Keagan picked at the skin by his fingernails as he walked into the supernatural wing of the hospital. The door was marked with a ‘staff only’ sign to keep humans out.

Keagan stepped into the same room he’s been visiting every day since he found out this man was the brother he was separated from when he was placed in a boy’s home. 

Zack was there. Floating in a tube of supernatural healing jellies and serums and elixirs and everything else the doctor said would help speed up Zack’s regeneration process. 

He bit his lip staring hard before finally unleashing all his thoughts, “Zack I fucked up. I- I accidentally turned this random boy and he’s handling it really hard. He’s basically starving himself and sitting on the edge of going insane and he doesn’t even know it. And it’s all my fault because I was being stupid. I knew it was stupid and now some random kid is paying for my stupidity for the rest of his life. And he hates me. I mean absolutely despises me, which makes it ten times harder to help him. And now we’re grouped together for this stupid English project and now he has to be near me. If I were him I’d try to murder me. I’d hate myself. And…. And you can’t even hear me,” Keagan’s shoulders slumped and his head fell as he glared down at his feet. 

“I’m sorry. I think I’m going to leave early today,” Keagan whispered, turned on his heel, and left.

~~~

“Tommy stop! Wait a second!” Toby called out, running after Tommy as he rushed up the stairs.

He’s been chasing after him the entire way home trying to get him to talk but he pretended like Toby wasn’t even there.

Just before Tommy stepped into his room, Toby grabbed his arm but Tommy roughly shook him off nearly sending him stumbling to the floor.

“Don’t touch me,” Tommy seethed, slamming the door shut behind him.

Toby banged on his door, “Tommy you’ve been acting weird! What’s wrong?”

“I’m fine!”

“No, you aren’t! ‘Don’t touch you?’ I don’t think you’ve ever said that sentence to me! Ever! In our entire lives! Now all of a sudden you’re physically shoving me away and I haven’t seen you eat in the last two days! Not even when Mom made chocolate chip pancakes! And they’re your favorite!”

Tommy was silent on the other side of the door.

“Tommy, please talk to me,” Toby pleaded.

“Go away, Toby.”

Toby clenched his fist and grit his teeth, staring at the locked door as it grew blurry from the tears building in his eyes.

Tommy has never pushed Toby away like this. They’ve always been there for each other. They’ve always told each other everything. And now all of a sudden this.

Something must be really wrong and if he won’t tell Toby what it is, he was going to figure it out himself.

~~~

Tommy ran into his bathroom, flicking on the light and curling his lips back to take a look at his teeth.

Fangs.

He hadn’t noticed them until now but his K9s definitely sharpened and grew ever so slightly longer. How long would they get? Would his family notice?

Tommy placed both his hands on the counter, leaning into them.

Vampires are real.

And he is one of them.

Tommy pushed off the counter and paced the length of his bathroom as he ran his hands through his hair for the millionth time today, leaving it stuck up in different directions.

What if Keagan is lying and really is some damned psychopath who gets off watching people drink blood?

Tommy was downstairs in the kitchen within seconds and rummaging through the fridge for something that seemed appetizing to him. Although nothing really did. He decided to go with a little chocolate pudding cup. 

Peeling off the lid and taking a bite, Tommy cringed at the bitterness.

Maybe this one was faulty.

He peeled open another one.

Bitter.

Maybe this batch has just gone bad.

Tommy tried some leftover chocolate chip pancakes.

Bitter.

Cranberry juice.

Bitter.

Cheese.

Bitter.

He stared at all the contents of the fridge he had laid out on the counter and tried.

All of it is bitter.

Tommy was freaking out all over again. He couldn’t taste any of it and he still felt starved. Maybe even more starved than before.

“What… what are you doing?” Toby asked, standing in the door frame and staring wide-eyed at the emptied fridge.

Tommy’s eyes snapped up to Toby.

His neck.

Badum. Badum. Badum.

“Fuck,” Tommy muttered, he pushed past Toby, ran back up the stairs, and locked himself in his room.

He was insane.

He was a vampire.

A monster.

And he had to rely on some psychopath to live.