"Back To The Start"

"Back To The Start" 

By;fernand jiro

"Back To The Start"

"You'll bleed to death."

"No," Josh said assuringly. "I won't. I'll be okay. I just need to feed and my body will rebuild itself. I should be fine by tomorrow. Hey, can you pass me that-"

"Alright."

John opened the fridge and took out a big glass of blood. He brought it up to his nose and sniffed it a couple of times, as if checking whether it was still fresh, then passed it to Josh.

Josh drank the liquid greedily. John was pacing forward and back along the kitchen until the words finally came out of his mouth.

"You know, you'll have to tell her eventually."

"Kate. Yes, I know. Eventually, but not right now. It's just not the right time yet. And I dunno how she'll react."

"That's true. Oh well, it's getting late and you will need to get some rest. I'll see you in the morning. Goodnight."

Josh took the last sip of the blood as he watched John walk upstairs and close his bedroom door. No more hunting tonight. Then he turned off the lights and went to sleep in his comfortable coffin-shaped freezer on the other side of the kitchen.

***

They met almost every day. They went to movies and concerts together, they had dinner every evening in all the best restaurants in town, they talked about many things, and it was obvious that they were meant for each other. But there was only one problem. What if she ever found out? Would she believe it? How will she react if one day he will tell her that he is a vampire? Those thoughts haunted Josh since the day they met. Kate meant everything to him, especially now that they got closer than he thought they would ever be.

Josh was finishing his breakfast, which consisted of frozen blood cubes, served with a fresh piece of human flesh and a glass of red wine. Suddenly his wandering mind stopped as heremembered where it all first began. The flashback was so intense that it consumed him entirely.

***

Before he opened his eyes, he knew something was wrong. He couldn't feel his body even though he could feel himself shaking. The pain was so intense that he passed out a couple of times. Finally he forced himself to open his eyes. Blood was all over him, under him, and it was covering the smashed pieces of metal that were lying everywhere around. He made an attempt to move his arm but suddenly he almost screamed from pain. Things around began to fade away...

"Hey, can you hear me?"

The voice from the distance was getting closer and closer. Then he finally regained his consciousness and looked up. John's face. Now there was some hope. He knew John was a kind of person who would do anything to save his life. He was surprised though to see John smile at him.

"It's okay. You will be fine, I promise."

Josh couldn't say a word, though he was trying so hard.

"Listen now. Don't try to move. Trust me and it's gonna be okay. I'll take care of that."

Suddenly he felt that he couldn't breathe anymore, the pain got really extreme. He heard the explosion somewhere on the left...

***

He opened his eyes. John was sitting on a chair by the side of his bed.

"It's okay. Don't worry. You will be back to normal in a couple of days. Just relax and tell me what the hell happened there."

"I..." Josh just noticed he was so tied and chained up that he couldn't move at all.

"Calm down, I told you it's okay."

"What is-"

"You don't need to worry about anything right now. Don't even attempt to move even though you can't, alright?"

Josh didn't know what to think. He didn't even know how badly he was injured. But a few days? And why exactly couldn't he move?

John could read his mind.

"Put all those questions out of your head. This is the only way and you can't change anything. It's not going to help you if you worry. Now just please tell me what happened there."

He wanted to scream right at John's face, he wanted to argue... This feeling of not knowing anything was killing him. Instead, Josh realized that arguing and demanding fo answers wouldn't work, at least not with John. However, it was really strange when he noticed he didn't feel any pain at all. He decided to tell John what he could remember.

"I'm not sure what exactly happened there, but something during the operation just wasn't right. I did everything that I was supposed to do, but I think someone followed us. First of all, we exchanged the documents and drove down to finish up the deal. Anyway, while we were on the highway, something very strange happened. A dozen of trucks and trailers appeared out of nowhere and surely those guys wanted to kill us. But that wasn't the worst of it. They cut us off and one moment we were so close to having a big accident when suddenly there was a plane crash - God, it fell right on us! I dunno the rest, everyhing just burst into flames..."

"Alright." John looked thoughtfull.

"Do you know what happened to others and Jay's team?"

"They're all dead. They didn't follow the orders."

"What??!" Josh couldn't believe what he just heard.

"That's right. You're the only one who did."

That was the day that changed his entire life. That was the day he became a vampire. Josh didn't know how or why it happened, but he suspected that it was probably the only way that John could save his life. But John never explained anything to him. All he said was that everything was going to be okay and that there was nothing to wory about. Except for hunting. And feeding. Forever.