"Alan? Alan… are you okay?" Alice asked, the worry clear in her tone as she looked down at the boy that was sitting before her, whos expression had changed almost completely, his complexion turning slightly paler whilst a slight sheen of sweat could be seen on his forehead as he sat there.
'He… what must have happened? He's… acting similar to someone going through a post traumatic response. Just… what happened to you Alan?' Alice thought to herself, her hands on his shoulders were firm, not moving an inch, the only stable connection to the world that had seemed to start spinning for a moment.
'I thought that I had atleast gotten over it a bit but as it turns out… it's still just as bad as it was.' Alan thought to himself, as he took a long tired deep breath in before slowly releasing it out, his hands that had become fists on his legs slowly unclenching as he raised his chin and looked up at her.
"This.. I'm okay now, just sit down… I'll explain what happened." Alan said softly.
Alice seemed to want to reject for a moment, her worry still clear on her expression but after a second of thought she gave a nod of her head and then sat down on the bed besides him.
"Okay… take your time, I'll be here, I can be silent if you want or… talk. Whichever." Alice replied as she looked him directly in the eyes, the worry was still present in her, it was infact gnawing at her mind however at this moment, she was trying to be stable for him, to be a rock in his world that would not move, would not switch locations. Trying to be there for him actually instead of simply being there and making it about herself, about her worry.
Looking at her, Alan felt a different emotion slowly appear inside of him, an emotion that he could yet not categorize and neither could he reckognize, it was the first time in his albeit not that long life, that someone was looking at him and actually looking instead of simply saying that they were going to hear him out, instead of the usual where everyone simply pretended to actually be listening to the poor orphan boy. This was the first time in his life that someone was actually looking at him and listening to him, waiting for him.
*Gulp*
Taking an almost involuntary gulp after feeling his throat get tighter than it had ever before in his life, Alan looked back down at his own open palms on his knees for a few moments before looking up at her.
"There was someone or rather something… to tell the story, I guess I have to go back to what happened. The guys, they were acting a bit weird, one of them told me that they had this… weed and that it was the best thing any of them had ever had, that they were somehow smarter or better physically after they had well smoked it, and at the time, I had just started changing, so I was on the guard against anything that looked out of the normal… and I thought maybe by going with them to their house, I'd be able to y'know maybe find some clues." Alan said slowly, his voice tight as his hands started shaking slightly but he quickly gathered back his remaining mental force and tried to keep calm as he recounted.
"That… I don't think I've ever heard of magical plants before… but I'm guessing as you thought… the weed wasn't normal was it?" Alice asked softly, inquiring further about the story, clearly telling him that she was listening.
Alan hesitated for a moment before nodding, he was still unsure if he should tell her the entire story, still unsure if he should continue however he had already started, and at this point, he simply wanted to tell someone, anyone about what had happened to him.
'I'm already talking about it… I… there's no reason to hide it, maybe I can even get help from her or something… anything… but the reality is that I just want to talk to someone about it. I'm just trying to make excuses about finding a reason to actually do so.' Alan thought to himself, as he slowly realised his own intentions that he himself had been hiding from himself, from his own mind.
"No… It really wasn't some normal plant or weed… it it was much worse… so as I was saying, I headed with them afterschool, it was actually after you invited me somewhere but I told you no and that I already had plans made beforehand… that was the plan. And so I headed over there on their car, everything was normal for a while y'know, we were joking around in the car and and the girl… she was nice to me. We finally arrived there and… climbed up in this abandoned apartment that they had found or something and had made it as their small base of sorts… dumb teenage stuff and all." Alan said as the closer he got to what had been the first event, the harder his breathing grew, back then he hadn't been this bad emotionally, in fact even fighting Joanna hadn't made him react in this way… maybe it had been the adrenaline, maybe it had been something else at the moment however only now, was he actually feeling the brunt of it.
Taking another calm deep breath, Alan stopped for a moment, waiting for a few seconds to gather himself back together once more.
Alice didn't intervene, she didn't ask for what happened after, she simply waited whilst looking at him with those eyes that had turned completely amber now, they almost looked like they were glistening, as if the vampire could somehow shed tears at the sight of his own reaction to what had happened to him.
_____
Heres the chapter of the day.
If you wanna read ahead of public release then check out my Patreon at:
Patreon.com/WhiteAuthor