Monsters

Nightmare

Bram wasn't sure how long he wandered aimlessly around the forest.

At some point he became aware of the intensity of the sun overhead, and his reaction to that was to simply hiss and go more into the shadows.

Fucking sun with its stupid fucking light.

How could anything be so bright and shining? His world was falling apart. His identity was crumbling. And he couldn't even talk about it to his best friend.

"My life is fucked," Bram growled, resting against the tree. He had the urge to bash his head against it but managed to resist. It wouldn't help anything.

"Braaaam!"

His head jerked around, hearing Kirg's voice calling for him.

He turned to go the opposite way, but Ishka screamed, "KIRG! ASHER'S GONE!"

"Shit! BRAAAAAM!" Kirg called again, his voice sounding frantic.

Bram's heart stuttered. Gone? 

"I'm over here!" Bram called out, jogging toward his brother.

He got in eyesight and saw Kirg's shoulders relax, "There you are! Wait, Asher's not with you?"

Bram shook his head.

Ishka jogged up next to Kirg, "Did you have a fight or something?"

"Something like that. Asher's...Asher's a girl," Bram admitted.

Both Kirg and Ishka looked shell-shocked, so apparently he wasn't the only one that hadn't known.

"What?" Kirg wondered. "How's that possible?"

"I don't know!" Bram yelled, running a hand through his hair; he could feel his hand shaking. "I put my hand down his pants--her pants. Wayden, this so fucked up! I'm in love with a girl."

"Stop being an asshole, you idiot!" Ishka surprised him by yelling. "What happened?! Where's Asher?!"

"I--I left," Bram admitted, his eyes moving quickly, unseeingly, as he remembered the previous encounter. "I couldn't stand looking at her, and I ran away so I wouldn't throw up in the cave. I had to get away--"

Ishka gasped, and her eyes filled with tears, "Poor Asher."

"Poor Asher! Do you have any idea--"

"Yes, poor Asher!" Ishka yelled, her tears drying and anger taking their place. "He bared himself to you, and you rejected him!"

"He's not a him!" Bram roared, hands flying into the air. "Asher's a girl!"

"Asher's in love with you, trusted you to love him, and you rejected him when he was at his most vulnerable. You stay here and stew, I'm going to go look for him."

Ishka marched away, her tail vibrating with anger.

"You understand, don't you?" Bram begged Kirg.

Kirg nodded slowly, but he looked sad, "Yeah, I do, Bram, but Ishka's right too. As hard as this is for you, imagine how Asher must be feeling."

"Like a liar?!" Bram hissed.

Kirg shook his head and turned away, "I'm going to help Ishka look for him. He's still my brother."

"Your sister," Bram muttered under his breath, kicking a rock. Then he turned around and punched a hole through a dead tree, enjoying the way the bark bit into his knuckles and his bones jolted with the impact.

At least the pain was real.

***

It was nearly dark when Bram made his way towards the barrier, having found the cave completely empty.

When he was close to it, he stopped.

At the edge of the barrier stood a familiar brow-haired figure holding a bag full of clothes.

As Bram watched from the woods, a beat-up old car pulled to a stop in front of the barrier, and a large, blonde-haired Vampire male stepped out of the driver's side.

"Asher?" the strange Vamp called.

Asher ran through the barrier and threw his--her?--arms around the other guy, sobbing into his shoulder, "Fallon!"

Anger and jealousy twisted Bram's gut. It caused him to march out of the woods and through the barrier.

"So, this is Fallon," Bram called out.

Asher jerked out of Fallon's arms, and his--her--eyes filled with tears. "Go home, Bram."

Fallon's jaw set, and he quickly sped over and punched Bram, hard, in the face.

"What the hell?!" Bram demanded, reaching up to hold his chin.

"You're such a dick!" Fallon roared, and his fair skin was red with anger.

"She lied to me! Why are you acting like she's the victim?"

"No he didn't! He told you, years ago, that he had female parts."

"No he-she didn't!"

"Functionally female, remember?" Asher said, voice devoid of emotion. His--her eyes swam with it, though: hurt, humiliation, fear, anger.

It was a punch to Bram's gut, one he felt more viscerally than the hit he'd just had to his jaw. Suddenly did remember those words, and he also remembered Asher's comment from earlier that day about pretending.

"But I thought--you said--" Bram ran a shaking hand through his hair again.

Fallon shook his head, still livid, "I never should have pushed him to tell you anything. You don't deserve him."

"And you do?!" Bram demanded, jealousy suddenly replacing the feelings of betrayal. "Was this the plan all along--you arriving like a white knight to take him from me?!"

Fallon paused, cocking his head to the side. Then he folded his arms, "So what if it was? Asher has female parts, and you can't stand that, can you? So what does it matter if I want him?"

Bram gulped, his chest heaving with emotion, his brain not quite able to make sense of what was happening.

"Fallon," Asher called, "let's just go."

"Go?" Bram repeated, taking in the bag of clothes and the open car door. New dread danced through his body.

"Yeah, Asher's going to stay with me and Ares for a while. As long as he needs to," Fallon said pointedly. "Go ahead, Asher. I'll be there in just a second."

Asher nodded, and slipped into the car.

She trusted that blonde snake? Bram looked him up and down, instantly pegging as a womanizer. Manizer? Whatever he was, he looked like the type that would take advantage of somebody vulnerable.

Bram stalked forward and grabbed Fallon's arm, "Don't you dare hurt Asher."

Fallon glared, easily pulling out of Bram's grip. "I don't think I can hurt him any worse than you already have. I'm a Fantasy, but sometimes a person's fantasy scares them worse than anything. You've always been his fantasy...and today was his nightmare, the one thing he was terrified of more than anything else--being rejected by you. Good work, lover boy."

Bram's stomach sank, and his eyes jumped to where Asher sat, eyes closed, forehead against the window.

He took in the tear tracks that ran down his face, the way he was gripping the seatbelt so tightly his knuckles were white.

"Ash," Bram whispered, only beginning to realize that he hadn't been the only one hurt by the events of that day.

"And you know the worst part?" Fallon called from the side of his car. "Asher didn't think he could even chance being in a relationship because you're gay. And my dumbass told him that if you loved him it wouldn't matter."

The car door slammed, and a second later Asher was speeding away.

With another man.

Bram fell to his knees for the second time that day and screamed at the sky.