It had been nearly three weeks since the incident with the Lucifractor. Three weeks since any incident in general. The blast had been chalked up to be some sort of shifting of tectonic plates directly beneath the town, something the townsfolk had lapped up in a second. No matter how many times it happened, Ethan would never be able to understand people's ability to ignore what was directly in front of them. Not that he was complaining.
Ethan peered out of the corner of his eye at the two girls talking a few lockers down. Sarah and Erica. He sighed deeply as he pulled a worn text book from his locker, not even bothering to check if it was the correct one.
Benny nudged him gently in the shoulder, "Just talk to her." He nodded in Sarah's direction.
"I told you, after that date Sarah and I agreed to just be friends." Ethan murmured solemnly, tearing his gaze from the brunette.
Benny rolled his eyes before pulling a calculus text book from Ethan's locker and handing it to him. Ethan looked down in his bag to find he had grabbed his book for history. Oh.
"By 'agreed' you mean you've avoided the subject and pretended like nothing happened." Benny turned to look directly at his friend, "You know," he started to smirk, "if you want I can make another love potion. I think I know what I did wro-"
"No!" Ethan interrupted quickly, "Benny, please, do you remember what happened last time? I don't know about you, but I'm not exactly eager to be your grandma's servant again."
Benny shuddered, "Point taken."
Silence lapsed between them. Ethan could tell Benny wanted to say more but was hesitant to push, and he couldn't help but feel guilty for it. It wasn't his fault that Ethan was such a wimp.
"So," Benny started, "I was wondering, did you want to watch that new Space Gladiators movie tonight?"
"A new one? Didn't they release one a year ago?" Ethan silently thanked Benny for changing the subject.
Benny let out a short laugh, "Yeah, they were working on multiple movies at the same time. It was supposed to boost sales or something."
"I don't see why not then, it's not like I have anything else to do."
They continued to talk as they walked towards their Calculus class down the hall, barely acknowledging the bell.
Once again Ethan found himself unable to think of anything to say as they passed by Sarah. There was a brief moment of eye contact before he anxiously glanced away, not wanting to deal with another barrage of thoughts. He felt her gaze on him for a few more moments before being dragged along by Erica. He grimaced and continued to shuffle behind his own friend, who was still ranting about the newest movies. Ethan didn't take any time notice Benny's pitiful glances.
If there was one thing Sarah didn't have a lot of, it was friends. After Jesse had turned her there just hadn't been as much of a drive to be social any more, and a lot of the original cliques she used to hang out with slowly faded from her mind. Although she'd never admit it to Erica, Ethan and Benny were some of her best friends. So after weeks of barely uttering only a few sentences to them, she was starting to get a little bit impatient.
Obviously Ethan wasn't going to approach her, and Sarah wasn't sure she could take another day of awkward glances and unspoken words, especially when she was required to babysit only to find out Ethan had left for Benny's house minutes before she arrived. Even if the date hadn't exactly been an enjoyable experience, she didn't want it to destroy her friendship with Ethan. His company was something she had come to appreciate. In what way, well that's what she was still figuring out.
This irritation continued to persist in the back of her mind up until lunch. She didn't bother to suppress a loud sigh as she slid into a seat next to Erica.
"The geeks are over there." Erica pointed nonchalantly to a table at the end of the cafeteria, not even bothering to look up.
Sarah gave her friend a dubious glance, "How did you—"
"Sarah, I know you. Personally I don't know why it's so important to you, and I don't really care," it was obvious in her voice that she did, "but trust me, you're going to have to talk to him at some point. Might as well do it now."
Sarah found herself unable to think of a retort. Nervously she glanced towards their table, where Benny was scarfing down a hot dog while Ethan picked at a small portion of macaroni and cheese.
"I guess you're right." she murmured. Pushing away all negative thoughts she lifted her chin, "Okay. I'll do it."
Erica didn't say anything, but Sarah caught the slight quirk of her lips as she made her way across the cafeteria. No matter how hard she tried to hide it, Erica really did care.
Neither of the two geeks noticed her until she was standing directly in front of the table. Ethan's eyes visibly widened and she refrained from biting her lip. A nervous habit she thought she had dropped back in middle school but sometimes still persisted.
"Hey Sarah!" Benny greeted her as he continued sloppily chewing the remains of his hot dog.
Ethan glared at his friend, "Benny!"
"Hey." She smiled and let out a breathy laugh at their familiar antics. Still grinning she turned to face Ethan, "Can I talk to you for a moment?"
At her words he seemed to freeze, as if slowly processing what she said, "Oh, um," he set down his fork, "sure." He smiled nervously at Benny for getting up and following her into the hallway.
They looked at one another for a moment. When it became obvious Ethan wasn't going to say anything she opened her mouth. "Listen, I know it's been a bit weird lately," his awkward smile grew more strained, "but I really don't want us to stop being friends because of a few mix ups."
She waited expectantly for a response. "Y-yeah. I agree."
"So I was thinking," their eyes were now directly trained on one another, "how about we just start over. Pretend it never happened. If that would make things easier, of course."
Ethan's eyes shone brightly, "I'm sorry about—"he began to shift from foot to foot, "I mean I didn't—"she watched as he struggled to find the right words, "I think that's a great idea."
"Perfect." Sarah smiled at him. He smiled back.
"Well, um, I guess I'll see you later then?" his lips were now back in a familiarly awkward curve, "You're still babysitting Friday right?"
"Yep. Apparently your parents are going bowling again. Hopefully it goes better than last time."
"Awesome." She couldn't help but let her smile grow. "Uh, goodbye."
"See you." She gave a slight wave as he walked back towards his table, where a portion of his pasta had mysteriously disappeared. Who would've known that all it would take was a few simple words to reignite their friendship. Finally it seemed like things were going to return to normal.
Ethan felt great. Sarah and he were friends again, and although it wasn't exactly where he had hoped things would go, it was a hell of a lot closer than he'd been two days ago. For once things seemed to be going great, and in that moment it felt like nothing could ruin his mood.
"Oh." He muttered as he looked through his bag.
Benny glanced over at him. They had just passed the edge of the school limits, wanting to get home as soon as possible. "What's wrong?"
"Ah, I just forgot my chemistry homework. I think it's still in Mr. Thompson's room." Ethan zipped up his bag exasperatingly.
"He's probably still in there, just hurry up and go get it. Make it quick though, I want to go home and watch me some Space Gladiators IV: The End of the Beginning." He muffled his voice with his hand as he uttered the name of the movie in his most masculine voice, which sounded uncannily similar to Bane.
"Okay, I'll be back in a few minutes. You can go ahead without me." Ethan gave a quick farewell before heading back towards the school building. Hopefully he wasn't too late.
When he arrived in the classroom it seemed as if Mr. Thompson had already left. By a stroke of luck he had forgotten to lock the door and Ethan was able to easily slip in and search his desk. He grasped around inside for the familiar crinkling of paper.
"Looking for something?" Ethan spun around at the calm and familiar voice.
"Jesse." He whispered hoarsely. After the incident with the Lucifractor Jesse had disappeared. At the time he had viewed it as a blessing, but now he couldn't help but question what exactly the vampire had been doing for the past few weeks.
Gathering his bearings he cleared his throat before speaking again, "I thought you left Whitechapel."
"Did you now?" He grinned, showing off a pair of fangs, "I figured I would pay you a little visit first. Settle some things before I left this crappy little town." Ethan cringed as Jesse tossed a pile of papers onto the desk beside him with amazing precision. His chemistry homework.
It didn't take much for Ethan to start shaking. Normally he at least had Benny with him, or had time to prepare for a fight. Right now he was alone and completely unarmed. Without anything to defend himself he didn't stand a chance against a two hundred year-old vampire.
"What do you want?" he asked shakily, internally cursing at how weak he sounded.
"In case you weren't aware, vampire's tend to hold grudges." He took a step toward Ethan, the human immediately taking another step back. His calm expression was quickly replaced by one of malice and vengeance, "Because of you and your sad excuse of meat I'll never see my flock again. Not only that but Sarah, who I turned with the complete intent of making her mine, now despises me and refuses to hold so much as a single conversation."
Ethan grit his teeth, "Pretty sure that's your own fault."
Jesse hissed spitefully and Ethan instantly regretted ever opening his mouth, "Is that what you think?"
Jesse took another step forward and Ethan tried shift backwards, laminated wood now pressing sharply against his back. "I think that this is all your fault. You were the one who ruined all my plans," the vampire was now only a few feet away from him, "you destroyed any chance at redeeming my relationship with Sarah, even though it was pretty damn obvious she would never truly care about you," Jesse was practically spitting in his face at this point, "in fact, the way I see it, things would be a lot better around here if you never existed in the first place."
Ouch. That stung a bit.
Jesse grinned again and this time Ethan truly began to shake. He'd seen people look furious before but his expression was one of pure, manic anger. They were now standing face to face, with Ethan staring directly into Jesse's unstable, gold eyes.
"If I hadn't done anything you would've killed more people. Innocent people who did nothing wrong."
The air was empty for a moment before Jesse broke out into another psychotic grin, "You really hate seeing people hurt, don't you?"
Ethan didn't even bother trying to respond. He could tell by the look in Jesse's eyes that it wasn't really a question.
"I want to leave this town knowing I was successful in at least one thing." He snarled, "And that is making your life absolutely miserable."
Ethan lamely tried to duck beneath Jesse's arm, only to have his own pinned painfully against the desk. He gasped in shock before being throne across the room with the same precision as his chemistry homework, slamming directly into the opposing wall with the grace of a rag doll.
"This is just too easy." Jesse whispered gleefully as he approached the wounded teen, who could only choke in pain from the impact. The vampire hadn't even tried to hold back, leaving a fresh dent in the wall were Ethan had landed, along with a few drops of blood. Ethan didn't have to touch his head to know it was bleeding profusely.
The room had already begun to blur when he felt cold hands grip his arm with enough strength to at least bruise, if not crush his bones. His pupils traced Jesse's cold smile before it opened and revealed the vampire's true intentions. Ethan faintly registered the pain of two teeth ripping through his skin and into a large vein, warm liquid spilling onto his chest and seeping into his jacket. There was nothing delicate in Jesse's actions.
Suddenly he was being overtaken by heat. Pain started at the base of his wrist and crawled its way down his arm, along his spine, taking over every vein as body. His lungs burned and tears clouded his already failing vision.
There was a small rustling as Jesse pulled an object from his jacket. Ethan was only able to catch a quick glimpse of something orange and needle-like before his vision disappeared altogether, swallowed by the pain that now filled every aspect of his body.
"Until we meet again." Jesse's lips pressed up against his ear as another pin prick sliced through Ethan's wrist. Definitely a needle. He didn't have time to wonder what its purpose was before being swallowed by another wave of pain, this time his taking his consciousness down with it.