Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

I hungrily watched as Lucas opened the can of tomato soup. His fingers were a purplish color, from lack of circulation would be my guess. 

“Okay, Allison gets the first spoonful. Then Rat and than Stick. I’ll go last. I’ll hold the spoon so none of you try to go feral on it.” Luke said carefully as he dug our only spoon into the soup. We were sitting around in a circle, the can in the middle. 

“Why does she get to go first?! I’m the one who found the damn thing!” Rat exclaimed. His voice cracked a little, but he was too hungry to be embarrassed.

It kind of reminded me of how young Rat and Stick were compared to Lucas, who was twenty. Lucas had developed a mans body, a skinny one, but still a mans body. With his broad shoulders and somewhat fuzzy face. The other two boys were a little tall, but mostly looked like tweens, in my opinion. Of course, I could never bring myself to tell them that, it wasn’t their faults they had a hard time growing.

“Because she’s a girl, piss-stain.” Luke snapped, his poof-y black hair shaking while he talked.

That seemed to quiet Rat down, who just scoffed and rolled his eyes indifferently. I was surprised he had even told us about the soup he retrieved, especially considering his bully-like behavior these past few months. But all good things had to come to an end, and it seemed like Rat had already returned to his old self.

Lucas held out the spoon with a shaky hand, and I allowed him to put in my mouth. Tasting the cold, but deliciously salty sustenance. I immediately wanted more but knew I had to wait.

Next was Rat, who was practically vibrating with excitement. He let Luke do the same as he did to me, except he had a little more attitude about it. Once again rolling his eyes, probably at the prospect of having somebody spoon feed him. 

When Lucas got to Stick, the boy began to tweak out. Grabbing the utensil and shoving it into his mouth. 

“Jesus! Stick, let go of it!” Luke shouted as he wrestled it of Sticks hands. Stick looked down at himself in shame. “I’m real sorry, I’m just. So. Hungry.”

Rat let out a high pitched laugh, which sounded more like a manic giggle. “I guess you really do have some fight in you.”

Lucas was much less amused though. He closed the top of the Can and slid it under one of the dens arm chairs.

”We can have more of it tomorrow. We really need to ration it, so we each get one or two spoonfuls a day. Word on the street is that it’s going to be below freezing for the next couple of days, so we’ll be staying in the basement until it gets warmer. Now come on, let’s go to bed.” Luke explained while he pushed himself up. 

I kind of liked the idea of being stuck inside. Maybe Rat and Lucas would see me reading and want to learn, there wasn’t anything else they could do after all.

....

Stick was shivering next to me, I swear it was almost like his ribs were clinking together. Lucas was on the other side of me, and Rat was laying on the far left hand side of the mattress. We had brought down two scraggly twin mattresses and pushed them together. It’s not like we usually slept together, it’s just that there was only one comforter and Lucas didn’t want anybody dying from hypothermia. Many of the schools windows were broken, allowing the chill to come inside, but the basement didn’t have windows.

Even though I wasn’t thrilled at the prospect of having to share a bed when I’ve always had my own, there was something so comforting about laying next to my gang.

Chapter Text

“Ouch!” Jackal groaned. Kanin was pouring some water on his blood-child’s severely sunburnt back.

”Don’t start complaining about pain, you got yourself into this mess.” Kanin said, holding the same heartless expression he always did. I knew better than to fall for that facade, though. Our sire was worried about James, more worried then he had been in years.

”I know, it just hurts. And I’m hungry....” Jackal grumbled. We didn’t give him any blood, there was nothing to give. There wasn’t a human around for miles. Either me or Kanin would have to make a trip eventually.

”The water should cool it down.” Kanin replied as he patted the other mans arm. Jackals body began to shake a little, I was confused before I realized.... he was crying. Kanin must of realized too, because he leaned down and whispered something in James’s ear. My sire grabbed my blood brothers hand and sat on the floor next to the cot.

”Jeez, does it really hurt that badly?” I asked.

”Remember how I said I wouldn’t even wish this pain on my worst enemy?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, there’s your answer. It will be morning soon, I’ve already blocked off all the windows with some furniture. You should try to get some sleep, both of you.” Kanin said.

....

The next night, I woke up to Kanins voice.

”Careful- there you go.” 

I sat up and saw my sire pouring blood from a canteen into Jackals mouth, who was drinking quickly. He wasn’t able to sit up on his own, so Kanin had one arm around the back of his neck, holding him up right. Jackal still had some red tear stains down his cheeks from the previous night. 

“Where’d you get the blood from?” I pushed myself up and walked over to them.

”I went out this evening, while you two were still asleep.” Kanin explained, pulling the canteen away from Jackals lips. “You can have the rest later.”

”Why didn’t you wake me up?” I growled. I wanted to get back into the action, staying in this dirty cabin was NOT apart of the plan.

”I needed you to stay here in case your brother woke up and needed something.”

”Uh.” I groaned with attitude.

“Don’t ‘uh’ me. Once Jackal is better again we can all go out hunting. You can go hunting right now, if you want. I’m not going to stop you.” 

“But I don’t want to go by myself!” I protested, though, it was of no use.

”Stop your whining.” Jackal teased, wiping off blood that dribbled on his chin. 

I thought about bringing up his little episode, but decided against it. It’s easy to judge someone for crying when you’re not the one doing it.

Chapter Text

When Lucas got returned to the school in a huffy mood, I knew something was wrong. He didn’t even bother to say hello to me and Stick, just stormed up to his bedroom. I cautiously knocked on his door.

”Lucas?” I called out weakly, “Lucas, it’s me Allison. Can I come in?”

”Yeah.” Came the muffled reply. 

I stepped in, taking the sight of it all. Lucas was sitting sorrowfully on his dingy cot, head down and staring at the floor.

”Did something happen while you were out?” 

Luke nodded slowly with a grim expression before pulling up his sleeve. There was a long, dirty cut running along the back of his bicep. I gasped when I saw it. Living in the Fringe meant always assuming the worse of things. This could be more than just a scratch.

”I accidentally knicked myself. I was sprinting by a chain link fence and then....” Lucas’s voice trailed off and he signaled wordlessly to the wound.

”Well, it may not be infected, at least not yet anyways. If we wash it with some water it’d clean it up a bit.” I offered. Even though the cut was clearly on the brink of infection, I just couldn’t bring myself to tell Lucas he could potentially die.

”I already did wash it off in the river. This is the type of thing you need medicine for, Allison, not nasty water. So stop kidding yourself for me, okay? I know what’s coming....”

I just gulped and nodded, unsure of what to say.

”Where’s Rat?” Lucas asked. Anybody could see he wanted to change the subject. To stop talking about the inevitable. I had been to busy worrying about Lucas’s whereabouts that I had entirely forgotten about Rat. When I didn’t answer, Luke looked up to face me.

”Allison, where’s Rat? It’s going to be night time in like an hour.” Panic crossed his handsome features now.

”I don’t know, he ran off a couple of hours ago.” 

“I thought I explicitly told you guys to stay here. I’m going to go out looking for him.” Lucas looked angry now, pacing around the room.

”I’m not in control of what he does, if Rat wants to leave, I say let him. I honestly don’t really know why we should risk our lives-“

”Because I care about him! Same as you and Stick. We’re all a gang, all blood now, the four of us.” Lukes eyes were wide and deranged looking. “I’d rather be dead than leave my own behind!”

Allison backed away from the leader, he was acting crazy. Like some sort of wild man. Like a person being in the grapples of deaths hurting hand.