The Sacrifice

By The Light Of The Moon - 4

Tyler is writhing in pain, which is making me sick to my stomach. He doesn't deserve this, he's innocent. He tries to remove the chain, tugging at them. 

"Hey. Tyler. Tyler." I call out to him,

"I'm burning up. It burns!" He cries.

I nod and crouch beside him, "I know. Just breathe through this, okay?"

He breathes heavily, looking between me and Caroline. "I'm trying. You should go." I shake my head.

"You should leave."

"Not yet."

He suddenly screams, "Tyler?" I questioned, concerned. His arm stretched out behind him making a huge cracking sound, meaning his bones were starting to break. Caroline and I let out a shrill scream as we watch his arm bend in ways not humanly possible.

"It hurts. It hurts" Tyler cries. 

We rush to his side, "we want to help but I don't know what to do."

He continues to breathe heavily "There's nothing you can do."

He starts to rise up, arching his back upwards, it starts to break and I can see the bones in his back push up. I cover my mouth so I wouldn't let out a sob but I'm already crying, not handling this situation like I thought I would.

"Get out!" Tyler orders.

I wipe the tears and shake my head "No!"

"Get out! I don't want to hurt you"

"No! No."

Caroline gets closer and embraces him, wrapping her arms around him as I drop down to his side and crease his face and wipe the sweat.

Tyler is still on the floor, lying quietly. His eyes are closed. Caroline is still holding him, I hold his hand and with my free hand raking a hand through my hair. 

"It's okay. You'll fight through it, okay?" Caroline says reassuringly. 

He starts breathing fast again and almost tries shaking us off "No." I say firmly as I grip his hand.

"Just go, please!"' Tyler pleads.

Caroline shakes her head "No, not yet."

"Just go!"

"We're right here, and we're not going anywhere."

Suddenly he screams, his arm extends back and we both let go and backed away in shock. His bones continue breaking. 

His eyes are yellow and his fangs sprout. He barks at us and Caroline grabs my arm and rushes us to the entrance. He gets up and looks everywhere around him like an animal would. Caroline backs away inside and I reach for the gate, closing it.

Tyler rushes over and tries to get at me but the chains stop him from going too far. I let out a shriek as I rushed to lock the gates with the chains. 

Caroline can't be the one to do it because the way he's snapping his teeth at us he might bite her. He goes back to the bolts and removes one of the chains as Caroline sobs behind me. 

When I manage to lock the gate, Tyler runs at it, grabbing the bars and holding tight. I let out a scream as Caroline pulled me back, we watched with tears as he tried to lunge at us, reaching with his hands.

 I sob at the sight, I can't- I can't. 

"We're sorry" I apologize as we leave. Caroline cries as she closes the cellar door, he's screaming inside making our crying worse. We lean against the door and cry, she rests her head on my shoulder and I lay my head against hers as we cry, hearing from here all of his bones cracking and his screaming. 

Suddenly just as fast as it started it ended, the two of us exchange looks as we stand, facing the door. All of a sudden, the door almost bursts and Caroline rushes to push back against Tyler. He pushes back harder and starts to make holes against the door as we try to hold him back. I look around and find a wooden plank and prop it against the door. Caroline lets go and grabs my hand, and rushes us deep in the woods.

...............

Caroline and I sit in the woods, I have my head on her shoulder as we wait Tyler's transformation. The tears staining my face have completely dried. I've killed vampires, and yet they never enter my nightmares, this just might.

The sound of a bird's feathers up in the trees startle us. I sit up and glance at her, "We should see if he's okay" She nods and we start walking back through the woods, there is a lot more fog then I remember. 

The sound of a crow cawing and fluttering around makes us whirl around with nerves. We slowly descend the steps down to the cellar and Caroline uses her hearing to listen in.

"Tyler?" She calls out.

"Caroline."

"Tyler." My eyes widen and I quickly remove the wooden plank and Caroline opens the door, grabbing my hand "Come on"

"Wait!" I exclaim, pulling back. "What?" She asked. "Uh- I just think that he needs you more than he needs me right now"

She nods understandingly and makes me a small smile before rushing in.

I smile a little and sit against the wall of the cellar and cry.