Time Stood Still

Chapter 4: I Watch You Like A Hawk.

Oliver's POV

Humans, dull and strange insignificant little creatures.
They’ve never interested me in the slightest and all the stupid unnecessary things they would do to entertain themselves and others around them. They were no good other than a tasty meal to our human blood drinkers, attending college and having to associate with these humans everyday were the closest I got to them. Only because there was nothing better to do and trying to act “human” for the sake of not revealing the secret of my kind.

And yet, I’ve been sitting here for the last four hours perched on top of this cliff watching a certain human I hadn’t been able to turn away from.
I watched as he and his other pathetic human friends indulge in a pointless hobby, which is called surfing. A sport which a human stands on a board and rides the waves, something so simple for my kind to overcome, yet these fools seemed to be all over the place and I couldn’t figure out where all the “fun” in this was.

Especially because the human I hadn’t been able to stay away from seemed to be just sitting on his board doing absolutely nothing while the other humans “attempted” to ride the waves. The wolf boy stayed by his side the entire time, my eyes keeping a close watch on them both… another human aspect I didn’t understand, all these humans just seem to care about feelings and love and compassion, something so ridiculous which my kind never needed, we get by just fine without having to feel.

But here I am, for some absurd reason, watching this one human in particular.
Ever since the day I laid eyes on him, I couldn’t read his mind, and it’s been tearing me apart, driving me insane, wanting to know every little stupid uninterested thing that would be going on in his mind. I wanted to know and I couldn’t understand why I couldn’t read it… what made him so different from all the other humans?
As much as I hate the thought of it, I planned to find out why I can’t read it, I’m going to get close to this pathetic human and find my reasons why something so easily natural to me has become merely impossible.

The humans were sat in a near by café close to the beach, as they all lost themselves in food and boring conversation.
I found myself sat on a stall by the counter, hidden away in the corner of the same café, pretending to read today’s newspaper and drink my untouched black coffee, as I tried to act human and go un notice by the humans I were watching.
Even though I was hidden across the room, I still could hear the human’s conversation as clear as possible. My vampire hearing couldn't be more perfectly accurate and I never miss a sound, I can literally hear a pin drop and the sound sounding like a horrific car crash. My ears twitched as I heard one of the humans mention my name.

“You invited Oliver Sykes?”
“Err, yeah.”
“Why would you do that?”
“He helped me with my English essay, thought it would be polite to invite him along...”
“Nobody talks to him Josh.”
Kellin Quinn was the human who was putting Josh down about his annoying but caring invite to me to their surfing trip today. A human I’ve found extremely irritating and pointless the last two years and if it weren’t for my vegetarian blood diet, I would have drank him dry a very long time ago.
“I think it’s nice that he invited him, what’s the big deal Kells?” A female voice interrupted, wanting to know what the humans’ problem was, but I already knew.
“Because him and his sister are weirdo’s.”
“Hey!”
More of the humans started to butt into the conversation, revealing maybe a little too much to me.
“Jamie has a little crush on Hannah.”
“She’s in my art class.”
“Really? Maybe you could put a good word in for me, aye Josh?”
“Erm well, we’ve only spoken once.”

Over my dead body dog! My sister doesn’t associate with human mutts like you, and if this Josh human is as smart as I think he is, he wouldn’t dare say a thing to my sister.

“Well it doesn’t matter anyway, cos he turned down my invite.”
“Stuck up bastard thought we weren’t good enough to hang out with no doubt.”
That Kellin human is making it extremely difficult for me not to snap his neck right this second. The stupid human has no idea what he’s talking about. On that note, Josh got up from his seat and approached the counter near by I were sitting and bought himself a slice of chocolate cake. The closer this human got to me, the more unbearable his scent became to me, it was agonizing. Not in a bad way, more of a way that his scent was so mouth watering to me, I literally just wanted to sink my teeth into his neck and feel his glorious blood slide down my throat…I bet he tasted divine. I clenched my jaw and tightened my grip onto the newspaper, fuck; I need to control my thirst for him before I actually end up feeding on the guy and never finding out why I can’t read his mind.

For some bizarre reason, I decided to put down the newspaper and reveal myself to him.
“Hello Josh.”
The human jumped at the sound of my voice, his precious heart beat racing twice as fast as normal and his diamond blue eyes suddenly filled with anxiety, met with mine.
“Oh err, hello Oliver.”
The human shifted around in his clothing for a couple seconds, biting his lower lip and eyes staring down at his cake. A reaction I didn’t fully understand these humans do.
“W-what are you doing here?”
“Simply having a quiet read and enjoying my coffee.” I smiled lightly at him, bringing my cup of coffee to my cold lips and pretending to take a drink, a simple human act.
His eyes stared closely as I drank my coffee, maybe abit too closely for my comfort, so I put my cup down and continued to question him again, no more than a simple friendly human conversation.
“Did you have fun surfing today?”
I said, while kicking out the stall next to me, offering Josh to take a seat beside me but he didn’t react the way I expected to.
He raised an eyebrow, looking at me as if I asked a really stupid question. This only frustrated me more that I couldn’t read what he was thinking at this moment. I only asked him how his day was, what could be so bad?
“I thought surfing was lame?”
“It is. I was only trying to make polite conversation with you, but you’re obviously not interested.”
I said, turning my head back down to my newspaper and flicking open a page, carrying on as if the human wasn’t standing there staring at me. If he wasn’t going to communicate, then I simply won’t waste my time.
He eventually took a seat on the stall beside me, moving slightly closer while he began to eat his cake.
I couldn't help but smile to myself, I knew this little stunt would work.

“Surfing was fun, you should have come along.”
He said hesitantly, before looking up at me, removing his fork slowly from his mouth and licking the chocolate from the corners of his lips.
I couldn’t help but find that incredibly appetizing.
“I don’t think your friends would have liked that.” I mocked, knowing exactly how they felt about me.
“Oh erm…”
“Its okay Josh, I know they don’t like me.”
“They just don’t know you like I do I guess…” he mumbled while taking another mouth full of cake.
“You don’t know me at all Josh.” I said harshly, making the human stutter his next words and making his heart beat race twice as fast yet again.
“I..I know… I meant like, how nice you were to help me with my essay…”
He remained silent, hanging his head while poking at his cake with his folk, most probably feeling foolish at what he just said. Know me? I almost wanted to laugh at his little misjudgment, oh poor little innocent human, if only if he really knew me, knew what I really am, a creature of the night, the monster of the darkness, the demand of your nightmares, whatever you want to call me, the correct word being… Vampire. If he knew me as a vampire, I’m pretty damn certain he wouldn’t be sitting so close to me like he is right now, knowing I am the worlds most powerful predator and could simply kill him in less than a second. I didn’t need to be able to read his mind to know he would try to run a mile if he knew who I really was.
He ran his fingers through his damp curls and sighed before turning to face me again, but before he could say something, his little wolf friend appeared at his side, his horrid wet dog smell made me wrinkled my nose in disgust and I had no choice but to turn away.
Yes even vampire’s have their limits.
“Hey Josh, is everything alright?”

I read the wolf boy staring at me, wondering why Josh had ditched them to talk to me instead. A common childish human behaviour, another I found pointless and confusing.
“I’m fine, I was just saying hello to Oliver.”
“Well er, me and the guys are heading home now, grab your stuff and I’ll take you home.”
I instantly frowned, looking back up at the two humans; I notice that Josh hadn’t finished eating. Not liking me is one reason, but not letting the human finish his food is just damn rude.
“Josh hasn’t finished eating yet.” I hissed.
“Uh… erm, its fine.”
“I wasn’t talking to you, but I’m sure Josh can take his cake home with him.” The wolf hissed back, not realising he’s just made a terrible mistake talking to me like that.
“Erm, guys don’t worry about it, it’s only a piece of cake.”
Josh stood up from his seat but I remained, not having the need to do the same as I already knew he weren’t going anywhere.
“I’ll take you home Josh.”
“Erm, are you sure?”

I wasn’t asking him, I was telling him. I didn’t want to come off entirely rude to the human I was so keen on talking to; so I sent him a polite smile to confirm my offer.
I wasn’t finished talking to him just yet, I still had many questions for him and his little wolf friend and anyone else for that matter, wasn’t going to stop that from happening.
This only made the wolf jealous and confused to as why his precious human would choose me over him.
“Josh?”
“Its okay Vic, you and the others go ahead. Me and Oliver have my English essay to discuss before I hand it in on Monday.”
Do we? That’s not what I have planned for discussion, we have more important things to talk about and his English essay isn’t one of them.
I could only assume he was lying to his friend so it would get rid of him faster. I cursed at myself for not being able to read this humans mind, it was driving me insane!
“Josh I don’t mind waiting for you.”
“Its fine Vic, thanks for today though, I really had fun.”
The human smiled gently at his friend and the wolf boy smiled in return before his eyes fluttered to mine, sending me a nasty glare before he finally left us to it.

Night had fallen and I was driving the human home as promised, I’ve never had to deal with handling human needs before, but the human had his arms wrapped around himself as he shook in his clothing and his constant teeth shattering was doing my head in, I had to put my cars heating on full blast, just so the human could be somewhat more comfortable. I could only assume the reason for this was because of my presence, being dead and cold as ice wasn’t exactly an ad for human comfort.

I felt rather uncomfortable driving in silence, I would have been satisfied with listening to the humans thoughts, but in this case there were none…which was so frustrating! I just have to push aside my stupid shyness and lack of human communication and try to pick up from the little conversation we had in the café.

“You lived here before then?”
“Err, yeah, when I was a baby.” He said quietly, looking down and twiddling his thumbs, such an annoying human habit.
I ignored it and carried on questioning him to find out more of who he was.
“How old were you when you moved to London?”
“5, so I don’t really remember much about living here.”
I slowed my car as I recognised the house we were approaching far too well. It can’t be a coincidence that he lives here?
He let out a sigh and hung his head as my car came to a stop, I was getting the feeling that he didn’t want to go inside, but my mind was far else where to actually pay attention and asked why.

“Does your bedroom face the beach?”
He looked back up before answering me.
“Yeah it does… the view is kinda cool on a nice day.”
I tighten my gripped around my steering wheel and shut my eyes in frustration; this was all getting abit too much. The puzzle pieces were all slowly coming together…
“Is everything alright? You seem pretty tense all of a sudden…”
“I’m fine.” I answered bluntly, not wanting the human to ask me anymore annoying questions; I wasn’t in the mood for them right now.
I couldn’t help but feel a little bad at how I just spoken to him, it wasn’t necessary and I know he would probably be going out of his poor little human mind right now, questioning what he has done wrong to offend me.
I released a ragged sigh from my lips before I fluttered my eyes back at the humans, but soon found myself completely lost in his beautiful sky blue eyes… I’ve never actually taken a proper look before…
Those eyes. Those beautiful diamond blue eyes… I’ve seen them before.
“Oliver?”
I was so lost in my own thoughts I didn’t realise the human reach out and place his blood warm hand against mine before it was too late.
He gasps.
“Shit Oliver, your hand is so cold.”
I instantly removed my hand from his; frowning at the fact I could have easily blown my cover. How the fuck could I let him touch me?! What is happening to me, why do I feel like I’m losing it?!
“Maybe you should get yourself some gloves.” The human joked, easing my mind a little as he didn’t see anything to it, than just assuming my hands were cold.
We sat in awkward silence for a minute, my eyes not leaving his house and my mind not giving me some peace as certain aspects were constantly swimming around and around, why do I feel like i'm so close to finding out who this human is, but yet feel nowhere near at the same time?
“Right okay, well er, thanks for giving me a lift home. See you at college.”
Josh said before climbing out of my car, I nodded at his goodbye, feeling too worked up to reply back.

My eyes didn’t leave the human until he stepped inside his house; My first instinct was to leave, but it was the mind of the second human in the house which made me curious to stay and listen.

“Josh where have you been all day, I’ve been trying to call you!”
“My battery died.”
“I’ve been worried sick! You left early this morning without a word or a note.”
“Calm down woman, I’m fine.”
“Where have you been?”
“I’ve been surfing with Vic all day.”
“Surfing? You mean, you’ve been in the sea?!”
“Yes mum, that’s technically how you surf, you the need to be in the sea.”
“Joshua don’t use that tone with me, you know you’re not allowed in the sea!”
“Oh for crying out loud, I’m 17, I’m not a child anymore! I can go in the sea if I want to!”
“No Joshua, I forbid you from going back in the sea!”
“Oh just let it go already, I was 5 when I drowned!”
“I don’t care how old you were; I still don’t feel comfortable with you going in the sea!”
“Well maybe if you paid more attention to your 5 year old son, rather than to Victor Fuentes, maybe I wouldn’t have drowned in the first place!”

I heard a sudden loud slap.
And from what I read from his mothers thoughts, she had slapped him across the face from the disrespect he had spoken to her. But I didn’t care enough to hang about and get involved, i've heard more than enough to know who Josh really was.