experimental weirdness, part 4
Title: alright, I seriously need a title, since apparently I'm going to keep writing this
Rating: Still R?
A/N: Now that this is in my head and I've been obsessing about it (because that's what I do), this was written fairly quickly. I just have, yet again, no idea where it's going from here.
part one
part two
part three
He woke up feeling like shit, with Taylor still wrapped around him.
He disengaged without waking her up and got out of bed, ignoring the way his entire body screamed in protest.
His arms felt like lead and his lip hurt and his eye throbbed and his neck was sore and he honestly felt like he’d been hit by a bus.
He actually wished it had been a bus. Anything would’ve been better than…
Than vampires.
He made it to the bathroom and stopped in front of the mirror. After he pulled off his shirt, he started to assess the damage.
His knuckles were sore and opened. There wasn’t any visible damage to his arms, but he knew he’d pulled a muscle or five, swinging that big damn axe. His lip was split and he had a black eye from where the vampires had gotten hits in. There was dried blood on his neck from the puncture wounds, which had reopened when he’d gotten up.
He looked like shit, but at least he didn’t look as bad as he felt.
Shit didn’t even begin to describe it.
…
Taylor woke up and felt peaceful for about three seconds before she saw the dried blood on the sheets and remembered Ryan stumbling in last night.
She still didn’t know what had happened; he never said one word.
But he’d cried.
She’d never seen him cry before; hell, she’d never even heard of him crying before. He hadn’t cried at Sandy and Kirsten’s funeral. He hadn’t cried when he’d heard the news, or any of the weeks after the funeral, with all those people pestering him. He hadn’t cried after Seth’s failed intervention…
Seth’s intervention.
Because of his newfound supernatural obsession.
Because he’d been ranting about demons and werewolves and… vampires.
Ryan had mentioned Seth before he went out last night and he’d come back beaten and shaking.
His neck had been bleeding.
She let out a deep breath and told herself not to jump to any conclusions.
Her imagination was running away with her; she’d seen way too many old horror movies. There weren’t any vampires; they weren’t real. And when Ryan got out of the shower, he would tell her what had really happened and everything would be ok.
It had to be ok.
…
He’d been dreading the inevitable conversation with Taylor about what had happened last night.
There was no way he was getting out of it; not when he’d gone out at one in the morning, came back at three, beaten and bloody, and ended up crying into her shoulder until they both fell asleep. There was just no possible way Taylor was going to forget or let it go.
So when he got out of the shower, he took as long as he could before finally going back to the guest room.
His room, now.
She was sitting on the bed - fully dressed - when he went in and he stopped in the doorway. She didn’t say anything and he sure as hell wasn’t about to start. Finally she stood and walked over to him, and when she was right in front of him, she reached out and gently turned his head to the side so she could see his neck better.
When her hand left his chin, he turned back to look at her.
“Please tell me a rabid dog bit you,” she whispered.
“Depends on your definition of rabid dog,” he whispered back and watched her close her eyes.
…
Summer stared at the luggage on her bed.
She wasn’t sure this was the right thing to do, but she knew she couldn’t be here anymore.
The Seth she knew - the Seth she loved - was gone.
He’d always been weird; it was part of his charm. And she knew he was grieving and she couldn’t even imagine how she’d feel if she found her dad… But there was a difference between grieving and this demon kick he was on. She couldn’t get him to stop, either. She couldn’t get him to see reason and he wasn’t the same Seth.
He didn’t make stupid comments or tell her she was pretty or do any of the things he used to. He’d gone completely off the deep end and she couldn’t handle it anymore.
She’d called her dad in Seattle and asked to stay with him until next semester, when she could finally go back to Brown.
She knew she was acting like a bitch and running away when her boyfriend needed her most, but she just couldn’t handle this.
First Marissa and now the Cohens and she just couldn’t pretend like she was strong anymore.
She wasn’t.
After Marissa, she’d run away and hadn’t faced her problems at all. She was a coward and she was running again, but at least she’d tried this time.
She just wanted to be with her dad again. She just wanted him to hug her and tell her he loved her and that everything would be ok.
Her phone rang and she picked it up.
“Summer,” Taylor’s voice was shaky.
“Hey,” she said back, finally getting the motivation to snap her luggage shut. “What’s up?”
“Could you come over?” Taylor asked. She sounded weird and Summer wondered what else had happened. “We need to talk.”
“Fine,” Summer sighed, “I’ll be over in a little.”
She shut her phone and picked up her luggage.
She was just going to leave straight from the Cohens to the airport.
She’d already told Julie she could have the house and all she needed to do was say goodbye to everyone else before she left.
But she couldn’t help but hope that when she went over there, Seth would give her a reason to stay.
…
When Seth opened the door, he smiled at her and she felt - for the first time in almost five weeks - like it was the old Seth.
“C’mon,” he said, still grinning, and grabbed her elbow. “I have great news.”
“Oh?” she laughed, letting him pull her into the den. Her smile faded when she saw Ryan and Taylor on the couch, looking grim.
They looked grim and Seth was ecstatic.
“Ryan,” Seth went over to his brother and hit his shoulder. “Go on, tell her.” He turned to her and grinned again, “Ryan has something to tell you.”
Ryan looked up at her and through his black eye, he tried to give her an apologetic look.
“Uh, Seth and I went out last night,” he started, lowering his eyes to the ground again. She watched Taylor put her arm around him and lean into him encouragingly. “Turns out that stuff Seth’s been talking about is real.”
She didn’t respond right away as she looked from Seth - excited - to Ryan - wary - to Taylor - upset.
“Is this a joke?” she whispered to no one in particular.
“What?” Seth asked, face scrunching up in confusion.
“Did you lose a bet, or something?” she asked again, this time louder, this time directed at Ryan. “How is this funny?”
“It’s not,” he said back. “We went out and nearly got killed by…” he trailed off and looked like he couldn’t finish it.
“Vampires!” Seth joined in joyously. “See? I told you they were real!”
She couldn’t believe what she was hearing.
Had Seth gone completely psychotic?
Why else would Ryan be playing along? To humor him? Or maybe Ryan had finally snapped under the pressure and was crazy, too.
“Summer, it’s true,” Taylor said softly, one arm still around Ryan, the other hand rubbing soothingly up and down his arm.
God, they got Taylor, too.
“What,” she asked, letting out a bitter laugh, “were you out hunting vampires with them?”
“No,” Taylor said, “but…”
“But you believe them,” Summer finished. “I knew you were weird, Townsend, I didn’t think you were full-blown padded-room-crazy.”
“I’m not!” she protested. “And yes, I believe them. Look at the cut on Ryan’s neck and tell me it’s anything but a vampire bite.”
“This is ridiculous,” Summer breathed, shutting her eyes tightly to try and make it go away.
She couldn’t believe she was losing her last three friends like this.
One had been enough.
“You still don’t believe,” Seth said, like he was disappointed. Like he actually thought she’d jump right onto this idea and be totally ok with it.
“Summer, listen to us,” Taylor said, looking upset. “You have to believe us.”
“How can you believe them?” she asked, trying not to panic.
She just couldn’t believe this was happening.
“Because,” Taylor shrugged, “Ryan told me.”
“That’s it?” Summer said in disbelief. “You agreed with me when we tried to help Seth; you told him vampires didn’t exist; you denied it all, and now, because Ryan said so, you believe it?”
“Yes,” Taylor said simply. “Ryan’s never lied to me.”
“Oh my god,” Summer whispered, backing up a step. “God, I knew you were crazy… and your dependency… I just didn’t know you were this bad.”
Taylor looked like she was about to cry and Ryan was still staring at the floor and Seth just looked offended.
“We’ll just have to show you,” he said, shrugging like it was no big deal.
“No,” she said. Her hands were shaking and she tried to keep her voice from doing the same. “No. I’m leaving.”
“It’s cool, there’s probably nothing around now, anyway,” Seth said. “We’ll show you tonight.”
“No,” she said again, quieter this time. “I mean… I’m leaving. For Seattle. For good.”
“What?” Ryan finally said, looking up.
“Summer!” Taylor said at the same time.
“Why?” Seth asked, like he had absolutely no idea.
Which just cemented her decision.
They were all insane and they couldn’t see it.
She shook her head and ran out of the house.
She managed to make it into her car and she was halfway down the street when she broke.
…
“Well that,” Seth said, “did not go to plan.”
“You think?” Ryan said back, dully.
“You don’t really think she’s leaving, do you?” Taylor asked him. “She wouldn’t just leave.”
“Yeah, she would,” Seth sighed. “You guys weren’t here, but you should’ve seen the way she ran off to Brown after Marissa died. She and her dad took, like, a pre-college tour of Rhode Island for a month before school actually started.”
“We have to stop her,” Taylor said desperately.
“How?” Ryan asked, standing up. “She thinks we’re insane, and I’m not sure she’s wrong.”
“What?” Seth asked, laughing nervously. “You saw… Ryan, man, you saw.”
“I know I saw,” he said back angrily. “But crazy people see shit that isn’t there all the time.”
“You’re not crazy,” Taylor said, standing up after him. “I know crazy, and you’re not.”
“Then why didn’t you believe Seth?” he asked, running his hand over his face tiredly.
“Because Seth’s a little crazy,” she shrugged, ignoring Seth’s indignant huff. “But Ryan… you’re the sanest person I’ve ever met. If you say you saw something, then it’s real.”
He sighed heavily and looked at her, then at Seth.
They were both watching him with complete faith and he didn’t have the heart to tell them that he had enough childhood trauma to damage ten people’s psyches. Add in the teenage trauma and all of this with Marissa and the Cohens…
He wondered how he hadn’t snapped sooner.
Summer was right; they were all insane.
…
He didn’t bother knocking before he went into Seth’s room.
He’d sent Taylor out a couple hours ago, under the pretense of seeing if she could find Summer and convince her to stay. He knew it was a pointless mission, but that didn’t matter anymore.
Nothing mattered.
He just needed her out of his way so he could think.
“Ryan,” Seth greeted, swiveling around in his chair. “Just the man I wanted to see.”
“Oh?” he asked, shoving some of Seth’s papers out of the way and sitting on the end of his bed. “About what?”
“About next time,” Seth said, like it should be obvious.
“Next time? Next time what?” he asked, bringing his hand up to rub his suddenly tired eyes.
“Next time we hunt. Last night got a little shady there for a while, so I think we should tighten up our means of attack before we try it again. I mean, it’ll help now that you actually believe me, but I think we should come up with a better system…”
“Wait,” Ryan interrupted. “We’re not doing this again.”
“What? Why not?”
“Because it’s stupid,” he said. “It’s stupid and you could get hurt, or killed, and I can’t deal… it’s just stupid.”
“But…” Seth said, looking confused. “But you were so awesome at it. I mean… you killed three vamps on your first night of hunting. That’s gotta be like, a record or something. I know I was a little out of it, what with getting my head smashed in and all, but from what I saw, you were like Bruce Lee out there. You know… minus the kickass ninja moves.”
“Whatever. I don’t care about any of that. I just…” he took a deep breath and steeled himself for it. “I just wanna know about that.” Seth’s eyes followed to where he was pointing, and his brother froze for a second. Then he stood slowly and reached up, pulling the thumbtack from the wall and taking the picture down.
They both stared down at the drawing of the man in black, eyes glowing red from under his hood.
“I just wanna know what it is,” Ryan said again, voice low. “I don’t care about the rest of it.”
“I don’t know much,” Seth said, surprisingly mellow. “I think it’s a demon, but I really don’t know. There’s nothing on the websites that say anything about a man with glowing red eyes. Apparently there’s a demon out there with yellow eyes, but I can’t find any documentation on red…”
“Well,” Ryan said slowly, “are you sure the eyes were red, then?”
“I know what I saw.”
“Alright,” he agreed. So far, Seth had been right about all of it; he’d believe him this time. “So how do we go about finding it?”
Seth’s eyes met his in complete understanding.
“We go out,” his brother shrugged. “We talk to people. Or things.”
“And if they won’t talk?”
“Then we make them.”
For a second he didn’t recognize his brother; the hard edge to his eyes was shockingly new.
Was that why everyone had flinched, the first time they saw him after Marissa’s death?
Could they see the ghost of her in his eyes?
Because he could see the Cohens in Seth’s.
“Then we make them,” he agreed. “We’ll start tonight.”