Venom (Completed) ✔

Schizofrenia

He sighs. "I owe you an explanation, I know. What do you want to know?". He asks.

I sit forward with my elbows on my knees and my hands supporting my head. 'In what manner did she betray you? I mean, I remember you showing me the letter, which said Alyssa regretted whatever she did'.

"You remember what I said about Nathalie too?" He asks.

I nod. 'Yes, wasn't she the one you had a relationship with?'

"She was, and she also didn't know about vampires, about me. Alyssa was a good friend of mine back then. Until she told Nathalie's family about me. It was unexpected, because Alyssa and I always used to hang out and she kept me from.. lashing out". He explains.

'What happened after Alyssa told them?'

"They were acting normal for a week, give or take. Eventually they invited me to their home, injected me with Solanum, and accused me for abusing her. The week  Alyssa exposed me, they prepared some kind of dungeon in their yard, leaving me in to rot".

I start to look confused at him. Why would someone do that without any evidence? It's kind of discrimination based on assumptions if you ask me..

'So what did they do to you in that dungeon? And for how long?'. I keep on asking.

After I asked that, I notice he's remembering something bad, seeing his face expression.

"They tortured me, for three and a half years".

I swallow with effort. Three and a half years.. Who in their sick mind would torture someone for so long?

'How did you get out?' I ask.

He remains silent for a while. "..By killing them".

The room is completely quiet now and I just stare forward.

'Wow'. I eventually say. 'That's.. um.. yeah..'.

He nods modest.

'So um.. I guess they deserved it'. I say. 'Can I ask one more thing?' I add a few silent seconds later.

"Sure". He responds.

I think for a while. Should I ask, or is it a little rude? Every time I open my mouth to ask, something's stopping me. It's because I don't dare to do it, but why? It's Zach we're talking about. Yes, he lashes out over nothing sometimes, but I've learned by now he won't hurt me. So I'm just going to ask.

'How.. how did they torture you?' I ask, stuttering.

He lifts up his eyebrows and gets up from the couch. "Doesn't matter". He says determined.

I get up from the couch too, walking towards him. 'You can tell me'. I say as I stand behind him.

He turns around and looks neutrally at me. "Look, they have done a lot of morbid things back then. But the main thing they used was sunlight.."

I look strange at him. 'I thought sunlight was a myth, you didn't tell me about it, and it didn't seem to affect you either..'.

"It's not a myth. It's the herb Petalum. For humans it works against the influence of a vampire. Vampires on the other hand, use Petalum because it works as protection for sunlight".

'We use sun cream for that'. I joke, to cheer up the clearly reminiscing Zach.

I notice he can laugh about it, but a little restrained. "Was that your last question?" He asks.

I nod. 'Pretty much so..'.

After an hour of talking and Zach treating my wounds, he seems to hear something as he's bandaging. He looks behind him. "Hm, sleeping beauty's awake". He says and gets up from the couch. "And he enters... now".