Feed the Flames

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

I could smell it.

I sat in fetal position in the corner farthest from both my window and my door. My eyes were wide, my hands were shaking, and my stomach was completely flipped around. I smelled the blood from throughout the male and female dorms halls. I shouldn’t be able to, which was a nagging reminder of what I was. I was disgusted with myself. However, I knew one thing for sure. The blood was bad, it was sour. There had been no suicide pact; it was without a doubt murder. But who? Who would want to do this? Bal Voyeux was supposed to be one of the safest schools. A heavy sigh escaped my lungs as my head fell into my arms. I breathed through my mouth so that I wouldn’t be able to register the smell of blood.

It was silent up until the moment there was a thud in front of me, with a small squish sound following. My head rose from the little head pit that my arms had created to see a bag of blood in front of my feet. I felt a change as heat rose to my head.

“You’re going to have to learn to get that under control,” Frank laughed as he sat on my bed.

“How did you get in h- Oh wait, you too, huh?” I asked sickeningly.

“Listen, I know you told me to stay far away from you,” Frank started as he stood up as he started an apologetic ramble. If I were to be honest, I completely forgot that I told him to leave me alone. I’d probably need him now. Him and Liam…Liam. He knew. He kept saying I was cursed. He knew. But how? “But…I don’t know, I sort of really need you right now, and you look like you need me, but I really need you, and you need to drink that.” He pointed to the bag of blood, and I shook my head slightly.

“It’s against my morals,” I said blankly, “And I know I told you to stay away, but you’re right. I will need you, and possibly Gerard. Who else at this school is a blood-thirsty monster again?” I stood up and grabbed the bag of blood on my way.

“Well, me, Gerard, Mikey, Ray, and Bob,” he informed me, “Gerard and Mikey are really brothers, and they’re fucking old.” I thought about the five of them as he went on and talked about them.

“Did you guys cause this massacre?” I asked calmly, but really my heart was racing and my voice was dark. He stopped talking, flabbergasted.

“What the-? Fuck no. We don’t like to kill people, Ronan,” Frank said pointedly, “We’re trying to figure out who did this. I told Cell it was a suicide pact to put her mind at ease. I came here to do the same for you, and to let you know that Cell has gone missing,” he said shyly.

“Is she with one of the other guys?” I was immediately worried. Cell and I didn’t talk much, mainly because she didn’t talk and I wanted to respect that, but I considered her a friend and didn’t want her getting hurt, “And if none of you had anything to do with it…what do you think happened?”

“No, she couldn’t be with them. The other guys are out trying to answer that same question. For all we know, it could have been a suicide pact. Everything just seems too fishy, though.” He scratched his head and looked puzzled.

“It was definitely murder,” I said. I thought he would know because of the blood.

“What? How are you so sure?” he now directed his puzzled look towards me.

“You can’t smell it in the blood?” Now I was puzzled, “The smell of the blood – it’s sour. It makes me feel angry, sad, and hopeless. Somebody murdered those people,” I said. I had a feeling in my body that made me feel extremely confidant in my answer. Frank raised an eyebrow.

“No, I can’t smell it,” he smirked, “but you just became very valuable.”

“What? No, I don’t want to be valuable. I want to be normal again,” I huffed.

“That’s not going to happen,” Mikey said as he crawled through my window even though I live on the second floor.

“There’s no cure,” Ray said as he followed behind him.

“Hey guys, what did you find?” Frank asked as he turned around. “You need to drink that. Now,” he said as he pointed at the blood bag in my hands.

“That somebody is really good at covering their traces,” Ray said, “Maybe this was all self inflicted, Frankie.”

“No, it wasn’t. Ronan apparently has some strange blood whisperer ability,” Frank pointed his thumb back at me. Ray and Mikey looked at me, which didn’t help as I tried to convince myself to drink the blood.

“I’m just going to go…somewhere else,” I said as I left the room. I walked into the bathroom Celine and I shared, and locked the door behind me. I stared in the mirror, almost freaked out by the site. My pupils were large, probably from the presence of the blood. I turned my back on the mirror, and ripped the top of the bag open. I threw the piece of plastic in the trash, and then brought the bag to my lips. Shutting my lids as tight as I could, I downed the bag. I could taste that it was given by a blood donor, which put me at ease. Actually, I felt a lot more at ease.

My head was no longer cloudy, I felt as if I could inhale more oxygen. I felt stronger. The stressed rolled off of me. I threw the bag into the trashcan, and decided to take a quick shower while I was in the bathroom. I knew I would have to help find Cell – find out whoever did this. I threw my bathrobe on after my shower and walked back into my room. Frank, Ray, and Mikey were still talking and paid me no attention as I walked into my closet to get dressed. I rejoined the small group.

“How are you feeling?” Ray asked, sitting next to me on the bed.

“Like I didn’t brush my teeth enough times,” I said sarcastically, “I actually feel better, and that may be the most disturbing part.” I was quiet, not wanting to think about what I had done.

“That’s the worst part,” Ray was also quiet. Mikey and Frank were probably unable to hear us over their conversation. “I wouldn’t have chosen this life for myself, and I definitely wouldn’t have chosen it for you,” he wrapped an arm around my shoulders, and I leaned in to him. It was really nice to know I wasn’t the only one in the ‘I don’t want to be a fucking vampire’ club.

“Gerard wants us to meet him in the tunnel under the football field,” Mikey said suddenly. It was weird, because I hadn’t seen him use his phone at all.

“Telepathy,” Ray whispered, “they’re biologically related, and so they can pass thoughts to each other. Sometimes, a vampire can do it with the person who had turned them.”

“I hate those creepy ass tunnels,” Frank said, obviously not amused.
___________

“We were able to pick up a scent a little bit deeper in the tunnel,” Gerard said as we climbed down the ladder into the tunnel. We were easily able to get out of the dorm – we just went through the window.

“I mean I’m sure we’re not the only ones who know about the tunnels,” Mikey said, trying to keep the situation stable.

“Well unless there are other vampires at the school, then we have a little problem,” Gerard was frantic. I was able to tell despite the fact that I avoided making eye contact with him. He hid it really well, but he just couldn’t hide it from me. Not long after that realization, he started releasing a calm feeling. At the same time, so did I.

“You don’t think they’re….” Ray was hesitant to ask the question.

“Well, there was a massacre of students. Two more students are missing; Cell and that Liam guy,” Bob said, “I’m sure you can pick up on where this is going…” Suddenly, a sense of dread radiated from Frank. Not long after, it radiated from everybody. Even I felt the same thing. “They’re alive. I know that much,” Bob quickly added, and the feeling of dread started to dissolve.

“They’re rogues,” Frank almost said in a whisper, “There are rogues out there, and I told Celine to meet me on top of the roof and – they took her. Oh my god, they have her and it’s my fault,” Frank started freaking out.

“What the hell are rogues?” I asked, confused.

“They’re vampires-” Gerard started to explain.

“No shit,” I sneered.

“Maybe you shouldn’t talk,” Bob said to Gerard, and diverted his attention towards me, “Rogues are the type of vampires that get as bad as they can. Something you should know is that we can live easily off of little to no blood. It can be there just as an energy boost. However, it can also be like fucking heroine; you can get addicted. Once you get addicted, once you swear your life to it, you become a Rogue. They don’t have feelings, they don’t have emotions. They are the only ones that can kill another vampire. Even on these grounds.”

“What’s so special about these grounds?” I asked.

“That’s not important right now,” Frank said, “what is important is that they are very dangerous, and we are in danger. More than that, they have Cell.”

“And Liam,” I added. Despite the fact that he didn’t want anything to do with me, I still cared for him.

“Things would be better without that loser,” Gerard scoffed, causing me to roll my eyes.

“So what’s the plan?” I asked.

“We need to go back to the dorms. We can’t let them know we’re here – they will target us. There are more of them than there are of us,” Bob said.

“How can you tell?” I asked.

“Bob can tell the ‘who, what, and how many’ from a scent,” Mikey explained.

“Okay, so I’ll just go back to my room,” I said, turning around.

“No, we have to stay together,” Mikey said adamantly.

“But that’s stupid,” I argued, “If they find us, they find all of us. Then we’re screwed. It’s better if they only find one of us.”

“We’ll stay in pairs,” Gerard said finally, and everybody stopped talking. “Bob and Ray will stay in their dorm room, Frank, you’re with Mikey. Ronan, you’re with me.”

“No, I’m with Mikey,” I protested.

“No, you’re with me. I’m the oldest, I’m the strongest, and frank-”

“Yes?” Frank interrupted with a smirk. Gerard let out a heavy sigh, rolling his eyes.

“And frankly, you’re safer with me,” he finished.

“Well frankly-”

“Yes?” Frank asked, interrupting me as well.

“I don’t feel safe around you, so I’d rather be with Mikey. I know you guys want to use your weird telepathic thing and that’s fine, but I don’t want to be in a room with you. You’re the reason I’m in this situation.” Gerard looked at me like I put a knife in his back, and I sort of wish I could.

“We don’t have time for this. Fine, Frank, you’re with me. Ronan, you’re with Mikey. Let’s go,” I headed back to my room with Mikey. This would give us the ability to know if Celine came back, and Gerard and Mikey shared a dorm so it sort of defeated the whole purpose. I closed and locked all of the windows in the dorm, and closed the curtains. We closed the doors to both mine and Cell’s room and huddled up in the common room, where we put on a movie.

“You know, he means well,” Mikey said, breaking the silence between us.

“I’m sure, but he hasn’t done well. Not by me,” I crossed my arms.

“He’s been through a lot. Do you know how old we are?” he asked with a smile on his face.

“No. I’m almost afraid to ask,” my smile matched his.

“We were born about a century before the Italian Renaissance,” he told me. Honestly, I didn’t think they would be that old, “We were born into a family of nobles. Vampire nobles. When a vampire has a child, they are a Halfling, but can be turned into a full-fledged vampire. Gerard did, and he went rogue. Well, we thought he did. He disappeared, and I left to look for him. We were exiled from our family after that, never allowed to return. I found him here around two centuries later, on these grounds. We’ve been here ever since.”

“You guys are fucking ancient,” I teased, “You guys must be miserable.”

“I like the whole immortality thing,” Mikey said honestly, “Gerard hates it. He hates it more than you do.”

“Speaking of hate,” I changed the topic, “why did he hate me so much when I first got here?” I was really curious. Before he turned me, he couldn’t be around me. After he turned me, he treated me almost as if I were a human being. He told me he changed me in the first place because he ‘couldn’t lose me’. Never have I heard of somebody being sad over losing somebody they could stand.

“I think that’s for him to tell you,” he sounded apologetic, “In fact, he wants to be the one to tell you.” I had nearly forgotten about the weird telepathic ability the two had. “But, after the current dilemma we’re in. Your head has to be clear, Ronan; completely clear. The Rogues are not going to leave on their own; we’re going to have to find a way to get them to leave.”

“Okay,” I smiled softly at him and looked back at the TV. Underneath it all, however, I knew I had no idea what to do. But we had to get Celine and Liam back. I brought my knees up to my chest so that I could hold them and tried not to think about the smell.

This day was going to end the same way it had started.

My thoughts were interrupted as there was a knock at the door. It was heavy and quick. Mikey and I both looked at each other with wide eyes. Mikey closed his eyes for a second and then looked back to me, “Gerard said not to answer it.”

“Fuck Gerard,” I sneered and jumped off the couch.

“Ronan, this is a bad idea. Gerard says definitely don’t open the door,” Mikey was whispering harshly as he chased after me. I flung the door open and Mikey pushed me to the side protectively. He dropped his arm from its position as a bar in front of me as soon as I touched the wall.

“Ray?” Mikey asked.

“Ray?” I said, looking around the door to see him standing there alone, “Shouldn’t you be in Bob’s room?”

“Guys. We have a problem,” Ray said frantically, moving into the room.

©Shannon