Having Two Mates {2017}

Chapter Fourteen

           

CHAPTER FOURTEEN:

An hour had passed and my pain only grew worse. My body felt like it was in flames resulting in a high fever. Nathan refused to tell me how high but the look told me it threatened to send me to the hospital. I couldn't really demand him to tell me, that's how weak I was.

However, while I was lying on the couch, I felt this odd sensation come over me. It felt like a shiver but it was warm unlike the rest I had been having since this morning. It was warm but it still hurt just as much as it did to move. At one point, I was sure I was hallucinating voices in my head.

"How's it going?" Nathan replaced the cool cloth on my forehead.

"I think I'm hearing things," I reply honestly.

"Like what?"

"The faucet dripping, the radio broadcasting a game. . ." I winced in pain as my head throbbed. "There's a lot going on in my head."

"Just hang in there okay?" He dabs my head.

He moves to leave but I manage to catch his arm. He was warm, very warm. It was surprising to me as it probably was to anyone who has seen too many vampire movies. It was an odd discovery.

"Do you know what's happening to me?" I ask him. "Will I. . . will I die?"

His arm stiffens as he stares ahead.

"Only you can decide that." He says, escaping my grip.

  I reach out again for him but he was farther than I though causing me to lean too far over the side of the couch and fall on my side hard. What came next was terrifying.

I'm sure it could have been compared to being hit by a bus, only, ten times worse. A train maybe. I'm not sure but the pain was on another level, a level that had my screaming in pain and fear.

"Hailey," Nathan had rushed over to me and lifted me up in a sitting position. I felt his warm hands touch the clammy skin of my arms and for a moment, I thought I was being electrocuted. His touch stung and triggered all of my senses to be heightened. The faucet drip sounded like slow thuds in my head, the radio announcer was screaming plays into my eardrums and  every other sound and conversation was at its highest volume.

I felt myself collapse into Nathan, my body immobile. At the same time, Jared came home, his panicked voice echoing loudly amongst the chaos of sounds within my head. I'm not sure if I was crying but there was the feeling of fluids sliding into my ears.

  Everything hurt.

And then it all just stopped.

"Hailey?" Voices called. "Hailey can you hear me?"

Their silhouettes materialized and I found myself in void, however, standing in front of me was another version of myself. One whose hair was much darker, and longer. Her eyes were the same dark brown, and then they were not. They had specks of gold in them that swirled the iris. Slowly and horrifyingly, the black of the pupils started to consume the gold until the whole eye, even the whites, were pitch black.

I stared at myself. Then she lunged at me, fangs extracting and claws clinging to my throat.

"What's happening to her?!" I could hear my brother shouting.

"She's turning?" Nathan replied.

  "Turning? Right now?" My brother squeaks. "W-Wait, who are you anyway?"

  "Yes, right now." Nathan confirms. "I'm a friend."

  My brother hesitates to speak. "I-Is she gonna make it?"

  "I-I don't know."