The Lost Boys: Dark Paradise

Chapter 6: Torment

  I woke up in the cave, feeling disoriented and really tired. It was dark and I tried to find my way out of the cave by feeling against the ground crawling on my hands and knees, then felt around for the wall. Moving cautiously, and slowly, opening my eyes real wide as if it helped me see in the dark better. Suddenly I finally saw some light. I hightailed it out of there. Running and running and running until I got to the boardwalk. The sun was just rising. I stopped and plopped down at a bench. Feeling so exhausted, I decided that this was my exercise for the day. I tried to breathe regularly. Ok, so David and his boys are vampires. David not only bit me once but twice, and fed me his own blood. Not to mention my tongue was cut open. It was throbbing in pain. People were staring at me. Why were they staring at me? I looked down at myself. My perfectly good light pink outfit was stained with blood. Great. 

  'How in the world am I going to explain this to mom?', I asked myself. I realized I still had my purse with me. I could buy some new clothes. I opened my purse and it still had the small silver cross, and the small wooden stake in it. Edgar and Allen were actually right. Vampires did exist. And the guy that I  thought was so hot was actually one of them. 'What a great summer vacation.', I thought. I went to a nearby fashion store on the boardwalk to buy some new clothes. I bought a black tight sweater, black skinny jeans, black leather ankle boots, black jewelry and cat eye sunglasses to match and a black leather jacket. I cleaned myself up in the women's restroom and walked all the way  back to the hotel to shower and change. I wore my hair in a beehive ponytail, and wore light makeup but heavy black eyeliner. When I was ready, my mom got back from the coffee shop with Nick and Lucy. She saw me and smiled, "There's my baby girl!!" "Mom, aren't you worried about where I've been?", I asked. "Weren't you with Michael?", she asked confused. "Yes. I was with Michael.", I said. "Then there was no reason to worry.", she said happily. 

  "Ok, now you're freaking me out, mom.", I said, worried. "Michael told me that you were with him.", my mom explained. 'So, Michael was covering for me.', I thought. "Yeah we were together all night. We didn't do anything if that's what you are wondering. Star was with us. Star's Michael's girlfriend, and a friend of mine.", I explained. My mom's face fell, "Oh. So you two are not dating?" "No, mom. Michael's just a friend.", I said. "You really like that bleach blonde biker boy, don't you?", she asked. I thought about it for a while. While I totally thought David was hot, he was in fact a vampire, which complicated things. "He was hot.", I simply said. I really didn't think she would believe me if I said anything about vampires living in Santa Carla. My mom gave me a look that said, 'OMG!' "My daughter likes bad boys!!", my mom said perplexed. " Mom, chill out. It's not like you picked up a preacher at a church.", I said feeling tired and......hungry. "Well, I guess I always knew that my baby girl would take after her mother.", she sighed. "And what's with the clothes? Black? You've always liked pastels. Especially pink. Why all black? You look like a punk.", she looked confused, and shocked. "Well, gee thank you mom.", I said sarcastically. She gave me another confused look. I sighed, " I felt like a change." 

 She then gave me a hug, "Tori, I'm really worried about you. I feel like there's something that you're not telling me." I had to hold my breath, due to the wonderful smell coming from her neck. "I'm starving.", I chocked out before I let go of her. "Then let's get you something to eat.", my mom sounded concerned as she looked me in the eyes. Her worried expression got the best of me and I had to get out of there before I ripped open her neck. "I have to go. Love you mom. Bye.", I said as I bolted out into the blinding and blistering sun. It was pure torment. The bloodlust that I thought I was not capable of having was causing me to literally lose my mind. As I ran out into the street, I heard my mom yell, "Where are you going?!" I thought about it. I definitely wasn't going back to the cave. The Frog brothers. They probably knew more about what was happening to me than I did. And sadly as I thought they were insane for believing in vampires, I found that they were right, and I was becoming one of them, probably. My mom grabbed my arm, "Tori, you're in the middle of the street!! Come on!! Get to the sidewalk!!!", she yelled as she pushed me to the sidewalk. I glared at her as we got to the sidewalk, on the other side of the street. I almost went for her neck, when a dog came running at me and knocked me over. I pushed the dog over and bolted from the scene. I ran into an alleyway close to the boardwalk, and slid against the wall to the ground. My burning throat never ending it's torture to my entire body. Although by body was rithing in pain, my mind had equal torment. 'Did I just try to murder my own mother?!', that thought tormented my mind. 

  "No!!! I would never hurt my mom!!! I would never hurt my mom!! I would never hurt my mom....", I kept chanting like a prayer. After a while, I got the courage to keep going. Keep walking until I found the Frog brothers. I kept walking and walking. With pain in each step, and smell of something that controlled me, moved me, made me go insane, it made it super difficult to keep going. But had to see the Frog brothers again. I had to explain my situation. I had to get help.....omg. A little boy had fallen and scraped his knee, right in front of me. I tried to breathe regularly and control myself. The blood smelled sweet, it's aroma torturing my esophagus and lungs. 'Why?', I thought, 'Why did this have to happen to me?' The boy's mother picked him up and took him to a seat nearby, looking at me like I was crazy for staring at her son. I kept walking, no, not walking, jogging as fast as I could to get to the comic book shop. 

  I got more and more tired with each step, almost to the point of having to drag myself to move forward. My body, esophagus and lungs feeling fatigued. I almost fainted at the front of the store. "Help.", I whispered, as I fell to the floor heaving and huffing and puffing. Sammy was there, and he ran over to my side. "Tori!! What's wrong?!", he shouted. I held my ears, "SSSSHHHHHH!!! Not so LOUD!!! I have a splitting headache!!!" "We'll go get you some Advil.", Sammy said all worried. "No, I don't-", I struggled to get the words out back of the burning pain in my throat, "I-I-don't know what's happening to me." Edgar came to the front of the store with a wooden stake in his hand, ready to strike. Sammy stopped him by getting in front of me. "Don't you DARE!!", he shouted. "Sam, move out of the way. She's one of them.", Edgar said it like he was trying to protect Sammy from......me. "No, she's not!!! And neither is my brother!! I saw him walk into the sun!!! He's not one of them!!", he sounded desperate to convince them. "They are creatures of the night, Sam. And the sooner you know that and you stake them, the better.", Edgar said sternly. "Then how come she can walk out in the sun, huh?? How come my brother can walk out in sun too??", Sam was defensive. "I-I don't know, we have some theories-", Allen said but I cut him off. I looked up at them both with tears in my eyes, "Please", I choked out, "Help me." Sam, Edgar, and Allen all looked at each other and then at me. 

  "This isn't the first time we've helped a damsel in distress.", Allen said. "You know how you got this way?", Sam asked. "I-I-uhhh...", I struggled with my words," I went to this place with these guys. There were four of them, and there was one in particular who said that he liked me. I thought he liked me, until....." Sammy sat still listening to every word, but getting more and more angrier with each word that I said. For some reason, I knew he wasn't angry at me in particular. I struggled again with my words, "He was hansome and I thought he liked me....he.....he bit my neck....I couldn't remember what happened until last night. He said I was going to be their new member of their club. He......", I tried to get out the rest but felt very disoriented and uncomfortable. "It's ok, Tori. You don't have to tell us the rest.", Sammy said as he put an arm around me. "Did you drink something that was red or looked like wine?", Allen asked me. "No, well.....not out of a glass. And not voluntarily.", I said carefully. "Did he....feed you his own blood?", Allen asked. I started to lose my nerves, and nodded. "Son of a...", Sammy said through clenched teeth.  

  I started shaking, and the boys were silent for a while. "We need an effective plan.", Edgar said. Sammy Edgar and Allen researched my current situation with comic books, and found out that Michael and I were only half vampires, and wouldn't change fully into a vampire until we made our first kill. I thought about Star and Laddie. Were they? They knew about my neck. They were protective of me. Surely they weren't vampires. My whole situation worried me. And the more I thought about how all I had to do for me to fully turn was to take a life, the more terrified I was....of myself.