Revamped

twenty

Tyler woke up gasping, the last clutches of the nightmare that had held him captive during the night melting away with every shuddery breath he took.

The room was fuzzy, and he blinked a few times to clear his vision, putting one hand over his rapidly beating heart and trying to calm. Slowly but surely, it eased into a regular rhythm, and he took a look around him again, now blinking in confusion.

He was in Josh's room.

Glancing at the window to determine the time, he frowned at seeing that someone had pinned a dark sheet over it, leaving the room in darkness save for Tyler's lava lamp, which glowed from the bedside table. Absently, he watched it for a moment, captivated by the continuously moving gel, the red light.

His head felt a little weird, like it was stuffed with cotton, so he eventually tore his gaze away from the lamp and slid his legs over the side of the bed to stand, wobbling slightly. He frowned again as he looked down at his clothes, which consisted of Josh's same t-shirt, and a pair of gray joggers he didn't remember changing into.

But he shrugged, padding to the window to cautiously pull the sheet aside and the blind down, grimacing at the bright light that immediately blinded him. He let go with a snap, and the room was shrouded in darkness again.

Looking once more towards the bed, he briefly contemplated just going back to sleep and avoiding whatever conversation waited outside of that door, but the nightmare was still too fresh in his mind.

Chills brushed over his skin, remembering, and he hugged himself and quickly walked towards the door.

Jenna suddenly crossed his mind and he paused with his hand on the doorknob, biting his lip. Where was she? What had even happened after his little black-out yesterday?

After he'd left her in the midst of fucking vampires. Maybe.

All he really knew were Josh and Brendon, but he suspected everyone in the warehouse at this point. It would make sense, at least as much as something could make sense in a situation like this.

Vampires. Holy crap.

Surprisingly, he wasn't as freaked out as he'd thought. Sure, it was...shocking, but it wasn't as if they'd attacked Tyler at any point of his stay. So he didn't really have anything personal against them.

Which almost sucked, because he wanted to be more mad at Josh than he was. But he wasn't, especially not with Ryan's tale of woe still ringing in his head, depressing him all over again.

How sad must it be to have to literally chain yourself away from the person you love, all because of some stupid addiction? Missing out on precious time together, as Ryan was obviously human, and not able to share the love and passion you have for one another?

It made his heart ache just thinking about it.

Rubbing at his chest, Tyler twisted the knob and pulled open the door, immediately noticing that the hallway was dimmer than it should have been. That would have worried him, but the smell of something absolutely divine reached his nose, and he could do nothing but follow it to the kitchen.

What he saw both surprised him and answered a few of his questions.

All of the windows had the curtains drawn, leaving the room to be lit by just the kitchen light. Jenna was pulling some glass dish out of the oven, and the smell of sugary cinnamon wafted through the air, winding around Tyler and prompting him to inhale the warm, sweet, delicious scent.

His mouth watered and she looked up, sending him a smile as she put the dish on the counter and closed the oven door.

"Good morning," she said quietly, and he murmured a reply as he padded cautiously into the kitchen, his eyes widening as he saw all kinds of food covering the counters, from pastries to ham, even biscuits and eggs, scrambled and sunny-side up.