Breathe, Willa. You need to breathe. I sucked in a sharp breath and let my eyes refocus on the headstone. Either everything was completely fine and he was just trying to joke around, or something really bad was happening here. I opened my mouth, but no words came out.
"Willa?" Brandon mumbled. I tucked some loose hair behind my ear and noticed that my hands were shaking.
"What is going on, Brandon?" my voice asked, trembling.
"You see, Willa, the thing is... I'm not actually 32," he started. "I... I, um... I'm..." He struggled to find the right words.
"Please just tell me," I sighed.
"I'm actually about 57... but physically, I still am 32." What? My eyes narrowed.
"And how?"
"Well, you see... back when I actually was 32, I met a man named Damion." Damion! "He said that my career would soon end and I would end up dead. Of course, since he looked like he was living on the street, I didn't listen to him. I assumed he was just a crazy homeless man. With his tattered clothes and messed up hair, he appeared like it. However, I believed him when that night, I was pulled into an alley and stabbed in the chest. The pain was excruciating, even more so when I started to feel this burning sensation flow throughout my chest. Like, the terrible kind where you would rather die than feel it. After trying to ignore it, I had forced myself to look at what was causing it, and I saw a man viciously sucking the blood out of my chest. It terrified me. After all, I thought that vampires were just myths. I had always believed it until I saw that.
"Anyway, when I woke up later that night, I was still laying exactly where I was when I passed out. However, I noticed that a giant bite mark occupied my stomach, which it still does." He lifted up the bottom of his polo, revealing a vague but noticeable bite mark on his toned stomach. I didn't know what I was expecting, but it sure wasn't that. My facial expression must have contorted, because he nodded. "I know. I've had to live with this for twenty-five years. But, the only difference is that when I noticed it, it was mangled and bloody." That thought made me cringe on the spot. "Also, when I was frantically running through the streets, I looked in a shop window and noticed something else." Taking a breath, he lifted his fingers to his sunglasses and removed the accessory, folding them. Then, he looked up at me, and when our eyes met, I felt mine widen. His once-brown eyes were now completely red. There was no other color in the iris; it was a bright blood red.
"W-were your eyes like that the entire time?" I stuttered.
"Yes," he sighed.
"So you were wearing contacts?"
"Yes."
"Why didn't you wear them today?"
"Because I knew that somehow today, I was going to come clean to you," he answered, looking down at the ground. This was a lot to take in at one time. All of the information was so overwhelming. Inhaling deeply, I asked the question that I most wanted to know the answer to.
"How did you know where I was?"
"It's hard to explain..." he trailed off, awkwardly rubbing the back of his neck. "You see, I have a gift. It came with the... transformation. I can see anyone's future, but only thirty seconds into their future. When you must have been getting your books from your locker, I instantly got this vision of you being attacked. It hit me so hard I dropped my glass of water. The glass is still scattered on the floor at home. I drove here as fast as I could and then you know the rest... except for Casey."
"What did you do to him?" I inquired, hoping for the best but expecting the worst. He took a deep breath.
"To put it simply, I killed him." Nearly fainting, I blinked hard. This man, the man I had completely trusted when I first met him, was a killer. "My teeth sank into his neck and I drank his blood. Quick as that." As he said that, he snapped. My jaw dropped open.
"Oh my God..." I muttered, staring into his ruby red eyes.
"Willa, please believe me, I just wanted to make sure you were safe," he pleaded. "I didn't ask for this life. My anger and possessiveness can't be controlled, even less so when I'm around a lot of blood. In fact, I still have to control the thirst even when I'm around Orrey. Do you know how much I'm having to control myself right now?" I shook my head. "Exactly. It's hard to describe it. I feel like I'm going to jump out of my skin if I don't. That's why I didn't want the matchmaking party, because I knew if I did meet so many girls, I would end up killing one of you. And, as much as I hate it, I actually did." My eyes widened as I put the pieces together. Renée.
"It was Renée, wasn't it?" I guessed, and he nodded.
"Yes," he answered. "I feel terrible about it because she was just a scared girl that we picked up off of the street. We grabbed her off of a sidewalk, gave her a dress, and then I ended up killing her without a second thought about what I was doing. It's a miserable life as what I am. You have to live through every day, hoping that you'll at least be able to find a little bit of food. It hasn't even been that long, only twenty-five years, but I want to die." This poor man. If I had been in his shoes, I would have tried everything to kill myself. Slowly and carefully, I stepped forward and wrapped my arms around his stomach. He seemed surprised when I did because his body stiffened, but he soon started to hug me back.
"Maybe one day you'll be able to."
~~~~~~~~~~~~
AN: hello! so, a lot of questions were answered in this chapter. Brandon's secret is finally out! he can't hide it anymore! how do you feel about it all? be sure to let me know in the comments! also, please vote... i kinda wanna get to 50 votes soon... so yeah, comment/vote please! it would be appreciated :)
(my Patrick Stump fanfic "The Flier" has been updated! please check it out!)
(fun fact about the story: it was directly inspired by a dream i had.)
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Matchmaker (a Brandon Flowers fanfic)
Фанфик"An excellent man, like precious metal, is in every way invariable; a villain, like the beams of a balance, is always varying, upwards and downwards." -John Locke [very temporary, very small hiatus]
