Blood In The Water (Phan)

{5} Hunger

We all experience hunger. It's a pull inside of us, driven from several different places. Hunger, also, has a variety of meanings. We feel hunger for food, to sustain us and keep us alive, we are hungry with lust, driven by natural hormones, and we can also be hungry for power. I, for one, can totally vouch for the majority of these.

I wake up entirely too warm for a vampire. My face is pressed against something that smells absolutely delectable. Something hot pulses beneath my nose, close beneath my lips and I resist the urges I feel. My skin vibrates with the hunger burning up inside me, flames licking up my throat, a viable ache inside. With a groan, I lean back, disentangling myself from what I find is Phil, curled up against me on the couch. Our bodies are flush, toe to shoulder, his shirt tossed on the floor, my joggers hanging haphazardly off of my hips. His face is passive and soft, all traces of his wisdom and years gone in his sleep. No light streams in through the windows, telling me it's sometime in the night. Our legs are tangled up, the small space of the couch leaving no wiggle room. Phil doesn't wake when I move, letting out a sweet snore. I swallow thickly and let my eyes dart around the room. A message from Netflix pops up on the screen, asking if we're still watching. I push my hair back and carefully stand up without waking Phil before I make my way to the kitchen in search of what I'm craving. To my demise, no blood can be found and my throat persistently burns. With nowhere else to turn, my options all exhausted, I walk back down into the lounge, leaning over Phil.

"Hey, Phil, come on Phil..." I shake his shoulder gently, relaxing when he blinks his startling azure eyes up at me. With a slow stretch, he wakes up, sitting up slowly with worry in his eyes. 

"Dan? What time is it?" His eyes dart around the room. I grab my phone off of the coffee table, hand shaking as I do and see it's 4 in the morning. 

"4." I reply shortly, swallowing hard and wincing at the burn. Phil seems to notice. 

"Oh! Oh. Alright, Dan. Come on, get dressed. We're going hunting." Phil also seems to notice the way my eyes widen at that. He chuckles, sitting up and tossing the blanket over the back of the couch. 

"Like I said before, we don't intentionally kill anyone. We don't want to be monsters, at least, the majority of us don't. All we're going to do is find some low life's and take what we need. I'll keep you on a tight leash." He winks as he heads into his bedroom. 

"Can't you just get more of that blood you had in the fridge?" I plead, following close behind him. Phil opens up his closet, pulling out a pair of light grey skinnies and a blue tee before turning back to me. 

"You have to learn how to hunt eventually, Dan. It doesn't work the way you want it to. The sooner you figure all this out, the better." I glare a bit at Phil, knowing the anger is misplaced, he seems to understand that, too, since he just smiles sympathetically and slips out of his joggers, tugging his jeans on. 

"I don't want to." I know I sound like a stubborn child talking about not eating my veggies, but the thought of attacking someone, of biting someone, of taking away their lives-

"We're all part of a circle, Dan. You've seen the Lion King?" He asks playfully. I roll my eyes, grabbing a pair of black skinnies and a hoodie from my suitcase. 

"I swear, Phil if you quote the Lion King to me right now I'm going to kill you." 

"Someone beat you to that about 182 years ago. But, seriously. That pathetic circle of life thing they go on about? It's kind of true. We just happen to be at the top of that circle, the beginning. And for us to survive, we have to take from those...below us? I hate saying it like that, like we're better, but we're just more evolved, I guess. Look, Dan, I won't let you hurt anyone, okay?" I sigh and pull my hoodie on over my head, resigning with the fact that I'm going to have to adjust somehow.