Dark Side

Dark Side -Chapter Thirty Five

Picture on the side: Erasmus

It took me a while to adjust myself to being in the forest again. Something about the way I was going felt new, weird, unnatural. I continued walking even as night hit and the woods came to life around me. Every other sound was a vicious creature coming to tear my throat out. I cleared my mind of the vicious and scary by picturing my brothers jumping from tree to tree behind me, the wolves, Ian stalking me wondering if I was a threat. Speaking of wolves, where was Ian's brother, Ian's pack when he needed them? Crouched in the bushes with their tails between their legs. Meanwhile I was braving the thorns that opened up closed scars and made me hiss with annoyance.

Each step made me more and more uncertain of myself, and then I would recognize something. The river with three rocks falling into it, the tree that looked like it was about to fall over but never did. The purple flowers that Erasmus had once told me were his favourite. My nerves sky rocketed as I saw the last land mark I could remember, bushes that littered the ground with berries, covering the path in little red bombs. I was close. What if Erasmus wasn't here? What if he died? What if he didn't remember me?

Then I saw the trees. All the worries disappeared as I pressed where his hands fit. I chuckled a little bit as the trap door opened. It felt like one of those movie moments where someone would say 'Sophie you sly dog you.' Stepping closer to the hole and looking down I could see the improvements from years of sliding down the rabbit hole. The rough edges were now smooth and perfect looking, I could only imagine what waited inside. Jumping into the hole in a swift movement I heard the door click shut and I closed my eyes until I landed on hardwood floor.

Please let him be in here, please. I begged whatever god might be up there before I opened my eyes. Nothing changed on the inside- well nothing drastic. There was a huge flat-screen TV that lay over a false fireplace that was creating animated flames. Picture frames hung above the open door that led to a kitchen, and in the midst of the picture frames hung a sign, "Home is were the heart is."

"Are you going to sit there and stare all night?" Someone laughed from in the kitchen.

I smiled, "Are you going to invite me in?"

Erasmus leaned against the door frame and smiled at me, showing his fangs all at the same time. He defiantly looked different now, his once long blonde hair was short and black, his eyes still that same old beautifully deep brown. He was in sweat  pants and black shirt and holding a cup of blood.

"Why are you here?" He asked, his expresion suddenly hard as he studied me.

"I need your help." I stated, standing up.

He chuckled, a little too darkly for my liking. Then I was pinned against the wall. His hand around my neck, his face beside mine. I stayed still as he sniffed my neck then looked at my eyes, he let out another laugh this time it was a sighing sound.

"You've let yourself go." He replied, dropping me.

I crumbled to the ground, "Well hello to you too."

"You're weak." He stated again, moving back into the kitchen, "After all I taught you."

He sounded insulted, I wanted to roll my eyes as I moved into the kitchen with him, "I don't follow all your rules."

He laughed, "Clearly, I mean look at me. Pushing 600, I don't look a day over twenty."

"Because you were bitten at twenty." I smiled, shaking my head at him.

He handed me a glass like his, filled with blood and then we walked back  to the couch and sat down. It seemed weird how casual we were being, no frantic hugging or telling of stories. Erasmus knew me though, he could probably tell half my stories for me.

"So what do you need?" He asked after sipping his drink.

"I need you to turn me human again." I said really fast, hoping that the faster I said it the less stupid it would sound.

He nearly spit out his blood, "Do you even know what your know what your asking?"

"Yes, I-"

"No you don't, Chryson. Only one vampire has ever tried to do it, they died." He said almost too casually, but I could see the underlying pain in his eyes.

"I half to try." I searched his face for some acceptance.

"Why?"

"My mate- I need to save him. To save him I half to be human." I breathed.

"Aah, the mate." He sighed, "That's all too familiar. Fine, I'll do it."

I relaxed a bit in the chair, I didn't think it'd be that easy. I studied the blood in my hands, debating whether or not I wanted it.

"You're gonna need at least ten of those first, bottoms up." Erasmus said.

Ten drinks later I was sitting in what he called the 'back room' on a bed covered in a shower curtain, wearing a hospital gown that he for some reason owned. He had stepped out for a second to change and when he came back he was going to tell me what I was about to go through. I smiled at him as he stepped back in through the bathroom door with a basket in his hands. He sighed as he sat down on the bed beside me, it dipping under his weight. He started pulling things out of the basket, a needle, a necklace, a dagger, and lastly medical supplies.

He looked up at me and held my gaze, "This is how it'll work. I'm going to take some of your blood now, that part I'll explain if you make it," He swallowed, "This dagger will wound you, not kill you. But we need to wound you enough that you'll lose blood. Then when we're successful you'll lose consciousness, like you're dying. That is when I'll have to inject enough type O blood into your system that your heart will have no choice but to pump it through you veins. What little vampire blood you have left should heal you wounds but here comes the bad part," He took a deep breath, "According to theory when the vampire blood is 'used up' you'll be human but all the prior injuries that the blood fixed for you will essentially happen again. The pain. Now I'm not positive on that part, the other person never- um, never lived that long. But that was her theory." He looked down at his empty basket before he kept going, I made a mental note to ask him about 'her' later, "You're on a shower curtain because when we do this, if it works your bowls will release. That's the gross part. The rest I can explain if you make it."

I nodded, really not liking all the if's in there but I had to try right? He stood up the shower curtain crinkling as he did. I laid back on the bed, closing my eyes and getting ready. I barley felt the sting of the needle as he drew blood from my arm. I was too focused on the dagger, on what this was going to feel like. My eyes snapped open. What would it be like to be human?

"Oh, one last thing don't focus on what I'm doing think of something else. You're mate." Erasmus suggested cleaning the dagger beside me.

I nodded again, I couldn't find the courage to speak. I closed my eyes again. I felt the dagger this time, in my thigh I bit my lip to keep from crying out. Not from pain but from fear. Don't focus on what I'm doing think of something else. You're mate.

He stabbed me again, Ian and I meeting for the first time, his eyes looking into mine as he pinned me to the ground. Stabbed, Ian coming to see if I was alright at school. Stab, Ian in my room, beside me on the balcony. Stab, his lips on mine. Pain, his paw tattoo. My blood soaking my hospital gown, Ian moving into the house with us. Then there was a beckoning blackness, calling me into it's soft arms as I felt a ghost of a dagger scraping across my stomach. Then I was unconscious.