This chapter and all of the ones after it will have very important plot development and hugely significant things that I have been dying to write since I started thinking of this story.

The song for this chapter is "House Jam" by Gang Gang Dance- Link on my profile.

Chapter 13

Cut Off

Tyler had made another appointment to go back to the doctors later in the week. When that day came, all I could do was put on a calm front for all of our friends, while I nervously glanced at my phone every few seconds awaiting a verdict.

By the time English rolled around, I wasn't even trying to look okay anymore. Tyler had gone to the doctor much earlier that morning, and had promised me that he would call as soon as he heard what was going on. It was after lunch and I still hadn't heard from him, which was causing me to fear the worst.

My fidgeting was getting worse by the minute and it didn't go unnoticed by my friends.

"Are you okay?" Sarah asked eying my hands which were balled into tight fists on top of my desk.

"I'm fine," I assured her with my voice raising an octave higher than normal. I released the tension in my hands and gripped my pen, but I couldn't bring it onto the paper. I tapped it loudly on the desk until I earned a look from Caleb. As I glanced down at my phone for what seemed like the tenth time in the last minute, the bell rang and I sprang out of my seat without a word to Caleb or Sarah.

History class crawled by at a glacial pace but thankfully, it wasn't as bad as English because Pogue and Reid were both asleep, so they didn't notice my odd behavior. It was taking everything in me not to just get in my car and drive to his house, but I couldn't do that. That would be admitting that there was something wrong and I needed to believe that the reason why Tyler hadn't called yet was because there was nothing wrong. Maybe he and his mom were out to lunch celebrating because he was fine.

It was harder to fly under the radar in Physics because Caleb was my lab partner.

"Where's Tyler today?" he asked casually. I didn't know whether he was unusually perceptive and knew why I was so on edge, or he was just trying to make small talk.

"He's at a doctors appointment," I said slowly, trying to sound as normal as possible, even though I really wanted to spill my guts. I felt like I needed to tell someone how scared I was, and to have them say that I was crazy for being so nervous. I wanted someone to tell me that Tyler was fine, and that we would all be fine. I almost burst out right there in the middle of the lab, but I stopped myself. Tyler asked me not to tell anyone just yet, and I needed to honor that most of all. Tyler was the one that could be sick; this was about him, not me.

"Is there something you need to talk about?" Caleb asked concerned as I looked at my phone yet again but the bell rang so I seized the opportunity to ignore his question. I needed to get to the bathroom to check my voicemail.

"Look," Caleb started, grabbing my upper arm and turning me to face him before I could leave the room. "You look like someone died." It was a lame attempt at a joke, and when he saw that I wasn't laughing, he continued.

"Are you sure there's nothing wrong?" His eyes were studying my face and I was trying my hardest to keep my composure.

Weighing the pros and cons of telling him in my head I came up with a solution. If there was nothing wrong, it wouldn't matter if he knew, and if there was, he would find out anyway.

"If I tell you, you have to swear that you won't tell anyone, not even Sarah or Pogue," I warned. I wanted to make sure that no one else found out before Tyler was ready to tell them.

"You have my word," he said as he led me outside to a cluster of benches in the deserted court yard. It was a beautiful sunny day, and neither of us were too keen on going to our next class.

"Did you and Tyler have a fight?" he asked before I could say anything.

"No, that's not it..." I trailed off. I couldn't find a way to say it without just blaring it out.

"I'm worried about him Caleb. He's been acting weird and not like himself, and he's been getting these really bad headaches so he decided to go to the doctor and get checked out thinking it was nothing, but the other day he told me that they found something in his head and that's where he is today, finding out what it is," I got it all out in one breath, and then looked to Caleb to gage his reaction.

"The doctor said that it was probably nothing, but I'm afraid that they always say that. I have this feeling that it's not going to be okay," I confided, letting a few tears slip down my cheeks and I roughly wiped them away. It felt better getting this off my chest, but I still didn't feel any less guilty about it.

"Wow," was all he could say. No doubt I had caught him off guard. He probably didn't think that what I had to say would affect him too. Tyler was one of his best friends; they grew up together, and shared the power. His loss would affect all of them in the most devastating way.

"Who else knows?" he asked, still remaining the calm person he always was.

"Just me and his parents; you're the first person I've told. I just needed to tell someone."

"I know, I understand," he said soothingly. "There's no sense getting all worked up about it now before we get the details," he reasoned. "I'm sure he'll be fine."

"I just can't help feeling like this is my fault. When he hit his head in the barn..." I started, but Caleb interrupted.

"You don't know that," Caleb shut me down instantly. "You shouldn't talk like that especially now." I looked down feeling bad; I was once again thinking about myself even though I swore I wouldn't be selfish anymore.

"I'm just waiting for him to call me. He said he would right after he got out," I said looking at my phone again.

"It'll be fine," Caleb assured me, pulling me into a comforting hug. I hoped he was right.

The bell rang and we went our separate ways. I spent the rest of the agonizingly slow day checking and rechecking my voice mail. My nerves had hit an all time high when I got back to my room.

I put the phone on my vanity, pacing around my small room for an hour telling myself that he would call in the next two minutes over and over again. Finally I had enough, and decided to call him, but it went straight to voice mail. Frustrated I hung up and called again, but when that call too went to voice mail I grabbed my keys and headed to the door.

I knew that he wasn't going to be in his room, but I thought I would try before I left campus. I banged on the door, and it opened almost immediately.

"Is Tyler here?" I asked looking around Reid to see if Tyler was in the room behind him.

"I haven't seen him all day," he answered looking at me skeptically. "You look like shit," he commented with a concerned look in his eye.

"Yeah, well I'm just in a hurry," I offered quickly turning away and heading to the parking lot. I drove through the winding back roads of Ipswich as fast as humanly possible on my way to Tyler's house. Before I pulled into the driveway I saw the hummer and I felt a little better and a little worse at the same time. I was glad that I could see him, but I was also afraid of what he would say since he hadn't called me. I knocked on the door and waited impatiently for it to open. Tyler's mother Rose opened the door, not looking surprised to see me.

"Where is he?" I asked knowing that the rudeness in my lack of greeting would be forgiven.

"He's upstairs. Didn't he call you?" she asked concerned.

I shook my head no as I rushed past her to the stairs taking them two at a time. I slowed down when I reached the door, hesitating for a split second before rapping my knuckles against the wooden door. I waited for an answer, and when none came I didn't bother to knock again; I had waited too long just to be stuck behind a closed door.

The lights were off, causing the room to be filled with the uncomfortable half light of dusk. The muted TV cast dark shadows across his face which made reading his expression impossible. I hesitated when he didn't acknowledge me, but when I moved closer, I saw that his eyes were looking at the TV with a haunting emptiness, like he didn't really see anything at all.

"Ty?" I wasn't even sure if he'd heard me come in. He looked up at me with lost eyes; it took him a second to recognize me. "What happened?" I asked, but I already knew that it wasn't good. I took a few seconds to come to terms with that fact. I guess I had known it all along. He needed me and I was going to be there for him, because I loved him more than anything in the world, and infinitely more than myself.

"I just want today," he said slowly turning his head to look at me. "Tomorrow I'll be brave, but today I've never been so scared." He looked like a lost little boy; his watery blue eyes were heartbreaking. He wasn't crying and he was eerily calm and blank. He looked away from me, staring into space for another moment before he spoke again.

"I'm not going to live past my twenty third birthday." My heart dropped, but I had to admit that this wasn't completely unexpected. I had thought the worst was true, and it was. All of my anxiety had prepared me for the worst. I sat down next to him and he didn't protest as he curled into me placing his head in my lap.

"I love you," he stated, still staring off into the middle distance. "Don't forget it."

"I love you too," I replied as I started to stroke his hair the way that always made him fall asleep. "You don't forget that either." I whispered kissing the side of his head. About ten minutes later he fell asleep and I was left alone in his room with the sound of his rhythmic breathing. I wasn't going to be able to ask him about his condition any time soon, so I decided to go down stairs and see if I could talk to his parents about what happened.

I descended the stairs slowly, my whole body shaking. I felt nauseous, like I was going to throw up only without the relief of cleansing my system. I sat on the stairs leading down to the foyer and put my head between my legs telling myself to breathe.

"Murphy?" The sound of my name shook me out of my reverie and I lifted my head to see Tyler's mom looking at me with worried eyes. I was so preoccupied when I had passed her on the way in that I had failed to realize that she looked like she had aged about ten years since I had seen her a few days before.

"Come here," she said, extending her hand out to me. "We're having dinner in the dining room." I smiled weakly and took her hand, following her into the formal dining room that the Simms hardly ever used. Mr. Simms was already sitting at one of the ends of the table looking down at his plate with no intention of eating at all. He looked up as I sat down and gave me a weak smile. Mrs. Simms handed me a plate, but I only put a few things on it to be polite. None of us could eat; we only sat in silence for a few minutes, each lost in our own horrifying thoughts.

"I assume he told you?" Mrs. Simms asked shakily breaking the silence.

"He didn't say much," I replied taking a deep breath wondering how I could say it out loud. "He said that he's not going to..." I trailed off unable to complete the sentence. It's wasn't like I really had to; they had been thinking about it all day.

"Did he tell you what they found?" she asked in the same shaky sad voice. I wanted to tell her that she didn't have to talk about it, and that I would find out later, but my curiosity got the better of me. I only shook my head and she continued.

"They ran some tests and they found a blood clot in his brain and it's inoperable," Rose said the words slowly, like she had said them a hundred times and still didn't believe it.

"What exactly does that mean?" I asked even though Tyler had already told me exactly what it meant.

"It means that it's in a spot where if they operated, it would kill him. All we can do is prey that he'll live long enough to enjoy his life." Her eyes welled up as she looked away and so did mine. My dinner plate was growing cold, but there was no way I could bring myself to eat it, not even to be polite; we were way passed that.

The news kept sinking deeper and deeper as the silence pressed on. Tyler was going to die, not tomorrow or the next day, but much sooner than we planed, much sooner than anyone should. We would never celebrate our twenty fifth wedding anniversary, or travel the world when we retired. We had light heartedly joked about growing old together and it had seemed impossible to even think of, but now that it wasn't ever going to happen I felt a cold stab of grief radiate through my body with such force that I couldn't hold back the tear that streamed down my face.

We all sat there for a while longer, lost in our own thoughts, until the silence was broken again, this time by Mr. Simms.

"I know that this isn't the best time to bring this up," he started. Rose looked daggers at him, like she knew exactly what he was about to say and she wasn't happy about it. "But since Tyler is our only child, the Covenant will be broken if he dies without an heir."

"Mason!" Rose yelled standing up and causing the table to shake. "We've just gotten the worst news of our lives and all you can think about is continuing the blood line? I say that we should end the curse on purpose. I don't see how life would be so horrible without the addiction. You can't ask that of them!"

In her fury, Rose left the dinning, stomped up the stairs and slammed a door in the upstairs hallway. I had never seen her even close to that angry.

Mr. Simms and I were left in an awkward silence. Even though it seemed impossible, he looked even more crushed than he had moments ago. I had never been particularly close to Mason, but I wanted to comfort him. I knew he meant well and I knew that Rose was only trying to protect me from feeling obligated to do anything.

"I'm going to marry him you know," I said and Mr. Simms looked up, but didn't respond.

"I've almost always known it. I guess it's just going to happen a little sooner than we planned." He nodded his head, and looked back down at his plate, not acknowledging me when I got up to leave.

I walked up to Tyler's room, and sat down on the edge of his bed. He was still asleep and I stroked his hair out of his face. Now that I knew what was going on, I had this desperate energy. There had to be something that I could do. I sat there listening to his steady rhythmic breathing. I wasn't a doctor, but there just had to be something. It came to me out of nowhere, and I was off, practically jumping down the stairs.

I glanced in the dinning room, but Mr. Simms had left. I slid into my car and started the engine, not even taking the time to put on my seatbelt. I gripped the wheel hard, my knuckles turning white as I sped to the Danver's colony house.

Please Read and Review! I would also like to know if you guys like the songs that I put up on the chapters if you listen to them or just don't care lol. The songs really do set the mood if you're the kind of person who likes to listen to music while you read. Thanks to wawarddaughter for helping me out with this.