Highs and Lows

(Day 134: Sunday Night)

Chad keeps his arm over Audrey's shoulders as they enter the movie theater, and when they get in line for the candy counter he moves in to kiss her. She half laughs, "I thought you didn't like public displays of affection." before she looks into his blue eyes and notices the thin iris around the enlarged pupils.

He smiles, "People change." before Audrey's expression falters and she pulls him over to the corner of the lobby. "Whoa. What's going on?"

She furiously whispers, "Are you seriously high right now?"

Chad makes a face, "I may have needed a boost."

"A boost?" Audrey disbelieves, as she looks over him. "You're completely out of it."

"Come on," he prompts. "We're supposed to be relaxing and having fun."

"I'm your girlfriend," she sternly reminds him. "You shouldn't need to get high to go on a date with me."

"It's not about you," he frowns.

"Then what is it about?"

His eyes shift, "I just needed it."

"But you don't need it," she counters, before placing her hands on his arms. "You have me. You have God. That's more than enough."

Chad pauses, "I don't think it is."

"Then you just need to try harder," she insists. "Deep down you have the will to be good and get past these impurities. I know it."

"Maybe that's it," Chad comes to realize, before he meets her sad eyes. "I don't have the will. I'm not strong enough."

Audrey moves her hands down to his, "But I have enough will for the both of us. I can help you. You just need faith, and you need to try."

"I've been trying," he mumbles.

"If you were really trying," Audrey counters, "then you would be healed by now." Chad lets go of her hands, and she lets out a loud breath. "You've got a choice to make." She faces him, "Either stop the drugs and let me help or I won't be with you anymore."

Chad slowly shakes his head, "You can't do that."

"This hasn't just been hard on you," Audrey fumes. "I've put so much time and energy in just trying to support and pray for you, but if you're not willing to do just as much…" She shakes her head and mutters, "Then I can't be with you." Chad looks down. "So, what will it be?"

He feels the tears enter his eyes as her faces her, "You can't just make me choose."

"It's simple." She reasons, "You're either choosing desires of the flesh or you are choosing me and the Lord."

"I can't choose," he stresses.

"Then I'll choose for you," Audrey counters, before she walks away and Chad watches in motionless as she exits the theater.

When Doug opens the door a black haired guy comments, "Hey. Is Ben here?"

"Why?" he questions.

"I need his help."

When Ben walks to the door he meets the guy's grey eyes, "You need me?"

"Yeah." Hayden furrows his eyebrows, "So, Chad's been making me altra uncomfortable."

Ben straightens up, "How so?"

"You know," he bypasses. "He's just really sappy and stuff. Something about him and his girlfriend breaking up." He raises his eyebrows, "So. I was thinking you could help out your fellow human being and make him stop for me."

"How?" Ben asks.

"Talk to him or something," he solves.

"And you can't do that?" Doug inputs.

Hayden gives him a look, "I'll just make it worse. Trust me."

"I have no problem helping," Ben reassures, before he offers a curious expression, "But why me?"

"He likes you," Hayden immediately answers. "So, why not you?"

Ben sighs, "I'll take care of it." before he steps past him and goes over to Chad's room. He knocks; however, after a couple tries and a few minutes there's still no response, so he turns the doorknob and goes inside. He sees Chad laying on the bed and shuts the door, "Hey." before he starts walking over to him. "I heard about—" Chad's eyes are shut. "Chad?" Ben takes a few more steps, noticing the open pill bottle on the bedside table before swiftly turning back to him and shaking his arm in panic, "Chad." He makes a disgruntled noise as he slowly opens his eyes. "God." Ben lets go of him. "I thought you were dead."

Chad smiles, "Hey. What's up?"

"What up?" Ben disbelieves. "What's with the pills? I thought you were trying to quit."

Chad turns his head towards the orange bottle and begins to frown, "I was."

"Then what happened?" Ben sighs.

He looks off, "Life."

Ben sits on the bed, "I heard about Audrey."

Chad recalls, "She said I had to choose between her and these."

He sees Chad point to the bottle, before he shakes his head, "You've been using them for months. You can't just quit."

"Audrey thinks I can," Chad reminisces, before he takes a long breath. "I told her everything… and now." He smiles at Ben, "And now I have you."

"Is there anything I can do?" Ben quietly questions.

Chad slightly laughs, "You're the best. You know that?"

"I'm not the best," he slowly dismisses.

"No. Seriously." Chad shuts his eyes, "I love you, man."

"I don't like how shallow your breathing is," Ben worries. "Maybe I should take you to the hospital."

"No," he softly states. "I'm fine. Everything is all fine."

It takes a minute for Ben to ask, "Do you want me to leave?"

"No," Chad whispers before taking his hand. "You're the only one… Stay with me."

"Okay," Ben evenly replies.

There's another long silence, before Chad comments, "Maybe Audrey was right. If I'd just… This isn't right."

"The choice she gave you wasn't even a choice," Ben defends.

"Yeah." He takes a breath, "But I do a lot of things. I want things I shouldn't."

Ben lifts a shoulder, "That's just part of being… alive."

"If I ask you a really weird question," Chad comments, "then would you be honest?"

"I would like to think so." Chad fails to ask it. "What is it?"

"Do you ever think about people," he begins. "Like, people you shouldn't. In ways you're not supposed to?"

Immediately, Ben's mind flashes to his mother, "More than I'd care to admit."

"Where do you see us in ten years?"

Ben thinks, "Well, you'll be off playing pro tourney and getting a masters in either health or linguistics."

"No," Chad interrupts. "I mean, us. Do you think we'll still be… friends?"

"I'd like to think so."

Chad looks up into his hazel green eyes, "Ben."

"Yes?"

He slightly smiles, "You are the absolutely only good thing in my life."

Ben takes a deep breath, "It will get better." before glancing down. "I promise you that."

- Danifan3000 I agree it would be super confusing for her, but because vampires are legally humans who have a disease, her biggest anxiety would probably be whether she's going to keep her soul or if the disease is going to slowly chip away at it. I feel like by the time this happens she would be more tolerant to hybrids/otherkin, maybe thinking that even though they seem to have no control over themselves that she understands that they do try to be good and not just go on random murder sprees. As far as the cure goes, as stated earlier the vampires in this fic exist because of a retrovirus. And, actually, the vampires are going to be a little less based on lore vampire and a little more based on real life vampires (although, probably more extreme), so the vampires are just heat and light sensitive, which causes them to tire easily or get sick during the day (if they try to be awake), and their diet is more carnivorous... Funny thing about that. There are some people who claim to be vampires that say they can live off a single tablespoon of blood a week, and there's this huge debate between sanguinarian vampires and psychic vampire as to whether blood is actually essential or just another form of energy to harness. Another debate is how to spell vampire. I think it was that in America vampire referred to real vampires and vampyres referred to lore vampires, and overseas vampyres was for real ones and vampires were for fake ones... Anyway, the vampires in this series will not burst into flames, they will not be affected by crosses (aside maybe a little peeved about that line in the Bible that says drinking blood is a sin, no matter the source), and although they may age slower they are in no way immortal... Dragons live a lot longer (not in real life, I think)... Right. I was talking about the cure... I don't think there would be one, even by the time Audrey would be turned. If I'm remembering correctly, a retrovirus can change DNA (which means that even if there was a vaccine of some sort to kill off the virus, the damage would already be done) and because I read it's generally hard to deal/find retrovirus until they affect a host, it would be fairly easy for her to get infected by lets say... something goes wrong during a surrogate birth, and the blood they use for transfusion just so happened to carry that virus... which would probably cause a couple people around her to blame the fact that she carried a child for a gay couple to be the reason that she turned into that... whatever a bigoted, religious person would call a vampire. So, yeah. Fun all around.

- 12/23/2018