Chapter 15: An Unfortunate Turn of Events
WARNING: Is there a need at this point?
AN: So, sorry for the long-ass wait. Really. )x Sorry. Here's the next chapter, I've been working on it literally since the last chapter, but I'm just now getting back into it. Woooo. Hope you like it-god knows I have my doubts. This one's a bit longer though, almost 7,000 words, so at least there's that.
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"I hate myself so much for this." Ethan muttered, and stared out the front windows of the little car, thinking that he probably hated himself for a lot of reasons these days.
The unpleasant remnants of blood, smoke, and acid still stung the insides of his mouth and nose and his eyes were still red and bloodshot from several airborne substances he'd been attacked with. He fought back waves of nausea until much of it had been pushed away, and he was only left with a light aching in his body, then tried to relax as much as he could before setting out. After a moment of appreciating the silence and softness of the seat, he opened his door and pulled the dark green sheet from the seat next to him.
'Thought you might need this' the note that had came with it said, and Ethan had crumpled it up and thrown it in the backseat with a scowl. He wasn't sure how he felt about Sylvan's sudden...kindness toward him, if that was the right word. But something made him take it for granted-as if that was the way it was supposed to be, despite everything he'd done. Something made him feel as though...Sylvan and he were supposed to be better than this. Their relationship with each other, that is. That maybe they were even supposed to be close.
The thing of it was, that Sylvan had even admitted that he wouldn't stop what he was doing-that he'd only rescued Katee because she was his sister. Ethan had no doubt that if it were anyone else-Tasha, Jason, or Benny, Sylvan wouldn't have interfered. Ethan, logically, should hate him...fear him at the very least. But for the life of him, he couldn't conjure up any strong ill-will towards the werewolf-yet another reason he couldn't stand to look at himself in the metaphorical mirror.
With a heavy heart, as though he'd just done something he shouldn't have, something terrible, Ethan got out of the car. He locked it, taking only a moment to glance at his reflection in the shiny black paint, shoved the keys deep in the pockets of his newly acquired black shorts and began unfolding the sheet.
It was thin, but somehow sticky-even though it didn't feel like it, and it clung to the vehicle like a second skin. When Ethan backed up far enough, he was surprised to see that it blended almost perfectly with the forest. It had been dark green before, hadn't it? He was sure it was green! But now, it seemed to have colored itself in with such realistic images of trees and bushes and grass...that it was almost invisible. So hard to see, that if Ethan hadn't knew it was there, he probably would've passed right over it when he looked. When he moved, the sheet rippled ever so slightly and shifted quickly to meet his line of sight.
"This is too weird." Ethan declared quietly to the empty air, but decided not to question it too much-it's not like Sylvan hadn't given him magical items before. The sheet was probably charmed. Instead of going over to feel around for the car, Ethan walked over to a tree almost directly on the left side of the car, and with a little effort and mild discomfort, extended his fingernails so he could claw a couple marks into the trunk-a mark to remember where the car was. After subtly clawing a tree on the other side of the car, land the front and back, Ethan began the short trek back to the road.
Katee had slept the entire time Ethan had driven them to the motel where Tasha and Jason were staying. Of course, they'd freaked out, and had thoroughly examined Katee's injuries while simultaneously hounding Ethan for the full story of what happened. It had taken quite a while for Ethan to explain everything and answer their questions, and even longer before he could convince them to let him drive home. They wanted every detail, about everything, which he'd given them easily enough. The license plate on the RV, the names of the demons he remembered, the direction Sylvan had been heading, and they'd wanted to search the car. Sometime during the search and re-searching process, Ethan had fell asleep. Jason remarked that it was probably both the stress of the day and the exertion that made him so tired, so early. It was dark outside when he'd finally woken.
After everything had been said and done, Katee was still sleeping-and Ethan was still exhausted, even after his long nap. If he'd felt energetic and ready for anything earlier, he definitely wasn't feeling it now. He'd almost pulled into Whitechapel when he realized what he was doing...he was bringing a mysterious car home.
So he pulled over and headed down a barely-visible dirt path into the trees...just a mile or so. And then he might've been relieved and miffed at the same time when he found the sheet, a pillow, blanket, and extra set of clothes in the trunk. And then he might've changed out of his filthy, ripped clothing, and taken another nap...just for a few hours. Maybe four hours, and now it was almost twelve in the morning.
And now he was most definitely rushing through the trees, clawing at one or two here and there so he would remember where the car was, when his self phone rang. The ringtone was loud, and it vibrated against his leg, which let alone was enough to scare him out of his skin.
"Gah!" He jumped and his steps faltered while he pulled the offensive device out of his pocket. Without looking at the caller ID, he answered and brought it up to his ear and massaged his temple with the fingers of his other hand.
"Hello?!" Ethan demanded through the pounding in his ears. Great, now he was getting a headache too.
"E?" A familiar voice asked, and Ethan immediately felt bad about the tons in which he'd answered.
"Benny." The teen stated rather than asked, and softened his voice considerably. "Sorry...what's up?"
"What's up? Do you know what time it is?" Benny's voice was laced with evident worry, some false amusement and quite a bit of anger.
"Yeah, sorry, I got caught up in something." Ethan sighed angrily at himself-he even sounded like he was lying. "I'll be home soon."
There was a pause before Benny replied. "Caught up. Whatever, E, but your parents are worrying, so it think you should call them."
During the time when Benny was talking, Ethan was steadily becoming more and more agitated-not only from the aching in his body but because he was pretty sure he had just heard a car crash somewhere down the road-the protesting squeal of tires against pavement and the crunch of metal. Right then, his sensitive ears picked up several more collisions and began hesitantly walking, then running back down the highway.
"E? Are you there?" Benny's worried voice was saying over the phone.
"Yeah, I'm here." Ethan forced out, trying to sound calm over the growing worry. "But I can't talk right now, Ben. I gotta go." He picked up speed-at a full run, now, his human tendencies took over and he began panting before he could control himself.
"E? Are you-" Benny cut off as Ethan hung up. He felt bad, but he needed to get to that car. Obviously, someone had been in the car, and they were more than likely hurt. He was only about a mile and a half away, and the closer he got, the more anxious he became. What if they were hurt beyond help? What if they died before he got there, or before he could get them to a hospital? What if it was someone he knew?
Now, less than a quarter of a mile away, Ethan could make out the silver body of a car, crunched and dented, down in the ditch by the tree line, and he sighed in relief. At least it hadn't rolled down the hill, or wasn't overturned or anything. His phone began to ring, but he quickly silenced the call and started downward.
"Hello?" He called, descending the hill rapidly, spotting someone in the drivers seat-a blonde, clutching the steering wheel. "You okay?"
"Yeah." He heard a shaky voice reply, as the girl opened her door and stepped out, shaking the hair out of her face. "Oh my god, I don't even know what happened, I..." She trailed off, turning to face him, and Ethan heard more than seen her falter. "Ethan?"
Ethan, who had been looking over her limbs and such for injury and inspecting the frame of the car, looked up in surprise at the sound of his name. Facing him was a blonde teen dressed in a pair of blue basketball shorts and a white shirt a few sizes too big. A bruise coloring a small line on her forehead was the only imperfection marring her open face, which at the moment, was displaying quite a bit of shock. Ethan felt his own eyes widen as he took in the sight of her and then began smiling himself.
"Danielle?"
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"I don't think you could ever look creepier than you do right now." Tasha scowled. "Have you heard anything I've said in the last five minutes?"
"How could I not?" Jason scowled at her. "However creepy I may be, I need to see what's going on inside that house."
"You're still going on about this?" Tasha rolled her eyes. "I told you, Jason, it's probably just Evelyn taking extra precautions. Up until recently, nothing has gotten by that lady. I'm surprised she hasn't done it already."
"Isolation spells work both ways and you know it." Jason shook his head, straining his eyes just slightly to see through the window. The sun was hitting it in a most irritable way..."We can't see or hear what's inside, but they're also unable to watch out for themselves without a guard. I thought these people were supposed to be smart, man."
"Maybe it's only on certain rooms? We'll never know until we find out."
"I hope we never have to find out. All I'm saying is that they're sitting ducks as of right now. Ripe for the picking. Anyone could stroll along and stalk their home and they wouldn't even know."
"Kind of like what you're doing?"
"Don't stray from the subject, Tash, this is stupid. It's dangerous."
"Whatever. Ethan's not even here, and they can take care of themselves, I hope. There's a reason the Weir family has survived this long."
"Sure hope it's not dumb luck." Jason sighed and leaned back against the trunk near their perch. "Let's go back. We've been gone long enough."
"Yeah, I don't like leaving her this long, especially after all that." Tasha sighed regretfully.
"One little kidnapping and all of a sudden I'm the weak point in the group?" Came a slightly amused but mostly annoyed voice from below, and Tasha nearly fell out of the tree. Jason almost jumped out of his skin and looked down with something akin to embarrassment on his face.
"Katee!" Jason grinned nervously down at her. "We were just coming to see you, babe!"
"I'm sure you were, darling." Came the light reply from below, where Katee was standing on the large fallen oak leaves and pine needleswith a big smile on her face. "But I found something a lot more important than what's waiting for us back at the room."
"What's that, Kates?" Tasha asked, discreetly eying Katee's slim frame for any signs of pain or injury as she clambered onto Jason's back. They dropped soundlessly to the ground and Katee grinned.
"I think I found our next artifact." Her eyes glowed a bright yellowish green. "But with all the junk that's in the way, we're gonna need Ethan to help us navigate."
"Awesome, but we better start right away. Where is our were-seer anyhow?" Tasha asked, hopping off Jason's back.
"He's on his way, but he's gonna take long to get here. Said he'll be here as quick as he can." Katee replied, taking a cellphone out of her pocket and appearing to flip through a line of messages.
"Okay, but...where is he?"
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It took almost no effort at all for Ethan to push Danielle's car out of the ditch while she maneuvered through the narrow spaces between the trees by turning the wheel. She'd wanted to help push, but Ethan convinced her that it would be almost nothing for him to shove the car out.
"I'm a little stronger than so look." Ethan stated quietly.
"You don't seem like the type to workout every day." The blonde commented. "Not that your scrawny or anything!" She backtracked, holding up her hands and giving him a reassuring smile. "You're not all muscles, but your not totally a beanpole. Think you might be a bit too short for that."
"Ouch." Ethan smiled, hearing the gravel crunch beneath the tires as the back of the car reached the road. His foot slipped just slightly on the grass-he could feel tiny drops of water on his skin as the air began to thicken with precipitation.
"Wait! Wait!" Danielle exclaimed all of a sudden, and jumped out of her open door, running around to the front where she put her hands on the hood next to Ethan's. "This part's really steep, and it's starting to rain."
"Yeah, kinda." Ethan agreed, withholding just a bit of his strength so as not to seem super-human. "So I'd much rather you sat in the car where you can't get run over when I accidentally slip."
"And I would much rather get run over next to you than feel your body scraping under the car." She answered and Ethan laughed.
"So, why are you over here anyway, Danielle?" Ethan asked as the car rolled safely onto the level road. He stepped back and assessed the damage to the paint and the fiberglass. "You're a long way from home."
"Yeah, but not too far. Just about four hours." She giggled at the look on Ethan's face. "I was visiting my grandparents, and I went to a water park with my cousins while I was over there, so that might explain why I'm dressed all baggy."
"It looks good on you." Ethan said, and it was true. He doubted there were many things that Danielle couldn't look good in.
"Thanks, Ethan." She smiled again-she seemed to do that a lot, and leant back against her car when it was on the level road. After a pause, she looked at him through her long blonde lashes. "You never called me."
"Huh?" Ethan asked, shaking his head, kind of dazed as he looked at her through the darkness. His muscles were still achy.
"When we first met, you said you would call me." She reminded him quietly, almost shyly. "You never did."
"Sorry." Ethan said, though he knew it wouldn't excuse his actions, but if he were being completely honest, the blonde standing in front of him hadn't crossed his mind more than once since he'd met her. "I haven't really talked to anyone lately. Not my parents, or my friends back in Whitechapel. I don't even talk to my best friend anymore."
The truth of that statement sent waves after waves of...some emotion. Sadness? It was more than that, and Ethan could definitely feel the disappointment in himself settle in his stomach. This is why he couldn't afford to think about any of this when he was out. You know, out. It was too sad to recall when he was trying to hold some monsters' jaws open so it couldn't bite him. Too distracting.
"Hey." Danielle said after a while, and came up to stand beside him, shaking him out of his thoughts in the process. She nudged him with her shoulder, talking gently as though she could sense that he was beating himself up. In reality, all he was doing was leaning on the slightly crunched hood of her car, feeling the heat of the machine through the silver fiberglass under the palms of his hands. "Everyone gets busy sometimes. Everyone needs their own space."
"Not like I do." Ethan found himself saying, and winced, raising his head up to look at the girl. Werewolf night vision didn't do all that much to brighten colors, but the moon that night, still peeking out behind the rainclouds, was so bright that he could see the blue of her eyes. "I mean, I really need space, Danielle. I've needed it a lot these past few months, and not just for myself, I-" He struggled for words. "It feels like if I don't, bad things will happen to the people I care about." He confessed, attempting to speak metaphorically but he could feel himself failing. "It's like I'm a monster and they're all clueless, just walking around me like I'm just any other person. Like I can't hurt them."
"You are a person, Ethan." Danielle replied insistently. "A good person, and if I know anything about you, it's that you would never intentionally hurt someone if they didn't hurt you first." She paused. "I would probably still be stuck in the ditch freaking out in the dark if you hadn't come along." Danielle gave him a strange look. "Off the subject, but what are you doing out here in the first place? You didn't drive up in a car."
"I had a car." Ethan answered, then shook his head. "No, I have a car, but it's kinda way out in the woods under a tarp because my parents don't know I have one." Ethan blurted, realized he shouldn't have said so much, and had the decency to look sheepish when she laughed at him.
"Okaay." She grinned and Ethan couldn't help but grin back at her. "Anyway, Ethan, don't beat yourself up about this. About anything."
"Thanks." Ethan gave into the urge and hugged her. Her skin was cool from the night air and she smelled of human, chlorine, and some flowery kind of perfume that was maybe a bit much for his sensitive nose, but nice nonetheless. "You're getting cold. You should be going."
"I should. I have a lot of driving ahead of me." She sighed, hugging him back, and placed a surprising kiss on his cheek as she pulled away. "Oh, wait!" She exclaimed, just as he was about to stand up from where they'd seated themselves against her hood. "Take a picture with me! And at least let me drive you home."
"Take a picture? Out here in the dark?" Ethan asked, smiling just slightly as the rain picked up. "In the rain?"
"In the car, then." Danielle smiled, leaving no room for argument as she moved around the car to the drivers door. She climbed in. "Get in, superman. I'm taking you home."
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"This isn't what it looks like!" Ethan held up his hands, cringing slightly as the car he'd just jumped out of drove away through the darkened streets-a streak of reflective silver against black. "Wait! Benny, can we talk about this?"
"I'd rather not, it's been a long day." Benny replied, fighting off a shiver against the cold as he walked briskly back the way he'd come, feeling stupid beyond belief. And he was pretty sure all that he was feeling showed on his face, because why else would Ethan be so insistently chasing him? It's not like he ever had before. "Go home, Ethan."
"Wait! Just let me explain-"
"I don't want to hear it, E." Benny turned around, coming face-to-face with his best friend. Trying his best not to look like he cared at all-which was a pretty hard effort, because all he really wanted was to be alone- he faced the friend he's so scarcely seen the last couple weeks. "Just go home, okay? That's what I'm doing."
"Will you please, just-" Ethan grabbed at his arm, but Benny pulled away-more of a reflex than anything else, and looked to the ground. Rain ran down his face and poured down in front of him, obscuring his vision and hearing by a little more in the dark. Even so, he could see and feel Ethan hesitate, as though he could sense just how much turmoil he was in. "Look, I know I don't exactly have the right to ask anything of you right now, but please, Benny."
Benny looked up then, for some reason really wishing Ethan would stop saying his name. The shorter teen was staring back at him with wide open eyes filled with question and...guilt?
"You have to talk to me." Ethan says, quieter now. He could never hide anything behind those eyes.
"No, I don't." Benny surprised himself by saying. Not this time.
"I know I've been a complete jerk." Ethan rushed out, running a hand through his hair, making it drip more. "I know I've been a bad excuse for a best friend, but-"
"Oh, is that what we are?" Benny interrupted, feeling his body heat even against the cold of the rain. "Because the last I heard, best friends are supposed to check in with each other every few weeks." He seen Ethan flinch, but was too far lost in all the anger and hurt and other emotions crashing through him that it didn't occur to maybe process what he was saying before he said it. "Maybe we are best friends E, but the truth of that statement gets less and less every time I think about it."
"Benny, we just need to talk this out." Ethan's voice was pleading, but there was his name again, and-
"Shut up!" Benny not-quite-yelled, but said loud enough to make Ethan jump in surprise. He was a little surprised himself, but it seemed as though after all this time -of confusion and worry and anger, following the accident- everything was coming to a boil.
"I can't deal with this!" Though he tried holding the reaction back, tears burned in his eyes and he swallowed harder than usual against the pressure suddenly assaulting his throat. Though the rain was icy, he was glad that at least one thing was working in his favor that night-he prayed Ethan couldn't see his tears through the dark and rain.
"Look, I know you've been all stressed out...and sick...but-" He cursed himself. Was his voice breaking? "I don't want to force you into anything, but you go silent for days at a time, I don't see you for a weeks, you ignore my calls, and you don't tell me anything...and that girl." He laughed, trying his best to make it a happy sound. "If she's your girlfriend, Ethan, I'm happy for-"
"Okay, okay, okay! Hold on." Ethan held up his hands and shook his head rapidly, cutting him off and Benny couldn't handle it-any of it. After all these days of near silence from Ethan, and all the stress he'd gone through that night, feeling sick with worry that Ethan might be hurt or in trouble, he just couldn't deal with it. He didn't want to.
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"Christ, this underbrush is thick." Cody tripped over a loose root and cursed as he almost fell over into an unconventional rosebush. The thorns scratched his leg through the dark fabric of his jeans and he made a small sound of frustration.
"Quiet now." Senna murmured. Her blonde hair stuck wetly to her head and neck, as well as the plain button-up and jeans she wore. "We should be close. Can you feel anything?"
"Yeah, I can feel a lot of fucking thorns slicing through my flesh. You had to pick the harshest path for miles." Cody hissed, shedding his jacket and shoving it in his backpack in favor of his t-shirt and jeans. It allowed for much more freedom, and he questioned why he'd even brought it in the first place. "Other than that, everything's on full charge, Sen. Feels like it's somewhere dead ahead."
"Somewhere dead ahead?" Senna asked, and gave a little laugh. They steadily and stealthily made their way towards a large clearing area maybe a quarter-mile ahead, just barely visible through the rain and dark. The moon was beginning to peek through just a bit. "Some expedition leader you'd be...and you're a psychic. Aren't you supposed to be all in touch with nature and the like? Ask the plants to stop scratching you." She giggled-she couldn't help herself, when she looked back and found him in an entanglement of weeds and branches, all of said limbs pulling and scratching at him in one way or another.
"In touch with nature my ass." Cody replied, managing to keep a stoic face as his blonde friend helped him out of the greenery without making too much noise. "These plants have it out for me, I swear. The entire goddamn forest."
"I think you best follow me, then." Senna grinned, even as she pulled out a crossbow and turned off her small pocket-flashlight. "Say close."
Cody made a sound of disgust as he followed, head down, pulling a bag of tools and supplies he'd needed from his pack as he went. As soon as he'd again secured the pack on his shoulders, though, the sound of a scuffle ahead stopped them both dead in their tracks.
"Cody..." Senna whispered, grabbing his arm as he crept ahead slowly. "Wait."
"This can't wait." Cody insisted, moving forward despite the nervousness threatening to take over his body, stiffening his limbs. "If we have any chance at all, we need to-" He was cut off as something light in color ran just in front of him, the speed and force of the object knocking him backwards into the grass.
"What-" Senna clamped a hand over his mouth, crouching down next to him, and he batted her hand away. Face set in a near snarl, he stood straight up, suddenly feeling the air vibrate. "Do you feel that?" He whispered.
"Feel what?" Senna whispered back. "I felt that thing run in front of you. I seen it."
"Not that." Cody answered, half sure anyway that what had knocked him over had been a vampire, and then eyed the single spade and hammer he'd brought. He hadn't brought a weapon? How stupid was that? "I know we came here for something, but we need to go back."
"What? Weren't you just the one-"
"About to go rushing head first into things. That's right. But there's more now..." He looked around, grasping the spade in one hand, handing a confused Senna the hammer in his other hand. "I'm surprised you can't feel it. There's a lot of energy here, bad energy...like there are things here. A lot of them."
"What do we do?" Senna asked, looking around, wanting to turn on her light but not wanting to draw attention. "We can't just leave it there, we're so close-"
"We have to." Cody began pulling her away. "Maybe if it's still there tomorrow, we can come back, but there's too many-"
A thundering crack split the air around them, and they instinctively ducked. Just in time, as a lightning bolt struck just over their heads, the force of it knocking over at least a few nearby trees. But the weirdest thing wasn't the lack of thunder or even the way it seemed to strike many places at once in verging degrees of ferocity...it was that the lightning hadn't appeared to come from the sky at all. It came from the ground, just ahead.
"Come get it, freaks!" A female voice-a human sounding voice yelled from what seemed like the origination of the lightning.
"Who's that?" Cody asked, more to himself than Senna and tried his best to manifest a face or image to all the energy he was feeling. Closing his eyes and trying to concentrate over the thunder and rustling, he saw many things. For the first few seconds or so, there were gruesome monsters-weird bipedal creatures, things that looked like people...and just for a moment, a pale, spiky-haired woman with just a hint of a man beside her, lit up by electricity encircling her body.
"Got her." Cody whispered. "Come on, Senna. Let's go."
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"Benny." Ethan said after he'd shook off as much of the emotion he could to keep from being overwhelmed. It seemed just the opposite for Benny as he crouched down on the ground, becoming what would've been almost invisible if Ethan's eyes had been wholly human. For a second, Ethan thought Benny was going to sit on the wet pavement, but he just crouched there, head down. That sight alone, of his best friend so vulnerable looking, so emotionally exhausted, was enough to bring down any of his own walls.
"Benny." Ethan said again, and when Benny stood up, there was so much raw confusion in his eyes for just a moment that he couldn't find any words. Benny just looked at him- scoffed, and turned around to walk away.
"Hey." Ethan followed, trying again to turn him around again, but was pushed away until he took a chance and grasped both of Benny's upper arms, preventing him from going any further. Still, Benny faced away from him, still trying to shrug him off. "I'm sorry."
"Ethan-"
"I'm sorry." Ethan said again, suddenly at a total loss for words. "Really, I..."
"Really, it's fine."
"I'm sorry." Ethan repeated, and found himself wrapping his arms around Benny's shoulders. The spellmaster wasn't struggling anymore, just standing there, too tense as Ethan folded his arms securely across Benny's chest in what he hoped would pass as an embrace.
An awkward one, maybe, but an embrace nonetheless. He wasn't exactly good or experienced with these things. So, for a few moments they just stood there, being soaked in large, icy splotches that passed as raindrops.
"I'm sorry for being gone so much and ignoring your calls." Ethan said quietly, after a long struggle for words. "I'm so sorry, for everything, for all the secrets...because we've always told each other everything, I KNOW that. It goes without being said, and I'm probably saying way more than I should, but I'm so sorry."
"We don't need to do this, E." Benny sighed, still not turning around, but slumping a little from his previously ramrod-straight stance. "We can talk about it later."
"I need to say this now." Ethan insisted, and adjusted his embrace so that Benny's back was flush against his chest, and he'd admit it...it was more than a little weird.
He and Benny were close, sure, but they'd never been...physically close. There just hadn't been the need for it, and come on. Hugging exclusively just wasn't something bros did, but he grudgingly admitted to himself that it was...nice. In fact, it might qualify as the best thing he'd experienced during the last few weeks. Benny's skin was cold against his own due to the rain and wind, and his maybe too-shaggy hair dripped onto his face, but Benny even smelled nice.
There was no denying the wave of warmth that settled in his chest, if only briefly, when he felt Benny reach up to half-heartedly rest one hand over his joined arms. He felt his taller friend sigh, and then the grasp of his hand was gone, but at least all the tension had gone from his posture. Then Benny was just standing there, slumped slightly and head hung as though there was nothing he'd rather be doing than sleeping in bed and Ethan was overcome with regret all over again.
"Listen, I'll explain everything." Ethan went on, giving Benny an awkward squeeze as he parted from him, and Benny seemed to release a breath he'd been holding.
"To everyone?" Benny asked, slow to turn around, and even then he didn't exactly look Ethan in the eye. He looked kind of flustered, in fact, and when Ethan thought about it, he himself was feeling kind of...warm. Then he shook himself out of it.
"What do you mean, to everyone?" Ethan gave a confused look and Benny shrugged.
"Well, back at the house, people have been talking." Benny scowled. "Look, E, it's great that we're trying to get back together and all, but-" And no, that couldn't possibly be a blush that accompanied the wide-eyed look Benny seemed to give himself, but Ethan could've sworn he'd seen the other's cheeks tint a darker shade. Though that could've been due to the cold. "-I really think it would be good for everyone to know where you've been. You know, I've been trying my best to cover for you, but since I haven't exactly known where you were these last few weeks, it kind of makes me seem like a liar too."
"Wait." Ethan was more confused than ever now, but tried not to sound too prying. "Cover for me? What do you mean, cover for me?"
"Cody was attacked, E." Benny grimaced. "And that creep Tyson has pictures of you hanging out with a guy who kind of looks like the one who Cody seen."
"Pictures?" Ethan sputtered in disbelief. Was he being stalked? How could he not have known anything about this? He hadn't been gone that long..."Why-"
"Why didn't I tell you that you had a crazy stalker following you around?" Benny almost growled. "Dude, were you really going to ask that?"
"Sorry." Ethan felt his own complexion burn in embarrassment. "We need to talk this out. I mean really talk."
"Yeah." Benny replied, but he was still kind of refusing to look at him dead-on. He didn't say anything else.
"It's cold." Ethan commented.
"You felt really warm." Benny answered, quieter than before, and smiled slightly before reaching out and shoving Ethan's shoulder lightly-a gesture almost foreign to Ethan. Benny had seldom done anything like that before-shoving him playfully-it just wasn't particularly something they did. It was almost as if they were actually having to learn how to act around each other again, and it scared him. "You know, when you were being all touchy-feely." Benny went on. "But I really would like to get inside before I get hypothermia."
"Or pneumonia." Ethan smiled and started shaking off the jacket he was wearing-yet another gift from Sylvan, and he was pretty sure it was water as well as fire-proof. "Here, I don't need this."
"What?" Benny looked up from where he'd been staring at the ground and gave a little laugh. It felt good to hear it after so long, however small and half-hearted. "Nah, E, let's just get back."
"It won't hurt." Ethan repressed a shiver himself, offering Benny the jacket, and setting it around his shoulders when the taller of the two made no move to grab it. "It's a long walk back."
"Not that long." Benny pulled the jacket around his shoulders and sighed, not looking all too happy about it.
"Long enough." Ethan then gave his friend a weird look. "By the way, what were you doing out here? It's like one in the morning."
"I was at Rory's." Benny shrugged. "Fell asleep, and woke up late. Decided to go home rather than sleep through Rory's snoring all night."
"Oh."
For a minute, they just stood there, before awkwardly setting off in the lonely streets on the ten-minute walk home. It was a long while before either of them spoke.
"Benny." Ethan stated more than asked.
"Yeah."
"We're gonna be okay." Ethan said with certainty and Benny looked over at him. After a moment more of walking in the dark, he smiled ruefully.
"Yeah, E."
That night, Ethan tried to be on his best "normal" behavior, especially around Grandma, who fretted around him for a bit and flicked Benny in the head a lot less harder than she could have before she set off to bed. It was only five minutes after Benny got changed into something warm that he fell asleep, and Ethan just lied there on the floor, listening to the reassuring sounds of his best friend's breathing and heartbeat next to him. It was more comforting than he'd expected it to be...a sound that told him he could finally stretch out and relax a little after having to watch his step and look over his shoulder constantly. Despite everything he'd done, he knew Benny would always have his back, and kicked himself for not appreciating it sooner.
It almost didn't bother him that he was still awake at three in the morning, when the wave of nausea finally hit again with full force, and all that acid and blood he'd mentioned earlier came back up. He spent an hour in the bathroom just choking up more junk and attempting to scrub all the memories away in the Weir's shower. The unnatural red and black substances that came up from all the wretched coughing he did worried him only a little, because he'd had worse.
What bothered and confused him the most was the realization that came with the sun rising. Just as the sky began to lighten, and Ethan began to settle in for a few hours of sleep, he realized what had really kept him awake all night, and it wasn't just the mild comfort that surrounded him with the familiar surroundings.
He'd been listening, watching, and waiting for dawn to chase the monsters away because he'd been guarding.
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AN: So, here it is, as non-miraculous as it may be, but I want FEEDBACK. The best gift you could ever give an author ever is feedback. Anyone have any ideas? Thanks to anyone who actually reads these AN's.
As always, I'm not sure about this chapter, but I gave the plot good long consideration...in fact, I rewrote it like three times. I'm still contemplating whether to put it up because I don't think it's that good, but...yeah, I will. The first ending draft for this chapter actually had to do with a whole car wreck scene which would've lead to a whole awful chain of events that wouldn't have sat well with anyone, least of all me, so I'm glad I rewrote it. I know I say this every time, but the next chapter should come a whole lot quicker. I'll try.
Review.