MV: Second Feeding

"Andy?" 

He came back out of the emptiness slowly, and found that he was still in the hospital bed, still on his back. It should have been miserably uncomfortable -- he must have gone hours without rolling over -- but apparently now that he was dead, his body didn't care. His restraints were still in place, of course. 

When he blinked and opened his eyes, Carol had returned. With her was a dark-skinned young man with black hair buzzed close to his head, and features that -- upon reflection -- were probably middle-eastern. "Oh," he said. "You're back. Hi."

"Andy, this is Gautam."

Gautam looked nervous, his shock just starting to shade over into terror. 

"Hi," Andy said again, looking at Gautam. "It's okay. I'm tied down; I can't hurt you."

"You... you can talk?" Gautam swallowed. He was young, probably close to Andy's age. "I mean, of course you... What...?"

Carol said, "Andy is what we call a wight. He looks the way he does right now because he hasn't fed enough to change it. Your job here is to give him just enough energy to help him along."

"...And that's going to knock ten hours off of my community service." Gautam swallowed. "Not lying, I was kind of hoping for a vampire girl, maybe even a succubus."

Carol shook her head and sighed. "Look, I won't force you to do this if you don't want to. But if you want to get your hours out of the way, this is a quick way to get it done."

Gautam hesitated, then turned to look at Carol. "And he won't kill me, or turn me into... that?" 

"Scout's honor," said Andy, though he'd quit the Boy Scouts in eighth grade.

"Well... okay. What do I have to do?" 

"Put your hand in his," Carol said matter-of-factly, "let him drain you for a minute, and then you get to walk out with ten hours off your sentence."

"Wait," said Andy. "He's nervous, and if we're being honest I am too. It seems like it's easiest for me to feed through the palms of my hands, but is that the only way? If I'm supposed to be working on control, maybe he could put his hand on my forehead or something. I could try feeding that way, and I wouldn't be able to grab his hand -- he could pull back any time."

Carol considered that. "All right. That's not... I mean, that's not usual, and it might not work, but we can try it."

Gautam looked relieved, but still approached the bed with slow, cautious footsteps. Andy stayed very, very still as the other boy stopped beside him. "Thanks, man. How long've you been like this?"

"Not sure," Andy told him. "A couple of days, I think."

"Sucks for you," Gautam said, but there was genuine sympathy in his voice. "All right. No more stalling. I'm doing this."

Andy took hold of his hunger, but this time it didn't surge at the touch of a living hand. Come to think of it, it hadn't when Carol had put a hand on his shoulder earlier, either. Interesting. He reached out with it, found the connection to Gautam's hand, and let it pull in a little of... he wasn't sure. Heat? Glow? Life? He kept it slow, controlled. 

"Ah. Cold," said Gautam, but he kept his hand in place. 

The beast stirred in the back of Andy's mind, but this time it was content to sit and watch. This wasn't the kind of feeding it knew, but it still recognized it as feeding. Better... It was easier this time, or maybe it was just easier this way. 

"That's enough," Carol said gently.  

"Okay, I'm going to try to stop now," Andy said. "Pull your hand away if I can't."

He pulled the hunger back, and Gautam removed his hand. "Huh," he said. "All right, that wasn't too bad. Not like I was expecting."

"Right, well, good luck," Andy told him. "And thanks."

Gautam hesitated. "Yeah, you too."