He couldn't move his feet. They were firmly locked in place, and for one brief moment he agitatedly wondered if Sam had done something stupid like wrap his bed with saran wrap while he was sleeping...but then he wouldn't be able to move anything. He also felt a little odd, like he was hanging upside…
Michael's eyes snapped open at once, when it all came flooding back to him. "Shit!" He mentally yelped, almost losing his hold on the rusted pipe his toes were firmly locked around. He unclasped his arms from his chest and stared down at the ground helplessly...If he fell, it probably wouldn't be very pretty.
"Take it easy, Michael." David's voice rang out from beside him, "You're fine, don't freak out."
"You sleep like this?!" He exclaimed, confident that at any second his feet were going to give out on him and send him plummeting gracelessly into a broken heap, his guts and entrails spread across the cave floor. They were very high up.
Marko let out a snort, "So do you." He rolled his eyes, releasing his feet and floating down, "Did you forget you can fly?"
David shot the little one a glare, "Best sleep you've ever gotten though, isn't it?"
That threw him for a loop. Momentary shock aside, it actually was pretty comfortable. And from the vague recollection he had of settling up there for the day, he knew he hadn't even once woken up from restlessness or bad dreams. Hell, he hadn't had any dreams at all, "...yeah…"
"So, now that we have that settled, let's hop down for the day." David released his feet, flipping over to hover beneath him, "I'll be right here, let go and I'll catch you if I need to, deal?"
Paul left his perch next, intentionally flying close enough to Michael to nearly knock him off, and laughing when the younger vampire threw out a fist to try and catch him in the jaw, just barely dodging a fairly solid right hook. Michael glared at him, swinging himself up to grip his hands around the pipe and release his feet from their locked position, which wasn't too difficult given his supernatural strength and the fact that he'd regularly lifted weights since he was in Junior high.
He watched Dwayne take flight next, landing just beside Marko down below, before he finally let go and slowly descended to the ground to join them.
David smirked, "Wasn't so hard, was it?" He paused, "How're you feeling?"
He shrugged, hooking his thumbs into his belt loops. Honestly, he didn't feel much of anything. The mild shock of waking up dangling from a pipe aside, the most emotion Michael could summon up was a very mild sense of hunger pricking at the edges of his thoughts, and maybe just a little bored. Everything else...that well of depression he'd been drawing from lately, the temper he'd barely been holding in check...he didn't feel any of it. "I feel fine...I guess…"
Michael glanced upwards. It really had been a very long descent…"how did they manage to get to Marko all the way up there?" He honestly couldn't believe his little brother, or his idiot friends were capable of it. Their combined upper body strength alone was laughable.
"We were in a different spot when those idiots showed up." David stated, "Didn't expect you to show them our place."
"They were trying to save me," Michael replied defensively, though he couldn't help the mild sense of guilt nagging at the back of his mind. Now that he'd finally made a kill, shedding his humanity, it had been replaced with an odd sense of instinctive loyalty to David and the boys. He really couldn't even begin to comprehend killing any of them now to protect his own skin. "...how are you even alive now?" He drew back, eyeing David up and down, "I killed you…" it sounded like an accusation and an apology at the same time. So maybe it was a little bit of both.
The bleach blonde took that moment to light up a cigarette, "Magic." He smirked.
Paul and Marko exchanged looks, snickering together. Michael glanced between them and Dwayne, who looked just as amused, though he remained silent. "You guys are dicks," he snapped, untucking his thumbs from his belt loops and looking around for an exit.
David chuckled but it was Marko who spoke, "Aww, don't be like that man!"
The bleach blonde walked past the brunette, making his way to the exit, "Let's go, time to show Michael the night life."
He frowned, "we're not getting Chinese food, are we?"
"I do love rice," Dwayne snarked.
"You're one of us now, no more tests." He paused, "Doesn't mean we can't have some fun though." David stepped out into the lobby, "Maybe we should let you pick what we do tonight." He grinned, "Nah, Dwayne, your turn."
Hands tucked into his pockets, Dwayne skipped up to the edge of the fountain and balanced his feet on the edge, slowly circling it with a thoughtful look on his face. "Haven't hassled any locals lately," he mused, tossing his hair back over his shoulder, "they got a new tunnel ride on the boardwalk...be pretty fun to start up a few new stories," he smirked.
Marko made kissy faces at him, "Gonna go in there with Paulie and scar some kids for life?"
Their leader ignored him, "Alright, tunnel ride it is." He paused, "And if anyone's going in there with Paul, it's you, Marko."
Paul snorted, "nah, man, I wanna grab some tits tonight…" he made lewd gestures with his hands, grinning. "Don't need a shrimpy little fuck cramping my style, thanks."
Michael had a hard time believing any chick would willingly go into a dark tunnel with Paul unless she was seriously mental. Or hammered. Maybe both. Hell, they were all pretty off-putting. He didn't doubt he was now, too. It didn't take long for all of them to get settled onto their bikes and headed toward town. Michael was sure that Dwayne had to have something specific in mind for scaring people in the tunnel ride and in all honesty he was excited to see what he had in store.
"We keep clear of that comic book shop, I don't want them knowing we're still around." David's voice rang through his head. If he weren't focusing on the path ahead of them, he would have given the blonde a very confused look. How was that even possible? He vaguely recalled the night he'd almost attacked his little brother, when the boys had surrounded the house with their bikes, and then disappeared in a near instant...he'd heard David's voice calling out to him in his head then, too…
"...The fuck, man?" He hesitantly thought, unsure whether or not David would hear it.
"Bravo, Michael!" He chuckled out loud, "First time and already has it figured out."
"All you need now is potty training, and you'll be on your wa-" Marko began, and Michael made a mental note to kick the shit out of him later if he got the chance. Apparently he got the memo, because he didn't finish his sentence.
Paul let out an excited cackle, which quickly morphed into a howl echoing into the night sky. The sound alone was enough to draw equally energetic responses from the rest, and Michael had to admit it felt amazing joining in. Like the act alone was enough to send an extra jolt of adrenaline rushing through his veins, sending them all quicker across the beach dunes. He wasn't sure if he'd ever felt this amazing, and more than ever he actually felt like this was where he belonged.
They didn't stop at the boardwalk, in fact, they didn't park their bikes any where near it. David didn't want to draw too much attention to them until they were ready. Plus, those annoying little pricks could be just about anywhere...you just needed to follow where the corn chip stench was the strongest. It was Dwayne who led them to the new ride, a tribute to every single schlocky drive-through feature rolled into one premature Halloween ejaculation. It was tacky. It was, in essence, more terrifying than any of the Lost Boys could hope to be, because it reminded the world just how awful drug-induced designs can go so terribly wrong.
"...This is new," Michael remarked, squinting at the growing line trailing halfway to the ferris wheel. "You actually want to go in there?" He quirked an eyebrow at Dwayne, seriously beginning to question his sanity.
Dwayne grinned, "Oh, yeah, yes, yes we do. We are going in there and we are going to scare the shit out of them."
Paul glanced over at a small group of children climbing into one cart, their mother taking a seat behind them, "oh...happy meals…"
Marko grinned widely, "Oh, they're the best, I want them."
David glanced around, taking in the ride, "Alright, there's a backway in."
It only took a few well-timed smiles from the boys, and a bit of eyebrow wiggling from Marko for people to pretty much turn the other way while they slipped through the crowd towards an orange painted door disguised as a tooth in a very large jack-o-lantern mural. Dwayne smirked, coming up into an area where fake coffins and even faker vampires were set up.
"Perfect." He grinned wildly at the others as he looked around the corner, "And here come the kiddies."
Sticky fingers plastered in bits of melting cotton candy, gleeful giggles and incessant chatter hailed their arrival as the carts slowly rolled around on their track towards where the boys were getting ready.
Marko hastily climbed under a pile of discarded rubber body parts, snickering to himself, giving Paul a swift kick to find his own hiding spot. He hissed down at him, and very nearly snatched up a leg to smack him with, when the others gave him a quick warning look.
Michael knelt beside a fake vampire which was half-slung back into his fake coffin, as if they'd barely even finished setting up for the ride, "people pay to come here? Really? This is just stupid."
David took his spot, front and center, taking a moment to cut his throat lightly so blood spilled down, "Yeah, but it means more fun for us." He grinned.
The cart came around the corner, slowing down to a stop in front of them. Immediately they went into action, David slid forward, sliding bloody fingers down the side of the cart. Widened little eyes, and even a pair of sticky fingers tried to push him away, their shrieks of delight immediately turning to something far more reminiscent of real fear.
Marko was next, dragging himself out from beneath the pile of fake body parts, face gaunt and grimacing while his very real fangs dribbled saliva over his chin, and he snatched a distracted Paul's ankle to sink his teeth deep into the flesh. Paul shrieked, trying to kick him off, and the screams from the cart grew even louder as his face, too, took on its vampiric shape and he rounded on them with a tremendous hiss. Dwayne slid into the cart behind them, roaring in their ears before hopping backwards as the cart began to move again.
Left to finish off their performance, Michael knew he probably wouldn't live it down if he didn't pull it off with a grande finale, so what could he do? With a flourish, he leapt onto the tracks and slammed his hands on the front of the lead cart, digging his fangs into his tongue until his mouth filled with his own blood, to let it drip down his chin while he climbed forward onto the hood of the laboring cart, grinning at the oldest-looking kid in the group. Maybe twelve, or maybe ten…
Lifting one clawed hand, he reached forward to brush a strand of hair from the little girl's face, drawing closer until they were inches away from each other, and his blood dripped into her cotton candy…
"...Boo."
Their screams were loud enough to shake the dirt from the rafters, and high enough to break glass, long after the boys were left behind, and Michael had wiped the blood from his chin. As he watched them disappear from the tunnel, very likely prepared to carry this memory bottled up in their little hearts until it came out through crippling alcoholism in their high school years, he wondered whether he should try to feel empathy...or something...he probably would have. The old Michael, anyway. And even though it had only been about a day, he wasn't really sure he even understood what it felt like anymore. The way he used to think was almost alien to him now.
They hid amongst a few other decorations and scenes in the tunnel, never lingering in one part longer than a few minutes, and only leaping out to really give the kids in particular a good scare. The point was for nobody to believe they were actually there. It was the most fun Michael had in...well...ever. He didn't once notice the oddly intent look on David's face as the blonde watched him.
David settled back into his chair, well, he saw it as a throne. A lot had happened over the past month. They had gone from dead to alive within a few days, honestly he never wanted to go through that again. He wondered where the original plan had gone wrong, idly flicking the edge of his cigarette. Had it been the first hunt, perhaps? Admittedly, it was the threatening way Michael had demanded to know about Star that prompted him to do it. The brunette had seemed so very ready then, angry...unknowingly anxious to feed. So what had stopped him? Was it that lingering humanity, the thought of his human family, or did he think he was a good boy?
Good boys didn't drink themselves into stupors with vampire bikers. No, there was something inside Michael, no matter how much he might try to deny it. An intangible darkness, an instinct to kill...the same thing he'd seen in all the others. The same thing Max had thought to tame, and only ended up getting burned for his stupid fucking efforts.
Michael yawned, his fangs catching in the wavering light from the oil barrels nearby. None of them bothered to wear their human masks when they weren't playing a role for someone and Michael had taken to it naturally as well. Their newest member was perfect. He was a predator and now that he could no longer deny it, things were looking up. Now they just had to get him past the initial 'where'd my humanity go' phase. It wasn't so much a matter of actually missing your humanity, it was merely the fact that it was gone. Best to take their time. David hadn't gotten that luxury as a fledgling, he had been thrust right into the thick of things and Max wasn't going to win sire of the year. No love was lost on the asshole. His ashes deserved their spot in the Emerson garden, and none of them were inclined to bring him back even if they could.
It was a stroke of luck, magic, that made it possible for David and Marko to survive. Recovery was the hardest part but they'd all made it back to full health, more or less, in the span of a week. All that was left after that was waiting for Michael to come around. The brunette was filled with so much self loathing it was hard not to notice. It was easy for David to give him a little push. He hadn't done anything to suggest he commit suicide, he hadn't even manipulated his thoughts, all he'd done was help them grow and fester. If he'd done the same to Star, he didn't doubt she'd have cracked in the first week. She didn't matter anymore though, he had his prize, that's what Michael was, a prize, his reward for sticking it out.
One month ago…
"C'mon, Sam, let's go to bed. Grandpa says we can clean up in the morning," Michael's muffled voice, distant. Barely audible.
"We're willing to negotiate a six month period payment plan, starting in…" one of those comic book geeks began to ramble, his voice fading completely as they all no doubt left.
David could feel the horns through his chest, could feel each painful prong, but he also knew they were still around. He could hear them moving. He knew he'd been moved, moreover he knew where, outside. As if having a set of antlers through the chest wasn't bad enough, sunlight was far worse.
Slowly, he opened his eyes, looking around. Where were the others? A soft hiss escaped his lips as he tried to pull himself off. A wave of nausea overtook him as his lifeblood spilled out onto the ground, christening and baptizing any manner of insect that might be burrowed under the earth around him. A groan of pain escaped his lips as he finally managed to pull himself free. It fucking hurt, he couldn't ever remember feeling anything as bad as this. Not hunger or starvation, not being whipped bloody for back talking daddy, no, horns through the chest was at the top of his list for pain.
As much as he'd like to indulge in colorful thoughts of revenge, he didn't have the time to linger on them. More than just the agony, too, he felt something else...a surge of power suffusing his muscles, numbing the greater parts of the pain enough to give him the strength to finish the task at hand. It seemed like Max's death had some perks aside from just being rid of him. It took most of the night to get Paul and Dwayne's remains back to the hotel. He wasn't going to just leave them in the Emerson's back yard. Out of them all, Marko was the luckiest. He'd at least managed not to die, despite the massive gaping wound left in his chest just below where his heart nestled. An inch further up and he wouldn't have made it.
David laid himself out on the ground. He'd have to feed and soon, but right now he just wanted to close his eyes and rest. It was Marko who brought him food, the little bastard had managed to heal up enough that he was able to go out. It wasn't the best meal, some junkie...but the buzz was welcome right now, despite the shitty taste.
"I think we should kill them all," Marko grumbled, digging his thumb claw into a rat's neck and spilling the contents over Dwayne's aligned body parts. He wasn't strong enough right now to bring back multiple people to revive their packmates, so this would have to do for the time being. So far, it looked like his torso was at least re-attaching itself to his legs.
"Hmm." David let out a thoughtful grunt, "Not sure about that…" He was thinking of Michael, of course he was, the brunette was the only worthwhile one out of the bunch of would be killers, "Most of them though."
He had enough sense not to argue with his pack leader. At any rate, their initiations were sacred to them, and not something to be taken lightly. Michael had made it through and David wasn't inclined to let him off easy. No, death was too good, and he really wanted to unleash that darkness within him.
"What're you thinking about, Marko? Honestly." He leaned back against the fountain, looking up at the ceiling.
The shorter vampire stood up, tossing the rat carcass onto a small, but ever-growing pile of vermin. There was no shortage of them in the hotel. "I'm thinking it's gonna be a hell of a ride once others start figuring out Max is gone. You think we're ready to start keeping an eye out for them? I'm pretty fucking sure they're gonna be sniffing around sooner or later…"
"Gotta recover first and then we can worry about interlopers." He laid a hand on one of the closing wounds in his chest, "Fuck, it hurts."
Present day...1987…
"Sam? You alright, buddy?"
He jerked up from his textbook, blinking up at the rest of the study group, "uh...yeah, yeah...did I do something?"
Jake, the only other guy in the group, leaned forward across the library table to tap Sam's book, "your turn to read, guy. Or we're gonna be here all night. Can't get pizza if we don't finish the chapter…"
He'd been thinking about Mike. He hadn't shown up at the house last night. Or even today before he hitched a ride with his classmates to the library to cram for their upcoming English test. He really hoped his brother hadn't done something stupid. That's what kind of got the whole family in a mess the last time, honestly. Maybe he'd found another girlfriend or something…
"I want pizza. Hurry it up, Emerson," Alex popped her gum and rolled her eyes, glancing down at their plastic orange nails and picking at the sides close to her cuticles.
As he read the passage from Gatsby aloud, he barely even focused on the words. Why couldn't things just go back to normal? At least he was doing normal things, study group, new people, he could make a new start of this, a good start. No more vampires. No more hunters. Life could just go on.
Okay, so maybe there were a couple of hunters, and maybe he'd thought about possibly joining them in cleaning out the city, but so far all he'd done was gotten himself in trouble with nothing to show for it but a police record and a very angry mom.
"Sam! SAM! Are you in here?!" Speak of the devil, Alan was tearing around the corner of one of the bookshelves with sweat dripping down his shirt like he'd just run a marathon, and wild bug-eyes. Ed was nowhere in sight, but he was definitely screaming loud enough on the other side of the library for everyone to hear him.
Sam cringed, hiding behind his book, this was exactly what he didn't need. Maybe if he ignored him he'd go away. He could feel several pairs of eyes boring into him in shock.
"Listen, Sam...kids on the boardwalk…" Alan panted, gripping his sides and glancing over at Alex, "oh...hey Alex…" he attempted to draw himself up into a full standing position, but he was too exhausted, and instead ended up kneeling to the ground to grip at his chest, "it's...seeing stuff...at the new ride...vampi-"
Ed ran by behind him, yelling bloody murder as the librarian chased him through the building.
"No, no, I'm done, none of this crap anymore." He bit out, his voice a low hiss, "I can't deal with it."
Alan stood back up, "Sam...ya gotta listen…" he gasped, pressing his hand into his side and cringing, "you're one of us, remember? We practically made an oath! We don't know how many we could be dealing with!"
The rest of the study group whispered to each other, giving Sam very odd looks.
Sam glared at them, "Just, leave me alone."
The Frog brother scowled at him just as the librarian returned, dragging a struggling Edgar by the collar, and wrapping a bony hand around one of Alan's arms. "...thought you were different, man…" he called behind him. "Just like the rest of them…"
He shook his head, right now he could deal with it, this was for the best, he could move forward, go on with his life. So maybe vampires did exist...and maybe, hell, maybe there might even be more out there, if grandpa was right when he said something to that effect...but he really didn't want to have to talk to a shrink for the rest of his life. Or piss off the local police again...which might happen, if he kept hanging out with the Frog brothers. He wanted things to just be normal again, like in Phoenix, okay, maybe not just like in Phoenix but close enough.
"Friends of yours?" Jake asked, an amused smirk on his lips, as he glanced towards the librarian marching with the Frog brothers towards the exit door.
"He sits with them at lunch a lot," Alex remarked, popping her gum again and lifting up her book, "god, this is soooooo boring. Do we seriously have to read the whole thing?"
"Not anymore they're not." He grumbled, "Let's call it the stupidity of youth and leave it at that."
Man...he knew he was doing the right thing...but why did he feel like such a jerk?
Michael took a hit and passed to Dwayne, holding the smoke in his mouth and trying to think past the pleasant cottony cloud jumbling his head up. After that little thrill at the boardwalk with the kiddies, and a small bite to eat, it only seemed to make sense to just head back to the hotel and relax. He supposed every night would be like this from now on, maybe a few little changes here and there...different things to keep them occupied in-between meals…
He was trying to get himself to think about his family. Honestly, it was odd even thinking about them like that anymore. Family...that word didn't even seem to apply to him anymore. He finally let the smoke out, throwing his head back and relaxing a little bit further. He didn't regret his choice...yet...but it seemed...kinda weird, knowing there was a world of...things he couldn't feel anymore.
Shit, what if this was just shock or something, and a week from now it'd all come crashing back ten times as bad? This time it'd be a hell of a lot harder to run away from his problems, that was for fucking sure. He squinted up at the ceiling. Maybe he was just overthinking it. That was something he didn't usually get accused of.
"What's going on in that head of yours, Michael?" David's voice filtered through the drugs as he took the joint for his own hit.
He shifted on the couch, slowly letting his head loll to the side so he could look up at the bleach blonde standing over him, "what's…" he blinked, not sure how to phrase it without letting on he'd taken one hit too many, "how much did I lose? What's still me, and what's not?"
David let out a snort, "All of you is still you. Humans are just stupid and food. What you lost is weakness. Human weakness."
"That simple, huh?" He took a deep breath and let it out as he relaxed his cheek against his shoulder. It made sense, but a part of him wanted some bigger answer. A cosmic twist, a grand definition of what he used to be and what he was now. It made sense, though, he supposed...love, guilt, sympathy...anything but hunger or distaste...for people...for food...even in his head it sounded pretty ridiculous.
"We know what we want and we go after it. Thoughts about right or wrong, they're useless, what purpose do they serve? Isn't it better, easier, to just take it? Who cares about anyone besides themselves anyway, at least we look after each other."
"Humans can eat salads instead of burgers and do just fine...kinda doesn't work for us, y'know?" Paul piped up. "Can't survive with a bleeding heart, Mikey. Being stupid like that would just get you killed, anyway...Marko, fucking pass already…" He punched the smaller vampire in the shoulder, shoving him from the fountain and snatching the joint out of his hand.
Marko growled at him, "Gonna bite you next time, dick." He bared his teeth before turning to Michael, "Do you feel funny? Off? What has you so worried, don't you feel good?"
"Feel awesome," Michael closed his eyes, a subtle smile curving his lips, "just figure the high's gotta end sometime, doesn't it?" And fuck, as good as he felt right now...if it did...it'd be a shitstorm of a crash, too.
Dwayne grinned at him, "Good thing it never has to end."
"I been fucking wasted since '52," Paul snickered.
Marko rolled his eyes, "that's not what he meant, dipshit."
"You will never see Paul sober." David nodded sagely, "Anyway, what I'm trying to get at is don't worry about it. You have your pack, that's all you need."
"Yeah?" Michael cracked open an eye, "what if I went back to visit? Tested it out?"
Their leader tipped his head back, looking at the ceiling before holding out his hand for the joint, "Play human?" He questioned, taking the joint from Paul, "Or just go back for a little chat and hope they don't decide to stake you before you eat them."
He couldn't really imagine Sam or mom trying to pull a stake on him...but grandpa...the old man was another story. He already had the Texas Chainsaw Massacre vibe going for him sometimes, and the way he'd taken out Max and practically half the house with his jeep…"nah, don't think I'd tell them," he drew his head back up, "might be fun to play around for a bit...see what happens," he shrugged. At least he'd know for sure whether they really were right.
"As long as you don't do anything stupid to get yourself offed, I'm not against it." He took another drag before passing the joint to Michael. Was it just him, or did David's hand linger over his a little longer than...nah.
"Mh," Michael nodded, taking another hit and closing his eyes.
"When do you want to do it?"
"Can't do it tonight," Michael replied, passing to Dwayne, "never would've gone back to mom high as a fucking kite...she'd smell it...maybe tomorrow?" It'd probably be a good idea to change his shirt, too, come to think of it...this one had a lot of stains on it...
They all nodded, "Alright, tomorrow night you get to go back and mess with them." David grinned, "Sounds like a plan to me."
It didn't even strike Michael for a moment that he'd practically asked for permission, left it up to the blonde to decide whether or not he'd go back. It just felt natural. He'd probably question it a bit more if he was sober. Right now, between the cottony feeling in his head, and all the other thoughts...there really wasn't much room left.
