It was another two days before Ethan returned to school. Sarah wasn't sure on the specifics, as Ms. Weir had suggested she give Ethan some space, but she knew that Benny's grandma was trying to develop a type of blood substitute for Ethan. Apparently that had proved more difficult that they'd originally thought.

When Sarah laid eyes on Ethan that morning she wasn't sure what to feel. He looked better, definitely, compared to how sick he had been when she had last seen him, but he was so blatantly depressed she could almost feel it herself.

He was wearing a hoodie-big surprise there-and his head was dipped towards the ground in order to avoid the sun. Benny smiled but his nervous glances betrayed his anxiety, while Ethan seemed lost in his own thoughts. He seemed so different from his usual self. What really struck her, though, was the way he moved.

It had never occurred to her that everyone walked in a different way, or at least, it hadn't been enough to warrant her attention. Looking at Ethan she could vividly remember the awkward but controlled way he moved. Now he was tense but graceful, similar to the smooth gait of a wild horse. Where there was normally a soft smile, a stoic expression lay. Flecks of gold still swirled around his irises. These small differences that seemed so insignificant before had now completely changed him to someone she almost didn't recognize.

She didn't manage to catch up to them until they were opening their lockers, which gave her a limited amount of time to talk.

"Good morning, fine day isn't it?" Benny quipped as she approached. His voice was light and trilling, with an obvious amount of strain.

She rolled her eyes anyways, upholding the charade, "Absolutely splendid."

Benny's face cracked into a grin, contrasting with the gray bags beneath his eyes. She tried to ignore them.

"Hey." Ethan's voice was quiet and half-hearted, but when she turned to look at him his lips were curled into a familiar soft smile. Her shoulders relaxed.

"Oh," Sarah began ruffling through her bag, "while you were gone I managed to get you some of the missing work." pulling out a slim stack of papers, she managed to place them in Ethan's hands without letting one slip.

"I totally spaced that." Benny whined, "Though we didn't have a lot of work in any of our classes this past week."

"Luckily. Usually when I miss a day I'll come back and there will be five tests I have to make up." Sarah sighed a tad too dramatically, but neither of them commented.

Ethan grasped the papers and slid them into his bag in one fluid motion, carefully so as not to wrinkle them. "Thanks, I forgot about that too."

There was an awkward lapse of silence. Those seemed to be happening a lot lately.

Benny shut his locker, "So..."

"Hey guys! Check it out, they're having a bake sale in the cafeteria. They have triple chocolate brownies!" Rory waved his arms in emphasis, "Triple chocolate."

'Oh Crap', Sarah cursed silently to herself. Erica was getting back from her vacation today and she had no idea what had happened. She hadn't told Rory either, and Benny hadn't either as far as she was aware, although she had a feeling Rory wouldn't fully grasp the depth of what had happened. The experience wasn't one that could be conveyed through simple words.

At the mention of the bake sale Ethan grimaced, earning him a confused stare from Rory. "You okay? Hey, where were you the past few days?"

Benny's eyes widened as he came to the same realization as she had. Both their friends were completely oblivious to Ethan's dilemma.

Ethan turned his eyes to the ground, which seemed to have become a new habit of his.

Rory shrugged and turned towards Sarah, "Isn't Erica getting back from Ontario today?"

"Erica was in Ontario?" Benny exclaimed, "She told me she was going to Las Vegas."

"She's actually visiting her grandma on the coast," Sarah spoke, "or at least that's what she told me."

"I was on the coast." A familiar voice spoke lazily behind her, "I just didn't want this creep stalking me on his phone." Sarah turned to see Erica jerking a thumb in Rory's direction, a clueless smile plastered on his face.

"Good call." Benny laughed.

Ethan smiled slightly as well, which boosted her mood. Even though he immediately turned back towards the floor.

Erica shoved a few strands of blonde from her face, "So, what did I miss?" She glanced around their group, eyes lingering on Benny and Ethan. "You guys seem oddly tense."

"Didn't know you paid attention to us." Benny joked.

"I don't. But your geeky little friend looks like he wants to murder the ground."

At her words Ethan looked back up nervously, still avoiding eye contact. His hands were shoved into his pockets and his frame seemed painfully tense. The attention was obviously not in his favor.

"I'm going to go use the restroom." he muttered.

Erica and Rory exchanged confused glances as he stepped away. "What's gotten him so worked up?" Rory said.

"Erm..." Benny shifted on his feet, "That's a complicated story. Also long." They stared at him. "Very long."

"I'd rather not hear it." Sarah internally flinched at her friend's crudeness, "I'd rather know why you,"she was now turned to look at Sarah, "didn't so much as text me once in the past five days. I thought we had an agreement."

Sarah sighed before responding, "Something happened." At Benny's raised eyebrow she added, "Something important. But I can't tell you right now. Let's meet in the library at lunch."

"It better be pretty important then, I had plans today. Rick Jorgenson shaped plans." She smirked.

"Just come, please. You too, Rory." Benny begged exasperatingly. Rory flashed him a thumbs up.

oOo

Sarah hesitated before telling Ethan about their meeting in the library, figuring Benny would most likely tell him anyway. Then it occurred to her that they didn't have any periods together until after lunch and so she reluctantly told him the time. She didn't bother explaining what it was about. Ethan gave her a knowing glance when she'd informed him, though how he felt about the topic she couldn't read.

He seemed to be closing off his emotions. When he wasn't expressionless and distancing himself from everyone he was tense and full of anxiety, which seemed to leap off of him in waves, snagging on the corner of the walls and trailing behind him. There were moments where it almost felt like nothing had happened, when he'd smile and laugh no differently than before, but then she would look back and he'd be staring out the window forlornly with the complexion of a whipped puppy, and her concern would come back in full force.

Sarah only had one class with him before lunch, but it was obvious when she passed Benny in the hall he had observed the same behavior during the brief reconciliations between classes. Her pressing worries stayed glued to her mind past fourth period, and by the time she found herself in the library for lunch her nerves were jumbled and mumbling incoherently. Benny would have to do most of the speaking this time.

Ethan was already there when she arrived, perched on the end of a table with his elbow rested on one knee. He seemed a bit calmer in this environment, probably because there were so few people. Maybe she should come here more often.

"Alright, I'm here." Erica droned lamely beside her.

For a moment, Sarah felt an odd pang of nostalgia for the old Erica. The one who had placed random TV show characters in unlikely relationships and obsessed over every little detail, sometimes purely for the fun of it, often dragging Sarah around to conventions and movie premieres with an innocent and cheerful smile. That girl disappeared a long time ago.

She would be lying to herself if she said she hadn't change after being turned either, although Jesse's controlling nature was partially to blame in that instance. If she hadn't ignored Erica from the start, however, maybe she wouldn't have been so reckless that night. Perhaps she even would have been able to dissuade her from going to the party in the first place.

She flinched as her thoughts returned to Ethan and the way he was acting. If anyone was going to change after being turned—and still her mind revolted at the very idea—it would be him, and yet she couldn't help but hope his personality would remain.

Sarah realized Erica had been speaking to her when a pair of familiar nails snapped impatiently before her nose, "I said: where are the other two musketeers? Come on Sare, you're almost as bad as geek number one over there." Erica nodded exasperatingly towards Ethan, whose empty eyes stared listlessly out the dusted window.

"They should be here in a second." Sarah said, trying to ignore the all too obvious changes to her friend.

"Speak of the Vampire Ninja and he shall appear!"

She flinched at the grating voice that echoed in her ears. There was one.

A rustling and stomping sounded from the hallway as Benny burst into the library, "Rory, wait for me!" His shouting earned a harsh glare from the librarian. And there was two.

Erica rolled her eyes, "Don't make me regret coming here."

"Right." Benny laid his backpack on a scuffed up wooden table, "Where's Ethan?"

Sarah pointed towards their brooding friend. His half-brushed hair was turned to away from the group as he looked out the window into the parking lot. "Hey E! Over here!" Rory shouted. This time the librarian loudly shushed them before turning back to her book, but he had managed to gain Ethan's attention.

"Hmm?" a soft hum escaped as he approached them, still not making eye contact. He wasn't even trying to act normal, although part of her was almost certain his mind wasn't focused on blending in at all.

Benny gave his friend a short, worried glance before clapping his hands together, quietly enough not to invoke the librarian's wrath. "Alright, now that we're all here, it's time I explain everything."

Rory raised his hand. "Is it a nice story?"

Benny's half-smirk turned into a frown. "No. Not really."

"So are you going to tell us or not? I don't have all day." Erica groaned impatiently. Sarah resisted the urge to smack her.

"Yeah. Just let me figure out how to explain it all." Benny's earlier vigor seemed to have left him, as his tone was one of the most serious she'd ever heard from him. Erica appeared to have noticed this as well, because her eyes were now focused and attentive. Regardless, Benny forced another grin.

A moment passed where he collected himself, before eventually placing his hands on the table. His eyes reached out towards Ethan's and the two communicated through their eyes in the way only close friends and family were able to, until finally he braced his shoulders and began.

The story started off with a brief recollection of the time leading up to and directly after what he had humbly coined "the attack." Every few minutes he would pause briefly as if to allow Ethan to interject, only for silence to take his place. When the tale reached the moment where Ethan had briefly lost control, Erica and Rory snapped their attention towards Ethan with a mixture of shock and pity. Not so much of a flinch of response came from Ethan.

Benny then continued to the past few day's occurences, which she had not been privy to herself. They mainly consisted of his grandmother running a series of tests on Ethan, as well as his return to a state of semi-normality. Through his descriptions and excessive use of hand gestures, she was able to learn the following:

As far as vampiric traits went, Ethan either reacted with hyper sensitivity or barely responded at all. For example, the sun didn't burn him nearly as much, but still did enough damage to be considered irritating. Garlic also had no effect; although this didn't matter when taking into account the fact Ethan could no longer eat or drink any normal (human) foods, excluding water.

Benny didn't mention what happened when Ethan had consumed his meals, but the grimace on his face did not appear promising.

On the other hand, holy objects had a more noticeable effect, although Benny wouldn't go into much detail on the subject. His posture spoke volumes about his opinions on his grandmother's "tests," and she decided it was best not to push the matter.

His observations were mainly about how things reacted to Ethan, and not so much about his friend's actual emotional state throughout the whole ordeal. Even his recount of the period of which Ethan had been 'sick' was brief and the details vague, painting him in a soft light, but she made no attempt to correct him.

By the end of Benny's explanation, Sarah was clearly able to read the opinion's beneath her friends' faces. Rory displayed mainly concern, with a shocking level of solemnity, while Erica's nodded more towards the area of reluctant belief.

Throughout the entire situation Ethan hadn't moved his position in the slightest. The only noticeable difference was the shine of gold ringing his irises, which stood out against the dark fabric of his hood. His appearance did not go unnoticed by the rest of them.

"So." Erica started, ignoring Ethan's change, "He came here to get revenge?"

"I'm sure he also didn't want Stern to use the Lucifractor." Sarah managed to find her voice, which was surprisingly steady. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Ethan lift his head, "Knowing him he was probably waiting for a chance to come here without drawing attention to himself. The situation was convenient."

Another long lapse of silence where the rest appeared to chew and swallow her explanation. This was starting to get annoying.

Rory was the one to break the tension, "So, is that why you didn't want brownies earlier?"

Erica sighed.

oOo

This chapter is dedicated to the anons screaming "UPDATE" in my inbox. I have received your messages and have responded accordingly. I do not have a beta and was only able to review this twice so I apologize for any errors.