I own nothing at all to do with The Lost Boys. All belong to their rightful owner/s. Thank you all so much for your reviews and support! I love how in some reviews I get some help on making this story better and what needs to be addressed, such as questions, so thank you! :-)
This chapter is especially dedicated to Sunlit Mercy, who is such a supportive person! Thank you so much for some ideas when I was suffering the dreaded writer's block! Hope you like this chapter. Am way nervous as I always think I write David horribly lol.
I smell iron and its blood.
I inhale sharply and it's as if the smell wafts generously into the air. The scent stings my nostrils and lingers around, so that I had no choice but to follow wherever it was taking me.
I follow it, looking around several times though trying to seem as if I'm not really looking. Music plays loudly in the distance, the Friday night concert welcoming on the weekend. There are clusters of people standing around, watching the set on the stage, vibrating against the music.
Thud, thud, thud.
I decide I could use this to my advantage...
It was then that I realized what I wanted the most; I wanted to leave my old self behind. I wanted to inhabit my new way, and be like the boys and Susie: wild and strong.
This is who I am now.
Who I need to be to keep on existing.
I step carefully down the staircase, still searching for any sign or hint of blood. As I cling onto the railing with my hand, my hand starts to shake. My knuckles are drained of colour. I needed food... Blood. A gush of wind blows over me and then just as suddenly the scent of blood is instantly lost into the wave of the crowd listening and dancing to the music blaring on the stage.
Darn it.
"Ruby? Ruby, where are you?"
I recognize Susie's little voice over the music and I search around wildly for her. She comes crashing into my legs and I bend over and pick her up, her eyes scanning past the crowd of head bangers and into something in the distance.
"Where have you been?" I ask her worriedly, holding her tightly against me.
"With Marko..." She whispers, still staring at something else ahead of us.
I gasp, stunned. "Still feeding with Marko all along?" Usually it didn't take Marko and her so long to find something – or someone - to feed on.
She nods, tendrils of her curly hair sticking against the moisture on her forehead. I brush her hair back with my fingers, away from her eyes, and realize she has blood on her forehead, of all places.
I rush back up the steps of the Boardwalk, carrying Susie along with me.
The crowd is roaring as the loud rock music comes to a crashing stop. It was then, through the momentary silence and with my better hearing, it seemed, that I heard them:
"Should we follow her? She'll lead us back to them and then we can take them all down," I hear Edgar hiss, his voice a deep, hushed whisper. I didn't know where his voice was coming from exactly, but I heard it all the same. "One by one... stake by bloody stake!"
The fear and anger pulsates through my veins. This had been what I was most afraid of, ever since my horrifying dream of David wounded, that the two young boys would come for us and kill us all. And all at my pitiful doing for indulging to them in the fact that I was living with a houseful of vampires...
I was scared to inform the boys of what I had just overheard Edgar and Alan saying. It dawned on me then that, ultimately, I was terrified that if I said it out loud, it would inevitably cause it to come true. Cause it to happen, and provoke the young boys into following us back to the cave and harm the boys and Susie one by one...
After all, the boys were almost family to me now. If anything happened to them... I shuddered at the possibilities.
If, somehow, I had survived through the whole ideal, if I was the only one left – which was the most bizarre and baffling concept - I would have surely left my old self behind for good. I knew I would come after them and hurt them in return. The fact that they were little, young boys didn't seem to matter to me much when it came to my new family.
Just like I was positive David would come after them if they harmed Susie in any shape or form, I would have come after them if they hurt the boys in return.
It's bizarre how simply by living with someone and adapting to their lifestyle so wholly, the pull to protect them becomes so strong and fierce within yourself.
I disregard eavesdropping on the young boys as I push through the double doors of the women's restroom and tug out a piece of paper towel, before making a start on cleaning Susie's face up. Susie scrunches her face up at the friction of towel against the bloodstained skin on her forehead and winces.
I would never want anyone to see her like this, especially not Edgar and Alan. If they found out that Susie was a vampire, I think I would have just about died.
"What happened to you?" I ask her, in frustration, as the blood doesn't seem to want to come off easily. "Why do you have blood on your forehead?"
"I fell..." she tells me sadly.
For some reason, I found that very hard to believe. "You fell?" I repeat, incredulous. "How did you manage that?"
Susie looks down at one of the sleeves on her jumper, and toys with it, picking and unravelling one of the loose seams. She says, simply, "I was really hungry and sometimes when I'm hungry I can't stand straight!" She throws her arms down heavily at her sides, in both deep disappointment and annoyance at herself.
I didn't know what to say to that. I wet the piece of towel and dab at her forehead until satisfied that there is only a small mark of blood left there.
Susie stares at my face, frowning, as I do so. "David says if we don't eat for long times, we get sick and tired," she continues shyly. "And... and sometimes we smell things that aren't really there..."
Smell things? Perhaps that would explain the pungent scent of blood stinging my nostrils. My stomach grumbles, making a loud noise, and Susie giggles boisterously at the sound of it.
"You need to feed," she tells me, looking up at me in disbelief.
And she was absolutely right; I did need to feed. How long had it been? Twenty-four hours since my last feed at the very most? I couldn't seem to remember.
When you lose yourself in the moment so completely, as I tended to do now when feeding, trying my very best in forgetting that the person I was feeding on was all still too human, with blood moving around in their veins and a loving, protective family to care of back at home- just like myself, with Susie and not so much the boys, who were older and more self-reliant - it became easier.
My stomach groans audibly once again and Susie giggles quietly, cupping a small hand over her mouth. "You're right. I am absolutely hungry, you little monster," I tell her gently, scooping her back up into my arms.
We spend the next few moments looking around on the Boardwalk for any possible suspects.
It was a hard decision to make, considering the large amount of people swamped on the Boardwalk at this time of the night, enjoying the festivities and the live music. A woman, looking dreamy and tired, is standing by the long line at the hotdog stand, grasping a little boy by the waist who keeps trying to wriggle away from her, too excited to remain still.
An elderly man, who looks very much like a tourist, with a big straw hat that he is clutching to his head and pale, blotchy skin is strolling alone along the Boardwalk. I could tell he wasn't used to such humid weather like Santa Carla's; his face was wet with sweat.
I peer down at Susie, who is resting her head against my shoulder, to find her staring straight at him. She meets my gaze and smiles faintly, a gap in her tooth showing, and it seemed to me a silent nod of approval and that she wanted me to feed on this unsuspecting newcomer to Santa Carla.
I take a deep breath, trying to calm the sudden nerves racing through my body, as I slowly start to walk in his direction. I try to seem innocent and helpful as a gust of wind blows at his hat, knocking it down against the wooden panelling of the Boardwalk and I crush on it with my heel to prevent it from blowing away.
It seemed as if this was fate telling me that he was the one for me... Despite the fact that the tourist was over six-feet tall and well-built, and the daunting realization that I would be defenceless against him, I found that I was looking for a challenge right now...
When you're hungry, it's amazing how desperate you can become in order to fulfil that feeling of fullness and contentment inside again.
I bend down slowly, Susie clutching onto my shoulders like a little monkey on its mothers back, as though afraid to fall, as I pick up the man's hat. "Is this yours?" I ask, smiling.
Of course, I was only playing dumb. I knew who the hat belonged to, but obviously, he didn't know that.
"Oh, yes." He looks abashed as he accepts it from me. "Thank you. I was afraid the wind would have taken it from me for a moment there," he admits, sighing. "That was very helpful of you."
I smile silently at him, as I feel Susie rest her mouth against my ear: "Are you going to feed on him?" she asks in a small whisper. There wasn't a slightest change of the man overhearing, I realized, as I observed him glancing straight ahead of us distractedly.
He expels a breath, it coming out in long, whistling whinnies. Hearing the sound of it, it instantly made me think back to Susie when she was little, about two years old, and how she had a severe bout of asthma and couldn't breathe properly without regular doses of an inhaler. The doctor had said she had managed to grow out of it when she was four.
It seemed the man hadn't had the chance to grow out of it yet and recover. I feel a surge of pity for him and about what I would be doing to him in approximately... five minutes, if I managed to keep the pretence up well, but then a profound, new wellbeing of knowledge instantly took over: if he suffers from asthma, despite his lofty size in height, he didn't have the slightest chance of running when got to him.
"Are you new to Santa Carla?" I ask, ignoring Susie's quiet question and the man meets my gaze once again.
He smiles warmly. "Am I that obvious?" Then, flustered from the heat, he runs his forearm along his brow, wiping away the sticky sweat that has accumulated there. "I only arrived here yesterday. It's a very exciting place. Very vibrant for young ones, although I'm a little too old now..." He admits sadly. "I should have come here when I was younger. It would have been the happening thing..."
I smile widely at his words. "Oh, you're not that old! You've still got a good few years in you..." More like a few minutes, considering what I am about to do to you...
He darts me a look of disbelief, raising his tufted grey eyebrows. "Oh, speak for yourself. A young girl like you! I think I know why many young kids retreat here the way they do..." He raises his head, deep in calm thought, as he listens to the loud music blaring and echoing along the Boardwalk. "This would have been a safe haven for me when I was your age. And this music..." He smiles sadly, remembering something, his green eyes distant and faraway, "I would have loved it!"
"Well, you're here now," I point out, reaching out and touching his arm furtively.
He leans back away from me, stunned by my sudden gesture in touching him. And then he sighs resignedly. "Well, I suppose you're right. I am here now!"
Suggest to him to go for a quiet walk on the beach with you, a voice inside my head tells me.
I open my mouth, to suggest it out in the open, but not a sound seems to want to come out.
Do it, the voice goads unhappily. Do it, now. This is your only chance.
"Well, thank you for helping me out. Again, that was very kind of you," the man says meaningfully, and he gives me a quick, strained smile, one that obviously meant that he was taking the initiative to end our conversation and move on with his sight-seeing of Santa Carla. He gives me a nod in silent farewell before turning on the spot and starting back down the direction he came.
Go for it, Ruby, the voice says in my head as I resume with my following. Make the kill. The blood-bag is yours now.
"I don't know about this," I whisper gently to the wind as I quicken my pace, never daring to tear my eyes away from the back of the elderly man's head and lose contact. "I want to... but it just doesn't feel right."
What do you mean it doesn't feel right? The voice snorts derisively in my head. Get this man his very own front page headline in the Santa Carla Times, Ruby Red.
"Don't call me Ruby Red," I hiss angrily as I push past a crowd of teenage boys.
I feel Susie move against me, sitting up. I can feel her staring at my face, most likely confused, and then just as suddenly it dawned on me that I was speaking out loud to someone and having conversations with them through my head. And to who? Myself? The voice in my head certainly didn't sound like me.
No. The voice was very deep and low, masculine. A man's voice – was it... David's?
Holy hell... I think I am going insane. I glance over at Susie quickly, who has her face puckered and scrunched up watching me, looking at me as though she thinks I am crazy. And I probably was crazy now...
I have to hop up on tiptoes to look through the crowd of heads as I make out the dark silhouette of the elderly man taking a tight corner.
Very suave, Ruby, the voice observes in my head dryly, sounding on the verge of laughter.
"Can you see me right now?" I breathe, trying not to move my lips so much as I do so, so that passer-bys on the Boardwalk wouldn't come to the fitting conclusion that I was delirious, and I feel Susie stiffen at my question.
Uh-huh. You bet.
I weave my way and push past through the crowd, still searching, hoping desperately that I haven't lost sight of him, but still a little preoccupied with the voice that is now in my head. David was watching me and yet I had no idea where he was at this moment!
I can't help but smile to myself at this newfound knowledge of having an unknown prowler observing my every move and I feel the adrenalin racing through me. "Oh, yeah. What am I doing?" I nudge Susie gently in the stomach with the tip if my elbow and she gasps in delight. I start tickling her with my free hand that isn't holding her tightly to me, and she wriggles and squirms, giggling, going heavily limp in my arms as I surrender my attack on her.
The voice inside my head laughs chillingly, and it seems to bounce through my ears out of nowhere like music. David's laugh. You're tickling Susie.
I bite my lower lip, pondering my next move. "What about now?" I ask eagerly, as I stagger free and away from the crowd on the Boardwalk, raising a hand and scratching my earlobe with my fingernails perceptibly.
You're scratching your ear.
I am still as I catch sight of the man at last. He is heading up the street, his shoes scratching loudly against the gravel on the pavement. I follow, although still slightly in good spirits at this new, childish game David and I was playing.
"Can you still see me now? Or am I too far gone?"
Distance is never a problem, Ruby, David tells me gently, although even simply by hearing his voice, I could ascertain the smugness in his tone. Right now you're heading up the street. You're gonna corner the blood-bag in the alleyway and then you're gonna feed on him, he says, speaking the words faster and faster by the minute.
How did he gain such quick insight into things? I wondered, though his icy, low voice quickly shattered my thinking.
I'm just very good at what I do, Ruby, although half the things I do aren't exactly very nice...
"You've got that right," I agree quietly, soberly. My sneakers squeak against the pavement with every step I take, the gravel, I noted, coated with alcohol and dark and wet. "So, what am I doing now?" I ask, feeling the need for our little game to break the sudden nervous tension I felt in the air. I raise a hand, pushing the dark, knotted ropes of my hair clinging to my forehead back over my scalp.
Oh, Ruby. David's voice is wistful sigh. I suddenly feel self-conscious at the way he spoke my name, so full of need and... longing almost. It was something I had never heard from him before. Now you're brushing your hair back...
I try not to laugh, on the verge of hysterics for some inexplicable reason, and then I pause on the spot as the elderly man suddenly lies against the wall, lowering his head and resting it in his hands. I knew what was going on in that instance, after having seen Susie experience it a few times while growing; he was having some kind of asthma attack, the moist, buggy Santa Carla air and steep exercise fuelling that.
"Is now the right time, David?" I ask desperately, as I begin to approach the man. I lift Susie and set her carefully on the ground. David had so much more experience in feeding than me; therefore he would be able to judge the perfect timing to attack...
Absolutely perfect timing, Ruby, he assures me softly. I'm impressed. Your first time alone, and you're doing exceptionally well...
I suddenly feel as if I am back at school again and beaming, proud, as though my teacher has just given me the highest grade on my report card. However this was severely different; it wasn't a gruelling math test that I was about to undertake, it was taking the life of this gentle stranger before me, who was spiralling into a deep asthma attack and defenceless, off guard. Yet David's approval meant so much more to me than a teacher's grading.
I debate on whether to take Susie with me or not as I pull her away from me. She rests against the wall, staring up at me, blinking a few times in confusion, her arms dangling at her sides.
Leave Susie right there, David commands. I was afraid to leave Susie alone like this, but then David assures me, She'll be safe there, Ruby. I'll keep eye on her, although she won't be nearly as fascinating as watching you while you work on some blood-bag... but I'll watch her nonetheless.
I kneel down next to Susie, looking at her face meaningfully. "Please stay right here, all right?" I tell her gently. She nods slowly. "David is watching you, so please don't run away! Don't talk to anyone if they pass you, all right?"
She nods again and I slowly stand, backing away from her, conflicted in that instance; I wish I never had to leave Susie's side, but I think I was afraid of her to see me like this, as my hunger for the man's blood took over. She watches me sadly and then I turn, facing the man, who is still resting, his head behind his knees now.
I take a deep breath, nerves shaking me, as I tread slowly and carefully toward him, trying to make the least amount of noise possibly. As I slowly inch closer, I hear him breathing strenuously. And then he catches sight of my movement; he glances up, his cheeks flushed pink as he clutches his chest with his hands.
He is trying to speak, I realize, as I stand directly in front of him. And then the expression in his face suddenly changes as he stared back at me; he was disgusted in me. He flinched and I wondered then if it was my other half - my true half – which he was seeing now.
I hesitate before leaning forward and clasping my hand against his damp shoulder. He is sweating heavily. "Here, let me help you," I tell him quietly. "Let me make all the pain and suffering go away..."
I fell against him, his head pressed against the wall, giving me clear access to the salty tasting flesh on his neck. He breathes strenuously, wheezing and strains against my hold. But, for some reason, I happened to be stronger.
Thud, thud...
I move my face into the crook of his neck.
Thud, thud, thud...
He flinches and tries to pull me off of him, and a low groan of agony vibrates through his chest as I take what I need from him.
I'm so sorry; I try to tell him through my mind, tears leaking from my eyes as salt and liquid coated the inside of my mouth. But this is what's necessary. I know it's selfish – but please, please forgive me!
Thud. His dancing heart skips a beat. Thud...
Until I hear a heartbeat no more. After the last swallow I can manage before the nausea and reality sink in, of what I have just done, I pull myself away from him and his body sinks to the pavement.
I stare at his limp, reeking and wasted body in numb-shock.
The guilt that I had subsided deep inside of me, a parachute stuffed into a little black box; the latch on the parachute is released, as it always is after I am finished with feeding, and it goes sky-high, floating out of the little black box and I can no longer ignore it now.
I sink down against the pavement next to him, unable to tear myself away from the damage I have inflicted. Am I not now this fucked-up killing monster machine?
Take it easy, Ruby, David warns in a low voice as he hears me. I clamp my mouth together in fury and despair.
"Why do you always say that?" I whisper in frustration, as I rest my head between my knees. "'Take it easy.' As if I could - you've changed me into this... horrible thing, David! I don't like being this way!"
That wasn't entirely true; I was lying and David probably knew it. Before, I despised everything, becoming this... creature, but now, it wasn't nearly as bad as I imagined. I found the bond I was beginning to forge with the boys – and how I quite enjoyed living with them and being in their company – was one of the advantages to being what I am now.
Not to mention, I knew now that I had feelings for David. There was no denying that. His face and voice began to flit constantly in my mind now, and that seemed to just make these feelings all the more suffocating and overwhelming. But I had known better than to assume David would ever exchange these feelings for me. And, even if he did, how would that change things between us?
He had kissed me before, but still that didn't even change anything between us. It only dissipated the slightest bit of animosity and left me even more confused to begin with. I had already made up my mind that for David it was just another spur of the moment thing...
I sit absolutely still, not breathing, trying to keep my kind empty and on nothing as I wait for David's voice. There's nothing but silence in my head. For a moment I feel immediately lost, as though he is no longer with me and as if I am doing this alone.
"Why did you even want Susie and me?" I ask at last; the very question I had been wondering for a long time now. "Why did you choose to change our way of life? What's in it for you?"
Why, Ruby? He repeats and I breathe out a shaky breath of air in immense relief that he was still in fact with me. There's a moment of silence, where I assume he is thinking it through very seriously. Then he says, I discussed it over with my boys and we all thought it would be pretty ace to have a few sisters in our family. You and Susie were new to the town; we could see that, so we thought that was pretty much the ace in hole.
"But why?" I ask, still confused.
When I was a boy, Ruby, I had a little sister. I loved her more than anything in the entire world. I would do anything for her, and I almost did when it came down to it, Ruby... It surprised me; I had never once wondered for long lengths of time what all the boys' family lives were before they all happened to be like this. But my dad, well, he was a bastard for the lack of a better word. He laughs gently, and there's a bitter edge to his voice in the way he spoke of his father. What we got for staying out late in his house was a new lock on our bedroom doors and a cigarette burn to the arm, or a quick beating, Ruby, depending on his mood.
It was bizarre, sitting here against the elderly man's dead body and soaking and bathing in on the sound of David's thrilling voice and his sad story.
"What happened to your little sister, David?" I ask as a moment of silence passes us. And then I see her, Susie, peeking over at me, clutching the wall with her little hands, as though afraid to get caught. I beckon her over with a silent whisk of my hand and she hesitates, covering a little hand over her mouth in indecision, and then smiles widely.
One day I ran away from home, I just couldn't stand the sight of my father anymore after knowing what he'd do to her whenever things didn't go his way. Things were that bad and so I couldn't deal with it. I stayed at Dwayne's place – he was cool with his parents at the time – for a week, and then when I got home... I saw my dad's car wasn't in the driveway anymore...
Susie comes over to me slowly and stares down at the elderly man's body, wrinkling her nose. I pull her to me, holding her close as she buries her cool face against my neck, while I wait patiently for David to continue.
So, Ruby, I went wild – like kids do at that age when they discover their parents are no longer living with them any more – and I just smoked a lot in the house, walking around, did things my father otherwise would have lashed out on me for... I smile sadly at the satisfaction in his voice. Then it dawned on me something wasn't right... something was missing. That's when I went into my sister's room and saw she wasn't breathing anymore.
Oh my God! I swallow nervously and hug Susie as tightly to me as I possibly can...
She had a pillow over her face and when I removed it from her; she was as blue as the sea. There is hatred in his icy tone, and sadness. That's when I realized I failed her, Ruby. Then he starts in a brighter tone, So, after that, I never saw my father again. Perhaps he felt remorseful or some shit, and felt the need to leave for closure... It didn't stop me from going after him when Max made me into what I am.
"I'm sorry," I whisper as I rock Susie back and forth against my chest. "I can't imagine how it feels, to lose your sister like that..." Those were the exact terrors I felt for Susie; if she left me, I was certain I wouldn't be able to be as strong as David was.
I fucking loved it, Ruby. You should have seen my old man's face! As they say, revenge is the best medicine of all... and it definitely was for me. He was so undignified – howling like a dog for me not to kill him, on his knees, spilling his brew all over himself... The images that flashed along inside my head that came with his words were uncomfortable and unnerving. Now that's why I wanted you and Susie to join us, Ruby. If you stay the way you both are, like us, you'll never, ever be able to leave.
I rub the small of Susie's back, thinking his confession through. Suddenly everything made sense. All the questions I have ever wondered were now answered. Well, almost all of them. I realized then that David needed this - he needed us. In this instance, his story made him seem more human than ever before.
And there's something else you should know, Ruby, David continues as I press my lips against Susie's forehead. She cringes away from me, swatting my face away with her hand over my gushy gestures of affection. After you finally made your first kill, everything was warm. Before, everything was so cold, but then... when I saw you for the first time when you moved here, I felt you and your warmth...