Chapter 1

One

Middlebury, Vermont cried tears of a warm summer's evening rain onto its streets as man named Vincent Gaiden walked the roads nearby his apartment for some fresh air. Occasionally, the dark sky would have flashes of lightning that would be followed by random cracks of thunder, a nice way to end the week with.

Work tonight was gruesome at the bar that his father, Kyle Gaiden, owned. He was almost killed for the fourth time that week by the same customer. His face sported a swollen, busted lip and a darkened left eye but it wasn't anything too serious. The apartment Vincent was walking to was within the vicinity of the downtown area about three miles away from work. He didn't like where it was but he couldn't complain either; it was a place that gave him a roof over his head, heat in the winter and cool air in the summer, a place to clean himself when he needed and a place he can call home.

Vincent had medium-length, dark brown hair that started sticking to his skin along with his clothes as the warm rain soaked him to the bone. He didn't wear a jacket. The air was warm just like the rain. Making it feel like you were taking a nice warm shower that soothes and drains away the aches and pains that accumulates throughout the day. This is the weather he loved, he also loved winter, but it was this kind of weather that was the best in his likes and dislikes.

When his apartment came into view he dug his hands into his pockets for his key his apartment was looking dark with it's natural red bricks, pale white window shutters and a pale white door that matched. When Vincent found his keys, he shoved the key into the handle of his front door, unlocking it as he turned the handle and shoved his body into the door, in this weather the wood swelled from humidity which made it harder to open and close the doors of his apartment. When he was inside, he heard some rustling in the dark. Confused, he turned the lights on but sadly, there was no one here so he closed his door with a heavy shove. Nothing had been moved from it's place or touched as far as he knew. But the rustling noise could be heard again and he focused on his moving curtains. Listening hard, he noticed that his air conditioner might have just kicked on and the curtains were rubbing against a stack of papers he left on his dining room table this morning.

Another heavy sigh escaped his lips as he closed and rubbed his eyes tiredly. Yes he was exhausted but he wasn't ready for bed just yet so he locked his door behind him before he went to his bedroom to get some dry clothes. He wanted to take a shower, a real shower, so he went to get his clothes. As he started walking towards his bathroom, his house phone rang loudly from it's cradle. Not knowing who would be calling this late at night, he went to see who was on the caller ID and just smirked, answering the phone and asked, "What is it Jake? Do you know it's almost midnight?"

"Yes I do know what time it is, I can't sleep like usual and was wondering if you wanted to hang out tomorrow morning for a little while." Jake laughed in the background. There was music a little too loud in the background with the bass way to high and knew Jake was telling the truth.

"When are you going to go get some sleeping pills Jake?"

"I can't take those Vince, you know that." Jake sighed heavily.

"Oh that's right, I forgot, sorry man."

"It's alright Vince. So are you open tomorrow before work?"

"Yea, just call around eight so I can wake up. My alarm clock broke last night and it won't keep time anymore. I'm about to jump into the shower before the weather makes it impossible."

"Ok, I'll call in the morning so be ready ok? I don't know what we're going to do exactly but we're going to do something."

"I know you'll come up with something. You're just like that." Vincent laughed as he walked over to the front windows and closed the curtains as he started undressing in his living room.

"Yep, well I'll let you go so you can get all clean and get some beauty sleep."

"I'm not a girl you know!"

"Well you do have the hips." Jake snickered into the phone.

"You don't have to rub it in!" Vincent nearly screamed in embarrassment, quickly taking his shirt off and leaving his boxers on as he went back to his bedroom.

"I know but it's so funny listening to you get frustrated."

"Talk to you tomorrow man."

"See ya."

And Vincent hung the phone up quickly, his friend could be a major pain sometimes but he loved the guy like his own brother sometimes. He threw the phone onto his bed and headed straight for his bathroom and turned the shower water on. His bathroom was small, but not too small. The walls were as white as a white bed sheet that's never been used but he added some color; hanging a picture of his dad and best friend on the wall along with some random flower decoration that he put together when he moved into the apartment.

While he waited for his water to get warm, he looked himself over in the mirror and noticed that he looked like he hadn't slept in weeks with the black circles underneath his dark green eyes. He also noticed he looked paler than usual. He also looked at his lip and might have to get stitches but he would put a pack of ice on it for a little while before he went to bed. But he didn't take it as something bad because he always noticed he looked pale after work. Rubbing his eyes lightly because of his left eye being bruised, black and now slightly swollen, he sighed again and climbed into the shower to let the warm water run over his body for a moment before he started to wash.

When he was done with his shower, he turned the water off and got out, shivering as the cool air hit his skin as he went to get his towel to dry off, his skin was slightly red from how hot he had the water. He still felt uneasy from the moment he walked into his home, something just didn't feel right with him. But he threw his clothes on and hung the wet fabric he wore on the way home onto the curtain rod before he departed from his bedroom, a blast of cold air from his room hitting him in the face, making his jaw and lip throb in pain but he ignored it.

He was a little hungry now, but he also wanted to go to bed so he went to the kitchen and got a glass of water, momentarily thinking about making a sandwich. After about a few more moments in the kitchen by the fridge, he started putting some food away before carrying a plate and a glass of water to the dining room table. He was going to take a couple pain killers before he went to bed and needed some form of food in his stomach before he took the Aspirin.

Out of paranoia, he checked all his windows. They all still had the screens tucked into the windows and they were still locked, he thought that the guy that tried to kill him at work was starting to stalk him. Just the thought of it made his spine crawl as he sat down and started eating.

"I'm tired, so that must be it." He said to himself between bites and looked through the mail he had sitting in a pile on his table. Sighing he threw the mail down and quickly finished his sandwich so he could take Aspirin and go to bed, being up early in the morning wasn't one of his things and it took a lot to wake him up so he decided to leave his phone by his head on his bedside table with the ringer volume all the way up as he went to bed after he washed his plate and glass.

. . . . . . . . .

When Vincent came to the next morning, the sun was shining through his dew speckled window and directly over his bed. Blinding him momentarily from his eyes not adjusting just yet. In the background, the house phone was blasting next to his head. Wanting to silence the phone quickly, he reached over to his bedside table and fumbled with the phone before pushing talk and bringing it to his ear.

"H-Hello?" He said groggily into the receiver.

"Get your ass out of bed, it's time for sleeping beauty to wake his ass up!" A male voice growled into his ear.

"Jake? What time is it?" He asked, rolling over to put his back to the sun.

"It's almost nine, I want inside and I've been trying to get a-hold of you for almost an hour!" Jake listed off in slight annoyance.

"Shit I'm sorry man, be at the door in a minute." Vincent rushed and scrambled out of bed. Almost falling out of bed as the sheets wrapped around one of his feet. Kicking the sheet off his foot he went to the front door and heaved it open.

"I didn't think I'd be getting a treat when I came over either." Jake smirked with one of his wide, toothy grins.

"Huh?"

"You're in your boxers mate." Jake almost laughed, then got real serious when he saw Vincent's face. "What in the fuck happened last night?"

"Oh, um."

"And don't lie to me like last time." Jake warned as he pushed his way into the apartment and slammed the door with his foot.

"Some customer at work slugged me last night." Jake was scary when he was mad. And right now he was beyond ticked.

"Are you fucking kidding me! Don't say that it's the same guy from earlier this week and last week!" Jake screamed in frustration. "No wait, don't answer that. I already know what the answer is. Go get dressed 'cause I'm taking you to the hospital, your lip looks like it got infected."

Vincent only nodded and rushed into his room. It was pointless to argue with Jake when he was like this. Throwing on a pair of jeans he yanked out of his dresser and throwing on a black t-shirt, hitting his lip some and causing the skin to break again and blood to drip from his lip and down his chin. He was in too much of a hurry to clean it up as he shoved his feet into socks and shoes then rushed back out of his room.

"Get your ass in the kitchen you klutz." Jake sighed and went to get a wet washcloth. "You just don't know how to keep yourself from getting hurt do you?"

"I can't help it! The dude at the bar last night keeps getting pissed off about something I'm supposedly doing wrong and just attacks me." Vincent defended.

"I also meant that you can't keep yourself from reopening wounds."

"Well I was in a hurry."

"I know, your lip is bleeding like a river."

"I hate my life." Vincent sighed heavily when he sat down at the table. "Sometimes I just wish I could d-"

"Don't you dare say what you're thinking about saying!"

Vincent was silent after that. He knew he was pushing the button with Jake the moment he thought about that subject. Jake never did really well when someone died, especially with those that were close to him.

The last person that died that was close to Jake, really close, was his mother. He pretty much snapped and went berserk. Nearly killed a few people himself until he was drugged and knocked unconscious.

"That's what I thought." Jake said and went to the table with the wet washcloth and started washing away the blood that started drying on Vincent's chin and neck. Being extra careful around his lip to keep it from bleeding anymore than it was and placed the washcloth on his lip. "Hold it there while we go to the hospital, keeps the blood from getting on your clothes even more."

Vincent nodded and they both got up. Jake went to get Vincent a new shirt to change into later as they both grabbed their keys and left.

. . . . . . . . .

"Why isn't Vincent answering his damn phone!" A man growled as he slammed the phone back onto its receiver.

Almost a few seconds later, his phone starts ringing and his caller ID didn't recognize the number. He almost thought of letting it go but picked it up anyway in case it was Vincent calling from a pay phone. "Hello?"

"Um, Kyle?" A male voice said.

"Jake! How did you get this number?" Kyle nearly barked through the phone.

"I g-got it from Vincent's phone . . . H-He's . . . " Jake forced through what seemed to be clenched teeth.

"Where's Vincent now?"

"At . . . At the hospital." Jake choked and then there was some shuffling in the background as another voice started speaking through the phone.

"This is Dr. Marion, we've had x-rays done on Vincent's face and it seems that his skull's fractured around his left eye. He's going to have to stay out of work for a while." Dr. Marion said quickly.

"Well alright, do you want me to pick him up or something?" He was going to be in the shits at work tonight.

"That would be wise, his friend here seems to be having a melt down because when they walked in, Vincent collapsed from blood loss. His busted lip was bleeding and couldn't stop."

"Yes, he has a clotting disorder. Jake never knew that." He sighed and searched for his keys. He was at home and was waiting for the call that Vincent promised him that afternoon to see if he was going to work or not.

"Well I got the bleeding to stop a little while after he passed out and managed to calm down his friend who thought that Vincent died from the blood loss."

"He's afraid of death, has been since he was little." Kyle explained. So that's why Jake was hyperventilating over the phone.

"I see, well I'll give the young lad his phone back, I'm going to go check up on Vincent." Dr. Marion said and handed Jake his phone back.

"S-Sorry Kyle. I tried t-to help him out . . . " Jake started choking again and almost broke into tears.

"Don't worry Jake, I'm on my way as soon as I find my keys." Kyle reassured.

"O-Ok." Jake said and the phone hung up.

Kyle sighed and hung his phone up just when he found his keys and marched for the door. Locking it as he left.