Lights Out

Ethan had recovered remarkably quickly, Benny thought. Especially considering everything that had happened to him. Benny shuddered to think about it. When he closed his eyes, he could still see them opening the door to that tiny cell.

Benny took a sharp intake of breath as he recalled the moment when the weird shifting shape of Ethan flying forwards across the room at them, shrieking horribly; a pale shape in the darkness. Benny's memory was rather hazy on the details, but he definitely remembered Ethan's silvered eyes and snapping fangs and his desperate attempt to attack anything in his way. If Grandma hadn't been there, who knows what might have happened…

Of course, at that time Ethan hadn't known that he was a vampire. They'd had to break it to him after he'd woken up again. Or, thought Benny, correcting himself as he ripped a lump off of the bread roll in his hand and through it into the duck pond, Rory, Sarah, and Erica had broken to him. He'd taken it rather well, Benny thought. So they told him. And, when he'd spoken to Ethan (on the phone – Grandma had only been allowing 'essential' contact) Benny thought that he sounded normal. They'd arranged to meet here, in the park; probably to talk about what they were going to do now. Benny wasn't looking forward to it much. He wasn't quite sure what to say.

He didn't know what Grandma had done to Ethan; he didn't quite know what had been done to Ethan, exactly, but he knew that it hadn't been good. Something to do with his mind, he gathered. Certainly there had been something very strange about Ethan when they'd gone into the room – beyond the crazed attack on them. It had been as if Ethan had been doubled by a ghostly form. Almost like he'd been splitting in two. Grandma had muttered something, and the ghostly shape had peeled away, vanishing into the air. Then Ethan had calmed down. It must have been some kind of harmful mental parasite, or something, which had been sending him mad. But now that bit was gone, and Ethan was going to be OK. Apart from being a vampire and, well, the others managed that pretty happily.

Only – and here Benny felt his eyes fill with tears a little – what was going to the two them now? Benny knew that it seemed a bit selfish, but he couldn't not think about it. Would Ethan still love him now that he was going to stay young forever, and that Benny was going to grow old and die? Now he thought that he knew a bit how Sarah had felt in her abortive love for Ethan. Only backwards.

But it was OK. They'd work it out. Of course, they'd have to work up the courage again to tell everyone. But that would be OK. Yes. Everything was going to be OK. It was always OK.

Benny pulled off another lump of bread and pitched it into the water, watching the geese snapping over it. He smiled, and was about to settle their argument with a further piece, when a slim white hand snaked over his shoulder and clamped over the roll.

"Ethan!" said Benny, turning with a wide smile, which widened further as he saw what his friend was wearing. "You found it, then?"

"Yes, Benny. On the bed, as, I presume, you left it," replied Ethan, gesturing at the light blue jumper with a massive fluffy yellow duck taking up most of the middle. His lips twitched up at the side. "It really blends in in a crowd…"

Benny laughed, and patted the red-painted wooden slats next to him. "And the socks…?"

Without a word, Ethan lifted up the right hem of his trouser leg, revealing a sock speckled with ducklings. While Benny grinned, he sat down next to him, breaking the bread as he did so. Ethan was silent for a while, weighing the bread in his hand.

"Ethan?" said Benny, eventually.

"Mmm?" replied Ethan, in an indistinct voice.

"Are you feeling alright?"

Ethan swivelled to face him, beaming. "Never better, Benny! See…" He waved his arms vaguely, hoping that it would indicate how well he felt.

Benny nodded, but pressed on with what he had to say. "I know, but, look, Ethan, uh, if there's – if there's ever anything you need to talk about, or, or, or tell me – then – then I'm here. If you need me."

Ethan smiled. "I'm really fine, B. But – thank you." He smiled at him again. For some reason, the smile didn't quite ring true for Benny, but he let it drop. He didn't want to push Ethan too far into dwelling what had happened to him. If he was honest, he'd expected him to be more defensive over what had happened.

Benny put his hand out tentatively onto Ethan's knee. It was so cold. That's what came of being undead, he supposed. His eyes flicked briefly, rudely, instinctively to Ethan's neck. He was wearing a scarf. Hiding the bite mark, he supposed. Did they fade over time? He'd never really thought about it on the others, so he'd never noticed.

Ethan slipped his hand under the scarf self-consciously. Benny blushed. "I'm sorry, E., I didn't mean it. I couldn't help –"

"It's OK, Benny." Again Ethan smiled at him. Again Benny felt something wrong in it. He should be the one reassuring Ethan, not the other way around. Ethan was just so unfazed by it all. It was like he wasn't human. Well, Benny thought sadly, he wasn't. Not anymore.

Ethan stirred a little and fixed Benny with a long stare. "It's OK, Benny. It's OK." He put his hand on top of Benny's. "Everything will be OK."

"Yeah – er –" Benny's mouth went suddenly dry. It wasn't the anguished declaration of love that he'd been planning. "Uh – E.?"

"Yes?"

"I've been thinking – thinking about us. Now that – now that you're –"

"A vampire?" put in Ethan, staring into the distance.

"Yeah – if you like – and – well, how that would change us as, you know, 'a couple'."

Ethan gazed deeply into Benny's eyes. Benny found himself reflected in the deep, dark pools. Despite his fascination with his fast-disappearing reflection in Ethan's unblinking eyes, his ears were still sensitive enough to hear a strange shimmering tinkle that seemed to pass between them. He frowned. "Did you –"

"I've been thinking about it a lot, too," said Ethan, slowly.

Benny gulped, his heart plummeting. Ethan's voice – what would it mean – did he want to –?

"Come here, B.," said Ethan, holding his arms out.

Benny grinned. "You want to –"

"Nothing's changed, Benny," said Ethan, his eyes wide. "Nothing that matters, anyway."

"But, in public – in daylight? We've always –"

"Well, maybe some things have to change. And, besides, this is our bench."

Benny laughed and leaned in towards Ethan, puckering up his lips and closing his eyes. He felt Ethan's cheek graze his chin. He smiled slightly and opened one eye.

"Something wrong with your depth perception, Ethan? My mouth's up –"

There was still a smile on Benny's face as he felt Ethan bite into his neck. The blood drained away much faster than Benny had ever imagined, and even as he tried to cry out, he felt his strength leave him. "E. – what – why? – Ethan…" he whispered, his eyes rolling back under his eyelids as he dropped into unconsciousness.

Ethan continued to drink greedily from Benny for some more seconds, until he'd gone completely limp. Then, contemptuously, Ethan spat away his erstwhile boyfriend, sending his lifeless body crumpling back onto the bench. The bread roll dropped from Benny's loose hand, bouncing away over the path where it was attacked by a family of ducks.

Wiping the blood from this chin, Ethan stood up and looked at Benny's body sprawled out on the bench. As his head had hit the red wooden boards, his eyes had opened again and now stared, empty, at the sky. Benny's open mouth was still pulled a little into the shape of his final smile. Ethan snorted, and then, unable to restrain himself, broke into a long, strange laugh.

His eyes roved over the surroundings as he laughed; black eyes, pupils fully dilated. How wrong they had been to think that they had saved him from the 'parasite', as Benny had termed it. How sure Mrs Weir had been that it was the bad part that she had removed! This only made Ethan laugh louder. Well, funny as this was, he couldn't stay here and laugh forever. Someone would want to feed the ducks eventually. With a running kick, Ethan sent the battered bread roll spinning into the water, scattering the ducks as he did so. Still grinning manically, he turned around to look at Benny's cooling body one last time.

"Goodbye now, Benny!" he chuckled, before disappearing away through the air, leaving only the faint sound of his laughter hanging behind him.

Don't say I didn't warn you.

I bet you didn't expect that...

You'll just have to wait until the next series to find out what happens to everyone.

Thank you for reading this far, and I hope, as ever, that you'll leave comments, criticisms, and suggestions.