Dark Side

7. Decision

Phil

It hurt. And not just a little. It felt like Dan was biting my whole arm off, instead of drinking a little blood. I wanted to scream, but tried not to; I knew Dan would feel guilty about hurting me and I didn't want him to feel guilty.

Finally, he stopped. My blood dripped from his mouth on his black shirt.

"Thank you," he said.

"N-no problem," I stuttered and noticed my hands were trembling.

Dan's eyes were full of concern when he looked at me. "Are you okay?"

I nodded. "I'm fine," I said, "I just want to sleep now."

In the week that followed, I offered my blood to him again. He said he didn't want to, and to be honest I didn't want to either, but he hadn't been drinking much blood since he had mine the week before.

"Phil," he began, "I felt really guilty last week and I don't want to hurt you again."

"It wasn't that bad, Dan," I lied. I held out my wrist and I saw he had difficulty controlling himself. "It's okay," I lied again. "One more time won't kill me."

He took my wrist, and I felt his teeth sink into my skin. Again, I struggled not to scream and I was glad Dan couldn't see my face.

Suddenly, the door of the bedroom opened and PJ stood in the doorway. Dan stopped drinking and looked up, seeing PJ.

"What are you doing here?" Dan asked, wiping the blood off his chin.

"I wanted to ask if you wanted to go to the pub tonight," PJ said, not showing any emotion on his face. "Your apartment door isn't locked by the way."

"You could have knocked," Dan said.

PJ ignored him completely. "Can I talk to you for a minute?"

Dan stood up from the bed we were sitting on and followed PJ to the lounge.

Dan

"You should've knocked if you didn't want to see that," I said to PJ in the lounge. I could tell he wanted to rip my head off because of my stupidity. Did I blame him? No. Did I blame myself? Yes. I was so stupid to give in. I could've gone to the alley last night and drink someone else's blood, but I didn't and I didn't know why.

"This isn't about me!" PJ screamed. "You're killing him, Dan! I don't know how much blood you have taken, but he grows weaker every time you drink."

"I don't want to kill him," I said, ashamed.

"I know that. But he needs to be turned."

"What?!" I said. "He doesn't need to be turned, I only drank twice!"

Phil shouldn't be turned in a monster. He didn't deserve this. He deserved a happy life, not this.

"He knows too much," PJ said.

"He wouldn't tell anyone."

We looked at each other furiously, until I heard a voice behind me.

"Maybe PJ is right."

I turned around to see Phil standing in the doorway, his wrist still bleeding. I don't know how long he had been listening to our conversation. I walked towards him and held his face in my hands. "Phil, please, don't do this," I said.

"He is right, Dan," Phil said and I shook my head. "Think about it. It will be so much easier for you. You don't have to be afraid to hurt me and you don't need to control yourself when I'm around."

"Phil, listen to me. You don't want this. You don't want to live like this."

"As long as I can be with you, I don't care how I live, Dan," he said and pressed his lips against mine.