Ante Meridiem
By Dr. Shelly McCoy
Genre: Romance, Drama
Characters: Peter and Charlotte
Rating: T - M towards the end
Author's Note: Thank you guys for reading! I never realized how much I would enjoy writing.
Chapter Two – Changeling
..
"We should have kept the bandage on."
"That would have looked more suspicious."
"This is torture."
"Speak for yourself. The fucking cut split open."
"That's what you get for being care—"
"Hey! Be quite and continue working!"
Peter, Ricky, and Luke stopped talking and went back to work.
..
"Why would you do such a thing?"
"We need those animals!"
"They're always causing trouble."
"They'll be the death of this town!"
The boys looked around at the people chastising them, unsure of what to say in the sudden uproar. They tried to convince everyone that they were being falsely accused and that Peter had fallen on a piece of glass, but the pastor held up the saws and shears that the boys had carelessly forgot to grab before running. Luke's father instantly recognized them as his and said that they were missing from his shed this morning.
"They should be punished!"
"They'll never change."
The words of the townspeople cut into the three boys harder than expected. It was just a stupid prank.
Ricky took a step forward.
"Look, we never meant to hurt the animals! We just thought it'd be funny to see them roaming around the town."
"Do you know how dangerous that could be? What would happen if a child went up to one of the animals? There's a reason only a few people can be around them."
"Well maybe if you didn't keep them locked up the way they are and away from everyone, then they wouldn't be dangerous!"
"Enough, Ricky!" Ricky's mother's voice was enough to shut him up and take that step back.
The pastor sighed and thought for a moment before speaking again.
"These boys need to learn responsibility, and they will learn it. This afternoon, they will come back to the church and fix the posts and fencing they damaged. Tomorrow, they'll start other labour jobs around town." He looked at the boys then. "See you tonight."
Everybody, save for Peter, Luke, and Ricky, all nodded and mumbled agreements, most saying how they deserved it.
And with that, the pastor, and everyone else, went back to their conversations.
The boys looked at each other, silent.
..
So there they were, in the late afternoon, in the back of the church at the fences. Luke and Ricky were busy digging a hole for a new post as Peter untangled a coil of barbed wire, making sure to avoid the barbs as much as possible with little success.
Peter, a 21-year-old with a well-toned body, might have been a better choice to help with the posts seeing as they weren't as light in weight as they looked. However, the injury to his hand left him in charge of the object that injured him. Ricky, 25, was slightly taller than Peter, but was nowhere near as muscular. That didn't mean he wasn't strong. In fact, people often underestimated his strength. He lifted the post and stuck it into the hole that Luke had dug. Luke was 18 and the smallest in the group, having absolutely no upper-body strength and was scrawny to say the least. But the boy could outrun both Peter and Ricky on any given day. He could think of a solution to any problem that stood in his way. The three were perfect for one another in the sense that they balanced the others out. Peter was the strongest, Ricky was the 'leader,' and Luke was the fastest.
As they worked, the pastor and the head of the farm sat on the deck of the church and watched them, making sure they actually did the work and did it correctly. Due to the boy's unwillingness to the job and Peter's injury, the job took a few hours longer than expected.
By the time they had finished, it was around 9:30 at night and pitch black out. The glow of the moon was the only thing helping the boys to see.
"There. Finished." Riley stood and whipped the sweat from his face. Those posts really are heavy.
The pastor and the other guy stood and inspected their work, nodding in approval when the inspection was done.
"I'm honestly surprised, boys. You did a great job."
"Yeah, thanks." Luke said sarcastically.
The pastor glared slightly at Luke but shrugged it off. "Fine. Be here at 8 in the morning for your next task."
"What?!" The boys said together. "8 in the morning? Are you fucking serious?" Riley added.
Now the pastor was really glaring and the other guy shook his head at the boy's choice of words.
"Watch your mouth kid or I'll make sure you work for the rest of your—"
A low growl from inside the cow pen cut him off. Everyone looked up to see three silhouetted figures standing side-by-side. Even in the dim light they could all see that they were humans. And females. And beautiful.
Inhumanely beautiful. All five men could not look away.
The female in the middle walked closer to them, reaching the barbed wire fence. She reached out and grabbed the wire with one hand before yanking on it, easily snapping it and tossing the wire aside. The boys stood there, frozen in shock at how easily the girl had broken the wire and managed to not cut herself.
The girl only smirked.
"Well, well, well. Look what we have here, sisters."
The men gasped in surprise when they noticed that the other two girls were on either side of them, smirking as well.
"Mmm, I like this one Maria." The tall blonde to the men's left reached out and stroked Ricky's arm. He shivered, staring at her.
"Fine." The brunette in the middle kept her eyes on Peter. The way she was looking at him made it seem like she was trying to decide something. Peter noticed and she simply smiled at him.
The other blonde girl, who was shorter than the other two, looked at Peter hungerly.
"Him. I smelled him first!" She glared at Peter and it was only then that he noticed her dark eyes. The others didn't seem to notice.
"Nettie, wait," she tilted her head, studying Peter. "I want to keep him."
The girls huffed, but it sounded like a low growl, and stepped back, eyeing the pastor and the other man. "Fine. I'll take these."
Peter was quickly starting to become afraid. There was something about these girls that didn't seem right. The one referred to as 'Nettie' had said that she smelled him first. What did that mean? And how did the one named 'Maria' break the barbed wire so easily? It was like she simply tugged on a piece of string.
He looked around at his friends and noticed that they didn't seem afraid, but… entranced.
He didn't like where this was going.
"L-Look, I don't know what you ladies want—" He had put up his hands and started backing away, but Maria was suddenly right in front of him. There was no way she could have gotten that close to him that fast. She was at least ten feet away and she was standing inches from him in a blink of an eye. She grabbed Peter's injured hand and held it tight enough for him to wince.
She brought his hand close to her face and took a longing breath, moaning softly when she exhaled.
"Delicious."
Nettie and the other blonde were starting to stalk closer to the other four men, who seemed to be rooted to the ground with no intentions to move.
"There are five of us and… only three of you. Don't try anything…"
"Oh sweetie," Maria smiled sweetly at Peter, "I promise you won't feel a thing."
"I won't…" Peter froze, feeling pure fear starting to boil inside of him from somewhere in his body.
He tried to move, but Maria's grip on his hand kept him where he was. She continued to smile.
"What's your name?"
He didn't respond.
"Oh, come on." She reached up with her other hand and gently stroked her cheek. "What's your name?"
He hesitated. "P-Peter."
"Well Peter. I really hope you survive."
Maria leaned closer to Peter, who was unable to move any part of his body, and bit into his neck.
The pain was so excruciating it drowned out the screams from the four men, who had tried and failed to run away from the two strange women.
Peter desperately tried to push Maria away, who had begun to suck on his neck. Peter felt his stomach churn as he felt his blood being sucked from his neck. Despite his personal beliefs, he punched and shoved at Maria, crying out pleas for her to stop. He didn't even notice that when he came in contact with her flesh, Maria's skin felt hard and unnaturally cold.
The screams from the other men didn't seem as loud before which momentarily distracted Peter. He managed to open his eyes long enough to see Luke sprawled on the ground, his clothes covered in blood. He looked at Luke's neck and screamed when he saw half of it had been ripped off, leaving a gaping hole in the boy's body.
He couldn't see Ricky, but he could faintly hear him screaming. He started to look for the pastor and the other man, but Maria had gripped his wrist too hard and he heard a sickening crunch. Peter shut his eyes and screamed in pain.
It became too much. Peter started crying uncontrollably and begged Maria to stop.
After what seemed like hours, she finally did.
Peter collapsed on the ground and struggled to get up, but was too weak to do so. So he laid there, crying as he stared up at his attacker.
She simply smiled and flashed a bloody grin.
His vision started to blur as he slowly started slipping into unconsciousness. Something unsettling snapped Peter back into consciousness. His body started feeling different.
The pain was changing
It was coming from somewhere in his chest, but he didn't remember Maria attacking him anywhere near his chest. The new pain was overpowering the pain in his wrist and his neck.
He didn't have time to wonder what was happening before he let out an ear-splitting scream.
It burned.
His body was burning.
Thanks for reading! Believe me when I say I was cringing while writing this...