Life changes and people come and go- especially when you live in the murder capital of California and murderous immortals exist at every turn in the darkness of night. Friendships are made, bridges are built, but can they be saved and expanded upon...
Sitting on Sam's bed, waiting for him to finish his bath, my body sinks into the pillows behind me while I stuff my legs under his covers. Glancing around the room, I find another vampire comic book on Sam's nightstand, so I reach over and grasp it. In black sharpie on the back cover, numbers are penned semi-messily and part of me wants to call it to see who it belongs to yet some part of me has an itching suspicion it happens to be the Frog Brothers'.
Halfway through the comic, the soothing silence other than the splashing and loud singing of my brother in the other room is interrupted by a deep growl. Thinking its just in my head, I continue reading the comic book until another growl sounds and it's much louder than the first. Curious of the sudden growl coming from the typically mellow and quiet Nanook, I rise from the bed and slowly make my way toward the door.
I open it just the slightest to see Nanook knocking Michael backward, both tumbling down the stairs with loud clattering though Nanook catches his footing and lands on all fours. Michael lands on his back a few feet from the end of the stairs with a loud thud and for a moment, I'm stunned by Nanook's uncharacteristic attack- especially on my brother. Reacting, I practically slide down the stairs as my feet rush down to help Michael up wordlessly. Just as I kneel beside him, the light flickers on to reveal a crouched over Michael clutching his left wrist with his right hand.
"Michael, what happened?" Sam inquires, sounding quite unsure. Unnerved myself by the eerily similar unease I'd felt around Dwayne and his friends rising within me, I scoot back a couple of inches just to get a good look at his face- to read what he may be thinking.
As if just as stunned or scared of what happened moments ago, Michael whispers, "Nanook."
Sam practically loses his shit about our dog as he immediately follows with, "What about Nanook? What did you do to my dog you asshole?!"
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Michael sits up on his knees suddenly, his head lowered but his gaze tilted towards Sam on the stairs. "Nothing. I didn't hurt him." His voice is suddenly much deeper than I remember and gaining an uncharacteristic raspiness to it. "He bit me. This is my blood."
The blue in my brother's eyes begin to glow- a glow that isn't lit by an internal emotion, but by some odd force of nature. Something wet nudges the back of my exposed arm causing me to shriek in surprise at the sudden contact. When my eyes gaze over my shoulder, Nanook is sat obediently beside me, staring right back with his golden eyes as if he has intent to watch over me or protect me rather. "Why did he bite you, Mike? Huh?" I lower my head to be eye level with my dog, my left hand rising and falling gently on top of his head to rub lovingly between his ears. "Well, what did you do to him?"
Mike stands to his full height and steps just slightly closer to Sam before fully answering my younger brother's inquiries. "He was protecting you." Shame falls past Mike's lips in a whisper, his eyes lowering slightly while mine rise to glance around for any sign of what I think may be happening here. And then I see it- the mirror from the vanity against the wall shows Mike as nothing more than spirit-like with see through qualities. His physical opacity is pretty much a 50% instead of a full 100%.
Jumping to my feet, I run to Sam and interrupt his inquiry by pointing at the mirror behind Mike. I stumble backward, up the staircase before either boy can say much else. Shortly following me there are thundering footsteps and shouting before Sam runs past me, grabbing my wrist and pulling me along with him towards his room. I don't ask what is happening because I know- Sam is trying to get us away from Mike as soon as possible so we can be safe.
There's pounding on the door Sam shuts behind us and locks, both of us running to any connecting doors to the room and locking those too after shutting them. We meet back at the bed sitting cross-legged on it as he grabs the phone from his nightstand and the comic book, dialing the brothers first. There's a series of answers Sam responds to the Brothers once they have picked up the phone and from the sound of the voices on the other end, it's mostly Edgar talking.
"We can't do that! He's our brother!" Sam shouts as if it would make them any less willing to kill him. He shouts another no before hanging up the phone shortly after. The distraught crossing his features and hopelessness filling his eyes, I know they told him to stake Michael. "A garlic shirt? What-"
"Garlic wards off vampires. It's something to do with their chemical balance that throws off and ruins the biological makeup or shift in vampires from humans." Sam's eyes widen at the spew of information I give him that I had looked up earlier in the day while at the local library. "It doesn't kill them as it's just a disagreement between chemicals that cause a disruption. But it supposedly burns terribly and causes permanent physical damage to wherever it makes contact." My brother's eyes give off an expression as if to inquire if there is anything else I would like to share while we are stuck in this room together.
As my lips part to bring up vervain, the phone laying between us rings and Sam's hand flies towards it as if it could save our lives. His conversation begins with 'Mom' and although I should be listening in to interrupt him in order to not scare her, my concentration drifts to the crashes and screams from the wall to our right- where Mike's room is. Then white shoes drift across the black sky, pulling Mike into full view in front of us. He glares into the room, not easing any of the warning signals going off in my head and Sam screams practical murder through the phone. I shove Sam's shoulder, causing him to drop the phone which I pick up and take over. "Sam? Sam?!? Ser?" Mom calls from the other end of the line before I can say anything.
"Mom, we're ok. We're gonna be o-"
"I'm on my way! Tell them I'm on my way!" Her voice is distant, shouting at someone and I can imagine her all dressed up for her date with Max, running towards her car in her heels. I slam the phone down, upset that mom had to give up her chance at love because Sam didn't trust Mike- didn't trust him to not hurt us.
Speaking of, the blonde of the family jumps from the bed and sprints to the side of room, away from the window Mike is knocking furiously at. He makes a cross with his fingers as if it will actually stop him should he make it in and attack us. "Open up!" Mike yells.
Glancing between the two while Mike pleas for help and Sam tells him to stay back, my heart and head both tear apart trying to decide who to side with. Sam is only trying to keep us alive and safe, while Mike is alone and scared- I can hear it in his shouts. "You're a vampire! I knew it!" Sam calls back to something Mike must have said.
"I am not!" Mike replies in desperation.
"So what are ya? The flying nun?" If the situation wasn't about death and bloodthirsty creatures of the night, I would have laughed at Sam's comeback.
Instead I run straight for the windows just as Mike says he's our brother and pleas once more. Staring through the glass, the same pain and terror of himself I heard in his voice reflects equally, if not more in his typically crystal blue eyes. My hands quickly unlock the bindings holding the windows shut and I shove them open to either side of me. Sam some time while I searched Mike's eyes had come to stand beside me and is now helping me grab and pull our brother inside. We collapse onto the floor right there, using the wall to hold us up. Mike glances down at me with a soft smile, lacing his fingers through mine before leaning in and placing a kiss atop my head.
