~BOOK 4/PART ONE~ Paranormal: The Battle's Only Just Begun (Multi-Bandom FanFic)

Chapter 1

Patrick walked through the front door of the house he once shared with his friends and who he thought was the love of his life, the hospital band that identified him still around his wrist, but his normal clothes on his back. He didn't have anyone to drive him home, not that he wanted anyone to. He needed some time to be alone, to walk and think about everything that happened, and to get used to the way things were now. He'd lost everyone and everything he had, and it wasn't like he could even help it. He wasn't in control, something he'd fought for for so long.

Thinking he was home alone, he wandered into the kitchen and pulled open the fridge, expecting to find the back-up bags of blood Rachael had always kept in there. He was only met with disappointment, though, the fridge entirely empty.

"Looking for this?"

He peered over the edge of the refrigerator door and saw Andy and Joe standing in the threshold in between the kitchen and the foyer. In Joe's hands was a bag of blood.

"Rachael dropped off a whole fridge worth of them," He explained, tossing the bag to Patrick who caught it in his hands, the fridge door closing.

"She said not to tell you where she put them, though," Andy tacked on, "Something about how she doesn't want you going overboard."

A sad smile appeared on the vampire's face. "She's leaving, you know. Rachael. She's leaving with Brendon and my last words to her were 'I hope you have a good time'." He met the blank stares of his friends. "I fucking told her 'I hope you have a good time'."

"What's so bad about that?" Joe inquired.

The singer's vision began to blur. "What's so bad about that? What's so bad about that is I let her go with him. I mean, I knew she was going to leave sooner or later, but she's going with him. Of all people, him. And the only thing I said was 'I hope you have a good time'." There was no need for him to explain who "him" was. Joe and Andy knew, "he" was the only one who'd ever tried getting in between Patrick and Rachael.

Andy approached his friend and pulled him into a hug. "Don't think about it too much, Patrick. Rachael will come back. She always does." Patrick whimpered and buried his face into his friend's shoulder, failing to hold back the tears that had been building up in his eyes.

Just then, the phone the vampires had in the kitchen began to go off. Joe walked over to it and picked it up from the receiver, pressing the answer button and - without checking who the caller was - brought the phone up to his ear. "Hello?"

"Patrick?" Kenya's easily recognizable voice sounded over the speaker.

The vampire raised an eyebrow. "Uh... No, it's Joe."

"Joe? Where's Patrick? I want to talk to Patrick."

"Um..." The guitar player glanced back over his shoulder to see his two friends still standing together, embraced in each other's arms as the smaller vampire sobbed. "...he's kind of busy at the moment. Can I take a message?"

"A message won't do any good. I need to meet with him tonight. Or is he too busy to meet me?"

"Well, I'm sure he could. I-I don't see why not."

"Great. Can you tell him to meet me on the corner of St. Joseph and Fulton in the Warehouse District? He needs to be there by ten, no later."

"Um...sure." He glanced around for a pen and piece of paper, giving up quickly when he couldn't find any in the room. "What's the address?"

"No address, just the corner of the intersecting streets, I'll meet him there."

Joe rubbed the back of his neck nervously. "Are you sure you can't meet him anywhere else?"

"Why?"

"Well...it's just that...we were kind of banned from the Warehouse District and I'm afraid that he'll get killed or something."

A groan passed through the speaker. "He'll be fine as long as he's with me. Just make sure he's there by ten, okay?" And with that, the she wolf hung up, leaving the vampire baffled and confused. He slowly placed the phone back in the cradle and turned toward the other two inhabitants of the house.

"Well, I guess Patrick's going out tonight."

Andy turned his head to look at Joe. "What do you mean Patrick's going out tonight?"

"Kenya wants to talk to him."

The singer recomposed himself and pulled away from the drummer, wiping underneath his eyes and gazing over at the guitarist. "Why?"

"Beats me."