Disclaimer: I own nothing to do with the Lost Boys, of course. Thank you so much for the reviews. I really appreciate them, and I really hope you enjoy this chapter with a more vulnerable David. Sorry, if he seems really OOC; he's a hard one to write, thats for sure. Thanks so much for reading :)
Chapter Fourteen
Marko put his arms around my shoulder, jostling me. "Welcome to the club at last, little sister," he said with a wistful sigh, smiling warmly. Paul gave me two thumbs up and laughed loudly. Dwayne was just silently grinning broadly.
I was mostly worried for David's reaction. What would he do? What would he think? I glance over in his direction apprehensively to see him seated in his wheelchair, legs crossed relaxedly out in front of him. He was observing the celebration that had erupted before us, his slate blue eyes following me.
And then he stood and strutted slowly toward me and then the room fell eerily silent. The laughter from Marko and Paul abruptly stopped as David approached me and I glanced over at Marko in time to find him looking back and forth between the both of us, chewing a hangnail nervously.
My feelings seemed to mirror the way Marko's expression was; I was suddenly nervous as I held David's gaze. He didn't seem to blink once while looking at me like that, with such unnerving attention that my hands began trembling underneath the burden of his gaze. He circles around me once, like some kind of wild, hungry shark, before stopping directly in front of me.
"Welcome, Ruby," he only said quietly. He raised a leather-clad gloved hand and placed it on my shoulder, giving it a firm squeeze before swivelling around and moving as far away from me as the cave would allow. I thought I caught him smirking.
"What now?" I ask him, my voice shaking.
David turns around and looks at Marko inquisitively. "Marko, what now?" he asks, feigning confusion.
Marko stops chewing on his nail and regards me excitedly. "Now?" he repeats, raising his eyebrows, smiling vastly. "David?"
David licks his lips before answering knowingly: "Now we eat, Ruby..."
The Boardwalk is crowded tonight with clusters of teenage girls in dark denim skirts, boys wearing bright flannel shirts, Goth girls with cigarettes burning between their dark purple lipstick. It seemed like tonight was adolescence night, where all the cool kids hung out. Little did they know, the boys were circling them like snakes.
"Check her out," Paul says loudly so that a Goth girl can hear him, and she flips him off. He bursts out laughing and shakes his head. "If only she knew, man," he says to Dwayne in a low whisper.
I'm feeling anxious and tense as I observe David scoping out the crowds, his eyes following them although the haze of smoke from the cigarette hanging between his lips interferes constantly with his concentration, and he has to squint at the innocent passerby's through the white haze. Then he turns to face me, leaning across the railings, "Close your eyes and let your senses take over," David commands sternly. I slowly close my eyes. "What do you hear, Ruby?"
I wonder what will become of me if I relent; if I relent and turn into the very freak of nature that I detested. I have not been looking forward to this part, to say the very least.
I hear noises flittering around me – leaves rustling against the light breeze, footsteps trudging heavily against the wooden panels of the Boardwalk, waves crashing back and forth against the sand in the ocean.
"Help me! I can't find my mommy..." A small, scared little boy's voice cries brilliantly in my ears.
I imagine the little boy standing there, crying out for his mother, tears clinging to his eyelashes. I imagine strangers on the Boardwalk ignoring him, walking past, oblivious, trapped in their own little worlds. They probably wouldn't have even noticed if he went missing. To them, he would soon be just another unfortunate missing little boy posted on the bulletins.
A tragedy.
"I hear a little boy," I say out loud.
Then my eyes flicker open.
"And there you have it." David sounds excited.
I'm suddenly confused. "Why a little boy, David?"
He looks at me as though it should be obvious. "The younger; the easier the kill, Ruby."
"I'm not killing a human, David!" I realize I'm shouting. The very thought was inconceivable. I shake my head and lower my voice, "Let alone a little boy who's roughly around Susie's age. He's just a child..."
"Blood is necessary, Ruby. It's something you just can't do without." He is almost whispering, the air suffused in cigarette smoke. "Just like you, Ruby. You're necessary."
My stomach lurches at his words and at the obvious tension caging around us like never before. What was going on here? What was David even saying?
"Still the reason stands, I'm not killing a little boy, David," I object. We lapse into a long moment of bitter silence and when I turn to look at David's face again, I am startled by the immediate difference; he looks like a lost, helpless little boy. The mask of hostility I had so often become used to seeing on him had evaporated into – something more gentle? Well, that was human.
And then he spoke again: "Come with me now." It was not a command, but a suggestion. His voice was surprisingly gentle, encouraging, and I had no choice but to obey.
In an alleyway, a man is urinating against the cold stone wall, his hand bracing the wall above him for support. David snorts derisively at the sight. "Would you look at that, Ruby?" I tense and follow the direction of his gaze.
"Disgusting, David," I whisper, quickly looking away at the sight, feeling suddenly sick inside.
"That bloodbag practically has your name all over him," I thought I heard David say as he began to approach the man. "Tasty."
"Oh, my God -" the man is completely flustered, fumbling to pull the zipper up on his trousers. "Oh, oh. I didn't see you there -"
David smirks, raising one eyebrow. "Just appeared out of thin air, huh?"
"Well, yes!"
I couldn't blame the man for being startled at David's sudden imposing appearance; his face was ghostly pale in the moonlight, his hair bright gray in contrast.
He ignores the man and looks over at me with a pointed, meaningful glance. "Ruby."
The man glances over at me, then at his watch hurriedly. "Well, uhm. I should really be off now..."
"Ruby," David says again, his voice low and icy with meaning. "You're not just gonna let this guy go free, are you now?"
The man gapes at him. "W-what on earth are you talking about, young man?"
"Go for it, Ruby. Make the first kill. Be one of us. Be with me." He says it in a deceptively calm voice; a treacherously soothing voice that was goading me, egging me on to kill this poor old man.
To my surprise, the elderly man starts crying, his shoulders shaking, his face buried in his hands. With every moment of hesitation that went on by, it was as if he finally was beginning to comprehend what would be happening to him. It terrified me yet sent an odd thrill of excitement racing through my body; his blood was singing in my ears.
After a few minutes, he stops crying and raises his head. His cheeks are wet, shining against the dim moonlight. "P-please, I'll give you anything you want," he pleads shakily.
"See, Ruby," David begins in a bright tone that didn't seem to match the gravity of the situation here. "He's willing to give you what you want – and what you want is his blood..." The man gasps and regards David coldly. "Take it while you have the chance, Ruby."
I hesitate, biting my lower lip down, before moving slowly toward him. He starts with his crying and shaking again, looking at me with an unconditional look of despair. In that instance, I felt monstrous and cruel. I felt no longer like myself, no longer in touch with reality. I began to leave my body; I began to inhabit the sound of his heart pulsating in fear, like a symphony to my ears, his blood rushing through his veins.
"Blood is necessary. You're necessary."
He was fighting against me, grunting and whimpering.
"Be one of us. Be with me..."
He was the honey nectar, I was the honeybee.
"Make the first kill, Ruby..."
He became still underneath me as I had him pinned to the wall, listening to the beat of his heart and the nothingness that was of my own. How his skipped like a rabbit, and thudded deafeningly in my ears like a hammer against rock.
I wanted to taste him, I wanted to tear him open and rip apart the fabric of his flesh - I could feel it in my teeth.
And then I felt him behind me, moving softly against me and then the powerful knowledge took hold; it was him. He wanted me like this – and for what reasons? What possible reasons could he have for turning me into this – this – predator?
He picks up the back of my hair and moves it away from my neck. He leans forward and put his mouth near my ear: "Do it now, Ruby, and you'll never look back." I was riveted, frozen, waiting to hear his thrilling voice once more. "Immortality waits."
Immortality? Everything suddenly stops.
I blink a few times, and suddenly the elderly man's face is in my whole gloomy world, his eyes squeezed tightly shut and body coiled in shock and disgust. I wondered dismally for a moment what he had just seen of me. My mouth opened in numb shock to say something to the poor man, but nothing seemed to come out.
I instantly knew what this all had meant; he had done this thing to me and I had resisted. That was all. And perhaps, the owing price for resisting his coercion was most likely death. I move away from the man, my stomach reeling, and he sank down low to the ground, trembling.
And yet where was he? I no longer felt him with me. My neck seemed to burn in reaction to his touch when he had moved my hair out of the way. It was bizarre how David frightened me, and yet seemed to alight a tingling turmoil on the places of my skin his cold hands had last touched.
Why was I feeling this way all of a sudden?