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We're the Has Beens of Husbands, Sharpening the Knives of Young Wives.
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I sat awake, drowsy, and tired. Gabe sat next to me, asking me random this or that questions.

"Gabe, please, I know your voice is sexy and all, but shut up for a second. Some of us actually sleep."

He smiled at me.

"Alright Sophie. Only for you though."

I dragged myself out of bed and headed into the kitchen for water. Joe was going through his
cell phone, watching videos that he was receiving from that Dirty guy, I assumed, and kept an eye on a sleeping Tegan. Something felt weird about that relationship. There was something that they weren't telling us.

"Hey." I mumbled.

"Hey." He replied.

I traveled back into the bedroom and jumped into bed.

"Why are you guys so big? Like once you turn into vampires, you become these big, hulking,
bloodsucking, demons?"

Gabe shrugged.

"No clue. And lay off the compliments, it might enlarge my already huge ego."

He rolled his eyes and I laughed.

"Do you guys have special powers or something?"

"Well, we have heightened senses. And sometimes, we can read minds. But that's totally relative to the vampire. For example, I can force certain people to do what I want." He winked at me.

"Ok, tiger. Save your powers for another day. I'm going to sleep."

I turned away from him, and put my head on the ratty pillow, and drifted off to sleep.



I woke up the next night to the loud sounds of arguing in the hall.

"It's Joe and Tegan. They've been at this for an hour. Go back to sleep."

The next time I woke up, Gabe wasn't in bed anymore and I was alone. I heard frantic voices in the kitchen.

"Joe, what happened?!"

"I don't know! I really don't! We were arguing and then she hit me! And then I don't remember what happened after that!"

I rubbed my eyes awake and wandered into the main room. I saw Joe and Gabe standing over someone on the floor. Joe seemed really shaken up and Gabe seemed horrified. As I came closer, I saw bloodstains on Joe's hands.

"Guys, what happened?" I asked with caution, almost too afraid to ask.

"Uhh, nothing." Gabe shooed me back. "Just go back to sleep. We're not moving anywhere today.
We got a problem."

"What? What problem?" I pushed past him.

"Sophie, don't! Come back!" Gabe called from behind me.

I looked at the figure on the ground, and I vaguely recognized it to be Tegan. She was covered in bandages, and she was as pale as the white walls. I didn't even know how to respond. Gabe hugged me and pulled me back into the bedroom.

"Gabe, what happened to her!?"

Gabe sighed.

"I don't really know. Remember how I told you to go back to sleep because Joe and Tegan were arguing?"

I nodded.

"Well, after that, Tegan left. Joe went to go bring her back, but I guess they got back into a fight, and Joe being unaware of how to control himself now, realized how hungry he was and attacked Tegan. You should've seen the sight when he came back. It was horrible."

"And what's the problem now? Why is she just lying there!? Why isn't anyone helping her?" I looked into his eyes for some kind of answer.

"We're deciding how to."

I was suddenly angry.

"What do you mean, you're deciding how to? I mean, she looks really hurt!"

Gabe got up and shook his head.

"Really hurt doesn't even begin to describe, Sophie." He looked at me, with some sadness.

"What do you mean?"

"She's dying, Sophie." He inhaled deeply. "When Joe attacked her, she lost a lot of blood. Now
we're just deciding whether or not she'll be able to get better on her own."

"And what's the other option?"

"Joe would have to turn her."

We sat in silence for a few minutes, and I got up, and stormed into the kitchen. Joe was sitting at the island.

"What the hell is wrong with you!" I shouted at him.

"Sophia-" Gabe grabbed my hand.

"No, Gabriel!" I took it back. "Joe, what the hell did you do to her!?"

"I don't know!" He couldn't stop looking at his hands.

"You don't know!?"

"Sophia, he's a new vampire, remember. They don't know how to control themselves when they're hungry."

I looked at Joe, and I felt like I could kill him.

"Oh, so I guess all Tegan is to you is a fucking midnight snack? You come here, preaching to Tegan about how terrible she is because she fucked you over when you guys were younger, and you guilt her out, and then you fucking eat her? She meant something to some of us, you asshole."
Joe looked up at me.

"Sophia, you have no idea of how much she meant to me. You really don't. You don't think that I hate myself right now?"

"No, I don't think so." I put my hands on my hips.

I saw Gabe from the corner of my eye, shocked. Joe didn't say a word for a while.

"You're a real piece of work." I tried to get him to say something, anything. "Tegan might have broken your non-existant heart, but you went and broke her fucking neck. Where the hell is the
justice in that, huh? I'm sure you'll feel really nice when you're fucking digging her grave-"

"Stop it Sophia!" Gabe grabbed me. "Stop it! We all liked her! Just stop arguing! Look where it got us!"

I stopped and looked over. Joe was looking at Tegan. Tegan was motionless on the floor still.

"I think we're going to have to go with plan B Gabe." Joe mumbled through his hands.

"Are you sure? We could let it wait another hour-"

"And risk losing her completely?"

I sat on the couch. This was just too much.

"The more time we spend thinking about this is time that she's dying." Joe looked at Gabe.

"Alright. This is a very delicate process. You could mess this up easily." Gabe picked Tegan up
and Joe cleared the island.

"Wait, wait, what? Me? I have to do this?!" Joe's face seemed blown away.

"Yeah, once you bite her, you have to 'finish the job' so to speak. Your venom's in there already."

"What? You're going to let that idiot bite her again?!" I jumped up.

"Sophie, please." Gabe shushed me.

As much as I loved- I mean, liked Gabe, I didn't appreciate being ordered around. I folded my arms as Gabe closed his eyes and tried to remember how to change someone.

"I really don't know how much venom is supposed to be injected."

"But Gabe, how will I know when to stop? I don't want to kill her!"

I watched Joe and Gabe argue back and forth.

"Joe, just stop when you feel you should. You have to resist sucking her blood though, which might be hard for you."

"Just do it!" I shouted.

Joe looked at Tegan and grabbed her wrist. I looked away for a bit and Gabe came over and sat next to me.

"Sophie, you need to be especially quiet now. In this kind of moment, where anything could go
wrong, Joe can't have any distractions."

Gabe hugged me protectively and Joe had a pained look on his face, as he remained attached to Tegan's wrist.

"I'd never put you through this. I'd never hurt you." Gabe whispered to me.

The apartment was relatively quiet now, which was quite different from the yelling and screaming before.

"Now what?" Joe seemed weak.

Gabe left my arms and got up with a bandage. He wrapped up the puncture wounds and all of the open scratches on Tegan's body.

"I think that this is the most crucial part. This is when we find out if her body rejects it or not. I mean, if she's too far gone, then this was useless."

"Why don't I remember that?" Joe squinted, trying to think back.

"Because you were sleeping. You were still alive. Barely, but still. Usually living humans that are turned into vampires sleep during their adjusting period. Dead or dying humans usually shut down their body for this."

I smiled, proud that Gabe knew what he was doing. He was very astute.

"Where did you learn this?"

He looked over at me, also smiling.

"I was with Patrick when he was researching the whole process. Me and Pete were the observations. I'll explain to you how I was turned. Joe, you better sit, people tend to lose a lot of energy doing this." Gabe motioned towards the chair.

"Now Sophie, I was turned into a vampire by Pete, actually, but it was because we got into a fight with Beckett, and I was dying. Like in a Tegan kind of way. But Pete turned me, and saved me."

I nodded at him. I was so distracted. I saw something moving out of the corner of my eye.

"Guys, she's moving!"

Gabe and I rushed over to the counter and stared at the writhing figure on the counter.

"Is it working?!" I looked at Gabe.

"I think so. Usually they don't move ever again if it doesn't work."

Tegan's pale skin never regained color, but she did stop convulsing. I held my breath as we waited for some sign that she was alright.

"Tegan?" Joe got up and came over.

He nudged her. I looked at Gabe who was watching intently.

"Tegan, you there?" Joe nudged her again.

He looked up at me and Gabe. He looked heartbroken.

"What happened to her? What did I do wrong?"

"We did everything correctly Joe." Gabe frowned. "Maybe it just wasn't enough."

He put his hand on Joe's shoulder.

"So are you saying she's dead?" I looked at Gabe with doubt.

Tegan stayed still on the cold countertop. How would we explain this to Pete? How would Joe take this? How would we move on?

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