Mary squeezes Benny's hand as his grandma looked into Ethan's head with her magic. "Anything?" Benny asks, biting the thumbnail on his other hand.
"Yes." Evelyn replies.
"In his head?" Benny adds.
"Yes."
"Is it bad?"
His grandma shoots him a look, which causes him to stop asking, "sorry." Mary squeezes his hand again, this time he squeezed back. She was scared to say the least, but she tried to focus her attention on other things in the room. The pine scented candles lit on the table, the sun hitting the glass jars along the shelves, anything to distract her from the overwhelming sense of doom that's creeping up on all of them.
"Ethan, the fear binding you're under is very strong." Evelyn says.
"We're all gonna die." Ethan cries.
This caught Mary's attention, remembering the dark dream she had of Ethan not too long ago.
"We're all gonna die."
"You're gonna loose everything."
She feels her other hand start to spark, so she shoves it in her pants pocket while leaning closer to Benny. "Look at me, Ethan." Evelyn says, grasping his hands. "Now."
Ethan wearily opens his eyes, instantly jumping back at what he saw. "What you see is not real, I don't have a spike through my head."
"You don't have a head, actually."
A loud ringtone coming from Ethan's phone interrupts them. "It's S-Sarah. I have to get her out of Whitechapel," Ethan says, "we should all leave."
"No, we should stay." Evelyn states. "We need to talk with her."
...
"Okay, Ethan, look at Sarah." Evelyn says.
Ethan has his head down, too scared to even look up at any of them. But he did what Evelyn said, he slowly picks his head up to look at Sarah, instantly terrified at what he saw. "Stern wants you afraid." Evelyn states, "why? Because he knows you can stop him."
"You just have to find something stronger than your fear," she continues, "Sarah is the one you want to protect the most."
Benny's face falls beside his grandma, "but I'm his best friend." He says softly. Mary takes his hand and runs her thumb across it, as if to say it's okay, just run with it right now.
"Now whatever teenager nonsense is going on, you two care about each other," Evelyn says, ignoring Benny. "And you have to believe me, that's stronger than any magic Stern might put into this message he left you. Let's see what we're dealing with..." she stands up and opens the note, only to have the magic from it seep it's way into her. She looses her balance but Ethan immediately stands and catches her arm.
The other three watch in confusion as the two stood there, Evelyn's eyes lit up in a way that Ethan's usually did when he was having a vision. It was strange to say the least.
Suddenly, Evelyn falls on the sofa and sits there, frozen, her eyes open. "What happened?" Benny asks, his voice shaking. He waves a hand in front of Evelyn's face, "grandma? Wh-what happened?"
Ethan sighs, "Stern's magic. She'll be okay, but she may be like that for awhile." Mary stands with Benny, wrapping her arms around him.
"We're on our own." Ethan cries, "now what?"
"We go after that goon and show him what the score is," Benny replies, "it can't be that hard, his jackets are so ugly," he laughs nervously, "right?"
...
At the Vampire Council building, Rory was pointed as a guard, mostly because a lot of the other vampires had left.
He hears struggling in the hallway nearby his post, so him and another vampire check it out. "Halt! Who goes there?" Rory shouts, secretly excited that he got to say something like that.
The hooded figure was blasting two vampires with the Lusifractor, ignoring Rory.
"Who goes there!" Rory shouts again. "Show yourself, fiend!" The figure rolls their eyes and removes their hood. Rory's eyes go wide, "Vice Principal Stern?"
Stern ignores Rory again and blasts the other vampire beside him. The blonde stands frozen for a moment, but then hisses and hurries away to warn Erica and Anastasia.
"Vice Principal Stern is Lusifracting everyone." He says once he finds them.
"Vice Principal Stern?" Erica questions, "I should've figured something was up with him after he shut down the school's Dusk club."
Anastasia watches them start to leave, "no! You'll be absorbed by the Lusifractor. Let him have this town, he's human, we can simply return when he dies of old age."
Rory scoffs, "if there's a fight coming I wanna be here with my friends." Erica nods, "I'm not gonna leave Sarah if that guy wants to wipe us out."
Anastasia wasn't having that, though. She flashes her eyes yellow at them, causing them to stop, "you two are coming with me, aren't you?"
A similar flash of color flows through their eyes, they both nod, unable to control their actions or words. "Yes."
"Whitechapel can worry about itself." Anastasia states.
...
Mary taps her foot anxiously on Ethan's hardwood floor, sitting beside Benny in the love seat. Benny was looking up at the ceiling, he was getting fed up with them just sitting there.
"Okay, you know what, enough is enough," Benny huffs and stands up over Ethan, where he laid in a fetal position on the couch. "Dude, we have gone up against all kinds of crazy shit before, and we always win. Well, actually, most of the time, we almost always lose...but that's not the point." Benny states, "the point is, you're the guy who pulls it together. Every time...so pull it together!"
"I just talked to Erica," Sarah chimes in from behind them, "she didn't sound like herself, she's leaving town with Rory and the entire Vampire Council is running!"
Mary stands in between Sarah and Benny, feeling powerless. Usually when she was with them, she felt indestructible. Nothing could touch her because she had these two amazing people beside her, but now they all felt the same thing; hopeless.
Sarah walks over to Ethan, who still refused to look at any of them. "Ethan," she says softly, "we need your help. If we can't stop Stern who knows what's gonna happen to us."
Ethan takes in her words and slowly lifts his head, but immediately falls back into his position once he sees her and the others. He couldn't take this anymore, there had to be something he could do. He shakily stands from his position on the couch, "okay, I can't let anything happen to you guys."
"Your grandma said that I had to find something stronger than my fear," he says, "I think I did." He holds out his hands for them to grab, "here." They all look at each other, then at his hands, and reach for them. Mary takes Benny's other hand and Sarah's while they held onto Ethan's. Suddenly, a strange surge of energy flows through their arms, tingling their fingertips and connecting them in a way they never have before.
"Do you feel that?" Sarah asks.
"Whoa." Mary states.
"Dude, are we having a moment?" Benny questions.
After a few seconds, the pale cracked skin and white eyes on Ethan's friends' faces faded. He takes a deep breath, "I'm okay. As long as I don't let the fear through. We can do this."
"We're on our own against Stern." Benny says.
"As long as we try, right?" Mary adds, feeling her eyes start to burn. "I can't loose you guys."
"Hey," Sarah places a hand on her shoulder, "you won't."
"Right," Ethan nods, then goes to pull out his phone, "I think I have an idea."
...
"Okay, guys, don't freak out," Ethan says, "I've thought it over, and this is our best shot." The three watch him wave over someone around the corner, who was none other than...Jesse.
Sarah immediately flashes her fangs and hisses at him, Mary's hands start to spark, and Benny takes up a defensive stance. "Sarah...guys!" Ethan sighs.
Jesse holds up his hands in defense, "you three aren't very happy to see me, I can tell."
"You bit my best friend!" Benny shouts, anger steaming out of him like a teapot. "And you made me suck out the venom when you knew what it would do!" Sarah adds.
"And I just think you're a dick." Mary spats, using all her willpower to not throw a ball of light at him.
"Yeah, yeah-look, I'd love to be sorry about all that, but you all know I've done much much worse." Jesse retorts.
"Guys, stop, we can deal with our past issues later." Ethan snaps, "look, the man who has the Lusifractor is related to the wizard you took down 200 years ago."
Jesse nods, "Sin-Estero family revenge, what a shock."
"How did you stop his super great grandfather?" Benny asks.
"He loved power," Jesse shrugs, "he loved to show it off. I let him wipe out most of my flock with the Lusifractor while I snuck up behind him and...drained him dry." He turns to Sarah with a slight smile, "I told you I'd done worse."
Mary shakes her head and scoffs at him, "you're sick." She rests a hand on Sarah to comfort her, and also to hold her back from tearing Jesse to shreds.
...
On the other side of town in the woods, Rory and Erica follow Anastasia, both of them unsure of what was happening. "We wait here." The vampire states.
"Should we follow her...she's scary..." Rory wonders, his mind foggy. Erica shakes her head slowly, "not sure...wasn't this your idea?"
Anastasia holds up her hand, "follow me, you want to follow me."
"Yes...I want to follow you..."
"Yes...follow..."
...
The others walk into the Vampire Council building. It was eerily quiet and the smell of burning and dust fried their nostrils.
They enter a hallway, immediately being met with a pile of smoky dust, where two vampires once were. "Well we're a little late to the party." Jesse states.
"Where would Stern go?"
"The caller," Jesse replies, "we use it to communicate with other covens, but, he can use it to broadcast the Lusifractor's field across the entire town at once."
"Damn." Mary whispers to herself. This situation was getting more and more worrisome by the second.
Jesse gestures them to go forward, they all step away from the pile of dust and continue on until they reach a pair of large wooden doors.
"Ethan, so happy you could make it." Stern announces as the five enter the room.
"Well, I got tired of looking at dead people." Ethan sneers.
"I could think of one I'd like to see." Mary adds, moving closer to Benny and grabbing his hand, he squeezes hers once they connected.
"Benny." Stern grins and snaps his fingers, and suddenly Benny let go of Mary's hand without looking at her. "Benny, wait-" she tries to reach out to him but he ignores her. Her heartbeat starts to rattle in her ears, she turns to Stern, "what the hell did you do to him!"
"Benny and I had a little conversation when I caught him in the office-well-a one sided conversation really." Stern replies. He leans to whisper to Benny, who's eyes had turned black and rolled into the back of his head, "take care of your friends for me." Stern walks away, "there's a good boy."
A wicked smirk spreads across Benny's face. "Benny?" Ethan asks.
Benny doesn't answer, instead he turns and launches a purple fire ball their way. They all duck just in time, and quickly hide behind a table. "We have to take Benny out, he's an acceptable loss." Jesse says.
"No he's not." Ethan chuckles, taking out his phone.
Mary scoffs, "what the hell is so funny, Ethan?!"
Benny was about to launch another fire ball, when Ethan holds out his phone and Benny's own voice comes out. "Maritass, methnoarb, nin-Benny-natrath!" (This was such a bad translation I'm so sorry, I tried) A burst of light escapes the phone and hits Benny directly, causing him to collapse to the ground.
"What the hell is that?!" Mary asks.
"Remember the camera that created that evil Benny twin? Well he sent me an email marked, in case of Evil Benny, open this. I never thought I'd get the chance to use it." Ethan replies.
"I forgot about that, nice thinking." Mary says.
She hurries over to Benny's side, "Benny, babe, you okay? Talk to me." He twitches a bit, "Ah...don't spank me with lightning, grandma."
Mary breathes a sigh of relief, "you're okay." She turns to the others, "you guys go, I'll help him." They all agree and hurry off to find Stern, while Mary tries to help Benny up.
"Mary?" He asks, his eyes fluttering open to meet hers. She smiles softly at him, brushing some of his hair away from his face, "I'm here." He returns the smile, "you are here..." his words were a bit slurred, of course. "I loves-yous..."
Mary couldn't help but chuckle, "come on, goofball." She helps him up, letting him use her for balance. "I'm sorry I tried to fry you." He mumbles, resting his chin on her head. She laughs, "you're forgiven."
Her laughter died really quick, though, when her and Benny walked in and Ethan was ready to push everyone out. "What did we miss?" Mary asks, letting Benny go once he was able to walk. She couldn't take her eyes off of Stern inserting the power of the Lusifractor into himself, it was unsettling.
"You'll be just in time for the end if we don't leave now," Ethan states. "Go, run!"
"What, Ethan no we can stop him..." Mary cries, "we said we would try!"
"Mary, we can't, it's over." Sarah replies, "we have to go, now."
Mary stayed, though, despite their protests. So many words and images ran through her brain, it was like she was watching a slideshow of the last year.
"You mean the world to me."
"We've got your back."
"I love you, so much."
"I won't let anything happen to you."
"We're in this together."
"You're my best friend."
"I will protect you."
"And I will protect you right back."
Her eyes don't leave the Lusifractor, or Stern. Benny comes and tugs on her shoulder, "Mary, come on! We have to go!" He shouts desperately, but she remains in place.
She glances down, noticing her hands are sparking more than they ever have before.
A thought starts to creep up her spine into her brain; a dark, all consuming thought.
This was it.
...
Erica and Rory look over the town. The houses look smaller than they are, like they were looking at a toy city.
"If we're supposed to be running away, shouldn't we be running," Erica states, "like, away?"
"Be silent, we're waiting." Anastasia says sternly.
"For what?"
A piercing sound rings through their ears, followed by a burst of purple light that spreads across the town.
Erica gasps, tears sting her blue eyes, 'Sarah...Mary...' for the first time, she was actually grateful that Rory was with her, that she wasn't alone.
"That." Anastasia nods to confirm the dread that has consumed the three. "It is done."
Rory has a similar expression to Erica's, so many thoughts ran through his head. He shoves his hand into his pocket to feel for the letter, grateful that he didn't get rid of it. Now it was all he had of her.
He tries to swallow down the burning in his chest by plastering on a fake grin. "Nice explosion." He attempts to hold it, but it didn't last, "Ethan and Benny will be sad they missed that."
The End
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