Immortality Means Never Dying

Ray's eyes glowed yellow.

"Why do you need to know?" he asked through gritted teeth.

"I just...I'm curious," I said softly. "Frank wouldn't tell me. H-he said it's complicated."

Ray chuckled and the anger in his eyes faded.

"It's really not that complicated," he said softly. "Frank's just...he's just a really good friend. Gerard and I asked him not to talk about it and, well...he's protective-"

"Would he have protected Mikey if they tried to kill him?"

Ray looked straight into my eyes. "Yes. He would've."

I sighed and looked down. "You...you don't have to-"

"Oh, if you really wanna know, it won't hurt anyone."

I looked up eagerly and smiled. He laughed.

"Does it have to do with Gerard at all?" I asked.

"You are a smart one," he said knowingly.

"Well, that's what living for three hundred years does to you."

"It was a girl."

I smiled.

"I'll give you the long story short, though. I thought that maybe I loved her. She takes me up to...to a cabin. Turns out she was luring humans for her clan..."

"Ouch."

"Only, she fell in love with two of them."

"You and Gerard?"

"Yup. So she took us to the cabin. We were confused why there was, you know, three of us for a hot date..."

I laughed helplessly.

"Turns out she was just going to turn us over for dinner," Ray went on with a sigh. "But she felt guilty and instead she turned us into vampires. We passed out and when we woke up, there was a stake through her heart and we were thirsty for blood. They had killed her. Gerard and I hated each other for a while. Then he turned Mikey, Mikey turned Frank, and we met Bob and...we're our own little cult."

"Wow," I breathed.

"Yeah...wow," Ray said with a shrug.

"Jane?"

I looked down at Anne Marie.

"Yeah, Anne?" I said.

"Don't call me Anne. My name is Marie."

Oh. Right. She wants me to call her Marie because of Stacy...

"Yeah, Marie?"

It felt weird calling her that.

"'The hardest thing to find.' All the movies say it's hard to find because it's not something you're supposed to look for."

My eyebrows furrowed. Anne Marie was still looking at the ground blankly. Bob looked at her, evidently confused. I looked at Ray and he just shrugged.

"'Greatest way to live'," she went on. "It must be, because Mikey and Stacy were so damn happy..."

"What are you talking about, Marie?" I asked.

"'You'll die with what you get," she said, ignoring my question, "'but only if you give.' It is, after all, shared. And she is dead. But I don't think she just died. I think she became mortal and than, uh...heh...died of old age."

"Marie, what the hell-"

The front door burst open. There stood Gerard. I felt my stomach sink with the look he gave me. His eyes were bright yellow. He stared at me angrily, as if he wanted to kill me.

As if he would if he could.

He raised a shaky arm and pointed a shaky finger at me.

"You," he hissed.

"Gerard?"

"YOU!"

I stood. Gerard took a slow, steady step forward, his eyes wide.

"Calm down, Gerard."

I looked passed Gerard's shoulder and there stood Frank, shutting the door behind them both.

"Frank, what's going on?" I heard Ray say.

"I wish I could kill you," Gerard said to me.

With every step he took toward me, I took one back. He was scaring me the way he bared his teeth.

"Gerard, please don't do anything to her!" Anne Marie said fearfully.

"Kill," he hissed. "I need to kill her."

I felt my back hit a wall.

I'm screwed.