Bloodstained Lily

Chapter 32-Walking Among The Dead

“Jordan? Jordan?!”

I ran up the stairs and broke the handle on the door with great force as I worriedly ran inside. Empty. I flung open Jordan’s old bedroom door and ran in, quickly scouting the room as if I knew he was inside.

It was exactly the same as we had left it, a small bed that wouldn’t even fit him right now, blue walls and a picture of our parents on the bedside table. That’s when I heard a voice coming from the room next door…the bathroom and my heart stopped. I wanted to look for Jordan yet somehow when it came down to it, I was frightened to see him, to see the state he was in…

“That bloody beast, I can still feel its teeth in my skin!”

He looked down at his wounded arm. Black and blue veins crawled themselves all the way down from his wrist to just below his shoulder and a pool of black blood rose at the centre of the wound. Yellow pus oozed out of red and brown lumps which circled themselves around the blood and made their way down to his wrist.

“That’s fucking foul. I always knew they were bloody feral creatures, never doubted it for a second.” He hissed.

He moaned and tried his hardest to keep his screams in as the pain became increasingly unbearable. He leaned over the basin as the black, thick, tar-like blood made its way down his arm, slowly dripping off into the sink. It became overwhelmingly itchy and as his nails dug into it, he screamed out in pain, falling to the ground as he did. When he looked back at it, his eyes widened…he had just pulled some skin off from his arm, was it already in effect? Was he already becoming such an ugly, terrifying beast? Disgusted at the sight of it, he bandaged it up, cringing at the pain and covered it up with his shirt sleeve before unbuttoning the front of his shirt and examining the scratch on his upper torso.

He ran his finger over it and pursed his lips angrily. It was much cleaner than the wound the zombie had gifted him. A simple red wound, revealing a line of now dry red blood and he almost smiled when he saw it as he needed convincing that he was still human after glancing at his other wound.

When he thought all his wounds were checked and began to walk out, he felt a sting around the side and towards the back of his neck. He walked back and as he slowly turned around, he saw yet another bite mark however this one was different to the zombie one. Like the werewolf scratch, it was clean, though the blood wasn’t dry, it wasn’t anywhere near as rotten as the other bite mark.

Still, he knew exactly what it was and it made him smile.

“Thank you whoever bit me, now they should cancel each other out and I’ll die a human, thank GOD!”

He grabbed his clothes and made his way into the bathroom and finally into the shower. I saw how he had come back to our apartment and I was scared that if we didn’t hurry up, there would be another raid, I slammed the door handle down and walked in on him in the shower where he quickly became scared, grabbed a towel, wrapped it around his waist and got out.

“What are you doing?” He yelled.

I grabbed him by the ear and pulled him out so he was standing directly in front of me. I looked up at him, trying to hold back my emotions but I let out a few tears and let water well up in my eyes. My vision was too blurred from my tears to notice that scratch on his torso and he delicately hid his bad arm behind his back.

“Is it true?”

His tenseness dropped for a bit and he looked at me painfully, obviously trying to hide his aching wounds from me. Yet Jordan being Jordan, he still tried to act dumb.

“Is what true?”

“No, don’t even start with me, Jordan! I saw you limping off and whining like some pathetic mutt, show me.”

“Show you what?”

I frowned angrily and let a soft but threatening growl escape my mouth.

“The bite!”

“What bite? There’s no bite…”

“Show me…”

“No I-”

“Show me!” I screamed at the top of my lungs and he turned his neck hesitantly.

I gasped and let some more tears leave my eyes, feeling their warmth on the side of my face. I thought that was it but he turned so he was completely facing me and he ran a finger over his scratch which made me clasp my hands over my mouth in shock and finally he revealed his arm to me, the very sight of it made me lash out in anger and smack him across his face resulting in a loud clap sound that rung out throughout the entire apartment. A mixture of anger, sadness and regret rushed across his face as he looked back at me.

“Look, I’m sorry. I never meant to be bitten. I mean of course I didn’t, you know how much I hate those sorry excuses of creatures.”

I quickly pulled Harry’s phone, which he had lent me, out of my pocket and began dialling which made Jordan panic as he turned around and saw what I was doing.

“What are you doing?” He asked frantically, obviously scared.

“I’m calling the hospital, you are dying and they might have a cure!” Tears streamed down my face as I began slamming my fingers down on the touch screen.

“No!” He yelled and he snatched the phone out of my hands and cancelled what I was doing just before I was about to press call.

He winced at the pain his infected arm was going through as he carelessly used it to get what he wanted.

“You can’t tell anyone. No one needs to know!”

“Why, Jordan? Tell me why!” I began raising my voice again.

“Because I’m dying anyway! Do you really think that three creatures can live in one vessel successfully? You must be mad! Phoning the hospital is a death sentence! If they get me a cure or Harry and Zayn try and help somehow, it’ll be a death sentence. I’m not turning into a beast for them, for you, for anyone. I would rather die than become like them. So here’s what I promise you, sister; I promise I will hold out for as long as I can and try my hardest to win the war before I die but at best I say I have a little over an hour so if you want my help then I suggest we get out of here now!”

I shook my head and cried as I watched him push past me and leave the apartment, no doubt going back to the battlefield. I followed exactly one pace behind him, trying to hold myself together. I couldn’t lose my brother, my only family left and he needed to know that.

“Now who’s the one leaving the other?”

He turned around and grabbed my shoulder forcefully and pulling me to his side.

“Don’t.”

That one word had one very powerful meaning and never before had I been so terrified of one word. He was brave for trying to shrug it off, but he was being stupid and that was a recurring trait of his. His stupidity at most times was his bravery, but this was too far.

He was only seventeen! He had barely lived and yet already he was making decisions like an adult and sacrificing himself but if I’m being honest, who is it helping?

We are a four man team soon to become three and though there was less than half left of the enemy’s army, we were about to lose our greatest solider. Soon, there’ll just be a human, a strong vampire and a zombie/vampire hybrid.

Out of our team of four, the army feared Jordan the most, sure the rest of us have killed hundreds of theirs but Jordan had that look in his eyes like he wouldn’t stop until every supernatural creature was dead.