Ice Cold

18: The Reveal

Scarlett

Instantly, my head snapped in the direction of the noise. The sound had been so inhuman that I wasn't even sure that it had happened. But as my eyes fell upon Chris', I knew that my ears weren't deceiving me. He was standing just outside of the shop, crouched slightly, eyes narrowed with an expression of pure anger on his face. I stared in shock and horror, before realising that my attackers had also stopped still. However, before I could catch them off guard, Chris moved. But he could've been a gust of wind for all I knew.
     But I did know one thing. He definitely wasn't human.
     My jaw dropped as he instantaneously appeared in front of one of my attackers, snapping his neck as easily as if it was a breadstick. The man fell to the floor at Chris' feet, instantly dead, and I saw the blood start to flow from his mouth. For a split second, Chris seemed to become caught up in the red liquid and I didn't dare breathe in case I was next on his list.
     His irises flickered back to the dark brown colour that I knew so well and we stared at each other, having an unspoken conversation. My attackers were long gone now and it left a dry feeling in my mouth knowing that I was completely alone with him. Swallowing down the bile that was slowly making its way up my throat, I took a deep breath and started to walk towards him.
     "Your costume is real." I whispered, barely making a sound. My eyes focused intently on my shoes and I knew that if I looked up, I would probably break down.
     "Yeah, I guess you could say that." He mumbled and looked to the side. I looked up at him then, unable to resist any longer, and examined his features. How was this man not human? His face was usually so full of life and happiness, although he looked extremely uncomfortable at the moment. But then his eyes met mine and all of that drifted from my mind.
His dark eyes held so much pain and so many memories that I couldn't help but stare into them, becoming lost in the beautiful orbs. He blinked a couple of times and turned away, trying to hide the fact that they were beginning to water. And for the first time since I'd been here, I didn't have the burning desire to murder him. Instead, these feelings had been replaced by sympathy; something I had never experienced before.
"You're a vampire." I stated and he nodded with a sigh, looking away again.
"I'm so sorry if this has freaked you out. Well, you'd be mad to not be completely freaked out by this." He said, more to himself than me, and let out a humourless snort.
"It's just a bit of a surprise, that's all. I never expected such a bubbly, fun person to have a secret as dark as that." I said with a small smile and he looked relieved. He was obviously a little shocked that I wasn't running away screaming, but I simply couldn't do that.
That's when it fell into place. Every bad, murderous thought I'd ever had about him dissolved as if it was never there in the first place and I felt almost as if a weight had been lifted from my shoulders. I knew the reason why I wasn't running away screaming. Both him and I had dark pasts and we were outcasts from society. We both had our secrets.
     But yet, if I was no longer here to kill him, then I had no reason to stay.

Chris

She hadn't freaked out. Everything within me was jumping with joy and I almost felt happy for the first time in years. But something was telling me that there was a reason that she wasn't freaking out. After all, Indigo had told me that she had her own secret, and maybe it was worse than mine. But what could possibly be worse than this?
     "Do you wanna go back to my place and we can talk about this?" I asked her in a gentle voice, still afraid that I would scare her away at any moment.
"Sure." She replied and we began to walk at a steady pace. Not once on our way back did we look at each other and my mind started to overthink. What if she thought I was a freak? Or worse - a psychopath? My body shuddered at the thought and she glanced over at me, eyeing me with suspicion. I gave her a nervous smile and almost let out a sigh of relief when my house came into view.
     "We can't really go in through the main entrance because everyone will be in there and there's no way we'll get any privacy." I told Scarlett in a quiet tone, leading her towards the side of the house.
     "How are we going to get in, then?" She asked and I looked up at the open window directly above me. She followed my gaze and started to shake her head, backing away slightly.
     "We jump." I smirked before my eyes turned red and I instantly pulled her onto my back, launching both of us upwards. In the blink of an eye, we were in my master bedroom and I felt myself go back to normal just before she jumped off of my back and turned to me.
"Did that seriously just happen?" She asked a little dizzily and I snorted, running my hand over my head.
"Yeah, sorry if it caught you by surprise. Trust me, when I first became what I was, this was terrifying to me." I smiled at her but she just turned away, obviously having some kind of internal battle. I couldn't blame her though, considering I had just revealed to her that I wasn't even human, a concept that I assumed had never crossed her mind. She slowly sat down on my bed, her fiery red ringlets bouncing slightly as she moved.
     "Tell me everything." She whispered.