Chapter Two: Waking Up
WARNING: This story is rated 'M'. This story will have an Ethan/Benny pairing. This is a SLASH story. Everything's been decided.
AN: Crap title, I know. Here's Chapter Two, LIKE IT or I will send my evil vampire ninja bunnies to eat you in your sleep! MUAHAHAHAHA! On with the story.
xoxoxoxoxoxooxoxox
Benny groaned and rubbed his eyes as he skimmed over yet another mythology textbook. Then another. And another. Three more. There were only so many mythology books in the local library. Grandma had maybe ten, because really, you didn't know what was waiting for you once you stepped outside, but she wouldn't let him look. She would take care of this one herself, she'd said.
He then switched to the computer, where he sat for an hour, eyes burning, and body aching for sleep, reading over various descriptions of mythical creatures. He couldn't find one that matched…well the only evidence it'd left behind is the gory state it had left Ethan in the woods that night.
That had been three days ago. Grandma didn't want anyone to know just yet. First of all, they couldn't explain anything. Secondly, Ethan's parents would have heart attacks. Thirdly…they didn't know what had attacked Ethan. They didn't know if it had injected any sort of venom or poison into him. Didn't know if the hospital would be able to cure him…what if there had been something there that had never been seen before? They couldn't take any chances.
Benny's head tilted forward as he neared sleep.
Grandma Weir turned towards Benny, and the expression on her face scared him. It was fear. Possibly not for herself, but Benny had never known anything that his grandma couldn't handle. It must've been something bad.
"Where's Ethan?" She asked breathlessly.
"What?" Benny asked, slightly shocked, he hadn't told her that Ethan was out there too.
"Benjamin Weir." She took his arms and shook him. "Where is he?" She asked, her voice louder, and quivering. "Tell me he's at home! Tell me he's not out there!" Benny stuttered out that Ethan had been looking too, and the last time he'd called him, he'd told Ethan to head home and call it a night. His Grandma had never spoken to him like this before, never acted this way, never so fearfully. She immediately started to pull on a raincoat, with boots and an umbrella.
Benny's head shot up, and he leaned his head on his hand, facing the computer screen. Despite his efforts to stay awake, his eyes slid closed.
"Grandma?" Benny asked, as she stated to grab flashlights. She went down the hallway to the attic door, and climbed the stairs, going over to a box. Benny followed. "Grandma! What's going on?" He saw her pull out several medallions, placing two around Benny's neck, and two more into his pocket, as well as a handful of various dried plants. Benny recognized them as ancient charms, symbols and herbs used to ward off evil.
"Dark magic is at work here. Evil creatures lurk in the woods tonight." She led him out of the house, into the woods, murmuring protection incantations. "Ethan's in trouble."
He jerked awake once again, letting out a frustrated grunt as he tried to focus his uncooperative eyes on the glow of the computer screen. His head slipped from his hand down to the keyboard.
Benny led Grandma to where he'd been searching, and told her where Ethan had been. They headed that way to start looking for him. "What do they want?" He asked again. She'd said more than once that creatures of the dark sort had been here. She didn't know what for, but she could feel something. Something very powerful…or maybe it was several creatures causing the energy level to rise in the forest.
"I don't know. They could be here for a lot of things. There are so many ancient spells and charms put on this land. Some stretching back before Whitechapel was even a town. So many magical items were buried and not recovered. Plus the fact that Samuel's arrow is now lost somewhere, anything could have drew them here." She steadied Benny as he stumbled over a boulder. "But why? Why come now?"
She handed her grandson one of her flashlights and looked him in the eyes. "I'd hate to tell you this Benny…but chances are that Ethan didn't simply ignore your phone call. It's likely that he didn't make it home tonight." Benny froze. "were going to have to split up, honey." She took his free hand in both of hers."If you happen to find Ethan, call me on your cell phone. I have mine here. I'll be able to find you after that."
Benny moaned, and his head lifted briefly from the hard wood of his computer table, before settling back down.
Benny stumbled down a little hill, and shined his flashlight around him in a circle, but it was hard to see anything how hard the white mist was coming down. He gasped as his flashlight shined over a small silver battery. About a foot from that was the other one, and a few feet from those was the small black flashlight Ethan must have brought along.
He pocketed them, and kept moving in the direction. He called his grandma, and lucky for him she answered on the first ring. "Grandma! I found Ethan's flashlight, so I'm gonna head in the direction they were scattered. Are you gonna-woah!" His foot slipped on something, and he caught himself, clutching one of the low branches of a tree near him.
Ethan's cell phone.
Benny sat up, and shook his head, leaning back in his chair, now desperately trying to stay awake. He didn't want to see anymore.
"Grandma it's Ethan's cell phone!" Benny nearly shouted. "He never goes anywhere without it! Especially out in the woods. He couldn't have just left-" he was cut off by a piercing scream, accompanied by a loud roar in the distance. Benny snapped his cell phone shut, and raced toward where the sounds had came from, even though they had sounded far away.
Benny wasn't too fond of being alone, out in the dark in the woods by himself at night either, but fears didn't matter right now. He didn't care that something could just reach out and grab him. He didn't care that he was heading toward the ferocious roar. He cared that his best friend had just let out a very loud, very scared, and very pained scream. And he was going to help him.
The scenes from that night in the woods came faster now, making Benny clutch his head and ears in his sleep. Benny racing to where Ethan lie, bloody and hurt, and whimpering unconsciously…Benny, not bothering to count his best friends injuries, but wrapping his soaked sweater around the wound on the lower part of Ethan's thigh, where blood was gushing forth like water from a hose….Benny trying to carry Ethan as carefully as he could back to his house…Grandma meeting up with him, and wrapping Ethan in her raincoat….Arriving at the house where they lied the injured boy on the table to clean and bandage his wounds.
And of course the crying afterwards. Benny hadn't been so scared in his life. He felt his eyes sting with the threat of ears even now. Then he realized he was crying, and quickly wiped he tears away, burying his face in his hands, and sniffling before standing up and going over to his grandma's room.
There was Ethan, lying on her bed, (she'd been sleeping in the guest room downstairs since the night it happened) and it was kind of a painful sight. He thought anyone seeing their best friend in the sate Ethan was would feel the same, cold and hurt. It scared and saddened Benny. He went over and lied on the other side of the bed, as far as he could, hoping not to hurt him. But he knew he couldn't sleep peacefully if he didn't see that Ethan was there…with him and grandma. Safe. As he drifted to sleep, he promised himself that he wouldn't let anyone hurt his best friend like this again.
XOXOXOXOXOXOXOX
When Ethan woke up, he was perfectly confused.
First, when he looked down at himself after discovering it was hard to move his body, he looked like he'd been sent to the hospital after going through a really big paper shredder…or being scraped on the world's biggest cheese grater. His left arm was in a sling, his lower thigh on the right side was wrapped in an inch-thick cast of gauze, his left ankle was in a brace, and his abdomen was covered in a thick bandage that went all the way around his back then back to the front several times.
In addition, there were many stick-on bandages in various sizes everywhere, and he counted fifteen, visible, normal sized band-aids. It was all very uncomfortable, and he was sweating like a wild animal. That wasn't all. Oh, that wasn't all there was to be weirded out about. A humidifier was on the bedside table, and the window had been blocked off with paper bags, allowing no sunlight to seep in.
Then there was Benny, lying on the same bed, though on the other side. He was in a stretchy-elasticy blue shirt, and plaid pajama pants. He also looked like he'd been there a while, with his bed-head and wrinkled, twisted clothes.
He tried to sit up, unsuccessfully as the extra weight and pillows held him down. He leant back, and whined at the ceiling, before closing his eyes, and tried again. Ethan grunted as he sat up in the large, too-soft bed. As said before, there had been pillows all around him, in every size and shape, under his head, supposedly injured leg, arm, and lower back. He stretched, wincing at the soreness of his muscles, and swung both legs over the side of the bed, steeping onto the tan carpet of the room. He immediately felt pain flare up in his body, mostly in his abdomen, around his lower stomach. He groaned and leaned against the wall, determined not to fall.
He wobbled his way to the door in his ridiculous hospital getup, and shoved it open before making his way to the bathroom. When he looked in the mirror, he groaned again. He looked like walking death, or in his case, staggering death.
Ethan slowly unwound a long piece of gauze from his upper arm, and his eyebrows drew together when he saw the bandage was stained red…but his skin was smooth and woundless. More bandages off….more stains….no wounds. By his fourth bandage and no cuts or welts to be found, he was convinced this was some practical joke, even if he didn't understand why.
He tore off the band-aids and wraps of gauze and plaster and bandages. Each time, no broken skin, nothing to cause the blood stains on the bandages. When he removed his ankle from the brace it felt just fine. When he took his leg out of the wrap, there was nothing but a small throbbing pain, barely there. His arm was in perfect condition. He threw the last of the band-aids down with a grunt, and sighed as he looked down at his body, sweaty from his time in the humid room and the basically full-body cast.
He removed his plain red shorts and boxers, the only clothing on his body, and quickly stepped into the shower, sighing as the lukewarm water soothed his burning body. He felt better in minutes. When he got out, he winced a the slight aching pain in his body, and dried off before heading to Benny's room to grab some of his clothes. Yes, his, as in Benny's clothes. He grabbed a pair of boxers, jeans and a shirt from Benny's dresser. They shared clothes all the time, and he figured Benny wouldn't mind. He headed to the kitchen, because honestly, he was starving, and his throat was so dry he thought it could crack at any second.
He was surprised to find the kitchen in an uproar. Benny, still in pajama bottoms and a loose t-shirt, and Grandma, in red pajama bottoms and a long sleeved white top, were running around the kitchen, throwing herbs and animal skins and other parts as well as other potions into various pots. They were also shouting to each other over the bubbling and whistling of the pots and kettles, and they seemed to be worried about something from the sounds of their voices. It was then that Ethan discovered what they were worrying about was him.
"I was lying right there! I woke up at eight thirty because of a head ache and lied back down, and he was there! I swear it!" Benny said hurrying around the kitchen to the other side of the long table with a cactus planter.
"I would've heard if something tried to take him again! Grandma stirred quickly, glancing at her watch. "Senna and Cody should be back by now." She added anxiously.
"I need to go look for him!" Benny said, unknotting and throwing his apron down. "I can't loose him again!"
"I sense there's no immediate danger to Ethan. I've studied his individual energy, he's not being harmed. You've already looked once today Benny. Let us take care of this." Grandma said sternly.
"Let you take care of this? Ethan's my best friend, and-wait." He looked at his grandmother strangely. "You were in the shower when I was looking for Ethan." Benny said, and it was Grandma who looked at him strangely.
"I showered last night." She said, looking at him fully. "I was here, preparing a healing potion when you stormed out of the house." Both of their eyebrows drew together, and it looked like Grandma was about to say something else, when the door opened.
Two people walked in, one was a woman, who looked about twenty years old, with blonde hair, and light blue eyes. The other, a man, looked to be about twenty years old as well, and had long black hair that brushed his shoulders. Both had anxious looks on their faces. The woman clutched what looked like a miniature laptop case, and a folded piece of leather in her hands. The man carried a backpack on his shoulder, and a large wooden box that he carried carefully with both hands. Ethan pieced together that these people must be Senna and Cody.
"No sign of him." Senna said, and placed the leather and mini laptop case on a free spot on the table. She took her plain red hoodie off and hung it on a line of hooks by the door. "But we did find some…interesting things." She said, and turned his way. He ducked behind the corner of wall where he'd been standing, and it occurred to him that he should probably tell them he was there. Bu he wanted to know why he'd woken up in bed dressed as an Egyptian mummy. Lucky for him, when he looked back, they were all facing the other way.
"We found these a few yards from where you showed us you found Ethan's flashlight." Senna continued as she held up an iPad. The screen showed a picture of an imprint of a shoe on the muddy ground. Ethan's eyebrow drew together, and he leaned closer for a look. "But I also found these." She switched the picture, to another shoe print in the mud, only different than the first. "Logic suggests that one of these has to be Ethan's shoe print." Grandma studied the picture, then turned to Senna,
"But….that doesn't make sense. The other one doesn't match up." She said, confused. "Unless Ethan wasn't the only one out there that night…if anyone else was out there before him, it would've washed away in the rain."
"That's right." Senna said, and the man, Cody, opened the wooden box to carefully pull out two thick pieces of what looked like mud.
"We were hoping we could take a look at Ethan and Benny's shoes to see if it was them who left these." Benny went to the door, and grabbed his and Ethan's shoes, comparing them to the prints on the mud chunks.
"Those aren't mine." He said, as he looked nervously.
"Someone else had to have been out there then." Cody said, and put the mud prints back into the box. Senna switched the picture, to a section of the forest where it looked like a battle had taken place. The tree's were broken and the grass and plants were uprooted, one tree, and a part of the ground was even charred.
"This was about a half mile away from where we found the shoe prints." She said, and Cody went over to the piece of brown leather, unfolding it. When he brought the piece of leather to the middle of the room, Ethan saw a lock of long, rust colored hair….or fur. When images flashed through his mind, quick, terrifying mental pictures, he gasped and stumbled backwards, bringing himself to the attention of the others in the kitchen.
AN: Well, he's Chapter Two of 'Hidden in the Blackness'. I would've updated sooner, but the internet was being a bitch, and you know how that goes. Sorry for any mistakes, but…I don't think there are any, lol. This was sort of a fill-in chapter or whatever you wanna call it, the real action starts within the next couple chapters. I haven't started Chapter Three yet, but know what's gonna happen, so it should be up soon. XD So bare with me. What did you think? Drop me a review!