black roses | The Lost Boys (1987)

xxiii.

I woke up to the feeling of Rain licking my face while whining loudly. I groaned and cracked an eye open. The sun was still up – I could feel it – so why was he waking me up? I shifted myself a bit to see him standing on top of Marko, though none of the others had woken up yet. I wasn't surprised. They rarely woke up before the sun set.

"Rain," I mumbled, my voice hoarse and my vision still blurry, "what are you doing?"

Rain whined again and pointed his face to the door. I sighed and listened as hard as I could, and I could make out the sound of voices in the hall, though they were a bit a ways away. I blinked quickly and turned to shake David. He groaned in response and shook his head. "Baby, the sun's still up."

"David, someone's here," I mumbled quietly, trying to keep my voice low so they wouldn't hear.

"No, there's not. Go to bed, sweetheart."

"David, I'm not kidding," I whined out, my voice going up an octave. David opened his eyes and listened like I had before, sitting up quickly when he heard the voices. He let out a territorial growl that immediately woke up the other boys, though Paul and Marko took a bit longer to wake up completely compared to Dwayne who immediately shot up, his eyes bright yellow.

"What is it," Dwayne questioned, looking around the room.

David stood and pulled on his pants and shirt in less than a second before moving to the door. "Someone's here."

The other boys rose from the bed and pulled on their clothes easily, moving faster than I had ever seen them. I sat in the bed and brought my knees up to my chest as the voices grew nearer. "I know those voices," I mumbled quietly, climbing out of bed with a blanket wrapped around me.

"What's that smell," one questioned.

"Vampires, my friend, vampires," the other responded.

I pulled the blanket tighter around myself and turned to David. "That's Sam Emerson and the Frog brothers." Marko moved to stand beside me, wrapping his arm around me. "Maybe you can scare them off, y'know. Get them to run off before they see you."

David snarled and turned to me. "I'm going to rip them limb from limb if they hurt Laddie or Star."

I nodded quickly and turned to the door. The boys were getting closer, almost too close. "Growl at them, like really loud. Get them to turn and run. That way they won't see you guys. We can get them later."

Marko smirked and David opened the door. He paused for a second, listening, before he let out a deep, guttural growl that resonated through the halls. The boys' footsteps stopped, and I heard their heartbeats pick up. If they could see anything at all, it would be David's eyes glowing against the darkness.

"Edgar, what was that," Sam questioned.

David let out another growl, this one louder. Dwayne joined in, inching closer to the door as he let out a growl. I bit my lip and stared at the two.

"I don't know, Sam," Edgar responded. "The comics don't say vampires can growl."

David let out a vicious roar, and I inched myself closer to Marko just a bit as David's face changed completely to his vampiric form.

The boys all let out loud yells and began running the other direction. I heard one of them drop a flashlight, and it went silent as they fled from the cave, yelling loudly for someone to start the car. I pulled myself away from Marko and inched my way to the door, listening carefully to make sure they were gone before opening the door.

"Where are you going," David questioned, placing his hand on my shoulder.

"I need to go out there, see if Laddie and Star are still there." My voice was frantic, and David let go of my shoulder and let me hurry down the hall, still clutching the blanket to me in case someone was still there. I stepped into the main cave and flinched at the light but continued walking. I scanned over the area quickly before bounding over to the beds where I let out a small growl. Star and Laddie weren't there. I felt tears gather in my eyes as I worried about where they were. I ran to the steps of the cave and flew up, though I was a bit wobbly with it.