#our love is...

Chapter 1: Tell me whats-a happening

A/N: I've been excited for this one since January, but life came in between and I only got to writing it now. That being said, for this piece, I will include a general content warning. This story is based on both The Lost Boys and Heathers, and will include similar themes and similar levels of violence. The second it becomes more than that, I'll let you know. Let me know what you think! If you want to be notified for the next chapter, also let me know in the comments💜

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When had things gone so wrong?

The machine beeped loudly, an unsteady rythm detected.

Voices, both men and women talking.

The bed being moved.

And then a voice.

"You're going to stay with your mother."

~~~~☆☆☆~~~~

Michael groaned as sunlight hit his face. Was the sun always this bright? God - he groaned as he turned over. His head felt heavy, his mind scrambled. What had happened last night?

Is this what a hangover felt like, he wondered, as he realised that Lucy could never find out. He'd be grounded until the end of the summer if she learnt that he'd come home drunk.

He closed his eyes as he took a deep breath, slowly exhaling as he opened them again. He had been with Star. She was wonderful. Soft, kind, funny, caring - and above all she had seemed really interested in him. He had been interested in her. So why had he no further memories of spending time with her? He vaguely remembered riding his bike, having something to eat - although he definitely could not remember what - drinking something.

After that it was a blank. Nothing. Emptiness.

As if the rest of the night hadn't happened.

As if someone had erased every memory he might have had.

It was weird. And above all, he didn't like it.

Grabbing his sunglasses, ignoring his younger brother who was yelling something about their mother being on the phone, he stumbled towards the bathroom. Maybe freshening up and brushing his teeth would help him feel somewhat alive again.

Without looking in the mirror he undressed himself before hopping into the shower. The hot water burnt his skin slightly, but his mind felt to clouded to figure out how to change the temperature on grandpa's shower. Maybe it was as simple as turning the handle, maybe he needed to change some settings - he didn't care right now, nor did he have the patience for it now. Instead he just decided to make it quick. The water had bearly touched him when he had already covered his body with soap, washing it off as quickly as he could. He grabbed a towel, drying himself off, before grabbing his toothbrush.

Now he did look in the mirror, and only saw a hazy shape resembling himself. It almost looked as if he was see-through. Weird. He didn't pay it any mind, the mirror was fogged up from his shower and he didn't feel the need to stare at his own hungover face. When he was done he grabbed a bathrobe, leaving the bathroom behind him to be faced with Sam - and a phone - once again.

"Mom really wants to talk to you."

"What does she want?"

"Dunno, just talk to her!" Sam pushed the phone into Michaels hand, before rushing off. Mike sighed, lifting the horn to his ear.

"Mom?"

"Michael! You're not still in bed, are you?"

Mike rolled his eyes. How did she always know? "No," fuck, his voice was still heavy with sleep. Now she definitely knew he was lying. He cleared his throat, before speaking again. "No. What's going on?"

"Good. I called to ask for a favour," Mike groaned, knowing what was to come. "Max, my new boss, he asked me out on a date. I'd really like to go. Could you watch Sam for the night?"

"Sam is old enough to stay home alone, mom," Mike tried. Sam was sixteen. He had stayed home alone at sixteen. Steph had too. So why couldn't Sam?

"I'd feel better if you were there with him. It's a new place, a new house... Come on, Michael. It's just one night."

Michael sighed, hearing how badly his mother wanted to go on this date. "Fine. But I am going to the boardwalk tonight. I-" he needed to come up with a lie, quickly, "promised to meet up with some guys. We're meeting around ten."

There, he thought, a compromise. Sam would be babysat till half past nine, mom could go on a date and he could figure out what was going on with him. The other end of the line was quiet for a moment.

"Alright. Just know that when school starts, things are going to be different around here!"

"Okay, mom."

Mike hung up the phone, giving his mother an easy answer. He had zero intention of going back to highschool after the summerbreak was over. He'd take nightclasses to get his diploma, work to safe for college and then hopefully actually make it out of Santa Carla. He sighed, knowing that this was not the path Lucy would necessarily want for him. Still, he thought, it was his life and these were his choices.

Speaking of choices, he walked back to his bedroom, deciding that breakfast could wait. He was tired beyond imagination, the sun was burning hot, and he was ready to fall in love with the idea of sleep. So, dressed in a bathrobe and sunglasses, he let himself fall on his matress, dozing off immediately.

"Mike, do you want some pizza?" Sam called from downstairs. Michael frowned. Pizza? For breakfast? No, Sam wasn't like that. He looked at his alarm clock noticing the time. It was almost eight at night already. He'd slept the whole day. He never had that before.

He got out of bed, getting dressed. He made sure to grab his new leather jacket, the one he bought the day before, hoping it would impress Star. He then went downstairs, taking Sam up on his offer of pizza.

Time past quickly, but despite the extra hours of sleep and the food in his system, Michael still felt like shit. So, eventhough the meet-up with the boys had been a lie this morning, slowly it turned into truth. He wanted to know what was going on.

He had noticed how Nanook started to avoid him, how bright lights hurt, how he could have sworn to hear a heartbeat somewhere... He still wasn't sure whether it was his own heart pounding in his head, or someone elses. Both horrified him.

So, when it was half nine, Michael told Sam he was heading to the boardwalk.

The boys were there already, leaning against some metal bars as if they owned the place. People walked past them, as if to avoid them. Paul and Marko were joking around about something, while Dwayne seemed to be scanning the crowd. David, however, was watching Michael approach.

The half vampire had a lot of pent up anger that came spilling out when he rushed forward, grabbing David by his collar and pulling him off of the metal bar he had been sitting on. Marko was quick to jump in, slapping Mike's arm away. Dwayne pulled Michael further back. David just smirked, looking at him.

"What did you do to me, David?" The boy spat out, glaring at the vampire.

"Nothing."

"Where's Star?" Michael then asked. He knew David and the boys wouldn't give him any straight answers, but Star might.

David grinned, blowing some smoke in Michaels face before answering. "If you ever want to see Star again, you better come with us."

Michael nodded, walking towards his bike, determined to get the answers he was looking for, when he suddenly heard panicked footsteps behind him.

"Mike!"

He ignored it, needing to get some answers. Sam could wait.

"Mike!"

Sam caught up with him, huffing and puffing as he came to a stand still. Had he run all the way here from home?

"What?" Michael snapped, but changed his expression when he saw how worried Sam looked. "What?" He asked again, kinder this time.

Michael could sense the boys looking at him, could feel them listening. A part of him wnated them to back off, to not get involved in whatever this was. Another part of him was welcoming it in. He didn't have to deal with stuff alone.

"It's Steph... she's in the hospital, she- she was in an accident and now she's been transferred here."

"What? Is she okay?" Michael suddenly forgot about all the issues he'd wanted to confront tonight. His sister had been injured. "Where is she now?"

He needed to see her. He needed to make sure she was alright. She had been in college already - what had gome wrong so badly that she was in the hospital now? What had happened? He was alrwady halfway on his bike, when a thought crossed his mind. Would the boys mind him going? Wait, he frowned, why would the boys care? Why would they have any say in it? If he wanted to visit his sister in hospital, he would.

"At Santa Carla Med," Sam answered, before adding quickly. "I want to go as well!"

Michael helped him on before racing off, leaving a surprised group of vampires behind.

"Let's go, boys," David spoke up as he watched Michael leave. The sudden news of a sister had sparked some interest in him. With Max' assignment, she would have to be changed as well, sooner or later. It was best to get a sense of her now when she didn't know her fate yet, then later.

The others followed him, sharing his feelings of curiosity. Still, it wasn't the only reason they followed.

The way Michael had approached them made clear that he was pretty far along in his transformation. His emotions were deeper, he felt more - hence the reason he basically tried to jump the boys, ready to fight them for information.

Having someone so rash, so uncontrolled and potentially so overtaken with bloodlust go to a hospital on their own was irresponsible. Now, in all fairness, the boys wouldn't care all that much about Michael going on a killing spree in the hospital. Hell, Paul would probably see it as the beginning of a great joke. 'A vampire walks into a hospital...'

But where they would accept it, or well, not mind it, Max would absolutely hate it. And none of the boys wanted to deal with an angry Max. Or any Max, really. So, they did what needed to be done, and followed their fledgling to the hospital.

They raced through town, taking some shortcuts here and there, arriving shortly after Michael did. They saw the two brothers run inside, asking for their sister - Stephanie Emerson - and her room. David looked at Marko. "See what you can figure out."

Marko didn't need to be told twice. He flew up, hiding below the open window of this Stephanie's room. He heard the door open and Michael and Sam enter.

"Steph?" Michael asked, sounding insecure. "We're here."

"What happened?" Sam asked.

"Mike? What are you doing here?" The woman had a soft, warm voice.

Marko didn't care much for the conversation, instead opting to spy on them instead. He saw the two brothers sit next to their sister, both their backs turned towards the window. Then he noticed the sister. Both of her arms were wrapped in bandages. She had some stitches on her face. She looked exhausted. And above all, Marko frowned as he tried to get a better look, she didn't seem to be fully human.

Taglist: @maskofmirrors @marecreations @jessicafangirl @wiltn

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Chapter 2: What I know now

< previous chapter

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He'd never liked hospitals. The smell of used cleaning supplies combined with the stang of illnessess were often to much for him. The smell of bad coffee... and most of all the memories. He hadn't been in a hospital since before the move. Since before his mother had stood up for herself and her children, and ended up with two broken ribs.

And now he was in a hospital again, with no idea how he would find his sister. She was alive, that much he did know. Otherwise she wouldn't have gotten a room, but the morgue.

Michael frowned. That was dark. Since when did he think like that? He shook his head, trying to shrug it off, as he followed the numbered route to the wing where they'd put his sister.

"What did they say on the phone?"

"Mainly that they were looking for mom."

Shit. He hadn't told Lucy yet, and if he knew his brother - which, mind you, he did - Sam probably also forgot. Besides Lucy, grandpa also needed to know. Michael stopped walking, searching his pockets for some spare change. He looked at the coins in his hands, realising it was just enough for one phonecall.

While searching for a phone, he also couldn't help searching for a clock. His mom had said to be home around ten. Was that still the case? If her date had been succesful - not that he wanted to think about that - maybe she would be home later. If that was the case, calling grandpa was a better idea. Then again, he wasn't sure if the 'widow Johnson' was listed as such. Would the operators be able to find the widow?

"Why didn't you call mom?" Michael asked, unable to hide the frustration in his voice.

"I- well, I thought-" Sam sighed, shaking his head. The thing is, he hadn't thought at all. When he was alone and got that phonecall the only thing he felt was panic. All the voice on the otherside had said was that Steph was in the hospital and that she was being transferred here. Nothing else. And that had been enough for Sam to let his imagination run wild. Maybe his sister had been out partying and done a massive cocktail of drugs and booze, and now needed to get her intestines cleaned out. Maybe she fell from a window. Maybe she studied so hard, her brain grew to big and they needed to do surgery on her skull.

Okay, that last one was farfetched, but Sam knew his sister somehow always managed to end up in strange situations. He remembered when he was little, and Steph and Mike had both been ten, how a man dressed up in a suit had entered the house. Curious Sam had listened, spying on his parents, when he overheard that his sister would be a better fit at another school. A school for gifted children. At that point in time, he had been seven, was he certain that his sister was a superhero in the making. She'd go to some fancy school, meet up with other superheroes and learn everything there was to learn about saving the world. Saving random people from bad situations.

Instead, she was - as Michael put it - brought to Nerd Central. Just for a little bit. Almost two years after she got there, their dad lost his job and they needed to safe money. She had agreed on going back to normal school, eventhough she knew she'd be an outcast there. And an outcast she was. Sam remembered her accidentally starting a fire in the science lab, after combining several ingredients while trying to make a liquid glow in the dark. He remembered her being send to the principals office many times, for disturbing class. She always declared at the dining table the following evening that it hadn't been her goal to insult a teacher or to come off as a know-it-all. She just wanted to learn, but no one seemed to understand that. The worst moments where when she had to participate in groupprojects. She always wanted to try out something new, find a new angle for a problem or actually solve it instead of theorising about it. Her groupmates, teachers and principal however did not appreciate this attitude, when the solution she created would end in one of them calling the firehouse.

Sam had always loved Steph, but he had always known she was weird and strange. And maybe, he thought as he saw Michael reach the phone and call their mother, that's what caused her to be here. Maybe that was why he had tried find Mike first. They knew her better than their parents did. Dad had never understood Steph, and while Lucy's love for her was definitely unconditional, she sometimes found it hard to understand and follow her daughter. Sam and Mike knew how she thought, they knew her better than anyone else. But did they still, Sam wondered as he followed Michael to the hospitalroom. Or did college change her so badly, that they wouldn't recognise her anymore?

"Steph?" Michael sounded more insecure than he had expected when he entered the room. In the middle of the room stood one singular bed. On top of it laid a girl with dark hair, pale skin and a very tired expression on her face. One of her eyes was covered in bandages. Her wrists were wrapped in bandages, her legs - if Michael was being frank she looked more like a mummy than his sister. The parts that weren't covered still looked red and angry, as if the skin had been to close to a fire.

"Mike?" Her voice sounded hoarse, as if she had hardly used it. That was probably the case, Mike thought. He didn't know how long she had been in a hospital already, but if she had been here longer than a day, she probably hadn't spoken much. At least, the old Steph. She always tried to avoid talking to strangers, mainly because she stated 'to not like it, and life being to short to do things you don't like'. He couldn't disagree on that point of view, but still, it was a little weird.

Sam followed behind him, greeting his sister with a very pointed: "You look like shit." At that Stephanie looked at him, nodding. "I can imagine," she looked at her arms. "Guess I know what I'll be for Halloween this year."

Michael sighed, shaking his head with a faint smile. "You can't hide behind humour, Steph."

Suddenly she looked a lot younger, small and breakable even. "I can try," she said softly.

"How are you feeling? For real?"

Stephanie shrugged. "Like a bomb blew up in my face."

Michael looked at her face in the hopes of finding a sign of humour, but when he found none he shot her a terrified look. "A bomb?!"

"I didn't make it. And I didn't blow it up. I was just-" she shook her head, a wry smile on her face, "wrong place, wrong time."

"How?" Sam looked just as horrified. Steph avoided their gazes, looking up at the ceiling as she swallowed a lump in her throat. "It's a long story..."

"Until Mom gets here, you got time," Sam answered, before looking at Michael. "Mom is coming, right?"

Michael nodded before looking st his sister. "She's bringing you some spareclothes and some books as well."

"That's great. Hospitals really are quite boring." Steph sat up a little straighter, wincing as she did so. She sighed deeply once she sat comfortably, thinking about how to start her story.

"About a month after I started, I met a guy in the cafetaria at school. I'd just dealt with some typical mean girls, and he eh- he liked how I verbally shut them down? He seemed kind enough and soon we got talking. He was quick, you know, and I liked it, being at the same speed with someone for once."

"So, a new kid? You dated him?"

Stephanie nodded, regret in her eyes as the memories flashed through her mind. "Yeah. But then he began to act weird. A bit more distant, becoming a whole lot more vocal when it came down to 'the system' and- I started to notice things were off. I caught him in some lies. I found some of the supplies he brought home..."

"You knew he was building a bomb?" Sam asked horrified.

"I suspected it. I went to local authorities with it, but they brushed me off. The guys dad was a big player in town, and they didn't want to piss him off. So, no one believed me and I knew he had a bomb. I just didn't know when he would blow it up. So, I tracked some of his data and figured he would try to send as big of a message as he could, about how society doesn't care and the future is rotten. He'd want as big of a mess as he could get. There were only two options, the football assembly or the graduation party."

"And you went-"

"To the right one," Stephanie answered quickly. "I saw him enter the building and rushed in after him. He tried to get me out of the building - a part of him wanting to protect me, I guess. I refused, I didn't want to know that so many people would die because-" she was quiet for a moment, trying to find the right words, "because I failed. I begged him to come outside, to stay with me and he did. He went outside. He did follow me. With the bomb. We'd just left the building when it went off, right in his arms."

Tears were running down her cheek. If she hadn't acted when she did, she would be dead now too. So would all the other students.

"He went everywhere. I-- I don't remember much after that, only that I was covered in what was left of my ex..."

Sam and Michael stared at her, expressions frozen in looks of horror.

"Why didn't you tell me this was going on?" Michael asked, a little accusational. "I could've helped you."

"No one could've stopped him. And," she sighed softly, "I was scared that if mom heard, she'd pull me out."

"You could have told me, still."

"I didn't want to worry you either. You were dealing with the last of Dad's bullshit... you didn't need my shit on top of that."

"Not that I mind, especially after all that, that you're here," Sam spoke up, "but wasn't there a hospital closer to home?"

Stephanie shook her head.

"When dad heard what happened, he denied his parentage in the hospital. He said I was no childe of his, and that if I hadn't been in the hospital already, he would've put me here himself."

Both her brothers paled at that thought, both being able to hear their father say this. And they both knew it wasn't a lousy threat. Their father had been dead serious when he said this.

"So, he practically disowned me and some nurses handled a transfer so I'd be closer to mom."

"Well, I'm glad you're-"

"Guys, visiting hour has been over for at least thirty minutes. I know that you're family, but Stephanie here really needs her rest," a red-headed doctor walked in. She checked some of the vitals before telling Stephanie she'd send a nurse in to redress her eye. She then looked at the two brothers. "Tomorrow you can see her again."

With that the doctor left, soon followed by the two Emersons. The third stayed behind, curling up beneeth her blankets. She truly hoped Michael would believe this story. He was not ready for the truth.

Marko had listened and watched the whole time that Michael was there, and he was certain of a number of things. Michaels sister was smart, somewhat cunning and a liar. And then there was the big suspisio he had, that somehow she wasn't completely human. He didn't know how, nothing in her story pointed at vampirism of anything like that, but still - something was going on. He floated down, meeting the boys and quickly relaying what he'd discovered. They stood outside of the hospital, scaring Michael as he walked out.

"Holy shit, what the fuck are you doing here?"

"Just wanted to make sure everything was okay."

"Yeah, right."

"Tell me, Michael, how's your sister doing?" David asked, in a way that made Michael wonder if there was something else going on.

"Tired but alive?"

David was about to say something else when Sam pulled Michael away. "We need to go home," Sam glared at the vampires, feeling beyond grateful when Michael got on his bike as well and drove off.

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