Pasta-Gal

  There was an awkward tension in the air between Lucas and Emma for the rest of that day. Lucas' mind was a frenzy of painful emotions, and so Lucas buried these thoughts. Its wasn't the first, hopefully it'd be the st.

  It was as if a switch had been flipped when Lucas arrived home. As soon as he went to go rex his body rejected the idea. Lucas was sure that the changes were complete, yet here he sat, clutching the rim of his toilet bloodied bile filling the bowl. The acid clung and burned his throat. Lucas had always been told to see a doctor if you ever puke blood. Did that rule apply to vampires? More questions, its always more questions.

  The pain was not exclusive to his stomach, it held no discrimination towards any particur part of his body. His muscles ached and burned at the slightest twitch, his chest in particur was seizing, followed by agonizing spasms. He didn't think it possible to feel your own bones but Lucas could. They were cooking him alive like they were made of hot metal. The few movements Lucas could make, his bones seemed deyed in their response, it felt more like he was swinging ropes of flesh, like his bones had grown softer, nearly malleable.

  What was happening? Everything that had happened so far was nearly painless, a mild discomfort at worst but now he was sure death would be a preferable state to be in, if it was even possible.

  Lucas' woke up keeled over his toilet. His body was sweating profusely and his clothes were beside him. He didn't remember taking them off but he didn't remember much. He frantically searched his pants pocket for his phone, it was only just past midnight. Everything was a haze, a mangled mess of thoughts and sensations. The aches pguing his muscles all had faded away. His bones no longer hurt. The only pain that remained was a tightness, a fiery, churning pain just below his stomach. It felt like someone was twisting his organs into knots.

  Stumbling up from the toilet, Lucas managed to crawl into the bathtub and rinsed his filth off. Dried fkes of blood and bile stained the water around his feet. The steam and hot water did wonders for the tension throughout his body. It is a brief but glorious moment of reprieve. Not wanting the moment to end, Lucas flushes the remnants of the crud from the tub, plugs it and allows fresh warm water to flood in.

  Lucas slides swiftly into the calm waters, submerging everything up to his nose. The surrounding heat managed to calm even the pain in his stomach. He felt his mind wander deeper into the fog, eyelids growing heavy, he fell asleep once more.

  ***

  "Waking up are we?" a soft voice spoke.

  Lucas' eyes slowly fluttered open as he went to open his mouth to respond.

  "urgh-bler," instead of words only a mass of bubbles escaped. The ground was sharp and stony, and the air... no this was... water? Lucas thrashed around, he couldn't breath. He noticed he couldn't see. His eyes were open but there was only darkness before him.

  "Can't speak? That's ok," he heard the voice speak again somehow unperturbed by the water. "Let me help," Lucas felt something gently grab his shoulders, a jolt shot through his body. Hands, likely belonging to the voice were holding him from behind. The right hand moved up and grasped his neck firmly.

  "Shhh, rex..." The voice spoke in calming waves. The voice was intensely familiar, but Lucas found himself unable to identify who was speaking. Not having the energy to struggle from the grip Lucas obeyed as the hand massaged his neck. Thin slits began to open up on his neck. Water began pouring into his lungs, his mouth wasn't open but the water had slipped through his neck. But Lucas didn't panic it felt natural, comfortable even.

  Lucas went to thank the voice but the figure that was holding him was gone. The darkness faded as Lucas walked through a desert. Red cliffs stand above the sand. Carved within the cliff face is a glorious city. Great swathes of people migrate through the streets and in and out of buildings.

  "What a beautiful city, such wonderful architecture," Lucas spun around and sitting on a rock is the figure who helped him moments ago. Lucas couldn't see any details of the figure. The harder he stared the blurrier and more unfocused they'd become.

  "Who are you?" Lucas asked.

  "Who are you?" The voice said pointedly.

  "I'm- glerfh..." Lucas went to say his name but only bubbles escaped his mouth.

  "I see, I can't say mine either. Can't say much at all actually,"

  "You seem to be talking fine right now," Lucas said.

  "But it's not the same here. But out there..." the voice gestured out to the sky and then motioned zipping their lips shut. They seemed wistful. "It's lonely, I don't know how you can stand it."

  "Wait," Lucas waved her words aside. "You didn't answer my question. Who are you?"

  "You know who am, look around you."

  "That doesn't answer my question,"

  "Then you're not ready yet. That's a shame I was hoping you would be." The voice spoke. "Maybe that cute girl will be able to get you to figure it out. She's gotten you this far in only a few days out of sheer luck. Better than my screaming into the void. Regardless it'll happen sooner rather than ter."

  The figure faded from the rock and the world around him followed.

  ***

  Lucas was drowning. He hadn't noticed he was falling asleep during his bath and now he was paying the price. He could feel the water sloshing inside of his lungs. Pounding on his chest doing all he could to drive the water out. He y writhing on the ground for only seconds but the moment sted years.

  When finally Lucas pulled only air into his lungs he dragged himself over to the tub and pulled the plug letting it slowly begin to drain. He flipped his phone around to check the time hoping he still had a few hours to sleep before he begrudgingly returned to work tomorrow. He pressed the on button a few times but his phone gave no reaction. Strange it was at fifty percent when he checked it before he passed out.

  Bancing himself on the tub Lucas stood up. He stared into the mirror for a moment examining himself, there was something off about his appearance that he couldn't quite pce. He ran his hand along his neck, nothing, only figments of a dream. Needing to check the time Lucas walked out to check the clock on his stove, six-thirty. No. It was too soon, he hadn't been able to rest at all, how was it already six-thirty? Not today, it was too much.

  Lucas sulked into his bedroom to plug his phone in and waited until it powered on. Pulling up his messages Lucas shoots a terribly written text saying "aick, ant come in, sorey". Satisfied Lucas rolled over to sleep. As soon as he did he felt a sharp pain in his chest. For years Lucas slept almost exclusively on his stomach, but he slept on his back, not wanting to deal with the sensitivity in his chest.

  It was Friday proper now. Lucas had woken a few hours ter to a text from his boss saying, "Makes sense, take care". He had been unable to salvage that night of suffering, but at least he had no expectations of the day. He could just sit and rot in his bed, which is frankly all Lucas wanted to do. Especially since the pain in his stomach had returned, just as violent as it had been hours prior. He could only assume that this was from hunger. It had been hours since he fed so it made sense, but if this was how hunger felt as a vampire, how do others manage?

  Lucas wanted to just set up an IV drip to get a constant supply of blood. He ripped open a bag and just began pouring it into his mouth. As soon as the first drops settled onto his tongue, his mouth quivered in disapproval and he quickly spat the blood out into the sink. It tasted like pure citric acid. It was foul. Lucas went to try it again but recoiled just as much the second time.

  Lucas went to grab a gss from his cupboard and frantically filled it with water to rinse the rancid taste from his mouth. After several rinses Lucas felt content that there was no more of the rejected blood left. He even poured the rest of the bag down the sink. It was his st bag. Even if he probably needed that he wouldn't let any more of that enter his system.

  Needing a distraction Lucas went over and plucked a half full sketchbook and dropped onto the couch. He didn't do this frequently but it was a fun exercise when he got around to it. This sketchbook had over the years been filled with the environments within Lucas' dreams. There were some impressive feats of architecture held within these pages. Sketching out the buildings was one of the things that drew him to architecture in the first pce.

  Lucas tried to recall the abyss and crudely drew a pair of figures resting on a rock. Further down the page He began constructing the columns and rock that the architecture had. It reminded him of a cssical temple. The symmetry of the buildings was exceptional. The city looked a little familiar. He knew he'd seen it before. It was on the tip of his tongue, it was infuriating not to know.

  He finished drawing the areas he could remember and pulled up his phone to begin searching for where these buildings might have came from. Assuming his dream was accurate they were all stone construction and were carved into the sides of cliffs. Or real to begin with. There were many times his dreams had tricked him into a false memory.

  Lucas started with 'Red stone temple'. While the buildings that popped up were indeed impressive It was all Indian architecture which while incredibly beautiful it didn't match the more Mediterranean cssical style. After changing stone to rock in the search, Lucas managed to find a series of buildings that were a near perfect match, the ancient city of Petra.

  Lucas marked the name into this sketchbook.

  Somehow only now realizing he was still very much cold and naked Lucas set the drawings onto the coffee table and went to put something on. He threw on a graphic tee with a shark on it and a pair of jeans. As he pulled the shirt down it chafed slightly against his chest. His pants also felt a little tighter than usual, and he had to loosen his belt by a notch. The clothes were extremely old, since before college. Their age finally beginning to show after so many washes. It wouldn't hurt to update some of his more casual wardrobe after reusing the same cycle of five-eight shirts every week for years.

  As Lucas walked past the bathroom door back to his sketchbook, he realized something. Aside from puking his guts out st night he hadn't had to go to the bathroom in days. That certainly was not normal, or maybe it would be normal?

  With no work to tend to Lucas quickly found himself bored out of his mind. The only thing keeping him busy was the occasional wave of abdominal cramps and discomfort. He was supposed to meet up with Agatha after work, but that wouldn't be until hours from now. Lucas scrolled through his mental list of things to do and settled upon what was likely to be a quick and easy task. Getting sungsses. And it would double to getting him some fresh air because he was in desperate need of that, having been cooped up in his stuffy apartment for far too long.

  However when Lucas went to leave the fatigue returned and cimed him for several more hours. Leaving Lucas sick and miserable on his bed for much of the day, and what he thought was his hunger growing more uncomfortable by the hour.

  With the evening fast approaching Lucas pulled himself together and seeing he still had an hour or two before Agatha might expect him Lucas pushed himself out the door to fetch those sungsses. He could swing by get those before setting off for her apartment. Tired and groggy he made his way through the busy streets. The harsh sunlight had begun to recede and so Lucas could see almost as well as he usually could.

  There was a department store a few blocks from where he lived that also was conveniently on the way towards Agatha's. He slipped in and out having successfully acquired a nice set of porized lenses and continued his incredibly refreshing march to meet up with Agatha.

  He hadn't thought much about what exactly tonight would entail. He knew she would show him how to acquire blood but she also seemed to hint towards more. He'd have to wait and see.