Author's Note:
Yup, no need to panic, same story, just a new cover and a shorter title. What do you think of it?

Part Two

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His eyes opened to a room nearly as dark as the hold had been. The only light came in through he small porthole to his right. Vellis was curled on the floor, shaking. He looked as sick as Castian felt. He glanced at him as he sat.

"There's thirty minutes," Vellis whispered. Castian's guts tightened inward. His eyes moved to the watch on his wrist. They'd been here twenty-three hours and thirty-two minutes. He swallowed.

"I guess this means we're not getting burnt alive," he muttered. His words stuck in his throat, a sorry comfort if any at all. He was going to die. It became so much more real than it had been the night before as he watched the hands on his watch move. He was going to die. They were going to die. Really die, not get shot at, or possibly be hung. No, even if they got away from the pirates, they'd die. There was no way that they'd ever make it back to the Warp hole, it was impossible.

"Yeah," Vellis whispered, and he wasn't sure if he was agreeing with the earlier statement, or reading his mind. "We're totally screwed, Castian."

"I know," he snarled back. "Can we not talk about it?"

"Sure, doesn't matter anyway."

He put his hands against his forehead and pressed. A headache was building behind his eyes. He could feel the panic clawing up inside him, trying to escape the hold he kept it in. No. No. He couldn't just die. Here, in the middle of no one gave a shit. Without accomplishing anything. Tears burned the corners of his eyes.

"I've never done anything. No one is ever going to remember me." His voice broke, "I'm a murderer for hire."

Vellis sat, groaning. "Oh yeah? I can top that. I'm not even human anymore."

Castian laughed. "Me either man." His hands were shaking. He pressed them down on the planks below him. "Me either."

"No," Vellis snorted. "I'm not being metaphorical, Castian. I'm not human anymore."

Castian made himself look up at him. "We've all done bad stuff man, we...." Vellis grimaced, showing the two long fangs in the dark. Fangs. Real fangs, not just his imagination. Castian slowly slid back. He remembered the blood on Vellis' mouth. He's thought he's been punched. What if... what if that wasn't it?

"Yeah." Vellis dropped the look. "I told you Taff did stuff to me."

Taff? Taff had done that? What was that. "What..."

"Oh come on, I know you don't read much, but you know what a vampire is."

"Yeah, but they aren't real."

"Are they not?" Vellis scrubbed a hand over his face. "I wish you'd tell my body. It's why I'm sick so much, or... a part of it." He pulled his knees up under his chin and sat quietly for a long moment. "I can do what you did, travel from the Field without a suit, without the Warp pad. I can't control it though, I just sometimes pop in and out, and then I get sick." He dropped his hand from his face, looking more tired than anyone Castian had ever seen. "I'm hungry, always, and I can't hold food down. I'm tired, but can't sleep." A low sigh escaped him. "Maybe dying won't hurt so much as all that..."

"Do you drink blood?" Castian blurted. Vellis blinked, drawing back.

"Uh... No."

"What about burn up in the sun?"

"No..."

"So why do you think you're a vampire?"

"Not that kind," he muttered. "Well, I could be, probably. Not the sun thing, I don't know where the sun thing started."

"Is that what Taff is?" Castian swallowed. "A vampire?" Has he aged a day since you met him?

"Yeah. And Deric was sure he was the one who destroyed our Field. He didn't just happen to come there at the time it was falling apart and snatch us up to 'save' us. He started the fires. Or, Deric thought so. I think he's right, it makes more sense."

Castian squeezed his head, staring down at the floor between his feet. So many thing Deric hadn't told him. How? Why?

"He never... told me that. Were you guys good friends...?"

Vellis laughed suddenly. He leaned his head against the wall behind him. "Friends? Eh." He wobbled his hand the in the air. "We trusted each other not to run and tattle on the other." Castian tried and failed to shove back the hurt as it flashed across his face. Deric hadn't trusted him? "I didn't mean..." Vellis sighed, watching him. "You were like his little brother, okay he wanted you safe."

"And you? You were what, the one he trusted to help him?"

"Dude," Vellis laughed again. "We were sleeping together."

"What?" Castian stared at him. Had he heard wrong or... No. No, he hadn't. How hadn't he known that.

"Yeah." Vellis swallowed, staring up at the roof of their cramped room. "That's why Taff made sure I was there when he locked him out, I think." He folded his arms close to himself. "Might have been why he did it."

"Why? Because Taff just didn't like that you were--"

"No. No, he just..." Vellis shut his eyes. "He likes my body, and I don't think he was keen on sharing. I think he might have... been like that to Deric, too, before me."

Castian let out a noise somewhere between strangled, and a snarl. "He--"

"Hey, man," Vellis cut in before he could get any more words out, "I'm about to die, so can we talk about something else? Or just... not."

Castian looked at his watch, trying to cool the edge of razor sharp anger turning his stomach. He'd rip Taff's face off.

No. No, he wouldn't, because in eight minutes he was going to die. He swallowed, watching the seconds on the clock move down. "I... I'm sorry. Sorry I've been a dick to you for years. I can't even remember why I hate you, honestly, I just sort of have."

Vellis shrugged. "Whatever."

Castian cradled his arm, staring at the small hand of the clock as it counted away their last minutes. He wasn't even scared anymore. Just tired. So tired, and sick with an anger he'd never get to expel. "I wish Deric had told me all this," he muttered."

"I told you, he was looking after you." Vellis drew in a long breath. "You were his best friend." Did he sound bitter? It was hard to say.

Five minutes left. His head throbbed, and he felt the walls of panic trying to rise again. There was nothing he could do, and if Vellis wasn't going to freak out, he wasn't. Three minutes.

"What is the one thing you wish you could have done?" Castian asked suddenly. "One thing."

"Have a real life. Friends. Go work some dead end job that didn't involve shooting things. Fall in love. Drive a car," he laughed. "Is it weird that I just wish I'd been a teen who had a shit job? I don't even know what that would be. I don't even know what 'normal' people do. I don't even care."

"Hey, I said one thing." Vellis threw his ring at him. It bounced hard off of Castian's hand and rolled back to the other boy. "Ow."

One minute. He swallowed. "No, but I wish that too. I wish I could remember my parent. I wish I'd known them." He shrugged, feeling stupid. "I think... I really miss my mom sometimes, even though I don't remember her."

Vellis didn't look at him. Ten second. Castian took a shuddering breath.

"How much do you think this'll hurt?"

"A lot."

Four. Three. His stomach lurched over inside him. Two. Vellis was squeezing his arms around himself.

One.

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Well..... It looks rather like this is the end of the line for Castian.