Vampire Academy

Gerard’s P.O.V.

“Well this is fuckin’ lovely.” Bobby commented while re-situating his shoulder bag. The hand-crafted stairs had taken us to a sort of underground cavern where we stood crammed together like a bunch of sweaty adolescent sardines. The combination of our body heat and the heat from various candles that lined the cave walls made us all so hot and the air so thick that there was a thin sort of steam hovering above us. Not to mention the stench. My god, the stench.

“I can’t see, what’s going on?!” Frank bellowed above the dull roar of the other boys, cupping his hands to his face just to be heard. “Bob, lemme get on your shoulders!”

“God, no, it’s too hot.” Bobby groaned, wiping some sweat from his forehead and flicking it onto some of the other guys.

“Aww, stop being a pussy, it’s not that hot! Just lemme see what’s going on!” Frank demanded again, this time jumping on Bobby’s back whether he consented or not.

“Yes it is,” I mumbled, rubbing my head and wincing from a massive migraine that had crept up on me in the last few minutes. The smells, the heat, and the Frank were making me nauseous, not to mention exhausted. All that and the fact that I was wearing a sweatshirt, for god's sake. I should’ve slept on the plane; I should’ve sat somewhere else like Cheech had warned me, and most of all I should have just stayed home…

The man who I assumed was Fredrick Moonshadow suddenly cleared his throat. He looked considerably taller and even more magnificent than he had outside, but maybe that was due to the fact that it was so small and dirty there. The room fell silent as we waited to hear our next instructions, and get out of this pocket of hell. “Now, welcome to the entrance of Galladrielle’s Academy for Young Men!” He said with a smile, his voice booming down the various tunnels and echoing all around us. “I know this is an uncomfortable spot, believe me we go through this every year, but you’ll get over it soon, I assure you.” It wasn’t until that moment that I realized he had a thick Russian accent. How the hell I missed that in the first place was beyond me, but it was definitely there.

“Before we get you boys situated in the main hall, I suppose you need to find where your dorms are. And by find them, I mean you really have to find them.” Swears and groans erupted from the crowd as we all realized what this meant. Fredrick stayed silent with a big grin plastered onto his thin, bony face until we were finished complaining. “I can tell you that the Red dorms are somewhere to my right, the Purple dorms are somewhere to my left, the Gold dorms are somewhere behind me, and the Black dorms are somewhere in-between. Now, there is no time limit, but I suppose you have to eat sometime.” Fredrick then turned, his black and gold embroidered cape billowing behind him, and walked down the tunnel with Lillith. He flashed us one cocky smile before disappearing down one of the tunnels that branched off of the original one.

“Well, fucker.” Frank commented nonchalantly, slipping off Bobby’s back and jerking his stuff off of the ground. “Why the hell do we have to do this? I mean, we don’t even know what direction Black dorms are… Pretty cool though, ain’t it? Black dorms…that’s badass.” I shook my head and searched my bag for some Aspirin. The four maroon pills that I had definitely weren’t going to be enough if Frank and I were in the same dorms. I could only hope we wouldn’t be in the same room together.

I popped the pills in my mouth with a shaky hand. I felt like my head was splitting in two, I hadn’t eaten in about seven hours, and not to mention there was some creepy little boy standing next to me, staring at me. He was wearing a black jacket, holy christ he must have been hot, and blue jeans. His mouth was moving slowly, but it didn’t register until a few seconds later that he was actually speaking.

“D’you guys mind if I…well…I mean, if I can search for the Black dorms with you? I mean…if you don’t want me to…” His voice trailed off and he turned bright red as I cocked an eyebrow. I recognized him as the oh-my-god-his-hair-is-blonde haired, grey eyed boy that had been so afraid to jump off of the plane when he arrived. The boy who’d jumped in line next to me, panting and alone. He turned to walk away, embarrassed. I felt a pang of pity for him so I grabbed his shoulder before he was out of reach. He jumped about three feet and whipped around to face me, visibly scared shitless.

“Y-you can if you want.” I said, still rubbing my head with my left hand. He relaxed, though his eyes widened a little. I nodded slowly and stuck out my hand. “Er…I’m Gerard.” I said as politely as possible. The boy took my hand and shook it with surprising strength for a guy his size.

“Elliot Russo.” He said, his voice barely that of a squeak.

“I’m Frank!” Frank popped in enthusiastically, making my head throb. I hadn’t even known he was listening to our introductions. Instead of making a face like I did, the boy laughed and shook Frank’s hand. “And this here’s Bobby!”

“How many fucking times-” Bobby started, his face turning red, but Frank cut him off, bursting into song.

“Follow the yellow brick road!” Frank started singing-shouting way out of tune. “Er…We’re off to see the wizard, the wonderful Wizard of Oz! Uhm…because, because, because, because, becaaaaaause! Something, something, witch he was! Dun, dun, dun, dun-” I stopped listening to him and picked my stuff off of the ground for what seemed like the thousandth time that day.

“Let’s just go.” I mumbled, dragging my stuff behind me and letting Frank lead the way.

Frank turned down the first hallway to our left, and, without much of a choice, we followed. “I’ve got a good feeling about this hallway,” He’s announced loudly, as we trudged through the hot tunnels apprehensively. We walked for what seemed like hours, but had only really been about 45 minutes, with Frank trying to remember the lyrics to Wizard of Oz (still), Bobby chewing gum, and Cheech, who had joined us about ten minutes previously, cursing Fredrick under his breath. Elliot just kept jerking his head around every minute or so. I eventually asked him what he was doing, not that I cared much, but every time he merely mumbled, “Just making sure…”

There were other boys around us who were doing similar things; the only difference was they pretty much knew where they were going. Hundreds of them were running past us, some cheerful, some pretty angry looking. In the midst of near heatstroke, starvation, and a relentless headache, I suddenly thought of Mikey.

Mikey’s P.O.V.

Cold. I was so unbelievably cold.

Tonight’s nightmare had been the worst yet. It was everything a nightmare offers and more. Much, much more. It wasn’t that it had been scary; it was just so…real. I was huddled in the corner of my room on my bed. My legs were drawn up to my chest and I was shaking violently, though not from the cold. Not from the cold at all. I felt sick to my stomach I was shaking so hard, not to mention my dream had left me dazed and confused and horribly afraid.

“It’s just a game, baby brother.”

Powered by a surge of adrenaline, I jumped out of bed, nearly busting my ass on my old roller skates, and opened my bedroom door quietly as possible. I tip-toed down the hall and then realized I didn’t have my glasses. I debated whether to go back and get them, but I was such a nervous wreck I decided they probably wouldn’t have made much of a difference.

“Now, let’s get those glasses off. You won’t be needing them before too long."

I took a shaky breath in and an even shakier breath out. I pulled the door open to the fridge, careful not to pull off the slightly broken handle, and dug around for a bottle of water. All I could find was some peach tea, which I hated with a passion, and a carton of spoiled milk. My parents hadn’t grocery shopped in over a week and a half. I grabbed the bottle of peach tea, flipped the lights off, and headed back to my room in the dark.

“Ray’s dead, baby brother. Look, look at his face.” He giggled, oh god, that giggle. It was the horrifying mock of a demented child. I struggled to free myself from the bonds of the thick black ropes that held me, unyielding, to a metal chair that was beyond freezing.

I fumbled nervously with the bottle cap for a few seconds before just giving up and deciding to wait until I was in my room, underneath my warm bedspread, safe and sound. There was a sudden series of cracks as a gust of wind blew hard against the house. It had been storming non-stop since Gerard had left for the Academy. There were flood watches all over Jersey, and the rain didn’t look like it’d let up any time soon. Of course, none of this helped my morbid dreams one bit.

“…Blown to bits, baby brother. But that’s not important. I’ve got something for you.” I whimpered as little ghosts danced around me. They were more or less ghosts than they were just colored bed sheets thrown carelessly over bloodied cadavers with the faces of my dead friends being used as masks.

“No…no… Gee…why are you doing this?” He smiled. Not a menacing or mocking smile, but the thoughtful smile of a brother who is genuinely happy. He leaned near me and the smile faded. He opened his mouth, his lips tugged back over his razor sharp canines.

“Because I love you.” He growled in my ear, and then he started laughing; and laughing, and laughing, and laughing.

We were in the same room, I noticed, as when he killed himself in my previous dream. The blood was still there, in fact, his body was still hanging there from the ceiling; it looked exactly like it had in my dream, nothing had changed at all. The rope that he’d hung himself with was the same rope that he was using to keep me tied to the chair. I looked down at the ropes that were cutting off my circulation. My hands were swollen and purple and completely numb. I cried out as Gerard made a deep cut in my arm with his unnaturally sharp nails. Blood seeped out and dribbled down my shoulder. “Aww, does it hurt? I’m sorry. Lemme kiss it to make it all better.” He giggled that high-pitched, mind-searing giggle again and leaned in to me, pressing his lips to my arm.

Smack!

He pulled away and stood back, staring at the cut with an intense focus. A sudden panic began to rise in me as my mind began to question why he was looking at the cut. What was happening? What did he do?

My bedroom door creaked as I opened it. For some reason this bothered me more tonight then it did most nights. I’d have to remind dad to oil the hinges sometime that weekend. At the moment I closed my door as fast as possible without slamming it. I then ran forward and leaped onto my bed, accidentally slamming full-force into the bedpost. I wrapped my arms around my head and bit down hard to keep myself from shouting out, despite the searing pain. When my little episode was over I slipped underneath the covers, took a swig of peach tea, and stared at the ceiling hoping, praying, that sleep would come.

A black mass of something or other began seeping out of the cut; stretching it and making it burn like crazy. I was shaking I was so petrified, yet all I could to was watch. I was just waiting for something horrible to happen, like the black stuff to burn my skin or eat me alive. However, I got the shock of my life when the black stuff started to separate and I realized that it wasn’t “black stuff” at all. It was thousands and thousands of tiny black widows crawling out of the cut and spreading out all over my skin. I was beside myself with paralyzing fear. I started screaming; and not just any scream, but the scream of a man who’s being castrated very slowly and painfully. I felt the pin pricks of a trillion spiders injecting me with their venom as Gerard reared back and laughed his ass off. “I love you baby brother.” He managed to say, stifling one horrible fit of laughter. “I love you so, so much.” He let it go and was beyond laughing now; it had turned into a laugh that would have put hyenas to utter shame.

“I hate you!” I started screaming, adrenaline running through my body as I realized that these spiders were killing me. “I hate you, I hate you, I HATE YOU!” Suddenly everything stopped. It was like I had said the magic phrase. The dancing ghosts were now frozen in the midst of what they were doing, Gerard’s body had stopped swaying, and the little spiders had stopped biting. Everything seemed to be frozen in time except the two of us. A few tears slid down my face as I watched Gerard’s impassive countenance slowly turn to bitter disgust. He was paler now than I’d ever seen him, now that I got to properly look at him. He had dark bags under his eyes, which were exceedingly dull in color compared to how they used to be. He looked horrible, he looked tired, and most of all, he looked sick.

“I know.” There was venom in those words. I let out a scream as, without warning, Gerard thrust his hand forward and straight into my forehead. A swirling mass of color filled my vision as I was taken to a completely different place. It was a place I recognized all too well. It was the park near our old house in Belleville.

[There were kids running around all over the playground, shouting and punching and laughing together. I looked around and finally a small, brown-haired, brown eyed boy with a Gumby t-shirt and sandals caught my eye. It was me. I was four years old.

“Come on Gewawd, where aw you?!” I shouted from on top of the jungle gym, not able to pronounce my r’s worth a damn. Out came my pale, hazel-eyed, dark haired, eight year old brother from the trees.

“Boo!” He shouted, scaring the shit out of three year old me. Mini-me jumped about three feet, or at least high enough to where he fell off the gym and down on the pebbles below. Mini-me started screaming the endless wail of an injured child. Gerard immediately jumped down to help mini-me. “Oh, man, are you alright? C’mon Mikey, where does it hurt?” Mini-me sniffed and pointed to his knee. “Can you bend it?” Mini-me tried and could.

“It hurts…”I mumbled through tears.

“I’m sorry Mikes…It’s just a scrape though, okay? Here, I’ve got a band-aid.” Gerard pulled the plastic wrap off of the band-aid and placed it gingerly on the bleeding scrape. Mini-me winced but when it was all over he immediately stopped crying. “You okay?” He asked again, helping mini-me up. Mini-me nodded and then smiled.

“It wasn’t that bad.” Mini-me mumbled and then started giggling.

“Of course not.” Gerard laughed and then gave his little brother a hug. “Now, come on, I think I hear dad calling us.” ]

Slowly, I came back into my own head. Everything was white and bloody, and time was still frozen solid. Gerard was staring at me with that same look of utter disdain and disgust.

My limbs suddenly gave out and I could no longer move. Everything around us resumed, but now there was a horrible, horrible sound in the air. It was one of those awful songs they play at carnivals or at the circus. It was a pitiful song on the accordion and an out of tune clarinet.

My muscles began to spasm and I was thrown into a horrible seizure. I suddenly became very aware of spider venom dripping into my veins and seeping into my organs. I could feel the foreign liquid circulating throughout my body, burning everything it touched. It reached my heart and I felt it explode. A sort of static began to fill my vision as my brain started to die.

The very last thing I saw was a single tear slide down Gerard’s cheek as he mouthed the words ‘I love you too’. He then turned his back on me, punched a hole in the bloodied wall, and then left me to die with no company except for his hanging corpse and a few dancing sheets.