Ezra could hear muffled voices, how voices would sound if he'd heard them from underwater and it took him a moment to recognise them as his parents'.

"He is so cold though..." Hera said, her voice laced with concern. A hand too large to be his mother's brushed against his forehead, most likely Kanan's, offering momentary warmth and comfort before it was all too soon pulled away.

"You're right," his father agreed, sounding equally as troubled as Hera, and then brought his hand down again, this time cupping his son's cheek. "He's breaking out in cold sweats, too. Do you think it was from falling in mud yesterday?"

"Most likely," his mother said. "If Ezra is still sick tomorrow, we will go see the doctor. I can take another day off work. He hasn't eaten since he got home this afternoon and couldn't even look at the toast I made him for dinner."

"Hmm," Kanan hummed thoughtfully as he now lifted his hand up to comb through Ezra's damp hair, hoping to ease the visible discomfort that the boy was in, his brows furrowed and his lips pulled down. "Perhaps. But let's let the boy rest, it may be all that he needs."

There was a rustling of material as his dad's hand pulled away, the heat instantly dissipating, before Ezra felt something coarse wipe against his face. He determined it to be a towel wiping away the sweat that had collected over his time asleep. How long had he been asleep for? How was he still so very sleepy? Ezra had fallen into frigid mud puddles before, but never had he gotten this sick from one.

He felt lips touch his forehead before Kanan got up from his bed and his mom also placed a kiss. They switched off the lights and gently closed the door, Ezra's consciousness soon faded away once again.

Ezra woke with a start, wheezing as he clutched his neck. It almost felt as if someone had forced shards of glass down his throat, causing it to burn with an intensity he had never felt before. He hastily reached over for the glass of water his parents had left on his night table and downed it as if he were a man lost in a sea of sand, stranded without anything to drink for days. The refreshment did little to sate his thirst and it actually felt as if it had made it worse, his throat tightening as the searing pain increased.

With frantic movements, the boy attempted to get up from his bed, only to get tangled within his sheets and fell forward with a thud. He groaned as he propped himself onto his elbows, his head spinning from the impact. Water . Ezra needed more water. His door opened and his eyes snapped up to see Sabine standing in the doorway; she must have heard him falling. She closed the door softly and quickly made her way over to Ezra.

"Is everything okay?" She asked, concerned, and offered a hand to help her brother up.

"Yeah, everything's…" Ezra trailed off when he got a whiff of her scent. His throat constricted with thirst and his mouth salivated, his jaws suddenly aching as if something had pierced through them. She was so close that he could hear his sister's blood pulsing through her veins, and he could even make out every beat of her heart - had his hearing always been this good? Ezra's dilated eyes widened in shock at his body's response, what was wrong with him?

Sabine crouched down when Ezra did not take her hand, her brown eyes studying his face in concern. "Are you sure? You don't look so good. Maybe I should get mom or dad?"

"No!" Ezra grabbed her wrist and she flinched at the sudden outburst. He let go of her as soon as he realised what he had done, averting his eyes in guilt. "I-I mean no, it's fine. I'm fine."

"Is this about what happened at school?" Sabine asked, having most likely heard from mom. "You know you can tell me anything? I am your older sister, and well… I'm here for you."

Ezra bit his lip, his teeth pricking into his delicate skin and drawing blood, causing him to shudder at the flavour and he couldn't decipher why his body reacted in such a manner. He shook his head slightly, pushing away the distraction of his ever growing thirst and concentrated on the situation at hand. The guilt he had forced deep within the pit of his mind threatened to overflow and by this point, he suspected that they knew he was lying. And yet, he couldn't seem to stop himself from continuing.

"I'm okay, honestly!" he huffed out. The incident at school did weigh deeply on his mind, but that wasn't why he was feeling the way he was at that moment. Sabine's brows furrowed in concern. She was so close, he could just lean in and -

"Did something happen at the sleepover?" She asked, slowly, observing Ezra for any type of reaction.

"No!" Ezra said before clearing his voice, suddenly feeling flustered. What had he been thinking? He had entered some bizarre trance, it was almost as if he was about to…

Do it , a distorted version of his voice echoed in the back of his skull. Drink her blood .

Ezra grasped as the burning sensation within his throat began to grow exponentially at the mention of blood. But he couldn't possibly want to drink the red substance that flowed beneath his sister's skin. And yet, he felt compelled to lean and take a bite… just a quick bite - what harm could that do?

"Ezra?" Sabine called out, slightly leaning away in unease.

Drink her blood.

"I…" He opened his mouth to speak but barely any words could stumble out. There was something horribly wrong here and yet, he could not even warn Sabine about the impending danger or even stop himself.

Just a quick bite...

It was as if he were under some kind of hypnosis and Ezra could feel his will dwindling with every passing second, it was becoming harder and harder to hold himself back.

Drink her blood!

The voice now snarled out, it suddenly sounded very different from Ezra's own, much more demonic. He was vaguely aware that Sabine was talking to him, her lips kept moving and yet, he could not hear her words, his skull becoming more and more filled with static. It felt as if he was being pulled back into the far ends of his mind, until all he could do was watch as his body pounced on his sister.

Get off her! He yelled at his body. This wasn't his doing, this was insane - he would never treat his sister like this!

Sabine's cry of surprise was muffled by his hand as he held her down to the floor. She struggled against her brother with futile effort as he only tightened his bruising grip on her wrists. She let out a whimper of pain, tears filling her wide eyes. The boy's eyes were a deep red and gleamed with a hunger that sent shivers down her spine.

"Ezra?" She managed to say, her voice muffled by her brother's palm. Ezra did not react to his name and released her wrists in favor of pulling her head roughly to the side. "Ezra, this isn't funny! You're hurting me!"

Drink her blood! Drain her dry! One voice growled, deep and commanding.

No! Let her go! Another yelled, hopelessly desperate.

Sabine could only watch in horror as Ezra opened his salivating mouth, revealing fangs she had never seen before as he leaned in towards her neck. He was so close that he could hear the blood calling to him, its voice much louder than the one in the back of his mind, begging him to stop and to not harm his sister. However, his body didn't listen as he bit down into the delicate flesh. Sabine screamed into his hand when he closed his mouth, her struggling rekindled by her sheer desperation of survival. Warm blood filled Ezra's mouth and he moaned, the taste was divine and he greedily gulped the liquid down, the more he drank, the more he yearned for more.

The burning sensation in his throat began to ease slightly, but didn't fully cease to exist as he continued to drain his sister's blood. He was vaguely aware that her struggles had faltered, her head lifting weakly up to lean into Ezra, allowing his newly grown fangs to dig deeper into her flesh, her eyes rolling back with almost a sense of euphoria. Deep within his head, Ezra struggled against the restraints that held him back, forcing him to watch as his own body refused to stop. Sabine was dying ! However, his body continued to disobey until the last, trembling breath left his sister and her body went limp for all eternity. Silence was all that there was left.

Ezra wrenched himself away with a gasp, finally able to move again and stared down at Sabine with wide, disbelieving eyes. She laid there still, her calm demeanour giving the illusion if she were simply in a peaceful slumber… one she would never wake from. There was a deep hollow feeling, as if someone had carved a hole within his chest.

"Sabine?" He choked out, gently shaking his sister's shoulders to wake her up. She didn't respond which caused Ezra to shake her harder. "Sabine?!"

Nothing.

A sob slipped through Ezra's lips and he embraced her, his head resting on her chest where her heart should have been beating. This couldn't be happening… this had to all be some kind of sick joke! Any moment now, she would wake up. However, no matter how much he begged, she never woke and reality dawned on him. His older sister, the one who had been there for him when things had gotten really tough, making him laugh when nothing else could, was dead.

"I am so sorry, Sabine," he sobbed out. "I'm so very sorry."

Tears poured down Ezra's face, grasping desperately at Sabine in hopes that her vital signs would change. They didn't. Her skin was now a pasty white, having all colour drained along with her blood, her lips touched by an icy blue that reminded Ezra of harsh winter nights, her blank eyes glazed over as they stared unseeingly to the world she was no longer a part of. Guilt gnawed at him.

It had been him who had killed his sister.

It had been him who had drunk her dry.

Ezra could still taste it, the beautifully exotic taste of her blood, igniting each of his tastebuds and he felt horrified and sick at the fact that he had savored the flavour, melting on his tongue like the ambrosia of the gods he'd read about. There was nothing he could compare it to, not even his mom's baked goods, it was otherworldly.

Oh stars! His parents, what was he going to tell them?!

His stomach twisted in remorse and Ezra began to hyperventilate. He felt so confused, lost and disgusted at what had happened that he did not even think of what would happen next. He knew what he had to do. There was no way he could tell his parents that he had killed Sabine. What would they think? Stars above! Not even he knew what to think about all of this! Ezra suspected their repulsion at the monster they'd willingly brought into their family would be far worse than that he felt towards himself.

No, he couldn't stay here, he was far too dangerous. Ezra could not bear the thought of killing someone else, definitely when his parents were the closest to him in proximity, making them the most likely targets. He had already caused enough damage to the family when he… Ezra could barely finish the thought as his gaze moved up to Sabine's face. The sight made fresh tears pour down his cheeks and Ezra followed their path, only to be horrified at the sight. Drops of blood dripped onto Sabine's chest, staining her clothing a deep red. He was crying the very thing that he had drank, blood - he was wasting the thing that had cost Sabine her life on tears!

Tentatively, Ezra closed his sister's eyes before stroking her now slightly cooler cheek and leaned forward, allowing their foreheads to touch, for a hopefully moment her skin felt the same temperature as his own… no, he was just deathly cold as well. His tears left a web of red across her pale skin as he continued to apologise for her death. Amidst his sorrow, Ezra's mind unwillingly began to wander towards vampire movies. Although they were an art of fiction, there had to be some truth to them. Maybe the lore was founded on some ancient disease, a disease he had somehow contracted, that lured the infected into drinking blood? However improbable it may have felt, the glaring fact he had grown fangs and had drunken blood, whatever the scientific cause behind it was, had he turned into a sort of vampire?

In his disheveled state, Ezra's mind wandered to darker thoughts. In fiction, vampires die by being stabbed in the heart with a wooden stake or going out in the sunlight, and they could not stand silver or religious artifacts. His eyes widened with this knowledge, the solemn truth of what Ezra had to do, glaring back at him. The boy reluctantly pulled away, carefully biting his lips to not puncture them as he glanced once more at Sabine with longing before gingerly lifting her up, distressed at how light she felt in his arms as if she weighed nothing more than a feather after the blood loss, and placed her onto his bed. He knew that she didn't need the comfort of a mattress anymore, but couldn't bear to leave her on the cold, hard floor either.

Unable to stare at his sister any longer, Ezra walked towards his door and slowly opened it so that it would not make a sound and wake his parents up. The door closed behind him and he would have been in awe at how well he could see in the dark if it weren't a chilling reminder of the monster he had become. Silently, Ezra tiptoed down the stairs, his heart feeling heavier and heavier with every step. It pained him to know that his parents were going to lose two of their only children… but after what he had done, did he still deserve to be called so?

A single tear rolled down his cheek at the thought. He didn't want to hurt them - hadn't wanted to hurt Sabine, but he had but he would make sure it never happened again, even if it were the last thing he ever did, which it most likely would

This was all for the best, he told himself repeatedly as he tread towards the kitchen. Silver light streamed through the window, basking the room in an eerie glow. Ezra shivered despite it not being cold and his breath became shorter and more shallow as he drew closer to his destination. The drawer near the sink slid open with ease at his touch, revealing glistering cutlery under the moonlight.

Hera always kept silverware in this drawer for special occasions such as Christmas dinners, and Ezra's dull eyes immediately fell on the sharp steak knives. Hesitantly, he reached out for one and gingerly wrapped his fingers around it. The reaction was almost immediate. His skin began to bubble at the touch, breaking apart as if acid had been poured onto his flesh. Ezra recoiled from the silver, shouting a short cry, biting painfully into his lips as he remembered his parents sleeping on the upper floor.

Tears poured down his face as he clutched his injured hand, the skin already slowly starting mend itself. However, just as swiftly as the pain had appeared, it faded without a trace, leaving just an imprint of its existence in the back of his mind. How would he be able to kill himself if he couldn't even touch the silver knife long enough to plunge it into his heart? Perhaps there was another, easier way, something he could accomplish before his mom or dad wakes up for the day.

A knock drew him out from his thoughts and Ezra froze, his ears straining. Instantly Ezra jumped at the thought that his heinous crime had been discovered and that the police had come for him, however, that made no sense. Only silence penetrated his ears and he heaved a sigh, thinking it was only his imagination when another knock reverberated throughout the darkness. Now, he knew that someone really was really out there. With this realisation, a tugging sensation spread from the back of his mind and his legs began to move on their own.

Horrified, Ezra could only watch as he shuffled over to the sliding doors in the dining room. The last time he had such an out of body experience, he had murdered his sister! Her body wasn't even cold upstairs yet!

Outside was a hooded figure garbed in black, waiting patiently in the frigid, November air. His blood went cold at the sight and he screamed for his body to stop, but once again, it refused to obey. Ezra did not know who this person was, but every nerve in his body screamed 'danger'; under no circumstances was this man to enter this house.

His breath hitched as everything went quiet interrupted solely by the clicking sound of the door unlocking. The door slid open and Ezra's body extended his arm out towards the stranger, who accepted the invite, taking a step inside. The man turned to face the boy and lifted his pale face from under the hood, his yellow eyes gleaming and Ezra's throat constricted, wanting nothing more than to scream.

"Thank you for the invite, my spawn," purred the very same man he thought he'd imagined back at the abandoned mansion, smirking, very much real.