The Lost Boy

Monica takes a step towards Harry, her eyes glazed over.
Those eyes… not her trusting eyes.
“Stop it.” Harry snaps hastily. His cold eyes return to Nora but she’s no longer smiling, but snarling. Fear crosses his eyes as she turns back to Monica. “Monica, listen to me. Snap out of it, she’s controlling you.” He desperately tries.
“Don’t listen to him, Monica. He wants to hurt you. It’s what he has wanted from the beginning.” Harry grits his teeth.
She’s stronger, even in her weakened state. I only recently became a full-fledged vampire somewhat recently, still need to learn these abilities.
“Why are you doing this?” He demands.
Nora smiles a sick, twisted grin. “If I can’t have you… well, I sure as hell won’t allow this mortal to have you.”
“You made it very clear that you didn’t want to see me again.”
“You love her more than you ever loved me! She’s just a- just a silly human!” Nora cries. She appears hurt. Harry steals a glance at Monica, who hasn’t moved an inch. “Monica,” Nora begins with a sniffle, “finish him.”
With that, Monica falls into a combat stance. Horror flashes in Harry’s eyes.
She will get injured even more than she already is.
“Monica, I don’t want to fight you.” He slowly puts his hands up, taking a few steps back to distance the two.
But then Monica leaps into action, her first blow to his side, right under the ribs. Harry stumbles back in surprise. She was faster and more powerful than he expected. He gauges her next punch more quickly, dodging out of the way. The next one, though, he blocks her blow. He can hear her fingers cracking as he does so. He winces.
I’m so sorry, Monica.
“This is so boring.” Nora groans, leaning against the building. “Monica, pick up the pace.” She does just that.
Using both feet and fists to beat and batter Harry faster than he can block her, even with his vampire speed.
It’s like she has the speed of a full-fledged vampire.
“Monica,” he chokes between punches, “please focus on my voice. Nora has you under her control.” She doesn’t show any recognition as she continues her assault. He just allows her to beat him while he cowers, trying to block her punches the best he can without hurting her any further.
Nora groans loudly. “Fine, if you refuse to defend yourself…” Nora’s voice rises in frustration. “I’ll kill the girl if that’s what it takes.”
Horror flashes in Harry’s eyes while he accepts the blows from Monica. Nora smirks, having Harry in exactly the position she wants.
“Monica…” She immediately stops her attack, straightening herself. Harry is left breathing heavily in the sudden silence. “Jump off that railing.”
“No!” Harry shouts hurriedly. “Monica, please!” He begs, grabbing ahold of her wrist that isn’t broken. She doesn’t react but turns around to face the railing, dragging Harry with her. “Nora, stop this right now!” He suddenly snaps at her. Desperate, angry, terrified.
Nora appears to give it some thought. “No.”
“I’ll do anything!” He begs. “Just please let her go.”
Nora’s face darkens. “It’s much too late for that, Harry.”
Monica wrenches her arm free of Harry’s grasp and carefully hoists herself up to the railing.
“Monica, please, if you can hear me…” He stops, a lump forming in the back of her throat.
She can’t die because of me. I promised to protect her.
“Focus on anything but Nora’s words. Focus on me.” Nora snorts at Harry’s attempts.
“Stop acting like such a fledgling. She won’t break out of my control.”
Monica slowly eases herself up, using the rusting poles on either side of her to stand up all the way. Harry bares his fangs, hissing at Nora.
He returns his focus back to Monica. “Monica, you should come down from the railing, okay?” Nora only laughs madly.
“You aren’t strong enough to take control of her from me.” Harry ignores her bullying, continuing to talk her down. “Knock it off, Harry. It. Won’t. Work.” Nora bares her teeth.
“You seem really defensive about something you’re convinced won’t work.” Harry taunts, knowing how weak she is.
If I could only get through to her…
Nora grits her teeth. ”Monica, jump!” She shouts.
“Don’t jump, Monica!”
The vampires watch in suspense. But nothing happens. Monica doesn’t move an inch.
“Monica?” Harry whispers. Instead of answering, her body becomes limp as she falls backwards. Harry races forward, catching her in his outstretched arms. Together they hit the balcony hard. Nora grits her teeth in anger.
“That’s not possible! That’s not how it was supposed to happen!”
“Yeah, well, a lot of things haven’t been going by your plans.” Harry answers coldly, looking directly into Nora’s eyes. He quickly looks away to gauge whether or not Monica is okay.
One of her wrists are definitely broken… her fingers broken in the other hand. And there’s so much blood… Bruises are forming rapidly on her hands, her arms, her cheek. Since I never fought back… she shouldn’t have too many other injuries. She has passed out, probably from the internal fight between the two minds trying to take control. All that alternating mind control must have really put a strain on her.
“I don’t have time for this.” Nora growls impatiently. She then bares her fangs, hissing. Harry holds Monica’s limp body closer to him protectively, hissing in return. “Are you scared to fight me, Harry? Huh?” Nora taunts hungrily.
“I’m not afraid of you, Nora.” He answers stiffly. “I won’t let you hurt Monica anymore. I would rather you beat on me than her.” Nora grins, her elongated teeth gleaming.
“That’s exactly what I wanted to hear. Let’s go then. You and me.”
Harry grits his teeth but gently moves Monica to stand up. He sets her back down out of the way and takes a deep breath, staring Nora down. Nora only nods and then leads him down the stairs.
Meanwhile, Monica’s head swims with cloudy thoughts. She tries to open her eyes but it seems as if they are glued shut.
What’s going on? Where am I?
Finally a fuzzy image appears before her eyelids. Each time she blinks, the blurriness fades away a little bit more than the time before. After a while she can finally make out the familiar chipping teal paint and rust of balcony railing outside her door.
Why am I out here? What happened?
Her heart seems to stop and then beat faster when she realizes Harry is not there.
Where could he be?
Monica attempts to sit herself up but she cries when she puts weight on her broken wrist. Tears prick the corners of her eyes. She raises her now shaking hands just high enough to see blood. A squeak escapes her lips as she pushes her hands back down to her sides. She frantically peers around the best she can with her limited mobility.
Where is he? Why am I bleeding?
Suddenly she can hear grunting and punching from farther away. He isn’t on the balcony… so he must be on the ground. She lifts her head but can barely see him fighting hand to hand combat with Nora.
Nora… did this to me. She’s the one who knocked me out… right? But what happened between then and now? How long have I been out?
She squeezes her eyes closed as a sharp pain takes its place in her temple.
“Hello, Monica, long time no see.” Monica swings her head over to the voice so quickly that her neck cramps up. She winces. “Nice seeing you again. Especially when you’re the one who is incapacitated and not me.”
“What do you want?” Monica asks shakily.
Zayn leans against the creaking railing, like Nora had earlier, absolutely loving how terrified she is. He takes a deep breath, his eyes closing. His fangs push past his lips.
“You smell delicious, just as before.” He comments, causing Monica to shiver. “You didn’t eat garlic this time, right? Because that wasn’t very nice last time.” He sticks out his bottom lip in mock sadness. “You almost killed me, Monica. I don’t appreciate that.” He breathes in deeply again. “But I will forgive you. Do you know why?” he pauses for Monica to answer but she’s too petrified to even think. “Because your blood smells… so… good. Your heart pumping blood music to my ears. It makes me so thirsty.” This makes her blood to run cold.
“What do you want?” Her voice cracks. Zayn raises an eyebrow.
“Well, I want Harry to die for the crimes he’s committed.” He thinks some more. “It wouldn’t kill me to get a drink on the way out.” He grins, his fangs so painfully obvious.
Monica cringes, momentarily closing her eyes so she doesn’t have to look at his fangs any longer.
“Well,” he ponders, “unless you’ve eaten garlic again.” He wrinkles his nose in distaste.
“Please,” Monica begs quietly, “don’t kill Harry.” Zayn raises an eyebrow again.
“Why is that? Why would a mortal want to save a vampire?” He narrows his eyes. “What has he ever done for you?” One split second of terror in her eyes tips him off.
“You like him.” He almost gasps but then begins to laugh. “That’s rich. A mortal and a vampire.” Monica furrows her brow sadly and Zayn sighs, noticing her look. “Look, kid, it’s just… messy, okay? I mean, look at you now.” He motions down towards her broken body. Zayn quickly shakes his head, shoving his hands into his pockets. He did not come here to give the mortal relationship advice. “Listen, Monica, I came here on a job to finish Harry off. It’s nothing personal, okay?”
It’s those eyes…
He says it in a way that makes him sound… almost sad for her. Her eyes well up.
Please, no.
She opens her mouth, desperate to say something- anything- to save Harry.
“Wait!” She says loudly as he begins to walk down the stairs. He stops, looking back with pity in his eyes. “N-Nora wants him all to herself. She wants to kill him on her own and report her victory to the court.” The words spill uncontrollably from her mouth. Zayn immediately appears hurt.
“She didn’t ask me.” He mumbles, looking away. He quickly stiffens before racing down the stairs.
Hopefully that deterred him from fighting Harry but Nora instead.
Sure enough, soon after Monica can hear both Nora and Zayn’s raised voices as they quarrel, though she can’t make out any distinct words.
“Hey.” A soft voice says beside her.
Monica, startled, whips her head over towards the voice.
“Holy shit, Harry, you scared me.” Her eyes dot with tears.
Scared me that you could have died. Scared me that I didn’t know if you were okay.
His eyes soften as he gently lifts her chin.
“Sorry.”
“Are you okay?” She asks hurriedly, bringing a hand up to brush his cheek. Her gaze drops to his blood splattered shirt and back up to his bloody lip. He carefully cups her hand with his own. Harry smiles but it doesn’t quite reach his eyes.
“I’ll be fine, don’t worry about me. I want to know if you are okay.” Monica takes a shaky breath. There’s no use lying.
“No. My hands hurt. And I don’t like passing out.” Harry laughs, tears forming in his eyes.
“You’ll be okay now. I promise. I got you.” Monica nods quickly, sucking in her bottom lip to keep it from trembling.
“I-”
“Oh, Harry, it seems that you found my new friend.” Zayn grins. Beside him stands Nora.
Damn vampires and their super speed. Harry stands from the crouching position and faces the two other vampires.
“Leave her out of this.” He growls. Zayn smiles, amused, his gaze momentarily finding Monica’s.
“You’re the one who brought her into this in the first place.” Nora snaps. “You didn’t have to drag her into it, but you did.” She looks at him in disgust. She’s almost defending Monica… to make Harry seem like the bad guy? Harry scoffs, appearing angry.
“Like I was supposed to know that you would try to kill the two us.”
“Yes, speaking of,” Nora sighs boredly, “when would you like me to finish the two of you off? Because I’m getting seriously pissed off.”
“Hey, hey.” Zayn holds Nora back as she takes a step forward. Harry grits his teeth, staring her down. She hisses at Zayn and he drops his arm, stepping aside, his hands up in surrender.
“No more messing around, I’m going to just kill you and get this over with. You’ve evaded this for too long.”
Suddenly Zayn is crouched down beside Monica, her arm in his grasp.
“Might as well have some fun, then.”
And then he sinks his teeth into her arm. Monica screams in agony, trying to squirm away from him. Harry reacts quickly as he moves behind Zayn and rips him off of her. Zayn slams against the siding, falling to the ground. He grins, wiping his bloody mouth with his arm. Harry flits over, grabbing him by his collar and yanking him upwards. He only continues to smile his bloody, toothy grin… until Harry grabs him back the head and sharply twists his head to the side. His neck makes a sickening crack, a surprised expression permanently frozen on his features before Harry drops his body.
He turns to Nora who takes a step back, terror apparent in her eyes.
“I- I won’t hurt her if you just let me go.” Nora blurts out. Harry moves in closer, his eyes steely and unforgiving. “P-please, Harry!” Nora begs, her hands flying up in surrender. “I-I’ll leave you alone!” She trips over her own feet as he closes in. “I swear!” She cries out, tears forming in her eyes. She cowers as tears stream down her cheeks. “Have mercy!”
“How do I know you’re not lying? Because I’m getting seriously pissed off.” Harry snarls, his voice low. Her eyes widen when he repeats what she earlier said. A squeak escapes from her lips as her gaze flits to Zayn’s unmoving body. “Get out.” He demands, his voice scary.
Yelping, Nora disappears. He doesn’t care where she goes or what happens to her, just as long as she leaves the two of them alone.
Harry quickly drops to his knees to tend to a writhing Monica. His eyes remain hard as he holds her bitten arm. The venom has already taken effect, her injuries visibly healing before his eyes. Tears stream down the side of her face, her eyes glazed over, not focused on anything. He has to be quick in order to prevent her from turning into a vampire.
“Hold still.” Harry tells her, his voice quiet. And then he sinks his fangs into the already made puncture wounds. Monica cries out and squeezes her eyes shut, gritting her teeth.
“It hurts, Harry.” She whimpers, her voice weak.
He continues to suck the venom out of her blood, though she comes close to passing out again. It leaves a bad taste in his mouth but he doesn’t want to risk spitting it out and sticking his fangs back into the wound.
“Harry…” Her voice comes out distant, her eyes crossing and struggling to stay open. Harry finally lifts his head and tries to spit out all that he had accumulated.
That should be all the venom… she doesn’t appear to be changing anymore.
“You’re okay now, Monica.” Harry assures her.
She blinks back at him slowly but doesn’t say anything. Without saying another word, he scoops her up in his arms and carries her back into her apartment. He sets her down the couch where he monitors her while she naps on the couch for the next few hours.
A few weeks have gone by since Nora and Zayn attacked Harry and Monica. Monica healed up right away, Harry assumes it’s from when she started changing. Zayn’s body disappeared off of the balcony later that same day. The vampire court never said a word about Nora or Zayn or the attacks, though Harry is certain that Nora took it to the court in the last attempt to get Harry killed. But Harry already knows, being the vampire king’s son, that she would have been sentenced to death for fraternizing vampires on the outside.
Monica lays on the couch, her feet in Harry’s lap. Together they silently exist on that couch with no other noises but their own breathing and the ticking of the clock to distract them.
“Harry…?” Monica asks in a hushed voice, peering over at him. He hums in response, his gaze focused on something ahead of him. “Did no one ever come after you because you are the head of the vampire king’s son?”
He finally meets Monica’s eyes, blinking once, twice, three times.
“Whoever dares cross my father will be punished.” He replies.
“Does that mean that Nora…”
“I imagine so, yes.” There’s a long pause before Harry speaks again. “I’m sorry.”
“For what?” She gives him a confused look, furrowing her brow.
“For meeting you. For screwing your life up. For almost getting you killed. For almost turning you into a vampire.”
Long moments pass. Monica listens to Harry breathe in, out, in, out.
“I didn’t mean it when I said I wished we never met.” She says quietly.
In, out, in, out.
“I know.” Their eyes meet and Monica can’t look away. Harry breaks eye contact first. “I need to leave.” He suddenly. Quietly.
“…you’ll be back later, right?” Monica asks, her heart dropping into her stomach.
“No.” Monica pulls herself up and crosses her legs.
“Why?” He doesn’t answer. “You’re going to leave for good?”
“Yes.” He doesn’t look at her while he says it. Doesn’t move.
“After all we’ve been through?” Her voice cracks. He glances over, eyes full of pain.
“I don’t want to hurt you anymore.”
“You leaving is going to really fucking hurt, Harry!” He winces as she raises her voice. “More than if you stay.” Her voice wavers.
“I don’t… want to put you in anymore danger.” He restates.
“Please, Harry.” She begs him. “Please don’t leave.”
Harry stands. “I’m sorry. I want to protect you. I don’t know what the court has in store for the two of us… but I want to be as far away from you in order to keep you safe.”
“Safe?” Monica scoffs, standing as well. “I saw your vampire form. I- I- I was there when you killed Zayn. I would say I’m more of a target now than I was before.” Harry meets Monica’s eyes.
“You’re just a mortal.” Monica’s mouth falls open. She quickly shakes her head.
“No… Harry, don’t.” He walks to the door. He eases it open.
“I’m sorry.”
“Harry-”
He doesn’t look back. “Goodbye.”
He disappears around the corner, closing the door behind him. She rushes to the door and wrenches it open, breathing hard. But he’s gone. She closes the door, staggering back into her apartment. She sinks to the floor, her hands desperately grabbing her hair, her shirt, anything.
“Oh my god.” She wheezes, her throat closing up. “He’s gone.” She slaps a hand over her mouth for saying it out loud, a cry emitting from her lips. Tears fall down her cheeks. All she can do is sit and cry. Her heart shatters. Suddenly she hears the door swing back open, no doubt a neighbor coming to complain about the noise.
“Monica.” Monica’s head snaps up at the voice.
Harry holds a hand out to her. After a moment of consideration, she accepts his hand and he helps her to her feet. He opens his mouth but the words get lodged in his throat. He has to look away from her tear stained cheeks to regain his composure. She sniffles.
“I’m sorry.” He finally says. “I-” He chokes, meeting her eyes. “I thought it would be better if I left. I was wrong. I’m sorry.”
In, out, in, out.
“I accept your apology.”
“Thank you.” He seems to visibly loosen up just a little.
In, out, in, out.
“It turns out that I… have feelings for you.” Harry blushes. Monica smiles a little.
“You do?” He shrugs like it’s no big deal.
“Sorry for making you cry.”
“No, no. You can’t just confess something like that and then change the subject.” Monica pouts. Harry grins slightly.
“It all started with those eyes… those deep, trusting eyes.” He strokes her cheek and she blushes profusely. “Monica…” Harry pauses. He watches her expression. “Can I kiss you?”
At first she seems really surprised but then she smiles, nods. Harry leans down, gently caressing her sides, and kisses her. Her stomach flutters with excitement as she loops her arms around his neck. He pulls her closer, their bodies pressed together. Monica rests her forehead on his, both of them panting. Harry and Monica laugh quietly before they fall silent.
“I like you too, Harry.”

Notes