Chapter Eight, John's Awakening
Jessica closed her eyes tightly as soon as she saw John lunge at her neck.
She opened her eyes suddenly, wondering what had stopped John.
Something red splashed on her cheek and she looked up.
Her eyes widened as she saw what had stopped John's fangs from sinking into her neck.
Matt's arm was in John's mouth, and blood was trickling down Matt's arm.
Matt's face was twisted in pain, as he wrenched his arm out of John's mouth.
Jessica realized that Matt must have somehow ran over at the last second, and thrust his arm in the path of John's fangs.
Matt then grabbed John's tail and pulled him off Jessica.
Matt used his other arm to summon a ball of fire and John wheeled around to see who had pulled him off Jessica.
Jessica rose to her feet and saw Lindsay standing a few behind her with a rock in her left hand, ready to hurl at John if need be.
"Johnny, don't do this." Matt said holding his ball of fire.
John leapt at Matt's arm, which was coated in red blood.
Before John came in contact with Matt, Lindsay hurled the rock she was holding at John's head. The rock collided with John's skull and he howled in pain.
"Lindsay, throw me the potion quick!" Matt yelled to Lindsay as John wheeled around facing Lindsay. Lindsay threw the potion to Matt, who caught it and yelled, "Hey Johnny, over here!"
John snarled and jumped into the air, ready to land on Matt with snapping jaws.
John opened his mouth wide as he showed his long fangs, coated in Matt's blood.
Just as John was about to land on Matt, Matt unscrewed the potion, and tossed it toward John's open jaws. The potion sailed through the air, perfectly aimed at John's open mouth. The potion was mere centimeters from John's mouth, suddenly before it landed in his mouth; a hand reached out and grabbed it out of the air.
"No!" Matt yelled as John landed on him and snapped at his face.
Lindsay suddenly jumped on John's back and smacked his head, while Jessica pulled his tail as hard as she could.
"Well, isn't this cute?" said the unmistakable voice of Gary. "Jonathon, get off the red head and come here." Gary commanded.
John leapt off Matt and walked to his brother's side. "Good dog, now turn into your human form." Gary said menacingly. John turned human, and stood at his brother's side, then wiped the blood off his mouth. Matt had stood up by this time and was standing protectively in front of Lindsay and Jessica with a ball of fire in his hand.
"Ah, John didn't play nicely I see." Gary laughed eyeing Matt's blood coated arm. Gary gestured to the unscrewed bottle of potion he'd caught in midair. "I see you losers somehow got the antidote to the spell John is under, too bad you went to all that trouble for nothing." Gary smiled coldly, before pouring the bottle of blue potion on to the ground.
"No!" Lindsay, Jessica and Matt yelled in unison.
Gary laughed and patted his brother's head, "No betraying me, right Jonathon?"
Jessica watched John, he didn't even seem to be listening to anything anyone said except Gary, and his eyes were turning a deeper red colour. Gary smiled and said, "Red always was a nice colour on you Jonathon, and in a matter of minutes it will be permanent." Gary said smiling icily.
Matt yelped in surprise as he realized that they only had a meager twenty minutes before the potion's effect was permanent.
"Jonathon. Why don't you celebrate this joyous moment; and take your little "girlfriend" for a walk?" Gary smiled and looked coldly at Jessica.
John suddenly grabbed Jessica and swung her over his shoulder. Jessica screamed. Lindsay ran over and punched John in the stomach. He gasped but didn't put Jessica down, then threw Lindsay at a tree. Matt hurled fire balls at John, but John dodged easily.
As Lindsay's back hit the tree, she slumped to the ground unconscious. John then ran off into the forest. Jessica screamed and hit him, but it didn't do any good. The last thing she saw was Gary firing blasts of dark magic at Matt, who was trying to run after her.
"John, you have to wake up! You're under a spell! It's me Jessica, put me down!" Jessica yelled.
John just kept running until they reached another clearing in the woods. John set Jessica down and took out some rope and tied her hands together, than tied the end of the rope to a tree. Jessica screamed with tears in her eyes as John pulled out a knife.
Jessica tried to run, but the rope that bound her hands only let her run a few feet around the tree.
John smiled coldly, "There is only another ten minutes before I can join my brother, and take care of that friend I called Matt."
Jessica began crying and screaming as John took another step closer to her with the knife. He took a swipe at her, but she dodged it. It was hard for Jessica to dodge while only being able to move a few feet, and with her hands tied. John took a few more swipes at her, but she managed to dodge them.
"John, please don't do this!" Jessica cried. For a moment, John's red eyes flickered to their usual bright green before turning red again.
Then Jessica remembered the second antidote. "If I can somehow convince John to fight the potion's effect, he may be able to free himself. I've only got five minutes to do this, or I'll surely be killed." Jessica thought. "John, you're under a spell, you have to try and fight it! Matt is battling Gary, and Lindsay is unconscious! We need you back John!" Jessica yelled.
John's eyes flickered to green again then red. "It's working! But I've only got four minutes left!" Jessica thought. "John, I know you're fighting it! C'mon you're almost free!" Jessica yelled in encouragement.
John's eyes stayed red this time. "Uh oh, why didn't it work this time?" Jessica thought worriedly. "...Like you care" John said coldly.
"What are you talking about?" Jessica asked.
"You probably told Matt to tell me that you liked me just to hurt me." John said bitterly, and then continued, "I don't have time for your childish games Jessica."
"Matt told you that I like you?" Jessica asked confused.
"Don't play dumb. Stop toying with my emotions." John said his voice full of hatred. Suddenly John grabbed Jessica's bound wrists, and held her still.
"Goodbye Jessica." He said, his red eyes still blazing.
"He thinks I'm toying with his emotions? How can I be? Wait, he'd only say that if he liked me back-!" The thought suddenly hit Jessica just as John walked toward her with the knife raised. She realized that she only had about a minute left before he would be permanently under Gary's spell.
"Any last words Jessica?" John asked still holding her hands together and raising the knife above her heart.
"I hope this works, it's my last chance." Jessica thought before saying, "Just these four; I love you John." Jessica said before leaning in and kissing John's cheek. She held her breath and waited for the knife to strike her, but it never did. John was still holding her wrists, when Jessica looked up at him. His eyes were their normal green, but the rest of his face was the darkest shade of red she'd ever seen.
"Yes! He fought the potion's spell! He's free!" Jessica thought happily.
John looked down at her before saying, "Do you really mean that Jessica?"
Jessica smiled warmly at him and said, "Yes John, I do."
John realized he was still holding the knife and thrust it into his jeans pocket.
"I-I'm s-s-sorry." He stammered.
"John, you were under the potion's spell, it's not your fault, its Gary's." Jessica said. John looked down and saw that he was still holding Jessica's wrists. He blushed and took out the pocket knife, then cut her free.
"Thanks." Jessica murmured. Suddenly she realized that Matt was still battling Gary, and Lindsay was unconscious.
"John! Matt and Lindsay are still battling Gary!" Jessica said her eyes wide with fear.
"You guys came after me and Matt's battling Gary?" John asked confused.
"You don't remember anything?" Jessica asked.
"Nope." John said.
Jessica grabbed John's hand as they starting running back the way they came. Matt, Lindsay, please be ok. Jessica prayed as she ran back to where she had last seen Gary, Lindsay, and Matt.
Jessica and John arrived to see Lindsay still unconscious at the base of the tree.
Gary and Matt were still hurling balls of fire and magic at each other and panting heavily. "Matt!" Jessica yelled.
"Jessica! John, you're back to normal!" Matt yelled, and then leapt back narrowly avoiding a blast of lighting from Gary.
John looked at Matt's arm that he'd unintentionally bitten earlier and gasped. It was covered in blood, from the top of his glove that was just below his elbow, to his wrist, was a huge gash, and it was gushing out red blood all over his arm.
John turned full wolf and leapt angrily at Gary, who was panting and it looked like one side of his face was scorched. John turned into his wolf form and leapt at Gary. Gary gasped in surprise as John's fangs sunk through his right arm.
He screamed and fired blasts of dark magic at John, before yelling, "This isn't over Jonathon, you got lucky this time!" Then Gary disappeared in a bunch of black and purple smoke.
Matt panted then picked up the unconscious Lindsay, and said "Let's get back to school." Matt started in the direction of school, and Jessica and John followed.
"What happened to your arm Matt?" John asked concerned. "Well, you did that."
Matt said.
"What? I did THAT?" John asked incredulously.
They finally made it back to school, and a bunch of worried and surprised students and teachers helped them to the nurses' station.
"I'm sorry I did that to your arm." John said to Matt, who was in bed.
A few hours had passed, and Jessica had gone back to her room once she was sure Matt, John, and Lindsay were ok. Lindsay was still unconscious, so she was spending the night in the nurses' station, where they could keep a close eye on her. One of the nurses had bandaged Matt's arm, and sent him back to his room after much insisting that he should just stay in the nurses' station that night.
Tom had checked up on everyone saying over and over to Matt, "See? If you'd just have let me stayed this never would have happened!"
Tom was bringing help too, but the group had arrived back just as they were about to leave. John had apologized over a thousand times for his actions before Matt finally told him to shut up and accept that they'd all forgiven him.
"It's ok John, I'm just glad that you're not going to be under that weird spell thing Gary put you under." Matt replied.
"How did you wake up anyway? Gary smashed the bottle of the antidote that we had brought." Matt asked.
John's cheeks burned as he remembered the whole ordeal.
"Jessica did it. It was apparently the last minute to get me to wake up." John said sheepishly.
Matt noticed him blushing and smiled, "I know what she did, and she couldn't stop thinking about it all the way back to school." John turned bright red and Matt laughed.
"You better get some sleep Matt." John said. Matt had a huge idiotic grin on his face.
"Sure, lovebird." He said before bursting out laughing as he watched John's face get redder still.
"Shut up Matt!" John said before whacking Matt in the back of his head.
Matt just giggled like an idiot even more, before John finally gave up trying to silence him. "Oh Johnny, I'm going to have so much fun making you turn red every time I mention Jessica from now on!" Matt exclaimed gleefully, before giggling again.