Please Save My Soul

When we pulled up to this house and stopped I went to gout, but his hand on my mine stopped me.
“What is it?” his eyes followed his arm, to his hand which was on mine.
“My parents are home. Are yours?” he finally looked up at me.
“My mom’s home. Now what?” I asked buckling up, but he never answered me. He only started his car back up and drove to wherever he had now thought of. I looked own at my hand and pulled away the now drying rag, the throbbing was dulling and it had finally stopped bleeding.
“Could you please cover that?” his voice strained.
“Sorry!” I quickly covered it back up. We sat there in silence, the only sound came from the light humming of the engine.
“Is it hard... with blood, you know being around it still. Like right now?” I think I confused myself.
“Yes.” I nodded.
“I’m sorry; honestly I was just desperate to prove that I knew. I didn’t think it through.”
“No, you didn’t,” he stated catching me off guard; I looked at him wide eyed for a few moments before settling back in my seat.
“Sorry,” I mumbled feeling even guiltier.
“But it’s ok. I’m not going to hurt you Frank; I wouldn’t let myself be in a position where I could.” I left it alone at that and we fell back into our silence. Turning a corner I knew exactly where he was taking us, the park. I couldn’t help but feel excited; when we were all younger we spent most of our time out under the oak tree by the blue swing set. Older kids never came to mess with me and Mikey; in fact we were always left alone because of Ray, Bob and Gerard being the older kids. Nobody dared to take all of them on. Thinking back on it, I hadn’t had any good memories outside that park unless it dealt with all of us together.
“Are you coming?” I looked to the side seeing Gerard standing just outside the car with the door open with his head poked inside. I nodded unbuckling and opened the door. Shutting it my eyes wandered, I hadn’t been here in years yet everything still managed to look exactly the same.
“Wait, what if we get busted?” he looked over at me slipping on some sunglasses that he had pulled out of the center console.
“Busted for what?”
“Um being out of school?”
“Even if we did get caught I can handle it, remember?” his lips twitched showing what could have been a smile.
“Oh,” I replied dumbly and followed him into the shaded park. We walked in silence, not bothering to take the concrete path. I looked around recalling everything; it was nice to remember all of this. Remember the old Gerard; I suddenly frowned at the thought of how he used to be. I would be lying if I told you I didn’t miss that side of him. Things began to settle in my mind as more things came into view and I realized we were heading to the tree. Immediately I became excited, I was finally going to hear the story that I had only obsessed over in the short time since he came back. Though I was equally saddened because the story he was going to tell me was going to be true, not some creative tale from a book. We sat down beneath the shaded oak tree, the sun blazing over the tree tops though the heat didn’t reach my face. I looked over at Gerard who was concentrating on the ground, his arms draped along his crossed legs as his fingertips patted his knees.
“Where do you want me to start?” his head shot towards me.
“I just know that you disappeared for a week. That night you went out with your friends.” he nodded looking back down.
“There were three of these guys I knew, from school.” he started.
“Were they vampires?” I asked interrupting him, he nodded.
“I didn’t know it at first; they had a reputation for being creepy, withdrawn and dressing in all black. So people used to pick on them, but they just absorbed it all. I was jealous of them, being able to do it, and I couldn’t. So slowly I started to get to know them, well they did. One day they came over to me, and I don’t know we just started hanging out after that. I told Mom, Dad and Mikey about them, none of them liked them at all. I didn’t care what they thought because I found them cool. So one night like two weeks after me knowing them they invited me out and I went. I showed up at this place, I don’t know what it was; we were just going to meet up there and head out. So when I showed up, there was Jeremy, Austin and Cory and a girl. Her name was Kate and she turned out to be Jeremy’s girlfriend. We hung out there for a little while just talking, when out of no where this older guy showed up, and his name was Johnny. He looked like he was about eighteen. Any ways, Kate ran for it without a single word and that left just us alone with this stranger. He looked over at me and called Cory over, and they started talking and then suddenly Johnny went off, started screaming. They tried calming him down, but he kept asking why I didn’t know, how I was supposed to know. I stood there and watched them yell at each other. That’s when I noticed there was something odd about him, his skin went paler, his eyes grew dark, and that's when I ran. I was scared and that’s what I thought was the best solution, but I was wrong. It was the stupidest thing I’ve ever done because he chased me. He ended up blocking me off in a dead end alley. He told me who he was, he told me what he was, what all of them were. I thought he was crazy and told him to fuck off. He told me he had sent them to coax me into their group that way he could have me. He said that I was his, his soul mate and I would be his no matter what. Said that I had two choices, to wait until I was older to be turned or he would kill me, that way no one could have me and I never answered him. The last thing I remember is him lunging at me, and then waking up in the woods. I remember how different everything felt, the light made my eyes feel like someone was jabbing their fingers in them. But everything was clear and defined; I could see things that I never could before. But the worst was the pain, I felt like someone was jabbing needles in every part of my skin. It felt like their hands were clawing into my body and twisting, tearing my insides apart with no remorse. My mouth throbbed and all I wanted to do was rip out all of my teeth, my head felt like it was submerged in scolding hot water, like my brain was drenched in acid. It lasted for hours and all I wanted to do was kill myself it hurt that bad, but every time I tried I couldn’t. I didn’t know what to do, where I was, so I ran again. I kept running till the pain was gone and I knew where I was. That’s when the thirst hit me, no matter how much I drank it never ceased. Over time it grew worse and I fell weak, things were slurring together and my throat felt like it was on fire. That’s when Jeremy found me, he told me to go with him and he would help so I did. He led me back to his house and gave me blood; I remember how disgusted I felt with myself. He told me I had been missing for three days, and everything that I would need to know. All that came out of it was me hating myself, he told me not to, but I couldn’t help it. So I left, I wanted to run away and never come back. It didn’t take long for the thirst to come back, but I refused to satisfy it. A few days went by and I was too weak to stand, so I bit and drank from myself. Which was revolting, but I had to do it. When I finally got strength, all I could think about was Mikey and I knew I had to go back home. So I headed for home but I was still thirsty, and ended up passing out. You know the rest.” he explained looking over at me. I looked down at the grass trying to imagine the pain he went through.
“I don’t know what to say to that, I’m sorry.” I finally answered.
“I don’t expect you to have anything to say, I expected questions.” he replied.
“Well I have a few,” I looked up at him.
“I’m listening.”
“How... how did I hear you in my head?”
“Telepathy. It’s not that strong, I have to be within a decent distance for it to work, the closer the better.”
“Can you control people?”
“I made you go home didn’t I?” I nodded.
“Is that like the telepathy?”
“Pretty much everything is,” he stated.
“Everything?”
“Smell, sound, sight. I can tell who’s in a house, hear what people are saying, hear their thoughts. In school it’s horrible, peoples minds are loud and obnoxious. Normally I can ignore them, but not in larger groups.”
“Does the sun hurt your eyes?”
“Sometimes.”
“Do they hurt now? I mean that’s why you’re wearing sunglasses right?” he nodded.
“Wait, aren’t you supposed to not age?” he gave a small smile; I almost didn’t believe that he did, but it never left his lips.
“That’s a tricky thing really.”
“What do you mean?”
“You see, vampires like everyone have soul mates. The plus about being a vampire, is you know instantly when you’ve found yours. Sometimes though you think you find them, because you want to and it turns out to be pure lust. The only way a vampire will stop aging is when they find their soul mate.”
“So you aren’t Johnny’s?” he shook his head.
“But he thinks you are still?” he nodded.
“How do you know you’ve found your soul mate, other than the whole aging thing?” I brought my knees to my chest.
“I don’t know how to explain it, it’s not like theres an invisible arrow above their head telling you it’s them. But, the way you feel towards them. Your mind is always drawn to theirs; you constantly want to be close to them, but you're afraid. You’re more worried about them over people who are close to you. You feel the excessive responsibility to protect them from anything and everything, even yourself. It’s a bunch of things that I find hard to explain really.” he acted like he had found his already, lucky son of a bitch. The sound that came from his mouth shocked the living shit out of me; I looked over in disbelief to find him laughing. It wasn't a loud hearty laugh, but a laugh none the less.
“What?!” then I remembered he could read my thoughts. I blushed burying my face in my knees and wrapped my arms around them hiding myself. I can’t believe this, I feel like a jealous little girl. I groaned wanting to wrack my brains for thinking that.
“Frankie, there’s no reason to be jealous. You’ll always be special to me.” I picked up my head and looked at him, his eyes were calm and for the first time I saw happiness. He had called me by my nickname, the one he had given me when we were younger.
“Really?” he nodded pulling up one of his knees and rested his arm on it. I turned on my side watching him. There was one question on my chest that I really wanted answered.
“Gee?” it was nice, feeling it slip out of my mouth.
“Hm?”
“That sketchbook of yours, there was something I wanted to ask you.” he turned his head to look at me.
“What is it?” I went to ask but the growling of my stomach beat me. I groaned dropping my head.
“Stupid thing,” I poked it.
“Come on, you missed lunch after all. Let’s go get you something.” I nodded following his suit and stood up; I would just leave the question for later.

We ended up going to Pizza Hut, and spent a good two hours talking about random things. It was nice; he promised me that as long as I didn’t tell anyone about his secret, he would be more social. After that we headed out, we had stopped off at the drug store and picked up some gauze and wrapped my hand before heading home. School was getting out in ten minutes and he had to be there to pick up Mikey. When he pulled up to my house I decided I was going to ask him about the drawing of me.
“Gerard?”
“Yeah?” I looked over at him.
“Can I ask you what I was going to earlier?”
“About my sketchbook?” I nodded.
“Yeah, go ahead.”
“There....there was a drawing you did of me. Asleep in my bed, how did you get in my room. I mean why? It doesn’t make any sense.”
“It’s when I made you go home. The further you were, the harder it was to stay locked on you, so I followed you. I kind of broke into your room through your window and stayed there. Even though you were asleep in bed, I still stayed. I wanted to make sure you were safe, and I decided to draw you. I’m sorry if it freaked you out, it wasn’t my intention.” he explained. I nodded opening the door and started getting out.
“But... if you knew I was at home and safe. Why did you stay to make sure I stayed that way?” I asked awkwardly. He looked at the steering wheel, a soft smile tugging at his lips. Finally he looked over at me and laughed softly looking down.
“I told you Frankie, you’re special to me.” I nodded.
“Thank you for taking care of me and everything today. Um, I’ll see you sometime this weekend maybe?” he nodded.
“Bye Gee,” I grinned.
“Bye Frankie.” with that I shut the door and he drove away. I stood there, the breeze hitting my face and I gasped. His words from earlier swirled around in my head,You feel the excessive responsibility to protect them from anything and everything, even yourself. I thought about what he had just told me, You’re special to me.I looked back to where he had drove off wishing he was still here. I couldn't be his soul mate, could I?