Anti-Venom

The sudden emptiness and clam is eerie as the three of them are left alone. For a moment, Gwen is focussed solely on herself and the pain and shock of what has just happened. However as she lays there she comes to the thought that hers is not the only life that's been completely turned upside down. Brendon, saw his brother again, a brother he never thought he'd ever see again; and once again they were torn apart. She may need help, but so does he.

She can't stand, she can actually barely move at all. But she makes it over there, and just lays next to Brendon, taking his hand.

He looks at her, and clasps her hand tightly. She tries to talk, but as she does so the front door opens again, and in steps her brother; the one person who could have stopped that attack. On the phone, and with a grocery bag in his arm he is unaware of the carnage that he has walked into, until he looks up and it hits him full in the face.

"Andy!" Gwen calls out and immediately he drops both the phone and the bag, and goes over to her. His initial reaction is panic. There is blood everywhere, and everything is smashed. Patrick lies in a heap on the floor, and across the room, Gwen and Brendon lay with blood pooling around them. Gwen's clothes and skin are badly burned, and she's covered from head to toe in blood and bruises. The boy next to her doesn't look too much better; however Gwen is awake and responsive, whereas Brendon is motionless, and just staring off into space.

"I'm so sorry." Andy begins to panic even more, and shakes his head in disbelief. "I'm so sorry, I thought you were safe I-"

"They did something to Patrick." Gwen cries as Andy picks her up and holds her in his lap. "It hurts so much."

"Brendon!" Spencer's voice calls out now. Andy turns and looks up to see the warlock over in the doorway, back from his training session with Joe. He hurried across the room now, then drops to the floor and slides the rest of the way over to Brendon's side.

"Spencer you need to calm down." They all hear Joe speak as he too enters the house, and very swiftly shuts the door behind him.

"Brendon, come on!" Spencer begs as he checks his friend over, and works quick to close the wounds the vampires had created; if only he'd seen that the scars from previous attacks were gone. That's when he sees Gwen, and the state that she's been left in.

"Spencer calm." Joe instructs. "Remember what we just did."

Spencer nods and takes a breath to calm himself down. It doesn't eliminate the shock, or the shaking, but it enables him to see and think more clearly.

"Give me your hand." He tells Gwen. Weakly, Gwen reaches out and takes Spencer's hand, and feels what she can only understand to be a type of energy flow through her. It hurts all over again now, but in a different way. It goes from a feeling of extreme pain, to a feeling of dull pain, an ache that she can cope with just about. She feels the burn cool down, and relaxes against her brother a little bit, while Spencer closes her wounds, and soothes the burning feeling.

"There's no baby." Spencer tells Andy with a calm yet shaking voice, "It's been ripped out."

Andy simply nods, and looks down to his sister who he holds in his lap. She still holds Brendon's hand, and looks at him before she tells the room; "He saw his brother."

"What?" Joe asks.

"Matthew was here." Gwen speaks almost in a whisper. "William came. He had Matthew. He told Brendon save the baby or save Matthew. He made the right choice." Gwen tells her brother, who clearly disagrees; but isn't going to argue.

"Joe take Gwen." Andy instructs. Joe simply nods, and comes forward then to pick Gwen up, and take her to hers and Patrick's room. He tucks her into bed, and sits with her for a little while; checks her over, and gives her some more pain relief.

"You don't have to be brave Gwen." He tells her.

She simply shrugs and shakes her head. "You know, growing up I used to read stories about the devil having a son all the time. Only in all the stories he's called Damien. But Ryan's so much worse than any Damien I've ever read about."

"I've dealt with both him and his father." Joe tells her. "Separately of course because the two have never actually met. Ryan hasn't met either of his parents in person, so I often wonder if that's what makes him so destructive. I wonder if he were to ever meet his father, if his human side would take over, and he'd show a weakness."

"As they left, William said Andy could get to Ryan's human side." Gwen tells Joe, who looks surprised to hear such a statement. He asks if she's sure and she nods. He helps her to sleep then, and leaves the room.

When he gets back to the living room, Andy has Patrick sat up on one of the two black sofas, with a blood pouch in his hand, and is also patching up Spencer's arm; meaning that the blood Patrick is drinking has just been taken straight from Spencer. Brendon is led propped up on the other sofa, however his eyes are closed and his skin is extremely pale.

"We did something." Andy grumbles, which is when Joe notices the tiny dribble of blood on Patrick's wrist.

"Will he..."

"No." Patrick tells him. "He just needed the boost. Still human."

"He needs to rest." Andy tells Joe." If I move him back next door now, he'll not have the energy to recover. He needs to just stay here. And me and you need to have a talk with the pastor."

"The houses were supposed to be safe." Joe replies.

"Yes but they have Brendon's brother with them, which means they can cross the threshold of either of these two houses." Andy tells him. "How's my sister?"

"The shock hasn't set in yet." Joe tells him, and watches as a tear falls from Patrick's eye.

"You did well to resist them Rick." Joe tells him, but the vampire shakes his head. It wasn't good enough. Just resisting the urge to go back to them is nowhere near good enough.

"I should have protected her." He grumbles, then scrunched up the pouch and throws it to the floor. "I promised I'd protect her and I couldn't. I broke the promise!"

"Patrick there's a difference between couldn't and didn't." Andy tells him. "You literally couldn't protect her. They knew your weaknesses and that meant that you couldn't protect her. You haven't broke your promise."

"I did!" Patrick insists. "So why am I not dead?"

"Because your didn't break the promise." Andy again insists.

"One day I swear I'm going to rip that kids heart out and...." Patrick starts, but stops as he feels light headed.

"You putting him to sleep?" Joe asks Spencer, who nods and then gets up and goes over to Brendon.

"Hey." He whispers in Brendon's ear, and the boy wakes up. He looks at Spencer confused, and then looks to Joe and Andy; and back to Spencer again.

"Oh my god." Spencer says as he looks to his friend, eyes widening.

"What?" Andy asks, intrigued now.

"Spence?" Joe asks.

"How?" Spencer asks the boy led propped up on the sofa.

"What am I doing here?" The boy asks.

"Shit." Andy declares. "Brendon you okay?"

"What?" The boy asks as he looks round frantically.

"Oh crap." The realisation hits Andy, and finally Joe sees it.

"But if he's here then where's.... shit." Andy stutters and realises, just as the boy sat on the sofa seems to go rigid, and comes out of it seconds later. He cries out no, and looks around at the people surrounding him.

"Brendon!" The boy calls out and jumps up, only to be grabbed and held down by all three around him. "No, no let me go he won't survive it, he won't make it he-"

"Is no longer human." Andy speaks with a dominating voice. "Now I don't know how he switched you two places, but he has."

"How do you know he's not-" the boy, who is now clearly not Brendon goes to ask.

"Because you had a vision just then and it scared the crap out of you." Andy replies. "You're a lot easier to read than Brendon, always were. I know what was in that vision. Brendon's no longer human, there's no point in you wasting your energy trying to go to wherever it is they're staying at because he isn't human, he no longer shares your values, he no longer cares."

"Why did he do it?" They boy asks as he backs down, and becomes enveloped in hugs. He doesn't get an answer though, as all just fall silent, realising that the game has changed completely now, and that things are about to become a whole lot harder.