This Is How I Disappear

The grip that Synyster had around my throat was completely crushing and suffocating. Whoever said that vampires can’t feel any near-death pain was a fucking liar. Maybe it’s just because I’m weaker than your average vampire, but I feel just as much like a human right about now. As much as it killed me to have to admit this, I’m going to have to let them in to avoid all this pain. I think I might even have a plan.

This isn’t Brandon and Ryan’s war to fight, so they’re going to have to get the hell out of here. Against my better judgment, my fingers, while shaking from nervousness and lack of breathing, reached for the door knob and slowly, twisted it so that a slight creak of an opening door could be heard. “BRANDON, RYAN! GET OUT OF HERE NOW!” I shouted, feeling the door being pushed forward, sending my flying down onto my knees on the stone cold floor and gasping for the air that had been denied to my undead lungs.

They looked up, confused, from what they were doing and saw that A7X’s gang had entered the building now. “What are you talking about, Marie? We’re not just leaving you here with those bastards,” Ryan replied, stepping forward a little to help me up off the ground.

Brandon didn’t respond. Was he even still here? My eyes searched the upper ceiling of the church where there were a few openings that lead to bell towers and organ pipes. I found him in one of these openings, clutching his chest and breathing heavily. I caught a glimpse of his face and, even in the shadows, I could tell that his body was starting to turn black with decay. wiL’s venom was finally kicking in – which gives me all the more reason to get them out of here. I know it’s not too late to save him if they would leave now they’d be able to find help in no time.

“No,” I shook my head sadly as I turned back to Ryan, “you guys have to leave now. There’s still a chance to save Brandon. If you two stay here you both will die and I can’t bear to see that, not after all you’ve done for me.”

Before Ryan had a shot to answer, someone had kicked me forward, sending me flying unstoppably down a couple of stairs and into Ryan’s arms. “Sorry to disappoint you, Marie, but we’ve got a score to settle here. And those two aren’t going anywhere.”

This was going to be anything but a fair fight and I could already tell who would win if I let this continue. At this rate, Brandon is probably hardly able to fight which would leave Ryan on his own…but then again after that stunt they pulled to finish wiL off, I’m almost positive that they both must be drained of a good portion of their energy. I know that I am.

“Ryan,” I whispered causing him to tilt his head to look at me, still wrapped up safely in his arms. “I don’t want you guys to die,” I continued, nearly on the verge of tears, still sad at the fact that Ville died all because of me, probably.

He hugged me a little tighter and said, “If it’s to protect you, then I’ll do anything. I know you think that there’s still a chance for Brandon, but we know he’s going to die either way.”

“But there’s always a chance! God damn it, Ryan, I am not going to sit here and watch you two die.”

“Well that’s ok because you won’t be watching them die. You’ll be coming with me,” Synyster said, suddenly ripping me from Ryan’s embrace and pulling me much too close to him. “Say bye-bye to your buddy,” he said in a sick sweet voice as he proceeded to drag me past Ryan.

“Hey you get your hands off of her,” Ryan stepped forward. Aw, why did he have to do that?

“What did you say?” Synyster stopped, and glared at him.

“I said, get your hands off of her,” Ryan repeated, glaring right back as he spoke each word slowly and seriously.

Synyster was about to say something in response, but stopped suddenly and looked down at me. “You know, I was going to go punch the shit out of you for that little remark, but I think I know someone who could do a better job for me…”

If he’s even trying to think that I will do something to hurt Ryan then he is stupider than I ever gave him credit for. Ryan looked back and forth between Syn and I confused and I cringed as I heard the words leave that asshole’s mouth. “Marie, I’m in need of a bit of a favor… You see, there’s this guy and he kind of just hurt me with his snappy commands and I would really appreciate it if you would punch him a few times – preferably in the face – until he bleeds.”

As much as I wanted to shout at him and turn around and do what he just told me to do to him, I could already feel my fingers forming fists and wanting to fly right at Ryan. My arms were trembling from my inner will trying to fight against Synyster’s command control. “I…won’t….do that…to him!” I struggled to spit the words out.

Syn immediately burst out laughing at my ‘foolishness’ and Ryan was quiet for a minute. “Do it, Marie,” Ryan suddenly spoke.

I looked back up at him confused. “N-no I’m not doing what he wants me to do. Not anymore.”

“I don’t care about that. I mean, look at yourself – your body is shaking and I can tell that mentally that must be painful. Just hit me already and get it over with. His control is too powerful to fight.”

Looking at him, I could tell that he was definitely serious and I could see the logic in his words. But c’mon, would you want to do not only that but do as someone as evil as Synyster wants you too? “Please, Marie,” he whispered, pleading me to do it.

Thinking about it now, if I had done it when he asked me to do so the first time, this whole experience would be over by now. Damn I hate my indecisiveness. I squeezed my eyes tightly shut and felt the tingly resistance fade away and be replaced with the feeling of my knuckles colliding with Ryan’s eye I think. I must have punched him at least 5 times before I felt the cool blood on my fingers. I opened my eyes slightly to see no feeling or emotion whatsoever on his face. The blood had come from a cut that I had made right above his eyebrow.

“I’m so sorry,” I said, my voice cracking slightly as I swallowed down the tears.

“You have nothing to be sorry for,” he said, wiping the blood off my hands. “I should be the one saying that for failing to keep you safe.”

“It’s not your fault. I was screwed from the start and there was nothing that you or Brandon could do. You guys defeated wiL and I’d say that was a pretty good thing.”

“But it’s not good enough. I think there’s something you should know…I missed you, Marie, I really did. And seeing you again, even though it was under these circumstances, really made me happy which is why I will do everything left that I can do to get you out of this. I…I really like you, ya know.”

I could feel the blood rush to my cheeks and a smile tug at my lips. I haven’t felt this feeling in a very long time – the feeling of being in love, for real. “That might just be the nicest thing I’ve ever heard,” I replied, hugging him tightly. I pulled back slightly, just to look at him and watch him smile, and then we simultaneously closed our eyes and just as our lips were about to touch, I felt a tight grip on my arm ripping me away from Ryan.

“Are you fucking kidding me?!” Synyster shouted, spinning me around and slamming me into the pew so that he could make me look at him. “Did you happen to forget that you are married?”

“You call this a marriage?! You tricked me into it and treat me like shit! How do you expect me to act?” I could tell that that was not the answer he was looking for.

He lifted his arm back and slapped me across the face, sending my head flying down facing the back of the pew. The stinging feeling didn’t even bother me, because hey at least this way I’ll get to look at the wooden seats instead of his ugly face. “Actually, I’m glad you did what you just did,” he said with a slight bit of happiness in his voice. “Because now it will make watching you watch them die all that much better.”

“You bastard you can’t kill him! I won’t let you or your monsters touch either of them!”

His laughter reverberated off the tall cathedral walls. “Is that so?” he asked, smirking down at me. “BOYS, LET THE SLAUGHTERING BEGIN!” he shouted back toward the others waiting near the door. They cheered as they all leaped forward.

The only ones that had joined Synyster here were Shadows, Rev, and Vengeance. Vengeance jumped up to where Brandon was while Shadows and Rev tackled Ryan down to the ground. I couldn’t see them anymore because the pew was blocking my sight. So, Synyster yanked me back up and held me in place to watch as the Rev pulled out a shiny silver blade and held it up to his throat. One slice from that and Ryan would be a goner.

“You better get the hell away from him with that knife!” I shouted, struggling in Synyster’s grip.

“What’s that? Did you just say to cut him up a little with this knife?” Shadows asked, playing dumb and nodding at the Rev who was ready to cut away at any given instance.

“NO!” I shouted. I watched as the knife was moved from his throat and down toward his arms. Without hesitation, the Rev brought the knife down onto his skin, cutting through his jacket and causing blood to spill to the stone ground. Ryan’s scream played off the walls and attacked my ears.

Over and over again they repeated the process until Ryan was barely even able to stand, kneeling before them. His head was hanging down and he was panting. I looked down at him with tears blurring my vision, wishing there was something I could do to help him and get him out of here.

Then I saw something strange and I don’t think that anyone else noticed. Smoke was coming out from under his fingertips. Wait, could he really still have enough power and energy left in him to counterattack? Catching everyone else off guard, he suddenly leaped up and thrust his arms backwards aiming two rather large fireballs out toward Shadows and the Rev, sending them flying backwards into the pews, their bodies catching on fire. He didn’t waste anymore time to do the same toward Synyster, and I made sure to duck down out of the way until I felt his grip weaken enough so that I could push him away from me.

Ryan stumbled forward a little and I could tell that his body was heading for the ground. I jumped up from the ground and got there just in time to catch his body and help support him. His blood was dripping all over my arms as I held him up and as badly as I wanted to just lick it all off of him, my concern and love for him completely blocked all that blood-lust out of my mind.

“Those were some pretty good skills there,” I said with a slight smile, trying to lighten the mood.

“Well, I’m glad I impressed you. They should know that they wouldn’t be able to kill me that easily anyway.”

“Oh please, Ryan, they won’t be able to kill you at all!”

“You know, just seeing you there really helped me to – .”

He couldn’t finish his sentence – he couldn’t say anything else even if he wanted to. Shadows had just plunged the silver knife from before into Ryan’s back and through his heart. His body practically died on contact. Blood was now completely flowing from the hole in his chest, dousing my skin in crimson fluid.

“No, Ryan, no…” I cried, clinging to his body.

I felt my body being torn away from his and into a very harsh grip. “You think that was fucking impressive?!” Synyster whispered angrily in my ear. “You think that was skill? I’ll show you some fucking skill. Why don’t you take a little trip with me, Marie?” he growled, pulling my body toward the altar.

“No, you evil son-of-a-bitch, leave me alone!” I struggled against his pull, but clearly I didn’t stand much of a chance.

Just as he had managed to get me all the way up the stairs leading to the altar, I heard a loud thud from behind me. I spun around to see Brandon’s body lying on ground having fallen from the bell towers above. I soon as I saw his body, I had to turn away if I wanted to keep my stomach from coming out my esophagus.

Brandon’s body, if you could even call it that, landed only a couple of feet behind me in a twisted heap. His body had begun decaying from the inside out, leaving holes in random areas where ever his flesh just gave in to the disease. It literally looked as if his body was like a mine field where bombs had exploded occasionally, blowing out through his skin and leaving behind a hole exposing his inner body and leaving crumbs of skin crusting over it. And in the areas where there weren’t holes, his skin turned black instead and it kind of looked like his body was just completely covered in frostbite or something horrible like that.

His throat had been hacked open, presumably with a silver knife, and blood was bleeding out and into the cracks of the church’s floor. It’s all my fault that that horrible fate had to happen to him – both him and Ryan. I felt my body shake slightly, finally realizing myself that I was crying.

Zacky jumped down from where he was standing and landed gracefully on his feet, unlike poor Brandon. Him and Synyster exchanged pleased smirks and it make me sick to think that they enjoyed what just happened.

“Now that those two obstacles are out of the way, why don’t we take care of some business of our own?” Synyster asked, though it came out more like a statement as he dragged me entirely behind the large marble altar. I was still struggling, so he grabbed both of my wrists with one hand and used the other to slam my back into the altar behind me. I cringed a little but didn’t let too much pain show.

“What other business could I possibly have with you?!” I said through gritted teeth.

He laughed obnoxiously before explaining himself. “Clearly you don’t know what’s in for you just yet. I’ll be needing you around for much longer, actually. And there just so happens to be one thing I need of you tonight…but it can also count as your punishment for all that you’ve done tonight.”

I glared up at him, “You’ve already killed two of my friends tonight alone, what the hell makes you think I’d do shit for you?”

He grinned, clearly exposing his fangs, and said, “Because you won’t have a choice.”

He leaned in closer now so that he was speaking right up against my ear, still holding me in place though. “And what you’ll have to do now is…make a cute little baby with me.”