Just One Bite »ᴄɵᴍᴘᴌᴇтᴇ«

THIRTY-TWO

THIRTY-TWO

Vivian woke to feeling... comfortable. Tired. But something else she hadn't felt in a long time. Safe. She felt safe.

Opening her eyes showed that she was on a bed with pale blue pillows. Vivian slammed her eyes shut. Blue. His eyes were blue. Cobalt. Insane. But then Dee's were blue. But when she pictured Dee, all she could see was him in pain. So much pain. Pain that she caused by her touch.

"Hey," a male voice said. Turning her head showed Alex, one of the twins from the younger set, was in the doorway. "How you feeling?"

Vivian blinked at him. How did she feel? Numb. Scared. Tired. But safe, she felt safe here. But in response, she felt her eyes burn and her vision blur.

Alex suddenly looked panicked. "No, no, no, no, don't cry, Vivian. My brother will kill me if he knew I made you cry. You don't want me to die, do you?" He gave her a grin and a wink, which actually managed to make her cough up a laugh. But the laugh was short lived.

"Do you mind if Aaron touches you?" Alex asked quietly.

Vivian flinched. Memories rushed back at the chance to haunt her, but she made herself think about Alex's request. Aaron could manipulate memories if she remembered right. "Why?"

Alex shrugged. "It was just an idea that was being past around. We want to help, Vivian."

Vivian looked down. Slowly, she nodded. "I can't promise anything."

If Alex had said Dee, she knew she'd have said "no" and that would have been that. But what if she could touch without taking from them?

Alex grinned. "That's our girl."

Minutes later of meaningless banter with Alex which managed to calm her. Aaron entered the room, his blue eyes with shattered gold looking at her. His hair wasn't in it's normal gelled form, instead, the black and pure white lay down softly on his head.

"Hey, Vivian," Aaron said as he came over and sat next to Alex on the floor. "I'm not going to do anything except see what happened, okay?"

"It's not me I'm worried about," Vivian replied gently. "How long does it take?"

"It depends."

Vivian nodded, feeling her breathing quicken as panic tried to override. She fought it. Just as she had before, and just as she had before, she was surprised when it worked. If only a little.

"Okay, here we go," Aaron said, reaching for her.

Vivian heard something and had only a minute to see Aaron's identical twin was in the doorway with his usual black beanie hat on.

Then their hands touched. Not even a second later, Vivian felt it rise. Felt it call, summon Aaron's life force to cross between them. To leave him to come to her.

Panic rose. And it wasn't only her. Then his life force hit her, it was different to all the others. But it was painful. She didn't want it. She didn't want what was passing between them.

Vivian was aware a scream and then sobs. And for once, it wasn't her. Instead, she yanked her hand from his, curling into a ball, making herself smaller, hoping the others wouldn't touch her. She didn't think she'd be able to bear it if they tried.

Vivian heard Aaron run out of the room. There was a second of silence before the sound that Aaron was throwing up sounded from down the hall in the bathroom.

Nick suddenly stormed in. "What the hell is going on?"

Vivian flinched at the angry storm that had ridden into the room in form of a man.