All of Them People

It was Sunday and all Sean wanted was to just stay at home all day and chill. Fate however had other plans for him. He'd just finished breakfast, an impressive eggs, hash-browns and orange juice when he'd seen it. Or rather, them. He was walking up the stairs to go wake up Emmett who'd been in almost in a comatose state when he came in the other night, mumbling about how he was the greatest hacker and was generally delirious from sleep loss, when he saw people outside of his front door. The people in question were Molly, Brian and Sydney. The latter of which Sean did not want to see at the moment. He could hear most of what they were saying outside, mostly because Sydney was quite loud.

"Can't you guys come in with me! It'll be awkward if its just me." Sydney pouted, his arms were waving up and down in rapid gestures.

"You wouldn't have had to do this if you didn't bite him" Molly huffed, shaking her head at him. "And if we did go in there, we'd end up apologizing for you!"

"No! Maybe. C'mon Brian back me up!" Sydney looked pleadingly in Brian's direction for support. Trying his best to look like a kicked puppy.

Brian shrugged his shoulders and looked away from Sydney's kicked puppy eyes. "If we go with, it will still be awkward. Except it will be awkward for all of us so... Take one for the team." He punched Sydney playfully in the shoulder, and smile encouragingly at him. Sydney made the most devastated face. Like Brian had sucker punched him in the gut.

"I thought we were friends, how could you two bail on me like this?"

"Easy. We'll be over there until you're done." She smiled then hauled Brian away from Sydney. Exasperated he turned to the door, debating whether he should knock, ring the door bell or just barge in. Inside Sean was hoping he'd turn around and leave. Unfortunately this wasn't going to happen as Sydney began banging on the door. Sighing, Sean waited a few moments to see if Sydney would give up and leave but he did not. So Sean reluctantly opened the door.

"What do you want Sydney?"

"Oh you know I just came by to check up on you" he began rubbing the back of his head nervously, while Sean looked as if he would slam the door in his face so he quickly added "and to. talk."

"To talk about how the rugby game went. Or how about how you bit into my shoulder?" He let go of the door frame to cross his arms over his chest. "Because that was a dick move."

"Yeah that. And well other things too." Sean raised his eyebrow in a 'you seriously wanna talk about other things' manner. "Urgh okay. First off I guess I should say I'm sorry. For the whole taking a chunk out of your shoulder thing."

Wow, Sean had heard better apologies from lesser people.

"Ok that sounded terrible but listen to me Sean. You are in danger. I mean you're gonna be in danger and so will everyone you're around." Sean took a step back into his house shaking his head slowly. "No wait Sean, I mean it! Because of the bite you'll---"

"No. No way Sydney just stop, are you going to tell me you're vampire next? And that I'll become one of the living dead? Just. go. home." He stated firmly, anger seeping into his words.

"Sean!" Sydney yelled but the door slammed shut anyway and he heard the lock turn behind it. Great he thought now Sean probably hates me more than he did before. "I'm not a vampire, I'm better than that," he muttered under his breath. Still though, he tried knocking on the door again but this time had no luck but has he turned away a faint smell entered his nostrils. It was putrid, and smelt slightly of death. The most worrying part was that it was still fresh.

"Sean?" He called "C'mon Sean please open the door I'm just trying to help!" He thought he heard Sean tell him to go away, but he wasn't entirely sure. Pouting he turned around and ended up face to face with Molly and Brian.

"That was smooth." She said though Sydney only grimaced.

"I apologized." then he turned his head back to the house and loudly declared "Vampires suck Sean, but you're not gonna be one of them. You're gonna be one of us. Whether you want it or not."

"If he survives," Molly countered to which Sydney just scrunched his nose at.

"Brian come here I need you to cheer me up."

Brian put a hand on Sydney's shoulder and looked at him like he was searching his brain for something to say. "You looked good while doing it," was all he could come up with.

"I like that about you Brian, you always know what to say." He said moving closer so that he could embrace Brian in a brotherly hug.

"Yep," Brian responded. "Now, let's get outta here. Sean'll come around. He has to."

"Well since that went wonderfully I'm sure that talking to your mom will be just as good."

"Why do you always have to do that. Why can't you be more like Brian, he actually compliments me every once in a while!"

"Because someone's gotta keep you in line." She made a stern face and crossed her arms stiffly before erupting into giggles "and you're just too fun to tease."

Meanwhile Sean watched them walk away from the window, absent-mindedly running his fingers over his hurt shoulder. He was so distracted he didn't notice Emmett coming down the stairs until he spoke.

"I heard all that banging, was it that devil kid again?"

"Devil-kid?" Confused Sean made a face. "You mean Cian?"

"Devil, Cian same difference." He waved his hand back and forth in the air.

"He's not a devil, just a bit of a, prankster." Sean defended him "But it wasn't him, it was a guy from my rugby team."

"Oh?" Emmett said sleepily making his way into the kitchen "Why was he making all that racket?"

"No reason I guess." Sean replied icily looking back out the window, but they had since disappeared from view. "Breakfast is on the table. You sit down first I've got to make a call." He walked into the living room to grab the house phone then back into the kitchen. Sifting through some papers on the fridge for a certain phone number. The dial tone rang once, then twice before a woman's voice answered.

"Hi, good morning Ms. Castellanos. How are you?" He waited a moment while she answered saying that she was doing fine just a little tired and in return asking how he was and if was doing anything today. "I'm. Alright I suppose and since rugby tournament is over we get to have a short break." He chuckled a bit at her response saying she never got a break with Logan around, then she asked if he could come help her with some errands she had to do in town. "Sure yeah, do you want me to meet you at the store? No? Okay. I'll be ready in a few minutes, yup, see you soon. Bye."

He hung up the phone with a loud beep and placed it on the counter where Emmett eyed him curiously.

"So?" He asked, still slowly picking away at his eggs.

"I'll be going out for a bit, and I probably will be home before dinner but that means you'll be on your own for lunch."

"I can handle making myself lunch." Emmett huffed, shoving another piece of egg into his mouth indignantly.

"Don't destroy the kitchen in the process please." Sean said shuffling over to the front door where he retrieved his bag that he dropped coming in the night before. It had all his essentials, his phone, his wallet and an old mp3. Then he put on his sneakers and headed out the door. It seemed as though he sun was brighter than usual that morning, almost glaringly so. And to his irritation he swore he could smell Sydney's sweaty odour from earlier this morning. In the meantime he checked his phone for texts, there were actually a few from Sydney saying he was coming over and one from his dad. He responded to his dad's text and ignored the ones from Sydney. It was another ten minutes until Ms. Castellanos pulled up into the driveway in her beat-up red Chevy.

"I hope you're prepared to do some manual labour." She called out the window, as he walked to the passenger side of the vehicle. He hopped in with little difficulty though it had been a long time since he'd last been in her truck. "Wow you're looking kind of pale, are you sure you're alright?"

"I'll be fine." He responded buckling his seatbelt in and she hesitantly backed out onto the road.

"There's still time to get out if you aren't feeling up to it..." She continued but he shook his head.

"I'm fine." He rubbed his shoulder in thought "Its just, with the whole thing with Minhoe and now Sydney's acting strange. Well stranger than usual."

She pursed her lips then asked "Captain of the rugby team Sydney?"

"That's the one." Sean basically growled out.

He saw her eyes glance over to him and then right back to the road. "If I may ask, what did he do?"

"Well, it's nothing really. Except I guess his... flirtatious manner is getting on my nerves. And the whole thing with Minhoe recently. being, gone and all." He started to get a little nervous now, remembering what Brian said when he helped fix up Sean's shoulder. He couldn't keep it all in, he knew that, but damn the consequences for Sydney.

"I see." Was her only response to that. "When you want to tell me the rest of the details, you know I'll be here to listen. And I have some ice cream in my freezer, I was saving it for after you worked but we can crack into it early if you need."

He smiled a little at that. "And leave none for after I'm done working? As if." Ms. Castellanos laughed softly at his jest.

"You're a smart kid" She said as they pulled up to her home. It looked kind of like an old warehouse on the outside, but he knew the inside or at least the last time he'd been inside looked more or less like a normal house, it had all the rooms bathrooms, a few bedrooms and an added kitchen off the backside. She killed the engine and they both hopped out.

"All right, I've got to take these groceries inside. But you can start by chopping all the lumber over in that pile there" She gestured over to a haphazard assortment of logs. "Just stack them in a neat pile by the door when you're done and I'll have something else for you to do."

"Okay." He walked over to the pile, finding the axe implanted on the chopping stump he pulled it out and set to work. There was a lot more wood in that pile than he thought at first glance and it took until sometime around noon to get it all done. Occasionally Ms. Castellanos would stop outside with some water for him and they talked. He was just finishing up the last log when she returned once more.

"Are you hungry? I've made enough food if you want to come inside and eat with us." She asked standing just outside the door.

"Yes please." He half walked slowly to the door, using the collar of his shirt as a fan. Suddenly an anxious look appeared on her face and she started towards him.

"Sean? What happened, why are you bleeding?"

"Huh?" He looked down at himself, then at his shoulder where some blood had bled through the bandages and onto his shirt. "Oh, I'm fine. Its not from today."

"No you are not fine. Come with me" She pulled at his arm forcing him into the cool house, he noticed it looked less sparse than last time. Then she sat him down at the empty table. "Stay there for a second."

Sean shifted uneasily as she headed into the kitchen, he could hear her open and closing a few cupboards. She came back with some gauze wrap and a wet cloth.

"You're gonna have to take off your shirt." She spoke setting down the items beside him on the table

"Ah yeah sorry." He was starting to hope that taking off his shirt in front of other people wasn't going to become a frequent occurrence. When she took off the bandages though she made a face like she'd just smelled something terrible and put a hand to her nose. And just as quickly she regained her composure and stared at Sean.

"Does this have anything to do with Sydney acting strange?"

"No! I mean no, of course not." He blew it, Ms. Castellanos looked entirely unconvinced. He tried to awkwardly laugh it off. "Sydney has always been a bit strange.

"Look this is important. Did he or did he not bite you?" As she questioned him, she wiped away the blood with the wet cloth which stung more than he expected it to. He grimaced, Brian had said it was important to tell no one, now his counsellor was telling him it was important that she needed to know. The silence of not answering as she re-bandaged his shoulder was weighing heavily on him.

"Ugh okay. He bit me! At the rugby game, he got a little too drunk and tried to tear off my shoulder its not a big deal really." She frowned, but didn't say anything right away just began to clean up muttering to herself, so he put his shirt back on. "Thanks," He said timidly.

"You won't be thanking me in a few days." She turned to him adopting a serious demeanour. "You're probably not gonna believe me when I tell you. Cian did but he's kind of a loose cannon."

"What does this have to do with Cian?" He interrupted her, confused as to what Cian had to *

"Nothing. Sean." She paused for a heartbeat, placing her hand on his shoulder in a comforting gesture. "There are things you don't know about the people around you. For example Sydney is a werewolf. And if you survive, you are going to be a werewolf too."

"What do you mean!?" He stood up pushing away from her. "Werewolves, vampires those things don't exist. You've got to be joking."

"Sean, it's hard to take in but I'm your counsellor I've helped you through your mothers accident. I can help you through this."

"This morning. Sydney said I was in danger. Is this what he means. That I am going to be a danger?" He whispered to himself unbelievingly, louder he declared "You must all be in on some kind of prank right?"

"Unfortunately not. Here I'm going to show you something." Then she ushered him back to the chair. "Hey! I know you two are listening, get down here."

At first, nothing happened. But soon enough two people were headed down the stairs. Cian stopped at the last step and his face scrunched up in obvious displeasure. Logan shoved him forwards and Cian walked awkwardly to the table that they were seated at, crossed his arms, and looked towards Gaia. Logan stood beside Gaia and smiled a greeting at Sean. He in turn awkwardly nodded his head too confused to speak.

"The easiest way to show you would probably be to push one of these two outside... but seeing as Cian is new it'd be too damaging. And I don't suspect Logan would want to volunteer." She kind of smirked at Logan.

Logan fixed Gaia with a furrowed glare. "Okay... No. Here," Logan shoved his hands into on of his jacket pockets and took out a case of some sort along with a black folded up pocket knife. Then he felt up to one of his eyes, his thumb and forefinger searching along the corners of his eyes. Carefully, he took out what looked like a giant contact that had covered his entire eye, and then in seconds had the other one out too and both put in the case he'd pulled out of his pocket. Now, replacing the normal bluish human iris and the white of the rest of the eye was entirely obsidian. "Not very human," he gestured to his eyes.

Sean just stared at Logan's eyes, mouth sightly agape, wanting to say that it wasn't human at all but he felt that'd be too rude so he shut his mouth.

"But that's not proof enough of Vampires," Logan continued, picking up the pocket knife and flicking out the blade. He pushed his sleeve up to his elbow and held the knife against the top side of his arm and pressed the blade in deeply, running it a few centimetres down his arm. Blood weld up to the surface but there was considerable less than if he had been human. Logan's hand clenching into a fist was the only indication he could feel the pain. He set the knife down and within seconds the flesh slowly began to heal. "At this point you can probably guess why we wouldn't want to step into the sunlight."

"And fangs," Cian spoke up. Then forming his mouth into smile, and the fangs revealed themselves.

"There's a few others things we could show you but you seem to get the point now." Gaia told him and slowly Sean nodded his head, a little freaked out by Cians sharp fangs and a lot freaked out about Logans arm and eyes. "This is real. And when the full moon comes up in a few days you'll be feeling the full effects."

"What should I do?" He asked her.

"Right now nothing. I'm going to take you home so you can let it sink in. In the meantime there's some soup on the stove that you two should eat while were gone."

The whole ride back home was quiet as Sean mulled over the things he'd been told and what he'd seen. It gnawed at his stomach for the rest of the day.