Welcome back! Things are really starting to get.. Quite intense. :)

Enjoy!

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GASP

Gumball woke with a jolt, taking in quick sharp breaths as he looked around frantically.

"W-What happened? Am I…Am I dead?"

He managed to sit up, though not without great effort. He felt unusually weak for some reason and his head was spinning like crazy. Perhaps side effects of that vampire attacking him?

The feline's eyes widened. Attacked… He had been attacked. Trying to fight off the nausea he used his other paw to feel the rest of his body. Surprisingly, everything seemed normal…and he didn't feel like he was dead either...

He checked his heartbeat. Still beating. He was a little colder than normal, but apart from that he seemed to be completely fine.

"W-what…? I'm…okay? But…that thing it…he…I should be dead…"

Sitting up and looking around, he soon realized the vampire in question was nowhere to be seen. Not only that, but the rain had stopped and the clouds had now cleared. Even more confusingly, he was now resting on a bench. How had he gotten here?

The feline sat in silence for a moment, trying to comprehend what was going on. One moment he was attacked by a gosh darn vampire, and the next he's woken up completely fine, safe and sound on a bench? What was going on?

"Maybe…maybe it was just a nightmare? A…very…vivid and real feeling nightmare…" He tried to reason with himself, though quickly realized this made no sense as he didn't remember going to sleep at all. But how else could he explain his situation?

The young cat suddenly gasped as a sharp pain shot through his neck, much like he'd felt earlier. He raised a paw to rub it, only to wince. Confused, he felt the area again, and was greeted with two small holes at his touch, along with something wet feeling coating them. "..W-What the what?.."

Pulling back his paw to look, the feline's eyes widened at what he saw.

Blood. Covering the tips of his fingers was blood from the bite wound on his neck.

It was real. That entire attack, entire ordeal, was real. That vampire was real..

As he recounted his memories, fear began to set in, the cat trembling at the thought. He was bitten, but not by some dog or cat like he usually was, no. By a full-fledged vampire. But that wasn't what was scaring him. That was nothing compared to the realization he had come to.

He had been attacked by a vampire and lived, he had been attacked by a vampire and was completely unharmed minus the bite wound. He was feeling extremely weak and nauseous, and he had a headache.

There could only be one explanation.

"No, no, I..I-I-I'm just imagining things because I'm tired, that's all. There's no way I'm.. " He stopped himself, terrified to even finish such a sentence. As if saying it would make it more real.. "I-I gotta calm down.. M-Maybe it's fine.."

He let out a deep breath to try and calm himself down as he frantically wiped the blood off him and onto the green grass nearby. "I-I already have fangs.. M-Maybe it'll cancel out? Y-Yeah it must have...R-Right?"

The young cat's reassurances did little to calm him, the feline's mind racing with all kinds of fear induced thoughts. 'What if I need to drink blood?! Where would I even get it!? What if people saw me feeding!? What if my family saw me!? What if I fed on them!? What if I kill Darwin!?'

Suddenly, his train of thought ground to a halt as another realization suddenly hit him like a ton of bricks. "Oh my god, Darwin! He said he was gonna stay up til I got back! How long was I out for!?"

Frantically pulling out his phone and unlocking it with a shaking paw he saw that it was currently 2:30 in the morning. He had left at 11.

Eyes widening in horror, Gumball scrambled to get to his feet, something made significantly harder due to his current condition.. "Shoot, I need to get home! Darwin must be worried sick!"

Doing his best to push his way through his dizziness, the feline stumbled toward the park gate, his neck and head throbbing with pain with each agonizing step.. Finally he reached the gate, looking at the behemoth climb in front of him. Usually he'd be able to make his way over it without too much of a challenge, but in this condition? Not a chance.

Too tired and unwell to even think properly, Gumball simply walked forward and tugged at the gate in an attempt to open it. Unsurprisingly, it was chained shut and thus refused to budge.

"C'mon you stupid thing, open!" Again, the cat tugged furiously at the gate, anger rising at his obstruction. Though the gate still refused to open.

"Grr, I said OPEN GOSH DARN IT!" Giving the gate an almighty tug, Gumball stumbled backward onto the floor as the gate suddenly flew open and smashed into the wall, almost falling off its hinges, a few small pieces of debris falling from collision.

"What the what…did I do that!?"

Stunned, the feline held onto the gate and pulled himself back up. He stopped, taking a hold of the now broken chain in his paw. Snapped, cleanly in half.

If he had been scared before, Gumball was now absolutely terrified. He'd just snapped a chain clean in half with little more than a yank on a gate. Him, Gumball Watterson, the notoriously weak little kitten. He could barely hold a few textbooks without struggling yet…now he could do this?

"It…I-I-it was just adrenaline, that's all. Must have been, r-right? I-I mean, w-w-what else could it have been!?"

Letting out a nervous chuckle, the feline turned and went to exit the park, desperate to just get home and go to bed, wanting this whole ordeal to be over. Just as he was about to close the gate behind him however, he noticed something out of the corner of his eye, something very familiar and dear to him, lying drenched and covered in mud on the ground.

"Krupoch, there you are! Must have fallen out of my pocket on the way out…"

The feline scooped up the action figure, giving a small smile as he looked at it. "I guess this night wasn't a complete waste at least…"

Shoving the figure into his pocket, Gumball finally left the park and slowly made his way back home, stumbling through the streets and holding his head like his mother without her morning coffee, stopping to throw up into a trash can a couple of times on his way.

Finally, after fifteen minutes of agony, the feline finally arrived home. Covered in sweat and barely able to stand up, he trudged to the door, feeling himself getting worse. He tried not to think about it, instead focusing on opening the door. The moment he did however, he was greeted with the sight of his angry mother, sitting in a chair waiting for him. Her legs were crossed, as well as her arms, and she looked as if she could tear someone's head off.

"About time you got home young man! What on earth time do you call this!?"

Gumball wasn't sure how to respond. Quite frankly he didn't even have the energy to do so, instead choosing to look at her with tiredness.

"You chose to leave the house at ungodly hours in the morning, despite the fact I specifically told you to wait until tomorrow!? Are you insane!?" Nicole tapped her foot on the carpet, eyes narrowing. "Do you have any idea how worried sick I was when your siblings woke me up and told me what you were up to?! It's nearly three in the morning!"

As his mother continued her rant, Gumball struggled to focus on her, his vision slightly blurring. The sound of her voice slowly faded away, drowned out by the loud thuds of his heartbeat. They filled his head, growing increasingly loud by the second. A part of him was terrified, confused why he was feeling this, but he knew he couldn't tell his mother yet. She'd likely ground him to the next century if she found out about the attack. Well, if she wasn't planning to ground him anyways.

"Gumball? Gumball! Are you even listening to me!?" Suddenly, his mother's shout snapped him out of his trance. He looked around confused, before his eyes landed back on his mother's furious gaze.

"...I'm.. I'm sorry.." His words came out quietly, and almost a little slurred.

"Sorry isn't going to cut it young man! You could've gotten hurt, or worse killed out there!"

Gumball winced at the irony. As his mother continued to yell at him, he was starting to stumble in his place, as if his legs became rubbery. He tried to listen to her, but it was getting harder. The cat held his arms, steadying himself, though it wasn't enough.

Nicole paused, noticing his state. "..What's going on? Is something wrong?"

"N-Nothing.. It's.. It's nothing…" The younger feline grimaced, as pain shot through him, no doubt from that horrid wound.

Concern appeared in his mother's eyes, as she stood up and walked over to him, checking him over. She soon sighed. "We can discuss this in the morning. Just.. Get some rest, alright? I mean it."

He gave a weak nod, as he went up the stairs, feeling like an eighty year old man trying to walk on them. He slipped out of his soaking wet clothes and quickly slipped on his pajamas before plopping himself down on his bed, grateful to finally be safe and sound. Well.. For now.

Placing his action figure onto the nightstand, Gumball turned and looked over at Darwin. It had become a sort of habit for the young cat to check on both of his siblings whenever they went to bed before he did. He liked to know they were both okay and content in whatever dreams they were having before he himself dozed off.

He smiled as he saw his brother happily snoring away in his bowl, bubbles floating out from his smiling mouth and up to the surface of the water. Whatever he was dreaming of, it was certainly pleasant.

Though he felt like literal death, he came over to give his brother a quick but affectionate rub on the head. Turning back to his bed, he pulled himself up over the side of his bed, in order to peek over the top of the higher bunk. He smiled as Anais too was happily snoring away, cuddling her Daisy doll as she mumbled something about 'saving her brothers from the clutches of the evil Miss Simian'.

"Hah, even in your dreams you can't help but protect us…" The feline smiled to himself. "Which, isn't a surprise, to be fair. You'd sacrifice your life without so much as a second thought if it meant saving us."

He hesitated for a moment to dwell on this thought, before he leaned forward and gave the young bunny a loving kiss on the forehead. "...and that's exactly why I'd do the same for you." He paused for a moment, before adding one final "Love you sis…"

Satisfied that his siblings were okay, Gumball climbed down and snuggled into his own bed, letting out a content sigh as his eyes closed. Even when they were asleep, his siblings had still managed to find a way to make him feel better. Not that he was that surprised by it either. He always felt more relaxed and safe around them.

Another wave of pain surged through his neck, causing him to gasp, as he was reminded of the very real and very worrying development going on in his body. Squeezing his closed eyes tighter, he turned to face the dresser and Darwin.

'Just.. Don't think about it... Just get some sleep now and worry about all of this tomorrow…'


The morning sun shone inside the Watterson children's bedroom, signaling that a new day was beginning. Unfortunately, the beam of sunlight landed on a rather unfortunate place.

Gumball woke up almost immediately, letting out a scream as it felt like his face was being burnt to a crisp. He pulled up his blanket to block the light, and thankfully he was fine. Confused by this however, he hesitantly stuck out his hand, drawing it back quickly as pain inflicted it.

As he sat there, trying to make sense of this, last night's events began to flood his mind. Slowly, an immense fear began to brew inside him, all of it finally dawned on him. "N-No.. This can't be real! T-This can't be real!"

Panicking, he felt his neck, and sure enough, the bite was still there, thankfully dry this time as no blood poured from it. Unfortunately, this did nothing to calm the feline down. His eyes were wide with horror, as he was trembling, struggling to keep the blanket up. How was he going to fix this?! Could you fix this? He didn't know, and it was making his fright worse by the minute.

"Gumball get down here or you'll be late for school!"

Gumball's ears twitched at his mother's shout, though he wasn't sure whether or not to answer it. Terrified by it all, he figured it was the only logical solution. His family could help, maybe in some weird universe way they'll figure out how to reverse it. Anything would do.

Remembering the sunlight, he yanked out his blanket tucked in his bed, draping it over him like a cape, as he got up and began to make his way downstairs. The cat could tell that the others were looking at him with bewilderment, as there wasn't much conversation to draw their attention away from him when he arrived.

"Gumball sweetheart, are you sure you're okay?" Nicole came over, bending down to match his height as she felt his forehead. She flinched, feeling how ice cold he was. "You look even worse than you did last night.. Are you sick?.."

He looked up at her, swallowing nervously as he finally spoke. "...Mom.. Can you get everyone to come to the kitchen? Something happened.. L-Last night."

"What!? Are you okay?"

"Yes…No…I don't know. Just…call everyone over and I'll explain, okay?"

Her concern rising, Nicole simply nodded and went to get everyone. Once they were all seated and ready to listen, Gumball took a deep breath before launching into a ramble about everything that had happened the night before. From the action figure, to the vampire chasing him and pinning him down, to the bite, all the memories he could recall at that moment. As he finished, he let out a shaky sigh, clutching his blanket a little tighter. "I… I-I think I got turned into a v-vampire.."

Silence was all he was greeted with. Gumball looked at them with worry, unsure of what exactly their reaction would be. Were they angry? Upset at the vampire that did this? Shocked? Were they.. Scared?

It was then that Darwin spoke. "..Dude is this some kind of joke?"

"Huh?" The feline blinked, baffled by the reply. "Why would I joke about this?! I-I got bit! I was bleeding!"

"You don't look that different.." His brother answered, squinting his eyes as if searching for any unusual details.

"Are you sure you didn't just have some kind of nightmare?" Nicole looked equally skeptical.

"No, it was real! Look, I have the proof right here!" Gumball pulled down his sweater collar, showing them the nasty-looking wound on his neck, almost desperately. "It's been hurting like heck ever since I got it!"

Anais approached now, carefully studying the injury. She noticed it looked like the exact description of a vampire bite, at least in the books she'd read, especially with the two holes. To her observation, his teeth also looked a bit different than usual. Sharper, a tad bit longer. "This is.. Really strange.. You sure it wasn't just some animal jumping you though? I mean, you have to admit a vampire sounds pretty ludicrous, even by your standards."

"No, it was a vampire! I'm sure of it!"

"Well, whatever it was, it could have been easily avoided if you'd just waited til after school to go out. Or, y'know, brought someone with you." She hesitated, before mockingly placing her paw on her chin in thought. "If only there had been someone who'd offered to go with you…"

"Are you serious? This is the exact reason I refused to bring you! If you'd been there too, who knows what that freak would have done to you!"

"I could have helped you!"

"You're a four-year-old girl, Anais, you would have stood no chance against him! "

"He's right, sweetheart." Nicole suddenly spoke up softly. "Though sneaking out at night like he did was a pretty stupid and reckless decision…" She glanced toward the younger feline with a mild look of irritation. His eyes lowered, with a mix of shame and guilt. "...he still put you and your brother's safety above his own and kept you both out of harm's way. And for that, I'm proud of him."

"Really? Does that mean I'm not getting punished?"

"Absolutely not. You're grounded for the rest of the month." His mother responded with a smile.

"...Aww man."

"So… What do we do about his bite?" Richard asked, concerned. "Do we take him down to the hospital?"

The family looked at each other for a moment, unsure of what to do. They had no idea if Gumball really was telling the truth or not. What could they do if it was true? Their house was practically the worst place imaginable for a vampire to live in, seeing that it had so many large windows in every room.

Nicole thought to herself for a moment, before finally coming to a decision. "No, I think this might just be some illness, not vampires or whatever you're going on about."

"But-" Gumball was cut off.

"I'll let you stay home today, just to be safe. Maybe you just need to rest for a while."

The feline sighed, not bothering to fight the reply. Perhaps she was right… Perhaps things would get better if he just waits for his symptoms to pass…