Restless - Chapter Four

Title: Restless
Author: Righthook
Rating: R
Pairing: Benji/Billy
Type: Chaptered
Description: Benji doesn’t know what he’s in for when he starts talking to a beautiful stranger in a café, a stranger he doesn’t know isn’t quite human.
Disclaimer: Sort of wish I knew them, but do not. Definitely wish I owned them, but sadly, do not.
Note: AU. Vampire fic, I know some people don’t like that, but well I like dark things and there’s just no denying it; vampires are sexy. At least if they look like Brad Pitt.




4

- Looking For the Exit -


I know I’m not sane. I know I don’t think things through. But why does that have to be such a bad thing anyway?

I pile a heavy brown cardboard box full of photographs and rocks from vacations on top of a shelf in the absolutely miniscule storage room right by the bathroom. I let out a tired breath, that box was the last one. The bedroom I have, up until now, used as a storage room is now void of everything, except for a desk, a bed and a closet. It used to be where Jonathan would work as a freelance journalist for the Washington Post; the place he spent all those nights when he had to stay up late to finish his articles. Now it would be Billy’s room. I hastily check my watch for the time and get up; I’m meeting him in half an hour.

:-:-:-:

There’s already a long line outside Orion, the night club Billy asked me to meet him outside, but I can’t see him anywhere. I stand, uncertain, about ten feet away from the entrance which is guarded by a red satin rope and two enormous bouncers wearing cruel glares and black suits. A misty chill is swaying through the air, catching the thin velvety fabrics of the women’s dresses in the line, and nipping at the back of my neck, the only part of skin that’s not protected by clothes. I rub my hands together idly, searching for the tall and dark figure of Billy, but he’s nowhere to be seen.

“Benji Madden?”

My head snaps around and I blink confused when one of the huge bouncers looks at me expectantly. “Uh, yeah?”

The bouncer lifts the satin rope and at the same time holds out a white envelope towards me. “Mr. Martin asked me to give you this.”

I grasp the envelope hesitantly, gazing at the bigger man’s face as I slowly slip past him through the entrance to the club. Music, much louder than is sounded outside, pushes itself into my ears, beating against my eardrums in an annoying way, but I force my way through the sea of people inside anyway. I release myself from my jacket, hanging it over my arm as I search for an unoccupied table. I find one in the most far away corner and go to sit down in the booth, pulling out the note from the envelope and hold it by the tiny lamp.

Benji,

I’m sorry I’m late. I just had to take care of something first, but I’ll be there as soon as I can. You go ahead and order whatever you like to drink; it’s on me, I’ll be there soon!

Billy

I tuck the note back into the envelope and lean an elbow on the table as I gaze over the packed dance floor and the crowd of people laughing and conversing by the bar. I don’t make a move to get up; I don’t really want anything to drink just yet, and having to push my way through all the people to order from the one of the bartenders doesn’t really entice me either.

Instead I set my eyes upon the club in itself. I’ve never been here before, but I know it’s the hottest night club in town because I’ve read about it in the glossy magazines at the hair dressers and in the columns of the news papers. I can definitely see why it’s popular. Small podiums, which are littered across the spacious flickering dance floor, with long silver poles that go through the ceiling above are the territories of challenging looking women in small bikinis and dangerously high heels. All of them are spinning around the poles, some slowly, some faster, some suggestively bending over and grinding their hips against the metal poles. I notice a lot of guys doing nothing but staring at them, lips slightly parted, a primitive gleam in their eyes. If I had been straight, I would have probably been one of those guys too.

I search the crowd for Billy’s face again, but he’s still not here. It’s starting to annoy me. He was the one who had wanted to meet me here, not the other way around. Where the hell is he? I check my wrist for the time again, and the silvery watch tells me he’s fifteen minutes late. I lean my chin on the palm of my hand, drumming with the other on the table surface as I look through the crowd, rolling my eyes at the self-proclaimed casanovas and the brain washed chicks. I haven’t been at a club in such a long time, but guess what? I don’t miss it at all. Sure it can be nice to get out of the house for a bit and get a change of scenery, but then I usually go to one of the few rock clubs in town, where local rock and punk bands advertise themselves to their audience with loud riffs, black clothes with safety pins and music that actually doesn’t suck. I just want to get away from this place as soon as possible. The stupid Britney remix is pounding in my ears as I make up my mind and grab my jacket from the seat beside me, slip out of the booth and begin manoeuvring my way through the sea of people for the back exit.

The heavy door shuts behind me as I get out from the strangling environment inside and step into a dark alley, one very unlike the fancy interior and the front entrance of the night club. A February wind ruffles my hair but the feeling of it comfortably cools me down and I take a few moments to close my eyes and inhale the crisp air. However, after a few breaths it becomes clear that something’s wrong with it. I press my eyebrows together and open my eyes, trying to see in the almost complete darkness. I thought I’d just smelt something salty and coppery; something that my brain immediately registers as blood.

I look around, my eyes finally getting used to the dark and they set upon various objects by the house walls. A few garbage cans linger in front of the apartment complex across from me, and a huge smelly dumpster is placed just a few feet beside me. I search the ground for the source of the unpleasant smell and my heart catches in my throat as my eye finds a white sneaker behind the dumpster. I walk a few steps forward with a vicious pounding in my rib cage and my whole stance falters as I see her.

The girl’s face is turned away from me but there is no doubt that from the position she’s lying in on the wet ground that she’s dead or close to it. I draw in a shaky breath, feeling my heart beating faster and faster in beginning panic as I rush to her, falling to my knees in front of the limp body. I grasp her wrist, desperately feeling for a dull thumping in the largest vein, but there’s no use. She’s already dead. A smell of iron from the blood around her crawls up my nose again and I feel a sickening twinge in my stomach but I force myself to concentrate.

With my hands still shaking I grope through my pocket and retrieve my silvery cell phone, dialling a nine and two ones. I’ve lifted it to my ear when I feel a cold hand and long fingers forcefully pry it away from me. I turn my head around in fear but I’m only meeting Billy’s face. My fear turns to relief in the turn of a heart beat.

“Billy, oh my god. Thank god someone’s here,” I pant, “This girl’s dead, we need to go to the poli-“

“Leave her,” Billy commanded in a voice that didn’t quite sound like his.

“I- what?”

“I said leave her,” he repeats coldly.

“But Billy, someone’s killed her! There’s blood by her and everything, the killer has got to be caught!” I feel that panic coming to the surface again, not believing that Billy isn’t as freaked out as I.

“Go home Benji,” Billy growls and inches his face closer to mine.

I flinch. Something isn’t right, but in my scared and confused state it takes me a while to understand. “Billy,” I breathe and the blood in my veins feels frozen all of a sudden, “your face… it’s… you have blood on your face. Are you hurt?”

“It’s not my blood.”

I gasp at the flash of teeth he shows me while he speaks. He has something that oddly looks like fangs. I let out a high pitched noise that dances on the edge of a scream as reality dawns on me. “You,” I mumble, hastily pushing myself up from my knees and away from Billy at the same time. “You killed this girl.”

“Yeah,” he hisses and breaths the smell of blood in my face. “And you need to get out of here… Now!”

I let out another startled cry and back away quickly, turning to run after just a second. I’m running as fast as I can with my breath hoarsely aching in my body, but I don’t stop for a second. I can’t stop. I seem to have let my mind stay behind because I can’t think of anything now, nothing seems more important than getting away and surviving. I have to survive.