Under the Moonlight (It's Too Dark to See)

“Where’ve you been!?” Rhys asked as soon as I came through the front door.

“Nice to see you, too…” I mumbled as I shook my wet combat boots to dry them. “I got lost. Took a right instead of a left. It was raining… What do you expect from me?” He sighed, then advanced toward me like Gavin had.

He smelled me, then backed away. “You met with vampires,” he said, disapproving look on his face.

I raised an eye brow. “Uh, okay. If that’s what you wanna call having to fight for my life, then sure. I met with vampires.”

Okay, so I exaggerated just a tad.

Matt entered the parlour from the living room. “You know, you’re lucky you’re alive. Don’t get pissy with him.”

I rolled my eyes, then shot a glare at my brother’s partner. “Can it, Matthew,” I snapped. I hated Matt. I really did. I hated his attitude. I hated how he styled his shit-brown hair. I hated his matching shit-brown eyes. He was an arrogant sonuvabitch, and I’m guilty of wishing he would just die and leave me the fuck alone.

He pretended to be hurt, and I glared at him again. “Queen of dirty looks, I see,” Matt mumbled.

“Why don’t you two go to your house, Matt?” He looked at he like I had three heads.

“Well, it’s just that there’s nothing to do at my place and yours is bigger.”

I sighed. “I’m going upstairs. Don’t follow me.” I made my way up the winding marble staircase up to my room. I hated it. I hated it all. My parents had money to build this huge house years ago before they decided it’d be brilliant to have two pain-in-the-ass kids. So, Rhys and I lived in this huge-ass mansion thing with our mum, marble stairways, pillars, and chandeliers.

I wandered past a large door into my room, sighing. It was the only room in the house that wasn’t bright and cheery. I had it painted black with crimson splatters to resemble blood. It was furnished with cherry oak hardwood flooring and black lacquer furniture. I had a canopy bed that I was forced into buying by my mother, but I dyed the pink chiffon canopy a deep, lush purple and exchanged the princess sheets that my mother bought with them to Jack Skellington bedding. I bought some old gothic castle-esque candle stands to light my room, and I dulled the lights to make it look darker. Posters of bands I was deeply into--mainly Motley Crue and The Misfits alongside various indie bands from Wales, England, and America--lined the obsidian walls. This was where I felt most at home, at one with the rest of my surroundings. I closed the door behind me and struck a match, lighting a few candles one by one.

I then made my way over to my desk, illuminated only by a single light, where I attempted to work on the homework that I hadn’t completed during detention. Try as I might to complete this wretched homework, I couldn’t concentrate. I kept staring out the French doors that led to one of the two balconies of the house, gaze drifting up to the starry night sky. I silently wondered where Gavin was, what he was doing, and who he was doing it with. I couldn’t get his face out of my head. I finally turned away from the balcony and tipped back in my chair, rocking slightly. I grabbed my stereo remote and hit “play” and the My Chemical Romance song Vampires Will Never Hurt You came on. Yeah, that didn’t help get my mind off Gavin. At all.

He was near perfect. Beautiful, clear, crystal blue eyes, cute face, tall (but not that one blonde tall), charming (yet…completely corny), nice body structure… I shook my head.

“Snap out of it, Isola…” I muttered. “It could never happen.”

Yeah… You keep telling yourself that, champ.

I sighed and got up, then threw myself onto my bed, stereo remote still in hand. I cranked up my volume to full blast, closing my eyes. I just wanted to forget about it all. Just get away from it all. Slowly, I fell into my music and lost myself in it.

I was so wrapped up in the music that a tapping on a glass window scared the living hell out of me.

I sat straight up, gazing out the window. I saw nothing, then my gaze drifted to the balcony. There was Gavin. Smiling at me and waving, motioning for me to join him beneath the stars. I slinked out the door onto the balcony and smiled.

“Already here, huh?” I asked, leaning against the marble railing.

He nodded. “I was wondering what you were doing.”

“Strange…” I said. “I was wondering the same thing.” He smiled at me and sat next to me on the railing.

“Have you ever wanted to be a vampire…?” he asked, seemingly out of nowhere.

“When I was a kid, yeah. But now that Rhys has become a hunter? Hell no.” I looked at him strangely.

“Why do you ask…?”

"Well, I was just curious, that’s all.” He fell silent and looked at his dirty Converse.

“You’re wet,” I said finally.

“You noticed.”

I laughed. “You’re such a dork, Gavin.”

He shrugged.

“So… Did you ever want to be a vampire…?” I asked after a while.

He seemed hesitant to answer, and he looked into my eyes, sorrow in his. “Not… Not really,” he replied finally.

“So… How did it happen? Something tells me a kid like you wasn’t vampire by birth.”

“I’m not… Sean turned me.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Uh… If you don’t mind me asking…”

He looked at me again. “How?”

“Yeah.”

His gaze switched from me to the stars. "Well… Sean and Ian… Those two you saw back there with me? Ian was born a vampire. Full-blooded, hot-blooded… Bona fide vampire. He bit Sean to mark him as his own.”

“Wait… What?” I was confused.

“Ian and Sean are together. Ian decided he only wanted Sean, and Sean decided the same thing. So Ian bit Sean to mark him. But that wasn’t good enough for Sean, and he ended up begging Ian to turn him.”

I nodded slowly, taking it in. “Okay, I get it now.”

“And I used to just fight beside them,” he continued, “until I went and got my idiot self killed.”

“You died!?”

He nodded. “Yeah. And Sean bit me, turned me, and brought me back.”

“How does that happen…?”

“Well, I wasn’t dead just yet. I was bleeding out and I was on my last breath.”

“Oh.”

He got up and stood behind me, wrapping his arms around my shoulders. "I don't have...anything to live for, Isola..." he said slowly.

I craned my neck to look at him. "What do you mean?"

"Think about it..." He gazed down at me. "I can live forever. I don't have to put my life on the line for anything because I can't die."

"That's not true, Gavin. You have so much to live for. I know you do."

He looked at the sky again. "You don't even know me..." he said softly. "How can you know that I've got something to live for?"

I shrugged. "First impressions are everything."

We were silent for a little bit, sitting together in the rain as it began to let up. I noticed a slight tremor in his body; a slight shake.

"Are you--" I looked up and watched a tear drip off his chin. "Gavin... Why are you crying?"

He wiped his chin. "I'm not. I don't know what you're talking about."

I smiled. "You are such a liar!" I said, standing up on the balcony rail as I began to walk around, grabbing his hand.

"Do you hear that?" he asked.

I looked up. "What are you--"

"Shhh..." he said softly, going over to my french door and pressing his ear to the glass. "Is this where you smell it...?" he asked. "Yeah... I smell it coming from your sister's room."

I gazed at him. "What the fuck're you talking about, G--"

"Shh!" he said again, continuing to make conversation, apparently with himself.

Then it dawned on me. He was relaying conversations as they happened that he was hearing.

He continued to speak, and I quickly sorted it all out in my mind. "Alright, let me handle this." I grabbed the doorknob and just as I turned it, my brother and Matt came storming into my room, then they both lunged for the door. Gavin grabbed me and yanked me back behind him as they flew through the doors, ready to kill Gavin the moment he made a move.

"You!" Gavin yelled, eyes cold on Matt.

"You!" Matt and Rhys yelled at the same time in response.

"What the hell are you doing near her, you motherless bastard!?" Matt snapped.

"Me? It's called she's friends with my sister!"

I actually wasn't, but I could see what he was doing, so I kept my mouth shut.

"Who's your sister?" Matt demanded.

"You should know! You fucked her last week!"

Matt stopped. "December's related to...you!?"

Gavin nodded smugly. "Stay away from my fucking sister, ape."

"And you stay away from mine, leech!" Rhys yelled.

Gavin straightened and approached Rhys. "Or what, hunter?" he asked, maneuvering closer. I began to tremble. This wasn't the same Gavin that had been holding me so gently earlier. Something washed over him. This... He had transformed into something so strange. And it was scaring me to death.

Rhys gripped his stake so hard his knuckles began to turn white. I thought I even saw blood drip down from the stake, possibly from splinters. He ran around the balcony and stood in front of me.

"Take another step...and I'll kill you where you stand, you motherfucking son of a bitch," he growled as Gavin drew closer, laughing like a maniac.

"You don't have the grapes!" Gavin exclaimed, still laughing.

Rhys' response consisted of his fingers wrapping tighter around the stake.

Gavin seemed to shrug Rhys away, pushing him aside as he advanced toward me.

"Get the fuck away from her!" Matt yelled, charging in my direction. He lifted the stake, but Gavin swung his arm back and hit Matt right in the mouth.

I screamed as he cupped my chin in his hand, bearing his fangs.

"Rhys!" I cried. "Do something! Please!"

But he didn't. He seemed to be frozen. Completely frozen in utter, sheer terror.

I screamed again and somehow managed to bite Gavin's wrist. He recoiled backward and hissed, but didn't try to come back. In a flash of light and smoke, he was gone, and a screeching bat took off into the night.

"Rhys..." I walked to him and shook him. "Rhys, snap out of it!" I pleaded.

He shook his head. "What happened...? Where did he go?"

" I took care of him myself. Don't worry."

"Oh God, Isola..." he said softly. "I... I completely blacked out... You could be dead... And it'd be my fault..."

I shook my head. "I'm alright, Rhys. Really."

I heard a groan emanate from Matt's direction and suddenly remembered he was bleeding terribly. I grabbed him and helped him up, holding both his and my brother's hands as I pulled them inside.

"Let's get you guys cleaned up..."