My Guardian Vampire

I simply breathed for a moment or two as I felt the good feelings wash over me. I then sighed contentedly and went back inside, where my mood quickly changed.

“Ali, Jenn locked herself inside a closet,” Mike said. I closed my eyes and sighed. “The rest…understand why you, or whatever part of you, did what you did with Bert.”

“All right, I’ll go talk to her. Thanks, Mike.”

“No problem. But before you talk to her, you should know that it’s not the same for her as it is for us to understand. As I understand it, she’s never killed before for one. And…When a vampire turns a person, and they don’t go through that equality process that you and Billie did, the vampire that turns the human has control over them forever. You know that myth of when you kill the ‘head vampire’ all the people that they turned become human again, or at least out of their control?” I nodded. “Well that’s not true, especially the human part, as you can see. When Bilie died, the control he had over Tré and I was never lost, it-”

“Wait, Mike, Billie turned you and Tré?” I asked. I never remembered anyone saying that.

“No. When the controlling vampire dies, the control is transferred to the vampire closest to them. A wife, a husband, a parent, a son, a sister or brother, a friend, anything like that. Billie was good friends with the person that turned me, though not Tré. Part of the reason Billie is so influential and powerful is that people store so much faith in him, that when they die they entrust all of their control with him. It’s not even a conscious decision, but Billie grew more and more powerful every day. But anyways, with Jenn, even though Bert controlled her, she doesn’t see it as him taking her life. He gave her life, and no matter how much she hates being a vampire, she will always be connected to Bert and be thankful towards him. And when he died, it was like a part of her died. And no matter how many times the control is transferred, it’s never as strong as that first connection.”

“Thanks, Mike. That should help me a lot. I understand the idea of what you’re saying, I think.” I gave Mike a hug, and turned to go search for the closet Jenn was staying in, but paused. I turned back around to face Mike.

“Hey Mike, who has your control now? Is it Damien? Billie seemed to respect him a lot.” Mike gave me a weird smile, and chuckled to himself.

“You better go search for Jenn. She’s in the closet by Billie’s and your room.”

I gave Mike a confused look, but shook it off and went to find Jenn.

“Jenn?” I asked, knocking on the door once I had gotten there.

“Go away,” the muffled voice ordered.

“Chunky monkey?” I said, trying to make her laugh.

She didn’t.

“Jenn, I don’t even expect you to forgive me for what I did. I’m never going to forgive myself, either.” I waited for a moment for her to say something, but there was only silence, so I continued. “I know it’s not an excuse, and I know Bert meant a lot to you even if he changed you, but I just ask that you see it from my point of view: I know it sounds far-fetched, but I had no control, and he was going to hurt my baby. I’ve come so close to death so many times before, and nothing like this has happened. My baby is just more important to me than myself, I guess.”

“It’s just that…" Jenn finally said. "He gave me life when he could have just left me there to die, you know? And this knew life isn’t all that awesome, but it’s better than death. And no matter what he did, he didn’t deserve to die. He was a Life-Giver."

“No, he didn’t deserve to die," I agreed, and I did agree with it truly. "Neither did Billie. They were both just so…misunderstood, and trying to just make it through life. If it wasn’t for this damned kid, I’d be the first in line to slit my throat for all the hurt I’ve caused.”

I heard the click of the lock, and the screech of the door handle as it turned. Jenn then opened the door.

“Don’t say that,” she sighed. “No one deserves to die. And if you did that…Well, an eye for an eye just makes the whole world eyepatchy. Or something like that.”

“Forgive me at all? It’s okay if you don’t, I’d understand.”

“No, of course I do. I understand what happened, I guess.”

I wrapped her up in a hug.

“No hug!” she said, but I laughed and did it anyways. She sighed and hugged me back.

“Once again, I’m sorry about hurtig you and everyone else. If you ever need to talk, I’m here. Chunky monkey?”

“Chunky monkey!”

A while later, Mike and I were sitting on the couch, watching TV. It was getting towards daylight, and everyone else seemed to be in bed. Mikey however walked into the room.

“Hey.”

“What’s up Mikes? Can’t sleep?” I asked. Mikey shook his head.

“Nah…Tré and Gerard aren’t back yet?” he asked sitting down. Though he asked casually, I could sense the shake of heightening nervousness in his voice.

“Not yet. But don’t worry about-” I started, but then the door opened and Tré walked through, food in hand. I saw Mikey’s face relax in relief.

That is, of course, until we saw Tré's expression.

“Tre, where’s Gerard?” Mike asked. Tré looked at our faces guiltily.

“I…lost him.”

That was the last I saw of Tré before he became a blur. He was then on the floor, Mikey on top of him.

“Mikey!” I yelled. He ignored me, trying to beat up Tré.

“Tré, I’m gonna murder you! If you just got my brother killed, you will pay!”

“Mikey!” I yelled again, scared shitless.

“Mikey…” Mike said, “You can’t kill Tré-“

“Shut up Mike!” Mikey snarled. “This fucking douche lost my brother again.”

“Mikey Fucking Muerte!” I yelled, my anger going over the edge. I put my hand on his shoulder, and like a reflex he backed away immediately, falling off of Tré.

“What the fuck?! Get away from me you fucking freak!”he said, grabbing his shoulder as he crawled backwards away from me. Mike then walked in with Bob and Grace. I had never realized he had left in the first place.

“Mikey, you need to calm down,” Bob said sternly, the group advancing towards him. I stood there motionless, shell shocked at Mikey’s words.

“Fuck no I don’t!” he said, backing against the wall and then standing up. “He lost Gerard!” he exclaimed, pointing to Tré.

“We know,” Bob said, still advancing closer. “But that doesn’t mean you can act like this. Now come here.”

“No!” Mikey yelled, and then he disappeared for a moment, but Frankie was suddenly holding Mike on the other side of the room.

"Mikey," Grace said, walking over slowly and then taking his face in her hands, "please stop this. Calm down. You know I love you. Gerard is smart. He'll be fine. C'mon, Mikes."

Mikey's eyes were still hard and glaring, but he eventually settled down and stopped trying to kill Tré. I could still see the intense anger in his eyes long after, directed at all of us, as if we had lost Gerard also. I had never seen Mikey act so killer, with the exception of when he tried to kill Billie Joe. I had also never seen someone calmed down so fast, or Grace acted so... I didn't know how to label it in my mind. She didn't act differently in a way I could name. It was just strange.

"I'm outa here," Mikey said abruptly, and then with the slam of a door he and Grace were gone.