(I like to thank FrankElza who said will help me if I run into trouble! Here is chapter 5 ladies and germs. I do not own the outsiders or its characters they belong to S. E. Hinton.)

Chapter 5

I woke up late in the afternoon. For a second I didn't know where I was. You know how it is, when you wake up in a strange place and wonder where you are, until your memory comes back like a wave. I half convinced myself that I had dreamed everything that had happened the night before. I'm really home in bed, I thought. It's late and both Darry and Soda will come in and tickle me until I think I'll die if they don't stop. It's me and Soda's turn to do dishes, and after the gang will come over and we'll go to the lot and play football. Darry would be on mine and Johnny's side since were so small. I tried telling myself that while I lay on the cold rock floor, wrapped in Dally's jacket and listening to the wind rushing through the trees' dry leaves.

Finally I quit pretending and pushed myself up. I was stiff and sore from sleeping on the hard floor. Suddenly, I realized that Johnny was missing.

"Johnny!" I called loudly, the church echoed me. I looked around wildly, almost panic stricken, but then caught sight of some crooked lettering written in the dust on the floor. 'Went to get supplies, be back soon. J.C.'

I sighed and went to the pump to get a drink of water. The water from the pump was like liquid ice and it tasted funny, but it was water. After I was done, I sat on the back steps of the church. The hill the church was on dropped off suddenly about twenty feet from the back door, and you could see for miles and miles. It was like sitting on the top of the world.

I sat there still wondering if I was crazy the night before or not, maybe it was my crazy imagination. But now that I thought a good bit, it was all real, everyone was a vampire.

I heard someone coming up through the dead leaves toward the back of the church, and I ducked inside the door. Then I heard a low whistle, long and low, ending in a sudden high note. I knew that whistle well enough. It was used by the Shepard gang for "Who's there?" I returned it carefully, then darted out the door so fast that I fell of the steps and sprawled flat under Johnny's nose. I got up and checked myself for scraps or cuts. Nope, not one in sight.

He had a package that seemed heavy, but I forgot. Johnny didn't need help with it cause he got super human strength. "What's did you get?"

"Come on, inside. The sun is about to come out."

We went in. Johnny dusted off a table with his jacket and started taking things out of the sack and lining them up neatly. "A week's supply of baloney, two loaves of bread, a box of matches..." Johnny went on.

I got tired of watching him do it all, so I started digging into the sack myself. I pulled out a paperback copy of 'Gone with the Wind.' "How'd you know I always wanted one?"

Johnny reddened. "I remembered you sayin' something about it. And me and you went to see the movie, 'member? I thought you could read out loud to help kill time."

"Gee, thanks." I put the book down reluctantly. I wanted to start right then. "Peroxide? A deck of cards..." Suddenly I realized something, "Johnny, you ain't thinking of..."

Johnny sat down and pulled out his knife. "We're gonna cut our hair, and you're gonna bleach yours." He looked down at the ground. "They'll have our descriptions in the paper. We can't fit them."

"Oh, no," My hands flew to my hair, "Don't Johnny!"

I looked at Johnny imploringly. Johnny sighed. "I'm going to cut mine, too and wash the grease out, but I can't bleach it. I'm too dark-skinned to look okay blonde. Oh, come on, Ponyboy," he pleaded. "It'll grow back!"

"Okay," I said wide-eyed. "Get it over with."

Finally, it was over with. "Can I see now?"

"No, Ponyboy we got to bleach it first." He grabbed the bottle and put some in my hair.

After I sat in the sun for fifteen minutes to dry the bleach, I came back inside when Johnny called me. He handed me a old cracked mirror. "Gee, this really makes me look tuff." I said, miserably. I looked like a blasted pansy. It made my neck show more, that scared me. I wondered how Johnny was getting food?

"Alright," he handed me his blade, "get your jolly's."

I smirked. "My pleasure."

I sawed through his hair. After a few minutes later he didn't look like Johnny. I could see his eyebrows, he washed his hair with soap. I sat beside as he dried his hair with Dally's jacket. The sun was about to set. "Johnny, when do you feed?" I asked. He looked at me, he had a contemplative look like he wanted to tell me, but whether he not.

"I feed when I want, but it depends on when I'm hungry." He looked at the ground. I heard a deep rumble and realized it was Johnny's stomach. He looked at my neck, he slowly started toward me, I was wondering when the charm was going to work. Johnny was real close to my neck when he pulled back and gasped. He had a pained expression on his face. "Pony, why do you smell like a... dog?"

He got up, and stormed into the church, what was he doing? "I'm making you a bed, what does it look like I'm doing?" He snapped. The sun finally set and I walked in the church and layed down where Johnny made me a spot. "I'll be back, I got to go out and eat, but I want you to stay here. I promise I'll be back." He finally calmed down, the last thing I saw was Johnny giving me a look bye and I fell sleep.

I woke up when Johnny came back. His eyes were red, but his fangs and lips were covered with it. His clothes had holes, ripped up so that pieces of thread were holding it, some blood spots here and there, but what had me concerned was the way Johnny was looking at me.

"You always see a baby take a step, and sometimes they fall down," he said, looking at the floor. "But sometimes they keep going." I replied.

"That's what its like for me. Take one uneasy step, you live with it for life. Pony, I can't stand you being here, not that I don't like you but you make it harder for me to resist." He was crying right then. "You should go home. You didn't kill that Soc. I should kill myself."

"No!" I screamed. "I'm not letting you die, and I'm certainly not leaving you by yourself. Look..." I grabbed hold of the charm. "Dally gave me this, you won't hurt me," I stepped close, he didn't move away or try to escape. "I trust you."

The smile on his face was even handsome, I missed. He pulled me to him and he hugged me.

"We're going to be okay." He whispered in my ear. And I knew we would be okay, we could take whatever was coming now.

The next four or five days were the longest day's of my life. The church was colder than ever. When I woke up, it was earlier than I usually do, but I saw something that stopped my heart. On the horizon I saw the sun ready to rise, I grabbed Johnny's jacket and put around me as I sat down on the back steps. All the lower valley was covered with mist, and sometimes little pieces broke off and floated away in small clouds. The sky was lighter in the east, and the horizon was a thin line. The clouds changed from gray to pink, and the mist was touched with gold. There was a silent moment when everything held it's breath, and then the sun rose.

It was beautiful. All that mist was real pretty, all gold and silver, wished it would it stayed like that all the time. Then I remembered a poem:

"Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold,
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour,
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down today,
Nothing gold can stay."

When I came back inside, I saw Johnny staring at me. "What was that? Where'd you learn that?"

"Robert Frost wrote it. He meant more to it than I'm gettin' though." I wasn't trying to find the meaning the poet had in mind, but it eluded me. "I always remembered it because I never got what he meant by it."

"You know," Johnny said slowly, "I never noticed colors and clouds and stuff until you kept reminding me about them. It seems like they were never there before." He thought for a minute. "I guess we're different." He gave me a smile, "I wasn't so sure what went through my mind yesterday, but I'm glad your here, Pony. You know I would never hurt you right?" I looked at him like he was stupid.

"I know you won't hurt me, Johnny. I know you won't." I felt his hand cup my cheek, his thumb running along my lower lip. His soft lips are the only thing that I'm focused on now. His cold breath, when we broke apart, was a comforting feeling against my warm, flushed skin. I looked him in the eyes, he finally understood. He pulled me down so I was laying on top of him, "I love you, Pony."

"I love you, too Johnny." I fell asleep in his arms, safe and not alone.

(The ending sucked, I know I couldn't come up with a good ending. Please Review! And I will work on a chapter that will explain how they got turned, but I might work on how Johnny got turned. Give me some ideas about the other greasers if you like!)