Chapter Eighteen-
'The Same Boy You've Always Known'
It had to be the longest night in history according to everyone. Though the boys' mother and friends were sleeping soundly right below them, all of them hadn't slept at all during the night. By sunrise it looked pretty gruesome, well, for those who actually needed sleep. As they sat in Ike and Melissa's living room, Zac was nodding off every half hour and Tay, despite really wanting to know everything possible about what had been going on behind his back for the past ten months, was ready to pass out. Nobody pointed out to him to wash off the lipstick marks, it really wasn't the subject at the moment. The conversation had started with Taylor screaming, then once he'd gotten that out of his system he'd thought he was going insane, much like Zac did, but no demonstrations were needed. The rest of the night- or morning -carried on pretty much with Taylor listening and asking questions. Zac was amazed at how much Taylor really wanted to know about it. He supposed it was because he was the only one who didn't know and wanted to make sure he wasn't missing out on anything.
"How old are you Melissa?"
"Tay, can you please ask tomorrow?" Zac moaned, who had decided that the sofa was his bed for the night. Well, day.
Melissa sat next to Zac. "Awww, poor little Zacky-pooh."
"I'd hit you for that but I can't move." Zac mumbled from a pillow.
"Want me to put you to sleep?" Melissa cooed, brushing his hair lightly with her fingers.
"Just as long as I can remember my name when I wake up." Zac replied while yawning.
"You will, promise." Melissa said and kissed Zac on the cheek. Ike looked at her worriedly but then saw Zac was fast asleep as she got back up. She saw his look. "What?"
"I wouldn't mind keeping you to myself, thank you." Isaac smiled.
"So, how old are you?" Tay asked impatiently.
"Last counted I was four hundred and eleven, I think." Melissa thought it out. "Wait, carry the one and I was born before the whole calendar mistake, so... Yep, about that."
"This is really, I mean, wow." Taylor summed it up for everybody flawlessly.
"It has it's perks, but, it's not so great." Isaac replied.
Taylor nodded. "Why didn't you tell us before? I mean you're crap at keeping anything a secret. How in hell didn't we notice?"
"Well if you did I don't think this would have been at the top of the list."
"Wait, the mugger in the park, was that...?" Taylor asked.
"That was me." Melissa said quietly.
"You? Why?"
"Because Zac had told Mikey, I wasn't in a good mood and I wanted to wipe his memory of ever knowing but instead he ended up with a sore head."
"Try concussion." Taylor said almost angrily.
"Tay, don't start on her, she's sorry, Zac forgives her and so do I; it's in the past." Isaac replied.
"In the past? Am I that far behind?"
"Tay, don't get upset. Zac only found out 'cause he was in the right place at the right time." Melissa said gently. "Besides, it's not like Ike wanted him to find out, it just happened."
Isaac spoke up. "Uh, actually I did, both of you, but, I didn't think it was the best news to tell people."
"It's not exactly the easiest thing to tell people either." Melissa said quietly.
Taylor looked at them both. Firstly he was mad at himself for not realising something was up, secondly he wondered just when exactly he fell out of reality and into a Buffy episode. Everything he was told he tried to stay cool with, but as he had expressed earlier, it did send signals to scream about. How else was he supposed to react to the fact that Ike was only alive because he came back to life as a monster? It didn't make any sense yet all the evidence- evidence Taylor could or should have spotted months ago -was laid out for him. Taylor felt both sick and amazed. He was in awe of his brother yet slightly scared at the same time.
"Can we talk about this tomorrow please? You can crash here if you like." Melissa said.
"Uh, I think I'm gonna go walking instead."
"Tay, you haven't had any sleep yet." Ike pointed out.
"I'm Okay, I just, um, wanna think this over."
As Taylor walked out Ike let out an enormous sigh of relief.
"Well that went well." Melissa remarked.
"How in the hell did you come to that conclusion?" Isaac asked, amazed she thought so.
"Well we're still together, Zac isn't dead or close to it and Tay seems Okay."
Ike smiled. "You know, Zac went out walking just like Tay did. That's weird."
"Yeah, let's just hope that Taylor will keep his mouth shut..." Melissa started.
They both looked at the door and ran for it. "TAY!"
Zac woke up in the afternoon, obviously embarrassed that he had let himself sleep in for so long. It was a shame to waste so many daylight hours. He realised just how good a sleep that was as he stretched out, despite sleeping on a sofa which usually made him feel cramped and sore in the morning. He had to hand it to Melissa's sleep-power; it really made you sleep and then some. He finally let his eyes adjust and saw Taylor sitting next to him, staring at something that made his eye crease in his 'I'm too hard' look. Zac yawned and smiled as Tay snapped out of it.
"Afternoon dude." Zac grinned as he stretched out his arms.
"Hey." Tay said then stared again.
Zac saw just how crappy Tay looked. "Have you slept at all yet?"
"Yeah, I slept for a few hours when I got back." He didn't even blink.
"When was that?"
"About ten."
"Oh, Okay." Zac replied. He looked down his clothes and tried to retrieve a necklace somewhere in his shirt. "You Okay then?"
Taylor looked at him and thought about it. "Not really, you?"
Zac shrugged. "No complaints."
"I mean, about... You know." Tay said quietly.
Zac looked at him finally. Turned out he didn't have a necklace on. "Uh, why wouldn't I be?"
"Because, like, you know..." Tay urged Zac to get the situation.
"No, I don't. Explain where's the trouble."
"Well for starters Ike's dead."
"Not dead. Undead." Zac corrected him.
"Whatever! Just listen to yourself! Just saying it is insane enough!"
"Yeah, I know. I thought I was gonna need a straight jacket and padded room at first." Zac laughed. "But I dealt with it and learnt to except it."
"How? Ike's a monster!"
Zac glared at him. "You wanna say that any louder or are the people in Taiwan not interested? Yes, I know Ike's a monster, he knows it too. Why d'you think he kept it to himself?"
"But how am I supposed to deal with something like this?" Taylor asked.
"You just do it. You look past what Ike is and realise he's still the same guy we know and, when not pissing us off, love."
"And what if he tries to, like, you know...?" Taylor's voice got lower and lower as he spoke.
"Then grab a cross and tell him to piss off! Anyway he hasn't hurt us once in a year, what makes you think he's gonna slip up now?"
Taylor digested it all slowly. "I don't think I can be cool about it."
Zac sighed, getting angry at Tay now. "Then go ask Melissa to wipe your memory of ever knowing. But just remember that Ike wanted to tell us and would have but he knew we'd react like this."
Tay nodded slowly. "I'm gonna go wash up."
"Okay man." Zac said softly and watched him leave.
Taylor walked into the bathroom and locked the door behind him. He wasn't sure what to do. He felt torn between the love for his brother and the fear that he had lost him forever. He wasn't sure about anything now. If Ike was real were werewolves? Or boogie-monsters? Had the government been covering up more than Area 51? Tay shuddered. Maybe he should get his memory erased, being in the dark seemed like a really good option at that point.
"Don't hate Isaac."
Tay nearly jumped ten feet and spun round to see Melissa. "How did you get in here?"
"Locked doors don't work on us, I told you that. All we need is a welcome mat and we're in." Melissa said gently. "I heard what you said. Is all what you see Ike as now; a monster?"
"In some perspective, yes." Taylor admitted.
"And it doesn't cross your minds that we do this to stay alive and for Ike to still be with you?"
Taylor got mad. They killed innocent people and that was all it was for? "Don't you care about what you are? About what Ike is? Don't you even care for all those people? All those thousands of souls?" Tay was close to screaming now, it all came out so easily. "Don't you care!"
Melissa pinned him up against the wall, expecting such an over-dramatic performance about it, and almost growled. "Yes I care, I care more than you'll ever know. You wanna know real pain? Try biting into the neck of an innocent person and feeling yourself killing them without any remorse for their soul. I could kill you right now and not care. You don't know confusion, or pain. Isaac was suicidal for a whole year. He never wanted this, none of us do. I have lived four centuries of being a monster and one thing it has taught me is that nobody deserves to die. I died for no reason and so did Ike. So you wanna tell him he's a monster then go ahead. He's tried to kill himself and he'll do it again, I know that for a fact. Don't even try to care that he's still with you and still loves all of you, despite what you may think of him. You can take the wimpy way out and make you forget it ever happened when Ike wanted you to know from the beginning, hell, he could have learnt about his power to heal people months ago. But that doesn't matter because you have some stupid teenage mortal complex that makes you selfish and unable to see that even though we're monsters, we're not killing or hurting you."
Melissa let go of Tay and he rubbed his shoulder where her nails had dug in.
"So I'm just supposed to support him for killing people?" Tay asked bitterly.
"No, but be there for him." Melissa spoke more softly this time. "He's trying not to kill them and so am I. At least talk to him, but if you still want me to make you forget then so be it."
Tay nodded and slowly walked out the door in a slight daze.
He knocked on the door and walked into Ike's room. He swallowed hard and saw Ike was getting dressed or changed.
"Uh, hey." Taylor said quietly.
"Hiya." Ike pulled on a shirt and saw Taylor's shoulder was bleeding a little. "What happened to you?"
"Melissa had to pet her point across."
"And in an arrangement of stitches, none the less." Ike said with a hint of amusement.
"Uh, yeah." Taylor sat down on the bed. "Listen, I need to talk to you about..."
"Oh Taylor don't start again." Ike started, knew what was coming next. Why can't he understand...?
Taylor grinned a little. "How come you don't have the cool Transylvanian accent?"
Isaac looked at him for a few seconds in wonder to see if he was serious or not. Taylor had his goofy face on and so he smiled. "I take it you're Okay then?"
"Yep, now we're having garlic tonight so you can't join us..." Taylor sing-songed.
"But I can kick your ass any way I please." Isaac decided to join in.
"Oh you think that, but we both know the truth." Tay paused. "You're a wimpy vampire! You're crap! Even I could stake you!" Taylor laughed hard and seemed hyper all of a sudden.
Isaac thought about it for a second. "So that'd make you Buffy!"
Taylor stopped laughing and glared at him. "Take that back!"
"Nuh-uh Buffy." Isaac grinned.
"I'm not Buffy!" Taylor leaped over the bed to catch Ike.
"Oh you have the body for it!" Isaac yelled as he ran out the room.
Zac and Melissa looked up from their conversation to see Taylor running after Ike who was chanting 'Buffy' over and over. They both decided insanity was something of a virus now and they laughed along with them.
"Come on Buffy! Can't you catch me Buffy?" Isaac yelled.
"You're one remark away from a trip to a splinter factory!"
"Like you could catch me Buffy!"
"At least I can get a tan!" Taylor laughed and jumped over the sofa and knocked Ike to the ground. "And Buffy can kick your ass."
Ike decided not to point out he only went down to shut him up and laughed. "Yeah Buff you got me. Go kiss Angel so you can those little female emotions stirring."
Taylor thought about it for a second. "Yeah, Okay." He went over to Melissa and kissed her instead. She was taken by surprise but decided to let him have his way.
"Ohhh, Ike, you gonna let her do that?" Zac joined in.
Melissa pulled back and grinned. "Ewww, mortal morning breath."
"Hey!" Taylor yelled and they all laughed.
At five o'clock, despite the fact that it was a day off, all of them were still lounging around in Ike and Melissa's apartment and doing nothing. It was a relaxing thing to do as last night was so hectic. Diana had asked why they had spent the night not sleeping and in Melissa and Ike's apartment and they all just said it was the jet-lag kicking in, so they'd watched horror films instead. It seemed ridiculous to everyone but Diana wasn't one to pick as they were teenagers and they did had abnormal lives compared to others. So despite they were all still nackered and bored, they had enjoyed a day of watching sitcom reruns and room service.
"God I'm starving!"
Well that broke the silence and all eyes were on Ike, instead of Just Shoot Me. "Don't look at us then." Zac replied.
"When's that damn sunset?" He continued.
"About seven." Melissa replied. "I told you you'd be hungry by this afternoon, but you never listen."
"How annoying would that be to only be able to eat after dark?" Taylor asked nobody particular.
"Muslims do it during Ramadan." Zac pointed out.
"Yeah well that's just a faith thing, they can still cheat." Taylor replied.
"You don't really notice it after a while, it's only when you stop or skip that it gets hard." Isaac said. "So at the moment I'm bored and hungry."
"I could change that." Melissa grinned.
"Oh really could you?" Isaac pulled her into his lap.
"Mmm-hmmm." Melissa giggled as Ike kissed her.
"Can't you two get a room?" Taylor mumbled.
Melissa looked up at him. "We have a room, thanks."
"Then use it! We're trying to watch TV."
"Fine!" Isaac picked up Melissa. "Come on, looks like we're gonna have to have sex, again."
"Ohhh." Melissa whined. "Do we have to?"
"Those were his Majesty's orders." Ike sighed. Taylor tried not to look amused.
"How many times did he say?" Melissa asked.
"I think I heard five, didn't you?" Ike asked fondly.
"No, I think it was more like, uh, ten." Melissa grinned.
"Oh well. Life's tough." He turned to Tay. "I'll have a report on it on your desk by morning."
Taylor didn't reply, he was too busy trying to keep a straight face.
"What was that Tay? Did you say a video to go with it? Oh well, fine, you have to be picky." Melissa laughed. "Come on Ike, grab the camera."
"Bye guys!" Ike grinned as he carried Melissa into the bedroom. "Hope we don't keep you up!"
Zac laughed along with it then thought. "They're not serious, are they?"
Taylor shrugged while laughing.
"Okay, I'm going out." Zac said and Tay followed, not wanting to take any chances if they were serious or not.
Ike and Melissa laughed and sat back in the living room to actually get some peace.
Isaac knew Tay had seen him leave and decided to not say anything about it. Something told all of them that he still wasn't happy about the whole feeding frenzy but unless he said anything then they wouldn't bring it up. It was something Taylor was going to have to deal with and that was that. Zac kept out of the conversation as much as possible and Tay would soon as well. It was amazing what people got used to once confronted with it full-on.
Ike sighed and wandered a little more before feeding. He was incredibly hungry yet he kept on putting it off. He still hated it as he knew Taylor and Zac did. He remembered sneaking out every other night and praying to God that they never knew just what he was doing. He hoped nobody knew because then they would hate him and never look at him the same again. One of these days he knew they would want them to forget they'd ever found out and once again he'd feel alone. He had Melissa, yes, but his brothers were different. They were his best friends and they knew everything and anything about eachother, whether on purpose or not. It was true what people said- they did stick together. Everybody did in his family and yet now the gap had been broken between the three of them Ike still knew that they wanted him to stop. If it was that simple then Isaac would do it.
Even Zac's rule was harder than thought at first. He knew that wasn't him. That monster that crept up on human beings and took their souls from them, killing them and not even caring just what had been destroyed in under a minute. It wasn't Isaac, if it was he'd stop himself but instead the monster never let him even fight, the monster would always win. Isaac would be constantly fighting and trying to control it until he finally stopped living a dead life.
Isaac found somebody, ironically, behind the back of a huge club, but he wasn't going to ruin this person's life, or death. He wasn't going to take their lives and replace it for a morbid reality where killing was the only way of survival. Where there were no alternatives and nothing but hell to follow them around each and every day of the rest of their lives. Isaac was just going to take their lives so he'd still be there for the family he loved. He was still going to stay with his life and live it out as best he could so that his family and friends would be fine. If he had died that night then they would have gotten along without him in time, he knew that now. But a second chance had made him need to stay to help them. He wasn't going to give up and leave them in any way, he was going to be there for them as he always was.
"Hey, you got a lighter?" The guy asked casually. He had a soft Scouser accent.
Not this all over again, please... "Uh no, sorry."
"Damn. Did you come out here to escape the music too?" The guy laughed.
Ike hated the conversations. Any connection with them would make him feel ten times worse. "No, is it bad?"
"God, it's all teenybopper crap, I'm telling ya."
"Oh yeah, that can be bad." Isaac laughed a little.
The guy coughed. "I'm telling you I'm not going back in for another half hour just in case, sod the cold."
Isaac nodded a little. "Sounds good."
The guy leaned up against the wall and tried once again at his broken lighter. "You from America then?"
"Yeah. Oklahoma."
The guy looked blank. "No idea where that is but best say you're Canadian or something 'cause it's not something to brag."
"Gotcha." Ike replied. He really tried but he couldn't do it. He knew he had to, he was starving but he knew he was too involved in the guy now. He liked him and so couldn't bear himself to do it.
The guy finally got his lighter to work. He pulled out another cigarette. "Want one?"
"Yeah, Okay." Ike took it and lit it from the butt of his new friends. "Who dragged you to this place then?"
"My mates. Said it had cheep beer and sexy girls but it's still crap."
"The music pulled it down a few notches?" Ike asked sympathetically.
"Exactly!" The guy exclaimed. "They don't even have one Manic song on the jukebox in the bar, even the new ones. They say over eighteen's only but it's inhabited by little girls."
"I have heard some songs you'd have to be completely stoned to enjoy." Isaac agreed.
The guy finished his cigarette and stubbed it out on the floor. "I suppose I'd better go back in, my friends said they'd be leaving for a better pub soon."
"Yeah Okay, thanks for the smoke... What was your name?"
"Roger. And you are...?" Roger started.
"Ike Hanson."
Roger looked him up and down. "Holy shit you are and all." He laughed. "Sorry about the crap comments."
"I get them all the time, don't think twice about them." Ike replied.
"Yeah, I didn't mean... Oh wait, I did." Roger grinned. "Well I'd better be going. At least I'm reassured you know good music, even if you don't play it."
"Yeah, thanks. I think." Isaac laughed.
Don't do it... Ike told himself as he walked behind Roger slowly, making sure not to make a sound. He was almost near the door, he only had a few seconds to decide.
Isaac grabbed him hard and bit him. His mind had taken over, he knew he wouldn't stop. Not because he was a good talk, not for Zac's promise, not for anything. Not even for the feeling that he'd just killed a friend. He wouldn't stop, he knew he wouldn't for anything. He was hungry and that was the end of it. There would be no side tracks, no thoughts of regret, there never were until it was too late. He'd let the monster taken over again.
And it felt so good.
Isaac walked out of the alley and back onto the streets, not looking back. He wasn't sorry for what he did, he knew it had to be done and so he did it. He knew in a few minutes the guilt would fill him up and nothing would make him forgive himself. It would just be like that for all eternity.
"Bravo!" Isaac heard applaud behind him. He knew who it was yet again.
"What now?" Isaac asked.
"I just wanted to talk, and congratulate you." The man walked closer to him.
"On what?"
"For looking at that pathetic mortal and thinking food, not companionship." He laughed.
"I can't help this!" Ike yelled. "I don't control it!"
"Oh but you do! You may think something else is telling you to feed off of others but it's all you! Everything you do is you, why do you blame it on others?"
"I know I don't do this! I don't want this to happen!"
"No matter what way you look at it it's all you, and you know you won't survive being around humans for so long. Why bother?"
"It's not like I'm being given a choice in this, is there? I have to go." Isaac replied and once again tried to walk away.
"Yep and there's nothing you can do about it."
"Why me?" Ike called back as he stopped. He had to know.
"Why you? Because of what you just did. You're a tame vampire, usually they have bigger a conscious than us in the Other Realm and yet that doesn't stop you. Usually they're a big mess about this."
"You think I enjoy this?" Ike yelled.
"Oh Ike, it doesn't matter whether you enjoy this or not. It is whether you do it or not. And for that, you're going to be perfect back where you started."
The man disappeared from site once again and Ike was starting to believe that maybe the monster was him, he just wouldn't admit it out loud.
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