I Swear He's a Vampire!

A Rough Start (Part 2)

The scream had Ted jumping to his feet and running as fast as he could to it's source. Chris was hurt. Or scared, but that kind of lead to the same thing. He rounded the corner into the kitchen and froze. Aiden was standing with his arms out as if he'd just used them to push something over. That something being Chris, now sprawled on the floor and covered in red liquid.
He glared at Aiden as he rushed to his friend's side, offering a hand to help him up. Chris took his hand and smiled. It was covered in the sticky substance that was also all over the floor and his poor turtleneck now. Just watermelon juice. Thank God. "Hey Ted! Don't worry, Aiden's just being a brat again."
Aiden glared at him and stuck out his tongue. "I didn't even do anything! You're the one who fell."
Ted rolled his eyes. Typical Aiden. It was just like him to pick the exact wrong moments to try and bully his older brother. He was just lucky that bottle hadn't been made of glass. He carefully approached Chris, trying not to slip on, or get stuck in, the puddle of bright red juice.
Chris held a hand up and out, his way of asking Ted to pull him to his feet. Still avoiding the puddle, Ted did just that, grabbing him and heaving upwards. Using his other hand to brace himself for standing, Chris pushed himself towards his friend before suddenly crying out again and letting go, plopping back down on the ground. The juice splashed up a bit as he hit it and he pulled his hand from the ground, cradling it.
"Ow!" Still cradling his hand, Chris searched around him and groaned. "Right, of course. Glass bottle." He held out his other hand to Ted expectedly, giving him kitten eyes. "Please?"
Ted felt his heart race faster. His eyes instinctively trained on Chris' wounded hand and his throat burned with thirst. Something about this just... Called to him.
"Ted?" A confused voice pierced through his trance and Ted shook his head, swallowing hard to get rid of the built up saliva. He straightened up, slightly surprised to find he'd leaned forward a bit in his stupor. "Right, right, sorry." The green haired teenager grabbed his friend's hand and heaved him up to his feet for good.
"Do you, uh, want some bandages for that? I'll go get some bandages." Without waiting for a response, he turned sharply in his heal and sped walked out of the kitchen, rounding the corner before he allowed himself to breathe again.
What the absolute fuck was going on with him lately? Hormones could do a lot, but nothing like this! No, this was just weird. Maybe Aiden had a point? Ted shook his head to himself. No, absolutely not. Vampires weren't real, and if they were he definitely wasn't one of them. But a small seed of doubt planted itself in his head. After all, this all kind of started after that fight with Aiden.
He'd chased him around for a while in pure rage over the loss of his poor, poor Jeffmellon before finally catching him and biting down on his arm. Sharp teeth made for tearing flesh pierced the child's soft, supple skin and that wonderful, life giving juice oozed from the cut and into Ted's waiting maw. The taste had been coppery and refined, like nothing he'd ever had before. Sure, he'd tasted blood here and there, bit it was always his own. Just lapping and sucking at his own wounds to clean them before he could get a bandaid. Never anything like... Like that.
Ted shook himself almost violently. A strand of drool fell from his lips and he reached up to wipe his mouth, swallowing hard again to try and ground himself. It wasn't working. His mind kept drifting back to that strange, awful, wonderful moment and the distinctive smell of blood from the kitchen. This... Wasn't good.
He quickened his pace, rounding into the bathroom and completely missing a certain bunny hooded figure peaking around the corner and watching him from just inside the kitchen before disappearing at the call if his brother.

Chris was starting to get worried. His friend had been acting really, really strange the past few days and now he was taking an unusually long time to simply walk to the bathroom and grab some bandages. He walked over and peaked around the corner to see if Ted was coming back, but there was no sign of the green haired teen.
He sighed. "Aiden, are you almost finished cleaning up?" He was met with a scowl from his little brother, on his hands and knees with cloth in hand and gloves over his small mits. The puddle of watermelon juice and glass was nearly entirely gone and Aiden looked pissed. "Why do I even have to clean it anyways? You know I'm not supposed to mess with anything involving broken glass."
"Because you're the one who broke it and I'm already hurt."
"You're the one who fell, not me!"
"Yeah, because you pushed me!"
Aiden glared, but kept cleaning. Chris turned back to the hallway and sighed. "I'm gonna go see if Ted's alright." He also really did need those bandages, having just pulled the glass shard from his hand. PSA, don't do that unless you're ready for a long t of blood. That glass has now become the stopper keeping blood inside your body and removing it is gonna release it all.

Ted stared at himself in the mirror, pulling his lip and cheek back to inspect his teeth. Yeah, they were definitely sharper. His pale eyes had taken on an almost reddish tint to them. He pulled back from the mirror, closed his eyes, and ran a hand through his hair. This simply wasn't happening. He was sick and it was causing mild hallucinations. He'd just call his dad and-
"Ted, are you doing alright?" Chris' voice rang clear from just a little down the hall.
"Y-yeah, I'm fine. Sorry. On my way." Ted snatched the bandages and dishes out. No time to call Dad, he'd been in here long enough and now people were starting to worry.
He met Chris in the hall, brandishing the bandages like a prize. "Got em! Sorry, they were tucked... In the uh-in the back." Ted trailed off mid sentence before snapping back and finishing what he'd meant to say. There was that lovely scent again, and oh, how his throat burned for just one sweet sip.
Chris tilted his head in that dog like way he had and frowned. He'd be distressed to learn it made him look like a puppy rather than a cat, but that could be Ted's secret. He wasn't paying attention to that now though, he was focused on the blood dripping from an open wound on his friend's hand. Sweet, succulent, and just right there. He licked his lips and instinctively leaned forward.
"Ted? Dude are you okay? You keep spacing out." Chris put his uninjured hand on his friend's shoulder, gently but firmly keeping him from coming closer. "Oh, ew! Ted. Ted, you're drooling. Come on man, pull yourself together!"
The words barely hit Ted's ears at all. They sounded muffled, like he was underwater. He might as well have been, for all he was aware. Something in him ached for the blood slowly running down the cat obsessed boy's arm from the rather deep cut in his hand. He instinctively reached out and grabbed it, pulling it closer to him. Just a sip wouldn't hurt, right? Just one sip...
"Yeah, not gonna let that happen, bro." Chris pulled his hand away quickly and took a few steps back. He hit his hand behind his back, like it would protect it from his oddly enraptured friend. "Dude, blood is like, really bad for you. It's filled with all sorts of chemicals and shit you shouldn't be messing around with! I know there's like, healing stuff in saliva or whatever, but it's not worth the disease."
That finally broke his haze and Ted blinked, then blinked again. His stomach growled and his throat burned, but he was back. He took a step back, confusion and fear pasted on his face. What the fuck was happening? Had he really just... Oh. Oh no, not gonna think about that while the smell is still so strong. He wiped a hand across his mouth and tossed the bandages to Chris. His head spun and he felt like he was gonna be sick.
"I-I gotta go. I'm not feeling well." For the second time that day, Ted turned on his heel and ran, clasping a hand over his mouth and nose to try and block that god damned intoxicating scent. He had to get out of here, or he might not be able to catch himself next time.
He pushed past Aiden, who had stepped from seemingly nowhere to block his path. No time no time no time. Ted ran through the house till he was outside, then down the street some more. He only stopped when that god forsaken smell stopped tugging so hard at him to turn back around and just quench his burning throat.
There wasn't really any time to call Dad anymore, and he felt like he needed to clear his head anyways. His heart hammered in his chest and he could feel the dizziness turning into a pounding headache.
His stomach rumbles again, calling his attention back to his hunger. It wasn't natural. No, this wasn't natural at all. It was even worse now that he had an idea of what might make it go away. He'd just walk the rest of the way home, to clear his head and settle his nausea.
This was all just some crazy fever dream cooked up by lack of sleep andthe onset of the flu or something. There was nothing wrong with him and he wasn't a vampire. Vampires weren't real. He was probably just sick and iron deficient. Everything would be fine in the morning. He just needed to sleep off and it would be fine. Everything was fine. It was fine.