Infatuated

It had been exactly six days, twenty one hours, thirty two minutes and twenty three seconds since I had gotten that phone call at the supermarket. Since then we had been more than extremely busy. Every night Beck and I would roam the streets, taking any vampire we could find, questioning them angrily. None of them had any idea who the vampire who had taken Gerard was; nor did they have any names of vampire’s that were stronger than Gerard and his boys.

As unsuccessful as our hunting expeditions were, they were probably the only thing keeping me sane now. A small spoonful of normalcy in a world turned upside down.

It was about four thirty a.m, and the sun was just starting to poke up behind the city skyline. Any vampires that we hadn’t questioned would be starting to flee, desperate to get to somewhere dark before the sun fully came up and burnt the cold dead flesh off their bones.

Beck lead me into a small 24 hour diner a couple meters from Main Street, sitting down in a red-velvet covered booth with a loud sigh. I guess she was as equally frustrated that our hunt had turned up unsuccessful.... again.

“I’m sorry Tess.” Beck picked up a large laminated menu and looked over it carefully. Her bright blue eyes were wild with lack of sleep and her usually unruly hair had fought its way out of the tight bun that she had tied it in. Her bangs- which she had started to meticulously straighten every morning, I had a feeling it was to impress Frank- had become slightly wavy as the humidity of the hot summer morning leeched all the straightness out of them.

“For what?” I asked, noticing my voice seemed empty, even to my ears.

“I wish we could do more.” She groaned, slumping onto the chipping linoleum table, scraping her frizzy hair out of her face. “I’m so fucking frustrated!” The tiny bell above the diner’s door dinged shrilly, causing Beck to let out a small cry of annoyance. Thirty second later the bell dinged again, signifying the person who had just entered had left.

“I know Beck.” I heaved a deep sigh, picking up my own menu and looking over it carefully. “Just magnify what you’re feeling by ten honey, that what’s going on inside me right now.”

“Be strong Tess.” Beck said, her haze hardening, “Do not let this dick break you down. That’s what he wants. For the sake of Gerard- do not give him that.”

“Annabelle Dapper?” A sickly skinny woman with a voice like sandpaper and a frilly pink apron called my name from behind the cash. “Is there an Annabelle Dapper here? Annie? Belle? Anybody with that sort of name?” She gave an annoyed huff and fiddled with her bright yellow name tag, which read ‘Janine Hups’ in clear, loopy letters.

A cold shiver ran down my spine. “Who’s askin?” I said quietly, ducking my head behind a menu.

“Look, lady.” The waitress gave an annoyed sigh, “Some man just left you a note. Ya want it or not?”

Beck leaped up, striding over to the cash with an angry scowl painted on her face. “Give it to me.” She nearly growled.

“You Annabelle?” Janine asked suspiciously.

“Yeah,” Beck grunted, “I’m Annabelle, now give me the note.” I quickly got up from the table and came to stand beside Beck.

“What he look like?” I demanded, my hands curling into fists, “The man, what’d he look like?”

“I dunno.” Janine said, backing away slowly. “Real tall. Like over six feet. Pale as hell too. Big black eyes. Black hair.”

“All right thanks.” I said curtly, taking Beck by the arm and nearly dragging her out of the diner.

“What are you doing?” Beck demanded as I almost threw her into the passenger’s seat of our car. “We need to talk to her some more!”

“We need to go back to the house.” I stuck the keys in the ignition and floored it, going a good 50 miles per hour over the legal limit. “We need to tell the guys he contacted us. They can help us think.”

Ten minutes later we pulled up my small gravel driveway and Beck and I rushed into the house. Everybody snapped their heads up and looked at us expectantly.

“What?” Frank jumped up and immediately ran to Beck, smoothing her hair out of her face. “Are you all right?” Beck swatted his hands away briskly.

“He contacted us.” I said grimly, holding up the crumpled piece of legal paper. “Beck and I went for breakfast and he dropped this off for a waitress to give to us.”

“What?!” Mikey gasped, “Did you get a good look at him?”

“No.” I sighed angrily, “But the waitress kind of did. She said he was extremely tall, pale, and had black eyes and hair.”

“Well that’s kind of useless.” Mikey growled, exasperated, “It could have been anybody! Hell, that description could be Gerard!”

“What’s the note say?” Lindsey inquired, stepping forward and snatching the crumpled piece of paper from my hand. Her eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

“It’s a... a phone number.” She said, passing it to me. It was indeed a phone number, and a long distance one at that.

“Throw me my cell.” I said to Ray, and he passed it to me quickly.

“Put it on speaker.” Demanded Mikey.

I did as he said, typing the number in with shaky hands and then pressing the speaker button. “Let me do the talking.”

A loud dial tone rang through the phone. Once. Twice. Five times. Ten times...

“Come on.” I muttered, “Pick up.”

Suddenly the message machine kicked in. A blood curdling scream floated through the speakers. Mikey reached over and grabbed my hand tightly. His jaw was clenched and his eyes pained.

‘Hello.’ A cold voice said, and you could almost hear the smile. ‘You’ve reached Gerard-’ The man grunted slightly and then another scream cut off his words, followed by a broken sob. ‘And we’re... unavailable at the moment.’ He broke off in a cold chuckle. ‘Isn’t that right Gerard?’ Another scream filtered through the speakers. ‘Where’s... Tessy? What have you... what have you done to my... my Tess?’ Gerard’s raspy voice asked. He sounded delirious. The man ignored him. ‘Now Annabelle.’ He simpered, ‘If you want to see Mr. Way again.... alive that is... send a photo of yourself to this number.’ He rattled off ten digits, then took a breath, ‘And if you’re lucky, I’ll send you one of good old Gerard. And maybe a way to find him. I’ll be in touch darling.’ The message ended abruptly and a dead silence filled the room.

I snatched my phone off the table and pressed the ‘camera’ option, then handing the phone to Mikey. “Take one.” I demanded.

“What?” Mikey still seemed in shock from the message. “You’re going to do what this guy wants? Tess, are you crazy?”

“Well we don’t have much of a choice now, do we?” I snapped, “Take the god damned picture Mikey.” Mikey looked conflicted for a second, then snapped a picture of me sitting stony faced. He handed me back the phone and I quickly scrawled through the options on my phone, quickly sending the picture to the number that was given to me.

I set the phone down in my lap and started at it intently. Several minutes ticked by, and still the phone stayed silent.

Suddenly the screen lit up and my ringtone, Black Flag’s ‘Damaged’ blared loudly. I flipped open the phone eagerly and ‘1 new text message’ flashed on my home screen. I clicked open quickly and waited impatiently for the message to load.

“What does it say?” Asked Frank quietly. I took a deep breath, my hands shaking.

“You look tired.” I read, trying to focus in the small black words. “You should be sleeping more. Gerard’s worried about you as well. He keeps asking for you, I think he’s scared that I’m going to hurt you. I hope it won’t come to that.” That’s where the message ended. “Wait.” I squinted, scrolling back up to the top of the message. “There’s a picture attached...” I clicked the attachment and waited impatiently as it slowly loaded onto my scratched screen.

I gasped in horror when it finally loaded....

It was a close up of Gerard’s face. His eyes were open wide in raw fear. A large cut stretched from the top corner of his forehead and then down across his left eyebrow and across his eyelid, making it droop slightly. His lips were slightly parted, and his fangs were sticking out, one of them slightly chipped. His hair was matted and grimy, pushed away from his face. Bruises decorated every inch of his pale skin, purple and yellow splotches marring his features.

The thing that scared me the most was not the damage done to my Gerard; no, as sick as it seems I had seen vampires sustain more serious injuries. No, what scared me the most was the bright red rings framing Gerard’s hate-filled hazel irises. His usually warm and caring eyes showed no real emotion, only pure hatred started back at me. Pure hatred in the form of two glowing red eyes...

Warm tears leaked down my cheeks and I let the phone clatter to the floor. I dropped my head into my hands and sobbed- I cried, really cried, for the first time since Gerard was taken.
I felt Mikey wrap his arms around me, pulling me in close and letting my head loll onto his shoulder.

“Look at him!” I sobbed, picking up the phone as tossing it angrily to Frank, “Look at what that bastards done to him!”

Frank studied the picture carefully, his eyebrows crinkling in puzzlement.

“He’s starving him...” He muttered, showing Ray the phone. “Look at his eyes man, they’re bright red. Dude, he hasn’t fed in weeks.”

“When was the last time Gerard hunted Tess?” Bob asked.

“I dunno.” I hiccupped, tears still streaming down my face. “A week. Maybe three.”

“Three?!” Mikey growled, “How could he be so stupid?”

“He was gonna go when I got back from shopping.” I groaned, bursting into another round of sobs.

“Wait a second...” Beck murmured, snatching the phone from Frank. She zoomed into the top left corner, squinting at it, desperately trying to make out the blurry image. “Look, there’s a window, you can see outside....” She pointed, and indeed you could see some tall buildings in the back ground.

“Wait a second.” I muttered, peering closer at the image, “There’s a sign, it says...”

“Marge’s Tailor & Co.” Mikey finished, his eyes brimming with excitement, “He’s in a building near a Marge’s Tailor & Co. I know where that is! I know how to find him!”