Anti-Venom
12
“Who is Ryan to me?” Gwen asks as she bursts through the front door of the house.
Everybody else in the house looks over to where she stands in the door way. Andy himself is completely and utterly stunned at the question she has just asked. He doesn’t want to answer, yet he knew she would ask this question before long.
“Okay, so, silence.” She nods, and then moves across the house to the kitchen area, where Andy is stood. In one surprisingly swift and strong motion she has her brother in a head lock, and his wrists held behind his back; with a leg perfectly position to strike between the man’s legs if she needs to.
“I’ll ask that again.” She tells him. “Who is Ryan to me?”
“Gwen!” Patrick scolds. But she doesn’t let go of her brother, she wants answers, and she wants them now. They’re answers Andy just can’t bring himself to give to her though.
“He’s your cousin.” Patrick answers for Andy. “Your mom’s sister was Ryan’s mother.”
Gwen looks at him, completely stunned, before she inevitably lets Andy go. For a little while, she goes back to hers and Patrick’s room. Nobody joins her, or goes to check on her. They know better than to do that. Instead they sit and think about how she knew to ask the question, and about what they could possibly do to alleviate the situation. Then suddenly, a breakthrough moment. Matthew appears to just zone out, and fall into his own space. The others know what this means, and ultimately wait for him to come back round. They wait in the hope that he will have some sort of answer for them as to what they are all wondering.
“She saw Brendon.” Matthew confirms the second he comes out of his vision. “They met on the sea front. He found her and he appeared to her as William at first, then showed himself. He isn’t human any more, he just wanted to see her before the last shred of his humanity vanished.”
“By isn’t human…” Spencer trails off.
“He’s been completely demonised and the process is nearly finished. His humanity is dying, it’ll be gone by tonight.” Matthew tells the other young boy. Now it’s Spencer’s turn to get up and leave. The thought of his best friend no longer being human, and probably not even remembering his former life is too much.
“I want to go.” Patrick declares. This of course gains Joe and Andy’s attention.
“You can’t go anywhere, I can’t keep you safe anywhere else.” Andy tells him.
“Oh because you’re doing such a good job of that right now huh?” Patrick verbally attacks. “All we’ve had since you made us come here is fights and misery. The girl I love lost her baby in the cruellest way the night before her birthday, and now she’s finding out shit that she should have known about her whole life. But then, she should have known everything her whole life. Maybe then she wouldn’t be in such a big mess. I’m not standing for it any more, I’m not just going to let you or anyone else hurt her any more. I can protect Gwen, and you know I can. But because you see me as vermin you will never trust me. I promised you I would protect her, and I intend to fully keep that promise. But it’s not just creatures of the dark she needs protection from. It’s you.”
With that, the vampire heads off to his and Gwen’s room, leaving just Andy, Joe and Matthew in the living area.
“Why are you looking at me like that?” Andy asks Joe. The guardian says nothing, he just gives Andy a look, and leaves the house.
“If you’re honestly that dumb as to wonder why everybody is leaving you, you really need to sit down, think, and maybe even look in the mirror.” Matthew pipes up. “Because I can tell you now, you certainly aren’t the person you were before I got captured. You’re selfish. All of you are. You don’t think of Gwen, you don’t think of what’s going through her mind, you only think of yourself, and the need for this baby, you think of why you need the baby. Have you even stopped to think what will happen to Gwen when the time comes to give birth? News flash, the child will be born immortal. It will be born with all the strength Patrick possesses, it will be born blood thirsty, it will be born a monster. But before all that, It’ll kill her during labour.”
“No it wont.” Andy dismisses.
“Don’t be so ignorant.” Matthew scolds. “You watch, the moment she has to give birth, she’ll be killed, and the only one that will be capable of saving her will probably be Ryan.”
“My sister’s not becoming a monster.” Andy shakes his head. He comes over to Matthew at some speed, picks the boy up by the collar of his shirt, and looks him in the eye.
“Yes I am.” Comes an unexpected reply. Andy puts Matthew down now, and looks over to see Gwen stood with Patrick, each of them with a bag packed; and to Andy’s horror, she has puncture wounds to her neck.
“I can control myself.” Patrick tells him. “And I can protect Gwen. I promised you that, now you promise me something. Just watch over us. We’ll give you your baby, but we don’t want to be near you. Not right now. When the time comes, we’ll be back.”
“Gwennie-” Andy tries to stop them as they head over to the door.
“You have a guardian, a warlock and a seer Andy.” Gwen tells him. “Keep using them. But I won’t let you use me any more.”
With that, she and Patrick leave the house, and head off to the ford. Neither of them look back as they drive off. All Andy can do is watch as they disappear off into the distance, hoping that he really will be able to protect the couple from afar.
*
One month
*
Two months
*
Three months
*
Four months.
Four months. It’s a long time, and in that time, Andy has had no choice but to return to Wisconsin. With no sign of William and Ryan’s little gang following them. Unfortunately, Matthew couldn’t get a vision of them, or anything to do with them. It’s like Brendon has blocked him from being able to do so. The only conclusion Andy can come to is that they have followed Gwen and Patrick on the travels around the states. From what Matthew’s seen they’ve tried to stay in hot and sunny areas. Right now, they’re in a not so hot and sunny place, more like dull and rainy. They’re up in Washington, in some tiny motel in the middle of nowhere. Gwen is heavily pregnant, just as they expected her to be. The birth is imminent, but thanks to not being able to see the exact name of the place or the motel they are at, Andy, Joe, Spencer and Matthew can’t help them. That is until one night, when the phone rings and Spencer answers.
“Hello?” The teenager speaks. His eyes widen, his face visibly pales. “He’s not in, he’s, oh god, I, Rick where are you I need and address, I can get to you…..No, no I won’t bring him, it’ll just be me and Joe, I swear.”
Joe sits to attention now, and watches Spencer closely.
“Okay, Okay give me two minutes, I’ll get there I promise.” Spencer nods, and then ends the phone call.
“Well?” Joe asks.
“She’s in labour.” Spencer tells him. “William and everyone are literally right outside the motel room, they need help now. Joe, she was really screaming, and I mean not like scream screaming, but crying. I think she’s dying.”
“She is.” Joe confirms. “Come on, lets get me and you there.”
Matthew watches as the other two join hands and seemingly vanish right before his eyes. For a second he sits bolt upright on the couch, looking around as if to question everything that he’s just seen. But he decides to let it go. Instead he just goes back to studying History for a test he has coming up. It doesn’t seem right though, and although he knows he shouldn’t, because the three of them had decided between them to Keep Andy as far away from the birth of the child as possible, Matthew cannot shake the feeling that something is about to go horribly wrong. He puts the history book down, and reaches out for his phone; only he doesn’t reach it. Instead the phone goes flying across the room.
“What do you think you’re doing?” A playful and sinister sounding voice asks. Matthew’s heart begins to really thump loudly in his rib cage. He doesn’t want to look up, but he knows he has to. Ever so slowly he raises his head. He takes note of the boots at first, then the legs clad in black jeans, the topless torso, completely covered in very intricate red carvings that look like tattoos. Right the way up to see the person standing before him, even the face is covered in the markings, and the eyes are pure black.
“Brendon?” He asks, with and unsteady voice.
“Hey bro.” Brendon toys as he chews on gum. “Wanna play?”
Matthew doesn’t have time to respond, the young demon stood before him nods towards the wall and sends Matthew crashing into it. Brendon lets out a loud laugh, watching as Matthew attempts to get up, only for Brendon to use some sort of energy to force him back down.
“Oh my god Pete was right you are weak.” He chuckles. He watches as Matthew reaches out for his phone once more. Then he strides over, kneels down and snatches the phone away from Matthew.
“Oh I’m sorry, Andrew can’t take your call right now.” Brendon torments. “Of should I say you can’t make the call.”
“Please.” Matthew begs weakly.
“Nope.” Brendon chimes. “Any minute now, there’ll be a new baby in the world, and we are taking it.”
“No you’re not.” Matthew tells him. “Joe and Spencer won’t let you.”
“They don’t have a choice!” Brendon goads.
“Don’t we?” A new voice asks from behind the demon. Brendon turns now, and there before him, is Joe and Spencer, the former holding a tiny bundle in his arms.
“His name’s Jareth.” Spencer tells his former friend. “I dare you to try and take him.”
Brendon snarls, and goes to move, but finds himself seemingly glued to the spot.
“You forgot something.” Spencer tells him. “Before you sacrificed yourself, you made promises, and you can’t break those promises. So go, go back to where you came from. Now.”
Brendon doesn’t though, he won’t go anywhere, he doesn’t care about any promises he may have made, all he cares about now is getting that baby off of those two. When he does finally manage to break the force of Spencer holding him in place, he finds himself hit by another force. With a sudden push almost, Brendon finds himself flying backwards, until he is no longer in the house. It’s right at this moment that the front door opens, and Andy steps in, looking extremely down trodden, and broken. He says nothing, and takes no notice of the state of the room around him. He just goes straight to the stairs, and begins to go up… but then he stops, and turns.
“Is that?” He asks Joe and Spencer.
“Your nephew.” Joe confirms. “His name is Jareth.”
Andy comes hurrying over now, and takes the infant from Joe. He looks down at the child. He’s pale, like his father, has red eyes like his father, but a thin head of red hair, like his mother.
“And Gwen?” Andy asks. There’s no answer. There doesn’t need to be.
“I really did lose her?” He asks. Joe simply nods.
“There is one way she can um, well, you know.” Spencer offers.
“Yeah.” Andy nods with a sad tone in his voice. “But it means I’ll want to kill her when I next see her.”
With that, he takes the baby off upstairs with him, followed by Joe. It leaves Spencer to stand there and think.”Not if I can help it.”
Everybody else in the house looks over to where she stands in the door way. Andy himself is completely and utterly stunned at the question she has just asked. He doesn’t want to answer, yet he knew she would ask this question before long.
“Okay, so, silence.” She nods, and then moves across the house to the kitchen area, where Andy is stood. In one surprisingly swift and strong motion she has her brother in a head lock, and his wrists held behind his back; with a leg perfectly position to strike between the man’s legs if she needs to.
“I’ll ask that again.” She tells him. “Who is Ryan to me?”
“Gwen!” Patrick scolds. But she doesn’t let go of her brother, she wants answers, and she wants them now. They’re answers Andy just can’t bring himself to give to her though.
“He’s your cousin.” Patrick answers for Andy. “Your mom’s sister was Ryan’s mother.”
Gwen looks at him, completely stunned, before she inevitably lets Andy go. For a little while, she goes back to hers and Patrick’s room. Nobody joins her, or goes to check on her. They know better than to do that. Instead they sit and think about how she knew to ask the question, and about what they could possibly do to alleviate the situation. Then suddenly, a breakthrough moment. Matthew appears to just zone out, and fall into his own space. The others know what this means, and ultimately wait for him to come back round. They wait in the hope that he will have some sort of answer for them as to what they are all wondering.
“She saw Brendon.” Matthew confirms the second he comes out of his vision. “They met on the sea front. He found her and he appeared to her as William at first, then showed himself. He isn’t human any more, he just wanted to see her before the last shred of his humanity vanished.”
“By isn’t human…” Spencer trails off.
“He’s been completely demonised and the process is nearly finished. His humanity is dying, it’ll be gone by tonight.” Matthew tells the other young boy. Now it’s Spencer’s turn to get up and leave. The thought of his best friend no longer being human, and probably not even remembering his former life is too much.
“I want to go.” Patrick declares. This of course gains Joe and Andy’s attention.
“You can’t go anywhere, I can’t keep you safe anywhere else.” Andy tells him.
“Oh because you’re doing such a good job of that right now huh?” Patrick verbally attacks. “All we’ve had since you made us come here is fights and misery. The girl I love lost her baby in the cruellest way the night before her birthday, and now she’s finding out shit that she should have known about her whole life. But then, she should have known everything her whole life. Maybe then she wouldn’t be in such a big mess. I’m not standing for it any more, I’m not just going to let you or anyone else hurt her any more. I can protect Gwen, and you know I can. But because you see me as vermin you will never trust me. I promised you I would protect her, and I intend to fully keep that promise. But it’s not just creatures of the dark she needs protection from. It’s you.”
With that, the vampire heads off to his and Gwen’s room, leaving just Andy, Joe and Matthew in the living area.
“Why are you looking at me like that?” Andy asks Joe. The guardian says nothing, he just gives Andy a look, and leaves the house.
“If you’re honestly that dumb as to wonder why everybody is leaving you, you really need to sit down, think, and maybe even look in the mirror.” Matthew pipes up. “Because I can tell you now, you certainly aren’t the person you were before I got captured. You’re selfish. All of you are. You don’t think of Gwen, you don’t think of what’s going through her mind, you only think of yourself, and the need for this baby, you think of why you need the baby. Have you even stopped to think what will happen to Gwen when the time comes to give birth? News flash, the child will be born immortal. It will be born with all the strength Patrick possesses, it will be born blood thirsty, it will be born a monster. But before all that, It’ll kill her during labour.”
“No it wont.” Andy dismisses.
“Don’t be so ignorant.” Matthew scolds. “You watch, the moment she has to give birth, she’ll be killed, and the only one that will be capable of saving her will probably be Ryan.”
“My sister’s not becoming a monster.” Andy shakes his head. He comes over to Matthew at some speed, picks the boy up by the collar of his shirt, and looks him in the eye.
“Yes I am.” Comes an unexpected reply. Andy puts Matthew down now, and looks over to see Gwen stood with Patrick, each of them with a bag packed; and to Andy’s horror, she has puncture wounds to her neck.
“I can control myself.” Patrick tells him. “And I can protect Gwen. I promised you that, now you promise me something. Just watch over us. We’ll give you your baby, but we don’t want to be near you. Not right now. When the time comes, we’ll be back.”
“Gwennie-” Andy tries to stop them as they head over to the door.
“You have a guardian, a warlock and a seer Andy.” Gwen tells him. “Keep using them. But I won’t let you use me any more.”
With that, she and Patrick leave the house, and head off to the ford. Neither of them look back as they drive off. All Andy can do is watch as they disappear off into the distance, hoping that he really will be able to protect the couple from afar.
*
One month
*
Two months
*
Three months
*
Four months.
Four months. It’s a long time, and in that time, Andy has had no choice but to return to Wisconsin. With no sign of William and Ryan’s little gang following them. Unfortunately, Matthew couldn’t get a vision of them, or anything to do with them. It’s like Brendon has blocked him from being able to do so. The only conclusion Andy can come to is that they have followed Gwen and Patrick on the travels around the states. From what Matthew’s seen they’ve tried to stay in hot and sunny areas. Right now, they’re in a not so hot and sunny place, more like dull and rainy. They’re up in Washington, in some tiny motel in the middle of nowhere. Gwen is heavily pregnant, just as they expected her to be. The birth is imminent, but thanks to not being able to see the exact name of the place or the motel they are at, Andy, Joe, Spencer and Matthew can’t help them. That is until one night, when the phone rings and Spencer answers.
“Hello?” The teenager speaks. His eyes widen, his face visibly pales. “He’s not in, he’s, oh god, I, Rick where are you I need and address, I can get to you…..No, no I won’t bring him, it’ll just be me and Joe, I swear.”
Joe sits to attention now, and watches Spencer closely.
“Okay, Okay give me two minutes, I’ll get there I promise.” Spencer nods, and then ends the phone call.
“Well?” Joe asks.
“She’s in labour.” Spencer tells him. “William and everyone are literally right outside the motel room, they need help now. Joe, she was really screaming, and I mean not like scream screaming, but crying. I think she’s dying.”
“She is.” Joe confirms. “Come on, lets get me and you there.”
Matthew watches as the other two join hands and seemingly vanish right before his eyes. For a second he sits bolt upright on the couch, looking around as if to question everything that he’s just seen. But he decides to let it go. Instead he just goes back to studying History for a test he has coming up. It doesn’t seem right though, and although he knows he shouldn’t, because the three of them had decided between them to Keep Andy as far away from the birth of the child as possible, Matthew cannot shake the feeling that something is about to go horribly wrong. He puts the history book down, and reaches out for his phone; only he doesn’t reach it. Instead the phone goes flying across the room.
“What do you think you’re doing?” A playful and sinister sounding voice asks. Matthew’s heart begins to really thump loudly in his rib cage. He doesn’t want to look up, but he knows he has to. Ever so slowly he raises his head. He takes note of the boots at first, then the legs clad in black jeans, the topless torso, completely covered in very intricate red carvings that look like tattoos. Right the way up to see the person standing before him, even the face is covered in the markings, and the eyes are pure black.
“Brendon?” He asks, with and unsteady voice.
“Hey bro.” Brendon toys as he chews on gum. “Wanna play?”
Matthew doesn’t have time to respond, the young demon stood before him nods towards the wall and sends Matthew crashing into it. Brendon lets out a loud laugh, watching as Matthew attempts to get up, only for Brendon to use some sort of energy to force him back down.
“Oh my god Pete was right you are weak.” He chuckles. He watches as Matthew reaches out for his phone once more. Then he strides over, kneels down and snatches the phone away from Matthew.
“Oh I’m sorry, Andrew can’t take your call right now.” Brendon torments. “Of should I say you can’t make the call.”
“Please.” Matthew begs weakly.
“Nope.” Brendon chimes. “Any minute now, there’ll be a new baby in the world, and we are taking it.”
“No you’re not.” Matthew tells him. “Joe and Spencer won’t let you.”
“They don’t have a choice!” Brendon goads.
“Don’t we?” A new voice asks from behind the demon. Brendon turns now, and there before him, is Joe and Spencer, the former holding a tiny bundle in his arms.
“His name’s Jareth.” Spencer tells his former friend. “I dare you to try and take him.”
Brendon snarls, and goes to move, but finds himself seemingly glued to the spot.
“You forgot something.” Spencer tells him. “Before you sacrificed yourself, you made promises, and you can’t break those promises. So go, go back to where you came from. Now.”
Brendon doesn’t though, he won’t go anywhere, he doesn’t care about any promises he may have made, all he cares about now is getting that baby off of those two. When he does finally manage to break the force of Spencer holding him in place, he finds himself hit by another force. With a sudden push almost, Brendon finds himself flying backwards, until he is no longer in the house. It’s right at this moment that the front door opens, and Andy steps in, looking extremely down trodden, and broken. He says nothing, and takes no notice of the state of the room around him. He just goes straight to the stairs, and begins to go up… but then he stops, and turns.
“Is that?” He asks Joe and Spencer.
“Your nephew.” Joe confirms. “His name is Jareth.”
Andy comes hurrying over now, and takes the infant from Joe. He looks down at the child. He’s pale, like his father, has red eyes like his father, but a thin head of red hair, like his mother.
“And Gwen?” Andy asks. There’s no answer. There doesn’t need to be.
“I really did lose her?” He asks. Joe simply nods.
“There is one way she can um, well, you know.” Spencer offers.
“Yeah.” Andy nods with a sad tone in his voice. “But it means I’ll want to kill her when I next see her.”
With that, he takes the baby off upstairs with him, followed by Joe. It leaves Spencer to stand there and think.”Not if I can help it.”