The Love Bite [boyxboy]

Chapter Fourteen

"Mark? What's happening?" I demanded, touching his back. Mark whimpered, squeezing his eyes shut.

"It hurts!"

"What hurts?"

"Everything! Someone's honking their horn too loud!"

"What?"

"Metal! It sounds like metal crunching against metal! It's so loud! Make it stop!" Mark wailed, covering his ears tightly as he curled up tightly. I cringed and put my arm around him, putting my hands over his ears as he shook.

What the hell was he talking about? What horn? What metal? I listened to the sounds around me, concentrating hard, but there was only the sound of cars pulling in and out of the gas station and the register chinging. I looked down at Mark, who panted hard for breath.

Was he remembering what happened before he turned?

We sat there for a while as Mark screamed into the floor for everyone to stop being so loud. He mentioned something about cars and I assumed he was remembering the death of his parents. Something inside me felt hollow at that and I put my arms around Mark tightly, holding him against my chest as he writhed in pain, covering his ears and digging his nails into his skin.

The pain seemed to slowly to subside until Mark was curled up against me, staring straight ahead at the floor. I frowned, tilting my head to look into his face.

"Mark?" I asked. Mark blinked and looked up at me.

"My parents are dead?" He asked, his voice cracking. I grimaced. I couldn't imagine what it would be like to have someone tell you that twice in your life. I only nodded before Mark looked away. He didn't cry or scream or anything now, just sat there in silence.

"I'm sorry." I said at last, letting go of him as he sat in front of me, his legs bent and on either side of him, his hands on the tiled floor.

"Why? I didn't know them." Mark managed. I frowned.

"You did at one time." I pointed out. I winced as tears welled in Mark's eyes as he stared at the floor in horror, running a hand through his hair before clenching it in his fist.

"I-I don't remember them. I don't even remember what they looked like. I just... remember being in pain. So much pain... I remember the car accident. The car that came at us from the next lane over. He just... tore right out in front of us. I remember sitting there and I know someone was smiling at me, but I couldn't see anything else, but his smile... I think... He was my dad. He was smiling at me just seconds before the car hit us head-on." His voice trembled and my heart ached. I wanted to reach out and comfort him, but I knew that was the last thing he wanted.

He just wanted to tell me about what happened and I let him. I sat there quietly as Mark recounted the way he snapped back in his seat, getting whiplash as he was thrown forward against his seatbelt. His head slammed into the front seat and he remembered grabbing the seat, glass cutting into his hands.

Tears fell down his cheeks steadily, but he vigorously rubbed them away, taking deep breathes.

"I don't understand," He wept, "I don't remember them. Why can't I remember them? I remember how they died... Why not them?"

"I don't know, Mark," I admitted honestly, risking to reach out and touch his shoulder, relieved as he looked up at me sadly, "But, don't worry. If your memory of this came back, maybe your other memories will slowly start to come back too."

"I don't even know if I want them to," Mark sniffled, wiping the back of his hand on his cheek before sniffing again and looking at me in pain, "It hurts when they come back. I don't want to remember those things. I don't want to remember pain. I don't want to remember people dying." I didn't say anything for a while, just watched him calm himself down. We rose to our feet as he splashed his face with water and I went to pay for his candies.