Nick opened his eyes, the blinding light answered his question, no, he was not dead. He still felt the sharp pain in his shoulder that he had felt before he blacked out, but now the heat of the pain seemed to spread through the rest of his body, he felt nauseous, and his head was spinning. He closed his eyes from the bright light and tried to remember what had just happened. He had been walking home from the grocery story, his mom had sent him out for some milk and eggs, she was planning on making a surprise birthday cake for his little brother Frankie, but you kind of need non-chunky expired milk and fresh eggs to do so, and they had neither. Nick couldn't remember anything else, he didn't know if he had gotten the eggs, or made it back home before he collapsed from the pain in his shoulder. He opened his eyes again to try to find where he was, the yellowish light was coming from above, with everything else fading to black around him, as if he was under a street light. He looked at the ground that he was lying out on, gravel. He reached out and felt a brick wall just a foot away from his head. He was in some sort of ally way, that much he could tell, but why was he here?
Nick slowly sat up, pain shooting from his shoulder, originally, he thought it had been a gun shot, but looking at it now, it looked more like a bite mark. The blood around the bite had already dried, and he noticed the alley was slowly turning gray, as he realized he had been out the entire night. He examined the mark again, noting how it burned bright red, as if the attack had just occurred. Nick tried to move to stand up, but his body felt week, and the heat that spread from his wound made him tired and dizzy. He leaned his head up against the brick wall and felt the strange heat take over his body as he feel back to sleep.
Every time he felt like he was waking up again, the pain knocked him back out again, until the last time, when it had become a dull throb in his chest, he opened his eyes, the grimy streetlight wasn't on again, but it was dark, disabling his ability to tell whether it was night or day. For the first time, he noticed his clothes were soaked, and he saw the water puddles on the ground, it must've rained. But Nick wasn't cold. 'My bodies so numb with pain no wonder I can't feel the cold.' He thought as he tried to move his legs. They were stiff, as if he had been out for a while, and so were his arms, but nothing was broken, that was a plus. He looked as his shoulder, which barely hurt at all now. The same bright red color remained, but the wound had completely healed.
"What the hell?" Nick spoke aloud, his voice cracked, and his throat was dry, as if he were very thirsty. He slowly stood, holding on to the brick wall, but found quickly that the pain was going away, and that he could stand on his own. He took a couple steps toward the street, recognizing it to be the a few block's between his family's apartment and the grocery store. He walked out on to the sidewalk and started his way home when he spotted an old couple walking towards him.
"Excuse me, sir. Do you know the time?" his throat still burned with the thirst, but his main concern was hoping that he didn't look to much like a homeless person, that he would scare them off.
"Why, yes. It's eleven thirty-eight." He replied, clearly not bother by Nick's appearance.
"In the morning?" he asked startled, surly it was too dark for it to be midday, but the over cast day did explain his soaking wet clothes.
"Well, it certainly isn't night time!" the man looked slightly amused looking over Nick's apparel for the first time. "Son, what happened to your arm?"
Nick looked down to see the dried blood on his t-shirt. "Oh, that's nothing." He paused to take a breath, when he smelt it, he wasn't sure what he smelled but it made his throat burn even more as he opened his mouth to speak again. "Is it Thursday morning?" This time the little old lady stepped forward to speak.
"No, dear boy, its Friday morning, now have you lost your memory, or are you just a babbling drunk?" Nick let out a brief chuckle that made the woman jump slightly. When she did Nick was hit again with the powerful smell, but the lady smelt better than her husband, sweeter, richer. It didn't make sense to Nick, but he was suddenly very hungry.
"No ma'am, I'm not drunk, I just haven't been paying attention I guess." Nick chuckled again, he had no idea why he was so calm suddenly, he had just been attacked, or rather a few days ago, but it felt like only minutes ago. So why was he so calm and so freaking hungry? The wind blew, throwing a gust of aroma in Nick's face, and he felt himself hiss in responses. This seemed to startle couple as the man quickly wrapped his arm around his wife.
"We don't want any trouble now son!" the old man sounded frightened and angry. Nick would have put more thought into the man's strange new emotions, but he felt his throat hiss again as he smelt the strong scent of the lady hiding behind her husband. Nick felt his body tense as he began zone in on the lady, as the husband continued to speak.
"Quiet," he said to the man, "be quiet." He hadn't realized that he was backing the couple into the alley that he had just been attacked in, his strange new hunger was taking over, and the quickening pace of the old woman's heart beat was encouraging Nick forward. He noticed that lady was now the one talking, but he couldn't make out the words. It wasn't till later that he realized she had been saying "Why are you doing this? Why?" "Because I was hungry," Nick thought after a few moments. He looked down to see the two bodies, what had he done?He stood there for a while, just looking at what he had done, but he didn't understand. The couple, completely lifeless, lay there, the poor woman's eyes were closed, thank goodness, but the man was just staring, blankly at Nick.
"What happened?" his throat still burned, but with a different feeling, it wasn't from pain, or hungry like it had been before, but pleasure. "What am I?" Nick knew the answers, or at least he thought he did, there were no such things as vampires, but what else could he be? There was no other explanation. He dismissed the thought for a moment, washing his hands in a nearby puddle.
"Can I go home?" he spoke aloud, "Or would I just kill my family? They might already think I'm dead." Nick looked at the dead spouses,"No, I can't go back home, I can't go back home. "Nick continued to chant that in his mind as he slowly made his way out of the alley and on to the sidewalk again. This time he would stop for nothing and no one. He didn't know where he would go, or anything that would happen, but he couldn't risk going back to his family and killing them or putting them in danger.
Nick knew about a park with lots of hiking trails that he could hide in until… Until what? Until he died? Until the police found him? No, he would have to find someone else like him, another… another what was he? A Vampire? A Freak? A Monster? In the stories, a person had to be bitten by a vampire to become one that explained the bite mark on his shoulder, so that meant that there was another vampire around. That meant the monster that changed him was somewhere in New York. It would be impossible to find him. And what about the rules, could he sleep, would the sun kill him? Could he look at cross's and not burn? Could he read people minds like that girly book Twilight? He didn't know, but judge by the lack of other people's thought busting into his head, he doubted that last part was true. He wanted nothing more that to go home and let his mom comfort him like she always does after something bad happens, but he couldn't and right now, that was what was bothering him the most.
He stayed in old alley ways, hidden from people for the next two days, until a high prostitute stumbled upon him, literally asking if he liked to be bitten. And Nick was so hungry, he couldn't deny. He felt sick afterwards, feeling terrible for the girl and tried his best at respecting her body by covering her in news paper, but Nick new nothing could undo what he had done. He had killed three people, and he was only sixteen. He needed to find someone else like him, some help, but he didn't know where to look, so he hid deeper.
Nick had been hiding in different subway tunnels for the past few days. He was sure on exactly how many days had past because he hadn't looked at the sun since he was change. The young seventeen year old was scared that if he did he would turn to ash or worse, sparkle. There was a lot he learn with in those days under the subway, he did indeed have to sleep like the rest of the world, however he did find that he could fall asleep in the most uncomfortable places, once he found himself standing up, leaning on a wall, with his head on his shoulder, dazed and confused about where he was. Even thought he was completely dead to the world at time, when he was away his hearing, seeing in the dark, and scenes of smell had greatly improved, and for that he was extremely great full, because after not having eaten in a good number of days, he need to make sure someone wasn't walking into their death.
He was sitting in an entrance to a sewer, thinking about how he was going to eat next, or if he should just starve himself, when he heard a voice. Nick stilled. The voice spoke again, it was male, but the young boy couldn't make out what he was saying yet.
"Nick?" Nick jumped, startle by the closeness of the human, how had he not smelt him or heard his footsteps soon.
"Nicholas Jonas?" The male said again, and Nick realized, he was asking him a question.
"Y-yes" he stammers, his throat burned from hunger, but he couldn't smell anyone, couldn't hear the faint noise of breath that should be coming from the male.
"Ah, good! I knew I would find you, Garcia said I should have brought someone along, but I told her that-"
"What are you, and why can't I see you?" Nick asked confused, trying to find out from which direction the voice was coming from.
"You are very smart. You asked 'what' instead of 'who' most new recruits don't even recognize that I'm not human, but I see we have a smar-" the strange voice continued on.
"What are you?"
"Oh, right, of course." Suddenly a light flicked above them, and a form appeared in front of him. It was faint, like a silhouette, and slowly became darker, as it formed into a human. Then pop! A man, about four years older was standing in front of Nick.
"Hi, I'm Kevin," he stuck his hand out, Nick hesitated but then reached out to shake it, but it feel right though, "And I'm a ghost." Kevin chuckled at the last part; clearly he did that with most people he met.
"What? Ghosts aren't real, how are you here? How did you find me?' Right? That's probably what you are thinking. Well, I'm the recruiting agent for Torchwood Academy for the Specially Gifted, and I'm here to extend the offer of your enrollment. " Nick remained silent for Kevin's short speech.
"Specially gifted as in vampires and ghost?" Nick asked.
"Well, yes, but we also house werewolf's. "
"What? No witches or wizards?" Nick asked sarcastically.
"Oh, no. Torchwood is a school for individuals who were recently changed into a vampire, werewolf or ghost. Most witches and wizards are born knowing these facts. Torchwood helps young lost individual find a place to belong, and help them on their path to eternity."
"Path to eternity? You sound like the broacher for a cult." Nick laughed, he found himself growing strangely comfortable with Kevin.
"Never heard that one before," the ghosts replied dryly. "Okay, we have to go before it gets light outside, don't want for you to be burnt alive!"
"What? Is that what happens if I go out during the day?" Nick wondered.
"Ha! No, but that would be so cool wouldn't it? I mean in the most horrible way, no they will explain everything you need to know about being a vampire there at Torchwood. Now come on!" Kevin rushed.
There was a car parked out on the curb, Kevin motioned for him to get in on the driver's side.
"Aren't you driving?" Nick asked.
"I thought you were smart?" Kevin said as he walked through the car door a floated above the passenger seat.
"Oh, you can't drive. Well then how did you get here?"
"I can fly, I just can't take others with me."
"So, how did this car get here?" Nick wondered.
"Too many questions, Let's get going! Just because you don't melt in the sun, doesn't mean that the director of Torchwood doesn't want you in classes first thing tomorrow morning."
Nick was nervous, what had he just gotten himself into, he knew nothing about this place, this school called Torchwood, but he figured anything was better than living in a garbage bin for the rest of his life.