The Shadows Within Us | Grethan

7

ethan's point of view

It had been a few weeks since the attack, and things were moving slowly. My recovery, I mean. The stitches had been taken out a few days ago, and Dr. Grayson did wonderfully. The scar ached once and awhile if I bent down to grab something below the waist, but it was healing along nicely. Grayson still had that guilty look on his face every time I walked around the house without a shirt on, or he caught a glimpse of me changing my shirt in the bedroom- I'm not blind, I can see you peeking, twerp. But I knew that Grayson shouldn't feel guilty about something like that. He wasn't the one who inflicted the pain onto me, it was that...thing.

 Grayson and I's days were boring. We'd sit outside, basking in the sun for a few hours before we went inside, drank a couple of cups of tea before we had a nice calm dinner before we retired for the night. It was a few days ago that Grayson and I agreed that instead of sleeping separately, it was time to sleep in the same bed, together. The first night was rough, Grayson tossed and turned a lot in his sleep, and I had shown him the large bruise on my shin of his foot hitting it during the night. We figured out it was because of the caffeine in that tea that was making him go berserk in the night, so we both started drinking tea in the day and water before bed.

It was only a few days where Grayson and I would whip out my stash of alcohol and drank until we couldn't even say wasted. If there was one thing I was thankful for when we got so fucking drunk, it was that we were in our mindset that we didn't start ripping each other's clothes off and start going wild. It had happened a few times, but we had made it to our underwear before the two of us chickened out and the rest of the night was awkward. But I think we were waiting in a sense because we both knew in the back of our heads that this shit, whatever it was, was not going to end anytime soon. And we were right, because one day out of the blue, there was a knock on the front door. 

Grayson and I were listening to the radio, Grayson on the couch, and I in my handmade Adirondack chair. The day in itself was captured in blistering heat, meaning my shirt was off, and Grayson was in a ratty old t-shirt he had snipped into a muscle-t. The knock on the door was such an abnormal experience for me in the last 5-10 years of my life, that I immediately went to my bedroom, making Grayson stay put, and grabbed one of my guns. It wasn't that I was afraid of whoever was on the other side, it was the fact that whoever this was, was stupid enough to bang on a random cabin door in the middle of the woods. 

"E-Ethan?" Grayson stuttered, reaching out to grab my shoulder before I could rip the door open. "Yes?" I replied, my brow raised. The longer we stood here, the time to kill the motherfuckers on the other side of the door lowered. "A-Are you sure you need that? What if their innocent civilians who got lost in the woods?" Grayson reasoned. Maybe he was right, and I was blowing this out of proportion, but I continued to the door, the gun still my hand, but calmed down enough to speak without a snarl.

When I opened the door, I was met with the freshness of the air of the outside world. But instead of seeing a beautiful green forest, I saw an ugly man and woman wearing white lab coats and caring clipboards and a red medical bag, it seemed. "Who are you?" I gave them no time to speak. "Hello sir, I'm Patricia Vasquez, and this is my co-worker Karl Lesley. We're here to talk to you about a certain tick virus that has been going around Washington. Could we come inside?" Patricia had a very nasally voice, and it annoyed the absolute shit out of me. She was very short, with wrinkly skin and blond hair that was pretty much fake. Karl, her co-worker that had yet to speak, was a bit larger than her, about 3 inches give or take. He was a bit pudgy with dark brown hair that was barely connected to his head.

I wanted to say no. I really did. But Grayson had come up from behind me and greeted them with open arms and aloud them into our cabin like they were part of the family. He even offered them our food and tea. Who was this guy? Oh right, my boyfriend. "Yes, it seems that you guys are very far away from the town we were at last. We didn't even know about this place until one man had brought up that someone was living out here. We didn't believe him but he insisted. He was correct it seems." Karl replied to Grayson's question, clearing his voice a few times between talking. Are we sure he wasn't the one with the tick disease? "Hmmm. Interesting. I've been living here for a month or two it seems. Although the days are slow, the weeks are fast. Ethan, over here, has been living here for years. Isn't that right?" Grayson asked, but of course, he knew the answer.

"Yes," I answered firmly, not wanting to join in on their conversation. "Alright, tough guy. Will we need to take pills? Or is it just a simple vaccine?" Grayson questioned. Patricia and Karl looked at each other, whispering a few things I couldn't hear before they both nodded. Karl started opening the red medical kit bag while Patricia answered Grayson's question. "Oh, just a simple vaccine. You'll feel a little pinch, and right after you may feel drowsy or tired. I'd be best if you went to lay down right after we leave." Patricia explained, but there was something in her words that didn't sound right to me. But I couldn't pinpoint it because Grayson and I were giving our consent, and Patricia was pinching us in the arm with a needle.

At first, I really didn't feel anything. It was when I went to stand up did my head start to spin. I felt like I was on a never ending ride of Tilt-A-Whirl and I would never stop until I was level with the ground, which ending up happening because I tripped over my own damn feet and ended up splat on the floor. My head had stopped spinning at some point, but I was suddenly drowsy that I couldn't keep my eyes open for long, but long enough to realize that whatever they had given us, was certainly not a vaccine for fucking ticks. 

***

hey everyone! how are you? safe, i hope.

as you can realize, i have renamed "The Shadows" to "The Shadows Within Us" because i think that this new title is way more fitting than the old one, even if i just added a few words. i also gave it a new cover because why the fuck not. 

it's not like me to change names of books, in fact, i never do. once i pick a book name, i stick with it until the end. i felt some distance with this book, and after spending time going over how the chapters from here on out will go, renaming the book just seemed the right thing to do. 

what you don't know is, this book is going to be very short, because i don't want to make it longer than it has to be. i have other projects i want to work on that will be so much more interesting and longer than this thing.

i love you all so very much, and another chapter will be out soon!