.franks POV.
After making sure for the millionth time that this was absolutely what I wanted, and exploring every possible repercussion, we were both ready. "Does it matter where you bite?" I asked curiously. "Mmm... I don't think so. But I've head that it's over quicker if you bite this particular spot." He said, poking the side of my neck. His touch was cold, and it sent goosebumps up and down my skin. "Okay," I said, trying to commit that to memory so I could write it in my notes on the paranormal. "Wait, how come I've never noticed how cold you are?" I wondered. At this he snorted, "I... You're never gonna believe me." "Try me." I retorted. He laughed, shaking his head. "I may or may not keep pocket warmers on me. At all times." He said, giggling. I couldn't help but to crack up at the thought of Ray stuffing his coat full of the little pocket warmers. Once we had stopped laughing, I sighed and sobered up a little, thinking about what was ahead.
Suddenly feeling a little selfish, I looked away from him. "So... You're sure you wanna do this for me? I know you only get like, one go." I said, studying my feet. "Of course, dude. You're my best bud! If this is what you want, I'm on your team." I looked up and smiled at him gratefully.
"Oh, and uh, you're not gonna, like, lose control and kill me, right? Because I would so come back and haunt your ass if you did that." I quipped. He rolled his eyes at me. "What do you think this is, Frank, amateur hour? Of course not. I hang out with humans all the time, and you especially are great at being a klutz all the time and scraping yourself up around me. And I haven't killed you yet, have I? I put bandaids on your wounds not even 2 weeks ago, for gods sake!" I put up my hands in surrender. "Okay, okay! Point taken." He grumbled in response, sticking his tongue out at me. With nothing left to say, I took a deep breath.
"Let's do this, Ray." His face grew more serious, and he nodded, stepping closer to me.
"Now, Frank, seeing as we're both gay, having a dude's mouth on your neck probably isn't a huge deal. But I'm still going to formally extend the customary 'no homo,' since, for one, you're my best friend, and two, while you are cute, Mikey is much cuter." He said, his mouth now right under my ear. "Hey! That's no-" I started to protest indignantly, but cut myself off with a gasp, feeling his fangs suddenly pierce the soft skin on my neck. The next thing I felt was a white-hot burning sensation, and then I blacked out.
--
Pain was the only thing I felt. It came on in a matter of seconds, starting at my neck and engulfing my whole body. It was the only sensation that crossed my mind. If you had asked me my name in that moment, (assuming I could hear you) I wouldn't be able to tell you. All I could tell you was that I was in excruciating pain.
It swallowed me up whole, encompassing all of my senses. Sight, hearing, touch, everything. It felt like I was in limbo, or maybe purgatory.
Time wasn't something I could process either. I'm not really sure how long I was in that state. It felt like days. Maybe weeks. It sucked.
Intermittently, amidst the haze of pain, I faintly felt a sense of hopelessness, right on the edge of my consciousness. This feeling was so overpowering, it felt like nothing could have possibly come before this. Maybe it was all I had ever known. Maybe it was all I would ever know again.
--
At some point, I registered that the pain was ebbing. Slowly, definitely slowly, but it was. Finally, I realized I could feel my body. My toes and fingers first, quickly followed by my arms and legs, then my torso and finally my head and face. Next came my other senses. It was still dark, but I could hear and smell. It was more than that, though. I felt like I could hear and smell everything.
After the exhilaration of realizing that I was (hopefully) back in the real world, came realization that wherever I was smelled like shit.
Out of instinct, I started coughing at the stench. That's when my eyes flew open, and everything came rushing back to me. Belleville. High school. Gerard. Gerard's family. His house. Mikey. Ray. Ray...
Oh. Oh. That's what happened.
"Frank! Welcome back to the land of the less-than-living my man, how're ya feeling?" Came a voice close by, followed by a thump on my back. Once I had stopped coughing, I turned around. "Ray...? Oh god, I feel like hell. What year is it?" At this, he laughed. "It's only been like..." He peered down at the watch on his wrist, "an hour and a half." I felt my mouth drop at his words. "What?! It feels like it's been... I have no idea. Eternity. And I feel I'm about to die." He gave me a sympathetic look. "Yeah, the general consensus is that it sucks. But on the bright side," he paused, grinning, "you're not gonna die. Because you're already dead!"
The enthusiasm in his voice in combination with what he actually said made me want to laugh out of sheer absurdity. I looked down at my hands, pondering. I didn't exactly feel dead, but I did feel different. I was getting my strength back at a considerably fast rate, but the discomfort wasn't going away. If anything, it was getting stronger. I started shifting and fidgeting, trying to get the feeling to ease up, not to much avail. Ray quirked his eyebrow, staring at me as if I'd grown two heads. "Oh!" He jumped up, some epiphany striking him. "Bro I'm sorry, you must be starving! Cmon," he said, taking me by the hand and pulling me into a standing position. "Let's get some food."
We made our way to another bar, not wanting to attract any attention from our previous encounter. There was another alley way not too far from this new bar, so we slipped in and waited.
"Okay, Frank." Ray started, looking determined. "This is gonna be tough. The first hunt is always really hard, but I'm here and I'm not gonna let you kill anybody ok?" My eyes were completely round, and I nodded solemnly. "And you're gonna have to forgive me if I have to punch you or something. Sometimes it comes to that. It uh, did with me." I shot him a look, but didn't argue. We crouched silently in the alley, and I took a deep breath. Strangely, it didn't do a lot for me. I guess I didn't really need oxygen anymore. "Ray," I whispered. "Do I need to breathe now?" He shook his head. "You probably will out of habit, but obviously it's not going to hurt you if you don't. Plus it keeps your blood somewhat oxidized, and it keeps you looking more human." He whispered in response. "Oh, nice, ok." I mumbled, rapidly losing focus as someone stumbled down the alley towards us.
They must've gotten in a bar fight, because I could smell the blood on them from where I was. Before I could even think about it, I was up, and advancing on the stranger. I was vaguely aware of Ray, but was quickly becoming less so. I was so hungry. In a heartbeat, I had the figure pinned to the wall. I could hear blood roaring, but it wasn't mine. There was some half hearted, drunken struggling, but nothing compared to my steel grip. Without any more thought I sank my teeth in.
It was like... Crack or something. Awesome. Better than anything I'd ever had, even coffee.
I was so intent on my meal, I couldn't hear Ray telling me to stop. Suddenly, I was thrown back forcefully. My head hit the wall on other side of the alley with a dull thud. Immediately, I snapped out of my trance. I looked up to see Ray with his coat collar over his nose and mouth, standing over me. "You good?" He asked, his voice muffled. I blinked, making sense of the blur of what just happened. Everything clicked, and I scowled. "UM. OW, ASSHOLE." I griped as I rubbed my head. He rolled his eyes. "You're fine. And I warned you. Cmon, hop up." I pouted for a second longer, sighed, and stood.
I dusted off my clothes, and wiped the blood off of my face. "You feeling better?" Ray asked. "Mhm." I nodded feverishly. "A lot better. I guess vegetarianism is out the window now though." He laughed, "I mean, at least these are free range humans." I smiled in response. "Human..." I murmured, thinking. "I'm not... Human any more. What a strange feeling." At this, Ray threw his arm around my shoulder. "You get used to it. Plus, you can still fit in pretty well." He retracted his fangs to prove his point. "Oh, dude, you've gotta teach me how to do that." I said, as it dawned on me that I knew very little about what I was in for. "Right," he nodded, "it's not hard. It's just like how cats retract their claws. You just focus on it, like how you think about curling your fingers, and you just do it." I ran my tongue across my fangs carefully, concentrating. I took a deep breath and thought about what Ray said, and I felt them retract easily.
"Nice work, newbie." Ray grinned. "Now, we should probably get out of here before they," he paused, nodding in the direction of our, uh, guest, "wake up." I muttered an agreement, and we headed in a different direction.
As we walked, I noticed the foot traffic on the streets steadily increasing. There were a lot of little kids out all of the sudden, walking around in little groups. My first though was 'wow, I'm glad I just ate. I'd hate to go berserk on a bunch of kids.' It wasn't until one bumped into me, a little girl about 8 or 9, looked up at me, and straightforwardly asked, "Hey, what are you supposed to be?" That it hit me. It was Halloween. It was my birthday.
At this realization, I couldn't help but laugh. Ray glanced at me with concern, probably for all the kids around. By now, I was gasping for air. "Dude, what is it?!" He asked in a slightly panicked tone. "Ray..." I snickered, "It's my birthday. It's Halloween!" His eyes grew to the size of saucers, clearly questioning my sanity. I had mostly regained my composure at this point, but I still had a big grin on my face. "Frank, are you gonna explain yourself or am I gonna have to go find a straight jacket somewhere because I-" I cut him off. "It's Halloween Ray!! I get to be a vampire, for Halloween!" I exclaimed.
Ray stopped dead in his tracks. He eyes me for about 10 solid seconds, before looking down and gently cradling his face in both his hands. "Oh god..." He groaned, muffled by his hands. "I have created a monster. UuuuuggghhHH." He sighed, exasperated, while I burst into another fit of laughter as we walked.
--
Not wanting to risk being overheard while we talked, we found ourselves walking around a graveyard, and settled on the stairs of a mausoleum in the center.
"Listen, Ray." I said as we sat down, the mood between us growing more serious. "I owe you big time for this. I actually don't think I can ever thank you enough. I... I know that you can only do this once, and you did it for me without any hesitation. That means a lot." I smiled gratefully. An embarrassed blush was creeping up his cheeks, and he gave me a goofy grin. "It was really no problem, Frank. You're my best friend, of course I wanna help. Plus, it's not hard to see that you and Gerard are totally in love, man. You'd go crazy if something happened to him."
Now it was my turn to blush. "I don't know about lo-" I started, but he interjected, clapping his hands. "Well, I do! You two have got it so bad. So.... so bad." He dramatically sighed, shaking his head. "Plus, if we all make it out of this shit show alive, we can hang out for like, ever!" I nodded, thinking about how nice that sounded. "Well, I guess we'll have to then, won't we?" I said. "Once all this is over with Gerard's family, we'll do everything we can to help you. I promise."
At this, he quickly leaned over and basically tackled me, enveloping me in a huge bear hug. "Thanks so much, Frankie." I smiled, wrapping my arms around my friend in return. After we broke apart, we both stood up. I looked at Ray, my heart breaking as I realized it was time for us to head out. "See you on the flip side, man." I said. "Damn straight you will."
We made our way to the edge of the graveyard, and stopped. "So, uh, anything else I need to know?" I asked. He crossed his arms, thinking. "Hmm... Let me think... Ok. One, eating does get easier, but try to have someone more experienced with you, if at all possible. You don't really have to do it often, maybe once or twice a month. Two, youre extra fast right now, and extra strong. Try not to let normal people see you doing crazy superman shit. Three, garlic and silver are myths but holy water is not. Stay away from that mess. Uh... Don't get shot or staked. Oh, and I love you man, but if you hurt Mikey, I am gonna be forced to lay you out." He gave me a saccharine smile and winked. I laughed half-heartedly, and nodded. "I'll look out for him if we cross paths." I said quietly. He responded with a genuine smile. "Thanks. That means a lot, dude. And I've got to meet with some others from the rebellion in New York, but I'll hurry back, and help if I can."
As we climbed over the graveyard fence and walked our separate ways, I turned and waved a final goodbye, hoping that this wasn't the last time I'd see my best friend.
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vamp!frank is canon hallelujah am I right?? also #pray4ray
Also 11k reads wtf?????? that's like a billion ppl reading this dumb story??? tysm tho
ALSO thank u to everyone who commented on my fanfic alignment chart that was rly funny and I appreciate that u guys think I'm lawful good(ish) haha
Ps if u see any of my dumb errors pls don't be afraid to comment I would like to fix them but am too lazy to edit and am sorely lacking a beta reader (just be nice pls)
until next time my guys
xoxo hannah
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Hey! If you've already read this chapter and are like "wtf I don't remember the Halloween part" that's bcos I just decided to edit it in. Idk the idea came to me and I thought it was funny, AND it helps keep me on track as far as the chronological aspect of the story. I'm thinking about going back and editing/rewriting this at some point so who knows!! Should probably get it done first though lmao