Ben stared down at Callum’s writhing form and was grateful for every boom of deafening thunder that drowned him out.

“That wasn’t a rhetorical question, what have you done?” he demanded turning to Jess.

Jess had eyes only for her ex-boyfriend and even when she spoke she refused to look away. It was clear that she wanted to enjoy every moment of his anguish. “Turning into a vampire was the most excruciating thing I’ve ever gone through. I wanted him to feel that pain,” her voice was hard and devoid of any notion of the consequences of her actions.

Ben ground his teeth together and stomped across the clearing until he was standing directly in front of her. “And then what?”

Her eyes flicked up to his, annoyed that she was missing the show she’d prepared. “I don’t know.” The noncommital shrug was almost enough to tip Ben right over the edge.

“Are you serious? You don’t know! You did this without thinking! How could you be so stupid as to not consider the ramifications of your actions?” he bellowed, his words punctuated perfectly by two tremendous claps of thunder, one before and one after.

“I’m so sorry, Dad. Or should I call you master?” she retorted.

“Fuck off,” he muttered turning away from her. Nobody had warned him how troublesome creating a fledgling vampire would be. He’d never wanted children because he knew he’d resent having to take on the responsibility and yet here he was apparently taking on such a burden all the same.

Between Callum’s screaming and the howling roar of the storm, it was impossible to think properly. The storm was something of a blessing because it drowned up the wailing of the newly turning vampire.

Maybe the night could provide a second blessing. Callum might give in to the pain. He might yet surrender and take death rather than eternal life. It was the same choice that Ben and Jess had been given, but Callum seemed like he was made of weaker stuff.

Ben trudged over to a wide-trunked tree and sat down at its base. The tangle of thick branches overhead provided some shelter from the rain and so there he sat and watched as Callum went through his ordeal.

Jess glanced his way, her brow furrowed in confusion. “You’re just going to sit there?”

“Instead of what?” He bared his palms to the dark sky. “I can’t clean up your mess until the transformation is finished. Moving him now would only draw attention. We’re going to have to stay here and hope the storm lasts for as long as he does, and you’d better hope he doesn’t survive this.”

Jess swallowed hard and even with the storm raging Ben heard it. Her gaze lost some of its icy fortitude as it drifted back to Callum and her face sagged with regret. Ben’s anger melted as he watched her sink down to the floor where she sat and watched Callum.

“I shouldn’t have been so harsh on you,” Ben admitted, it was the closest thing to an apology that he was willing to give. She had monumentally messed up after all.

Sitting cross-legged, Jess picked at the tufts of dead grass in front of her. “I fucked up,” she said, tossing the grass away from her.

“It doesn’t matter. You’re a brand new vampire. I should never have left you here alone with somebody who had hurt you so badly. Obviously you were going to do something big. I’ll admit I am impressed by your creativity. I never would have thought of this.” Ben agreed that the transformation was the most painful experience he’d ever endured and he would never in a million years have thought to use it as a punishment on somebody. To him, the gift of vampirism was nothing less than a blessing, but Jess had managed to look at the route to such a reward as something else entirely.

“That’s because you’re smart enough to have known it was a stupid idea.”

“Stop trying to flatter me. I’m still annoyed with you,” although his voice conveyed none of that irritation anymore.

Jess ripped out another tuft of grass and flung it at Callum who was in too much agony to notice. “I’m sorry,” she said.

Ben smiled in what he hoped was reassurance. “It’s fine. I’ve fucked up plenty since becoming a vampire and we’re both going to fuck up a lot more before we’re wise. Just, for the love of God, promise me that you won’t ever try to top this.”

Jess chuckled and the sound was so warm that it made Ben forget about Callum for all of a millisecond. “I promise.”

Where Jess’ transformation had been short, Callum’s was long. All night it lasted. Even the storm tired and went to rest and still Callum cried. His throat was ripped raw so he wasn’t even able to scream anymore. He lay on the ground whimpering and crying and begging for the end. Strangely, he did not give in and yield to death who was waiting in the wings to claim him. Ben would have admired his resilience if it hadn’t been such a massive inconvenience.

The first hints of light had made their appearance in the sky when finally Callum fell quiet. The drenched sweaty mess could have been mistaken for dead was it not for the movements of his chest with every shaking breath he took.

“He survived,” Ben said, not bothering to conceal his disappointment.

“So now what do we do?” asked Jess. She had the good sense to look sheepish. The consequences of her viciousness had finally caught up with her.

“We clean up your mess. We need to get him hidden. We’ll have to take him home and get Rik to trap him with a spell until tomorrow night. The sun will be rising soon so we’re pretty much out of time.

Ben grabbed Callum by the collar and hauled him up off the floor. “I know you feel like shit but you need to get moving. You’re coming home with us for now.”

As soon as Ben let go of him Callum flopped back to the floor.

“I wasn’t this pathetic,” said Jess, quite rightly. She’d walked herself to her first feed. As Ben had surmised earlier, Callum was made of weaker stuff; not weak enough to die however.

Ben gave Callum a gentle kick in the ribs to get his attention. “Get up and start moving or I will kill you right here.”

That seemed to get through to him and the boy pushed his hands into the dirt and battled to his feet. He swayed and staggered but he did just about manage to remain upright.

“Good. Everybody follow me,” said Ben and then strode off back in the direction of his car. Ben had trudged several feet across the sodden grass outside the woods when he heard Jess’ call.

“Ben!”

He turned back and saw her standing at the treeline with Callum. The boy was staring at the edge of the woods like there was some malignant being standing directly in front of him.

“I can’t,” he mumbled.

“What do you mean you can’t?” Ben asked, striding back to the woods.

“I can’t leave.”

“Of course you can. It’s literally one step. Stop being so stupid.” Ben reached out for him and Callum backed up so fast that he fell over and plummeted into the wet mud.

“Didn’t I warn you of what would happen?” Ben asked.

“You mesmerised him not to leave the woods,” said Jess.

“Yes, but surely that wore off when he turned,” said Ben.

“Do you know that for a fact or is it just an assumption?” she countered.

If mesmerisations still held even after becoming a vampire then that held all sorts of worrisome implications. Vampires all over the world could still be acting on unknown commands. He might even have been mesmerised himself before he’d been turned. He didn’t think he had been but if the vampire had made him forget then how would he know? Could vampires still be mesmerised even after being turned? Maybe Ben had been under the influence of another vampire for the last two months.

“Earth to Ben?” Jess said, waving a hand in his face and dragging him out of the rising tide of irrational paranoia.

“Sorry, I got lost in my thoughts there,” he admitted. Once again he’d been sucked into a whirlpool of ridiculous overthinking. “Hopefully I can lift the mesmerisation.”

Ben stepped in front of Callum who was back on his feet and having a great deal of trouble simply standing upright. There was no way they would be able to take him home without finding him some blood first; in his current state he probably wouldn’t survive the day.

Ben grabbed the boy’s chin and held his head firmly in place. “Forget all the other commands I gave you and follow any new orders I give you,” he said, being careful to make sure Callum still did as he was told.

Releasing Callum, Ben stepped back. “Come out of the woods.”

On wobbly legs, Callum stepped over the tree line without issue. Jess sighed with relief.

“Good. Now follow me and do not try to run.”

The sky was no longer black. The sun, though not yet visible on the horizon, had already added a touch of blue. There was still time to feed Callum and then get him locked safely away. The only issue would be finding somebody who was still out at such an hour.

Ben trawled the streets with his fledgling and his prisoner. Every corner of the town seemed to be deserted and he was seriously considering forcing Callum to tuck into a rat.

“Wouldn’t it be better to leave him weak like this? Realistically he’d be less likely to escape,” said Jess.

“Yes, realistically that is true,” Ben said as he turned down an alleyway. Maybe he’d come across a passed-out drunk guy who hadn’t quite made it home. “But considering his current state he might just die in his sleep. Do you want to risk that?” Ben didn’t care if Callum survived in the least, he had not turned him and his conscience would remain clear, but he did not want Jess to live with the guilt of killing her ex-boyfriend. The fact that she had wanted revenge on Callum in the first place proved that there were still some lingering feelings for the boy, love or hate it didn’t matter, what mattered was that she had not yet had closure from their past relationship and murdering him was unlikely to bring that closure.

“No,” Jess said in a hushed groan, regret plastered all over her face.

Ben stopped and turned back to face her. “I’m not trying to make you feel bad. We just don’t have the luxury of time,” he explained.

She nodded. “I know. I do feel bad though.”

He tried to give her a reassuring smile but the stress of the situation likely robbed all comfort from the expression. “Feel bad later when we have time for it,” he joked and managed to draw out a small smile from her.

A groan sounded and it didn’t come from Callum who was slumped against the wall with his eyes drooping shut. It had come from behind the nearby dumpster. Finally.

Ben grabbed Callum by the shirt and led him around the dumpster to where the groan had come from. Wrapped up in a tattered green coat with his legs covered by a child’s sleeping back was a filthy homeless man. A tangle of matted grey hair concealed his face and his matching beard was peppered with bits of old food.

“A fitting first meal for a scumbag like you,” Ben said before flinging Callum down on top of the man. “Tuck in.”

The tramp’s eyes opened lethargically and his head twisted to look at the boy who had woken him from his nap. He was too sluggish to stop Callum who had already been hypnotised by the allure of the tramp’s pulse.

The tramp gasped as Callum pushed his gross hair out of the way and bit down into his neck.

“I feel sorry of the homeless guy,” Jess said looking on with her mouth down-turned.

The tramp started to struggle and Callum wrapped his arms around him, holding him still and clinging on like a limpet.

“Don’t worry, I won’t let him kill him. Call an ambulance for him now and by the time it arrives we’ll be long gone. This will probably work out pretty well for him, he’ll get to spend the day in a warm hospital bed and might even get a hot meal.”

Ben listened to the tramp’s slowing heart as he glanced up at the sky which had now taken on a shade of blue that was too close to navy to be ignored.

“They’re on their way,” Jess said sliding her phone into her back pocket.

“Then let’s get out of here. That’s enough, Callum, let him go.” Callum continued sucking the life out of the bum as though Ben hadn’t even spoken. The hooks of ecstasy had taken hold and were blocking everything else out, Ben remembered that feeling well enough from his early days as a vampire.

Judging by the slowing heartbeat of the apparently delicious bum, he didn’t have long left.

“Bloody baby vampires,” Ben grumbled as if he hadn’t been a vampire for all of a couple of months. He grabbed Callum by the shoulder and ripped him away from his meal. He flung the new vampire behind him as he fell to one knee to check on the victim.

The wound was fairly clean, unlike Jess’ first attempt, but the pulse was barely existent. If he had any chance of surviving the ambulance needed to be here in the next few minutes.

“Ben!” Jess shouted and Ben whipped his head around. He was about to ask what the problem was when he saw it for himself. Callum was gone.

“Where’d he go?”

“He just ran off.” She pointed down the alleyway.

“I ordered him not to run,” Ben said dumbly.

“Clearly mesmerisation doesn’t have the same effect on vampires.”

Ben took off after Callum with Jess right behind him. They searched every nearby street but there was no sign of the kid. With a full belly and the new gift of super-speed, Callum was smoke in the wind.

“What now?” Jess asked, the panic all too audible in her voice.

Ben shook his head, staring up at the burning sun that now had finally graced the town with its blazing presence.

“There’s nothing we can do. We’ll have to go home and hope for the best. He has the same weaknesses we do, so he won’t get far during the day. We’ll find him tonight.”

All the way home all Ben could think about was the new vampire who was free in the town. Callum could cause all kinds of trouble before Ben was able to catch up with him again. Ben knew how unlikely it was that they would find Callum before he’d managed to bring them a whole new headache. Even in the daytime, he could get himself into some mischief. Ben hoped that Callum would have the good sense to lie low until sunset.

If Callum was smart and stayed under the radar then it would be almost impossible to find him, on the other hand, if he was careless he’d be easier to find, but he’d also provide Ben with yet another mess to clean up, and might even inadvertently expose the vampire race. Ben was fucked which way things went.

As Ben was fishing his keys out of his pocket he heard somebody stomping up the wooden steps behind him. Turning he saw Erin’s blood-splattered face appear as she stepped onto the boardwalk.

“Who’s that?” Jess asked, staring dumbly at the red-haired vampire.

“That’s my maker.” Internally Ben was groaning as he wondered whose blood was decorating Erin’s face.

“She looks familiar,” Jess said.

“She popped round when you were becoming a vampire.”

“Don’t remember that,” Jess said.

Ben swung open the apartment door. Now was not the time for Jess to meet a vampire like Erin. Ben had enough trouble to deal with. “Go inside. I need to talk to her privately.”

Jess looked like she was about to argue but then thought better of it. She’d made a nuisance of herself quite enough for one night. “Good night then. Or Good morning,” she said as he entered the apartment. Ben pulled the door closed behind her.

“Crawling home late as well eh, Benny?” Erin said as she approached.

“Whose blood is that?” Ben asked, dreading the answer.

“I didn’t catch their name. Don’t worry though, I didn’t attack any of Darius’s vampires yet.” She gave his shoulder a little squeeze as she walked past him. Her assurances did not completely soothe his worries.

“So who did you attack?”

“Some human. He was being a dick at a bar so I had some fun with him. I dragged the hunt out and didn’t bother mesmerising him. When you come across real vermin it’s fun to hunt them in the true fashion. You should try it sometime if you haven’t already,” she explained.

She unlocked her apartment and pushed open the door, eager to get out of the light of the rising sun. Her mention of mesmerisation reminded Ben of the bizarre happening with Callum in the woods.

“If you mesmerise someone and then turn them into a vampire does the mesmerisation usually hold?” he asked.

Her eyes glinted wickedly and she let out a low cackle. “Oh, you’ve come up against that little problem. Having some issues with the young lady? I did think she was a peculiar choice.”

Ben shook his head, assuming that she thought Jess was too young to have been turned and not wanting to explain himself. That conversation had been tedious enough with Rik. “Not her. We accidentally turned somebody into a vampire but beforehand I’d mesmerised him not to leave the woods and even after he’d turned he still couldn’t leave the woods.”

Ben’s neck started to prickle and itch under the sun’s rays. He needed to get inside soon.

“Yes, that’s how it works. Mesmerisation holds after turning. You need the same vampire to remove the mesmerisation or someone stronger,” she rattled the explanation off with intense boredom.

“I lifted the mesmerisation but then I told him not to run away and he still did.”

Erin laughed again and Ben clenched his fists in annoyance. If she’d just trained him properly then he wouldn’t run into confusing incidents like this.

“You can’t mesmerise vampires. You can lift existing mesmerisations but you can’t make new ones. I have heard of some vampires being able to mesmerise other vampires but it’s rare. We’re talking ancient, millennia-old vampires. Anyway, I’d love to stay and chat but I don’t fancy getting turned into a sundried tomato and this conversation is kind of boring.” She pointed up at the burning ball of gas in the sky before slipping inside and shutting the door on Ben.

Ben filled Rik in on the Callum situation as they passed each other in the kitchen and Rik promised to keep his eye out for any weird happenings around town. It did little to ease Ben’s worries but at least it was better than nothing. As it happened, he needn’t have fretted quite so much because when he woke that night Rik knew exactly where Callum was.

“Maidstone Hospital,” Rik said proudly. They were standing in the kitchen while Rik made a pot of tea. Other than his grandmother, Rik was the only person Ben had seen who actually used a teapot.

Ben let out a groaning sigh. “Why am I always being forced to go back to that bloody hospital?” When he’d quit his job and left he’d intended never to go back there but it seemed the universe had other plans for him. He was sorely tempted to burn the building down so he would never have to return to it again, but that was the kind of thing that would definitely niggle at his conscience.

“Why is he at the hospital?” Jess asked. The question hadn’t even occurred to Ben, he only cared that he was at the hospital but not why.

Rik’s mouth stretched into a broad grin. “Well, you’re newest little creation decided the first thing on his vampire to-do list was to rob a bank.”

“What a fucking idiot,” said Jess and though she was annoyed she didn’t sound at all surprised.

“He tried mesmerising the staff to give him all the money in the building. When that didn’t work he ran away and the sun exhausted him. By the time the police found him his skin had dried and cracked to the point he was bleeding openly all over his body and he could barely move. He’s now in Hospital under police guard.”

“Marvellous,” Ben said, though it was far from marvellous it wasn’t as catastrophic as it could have been. Callum had been taken for a madman rather than having exposed the vampire race, and the police had not only found him but detained him as well. That would not be the situation for long, however.

Rik handed Ben a steaming cup of tea. “I don’t think I have time for tea,” he said.

“There’s always time for tea,” the warlock quipped as he handed a cup to Jess too. She smiled gratefully as she accepted the cup. “Your newly-birthed little vampire will be too enervated to cause any major mischief until he’s had a spot of breakfast which he’s unlikely to get because he’s alone in a room with a police guard standing right outside.”

“And what happens when a nurse goes in to check his vitals?” asked Ben.

Rik’s lips pressed into a thin line. “I really don’t think you two have time for tea,” he said as he snatched their cups back and tipped the delicious brown beverages down the sink. Jess had just been about to take a sip from her cup and she looked none too pleased about having had it taken away.

“Jess could have heard hers. I’ll handle this alone.” Ben strode out to the hall and began putting on his boots.

“What? No, I’m coming too,” she said as she followed him.

“It’ll be easier if I go alone.”

“Why?” she crossed her arms and stared at him, demanding an answer.

“Jess, I—”

“Why?” she said again, this time louder.

Ben finished tying his laces and stood up to meet her forceful gaze. Once again he found himself impressed at how imposing she could be for such a small person. She would never have been bullied the way he had been.

“Callum’s already proved how much trouble he can cause. I don’t know exactly how I’m going to handle this.” It was a lie, there was only one way he could handle this. Callum had to die, but Ben wasn’t sure how he was going to do it. He’d taken a life indirectly before and that had haunted him for weeks. It was only recently that he’d stopped seeing white socks every time he closed his eyes. Killing somebody with his own hands would be considerably harder to move past.

Jess’ face softened and it was clear that she knew exactly what was going on in his head. “This is my mess. I’m not going to let you clean it up for me.”

“Jess—”

“I’m just going to follow if you tell me to stay here, Ben. If you want me to learn from my mistakes then take me with you and teach me the hard lessons.”

“You’re annoyingly clever, do you know that?”

She smiled coyly. “Yes, I do.”

“Get your shoes on then, let’s go.”

The hospital felt as familiar to Ben as though he had worked a shift there just yesterday. The ugly green walls and the clinical smell made him want to turn and leave. The sour smell of sickness wafted out of the rooms and off the wards. The only thing missing as he stalked the corridors was his trolley of supplies.

“I hate the smell of hospitals,” Jess wrinkled her nose when she spoke.

“Me too.”

Ben’s former employment at Maidstone Hospital made it easy to find Callum without asking for help. It didn’t happen often but there had been two occasions during Ben’s time working there when criminals had been brought to the hospital for care and on both occasions they’d been kept in the rooms at the back of the hospital near the unused ward. That entire area of the hospital got less traffic than the rest so it reduced the likelihood of anybody finding out that a potentially dangerous criminal was on the premises.

“So, why Callum?” Ben asked as they traversed the corridors. It wasn’t late enough for the hospital to have emptied out yet and there were still plenty of people bustling about.

“You know what they say, when a girl gets a toxic boyfriend she must have daddy issues,” Jess replied.

“Oh,” Ben said somewhat awkwardly. He should have known that starting a conversation like this one had the propensity to venture into murky territory. “Was your father like Callum?” If Jess and Rik had both come from abusive parents then they had more in common than they realised.

Jess shook her head and her ponytail swung against her shoulders. “No. He wasn’t interested in me enough to hit me. He always wanted a son and as soon as my little brother was born I might as well have stopped existing. The bloke barely said more than two words to me when we were both at home and he forgot my birthday more often than he remembered it.”

Ben had no idea what to say other than sorry and that seemed too hollow. “What about your mum?”

Jess snorted so loudly that half the people around them turned to look. Her idea of love and support was throwing a stack of cash at me.”

“They sound like charming parents.”

“Those stacks of cash were the only thing I missed when they both died. That sounds horrible, doesn’t it?”

“No. You felt that way because they made you feel that way. How did they die if…” Ben stopped when they turned the corner and saw that they’d reached Callum’s room.

At the end of the short corridor, a police officer was sitting in a blue vinyl chair outside the room door. He had his hat on the floor by his feet and he was engrossed in whatever was on his phone screen.

Ben had been expecting to see the officer but he had not expected to see David. The witch was sitting a few rooms down from the police officer. He had both legs stretched out across the corridor and his ankles crossed. It was nice of him to take up so much space and make it difficult for anybody to get down the corridor with a bed or a trolley.

A gloom fell over Ben when he thought back to the conversation he’d had with Christine last night. She’d told him to be more discreet and in response, he’d loosed a baby vampire on the town. He doubted Christine would care that it was an accident and he certainly had no intention of divulging the details.

“Say nothing,” Ben hissed at Jess as they approached. “Here for a check-up, Dave?”

David jumped in surprise and then tried to pass his momentary fright off as part of him rising off the chair. He brushed off his jeans in a bid to appear casual and strode over to meet Ben. His legs, Ben noticed, were so spindly they looked like chicken’s legs.

“I’ve been waiting for you,” he said. His eyes flicked over to Jess and lingered for a moment before returning to Ben.

“Obviously. I hope you had to wait a while,” said Ben.

David was temporarily confused and Ben could actually see his brain whirring away behind his eyes. Why Christine had made such a simple man her second-in-command was a mystery to Ben.

“You’ve been playing silly buggers again, have you?” David pointed at the room behind him. “We know he’s one of yours.”

“Well, he’s not exactly one of mine, but don’t worry, I’m here to make sure he doesn’t cause any more trouble.” As much fun as it was winding David up, Ben had to give the correct assurances or risk getting into a pissing contest with the Coven.

Once again David looked at Jess and this time his eyes drifted over her entire body from head to toe and then back up again before looking back at Ben. “Good. I’ll pass that on to Christine. That’s two obvious vampire incidents in two days and if there’s another we’ll have to respond. Fair is fair.”

Ben flashed David his most sickly smile. “Fair is fair,” he repeated. He stepped around David and walked on down the corridor.

“I don’t like the way he looked at me,” Jess said.

“Just ignore him. That’s what the rest of us do,” Ben replied loudly enough to ensure David heard him.

“Oh, Ben!” David called down the corridor. “It’s Ostara tomorrow. Is there anything you wanted me to pass on to Grace? Congratulations on your new husband or something like that?”

Ben gritted his teeth and tried to quell the urge to rip David’s head off and send it to Grace as a wedding gift. Beyond the anger was the despair that despite all the good times he’d shared with Grace she had still chosen Kieron. He reminded himself that it was for the good of her family and it was not a reflection on him, but he just wasn’t entirely convinced.

David raised his eyebrows in a silent challenge and waited for a response. A thousand insults came to mind but Ben wasted none of them on him. He turned on his heel and stormed away.

“You didn’t see us,” Ben told the police officer, staring deeply into his eyes as he and Jess drifted right by.

Callum was only half healed. His skin was withered, wrinkled, and clung to his bones making him look fifty years older than he actually was. His legs were covered by the bed sheets and his upper body was bare with patches of crusted blood scattered over him. A pile of torn bandages had gathered on the floor by the bed where he had obviously pulled them off. He turned his head lazily when Ben and Jess entered. His orange hair was thin and wiry, sporting none of the vibrance it had held the night before.

“Look at you waiting in your bed like a good little boy,” Jess said with a mock pout as the door closed behind them.

Callum jerked his wrist and the bed rail clanged as the cuff connected to his wrist hit against it. He was too weak to even break a simple pair of handcuffs.

“The sun will make you weak,” Ben explained. He lowered himself into the cushioned chair at Callum’s bedside. “You won’t heal fully until you get some blood inside you.” Looking at Callum’s emaciated face Ben wondered how long he’d been stuck in the sun. Hours it seemed.

“Why did you do this to me?” he asked, his voice rough and scratchy.

“Seriously?” Jess leaned on the end of the bed and stared down its length at him. Her eyes held nothing but hate.

Callum had the grace to look away and at least feign shame. “What now?” Mingled in his fear was acceptance. He knew that whatever Ben and Jess had decided for him was final and there was nothing he could do to change that.

Ben released a heavy sigh as he prepared for what he had to do. “After the trouble you’ve caused there’s only one way this can go.” He didn’t even know how he was going to do it. Cutting off Callum’s head would be the most effective method, but for obvious reasons, there was no axe in the room and Ben had not brought one with him.

Callum tried to sit up and at once regretted it. His face contorted in pain and he eased back down into his pillows. “Wait. Please,” he groaned. “I know I’ve done you dirty, Jess. And I for real messed up by running away—”

“Don’t forget the pathetic attempt at a bank robbery,” Jess added.

Callum nodded and his eyes filled with tears.

“Oh, seriously,” muttered Ben. As if the situation wasn’t hard enough without him adding the waterworks.

“I know I’ve done bad, but please. I don’t want to die. I can change. I’m sorry for all the bad shit I’ve done. Please, please, seriously please, I’m begging you. Give me a chance to be better and I’ll do it.” His free hand clung onto the bed rail and gripped it tightly enough to bend the metal.

“I’m having a hard time believing you, Callum. You’re an abusive arsehole of a person and now you’ve been given supernatural powers. It’s too bad a combination for me. It just wouldn’t sit right to let you loose on the world.” Ben stood up, tired of the conversation. Having to listen to more begging would only make things harder and they were hard enough as it was.

“Put me in prison or something. Lock me up until I’ve proved I can be better. Please don’t kill me,” he begged, his wrinkled face creasing even more.

“I’m sorry.”

“Wait,” Jess said. Her voice was a whisper but it held command. “He’s not lying. I know him well enough to tell when he’s lying and he means what he’s saying.”

“It doesn’t matter if he’s lying. He can mean it to the fullest but how long will it last? How long will it take for him to realise that being a decent person is too much work to maintain? How long will it be until he slips right back into his old ways?”

“You were right about what you said before. I don’t think… I know I can’t have this on my conscience. He can’t die because of me. I wanted to punish him and now I have. Look at him. He’s learned his lesson. Right, Callum?”

Callum was as dumbfounded as Ben was and it took him a moment to realise he’d been spoken to.

“Yes, yes, of course. I’ve learned my lesson. Please just give me the chance to prove it.”

Ben stared at Jess for several beats. Although she said nothing through the silence she was begging for Callum’s life just as strongly as he was. Maybe more so.

Ben turned to Callum and leaned over the young man with an intensity designed to terrify.

“I don’t want to give you the chance to prove you’ve learned your lesson. All I want is to never see you or hear about you again.” He paused and stared at the trembling boy who looked like a withered old man. The boy stayed quiet, knowing that nothing he said would make a difference now. His words held no meaning to Ben. “You’re going to leave this hospital in secret like a rat. You’re going to get a car and drive out of Maidstone.”

“He can’t drive,” Jess said.

Ben blinked slowly, annoyed that she’d interrupted his menacing speech. “You will go far from this town and you will never come back. You will not stop off at your house to pack any things. You will not say goodbye to your family. You will simply leave. And if you do everything I’ve said then you will have a nice long life somewhere far far away and you will know that you have that because the girl you abused showed you mercy.”

Callum nodded quickly, the movement dislodging the tears that had gathered in his eyes. “Yes, yes. Thank you. Oh my days, thank you.”

Ben shared one final look with Jess to get her confirmation and she nodded just once. “If I ever see you or even hear about you again, I will hunt you down and kill you.”

Ben reached over the bed and ripped the cuff from Callum’s wrist all the while Callum was nodding his agreement.

Ben invited the police officer in so Callum could have a small drink from his wrist. A little mesmerisation and the officer was back at his post outside the door clueless as to what had just happened.

The kid stopped halfway through the open window through which he was making his escape and turned back to Jess. Ben wanted to believe that the guilt in his eyes was genuine, but he was an abusive manipulator and could have just been an accomplished liar.

“I am sorry for everything,” he whispered across the room.

Jess stared at him, her eyes full of cold steel. “Fuck off,” she said.

Callum nodded once and then he fled through the window. Ben watched him go and wondered if they’d done the right thing. Sure his conscience felt clear for now, but what if Callum broke his promise and made Ben carry the guilt for whatever crimes he committed in the future? He looked at the dark space outside where Callum had fled across and wondered if he had deserved to be shown mercy.