First Bites

by Darren Shan

  “Is… is he… dead?” she asked in a tiny voice.

  “Of course not!” I snapped. “You can see him breathing, can’t you? Look at his belly and chest.”

  “But…why can’t he move?” she asked.

  “He’s paralyzed,” I told her. “The spider injected him with poison that stops his limbs. It’s like putting him to sleep, except his brain’s still active and he can see and hear everything.”

  I didn’t know if this was true. I hoped it was. If the poison had left the heart and lungs alone, it might also have skipped his brain. But if it had gotten into his skull…

  The thought was too terrible to consider.

  “Steve, I’m going to help you up,” I said. “I think if we move you around, the poison will wear off.”

  I stuck my arms around Steve’s waist and hauled him to his feet. He was heavy but I took no notice of the weight. I dragged him around the room, shaking his arms and legs, talking to him as I went, telling him he was going to be all right, there wasn’t enough poison in one bite to kill him, he would recover.

  After ten minutes of this, there was no change and I was too tired to carry him any longer. I dropped him on the bed, then carefully arranged his body so he would be comfortable. His eyelids were open. His eyes looked weird and were scaring me, so I closed them, but then he looked like a corpse, so I opened them again.

  “Will he be all right?” Annie asked.

  “Of course he will,” I said, trying to sound positive. “The poison will wear off after a while and he’ll be fine. It’s only a matter of time.”

  I don’t think she believed me but she said nothing, only sat on the edge of the bed and watched Steve’s face like a hawk. I began wondering why Mom hadn’t been up to investigate. I crept over to the open door and listened at the top of the stairs. I could hear the washing machine rumbling in the kitchen below. That explained it: our washing machine is old and clunky. You can’t hear anything over the noise it makes if you’re in the kitchen and it’s turned on.

  Annie was no longer on the bed when I returned. She was down on the floor, studying Madam Octa.

  “It’s the spider from the freak show, isn’t it?” she asked.

  “Yes,” I admitted.

  “The poisonous one?”

  “Yes.”

  “How did you get it?” she asked.

  “That’s not important,” I said, blushing.

  “How did she get loose?” Annie asked.

  “I let her out,” I said.

  “You what?!”

  “It wasn’t the first time,” I told her. “I’ve had her for almost two weeks. I’ve played with her lots of times. It’s perfectly safe as long as there are no noises. If you hadn’t come barging in when you did, she would have been—”

  “No you don’t,” she growled. “You aren’t laying the blame on me. Why didn’t you tell me about her? If I’d known, I wouldn’t have come busting in.”

  “I was going to,” I said. “I was waiting until I was sure it was safe. Then Steve came and…” I couldn’t continue.

  I stuck the cage back in the closet, where I wouldn’t have to look at Madam Octa. I joined Annie by the bed and studied Steve’s motionless form. We sat silently for almost an hour, just watching.

  “I don’t think he’s going to recover,” she finally said.

  “Give it more time,” I pleaded.

  “I don’t think time will help,” she insisted. “If he was going to recover, he should be moving a little by now.”

  “What do you know about it?” I asked roughly. “You’re a child. You know nothing!”

  “That’s right,” she agreed calmly. “But you don’t know any more about it than me, do you?” I shook my head unhappily. “So stop pretending you do,” she said.

  She laid a hand on my arm and smiled bravely to show she wasn’t trying to make me feel bad. “We have to tell Mom,” she said. “We have to get her up here. She might know what to do.”

  “And if she doesn’t?” I asked.

  “Then we have to take him to a hospital,” Annie said.

  I knew she was right. I’d known it all along. I just didn’t want to admit it.

  “Let’s give it another fifteen minutes,” I said. “If he hasn’t moved by then, we call her.”

  “Fifteen minutes?” she asked uncertainly.

  “Not a minute more,” I promised.

  “Okay,” she agreed.

  We sat in silence again and watched our friend. I thought about Madam Octa and how I was going to explain this to Mom. To the doctors. To the police! Would they believe me when I told them Mr. Crepsley was a vampire? I doubted it. They’d think I was lying. They might throw me in jail. They might say, since the spider was mine, I was to blame. They might charge me with murder and lock me away!

  I checked my watch. Three minutes to go. No change in Steve.

  “Annie, I need to ask a favor,” I said.

  She looked at me suspiciously. “What?”

  “I don’t want you to mention Madam Octa,” I said.

  “Are you crazy?” she shouted. “How else are you going to explain what happened?”

  “I don’t know,” I admitted. “I’ll tell them I was out of the room. The bite marks are tiny. They look like small bee stings and are going down all the time. The doctors might not even notice them.”

  “We can’t do that,” Annie said. “They might need to examine the spider. They might—”

  “Annie, if Steve dies, I’ll be blamed,” I said softly. “There are parts to this I can’t tell you, that I can’t tell anybody. All I can say is, if the worst happens, I’ll be left holding the bag. Do you know what they do to murderers?”

  “You’re too young to be tried for murder,” she said, but sounded uncertain.

  “No, I’m not,” I told her. “I’m too young to go to a real prison but they have special places for children. They’d hold me in one of those until I turned eighteen and then…Please, Annie.” I started to cry. “I don’t want to go to jail.”

  She started crying, too. We held on to each other and sobbed like a couple of babies. “I don’t want them to take you away,” she wept. “I don’t want to lose you.”

  “Then do you promise not to tell?” I asked. “Will you go back to your bedroom and pretend you saw and heard none of this?”

  She nodded sadly. “But not if I think the truth can save him,” she added. “If the doctors say they can’t save him unless they find what bit him, I’m telling. Okay?”

  “Okay,” I agreed.

  She got to her feet and headed for the door. She stopped in the middle of the room, turned, came back, and kissed me on the forehead. “I love you, Darren,” she said, “but you were a fool to bring that spider into this house, and if Steve dies, I think you are the one who should be blamed.”

  Then she ran from the room, sobbing.

  I waited a few minutes, holding Steve’s hand, begging him to recover, to show some sign of life. When my prayers weren’t answered, I got to my feet, opened the window (to explain how the mystery attacker got in), took a deep breath, and then ran downstairs, screaming for my mother.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  THE AMBULANCE ATTENDANTS ASKED MY mother if Steve was diabetic or epileptic. She wasn’t sure but didn’t think so. They also asked about allergies and everything, but she explained that she wasn’t his mother and didn’t know.

  I thought they’d take us with them in the ambulance, but they said there wasn’t room. They got Steve’s phone number and the name of his mom, but she wasn’t home. One of the attendants asked my mother if she’d follow them to the hospital, to fill out as many of the forms as she could, so they could make a start. She agreed and bundled me and Annie into the car. Dad still wasn’t home, so she called him on his cell phone to explain where we’d be. He said he’d come right over.

  That was a miserable ride. I sat in the back, trying not to meet Annie’s eye, knowing I should tell the truth, but too afraid
to. What made it even worse was, I knew if I was the one lying in a coma, Steve would own up immediately.

  “What happened in there?” Mom asked over her shoulder. She was driving as fast as she could without breaking the speed limit, so she wasn’t able to look back at me. I was glad: I don’t think I could have lied straight to her face.

  “I’m not sure,” I said. “We were chatting. Then I had to go to the bathroom. When I got back…”

  “You didn’t see anything?” she asked.

  “No,” I lied, feeling my ears reddening with shame.

  “I can’t understand it,” she muttered. “He felt so stiff and his skin was turning blue. I thought he was dead.”

  “I think he was bitten,” Annie said. I almost gave her a dig in the ribs, but at the last second remembered I was depending on her to keep my secret.

  “Bitten?” Mom asked.

  “There were a couple of marks on his neck,” Annie said.

  “I saw them,” Mom said. “But I don’t think that’s it, dear.”

  “Why not?” Annie asked. “If a snake or a… spider got in and bit him…” She glanced over at me and blushed a little, recalling her promise.

  “A spider?” Mom shook her head. “No, dear, spiders don’t go around biting people and sending them into shock, not around here.”

  “So what was it?” Annie asked.

  “I’m not sure,” Mom replied. “Maybe he ate something that didn’t agree with him, or had a heart attack.”

  “Children don’t have heart attacks,” Annie retorted.

  “They do,” Mom said. “It’s rare, but it can happen. Still, the doctors will sort all that out. They know more about these things than we do.”

  I wasn’t used to hospitals, so I spent some time looking around while Mom was filling out the forms. It was the whitest place I’d ever seen: white walls, white floors, white uniforms. It wasn’t very busy but there was a buzz to the place, a sound of bed springs and coughing, machines humming, doctors speaking softly.

  We didn’t say much while sitting there. Mom said Steve had been admitted and was being examined but it might be a while before they discovered what was wrong. “They sounded optimistic,” she said.

  Annie was thirsty, so Mom sent me with her to get drinks from the machine around the corner. Annie glanced around while I was putting in the coins, to make sure nobody could overhear.

  “How long are you going to wait?” she asked.

  “Until I hear what they have to say,” I told her. “We’ll let them examine him. Hopefully they’ll know what sort of poison it is and be able to cure him by themselves.”

  “And if they can’t?” she asked.

  “Then I tell them,” I promised.

  “What if he dies before that?” she asked softly.

  “He won’t,” I said.

  “But what if—”

  “He won’t!” I snapped. “Don’t talk like that. Don’t even think like that. We have to hope for the best. We must believe he will pull through. Mom and Dad have always told us good thoughts help make sick people better, haven’t they? He needs us to believe in him.”

  “He needs the truth more,” she grumbled, but let the matter drop. We took the drinks back to the couch and drank in silence.

  Dad arrived not long after, still in his work clothes. He kissed Mom and Annie and squeezed my shoulder. His dirty hands left grease marks on my T-shirt, but that didn’t bother me.

  “Any news?” he asked.

  “None yet,” Mom said. “They’re examining him. It could be hours before we hear anything.”

  “What happened to him, Angela?” Dad asked.

  “We don’t know yet,” Mom said. “We’ll have to wait and see.”

  “I hate waiting,” Dad grumbled, but since he had no other choice, he had to, the same as the rest of us.

  Nothing else happened for a couple of hours, until Steve’s mom arrived. Her face was white like Steve’s, and her lips were pinched together. She made straight for me, grabbed me by the shoulders and shook me hard. “What have you done to him?” she screeched. “Have you hurt my boy? Have you killed my Steve?”

  “Hey! Stop that!” Dad gasped.

  Steve’s mom ignored him. “What have you done?” she screamed again, and shook me even harder. I tried to say “Nothing” but my teeth were clattering. “What have you done? What have you done?” she repeated, then suddenly stopped shaking me, let go, and collapsed to the floor, where she bawled like a baby.

  Mom got off the couch and crouched beside Mrs. Leonard. She stroked the back of her head and whispered soothing words to her, then helped her up and sat down with her. Mrs. Leonard was still crying, and was now moaning about what a bad mother she’d been and how much Steve hated her.

  “You two go and play somewhere else,” Mom said to Annie and me. We started away. “Darren,” Mom called me back. “Don’t pay attention to what she was saying. She doesn’t blame you. She’s just afraid.”

  I nodded miserably. What would Mom say if she knew Mrs. Leonard was right and I was to blame?

  Annie and me found a couple of video games to keep us busy. I didn’t think I’d be able to play but after a few minutes I forgot about Steve and the hospital and got caught up in the games. It was nice to slip away from the worries of the real world for a while, and if I hadn’t run out of quarters, I might have stayed there all night.

  When we returned to the waiting room, Mrs. Leonard had calmed down and was off with Mom, filling out forms. Annie and I sat and the waiting began all over again.

  Annie began yawning about ten o’clock and that set me off, too. Mom took one look at us and ordered us home. I started to argue but she cut me short.

  “You can’t do any good here,” she said. “I’ll call as soon as I hear anything, even if it’s the middle of the night, okay?”

  I hesitated. This would be my final chance to mention the spider. I came very close to spilling the beans, but I was tired and couldn’t find the words. “Okay,” I said glumly, then left.

  Dad drove us home. I wondered what he’d do if I told him about the spider, Mr. Crepsley, and the rest. He would have punished me, I’m sure, but that’s not why I didn’t tell him: I kept quiet because I knew he’d be ashamed of the way I’d lied and put my own well-being before Steve’s. I was afraid he’d hate me.

  Annie was asleep by the time we got home. Dad lifted her in from the backseat and took her to bed. I walked slowly up to my room and got undressed. I kept cursing myself under my breath.

  Dad looked in as I was putting my clothes away. “Will you be okay?” he asked. I nodded. “Steve will recover,” he said. “I’m sure of it. The doctors know their stuff. They’ll bring him around.”

  I nodded again, not trusting myself to answer. Dad stood in the doorway a moment longer, then sighed, left, and stomped downstairs to his study.

  I was hanging my pants up in the closet when I noticed Madam Octa’s cage. Slowly, I pulled it out. She was lying in the middle, breathing easily, calm as ever.

  I studied the colorful spider and wasn’t impressed by what I saw. She was bright, yes, but ugly and hairy and nasty. I began to hate her. She was the real villain, the one who bit Steve for no good reason. I had fed her and cared for her and played with her. This was how she repaid me.

  “You stupid monster!” I snarled, shaking the cage. “You ungrateful creep!”

  I gave the cage another shake. Her legs gripped the bars tightly. This made me madder and I yanked the cage roughly from side to side, trying to make her lose her grip, hoping to hurt her.

  I spun in a circle, whirling the cage around by the handle. I was swearing, calling her every name under the sun, wishing she was dead, wishing I’d never set eyes on her, wishing I had the guts to take her out of the cage and squeeze her to death.

  Finally, as my rage reached its boiling point, I hurled the cage as far away from me as possible. I wasn’t looking where I was throwing, and got a shock when I saw it sail throu
gh the open window and out into the night.

  I watched it flying away, then hurried after it. I was scared it would hit the ground and break open, because I knew if the doctors weren’t able to save Steve by themselves, they might be able to with the help of Madam Octa: if they studied her, they might find out how to cure him. But if she escaped…

  I rushed to the window. I was too late to grab for the cage but at least I could see where it landed. I watched as it floated out and down, praying it wouldn’t break. It seemed to take forever to fall.

  Just before it hit the ground, a hand darted out from the shadows of the night and snatched it from the air.

  A hand?!

  I leaned forward quickly for a better view. It was a dark night and at first I couldn’t see who was down there. But then the person stepped forward and all was revealed.

  First, I saw his wrinkly hands holding the cage. Then his long red clothes. Then his cropped orange hair. Then his long ugly scar. And, finally, his sharp toothy grin.

  It was Mr. Crepsley. The vampire.

  And he was smiling up at me!

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  I STOOD BY THE WINDOW, expecting him to turn into a bat and come flying up, but he did nothing apart from shake the cage gently to make sure Madam Octa was all right.

  Then, still smiling, he turned and walked away. Within a matter of seconds he had been swallowed from sight by the night.

  I shut the window and fled to the safety of my bed, where my mind turned inside out with questions. How long had he been down there? If he knew where Madam Octa was, why hadn’t he taken her before this? I thought he’d be furious, but he seemed amused. Why hadn’t he ripped out my throat like Steve said he would?

  Sleep was impossible. I was more terrified now than I had been the night after stealing the spider. Back then I could tell myself that he didn’t know who I was and therefore couldn’t find me.

  I thought about telling Dad. After all, a vampire knew where we lived and had reason to bear a grudge against us. Dad should know. He should be warned and given a chance to prepare a defense. But…

  He wouldn’t believe me. Especially not now that Madam Octa was gone. I imagined trying to convince him that vampires were real, that one had been to our house and might come back. He’d think I was insane.