“That undeniable hunger that I had always felt. That was blood lust, I came to the conclusion that I am some sort of vampire human bat thing.” I was on the verge of tears, I had never told anyone that story. It was a bit of a touchy subject and quite frankly I was scared that he was going to think of me as some kind of monster. I hadn't noticed that he had grabbed my hand a bit tighter and put his other hand on top of my holding it as if it was a lifeline. “I am truly sorry that we did this to you,no one deserved to suffer the way we did. Will you ever be able to forgive me?” I was shocked, he was being apologetic, I looked into his eyes and I saw pain he was hurting inside. “There's nothing to forgive. It was just an unfortunate sequence of events, I'm not mad.” He didn't let go and neither did I. We just sat there for what felt like eternity. We eventually said our goodbyes and He walked me home. I felt like a weight had been lifted off of my chest, but I couldn't imagine how Marcus was feeling. I couldn't help but remember how he felt guilty for my situation. “Hey, I'm home.” Marcus said as he walked through the front door dropping his bag,and hanging up his jacket. “Where have you been?” Blake said from the kitchen as Macus walked in. “I was with Maddie.” “You left at 5, it's 9. You were talking to Maddie for four hours?” Blake talked to everyone like they were beneath him and his tone had always been malice but he rarely acted that way with Marcus.They shared a bond that was so strong that for the longest time they didn't have or feel the need to invite others into their world. “Yes we were at the diner.” “Well you two seemed cozy this morning.” He said rudely. “Don't do that.” “Do what?” Blake asked, being more obnoxious than ever. “Don't talk about her like that, you have no idea what she's going through.” “Ha yes Marcus I'm sure she got it so rough, she's a little princess what could she possibly have going on that's worse than anything we've been through. Please enlighten me.” He almost yelled the last word. “She's a hybrid.” Marcus said quietly. “Hillaros.” “I mean it, she really is just like you and me.” “That's impossible, there's no one left. No one could have tuned her.” “Blake, you did.” Marcus said as hesteped closer to his brother. “How would I have-” It hit him like a bus, he had suddenly realized. “What is she?” He asked as he buried his head in his hands in disbelief. “She’s a vampire.” “How is that even possible vampires don't exist there's no way that could have happened.” His head started spinning and he was overwhelmed with guilt. Truth be told Blake had always had a thing for Maddie but he never knew how to go about telling her. So he ignored her for the most part, their interactions short and hostile. “She thinks she was infused with a bat, and if that's true there was something in the new formula that her body modified or rejected causing her DNA to alter into a new type of animal, and her traits manifested way faster than ours. She hasn't been able to turn yet but she might not have the ability to do so and she might end up like the others.” When Marcus said that out loud he got uneasy, what if she did inevitably die like all the others. She was the girl Marcus had always been rather fond of and he wanted to tell her. “Don't say that, she won't, she cant be like the rest.” “She won’t, I'll make sure she's safe, it's not your fault.” “But it is, well it's not like it matters.” He regained his composure and tried to shake it off, Blake was upset but he didn't need to show it. “It's not my problem to bother yourself with the burden if you want too, I'm going to bed.” Just as transparent as always Marcus thought. It was no secret that Blake was the more deviant of the two and  he was arrogant and overconfident. Marcus however could see right through that, you could say it was from never being around anyone else, or from shared traumatic experience, or it could just be plain only brothers intuition either way he knew Blake was upset. Marcus eventually went to bed as well and they had both hoped that when they woke up things would be back to normal, if only things were that simple. “Hey Marcus wanna group up with me, Candice is already in a group so I'm all alone.” “Yeah sure you can join Blake and I.” “No!” Blake said paying me absolutely no attention, not that it was anything new. “Why can't she work with us?” Marcus asked confused as to why blake was being colder than usual. “I don't want the freak in our group.” Marcus’s jaw practically dropped when Blake said that neither of us knew how to react, Figured I should be mad but I didn't want to cause problems. “Freak wow, I can clearly see I'm not wanted here. I can find another group.” As I turned around to walk away I stopped and had the frivolous through to give Blake a taste of his own medicine. Let's see how you like it when someone pokes at you I thought as I said. “Actually on second thought I think I'll stay, even though somones in a bad mood. Did mommy forget to play fetch with you this morning?” I said as snarky as possible “Maddie!” Marcus said looking at me in shock “Was that a dog joke?” Blake was aggressive that time and I got a little worried but I maintain my composure and continued to nitpick “I don't know was it funny?” I said trying to reflect his own obnoxious behavior back onto him “No it wasn't funny!” he said, stepping closer to me as Marcus moved between us to insure my safety. “Then no it wasn't a dog joke.” Blake was clearly very annoyed and marcuse pushed him back a little as he gave me a look of disapproval. “Are you two done?” He asked as he glared at the both of us. “Yeah sorry, should we get started this project isn't going to finish itself.” I said as Marcus and I looked at each other laughing at what had just happened “Yes let's start.” Marcus said enthusiastically trying to shift the mood to something more calm. We broke up the work into three parts after we started Marcus and I looked over each other's work, Blake not wanting to participate in the actual group part. Blake sat at the end of the table plowing through his part of the project wall marcus and i sat in the other end working peacefully with some occasional small talk. we were just about finished when Blake notes a rather inconvenient error. “ Who did the chart?” He asked looking across the table at us laughing at the smiley face I drew on Marcus’s hand when he wasn't paying attention. “I did why?” I asked confused as to what the issue was. “It's completely backwards, you have depth and perception where irregularities should be, and chemical compounds under the wrong section.” “Oh my god I must have looked at the outline wrong.” I said flipping back though the instructor packet. “It's fine we can fix it.” Marcus said as he grabbed the outline out of my hand stopping my frantic page flipping. “You two can but I'm not wasting my free period fixing what the dud screwed up.” Blake said as he grabbed his bag about to get up and leave. “Blake!” “What, this is not my problem. Maybe if she hadn't been batting her eyelashes at you for 45 minutes she wouldn't have screwed up.” “She said she was sorry let it go, and who are you to assume it wasn't just an honest mistake?” “Marcus dont play dumb she likes you and you know it. You two were sitting there giggling at each other like a couple of idiots.” “ You have no idea what you're talking about, what's your problem!” They were both angry at this point and truth be told I was also getting a little uncomfortable after that last comment, I tried to diffuse the situation as best as I ould. “It's fine you twocan both go, I can fix it 'll only take a moment.” “Im leaving either way.” Blake said as he got up and walked out probably going to hang out under the bleacher in the back of the library looking aggressively depressed like he always did. Even after three years he hasn't changed one bit andI could still read bhim like a book. “ I'm sorry about him.” Marcus said as he sighed and looked back at the shard. “It's fine really, I'd be mad too. I can fix it if you have somewhere to be.” “Well I had planned on just roaming the halls aimlessly for an hour but I can keep you company if you'd like.” He said as I felt heat rising tomy sheeks. “I don't know, if you stay here who's gonna wander the halls.” I said as we both laughed and I got to work on redoing the chart. Our free period came and went and after lunch we had AP history, not my best class i might add. That was one of the two other classes I had with marcus. We had calculus,Ap history, and biology together. O had a few classes with blake too, we had geometry, chemistry, and physics together along with a theater class. History was boring so I opted to sit in the back. I never really focused in this class to be honest. I would usually just zone out or get so deep in thought that I didn't know what was going on  until the bell rang. However today Marcus decided to move from the front row and cum slum it in the back with me. I was surprised when I saw him come in and sit by me but I didn't want to look too shocked. We were about half way through class when the announcements came on and a monotone voice came over the speakers “Good afternoon student, I hope you're having a wonderful day. I hope you're staying focused and taking your academics seriously, and don't forget about the pep rally tomorrow night to ready our varsity football team for the start of their season. There are still 5 open spots on the team so try out fast before they're gone.” There was minimal feedback and the speakers went off. “Hey are you still any good at sports?” I whispered over to Marcus who I had caught looking at me about four times now. “Yeah why?” He washed looking intrigued by my sudden question. “You should join the team, we kinda suck.” “ha, well I would but I can't.” “Why not?” I asked genuinely curious as to what his reasoning would be. “Well if you hadn't noticed I'm kind of a loner.” “Oh and here I thought it was because I kicked your butt in double dutch in the 5th grade.” Truthfully he was a bit of a loner, even though Marcus was nice and easy to get along with he was almost always around Blake who wasn't exactly a ray of sunshine. When they were not together Marcus would be social the only problem with that was because Blake was so harsh everyone was scared that he would lash out at them for stealing his brother.