Feed the Flames

..::^~Ronan~^::..

A few days had flown by, and it was now Friday. I sat down in Art class and started itching at my bruise. It was really strange; I’d never had a bruise that itched so badly

“You shouldn’t pick at that,” Gerard sneered as he sat down next to me. I looked at him with wide eyes, and controlled the urge to pinch myself.

“Celine sits there,” I said quietly. I sat next to Celine for a reason; she didn’t talk and she didn’t hate me. It was damn near perfect, so I wasn’t sure why Mr. I’m-A-Dick was in her seat.

“Not today,” he said as he took his sketch book out. My anger finally managed to catch up to me.

“Maybe I wasn’t clear enough. I don’t want you to sit here,” I growled. Ever since I woke up on Monday, I was moody. Nearly everything either pissed me off or annoyed me, if not both. I started scratching at my wrist.

“I really don’t give a shit,” he growled back, “Stop scratching at it.” He tried to pull my hand away, but I snatched it back.

“Aren’t you supposed to be busy hating me for some reason? The last thing you ever said to me was that I annoyed you,” I said pointedly and harsh. My eyes narrowed as his looked down towards the table. He gave up his dominant stance and slouched slightly.

“No,” he turned back to face the table. I was still angry that he hadn’t moved, so I gathered my things, and went to sit next to Cell at another desk. “Ronan,” Gerard called my name questioningly causing me to turn around and look at him.

“What?” If words were like daggers, that’s what my voice would have sounded like. It was sharp, quick, and had ‘you’re really starting to annoy the shit out of me’ written all over it. I could feel everybody’s heartbeat in the room picked up. That’s when I noticed that I could feel everybody’s individual heartbeat. No, wait, that can’t happen. I shrugged it off as my imagination, and continued to stare him down.

“I need to talk to you after class,” he sneered, going back to his usual asshole self.

“Whatever,” I breathed, turning back around. I exchanged looks with Cell before she scribbled something down her notebook and slid it over to me. ‘It’s a trap’ was written in one of the corners, and caused me to giggle a little. I looked back at Cell, and saw that she had a hint of a smile.

We were taking notes on photorealism, the teacher at the front with a much larger sketchpad placed on an easel. If I said it was hard for me to concentrate, it would have been an understatement. I had a direct line of vision to the artery in the instructor’s neck. I could tell her blood pressure, what her heart rate was, and the counts of her red and white blood cells. At least, that was what went through my head. I had probably read some book that caused the imaginative part of my brain to run full time. Still, I squirmed in my seat impatiently as the palms of my hands became clammy. When the bell rung, I was quick to pack up all of my things and stuff them in my bag before I shot up from my chair.

“Follow me,” Gerard said as he walked passed me, out of the classroom. I took a deep breath before I started taking the same path as him, a few students getting in between me and him. One moment, I was behind him. The next, there was an arm around me taking me in a whole new direction.

“That’s not a great idea, I promise you,” It was Liam. It was the first time I had heard from or seen him since Saturday. I stopped in the middle of the hallway as he closely followed behind.

“What the fu-“ I once again put his arm around me, dragging me along.

“We need to talk,” he said harshly.

“Well you’ve got that damn right,” I said under my breath. We were quiet as he walked me through the courtyard, past the dorm buildings, and about twenty feet into the tree line where he let me go. Two seconds later, I was in his arms. His chin rested on the crown of my head, and I could feel the warmth radiating from his chest.

“I’m so sorry,” he said, holding me tightly. My anger flared, causing me to push him away.

“What the hell was that about?” I was nearly yelling, “You disappeared for a whole week. I thought I was imagining the fact that you even existed.”

“I know. There was a family emergency and I had to leave immediately. I left my phone hear in the rush of everything,” he explained. My heart dropped and I immediately felt bad.

“What happened,” I asked with concern heavy in my words.

“There was a death,” he said vaguely, “He was a…distant cousin.” I caught his hesitation, but I pushed it aside. If he didn’t want to give me all of the details, I wouldn’t force him to. However, it annoyed me that he would cover it up with something else. Then again – I was annoyed with everybody and everything.

“Well, if you need somebody to talk to, you know where to find me,” I said as I started walking away, towards the castle.

“Wait,” he said strongly, causing me to turn around, “There’s something else.” He walked closer to me and placed his hands on my shoulders, “It’s dangerous here, Ronan. You need to leave.” I rolled my eyes and let out a small laugh.

“Leave? And go where?” I pushed his hands off my shoulders and turned around, “Plus, what’s so dangerous?” I asked.

“You’d think I was crazy,” he said softly.

“I already think you’re crazy, Liam,” I said, matching his tone. He took my hands in his and looked back into my eyes with a smile. The smile quickly dropped as eyes snapped back down to our hands, and he grabbed my sleeve and pushed it up, revealing my bruise. It was starting to look a little slimmer, even though it hadn’t faded in color. It almost looked like a blob of ink under my skin.

“Who did this to you,” his voice was almost a whisper, “Which one of those monsters?”

“Liam, did what? I woke up and I had it. I probably fell out of bed or slept walk or something. I don’t know,” I said.

“You don’t know do you?” he asked, and I could hear him swallow heavily. His heartbeat began racing, and I shut my eyes tightly. I had to hold my breath for a moment as my palms became sweaty again.

“Know what?” I barely managed to get the question out, but I did it nonetheless.

“You’re cursed,” his eyes became glossy as he dropped my hands and took a few steps back. I couldn’t help but snort.

“Cursed? That’s definitely how I’ve felt since I’ve been here,” I had a good hand at sarcasm. Sometimes it was so good that I couldn’t control when I used it.

“I have to go,” he said shortly before brushing past me. I turned around and watched him leave.

“Don’t listen to him,” I could hear Frank from behind me. I turned around to see him step out from behind a tree.

“How long have you been there?” All of the weird feelings washed away from me as he stepped closer.

“Long enough. As I was saying, don’t listen to him. Whatever you do, you absolutely cannot leave these grounds,” there was certain intensity in his voice. “This place is one of the few places in the world where you are safe. There are people trying to kill us, but they can’t here.”

“Kill….kill us? Who the hell is us?” It was hard putting sense to his words. Yeah, I understood completely what he was saying; but why?

“Yes, us. Me, Ray, Mikey, Gerard, Bob, and now you,” Frank’s voice got lower, “I had hoped for just over 150 years that this wouldn’t happen.” After what seemed to be the longest minute in my life, I started to laugh. I laughed so hard I couldn’t contain it.

“150 years? Okay, Grandpa. I don’t know what type of game everybody has been playing lately, but it’s weird way more than it is funny. I’m getting the fuck out of here, now. Please stay away from me,” I said as I walked away. He bit his lip as I left, looking near distraught. I looked at the time on my phone, seeing that it was three quarters of the way through the last period. There was no point in going now, so I instead went to my room.

Once I got inside, I opened up my laptop to see that my dad was on Skype. I immediately called him since I never had the opportunity to talk to him. It didn’t take long for him to answer.

“Hey, baby girl,” his smile lit up his entire face, and it was the only happy thing in the whole frame. His U.S Army uniform looked slightly dirty. He had little bumps on his face from shaving it so much, however his hair was starting to grow out a little from the buzz cut he usually had on. There was one small posted on the white wall behind him. Still, he had the largest smile on his face, and it grew contagious.

“Hey dad, how are you?” I always wondered how he was. He’d been in the military since before I was born, and he’d been on overseas deployments a few times during my childhood. He was in Kuwait right now, which meant I was more at ease. Kuwait was a lot better than the other places he’d been to, such as in the shit in Afghanistan and Iraq. Still, I always worried for his safety.

“Well, I’ve been better, kiddo,” he chuckled, “but I’ve also been worse. Not much has happened here, which is a good thing.” I know he said this to put me at ease. I also knew he couldn’t talk about some of the stuff that they did. “How are you?”

“I’ve really missed mom and Joshua lately,” I said, my tone dropping. I got a tight feeling in my chest.

“You’re going to have to let go eventually, Ronan,” his voice had also gotten a little more serious, “They found the guy who did it, and he’s going to be locked up for a long time. The best thing you can do is cherish the moments you did have with them, not think about the moments that you’ll miss.” It had been five years since I lost my mother and Josh.

“You’re right,” I said, looking at the framed picture of my family as it sat next to my laptop.

“I’m your dad, of course I’m right,” his smile was back, “so how is school?”

“I don’t want to talk about school because I’m still mad that you sent me here. I’m 18 – I’m an adult. I can take care of myself,” I repeated the same protest that I had since I found out I was coming here.

“It’s not about you taking care of yourself; it’s about your safety. You’ll be able to leave after this year –” My dad was cut off as somebody walked into his room.

“First Sergeant Dahl, they changed the time for the CUB to an hour early. It’s starting now,” another guy said on the other end. I couldn’t see him, though.

“Alright. Thanks, Specialist,” the door closed and my dad looked back to me, “I have to go.”

“I know,” I said, “I love you, and be safe.”

“I love you, too, Ronan. I’ll be sure to call you the next time I can,” he promised. I waved before we hung up. I closed my laptop and grabbed one of my books from my bookshelf. I needed to try and avoid everybody this weekend, give things time to cool off. Mostly, I didn’t want to re-watch Liam walking away from me – disgusted. I didn’t want to hear Frank talk about being over 150 years old, I didn’t want to be around Gerard to get mixed feelings. I started scratching at my bruise again.

Yeah, there was no doubt I was cursed. Cursed by the people here, that is. I looked at my bruise again, and noticed it got even thinner, and seemed to curve. It was just a huge blurry line on my wrist, as black as a tattoo would be. I pulled my sweater down over it again. My eyes wandered over the words, hungry to be finished with the book. Despite that, my eyes started closing more and more with every page. I was soon dead asleep.
____________
I woke up as there was a crackle of thunder, immediately sitting up on my bed. I turned to look out of the window – no rain. I turned to sit back down on my bed, and reached over to turn on the lamp. After it wouldn’t come on, I came to the conclusion that the power had gone out. I heard a shift coming from across the room, and I could barely see two little golden orbs. They were small enough to be eyes, and in the exact place. My heart nearly stopped – they were definitely eyes.

“Who are you,” I tried to make my voice strong, but it ended up being the exact opposite.

“I said we needed to talk,” It was Gerard. The room lit up as lighting hit not too far from here, and I could see Gerard lounging in my chair. The thunder followed nearly two seconds afterwards.

“How did you get in here,” I asked hesitantly. I didn’t think he would harm me, but I still felt threatened.

“Don’t worry about it,” he shoved my question to the side, “We need to talk about you.”

“What about me?”

“Can’t you just let me talk?” He sounded frustrated.

“Sorry, I guess I misunderstood when you said we needed to talk. Maybe you should have clarified by saying you need to talk and I need to listen, because that’s the direction I feel this is going in,” I sneered. I stood up and walked over to my light switch, finding that the power was definitely dead. I opened the drawer of my desk and took out a match box, and lit up the candles around my room. I sat on my bed and faced Gerard; I knew he had been watching my every move. “So talk.”

“You jumped off of the roof,” he said coolly, “why?” I looked at his as if he had gone crazy.

“Jumped off the roof? I’m pretty sure I would be dead right now,” I pointed out.

“You were. Well, you nearly were,” he was still calm.

“What is it with everybody this week? Why is everybody acting so fucking weird? First Frank, then Liam, then you, and then Frank again, and now you’re here – uninvited in my room,” I said, laying flat on my back.

“Why are we acting so weird? Think about it. You can hear, and nearly see the blood running through people’s veins. You can even smell it without being close. Suddenly, you have perfect vision. You feel…perfect. It’s the same stuff you watch in scary movies, you read in horror novels. You are everybody’s worse nightmare.

“I’m cursed,” I nearly whispered, repeating what Liam had said. I sat back up and looked at him, “No. That’s not a real thing,” I stated, sure of myself.

“You are cursed. You’re a vampire, a beast that was created after a deal with the Devil himself,” He got up from his chair and slowly started walking towards me.

“Why?” it was definitely a rhetorical question.

“Because I saved you,” he said harshly as he leaned down over me, his hands on either side of me on my bed, “You jumped off the fucking roof, and I didn’t want to lose you, so I did the last thing I ever wanted to do. The more I think about it, the more I wish I would have let you die, because this is a hell I wouldn’t want to put anybody through.”

“Lose me?” I closed my eyes and pinched the bridge of my nose together. When I opened them, Gerard was gone, and the lights were back on. I looked around, see that he was nowhere to be found. I even looked under the bed.

I was alone.

I was a vampire.

©Shannon