To Silence He Calls

He hid in the back room away from all the screaming fans. His friends were out their sorting it out. They all had their problems after all. To the world they were a revered band. Behind the scenes, they were something else entirely. He saw how they each fell apart for their own reasons: Matt for the thing that lived inside of him, taking control during the night when it willed; Brian for the beast that he became on certain nights; Zacky for the supposed god that he was (not that they believed it half the time); Jimmy for the all the magic shit around him; and lastly himself, Johnny Christ, for the demon he was and the blood that he craved.

He stared at the glass in front of him, filled with thick, warm, red liquid. Blood. He was once again seeing how long he could resist the stuff before he had to succumb to his need for it. His longest had been four days. Then he had been too weak and had almost killed some poor girl. Only Brian and Jimmy working together had been able to stop him. Lucky that Jimmy had been able to work his magic and make sure that she couldn’t remember or else they would have been serious screwed. He buried his face in his hands and jumped when a knock came at the door. “You in there Johnny?”

“Go the hell away Zacky. I don’t have time for that shit you’re thinking of.” He knew that his friend jumped at that. None of them were used to what came with Johnny being a vampire just yet. “Look Zacky I just…I need to figure this shit out okay…so please…just try to understand.” He heard his friend sigh and move away from the door. A good thing too. Zacky had cut himself earlier in the day and Johnny could smell his blood through the door. Johnny was on forty-two hours without blood and it was starting to take a toll on him. Maybe if he could learn the art of not breathing it would help. The only problem was that he needed to breath in order to speak and sometimes even to move.

He sat on the couch and crossed his legs, holding his breath as he stared at the blood trying to ignore it’s lulling siren’s call. All alone he sat in the room, his body seeming to turn to stone as he refused to move even a single muscle. He held his breath, probably might have even died if it weren’t for the fact that he was already dead. Honestly, he was terrified of whatever it was that lived inside of him. What could he do to save what was left of his soul? There had to be another way to live. He had been researching and he couldn’t find a way to reverse vampirism, but then again, there might be something else that could save him.

“Such a sad little worm you are,” a voice purred from the darkness. “Tell me are you like the worm that crawls from the bird? Or have you decided to rise to your true power yet?”

“Get out!” Johnny roared jumping across the room and grabbing the glass of blood, hurling it at the vampire who had managed to get into his sanctuary. “I’ll have nothing to do with you! I warned you already. I won’t be like you!”

The vampire threw his head back and laughed. “Oh really then? So you would rather suffer the disapproving gazes of all those around you? You would rather turn into something pathetic and weak? The man I chose would never have chosen such a fate. You’ll drink…you’ll kill…you’ll know true power. Then you shall see what I say is truth.”

“Get out!” he yelled again wishing he could harness the power he knew that the other vampire had even as his sire laughed and vanished. Johnny collapsed to his knees, covering his head with his hands.

“Hey Johnny…you alright?” Jimmy asked knocking on the door.

He took deep shuddering breaths wishing and praying he could ignore the smell of the blood. He stumbled to the door and pulled it open. “I need…anywhere Jimmy, just get me out of here. I can’t…” he looked up at his friend and from the startled expression on his face he knew that his eyes were turning black.

“Shit,” Jimmy said looking over his shoulder and seeing the broken glass and blood. “Brian! Matt! We have a problem!” Jimmy turned back to Johnny and put his friend’s arm around his shoulder. “C’mon buddy, let’s get you out of here. We haven’t lost this thing yet.”