Pretty Boy: The Lost Chapters

Deleted: The Slip Up

Trigger Warning: knife injury, blood

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Note: I know in the main story of Pretty Boy, it wasn't common for Marshall to truly struggle with his thirst despite having such a strong, and sometimes burdening, sense of smell. He was portrayed as having excellent control, but I'd always considered adding in a chapter where Marshall wasn't so perfect in terms of holding himself back. Especially if he was feeling more thirsty than what was considered normal.

Timeline wise, this chapter and the next one both take place before "A Frightening Display". Both parts will also give some more backstory on how Marshall's first interactions with Leah were like since I never went into those with much detail. 

The trigger warning is there for a brief scene where Paul gets a pretty minor injury, but I'm putting it just in case it's a bit much to read because the wound is inflicted on him by someone else The scene isn't necessarily gory, but I'd rather be careful. Just in case!

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Emily was humming to a song playing from the speaker beside her. She just finished prepping a pan with some butter and garlic, leaving it to sit at low heat. Her hands were now busy with slicing up a thick slab of uncooked steak for a nice, simple stir fry. Partially seasoned asparagus was in a bowl to her left, waiting to be added to the pan once she was ready.

Marshall stood silently. His arms were folded over his chest. His legs were crossed at the ankles with his body propped against the counter behind him.

Black eyes stared at red droplets being smeared against a wooden cutting board.

After following the pattern of a blade running back and forth a few times, trembling fingers were brought up to gently massage a stubborn, uncomfortable sting in his throat.

He was so thirsty.

Marshall blamed himself for not making a window of opportunity to hunt sooner.

He'd been working overtime to help out other dancers who were struggling with new routines. He did more charity functions with the choir group too; both because he liked raising funds for those in need, and because he liked to be present whenever the Forks Musical Theater employees got more deserved recognition from the public.

He was also hanging out with Brad more—frequenting museums, upscale restaurants, comedy shows, symphonic concerts—since Yasmine was out of town for work again. With fun outings usually ending late in the evening, he started spending more nights at the shared Lahote house as well, making it difficult for anyone to leave for substantial periods of time unnoticed.

On top of that, with two new members having joined the Uley pack recently, it was pretty common for Marshall to busy himself by hanging out with Seth too. They saw a lot of musicals together, and, like with Brad, they went out for dinner multiple times a week. It was more so to escape a rather hostile environment brought about by Leah than it was to simply enjoy a night on the town.

Even though all of those plans were joyful in the moment, hindsight made Marshall feel like an idiot for pushing off his own need to consume what his body desperately craved.

It'd been three- no...four weeks since his last meal. It was normal for him to feed every one or two, so it was safe to assume he wasn't in the best state at the moment.

He could practically feel his undereye bags weighing down his face, making it appear slightly more sunken. Longer strands of wavy hair were flying in multiple directions with how much he'd been running his hands through them out of genuine frustration. His jaw clenched whenever the urge to bite hit him more fiercely than others.