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"Chris, do you realise we're breaking about five laws here?" I squeaked, eyeing him nervously as he kept his eyes fixed on the road while we drove. His jaw was clenched and his fists gripped the steering wheel. It looked as if his was trying his best not to crush it in his fist.
We had taken his parents car to get to the hospital. Chris's parents were not at home, so they would never notice. They had gone out for their anniversary dinner and had taken the other car.
I secretly wished they had taken this one. It was a red Civic, and it was relatively new. If there was so much as a scratch on it, we would get scalped, I was sure of it.
I was restless. All I could think about was Jess. Was she okay? My stomach felt as if it was lined with a thousand needles, all twisting into painful positions until I felt queasy. I leaned against the seatbelt, aimlessly staring at the fabric of my jeans, counting the little threads across my knee. I stopped when I got to fifty and stared out the window of the car, my head laden with apprehensive thoughts.
The city lights and colours melted into a blur of brilliant hues as the car made its way through the streets of Belfast, towards the city hospital. Afternoon shoppers shuffled from shop to shop, laden with carrier bags, reminding me of pack mules.
I sneaked a glance at Chris and then at the speedometer. Satisfied with the speed he was going, I sank back into the seat.
"Are you convinced that I'm not going to crash now?" Chris flicked the indicator on and it clicked rhythmically as he pulled into the hospital car park. He managed to find a space with plenty of room for the car to get in and out.
"Sorry," I said, in a small voice. "I will never doubt your driving abilities again." I had to admit, he drove like a person who had been doing it all his life. He went at a reasonable speed, and kept his eyes fixed on the road.
"Jess will be okay, April. Don't panic, she's a fighter." He reached for my hand and eyed me for a moment, and I looked into his eyes and admired the unique colour.
He squeezed my hand once, and then got out of the car. He walked around to my side as I unattached my seat belt, and opened the car door for me.
The hospital was what you would call a 'nice' hospital. The staff were friendly and accommodating, the floors were shiny and clean. The whole place stank of bleach, which I suppose is a good thing to prevent infections from being spread. But then again, is a place of sickness and death ever really all that nice?
We walked over to the receptionist. She was seated behind a light wooden desk, behind a computer screen. Her hair was pulled back into a blonde tidy knot, and she wore a white uniform. She greeted us with a kind smile, which I was sure had been practiced many times to comfort worried families of patients in some way.
"Hi, uh, we're here to see Jessica Carpenter?" Chris said to her, and she automatically began tapping the black keys on the computer keyboard.
She directed us to the ward, and we took the lift up a floor.
"It's somewhere near here..." I said as we walked up the neutral corridors, passing patients, nurses and doctors on the way.
We turned into ward D, and I couldn't help but gasp at the state of Jess.
She was lying in a bed, facing Danny who was holding one of her hands as he sat in a plastic chair. It was swathed in bandages. Her other arm looked bulky under the thin white sheets, and I realised it must be in a cast. Her face was covered with livid bruises, and I could see a purple ring around half her neck, which sent a shiver down my spine. It was in the perfect shape of a hand, like someone had...
My brain clunked a little. Like someone had choked her, I realised with a jolt.
Chris ran his hand up through his hair tousling it even more than usual. Then he ran it down his face, something he did when he was upset or annoyed.
Who would do this to her?
Danny looked up, and smiled slightly. He looked tired, I thought as we walked over to the bed.
Jess turned her head to us, wincing slightly as she did. "Hey," she croaked as we pulled seats up beside her.
I immediately felt teary. "Oh Jess, look at you," I said, thankful that the blur of tears blocked out her injuries. I felt Chris's cold touch as he entwined his fingers with my own, rubbing the top of my hand with his thumb comfortingly. I felt something similar to a spark of electricity when he touched my hand, and I thought to myself, 'Whoa, that's unusual."
"How are you feeling, Jess?" Chris asked.
"Been better," she admitted.
"They gave her morphine for her arm, so she's not in much pain," Danny said, still not taking his worried eyes away from her.
"What was that like?" Chris grinned.
"It was so cool, I felt like I was... completely out of it," she managed a grin.
I frowned slightly when I realised her parents were not here.
"Jess, where's your mum and dad?"
"They're coming; my mum went to the hospital shop to get me magazines and stuff. Dad went home to get me something more comfortable to sleep in." She wriggled in the bed slightly.
"What happened Jess? Do you know who did this to you?" I asked quietly.
"I didn't get a good look at him really... long black hair... pale." She shrugged, and I felt Chris start beside me.
I looked at him, and he had a look of pure shock on his face.
"Chris, what's wrong?"
"Nothing. Continue, Jess."
I eyed him curiously as Jess continued.
"He just... jumped me as I was walking to the corner shop from my house. It was so scary," she whimpered, and I felt so sorry for her. She was such a great person, I couldn't understand why someone would do this to her.
"He must have been hiding in the bushes. You know, just outside the forest?"
This time, I heard a loud crack. I jumped, and turned in the direction of the noise.
Chris now had a look of fear on his face. His other hand that didn't hold mine was gripped around the thick wooden arm rest, which had a massive crack snaking up it. I poked him on the arm when the chunk of wood broke off and clattered to the floor, and asked him what he was doing.
No way could a human do that. He had barely put any pressure on the arm rest and it had snapped like a twig. Something was clearly upsetting him.
Danny frowned. "What's wrong Chris? You look like you're about to be sick."
He merely shook his head slowly, and I could see he was trying his best to smooth out his expression. He cleared his throat, and squeezed my hand as reassurance that he was okay.
Before anyone could say anything else I heard the voice of Jess's little sister coming up the ward.
"Mum, do you think Chris will be there yet?" she was saying excitedly.
"I don't know, pet."
"'Cause it would be so awesome if he-"
We all turned and saw them enter the ward. Jess's mum smiled to us, and we saw a blur of brown hair as Heather ran to the bed.
She eyed Chris with bright, lovey dovey eyes, and I had to withstand giggling. She had a huge thing for Chris, and seemed to be oblivious to the fact she was making it very conspicuous.
"Hi Chris!" She looked at him for a few moments, grinning hugely, and then turned to me. Her eyes dropped to see my hand in Chris's own. She raised her head slowly to look me in the eye. Her brow was furrowed and she eyed me with jealousy.
"April," she said with a curt nod, before pulling up a seat beside Chris and asking how he was in a too-friendly manner.
The conversation fizzled out into quiet when Jess fell asleep. The ward was filled with orange light, and I could feel Chris's urge to leave before it got dark.
On the way home, I still couldn't control the tears that I had pushed back when I was in the ward. It was just so... brutal. Chris wasn't sure what to do with himself, he said some comforting things like, "They'll find whoever did this," and, "Jess will be up and going in no time."
I felt the car speed up as we neared our village.
"What's the hurry?"
He kept his speed the same, a little too fast for my liking. "Nearly sunset. I need to get you home before dark."
I sighed. "I really don't think you could be dangerous."
"You'd be surprised. You haven't seen the carnage my kind can cause if a human gets a little too freaked out or makes too much noise."
I was silent for a moment, but then I asked in a small voice, "What is it like for you at night? Is it difficult on you?"
He looked at me, his yellowish eyes opaque. "I isolate myself enough so that I never have the chance to find out."
"Where do you go?"
"The forest usually." He looked back to the road, surveying the sunset ahead of us nervously. The car crept up a few miles an hour.
I frowned. "Please don't go so fast."
"Do you want me to kill you?"
"I'll die either way at this rate," I retorted, but he didn't slow.
I made a hesitant noise, unsure if I should say what I was thinking. "Don't you ever get lonely? I could keep you company some time, " I said, going a little pink.
He smiled wryly. "Why would a girl like you want to keep a brain dead zombie company?"
"Because that brain dead zombie is really fun to be around. The girl misses him a lot. He tries to keep himself away from this girl. Even though it hurts her that he is so distant with her now."
Whoa, slow down April, I said to myself. Typical of me to pour my inner most thoughts out to him. But it was just so easy to be myself with him.
"Maybe the zombie is so scared of hurting her. So scared he'll not be able to control himself if things get out of hand."
"I wouldn't think so. I think that because he loves her, he could never ever hurt her like that."
The was stillness for a moment. Then I asked quietly, "Does he love her?"
His answer was immediate. "He loves her a lot. More than... anything else. She is very important to him." He unleased the full force of his eyes on me for a moment, before returning his gaze to the road.
"She loves him, too."
Suddenly, without warning, he slammed on the brakes and the car skidded to a halt with a severe jerk, while he cussed loudly.
"What the hell, Chris?" I said, irritated, wrestling with the seatbelt was choking me like a boa constrictor.
I stopped, and was very still. I knew what has happening. The sun had disappeared over the hill, like gravity had increased and pulled the sun down at extra speed.
I saw his whole body begin to shake with tremors as he leaned his forehead against the steering wheel, his eyes squeezed shut.
I got a vivid flashback of the night in the clearing, the night I nearly lost him.
I kept very quiet. So quiet, I could hear the blood pound in my ears. I screamed at my heart to stop beating so fast, I knew with every beat he would be pain.
His breathing came out in gasps, and his knuckles looked as if they were about to burst through his skin they were gripping the wheel so tight.
"April... get out... get out..." he was gasping, but every cell in my body refused to function. I wasn't frozen in fear, but I was unsure as to why I could not move.
And just as he had done in the clearing, he shook one last time and was still.
"Ah," he said quietly, opening his eyes, below which pale lavender shadows had formed. He turned to look at me, his beautiful tangerine irises glowing in the faint light.
It took me a while to realise I now looked into the true form of my best friend.
An amber eyed, pale faced, suddenly ravenous zombie.
And yet I could not find the fear that naturally should be freezing my body right now.
Instead I could only be amazed at the creature before me.
His wild eyes seemed torn with hunger, as his whole body shook, fighting his need to feed.
A voice appeared in the back of my head, screaming at me. "GET OUT OF THE CAR!" Common Sense yelled, as I slowly unbuckled the belt and reached my hand over to the door. His eyes darted to where my hand gripped the handle. The sound of, "GET OUT, GET OUT!" drowned out every other thought my mind had.
I felt a prickle of fear sending a shock from my head to my feet.
He inhaled sharply, and with one final shudder, he lunged out of the car seat, teeth aiming for my exposed throat like a puma pouncing on a frail little deer.
I screamed, pulling the handle down frantically and I tumbled out of the car, doing a backwards roll and landing on a grassy bank by the foot path.
I scrambled to my feet, staring in horror as Chris wrestled with his hunger to restrain himself. He had one hand gripped around the door frame of the car, and I saw indentations form under the strength of his crushing grip.
He heaved, but his hand was firmly clamped on the frame, so the whole car lurched to the side as he battled to regain control again.
And just like a thunderstorm, it was over in minutes. He collapsed onto the pavement, crumpling into a heap like he had been crushed by an unseen force.
