It was pouring rain that Sunday night. I was returning from my weekend trip to my friend’s house in the neighboring city. It was dark, and the weather was so terrible I’d decided to stay away from the highways and use the smaller roads instead. I was going maybe thirty miles per hour because I couldn’t see past the headlights. I didn’t really trust my driving skills.

The massive old forest around me seemed somehow threatening as the wind did its best to bring them all down, and after a while, I started fearing I had made a mistake by choosing this road. If the trees fell right when I was passing them by… They were massive. They were unbelievably massive.

I still had about half an hour left to go according to my navigator, but since I wasn’t driving anywhere near the speed limits, it had to be at least an hour. Oh lord, what if someone was driving twice as fast as I was? They wouldn’t see me until it was too late.

I tried to pick up my speed a little. I squeezed the steering wheel like it would help me drive more safely. I’d never drive in a weather like this ever again, that was for sure.

Half an hour later, things got worse when the sky suddenly started flashing angrily.

“Please… Let me get home…” I murmured – I was not a fan of thunderstorms.

I had to slow down again. I was way too tense, and the angry grumbles above me made me jump a little every time, and the road kept turning left and right. The best damn decision I had ever made.

The road took another turn to the right. I saw movement behind the trees, and suddenly there was a person standing in front of my car. I hit the brakes as hard as I could, but I still ended up hitting him. Not hard, but enough to push the man over. I hurried out to see the man trying to get up, groaning in pain and holding his side.

“I’m so sorry! I didn’t see you! Are you h–”

The man was hurt. Not because of me. His face and white shirt were covered in blood. His face was pale and his lips almost blue from the cold.

“Please… I need you to…” the man mumbled, barely staying conscious as he leaned heavily against my car. “Help me…”

With a racing heart and without wasting a second, I hurried to him and helped him to the backseat of my car, knowing this man was in desperate need of medical attention. He was bleeding hard. I saw cuts and bruises all over him, but the worst had to be his stomach – the way he was pressing his hand against it made me fear the worst.

I hurried back behind the steering wheel and continued driving, keeping the speed as fast as I dared. We were close to the city already. Just fifteen minutes, maybe even less. The first signs appeared in the distance only a minute later.

“I’ll take you to the hospital. Don’t worry, you’ll make it,” I told the man who was lying in the backseat, still letting out sounds of pain.

“No… No, no, no… No hospital… They’ll come for me…”

What…?

“You are badly injured,” I said.

“No… No hospital…” he begged me with a shivering voice. “They’ll come… They’ll know…”

“I have to,” I told him.

“No… Take me… Take me to…” he trailed off, and I feared he had passed out. I glanced at him again. He was still awake. Barely.

“Where?” I asked, and he gave me an address. I had to make him repeat it twice before I could make sense of his mumbled words.

He had not much long left. As I typed the address on my navigator, I wasn’t sure what to do. He begged and pleaded for me to not take him to a hospital. And then he passed out, just before the city lights came to my view.

“What am I supposed to do…?” I whispered.

He needed to go to the hospital. He was in desperate need of help, but the way he begged… he was scared of the hospital. Whoever had attacked him – it was not an animal, that was for sure – would come for him. But he’d be safe in the hospital, right?

“Fudge!” I hissed and decided to follow my navigator.

The place where it was taking us was much closer than the hospital. I soon found we were heading toward the older part of the city with small apartment buildings and old, wooden houses. Nearly in panic, I scanned the buildings, trying to find the right one in the heavy rain while also trying to stay focused on the road.

And there it was! Finally! I saw a gray three-story building up ahead. I took a short look at the man in my backseat, nearly freaking out because of how dead he looked. I should’ve taken him to a hospital!

“Fuck!” I mumbled to myself as I pulled over next to the right building.

The bottom floor had small shops, all of them closed by now, except for a 24/7 laundromat in the corner. There were only a few lights on in the apartments above. Where was I supposed to take him! He only gave me the number of the building!

I rushed out to open the backseat door. He looked so dead… He wasn’t even breathing anymore. His skin was so pale it had turned almost blue.

He was dead. He was already dead.

After the first shock, I suddenly felt completely numb. My ears started ringing, the sound of it becoming so loud I couldn’t hear the rain behind it. Like I was about to faint. I had a dead person in my car, and the hospital was miles away.

My hands shaking, I leaned closer to the man. He was breathtakingly beautiful even with his long hair soaked and face covered in blood and dirt. His clothes were torn, blood seeping through near the holes.

“My god…” I whispered, now crying.

I touched his cheek, but immediately pulled my hand away because of how cold his skin was.

“Please…” I murmured and touched him again. “Please, wake up…”

And he did! Oh my god, he did! I was suddenly filled with adrenaline when he opened his eyes, and I hurried to help him out of the car. He was barely conscious, but moving. I had no time to give a thought to anything else but helping him.

“There…” he mumbled, pointing at one of the doors in front of us: the laundromat.

I didn’t stop to ask him why he thought the tiny laundromat we were heading to was better than the hospital. I was in such a deep panic I couldn’t even understand how unbelievably weird it was. He wanted to go there, so I took him there.

There was no one inside when we busted through the door, the man hanging off my shoulders.

“Help…” the man muttered with his final breaths. “Mike…!”

“Mike!” I yelled at the top of my lungs. “Help!”

Three long seconds later, a tall man rushed out the door at the back. He stopped to stare at us and the trail of blood we were leaving behind, but he quickly gathered his composure and hurried to my aid.

“What happened?” he asked hastily as we ran through the door he’d just emerged from.

“He was attacked! That’s all I know,” I explained as we continued our way down a short hallway, past two doors and entering the last one at the very back.

We were suddenly standing in a hospital room.

Oh, goodie, I was just dreaming. That explained a lot. I never had dreams like this, but okay.

“Here!” Mike said and helped me get the injured man on one of the beds by the wall. “Stay with me, man,” he muttered.

Mike quickly got rid of the torn shirt, and I stepped back in horror. The man had a massive gash in his stomach, and it was completely black. I saw black lines coming out of it, spreading through his chest like veins.

“How long has it been?” Mike asked the man, but he only shook his head a little. “Long? Fuck.”

“What is that…?” I whispered, but Mike didn’t reply to me as he hurried to find something in his fridge.

I didn’t see what he was doing. I kept my eyes on the man who couldn’t stop squirming in his pain. The sounds he was making were painful to hear as his voice shivered whenever he tried to gasp for air. His blue eyes landed on me. He looked so scared…

I stepped back and took his hand in mine to offer comfort.

“You’ll be fine,” I heard myself saying.

“How bad…” he asked, and tried to look down on his body, but I stopped him.

“You’ll be fine,” I repeated, holding my hand on his cheek to make sure he didn’t look.

Mike returned to us, holding a massive syringe with red liquid in it.

“This is going to hurt,” he said when he brought the thick needle to his neck. “You might want to step back.”

“I’ll stay here,” I said sternly.

“All right…” Mike muttered and jammed the needle into the man’s skin.

I’d expected an immediate reaction from the blue-eyed man, but he was still staring at me. I watched as Mike slowly pushed the liquid into him, and nothing happened.

“What is that?”

“Antidote. He’s got dead man’s blood in his system. That’s why he can’t heal. It will hurt like hell, though. He might rip your arm off.”

None of that made sense, but when did anything in dreams make sense?

“This may be too late…” Mike continued. “If it’s been longer than three hours since he drank it…”

I nodded and turned my attention to the man’s neck. I was sure I saw faint, red lines spreading through his body, and close to the black ones. And when the first red met the closest black, the man trembled and let out another groan of pain.

“You have to fight it,” Mike said as the man’s trembling turned into violent tremors.

I couldn’t hold his hand any longer. I was forced to step back when he suddenly yelled in agony, hurting my ears. The antidote had reached the… dead man’s blood? It really hurt. He couldn’t hold still even for a second, and his loud screams tore my eardrums. I wanted to hold him so badly… I wanted to let him know everything would be all right.

He suddenly arched his back against the bed, his head bent so far back it hurt my neck to watch. As he let out another shrilling scream, I saw big, long, pearl-white fangs growing out of his mouth, and his eyes turned crimson red.

A vampire.

That, too, explained a lot, but did I care? No. I just stood next to his bed, watching him fight for his life, feeling helpless as I was unable to do a single thing to ease his pain. It was so horrible to watch. I had never witnessed anything as heartbreaking and horrible in my entire life. I had never felt so useless in my entire life. All we could do was wait, and I couldn’t stand it. 

“Is there anything you can do to help with the pain?” I asked.

“No… The antidote is burning like acid in his veins. It dissolves the bad blood.There are no painkillers strong enough to help.”

“There has to be something we can do!” I said, trying to reach for the man’s hand again, but he accidentally shoved me away in his agony. I turned back to Mike. “Please, there has to be something we can do.”

He shook his head slowly, looking miserable.

“If he makes it through this, fresh blood will help him recover. He just needs to get through this.”

“I have blood,” I said stupidly.

I was willing to give him all of it if it helped with his pain. I couldn't stand being unable to help, especially when his scared eyes were begging me to make the pain stop. I felt horrible. There was nothing I could do, but I still felt like I was just letting it happen. 

“I’m sorry I can’t help you,” I whispered in tears. 

And we waited. I couldn’t stand it. Every second was taking too long. 

It felt like hours had passed since we entered the laundromat, but little by little, the vampire started calming down. Once he was steady enough, I took his hand back in mine. He didn’t feel so cold anymore. He turned his tired eyes to me but didn’t say a word.

I smiled at him and brushed his wet hair back. Maybe he was in desperate need of comfort since he leaned his head against my hand, his eyes falling shut like all he wanted to focus on was my touch.

“You’ll be fine,” I said. “The poison is…”

I trailed off and turned to look at his stomach. His veins had turned pale red now, and the blackness was almost gone.

“The antidote seems to be working,” I told him, then turned to Mike, who was cleaning the wounds from dirt.

“It is… But…” he shook his head.

“What?” I asked, and the vampire turned to look at him.

“There’s a lot of damage,” Mike said, pointing at the massive gash. “You’re going to have a long journey to recovery ahead of you, my friend.”

“Still alive…” the vampire muttered in a raspy voice.

“That is the most important thing, yes,” Mike said, letting out a weary sigh. “Who attacked you?”

“You know…”

“I see…”

“Who?” I asked. 

I needed to find out who could do such a horrible thing to such a beautiful man, even though none of it had anything to do with me. Those people needed to be punished for what they had done. How could anyone cause so much pain to any other living creature?

I didn’t get a reply. But I would.

I turned to watch the vampire. His pain seemed easier to bear, but he was still shivering, and only after a short moment, he tensed up again, his breathing turning harder. I carefully sat down on his bed, still keeping my hand on his cheek to give him all the comfort I could. I nearly started crying again when his body trembled harder and he looked up at me, again looking like he was begging for my help.

“It will be over soon,” I promised, not knowing how big of a liar I was. “You’ll be fine soon.” 

“It will take a while before all the poison is completely gone. Once it’s gone, you can eat,” Mike told the vampire, but I wasn’t sure if he was listening.

“You’ll feel better soon,” I repeated soothingly, caressing his cold skin. “You’ll just have to make it through this. Then you can have all the blood you want and you’ll feel better.”

For a long time, I just sat there, whispering soothing things to the vampire. I wasn’t sure if he was conscious even half of the time, but eventually, he fell asleep, or passed out. Even after that, I stayed with him, brushing his hair.

“I’m sorry – I didn’t catch your name,” Mike asked me.

“I’m Riley,” I muttered, not taking my eyes off the vampire. “I was driving home when he suddenly appeared in front of my car.”

“So you… weren’t with him when he was attacked?”

“No… I’ve never even met him before,” I told him.

I hardly noticed the stupefied silence in the room, nor the fact that Mike was staring at me. When I did, I turned to ask him what was wrong.

“You… But you know about us, right?”

“You? No?”

“Us. Supernaturals.”

“Supernaturals?” I repeated.

“I mean… He’s a vampire, and I’m a werewolf,” Mike spoke, suddenly very wary of me.

“Oh, no. I had no idea,” I told him and turned to look at the vampire again. Now the silence was noticeable, so I turned back to Mike. “But this is just a dream, so it’s fine.”

He opened and closed his mouth, staring at me with a shocked frown on his face. “I mean. No?”

“No?”

“No, this is not a dream,” Mike said slowly.

“Oh.”

I stared at him. He stared at me. Both very, very confused.

“I don’t usually have dreams like this,” I said.

“This isn’t a dream,” he spoke quietly in an apologetic voice. “Monsters are real. And you just saved one.”

“Oh,” I said because I suddenly forgot how words worked.

“Um… Do you want a cup of coffee or something? I do have whiskey, too.”

“Both,” I said.

“Both?”

“Yeah. Both sounds good,” I said, and turned to look at the vampire again.

“Okay… Just… try not to freak out,” he said.

“I’ll try,” I promised.

“Good. Sirius needs to rest, so…”

“Is that his name?” I asked, and he nodded. “Sirius…” I repeated as I watched the sleeping vampire.

To be honest, I didn’t feel like freaking out at all.