AN: Woo! Go me, another chapter down! :D
(Holy shit, 7,900+ words!)
Guys, I just want to say thanks for still being here with me and reading my story for so many years, it makes me so happy! I know not a lot of people review, but there are those I can count on to review like every chapter, and it gives me a lot of motivation to keep going! Thanks a bunch! I only hope that the continuation of this story and of my other stories will not disappoint. :)
Enjoy!
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"So, um..." Ethan started out, smiling a little awkwardly at the pretty librarian behind the desk. "We've heard a few things...I mean, word around the block is that there's some strange things happening around this library, you know? Is there anything you can tell us about that?"
The librarian, who looked to be only a few years older than Ethan himself looked a bit apprehensive.
"Well..." The librarian appeared upset. "When I tried to talk to the police, they wouldn't believe anything I said. They did a search of the building, but came up empty, I..."
"If it's too stressful on you, we don't have to talk about it." Ethan tried to smile comfortingly. "I can just take a look around for myself and see if I come up with anything. It's just for a school report, you know?"
"Wait!" The lady called as Ethan turned to leave. She handed him a set of keys that she pulled from somewhere behind her desk. "These are the keys to the restricted section in the back, that is usually only open to journalists and the town officials." She bit her lip. "But you can take them, if it might mean someone will believe me. If you see the things I did...if you heard..."
She looked ready to cry and Ethan gave her a small smile of sympathy as he tentatively took the key ring from her.
"You're not crazy." Ethan reassured her. "I can promise you that."
In the back of the library, he found Benny rifling through some magazines idly, waiting for him.
"Dude, library's blow." Benny complained. "I thought we came here to have fun, not to-"
"Benny, I think a vision earlier today, that's why I wanted to come here." Ethan revealed as he sat down next to his friend in another plush chair. "I think...I think this place might be haunted."
"Haunted?" Benny asked incredulously. "E, I could have brought my infrared and night vision cams! I could have brought the ghost-cage, if I'd known we were going somewhere cool!"
"Sometimes I just don't know about you." Ethan sighed and got up as he jingled the keys deliberately. "But in case you're wondering, I've got the keys to the restricted government section, so if you mind hanging around a dusty, dark room looking for clues, you're welcome to stay here and wait for me."
"Oh, don't get your Galactica boxers in a bunch, I'm coming." Benny pouted as he got up to follow Ethan. "And what's all this about 'looking for clues'? Can I be Fred, Velma?"
"Shut up." Ethan didn't turn but smiled a happy grin as he and his best friend made their way up the staircase at the far corner of the building.
"Uh. What did you see in your vision anyway? And why did you say you think you had one? Don't tell me you're starting to confuse visions with reality, E, that cannot be good." Benny rambled distractedly as he stared at the weird paintings of old men lining the walls of the corridor they were walking down.
"I don't know, really." Ethan answered as he tried one of the several keys on the ring, trying to open the main doorway at the end of the hall. All they keys were newer, and had no unusual features, so it would be hard to tell them apart if he somehow lost track of which one he'd already tried. "I guess...I don't really remember. Maybe it was a dream I had? When I woke up this morning, I just knew that we had to be here...and then you started telling me about this haunted library, so..."
"Huh." Benny studied him momentarily with his head cocked to the side like a cat. "Weird, dude."
"Yeah." Ethan agreed, and when he finally selected the right key, they entered the mystery room through it's double-doors, only to find what looked to be a very grand room, filled to the ceilings with a maze of bookcases.
"Say hello!" Benny called out to Ethan teasingly, as the seer studied a particular shelf of what looked to be very old and dusty encyclopedias. Ethan turned from the collection of books that had caught his attention and balked when he realized he was being filmed.
"Benny, cut it out!" Ethan whined a little and moved around the bookshelf. "Put that away! We're being serious here."
"Don't be such a square E." Benny popped up from behind the shelf grinning. "When there's something strange...in the old library...who you gonna call?!"
"Shut up and help me with this." Ethan tried to fight a smile but it slipped onto his face anyway, as Benny chuckled. Ethan was grabbing onto a big bookcase that stood slightly ajar from the wall behind it, and was preparing to move it.
"Yeah sure."
While Benny was setting his camera down (why was he even filming anyway?) Ethan was struck with a single thought that left him feeling warm inside. While the two were joking and talking, and while he'd asked Benny for his help with moving the heavy bookcase...he'd completely forgotten.
Ethan looked at the dusty floorboards where the wooden bookcase met the ground, and, slipping his hand behind the wood, he carefully nudged it forward with a bit of effort. What had to be over a hundred pounds of wood and paper moved with the barest hint of muscle strain on Ethan's part, and all at once Ethan realized that he could very well just move it himself.
But for a moment, a perfect moment when he and Benny were goofing off...Ethan smiled.
He had totally forgotten that he was a werewolf- forgotten it like it didn't matter. For a moment, and even now, as Benny's slim arms and fingers pushed and slid around on the polished wood, trying to push it aside...he felt like everything was going to be okay. If he could feel like this for the rest of his supernatural life, he knew he'd be fine. As long as Benny was there to make him feel normal.
"Uh, E? You were right to ask for help, this thin is a couple hundred pounds at least." Benny huffed, and dramatically wiped his non-sweaty forehead with a striped sleeve. "So you know...would you mind helping?"
"Yeah." Benny didn't understand why Ethan looked so happy all of a sudden, but he didn't need to. Instead, the spellmaster smiled back fondly and together, the two pushed the bookcase away from the wall enough so that a small door could be seen, well hidden behind wallpaper.
"How did you know this was here?"
"The way the wall was built." Ethan gestured above. "See? It looked weird, and then I saw that the bookcase wasn't pushed all the way back against the wall."
"Nice!" Benny exclaimed as he grabbed his camera and aimed it at where Ethan was jiggling the knob. "Wait, I got it!"
His hand pointed towards the door with his fingers slightly apart, Benny yelled, "Alohamora!"
With a blast of what only could be described as silvery wind blew out of Benny's palm and hit the edge of the door, where it seemed to wrap around the slim board that made up the left doorframe. Then, with a small ripping noise, the doorframe quite literally blew off the wall and smacked Benny squarely on the crown of his head. Said teen toppled over, dropping his camera, and hit his head again against a low table resting against the wall.
"Owwww!" Benny whined and Ethan was torn between wanting to laugh and feeling bad for his best friend.
"Well," Ethan said with a teasing smile as he knelt down to help Benny to his feet. "That's what you get for trying to be Hermione."
"I had to try it once." Benny groaned, and fought a blush as Ethan chuckled and shook his head. "Okay, you can be Velma and I'll be Daphne. Fred's plans never work..."
Ethan grinned and held up Benny's camera, still recording, to face the suddenly gloomy spellmaster. "Just try not to get kidnapped then. Leave all the work to me, I guess, and you can just sit there and be pretty."
"Doesn't sound too bad, actually." Benny replied, as he got up slowly and rubbed his head. "I'm good at looking good. But, I insist." He held up his hands again and Ethan laughed at Benny's persistence. "Let me take care of this part. Reperare!"
Green light shot from Benny's palms and hit the doorknob, and immediately a click was heard along with the cream of a door opening. A rather ominous creak, and the boy's were reminded that this door was hidden for a reason. Whatever it was, they would soon find out.
"Wanna go first?" Ethan smiled crookedly, and when Benny made no move, he stepped forward.
"Wait! Yeah! I'll go." Benny exclaimed suddenly, and he was suddenly stepping forward himself with his camera and his phone, which had a built-in flashlight.
"Ben, I was only kidding-"
"It's cool, I'll go first." Benny looked back at Ethan and gave him a semi-sarcastic smile. "It's our first adventure in a while, E! I'm even getting it on tape, I can't be caught looking like a chicken."
"Really, Ben." Ethan was getting nervous all of a sudden, as Benny slowly stepped into the dark passage. And the fact that he was getting nervous without a proper reason was making him more nervous. "I don't need a flashlight, my eyes-"
"Just let me handle it-"
Both Benny and Ethan yelled in surprise and fright when the floor beneath Benny suddenly gave away, and the spellmaster fell straight down. It was so quick that Ethan barely had enough time to reach out and grab Benny's arm before he fell into the total darkness exposed by the cracked floorboards.
"Ow ow ow again!" Benny yelled in fear and pain as he breathe lightly in fear of puncturing something with the wooden spikes suddenly surrounding his midsection. The floorboards gave the impression that they were rotten through, with the way they had fallen apart in a near perfect circle around him, but they felt sharp and hard as ever. "Yeah...yeah maybe you should have handled it."
"It's alright!" Ethan's voice shook with his stress. "Okay, I'm going to pull you up slowly-"
"Ah!" Benny screamed in pain and Ethan froze in horror. "No good! These boards are jagged and digging into me. If you pull..."
"It'll just dig more." Ethan finished with worry apparent in his voice and face. "Dammit. Well...I guess it's useless asking if you seen how far it is to the floor below."
"Probably another nine or ten feet, at least." Benny said tightly.
Ethan's mind was in a whirl, snarling at himself for his stupidity, and dizzying him with fear. If his mind had a body of it's own right now that wasn't holding onto Benny for dear life, it would be screaming in rage while simultaneously flailing it's arms in panic. What should he do?! He couldn't pull Benny up with the wooden splinters surrounding him, and he couldn't drop him!
"E..." Benny gulped, and Ethan could tell he was swinging his legs, trying to get purchase on something, anything. Ethan seen Benny grimace in pain, and fear gripped him.
"Benny...I'm gonna try to break the rest of this." Ethan nodded to the rest of the wood. "Then, I should be able to pull you up and away from it."
"No, you can't do that without losing your grip on the other floor!" Benny protested hotly, and Ethan blinked, surprised. "Look, maybe it's not as far down as we think-"
"I am not dropping you." Ethan answered sharper than he meant to, and reached out with a foot to kick at the floorboard closest to him. "It's okay, we'll find-"
"I hear something." Benny whispered suddenly, and Ethan felt sick to hear a hint of fear in the other teen's voice. "Do you? It's...it's saying...something. E, we need to get out of here."
"Okay, that's it, Benny." Ethan reached out again carefully with a foot and dislodged another tiny section of floorboard, but it was nowhere near Benny enough to let him slip out. "You'll just have to suck it in a little, or maybe-"
"It says it has us now!" Benny yelled suddenly, panting in his panic. "Don't you hear it? It knows my name, E!"
"It's alright!" Ethan yelled back, trying to be comforting but failing fantastically. "It's okay, relax! Of course it knows your name, Benny! I've only been yelling it for the last two min-"
With a great whoosh, the door slammed shut behind Ethan, and both boys screamed as they fell into the darkness below.
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"Hm?" Cody looked up from his book-studying, glancing around the hotel room. "Funny, thought I heard something."
"What was that?" Senna asked from the other room. "Cody did you say something?"
"No, did you?" Cody asked confusedly.
"No."
"Hmm." Cody hummed thoughtfully, adjusting his glasses as he scratched down notes from the old town journal in front of him. His head was still aching, and his chest hurt a bit from the smoke he'd inhaled the other day.
"Did you find anything about the Cave of Luxuria?" Senna asked.
"No, did you?"
"No." The blonde sighed. "Nothing about the Dagger of Ira or the Well of Tristitia either."
"Well, best we save those for last anyway." Cody dismissed with a wave of his hand. "I might have found something on the Averitian item, but it doesn't look promising. Something about a cloak. And there's another one, about an enchanted rucksack, but I'm not sure. It's hard reading these old transcriptions, even if I did study Latin."
"It's even harder for me to go by google translator." Senna remarked irritably. "Seriously, screw autocorrect."
"Someone's angsty today." Cody returned quietly. "You're even using almost-swear words. I'm impressed."
Senna groaned and laid back against the bed she sat on. She knew Cody was mildly pissed at her, just for the fact that she had brought Tyson into the picture, when he had clearly told her he hadn't thought it was a good idea. From the beginning, he told her that Tyson couldn't be trusted...and she had trusted him enough to convince Evelyn to let him into the house to clean his weapons.
She would never forget the rage that had been on Benny's face that day. And Ethan...that poor kid. And Cody, although he was acting less talkative than usual, Senna knew he was still bitter about the whole situation. While he did go off on a rant after the actual incident happened, he said little about it afterwards, except the occasional snide comment towards the sandy-haired hunter. He was just too good of a friend to rub it in her face.
"I wonder how the boys are doing?" Senna approached the subject carefully.
"I dunno." Cody replied equally as carefully. "They looked fine this morning. Headed out about nine o' clock and said they were gonna go catch a movie or something."
"They're good kids."
"Yeah. I wish I'd gone with them, actually, movie popcorn sounds great right now." Cody mused. "They asked me if I wanted to go with them, but I said I wasn't up for it. Figured they needed some time alone."
"I hope they're enjoying their movie, they deserve it."
"Yeah. I think that new movie 'The Three ZombiTeers' is playing. Sound like something they'd watch."
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Pain. Ugh, and an old dusty, moldy smell.
"Ethan..." Benny managed to grate out, and tried to slowly sit up from his awkward but surprisingly soft landing. The fall was rough, but he was half-sure Ethan had wrapped his arms around him and taken most of the damage.
"Yeah. I'm here Ben." Ethan wheezed, and Benny abruptly realized that the soft thing he was laying on was, in fact, his best friend.
"Oh my god!" Benny sat up, perhaps a little too quickly, and his head spun. "E are you okay?!"
"Yeah." Ethan nodded painfully, and sucked in a deep breath as he shifted to get into a more comfortable position. He found that his leg was suspended in the air, about four feet and trapped between what felt like two large poles. The angle in which he was caught lifted his lower half up and away from the floor that was just enough to be slightly painful.
"I can't see anything." Benny coughed as dust settled all around them in the dark space.
"It's alright." Ethan grunted as he helped guide Benny by the arm into a place where there was hardly any sharp debris. "Over here is a good place to sit...ugh, just give me a minute."
"Are you hurt?" Benny asked, and pulled out his phone from his pocket , before cursing as the battery died.
"Just a little." Ethan lied through his teeth as he snapped a dislocated finger back into place with a yelp of pain. "I think I broke almost everything...and then dislocated the rest."
"Hold on, E." Benny said and then spouted a few words in Latin. With a whirl of green sparks, the room flooded with light.
"That's better at least," Ethan said with a heaving sigh. "Now you can see what's going on."
"Oh!" Benny exclaimed as he saw Ethan's painful predicament, and immediately stood and tried to move the old and ceramic-looking pipes holding Ethan's ankle in place. "You're stuck good."
"It's alright, I got it." Ethan shifted with a hiss and stretched out an arm until he could touch the pipe with just the ends of his fingertips. Ethan paused, then. "What about you? Benny, I smell blood."
"Hm?" Benny inquired curiously, and then patted himself down, wincing when his palm met with a small but jagged gash at his left side, just under the ribs. There was a bit of blood running down his side, and much more had collected on his striped shirt. "Oh...I guess there was so much happening that I didn't really feel it. It must have happened when I fell through the floor."
"You'd better check the rest of yourself too. Don't worry about me, I'll be fine in a minute." Ethan leaned back after trying and failing to gain purchase on the beige pipe with his fingertips.
The seer studied his fingers for a moment, and then closed his eyes to try and concentrate the barest of transformation magic in his fingers. He felt an odd and weirdly satisfying pull and what could only be described as growth in his fingers and hand, and when he looked at his hand again, he blinked in both horrified fascination and a bit of triumph.
Ethan's nails had grown longer, thicker and sharper, into the claws of a wolf, but much more razor-like and a smooth, polished-looking white. His fingers had grown a bit as well, and Ethan's stomach turned slightly at the sight of double-joints in his fingers now, as well as excess hair that carried up all the way to his forearms. It wasn't over-the-top, like it had been when Benny accidentally cast the werewolf reveal spell backwards, but it was still thick and darker than it should be.
"Awesome..." Benny's breathy voice stated from just a foot or two to his right, and Ethan flushed, suddenly self-conscious.
"I-I couldn't reach it with just my fingers." Ethan blushed a few shades of pink and ducked his head slightly under his best friend's watchful gaze.
Steeling himself, Ethan wasted no time in reaching out and slicing four straight lines across the pipe that he could now reach with his extended fingers and claws. The pipe didn't fall apart like Ethan hoped, but it did almost cut completely through. Ethan swiped at the other offending pipe and just barely managed to graze it with his claws. Pulling back again and then lashing out forward, Ethan stretched his muscles further than what was comfortable.
"A couple more swipes at it and I should be able to-" Ethan grunted fitfully as he lie back, his leg still stretching painfully from the awkward angle. "To pull it out."
"Here, wait, I think I got it." Benny stood up from his crouched position and, with a heavy swing of a sturdy floorboard, he hit the crossed pipes soundly. It took another couple tries, but eventually, the pipes cracked from the stress and the claw marks, and Ethan's leg fell to the floor.
"Ah!" Ethan gasped as he was finally set free, and took a few deep breaths as he practically felt the strained tendons and stressed muscles mending themselves back into working order. "Thanks B."
"Anytime." Benny smiled and sat down again with a wince. "Damn, these floorboards got me good."
"Is your side okay?"
"It's not my side I'm worried about." Benny admitted, and then rolled up a bloody pant leg to reveal a nasty gash near the inside of his ankle. It was steadily bleeding, and had a few splinters stuck in it here and there. The sight made Ethan feel sick.
"Oh, Benny." Ethan sat up. "That's not good. We need to get you out of here. I think you need to go to a hospital. That looks like it needs stitches."
"It'll be fine, it's just a flesh wound." Benny grinned at Ethan and then the seer's eyes were assaulted with the glowing of a purple light. Benny winked. "Besides, I've got the making of a first-rate wizard, and I've learned a few tricks over the months. This'll stop the bleeding."
Ethan could do nothing but stare as Benny's wound slowly stopped bleeding, until the blood seemed to be frozen in place. Benny, of course, looked mildly freaked by this, and then Ethan chuckled before pulling Benny's glowing hand away from the wound. Ethan also pulled a few splinters from the pale skin, making Benny wince.
"Maybe you should leave the regenerating cells to your actual healing factors." Ethan chided, and then tore a sleeve off of his own sweater, before tearing the sleeve the long way, into strips. "This will stop the bleeding just as well, or at least staunch it until we get you to a hospital."
As Ethan tied the bindings as gently as he could over the spellmaster's wounds, Benny himself began to look around the little room for the first time. It was mostly empty, save for a few stacks of boards here and there, and what looked to be an old lantern on the wall. One thing stood out though-the chest in the far corner.
"Dude! Is that what you saw in your vision?" Benny asked as he pointed in the direction of the little chest.
"Uh..." Ethan examined the chest momentarily before looking back to where he was still wrapping Benny's leg. "Maybe. I would say it's a moot point now. This was stupid. We should never have stepped into this library today."
"Hey, well as long as we're here, right?" Benny asked, trying to cheer up his best friend. "And E, don't go beating yourself up about this." The brunet's expression fell a little. "If it's anyone's fault, it's mine. I was the one who told you those stupid rumors about this library, it was just something I heard in school. And who the hell just steps into a dark and hidden hallway without looking first?"
"Well, this library is obviously a lot more ancient than it looks." Ethan remarked. "And it's alright, it was my choice to come here today, and I'm not even sure why."
"It's no one's fault, then, alright?" Benny looked disturbed all of a sudden, and he held onto his damaged leg with one hand while looking at the chest oddly. "We really should get out of here, though. I really thought I heard something calling my name from in here. It was creepy as hell."
"Well, I didn't hear anything." Ethan looked concerned. "But that doesn't necessarily mean that there wasn't anything in here. Maybe it really was a ghost."
"Or maybe it was that chest." Benny scooted a fraction closer to Ethan and away from the chest. "E, whatever that it, I don't think we should touch it."
"What? I'm sure it's fine to just pick up, Ben."
"Seriously, E." Benny looked at him with honest eyes. "It's creepy, and I have a bad feeling about it. Please don't touch it."
"Ben, that thing or whatever is in it, is probably the reason we're here at all." Ethan bit his lip, standing up on shaky legs. "Whether I had a vision or not, something was telling me to come here today, and I'm taking that chest."
Before Benny could protest, Ethan took off what remained of his sweater and threw it over the small wooden chest. Then he kicked it over with his foot and grabbed the box without actually touching it, zipping up the sweater and tying it with the one remaining sleeve, making a rough pouch.
"See? I'm not really touching it." Ethan reassured the anxious spellmaster.
"Just be careful." Benny retorted and then stood up, careful to not put too much weight on his bad leg. Spotting his video camera he'd brought along for the hell of it, he picked it up and discovered that it was still recording. Scowling, he shut it off.
"I could say the same to you." Ethan answered, and then grabbed the chest while going over to bend down and let Benny grab onto him from behind. "Grab on, I think I can jump out of here."
"Uh, you sure?" Benny asked, and although he was abruptly reminded Ethan could very well carry him on his back along with probably the rest of his family and not break a sweat, he was still apprehensive. Ethan was just hurt too. "You just dislocated every joint in your body, remember? And that's twelve feet to the next floor, at least."
"Just trust me."
And Benny did. So, he held onto Ethan's shoulders and closed his eyes as Ethan jumped, straight up, and to the side a little so that he could leap straight into the closed library door.
Benny gave a light 'oomph' as they crashed through the closed door, and then bumped roughly into the huge bookcase that rested against that same door not twenty minutes ago. Benny glared silently at the door and bookcase, and then steadied himself against the wall as Ethan set him gently down on the old, dusty rug covering the restricted section's floor.
"Careful." Benny huffed as Ethan closed the door with a little more force than necessary, and then slid the massive bookcase back into place with little more than as training of muscle.
"Thank god that's over." Ethan sighed and helped Benny to sit on a stack of precariously balanced cardboard boxes. Benny was sweaty, bloody, bruised, scraped, and hungry of all things, and now he had to worry about spiders crawling on him too.
"No kidding." Benny replied, grumpy as he glanced at his watch. "Let's get out of here and get a burger or something. And it needs to be soon, or I'll turn into a skeleton before we make it back to Whitechapel."
"You need to get to the hospital." Ethan retorted, and grabbed Benny forcefully by the arms again, swinging him around gently and forcing him to scramble for a good grip as the seer took off towards the exit. "First things first."
"Oh, right." Benny sighed heavily. "And then you've got that date with Sarah, how could I have forgotten?"
Ethan stiffened. "Oh yeah...right. I forgot about that too." He glanced over his shoulder at Benny's steady hazel eyes. "You think I should bail?"
"What?" Benny exclaimed, and so did Ethan, in pain, when the spellmaster hit him over the head with a closed fist.
"Ow! Dude, what the heck?!" Ethan yelped as Benny huffed and went back to sagging against his best friend.
"Dude, this is what you've been waiting for since like...forever!" Benny reminded him hotly. "Sarah's a smokin' hot vampire babe, and a family employee, you can't blow her off just like that!"
"I have more important things to-"
"Oh, come on! When have you ever chosen hanging out with me over Sarah?" Benny asked suddenly, and Ethan's shoulders tensed just that much more. "She's your dream girl, E! And she's practically serving herself up on a silver platter! Just go out with her!"
"Okay, that's gross, B." Ethan wrinkled his nose distractedly for a moment before pausing outside the restricted section's double-doors. Slowly, he reached out to find the right key and lock them again. A look of slight hurt came over his features- a look that was lost on Benny, because the spellmaster's eyes were suddenly downcast, and staring at the swirling red and golden carpet below.
"Is that..." Ethan murmured quietly. "Have I really ignored you for her that much?"
"Forget it, E." Benny sighed, feeling uncomfortable suddenly, being this close to Ethan. He squirmed a bit from his place against Ethan's back. "Point is-"
"I won't forget it, Benny." Ethan shot back, looking over his shoulder, only to discover that Benny wouldn't meet his eye. "What is it? Is there something you're not telling me?"
"No."
"Did Sarah say something to you?" Ethan demanded.
"Say something to me...?" Benny asked, blinking in surprise and a sudden tinge of what he thought might be anger...but that couldn't be right, could it? "So,etching like what?"
"Just, anything!" Ethan thrust the correct key into the tumblers on the fifth try, and locked the door with almost enough force to break it. "Have she and Erika been grilling you for info while I've been...away?"
"No, Ethan." Benny sighed. "Nothing like that. All I'm trying to say is...Sarah's been your crush for the last three years. You might not get another perfect opportunity like this. God knows it only turned out this way because she asked you."
"I resent that." Ethan resumed walking down the corridors of the library, fully ready to leave the old building. "I would have handled it myself, at one point or another..."
Benny snorted and smiled, but it didn't reach his eyes. "Handling it yourself means it'll never get done."
"Lay off." Ethan nudge Benny with his shoulder. "It's the bloodloss talking. All this is giving me a headache. I just want to take you in to the hospital, make sure you're okay, and then go home and...get ready, I guess."
"You do that." Benny said heartily, but during the many minutes that Ethan walked them slowly and carefully back to Grandma Weir's car, Benny found what was left of his enthusiasm leaving him.
'Thanks, E.' Benny thought, but didn't say out loud. He was a coward through and through. 'I was kidding, you're always there for me. Even when I don't deserve it, even when I've messed up so bad..I just can't make myself say any of this out loud. Then, I really would be admitting I'm practically nothing without you. What am I supposed to do when-'
Images of Ethan and Sarah together flashed through the forefront of his mind, and Benny rested his head against Ethan's shoulder when a sick feeling crawled up from somewhere deep inside him and settled in his stomach. What was wrong with him? Sarah was their friend, he liked Sarah. She was a little snooty at times and a bit stiff now and again, but she was awesome! And Ethan was his best friend, of course he wanted them to be together, they both deserved it...
'I want you to be happy.'
Benny shifted in Ethan's gentle hold and sighed, wrapping his arms fractionally tighter around Ethan, as though it would make the confusing feeling go away. Hazel eyes glanced almost shyly in the direction of Ethan's honest brown ones, though they weren't focused on him, and Benny found himself relaxing a little. Clinging there comfortably, resting his head on Ethan's shoulder and breathing in his familiar scent, Benny closed his eyes. Somewhere, in the secret recesses of his mind, Benny told himself to get as close as possible- he may never be this close to Ethan again.
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"Reservation for Fox?" Ethan asked as he entered the little restaurant, some time later after finally being shooed from the emergency room by Benny. That had been only twenty minutes ago.
"One moment...right this way." The waitress directed him toward a table in the back, where Sarah was already waiting.
Even just sitting there, she looked stunning; hair curled and tied to the side, simple jewel earrings and a deep red, silky blouse with white jeans. Sarah had always managed to make herself look practical, but still ready to walk down a runway. When she heard them approach, she turned and smiled at him. The sight made Ethan's own lips twitch up into a smile.
"Sarah." Ethan greeted with a warm voice and warmer eyes. Over the weeks, months that he hadn't seen her outside a classroom setting...he'd forgotten how beautiful she was. Especially like this...and not discounting her personality, of course. Sarah wasn't exactly and angel, but just by seeing her crooked, sweet smile, Ethan realized once more why she really was his dream girl. Anyone's dream girl.
"You're late." Sarah teased, and Ethan gave her an apologetic look.
"Sorry, I kinda got caught up in some trouble earlier." Ethan confessed, and pulled out her chair for her as she sat down once again. Pushing her chair gently forward, Ethan settled down in his own chair, red velvet cushioning far different from the cheaply designed plastic seats that he was used to. Vaguely, he wondered what Benny would think of this place. Of course- Benny would be all over the fancy interior.
"It's always one thing or another with you, why am I not surprised?" Sarah answered, and then laughed a little. "Anyway, how have you been? I hardly ever see you outside of school, and school's been weird too. Did you guys happen to have anything to do with Principle Hicks' speakers blowing out gun powder the other day?"
"Honestly, it was completely Rory." Ethan sold out his blonde friend. "I haven't even been to school properly in the last couple weeks."
"I noticed." Sarah nodded, and then they paused to let the waiter take their orders. "That's part of the reason why I wanted to meet tonight."
"Oh yeah?" Ethan asked, and tried to give her all of his attention with the shift in conversation. "Is something going on?"
"Well, kinda." Sarah shrugged. "I kinda wanted to get to you before Erika or Rory did. It's about the Vampire Council."
"Ah." Oh, great. "Are me and Benny being summoned again?"
"No, nothing like that...well, kind of like that." Sarah fidgeted a little, tapping her champagne glass Ido had yet to be and would not be filled, seeing as she wasn't eighteen yet...and would never be. "Look, Ethan, you know how much you mean to me. You're a great friend of mine, and...you know, Benny's grandma is right, always telling us to get along and own up to our feelings...I care about you, Ethan."
Ethan froze, looking at her with wide eyes. Was this it? Did Sarah actually begin to return his affections, after so long since he'd seen her? Since he'd been alone with her? A worse thought...he'd mentioned to Benny a while ago that he might have gotten over his crush on Sarah...but did he really?
"And the Vampire Council told me that someone needed to keep an eye on you. So I wanted to get to you before Erika or Rory could." Sarah finished. "You know how they are, they can't handle anything gently."
Ethan sat there with his mouth open, fork raised above an empty plate like there was actual food on it to stab. "Uh...keep and eye on..."
"It's no official assignment." Sarah reassured him with a gentle and caring look on her face. "Yet, anyway. They mentioned it to me about a week ago that you were on their list, and since they know I'm your friend, they probably won't try and send me to spy on you. But I figured you'd want to know about it anyway."
"Well..." Ethan had kind of already known, from his encounter with the red-jacketed vampire in the forest, some time ago. "Thanks for telling me. I'll be sure to look out for myself from now on."
"Good. Seriously, the council's been more agitated than ever, recently. It's almost like they're scared of something."
"Scared?" Ethan asked suddenly. He thought back to the day that he'd spent tossing around third-rate monsters in that disgusting RV with Sylvan. None of them, however intimidating, seemed even slightly scary enough to frighten Anastasia and her posse of "vampire elders".
What could possibly be frightening the elder vampires enough to make them noticeably tense?
"Yeah, it's starting to worry me." Sarah confessed, and thanked the waiter when their food arrived. "They never seem worried about anything. I used to think I'd give anything to see the smugness wiped off their faces, but now..."
"I wonder if it has anything to do with..." Ethan frowned.
"With what?" Sarah asked curiously.
"Nothing...jut something me and Benny found today," Ethan shook his head. "It seemed fine to me, but it gave Benny a bad feeling. It's this...box we found in an old library in a town called..." Ethan struggled to remember.
"Again, sounds like you two to a tee." Sarah sighed but smiled at the brunet geek across from her. "Is that why you're being so weird?"
"Sarah," Ethan began curiously. "Did the council tell you WHY they were so interested in failing me?"
The question seemed to catch her off-guard.
"Well, no..." Sarah paused. "But I'm sure it's nothing. Just them being weird again...or it could be because...well, I hear Jesse was sighted pretty close to home, and..."
Sarah looked downcast, and Ethan didn't know what possessed him to do it, but he reached out and grabbed her hand across the table. The pretty brunet looked taken aback, and if Ethan didn't know better, he'd say there was a blush forming on her cheeks.
"After all this," The seer-turned-werewolf smiled, slightly sardonically, but not unkindly. "You still have feelings for him?"
"Not in the way you think!" Sarah held up her hands in a firm gesture, and Ethan began pulling his hand away. Sarah seemed to realize what she'd done, and hurried to grab his hand again. For a moment, it seemed that all other thoughts were tossed to the side...for a moment, it was just the two of them.
"I don't love Jesse." Sarah said firmly. "I hate him. I hate him for what he did to me...for what he did to Erika, and Rory...and for how he beat up you and Benny." Sarah's deep brown eyes were conflicted. "For everything he did."
"Sarah, you-"
"No, Ethan, listen-"
"Don't say anything you aren't comfortable with." Ethan pressed, squeezing her delicate fingers between his own just slightly.
"I am comfortable with you." Sarah smiled warmly, but with a glint of something else in her eyes. Confusion? "I just...need you to understand. I don't care about Jesse. Not like I used to, anyway. There was a time that...I thought I was in love with him."
Ethan averted his eyes- not uncomfortable, but at the same time, not knowing what to say to this confession of Sarah's. Thankfully, before he could try and formulate a comment, she continued.
"I just feel like..." Sarah was grasping for words. "Like if all of this didn't happen...I mean, I'd still be human. I might have been planning my first couple years of college by now, and Erika would still be nerdy and arranging the next Dusk convention, and..." She paused and seemed to gulp. "And I wouldn't know you, Ethan."
"..." All Ethan could do was smile a gentle smile at her, eyes softening fondly. Seeing this, Sarah's eyes welled with slight tears, and she continued.
"I wouldn't have the friends I do now. I wouldn't have these experiences. There's still a chance for me, to become human again...after all, I have all the time in the world." Sarah looked nervous. "I still don't know how I feel about you, Ethan, or...about a lot of things for that matter. It's hard to explain. I know I could fight him, but just knowing that Jesse's still around...it's confusing."
Oh.
Oh.
"I think I know what you mean." Ethan said quietly. Oh yeah, he knew what she meant...probably better than anyone else ever could. Maybe vampires had the sire bond too. Hating someone for ruining your life and still being so hopelessly and hatefully attached to them...it wasn't an easy burden to bear.
"You're different." Sarah commented thoughtfully. "Somehow, something's changed about you."
"Is it the new shirt?" Ethan asked, and pinched the fabric of the simple button-up he wore. "Benny's grandma picked it out for me." Sarah laughed.
"No, it's not the shirt." The girl rolled her eyes and released Ethan's hand after a small squeeze of fingers. "You seem...just, different. More calm. More confident than usual."
"Thanks."
Silence reigned while they ate their respective food for a moment. Then, Sarah sighed, but it was a happy sigh.
"This was worth it." The brunet confessed, looking relieved. "I feel a lot better now."
"I'm glad." Ethan returned and looked over to where an older couple, probably in their seventies, walked out of the restaurant from the back. The older lady holding the older gentleman's hand smiled at them warmly as they passed by.
"What is love anyway?"
"Huh?" Sarah broke out of her adoring look and turned back to her date.
"Love." Ethan answered, and knew he was probably being a little out of context from what they were talking about. But for the last year or so, he'd been convinced he'd wanted Sarah to be his girlfriend. Convinced that he may even love her. "I know I love my family...but how do you know if you're, you know..."
"In love?" Sarah asked shyly with a small grin.
"Yeah." Ethan's voice was weak.
"Well...I don't think I've ever been in love." Sarah answered. "Like I said, what I thought I had with Jesse was love, but now I know that wasn't it. My grandma used to tell me..."
Ethan listened raptly, a hint of something that felt oddly like desperation welling up in his chest, as though he had just asked a devastating question he already knew the answer to. He didn't know why he had asked the question, pointed the conversation in this weird (and girly) direction, but...he just didn't feel right about anything right then.
"She used to tell me to-"
"Ethan!" Rory appeared a foot away from their table, and the couple was so startled and had leaned so close together that they smacked foreheads rather harshly.
"Ow!" They shouted together, and turned on the blonde with twin looks of annoyance and horror at being caught the way they had.
"Rory, what-"
"Ethan, dude!" Rory gasped, and the seer was startled to see the intense look in his usually carefree eyes.
"Rory? What is it?" Ethan stood up, and so did Sarah.
"E," Rory started again in a rush. "You're backyard exploded!"
"What?" Ethan couldn't comprehend what he was hearing. "Rory what are you-"
"I was just at Benny's and-" The blonde struggled to get his tongue to work right. "You're backyard! You're house! The- the freaking flowerpots just exploded and your house is on fire!"
Seconds ticked by, and it was nearly fifteen seconds before Ethan's mind had caught up to itself.
"Is my family okay?!" Ethan demanded harshly, more harshly than he'd meant. He was freezing suddenly, like all the warmth had been stolen from him.
"I-I-I don't know!" The poor blonde sputtered. "Benny's grandma is looking for them, but no one knows where they are!"
"WHAT?!"
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AN: Still debating whether or not to rewrite the last half of this. I'll keep this nice and short guys, I've worked on this literally all day (technically yesterday) and now I think I've developed both carpal tunnel and rheumatoid arthritis. :L But the Bethan feels wouldn't leave me alone unless they were written down.
If you love me or this story you'll drop a review! Tell me what you thought about the last part with Sarah! Ease an old (nineteen year old) author's nerves (or set them on fire with your complaints, whichever works best for you).
Happy Summer!
Updated: July 17th, 2017, sometime after 7:20 AM e-0