Chapter 45
(Chase's scars pictured above)
Kristophe's POV:
It started as a burn. It was slow, steady, so unsettling that ignoring it was easy. I tried all I could to not feel it. Then the squeezing began and nothing could shake my belief... something was wrong. Sitting in third period English, I pulled my phone out of my pocket due to it's incessant vibrations.
I see a missing call from Chase, and a few random texts from Benji. Shamelessly, I replied to the texts that Benji sent, telling me he went searching through the city again for Mom. Before I know it, I've had the air knocked out of my chest. It was like my lungs had rejected the air in them.
Everyone spun around in the classroom to look at me. The burning in my chest had spread, like I was pressed against an oven. Inhaling several times, I try and calm my galloping heart. Nothing worked though, the heat continued, stronger and more suffocating then the second before.
Pulling my phone back out, I texted Benji saying that something was definitely wrong. I didn't get a response before I was staring at my professors face. The stern look was pitiful compared to my own.
"Mr. Porter, give me your phone, you have detention after school for openly using it in class..." His voice was as gritty as sandpaper to my raw nerves, this enraged me further. Looking at my teacher like he had two heads, both of which were pissing me off, I responded.
"I'd step back if I were you." I commanded, gathering my stuff and shoving it in my book-bag, before standing up. My phone glued to my hand and in front of my eyes, not sparing my teacher a passing glance as I headed for the door.
"Mr Porter! You don't leave my classroom without permission. If you walk out, I will be forced to inform the Dean." Mr. Rochelle spoke as my hand gripped the doorknob. Spinning in my place, I look back him with a severe glare, while all my classmates watch in interest.
"You tell the Dean, and I will be forced to confirm some unsettling rumors surrounding the price of an A in your class. I always wondered, does blowing you get the same grade as riding you? I'm sure you wouldn't like that to get out... You wife certainly wouldn't be happy..." Gasps echo around the room as I walk out with my signature sadistic smile.
Heading towards the exit, I access my phone while I walk and listen to the voicemail Chase had left...
"I,I,... I know you won't get this in time, and that's ok... I know I don't have a chance, to be honest, I never really did." The sound of Chase's voice, so hollow, in constant strain and shaking as he speaks has me frozen in place.
"You'll hate yourself for not protecting me... but you did. You might think you never got to play the hero, but from the... the moment we spoke, to every nightmare filled night... you were my hero." As I listen to the message, filled with pauses and raggedy breathes, I soon feel tears fall from my cheekbones.
"Please... please don't blame yourself, and don't, ever, regret me... That would really kill me... I'll see you again Kristophe, so you better have... have some good stories... Don't forget me, but... please... live... I love you, probably more than I ever could describe... This isn't goodbye, it's... it... it's see... see ya later..."
By the time Chase's message ends, I can hear him gag, and choke. The words are difficult for him to get out, but he does, and only then does the call end and the voicemail turns off...
Using vamp speed, I fly through the halls of my school, scaring some random students but I can't bring myself to care in the slightest. Clicking the contact as I breach the doors of my school, I am almost immediately connected.
"Meet me at home. NOW!!" I growl, I fear my eyes are permanently flooded red as I hail a cab and disconnect the call.
. . . . . .
"What's going on?" Benji asks, standing outside the Apartment Buildings doors as I pull up.
"I don't know. Nothing good." I say, breathlessly, the singeing burn in my chest escalates further, pushing my body past Benji, past the doors and into the lobby.
Slipping into the stairwell, I can faintly hear Benji following me, as I reach the 25th floor in seconds, opening the door. Just as I open the door, the burning, the squeezing of my heart stops. The absence of the scathing flames leaves me hollow, as does the scene in front of me.
Starting from our apartment door, I see two lines of blood spilled out. It's like times footprint, remnants of the horror that existed. The trails end at the elevator. As Benji and I stand waiting for it, time slows to a crawl. It's not the feeling of impatience, its the actual feeling of time lagging.
My breathe comes slower than ever before, not wanting to inhale the nightmare in front of me. I can't hear anything, can't sense anything... my fingers, my body have physically gone numb as I wait for the stupid metal doors to slide open, revealing the inevitable.
As the doors open, my world implodes, explodes and bursts into searing flames incapable of making my numb body feel anything. Chase's body is laid out on the floor of the metallic casket on strings. Blood covers the floor making it appear painted red. From his eyes to his toes, Chase is blue, veiny almost. His hunched back on one of the walls of the elevator, with his phone laid out drowned in the pool of his blood.
The 4 inch slits in both wrists are still, as is his entire body. His chest doesn't wobble, not a tremor of movement. I don't realize I'm doing it until I already have and he's in my arms. It's different. He's different.
Dead.
His breath, gone. His warmth, gone. His habit of snuggling into me, gone as his arm falls out of my grip and leaves him limp in my arms. Just like before, I don't realize I've moved until I look up and we're inside our apartment.
Chase's body lies on the couch, my head on his chest praying for movement, for gasping, for anything as I sob. For the first time, I sob, loudly. My tears soak his shirt, marinating with the blood that already stains him all over.
His face is one of peace, a look of calm. Something he never had. He always had a look of faked happiness or real, but guarded happiness. He was afraid, alway afraid, that his happiness would flee, at any moment. He was never calm.
I don't know this person, this body. It's not his anymore. It's not mine anymore.
Standing up, I can't force myself to take in this darkness in front of me. It's a real nightmare. Nightmares are fiction, something you can wake up from. But what do you call it when your actually living a nightmare? Is there a word for it? I can't breathe, can't function, let alone hypothesis this damning reality.
Just as the room was silent, in the next second, it's not...
Chase's corpse lurches forward.
Have you ever drowned?
Ever held your breathe?
Have you ever been so desperate for air that the gasp sounds like death itself?
The influx and outflow of air makes my brain dizzy. Turning around, I see Chase... He's sitting on the couch, hunched over, his head in his hands while he desperately tries to fill his lungs with air.
"Here." Benji hands him a bag. A bag of blood, that I watch being lifted to his lips. It's the quickest I have ever seen someone swallow something, taking less than 5 seconds before the single liter bag is empty.
In the next second, the second after Chase drops the blood bag, it comes back up. Blood is flying through the air violently, landing on the white shag rug, horribly staining it as I watch in confusion.
Running to his side, I grasp his small body in my arms as I kiss every inch of him, every inch I can manage. His body feels different.
Colder...
Darker...
Deadlier...
Strong...
When Chase pulls away from me to look in my eyes, I see him for the first time. I see the boy from my dream looking back at me. Bright deep blue eyes in an ocean of red, crimson raised veins trailing from below his lower lashes...
As I smile at him, he does the same. It's now that I am met with a fascinating view of his new, sparkling white fangs. His smile tells me most of what I need to know, until I fully return to earth, and reality. Looking down, I pull his wrists into view.
The cuts.
The scars.
The 4 inch incision has been healed, but remain on his skin as scars for eternity. One word comes out before I can think, before I can evaluate it, before I could regret it...
"Why?" I ask, my voice hollow, empty, but shaking with emotion.
Told you guys this chapter was a whirlwind of emotion and action... I hope you didn't mind the cliffhanger too much...
So, anyone have any theories on what happened to Chase?
I love hearing from you guys, always!! Please comment and vote, so I know you guys like everything going on...
See ya later HoneyBunnies 😘