Feed the Flames

..::^~Ronan~^::..

“So when was the last time you saw him?” Ray had grown frantic because he couldn’t find Bob anywhere. Mikey tried to be calm about the situation, but I knew he was becoming frantic as well.

“The moment we got into our room. We both went to go sleep, and I can tell you’re not answering Gerard back. You should let him know what’s going on, or I will,” Ray was able to do some weird Jedi mind tricks, like completely get into your head, but only if he was making skin-to-skin contact.

“You stay the fuck out of my head, Ray Toro,” Mikey warned.

“You need to answer him before he comes here,” I agreed, but only because I didn’t want to see him. I didn’t want to be around him. As if on cue, there was a knock at the door.

“And…he’s here,” Mikey said, getting up and walking towards the door. He stomped in with Frank following behind him. Gerard looked less than happy, while Frank looked as if Gerard had woke him up to drag him over here.

“What the fuck do you mean you lost Bob, Ray? And why the fuck won’t you respond to me?” Gerard was harshly whispering as Mikey had been before.

“I did not lose him,” Ray responded while pointing a finger at Gerard, “It’s not like he’s a baby. He’s a grown man. I looked around his room, and there was no sign of a struggle. He would have put up a fight if somebody tried to come take him. He left on his own.”

“You guys were supposed to be watching out for each other,” Gerard’s tone had raised.

“You need to tone the fuck down,” I said, grabbing Gerard by the collar of his shirt and sitting him down on the couch, “This is my room, and guess what mother fucker, you’ve lost talking privileges.” I turned around to the rest of the guys, “We have to find them. Bob, Cell, and Liam.”

“Do we really have to look for that fuck ass?” Frank moaned and sat down next him. He crossed his arms angrily and exaggerated a pout.

“Don’t talk about Bob like that,” Ray defended jokingly, even though Frank had been talking about Liam, “He’s a good guy and he’s like family, even though he’s from Chicago.”

“Bob’s from Chicago?” I asked.

“Yeah, Bob’s from Chicago,” Ray replied nonchalantly.

“Gerard’s thinking he’s going to kill you all if you don’t shut the hell up,” Mikey interrupted quietly, “So maybe we should start figuring out how we’re going to find Bob and Cell.”

“-and Liam,” I added quickly. Another knock came from the door, and we looked around at each other confused.

“Perhaps it’s Bob,” Frank said as he and Gerard stood up from the couch.

“From Chicago?” I added, grinning at my joke. Everybody rolled their eyes as they walked towards the door. A knock filled the room before Gerard opened it, and there stood Bob with about 10 rolls of toilet paper bundled in his arms.

“Where the fuck where you,” Gerard growled as he grabbed Bob by the collar and pulled him inside. Bob dropped a few rolls of toilet paper in the process.

“Getting T.P. dude, what the fuck does it look like,” Bob said defensively.

“We had a whole roll, dude,” Ray pointed out, looking at Bob as if he had done something utterly stupid.

“We did,” Bob said with a large grin on his face.

“Guys, please, shut the hell up,” Gerard said, “It’s getting late, so we have to separate again. We’ll stay in numbers of three this time, Mikey and I’ll be in separate groups so we have a definite way to communicate. All of you need to take the SM cards from your phones and break them, just in the event that somebody’s tracking one of us. Nobody stays in this dorm. Cell’s room is here, and they have Cell. Ronan, you’re staying with Frank and I. Mikey, you’re with Bob and Ray. One person stays up at all times for guard. Any objections?” Everybody looked at me, and I shrugged.

“I’ll go get my stuff,” I said, retreating into my room. I closed my door and turned my light on. As soon as I turned around, I saw Liam sitting in the chair in the corner of my room, the same way Gerard had been when I woke up in the middle of the night. He put his index finger over his lips, signaling me to keep quiet. I looked at him with wide eyes as I leaned with my back against the door and my hand resting on the knob. “What are you doing here?” I asked in a whisper.

“I was fang raped,” he said coldly, not moving from my chair.

“What the fuck does that mean?” I asked, my hand falling from the knob. I walked to my desk to retrieve my backpack, and dumped the contents from it so I could fill it with clothes.

“I was turned against my will, Ronan,” I informed me. His eyes followed me as I walked towards my closet, “I’m cursed now. Just like you,” he added. I heard him standing up from the chair, and his shadow fell over the walls of my closet as I stuffed clothes into the bag. “It’s a sick joke, really.”

“I really don’t want to hear your pity party,” I stood up and pushed passed him to leave the closet.

“I thought you cared for me,” he didn’t have emotion in his voice. I set the bag down, and turned around to face him. I took a few strides to close the distance between us.

“I thought you cared about me too,” I whispered harshly. I didn’t want any of the guys to know he was here. “I had no idea what was happening to me, and you left me,” I poked my finger hard into Liam’s sternum in order to get my point across. He furrowed his eyebrows.

“What do you mean you didn’t know? I thought you had one of those asshole…” his sentence wandered off as if he didn’t know what other words to speak.

“You thought I wanted this? I woke up with some crazy ass bruise on my arm and everybodyacting weird and nobody telling me what was happening,” he grabbed my wrist and softly picked up my arm. He pushed up my sleeve, revealing what was now intricate knot work down my forearm, where the bruise used to be. With his other hand, he lightly brushed the area with his fingertips.

“To change somebody into a vampire, they inject their own blood into you. It attaches itself to your body like a parasite, and infects your blood cells. It can cure any disease, any trauma; any imperfection. It can bring you back from the brink of death if it’s done at the right time,” he looked into my eyes briefly and looked back down at my arm. “It’s impossible to pull the parasite from the body without killing it.” He said this softly, as if he struggled to get the words out.

“I’m still finding it really hard to feel sorry for you,” I said blankly as I crossed my arms over my chest.

“I can’t even begin to explain how so so so so sorry I am, Ronan,” he apologized, his hard façade breaking.

“You left me. I had no idea what was going on and I need you, and you left me,” I emphasized, “I can’t even begin to explain how so so so so hurt I was.”

“You just don’t understand,” he said, brushing past me, picking up his sweater from the bed.

“Then tell me,” I turned around, facing him. He sat down on the bed and let out a deep sigh.

“It’s ironic,” his voice was soft again, “dating back for centuries; my family has been a prestigious vampire hunting clan. I’ve been hunting those fucking blood suckers since I was fourteen. Now I am one,” he let out a laugh, and smiled. “See? Ironic.” He looked at my walls with empty eyes.

“Liam – those rogue vampires. Where are they?” I couldn’t stop myself from asking. He shrugged heavily, and I walked over to him. I stood between his legs and put my hand on to his cheek.

“The wiped most of my memory before they let me go. I do remember seeing them take Celine. That’s why I came over here, to let you know that,” my heart stopped as all of our fears were confirmed. I leaned down and cupped Liams face with both of my hands, and kissed him softly on the lips.

“I’m so sorry they did this to you,” I whispered. He closed his eyes as he leaned into my hand and wrapped his arms around my waist.

“Ronan, I don’t know if I can go through this life without your forgiveness; without you,” his bright blue eyes looked deep in to mine. A harsh knocking at the door interrupted the moment, causing me to quickly snap my head to look at the door. I looked back to Liam to find that he had disappeared. I let out a breath I didn’t know I was holding.

“I forgive you,” I said quietly before I stuffed a few more things into my bag and zipped it up. I left my phone on my bed; there was no way in hell I was breaking the SM card. Gerard walked into my room before I got to the door and gave me an annoyed look.

“It really took you that long to fill up your bag?” he said, causing me to nod in response, “Whatever, let’s just go.” He grabbed me by the wrist as we left the dorm with Frank. Mikey, Ray, and Bob must have already went to Ray’s room. We quietly snuck past the police who were still outside the dorms, and walked towards the male dorm hall. Gerard still hadn’t let go of my wrist, and I was beginning to grow more and more annoyed with him. It made me sad as I thought about Liam - and what he was going through.

The smell of blood was a lot less strong in the male dorms, and I was actually relieved. If I had known there was less of a scent here, I would have been here all day instead of the female dorm where all I could think about was blood, blood, and more blood. I took a shower at Gerard’s, and even thought about locking myself in the bathroom for the rest of the night so I wouldn’t have to think about him. However, I knew I would never hear the end of it from the diva, himself. When I joined him and Frank in the common area, I noticed that they had moved the two mattresses into the room. Frank was already passed out on a mattress as Gerard sat on the couch watching Sleepy Hollow. I sat down on the other end of the couch, watching the movie in silence. I could feel his eyes on me, causing my body to tense up.

“I owe you an apology,” he said, this being the first time I heard an emotion other than hate, anger, or annoyance in his voice.

“For what?” I looked over at him. I knew exactly what he was going to apologize for, and yes, he did owe it to me.

“I was an asshole to you, and you didn’t deserve it,” he said softly as he played with his ear lobe.

“Why were you?” I asked subtly.

“Not here,” he looked back towards the movie, “This isn’t where I want to tell you.”

“Curiosity killed the cat,” I whispered under my breath.

“Wouldn’t that make you the cat?” Gerard asked, and I could hear the smile on his face, “And technically, you are dead.”

“No? I’m here, breathing, watching a creepy movie with a creepy guy,” I responded.

“But you don’t have a heartbeat. You’ll only have acid running through your veins, not blood,” he looked at me, now, with intimacy and hurt, “and soon you won’t have a soul.”

“You’re getting all super creepy,” I said. There was a loud clunking sound, and all the heat drained from the room.

“Well, there goes the air conditioning,” he said nonchalantly.

“Great,” I said, annoyed. I crawled over towards the empty mattress and crawled on top. There was no need to get under the covers, I would be warm enough, “Perfect timing; I’ll have a heat stroke before I fully transform into a blood sucking demon monster,” I said, rolling over.

“Oh that’s right, you still have some blood pumping through your veins,” Gerard sounded amused and it made me angry. I kept my eyes closed, and a moment later, I could feel an arm around me.

“You’re freezing,” I told Gerard, “I’m pretty sure you’re the same temperature as Antarctica.”

“One of the few perks on not having a heartbeat,” he whispered, “Now go to sleep.” Not long after he gave the command, I let myself drift off to sleep. Tomorrow, we would have to go find Celine. We couldn’t wait another day after that – Frank would go crazy. It wasn’t long until I fell asleep in Gerard’s arms.

…I fell asleep in Gerard’s arms.

©Shannon

Notes