GERARD'S POV
On the last day of the semester, Frank and I were going to have our usual Friday sleepover, but of course, since it was the first day of summer, we had to make it a little extra special.
As we walked home, he seemed happier than usual, smiling to himself and laughing at everything I said. I was the opposite, internally of course; I didn't want him to worry about me. But I knew the change would happen soon. I could feel it getting closer every day, like a bird that's been gnawing on its enclosure for nearly two decades aching to taste freedom.
In my case, I had an ache for human blood.
I've known ever since I was little about my family's true nature, about the monster I've been damned to become. I've been cursed since infancy, destined to fully change into what I am.
Vampire children are born semi-human; their blood is potent to other vampires, so it's easy to recognize when a child is one of us. Aside from that, we are born indistinguishable from humans, only when the said child reaches a certain age do they begin to notice small changes, sort of like a second puberty.
It starts with stage one. Pain in gums, the color red makes your mouth water, and body aches are the very early signs which, for me, started at the beginning of Junior year. From the first few signs, it takes a few weeks, sometimes months, sometimes a year for the change to progress onto stage two.
Stage two lasts another few months, bringing along random episodes of constant thirst, but no matter how much you drink, it'll never cease, and you have to simply wait it out. Senses can get overstimulated often, people suddenly start to smell a whole lot better, you sleep a lot more, and there's a never-ending yearning to bite your best friend's sweet-smelling neck. But the last one might just be me.
Stage three lasts no more than 3 days, a minimum of 12 hours. It's a savage freak-out for blood. The vampire will go near crazy; they'll do anything in their power to drink as much blood as they can before passing out for the remaining time and finally waking up as a vampire.
A pretty horrible experience to constantly want to kill my best friend for nearly a whole year, even more horrible to have hidden it all from him.
As we approached my house, a chill ran down my spine. I knew that the inevitable was drawing near. I could feel a pulse throughout my body, banging loudly inside me to bite him. But it was still tame so I ignored it for now. I could keep it under control. Frank was still chatting animatedly about summer plans, unaware of my true thoughts and cravings. I chuckled along, my mind preoccupied with thoughts of how to protect him when the time came.
After dropping Frank off at his home, i walked the couple steps into my own. I dump my stuff in my room and change out of my uniform into black sweats before returning upstairs to the ground floor to find my parents.
"Mom?"
I called a couple more times before I found her in the kitchen making coffee before she left for her night shift.
"Oh Gerard your home honey, how was school?" She asks, her voice falters towards the end of her sentence. She turns around to face me, a mix of concern and confusion on her face. She inhales slightly deeper than usual and smiles in delight clasping her hands together with a slight shriek of excitement.
"It was fine..." I say giving her a skeptical look wondering why she was so excited "What's going on?"
"The second stage is very nearly done, you smell different. More vampire-ey!" She gleams with pride and even I felt a little happy. Despite fearing whatever was to come I was glad the stages were nearly over and done with.
"Oh that's great" I smile trying to show her I was happy and not disappoint her "Do you think I can still go to Frank's?"
"Of course not! He's such a lovely boy, what if stage three began and you bit him?!" She says holding her hand to head as if she were about to faint. Sometimes I wondered whether she loved Frank more than me, he was like a 3rd son to her, definitely her favorite human.
"Mom if i feel anything of the sort I'll come straight home I promise!" I beg
She gives me a look and rolls her eyes but ultimately agrees after a few more minutes of begging.
"Oh gosh I've got to organise your awakening ceremony! I'll have to call in sick!" She chatters eagerly, stirring her coffee.
An awakening ceremony was pretty self explanatory, it was a celebration thrown by a vampire's family once said vampire fully 'awakens'.
"Who's awakening ceremony?" My dad barges in. Immediately I feel my stomach sink, I never got on with my dad. We didn't see eye to eye on many things so I tended to start to pretend he didn't exist, avoiding him most of the time.
My mom playfully slaps his arm "Your eldest sons!" she scoffs "Can't you smell it? He's nearly a vampire Donald for pete's sake"
My dad pretends to care "Oh right yes of course! That's really good son" He says, his voice containing as much excitement as a man before a prostate exam.
"I'm gonna go" I say monotonously, before grabbing my bag and heading over to Franks before my dad could give me a lecture on one thing or other.
I just wanted to have one more normal friday night with Frank before everything changed.
We ordered pizza, watched low budget horror movies, and laughed our asses off at how terrible they were. Frank had no clue about my impending change, and I couldn't bring myself to burden him with the truth. Even if I wanted to, human's were forbidden to know about our secret without the coven leader's approval. Our coven leader was my grandmother Elena.
She was one of the oldest living vampires in the country, an important council member in vampire parliament. Though she doesn't look her age she was hundreds of years old, vampires are in fact immortal but due to humanities savage history, vampires tended to be assassinated or hung, drawn and quartered or something else of the sort.
Vampire's can choose when to stop aging but most stop between 20 and 40, we can age ourselves up and down but it takes a couple weeks for the change to finish. My grandmother usually keeps herself looking about 60 ish due to the fact she also happened to be a council member and coven leader so she claims people respect and listen to her more when she looks older.
As the night wore on, we found ourselves watching the masterpiece that was The Empire Strikes Back. Every time we watched Frank seemed to be and more amazed each time. I marveled at his innocence, realizing that soon, he'd be the one in danger because of my secret.
"I'm gonna miss this, you know?" Frank sighed, leaning back on his elbows. "When we're old and grey"
"Yeah," I whispered, my voice tinged with a sadness he couldn't comprehend quite yet, or perhaps ever.
He was so close to me, his sweet scent flooding my nose. A part of me just wanted to know how he'd taste, I'd wanted to know for months but never more than this. I wanted to feel his warm blood gushing down my throat, i wanted him writhing beneath me, my fangs in his neck. I wanted him more than anyone could understand.
I felt his heart rate slow down as he began to fall asleep leaning into my shoulder, my fangs shot through my gums for the first time.
It was time to go.
I could hear a pounding in my ear as the wanting grew vicious and my vampiric urges only increased by the second. With much regret, I pushed my friend off my shoulder, releasing myself from the iron shackles of his scent. He seemed startled at my abruptness as I stood up and ran for the door.
"I'm sorry Frank I've got to go" I say between breaths trying to keep calm and keep him alive.
"Wait!" He calls after me, the sadness in his voice killing me "Did I do something wrong?"
I wanted nothing more in that moment than to run back and hug him, tell him nothing was his fault and that I had a burden to carry that he didn't deserve to be pulled into. I wanted to cradle him in my arms and stroke his soft hair and bite and kiss him all over.
Kiss? My own thoughts dumbfounded me. That was a new thought. Or maybe it wasn't.
Alone in my room, I traced the contours of my sharp fangs. The ache for human blood intensified, and I knew the change was imminent. This last day of junior year had been a beautiful lie that I got to live one last time with my somewhat humanity. I braced myself for the savage journey into the depths of my true nature, all the while clinging to the hope that somehow, I could shield Frank from the darkness that awaited us both.
"Gerard!!" Mikey whisper yelled, knocking repeatedly on the door of my bedroom.
"Come in already" I huff exasperatedly
"Mom told me to bring you this" He says, it was what looked like a gallon of blood in a juice bottle. "It's deer, you can't have human till your ceremony"
Drinking human blood scared me quite a lot so deer blood was definitely a saving grace.
"Thanks Mikey" I say taking the bottle from and placing it on my table. "Goodnight"
He seemed hesitant to leave "Hold on a minute man" He says "Did anything happen with Frank? Y'know to make the changes like move along any faster..?" He asks.
Since Mikey had begun the change only a short while after me, he'd been asking me a lot more questions only naturally to know what he was in for. Our mom said that the change can be quickened/triggered by some things, like if someone related to you starts its quite likely you'll start yours soon too. Like with me and Mikey.
It can also be triggered/quickened by romantic feelings, sexual relations etc.
"Happen how?" I ask wondering what he could be implying but at the same time knowing exactly what he meant.
"You know...Like...Did you guys do...stuff...?" He asks awkwardly.
"No" I tell him flatly
He scurries quickly out of my room, locking me inside.
A few hours passed and I found it impossible to sleep, my constant thirst was annoying as hell. I was constantly battling an endless craving for a certain short italian punk next door and the deer blood tasted bland. After gulping it down at an alarming rate at first it no longer seemed to quench my thirst.
A few hours in, I'd finished the first bottle Mikey had brought me and then another and I was on my third. There were a few points in which I thought I'd seen Frank in my bedroom, standing in the corner just watching me. And every time I'd try to control myself, keep myself away from him but after a little while I found my mind had left my body.
A feral snarl escaped my mouth and I launched myself at my friend only to collide face first with the wall. After that, I tried several time throughout the night but he'd disappear each time.
By 5am I felt unfathomably dizzy and collapsed in my bed.
The night had been a chaotic symphony, but as dawn broke through the curtains, I found waking up with a wave of calmness and the sharp eerie feeling i'd felt all night had vanished. The pain of the transformation had subsided, leaving me feeling virile and awake.
My senses, once dulled by the chains of my sort of humanity, were now on steroids. Every creak of the floorboards, every rustle of leaves outside, was a vibrant echo in my ears. The room, familiar yet transformed, seemed to pulse with an energy I couldn't quite put into words.
Every sense I had was heightened beyond what I had imagined it to be when my parents would describe it.
I flexed my fingers, feeling a strength coursing through them that wasn't there before. My body, moved with an otherworldly grace. I swung my legs over the side of the bed, amazed at how strong I felt, how fast I could move.
The mirror caught my eye, and I faced the reflection of myself. Eyes that glowed with an otherworldly light stared back, a stark contrast to the human I once was. My skin had a subtle luminescence, and I ran my fingers through hair that seemed to have a life of its own.
Vampire's are naturally more beautiful than humans, even as a child before we go through the changes, but I'd never seen myself to be very attractive. But now, I seemed almost inrecognizable, it was freaky.
I could hear someone in Mikey's room, I could hear my parents talking downstairs. As I opened the door, the drab hallway was more colourful than ever, every detail my eye would catch. I made my way to my brothers room and knocked on his door.
"Shit" I heard him curse under his breath, something I would not be able to hear as easily if I had been as human as before.
I opened the door on my own accord to find his sheets all unorganised and an unfamiliar scent in the room. The whole house smelt the same, but once I opened his door I could someone else.
"Who's here?" I ask, Mikey looked flustered by the question and I knew he'd had someone over. Someone he didn't want me to know about.
"No one" He lies, I could hear his heart beat increase and I knew he was wasn't telling the truth. "You look different"
I glance at his window, wide and open the sunlight beaming through casting reflection of all his things onto the walls. Contrary to popular opinion sunlight didn't make us sparkle or burn to a crisp. Yes, we got sun burnt a little more easily but sun block was an easy fix to that. The only affect it had on us was make us feel a little weaker, but not really enough to be a real problem. We were just naturally stronger at night.
I walk out of my brothers room, walking down the stairs at my usual pace but ending up running unnaturally fast. That was new, it would take some time for me to gain control over my new strength and speed.
"Gerard!" My mom greets me, full of joy as her eyes light up. "You've been asleep for 2 day honey are you alright?" She asks holding my face in her hands looking over me with a maternal concern.
"Starting to think you'd died" My dad snorts sipping his coffee.
"Donald" My mom warns with a tiredness to her voice
He rolls his eyes but says no more.
"2 days really?" I question, I thought it'd been a couple of hours, let alone days.
She nods before asking "You thirsty?"
"A bit yeah" I confess as she turns to the coffee pot
"You can't have any human blood until tonight at the ceremony. But we have some deer blood in the fridge out in the yard, but I'll put some coffee on for you. It's a very good appetite suppressant"
I nod before going through the back door into the yard where our other fridge was. The fridge full of what looked like bottles upon bottles of red wine, of course it was really blood. But if anyone for some reason looked in there they'd just assume my parents were alcoholics or some shit not blood drinking vampires.
I notice a new scent coming closer and closer. It was the best thing I'd ever smelt in my life, my mouth watered at the sheer smell of it. As it got closer and closer I realised exactly what it was.
Quickly, I pulled out a bottle of "wine" and run back through the door, perching myself on the steps facing the front door. A few gentle knocks at the door occur and I looked to my side to see my mom watching me carefully from the doorway of the kitchen, shaking her head at me as a warning. She must have smelt him too.
I groan and let Mikey answer.
Hearing his voice made my heart hurt, I ached too see him again. I wanted to see him, to talk to him, to hold him, to kiss him, to bite him, to touch him. I'd never wanted anything so much in my life.
They talk for a moment, Mikey making up the worst excuses to explain my absence.
I had to say something to let him know I was there and that I wanted to speak to him. He needed to know that I wasn't just discarding him now, that I wasn't just gonna disappear willingly.
Ignoring my mom's silent warning, I cut my brother off "Mikey let me see him" I plead calling out
My mom speeds in front of me, grabbing my wrist and pulling me harshly into the family room.
"Gerard" She begins sternly. I give her a look of despair, projecting how unfair this was. "I know you and Frank are incredibly close but you need to let him go, at least for a little while okay? Being near humans right now is risky, especially him."
Especially?..
"I'm fine Mom, I'd never hurt him. I'd rather die" I try to convince her honestly
She purses her lips "I know but it's gonna take a few years for you to have complete control Gerard. I've talked to you about this, you can see Frank in small amounts after a couple weeks but if you go out on that porch, he won't live to see sunset. Things will be back to normal after a few years okay"
"Mom, I'm telling you I won't hurt him" I enforced.
"Honey it'll help if you hang out with Andy Biersack and the others from now on. They've been through what your going through, they'll help you to control yourself better." She tries to comfort me "Then you can be with Frank quicker"
She kisses my head and gives me a knowing look.
My eyes widen slightly when I realised the assumption she had made "We're not close..like that...in that way" I struggle to explain
My mom rolls her eyes with a smile and leaves me on the steps, Mikey long gone and Frank's scent getting further by the second.