Saturday, February 7, 2009

hell or glory
"Humans typically live between seventy and ninety years old." Mr. Stevens had said, writing something down on the chalkboard.

"Why is that?" A boy on the right side of the classroom had asked, his hand high up in the air. Mr. Stevens had turned back, eyes on his young fifth grade student.

"It's the natural cycle of life, we're not meant to live forever." He had stated, he probably wanted to move along to other subjects, not dwell on something that was too hard to explain to pre-teens.

Loads of his classmates raised their hands, desperate to ask their own questions.

Jon hadn't been paying much attention back then. His young mind too wrapped up in the soccer game that he had been intended to play after school. Who cared about that kind of stuff anyway? It's common knowledge that people don't live forever, duh.

+

"We're not meant to live forever."

+

"You're not listening are you?" A small voice asks, Jon looks up from the floor, removing himself from his past and focusing on the person whose talking to him.

"Sorry, just thinking...what were you saying?"

The boy at the table doesn't get mad, doesn't make any sort of emotion available on his thin, face. His sharp facial features relaxed.

"I was trying to tell you that I found her." The boy says, his voice just as small and lacking emotion as his face. Jon is listening now, attention fully focused on the sitting boy.

"You did?" The boy nods, his shaggy brown hair brushing into his dark brown eyes.

"I had a vision of her address." He says, his voice is barely a whisper. The boy not finding much of a reason to speak loudly or speak at all as of late. Jon moves behind the other boy, resting large rough hands on thin shoulders.

"Thanks Ry,"

"Doesn't matter. It's all I can do. You have the hard job here Jon." Ryan tells the other boy, he props his elbows up on the table, his hands coming up under his chin. Here in the night he looks all sharp edges and tired eyes. After all this time it's still hard for Ryan. "You still want find her right?"

Jon gives Ryan's shoulder one last squeeze before he slips away. "Yeah, you know I have to." He's edging towards the door. Ryan making a small noise of protest.

"Somehow, I knew you'd say that." Ryan says, long fingers slipping into the pocket of his black jacket, bringing out a small, white, folded square of notebook paper, holding it out for Jon to take. Jon turns around, a small grin on his soft face.

"You have a vision of that too?" The bigger boy asks, moving forward to slip the paper out of the smaller boys hand. For the very briefest of seconds, there's a smile on Ryan's face but it fades just as quickly as it came, his face falling back into that blank void, like Jon just imagined it all along. It's possible that he could've.

He moves to the door of the very small apartment that Ryan stays in, the smaller boy's eyes trained on the tiny table in front of him. Jon doesn't need any sort of power to know that the other boy is worried, about what, he isn't sure but he can guess.

"You know I have to find her before he does." Jon whispers, justifing their reasons, his hand on the cool doorknob. Ryan nods, they both know that this isn't something that can be taken lightly. For once they have the upperhand and they need to take full advantage of that fact.

+

"It's only natural to grow old and die." That's What Mr. Stevens had said way back in fifth grade.

+

The streets were dark, Jon was glad about that. There was an edge of bittersweetness to it though. He lives his entire life in the dark and the unending night can't even spare him just the tiniest sliver of the moon. He stays on guard as he walks, he used to love this city but now..it's become more like an anchor, holding him down and he can never break away, no matter how long he struggles.

Not that he actually fights it much anymore. There's only so many years you can spend fighting the inevitable before you realize that it's pointless and you give in. Jon did that a long time ago. It's dark but he can still make out the address that Ryan had written out for him. Unlike Ryan, he wasn't worried..no, worried wasn't what he was feeling, maybe urgency would be a better way to describe it.

Ryan found her because Ryan's special. But it's not like she's even hiding so, it can't be that much longer before the others finds out where she is. Jon just has to get there first.

He spends a good amount of the walk trying to figure out what to say. He runs dialogue in his head, forming responses for each of the possible outcomes. Jon really has no idea how she'll react. It is around three in the morning, she'll probably be asleep and she'll probably think he's some lunatic who belongs in an asylum somewhere.

A very backwards part of his mind wonders if she'll recongize him. It's been so damn long since anyone has.

Jon moves along the dark streets, ears pricked for every sound, distinguishing between safety and danger. A skill that has long since become second nature for Jon. The place isn't even that far from where Ryan lives, maybe an hour or two at most. He's really surprised that no one has found her earlier.

She lives in an apartment building, brick faced and old fashioned. Most, if not all of the lights in the building were off, only a few glowed on, randomly sprinkled amongst the darkness. Now that he's here, he's finding it hard to actually begin. All those previously perpared conversations the two of them could have, they just don't feel right. This whole thing feels like a bad idea

Jon slides up to the doors, slips inside easily. This is far too easy.

Jon climbs the cement stairs, growing ever higher. The address that Ryan had given him already emblazened in his mind's eye.

There are three things that Jon knows about the girl right away.

She lives on the seventh floor, there's a newspaper outside of her door, the next days edition, she doesn't lock her door.

God, this girl is damn lucky that Jon got here first. If he hadn't been the one to find her...he doesn't even want to think about it. Her apartment is dark, she's asleep just like Jon thought she would be. He moves seemlessly through the surprisingly spacious apartment. Nice and cute, perfect place for a girl like her. There are no lights but Jon's been living in the darkness long enough that it's just like seeing in the light.

He moves whisper quiet until he finds her bedroom, this door is cracked open, almost like she was waiting for him. Except for how she isn't. Jon slips into her bedroom, footsteps quiet and muffled against the carpeted floor. There's a small crack in the blinds in her room, a sliver of white moonlight catching her bed and it figures that the moon would come out for her.

She's in her bed, laying on her side facing Jon. Dark hair fanning out around her and her hands pressed up under her chin. The girl is definitly asleep. Jon's never felt older than in this moment. The girl looks nothing like he remembered her, he doubts she'll even remember who he is.

He's not sure about what to do now, how to proceed with his plan. His plan that consisted of waking her up and quite possibly ruining her life. He feels like a monster as he stands in the darkness, watching her sleep. Jon's reminded of that song that Ryan used to sing a long time ago, one meant for little kids.

'Tread softly mister wolf, the little lamb is sleeping. Sneak so quiet mister wolf, the little lamb is peeking. Bite so gently mister wolf, the little lamb is yours.'

Jon never cared for that song, it was too dark for his liking and he didn't really think it was good for kids to hear either. But right now he felt every bit that wolf, treading softly. Despite the slow uncomfortable feeling that's seeping through his veins, Jon knows that he has to do this, this is bigger than him and her..and everyone else in the damn city.

He takes a step forward, misjudges horribly and ends up kicking the small plastic trashcan in her room, knocking it to the floor with a clatter. Jon can see her moving now, shifting slighty and making small annoyed sounds.

"Patrick, bad kitty..." She mumbles out, voice soft and rough from sleep. Jon had moved like a flash on the side of her large standing dresser, just incase she decided to examine what had been knocked over. That didn't appear to be the case as she settled back down and drifted off to sleep with a sort of ease that Jon wished he could still achieve.

The moonlight still ghosted over her, illuminating her an odd shade of pale white. The girl is so peaceful here that Jon can't do it. He can't wake her and steal it all away, he doesn't have the heart for that.

At least not tonight.

+

"Tread softly, mister wolf, the little lamb is sleeping"

+

Jon chalks up last night to survelience, to knowing what he was dealing with and actually determining that he had the right girl, Ryan saw her so, there was actually no question that she was the right girl. Tonight Jon would go back to her apartment, earlier than he had the night before. He would do what he was supposed to.

Ryan was still worried. He was still caught up in his own mind, it had become both the safest and most dangerous place for him to be. Jon's sure that Ryan was thinking about the past, things that happened so long ago that there are few people who actually remember. He's no doubt comparing the events of the past to the events that would take place tonight. A chain of events that only Ryan can see, a terrible fate to be delt indeed.

"I'm not the bad guy here Ryan." Jon says, his eyes are glued to the window. Ryan is sitting behind Jon but the older boy can feel his deep burning gaze lift to Jon's back.

"I know that." He sounds surprised at Jon's choice of words, maybe just surprised that Jon got ahold of his thoughts but's it's easy when Ryan's silence speaks volumes that the boy cannot. "I know who the bad guys are." Ryan's voice is slipping low and Jon's sure if he turned around that he'd see that deep painful look in the younger boys eyes.

Jon's eyes are still locked on the window, the slight spread of the city he can see from here. The purpling sky that signified the arrival of the evening, what he's been waiting for. "Then don't hate me for going to her." The larger of the two boys says, finally pulling himself away from the window to turn and look at Ryan.

Void gaze. Always that void gaze.

His thin face crinkles slightly, like paper being wrinkled.

"I don't. I won't. I feel bad for her more than anything." Ryan replies, brushes fingers through his bangs.

Jon expects that and he might feel the same way but it doesn't really matter what they feel, doesn't mean they can change anything.

"And I know it's inevitable, she can't avoid her fate." Ryan adds, throwing Jon a look like he had been the one to say otherwise.

"I didn't say anything, Ry." Jon points out, Ryan's eyes flicker, just barely changing. His face falls and he looks down at the table.

"You were going to, trust me."

+

"Sneak so quiet, mister wolf, the little lamb is peeking."

+

Jon takes to the streets once again. It's much earlier now, people are still milling about, the cold weather doing nothing to deter them being outdoors. Jon keeps his eyes down, doesn't look at anyone because there's no one who knows him, not one person who would recongize him anymore. At least not anyone who would be out at this time of night.

Back to the brick faced apartment building, almost all the lights aglow now. Soft, quick footsteps and Jon can still remember the girls apartment number. No one pays attention to him as he enters the building. No one really sees him at all anymore. He is the darkness, so quiet and still.

Up flights of stairs, hands tucked into the pockets of his black jacket. Up, up, up, until he's back on the seventh floor, until he's right infront of her door.

Jon can hear the dull murmur of what is probably her TV. Knows that she's probably home, Ryan didn't see anything so, as far as Jon and maybe the universe is concerned, nothing has changed.

He's knocking, one, two, three. Tries to stand casual, tries to look soft and like this isn't drastically important. Jon tries to look normal. He hears clattering, footsteps and his heart picks up just a bit, Ryan's words playing in his head. It's almost like a car crash, it's unavoidable.

The door opens, spilling warmth and something that smells like dinner, over him. She's standing there, leaning in the doorway. Pretty face blank, bright blue eyes holding something akin to confusion.

In Jon's head she's crashing, in his head the past version of her and the present are crashing and colliding, forming something that's so familar yet unrecongizable.

"Can I..help you?" The voice is different too but it's been so long that Jon doesn't even really remember what she used to sound like. Jon keeps his face soft, tries out a smile but it feels stiff, like it's been too long since he's smiled, it has.

"You're Marley Stevens right?" He asks, it's a formality. He already knows it's her.

Her lip quirks and she nods. "Yeah, that's me...how can I help you?"

Jon sighs out softly, a warm rush of air. "You don't remember me do you?" Jon asks, he's digging here, struggling to talk like he used to. To be normal. Marley shakes her head, long dark brown hair swishing around her arms.

"Should I?" Now her light voice has changed and her eyes spark with something like worry. This isn't the greatest part of the city and Jon's sure he looks at least a little dangerous with his dark clothing, long hair and scruffy, almost beard.

Jon forces out a laugh, sounds strange and jarring and that is not going to help her feel any safer around him. "I guess not. You were just a kid when I met you." She tilts her head, questioning. "I was a friend of your dad's." Jon continues, anwsering her silent question.

Marley's blue, blue eyes narrow. "You knew my dad?" Jon nods, let's a small smile slide on to his face. He feels he can at least pull this one off. Her eyes rake over him, drinking him in and Jon's never been more aware of how hard it is to act nonchalant. "How could you? You can't be that much older than me and I don't remember there being any other little kids around."

This was the hard part to explain, this was the part he ran dialogues for. "I have a young face." Jon explains, "I did know him. Alexander and your mother too." Marley's eyes go wide, the look of concern slipping away to be replaced by a look of intense interest.

"Okay, But I'm sorry to tell you...my dad died a good five years ago."

"I know."

Her face crinkles, reminiscent of when Ryan had done nearly the same thing.

'Then I don't know how I can help-"

"I came here to talk to you." It's not a lie, none of it is. Marley looks taken aback, her small fingers grip a little hard on the doorknob. "Look, I just have something's to tell you about your dad and your past. I swear, I won't hurt you." Jon knows that even saying that sounds creepy but he has no other way of convincing her. Ryan didn't say she'd turn him away...

"Stuff about my dad?" She presses, voice softer, lighter and Jon's memory kicks in, that was how he remembered her voice. He nods, brushes his dark hair away from where it's falling into his face.

"Can I just come in and talk to you?" He asks, Marley ducks her head, wave of semi-wavy hair moving infront of her face, blocking her off. She tips her head back up after a moment and she nods.

"Alright, yeah. Come in...I..sorry, I didn't catch your name?"

"I'm Jon." Again with that casual smile. He's mildly surprised when she returns it.

"Alright, come inside, Jon."

+

"Bite so gently, mister wolf, the little lamb is yours."

+

Two minutes later Jon is sitting at the girls kitchen table while she gets him a drink. Marley hands him a pop but she doesn't sit down, no, instead she leans back against the kitchen counter. Jon notices how close at hand the kitchen knives and cordless phone are. She doesn't trust him, not fully but he doesn't blame her.

"You said you knew my dad?" Marley asks, apparently eager to get on with this conversation and to get this stranger out of her house. Jon nods, ignores his drink, instead choosing to fold his hands together, showing her that he has no intention of hurting her.

"Alexander was sort of my mentor." That's an understatment. Alexander was the one who basically kept Jon alive during those rough patches. Marley smiles, her eyes growing warm.

"And you said you had something to tell me about my past? About my dad?" The smile fades, Jon nods.

How the fuck do you do it? How can you so easily ruin someones life?

"Yeah," She's waiting for him to elaborate. He doesn't and she grows tense.

"Well, I don't mean to sound rude but could you tell me?"

"Yeah,"

What the fuck is he supposed to say? 'Everything you know about your childhood is a lie?' That won't fly. This whole thing is shit, why does it fall on him to clue her in? Why is potentially saving the world his job? If Ryan were here he'd be spouting shit about how this was all pre-decided. We had no choice, no say in the matter.

Marley clears her throat, stares at him expectantly.

"Your dad...wasn't who you thought he was."

Another tilt of the head.

"Are you like...are you trying to tell me that you're my real dad or some shit like that?"

She never swore before, than again, four year olds tend not to swear.

"No, that's not it." God, did he look old enough for her to think that? "How old are you now?" He asks, it's only a slight change of subject but Jon needs to know. Marley's eyes harden.

"Twenty."

The fact that it's been sixteen years since he's seen her, that she used to be so tiny and smiling up at him, it's really throwing him off.

"I'm sorry, Jon, was it?" Jon nods, "Right, I'm sorry but I still don't remember you."

"It doesn't matter, it's not actually that important if you remember me or not." Jon stands from the kitchen table, eyes the soda can she had set down for him. Cold droplets of water sliding down the outside, his eyes following it down. "The only important thing," Jon starts, his gaze lifting to settle on her. "Is that you listen to what I tell you."

Marley gives him a curious look. "Alright."

Jon pauses, formulates his next choice of words. She'll never believe it but he has to try.

"See, the thing about your dad is-"

Before Jon can get that sentence out, there's a loud clatter from the living room, the sound of breaking glass. The first thought Jon has is that they followed him, they found her. The first instinct he has is to throw her over his shoulder and run as fast as he can. Neither seem to be necessary because Marley goes into the living room, which happens to be connected to the kitchen.

"Patrick! You broke the statue that mom gave me!" He hears Marley say and he looks over to see her bending down, scooping something up. As she returns to him he sees that it's a cat, a dark little cat with striking blue eyes that seem so out of place for the animal. "You probably cut yourself too." She chides, ignoring Jon for the moment as she sets her pet down on the glass kitchen table.

The cat though seems to be fine, seems to be staring at Jon with those intense eyes. Like, the little creature knows what Jon is, knows what he's doing and wants him gone.

"Patrick's an interesting name for a cat."

Marley finally comes back to Jon. "Oh," She starts, her hands brushing over the cats fur. "Yeah, that was his name when I found him." She explains, gives a shrug. "I like it." She adds and Jon nods, he continues his staring match with the cat.

"Now, about my dad?" She asks, locking her gaze on him and Jon tears his away from the cat.

"Right, so, I understand if you don't want to believe me but...Marley, your dad was-"

If Jon will ever be able to finish a sentence with that fucking cat around, it will be a miracle. The cat, Patrick, decides that it would be a good time to lunge itself at Jon, claws bared and hissing like crazy. Jon's back before the cat can reach him, maybe a little too fast but Marley doesn't seem to notice. She's too busy pulling a shocked face and once again scooping up her hissing cat, who goes calmer in her arms.

"Patrick..what is your deal tonight? You need to go in the other room." She tells her pet as she sets him down on the hardwood floor. Patrick, much like a scolded child would do, stalks off, like he actually fucking listens to Marley. As soon as Patrick's gone Marley lifts her gaze to Jon. "Please, tell me."

Maybe now he finally can.

"Okay, Marley, your dad...he was a great man, there's no doubt about that. I respected him so damn much but the thing about him that you need to know is...well, he wasn't human."

"What?" Marley's pretty little face is blank as she stares at him. She's looking like he's crazy, maybe he is. "Okay, so, if he wasn't human what was he? A swamp thing? A zombie?" Marley was patronizing him, didn't believe a word he was saying. Okay, so, Jon was losing her, fast and spectactularly.

"He was a vampire." If Marley didn't believe him before, she sure as hell wouldn't now. Her small hands slide to her slightly full hips.

"I think it's time for you to go." She says, her voice is lower now, like, she's afraid of him. He doesn't want her to be afraid. Marley motions towards the door, Jon's sure she would be pushing him out if she weren't actually scared of touching him.

"It's the truth." Jon doesn't know what else to say, it was the truth. Alexander, Marley's father, was a vampire. And a strong vampire at that. Marley sighs, probably regretting even letting him into her house. Jon's not surprised, it's not a normal thing, even these days it's not normal. Jon needs to convince her though, she needs to believe and know that vampires do exist.

She needs to know the truth about the world she lives in.

"Please, just go." She urges, fear coiled in her throat. Jon knows she's afraid, can read it and sense it just like she's telling him flat out that she is.

"I will." He states, sliding smoothly towards the door. The last thing he wants to do is scare her, that would only hurt his progress, his mission. "Just please, it's the truth. Think about your past, think about your dad...ask your mom. She'll tell you the truth."

Marley's eyes widen again drastically. Her hands are clenched tight at her sides and her eyes are pleading with him to just go. It was a look that Jon was familar with.

"If you want to talk to me again..." Jon says, reaching into the inside pocket of his worn black jacket. "Call this number." He states, pulling out a small square of notebook paper, tucking it securely into the frame of the lightswitch before he opened the door, stepping out of her apartment.

The door closed behind him yet he still remained there. Standing out in the hall, listening. His ears prick and he can hear the soft whoosh of air, of relief that he's gone. He cannot tell if Ryan will be happy or upset at this outcome.

Jon can only hope that Marley will come around. Quickly, would be best. The longer she waits, the more likely they are to find her.

That would be good for no one.

+

"Jon, this is my daughter, Marley."

+

Jon was sleeping, not a good sleep, never a good sleep. His back hurt and his bones ached. Sleeping in a basement just wasn't a good idea. Jon skritched his thick fingers through his dark, slightly dirty hair. It was getting too long, time to cut it again. He didn't know why he was awake, really, it was too early, he was still tired. But he was awake and his mind was on her.

It had been almost an entire day since he had went and seen Marley. Hand into pocket, no calls on his cell phone. She doesn't believe him. Jon sighs and lifts his head. Ryan's still sleeping, curled tightly in on himself. His long arms are wined around his thin frame. He sleeps like he's injured, like, he's afraid and for all intents and purposes, he is.

The both of them are just walking wounds.

Marley is a problem. A problem that honestly Jon doesn't need. What the hell has life ever done for him? Besides spinning so far out of control that he can't ever hope to go back. And these people in this city? They don't give a damn about him so, why should he try so hard to protect them all? It just wasn't worth it.

Jon would give up if he could but he can't bring himself to do it. He likes to think that it's of his own accord, that he isn't just following a path that destiny has set up for him. Jon get's up, he feels stiff and he can't go upstairs yet, it isn't safe yet. So, he just sits in the darkness, settled in the broken down armchair that Ryan had him drag down here.

Sometimes he wonders how he got to this point. To sleeping in basements next to ex-guitarists, to trying to convince girl's that their childhood was less than the fairytail they believed it to be, to actually being the night. Sometimes Jon wonders but than he remembers and a slight fire flames through his lower belly.

Suddenly his cell phone flares on, lights flashing and the standard ring issuing through the air. Jon's actually surprised that Marley's calling him. He knows it's her because she's the only one who has the number, the only one besides the boy that sleeping in the fetal position on the floor.

"Hello?"

"Who the fuck are you?"

"Marley?" Jon knows it's her but he'd still like to be sure.

"Yes, now tell me who you are." She sounds angry but again he expects it. He'd be angry too if someone sprung this on him.

"I'm Jon, Jon Walker."

"And you believe in vampires Jon?"

Maybe once upon a time Jon would've said no, but not now, now there was only one thing to say.

"Yes."

Marley makes an interesting noise in her throat, half a growl and half a whine.

"Why'd you say that about my father?"

"It's the truth."

"I don't understand." She sounds exasperated, like, she's been over this again and again in her head and it still doesn't make any sense. He doesn't expect her to understand. It's almost like trying to tell a monkey about World War II, they just don't understand because they don't have all the facts.

"It's alright that you don't. I can explain it to you. It will make sense, trust me."

There's a silence, Jon goes still and he can hear her breathing, a comfortable, steady monotone.

"Come over in an hour." She whispers before the line goes dead.

+

"Vampires do exist Jon, you're looking at one."

+

He's back over at Marley's place in an hour's time. Ryan is pretending to be asleep when Jon leaves, lying completely still on the cement floor, cold granite pressing against his pale cheek. It's colder out now and Jon's guessing that it's going to start snowing soon. He's been in this city long enough that he's pretty much memorized the weather pattern.

Back to the apartment, back up the seven flights of stairs. Knock on the door, one, two, three. She anwsers much quicker this time. Pulling the door back and standing there in a t-shirt and jeans, long brown hair pulled back in a ponytail. She doesn't exactly looked pleased to see him, more glaring than anything.

Marley let's him in. Tonight she really looks like Alexander, he can see it in her face. They're standing awkwardly in the living room. All hardwood floors and simple decorations. That cat, Patrick is sitting on the couch, staring at Jon.

"So, you said you could make me understand?" She asks, wrings pale fingers together and her face softens, making her actually look her age. Jon nods, this is the opening, the chance he needs to just tell her everything.

"First off. Vampires do exist." He states and she levels him with a stare. He knows it's a hard thing to believe, it's like saying that unicorns or fairies exist, like trying to make someone believe in them.

"I thought that was just a rumor to scare people in the city?" Marley says, Jon can hardly believe she never knew. Than again, Alexander was so clever and so protective of Marley that he kept his secret hidden no matter what.

"There's not a lot of them yet, small and underground but they do exist." Jon tells her. Marley bites her lip, turning it from pink to red between her teeth. She glances back at the couch then at Jon.

"Do you want to sit down?" She asks, already moving towards the long dark green sofa. Jon nods and follows her. Marley sits on one end and Jon on the other, as much space between them as possible. Patrick moves into Marley's lap as soon as she sits down, curling into a tight ball but still staring at Jon. "And my dad was one of them?" Her voice is so soft and fragile.

"Yeah, he was...but he didn't want to be one. He was turned a long time ago, back before you and I were even born." Jon's cycling through the information in his head. All the things that Alexander had told him on those quiet nights while Marley and her mother slept.

"Aren't vampires evil though? Kill people and shit like that? My dad..he wasn't like that." It's not a question, she's telling him, voice determined. Jon can remember enough to remember just how highly Marley held her father. He was her hero.

"Not all of them. That's not to say that there aren't ones who are evil because there are." Jon's seen them, talked to them, known them.

"So, he was good?" Jon nods and for a split second Marley looks relieved. "How do you know he was telling the truth?" She asks, eyes moving to land on Jon. A curious blue.

"Telling the truth about being a vampire?" He doesn't mean to sound slightly amused but he's lucky that Marley didn't pick up on it. The girl nods, too bad she's deadly serious. "Trust me, it's not something anyone would lie about being."

Marley frowns, her pretty mouth pulling down. "I just-I keep replaying my childhood over and over again and nothing seems out of place. It was all so normal, mundane even." She looks like she's trying to trick herself into believing that. For the most part she probably does because she wasn't around to see all the things that would convince her otherwise.

"Didn't you ever notice that your father never seemed to look older? He always looked like a twenty-six year old man...even when he should've been into his mid to late thirties." Jon tells her. Marley's eyes go wide and Jon swears that Patrick looks up at his master, before he looks back at Jon and makes a deep noise in his throat.

Marley doesn't say anything, to Patrick or otherwise. Her soft hand does come up and pet along Patrick's pointed ears and the cat seems calm.

"I guess I never noticed...I just thought he had good genes."

"He did." It's kind of a joke, sort of but neither of them laugh. One moment bleeds into another and it's a good five minutes before either of them speak. Marley is just sitting, looking down at Patrick with heavy eyes and stroking him.

"I'm curious." Jon starts, Marley lifts her head to look at him. "What made you decide to call me?" Sure, Jon could guess, morbid curiousity? Nagging need? Either one could work.

"I called my mom last night." Jon's brown eyes widen. Evangeline, Marley's mother. The beautiful human who won Alexander's heart. She had to be in her late fourties by now. "I told her about you and she said that you weren't completely insane so, I thought maybe I'd give you another chance to explain."

"How is Evangeline?" Jon asks, smiling slightly at the girl's words. Marley's lips quirk at the mention of her mothers name.

"Fine, she still lives in the city." Marley is smiling now, she has the kind of face that was meant for a smile, kinda like someone else that Jon used to know. "Did-did she know about my dad?" The smile is gone, replaced by blank curiousity.

"Yeah, she did." Evangeline saved Alexander, almost like how Alexander saved Jon. They had the kind of love that Jon only ever heard of, the kind he thought only existed in the past. Evangeline had to keep it all a secret too, a small attempt to keep her only child safe.

Marley's quiet now, thinking things over. The clock behind the girl's head shows that it's a little after ten at night. It's getting late and Jon wishes he could stay but there are somethings even more important than showing her the truth.

"I'm sorry, I have to go." Jon says suddenly, there's a familar sharp pain in his chest, spreading warm and numb down his ribs.

"What? But I need to know more!" Marley says, eyes wide in surprise. Jon shakes his head, bangs poking into his eyes, definitly time for a haircut.

"I have to go now. I'm sorry." He makes towards the door, warm pain pushing down into his belly and spreading up to his shoulder.

"Wait, wait." Marley's rushing out, he can see her moving Patrick from the corner of his eye, he can see her rushing towards him. The flash of a hand on his arm and even through the layers of jacket and long sleeved shirt, he can feel her warmth sizzling against his skin.

Jon stops and she takes her hand off of him, warmth vanishing. "I just want to know how you know all this..about my dad and my past...how do you know?" She's looking up at him with those big blue eyes, these she inhereited from her mother. "Please."

Jon needs to go, the warm pain pushing up into his neck, sliding down his arms like, broad hands or thick vines, his fingers are tingling. He needs to go but he still anwsers her.

"I was there. Alexander trusted me enough to tell me, that's how I know." The sharp pain sliding up the back of his neck, like, sharp tipped fingers pressing against his skin, moving down his thighs and legs. "I have to go."

Marley bites her lip as Jon pulls the door open. "Will you come back tomorrow?" He's standing in the hallway now, he believes that the light out here makes him look paler than usual. Maybe a little more sickly. Her blue eyes sweep over him, waiting for a response.

"Yeah, I will."

Jon's probably lingered here too long. The warm pricks of pain are hitting his fingertips, his toes, the backs of his eyes and he closes them, tries hard not to sway. "Tomorrow." He promises, swallows hard and he's gone, striding away, loud footsteps down the hall.

"Okay," He's far but he can still hear her whisper it, the closing of the door. The pain thumping all over his body and god, how far away is he from home now?

Jon doesn't know how the hell he got home. That's not important, just that he got home. Ryan's in the kitchen when he gets home. Posted up in his usual spot, staring down at the scratched table. His head whips up and he stares at Jon with large brown eyes, alarmed at seeing Jon in the state that he's in.

"Ryan," Jon wheezes, leans against the door and fuck, he can barely hang on. "Ryan, we've got to do it now." He commands.

+

"Jon...I think I'm going to die soon."

+

Jon can barely move when he wakes up the next day. His arms feel too heavy and his brain is fuzzy, mouth hot and tasting bitter. Ryan's laying next to him, turned on his side, his back towards Jon. He's wrapped around himself again, even though Jon is laying right there.

It's later than it was yesterday and she hasn't called him yet. As if that thought is some kind of signal to her, his cell starts ringing. Jon feels like he can barely anwser it. But he does because it's Marley and he has a sometimes bad habit of giving girls what they want.

"Hello?"

"Are you alright?"

Why doesn't she ever say hello back?

"I'm fine...why?" He must've looked worse than he thought last night.

"You looked strange when you were leaving."

"Didn't feel well." Jon mumbles out and sits himself up, can feel his leg bumping against Ryan's ass.

"You're coming over tonight right?"

"Now?" Jon asks.

"Now would be good."

So much like Alexander that Jon has to smile.

It takes Jon longer to get to Marley's place than usual, he walks slower and his mind is still just this side of foggy. back up the stairs, back to the seventh floor, back to Marley's door. knocking, one, two, three. Marley opens the door. Hair down, long wavy ringlets draping across her shapely shoulders. She actually smiles at him as she lets him into her apartment.

There are what looks like open photo albums resting on the kitchen table and on the couch.

"You were right about my dad, Jon." Marley says as she closes the door behind him. Her blue eyes are glimmering with what suspiciously looks like fascination. "I didn't realize until I looked at the old pictures but you were right..he looked exactly the same the day I was born as the day he died."

Marley walks to the couch and Jon follows. The girl picks up a photo, square and glossy. She hands it over to Jon. "That was one of the last times I saw him alive."

The photo was of a fifteen year old Marley, looking much the same as she did now, no big surprise there. It hadn't been that long ago. Alexander was there too, just like Jon remembered him. Tall, pale, smooth expanses of skin. Dark brown hair and matching eyes. He looked so young and Jon can't believe that he died just a short while later.

"Your smiling." He hears her say, Jon lifts his head and the smile he had been wearing slips away. Marley is smiling though, a lopsided one, raising just one side of her mouth.

"Yeah, your dad was like a father to me...it's nice to see him again." Marley nods softly and takes the photo back when Jon offers it to her.

"Were you around a lot when I was younger?" The girl questions, she rifles through more pictures. Jon nods.

"You were probably too young to remember. You were just a baby when I met you and I was around here and there until you were about four." Marley crinkles her nose, shakes her head and her hair fans out around her.

"It's like a blank." She says softly, eyeing him. "Sorry." She adds. "So, I have a question for you."

"Go ahead." Jon asks, settling himself on the arm of the sofa.

"Vampires..like my dad...don't they kill people, you know, to drink blood?"

"Some do." Her eyes go wide in alarm. "Don't worry, he didn't."

"Then what did he do?" Marley mimicks Jon, sitting down on the opposite arm of the sofa, a small pile of pictures in her hands. She switches her gaze from the pictures to Jon.

"There are people who want to help. Who thought of new ways to help them." Jon doesn't elaborate and Marley doesn't ask, which is strange because he was expecting her to. He spares a glance at her and her face is frozen, a perfect blank slate.

"What's wrong?" Jon asks, because she doesn't look right...she looks..scared. Marley lifts her head, stares at Jon with those striking eyes.

"What are you?" The question comes out low but it slices like a hot knife through Jon's chest.

"What?"

Marley isn't looking at him. No, her attention is completely focused on a photo in her hand. Her blue eyes are still drastically wide as she flickers them over Jon. She nearly falls off the arm of the sofa, moving backwards in jerky motions. Jon's just semi-alarmed now. This isn't right, this isn't how this was supposed to go, somewhere along the line they fell off track.

"This picture...you're in this picture." Marley states, backs as far away from Jon as she can, keeps going until she bumps against a heavy bookshelf. She's holding it out for Jon to see but she's actually too far away for him to make it out. He doesn't need to see it to know why she's suddenly afraid. "And you look exactly the same.." Her voice is a harsh whisper and her eyes are flickering with thought.

Jon knows that Marley's not stupid. She's clever just like her father and she's more than capable of putting it all together. And that looks like exactly what happened.

"You're not..you're not human are you?" Her voice shakes, undermining the hardness in her blue eyes. Jon takes a step forward and she just as quickly steps back, keeping the space between them.

"In my defense I never said I was."

Marley makes a face. "I asked you how you knew and you never bothered to tell me that you knew because you're a vampire too!" Her voice echoes out loud in the apartment. Patrick has climbed up to the back of the couch and he's watching, hunched slightly like, he's ready to make a move.

This, this was what Jon had expected all along. The moment when he would have to confess to his own sins, his short comings, admit to being a monster.

"I didn't know how you'd react." His voice is soft, like the gentle breeze that blows around the city in the summer. What he was wasn't important. It wasn't about him, it was about Marley, Alexander and the events that Ryan said would take place. The ones that Jon had to create.

Marley's jaw is set tight. "You're...not..you're not even trying to deny it...so, you're saying that you are?" Jon nods slowly, eyes trained on her. They're not done yet. He can't lose her focus quite yet. There's an interesting flash behind her eyes and she backs further away, heading into the kitchen.

"Why did you come here really? Just to tell me that my dad was a monster? Someone like you?" Marley's voice raises significantly as she moves around the apartment. There's that word that haunts Jon, like a song that won't leave his head, like the past, and the city, and the people haunt him.

Monster.

He is a monster.

"I am a monster." He's known it all along.

"You want to hurt me don't you?" Marley whispers, her head is tipped down and her hands are on the sink infront of her. "You came here to kill me and I fell for it."

"Alexander would never forgive me if I hurt you."

"Stop." Her head whips up. "Stop using my father as a means to make me trust you! He wasn't the man he claimed to be...you're not the man you claimed to be." She whispers and her eyes are both tragically painful and angry at the same time. An interesting mix, Jon's never seen her eyes look this way.

"He loved you."

"Not enough to ever bother telling me the truth. To ever protect me because you found me..."

"I am here to protect you." God, this could not be going worse. They're crumbling, falling apart and Jon is fucking up royally here, maybe it will teach the universe not to trust him with important tasks. Marley is staring at him, that proclamation was rather bold. Slightly cheesy if he thinks about it. "You don't understand this world...that's all I've been trying to tell you all along that-"

"I want you to leave." It's whispered but he catches every word.

"Marley."

"Get out of my house." Harsh whisper. She lifts her head and he can't ignore the spark of tears in the corners of her eyes. "Please, just go."

Just like Jon can never say no to a girl, he can never refuse a crying girl either.

"I'll leave." He tells her, heads towards the door and he's not all that surprised to find that warm pain spreading through his body. "Don't anwser your door for anyone unless you know them." Jon tells her and her lips twitch like words had tried to escape but failed, dying enclosed in her mouth. The warmth is spreading quickly, the heavy emotions in the room twisting around him and acting as a catalyst.

Marley doesn't say anything to him before he leaves. Once outside he can hear the soft sound of crying, Marley's anguished weeping through the oak door. The warmth ignites and spreads quicker than ever but he's not so concerned about getting home. He goes quickly but his feet are acting on auto pilot. The girls words are echoing around in his head. One single phrase settling heavy on his chest, like a brand that he can't shake.

+

"A monster like you."

+

Jon makes it home just in time and again Ryan's at the table, again he looks surprised to see Jon panting, leaning against the doorway and licking his lips.

"Again Jon? We just did it last night."

Jon nods, sharp pain in his mouth, in his head, floating around his entire body. It's her, it's Marley. She's like a flame to his gasoline, igniting his blood.

"Please Ry, I need it." Jon hates the sound of his own voice right now. Of what he's asking Ryan to do.

Ryan stands from the table but he won't meet Jon's eyes, a sure sign that he's willing to do it. But that doesn't make Jon feel any better.

With nimble fingers Ryan unwraps the scarf from around his neck, setting it behind him on the table. Jon can't stop himself from licking his lips and he can't stand himself right now. Ryan's deft fingers slide down the buttons on his dark dress shirt, slowly revealing pale flesh for Jon.

All for Jon.

Jon shucks off his coat, leaves it laying abandoned on the kitchen floor. His strong hands slide to the bottom of his shirt and he's tugging, pulling it off. That familar pain flares up and his teeth thump. By the time Jon's got his shirt off and laying abandoned next to his coat, Ryan is in front of him. The taller, slimmer boy's eyes are locked on the floor, on Jon's clothes as he offers his hand for Jon to take.

His lithe body is trembling. Marley was right, everyone was right. He's a monster.

"Come on, Jon." Ryan says, voice dead of emotion but Jon doesn't think that's his fault. Long fingers wrapping ice cold around Jon's wrist, tugging lightly and leading him back, back, and down, down, down. Into the basement. They make it down there. It's cold but Jon barely feels it against his bare muscled chest. The warm pain has his body on fire and his mind is focused only on Ryan.

"Sit down." Ryan commands, once the two of them are standing in the center of the dark basement. Jon doesn't need to be told twice. He sits, legs stretched out in front of him and his hands supporting him as he leans back. Ryan's caught in the moonlight sparking out from the thin lines from the wooden boards that Ryan placed over the windows. He's beautiful this way, all slender and sharp. Jon just wishes that his eyes didn't look so heavy. "Are you ready?" Ryan asks and Jon nods, doesn't trust himself to speak, doesn't want to hear the sound of his own voice, the desperate want that resides there.

Ryan moves gracefully, settling himself down squarely in Jon's lap. Their chest's are inches apart, as are their faces. Jon can feel the slight hitch in Ryan's breath as he smooths his hands down the younger boy's shoulders, skimming down his back, fingers playing against his spine until they rest posessively around the boys rail thin waist.

Ryan shifts, knees bent and pressed against the rough slab of concrete under them. He leans into Jon's touch. They've done this enough to know exactly how it goes, there's no guesswork, no mystery, it never changes.

"So, I'm guessing it didn't go well with her." Ryan whispers and Jon can feel every word, hot against his skin. He shakes his head, doesn't want to talk about her, not now. They breathe in silence, Jon watching Ryan with foggy eyes. Sometimes it takes Ryan a little longer to get ready for it.

After what feels like an eternity, but really can't be more than three minutes, Ryan leans into Jon. Their chest's pressed together, icy flesh on icy flesh. Ryan tucks his face into the crook of Jon's neck, mouth by Jon's ear. Jon waits, twitches with anticipation and his fingers work hard not to dig into the soft skin of Ryan's belly.

"Okay, Jon. I'm ready." He whispers, words wet against Jon's ear.

It's all he needs and it's just in time because he doesn't actually think he could've held out any longer.

Jon opens his mouth and his warm tongue slides across the cool skin of Ryan's neck. The younger boy shudders in Jon's arms but he doesn't move. Jon grazes his teeth just slightly against the fair column of Ryan's neck and the other boy stiffens but again doesn't pull away.

Jon opens his mouth a little wider, fits it a bit awkwardly to Ryan's neck and he can't hold back.

He bites down, hard.

Gleaming white almost fangs sink into Ryan's flesh and he jerks in Jon's arms, his legs twitching. He makes a choked off sort of noise but none of it surprises Jon anymore. The first bite is the easiest, impossibly, inhumanly sharp fangs piercing skin, tearing, allowing what Jon is so desperately seeking to escape. Jon pulls away and he's avoiding Ryan's gaze, the boy's head turned to face the right wall.

It isn't like in the movies, it isn't just two small puncture holes. No, you have to use your whole mouth, a good tear and there's a nice collection of crimson blood dripping down Ryan's slender neck. Jon waits a few seconds longer before he's back there. Pressing his mouth to the wound, licking up the rivets of blood. Ryan let's a small groan slips from his lips as Jon works his mouth, tongue pressing inside, drinking more.

Ryan tries to pull away, it's a normal instinct to have. Jon's hands wrap around him and grip, holding him firmly in place. Thick fingers digging into the soft flesh of Ryan's stomach, the only soft spot on the boy. Ryan's panting just slightly, breathing pattern thrown off just barely. He doesn't protest.

The noises are wet and disgusting. Jon can't stand the noises. Wet sucking and licking, his own desperate growls and Ryan's breathing, the hitching and the slight groaning. Ryan tips his head as far to the side as he can manage, offering himself up to Jon as much as he can. His face is pressed against Jon's shoulder, breathing wet against Jon's skin as the older boy drinks from him.

Ryan tastes good. No doubt about it and despite Jon needing it so badly, it's still not enough.

Vampires aren't meant to drink off other vampires.

It's never enough, the blood isn't good enough to quell the thirst that inevitably arises. It's what Jon and Ryan do though, it's what works for them. They don't hurt anyone else, only ever each other. Only ever becoming their own walking sins.

Jon pushes his tongue inside the wound again and Ryan's fingers scrabble at Jon's back, digging in and creating marks in the shape of his long nails but Jon doesn't mind. It's nothing compared to what Ryan's feeling right now. Ryan writhes without really noticing, his hips rocking back and forth against Jon and he's panting harsher. It's usually out of pain, of getting bit and of being drunk but sometimes...if his own bloodlust is high enough, he writhes out of want.

Hot blood collects on Jon's tongue, staining his mouth and Ryan's still twitching, Jon's still gripping. They're pressed so tight together that there's no space between them. Some blood has escaped and it's trailing slowly down Ryan's shoulders, gliding down his chest, lower, lower, his stomach, lower still and it's staining his jeans.

Jon pulls his tongue out of the wound and Ryan relaxes a little. Jon drops his head lower, licking up the faded blood trails that escaped him the first time. Ryan's making those little noises again and Jon wonders if he'll want to drink tonight too?

Jon licks back up, quick, shiny lines and he's back to the wound. Biting just a bit more, gnashing at the wound to create a steady blood flow. Jon feels the warm press of Ryan's tongue against his shoulder and the boys hips rock against Jon again. The older boy is still holding him tight, inescapable, not that Ryan would try to escape.

Jon pushes his one hand up, up Ryan's back, pads of his fingers pressing against Ryan's neck, where the pulse point would be, where it used to be. He moves his hand up higher, fingers tangling softly in Ryan's messy brown hair. Petting him, comforting.

Ryan let's Jon drink from him for ten minutes, only breaking apart once Jon pulls away, the older boy's hands releasing Ryan. The wound is glistening on Ryan's neck, open and disgusting but oddly beautiful at the same time, at least to Jon. Normally this wouldn't heal for a long, long time but Jon knows that within five minutes, that wound will be gone. Replaced by impossibly flawless pale skin. Never any evidence that Jon tore into him, that they break each other open on a weekly basis.

They only look at each other once it's over, never before. Ryan's eyes lock with Jon's. The older boy knows he looks like a monster, just like Marley had said. His eyes are dark, pupils blown wide. He can feel the thick stickiness of Ryan's blood around his mouth, places he can't reach with his tongue.

"Do you want to do me?" Jon asks, he knows that they had both just drank last night and usually that meant that they would be good for at least a couple of weeks but Marley, Marley had Jon on fastforward. Ryan shakes his head, leans in towards Jon and his red tongue flicks out at the corners of Jon's mouth, cleaning up the blood that Jon had missed.

It doesn't do much. Drinking your own blood is even worse than drinking another vampires. Ryan cleans Jon with his tongue, long broad licks against his skin, pressing a soft, quick kiss to Jon's lips. It's not so much an act of love. Sure, Jon will fully admit that he loves Ryan but it's beyond a sort of sexual attraction. It's just love, just the need to love someone else and to know that you are loved in return.

Ryan eases off of Jon's lap. Stands slightly awkward in the basement, Jon can still see the shiny wound in the dark.

"Want to talk about what happened?" He asks, dark eyes sweeping over Jon. The older boy shakes his head, he's still feeling warm and sluggish from his blood drinking, he doesn't want to ruin that by thinking of her. Ryan let's it go, staring at Jon for a brief moment. Jon stares back and takes note how with each movement and each word Ryan speaks, the wound throbs, still shining. "I'm going to go back upstairs." He says and Jon nods, eye locked on the throbbing wound. He doesn't wait for the younger boy to go before he's laying back against the grainy cement floor.

He doesn't feel the cold due to Ryan's hot blood rushing through his veins, replacing that hot pain with an equally hot sense of peace. He listens to Ryan walk away and he closes his eyes.

He's already dreading tomorrow.

+

"You can...you can bite me if you need to, Jon."

+

The sound of little thumping footsteps around hardwood floors. Evangeline telling him that you can't have carpeted floors and small children at the same time. It's warm and happy. Comfortable because Alexander is there, and Alexander has all the anwsers to all the questions that Jon could ever think to ask.

A tiny little giggle from around a corner, like joyful music. A equally tiny little figure sliding across the floor and clinging to Jon's jean clad leg. Big, big blue eyes staring up at Jon, big smile for such a tiny girl. Dark brown hair framing a slightly chubby face.

"Hi, Jon!" The tiny little voice.

"Hey, Mar." The little girl smiles at the use of the nickname that Jon uses for her. Small arms going up in the air and Jon bends down to pick her up. Holding her small frame in his arms. Being around the little girl sparks something in Jon, his once strong desire to have children of his own, a family. A dream that died along with his humanity.

Alexander comes around the corner, smiles as he sees Jon holding his daughter.

"Daddy!" The little girl cries out, equally as happy to see her dad as she was to see Jon.

Suddenly the mood changes, and the warmth is gone, so is the happiness. Alexander is glaring at Jon with hard eyes. Marley's trembling in Jon's arms.

"Put my daughter down." Alexander's voice issues out, dark and dangerous, just like his eyes.

"What?" Jon doesn't know what's happening, why he feels like he's drowning. Wetness on his hands and Marley is crying, wet trails down chubby cheeks.

"Daddy.." She whimpers, sounds terrified.

"Put her down Jon!" Alexander's voice raises and Jon wants to, he wants to put her down but his body won't let him.

"I'm not going to hurt her Alexander...you know I wouldn't."

Alexander sneers at Jon, a look, nothing short of pure hatered.

"Of course you will...you're a monster."

Jon wakes up in the basement, the sun is only just setting. His mind is racing, confusing fiction with reality, lines blurred and moments bleeding into one another. He had just woken up from a memory...the closest thing his body could come to dreaming anymore, he supposes that that really wasn't a dream as much as it was a nightmare. It had been so long since he had anything like that. His body long ago giving up on him, saying, 'Sorry, you're on your own.'

Jon calms down because that never happened, not really. Well, the first part did, with the warm and happy and a three year old Marley clinging to his leg. That happened but Alexander never called him a monster, Marley was never scared of him...until now.

Ryan's down here sleeping, far away from Jon. No calls on his cell phone, though it is early and Marley never does call him until some time after six at night. Though Jon doubts that she'll call him today.

Jon leaves Ryan downstairs and moves up, it's dark enough out that he can sit up there. He's feeling lazy again because he had drunk from Ryan the previous night. The taller boy had picked up Jon's abandoned clothes and set them on one of the chairs in the kitchen.

Jon doesn't bother with the clothes, doesn't mind sitting there shirtless, the rough scratch from the cement, burned onto his back. Now that the intense need for blood has all but vanished from his system, last nights events are seeping back into his mind, broken little pieces that he has to fit back together. The most important part being how Marley had called him a monster. How she had cried.

Those thoughts spiral and Jon's own curious nature gets the best of him. He's reminded of a picture that he has, the only picture he still owns. It's in his wallet, deep, broken crease marks marring it, from being folded and refolded a million or so times, the picture is faded and dated, loose and seems to be just moments from falling apart completely.

That's only natural, the damn thing is a little over one hundred years old. Jon smooths it out against the worn texture of the table. It's not that it hasn't been damaged because it has. The photo was of six people, four out of six of those people had their faces scratched out, done during various times through out the years, in various fits of rage.

Jon looks at himself, his face isn't scratched out. He was smiling, still sweaty from the show, he was twenty-three years old. He was human. That was one hundred years ago. That's how long it's been since Panic At The Disco existed. That's how long it's been since Jon was bit.

Jon knows that Ryan was in the picture too, two people away from Jon. Smiling just as wide as Jon was, his arms slung around two of the faceless people's shoulders. Ryan's face is scratched out, Jon only knows for sure that it's him because of just how long he used to study the picture and because now, he could recongize Ryan's thin frame anywhere.

He briefly lets his gaze linger on the others in the photo. On the only other person besides Jon whose face wasn't completely erased. Patrick. The lead singer of Fall Out Boy, a good friend. It sounds insane to even admit but Jon had almost forgotten about him, about everyone. If he tries hard enough then he can force himself to forget. Not like Ryan, Ryan who wears invisible chains that link him to every person in that photo.

Thinking of Patrick inevitably leads Jon back to thinking about Marley. Marley and her pissed off cat named after one of Jon's dead friends.

He doesn't want to think about her quite yet, just like he doesn't want to think of anyone from that picture. The memories are all a rush, a blur. You can't even make yourself imagine what living one hundred years would feel like, what you'd remember and what you'd choose to forget.

It's all a mash of images and sounds, memories and words and touches that are so tangled that Jon can't, just can't think about one without getting them all. Starting with how he became the way he is.

There's footsteps on the staircase and Jon quickly refolds the photo, tucks it away. It only serves to upset Ryan, throw him off. The brown haired boy comes up through the basement door and he briefly meet's Jon's eyes. He's redressed from last night, unlike Jon. The beautiful mark that Jon had created last night is gone, just like he knew it would be.

Ryan is surveying him, dark brown eyes blank.

"Want something to drink?" He asks, "You know, besides blood." The boy adds, the tiniest of smiles on his face. Jon returns it but he doesn't think it meets his eyes.

"I'm fine."

Ryan forgoes getting anything himself and he moves to sit at the table beside Jon. He wrings his fingers together, twisting the long cold digits. He's looking at the table, always looking at something but never really seeing it. Jon can't imagine living one day in Ryan's head, let alone one hundred years.

"You want to talk about her now?" Ryan asks, lifting his head to look at Jon, to really look at him. No, Jon doesn't want to talk about her, he doesn't but he knows that he needs to. Just because Marley got upset doesn't mean he can stop, he should but he can't.

"She found out I was a vampire. She freaked out."

Ryan's face crinkles again, his mouth scrunching up slightly. Jon's keeping a steady watch of the younger boy's eyes, studying them to witness the slight flicker, the change. The change doesn't come and Ryan keeps talking.

"You should've told her from the get-go."

"It's not that easy Ryan, I'd like to see you do better." Jon doesn't mean to sound so angry.

"I can't, you were the one I saw with her in the vision, not me." Ryan's voice snaps back at Jon, tight like a rubberband stretched to it's limits. Jon sighs, he's sick of that excuse, he knows that Ryan can't help it but damn is he sick of it.

"Just because you saw it doesn't mean it necessarily would happen."

It's their same old argument. The great paradox about seeing the future. The debate was whether the vision that Ryan was seeing was meant to happen, had already happened in the future, or was just an option, a way that the string of events could unfurl. There's another spin to it too, whether or not the event would happen based on if Ryan told anyone, if the boy kept it to himself, would it still happen?

"There has yet to be a time that I was wrong." Ryan tells him, Jon doesn't really know how Ryan got this power. As far as Jon knows, he doesn't have any special powers of his own. But Ryan, he had that power from the day he got bit.

"I know, that's why I don't make bets with you anymore." Again with that small smile. "So, I suppose you already know whether or not I'm going to go back?"

"I don't see every moment of every day. But I still think you should go back."

Ryan's right, this is important. Marley won't like it, Jon won't enjoy it much either but it has to be done. For the sake of the city, the world, even Marley herself.

"You should've seen how she looked at me Ryan, like, like, she was so afraid."

"I know it's hard." Ryan's voice is soft and even, not a hint of the previous emotion still held there. "But what do you think he'll do once he finds her? Kill her instantly? Or just make her a play thing?" Maybe the question is something that Ryan actually wants to know, or maybe he's just trying to gode Jon into going back there, into stopping something horrible from happening to the girl.

Jon is surprised to find his jaw set tight. Jon knows full well what he's capable of. He knows the horrifying things that the man would do, what he would do to keep his 'kingdom'. The fear that the girl would fall into worse hands than his own, that's what makes Jon slide his shirt back on, tug on his jacket and leave the house, leave Ryan behind.

+

"You should join me, Jon. I'm going to win."

+

Jon thought about calling Marley before he showed up at her apartment, he thinks about it but he doesn't. He just knocks on the door, one, two, three and he waits. Jon's whisper quiet as he stands outside her door, listening intently for any sounds from the girl. The television isn't on, he can see a light coming from the crack under the door but maybe she isn't home? Maybe she knows it's him?

Jon knocks again, twice this time. He waits, two and a half minutes and he's just raised his hand to knock one more before the door is pulled open, halfway and he can see Marley standing there.

Her eyes narrow at the sight of him and she instantly tries to push the door closed. Now, Jon happens to be about a million times stronger than the girl, he could easily keep the door open but he doesn't think that would make her any less fearful of him. So, instead he just rests his hand on the side of the door, holding it lightly, creating the illusion that she's still in control.

"Go away, Jon." The girl says, brown hair framing her pretty face. Marley's voice is harsh, angry but he expects no less.

"I can't."

Marley doesn't like that anwser, tries to slam the door on him but Jon's fingers tighten around door, nails digging into the solid wood. He's holding the door open. Marley notices and she frowns deeply, despite her fear, she's glaring at him.

"It's easy, just walk away, pretend like none of this ever happened." The girl's voice has lost some of it's previous edge, her words come off sounding more like a beg, like, that's all she wants Jon to do. He shakes his head, pangs of pain striking within him. He can't help but wonder if Alexander would be proud or angry.

"I'm sorry, I can't. It doesn't matter if you want to pretend that you never met me, that you never heard my words, it still happened and it can't be stopped. Fate hasn't given you a choice."

It might just be the most direct Jon's ever been with the girl, but desperate times and all that. Marley's still standing there, looking not fully convinced of Jon's words.

"I'm not going to hurt you." Jon starts, "I'm not. But there are people who might. That's what I need to talk to you about." In this case, mostly honesty, happens to be the best policy. Marley is worrying her lip between her teeth, making it a deep red. Her blue eyes drift to Jon's face, their gazes locked. They stay that way for a good long moment. Blue eyes on impossibly dark, alive versus not so much.

"Okay.." She says after a few lingering moments. She's given into him, voice losing all it's previous fight.

Marley steps back and allows Jon to slide into her apartment. The television is on but turned down low, like she was expecting him. Patrick is still there, sitting starkly on the kitchen table. The cat's bright blue eyes are still burning into Jon's.

"Who wants to hurt me?" Jon hears Marley ask, he directs his gaze to her. She's standing there, one hand grasping on to her downstretched arm. Of course she would want to know, you don't tell someone that without expecting to gain their curiousity in return.

"Certain people-"

"Vampires?" Marley cuts him off, her eyes are sparkling with something Jon cannot place. Talking to humans was harder than he remembered. It was hard talking to someone who wasn't like you, who didn't already know the dire situation of the city.

"Yes, vampires...there are some certain ones who may want to come after you."

Marley sighs, deep and ragged. Her eyes drop to the floor as she moves to sit at the kitchen table. Apparently the information he had placed on her pretty shoulders was too much to warrent standing.

"I don't understand.Why would they want me? I didn't do anything."

"You exist and that's enough for him." Jon tells her, he dares to move a little closer, feet shuffling loudly against the dulling hardwood floor. Marley raises her head, her hands coming together infront of her.

"This is because of you." She states, staring accusedly at him. "This is happening because you came to me. You found me and drew attention to the poor little human." She continues, rattling off facts like she actually knows what she's talking about, Jon's half tempted to believe that she does.

"No, Marley. I had to find you before they did. As far as Ryan and I know, you're still hidden."

Marley's brow furrows. "Whose Ryan? And why is it so important to find me? I've lived here for three years now, why now?"

Too many questions, too many blank spots for Jon to be able to make her understand.

"And I'm still blaming this on you." She's apparently not bothering to wait for anwsers from him anymore. "You brought this bad luck upon me."

"No, I didn't. This whole thing--this is me helping you! I'm trying to save your life!" Jon's skin is tingling, he tries not to get angry, anger happens to speed up the need for blood and damn, he cannot be having bloodlust right now, not with her in the room. "And they're not after you because of me...they're after you because of what you are!"

He doesn't mean to say it, the words seem to fly out of his mouth, coming out in some vain offshoot of his anger. Marley stands now, hands flat on the table and she's staring at him. He can practically see the gears in her head turning, working out what he had just mistakeningly said.

"What I am?...You mean a human?" Her voice is soft, confused. She either seems to always differ between extreamly pissed off or unbelieveably hurt around him, never any other emotion.

Jon takes a few small steps closer, this was it. This was the part that he had been dreading, the scene he was so desperate to skip, the vision that Ryan had. Fucking destiny and it's way of always proving Jon wrong.

"Think about it Marley. Your dad was a vampire, your mom was a human. What do you think that makes you?" Jon asks, Marley's head whips up and again Jon swears that he can see the gears turning in her head.

"Are--Are you trying to tell me that I'm half vampire?" Her voice is wrecked, she sounds just a tiny bit hysterical and her blue eyes were as wide as saucers.

"I'm sorry." Jon responds as opposed to actually saying; 'Why, yes, that's exactly what I'm trying to say.'

"I-I never thought..I mean, I considered the thought when you first told me about my dad but I just told myself that I was normal, there was nothing special about me...I-I thought there was some kind of fucking rule for this kind of thing!" Marley half shouts and her palms slam down against the table. Patrick, who had still been sitting on said table, turned to look at his master, standing and moving towards the girl, rubbing himself against her arms.

Jon tries to imagine what his old self would've done in this situation. He probably would've hugged her, held her until she felt alright again, that's what he thinks he would've done. But now, now even the slightest move on his part could appear preditorial.

"So..these other vampires want to come after me because I'm half? That doesn't make sense."

"It's not because you're half...it's more because of what you could potentially become." Jon's really just repeating Ryan's words, conversations they've had before. Marley's eyes flicker in confusion, that's not surprising.

"See, your dad...he wasn't just a vampire. He happened to be an extreamly strong, abundantly gifted vampire. One of the best of his time." Jon starts, he watches her carefully as he talks, speaking from his memories, from events that are eternally burned into his soul.

"Your dad was very powerful and someone to be feared if you happened to fall on his bad side. The only downside to this absolute power was the fact that both sides wanted it-"

"Sides?" Marley interjects, listening like a child would a bedtime story.

"The good and the bad, Alexander was being recruited by both sides. Naturally, he chose to pledge his alliance with the good vampires, the ones like myself who don't want to hurt humans, who don't even want to be vampires. Needless to say, the villians of the city, the harbringers of destruction didn't much care for this decision." Jon stops himself, the past catching up with him..five years but it still feels like yesterday.

"They killed my father didn't they?" Marley always has been smart, quick to figure things out. Jon nods, takes a deep shuddering breath.

"They did. They threathened you and your mother, said they'd come after you two. Alexander didn't want to take it as an idle threath so he went and despite his power, they got the upperhand...and they killed him."

Marley's crying now, silent tears slipping down pale cheeks. A part of Jon wants to do it too, wants to unleash himself in a way he hasn't in five years..maybe longer. Alexander was like a second father to Jon, took care of him in those infancy days of his vampire life. And to know he was killed by that man...it boils Jon's blood.

"I know it's a lot to take in." Jon's close enough that he could reach out and touch her but he stops himself, he doesn't need her getting the wrong idea, whatever that idea might be.

"It's more than just 'A lot to take in'" Marley starts, her head is tilted down, hiding her face from Jon. "You ruined my life!" She cries out, head lifting to stare at him with angry tear stained eyes. "I was happy before you showed up, I was normal before you came here. I didn't know that monsters existed or that they were after me...I was happy! Even if my life was a lie I was happy with it!" She's practically yelling at him now.

Jon wonders in vain if Ryan perhaps saw this part too and just neglected to tell Jon about it.

"I-I hate you right now...and the worse part of it is that I finally remember you." The girl's voice drifts soft over Jon. Her words barely effect him. He's already expecting the hate, the unbridled dislike that he would recieve, not just from her but from every human from the day he got bit.

"It's like a veil has been lifted and I just suddenly remembered seeing you in my house." Marley's staring off into space, not at Jon, not at anything. "You always looked sad. It used to bother me so much that all I wanted to do was make you smile, just so--so I knew that you could. So, I came up with the stupid idea of giving you-"

"Your bear." Jon finishes for her. Marley's gaze slides slowly back to his face as she nods.

"Right, because it--it always made me happy so, I thought it could work for you too."

"It did, Mar." He hasn't used that nickname for her since she was a child, judging by the look on her face it's been almost as long since she's heard it.

"I remember that too." Her face is host to a sad smile, her eyes betraying her face. "I used to love when you used that for me, it made me feel special." The girl whispers softly, eyes glued to the backs of her hands. "But I don't understand why I couldn't remember you until now. It's like-like a page has been added...suddenly I'm getting the whole picture."

Jon doesn't know what so say. Despite living a little over a hundred years, he's not a genius and despite being a vampire, a creature of the dark, he doesn't know everything about them either. Spells and magic, vampires...it all used to be so false for him, a tale from a storybook, something Ryan would read and be tempted to write a song about. Not his life, that was never supposed to be his life.

"I'm sorry." Jon finally lands on something to say. "I'm sorry that I had to be the one to tell you."

Marley sighs deeply, defeated. A look that Jon is very familar with, one he had to see every time he looked in the mirror. She takes a seat at the table, Patrick hops of the table top and slips into his masters lap, curling himself in a tight ball.

"No, I'm sorry." Marley starts, she doesn't sound sorry at all. "I'm sorry because I just don't believe you. There's no way I'm half vampire." The girl tells him, not a hint of doubt in her light voice. Her striking blue eyes spark as she stares at Jon.

Jon opens his mouth to say something but Marley is faster, cutting him off.

"The rules don't apply to me."

"Rules?"

"The vampire rules." Marley elaborates, her face has softened. "You know, drinking blood, going out in the daylight, garlic." Jon almost wants to laugh but he knows that that would only serve to piss her off, get him kicked out of her apartment for the third time that week. No, he doesn't laugh but he can't hold back the smirk that springs to his chapped lips.

"You're not serious?" Marley just stares at him with wide eyes. She's very much serious.

"Garlic is not an issue. This isn't the cliche." It's more like half a cliche, an unbending stereotype. "It's true that sunlight isn't exactly our best friends but it's not like I go hiding from crucifixes and staying away from garlic, I don't sleep in a coffin."

Basement doesn't sound much better.

"Still sunlight. It doesn't hurt me and I've never had any sort of urge to drink blood."

"Your human side must be stronger but trust me. You're half vampire."

"How do you know?"

Jon falters, doesn't want to fess up to the fact that he's going by something that was seen years ago, long before Marley was even a thought in Jon's head.

"It's kind of strange. Growing up all I wanted was to stand out among the crowd, be different somehow and now--now that I actually am...I've never wanted to be normal, average, more than right now."

Marley's sitting here and spilling her guts to him and all Jon can do is stand there and listen. What else is there? He can't promise her anything, not that this situation will get any better, not that she'll ever be able to live a normal life ever again, not that she won't meet monsters worse than himself.

It's the like those steps that the alcoholics have to take. Step one is admitting you have a problem or in Marley's case, admitting that you're not completely human.

The thing is she does look normal, they all do. Just average looking people with above average lifespans. Marley just looks like every other twenty year old around the city, maybe prettier, maybe with a slightly younger face. She's on the short side, barely comes up to Jon's shoulder when they're both standing. Long dark brown hair that swirls down, long enough to drape over her average sized chest and tickle at her stomach. Average height, average weight, pretty face and not really average at all.

"If this is happening." Jon's pulled from his thoughts by Marley's voice, he looks up at her. Two blank faces, two unaverage people staring at each other from across the room. Each ones thoughts are covered, hidden and you wouldn't know them unless you were them. Quite, waiting for the dialouge to begin.

"If this is really happening to me...you're going to help me right?" Marley sounds so needy and helpless, drowning in this brand new unknown world and Jon's standing there in his mock shining armor, flotation device in hand. He's not fit to help anyone when he can't even help himself but he can't just leave, can't drop this bombshell on her and walk away just hoping that she comes out alright in the end.

He nods and tries to give her a small smile. His insides don't match the outside, they're clashing. It's just another person.

"I'll help, Marley."

Just another person to enter his life.

"I'll help you as much as I can."

Another person he might have to say goodbye to, one more person he could hurt.

"As much as you want me to."

One more person who might one day hate him.

"I promise."

Marley is just one more person on a list of not so many.

+

"For every ounce of good in this world, there is a dark counterpoint."

+

"He's gotten really sloppy." One person, a man says to his companion. The companion in question just shrugs and lowers his head to the cement sidewalk, cracked beneath their feet. "I mean, I can't believe he went there three days in a row. He must be going stupid in his old age." The man mocks, spits at the ground before he lifts his head and stares at the brick faced apartment building.

The companion says nothing. He doesn't have much to say on this subject. Never does.

"Come on, lets go back and tell him that we found Jon." The name is growled out from the man, eyes flashing in what could be considered anger. The companion sighs and nods, leads the way down the sidewalk, passed all the people who are going home, people who actually have somewhere to go, someone to go home to.

The companion really wishes that they didn't even have to find Jon once again. But it was what he wanted and if he wanted it, then it was done. Usually by them.

"I'd love to see the look on Jon's face if he knew that what he's doing is futile. We know where the girl is and him talking to her isn't going to change anything." The man is far too excited about this in the companion's opinion. It's expected though, they haven't seen Jon in years.

"We know where she is because of him." The companion points out, wanders down the streets until they round a corner and take a right. Leading up into the better side of town. Less people walk around up here, they're all driving. No one bothers to look you in the eye unless you're someone who can help them get a little farther in life. These two aren't those kind of people.

The man scoffs. "Well, we found him because I knew that Ryan would have some kind of epic vision about her and taadaa, who was right?"

The companions eyes flash and the man drops the shit eatting grin he had been wearing.

"Sorry." He apologizes immediently and the companion shrugs it off his broad shoulders.

"Can't change the past." no, they couldn't but they had a very good chance of changing the future. Theirs and everyone elses.

As they get closer to their 'home' the man takes the lead, bounding up the long paved driveway, passed the already open gates and streaking up to the front door. He's more than excited at the aspect of taking down Jon once and for all. The companion moves slower, head and feet heavy with the city, with the past. Both of which being something that none of them can escape from.

Once inside the sprawling mansion of a house, one that they had to take by force because as he says; 'You can't have a kingdom without a proper castle.' The companion ignores going anywhere else, talking to any of the other people milling around. He goes straight up the velvet covered staircase, straight to the master bedroom.

The man he had been walking with is already up there, the companion catching just the slightest glimpse of the man's back as he slipped through the door. The companion follows suit, sliding inside the dimmed room.

The biggest room in the house, it's only fitting that he's there. No other room could hold his personality. The man is automatically by his side, almost bouncing with excitement. Both of the men in the room turn their nearly matching gazes to the companion.

"He said that you two found Jon and the girl?" The man whose room their standing in says, voice cool with just the slightest edge of excitement to it. The companion nods, scratches at his neck.

"Good, that's great." He sounds genuinely happy, which is good for everyone here. The owner of the room moves over to the wall, seamless steps and he turns the lightswitch up all the way. The large crystal chandelier hanging from the ceiling reflects the light and splashes it in white spots all over the darkened walls, across the pristine white sheeted bed, across them.

The light touching everything that the man owns.

"What's the next step?" The man the companion had found Jon with asks the owner. The owner, their owner gives a slight grin.

"Well, we need someone to go and have a little chat with her. When Jon's not around of course." He levels his dark gaze with the man. "Think you can handle it? The owner asks and the man nods, eagerly. The owners gaze sweeps over the companion. "I want you to go with him too."

He was expecting that. There are about a hundred other people who could do this but their owner, their king, he loves the drama. Loves the mayhem too much to send someone other then these two. He's staring at the companion with expectation. Like the companion would even dare say no.

"Yeah, sure I will."

Like there was even ever a choice.

+
"You can't leave me all alone Jon. If you're one, I want to be one too."
+

Jon had left Marley's apartment later than he had ever had before. No one got kicked out and he didn't have a bloodlust attack. He had left because she had fallen asleep, curled up on one end of the couch. Jon had thrown a blanket over her before he left, Patrick blinking at him, as if daring the man to touch his master.

It was almost daylight and Jon has an odd uneasy feeling while he's walking home. Something making his guts twist up, a feeling he hasn't had since before he had to tell Marley about what she is. The stars are close to fading away but it's around this time that they shine the brightest, right before they become unseeable, invisible. It's a rare clearless night in the city. Normally Jon would love this, but after seeing the same sky for so long, even the appearance of long missing stars aren't enough to make you appreciate it.

Tonight the stars feel like unblinking eyes, staring at Jon, following him everywhere he goes. Forever watching, forever judging, calling out to him but he can never anwser.

Back to his own shared apartment with Ryan. The thin boy still awake but not where Jon expects him to be. He's not sitting at the table, fingers playing against the deep scratches in the wooden. No, Ryan's collasped on the floor beside the table, his chair tipped over on it's side.

"Ryan.." Jon's dropped to his knees instantly, scooping up Ryan into his lap. His mind is a flurry as he thinks the worse...thinks that Ryan did what they both promised they'd never do. And it makes him sick how when he thinks that Ryan's dead, he's not actually all that sad for the boy but for himself. How he's so desperate to not be alone.

Ryan's alive though, as alive as a vampire can be of course. He's alive but he's passed out and only two things in this world can cause Ryan to black out like this. When the boy represses his need to drink blood or when he has a serious vision. Since the two of them had just drank this week Jon doesn't think that the former is the case. The only other option is the latter, the vision, the fear returning to Jon's chest, climbing the back of his throat.

"Ryan." He tries again, shakes the lithe boy slightly. Ryan's head rolls from side to side, limp as a ragdoll. "Ryan, come on. Wake up." Jon commands, his voice booming loud in the small living room/kitchen of the apartment. That does seem to do the trick as Ryan's deep brown eyes flutter open and he's staring up at Jon.

"Fuck, my head." Ryan groans out. He shuts his eyes once again but Jon can be patient, can wait for the tiny boy to tell him about what happened. "I had a vision." He starts. Jon helps him sit up, gets him seated with his ass on the dirty hardwood floor.

They both just sit there on the floor, Jon with his legs folded and Ryan with his knees pulled up to his chest. Ryan really isn't able to move after a blacking out. Jon just sits, silent and waits. The lithe boy scrubs a calloused hand over his stubble riddled chin.

"It was a strong one." He notes, closes his eyes slowly before reopening them.

"What'd you see?" Jon presses, works to keep the curiousity out of his voice. He has to remember that this isn't a good thing for Ryan, that they boy hates having visions, hates having the power to see how someone's actions will play out against the rest of the world. Ryan's hand is still cupping his own chin, holding and he closes his eyes again, summoning the images to return to him.

Jon once asked Ryan to describe what having a vision was like. Ryan had said it was like watching a movie out of order, seeing pieces and scenes that were lost on him because he didn't have any of the other parts, like a story without an ending. Scrambled words and out of focus pictures. Ryan said he was never sure what he was supposed to be focusing on. Which part was important and what was all filler. Ryan hates having visions.

"It was a repeat." He mutters out, dark circles glowing around his pale eyes. "It was the girl in white again."

"Oh." That's all Jon can say. Oh, he kind of wants to add a shit to the end of that but he doesn't, bites it back. That vision, that one again. It was hard enough the first time. The girl in white was one of the first visions that Ryan had ever had, happening mere weeks after he was bit. Happening when they were still in their old lives. It had repeated itself at least fifteen times in the span of one hundered years and it was always the same.

A girl, dressed in all white. She was standing on a rooftop and Jon used to think that it was cliche, like the end of a movie or something but now he's just worried. Ryan says that the girl is just standing there on a cold rooftop. Chaos all around her, damage and anger and chaos but she's not moving, not reacting to any of it. Ryan says that there's a jump, a scene missing and the girl is pissed off. Her eyes are open wide and dark, black. She's pissed. More jumping, missing scenes and there's electricity and wind and pain. She's on her knees and the bottom of her white dress is stained with blood.

That's how the vision ends and both of them have always hated it. Hated how there never seemed to be enough information at hand. Hated how neither of them knew who the girl was. Ryan had described her for Jon. Dark hair that's whipping around her face, eyes that are so dark that black is all you can see, her face pretty and soft in the beginning, rough and angry at the ending but neither could ever place her.

"It was the same as all the other times..." Ryan starts and Jon lets a low breath out. Of course it's the same, like fate would even try to help them here. "Except.." The boy adds a millisecond later. Brown eyes opening and looking squarely at Jon. "Except for how she was screaming something this time." He says, hand rubbing at his chin. Ryan mentally trying to fit together puzzle pieces in his mind.

"Could you hear her?" Now Jon's interest is piqued. Something changed, something added which usually means that someone did something to cause it. Perhaps some insignificant act that cause a whole new chain of events, like that story about the man who went back in time and killed a butterfly, changing the entire world as he knew it.

Ryan shakes his head, hooks his chin over the arm that's resting on his drawn up knees.

"Maybe it's Marley?" Ryan asks, dares his eyes to meet Jon's. The older man's own face goes blank. Marley? He'd never really considered it before. It never added up before.

"I don't think it's her." Jon says, Ryan raises his head.

"Why not?"

Jon thinks, why not? What reason did he have to believe that Marley might not be the girl in white? It can't just be a coincedence that when he finally meets her, gets the truth out to her, that's when the vision changes.

"Her eyes are blue..." Jon trails off, imagining the girl that Ryan had described, trying to see Marley smack dab in the middle of that chaos. The younger boy shoots Jon a look. A burning look, a disbelieving look.

"Jon.."

Jon knows, he knows he's being ridiculous with this but if Marley doesn't match the girl in the vision then why push at it?

"Maybe if I just saw a picture of her?" Ryan asks, places his hands on the wooden floor and pushes himself up. He wobbles a bit, clutches at the chair to remain standing. Jon's still sitting on the floor, staring up at Ryan, flashbacks to the night's when they drink off each other.

"Fine." Jon says, gets up off the floor and dusts off his dark jeans. "But I don't think it's her."

Ryan relaxes his grip on the chair. "Do you really not think it's her? Or do you just really not want it to be her?"

Jon looks passed Ryan, looks out the small slit from the wooden boards blocking the window.

"It's getting light out Ry, we'd better go downstairs."

+

"Ryan...what the fuck is wrong with your eyes?"

+

The man is back out on the city streets. The streets that will one day belong to them, as long as their leader, their 'king' gets his way. The man's companion is with him once again. He doesn't look nearly as happy nor excited as the man feels. Maybe because it's cold, the companion hates the cold.

The man moves fluidly down the abandoned streets. It's after one in the morning but this is the time that their king sent them out, into the freezing night to accomplish the king's wishes. The man never really saw himself or his companion in this position. As servents, high ranking servents but servents nonetheless.

"Do you remember where she lives?" The companion asks from behind the man. He turns back, flashes a toothy grin and nods.

"Of course...and even if I didn't remember. I can smell Jon all over the damn place." The man's voice edges out, grin slipping away to nothing, slipping down from nothing into a deep grimace. The companion never really can comprehend just how much the man hates Jon.

"You remember the orders right? What we're supposed to do with her?"

The man's grin is back in place. Tonights soon to be events are exciting for him.

"You act like you don't trust me."

The companion crosses his arms across his suit covered chest.

"We both know you can get a little out of hand when it comes to humans."

The man shrugs. "They're too weak. It's not my problem, it's theirs." He turns away from his companion, facing back towards the freezing cold streets. He's never liked the cold much either. It's part of the reason he never cared much for this city. This wasn't his home, never was his home. It was their home, his home. The man can remember someone he used to care so much for, remember that person talking about this city, about how beautiful and wonderful it was. Made the man want to see this city, want to be here. The man fucking hates this city.

They slide through the city darkness in darkness, invisible.

Back to the dark brick apartment building. Following a path that Jon unintentionally showed to them. To the girl that Jon was trying in vain to shelter from the horrors of the world. The man and his companion make it to her door, a weird sort of energy pumping through the man's body. His companion looks like he'd rather not be here at all. The man straightens his thin black tie and tries the doorknob.

Locked, but that's expected. The man knocks on the door, light, easy, trying to imitate Jon's style.

The man and his companion had expected her to be sleeping but they hear footsteps.

"Who is it?" A soft voice asks, the man can almost see her, leaning against the door, waiting.

"Are you Marley Stevens?" The man asks, keeping that false permagrin slapped on his boyish face.

"I-yes...but I'm sorry, I'm not opening the door." She tells them, her voice firm. The man wants to drop the permagrin but he sees the peephole, knows that the girl is looking at them.

"No, see, it's alright. Jon sent us." Not exactly a lie, well, maybe it is but it's Jon's fault regardless.

Silence, one, two, three.

"He did?"

Yeah, that's it. Humans are so stupid, so easy to trick and fool. It never takes very much. The companion shoots the man a look, a warning. Stick to the plan. The man just smiles.

"Yeah, he wanted us to watch out for you." The man says, he's using the charm that succeeded in getting him so far in his life.

Silence, one, two, three, four.

The door cracks open slowly. Revealing a warm dimly lit apartment to the two men. Revealing blue eyes, long dark hair, soft pale face. The man smiles, his companion smiles and the girl stares at them uneasily but she moves aside, lets them in.

"Why didn't Jon just come?" She asks, her gaze switching between them. Unsure of which to trust more, or which to focus her attention on. The man gives a little laugh as he comes to stand in the living room of the apartment.

"You've kinda been wearing him out."

The girl, Marley, she blushes, a nice pink flush across her cheeks. No wonder Jon's been over here so much.

"Is...is one of you Ryan?" Marley asks, her eyes flicker across them and her fingers idly tug at the end of her ringletted hair. The man's companion takes a sharp intake of breath. Don't fuck up now, don't ruin it when we're so close. The man grins wide and nods.

"That's me. I'm Ryan." He says offering a hand to the girl. She takes it, warm flesh almost burning against 'Ryan's' hand. "I assume Jon told you about me." Marley watches him for a long moment before she nods.

Jon is far too predictable.

"And this," The man under the fake identidy of Ryan, motions back to his companion. "Is our friend Hemmingway." Marley cocks an eyebrow, 'Ryan' kind of forgot that Hemmingway is an reference that's so old that no one probably remembers it anymore. 'Hemmingway' makes a nodding motion at the girl.

"So, Jon just wanted you two to watch me?" She asks, it hasn't gone unnoticed that the girl has placed a good amount of space between herself and the two men. The man nods, takes a step closer, as if daring her to take a step back. She does. She's gutsy and he likes her already.

"Right. Just until he rests up. Then he's going to meet us here." Lies sliding off his tongue, easier than the truth ever could, ever will. He doesn't mind the act, pretending to be someone that he's not, not if it means getting what he wants, what his master wants.

Marley's eyes are sliding past 'Ryan' over to his companion. 'Hemmy's' lies don't come as easily, he's never been good at decieving people.

"Oh, well, I appreciate it but...I think I'll be okay. You don't have to stay here, I'll just wait for Jon."

The man shakes his head. "What kind of friend would I be if I didn't keep my promise?" The man whispers, takes a few steps closer and Marley, Marley's eyes dart between them, darts back towards the hallway, she's going to make a break for it.

The man, 'Ryan', he's faster than she'll ever hope to be. His hand is wrapped around her wrist before she even finishes her first step. He raises her hand up above her head.

"You're pretty damn gutsy for a human." He says softly. Marley's eyes harden instantly.

"Who are you really?" She snaps at him. Really, she's in no position to be snapping at anyone.

"That's not important. And I wouldn't go losing my temper if I were you, you are the damasel in distress here." Marley does not like that. She grimaces and the fucking little bitch gets a good kick in, quicker than the man imagined she was capable of. She nails him right in the nuts and it doesn't matter if he isn't human, that still hurts.

He releases her and drops to his knees, she makes a break for it. That leaves the companion to pick up the pieces, something he's good at. 'Hemmingway' rushes after her as she attempts to flee. Gracefully he grabs her up by the waist and gets her arms behind her back. He holds her there, her back to his chest as 'Ryan' gets up from the floor.

"I admire the effort." He tells her as he draws ever closer. Face and voice going dark, there's still a hint of something, a sly sort of smile working across his face. "And I like the fight." He whispers, he's standing right in front of her and he wishes, he fucking wishes that he could see Jon's face right now. See his face as he watches the companion hold Marley, watches 'Ryan' run his hand through her soft hair.

Marley bucks in the companions grasp, eager to get away from the offending hands. The man grabs her chin, keeps her there, keeps her looking at him. "Unfortunately we don't have time for games." He says, he closes his dark eyes and mumbles something, lets out a shaky breath before he opens his eyes and presses forward, connecting his mouth with Marley's.

In an instant Marley goes limp in the companions arms. Her soft face dropped down, hair covering her pretty little face. The man grins again, meeting the companions eyes as he holds Marley up.

"Wanna flip a coin to see who carries her?"

+

"I hate you, Jon."

+

Jon's awake just ten minutes after he managed to fall asleep. It's nearly two in the morning. Ryan's sleeping, curled and wrapped around himself. Sleeps like the world just might beat his ass while he does. Jon doesn't know why he's awake, he doesn't know why he has a tight string of panic knotted around his insides. He's breathing heavy and his body is tingling, different from the feeling he gets when he needs blood, this feeling is something he cannot explain.

He lays in the darkness of the basement, trying hard to comprehend just what has him set so off edge. It's like when you wake up from a nightmare that you can't remember, scared of something that your mind has forgotten. He lays there and five seconds pass before a fresh wave of fear passes over him. Something that feels like electricity flowing through his veins.

Jon closes his eyes and a feeling, thought, something passes over him.

Marley.

Just the girl's name passing through his mind makes the electricity increase in his blood. Something's wrong. He doesn't know how he knows but he does. Something's wrong with Marley.

He's up and out of the basement in seconds, banging up the stairs. The panic is still there, a fear, a strong hand clutching at his chest. Jon doesn't know what this is, has never experienced this in all his one hundered and something years of life. Nothing like this has ever happened to him.

His breathing is labored and his movements jerky but he doesn't know why. He also doesn't know what's compelling him to move faster, urging him on, quicker, quicker now.

Jon's out in the fridged night air in a t-shirt and jeans. Was out of the apartment before Ryan even realized he was gone. His mind is screaming at him that he's not going fast enough, not trying hard enough. His blood is fizzing, like, that experiment that people used to do all the time, dropping mentos into soda pop. Jon's blood bubbling and fizzing over the edges. Sharp little pains like electric shocks trip through him and he still has no idea why.

Maybe this is dying? A vampires death? Maybe this is the beginning of something that Jon can never hope to really understand.

Jon's running through the city streets, lungs burning. He doesn't need to breath but it's something his body had never really been able to quit. Barely anyone is out at this time, which is fine because Jon's sure he looks like a maniac, darting across streets, passed parked cars and closed down shops. All the way back to Marley's apartment.

The dark faced building.

Up the seven flights of stairs and the terror in Jon's mind does nothing but increase.

Up to to the door and knocking, one, two, three. His familar knock.

It's the same as every other time he's come here, to her. Except for how when Jon's hand hits the door for the last knock, harder then usual, the door just pushes open. Slow, like in those cheesy horror movies, creaking in protest.

As soon as the door opens Jon knows that something is definitly wrong and he knows who to blame.

He can smell them as soon as the door opens fully. Their scents hitting him square in the face and it's been years, fucking years since he's seen either of them but he could never forget.

Nothing in the apartment is different, no drastic change that would lead Jon, or anyone else who happened to take a peek in here, that anything was wrong. A perfect calmness. Jon long since learning that those moments really are the most dangerous.

"Marley?" He calls out in vain. Knows that if they were here...if they found here...chances are good that she was either gone or...something so must worse.

He doesn't smell blood, he doesn't smell death so at least he can assume that she's safe but really if she's with them...that safety is far from garanteed. Jon calls for her again, checks the backroom, her bedroom but it's empty and she's gone.

Patrick is there, suddenly just sitting on the couch, staring unblinkingly at Jon. As if saying; 'She's gone. Now what are you going to do about it?'

Jon hates that fucking cat.

"I'll find her." He promises the animal, he doesn't know why but that stupid cat and it's stupid judging eyes.

Jon's back out in the night with Marley's scent tickling around his nose. She'll be easy to find like this, half vampires have a rather unique scent and she's the only one around for miles. All Jon has to do is concentrait, forget the unbridled fear and terror piercing it's way through him and concentrait on her.

The night is helpful, blowing the ice cold lake effect breeze at him, bringing her ever closer to him. He closes his eyes and he can smell her, not too far but far enough away. Jon's running again, racing down the streets and it's still late but the further into the city he goes, the more people are awake, roaming the darkened streets.

Shit, shit. That's all he can think. He can't believe he was so stupid, can't believe he even imagined that she was safe from their grasps. He should've know that the psuedo king of the city would do anything he could to get his hands on the most important piece.

Jon follows the scent, passed the main street of the city, the busiest and he goes past it, leading towards a huge sprawling park that rests along the waterfront. God, he just wants her to be alright, hopes that her firey spirit, her stuborn ass attitude didn't get her on their bad side...those two are basically capable of anything these days.

Jon's sneaker covered feet slap against the dirt trails of the park, dark and looming, huge trees shooting up around him. Ducking, jetting around, following, following, following. Jon stops when he literally can't move anymore, he's hit a bar, the guarding rail that surrounds the waterfront.

Jon's heart crashes and the terror builds up behind his eyes because now...now he's followed the scent and it's lead him...to the water. Dark waves crashing against the cement foundation of the waterfront. Dark water swallowing everything up. God, please...not her...not in the water.

Jon would not put this past the two of them. He can fully see Marley running her mouth, one of them getting pissed off and drowning her in the dark depths. Fuck, fuck it all seems too plauseable and he knows that if it's true...if it happened...he's far beyond too late to save her.

The vampire's brain shuts down, shuts off and abandons him. He resorts to the only idea he has...if she's there, if they've killed her, he at least owes it to her to try. Jon's feet are up on the guard rail, rubbery soles slipping against metal and he jumps off the bar, diving into the ice cold water.

Jon pushes himself down. Down, down, down into the depths of the shockingly cold water. He's searching for her, desperate to find the girl or her body. Jon doesn't need to breath, can stay down as long as he needs to but it's all too hard, too cold, He doesn't actually think he could get down far enough to find Marley.

The man resurfaces, gasping in cold breaths of air. He doesn't have to but maybe he's glad that he still can, that he has the option to pretend that he still needs it. He hates himself right now. Hates himself for failing and letting Marley get taken, get killed. Hates himself for not being strong enough to save her.

Jon screams out, a noise being ripped from his chest. He's looking at the same stars he had noticed the other night, the wind blows around him, chilling him to the bones and he knows that he needs to get out of the water. Jon ignores that a backwards part of his mind that's telling him to stay here, to freeze to death because he deserves it. Hell, he probably would if not for two reasons.

One being Ryan and the promise the two of them had made. The other reason being that now that Marley's dead...he's going to avenge her.

Jon moves to get out of the freezing lake. His clothes are weighing him down, beckoning him back down into the dark depths. The man moves to grip the bottom bar of the guard rail, intent on pulling himself up and that's when he sees it.

A pair of bare feet dangling a good foot above his head.

Jon drops down into the water and stares up. His mind clicks back into place and his body is screaming at him. It's her, it's Marley hanging there.

There's a rope tied strong around her. Not her neck, no, much lower. The brown rough rope tied tight around her waist. The rope winds up, higher, higher. The other end tied tight to the metal railing, keeping her hanging under the cement structure but above the freezing water.

She's passed out from what Jon can tell. Hanging limp, suspended in the air. Relife floods Jon's body and he suddenly feels so weak, the adrenaline that had been pumping through him was now gone, easing away to be replaced by the relife.

Jon grips the guard railing and pulls himself from the icy lake. He's heavier now as he heaves his sopping wet form over the railing, landing in a crouching position on the dusty earth. He's back up and standing on the rails, leaning down as far as he could to get at the rope. It's difficult, they did this on purpose, made it hard for him. He can barely bring himself to believe that they got her hanging here on their own.

Jon gets his leg locked around the bar, holding him in place as he basically hangs upside down above the water, straining to reach her. He does finally get a hand on the tight knot of the tied rope. He's pulling at it, using his inhuman strength to tear apart the rough material. It takes five minutes but it does finally snap and Jon has to be quicker than gravity to grab the stray, frayed end of the rope.

He tugs her up slowly, working to not knock her head against the strong cold cement. When he can actually get a hand on her he does, fist gripping into her t-shirt and he's got her. Up, up, up and she's in his arms, as safe as she can be in the moment.

The wet that's clinging to Jon's body is soaking her now too, creating dark spots of cold against her clothes. He lowers her to the dusty, hard ground. Just so he can get a really good look at her, make sure nothing is out of the ordinary.

Marley's breathing, shallow but she is. The rope is still tied tight around her waist and Jon works his hands to pull it loose, let it slide off of her once he gets her standing upright. There's a bright, bone white piece of paper stuck to Marley's chest, taped there, no doubt a message for Jon.

He takes it and he's pissed that they knew that he would come here. That they got into his mind so well but it's not...it's not like he could just let them take her and not go looking. The note is annonymous and only a few words long;

'The king has found your treasure, Jon.'

Jon crumples the paper and tosses it over the guard rail.

He turns his attention back to the girl, the girl he had failed to protect. "Marley?" He tries to wake her, shaking her lightly. Marley moves under his hand, limp as Ryan had been when Jon found him passed out. "Mar?" He shakes her again and again, no response.

It's been a long, long time but Jon still remembers what one of them can do. The power the older of the two men posseses. This is that power put into effect. It's not really fair that other vampires get powers while Jon's out here struggling alone, nothing but the basic strength that every vampire gets.

He may not be normal but he is average among the vampires.

Jon ignores the burning anger that's piercing through the lower half of his body. Maybe that's just the hypothermia setting in. He picks up the half human, the mix of two things that never should. She's something that shouldn't exist but she does and it's causing one hell of a headache for Jon.

Marley doesn't move, doesn't make a sound. She might as well be a corpse draped in his arms.

He could take her home but he no longer trusts the safety of the apartment. They could easily come back and do it again, take her all over and hide her...or worse. Give her to their king.

Jon makes up his mind to take her back to their place, his and Ryan's. It could be a stupid decision, might be a bad idea for everyone involved but he really is running out of options. It's like everytime the world decides to give him a little success he's cursed by a legion of bad luck. Though really, it seems like luck has given up on him a long time ago.

Jon has to walk now, can't run while carrying her because that would look supicious right? Not that he doesn't already look like an odd sight. Neither of them are wearing jackets, hell, she's not even wearing shoes and Jon's soaked from head to toe. His sneakers making squelching noises with each step, leaving wet footprints behind.

Back through the park, back through the busy part of the city and shit! Shit, people are staring, pointing and whispering and shit, that's not good. Jon tries to speed up, to get back to the apartment, back to the quiet and safety, darkness of his home.

He was right when he said people were noticing him this time. With her he was no longer invisible, he was definitly being noticed. The supicions were truly confirmed when red and blue lights errupted in the night, throwing the colors across the dark buildings of the city. Anyone who happened to be out at the time stopped and watched and yes, Jon was very visible.

The cop got out and pointed a flashlight at him, glared at him. Everyone watching because they want to be there, they want to say that they saw this horrible person get taken down, maybe they just want to believe that there is some good left in this city. All Jon can think is Shit.

"You, what are you doing with that girl?" The cop barks out, jesus christ. He can't believe he even has to listen to these people. He's been here longer than any of them, here long before even their parents were born.

"She's a friend. I'm just...I'm helping her." God, it doesn't even sound convincing to Jon's ears. The cop frowns deeply and he raises his hand towards Jon.

"Give me the girl and no one gets hurt."

Jon bites at his lip and glances down at her. No one could help her now, the cops couldn't stop them. No one can keep her safe but him. Jon shakes his head, water droplets flinging off around him, raining down on Marley's unconcious form.

"I can't."

"Sir, do not make me get violent here." Everyone resorts to violence on a much quicker scale these days. It's like taking a sip of coffee when you know it's too hot to drink, shooting yourself in the foot, whatever you want to call it. That's what Jon's doing, fucking himself over. Again he shakes his head, looks down at Marley before he looks up at the police officer.

"I can't. I'm the only one.." He's not paying much attention the cop now, he doesn't need any sort of power to know that this isn't going to end well. He's basically just looking for a way out, a way to become the darkness once again.

"Sir-" The cop starts but Jon doesn't stick around to hear the end of that sentence. He's hopped up on the hood of the cop car, feet leaving dents in the metal roof. The cop is watching with wide eyes, he's grasping at his belt, his gun at his side. No, Jon can't let that happen either. He throws Marley over his shoulder and is standing on top of the flashing lights.

He aims and prays that he can still pull this off with the girl's added weight. Jon jumps seconds before the cop shoots and the next thing he knows is that his knees are slamming into hard brown brick. But at least the bullet missed him. Jon didn't quite make it all the way on to the roof, hitting the edge with his knees but he still manages to recover, to get himself on to the roof of the building.

He ducks down low, still carrying Marley as she races across the roof top. He's really damn lucky that he has the layout of the city memorized, the distance between where he currently is and where the apartment he shares with Ryan it isn't that far.

Jon makes several more roof top jumps, clinging to Marley's passed out form. His knees are throbbing and his body is doing that weird electric thing again but he can manage. He can make it home. Slowly the flashing lights die away, the people, the sound and he's back. Back to the stillness of his section of home, of the only sanctuary that he knows.

The vampire takes Marley inside, darts up the stairs and rushes into the apartment. He lowers Marley off his shoulder, back into his arms and he just leans against the wooden door, slides down to his knees and lets the firey burn of everything seep into him.

Thumping on the stairs, Ryan must smell her. The thin boy is exploding from the basement stairs, is staring at Jon with wide brown eyes. Like, this is the last thing he expected tonight.

"What?" He starts and Jon isn't sure whether or not to be thankful that Ryan didn't see this coming.

'They had taken her...I found her..." Jon panted out, he felt really weak. A lack of sleep, a need to feed, an extra use of his power. It had all drained a little too much from him.

"What? Is that...That's Marley isn't it?" Ryan asks, pointing a finger at the girl. Jon nods and watches Ryan, waits for his reaction. "Who took her Jon?" The younger boy's voice is breathless, a whisper. They both already know the anwser but Ryan needs to hear it first hand, needs to know that it's the truth. That they can't hide any longer.

"Brendon and Spencer."

+

"I'll help you Marley."

+

Ryan looks like Jon sucker punched him. He's standing on the landing, the little spot between the basement and the kitchen. Staring at Jon with wide terrified eyes. He's quite before he shakes his head, brown bangs bouncing into his eyes.

"No...are you sure?" Ryan sounds like he desperately wants it to be false, wants Jon to be mistaken but Jon knows, Jon will forever recognize what Brendon smells like.

"It was them. Her whole apartment smelled like them." Now that Jon thinks about it, she smells like them too. Ryan's face tips, downcast and it's not a vision that's playing through his mind in this moment but the past, their shared past. All four of them.

"They...they found her?" Ryan's obviously drowning here, drowning in the memories that they fought to forget but Jon doesn't have time for it right now. Marley is wet and freezing and unconcious in his arms. He kind of needs to take care of her first.

Jon forces himself to stand and he moves towards Ryan, girl in hand. Ryan seems him coming and promptly moves out of the older man's way, allows Jon to pass but then he's right on the man's heels, following him down the wooden stairs.

"Yeah, they...fuck, I don't know how they did it...followed me probably." Jon admits more to himself than to Ryan. He lays Marley out along the ragged couch, the one that matches the armchair that Jon sometimes sits in if he happens to wake up before the sun has disappeared.

He goes and gets his jacket, abandoned on the spot where he had been sleeping before he woke up in that horrific panic.

"Why are you all wet?" Ryan asks.

"They..the fuckers made me think that they drowned her." Jon growls, turns back to the girl and lays the coat over her. "We have blankets right?" He asks offhand and Ryan nods. Jon heads back up the stairs, Ryan following him once again.

"Did you run into them?" He sounds fucking terrified.

"No, they were gone by the time I got there. It was just her but they did leave a note."
Jon doesn't wait for Ryan to ask the question that's undoubtedly on his mind. "It basically said, 'You're an idiot because we found her.'" Jon explains, Ryan remains silent.

Jon goes through the small kitchen. Besides the kitchen all that's up here is an equally small living room and tiny square shower, complete with tiny small closet. The closet is where Ryan has all the blankets folded and Jon pulls them all out, dragging the soft warm quilted masses of fabric down the stairs back to the girl.

"I-do you think they know where we live?" It's something Jon had been wondering too. Did Brendon and Spencer follow Jon all the way back here? Did they know exactly where he and Ryan were hiding? Were they just waiting to strike?

"I don't know. I don't even know how they found me."

Jon covers her up, blanket, after blanket, after blanket because the basement is freezing and he doesn't need her dying, not after all that effort he put into saving her.

"He did this to her didn't he?" Jon pretends not to notice how Ryan won't say their names.

"Yeah, fucking Brendon did this to her and I don't-I don't know how to stop it." Ryan grimaces at the use of their former friend, former bandmates name. Jon won't even dare speak Spencer's name in the same house as Ryan.

"I think it just kind of wears off." Ryan supplies, he was always good at paying attention to their powers, to what any of them could do. As far as Jon knows it's only Brendon and Ryan who have powers. He and Spencer both falling into the average among the living dead catagory.

Jon turns away from Marley. Tugs his soaked shirt off and tosses it far into the corner of the basement. The wet smacking sound filling the nearly empty basement. He goes for his jeans next. Ryan leaves at some point, returning moments later with a fresh pair of jeans and boxers for Jon.

The older boy retreats into the darkness while he re-dresses, not risking the chance that Marley might decide to wake up the second Jon's completely naked.

"The thing that pisses me off the most." Jon starts, remerging from the darkness to face Ryan. He's just got the boxers on and Ryan is staring at his knees. Jon looks down and oh yeah, how could he forget that now he was sporting deep purple bruises from when he had collided with the brick building. Ryan returns his gaze to Jon's face, is willing to wait to get the explanation for those.

"Is that they did this just to fuck around with me! That they took her just to prove that they could, that they could get to her and hurt her, do anything to her if they wanted. It's all just a game, a big fuck you." Jon seethes, Ryan bites his lip.

Ryan never knows what to say when it comes to those two. When it comes to the 'king', their past. He finally settles on "How'd you get those bruises?"

Jon slowly pulls on the jeans, wincing just a bit. "Hit a brick roof while I was running from the cops." Ryan's eyes go wide.

"You did what?" His voice quakes and Jon expects it to. The thing that Ryan holds above all else is keeping their existance a secret.

"He wanted to take her from me. We both know that if I handed her over, they'd have no problem stealing her away."

"So you let people see you doing the impossible? Jesus Jon! Why don't you just fucking advertise that we're not human. Let us get run out of this city." Ryan snarls. Jon doesn't blame him. He knows why Ryan's acting out, the sudden reappearance of people he wished so long ago to forget about.

"We've lived here one hundered years Ry, we'll be fine."

Ryan shakes his head, no, his whole body is shaking and he's glaring straight at Jon. He whirls around and flings himself up the staircase, stopping on the last step before he would disappear from Jon's sight.

"Oh, and she's the girl dressed in white." Ryan states before he slides upstairs, slams the door but Marley doesn't even move.

Jon looks from the spot where Ryan had just disappeared from, to the girl sprawled unconcious on the couch. Her soft face blank and if Jon tries hard enough he can convince himself that she looks peaceful, can tell himself that she's here because she wants to be.

"Fuck." He mutters to himself and he slides down to his ass, sitting on the rough floor, the couch firm against his back.

+

"You wanted me to do this to you! You asked me for it!"

+

Jon wakes up with his back aching. He's still sitting in that slumped position, back against the couch and head dropped down to his chest. Instantly he turns around and peers at the couch, at Marley. He already knows that she hasn't left, that she'll still be where he left her. Her scent provides that information, too strong and close for it to just be a lingering effect.

She is still there, just like Jon had expected. Though he had wanted her to be awake by now but she isn't, looks the same as she had when he brought her down into the basement. Ryan isn't down here. He might've slept in the small confined space of the square shower, the only other safe place to sleep in the home besides the basement.

Jon turns fully so that he's facing the partially human girl. Marley hadn't even moved in her sleep. Still settled the way Jon had left her, dark hair partly covering her pretty face. She still looks blank and at ease but Jon just wants her to wake up. He doesn't know what Brendon does exactly, as close as he can explain it the other vampire boy can enchant, mesmerize humans. He gets them to do exactly what he wants. The most dangerous power to have in Jon's opinion.

"Marley?" He says, voice issuing out softly in the basement. It's still dark down here but Jon can see her perfectly, just like she's laying in the light. He's not expecting a response but he does get one. Marley shifts on the couch, moving just slightly, as if she's still trapped in the false sleep but trying, trying to get free. "Marley? Can you hear me?" Jon presses again and more shifting on the couch, her fingers twitching and her face contracting slightly.

Jon reaches down and touches her hand. Instantly it feels like he's been shocked, electric current running through his body, making his fingers tingle. Marley's blue gray eyes snap open and she's catching Jon's gaze staring up at him.

"Get off me! Get away from me!" She screams, harsh voice pushing around the room. She pushes at him, knocking Jon back but he's solid, he doesn't move. Marley scrambles off the couch and Jon's up in a flash, hand wrapping loosely around her wrist. The man is relieved to find that he doesn't get that same kind of sharp shock from touching her.

"No!" Marley cries out, claws at Jon's hand and is struggling desperately to break free. Jon knows that she must not know where she is, disoriented, scared, confused. A small fear worms it's way into Jon's stomach, what if Brendon somehow made her forget him?

"Marley, it's alright, it's me. It's Jon." The man tries to calm her, get her to focus on him. Please, don't let Brendon have altered her mind. The girl calms only slightly, turning so she can get a better look at him.

"Jon?" Her voice is weak and Jon nods.

"It's okay, you're safe. I promise." Safe for right now and a different time, different place where Jon promised the same thing to a different person fills his mind. He can see the girl biting her lip, Jon's hand still wrapped around her wrist.

"No! Let me go! You-you told them to come get me! They were your friends!" She's yelling and Jon's really glad that they have no neighbors.

"What?" Jon's jaw goes slack before his mind clicks into place. He had been assuming that Brendon and Spencer just forced their way into the girl's apartment, used brute force but he had been wrong. Apparently, the two boys had used Jon as a way to get to her, it really was his fault.

"Marley, no. Those people, they're not my friends. I didn't know they were going to come after you."

"...I-I don't know what to believe." She whispers. Jon's only slightly surprised to find that his thumb has begun to rub against the soft skin of her wrist. Old habits die hard and all that shit.

"Did they hurt you?" You know, more than you being hung above a freezing cold lake. Jon doesn't tell her that. He sees her shake her head and finally, finally, her body relaxes. Jon releases her, sure that the girl won't make a break for it, mostly considering that she doesn't even know where she is right now.

"No, I...I don't think so at least. The one held me and the other he..."

"He what?" Jon presses, is desperate to know just what Brendon did to the girl.

"He kissed me." She anwsers, Jon's jaw tightens of it's own accord. "And then...just darkness...until now."

"I'm sorry, I never thought they'd find you. I-"

Jon and Marley's conversation is interrupted by footsteps on the stairs, the thin body of Ryan appearing on the wood. The yelling must have roused him from wherever he was sleeping.

"Jon?" He questions, an edge of what sounds like alarm in his voice. Ryan slips down the stairs farther, coming to stand at the landing.

"It's okay, Ryan." Jon starts.

"Ryan..." Marley's breathless voice comes out. Jon turns his gaze to her and sees her shudder. Instantly Marley is darting away from Jon, backing herself into the darkness of the room. She looks like she knows that it's futile, that the only way out are the stairs and that she's basically backed herself into a corner here.

"Marley..what?-"

"It was him!" Marley screeches, "It was Ryan! He-he said his name was Ryan. He was the one who came to my house! He was the one who hurt me!" She says from the supposed safety of the darkness. He can barely see her now, her pretty face nothing but a pale slice in the darkness of the room. Jon's only ever witnessed the girl this scared once before, the time when she realized just what Jon was.

"What? Jon I didn't! I would never!" Ryan's babbling from the landing and Jon nods.

"I know, Ry." Fucking Brendon and his golden tongue. The other man could lie like a motherfucker, could use his words and his charm to get what he wanted. It was really only natural for Brendon to gain the skill of mesmerizing, charming humans. Not only did Brendon use Jon to get to Marley, he fucking had the nerve to bring Ryan into it too.

"Jon..it was him. His name was Ryan, he was your friend." Marley insists, as if Jon doesn't believe her. She's shivering and looking up at him with huge frightened eyes. The smell of distrust is hanging heavy, stifling in the already stuffy air of the basement. Right now it seems that Marley doesn't really trust either of them, choosing Jon only because he happens to be the lesser of two evils.

"He was lying. His name isn't Ryan, it's Brendon. He isn't my friend. He tricked you, used me to get to you." Marley chances a sidelong glance at Ryan whose standing stock still at the bottom of the stairs, watching the scene unfold. "Ryan is my friend. He's on our side." Really, he shouldn't be lumping Marley in with them because she agreed to absolutely nothing, nothing but allowing Jon to teach her about herself.

Jon moves to the middle of the basement, Marley's eyes following him. He reaches up, tugging on a simple white string and sending a dim buttery light bouncing across the room.

Now Marley can see just as well as they could. Jon can see the fear in her eyes firsthand.

"Look at him, Marley." Jon instructs. "Did the man who hurt you look like that?" It's a question that he already knows the anwser to. His gaze follows her's to Ryan, the thin boy standing awkwardly as he's studied. Marley drinks in Ryan for a long moment before she shakes her head.

"No, he had black hair...black eyes."

"What?," Ryan starts, biting his lips as he looks over at the girl. "What did the other one look like?"

Jon can barely believe that Ryan's asking this, maybe some deep down part of him is desperate to believe that it wasn't, couldn't be Spencer who would do this. Marley watches Ryan carefully, still not fully trusting him but she anwsers all the same.

"These really intense blue eyes, dark hair, tall..."

It sounded like Spencer but Jon couldn't be sure. He and Ryan hadn't seen their former bandmates in roughly fourty years, the last time not being something that Jon wanted to remember all that much. Ryan takes a shuddering breath, losing Spencer was something that Ryan still can't get over.

"Where?...where am I?" Marley asks, eyes scanning the poorly lit room.

"This is where I live." Jon tells her. He hadn't expected to be sharing so much information with her so soon. It's partly uncomfortable, exposing himself and Ryan. Something they haven't done in such a long, long time. "In a basement?" Marley presses, Jon nods.

"We sleep down here. Didn't I tell you that we weren't really cliches?" Jon might be imagining it but he thinks he sees a brief smile slide across her face but if it is there, it's gone just as quickly.

"How'd I get here?" She asks, her gaze focused on Jon. Ryan moves away from the bottom of the staircase, slinking across the room and perching himself on the couch. It's a good opportunity for him to gain some information as well. Marley's eyes find Ryan's form and she's watching him, maybe looking for any sort of sign that makes him different, makes him a vampire.

Jon tells the both of them about how he followed her scent, found her tied above the lake. Marley looks shocked, like she can't believe that she slept through any such events. Jon tells them how he brought Marley here, the cops and how Jon's knees still throb.

Marley stands there afterwards, staring down at the granite floor. She's still barefooted looking a little rougher for the wear. The information that Ryan had shouted at him before he had fallen asleep, the fact that he said Marley was in fact the girl from the vision that had plauged Ryan almost his entire life as a vampire. Marley was the girl in white.

Jon flicks his gaze back at Ryan who he's not surprised to find is staring at Marley. He knows that Ryan's trying to place her there, in the middle of the chaos, the screaming, black eyes and bloodstained dress. He's trying to put her there, trying to be sure.

Ryan notices Jon's staring and he looks away from the girl focusing instead on the older boy. They can't read each others minds, Jon's never met anyone who could but he knows they must exist. They can't mentally share their thoughts but the two of them have been together for so long, spent so many years together that every movement, look, facial expression holds something that the two of them can decipher. A silent conversation, a trick that Ryan only could ever pull off with Spencer.

"Is..is it safe for me to go home?" Marley cuts in, both boys raising their gazes to the girl. Looking at the possible future, the would be cureall, the chance of the end of the world as they know it. All bottled in, all boiled down to Marley, a girl who never asked for it. Just like Jon and Ryan never asked for their permanent life change either.

Jon bites at his lip. He doesn't know, has no idea what to tell her. Probably not, Brendon and Spencer have her pinpointed and there's no doubt in Jon's mind that they'll come back once their leader is ready. And who knows if they'll play nice the next time. It's all a matter of whether or not he wants Brendon and Spencer finding out where he and Ryan are hiding, whether he wants to hold her safety above his own or not.

"I'll take you home." Jon finally says and Ryan's eyes widen slightly. Jon's trying desperately to stay a one step ahead of Brendon and Spencer. They'll assume that Jon will leave her at their place, Jon will do the opposite. Marley looks at him and she looks calm for the first time since the girl woke up.

"Jon...they'll..." Ryan starts, tries to say what they both know without Marley getting clued in. Jon levels his gaze with the thin boy.

"I know, I do. And that's why I'm going to be staying with her." The older boy anwsers the question that Ryan never asked. Two sets of eyes trained on him, two people who depend on him, need him to keep them safe. Ryan not as much as Marley but Ryan's not the strongest vampire around.

"I'm in danger aren't I?" The girl asks, eyes downcast and voice wavering. Silence fills the room, the false breathing of Jon, Ryan doesn't breath so much anymore, not now that he doesn't have to. Marley's breathing is soft, her heartbeat real and paced just slightly faster than usual. It's comforting to Jon.

"Not if I'm with you. They'd take me over you." Jon tells her, Ryan makes a strangled sort of noise in his throat.

"Jon-"

"I'll be fine Ryan. We can't let them have their way, they cannot win."

Ryan is silent, Marley is staring between them. Jon briefly wishes to be like her, blissfully unaware of the struggle within the city. Regardless of whether or not Ryan approves, Jon takes Marley home. He gives her his jacket, it's too long and she practically drowns in the fabric. She doesn't even have shoes on but she says she doesn't need his shoes or him to carry her anywhere.

It's just turned dark out, a purple black color covering the city. There's the stars again and it feels like they're shining down on the two of them, catching Marley's hair, skin, making her glow. Jon's hand hovers around her arm, like he thinks that he'll need to suddenly pull her out of danger at any second.

Marley hails a cab while Jon scans the streets. Those two, Brendon and Spencer could be anywhere in the city. A quiet sort of danger, power, a strong fear that something is out there but you never know where, you're always waiting. He's on edge, the usual calmness he has has faded. The reapperance of his former friends always do that to him.

A bright yellow taxi slides up to them. Jon follows Marley's lead, attempts to act human. It's been so long since he's had to do anything like this, act human, it only serves to set him off more. Marley is silent settled in the seat next to him. She gives the driver her address and he's watching them closely. Jon wonders what he thinks about them. These two worn out people, less than human, with more troubles than he could even imagine.

Back to the brown bricked apartment building. Marley's lights are on, glowing admist the darkened sky. The girl is looking out the window, peering up at the place she calls home, where she once felt safe. But Jon fucked up, fucked up and let that get taken away. He put too must trust in himself, too much faith in the fact that Brendon and Spencer, the king, wouldn't find her. It was all his fault.

He and Marley, up the stairs, barefeet slapping against the cold stone staircase. Up to the seventh floor. No knocking this time, just Marley pushing the door open, almost afraid that the two boys will still be there. The apartment looks the same as the last time Jon saw it, lights on, lived in, Patrick sitting in front of them and staring up at his master.

He curls around her legs, brushing against her. Jon closes the door behind him.

"How'd he do it to me?" Marley asks, turns to face him. "How'd he make me unconcious like that?"

Brendon. Somehow Jon knew it would always come back to Brendon.

"He's a charmer, mesmerizer, whatever you want to call it. He uses his power to get humans to do what they want, controlling them, they're at his whim and his mercy."

Marley shudders visibly before she sighs. "It's my own fault. I was stupid, I forgot your words and I let them in."

"Those two thrive on lies, on deceit and hurting people. It's not your fault. It's mine. I should've known that they'd come, I should've watched you better. I brought you into this shit and I almost let you get hurt."

Marley walks as Jon speaks, Patrick trailing along behind her. She collaspes on one end of the couch, her pet curling up in her lap. The vampire stands unsure for a moment before she looks over at him. Her eyes are unreadable, almost blank, a scary side effect of being charmed. Marley has become detached from herself.

"You can sit down you know?" She tells him, Jon does as she says.

There's silence between them again before she looks up at him. "Jon, tell me why they want me." He stares at her warily, they've gotten close to the reason but never hit directly on it. "Please." She pleads, voice so soft and desperate. Jon is quickly learning that he cannot say no to her.

"Like I've told you before, your dad, he was a god among the vampires. He was so powerful, our leader. Then you came along and you're special-"

"Because I'm half vampire right?" Marley cuts in. Jon shakes his head.

"No, because vampires aren't supposed to be able to have children." Marley's eyes widen at that brand new information but Jon presses on, all questions can be anwsered after he's done. "So, you were born and everyone in the vampire world found out. They weren't only drawn to you because you were born but because they thought that you could become just as amazingly strong as your father. Ryan had a vision not long after you were born, you becoming so strong, you having an unbelieveable power."

"Do you get it Marley?" Jon questions, the girl nods. "They want you because you have the potential to protect or destroy the world. It's all your choice. They want you just like they wanted your father."



















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