Part Five
Ty's mind shut down. They were both dying and there was nothing he could do about it. He slammed his fist into the wall. He didn't say a word when social services came down and granted him free reign over the house until 'Rebecca's condition reached its conclusion. At which point, the question of permanent residency would arise.'
His mom was expected to live mere days until her organs failed. The tubes in her were keeping her breathing, nothing more. She had no brain function. Unlike 'Becca, who had the faintest of hope, his mother had none at all.
The police came back. He kept telling them the truth. . . He hadn't seen a weapon on 'Becca's attacker. He/She/It had seemed to be biting 'Becca's neck. No, he would not change his statement.
Ty looked hard at the self-satisfied social workers and the disgruntled policemen and did the only thing he could possibly do. Walked out of the room. Kissed 'Becca and his Mom good-bye, and left instructions on how to reach him with the nurses.
He went home.
Home had never been a comforting place. His dad would have been happier without one. He had a wanderlust that resented the burden of a house deeply. And his mother had always treated it like something to be treasured, not touched. 'Becca had been the one who made home a livable place.
The kitchen was just as he had left it that morning. The cupboards were clean, the dirty dishes were in the dishwasher. Nothing had changed.
He made himself a hamburger out of habit, sat at his kitchen table. He didn't eat his burger. He barely noticed he had made it, or that it sat in front of him. He didn't even realize he was sitting in the dark.
But respite doesn't last for ever. The phone was ringing off the hook, an unwelcome noise in the silence. He picked it up. It was Jem. "Hi, Ty, are you okay?"
"What kind of idiotic question is that?" Ty asked tonelessly. Then he hung up the phone.
It rang again. And again. Ty ignored it for what seemed like an eternity. After he was certain that the ringing would never cease, that he would hear the phone in his head for the rest of his life, he let it ring twice more. Then he picked it up.
"Hello, Ty."
"Who is this?" Ty asked. This wasn't one of the gang. Who could it be? He didn't really care.
"A friend. I think you may have seen a vampire."
Ty internally focused. His mind was cleared of all the fog, for the first time in what seemed like an eternity. There was a name for the evil he had seen. "It was biting my sister's neck if that's what you mean."
"That's what I mean. My name is Mark and I run the Lancers in this city. If you want to do something about it, come see me tomorrow afternoon. Down by the warehouses, 11th avenue and 45th street." There was a click on the line.
Ty grabbed onto what the person, Mark, had offered him. A name for the thing that was the destroyer of 'Becca's life. Evil with a face that he could fight. A chance to do something about it. A way to pay he/she/it back. He could do this. He could make it through anything, even hell itself, if it meant he had a chance to kill 'Becca's attacker.
He coolly, calmly, unplugged the phone and set his alarm for six in the morning. He changed out of his clothes, and methodically brushed his teeth. He would do it violently. The creature would plead with him, wish with all its blackened heart that it could just switch places with 'Becca.