The Things We Fear
Chapter 16

As they were driving away from the house, the silence lingered for a few moments before Theo finally broke it.

“Dude?”

“I know.”

“Duuuudddde,” he drew out the word.

“Yeah,” Marcus sighed.

“And I thought Devil Dearest was bad.”

“Evil supervillain has nothing on concerned parent who’s also a cop.”

“Dude,” Theo said in agreement.

The silence returned for a few more seconds.

“Your dad is scary.”

“Yup.”

“Pretty cool though.”

“Definitely.”

“So what happens now?”

Marcus sighed again. “Now, we take you home because you haven’t seen your mom in the better part of a week and she’s probably worrying. Especially, if we’ll be spending the weekend in their super-secret hideaway. I’ll be seeing satan for a few hours to try and find out as much as I can.

“Whilst we’re doing that my dad will probably go to the vampires and make a bunch of threats before we go there tonight. Then he’ll probably drop by Cassius’ place and make some more. Hopefully, I’ll have left by then,” he added quickly, not wanting to get between his dad and the biological father who would likely use him as some sort of bartering chip.

“Then, assuming everything goes well, we’ll go there tonight and hope they don’t kill us on sight. Or if they do, it’ll be quick and painless.”

“Well, you’re just a little ray of sunshine.”

“I don’t need to be sunny, that’s why I have you. Between you and Brody we need some storm clouds to keep the world going.”

Theo scoffed but didn’t argue.

“Are you okay? I mean will you be? You haven’t seemed bothered about being near people so far, but today is technically your last day as a human. Are you getting any cravings for blood, or feeling sick?”

Marcus caught the shaking of hair from his peripheral. Not able to look at the other whilst the car was approaching a crossroads.

“Other than tired, I don’t feel any different, and after last night, with the whole supernatural is real, your best friend nearly dies, and oh, here’s the dead body of another upper-classman, I think it’d be weird if I wasn’t a little emotionally wrung out.”

Marcus couldn’t help wincing at this. Yeah, it definitely hadn’t been the best way to introduce someone to the less mundane aspects of their world.

“Sorry about that, and for keeping it a secret.”

“Nah, man, I get it. Normals aren’t meant to know, and even when you told me I didn’t fully believe it. Plus, you didn’t want any part in that world did you?”

He was still staring at the road in front of them, but sensing Theo’s eyes on him, shook his head from side to side. No, he really hadn’t

“I feel like I should be apologising to you for dragging you back into it all.”

“Hey, no, man. It’s like,” he paused, gathering his thoughts. “Look you didn’t ask for this, none of us did–”

“Yeah, but if I hadn’t insisted we go see where Rod died,”

“You couldn’t have known. At worse, we expected to get caught by the cops, or worse, my dad,” he gave his best friend a pointed look.

After the two had seen how angry the deputy could get, Theo should now understand why that had been a genuine concern.

“No one, not even me, being aware of the supernatural, could have predicted a rogue vampire that had gone insane from psychological torture to randomly bite you, like it’s just not the done thing. It was a one-in-a-billion chance it could happen and it just sucks it happened to you, but it is definitely not your fault. The only thing to blame in this situation is that thing going around frightening and murdering people.”

Marcus hadn’t intended to drop such a passionate speech, but he would not have his friend feeling guilty about things that were so far out of his control it wasn’t even worth thinking about.

“Plus, if it’d been the other way around, you’d follow me into the messy underbelly of the magical world, right?”

“Hell yeah, man. Best bro’s for life. You ain’t ever getting rid of me.”

“Well, that’s good, cause you’re a vampire now, and I hear they live a long time,” it was a weak joke, but it at least managed to crack a smile on Theo’s face.

“Still, no cravings for black pudding or any extra rare steak?”

That did earn him a laugh.

“Nah, but I could murder a pizza.”

“Alright, I’ll ask dad to order one for tea. We can frame it as your last meal.”

Theo bobbed his head from the passenger seat.

“Ask for Dough balls as well, and cookies. If things might not taste the same after, I want to appreciate my favourites before my body dies,” the words fell flat by the end.

“Undead, not dead-dead. Though you can still take the cure, there’s still time.”

“No. no, I’ve accepted it. It’s just. It’s scary. Tomorrow I might not be me anymore.”

“For what it’s worth I don’t think vampires are like shifters. I mean they can turn into a bat, but they don’t like, inherit bat-like thoughts and feelings. Where a shifter gains an animal soul alongside theirs and it can influence them somewhat. Actually, I’m not sure, there’s a lot of contradictory information online, but I heard people don’t change much.”

“If I turn evil, or insane, it’s your responsibility as my best bro to put me down,” it was said as a joke, but he could hear the serious request underneath.

“Same. if I ever turn into Cassius’ pet and go dark, I expect the same.”

He didn’t even try to pretend that was a joke.

The two shared a quick look of understanding. Wherever this road led, they refused to lose themselves. As he pulled onto Theo’s street, he saw the boy’s mother’s car in the driveway. He hoped the two would have a good day together. For all Theo was trying to hide it, Marcus could practically taste the other’s worry about tonight.

“But seriously, remind me to never piss off your dad.”

He laughed, “Promise, dude, promise. Now go spend some time with your mom. We’ve got a long weekend ahead of us.”

He watched as Theo saluted from his driveway. Waiting until the door closed behind him. He had twenty minutes to reach Cassius’ house and as much as he didn’t plan to be late, he couldn’t help wishing for surprise road works or traffic to delay his inevitable arrival.

“You aren’t late?”

“You were expecting me to be?” Marcus wasn’t sure if he should be offended or simply acknowledge he had been tempted to be.

“You like to stage your little protests,” the man said flatly.

“Theo wasn’t in danger then.”

“And you nearly died,” they could have been in the Sahara for how dry the man’s voice became.

Marcus shrugged. It was a fair point. For all Cassius hadn’t raised him, Marcus had inherited his sarcasm in spades.

“Take a seat.”

A small part of him wanted to stand on principle. But then he would have been proving his father right about the little protests and it felt annoying to know he would lose either way. Any protests he made now would only give the other the upper hand. Marcus could already see the smug smile the man would wear. Huffing he took the seat. Ignoring the raised eyebrow. A huff wasn’t a protest, it was a noise. Nothing more.

Placing a stone on the desk between them, Cassius slid it in his direction. Marcus pulled a face but eventually picked up the stone as was silently instructed. Another thing he hated about spending time with this man, Cassuis rarely gave voiced direction. He expected eyes on him at all times and for his body movements and facial gestures to be enough to have everyone following his whims.

“I need you to keep that in your left hand whilst you recall what happened last night. You are not simply recalling the incidents, but Imagine you are pulling the memory to the front of your mind for the stone to connect to.”

It didn’t make much sense, but Marcus had learned magic was often not logical. It wasn’t like in science where cause in effect were perfect. It was more like trying to instruct a wild animal. It would take a great deal of work to force it, but if you left a path for it to follow and coaxed it slowly, enticing it to do as you wanted, it would often follow. If magic thought you wanted to play, it tended to engage more. Marcus didn’t understand why, but he often imagined a cat, if you dangled something before it, it would want to swat and it and follow the path you created, but if it got bored, it would soon turn away.

Before he was even aware he was recalling the memory, he felt the cold. The way the temperature had dropped and left him apprehensive. Before the fear had come in, his lizard brain had been aware simply by the cold temperature that something bad was about to happen. He’d closed his eyes at some point, but a light filtering through his lids had him popping them open to find the cause.

The room around him had a projection over it. Jolting he looked to his curled fist, the light coming through his fingers and showing the memory in the room around them. Like the stone were playing the movie of his memory, he and Cassius could now see the bathroom like a layer of fiction over the physical room around them.

“The mind, memory, like to fill in details. Stress certain parts and omit others. This stone is a complex piece of magic. It connects to the memory and the magic that had been around you at the time. Magic is always around us. Always aware. This stone recreates an accurate recreation of what happened, not what your mind has distorted it to be. Now keep thinking about the memory.”

Marcus took in a sharp breath as he watched the shadow creature moving closer to him. Cassuis words would have normally interested him. The idea of a stone that could accurately recreate events that had happened around him, it would be great for studying, but the fear he had felt last night returned with the memory. His breath was quickly becoming laboured as the creature drew closer to him. The memory Marcus was behind him, close to Cassius, the shadow creeping forward the way it had yesterday.

The present room darkened with the memory losing light. Marcus was slightly embarrassed to see and hear how weak he had looked as the thing kept moving towards him. He wanted to shout at past him to do something, to move, leave. But he remembered how unsteady his legs had felt. How the wall had kept him upright.

“Your magic is swirling around you, why did you not use it?” His father pointed to the colours swirling like a veil around him.

He could feel his eyebrows pulling in confusion, he certainly hadn’t noticed that a the time.

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Cassius gave him a disapproving look. He wanted to snap back, but then Marcus recalled in the hallway after, he had been able to see strange glimmers in the dark, not quite to this extent, but he had seen them.

“Later, after, I saw them. But not here.”

Cassius hummed. “What changed?”

I died. Marcus wanted to say, but instead turned back to the memory. Watching as the swirling shadows masquerading as a bipedal creature had finally reached him. He could see it in the memories eyes when he had been absorbed into the void. The way his eyes turned glassy the same way Lara’s had been. He watched on as the creature hovered over him. His body sliding to the floor as he slumped in on himself.

“You’re dying.”

Marcus wasn’t sure why his father felt the need to point out the obvious. The memory Marcus’ breathing got heavier and heavier until it finally stilled. He’d known. Of course, he had known, but to stand there looking upon his own dead body was perhaps the single most harrowing thing he had ever witnessed.

In the memory, he could see as the colours swirled at speed around his body. They looked angry. Desperate. It was only a few moments, but in the void it had felt like hours. Until fire suddenly burst from him. From his stomach. His solar plexus. Fire burst forth, the colours supporting it as they formed a cyclone around it and together launched themselves forward at the shadow. Blasting it full of light.

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