"The horror, the horror," Alex muttered as he rummaged through Duncan's fridge. Going the entire day without eating a single thing had finally caught up with Alex. After practically searching the entire kitchen he was starting to get desperate. Not to say Duncan didn't have anything to eat. On the contrary, everything in Duncan's kitchen was edible, not too mention expensive. But Alex was searching for something that didn't require a long and complicated preparation.
"Four hundred years old and he can't keep a couple of microwave dinners lying around," Alex said with a sigh finally deciding to wait for Duncan to get back.
Richie left a few minutes earlier, he didn't want to leave Alex alone but he had to get back to his place. Alex assured Richie that'd he be okay and he'd just wait for Duncan to return. As Alex waited he wandered around the loft, merely looking around. The walls of Duncan's loft were covered old photos and paintings. In one photograph Alex saw Duncan with a mustache and wearing some sort of soldier's uniform. Looking closer he saw the date nineteen seventeen written in the corner of the photo. Alex chuckled, for him the whole being immortal deal was still sinking in.
Alex continued looking around Duncan's loft. Taking a quick glance out the window as he passed by it Alex immediately froze in his tracks. There, in the distance, no more than a few blocks from the loft, were the pair of golden arches. Signaling Alex like a key to his salvation.
'It shouldn't take too long to get there,' Alex thought to himself. 'Besides I'll be right back.'
Alex left the door unlocked and quietly slipped out of the loft. Ten minutes later Alex was walking on his way back to the loft from the resteraunt, silently cursing to himself. In his haste to feed himself Alex had forgotten that he had absolutely no money. Not a dime to his name. His stomach still grumbling Alex once again felt the buzzing sensation in his head. Looking from left to right Alex noticed the street was completely bare, except for one other person walking down the sidewalk on the opposite side of the street.
The stranger across the street stopped in his tracks and turned his head towards Alex. After only a moment's hesitation the stranger walked across the street until he stood a few feet away from Alex.
"I am Gerard Chevalier," the tall stranger said.
"Uhm hi," Alex said. "I'm Alex Whitman."
The corner of Gerard's lip curled into a smile as he reached into his coat and removed a sword.
"Hey wait a minute," Alex said quickly raising his hands in defense.
Gerard took a step towards Alex, who nervously began to backaway.
"Listen I know that you and I are supposed to do this whole battle to death...beheading...thing," Alex said. "But I'm not really up for it right now. I just got into this whole immortal thing yesterday and so what I'm thinking is that you can go your way, I'll go mine, and we can forget we ever met."
Alex held his breath, awaiting the stranger's response.
"Fair enough," Gerard said lowering his sword.
Alex exhaled heavily, a wave of relief washing over him. Suddenly Alex felt an excruciatingly sharp pain in the side of his belly. Looking down Alex saw Gerard's sword impaled in the side of his abdomen.
"Stupid boy," Gerard merely muttered as he tightened his grip on the hilt and twisted the blade in Alex's side.
"AAARRRGGGHHH!!!" Alex cried out in agony falling to his knees.
"If you know you're immortal then you already know the first rule," Gerard said. "There can be only one."
Alex's hands were frantically roaming the ground beneath him, searching for something, anything he could use to defend himself. Finally his fingers made contact with a small chunk of brick, grasping it in his hand Alex hurled it. The brick made contact with Gerard's forehead causing Gerard to fall backward pulling the blade from Alex's gut. Gerard was crouched a few feet away, his forehead bleeding profusely. Alex scrambled to his feet and began running away from Gerard.
Alex continued to move as quickly as he could down the street, stumbling and at one point almost tripping. His hands clutched to the left side of his abdomen, he could feel the blood seeping from the wound. His vision started to get blurry. Soon he found himself running short of breath, and just when he thought he couldn't go any further Alex collapsed with a loud thud.
There he was lying in the middle of the street, gasping for breath. In the distance Alex could hear the footsteps getting louder. Alex mustered what strength he had left and began crawling. Where to? Right at that moment Alex didn't care. So long as he was off the street. Raising his head Alex looked forward and saw stairs leading to two large doors. Alex crawled towards them hoping to get inside before Gerard reached him.
He had made it up eight steps before his arms gave out, Alex laid on the steps helpless. Alex new it was inevitable now, he was going to die for real this time.
Gathering his last bit of strength Alex rolled over and looked up the stars. At that moment he thought about Isabel. He wondered what she was doing, if she was okay. He recalled the time the two of them sat in the woods watching the stars together. Alex smiled at the thought of it, it was a good memory. One he was glad to have experienced before he died. He listened as the footsteps got closer and louder. Alex continued listening until rather suddenly the footsteps stopped.
After a moment the footsteps started, only this time they were slower. Alex watched as Gerard leaned over him with his sword drawn and smiled.
Alex closed his eyes and waited for the death blow to come. After a few moments Alex opened his eyes and saw Gerard standing several feet away, tucking his sword into his overcoat.
"Pretty smart kid," Gerard said. "Catch ya later."
Alex continued to watch as Gerard walked down the street and disappeared into an alleyway.
Slowly sitting up, Alex found that his strength had begun returning to him. His vision was no longer blurry and it became easier to breathe. Alex looked at the area where Gerard had stabbed him and saw a gash in his t-shirt, covered in drying blood. But no wound to be found anywhere.
Hesitantly Alex touched the area where the wound had been been. The second his fingers made contact with the skin, Alex winced in slight pain. The flesh was still sore, evidence that he was not completely healed yet. After a bit of wobbling Alex made it back up to his feet.
Recalling what Gerard had said to him about hiding on holy ground, Alex looked up and discovered he had been laying on the steps of a church.
TBC...
*Disclaimer* Gerard is a fictitious character created for this story.