Sequel: Wrists Intact ›
Hearts Intact
But It Was Only How You Looked In The Light
“Ryan! Izzye!” Skylar, Jimmy and Devin all yelled in unison. Immediately Ryan and I broke apart and Ryan stared at the ground sheepishly.
“Am I not allowed to give my rescuer a kiss?” I cried irritably. Ryan, Skylar, Jimmy and Devin all stared at me in surprise. Then Ryan seemed to catch on.
“Well, yes, but he’s not allowed to kiss back!” Skylar said, glaring at Ryan. Ryan started to say something but I interrupted him.
“Are you blind Skylar? He wasn’t kissing me back! You’re making things up!” I snapped. Ryan was nodding to this, though he kept shooting me looks that clearly said, we need to talk about this! Great, something to look forward to, not.
“I am not-“ Skylar started to say but I interrupted him.
“You know, I’m really glad to see you too Skylar, I was really worried about you.” I said. Well that did the trick. Immediately Skylar, Jimmy and Devin looked guilty.
“I’m sorry Izzye; I really missed you, are you okay? What happened?” Skylar asked, hugging me. I noticed that Ryan slipped away as I told Skylar, Jimmy and Devin what happened. As I was telling them, Pete and the others arrived, which then meant that I had to tell the story, again.
Once I finished I yawned, I was exhausted. Pete noticed and led me to the room I’d been sleeping in before. I hit the mattress and was asleep in seconds.
*******
“Good, you’re awake, can we talk?” Ryan’s voice made me jump. It was several hours later and I was just lying on the bed, thinking. I couldn’t figure out what was wrong with me, why I wasn’t affected by the blonde guy’s power and Patrick was. Was I a freak or something?
“Yeah sure.” I said, moving over so that there was enough room for both of us on the bed. He sat on the bed gingerly, as if he were afraid that he would break it. I don’t know why, that kid is a stick!
“Okay, now don’t talk, just listen. You can talk when I’m done.” He said. Hesitantly I nodded. I did not like the sounds of this conversation so far.
“First, if you ever, Izzye, look at me!” Ryan said, interrupting himself. I was staring at my feet, afraid of what he was going to say. When I didn’t look at him he cupped my chin in his hands and forced me to look at him, like he had in Vancouver.
“If you ever, ever do that again Izzye, I swear to God I will never talk to you again! You really, really scared me! I don’t know what I’d do if something happened to you! Even if it means that one of us get hurt, don’t let them get you, please Izzye!” He pleaded, his eyes begging me. I couldn’t look away, even though I wanted to.
“I will nev-“ I started to say but Ryan interrupted me.
“No talking!” He said.
“But-“I started to say but then, before I had a chance to react, Ryan covered my mouth and lied down, forcing me to lie down with him.
“No talking!” He said. I glared at him but was quiet. Well I didn’t really have a choice, he was still covering my mouth.
“Second, I really, really like you Izzye. In fact, I love you, but I need to know if you feel the same.” He said. When he didn’t uncover my mouth I nodded. That seemed to satisfy him.
“Okay, then that brings me to the third thing. So are we going to be hiding the fact that we like each other from everyone? Because I’m telling you know, that probably won’t work for Spence, Brendon, Jon, Patrick, Pete, Andy and Joe.” He said. He still didn’t uncover my mouth so I just stared at him.
“I don’t even know if it’s working with Skylar, Jimmy and Devin, I’ll have to ask Pete, he’ll know.” Ryan said, thinking out loud. This was kind of annoying, I liked being able to talk.
“I guess what I’m asking is, will you go out with me?” Ryan said finally, staring at me with those beautiful eyes of his. Looking slightly afraid, he uncovered my mouth.
“Let me think about that, yes!” I said, throwing my arms around him. He grinned and kissed me. And that’s how we lay for a while, our arms wrapped around each other, kissing. We probably would have lay there longer, but we were afraid that someone would walk in.
“We’ll have to tell them, you know that, right?” Ryan asked quietly. I didn’t answer, no doubt he could tell that I was afraid of telling Skylar. I mean, wouldn’t you? I’d never had a boyfriend before and Skylar was convinced I’d never have one. It’d be even worse because he knows and likes Ryan.
“We don’t have to do it right away.” Ryan said slowly. I nodded hesitantly.
“Okay.” I said. Ryan kissed the top of my head.
“Don’t worry, it’ll be fine.” He said. I only hoped that he was right.
*******
It was four days later and now I was staying at Andy’s house, as was Patrick. Neither of us was allowed outside and a minimal of six people was to be with us at all times. We weren’t sure if the vampires wanted Patrick too, but we weren’t going to take any chances.
Ryan and I still hadn’t told anyone that we were dating, though I was pretty sure that Spencer knew. He just smiled at me a lot and looked really, really proud whenever Ryan and I were standing near each other. It was a little bit creepy actually.
Skylar had been really cold to Ryan ever since he saw us kissing. I kept telling him that it was me who kissed Ryan but he didn’t believe me. He even got mad at me so now we weren’t speaking, to everyone else’s frustration. Apparently it was very stressful whenever Skylar and I were fighting, I can’t imagine why.
Pete, Brendon and Patrick hadn’t said anything about Ryan kissing me when they found Patrick and I, and I hoped that it was going to stay that way. I’m pretty sure that Pete knew we were dating too though, that whole reading minds thing. I’m pretty sure Ryan would have thought about it once or twice. Actually, now that I’m thinking about it, Brendon probably knows too. He probably had seen it, with being able to see the future and all. Wow, I need to stop hanging out with vampires, you can’t keep anything from them!
Right now, I was sitting in the living room, trying to write a song. It wasn’t really working out. With the whole, not being allowed to be alive thing, I didn’t really have much to write about.
Ryan was sitting on the couch, staring at me, which was a bit weird. Pete was sitting next to me, occasionally nodding or shaking his head slightly. I figured that they were having a conversation, thinking that I wouldn’t see Pete answer. Well they were wrong. Boys, they always think that girls don’t notice anything. I was nice and let them keep believing that.
Suddenly, there was a loud bang from one of the back rooms. Immediately Ryan and Pete both jumped to their feet. Ryan was over at my side in a flash. He pulled me to my feet and wrapped his arms around me. Pete, very cautiously, made his way to the back room.
“If you go with them I swear to God I will kill you!” Ryan growled.
“I won’t, don’t worry.” I was afraid they would kill me if I went with them this time.
It was silent and then Pete snarled loudly. That was followed by a loud, “No! Don’t attack!” It sounded like a girl. Then it was silent again. And then Pete came back into the living room, dragging a girl by her sweater. By now, everyone in the house, which was Brendon, Spencer, Jon, Patrick, Sheila and Devin, had gathered in the living room.
“Now you can talk!” Pete said, throwing the girl onto the ground in front of us. She had short, chunky hair and olive skin. She looked like she was around my age and was wearing sunglasses. I’m not sure why, it was night.
“Who are you?” Brendon asked, glaring down at the girl. She looked scared as she stared up at us. I glared at Brendon.
“Do you have-“I started to say but Ryan covered my mouth.
“Don’t say anything.” He whispered into my ear. Both Devin and Sheila gave us a strange look and then stared back down at the girl.
“My name is Rachel, or Rae.” She said, her voice trembling slightly. I felt bad for her, she did have nine people staring at her. But then again, she was the one who had broken into the house.
“What the hell are you doing here?” Spence asked. The girl stared at him for a second but because of the sunglasses, I couldn’t tell if she was glaring at him or not.
“It was either come find you guys or be killed by the others.” She said calmly, her voice low. None of us had any clue what she was talking about.
“Care to explain that?” Jon asked, kinder than anyone else had said anything to her so far. Rae nodded.
“You guys already know about vampires, obviously.” She said, staring at Ryan, Brendon, Spencer and Pete in turn. Then she continued.
“The other vampires, the Immortals, as they’ve been calling themselves, have been turning people, trying to up their numbers. Once they turn a person, they give the person two choices, to join them or death.” Rae said. The four vampires in the room gasped and Rae nodded.
“That’s right, I’m a vampire.” She said. Then slowly, she removed her sunglasses so that we could see her eyes. They were red, blood red. Devin, Sheila and Patrick gasped. I would’ve if I could’ve.
“How did you get away?” Pete asked, all nice and kind now. Rae gave him a lopsided smile.
“With my power.” She said. She looked extremely unhappy about. I don’t know why, she was alive, shouldn’t she be happy?
“And what’s your power?” Spence asked.
“I can erase or enhance the memories of others. I made them forgot all about me.” She said. She still looked really upset.
“And why’s that so upsetting?” Sheila asked. Trust the girls in the room to notice that something’s wrong.
“I made my best friend forget about me.” She said. The room was silent until Patrick finally broke the silence.
“I’m really sorry for you, but, how did you know where we are?” He asked.
“I followed you guys. I saw you guys, (she nodded to Pete and Brendon) go into the Immortal’s hideout and rescue you and her, (she nodded at me) and I followed you back to that other place. Then I followed you guys here.” She said. “I know that you guys are the good guys, so…” She added, letting her voice trail off. We’re the good guys? I hadn’t thought about it that way before.
For the next ten minutes there wasn’t really that much talking. Pete felt really bad and kept apologizing to Rae, who was now sitting on the couch, along with Pete, Brendon, Ryan and I. (Ryan had pulled me into his lap and refused to let me go, kind of awkward, considering the looks Devin and Sheila kept giving me!) Jon made everyone hot chocolate and now we were all sitting down, staring at Rae.
“I’m not sure why they want you, but they’re determined to get you. And now you.” Rae said, looking from me to Patrick. Patrick and I stared at each other.
“We think that it might be becau-“Pete started to say but then suddenly I cried out in pain. Everyone stared at me as I clutched my side, pain ripping through my body.
“What is it, what’s wrong?” Ryan asked worriedly. I was breathing heavy, trying to force out the words.
“Something…happened…to…Skylar.” I said, wincing from the pain. And then I blocked out everything else, concentrating only on the pain. It was the worst pain in my life, like I was being ripped open. It seemed to last forever, and then it was gone. As it was disappearing, the phone rang.
“What’s happening, are you okay?” Ryan asked, hugging me close to him. By now tears were streaming down my face. I couldn’t answer, something had happened to my twin.
Skylar and I have always been close, and for some strange reason, maybe because we’re twins, I’m not sure, when one of us gets hurt, the other one feels it. I was scared how it just disappeared though, it never did. It had only ever slowly faded away, not just disappeared.
Pete hung up the phone and stared at us, tears running down his face. None of us spoke, we were all terrified.
“You guys, there was, there was an accident. Skylar, well, Skylar, he, he’s trapped inside the car, they don’t know if he’s....” Pete said, his voice trailing off. I knew what he was trying to say. They didn’t know if he was alive. They didn't, but I did.
“Am I not allowed to give my rescuer a kiss?” I cried irritably. Ryan, Skylar, Jimmy and Devin all stared at me in surprise. Then Ryan seemed to catch on.
“Well, yes, but he’s not allowed to kiss back!” Skylar said, glaring at Ryan. Ryan started to say something but I interrupted him.
“Are you blind Skylar? He wasn’t kissing me back! You’re making things up!” I snapped. Ryan was nodding to this, though he kept shooting me looks that clearly said, we need to talk about this! Great, something to look forward to, not.
“I am not-“ Skylar started to say but I interrupted him.
“You know, I’m really glad to see you too Skylar, I was really worried about you.” I said. Well that did the trick. Immediately Skylar, Jimmy and Devin looked guilty.
“I’m sorry Izzye; I really missed you, are you okay? What happened?” Skylar asked, hugging me. I noticed that Ryan slipped away as I told Skylar, Jimmy and Devin what happened. As I was telling them, Pete and the others arrived, which then meant that I had to tell the story, again.
Once I finished I yawned, I was exhausted. Pete noticed and led me to the room I’d been sleeping in before. I hit the mattress and was asleep in seconds.
*******
“Good, you’re awake, can we talk?” Ryan’s voice made me jump. It was several hours later and I was just lying on the bed, thinking. I couldn’t figure out what was wrong with me, why I wasn’t affected by the blonde guy’s power and Patrick was. Was I a freak or something?
“Yeah sure.” I said, moving over so that there was enough room for both of us on the bed. He sat on the bed gingerly, as if he were afraid that he would break it. I don’t know why, that kid is a stick!
“Okay, now don’t talk, just listen. You can talk when I’m done.” He said. Hesitantly I nodded. I did not like the sounds of this conversation so far.
“First, if you ever, Izzye, look at me!” Ryan said, interrupting himself. I was staring at my feet, afraid of what he was going to say. When I didn’t look at him he cupped my chin in his hands and forced me to look at him, like he had in Vancouver.
“If you ever, ever do that again Izzye, I swear to God I will never talk to you again! You really, really scared me! I don’t know what I’d do if something happened to you! Even if it means that one of us get hurt, don’t let them get you, please Izzye!” He pleaded, his eyes begging me. I couldn’t look away, even though I wanted to.
“I will nev-“ I started to say but Ryan interrupted me.
“No talking!” He said.
“But-“I started to say but then, before I had a chance to react, Ryan covered my mouth and lied down, forcing me to lie down with him.
“No talking!” He said. I glared at him but was quiet. Well I didn’t really have a choice, he was still covering my mouth.
“Second, I really, really like you Izzye. In fact, I love you, but I need to know if you feel the same.” He said. When he didn’t uncover my mouth I nodded. That seemed to satisfy him.
“Okay, then that brings me to the third thing. So are we going to be hiding the fact that we like each other from everyone? Because I’m telling you know, that probably won’t work for Spence, Brendon, Jon, Patrick, Pete, Andy and Joe.” He said. He still didn’t uncover my mouth so I just stared at him.
“I don’t even know if it’s working with Skylar, Jimmy and Devin, I’ll have to ask Pete, he’ll know.” Ryan said, thinking out loud. This was kind of annoying, I liked being able to talk.
“I guess what I’m asking is, will you go out with me?” Ryan said finally, staring at me with those beautiful eyes of his. Looking slightly afraid, he uncovered my mouth.
“Let me think about that, yes!” I said, throwing my arms around him. He grinned and kissed me. And that’s how we lay for a while, our arms wrapped around each other, kissing. We probably would have lay there longer, but we were afraid that someone would walk in.
“We’ll have to tell them, you know that, right?” Ryan asked quietly. I didn’t answer, no doubt he could tell that I was afraid of telling Skylar. I mean, wouldn’t you? I’d never had a boyfriend before and Skylar was convinced I’d never have one. It’d be even worse because he knows and likes Ryan.
“We don’t have to do it right away.” Ryan said slowly. I nodded hesitantly.
“Okay.” I said. Ryan kissed the top of my head.
“Don’t worry, it’ll be fine.” He said. I only hoped that he was right.
*******
It was four days later and now I was staying at Andy’s house, as was Patrick. Neither of us was allowed outside and a minimal of six people was to be with us at all times. We weren’t sure if the vampires wanted Patrick too, but we weren’t going to take any chances.
Ryan and I still hadn’t told anyone that we were dating, though I was pretty sure that Spencer knew. He just smiled at me a lot and looked really, really proud whenever Ryan and I were standing near each other. It was a little bit creepy actually.
Skylar had been really cold to Ryan ever since he saw us kissing. I kept telling him that it was me who kissed Ryan but he didn’t believe me. He even got mad at me so now we weren’t speaking, to everyone else’s frustration. Apparently it was very stressful whenever Skylar and I were fighting, I can’t imagine why.
Pete, Brendon and Patrick hadn’t said anything about Ryan kissing me when they found Patrick and I, and I hoped that it was going to stay that way. I’m pretty sure that Pete knew we were dating too though, that whole reading minds thing. I’m pretty sure Ryan would have thought about it once or twice. Actually, now that I’m thinking about it, Brendon probably knows too. He probably had seen it, with being able to see the future and all. Wow, I need to stop hanging out with vampires, you can’t keep anything from them!
Right now, I was sitting in the living room, trying to write a song. It wasn’t really working out. With the whole, not being allowed to be alive thing, I didn’t really have much to write about.
Ryan was sitting on the couch, staring at me, which was a bit weird. Pete was sitting next to me, occasionally nodding or shaking his head slightly. I figured that they were having a conversation, thinking that I wouldn’t see Pete answer. Well they were wrong. Boys, they always think that girls don’t notice anything. I was nice and let them keep believing that.
Suddenly, there was a loud bang from one of the back rooms. Immediately Ryan and Pete both jumped to their feet. Ryan was over at my side in a flash. He pulled me to my feet and wrapped his arms around me. Pete, very cautiously, made his way to the back room.
“If you go with them I swear to God I will kill you!” Ryan growled.
“I won’t, don’t worry.” I was afraid they would kill me if I went with them this time.
It was silent and then Pete snarled loudly. That was followed by a loud, “No! Don’t attack!” It sounded like a girl. Then it was silent again. And then Pete came back into the living room, dragging a girl by her sweater. By now, everyone in the house, which was Brendon, Spencer, Jon, Patrick, Sheila and Devin, had gathered in the living room.
“Now you can talk!” Pete said, throwing the girl onto the ground in front of us. She had short, chunky hair and olive skin. She looked like she was around my age and was wearing sunglasses. I’m not sure why, it was night.
“Who are you?” Brendon asked, glaring down at the girl. She looked scared as she stared up at us. I glared at Brendon.
“Do you have-“I started to say but Ryan covered my mouth.
“Don’t say anything.” He whispered into my ear. Both Devin and Sheila gave us a strange look and then stared back down at the girl.
“My name is Rachel, or Rae.” She said, her voice trembling slightly. I felt bad for her, she did have nine people staring at her. But then again, she was the one who had broken into the house.
“What the hell are you doing here?” Spence asked. The girl stared at him for a second but because of the sunglasses, I couldn’t tell if she was glaring at him or not.
“It was either come find you guys or be killed by the others.” She said calmly, her voice low. None of us had any clue what she was talking about.
“Care to explain that?” Jon asked, kinder than anyone else had said anything to her so far. Rae nodded.
“You guys already know about vampires, obviously.” She said, staring at Ryan, Brendon, Spencer and Pete in turn. Then she continued.
“The other vampires, the Immortals, as they’ve been calling themselves, have been turning people, trying to up their numbers. Once they turn a person, they give the person two choices, to join them or death.” Rae said. The four vampires in the room gasped and Rae nodded.
“That’s right, I’m a vampire.” She said. Then slowly, she removed her sunglasses so that we could see her eyes. They were red, blood red. Devin, Sheila and Patrick gasped. I would’ve if I could’ve.
“How did you get away?” Pete asked, all nice and kind now. Rae gave him a lopsided smile.
“With my power.” She said. She looked extremely unhappy about. I don’t know why, she was alive, shouldn’t she be happy?
“And what’s your power?” Spence asked.
“I can erase or enhance the memories of others. I made them forgot all about me.” She said. She still looked really upset.
“And why’s that so upsetting?” Sheila asked. Trust the girls in the room to notice that something’s wrong.
“I made my best friend forget about me.” She said. The room was silent until Patrick finally broke the silence.
“I’m really sorry for you, but, how did you know where we are?” He asked.
“I followed you guys. I saw you guys, (she nodded to Pete and Brendon) go into the Immortal’s hideout and rescue you and her, (she nodded at me) and I followed you back to that other place. Then I followed you guys here.” She said. “I know that you guys are the good guys, so…” She added, letting her voice trail off. We’re the good guys? I hadn’t thought about it that way before.
For the next ten minutes there wasn’t really that much talking. Pete felt really bad and kept apologizing to Rae, who was now sitting on the couch, along with Pete, Brendon, Ryan and I. (Ryan had pulled me into his lap and refused to let me go, kind of awkward, considering the looks Devin and Sheila kept giving me!) Jon made everyone hot chocolate and now we were all sitting down, staring at Rae.
“I’m not sure why they want you, but they’re determined to get you. And now you.” Rae said, looking from me to Patrick. Patrick and I stared at each other.
“We think that it might be becau-“Pete started to say but then suddenly I cried out in pain. Everyone stared at me as I clutched my side, pain ripping through my body.
“What is it, what’s wrong?” Ryan asked worriedly. I was breathing heavy, trying to force out the words.
“Something…happened…to…Skylar.” I said, wincing from the pain. And then I blocked out everything else, concentrating only on the pain. It was the worst pain in my life, like I was being ripped open. It seemed to last forever, and then it was gone. As it was disappearing, the phone rang.
“What’s happening, are you okay?” Ryan asked, hugging me close to him. By now tears were streaming down my face. I couldn’t answer, something had happened to my twin.
Skylar and I have always been close, and for some strange reason, maybe because we’re twins, I’m not sure, when one of us gets hurt, the other one feels it. I was scared how it just disappeared though, it never did. It had only ever slowly faded away, not just disappeared.
Pete hung up the phone and stared at us, tears running down his face. None of us spoke, we were all terrified.
“You guys, there was, there was an accident. Skylar, well, Skylar, he, he’s trapped inside the car, they don’t know if he’s....” Pete said, his voice trailing off. I knew what he was trying to say. They didn’t know if he was alive. They didn't, but I did.