Subject 208

Chapter 12~ Into the Night

{Pete's POV}

     It's been about a week since the incident with Patrick when Ryan and Brendon were over. They came over almost every day, just to hang out and stuff. Ryan, Brendon and I were all sitting around in the living room, watching TV. It was still an hour before Patrick was supposed to wake up. I usually slept around this time, to keep up with Patrick and his sleep schedule, but for some reason, I couldn't really sleep much over the past few days, and Brendon was very eager to point that out.

     "You look dead, Pete! When's the last time you actually slept, like a full eight hours, at least?" he asked. 

     I sighed, again. He'd been going on for the past twenty minutes or so. "I don't know, Brendon! I just can't sleep for some reason! I don't know what my problem is!" I said, getting frustrated. 

     "Hey, man, relax. I'm sorry, okay? I'm just worried about you. This is not healthy, Pete." he said, leaning over and placing a hand on my shoulder. 

     "I know, I know. I'm not mad at you. I'm mad at myself. I don't know what's wrong with me. I've just been having a hard time sleeping. Patrick's been having nightmares again, but he won't ever tell me what they're about. He hardly talks to me anymore, and he's been needing blood more and more often. He never needed so much before the incident last week. Something's wrong with him, I can feel it, but I just don't know what it is." I explained, shaking my head in frustration. 

     "Hey, maybe one of us can talk to him." Brendon suggested. 

     "No offense, Bren, but you still might be giving him nightmares. Ryan, he likes you, though. You're his favorite! Can you please talk to him for me?" I asked. 

     "I guess I can try." Ryan said after a moment's hesitation. 

     "Thanks, Ry. You're the greatest! He should be waking up right about now, if you want to do it now." I said. He nodded, getting up from the chair with a sigh before heading upstairs.

{Ryan's POV}

     I climbed up the stairs and headed down the hall towards Patrick's room. As I approached the door, though, I could hear quiet talking. "I...I don't need any, Vaughn!" Patrick said. "L-Leave me alone! I don't want any right now! No!" I heard him crying. 

     I rushed to his door and threw it open, peering into the room. He turned to look at me, eyes widening in shock. I found Patrick, kneeling on the floor in front of a long mirror he had. Dried tear tracks stained his face, which had a pain-filled expression. Slowly, I stepped closer, eventually kneeling down in front of him. "Patrick, are you okay?" I asked gently. 

     "R-Ryan? What are you doing here?" he asked, looking me in the eye. 

     "I came to talk to you about something, but then I heard you talking. What's wrong, Patrick?" I asked, growing more and more concerned for the kid. 

     "N-Nothing's wrong. I'm fine." he said. 

     "Patrick, stop lying to me. We can all tell something is wrong. Pete, Brendon, me. We know something's up. You haven't been talking to Pete as much as you used to, and it's been driving him crazy. He hasn't been sleeping, much, Patrick. What's going on? You can talk to us. You can talk to me." I said.

     He shook his head, raising his fists to the sides of it. "Hey, hey, Pat! Just...breathe, okay? Talk to me! What's going on?" I asked gently. 

     "N-Nothing. Please...just leave me alone. Please, Ryan." he said, tears streaming down his face. 

     "OK...OK, Patrick. I'll leave you alone. Just, come talk to us if you need to, okay?" I said, gently, my arms raised as I stood up and slowly walked to the door. Patrick slowly turned to the mirror, and just kept staring at his reflection, his eyes sad and tortured. Slowly and quietly, I walked out the door and downstairs into the living room. Pete and Brendon were into a conversation, but stopped and looked up at me as I walked in. 

     "Hey. How'd it go?" Pete asked. 

     I sat down, shaking my head. "I don't know, Pete. He's acting really strange." I recounted what had happened when I was in Patrick's room. 

     Pete looked really confused. "He's never acted this way. I have no idea what's going on with him, but it's scaring the crap out of me. What are we supposed to do?" he asked. 

     "I don't know, Pete. Maybe...maybe it's something wrong with his head. I mean, we never truly understood the vampire biology and mind at the lab. Maybe it's something deeper down. Maybe we can check things out somehow. I don't know." Brendon said. 

     "How are we supposed to do that? We don't have any way to do that here, and we can't take him to a hospital or anything." Pete reminded us. 

     "Maybe...maybe we can sneak him back into the lab." I suggested.

     "Ryan, that's crazy! What if somebody catches us? What if my dad catches us?! I can't risk Patrick being caught." Pete said. 

     "We'll be extra careful, Pete. This might be the only way to see what's wrong with him, if it really is something inside of his head. We have to take him back to the lab, and run some tests." I explained. 

    "Ry, I-" I noticed he stopped, looking up as he noticed something behind us. I turned around, and saw Patrick standing there, staring at us. 

     "Hey, 'Trick. What's up?" Pete asked him cautiously. 

     "I-I'm not going back. You're not sending me back, Pete." he said, anger in his eyes. 

     "We're not sending you, back, Patrick. We want to sneak back into the lab with you, run some tests, see what's going on with you. Once we're done, we'll come back here. Everything will be fine, Patrick. I promise." he said, stepping closer to Patrick. 

     "No, Pete! I-I won't go back. No!" he shouted, stepping back and stumbling, falling back onto the stairs. He looked up at us with wild eyes. 

     "Patrick, hey, it's okay. We're not going to lose you in there. Everything will be okay." Pete tried to reason with him, reaching a hand out towards Patrick. Patrick's eye closed, before he gasped and they flew open, burning yellow. "V-Vaughn?" Pete asked. 

     "I won't let you take me back there, Peter. I won't let you take him back." he said, standing up and facing us, defiantly. 

     "Vaughn, we just want to see what's wrong. We won't let anything happen to you or Patrick, I swear." Pete said.

     Vaughn nodded, narrowing his eyes at us. "Yeah, that is correct. You will not let anything happen to us." he said. Then, in an instant, he was gone. He just disappeared. 

     "Patrick?! Where did he go?!" Pete cried, staring at the spot where he'd previously stood. I stepped up behind him and placed a hand on his shoulder. 

     "I don't know, Pete, but...but we'll find him. Okay, we'll find him."

Hey! So, here's the newest chapter! Things are definitely going to start picking up, starting here, so keep reading to see what happens!

If you liked this chapter, please remember to vote and comment! Thanks for reading! Later! :)