Rows of Roses

Chapter One

[Written by: KevlarKompass]

"Xisuma, hurry up!" Grian bounced on his heels, waiting for his friend to get their stuff out of their van. X rolled his eyes.

"It'd go faster if you would help." He said, trying to sound annoyed but he was too amused by Grians insistence on constantly moving. Grian just kept bouncing around and taking pictures of anything even mildly creepy with his Polaroid camera. X finished getting out everything he could carry, then called Grian over so he could handle the vampire and werewolf hunting equipment.

"Why can't you handle this stuff for once?" Grian groaned, "we never run into anything besides standard ghosts anyways, we could just leave it in the car."

"It's just a precaution, and we agreed at the start of this whole venture that I handle ghost stuff, you get everything else because you're too easily distracted and, as you said, we only ever run into ghosts."

Grian opened his mouth to make a retort, but closed it when he couldn't think of anything. He frowned and grumbled something to himself before walking over to the back of the van and swapping out his camera and pile of photos for a satchel filled with a couple of water pistols filled with holy water, wooden stakes, a gun with silver bullets, and anything else they may need. Xisuma laughed a little to himself.

"Don't get too grumpy, we might even see a whole vampire bat this time!" Xisuma smiled in response to his friends glare.

"Let's just go inside, I'm getting cold." Grian spun around and walked briskly toward the abandoned castle-like mansion that would be their home for the night. Xisuma rolled his eyes, locking up the van before following him.

When Xisuma got inside he saw Grian holding up one of his holy water pistols to two men who looked both scared and amused. Well, the tall one looked far more scared.

"X, maybe I should've taken the ghost stuff this time." Grians voice shook. Xisuma walked over and gently pried the water pistol from his hands, keeping it pointed at the men while Grian quickly hid behind him.

"What are you two doing here? I told you to leave before we got here."

"What?" Grian hissed, confusion and slight betrayal in his voice.

"I'll explain later." Xisuma whispered back, not taking his eyes off the vampires, who seemed visibly more scared now that it was X with the gun.

"Well, you didn't specify what time you'd be here, we figured we had more... time," the tall vampire said, voice shaky and eyes trained on X's gloved hands, "usually sleepover means night time, not, uh, mid afternoon." Grians grip tightened on Xisumas jumper.

Xisuma squinted and squirted some of the holy water at the tall mans hand, causing him to yelp and jump back in surprise, the flesh on his hand sizzling.

"What the hell, dude?!" the shorter man glared at Xisuma and carefully grabbed his friends arm so he could inspect his hand, "you're lucky that stuffs old, you could've burnt his whole hand off!" Xisuma rolled his eyes.

"Don't be dramatic, he's old enough that it'd grow back in minutes." The mans hand was already pretty much healed, the only evidence of what had happened being the fact it still had steam coming off it.

"Hey, so, anyone wanna tell me what's going on here?" Grian asked, trying to sound assertive but the shake in his voice betrayed him, "X, how do you know these two?"

"I told you, I'll explain later."

The shorter man frowned, then suddenly he was holding the water pistol and Grians satchel of other supplies without Grian even seeing him move.

"Y'know, I don't even know why we agreed to let you two stay here for the night," he began, his American accent jarring against all their British ones, "we owe you nothing." He nudged the tall man, who jumped a little, before realising what he wanted and grabbing Grian from behind Xisuma just as fast as the short vampire had grabbed their supplies, leaving Grian dazed and confused.

"Hey, don't touch him!" X glared, knowing he couldn't do anything without his friend getting hurt. The moustached man kept a tight grip on Grians shoulders as he struggled to get free. He frowned and picked him up, holding him by his waist. Grian gave up, realising he was stuck.

"Take him to the spare room and lock him in there." The American demanded, eyes trained on X. The tall man nodded, carrying Grian off into some other part of the house, Grian trying to get out of his grip again.

"Xisuma!" He squeaked out before a door slammed shut and there was silence in the entrance hall.

"Taurtis, don't you think you're overreacting a bit?" Xisuma sighed, "if he gets hurt—"

"Don't worry, you know how soft Mumbo is, he wouldn't hurt a fly unless he intended to eat it, and we just ate last night."

"That's hardly reassuring." X crossed his arms. As good as his hearing was, he couldn't hear anything besides the birds and wind outside, no Grian.

"You trusted us enough that you thought we'd leave just so you two could have a sleepover, why not trust us now? We would never hurt your precious little human." Taurtis laughed.

"You really have forgotten what it was like to be human, haven't you?" Xisuma mumbled, pity in his eyes, "do you even remember what fear feels like? Or is the only emotion you feel for anyone besides Mumbo contempt."

"You're older than both of us, I'd expect you to know what this is like."

That's when Mumbo returned, and the two of them fell silent.

"Um, he's in the spare room. Well, one of them, we have a lot." Mumbo frowned and shuffled awkwardly.

"Thanks, babe," Taurtis smiled fondly at his soulmate, then turned back to X, "you, come with us." He demanded. He started stalking off in the opposite direction to where Mumbo had taken Grian, Mumbo scurrying quickly behind and Xisuma taking up the rear.

Meanwhile, Grian was curled up in the middle of the bed in the room he was locked in. How long was he gonna be stuck here? What were they gonna do with Xisuma?
This is not how he expected this night to go. He thought it'd just be another cosy cuddle-filled ghost hunting adventure with his best friend, but no, there had to be vampires, and ones Xisuma knew no less.

What did all this mean? He had so much he needed to ask X when he saw him again, but he wasn't sure he could trust him anymore. Was X the reason they only ever encountered ghosts? Is that why Grian always got the monster hunting equipment, because X knew he wouldn't have to use it?

So many questions, and no answers in sight.