Monster
Your throat burned. A cough crawled its way up despite your attempt to suppress it, making your eyes fly open as tears started to well.
After coming down from your painful coughing fit, you realised you were in a place you were rather familiar with. It was your apartment. Why were you at your apartment...
“Are you done?”
Startled, you turned your head, and you quickly wished you hadn't. First, your head hurt, your sight wavered as you moved. Second, it was Milo who had spoken, making you realise you were still absolutely fucked.
You swallowed and tried to blink your tears away. “Why are you here?” you almost whispered, scared your throat was going to hurt even more. Your voice was hoarse. He'd been having way too much fun choking you. It was a surprise you were still alive.
Milo cocked his head, a bored expression on his face. Had he been waiting for you to wake up?
“Have you already forgotten our conversation?”
“No,” you said, knowing perfectly well he had threatened your life. “Why my apartment?” He could've gone to Michael's lab, thrown you in there like bleeding pray in the cage of a tiger. But instead, you were here.
Milo shrugged and slowly made his way through your living space. He touched every object, looking at it intensely as if he truly cared about your life and who you were. It made your skin crawl when he started looking at pictures of you and your family and friends.
“I love a bit of sentiment,” he simply said. “My life has been boring. Dull. Nothing ever happened. Well,” he started to grin a little then. “Besides my gambling and other... pleasantries.” His eyes raked over your body and you immediately knew what he was insinuating.
Your lip curled up in disgust. “I don't want to know about your sexlife.”
He laughed then, “You think I care about your opinion.” His back was towards you as he was busying himself with your bookshelf.
You looked around as his attention wasn't on you for the moment. There had to be some sort of weapon. Even though you didn't really trust your body to stand up at the moment, you still had to try and come up with a plan to escape. Michael wasn't here yet...
There was nothing useful on the coffee table in front of you, just a few of your magazines and the remote of the TV. The closest and best weapons would be the knifes in the kitchen. But you probably wouldn't make it to the kitchen. Not before he caught you.
“Where's Michael?”
Milo turned, leaning his elbows on the shelves behind him as he took a casual stance. “Obviously not here,” he said with a duh-expression. “Yet.”
You swallowed, trying to get rid of the dryness in your throat. It barely helped.
“You think he's just going to kill me when you ask him to?” Your words were bold, but on the inside, you were feeling sick to your stomach, scared for your life – but more scared of what was to become of Michael if Milo succeeded somehow.
“Of course not. But why would I give my plan away? Just sit back and enjoy the ride.” The corners of his mouth pulled up, revealing a bit of fang. He was enjoying this.
“Are you scared I'm going to mess up your plan?” Your heart was in your throat by now.
Milo's eyes flashed red for a moment. “Don't forget, I can hear your heartbeat. I know you're frightened of me.”
You let your fingers dig into the sofa, trying to get them to stop shaking. “So?” you countered. “You're the one who's scared of losing Michael. That makes the both of us scared.”
He froze. As if you had told him something he hadn't realised before. But then he chuckled, shaking his head as he stepped towards you. “Are you trying to talk me out of killing you?” He put his foot on the table. He was already towering over you, him leaning forward made you shrink back into the couch. “Give up girl. I have no sympathy for humans anymore.”
You could only stare at his face. Something was lurking behind those smiling eyes. A history of pain, of torture. And it was quite obvious this wasn't just about his illness. “So you were hurt by others. Boo-hoo, you're not the only one who got bullied. It gives you no right to torment other people.”
His smile faded. “You have no idea what you're talking about. And I think it's time for you to shut up.” He turned his head then, his focus on the balcony. “He's here. Now be a good little girl and keep your mouth closed. Or I'll make sure you'll die even more painfully.”
Your eyes flew towards the balcony. And just as he had said, Michael was riding the wind as he finally threw himself onto the railing, kicking himself over as he went straight for the glass door. It shattered into a million pieces when he put his boot into it.
The cold wind of midnight made its way into the living room, making you shiver.
“Milo,” he snarled. “What are you playing at. Let her go.”
Milo stepped over the table, his full figure now standing in front of you as he laid a hand against your cheek. His attention was on Michael, however. “I don't think so, Michael,” he said. “I think it's time you're going to accept who you are. Which means it's time to get rid of your weaknesses.”
His fingers caressed your skin, but they were cold, his touch was like poison and you wanted nothing more than to slap him away. But you were in no position to make him even more annoyed at you. It only took one of his claws to scratch your eyes out.
“Step away from her,” Michael said, his face transforming into something non-human. “Now.”
“And if I don't? You can't kill me, Michael.” Milo laughed a little. “I'm your best friend.”
Michael's eyes finally went to you. He spoke to you with just one look. If he was going to have to make a choice between you and Milo, it would be you. He would end Milo's life to preserve yours.
You just weren't sure how you were going to survive – Milo was stronger as he had been drinking the red the entire time. Michael was barely holding onto his strength with his artificial blood.
Michael stepped forward and Milo made a disapproving sound with his tongue. His fingers started digging into your cheek and you couldn't help but make some noise. Your ex-boss had been scary, but Milo was a thousand times worse. He wasn't even human. He was a predator with actual fangs instead of drugs and guns.
“I don't want to fight you, Michael.”
“We don't have to. Just let her go and then we can talk. Like I promised we would.”
Milo released your cheek a little. He laughed without humour. “Promises.” He almost spat the word. “I don't think they mean that much to you. But alright, we can try.” He looked down at you, flashing his dark red eyes. Just his gaze made you want to sink into the couch deeper. You were just glad he wasn't drawing blood with his claws... yet.
“This is her place. We should leave,” Milo said as he casually made his way over the table to go to the gaping hole which was once your glass balcony door.
Michael frowned as he watched him move. As were you. What was he up to? Was he really going to leave you behind after all the threatening he had done?
Milo stood next to Michael then, sizing him up for a moment. His appearance changed back into the one of a human. And then he smiled warmly at him, as if nothing had happened. “We can still be friends, you know.”
Michael was silent, probably unsure of what to say, as were you.
“I'm sure we can come to some sort of understanding.” Milo urged himself forward, spreading his arms as he initiated a hug. Michael did nothing but didn't push him away either. Milo pulled him towards him, enclosing him into his embrace as he laid his chin on Michael's shoulder.
It was the most awkward hug you had ever seen.
You dared to move, scooting forward as you were still silently looking for something to throw at Milo. There was nothing to trust about him, this was probably part of his plan, you just weren't sure what he was up to.
It was as if Milo had sensed you moving as he suddenly looked at you from over Michael's shoulder. His eyes started to squint as a dirty smile grew on his face. “If only you weren't so stubborn,” he said, his teeth growing into fangs.
Michael wasn't fast enough.
You had expected Milo to attack you – to kill you. Instead, he had done something you would've never expected.
He bit Michael. His teeth digging into the skin of his neck, drawing blood as he kept ripping into his flesh. Michael screamed and tried everything in his power to pull Milo off of him, but he wasn't strong enough. Not stronger than Milo.
“Stop! Stop, please!” you started to scream, no longer scared of your own life, no longer caring what would happen to you, as long as Michael would be safe.
Why would Milo kill Michael after all the effort?
You decided you weren't going to be able to help without a weapon. You sprinted to your kitchen, pulling out the sharpest knife from the cuttingboard as you kept looking back at the two vampires.
Michael was putting up a fight, pushing against Milo, the two of them crashing against your walls, your bookshelf, your couch. They were destroying everything, making so much noise you wondered how no neighbour had called the cops yet. Or maybe they were on their way.
The knife trembled in your grip. They were too fast, too strong for you to interfere. But you had to do something.
At this rate, Michael was going to be drained of his blood, weakened, close to dying...
Your eyes grew larger. That was his plan. Tipping Michael over the edge of sanity so he would be forced to drink your blood. You would be his salvation.
Milo ripped his teeth out of Michael's skin as soon as he had him pressed against the wall. Michael moaned in pain, his whole complexion was white, he already looked like he was slumping a little.
You sucked in your breath, tears welling up in your eyes as you ran towards them, the knife firmly in your hand as you swung it towards Milo's back. His hand caught the blade of the knife before you could stab him.
With his body slightly turned towards you, he chuckled. His other hand was now on Michael's throat.
Michael didn't look like he was registering what was happening anymore. His eyes were dull.
Flipping the knife in his hand, he slashed you with it through your arm. You yelped, the stinging taking a few seconds before attacking your senses. It burned painfully.
“Please, let him go,” you said, desperation lacing your voice. You couldn't care less about your own safety at that point.
The one thing you couldn't let happen, however, was Michael killing you. He never wanted to take an innocent life. Especially not yours. But he had also told you about the synthetic blood he was drinking – it was becoming less effective, making him more dangerous as his urges to kill were getting stronger. He would become the monster he never wanted to be. That's why he wanted to take his own life. And you had been angry about it. In hindsight, it was the most selfless decision he could make.
“Alright,” Milo said, letting go of Michael's neck, letting him fall to the floor.
Milo wiped at his own mouth, the blood smearing everywhere. He didn't attack you, he didn't even bother to do anything anymore as he stepped away from the two of you.
With a surge of panic and the urge to pick Michael off of the floor, you froze. You had to get out of here. You had to get back to the lab to get Michael his blood. But Milo wasn't just going to let you walk out of the door.
Your breath came out shaking as you leaned down towards Michael. You whispered his name. He didn't move at first, but then he tilted his head, his dark hair masking a large part of his face as his red eyes burned into you. He wasn't himself anymore – not completely. There was a battle raging inside his head as his lips pulled apart to reveal his sharp teeth.
Milo had created the beast and you were the easy prey.
You had to leave, now.
In the slowest way possible, you started shuffling backwards. To Milo it would seem like fear, like you wanted to get as much distance between you and Michael. And that was exactly what you were doing, but he probably didn't expect you to take it so literally.
The wind blew harder once you were on the balcony. Milo watched you as Michael finally stood up from his position.
This plan could go terribly wrong.
“If I die like this,” you said softly, knowing Michael could easily hear you. “Know it's not your fault, Michael.”
Either you were going to die with what you were about to do next, or you would be saved just in time.
Milo's face pulled into an angry frown. “Just kill her already, Michael!” he snarled.
Michael shot towards you and you knew it was time to trust your gut.
You jumped up backwards, your legs swinging over the railing of your balcony. And just as Michael's claws were reaching out to you, you let gravity take over.
The street below quickly raced towards you.