GFD 02: Resurrection - 4. Chapter 4

I followed behind Trevor, but not too closely, and made it back in one piece. Thank goodness everyone was turning in for the night. I didn't want to meet their accusing eyes, not tonight. I did make it back to the van and saw Taryn getting ready for bed. I crept quietly through the door and he didn't hear me come in. "Hey" I said weakly.

"JUSTIN!" He jumped over the bed and ran over to give me a big hug. "I thought I had lost you! I thought you'd never want to speak to me again." He began kissing me frantically, again and again, between every word.

"I'm okay. Hehehe I swear!" I said.

I looked right into his beautiful green eyes, and saw the reason I came here in the first place. I delivered a slow kiss to his sweet lips and felt him melt in my arms all over again. His tender touch glided up and down my back, and it felt so good to have someone to hold. We didn't say much more until we laid down side by side in bed. We wrapped around each other, and just enjoyed the sounds of our breathing in unison. A magic moment that I lived for, to hopefully repeat time and time again in the years to come.

After a long silence, I had to speak. "I'm going to have to...'hunt'...soon. Aren't I?" I asked, knowing the answer in my heart, but hoping that the outcome would be different anyway.

"I'm sorry Justin. God, I'm sooo sorry."

"Did you...did you ever....kill anybody?"

Taryn couldn't look me in the eye, and his tears soaked through my shirt even more rapidly. "We do what we have to do in order to stay alive, Justin. I'm no different than they are."

"You didn't answer the question, Taryn. I want to hear it. Please? Have you...ever killed another human being?"

"Yes.....I have." To hear the words come from his lips was enough to frighten me, but not enough for me to pull away. I refused to. No matter what, this was Taryn, my lover, and my friend. We had something that would never end. When I am weak, he'll be strong, and vice versa. I just hugged him up against my chest and kissed him on top of his head.

"You resent me, dont you? For making you this way." He whispered, and a few tears soaked into my shirt. I hugged him even tighter and sighed deeply into his ear, letting my emotions pass from my body into his.

"No Taryn. I could never resent you."

"You're just saying that. I know how it was for me. I hated every minute of it. I hated the person who did it to me. I know how you feel."

But the truth was, I didn't hate him at all. And it was time I let him know. I sat up and held his hand in mine as my other hand caressed his soft cheek, catching a stray tear and wiping it away. "Taryn, I love you, more than you could possibly imagine. For you I would sacrifice the sun and more. You've brought a light into my life that the sun could never provide me. You've given me comfort, friendship, security, and love at a time when I didn't even think I deserved it. Sometimes I still don't, because a beauty like yours should be reserved for someone special, someone magnificent. But you chose me, accept me for who I am, and finally, the mask was able to drop. The night I met you was the turning point of my life, and I'll never be the same again. Don't you get it? I don't exist without you. I don't even WANT to. I never thought I'd fall in love with another boy, but you forced my emotions forward and made them real. And I couldn't help but be in love with you. I'll look forward to forever, as long as you're there with me."

He began to cry, and he wrapped his loving arms around me, laying his head on my shoulder. "You'll never know how much you mean to me, Justin. Don't ever leave me. Ok?"

"I'm not going anywhere. I promise." And with another kiss, we turned out the light and held each other until we couldn't hold our eyes open any longer. The last words I remember Taryn saying were "Please don't hate me." But, despite my current dilemma, I really and truly didn't blame Taryn at all. I knew I had many decisions ahead of me, many trials to face, and many lessons to learn. But if Taryn stayed with me through it all, I could do it. I KNEW I could. His eyes told me so.

That day, as we slept, I had a dream. The first that I could remember having in ages. I was laying in a bright sunlit field of grass. Taryn and I were laying on our backs and enjoying the rays of golden splendor as it shined down upon us. It was the first time I had ever seen his face illuminated by the daylight, and it was even more outstanding and beautiful than I believed it could be. Everything seemed so real. I could feel the grass beneath me, I could smell every scent and taste the air around me. Taryn was giggling happily at my side, and I rolled over on top of him to kiss him deeply. He tasted so incredibly sweet, but he couldn't kiss me back because he was grinning uncontrollably. I didn't even know what was so funny at the time, but seeing him laugh made me laugh even harder. And we began to giggle and roll around together like a couple of newborn puppies. We stopped with him on top, smiling down at me, and I began to unbutton his shirt as he hovered over me. As I opened his shirt all the way, I sighed out of awe for his sleek and sexy teenage frame. His smooth, hairless chest, decorated with two of the most delicious looking cherry colored nipples known to man. I leaned up to kiss and nibble at them while he thrust his head back in pleasure. I ran my hands under the back of his pants and he began to grind slowly into me. I licked a long trail up to his neck and sucked at it tenderly as my hands kneaded his soft cheeks. My fingertips ran lustfully along the crack in the middle, feeling the gentle texture of his ass. As he pushed into me with more vigor, I felt a finger glide over his rosebud, and slide into him, no more than half an inch. His body contracted around the finger and sucked at it as he moaned sensually in my ear. It tightened, then released, tightened, then released, bathing me in its sexual heat. I was breathing much harder than normal, and my orgasm was already rushing to the surface. My heart was beating so hard that it hurt, and my mind was spinning at 100 miles an hour. I couldn't believe how he was making me feel! It was indescribable! Then he pushed me back down to the ground, and slowly began to lower himself to kiss me. I licked my lips, eagerly awaiting his taste...and just seconds before his lips touched mine...I exploded!

I woke up twitching and shivering from one of the most intense and involving wet dreams that I had ever had. It took me almost ten minutes to catch my breath! I tried to reach down and clean myself off, but the slightest touch threatened to set me off again, and I just laid there enjoying the blissful aftershocks. Taryn woke up shortly after, and stretched next to me. He rolled over and lazily threw his leg across me. But when his thigh brushed against my sensitive organ, I nearly jumped a foot in the air! Whoah!" He said, grinning. "What brought that on loverboy?"

"Just...whew...just let me lie here for a second, okay? I just had the most awesome dream."

"Awwww...you had your first vampire dream. Cool...did you like it?"

"Oh man! It was so REAL!" I gasped.

"Yeah...we don't dream as often as humans do, but when we do...it's quite an experience!"

"It was just so vibrant, and full of color, and...and...REAL!" I repeated, still amazed at what I had just experienced.

"Well, you've got to remember, your senses are taking in a lot more info these days. Things you didn't even know were there before. Your dreams are bound to be a little more exciting when your subconscious sorts through them." Then Taryn teased me by rubbing his leg over me again and making me gasp for air. "So...tell me...who'd you dream about? Was he cute?"

"The cutest."

"Well...come on...who was it?" Taryn asked.

"It was YOU ya geek!" I smiled.

"No, really, who was it?"

"I'm serious...there's no one else I'd rather dream about."

"You...you really dreamed...about ME? Your first vampire dream?" It seemed silly that he be so surprised by that. Someties I swear that he really didn't know how truly beautiful he was. I saw him blush, and bite his lip bashfully as he gave me a quick peck on the cheek.

"What was that for?" I asked.

"For allowing me to love you like I do. And for being faithful, even in your dreams." He was so cute when he delivered that shy guy smile of his. We kissed again before he got out of bed. "But if it were me, I'd probably would have dreamed of Taylor Hanson." He grinned. I threw a pillow at him as he walked away, and then laid back to give a quick thanks for the life we had together. I still couldn't believe that I was even here! I never wanted to leave, never.

The two of us went out into the yard and met up with Dylan, Dion, and Jenna to chat for a while. Dylan looked about 13 years old, and I found out later that he was only 15 in reality. So he was still pretty new to the whole vampire game himself. He was damn cute if I do say so myself, almost in Trevor's category, but without his confidence. Dylan had more of an untouched natural beauty about him. Somthing that made you want to touch him every second of the day. As we talked, he began to open up a little bit more, but not much. He was still a good guy though, I liked him.

"So where'd you go last night Justin? We were worried sick about you." Dion asked. I was a little ashamed after the way I panicked last night, but there didn't seem to be any hard feelings.

"Well, I ran for a while, and tried to collect myself. I cried it out, and then it just so happens that Trevor found me and..."

"Trevor? Trevor found you?" Taryn asked. I said yes and I saw his eyes suddenly move downward. Then he looked over at Trevor, Michael, and Jun as they hackey sacked over by the fence. I couldn't quite describe the look on his face. Jealousy? Suspicion? Anger? Maybe a combination of the three. I couldn't tell. But I grabbed his hand to let him know that it wasn't true...whatever he was thinking.

"And then he took me to see this guy, Jeremy, to get me some blood to stop the hunger pains. And then we went dancing at that club downtown..." And I continued to ramble about it all up to the part where we came home. When I mentioned the roof, Taryn pulled his hand away from mine.

"He took you to the roof? What does he think he's doing?" Taryn said.

"No, dude...it was cool. Nothing happened. Honestly."

But Taryn was already on his feet and walking over to the hackey sacking trio. He went directly to Trevor and asked him, "Just what are you up to Trev? Huh?"

"I don't know what you're talking about sweetheart." He replied. The two of them locked eyes, and suddenly that sweet caring version of Trevor that I had witnessed last night seemed to change in front of my very eyes. I saw the mischief return to his smile, and figured that maybe I had been duped afterall.

"I'm asking you...as a friend...please leave us alone. Okay?" Taryn was holding a lot back, I could tell, but Trevor wasn't the kind of person you could threaten without consequences.

"Funny...I thought I was." He said, and then went back to his game. Taryn came back to join us, but was silent for the first couple of minutes. I was beginning to think that I had underestimated Trevor. Anyone who could cause someone to worry that much, must be trouble.

"Say, anybody got money for a newspaper?" Bryson asked as he approached us from behind.

"Um...I've got like...10 cents." Dylan answered, handing it over to him. I guess we really didn't need oney for anything except the occassional set of clothes, or in this case, a newspaper.

I dug around in my pockets and pulled out a quarter, along with a piece of paper that fell to the ground. It was the one from the night before, the strange symbol shoved into my pocket at the club. "Here you go man. I think it's my last." I said, but his eyes were fixed on the paper.

"What is that?" He asked.

"What is what?"

"THAT! That piece of paper! Let me see that!" Bryson snatched it from me as soon as I picked it up. He opened it up and stared at the symbol in amazement. His eyes widened, and his jaw dropped open. Dion moved closer, and soon his face mirrored Bryson's. We all moved in to see what was going on, and Taryn and Dylan seemed to get the message too, whatever it was...leaving me all alone in my confusion. "Do...do you....have any idea what this is?" Bryson stuttered.

"Obviously not. What?"

"Where did you get this?" Taryn asked.

"At the club last night. Somebody put it in my pocket."

"Did you see who???"

"Nope. Whoever it was, they were gone by the time I turned around."

Bryson looked at us, and then said, "Rooftop, privacy...now!" And the next thing I knew we were all sitting in a circle again. The five of us, looking at a single slip of paper with a doodled drawing on it. Some kind of symbol that evidently meant more than I had originally thought.

"This isn't a fake. It's too perfect, every line is in sync with the next. This is real." Dion said. "It's gotta be Comicality. No one else could forge something like this."

"Who's Comicality?" I asked.

"But why? Justin has only been with us for a short while. His extra hasn't even surfaced yet. What could Com possibly want with him?" Taryn continued. Great...they're ignoring me again.

"WHO is Comicality?"

"Maybe he's been watching him or something. Maybe he's one of the chosen." Dylan said.

"HELLOOOOOO!" I shouted, trying to get some attention. "Who is Comicality???" The four of them looked at each other, as if they were all waiting for someone else to start the explanation first. Was this a touchy subject or something?

"Um...well, no one really knows WHO he is for sure. But we know he's one of us. A very powerful one." Dylan was almost scared to say it outloud. And Dion took over.

"Out of all the vampire scriptures...it's believed that Comicality is mentioned in half of them. He's supposedly the one running the show." Dion sat down on the ledge and looked me in the eye. "Basically...if tomorrow you found out that your entire existance as a vampire was all just a fictionalized story...Comicality would be the guy behind the keyboard."

"If he's the one who gave you this, and we think he is, then that means he wants to see you." Taryn added.

"He wants to see me? Why? What did I do? Is he...is he going to like, hurt me or anything?"

"No Justin. At least we don't think so, it depends on what the prophecies have marked you to be. Unless you're a direct threat to our kind, there shouldn't be any problems. You see, Comicality watches over us, he acts as a guide."

No matter what they said, they still hadn't given me an official guarantee that this 'Comicality' wasn't going to rip me to pieces the second he saw me. And everytime I asked, they evaded the question by telling me something totally different. But Taryn's eyes gave him away, and I knew that me getting hurt was a definite possibility. Dylan said, "Just think Justin, you might be one of the big wigs someday if he's got plans for you."

"I don't WANT him to have 'plans' for me. I want to know why he wants to see me, and how he knows who I am in the first place."

"He knows more than you could possibly imagine. You asked before if there was such a thing as a 'perfect' vampire. According to the legends, Com just might be the closest you could possibly come to one." Dion added. "When you see him, don't be scared, he can taste it a mile away. And whatever you do, I've been told to never mention his eyes. I'm not sure what the consequences are, but I imagine that they won't be pretty..."

I began to feel that panick rising in me again. The very idea of being 'stalked' by another vampire, one with such a powerful reputation no less, was enough to give me nightmares for a long time to come. "What do I do? When do I meet him? What do I do when I meet him?" I asked.

"Well that's just it...we don't know." Bryson said. "When Com wants you, he'll come find you. It could be next week, it could be next year, it could be in the next 50 years. But he won't make himself known until he's ready. Until YOU'RE ready."

"This is BULLSHIT!" I shouted. I was frustrated, thinking that I was being controlled, yet again, by forces I couldn't even define. I was helpless, forced into one tiny corner after another and making decisions on blind faith that I HOPED would work out for me in the end. "This psycho stuffs a piece of paper in my pocket, he's watching over me every minute of the day without me knowing it, and he can come for me any time he wants to...and you guys don't even know WHY?"

"No we don't. But we're sure as hell gonna find out. Or at least get some clues about it." Bryson said, rising to his feet. "Dion, you and Taryn come with me. We're taking Justin to see Tim tonight." I felt my body tremble, a little scared that I was going to see the 'all great and powerful wizard', or whatever he was, that very night. It didn't calm my jitters any when Taryn came back only minutes later, ready to go. I didn't like this, not at all.

We hiked to the northern part of downtown Chicago and they stopped outside of a small residential area. We were standing under the elevated train stationand the three of them gathered around me. Bryson handed me a token and told me to give it to Tim when I saw him. When I saw him? "Wait...does this mean...you guys aren't coming with me?"

"This isn't FOR us Justin. This is for you. We can't help you beyond this point. You can trust Tim, he's one of the good guys. He'll figure out what's going on with you and maybe he'll be able to tell you why you seem to have caught Comicality's eye." Bryson said.

Taryn walked over to kiss me on the lips before they left. "I'm sorry Justin. I know this is all very foreign to you right now, and I wish we had more time, I really do. But no matter what happens, I'll always be here waiting for you, ok?" We embraced again, and they all began to back away. They asked if I was sure that I remembered the way back home, and I said yes. This was it. My meeting with the oldest living vampire in the area. Talk about nervous!

I traveled around the lobby of the train station and followed the small map that Dylan had drawn up for me. I was only a half a block away from the place to told me to go to. It was a little house, right in front of a park, and I was instructed to go down and knock on the basement door three times. I stood in front of the door, taking a few deep breaths before I proceeded any further. What does the oldest living vampire look like anyway? What does he sound like? I almot expected a dragon with a long gray beard to answer the door. Someone wise and experienced beyond belief. I finally composed myself, and made the three knocks. I waited a few seconds and suddenly heard the door being unlocked from the other side. I straightened my hair and stood upright, ready to meet the wise old guy and hopefully impress him. Afterall, he was damn near royalty in our world. The door creaked open slowly at last, and I peeked around it, ready to lay my eyes on our most respected gentleman. But when his face finally came into view...it wasn't at ALL what I expected. Hardly an old man with a grey beard. Instead, it was a 16 year old boy. Slim, cute, rosey cheeks...I must have made a mistake.

"Um...I think...I think I have the wrong house."

"Do you?" He said. He had the sexiest little English accent. This couldn't be the right guy.

"I'm...looking for Tim. The...um...the oldest..."

"The oldest living vampire in Chicago. Yes, that's me. Come on in Justin, I've been waiting for you for almost a week now." He said, and then he walked away from the door. "Shut the door behind you." He called out from the other room. Wow, this life never ceases to amaze me with it's little surprises.

I traveled through the dark basement to the room at the back, which he had set up like an office. He sat me down on the couch and said, "Ok, let me take a look at you. Turn your head and cough."

"Excuse me?"

"It's a joke. Relax a little!" He grinned, then he went about examining my arms, my legs, and looking into my eyes. "Hmmm...these babies should start to glow any day now. And so quickly after your ressurrection. What are you, seven, maybe eight weeks old?"

"Nine actually, sir."

"Oh yeah...you're about ready to bloom." Then he checked my teeth like I was a race horse or something. "Your fangs are ready to break through. You'll be fit to hunt in the next week or so." There was that word again...hunt. God how I hated it.

"Am I going to be okay, sir?"

"Not if you keep calling me 'sir' you won't. My name is Tim. I'm not a dinosaur Justin, I'm just here to help."

I let him look me over a bit more, and then he gave me his quick diagnosis. "Well, to be honest, I don't know what the hell is wrong with you." And then he walked over to the corner to drink some tea. I sat there dumbfounded for a few minutes, expecting him to say something else, but he didn't.

"That's...that's it? You don't know? That's it?"

"Yep, that's it. Unfortunately, it's still a bit too early to tell. Your body seems to be transforming at an alarming rate, but until you've fully developed all of your other traits, I can't tell you much of anything."

"But...but...I thought you knew everything." I said, hoping he was just holding out on me a little bit, or perhaps enjoying another joke.

"Nobody knows everything Justin. I can only tell you what I know from experience. And I've never experienced anything like this before. You're the first. Your crossover is almost instantaneous. You should be proud."

"SCARED is what I am sir...I mean Tim."

"Yes, I know. I was scared once myself."

"You were?"

"Oh I was terrified. To find out that I was going to be 'different' from everybody else? Of course it scared me. And there weren't as many open vampires out there as there is now. Back then we would have been burned at the stake, hunted down like animals. Nobody would dare come out and tell you they were a vampire, not even to our own kind. But, fear can be beaten Justin. With knowledge, and confidence, and patience...you can control it. At use it to work FOR you instead of against you."

He took another sip of his tea and offered me a sip. "Thanks." I said, and tasted it. It was AWFUL!!! I spit it out as soon as it touched my taste buds. "Yuck! What the hell kind of tea is THAT?!?!"

"Tea? That's not tea, it's sheep's blood. I haven't had tea in decades." I felt sick to my stomach and used my shirt sleeve to wipe the remaining blood off of my tongue. "I guess it's an aquired taste."

After getting my mouth cleaned out as best as I could, I tried to go back to acting normal again. "So you don't have any idea what my 'extra' is or anything?"

"You're extra? Is that what they're calling it now? Crazy kids. Well, I can't be certain, but my guess is you're gonna be a reader. Congratulations." He said, his accent making every word a joy to listen to.

"Sweet! Um...what's a reader?"

"It's a very rare talent indeed Justin. It means you can read another vampire's mind. I've only come across nine of you in my lifetime."

"I'm going to be...one of those asshole mind thieves that everybody hates?"

"Hey now...I happen to be one of those asshole mind thieves too, you know. Don't let someone elses prejudices force you into believing that you're any less of a person than they are. They're only going on their limited experiences with other readers. You don't have to fall into any pattern of behavior simply because they say you do."

"I'm sorry. It's just..."

"Tim, I'm going out of my mind in here. Come back to bed, love." Came a voice from behind me. I turned around to see another young boy, equally as gorgeous, with blond hair and one of the cutest smiles ever created. He was erotically slim, and tall, and his voice had the same English tone to it. He had his shirt off, and his jeans hung low enough off of his slender hips to show a few scarce pubic hairs at the top. My mouth watered at the sight of him. "I'm sorry, I didn't know you had company."

"It's alright. This here is Justin, he just crossed over. Justin, this is John." Tim said proudly as he hugged John from behind. They made such a cute couple, and when John kissed Tim tenderly on his cheek, I knew it was true love. "We've been together for 33 years now, going on 34." I only hope that Taryn and I are still together and in each other's hearts that long from now.

I shook John's hand and melted when he flashed me that killer smile of his. It litterally was breathtaking. And after a few polite greetings, John walked over to kiss Tim passioately on the lips, and he whispered something naughty in his ear. Whatever he said must have been dynamite, because after that Tim was eager to send me on my way. "Now Justin, I want you to keep this quiet until we know for sure. If you truly are going to be a reader, there are going to be a LOT of precautionary measures that we have to take to look out for your safety."

"My safety? Why my safety? What does that mean?" I asked.

"We'll worry about that next week when you come to visit, won't we? In the meantime, let that little mystery help you to keep your mouth shut until we meet again. Ok?" He said, and I gave him a hug before letting him guide me to the door.

"One more thing...I got this in a club last night...do you know what it means?" I reached in my pocket and pulled out Comicality's symbol. Tim looked at it closely, and then smiled at me.

"Well, I'll be damned. It looks like you've been chosen by the man himself. That's fantastic."

"But what does it MEAN Tim?" He was leading me out of the door and I turned around as soon as I was outside.

"Well, it means that he either likes your potential and has great plans for you...or he wants to rip you to shreds to prevent you from doing the rest of us any harm. Best of luck!" And with that, he shut and locked the door. He was certainly blunt when he wanted to be. This little visit didn't do a whole lot to ease my mind, that's for sure.

I began walking home through the darkened streets of downtown's outskirts. I even took a few shortcuts through a few alleyways here and there. The whole time, I couldn't shake the feeling that I was being followed. It was strange. I was sensitive enough to have heard footsteps from three blocks away if anyone were walking behind me, but I didn't hear a thing. I continued to walk through the streets, keeping my ears open for anything strange. But no matter how hard I listened, or how often I looked around, there was no one in sight. Yet, I could distinctly feel someone's eyes on me. It made my skin crawl to think about it, and I picked up the pace a little. As I moved forward, the feeling got stronger, and stronger, as though I was being chased. I began to speed up to a jog, and then to a brisk run. Now the feeling had intensified greatly, and I began to feel the presence of something large bearing down on me, swiftly following behind me at great speeds. I continued to run, but whatever it was, trailed right behind me every step of the way until I couldn't take anymore. Finally I stopped and turned around, ready to take this thing head on. But I saw nothing. The darkened alley was completely empty, and the only sound to be heard was a slight rustling of the wind. I sighed in relief,and began to walk forward again, when I saw it. It scared the living shit out of me and I fell backwards into a pile of garbage! It was a giant figure, hidden in the darkness. It had two glowing red eyes, and he seemed to wear a swirling coat of shadows that twisted and churned around him as thought they had a mind of their own. Is this it? Is this what had been following me? How did it get so close without me knowing it? The figure just stood there in silence, looming over me without saying a word. I tried to look closer, trying to make out it's face, but I couldn't see it. Every time I thought I might get close enough to see what it looked like, another shadow would protect him from my sight.

"H-h-hello?" I stuttered, still too afraid to move. The figure said nothing, it just watched me. At taking a closer look, his eyes weren't just red. They were a swirling spiral of red and green and gold and many other colors that I'm sure they didn't have a name for yet. They were in constant motion, and it was eerily beautiful to see. "Hello?" I tried again. I stood up on my feet, and inched closer to him. The creature didn't move, it just stood there, staring at me, ghostley quiet. Then I took a chance, "C-c-com...Comicality?"

The second he heard the name...it moved! It began walking towards me very quickly, and I started backing away. He just kept coming, his eyes glaring now, his pace getting faster with every step, and something told me to run for my life. I tripped over my own feet, and it almost caught up to me. At that point, I got up and high tailed it out of there, full speed. I ran as fast as I could, trying not to scream, and as I reached the end of the alley, I ran into something. It reached out and grabbed me and I struggled to get away. I cried out and pulled away from it, falling onto my back.

"Justin! Justin it's ME!" Came a familiar voice. I finally calmed down a bit and looked up to see Dion standing over me.

"HE'S HERE!!! HE'S HERE!!! I SAW HIM!!!" I shouted.

"Who's here? What are you talking about?"

"Comicality!!! He's in the alley!"

"There's nobody in the alley Justin."

"I SAW him, he was there! He was covered in shadows, and he came at me, and I ran..."

Dion had to shake me a bit to get me to calm down, and finally I stopped babbling long enough to look him in the eye. "Justin...there's NO ONE in the alley. Take a look." I turned around, and sure enough, it was empty. He had disappeared as quickly as he emerged from the darkness. And I hugged Dion close to me, telling him everything that had happened as I rose to my feet.

"What are you doing here?"

"I decided to hang around town. I figured you might have some trouble remembering your way back home. Taryn wanted me to keep an eye on you." Dion said. I felt weak, emotionally drained from having so many things dropped on me out of the blue in a single week. I swear I was going insane with every new day. Dion walked me home, and by the time we got there, Taryn and the rest were already asleep. I came into the van to see Taryn laying on top of the covers, fully clothed. He obviously tried to wait up for me and didn't quite make it. I began to undress him slowly, and covered him up as I slipped into bed beside him. Another long nap. It seemed like the night was so short these days. When I was alive, it was like the sun was up for 20 hours a day. And now that I'm up only at night, it flies by as though it were only an hour long. I was tired of sleeping all the time, 'yawn', I needed to get out this place and find out what's going on with me. 'Yawn'....I needed....I needed to....and I began to feel my mind go blank as sleep forced its way into my body. I passed out on my pillow, and didn't wake up until the next night.

The first thing I did when we woke up was tell Taryn about my run in with Comicality the night before. "Did he try to hurt you?" He asked.

"I don't know. He just started chasing me, it was creepy."

"What did he look like? I've never seen him."

"I don't know. Everything was so black. I was confused and before I knew what was happening I was tripping over myself trying to get away from him."

"Did he say anything?"

"Nothing at all." I said, and Taryn came over to give me a big hug.

"So what are you going to do?"

"I'm going to find him."

"You're going to WHAT???" He said, looking at me in total shock. But I had thought it over, and if this was my opportunity to solve some of the mysteries of who and what I was, I wasn't going to run away from it. Good or bad, it was going to catch up to me eventually. And I just didn't want to run from it anymore.

"Taryn, I've got to know what this is all about. If I don't, he'll just keep coming again and again until I simply can't run anymore. I don't want to live like that?"

"But how do you plan to find him? In order to find Comicality, you'd have to search every inch of the city."

"From what you guys told me, he's a pretty traditional vampire. Which means he's gotta be living according to one of these scriptures you all keep talking about, right? There's gotta be some clues in there somewhere." I said.

"Maybe, but then we'd have to decode and translate ALL the vampire legends in existance."

"Or...maybe just have access to someone who already knows them by heart." I said, and I took Taryn by the hand to go out into the yard and find Doc.

"Good evening lovebirds." Doc said, his pattented grin fixed on his face. "What can I do ya for?"

"Doc, I need you to get the Weblicator online for me. I've gotta find out what he knows about Comicality."

"Comicality??? Whoah! Where'd you hear about HIM? You're playing in the big leagues now buddy boy."

"Don't worry about that now. It's just very important that I talk to him, ok? Alone." I pleaded. Doc gave me an inquisitive look, and then tapped away at the keyboard until he got me in contact with Pan.

"Hey Pan!" I typed in.

"Good to hear from ya again Justin!" Came the reply.

"Listen, I hate to be so forward, but I need to know how to go about finding Comicality?"

There was a slight pause. "Why would you want to do that?"

"Don't ask. It's just very important that I do, and soon."

Another pause. "Comicality isn't neccessarily someone you should be fooling around with so soon. Why not try somebody else?"

Frustration crept in, but I tried to keep it down. The last thing I wanted to do was piss off the only person who might be able to help me. "Pan...please. I need your help. Com is looking for me, and I need to get in touch with him. Please help me."

This time, there was a long pause, and I had to ask if he was still there, to which he replied, "If anyone asks, you don't know me, and I don't know you. Got it? I'm going to help you, but I'm really taking a big risk here." I almost jumped for joy and thanked him profusely for his assistance. He took five minutes or so to download some choice passages from the scriptures and quickly translated them for me. "These things are pretty vague about a lot of things. His exact location is hidden away in some underground documents that I don't have access to. But there IS something that might be able to help."

"What's that?" I asked.

"Here, this passage fortells the story of one of the chosen ones. In the form of a child with mixed brown eyes, or hazel, hair of gold. I know that Comicality has been in contact with such a child in one of the northern suburbs of Chicago. He's been watching his progress for a while, and he is believed to be that child."

"Can he find Comicality?"

"It's definitely worth a shot. Com keeps a close watch of his chosen ones. They're bound to have some kind of frequent contact. His name is Chad, he looks to be 14, but believed to be a few years into his crossover. I'm not exactly sure where he lives, but he hangs out at an arcade downtown from time to time. Your best bet is to catch him there."

"How will I know him when I see him?"

"I'm sending you the few pics of him that have ever been taken. As you can see, you're going to have to kind of figure it out for yourself. For some reason, Chad hates to be photographed. So he uses some kind of mental feedback trick to blur out his face in every picture. It's a mask of some sort, keeps him from being recognized. Don't worry though, he shouldn't be too hard to pick out."

I was really going to find him! I was going to find this Comicality and make him tell me what's going on here. Awesome! "Ok, great. So I just go up and ask him about Com and he'll tell mewhat I want to know. Right?"

"Um..." Pan typed, "Not exactly."

"I take it there's a catch?"

"Well, Chad is extremely fast, and it's near impossible to catch him. If you want Chad to talk to you about much of anything, you're gonna have to basically chase him down and FORCE him to talk to you. Otherwise, you get nada."

"::Moan:: Why does everything have to be a game with you people?" I asked.

"Sorry man, it's the only way I can think of to find Com, and even that's not guaranteed to work. If I find anything else, I'll let you know." He said.

"Thanks Webby."

"Call me Pan...Webby sounds so gay. What would my mother think? :)" And with that, he signed off.

It was only twenty minutes later before I had taken off to find this golden boy and find out what I needed to know. It was funny, but this time, I just left. Just walked out of the front gate, and Bryson never made an effort to stop me. Neither did Taryn. I guess they were finally giving me a little space to breathe. It was a weird feeling, having that freedom again. It had been so long. I traveled to the Belmont train station and found the arcade Pan told me about. It wasn't all that big of a place, and loud dance music pulsed inside. It was called Dennises and it was located across the street from a gay dance club caled Berlin and a block away from an all night liquor store. Definitely a lively part of town. I walked in and saw a couple of kids inside, pounding on one game and kicking the other. The sights and souds of the place almost reminded me of the club we hung out at. I didn't have any money, so I was unfortunately stuck watching other people play while I waited for Chad to hopefully show up. I don't know what made me think he'd come walking in that night, but I could just feel it. I knew he would be there eventually.

"Hey dude, I've gotta run, you can have my game if you want." Some teenager handed over the controls to me and walked away. Well, if nothing else, I got a free game out of all this. I started to play and really got into it for a few rounds. It was funny, but I almost felt normal again. Like I did back when I was alive. I was interacting with people again, playing games, feeling great. I was enjoying myself so much that I didn't even realize that I had been playing non-stop for half an hour to forty five minutes. I finally lost my credits and backed away from the game. Ah well, I'd check back here another night. Chad was bound to come in sooner or later, and I'd be there to intercept him at some point. I started to head towards the door when I noticed someone standing by the token machine. A tall, slender kid, extremely nice looking, short blond hair that shined like gold...and hazel eyes. I looked a little bit closer to see if maybe he fit the blurred image of the boy in the picture. I watched him as he got his change, laughing with a friend or two of his standing next to him. I looked a little bit closer, taking a few steps forward, but trying not to be too obvious. I still wasn't too sure, but if he wasn't the one, he came damn close. I had to get closer, and took another few steps to get a look at his face. This time I must have moved too close, because I saw him look up. His hazel eyes watched me for a second, and then went back to his friends. I looked at the picture in my pocket, the blond boy's face almost non existant when covered by his masking technique. But looking at it again, I knew it had to be him. I compared the image to the boy in front of me, and as he did a double take to look my way again, there was no doubt left in my mind. It was HIM! It had to be! He noticed me looking at him and this time he watched me closely. Our eyes met from two opposite ends of the room, and I whispered to myself, "Chad?"

He must have heard me or read my lips or something, because he knew at once he had been discovered. Then, like something out of a sci-fi movie, his entire body became a blur. I saw him standing there one second, and then he was gone. I saw a streak of light following behind him as he ran out of the door. Jesus he was fast! I took off after him, running out into the street, and seeing him far ahead of me. I started running, not thinking about my speed or anything. All I knew was that I had to catch him. I had to find out how to find Com, and this could be my only shot at it. The strange thing is, that my body took over at that point. Whatever physical limits I had put on myself before were suddenly gone. I found myself running faster and faster, gaining in speed with every step. Soon I was running so fast that I was afraid to stop, for fear of losing control and running into a brick wall or something. My feet were barely touching the ground, skipping three or four sections of sidewalk at a time. I was actually gaining on him! I could see him running less than half a block ahead of me, traveling like greased lightning, and I was actually keeping up with him. I looked at the area around me, and saw papers flying as I whizzed past them. I had to be running at least 30 miles an hour! This was starting to scare me, and the faster I ran, the harder it was to breathe as the wind slapped me in the face, trying to push me back. I held my breath and pushed myself even harder trying to decrease the distance between us even more. But Chad wasn't going to be caught that easy. He quickly darted out into the street, running in and out of traffic coming the opposite way. I followed right behind him, attempting to manuever as well as he was. But Chad was evidently a pro at this. He made it to the sidewalk on the other side and started running even faster. I was almost there when a car pulled right in front of me! I was moving too fast to stop and it was too late to dodge to one side or the other. So I let my instincts take over, and I jumped. BOY did I jump! I cleared the hood of the car with ease and then some. I landed with a thud and had to fight to keep my balance before I ran into something. I couldn't believe that I just jumped over an entire car! I didn't know whether to dwell on the moment, or forget it and just keep running. As I caught sight of Chad heading into the alleys, I decided to keep running. I chased him as best as I coul, but the little brat was too damn fast. He could cut corners and manuever a hell of a lot better then I could. I saw him jump almost to the top of the fence in front of him, swing over and spin to the ground below, landing on his feet. That jump was at least twenty feet! As I got near the fence, I tried the same, and didn't quite make it. I climbed the rest of the way up and then let myself down to the other side. I took off again and I knew I was way too far behind to catch him now. He quickly rolled under another fence and kept turning corners at full speed. I only caught quick flashes of him as I rounded the corners, and it wasn't long before I didn't know which way he was going. Finally, after running for I don't know how long with Chad nowhere in sight, I slowed down to catch my breath. That's it, he was gone for good. I tried, but there was nothing more I could do. He won, I couldn't keep up the chase forever. I'm just going to have to get my info another way. Hell, I didn't even know what part of town I was in anymore. I huffed and wheezed, totally exhausted, and naturally, it wasn't long before my body became aware of how hard I had been pushing it the last couple of minutes. My lungs ached, and my legs began to burn and cramp...this time, it was a hundred times more painful than before. I fell to my knees and dragged myself over to a wall so I could sit up. My legs, my calves, my knees..everything ached with an unbelievable agony! I screamed out loud and had to lay down flat. I couldn't even touch them yet, the pain was too much. I pounded my fist on the concrete, hoping that this suffering would ease up enough to allow me to massage the tightness out of the muscles. I knew this would happen, but I was so desperate to catch my one chance at finding Com, the I didn't care about the consequences. I rolled over onto my back and bit down on my fingers to keep from crying out into the night. That's when I heard a voice say, "Hey, are you alright?"

I looked up on the roof, and I saw Chad's fresh young face starig down at me. "You..."

"Good chase man! The best I've had in a long time! By the way, I LOVED the car thing! I thought I had lost ya there for a second. Way to improvise!" He said, an impish grin on his face. "Looks like you pushed yourself too hard though. You've gotta build those muscles up slowly dude."

"Chad? Look, I really need your help with something, okay? Come on, I just want to talk to you for a minute."

"Sorry man, I'm busy. Try again later." He grinned, laughing at me lying there crippled in the alley. "Say, put some ice on that, do a little training, maybe by this time next year, you'll be able to catch me."

"CHAD! Please? This is important! I need to find Comicality."

He laughed outloud at the idea. "Comicality??? I should make you catch me TWICE for information like THAT! What makes you think he wants to be found?"

"I know you know how to get in contact with him. You're one of the few who does. It's important that I find him, please."

"Why should I?" He asked.

"Because..." I said, pulling the symbol out to show him. "I'm one of the chosen too." Chad looked over the side at it, and I almost thought I had his attention. But then he suddenly turned away from me.

"I've gotta run. Got lots of monkey business to take care of. Bye bye now." I begged him again to help me out, but he just said, "Gomen! You want me, you know where to find me. Those are the rules."

I couldn't move, I had to just watch as he walked away from me. I laid on the ground, face first on the cement, and rested for a few minutes before painfully limping home to the car lot. That was the longest walk in history. I could only pray that my legs got better soon, because walking was just too painful at that moment.

I made it home and went straight to bed. Taryn followed me in shortly thereafter and rolled me over onto my stomach. He began slowly kneading the kinks out of my calf muscles and told me to just relax. He kissed the muscles softly, and a few times I felt him drag his tongue up to the knee and back down again. By the time he was finished I was feeling good all over. We turned out the light and made out in the dark. I fell asleep thinking about all that I had learned, all that I had YET to learn. And I knew that the answers weren't going to get any easier from here on out. Taryn was right, life had a billion possibilities that I never even took notice of. This life, while still full of options, was much more limiting. You have to be sheltered before dawn, you have to kill in order to survive, you have to answer your calling once you are chosen...it was insane. I was going to see Tim again soon to find out a little bit more about myself. And I knew I'd be paying Chad another visit too. This time, I won't let him get away. And I plan to most definitely find this Comicality character...if he doesn't find me first. I began drifting off to sleep, listening to Taryn's heart beating rhythmically next to mine, and I felt a peace. But before my consciousness had completely faded away into darkness, I felt something. A slight jitter, a low rumbling inside me. A lack of something, an emptiness. And I knew at that moment, that my ordeal was far from over.

TARYN'S DIARY
Saturday, August 26th, 1999

HE'S AWAKE!!! The love of my life is actually awake and alive again! Oh wow! To kiss him in his sleep is one thing, but to hold him in my arms and have him hold me back is more than I could have ever asked for. It's been weeks since I've seen any sign of life from him, but one morning, as I was going to sleep, he woke me with a kiss. God, Justin is so great. I know I'm gushing a bit, and I probably shouldn't expect so much, but I'm in LOVE! REALLY in love! All these years I thought I knew what love was, but in reality, I had no idea! We kiss all the time, we have sex almost every night, sometimes more than once. Every inch of his body tastes so good to me! (Okay, a little too uch information there! Hehehe!) But it goes so much deeper than that. I trust him completely, I can talk to him about anything, and he makes me laugh like no one else can. I never knew how alone I was until he came along. Thank goodness I never realized it, or I would have killed myself for sure.

Seeing Justin look at the sky and the ground with new eyes is such a thrill for me. He's like a child, exploring the world for the first time. How I wish I could see that kind of beauty for the first time again. There's so much that I want to teach him before Bryson enforces the rules and regulations on him. He might as well have a little bit of fun. And he can already mind read!!! I knew he was exceptional in MY eyes, but now he's exceptional in their eyes as well. He's growing so fast, I've never seen anything like it. It's like he's absorbing all of our teachings without even knowing it half the time. Some of the others think it's abnormal. I think it's great. My boyfriend...he's the best! I think the others are taking a liking to him already too. Especially Dion. They seem to have hit it off pretty well. Even Max has eased up a bit.

Rain made it back to the lot not long ago. I must admit, I missed her. Even though everyone else sees her as an evil bitch, I know she has a lot of heart deep down inside. And she shares it with me in secret when she gets a chance. I just wish she'd drop the suicide thing. I hate to see her do that to herself. She's got friends, she just needs to let us in every once in a while.

I know Justin was going crazy in this place, and I hated to leave him all alone that one night. But I was hungry. I wouldn't be able to hide the hunger pains from him much longer, I had to eat. I traveled out with the boys, and spent most of the night wandering around by myself, wondering if the hunt was going to be any easier this time than any of the other times. It wasn't. I targeted a mugger that had just stolen an old lady's purse in front of a hotel. I cornered him in an alley, and waited for a train to come by before charging him. The noise of the tracks drowned out his screams, but as my teeth sank into his throat, I thought about how awful it was my first time out. And how awful it's going to be for Justin when it's his turn. I wish I could kill indiscriminantly the way Trevor does. I swear he has no conscious at all when it comes to feeding.

Speaking of Trevor, he took Justin out behind my back! And I HATE him for it! He doesn't want Justin, I know he doesn't. He just wants to ruin what we have so he can snake his way back into my life. He even took Justin to the rooftop where he gave me my first kiss. And I'm sure he was putting the same moves on my boyfriend. The bastard. But what can I do? If Justin decides that that's what he wants, who am I to stand in the way of his happiness. Sigh...I just hope it never comes to that.

I love him, Lord knows I do. I just can't keep my hands or my lips off of him. But I worry sometimes. He's asking so many questions. Big questions. With answers that are usually only whispered in the dark corners of the neighborhood. And now he's on this quest to find Comicality, and I don't know exactly what to do for him. He'll never find him, he's chasing a ghost for crying outloud. No one's even HEARD from Comicality in months. I just hope he knows what he's doing, and that he has my neverending support and love.

I don't know what secrets he's hiding up in that beautiful brain of his. That's for him and Tim to figure out. But I'm hoping he'll want to share it with me someday. Bryson thinks it might be something big! Here's hoping. If My Justin does turn out to be one of the chosen, then hopefully he'll let me stand at his side as they take over the world. Hehehehe! I'm getting sleepy, so I'm going to turn in. I'll have more to write soon, I'm sure. G'night! And God, if you're listening...thanks again. :)

-Taryn