Between Daylight And Darkness Chapter Nine
Title: Between Daylight And Darkness
Chapter: 9/9 And I Never Wanted Anything From You, Except Everything You Had And All That’s Left After That Too
Pairing: Naomi/Emily
Word Count: 11916
Disclaimer: I don't own, or claim to own, anything related to Skins. Borrowing the characters and throwing them into an entirely different universe altogether. I also don't own Twilight, and wouldn't ever want to. Chapter title from Florence And The Machine's 'Dog Days Are Over'.
Summary: Cyrus Jones, eighteen ten to nineteen thirteen, made his great grandchildren believe you could live to a hundred and three, a hundred and three is forever when you're just a little kid, so Cyrus Jones lived forever...
N.B. Again this is longer than I thought it would be and so split into two parts. A crazy amount of gratitude to doopits, and also to the daughter of my penpal.
Previous Chapters: Chapter One: Cause Anywhere Is Better Than Here
Chapter Two: Like Stars Burning Holes Right Through The Dark
Chapter Three: The Youth Is Starting To Change
Chapter Four: Happiness Hit Her Like A Bullet In The Back
Chapter Five: Who Is The Lamb And Who Is The Knife
Chapter Six: No More Dreaming Like A Girl So In Love With The Wrong World
Chapter Seven: It Tastes Like Death But It Looks Like Fun
Chapter Eight: But I Thought This Wouldn't Hurt A Lot
And I Never Wanted Anything From You, Except Everything You Had And All That’s Left After That Too
She woke up in her bed, comfortable and well rested. She stretched, her eyes jerking open as images of Katie attacking her came rushing back. What a horrible fucking dream, she thought, frowning because it had felt so real. She twisted her ankles beneath her covers, felt her face for signs of the struggle she could’ve sworn had happened. But nothing felt broken, or bruised, or painful. She felt fucking wonderful, actually, as if she’d never been so rested in her life.
She blew out a breath in relief, shaking her head at herself as she sat up and looked around her room. No matter how fucking tired she was, she decided, she would still ask Emily in to help her dreams along from now on. She smirked, since if Emily was going to be spending all her nights with her there were other ways they could ensure she got a good night’s sleep. Fuck’s sake, she thought, swinging her legs over the side of the bed and standing, she was worse than a horny teenage boy now. Officially.
Fuck she was hungry though. She struggled to remember if she’d managed to consume anything the night before, marvelling at her lack of a hangover. She paused with her hand on the doorknob. What had she done when Emily had dropped her off the night before? She remembered walking into her bedroom, looking at her bed and smiling, and then being attacked. Had she passed out? Launched straight into the dream? She looked down at the pyjamas she was wearing, no memory of putting them on and actually getting into bed in her mind.
She must’ve been completely wasted, she thought. Maybe the excessive feeding when Emily and her had, well, she smirked because Jesus fucking Christ, and then the feeding at the club, maybe that had made her pass out completely? She nodded, opening her bedroom door and stepping toward the stairs. The combination of the blood loss, and the drugs, and whatever else had probably meant that she’d passed out as soon as she’d gotten into bed, and just didn’t remember actually getting ready for it because she was so fucking out of it.
She frowned, pausing midway down the stairs and looking over her shoulder and out of the large window that overlooked the stairway. Holy fucking Jesus, she thought, it was night time? Had she slept all day? She snorted at herself, wondering how the fuck she would explain that to her dad. At least, she shrugged lightly, sleeping that long seemed to have cured her of the awful hangover she was expecting.
She nearly groaned as something delicious wafted up the stairs and hit her nostrils. Fuck, she was so hungry. Whatever her dad was cooking was making her insides actually hurt with hunger.
“Hi Dad.” She smiled at him as he turned around to blink at her in surprise, a bubbling saucepan sitting on the stove in front of him.
“Sweetheart, I didn’t know you were home!” He seemed slightly confused, but stepped toward her and kissed her hair.
She felt her eyes slip shut, the smell of the cooking overwhelming her momentarily.
“What are you cooking? It smells amazing!” She leant toward the stove, looking into the bubbling liquid and frowning as the scent seemed to lessen the closer she got to it.
“Just a stew love, I thought I’d put it in the fridge and you could help yourself during your study breaks. Your mum used to swear by it, and not to toot my own horn but it’s certainly one of the best dishes I can make. And it lasts!” He swirled a wooden spoon through the stew, lifting the spoon to his lips to taste it and nodding in satisfaction. “I don’t know why I haven’t made it for you before, care to try it?” He held the spoon toward her, and she grinned.
“Yeah, of course. I’m so hungry I’d eat cardboard right now.” She leant toward the spoon, her stomach roiling as the scent of the liquid hit her nostrils. Her dad tipped the stew into her mouth, and looked at her with his eyebrows raised expectantly as she swallowed.
It tasted absolutely awful. She spun away from it covering her mouth, running into the downstairs bathroom and vomiting so violently she wasn’t sure she’d be able to stop.
Her dad pounded on the door in alarm.
“I’m okay!” She called out, resting her head against the toilet seat, reaching up blindly to flush the toilet. She stared into the bowl, at the thick red vomit that had come out of her body. It looked like blood, and for a moment she was sure she would be sick again.
“Darling, I’m sorry! I’ll make you something else!” Her dad called out, sounding mortifyingly concerned.
She cracked the door open, self consciously wiping her mouth with the back of her hand as she offered him a weak smile.
“I don’t know why that happened.” She frowned in embarrassment, wondering what the fuck was wrong with her. Had Emily taken too much out of her? Was it possible, her stomach dropped suddenly, that she’d caught some sort of disease through Emily? After all, who the fuck were the other people Emily had fed off, and fuck knows what they had, and could vampire fangs transmit human diseases from one person to another?
“Oh love, don’t worry. Maybe there’s something in it you’re allergic to?” Her dad reached toward her, drawing her into a hug and rubbing her back. “I’ll make you a sandwich, shall I? Some tea?”
The smell hit her again as her face was pressed to her dad’s shoulder. The delicious smell that had drawn her to the kitchen in the first place.
“Sure.” She mumbled into the material of his shirt, pressing her face closer and inhaling through her nostrils deeply.
“Did something happen with Emily?” Her dad asked quietly, attempting to break the hug, squeezing her again when she refused to let him pull away.
“Why would you think that?” She asked softly, her eyes closing as she inhaled again.
“Your text, love. You said you were staying with Emily and going to college with her tomorrow morning. That you had to study and go over your applications together.” He continued to rub her back as she frowned. She’d texted that? “It’s why I’m so surprised to see you, love, I didn’t know you were home.”
Something wasn’t right. Why would she text her dad about staying with Emily? Had she been that fucked up the night before that she didn’t remember putting herself to bed, and texting her dad something completely ludicrous?
“I would’ve woken you up had I known you were home.” He squeezed her one more time, pulling himself away from her. Her eyes opened as the smell lessened, and she was drawn to the pulse on his neck. Jesus, she thought, staring at the tiny beat that made his skin seem to throb.
How had she never noticed that before? That pulse point, that beating of the blood beneath the skin of his throat. How easy it would be to pierce through that flimsy barrier, how easy to force the blood to gush out and into her…
She physically fell backwards against the doorframe behind her, her hand over her mouth as her dad frowned at her again.
“Darling do you need me to take you to a doctor?” He reached toward her and she jerked away from him.
“No, I’m fine, I just need to have a shower or something.” She mumbled turning away from him, the words sounding strangely muffled.
She ran up the stairs, her dad calling after her in concern even as she slammed her bedroom door shut and leant against it. She could still smell that fucking deliciousness, her stomach feeling like it was twisting inside her, her eyes slamming shut as she felt her mouth with trembling fingers.
She wanted to scream, or cry, or faint as the skin of her index finger slipped over her teeth. Her incisors weren’t meant to be that long, that fucking pointed.
Jesus fucking Christ.
She had fangs.
V^^^^^V
She leant against her bedroom door, knees drawn to her chest and face in her hands.
It hadn’t been a dream. Katie had attacked her the night before. Had attacked her and turned her. What the fuck, she thought, it didn’t make sense.
She had cried, awfully, before wiping her eyes and seeing blood on them. Something had lurched in her stomach at that, and she’d swallowed the urge to cry as hard as she could because what the fucking Christ was going on.
Katie had turned her.
Katie had fucking turned her into a vampire.
Had she?
The last thing she remembered was Katie leaning over her, and her body in the most amount of pain she’d ever been in. She was sure she would die, hopeful she wouldn’t, felt completely helpless and frightened. That fucking bitch, she thought. That fucking twat of a cunting bitch.
But had Katie turned her? She screwed her face up, desperate to remember. Had Emily found them, and saved her?
She hated that the thought didn’t make her feel any better. Nor why, she thought suddenly, she had woken up in her pyjamas and in bed like nothing had happened.
Emily would’ve taken her back to the others, wouldn’t she? Not left her in her bedroom with no clue, in proximity of her dad when she woke up fucking hungry or whatever she was.
Fucking hell, she thought miserably. Katie was the most evil thing in the entire fucking world and she’d never hated anyone so strongly.
She sucked in a shaky breath, and stopped herself as she felt suddenly hopeful that this was all wrong. She was breathing, wasn’t she? Vampires didn’t breath, didn’t have a heartbeat…
She pressed her fingers to the side of her neck, whimpering softly when she felt nothing, pressing them to her wrist and swearing when she felt nothing again. It didn’t mean anything, though.
She sucked in a breath and held it, seeing how long it would take before her aching lungs gave out and she’d have to breath normally.
Her eyes glanced around her room as she held her breath, looking at her bag in the corner, her coursework spread out on the floor. Looked at the clothes she had on the ground, and the rumpled blankets on her bed.
Her curtains were closed, and she frowned at them for a moment. Had she left her window open? Was that how Katie had gotten inside? She remembered being thrown out of it, remembered her stomach leaping into her throat as she plummeted toward the ground outside.
It didn’t make sense for Katie to turn her, though. Katie hated her, wanted Emily to have nothing to do with her for whatever fucking reason. That she couldn’t grasp either, why Katie was so adamant that her and Emily couldn’t have their brief romance or whatever it was.
What the fuck was Katie’s problem? She was a mortal, for Christ’s sake. Or used to be, she thought miserably. She was going to go to uni, and grow up, and have a life and Emily was perpetually stuck at the latter stages of being a teen. Was immortal, would watch Naomi growing and know they couldn’t stay together.
It was what had made her change her fucking mind in the first place, about being with Emily. It couldn’t last, it wouldn’t be forever, it was a brief reprieve from reality and tragically romantic and fuck she hated Katie for ruining everything.
What the fuck did she do now? Join the merry band of morally upright vampires on their quest to be normal?
She shook her head pitifully. What the hell would she tell her dad? Where could she go?
She groaned slightly as she realised ten minutes had passed and she hadn’t had to take a breath.
Her stomach hurt her so badly and she couldn’t begin to wrap her head around the idea that she would have to drink blood, human blood, or it wouldn’t go away.
She stood suddenly because she was fucked if she was going to do what Katie probably wanted her to; kill her own father and drink his blood. She shook her head because seriously, what the fuck? This couldn’t be real. She had to be dreaming. She moved toward her window, gripping her curtains in both hands.
She doubled over as her stomach spasmed and her fangs began to ache. She could still smell that delicious smell, that blood smell that had been emanating off her dad, and turned toward her door before she could stop herself. She had moved so fucking quickly that her hand was on her doorknob before she could blink.
She had to leave.
She touched her door softly, running her hand over it once and wanting to cry because she couldn’t say goodbye. Couldn’t see her dad without losing control. She heard footsteps on the stairs, and panicked at the thought of him coming to check up on her.
She turned back toward her window, raising an eyebrow before moving toward it as fast as she could.
Jesus, she thought, appearing next to it and feeling like she’d hardly moved.
She pulled her curtains open quickly, narrowing her eyes at the giant love heart drawn in lipstick on it, and the slightly smudged lip print in the middle.
Fucking cunt, she thought, opening her window as she heard her dad nearing the top of the stairs. She climbed onto the sill, perching and looking down at the ground below.
She quickly went over her mental list of reasons as to why she was definitely a vampire again, in case she was somehow missing something and was about to purposefully break both her ankles by leaping from her window like a lunatic.
No breathing? Check. Fangs? Check. Almost uncontrollable desire to kill her father and drink his blood? Double check.
She heard her dad approaching her door, her nostrils flaring as for a second she contemplated killing him for the hell of it.
She jumped instead, landing on the ground without injury, and taking a slight moment to wonder at that. If she wasn’t so angry and confused, she would’ve thought that was completely awesome.
She straightened, glancing down after a moment and wincing at herself because, really. She was still in her pyjamas. Fuck’s sake she thought, even as she heard her bedroom door open and her dad call softly into her now empty room.
With one last glance toward her bedroom window, she took off running.
V^^^^^V
She sat on her bench, beneath the big tree in the park she’d come to think of as her special place. She hadn’t meant to run there, but had found it to be the only place she could think of, had slumped onto the park bench and again put her face in her hands.
She had no money, no phone, no shoes. Not that she needed the latter, but it was ridiculous that she literally had nowhere she could go.
She felt like she’d end up punching another vampire if she came across one, her insides bubbling with anger and hunger. And she was petrified about being around someone human.
She couldn’t rationalise it, actually killing someone. Had started to wonder if she could just hold herself back until she could find an NBS bloodmobile and treat it as an all you can eat buffet.
She groaned, leaning over as another spasm hit her. Her fangs ached awfully. Something wafted by her, and her head shot up as she inhaled.
Someone was close by, somewhere in the park. She couldn’t stop herself as she stood up and began to run towards them.
She stopped behind a tree, closing her eyes and inhaling. She felt herself grin, and it was awful. She peered around the tree, seeing a teenage boy walking with his dog a ways off, laughing as his dog wagged it’s tail happily and jumped up at him.
“Get off!” The boy affectionately patted the dog’s head, pushing the dog away after a moment.
She kept her eyes on the dog as it turned it’s head in her direction and cocked it to the side. Some part of her was telling her to back off, to go back to the bench and chain herself to it if need be. She ignored it, her eyes narrowing as she crouched down and waited for the dog to come toward her.
The dog was growling in her direction, and she smirked at it. Come on you fucker, she thought, not wondering that hadn’t she once been an animal activist?
“Come on, Jeremy. Fuck’s sake, I want to go home. Shit and be done with it.” The boy kept walking, absent-mindedly patting his leg. “Fucking hell.” He muttered as Jeremy growled loudly and ran toward the tree she was hiding behind.
She grabbed Jeremy as he rounded the tree, picking him up and swiftly breaking his neck before he could let out a whimper or bark. Again there was part of her that questioned what the fuck she was doing. You just killed a dog, it yelled at her, leave before you do something worse! Jesus fucking Christ, and you’d better donate all of your savings to the RSPCA because that was despicably unforgivable!
Something else in her was snarling, though, and gleeful. It dropped the dog’s body onto the ground and walked with her legs from behind the tree. She smiled at the boy, who had an exasperated look on his face, as he was strolling toward where his dog had disappeared.
She blinked, though her progress toward him didn’t falter. She knew him.
“Hey Michael.” She said it easily, keeping her lips close together to hide her fangs. There was barely any light where they stood, and he squinted at her before his face split into a grin.
“Naomi!” He put his hands in his pockets, as if suddenly shy. “What are you doing here so late?” He looked briefly at what she was wearing, tilting his head to the side.
She giggled flirtatiously. “My bloody dog needed a walk and I thought, fuck it I’ll just go in my pyjamas.” She batted her eyelashes at him. “I didn’t expect to see anyone else here.”
He looked at her bare feet for a second, smiling at her bashfully. “Me too! Jeremy, that’s my dogs name, needs to shit at the most awful times. Our back yard isn’t so big, either.” He shrugged. “Luckily we live so close to the park though.” He shuffled his feet nervously.
She walked slowly toward him, smirking as a breeze blew her t-shirt tightly against her chest, her tits outlined because of it. He stared at them, blushing furiously when he caught her eye. Well, maybe it was lucky she wasn’t wearing a bra after all.
“I’ve seen you here before.” He said softly, gazing at her as she reached a hand forward and lightly gripped his waist.
“Have you?” She murmured, feeling something inside her reach out toward him. “Would you agree that you and I would be perfect together?”
She watched his brow furrow for the tiniest of moments, before nodding his head. “Absolutely.” His eyes flickered between her lips and eyes, and she grinned, revealing her fangs.
He stepped back from her, eyes widening.
“I’m so hungry, Michael.” Her voice was soft, and she wondered what was causing her to toy with him. Couldn’t she have just jumped on him by now? “You’ll give your blood to me, won’t you?”
He nodded at her slowly, and stepped back into her arms as she lifted her hands and tilted his neck to the side.
It registered, as she sunk her teeth into his neck, that she enjoyed that he’d come to her willingly. That he clutched at her shoulders as she fed from him, that using her words made the snarling part of her want to laugh and clap it’s hands.
They sank down onto the ground, the taste of him better than she could ever have imagined. She felt her stomach stop twisting, her fangs digging deeper into his throat, the blood warm and gushing and wonderful.
She pulled back when his hands fell from her shoulders, and his head was lolling back. She heard his heart thumping sluggishly, and she watched as he died. She dropped his body, standing quickly and wondering what the hell had just happened.
She thought of the boy she’d seen dancing shyly across from her in the club, smiling and blushing at her nervously, and squeezed her eyes shut because his face was so still, and it was her fault.
“I’m sorry.” She said even as she felt herself tearing up, crouching to pick up his feet and dragging his body toward the tree.
She ripped out clumps of grass, digging with her hands as fast as she could and not looking at him. She had completely lost control, had been taken over by something that frightened the living daylights out of her. She rolled her eyes at herself, because there was nothing ‘living’ left.
She had just killed someone. Not just someone, either, but a boy she knew. And his dog.
She didn’t know how deep to dig, and kept at it until the opening was above her own head. She shook her head at how little time it had taken, how much effort she hadn’t had to exert, how her energy felt fucking limitless.
She climbed out of the hole easily, pushing Michael and Jeremy into it, avoiding looking at them as Michael’s body crumpled in the hole slightly too narrow for his height, Jeremy on his chest.
She wanted to say something, but didn’t know what she could say.
She pushed the dirt over them, as fast as she could, stamping her feet on the earth when she was done. Well, it was a big fucking obvious patch of dirt but she figured no one would find it unless they were looking.
And she didn’t care if they were looking. She just wanted to bury him, to hide him because leaving him lying out there in the open felt wrong to her somehow. Like he was exposed, like she owed it to him to protect him in some way.
Which was fucking ridiculous, she thought and sniffled. This whole fucking thing was ridiculous.
She looked at the patch of dirt one more time before resolving herself to get to the bottom of this whole thing.
She only barely remembered how to get to their house but it wasn’t as if she would get tired, was it? It wasn’t as if a bit of searching would hurt her.
After all, nothing could hurt her anymore.
V^^^^^V
Naomi paused on the winding driveway, her hands on her knees and bending forward as Michael’s face flashed in front of her eyes.
She had killed him. She was a vampire and she had killed him.
She strode forward after a moment, determined. She thought of her dad, her sweet and kind father who would be heart broken because she’d disappeared and could never tell him why. She thought about Thomas standing at a bus stop and waiting to warn her; thought of Pandora gripping her wrist and telling her that the attention from Effy and that lot was a bad thing; thought of JJ smiling at her and blinking; finally thought of Emily leaning forward to kiss her, swearing she didn’t want to turn her.
There were tears in her eyes, and she hated that she felt so emotionally fucked up.
Of course she was, though, she was a fucking vampire for Christ’s sake. A few months ago she didn’t even think they existed, and now she was one. How did that happen?
She angrily wiped the tears away, resolving to replace her feelings of self pity with anger. Because she did feel extremely sorry for herself, not to mention extremely stupid. Had Katie done this to teach her a lesson? That didn’t make sense, and at the same time it made her feel angry all over again. She’d just wanted to spend time with Emily, had just wanted to… She shook her head. What had she wanted? Was it not enough that everyone around her had warned her about getting too close? Was it not enough that Emily had shown her memories of killing her own family, and somehow that had made her want to hug Emily and make everything better, instead of running away as she should have done? Her dad had been there the entire way, supporting her, being fucking amazing and she hated to think of what he was doing right now. Was he looking for her? Calling the police? Crying? Every thought was awful.
Why couldn’t Emily have just left her alone? Why did she pursue her so relentlessly? And why, she clenched her fists at her side, why did she go for Emily so willingly?
The house came into view, lights shining from almost every window. She could see them walking around inside, could hear snippets of their voices. Her eyesight and hearing were amazing, but she was too angry to pay attention to it.
She felt her fangs extend as she reached her hands toward the front door. Felt them pulse with anger, instead of hunger.
She felt like she was storming a castle.
V^^^^^V
Cassie and Tony were waiting for her when she threw the doors open, both of them standing at the foot of the stairs and looking at her expectantly. Tony had his hands clasped in front of him, the slightest smile on his face, and Cassie blinked at her owlishly.
“You arrive at last.” Tony looked at her calmly, and she wanted to tear his eyes out.
“You cunt!” She spat out, unsure of what else to say and halting as the door slammed shut behind her. Now she was actually in the house, and faced with them, she had no idea what her plan of attack was. But whatever, she needed someone to blame. She turned her gaze to Cassie, glaring at her.
“Oh, wow.” Cassie said softly, her gaze sympathetic.
“You knew you loopy twat!” Naomi wanted to fly at her now, and tear Cassie’s eyes out instead of Tony’s. She wasn’t sure why it was the eyes she wanted to go for, but something in the way they were looking at her angered her to no end.
“Course she did.” Tony shrugged, as if he was almost amused by Naomi standing there in her pyjamas, furiously glancing between them.
“Whoa.” Chris had paused on the staircase, looking at her with his eyes bugging out of his head. She watched as he looked her over, head to toe, before he grinned. “Em is going to be so happy! Well done you!” He winked at her, grinning widely, and she snarled before running and leaping at him.
Tony moved slightly to the side to let her through, and Cassie bit one of her nails, both of them turning to watch her tussle with Chris on the stairway.
She pushed him backwards and landed on top of him, gripping his shirt in her hands and pulling his face close to hers. He blinked at her in surprise before putting his hands on her waist and easily flipping her over, straddling her and grabbing her hands. He held them above her head, looking down at her confused.
“What did you do that for?”
“Arsehole! You fucking bastard!” She struggled beneath Chris as he turned his head toward Tony and Cassie.
“What am I missing?” He asked them, and Tony smirked.
“Tell him, Cass.” Tony gestured toward them, and Naomi tried to pull her hands free in vain, rolling her eyes when Sid approached them slowly, frowning at her with his head tilted to the side.
“What’s going on here then?” Sid stopped at the top of the stairs, raising his eyebrows as he looked between her and Chris, before Cassie stopped biting at one of her fingernails and stepped toward them.
“Katie turned Naomi.” She closed her eyes for a moment, before smiling almost cruelly. “Didn’t give her a choice.” Naomi watched as Cassie glared at Sid for a moment. “The devil.”
Sid rolled his eyes. “You know, I’m getting sick of this whole blame business. Oh Sid you’re a twat for turning me against my will! Oh Sid you’re a knobhead because you ruined all my plans.” Sid put his hands on his hips, glaring back at Cassie as her face clouded over in anger.
“Naomi has a right to be angry!” Her voice shrilled, and Naomi struggled again under Chris, almost managing to get her wrists free.
“Not to interrupt or anything, but can we focus on the problem at hand for a moment?” He twisted his head to look at Cassie and Sid pointedly. “She’s bloody strong, yeah?”
“You’re all to blame for this! I didn’t want this! Fucking let me go!” She yelled out, hating that there were tears developing in her eyes, and that Chris looked down at her with a concerned look on his face.
“Promise not to attack me again and you can go free.” He murmured, raising his eyebrows at her like she was a four year old who’d pissed in the corner and couldn’t be trusted not to do so again.
She struggled a final time, glancing at Sid, Cassie and Tony before rolling her eyes and nodding. Cassie and Sid were frowning slightly at each other, and Tony was shaking his head in amusement.
“And!” Chris narrowed his eyes, looking at her mouth. “Put those away.” He nodded at her fangs, and she frowned.
“I don’t know how, do I?” She grumbled, hating that Tony snorted and Chris laughed affectionately.
“You’ve got a lot to learn, babe. Just concentrate on retracting them, yeah? Think of, like, something that calms you.” He looked thoughtful for a moment and she felt herself getting angry all over again.
“I don’t think anything fucking calms me right now considering I’m a fucking vampire who just killed someone.” She glared at him as he winced, and out of her periphery she saw Tony step toward her, his smile gone.
“Did you hide the body?” He asked, and she rolled her eyes.
Cassie hugged herself, and Sid sat down on the stairs near her and Chris, reaching out to touch her hand briefly.
“Yes.” She finally answered, tight lipped, and thought of Michael again. Saw him walking willingly into her arms to die. She felt like sobbing, suddenly, and squeezed her eyes shut.
Chris gently let go of her wrists, lifting his leg and moving his body off hers. She kept her eyes shut as she began to cry, hating that she was doing so with an audience.
Someone lifted her into their arms, and held her as she cried. She was surprised to open her eyes and see it was Tony. She pushed him away.
“I need to find Katie.” She mumbled, wiping her eyes and frowning at each of them as they looked at each other warily.
“She’s gone.” Sid shrugged, avoiding looking at her.
“My sister too.” Tony added, watching as she sunk down onto a step feeling slightly defeated.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” She hated that her voice broke slightly as she turned her gaze to Cassie, who had moved to sit between Sid’s legs and was hugging one of them as she looked at Naomi sadly.
“She can’t.” Chris mumbled, frowning at the ceiling for a moment before looking at her. “She just can’t.”
Sid was stroking Cassie’s hair, and they all turned as they heard a car pull up outside.
Michelle walked through the front door first, laughing at something Freddie was telling her, both of them stopping and looking toward her in shock.
“Shit.” Freddie mumbled as Michelle walked toward Tony uncertainly.
“What’s this?” She asked him, but he shook his head at her.
Cook strolled through the door then, nodding his head at everyone with a cocky grin before doing a double take when he saw Naomi sitting on the stairs.
He burst out laughing when he saw her, pointing at her and doubling over. Chris put a reassuring hand on her arm when she narrowed her eyes at Cook.
“Fuck I’m sorry, but the looks on all your faces!” He eagerly looked between the front door and Naomi, as if waiting. “This is going to be fucking magical!”
They were all looking between her and the door, seemingly making no attempt to hide it.
Naomi bit her lip, filled with nervous dread, waiting for Emily to see her. Did she know already? Or would she, as almost everyone else seemed to, be surprised?
The thought that Emily didn’t know was both alluring and awful. She wanted to blame Emily for everything, and at the same time was desperate to know she wasn’t part of it. Hadn’t planned it.
Emily was swinging her car keys when she walked through the door.
“Hey arsehole, you left this.” Emily threw what looked like a phone toward Cook, who caught it and grinned at her gleefully.
Emily frowned when she realised that everyone was looking at her, opened her mouth as if to speak, and then locked eyes with Naomi and froze.
Naomi gazed back at her, hating that she felt equally angry and vulnerable.
Naomi could see everyone looking between them, waiting for a reaction from either of them. Even Cook had stopped laughing, though couldn’t seem to contain his glee, and was turning his head so fast Naomi thought his neck would’ve snapped if he’d still been mortal.
Emily took a step backward, shaking her head, looking at Cassie for a moment.
“Katie.” Cassie whispered softly, Naomi feeling a spike of anger at the mention of that name.
Emily’s eyes slipped shut for an instant, before she shook her head and spun around, running back out of the front door.
Naomi stood, Chris patting her leg encouragingly, before she followed.
V^^^^^V
Emily was standing at the edge of where the driveway met the lawn, staring toward Bristol, her arms wrapped around herself.
Naomi walked up behind her, ignoring that the driveway was scattered with rocks and bits of gravel, and that it didn’t hurt her feet. She had so much to get used to.
She stood next to Emily, frowning at the city in front of them. She glanced briefly at the stars, thought of the artificial stars on her ceiling back home, and felt the unfairness of the whole situation hit her again. She would never see them again, would she? The actual stars a poor imitation suddenly, when it should’ve been the other way around.
“Katie.” Emily murmured.
“Yes.” Naomi replied tersely as a breeze blew against both of them. She could smell Emily, though it had changed with her new apparent vampiric senses. Like there was the slightest scent of decay underneath.
“When?” Emily’s voice rasped, and Naomi saw her wipe her eyes quickly.
“Last night. Was hiding in my room.” Naomi folded her arms over her chest, turning toward Emily.
Emily squinted at the distance, wouldn’t turn to look at her as if she couldn’t actually bring herself to do it.
“I didn’t want this.” Emily murmured, and Naomi snorted, feeling the anger welling up inside her again.
“And you think I did?” Naomi reached toward Emily, grabbing her shoulder hard and pushing, turning Emily to face her. “Fucking look at me!”
Emily shut her eyes before lifting her head and seeming to steel herself before she could open her eyes and look at Naomi.
Naomi let her hand fall to her side as Emily’s eyes raked over her face. Taking stock, it seemed, particularly when Emily’s eyes moved to look down at her feet and slowly back up again.
“I can’t,” Emily whispered, her voice just barely cracking through. “I can’t hear your heart beat.” She finally managed before putting her face in her hands and starting to cry.
Well, Naomi hadn’t expected this. Righteous anger, maybe. Guilt, perhaps. But Emily was sobbing into her own hands, blood slipping through her fingers and falling to the ground between them. She hadn’t expected Emily to be as miserable as she was.
She reached out after watching Emily cry for a few moments, pulling Emily into her shoulder and hugging her. It was fucking ridiculous because shouldn’t she be the one being comforted? Everything was backwards, everything was wrong.
Emily clutched at her desperately, burying her face in her t-shirt.
“I’m so sorry.” She mumbled, over and over.
Naomi frowned, wondering what the fuck Emily expected her to say in reply. She stayed silent, gritting her teeth and waiting until Emily had composed herself.
“Tell me everything.” Emily frowned slightly at her, stepping out of the embrace and looking guiltily at the blood stains on Naomi’s shoulder. Well, they could just match the other ones, couldn’t they? Naomi looked down at her blood covered shirt, wondering which parts were her own tears, which belonged to Michael, thinking it painfully perfect that Emily’s had now been added.
She narrowed her eyes at Emily, starting with Katie attacking her in her room and ending with Emily walking into her own house and finding Naomi on the stairs. She told Emily every detail she could remember, determined not to care when Emily flinched during the moments Katie was killing her and all Naomi could think of was Emily saving her. Stared back at Emily resolutely when she told her about wanting to kill her own father, about finding Michael and killing him and his dog.
She backtracked and told Emily about Cassie’s vague warning the night before, felt a small measure of satisfaction when Emily narrowed her eyes toward the house in response.
“So now I’m homeless, a vampire, and I want to find Katie and hold her fucking head in a nice patch of sunshine until she’s nothing but a gooey mess of burnt flesh, assuming that is what happens.” Naomi had her arms crossed again, and waited as Emily seemed to digest everything that had happened.
“Michael just agreed with you?” Emily asked after a moment, and Naomi had a sudden urge to strangle her because of everything she’d just divulged and that was what Emily chose to address?
“He died willingly. Sort of.” Naomi bit her lip, wincing when she bit through it and feeling her eyes widen as it healed the moment she lifted her teeth off it.
“Like Tony.” Emily mumbled turning to look at the house, and Naomi frowned.
“Emily, stop being fucking vague. This is not the time.”
Emily nodded at her, again looking apologetic. “Right, sorry. Tony can manipulate people into doing whatever he tells them to. It’s how we got away with going to college even though we’re, you know, old.”
“So him and I can do the same thing, then?” Naomi shrugged her shoulders, wondering why that was so important.
Emily looked at her thoughtfully. “Maybe. Did Michael just do what you wanted without comment, like he was mindless?”
Naomi didn’t want to think about it, about Michael agreeing with what she had said and stepping toward her.
She closed her eyes briefly before nodding tersely, and then shaking her head.
“Sort of. He agreed with what I said to him.”
“Not exactly the same then.” Emily muttered, and Naomi felt an overwhelming urge to kick something.
Apparently being a vampire made her exceptionally violent.
“Come on, you need different clothes.” Emily began walking toward the house, and Naomi grudgingly followed her.
They walked side by side around the side of the house to a back door Naomi hadn’t seen before. Different clothes was a start, but then what was she going to do?
“I want to find Katie.” She grumbled as Emily opened the door and stood back to let her through.
“Yeah well, so do I.” Emily grumbled back and stepped into the house, closing the door and walking past Naomi. Naomi followed Emily, wondering that the last time they had seen each other they had been so happy. They had danced, and kissed, and Naomi had felt like anything was possible.
Now she was faced with eternity, with forever, with things she couldn’t yet wrap her head around. This was the worst night of her life.
“You can have Effy’s room, if you want time to yourself.” Emily said softly, leading her up a back set of stairs to the top floor. “Her clothes too, since I don’t think mine will fit you and Katie, well, I don’t think you want anything associated with her.”
Emily’s voice was glum, and Naomi realised somewhat stupidly that Emily had put herself in that category as well. She tried as best she could to reassure Emily that she didn’t blame her for this, for her sister, but she couldn’t get the words out, not yet.
Emily led her past the door to her own room and to another, cracking it open and letting Naomi walk inside.
It was dark, and bare, and smelt different to Emily’s. There was the slight odour of decay, and something else that wasn’t entirely unpleasant.
“Thanks.” Naomi muttered, turning to Emily and wanting to smile, but being entirely unable to.
“Find me when you want to, yeah?” Emily mumbled, and Naomi just nodded in reply, watching as Emily shut the door behind her.
She didn’t need to, could see perfectly in the dark, but switched the light on because she wanted the comfort.
Effy’s room was strangely bare. A comfortable chair facing the window, a pile of books next to it. An antique looking rug in the middle of the room, and a fireplace. There was a closet and artwork on the walls, though it was placed randomly and Naomi felt like it was a room of transition more than one specifically Effy’s, as if Effy had known she wouldn’t stay long.
Naomi opened the closet doors, raising her eyebrow at the assortment of torn jeans and ripped shirts. She rifled through them, rolling her eyes at how small the waistbands were on most of the pants, before finding a pair that would fit and changing out of her pyjama pants. She felt stupid as she held her pyjama pants to her chest for a moment, smelling the faintest whiff of her dad’s laundry powder and her own room on them, feeling miserable as she did so.
She put them in the back of the closet instead, lifting her t-shirt over her head and doing the same before rifling around for a bra, rolling her eyes at herself when she realised Effy didn’t wear them so of course there weren’t any.
She pulled a long t-shirt out of the closet, shaking her head at the large wolf face print on the front, before slipping it over her head.
It would have to do for now.
V^^^^^V
She was sitting in the only chair in the room, staring out of the window at the lightening sky, the twinkling lights of Bristol long since turned off in the face of actual daylight.
The chair was comfortable and perfectly positioned, and she wondered how often Effy had sat in it watching the view. The chair was well worn, completely mismatched to the rug or the artwork on the walls, the crumpled books beside it on the floor yellowed with age. She had sifted through them half heartedly, not recognising the languages they were printed in, or frowning because the first few pages were missing from some, the covers torn or missing altogether.
She tried valiantly to fight it, though ended up stuck in the chair imagining everything she would be doing at this moment had Katie not interrupted and ended her life. Her knees were tucked into her chest, her head leaning against the high back rest of the chair.
She would be eating breakfast now, rolling her eyes as her dad doted on her and made a general idiot of himself in his over eager attempt to keep her happy. She felt herself smile as she thought of him, felt her chest ache along with it. His stew was probably delicious, she thought, and she’d never get a chance to taste it properly.
It was awful, too, to think that as an only child the family line was effectively halted at her. Unless her dad had more children, which she hoped for more than anything, she was it and she was dead. That wasn’t fair. Fucked if she knew if she would’ve had children one day, but she was so sick of not having a choice in the matters of her life. Or death, really.
In the distance she saw a patch of sunlight peeking through a hole in the clouds, and squinted at it. It hurt her eyes to do so, but fuck it. Everything hurt inside, it was a nice distraction.
What would her dad tell her mum? ‘I made Naomi that stew you used to love, but it made her sick and she ran away.’ Is that what her dad thought? That she’d run away from home in some direct relation to his failed attempt at looking after her?
The questions burning inside her stomach were the worst part. She would never know the answers, would never know what was happening now, what would’ve been happening now if Katie hadn’t taken it upon herself to intervene, if Emily hadn’t tried so hard to make things work between them.
She’d be at college now, maybe, sitting next to Pandora and drowning out her excited babbling about television shows she’d never cared about. Maybe she should’ve, though. Maybe she should’ve watched people on television instead of having her own adventures with fucking vampires and sexual experimentation.
It made her sick with anger to think of Katie yelling at her that she didn’t understand what she was getting herself into, didn’t know what she was playing with. Because she was right, wasn’t she? Naomi was fucking stupid all along. But, she argued pitifully with herself, she was a fucking teenager and meant to be stupid, and excitable, and not really have any idea of the consequences of her actions.
She sniffled, hating that she had cried so much, and that her tears were bloody, as if even in her misery she couldn’t escape her new reality. Vampire. Blood sucker. Demon from hell.
But she didn’t feel like she was evil, or a member of the undead. She just felt like a confused teenage girl who wanted her parents, and her own room, and not to be a danger to the people she loved the most.
V^^^^^V
There was a knock on Effy’s door sometime in the afternoon, Naomi having to again change the shirt she was wearing because vampire tears left the kind of stain her mortal tears never had. She had found another long t-shirt, wincing at Effy’s dress sense because it seemed a far cry from her own.
Effy’s door opened, and Naomi was surprised to see Michelle stick her head through.
“Hey.” Michelle said softly, moving into the room and shutting the door behind her. Michelle gazed at her sympathetically, and Naomi softly put her feet onto the carpet and attempted to look less miserable than she felt.
“Hi.”
“Listen, I just wanted to say if you need to talk to someone you can talk to me, yeah?” Michelle walked toward the front of the room, perching against the windowsill.
Naomi blinked at her.
“You know, it’s hard getting used to it, especially when your previous life is still so fresh. It took me a long time to understand what had happened to me, but I chose it. I know you didn’t.” Michelle crossed her arms over her chest, gazing out of the window before glancing at Naomi and smiling slightly.
“Why did you choose it?” Naomi asked, frowning, feeling her curiosity peeked despite herself.
“I loved Tony.” Michelle shrugged, before smiling ruefully. “First love is very intense.”
Naomi snorted, though her expression remained tight.
“Right.” Naomi turned her face away as Michelle gazed at her.
“We can get you some clothes, better suited clothes. I don’t think Effy will be back anytime soon, so you can consider this room yours.” Michelle smiled at her. “If you like.”
Naomi nodded, once, unable to feel anything other than discomfort at the gesture. The clothes she needed, the room though? She couldn’t bare the thought of staying in Bristol. Couldn’t bare the thought of anything, really, other than returning to the life she knew.
Michelle took her shopping in Bath, and the lack of familiarity was comforting. It was easy to pretend they were two teenage girls shopping for outfits they could wear comfortably to college, or to clubs. She liked Michelle, and hadn’t expected to.
Michelle let her choose whatever she liked, and paid for everything. In a different life it would’ve been exhilarating, Michelle acting like a sugar daddy to her poor homeless teen on the streets act. But it was all overshadowed by remembering the clothes in her wardrobe at home, remembering shopping trips with her mum in London, remembering the reason why Michelle was doing this for her in the first place.
She fingered the material of a shirt briefly, smiling slightly as it reminded her of her favourite back in the closet at her dad’s house. Her mum had made it for her during her vegetarian phase, a picture of a pig’s face crudely printed on the front. She fucking loved that shirt.
She felt herself getting emotional again, and when Michelle gently led her out of the shop and back to the car without a word, she was more than grateful for it.
She stared glumly at the countryside as they drove back to Bristol, back to the house on the hill that, temporarily, she supposed she now called home.
V^^^^^V
Part Two
Chapter: 9/9 And I Never Wanted Anything From You, Except Everything You Had And All That’s Left After That Too
Pairing: Naomi/Emily
Word Count: 11916
Disclaimer: I don't own, or claim to own, anything related to Skins. Borrowing the characters and throwing them into an entirely different universe altogether. I also don't own Twilight, and wouldn't ever want to. Chapter title from Florence And The Machine's 'Dog Days Are Over'.
Summary: Cyrus Jones, eighteen ten to nineteen thirteen, made his great grandchildren believe you could live to a hundred and three, a hundred and three is forever when you're just a little kid, so Cyrus Jones lived forever...
N.B. Again this is longer than I thought it would be and so split into two parts. A crazy amount of gratitude to doopits, and also to the daughter of my penpal.
Previous Chapters: Chapter One: Cause Anywhere Is Better Than Here
Chapter Two: Like Stars Burning Holes Right Through The Dark
Chapter Three: The Youth Is Starting To Change
Chapter Four: Happiness Hit Her Like A Bullet In The Back
Chapter Five: Who Is The Lamb And Who Is The Knife
Chapter Six: No More Dreaming Like A Girl So In Love With The Wrong World
Chapter Seven: It Tastes Like Death But It Looks Like Fun
Chapter Eight: But I Thought This Wouldn't Hurt A Lot
And I Never Wanted Anything From You, Except Everything You Had And All That’s Left After That Too
She woke up in her bed, comfortable and well rested. She stretched, her eyes jerking open as images of Katie attacking her came rushing back. What a horrible fucking dream, she thought, frowning because it had felt so real. She twisted her ankles beneath her covers, felt her face for signs of the struggle she could’ve sworn had happened. But nothing felt broken, or bruised, or painful. She felt fucking wonderful, actually, as if she’d never been so rested in her life.
She blew out a breath in relief, shaking her head at herself as she sat up and looked around her room. No matter how fucking tired she was, she decided, she would still ask Emily in to help her dreams along from now on. She smirked, since if Emily was going to be spending all her nights with her there were other ways they could ensure she got a good night’s sleep. Fuck’s sake, she thought, swinging her legs over the side of the bed and standing, she was worse than a horny teenage boy now. Officially.
Fuck she was hungry though. She struggled to remember if she’d managed to consume anything the night before, marvelling at her lack of a hangover. She paused with her hand on the doorknob. What had she done when Emily had dropped her off the night before? She remembered walking into her bedroom, looking at her bed and smiling, and then being attacked. Had she passed out? Launched straight into the dream? She looked down at the pyjamas she was wearing, no memory of putting them on and actually getting into bed in her mind.
She must’ve been completely wasted, she thought. Maybe the excessive feeding when Emily and her had, well, she smirked because Jesus fucking Christ, and then the feeding at the club, maybe that had made her pass out completely? She nodded, opening her bedroom door and stepping toward the stairs. The combination of the blood loss, and the drugs, and whatever else had probably meant that she’d passed out as soon as she’d gotten into bed, and just didn’t remember actually getting ready for it because she was so fucking out of it.
She frowned, pausing midway down the stairs and looking over her shoulder and out of the large window that overlooked the stairway. Holy fucking Jesus, she thought, it was night time? Had she slept all day? She snorted at herself, wondering how the fuck she would explain that to her dad. At least, she shrugged lightly, sleeping that long seemed to have cured her of the awful hangover she was expecting.
She nearly groaned as something delicious wafted up the stairs and hit her nostrils. Fuck, she was so hungry. Whatever her dad was cooking was making her insides actually hurt with hunger.
“Hi Dad.” She smiled at him as he turned around to blink at her in surprise, a bubbling saucepan sitting on the stove in front of him.
“Sweetheart, I didn’t know you were home!” He seemed slightly confused, but stepped toward her and kissed her hair.
She felt her eyes slip shut, the smell of the cooking overwhelming her momentarily.
“What are you cooking? It smells amazing!” She leant toward the stove, looking into the bubbling liquid and frowning as the scent seemed to lessen the closer she got to it.
“Just a stew love, I thought I’d put it in the fridge and you could help yourself during your study breaks. Your mum used to swear by it, and not to toot my own horn but it’s certainly one of the best dishes I can make. And it lasts!” He swirled a wooden spoon through the stew, lifting the spoon to his lips to taste it and nodding in satisfaction. “I don’t know why I haven’t made it for you before, care to try it?” He held the spoon toward her, and she grinned.
“Yeah, of course. I’m so hungry I’d eat cardboard right now.” She leant toward the spoon, her stomach roiling as the scent of the liquid hit her nostrils. Her dad tipped the stew into her mouth, and looked at her with his eyebrows raised expectantly as she swallowed.
It tasted absolutely awful. She spun away from it covering her mouth, running into the downstairs bathroom and vomiting so violently she wasn’t sure she’d be able to stop.
Her dad pounded on the door in alarm.
“I’m okay!” She called out, resting her head against the toilet seat, reaching up blindly to flush the toilet. She stared into the bowl, at the thick red vomit that had come out of her body. It looked like blood, and for a moment she was sure she would be sick again.
“Darling, I’m sorry! I’ll make you something else!” Her dad called out, sounding mortifyingly concerned.
She cracked the door open, self consciously wiping her mouth with the back of her hand as she offered him a weak smile.
“I don’t know why that happened.” She frowned in embarrassment, wondering what the fuck was wrong with her. Had Emily taken too much out of her? Was it possible, her stomach dropped suddenly, that she’d caught some sort of disease through Emily? After all, who the fuck were the other people Emily had fed off, and fuck knows what they had, and could vampire fangs transmit human diseases from one person to another?
“Oh love, don’t worry. Maybe there’s something in it you’re allergic to?” Her dad reached toward her, drawing her into a hug and rubbing her back. “I’ll make you a sandwich, shall I? Some tea?”
The smell hit her again as her face was pressed to her dad’s shoulder. The delicious smell that had drawn her to the kitchen in the first place.
“Sure.” She mumbled into the material of his shirt, pressing her face closer and inhaling through her nostrils deeply.
“Did something happen with Emily?” Her dad asked quietly, attempting to break the hug, squeezing her again when she refused to let him pull away.
“Why would you think that?” She asked softly, her eyes closing as she inhaled again.
“Your text, love. You said you were staying with Emily and going to college with her tomorrow morning. That you had to study and go over your applications together.” He continued to rub her back as she frowned. She’d texted that? “It’s why I’m so surprised to see you, love, I didn’t know you were home.”
Something wasn’t right. Why would she text her dad about staying with Emily? Had she been that fucked up the night before that she didn’t remember putting herself to bed, and texting her dad something completely ludicrous?
“I would’ve woken you up had I known you were home.” He squeezed her one more time, pulling himself away from her. Her eyes opened as the smell lessened, and she was drawn to the pulse on his neck. Jesus, she thought, staring at the tiny beat that made his skin seem to throb.
How had she never noticed that before? That pulse point, that beating of the blood beneath the skin of his throat. How easy it would be to pierce through that flimsy barrier, how easy to force the blood to gush out and into her…
She physically fell backwards against the doorframe behind her, her hand over her mouth as her dad frowned at her again.
“Darling do you need me to take you to a doctor?” He reached toward her and she jerked away from him.
“No, I’m fine, I just need to have a shower or something.” She mumbled turning away from him, the words sounding strangely muffled.
She ran up the stairs, her dad calling after her in concern even as she slammed her bedroom door shut and leant against it. She could still smell that fucking deliciousness, her stomach feeling like it was twisting inside her, her eyes slamming shut as she felt her mouth with trembling fingers.
She wanted to scream, or cry, or faint as the skin of her index finger slipped over her teeth. Her incisors weren’t meant to be that long, that fucking pointed.
Jesus fucking Christ.
She had fangs.
V^^^^^V
She leant against her bedroom door, knees drawn to her chest and face in her hands.
It hadn’t been a dream. Katie had attacked her the night before. Had attacked her and turned her. What the fuck, she thought, it didn’t make sense.
She had cried, awfully, before wiping her eyes and seeing blood on them. Something had lurched in her stomach at that, and she’d swallowed the urge to cry as hard as she could because what the fucking Christ was going on.
Katie had turned her.
Katie had fucking turned her into a vampire.
Had she?
The last thing she remembered was Katie leaning over her, and her body in the most amount of pain she’d ever been in. She was sure she would die, hopeful she wouldn’t, felt completely helpless and frightened. That fucking bitch, she thought. That fucking twat of a cunting bitch.
But had Katie turned her? She screwed her face up, desperate to remember. Had Emily found them, and saved her?
She hated that the thought didn’t make her feel any better. Nor why, she thought suddenly, she had woken up in her pyjamas and in bed like nothing had happened.
Emily would’ve taken her back to the others, wouldn’t she? Not left her in her bedroom with no clue, in proximity of her dad when she woke up fucking hungry or whatever she was.
Fucking hell, she thought miserably. Katie was the most evil thing in the entire fucking world and she’d never hated anyone so strongly.
She sucked in a shaky breath, and stopped herself as she felt suddenly hopeful that this was all wrong. She was breathing, wasn’t she? Vampires didn’t breath, didn’t have a heartbeat…
She pressed her fingers to the side of her neck, whimpering softly when she felt nothing, pressing them to her wrist and swearing when she felt nothing again. It didn’t mean anything, though.
She sucked in a breath and held it, seeing how long it would take before her aching lungs gave out and she’d have to breath normally.
Her eyes glanced around her room as she held her breath, looking at her bag in the corner, her coursework spread out on the floor. Looked at the clothes she had on the ground, and the rumpled blankets on her bed.
Her curtains were closed, and she frowned at them for a moment. Had she left her window open? Was that how Katie had gotten inside? She remembered being thrown out of it, remembered her stomach leaping into her throat as she plummeted toward the ground outside.
It didn’t make sense for Katie to turn her, though. Katie hated her, wanted Emily to have nothing to do with her for whatever fucking reason. That she couldn’t grasp either, why Katie was so adamant that her and Emily couldn’t have their brief romance or whatever it was.
What the fuck was Katie’s problem? She was a mortal, for Christ’s sake. Or used to be, she thought miserably. She was going to go to uni, and grow up, and have a life and Emily was perpetually stuck at the latter stages of being a teen. Was immortal, would watch Naomi growing and know they couldn’t stay together.
It was what had made her change her fucking mind in the first place, about being with Emily. It couldn’t last, it wouldn’t be forever, it was a brief reprieve from reality and tragically romantic and fuck she hated Katie for ruining everything.
What the fuck did she do now? Join the merry band of morally upright vampires on their quest to be normal?
She shook her head pitifully. What the hell would she tell her dad? Where could she go?
She groaned slightly as she realised ten minutes had passed and she hadn’t had to take a breath.
Her stomach hurt her so badly and she couldn’t begin to wrap her head around the idea that she would have to drink blood, human blood, or it wouldn’t go away.
She stood suddenly because she was fucked if she was going to do what Katie probably wanted her to; kill her own father and drink his blood. She shook her head because seriously, what the fuck? This couldn’t be real. She had to be dreaming. She moved toward her window, gripping her curtains in both hands.
She doubled over as her stomach spasmed and her fangs began to ache. She could still smell that delicious smell, that blood smell that had been emanating off her dad, and turned toward her door before she could stop herself. She had moved so fucking quickly that her hand was on her doorknob before she could blink.
She had to leave.
She touched her door softly, running her hand over it once and wanting to cry because she couldn’t say goodbye. Couldn’t see her dad without losing control. She heard footsteps on the stairs, and panicked at the thought of him coming to check up on her.
She turned back toward her window, raising an eyebrow before moving toward it as fast as she could.
Jesus, she thought, appearing next to it and feeling like she’d hardly moved.
She pulled her curtains open quickly, narrowing her eyes at the giant love heart drawn in lipstick on it, and the slightly smudged lip print in the middle.
Fucking cunt, she thought, opening her window as she heard her dad nearing the top of the stairs. She climbed onto the sill, perching and looking down at the ground below.
She quickly went over her mental list of reasons as to why she was definitely a vampire again, in case she was somehow missing something and was about to purposefully break both her ankles by leaping from her window like a lunatic.
No breathing? Check. Fangs? Check. Almost uncontrollable desire to kill her father and drink his blood? Double check.
She heard her dad approaching her door, her nostrils flaring as for a second she contemplated killing him for the hell of it.
She jumped instead, landing on the ground without injury, and taking a slight moment to wonder at that. If she wasn’t so angry and confused, she would’ve thought that was completely awesome.
She straightened, glancing down after a moment and wincing at herself because, really. She was still in her pyjamas. Fuck’s sake she thought, even as she heard her bedroom door open and her dad call softly into her now empty room.
With one last glance toward her bedroom window, she took off running.
V^^^^^V
She sat on her bench, beneath the big tree in the park she’d come to think of as her special place. She hadn’t meant to run there, but had found it to be the only place she could think of, had slumped onto the park bench and again put her face in her hands.
She had no money, no phone, no shoes. Not that she needed the latter, but it was ridiculous that she literally had nowhere she could go.
She felt like she’d end up punching another vampire if she came across one, her insides bubbling with anger and hunger. And she was petrified about being around someone human.
She couldn’t rationalise it, actually killing someone. Had started to wonder if she could just hold herself back until she could find an NBS bloodmobile and treat it as an all you can eat buffet.
She groaned, leaning over as another spasm hit her. Her fangs ached awfully. Something wafted by her, and her head shot up as she inhaled.
Someone was close by, somewhere in the park. She couldn’t stop herself as she stood up and began to run towards them.
She stopped behind a tree, closing her eyes and inhaling. She felt herself grin, and it was awful. She peered around the tree, seeing a teenage boy walking with his dog a ways off, laughing as his dog wagged it’s tail happily and jumped up at him.
“Get off!” The boy affectionately patted the dog’s head, pushing the dog away after a moment.
She kept her eyes on the dog as it turned it’s head in her direction and cocked it to the side. Some part of her was telling her to back off, to go back to the bench and chain herself to it if need be. She ignored it, her eyes narrowing as she crouched down and waited for the dog to come toward her.
The dog was growling in her direction, and she smirked at it. Come on you fucker, she thought, not wondering that hadn’t she once been an animal activist?
“Come on, Jeremy. Fuck’s sake, I want to go home. Shit and be done with it.” The boy kept walking, absent-mindedly patting his leg. “Fucking hell.” He muttered as Jeremy growled loudly and ran toward the tree she was hiding behind.
She grabbed Jeremy as he rounded the tree, picking him up and swiftly breaking his neck before he could let out a whimper or bark. Again there was part of her that questioned what the fuck she was doing. You just killed a dog, it yelled at her, leave before you do something worse! Jesus fucking Christ, and you’d better donate all of your savings to the RSPCA because that was despicably unforgivable!
Something else in her was snarling, though, and gleeful. It dropped the dog’s body onto the ground and walked with her legs from behind the tree. She smiled at the boy, who had an exasperated look on his face, as he was strolling toward where his dog had disappeared.
She blinked, though her progress toward him didn’t falter. She knew him.
“Hey Michael.” She said it easily, keeping her lips close together to hide her fangs. There was barely any light where they stood, and he squinted at her before his face split into a grin.
“Naomi!” He put his hands in his pockets, as if suddenly shy. “What are you doing here so late?” He looked briefly at what she was wearing, tilting his head to the side.
She giggled flirtatiously. “My bloody dog needed a walk and I thought, fuck it I’ll just go in my pyjamas.” She batted her eyelashes at him. “I didn’t expect to see anyone else here.”
He looked at her bare feet for a second, smiling at her bashfully. “Me too! Jeremy, that’s my dogs name, needs to shit at the most awful times. Our back yard isn’t so big, either.” He shrugged. “Luckily we live so close to the park though.” He shuffled his feet nervously.
She walked slowly toward him, smirking as a breeze blew her t-shirt tightly against her chest, her tits outlined because of it. He stared at them, blushing furiously when he caught her eye. Well, maybe it was lucky she wasn’t wearing a bra after all.
“I’ve seen you here before.” He said softly, gazing at her as she reached a hand forward and lightly gripped his waist.
“Have you?” She murmured, feeling something inside her reach out toward him. “Would you agree that you and I would be perfect together?”
She watched his brow furrow for the tiniest of moments, before nodding his head. “Absolutely.” His eyes flickered between her lips and eyes, and she grinned, revealing her fangs.
He stepped back from her, eyes widening.
“I’m so hungry, Michael.” Her voice was soft, and she wondered what was causing her to toy with him. Couldn’t she have just jumped on him by now? “You’ll give your blood to me, won’t you?”
He nodded at her slowly, and stepped back into her arms as she lifted her hands and tilted his neck to the side.
It registered, as she sunk her teeth into his neck, that she enjoyed that he’d come to her willingly. That he clutched at her shoulders as she fed from him, that using her words made the snarling part of her want to laugh and clap it’s hands.
They sank down onto the ground, the taste of him better than she could ever have imagined. She felt her stomach stop twisting, her fangs digging deeper into his throat, the blood warm and gushing and wonderful.
She pulled back when his hands fell from her shoulders, and his head was lolling back. She heard his heart thumping sluggishly, and she watched as he died. She dropped his body, standing quickly and wondering what the hell had just happened.
She thought of the boy she’d seen dancing shyly across from her in the club, smiling and blushing at her nervously, and squeezed her eyes shut because his face was so still, and it was her fault.
“I’m sorry.” She said even as she felt herself tearing up, crouching to pick up his feet and dragging his body toward the tree.
She ripped out clumps of grass, digging with her hands as fast as she could and not looking at him. She had completely lost control, had been taken over by something that frightened the living daylights out of her. She rolled her eyes at herself, because there was nothing ‘living’ left.
She had just killed someone. Not just someone, either, but a boy she knew. And his dog.
She didn’t know how deep to dig, and kept at it until the opening was above her own head. She shook her head at how little time it had taken, how much effort she hadn’t had to exert, how her energy felt fucking limitless.
She climbed out of the hole easily, pushing Michael and Jeremy into it, avoiding looking at them as Michael’s body crumpled in the hole slightly too narrow for his height, Jeremy on his chest.
She wanted to say something, but didn’t know what she could say.
She pushed the dirt over them, as fast as she could, stamping her feet on the earth when she was done. Well, it was a big fucking obvious patch of dirt but she figured no one would find it unless they were looking.
And she didn’t care if they were looking. She just wanted to bury him, to hide him because leaving him lying out there in the open felt wrong to her somehow. Like he was exposed, like she owed it to him to protect him in some way.
Which was fucking ridiculous, she thought and sniffled. This whole fucking thing was ridiculous.
She looked at the patch of dirt one more time before resolving herself to get to the bottom of this whole thing.
She only barely remembered how to get to their house but it wasn’t as if she would get tired, was it? It wasn’t as if a bit of searching would hurt her.
After all, nothing could hurt her anymore.
V^^^^^V
Naomi paused on the winding driveway, her hands on her knees and bending forward as Michael’s face flashed in front of her eyes.
She had killed him. She was a vampire and she had killed him.
She strode forward after a moment, determined. She thought of her dad, her sweet and kind father who would be heart broken because she’d disappeared and could never tell him why. She thought about Thomas standing at a bus stop and waiting to warn her; thought of Pandora gripping her wrist and telling her that the attention from Effy and that lot was a bad thing; thought of JJ smiling at her and blinking; finally thought of Emily leaning forward to kiss her, swearing she didn’t want to turn her.
There were tears in her eyes, and she hated that she felt so emotionally fucked up.
Of course she was, though, she was a fucking vampire for Christ’s sake. A few months ago she didn’t even think they existed, and now she was one. How did that happen?
She angrily wiped the tears away, resolving to replace her feelings of self pity with anger. Because she did feel extremely sorry for herself, not to mention extremely stupid. Had Katie done this to teach her a lesson? That didn’t make sense, and at the same time it made her feel angry all over again. She’d just wanted to spend time with Emily, had just wanted to… She shook her head. What had she wanted? Was it not enough that everyone around her had warned her about getting too close? Was it not enough that Emily had shown her memories of killing her own family, and somehow that had made her want to hug Emily and make everything better, instead of running away as she should have done? Her dad had been there the entire way, supporting her, being fucking amazing and she hated to think of what he was doing right now. Was he looking for her? Calling the police? Crying? Every thought was awful.
Why couldn’t Emily have just left her alone? Why did she pursue her so relentlessly? And why, she clenched her fists at her side, why did she go for Emily so willingly?
The house came into view, lights shining from almost every window. She could see them walking around inside, could hear snippets of their voices. Her eyesight and hearing were amazing, but she was too angry to pay attention to it.
She felt her fangs extend as she reached her hands toward the front door. Felt them pulse with anger, instead of hunger.
She felt like she was storming a castle.
V^^^^^V
Cassie and Tony were waiting for her when she threw the doors open, both of them standing at the foot of the stairs and looking at her expectantly. Tony had his hands clasped in front of him, the slightest smile on his face, and Cassie blinked at her owlishly.
“You arrive at last.” Tony looked at her calmly, and she wanted to tear his eyes out.
“You cunt!” She spat out, unsure of what else to say and halting as the door slammed shut behind her. Now she was actually in the house, and faced with them, she had no idea what her plan of attack was. But whatever, she needed someone to blame. She turned her gaze to Cassie, glaring at her.
“Oh, wow.” Cassie said softly, her gaze sympathetic.
“You knew you loopy twat!” Naomi wanted to fly at her now, and tear Cassie’s eyes out instead of Tony’s. She wasn’t sure why it was the eyes she wanted to go for, but something in the way they were looking at her angered her to no end.
“Course she did.” Tony shrugged, as if he was almost amused by Naomi standing there in her pyjamas, furiously glancing between them.
“Whoa.” Chris had paused on the staircase, looking at her with his eyes bugging out of his head. She watched as he looked her over, head to toe, before he grinned. “Em is going to be so happy! Well done you!” He winked at her, grinning widely, and she snarled before running and leaping at him.
Tony moved slightly to the side to let her through, and Cassie bit one of her nails, both of them turning to watch her tussle with Chris on the stairway.
She pushed him backwards and landed on top of him, gripping his shirt in her hands and pulling his face close to hers. He blinked at her in surprise before putting his hands on her waist and easily flipping her over, straddling her and grabbing her hands. He held them above her head, looking down at her confused.
“What did you do that for?”
“Arsehole! You fucking bastard!” She struggled beneath Chris as he turned his head toward Tony and Cassie.
“What am I missing?” He asked them, and Tony smirked.
“Tell him, Cass.” Tony gestured toward them, and Naomi tried to pull her hands free in vain, rolling her eyes when Sid approached them slowly, frowning at her with his head tilted to the side.
“What’s going on here then?” Sid stopped at the top of the stairs, raising his eyebrows as he looked between her and Chris, before Cassie stopped biting at one of her fingernails and stepped toward them.
“Katie turned Naomi.” She closed her eyes for a moment, before smiling almost cruelly. “Didn’t give her a choice.” Naomi watched as Cassie glared at Sid for a moment. “The devil.”
Sid rolled his eyes. “You know, I’m getting sick of this whole blame business. Oh Sid you’re a twat for turning me against my will! Oh Sid you’re a knobhead because you ruined all my plans.” Sid put his hands on his hips, glaring back at Cassie as her face clouded over in anger.
“Naomi has a right to be angry!” Her voice shrilled, and Naomi struggled again under Chris, almost managing to get her wrists free.
“Not to interrupt or anything, but can we focus on the problem at hand for a moment?” He twisted his head to look at Cassie and Sid pointedly. “She’s bloody strong, yeah?”
“You’re all to blame for this! I didn’t want this! Fucking let me go!” She yelled out, hating that there were tears developing in her eyes, and that Chris looked down at her with a concerned look on his face.
“Promise not to attack me again and you can go free.” He murmured, raising his eyebrows at her like she was a four year old who’d pissed in the corner and couldn’t be trusted not to do so again.
She struggled a final time, glancing at Sid, Cassie and Tony before rolling her eyes and nodding. Cassie and Sid were frowning slightly at each other, and Tony was shaking his head in amusement.
“And!” Chris narrowed his eyes, looking at her mouth. “Put those away.” He nodded at her fangs, and she frowned.
“I don’t know how, do I?” She grumbled, hating that Tony snorted and Chris laughed affectionately.
“You’ve got a lot to learn, babe. Just concentrate on retracting them, yeah? Think of, like, something that calms you.” He looked thoughtful for a moment and she felt herself getting angry all over again.
“I don’t think anything fucking calms me right now considering I’m a fucking vampire who just killed someone.” She glared at him as he winced, and out of her periphery she saw Tony step toward her, his smile gone.
“Did you hide the body?” He asked, and she rolled her eyes.
Cassie hugged herself, and Sid sat down on the stairs near her and Chris, reaching out to touch her hand briefly.
“Yes.” She finally answered, tight lipped, and thought of Michael again. Saw him walking willingly into her arms to die. She felt like sobbing, suddenly, and squeezed her eyes shut.
Chris gently let go of her wrists, lifting his leg and moving his body off hers. She kept her eyes shut as she began to cry, hating that she was doing so with an audience.
Someone lifted her into their arms, and held her as she cried. She was surprised to open her eyes and see it was Tony. She pushed him away.
“I need to find Katie.” She mumbled, wiping her eyes and frowning at each of them as they looked at each other warily.
“She’s gone.” Sid shrugged, avoiding looking at her.
“My sister too.” Tony added, watching as she sunk down onto a step feeling slightly defeated.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” She hated that her voice broke slightly as she turned her gaze to Cassie, who had moved to sit between Sid’s legs and was hugging one of them as she looked at Naomi sadly.
“She can’t.” Chris mumbled, frowning at the ceiling for a moment before looking at her. “She just can’t.”
Sid was stroking Cassie’s hair, and they all turned as they heard a car pull up outside.
Michelle walked through the front door first, laughing at something Freddie was telling her, both of them stopping and looking toward her in shock.
“Shit.” Freddie mumbled as Michelle walked toward Tony uncertainly.
“What’s this?” She asked him, but he shook his head at her.
Cook strolled through the door then, nodding his head at everyone with a cocky grin before doing a double take when he saw Naomi sitting on the stairs.
He burst out laughing when he saw her, pointing at her and doubling over. Chris put a reassuring hand on her arm when she narrowed her eyes at Cook.
“Fuck I’m sorry, but the looks on all your faces!” He eagerly looked between the front door and Naomi, as if waiting. “This is going to be fucking magical!”
They were all looking between her and the door, seemingly making no attempt to hide it.
Naomi bit her lip, filled with nervous dread, waiting for Emily to see her. Did she know already? Or would she, as almost everyone else seemed to, be surprised?
The thought that Emily didn’t know was both alluring and awful. She wanted to blame Emily for everything, and at the same time was desperate to know she wasn’t part of it. Hadn’t planned it.
Emily was swinging her car keys when she walked through the door.
“Hey arsehole, you left this.” Emily threw what looked like a phone toward Cook, who caught it and grinned at her gleefully.
Emily frowned when she realised that everyone was looking at her, opened her mouth as if to speak, and then locked eyes with Naomi and froze.
Naomi gazed back at her, hating that she felt equally angry and vulnerable.
Naomi could see everyone looking between them, waiting for a reaction from either of them. Even Cook had stopped laughing, though couldn’t seem to contain his glee, and was turning his head so fast Naomi thought his neck would’ve snapped if he’d still been mortal.
Emily took a step backward, shaking her head, looking at Cassie for a moment.
“Katie.” Cassie whispered softly, Naomi feeling a spike of anger at the mention of that name.
Emily’s eyes slipped shut for an instant, before she shook her head and spun around, running back out of the front door.
Naomi stood, Chris patting her leg encouragingly, before she followed.
V^^^^^V
Emily was standing at the edge of where the driveway met the lawn, staring toward Bristol, her arms wrapped around herself.
Naomi walked up behind her, ignoring that the driveway was scattered with rocks and bits of gravel, and that it didn’t hurt her feet. She had so much to get used to.
She stood next to Emily, frowning at the city in front of them. She glanced briefly at the stars, thought of the artificial stars on her ceiling back home, and felt the unfairness of the whole situation hit her again. She would never see them again, would she? The actual stars a poor imitation suddenly, when it should’ve been the other way around.
“Katie.” Emily murmured.
“Yes.” Naomi replied tersely as a breeze blew against both of them. She could smell Emily, though it had changed with her new apparent vampiric senses. Like there was the slightest scent of decay underneath.
“When?” Emily’s voice rasped, and Naomi saw her wipe her eyes quickly.
“Last night. Was hiding in my room.” Naomi folded her arms over her chest, turning toward Emily.
Emily squinted at the distance, wouldn’t turn to look at her as if she couldn’t actually bring herself to do it.
“I didn’t want this.” Emily murmured, and Naomi snorted, feeling the anger welling up inside her again.
“And you think I did?” Naomi reached toward Emily, grabbing her shoulder hard and pushing, turning Emily to face her. “Fucking look at me!”
Emily shut her eyes before lifting her head and seeming to steel herself before she could open her eyes and look at Naomi.
Naomi let her hand fall to her side as Emily’s eyes raked over her face. Taking stock, it seemed, particularly when Emily’s eyes moved to look down at her feet and slowly back up again.
“I can’t,” Emily whispered, her voice just barely cracking through. “I can’t hear your heart beat.” She finally managed before putting her face in her hands and starting to cry.
Well, Naomi hadn’t expected this. Righteous anger, maybe. Guilt, perhaps. But Emily was sobbing into her own hands, blood slipping through her fingers and falling to the ground between them. She hadn’t expected Emily to be as miserable as she was.
She reached out after watching Emily cry for a few moments, pulling Emily into her shoulder and hugging her. It was fucking ridiculous because shouldn’t she be the one being comforted? Everything was backwards, everything was wrong.
Emily clutched at her desperately, burying her face in her t-shirt.
“I’m so sorry.” She mumbled, over and over.
Naomi frowned, wondering what the fuck Emily expected her to say in reply. She stayed silent, gritting her teeth and waiting until Emily had composed herself.
“Tell me everything.” Emily frowned slightly at her, stepping out of the embrace and looking guiltily at the blood stains on Naomi’s shoulder. Well, they could just match the other ones, couldn’t they? Naomi looked down at her blood covered shirt, wondering which parts were her own tears, which belonged to Michael, thinking it painfully perfect that Emily’s had now been added.
She narrowed her eyes at Emily, starting with Katie attacking her in her room and ending with Emily walking into her own house and finding Naomi on the stairs. She told Emily every detail she could remember, determined not to care when Emily flinched during the moments Katie was killing her and all Naomi could think of was Emily saving her. Stared back at Emily resolutely when she told her about wanting to kill her own father, about finding Michael and killing him and his dog.
She backtracked and told Emily about Cassie’s vague warning the night before, felt a small measure of satisfaction when Emily narrowed her eyes toward the house in response.
“So now I’m homeless, a vampire, and I want to find Katie and hold her fucking head in a nice patch of sunshine until she’s nothing but a gooey mess of burnt flesh, assuming that is what happens.” Naomi had her arms crossed again, and waited as Emily seemed to digest everything that had happened.
“Michael just agreed with you?” Emily asked after a moment, and Naomi had a sudden urge to strangle her because of everything she’d just divulged and that was what Emily chose to address?
“He died willingly. Sort of.” Naomi bit her lip, wincing when she bit through it and feeling her eyes widen as it healed the moment she lifted her teeth off it.
“Like Tony.” Emily mumbled turning to look at the house, and Naomi frowned.
“Emily, stop being fucking vague. This is not the time.”
Emily nodded at her, again looking apologetic. “Right, sorry. Tony can manipulate people into doing whatever he tells them to. It’s how we got away with going to college even though we’re, you know, old.”
“So him and I can do the same thing, then?” Naomi shrugged her shoulders, wondering why that was so important.
Emily looked at her thoughtfully. “Maybe. Did Michael just do what you wanted without comment, like he was mindless?”
Naomi didn’t want to think about it, about Michael agreeing with what she had said and stepping toward her.
She closed her eyes briefly before nodding tersely, and then shaking her head.
“Sort of. He agreed with what I said to him.”
“Not exactly the same then.” Emily muttered, and Naomi felt an overwhelming urge to kick something.
Apparently being a vampire made her exceptionally violent.
“Come on, you need different clothes.” Emily began walking toward the house, and Naomi grudgingly followed her.
They walked side by side around the side of the house to a back door Naomi hadn’t seen before. Different clothes was a start, but then what was she going to do?
“I want to find Katie.” She grumbled as Emily opened the door and stood back to let her through.
“Yeah well, so do I.” Emily grumbled back and stepped into the house, closing the door and walking past Naomi. Naomi followed Emily, wondering that the last time they had seen each other they had been so happy. They had danced, and kissed, and Naomi had felt like anything was possible.
Now she was faced with eternity, with forever, with things she couldn’t yet wrap her head around. This was the worst night of her life.
“You can have Effy’s room, if you want time to yourself.” Emily said softly, leading her up a back set of stairs to the top floor. “Her clothes too, since I don’t think mine will fit you and Katie, well, I don’t think you want anything associated with her.”
Emily’s voice was glum, and Naomi realised somewhat stupidly that Emily had put herself in that category as well. She tried as best she could to reassure Emily that she didn’t blame her for this, for her sister, but she couldn’t get the words out, not yet.
Emily led her past the door to her own room and to another, cracking it open and letting Naomi walk inside.
It was dark, and bare, and smelt different to Emily’s. There was the slight odour of decay, and something else that wasn’t entirely unpleasant.
“Thanks.” Naomi muttered, turning to Emily and wanting to smile, but being entirely unable to.
“Find me when you want to, yeah?” Emily mumbled, and Naomi just nodded in reply, watching as Emily shut the door behind her.
She didn’t need to, could see perfectly in the dark, but switched the light on because she wanted the comfort.
Effy’s room was strangely bare. A comfortable chair facing the window, a pile of books next to it. An antique looking rug in the middle of the room, and a fireplace. There was a closet and artwork on the walls, though it was placed randomly and Naomi felt like it was a room of transition more than one specifically Effy’s, as if Effy had known she wouldn’t stay long.
Naomi opened the closet doors, raising her eyebrow at the assortment of torn jeans and ripped shirts. She rifled through them, rolling her eyes at how small the waistbands were on most of the pants, before finding a pair that would fit and changing out of her pyjama pants. She felt stupid as she held her pyjama pants to her chest for a moment, smelling the faintest whiff of her dad’s laundry powder and her own room on them, feeling miserable as she did so.
She put them in the back of the closet instead, lifting her t-shirt over her head and doing the same before rifling around for a bra, rolling her eyes at herself when she realised Effy didn’t wear them so of course there weren’t any.
She pulled a long t-shirt out of the closet, shaking her head at the large wolf face print on the front, before slipping it over her head.
It would have to do for now.
V^^^^^V
She was sitting in the only chair in the room, staring out of the window at the lightening sky, the twinkling lights of Bristol long since turned off in the face of actual daylight.
The chair was comfortable and perfectly positioned, and she wondered how often Effy had sat in it watching the view. The chair was well worn, completely mismatched to the rug or the artwork on the walls, the crumpled books beside it on the floor yellowed with age. She had sifted through them half heartedly, not recognising the languages they were printed in, or frowning because the first few pages were missing from some, the covers torn or missing altogether.
She tried valiantly to fight it, though ended up stuck in the chair imagining everything she would be doing at this moment had Katie not interrupted and ended her life. Her knees were tucked into her chest, her head leaning against the high back rest of the chair.
She would be eating breakfast now, rolling her eyes as her dad doted on her and made a general idiot of himself in his over eager attempt to keep her happy. She felt herself smile as she thought of him, felt her chest ache along with it. His stew was probably delicious, she thought, and she’d never get a chance to taste it properly.
It was awful, too, to think that as an only child the family line was effectively halted at her. Unless her dad had more children, which she hoped for more than anything, she was it and she was dead. That wasn’t fair. Fucked if she knew if she would’ve had children one day, but she was so sick of not having a choice in the matters of her life. Or death, really.
In the distance she saw a patch of sunlight peeking through a hole in the clouds, and squinted at it. It hurt her eyes to do so, but fuck it. Everything hurt inside, it was a nice distraction.
What would her dad tell her mum? ‘I made Naomi that stew you used to love, but it made her sick and she ran away.’ Is that what her dad thought? That she’d run away from home in some direct relation to his failed attempt at looking after her?
The questions burning inside her stomach were the worst part. She would never know the answers, would never know what was happening now, what would’ve been happening now if Katie hadn’t taken it upon herself to intervene, if Emily hadn’t tried so hard to make things work between them.
She’d be at college now, maybe, sitting next to Pandora and drowning out her excited babbling about television shows she’d never cared about. Maybe she should’ve, though. Maybe she should’ve watched people on television instead of having her own adventures with fucking vampires and sexual experimentation.
It made her sick with anger to think of Katie yelling at her that she didn’t understand what she was getting herself into, didn’t know what she was playing with. Because she was right, wasn’t she? Naomi was fucking stupid all along. But, she argued pitifully with herself, she was a fucking teenager and meant to be stupid, and excitable, and not really have any idea of the consequences of her actions.
She sniffled, hating that she had cried so much, and that her tears were bloody, as if even in her misery she couldn’t escape her new reality. Vampire. Blood sucker. Demon from hell.
But she didn’t feel like she was evil, or a member of the undead. She just felt like a confused teenage girl who wanted her parents, and her own room, and not to be a danger to the people she loved the most.
V^^^^^V
There was a knock on Effy’s door sometime in the afternoon, Naomi having to again change the shirt she was wearing because vampire tears left the kind of stain her mortal tears never had. She had found another long t-shirt, wincing at Effy’s dress sense because it seemed a far cry from her own.
Effy’s door opened, and Naomi was surprised to see Michelle stick her head through.
“Hey.” Michelle said softly, moving into the room and shutting the door behind her. Michelle gazed at her sympathetically, and Naomi softly put her feet onto the carpet and attempted to look less miserable than she felt.
“Hi.”
“Listen, I just wanted to say if you need to talk to someone you can talk to me, yeah?” Michelle walked toward the front of the room, perching against the windowsill.
Naomi blinked at her.
“You know, it’s hard getting used to it, especially when your previous life is still so fresh. It took me a long time to understand what had happened to me, but I chose it. I know you didn’t.” Michelle crossed her arms over her chest, gazing out of the window before glancing at Naomi and smiling slightly.
“Why did you choose it?” Naomi asked, frowning, feeling her curiosity peeked despite herself.
“I loved Tony.” Michelle shrugged, before smiling ruefully. “First love is very intense.”
Naomi snorted, though her expression remained tight.
“Right.” Naomi turned her face away as Michelle gazed at her.
“We can get you some clothes, better suited clothes. I don’t think Effy will be back anytime soon, so you can consider this room yours.” Michelle smiled at her. “If you like.”
Naomi nodded, once, unable to feel anything other than discomfort at the gesture. The clothes she needed, the room though? She couldn’t bare the thought of staying in Bristol. Couldn’t bare the thought of anything, really, other than returning to the life she knew.
Michelle took her shopping in Bath, and the lack of familiarity was comforting. It was easy to pretend they were two teenage girls shopping for outfits they could wear comfortably to college, or to clubs. She liked Michelle, and hadn’t expected to.
Michelle let her choose whatever she liked, and paid for everything. In a different life it would’ve been exhilarating, Michelle acting like a sugar daddy to her poor homeless teen on the streets act. But it was all overshadowed by remembering the clothes in her wardrobe at home, remembering shopping trips with her mum in London, remembering the reason why Michelle was doing this for her in the first place.
She fingered the material of a shirt briefly, smiling slightly as it reminded her of her favourite back in the closet at her dad’s house. Her mum had made it for her during her vegetarian phase, a picture of a pig’s face crudely printed on the front. She fucking loved that shirt.
She felt herself getting emotional again, and when Michelle gently led her out of the shop and back to the car without a word, she was more than grateful for it.
She stared glumly at the countryside as they drove back to Bristol, back to the house on the hill that, temporarily, she supposed she now called home.
V^^^^^V
Part Two