my feet, as if it was trembling as I was, or possibly trying to throw me off my balance.

Either way, I could see the huge, gray bus.

I screamed, my feet slamming the ground, trying to help me out of it's way.

It neared now and the brakes screeched their strident wail, but as the brakes applied it only sped up. Faster and faster, headed straight towards me.

I felt it pushing into my back.

I screamed and opened my eyes.

“Chelsea! It's just me!” Kevin shouted. “Chelsea!”

I whipped my head around, gasping for air, feeling terrified and stricken as I looked into his eyes, which were wide as headlights.

“Calm down, you're getting better, everything is fine....”

I coughed, trying desperately to catch my breath, my heart pounding at my chest.

My eyes fell upon his face and I started to choke up again.

“Kevin.... you look....”

He turned away, his face incredibly pale, and there seemed to be something about his eyes now that wasn't there before.

“Are you okay?” I croaked, feeling my throat tighten and not want to relax.

He nodded and pressed his hand at my shoulder, gently nudging me back down. “I'm fine, it's you I'm worried about.”

My chest burned and I started coughing scratchily until everything got dark again.

I don't know how long I was out that time, but when I awoke I was feeling as if none of it had ever happened, and I was just waking from a very restful sleep.

As my consciousness eased back to me, I realized that it had to be because of Kevin. He had healed me.

“Kevin?” I called out, standing up to find him and tell him how grateful I was. “Kevin?”

A heavy groan called out beside me and with a start I saw him lying on the ground.

He looked like he was the one who had been hit.

“Oh my God, Kevin!” I cried.

I quickly pushed myself up and knelt beside him, trying desperately to think of anything, anything at all that could be done for him.

“Kevin!”

Patheos dashed into the room and immediately spotted him, crumpled weakly in a heap in front of me. She dashed out of the room, appearing only seconds later holding a canteen similar to the one I had seen before.

“Kevin, quick,” she whispered shakily, her hand quavering as she hastily unscrewed the cap and held it to his lips.

He jerked awkwardly to life, sucking at the canteen hard and guzzling the contents as I watched, petrified and trembling.

“Kevin!” I cried. “Kevin!”

He finished with the canteen and slammed it down on the carpet, his face a mask of pain as he looked from it to me.

It was still dripping something red.

“I... I'll go get some more v8, you hold right there,” Patheos whispered, and then vanished back into the kitchen.

I watched her go, shaking and holding my knees tight to my body.

And then I turned back to Kevin, and he was staring straight at me.

“Chelsea....” he croaked.

I shook my head and felt hot tears begin to flood my eyes. “No... you didn't have to do that for me,” I whimpered.

“Chelsea...” he groaned again, and his hand snapped forward and gripped tightly at my ankle.

I tried to hold back a sob, making instead a cough that shook loose a tear that rolled slowly down my face. “You didn't....”

“Chelsea,” he repeated, pulling me in close. “I need to tell you something.”

I heaved another sob and looked deep into his eyes, surprised to find that they were looking almost hungrily at me.

“What?” I croaked weakly, the hot tears in my eyes freezing over at his look.

“That wasn't v8... I'm.... I'm a.....”

“You're...” I prodded, no longer crying but still shaking.

“I'm a vampire, and after healing you, it made me weak, and I needed.... still need...”

With a jolt of horror my eyes fixed on the canteen. It was still dripping something red that was soaking, permeating sickeningly into the carpet.

“Oh God....”

“That in there... it was just animal's blood from Patheos's dad's butcher shop,” he groaned. “It's not nearly strong enough to bring me back to strength. Just tide me over.”

I was paralyzed with fear, except for my leg, which shot forward awkwardly and kicked the canteen away. Away from me.

My other leg moved, as if to do the same, and then I felt Kevin's hand still around my ankle, and with a slowly unwinding horror I looked down again into his face.

He was still looking hungrily up at me, the Kevin I had known before vanished in the new, demented expression upon his face.

“I....”

I was left speechless.

He slowly raised himself up and sat down next to me, and I felt his hand at my neck, sending a horrible shiver down my spine.

“You don't have to,” he said, withdrawing slightly as he saw the terrified look on my face.

“No!” I said quickly. “You healed me... I owe it to you... I'll share...”

Only a few minutes later I found myself sitting on his porch, shaking and sobbing to myself.

It had been so terrifying, that someone I had known so close, could all that time have been something like that without me knowing.

And to need something like that from me...

I couldn't get a second of it out of my memory. I kept reliving every second of it, from the slow, tense moment that his fingers found my jugular.

And then just as he was leaning in to make the bite, Patheos came in, looking just as shocked as I had been when he first told me.

It hurt so bad. He didn't have fangs to make the quick prick, but he had to bite down and tear.

I shivered again, trying to get the memory of the feeling out of my head.

I did, but it was replaced by the sensation of his mouth at the wound, sucking at my blood.

A shiver wracked up and down my spine at the thought, and I knew then that I would never forget that. It would always be haunting me.

That sucking.... sucking me dry....

I was so absorbed in that terrifying nightmare that I didn't hear Patheos pace over to me, and almost jumped to my feet when I felt her hand at my shoulder.

“Look, don't...”

“Don't what?” I snapped as I wiped my sleeve at my face, trying to wipe away my tears.

“Don't... don't hold that against him...”

“I never want to see him again,” I muttered through another dry sob.

“Why?”

“Well... it's just that... he did heal you after the bus hit you. You would have been dead.”

I pulled my legs close and buried my face in my knees in silent reply.

“And he didn't want to or anything, he had to. And he even healed where he bit you....”

My hand instinctively felt at the area of the bite. It had healed perfectly, but in my mind I could still feel the burning there. The tearing.

“Okay, if you still don't want to ever see him again, then fine. But please, if you go, don't remember him for that, please. Remember all the good times you had with him. Not that last little thing, because if you think about it enough, though it was probably the scariest thing you've ever been through while it was happening, it's over now.”

I turned to face her and she was already walking back into the house.

Obediently, I let my mind drift slowly back to a few weeks ago.

How he had been there, to talk to whenever I had a problem.

How he had been there, to talk to whenever I was happy.

How he had been there, to talk to just because I wanted someone to talk to.

He had been strong for me, he had been kind, and had never once done anything that I hadn't liked.

Until now.

But the more I thought about it, the less it mattered.

Kind of like..

And then my thoughts turned to Jason.

How he had been there, to talk to whenever I had a problem.

How he had been there, to talk to whenever I was happy.

How he had been there, to talk to just because I wanted someone to talk to.

How he had been strong for me, had been kind, and had only ever done the stupidest thing that I couldn't say that I liked.

How I had loved him, and realized I still did.

How he had loved me, and I hoped he still did.

I got to my feet, set with determination.

I don't remember how I got to his house. I think I ran, because it was still very light when I got to his doorstep, and I was out of breath. But it was a long way to run, and I didn't think that I had ever had that much stamina in me. Normally I could barely run halfway across the school to my next class, even without the books that we had to carry.

But I was there, nothing else mattered anymore.

Slowly I extended my arm and forced myself to knock.

When my knuckles barely tapped the door, I tried again, pushing my arm into it and rapping it, but still too softly for anyone to hear.

But the door opened anyway, revealing Jason's face, hung sadly on his shoulders.

And then he saw me.

“Chelsea...” he croaked, clearly shocked to see me as I was to find myself in front of him.

“I...” I began. “I... I'm sorry that I said that I didn't want you... that was the biggest lie I ever told, and I'm so sorry.”

I fell into his arms and he caught me perfectly in the familiar embrace that I had missed so much.

“It's okay, it's okay,” he whispered softly, and he presses his head to mine. I could feel a warm tear on his face as his met mine.

“I don't know why I did that,” I sobbed. “I just... I had just felt so bitten...”

He shook his head and held me close.

“I'm sorry, hon.” he whispered. “I promise you that I'll never bite you again.”