Feed the Flames

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

Light filled up the room as the sun rose above the tree line, causing the insides of my eyelids to turn into a dark shade of orange. The new light made it uncomfortable to sleep and slowly woke me up, my eyes fluttering open to face the ceiling, which the sunrise that shone through my red curtains had painted orange. For some odd reason, the first thing I realized was that Frank was in the other room, causing me to remember that we were related, which gave us some weird connection to each other. That meant Cell was probably in the common room with him. I pushed my comforter from my body and pulled on a pair of socks.

When I found Frank on the couch, I saw he was alone. He stared blankly at the TV, which was currently off. He knew I was standing there in my doorway, but he didn’t acknowledge me. Taking a step forward, I decided to sit next to him on the couch. I waited him to break the silence – to let me know what was wrong – instead of pressuring him to talk to me. There was no surprise when it didn’t take long for him to begin talking, since he usually can’t stop talking.

“Everybody’s leaving,” his voice was soft, and almost hurt. I felt a pang of guilt since I was the one who was leaving.

“Not everybody, Frank. Just me,” I matched the softness of his voice, and was forever grateful that he was a psychopath with anger issues like Gerard.

“You’re running away, meaning Gerard’s going to want to leave, meaning Mikey is going to want to leave. Cell’s been taken by one-eye, and we’ve sort of temporarily exiled two-face, and nobody knows where the fuck Ray is,” his eyes were glossy, and his words were strained. It was evident that he was trying to hide the pain on his face, but I could feel emotions. I could feel his emotions, and there was no hiding of the fact that he felt abandoned. I pulled him into a hug in an attempt to offer him some comfort.

“Why can’t you go with Gerard and Mikey?” I really didn’t want to be selfish; I wanted to stay here and try to keep everybody here and happy. This place was safe, after all. We couldn’t be harmed. At the same time, I didn’t want to be here. With my new life, there was nothing to do but try to be happy. My happiness wasn’t going to be found here, that was for sure.

“I don’t want to go with Gerard and Mikey. I just want shit to go back to the way it was before you were changed and Celine was changed and before that fucking asshole had to come here and ruin everything. He ruined my happiness. Why does he have to be so fucking handsome?” he put his head in his hands and let out a deep sigh, “I’m sorry, I don’t mean to take it out on you.” I rubbed his back as another gesture to offer more comfort.

“For what it’s worth, I don’t think he’s that handsome,” the statement had been a lie. He definitely could have been a model, preferably an underwear model. I tried to not think it, but it slipped causing Frank to raise an eyebrow.

“See what I mean? Even you,” he stood up, “So where are you and Liam going to go?” He shoved his hands in his pockets before he sat on the coffee table so that he could looks at me as we talked.

“I’m not sure. I think the plan was to just…go,” I answered. We could go anywhere we wanted to, anywhere in the world.

“Gerard’s pretty torn up about it,” Frank’s words were nonchalant and carefree. It was obvious that his bucket of fucks was currently empty.

“He doesn’t even try to talk to me with that stupid telepathic Jedi mind trick ability,” I admitted. There was a small twinge of disappointment, but I wasn’t sure where it came from; I hated being around him.

“He wants to give you your space. Have you tried to talk to him?” he asked, causing me to realize that I hadn’t. I was afraid of any answer that I would get back from him, or that he would take that as an invitation to wait in my room while I was sleeping.

“Well…no. There’s just a lot of tension and a lot of things being kept from me, and I don’t want to be around him until he lets me know everything. You won’t tell me, Mikey won’t tell me, Gerard needs to tell me,” I couldn’t stress enough how frustrating it was being kept in the dark from everything.

“I agree, he should tell you,” the fact that he agreed with me was relieving.

“Then tell him he has until Sunday – tomorrow – to tell me, before I leave,” my word was final on the subject, causing him to nod slowly, “So where is Cell now?”

“I have no idea. One minute, we were talking. She was acting weird; conflicted with herself, almost. The next, Mason showed up, and they both disappeared. Literally, they disappeared into thin air,” he said, and his eyes were becoming glossy. “I just wanted to win over her heart,” he nearly whispered.

“I’ll deal with Mason,” I said shortly before standing up. I needed to get dressed and decide what I was going to take with me. I wish I was able to call my dad, but he was busy and overseas.

After my shower, I walked through my room to gather the things I was unable to replace. I could easily find the materialistic things again, but my family pictures, the necklace Frank had given me, and the special editions of my favorite books, I knew I couldn’t leave without. Tomorrow, I would gather a few changes of clothes and meet up with Liam. I tidied up my room a little bit before I headed to the utility room underneath the football field. Mason wouldn’t be there yet, but I would wait for him. He wouldn’t leave Cell, and he wouldn’t take her against her will. But…what if she went willingly? What if they weren’t coming back? Still, I opened the door to the room, and sat down on one of the few chairs.

It felt like hours before he reappeared. He literally reappeared, where at one moment it was just an empty space in the room, and the next moment it was Mason. His eyes immediately focused on me, and for a second, seemed surprised that I was there. The look vanished, and a lopsided grin took over his face, “Well, hello there, princess. Here to threaten my life? Tell me I’m a worthless piece of shit? Even though I will admit, there probably wouldn’t be much argument from my end. I am kind of shitty,” he smiled as he started to squat. When his behind was about three feet off the ground, a recliner appeared underneath him. He kicked his feet up in the recliner and grinned.

“No, I was here to try and bargain with you,” I said softly. I didn’t stand up from where I was, so we just sat down at eye level, “However, I don’t really have much to bargain with. It’s not like we’re actually the ones keeping you here, and you can probably get away with murder. Oh wait, you already have. A whole massacre of innocent kids, as a matter of fact.”

“Oh that? That was just for fun, calm down,” he swatted his hand as if it weren’t a big deal, “but you’re right. I can come and go freely, but now I’m curious. What is it that you want?”

“I want you to leave Celine alone,” his mouth moved from a childish and lopsided grin to a large Cheshire-like smile. It was almost creepy, and almost contagious.

“I can’t just leave her alone. I have a freeway right into her mind. I can hear what she hears, see what she says. When that fucktart Frank messes with her emotions, I can feel those emotions. You sort of…grow close to a person that way,” he admitted. Suddenly, loud talking erupted from the other side of the door, causing Mason and I to snap our heads to look that way. Mason vanished, and then reappeared next to me, grabbed me by my triceps, and then we were in a completely new area. We were on a yellow pillar of a suspension bridge which was surrounded by mountains and extremely high up.

“Take me back,” I said harshly.

“Ronan, welcome to the Sidu River Bridge in China. Currently, it is the world’s highest bridge at 1,627 feet above ground level. If you don’t let me talk, I’m leaving you here. No, even better, I’ll push you, and then leave you,” his grin was back now.

“You wouldn’t dare,” my scowl found it’s way directly into his soul. Well, it would have if he had a soul. I was convinced he didn’t. He grabbed my upper arm and slightly shoved me. Before I could register the panic my body was going through, Mason pulled me back close to him and helped me regain my stability. He raised an eyebrow, and I let out a breath, “Talk,” I demanded.

“I know I’m usually really good at being the bad influence, but there’s something about Celine. I think she might be changing me,” he admitted.

“I don’t think there is any changing you. Not for the better, at least. Also, I’m not sure how you could get much worse,” I sneered.

“I haven’t killed you yet, have I? Let me remind you that I’m very capable of doing that,” he pointed out. Maybe he was right, “So now I’ll present a bargain. You keep your nose out of mine and Celine’s business, and I’ll make sure I don’t kill you.”

“And my friends?” I asked, skeptical of his offer.

“And your stupid little friends. I don’t think Celine would be happy to find them slaughtered as well,” he looked off into the distance, “I really do love this place.” He let out a deep sigh of content.

“You’ll take care of here?” I didn’t know Cell that much, but I knew her enough to know that I care about her. That, and Frank cared about her.

“Well, duh,” he said, “So, do we have a deal or no?”

“All I can promise is that I’ll leave you alone. Whatever any of the other guys do…I don’t control them,” I admitted. It had only taken ten minutes, but I had to say, Mason was beginning to grow on me. I hated that he was, but he was.

“That’s all I need,” he said. He wrapped his arms around me, and for a second I thought he was hugging me. Then, he kicked off the pillar and we started heading towards the bottom of the mountainous area causing my body to go into full panic. I began screaming at the top of my lungs, and then we hit the ground. Wait, no, that’s not what happened.

I sat up and looked around, noticing that I was back on the school ground of Bal Voyeux. I was highly disoriented. I lay back down and looked at the stars. I knew it was getting late when I was waiting for Mason to show up in the room under the football field, but it had been daytime in China, so coming back here to the stars caused short confusion. I needed to get back to my room; I needed to rest before Liam and I left tomorrow. I walked passed the football field, where I myself faced an interception. However, it had nothing to do with football, but instead my favorite person; Gerard. He grabbed me by the hand and pulled me towards the wood line.

“I’m getting this uncomfortable feeling,” I said. He kept silent until we walked a good hundred feet into the forest. That probably meant that he was about to start yelling, causing me to mentally roll my eyes. He let go as we stopped, and walked a few feet away before he turned around to look at me. He still didn’t say anything, “So this is the calm before the storm,” I stated smugly, crossing my arms and cocking a hip out.

“No storm,” he promised, “I have something to show you.”

“Please don’t pull your penis out,” the words weren’t meant to actually come out of my mouth. Gerard grinned, and I was surprised that he didn’t start yelling at me. He walked towards me and held out his hand.

“If you get uncomfortable, I’ll bring you back right away,” I just looked at his hand while my arms were still crossed.

“Newsflash, I’m already uncomfortable,” I said blankly.

“Please,” his voice was almost a whisper, and I gave in.

“Fine,” I grabbed his hand, and he walked me through two trees. Well, I thought it was two trees. No, it had been two trees, but now we stood on cobblestone. It was night time still, the stars clearly glittering the black sky. I looked behind us to see an archway into an alleyway. Nothing really surprised me anymore, so I went with it, “Where are we?” I asked in awe. People dressed differently here. It was almost the type of clothing you saw kings and queens of Europe wearing in paintings from the 16th and 17th century.

“Italy, circa 1678,” Gerard answered. He offered his arm out, which I took.

“We are definitely not dressed for Italy circa 1678,” I pointed out as I stared with wide eyes at people. Despite that, people paid us no attention.

“That can’t see that. We went back in time, where you didn’t exist, and this version of myself didn’t exist,” he explained with life.

“But you still existed,” I cocked an eyebrow. He smiled as he nodded.

“I was around a hundred and fifty years old. Actually, that’s who we’re looking for right now; me,” I craned my neck out to look for Gerard. I didn’t spot a creepy looking asshole anywhere, however, “There I am,” he pointed to somebody dressed up, with another woman holding on to his arm. I felt a small twinge of jealousy. “That’s Frederica. I thought she was the love of my life,” he smiled slightly, “thinking of it now, she was sort of bat shit crazy. But, I can handle crazy.”

“Was she also a vampire?” I asked as we now followed behind the two.

“No, I refused to turn her, or anybody, into a monster. Nobody deserves this, Ronan. I regret doing it every moment of the day, but-” I cut him off as I remembered his words.

“You couldn’t lose me,” I finished.

“I’ve been through that pain. I didn’t know if I can bear it a second time,” his words were morose, “She died by her own hand, and it was too late by the time I found her. No amount of my blood would bring her back. I bet you she’s in heaven, though, as an angel. Not what we’re going to be. I told myself I would never fall in love again. I could not bring somebody else into my life, everything about me is damned.” He walked back towards the arch we had come through.

“Okay, so, how does this explain why you were such a fuck head to me?” I wasn’t able to connect the dots. Really, I didn’t feel like connecting the dots, I just wanted him to finish explaining everything. After we walked through the archway, we were back in the forest.

“Because it took one look, Ronan,” his anger flared, I could feel it, and he punched the closest tree. A few pinecones fell, and hit the ground. He turned around to look at me, “One time and I fell in love with you.” Even with my now supernatural ability to hear everything, his words were still barely audible, “I wanted to make sure you stayed as far away from me so you wouldn’t get caught up in this life.”

“So why did you change me,” I knew it was because he didn’t want to lose me, but he was so open about not wanting me to hold this curse.

“Do you mean, how did I get to you in time?” he asked with a sad smile.

“Yeah, that sounds about right,” I said, leaning against a tree. I don’t think the weight of his words had really sunk in.

“Well, that Liam kid disappeared for a few days. That meant he was out doing what he was raised to do; kill vampires,” Liam had told me had a family emergency for those days. Wait, could he have lied about that? “That meant they were in the area. So I became protective. Some nights I would watch over you to make sure you were safe. One night, you got up, but you weren’t awake. I followed behind you to the roof. I had no idea you were about to jump,” now he leaned against the tree, and slid down it so he was sitting on the dirt, “I tried to catch you before it was too late,” his sentence began to tremble, and I swallowed hard, “I panicked. That’s why I changed you.” I sat down next to him, but made sure to keep a few inches from him. We sat in silence for a few moments.

“I don’t know what to say,” I said honestly.

“Say you won’t go,” he said softly.

“I have to go,” I stood up and walked a few feet away from Gerard before I turned around, “I have to leave.”

I turned around again and began walking from the forest, leaving Gerard at the tree, and feeling horrible with myself. I was glad I now had the clarity, and I now understood what he was feeling. But now I was sure about what I was feeling.

Still, I had to leave.

I was getting out of this place and never looking back.

©Shannon

Notes