Raindrops mix with the salt rushing from my eyes as I yell his name over the rumbling thunder. "Darex!" He turns around, water dripping from his black hair onto his face. "You don't need to leave."

He shakes his head. "Yeah, Casey, I do. They're already looking for me, I can't be here when they find me."

I run to him, take his big hands and fold them over my smaller ones. I look up into his blue eyes, seeing my reflection in them. "Then let me go with you," I search those blue mirrors, "We can run together‒"

"And go where? Casey, if they find us, they won't show you mercy," Darex's voice sounds tortured, his face twisted. "They want to hurt me for leaving, and you're the only thing that can hurt me." He looks away. "They'll hurt you to get to me, and it would kill me. Kill me, Casey!" He slides his hands out of mine and turns away from me.

"And you leaving will kill me!" I shout. He stops, but doesn't face me. Lightning strikes across the sky like car lights on a road. "I need you, Darex. I can't be alone. Not again."

Darex stands still for a moment. I watch as the sky's tears drench his sweatshirt. "At least you'll be safe." He says, and he starts walking away from me again. But this time, he doesn't stop at my desperate cries for him to stop and come back to me.

Before long all I see is his silhouette, shrinking little by little before disappearing all together, along with my cries. With the exception of the rolling thunder, the dirt road is as silent as my tears.

    I met Darex by total coincidence.

    It was actually on accident, for both of us.

    I wasn’t even supposed to be camping that day. My dad had grounded me for getting suspended after threatening a teacher.

    In my defense, he was being a total jerk to the whole class, and I merely stood up for myself. I got up to leave, when he was railing on some poor kid, and he got in my way. So I told him softly, if he didn't get out of my way, I would call up his wife and tell her that he's been sleeping around with the new Algebra teacher.

Which was totally true, everybody knew it.

Anyways, long story short, I got sent to the principle’s office, suspended and grounded by my dear old dad, who shouldn’t even be able to ground anybody, because he has more mugshots than a thirteen year old girl has selfies.

So, a week into my month sentence, I decided that I was going to go camping.

I snuck into the kitchen around midnight. I knew Dad would probably be passed out on the couch, so I didn’t have to be too ninja-like. I grabbed a chair, stood upon it and snatched my phone out of the basket on top of the fridge.

Dad’s only “hiding place”.

I tiptoed back up to my room and texted Hailey, stating that we were skipping school tomorrow, well, she was skipping school, and we were going camping.

Hailey, being the best friend she is, agreed that we needed to become ones with nature. And what was so important about the ACT’s, anyways?

The next morning, I really put my ninja skills to test.

Dad was still passed out on the couch, but it was toward the end of his hangover, so he wasn’t as out cold as he was when I made my phone heist.

I had to get out of the house quietly, quickly run to the garage to grab camping supplies, quickly, but with stealth. Then start the car hoping that Dad’s still out cold.

I was at the last part, and so close to making a clean getaway, but just as I was pulling out of the driveway, Dad came stumbling out of the back door.

“Casey! Hey, you’re grounded young lady! Get out of there, right now!” He tried to run after the car, but he didn’t make it very far.

I honestly couldn’t take him seriously. Not when he’s stumbling after me with only his tighty-whities on. Well, if you count him sporting my pink Wayfarer sunglasses, then I guess he had those on too.

“Sorry, Dad. Hailey and I are going camping,” I waved a goodbye while I was pulling away from the house. “By the way, you can keep those glasses,” I pulled my aviator sunglasses from my head and stuck them over my eyes. “See you in a few days, love you!” And while ignoring his protests and slurred threats, I press down on my gas pedal, leaving Dad in all of the dust and black exhaust the old car shot up.

I headed toward Hailey’s house.

When I pulled up at my friend’s house, she was sitting on her front steps, sleeping bag, duffle and cooler all in the grass soaking up sun. Hailey on the other hand, was calmly smoking a cigarette. Not a care in the world.

I shut the car off and got out. “There will be no cigarettes on this trip.” I said up front.

She rolled her eyes and flicked the cancer into the dirt, where a garden should probably be. She stood up , walked over to the cooler and tore off the cover. “How about booze?” I peered down into the cooler and beer was piled to the top. I looked back up at her and smirked as she shut the lid. “There’s some Whiskey at the bottom.” She said with a wink.

“Jack Daniels?” I had asked.

She nodded. “What else?”

So we piled all of her crap into my backseat and trunk and we made our way down the backroads, since I couldn’t afford to be pulled over and them finding the bar in my trunk. I didn’t care about school, but I did care about my future, and getting busted for having alcohol while underage was never good on any type of resume.

The woods were only an hour away, so we found a spot without any interruption by the cops.

I unpacked everything, then told Hailey to go get ice for the beer, because warm beer was terrible. I don’t know how the Europeans do it, but I would puke it up even before the hangover, and there’s no fun in that.

So, there I was, attempting to set up the tent by myself, and let me tell you, there is no way to get those things up. It’s as if they make them specifically to make you want to cut them into a million little pieces.

As I said, I was alone, contemplating ways to kill a nonliving object, when I heard rustling.

I dropped the tent, ran to my duffel and pulled out my handy-dandy pocket knife. It was the type that you got at a dollar store. You know the kind. The ones where when you buy them you half expect them to be plastic.

So, now I’m holding my insect-only killing knife and I’m now going through all the different possibilities on what that sound could be, and the possible things that will happen to me before Hailey comes back.

I was having all the usual before-death-type-thoughts, so you can imagine my surprise when a nineteen year old looking boy stumbles into the campsite with blood oozing out from under his blood soaked shirt.

Two mintues ago I was thinking I was going to die, now I was more concerned that this very attractive nineteen year old boy was going to bleed out all over my campsite and totally ruin my weekend during the week getaway.  

I ran to him after he fell to the ground and rolled over his back.

“Dude!” I’m very good at showing concern. “What the hell happened to you?”

He lifted his bloody hand, the one that was hiding under his shirt and probably holding his insides in and grabbed my arm.

I tried to pull away, but this guy had a death grip.

“Run.” He choked out.

“What? Why?” I continued to try and get out of his hold, but man! This guy could make a climber cry.

“They’re coming. You’ve got to run!” And his eyes rolled back behind his head. His eyes were a beautiful dark blue, not that I noticed since I was busy shaking the guy awake again.

So whoever was after him, was still after him.

Welcome back fear for my life.

Do I run? If I run, I’ll be safe, but this guy will definitely die.

But I’ll be safe.

Oh, what the hell. “Get your dying ass up, buddy.” I put my arm under his arms and with his weak help, I got him up.

“What are you doing?” He asked, his shadowy ocean eyes looking like they were having trouble doing their jobs.

“Saving your worthless life, so shut up and cut me a break.” I dragged him over to the densest part of the woods I could find. It ended up being a bunch of bushes. It was pretty good cover, but sadly within view of the campsite.

“You shouldn’t have stayed. You should’ve ran,” he mumbled.

“Probably. But I’m not known for doing what people tell me to do,” I told him. “Now, pass out or shut up.”

He chose the first option.

I parted the bushes enough so I could see the camp. Nothing looked out of place except for the big blood pool where Debby-Downer had bled out.

I was just starting to think that maybe he was just being over dramatic until three guys strolled in through the same trees Bleeding Bill did.

One crouched down by the blood stain and poked two dirty fingers at it. He brought it up to his face and to my disgust, licked them.

“Fresh.” He announced to the other two.

Let me point out that he could have just felt it and see if it was warm.

“He’s lost a lot of blood, he’s either passed out or dead,” another said.

I looked down at Blue Eyes, checked his pulse.

First one, buddy.

The third one, who hadn’t spoken yet, started to walk away from the other two.

Toward me.

He wasn’t more than five feet away when I heard the most beautiful sound.

The sound of my old, rusty, dying, beautiful car. Hailey is back!

The three huntsman exchanged confused looks, probably wondering what the hell that horrid sound was, before darting away, back the direction they came.

I sighed in relief and looked down at Selfless Sal. “Dude, wake up!’

He fluttered his eyes before staring up at me. “My name isn’t ‘Dude’.”

I rolled my eyes. “Sorry, Technical Terry. What am I supposed to call you?”

His blue eyes stared at me for a moment. “Darex.”

That was how Darex and I met.

This is now.

I’m staring down at his blue eyes wondering three things:

1. Why were those guys after him?

2. How was I going to get this blood out of my shirt?

3. How the hell am I going to explain this to Hailey?

    “Casey?” Hailey’s voice sounds worried.

“Over here, Hail,” I shout.

“They’ll come back,” Darex mumbles. “They’ll find me.”

I roll my eyes. “Can you be positive for like, a minute?”

Hailey walks up and the second she sees the guy bleeding out in my lap she swears, and jumps backward. “What the hell? Who the hell is that?” Her eyes are popping out of her head.

“His name is Darex and he decided he’d stumble into our camp and make everything dramatic. I think he wants to go into theater or something.”

Darex makes what could pass as either laughter or a snort. “If you aren’t going to be smart and leave, can you at least help me close this wound before I bleed out?” His voice is weak, but firm.

“I think that could almost be landed as a joke,” I tell him with a smile.

He doesn’t smile back.

I look back up at Hailey, who also isn’t smiling. “Wow. Tough crowd.”

“Casey! He’s bleeding to death! We need to call an ambulance!” Hailey is pacing back and forth, chewing her nails to the stubs.

“No!” Darex shouts, attempting to sit up. “You can’t call the authorities!”

“Dude! You’re bleeding out, you need a doctor,” Hailey pulls out her phone.

Darex stares intently at Hailey.

“Buddy, it isn’t going to explode with your mind,” I grab the hem of his shirt and was going to pull it up, to see the wound better, but he puts a big bloody hand over my much smaller, clean one.

“No, but I am draining the battery,” he says without looking at me. Then when I pull my hand away, he turns his head. “What were you doing?”

“Trying to see if you’ll live,” I say. “And what did you mean by ‘draining her battery’?”

“What the? I charged this last night!” Hailey taps her phone screen as if that will bring life to it. She snaps her head in Darex’s direction. “What the hell did you do to my  phone?”

I give Darex a strange look. “How did you do that? Did you hack her phone?”

He shrugs. “You could say that. But if you try and call the authorities, I’ll do it to your phone also.”

I stand up and glare down at him. “This is what I get for saving your life? Threats?”

He rolls his eyes. “As far as I can tell, I’m still slowly bleeding out. If I can stop the bleeding, I can heal myself.”

Who does this idiot think he is? God?

“Yeah, okay, buddy,” I slide my arm behind his back and his arm goes around my shoulders.

“Casey, this isn’t cool. He’s freaking dying! Not to mention totally delirious!” Hailey is still pacing.

“Yeah, well, it seems we don’t have much of a choice, not with your phone dead.” I have Darex up, but he’s less help than he was before. “Can you please help me with him, Hail?”

Hailey stops pacing, but she hesitates. Finally, she takes a deep breath. “I’m going to need a cigarette after this.” She walks to us and holds Darex up on his right side.

“Smoking will give you lung cancer, and probably kill you,” Darex mumbles, trying his best to walk, but his feet drag as we carry him to the car.

“Really? You’re going to give me health advice? You’re bleeding out to a stab wound.”

“Actually it was a Plasma Beam,” Darex corrects. “It’ll take longer to heal, but I should be at full health in a few hours.”

I’m trying my hardest not to burst out laughing. “Oh, really? A Plasma Beam, huh? I heard those are badass.”

We get him to the car and lean him against it.

“You know what a Plasma Beam is?” He gives me a questioning look, but his voice is totally serious.

I stand in front of him, I put my hands on my hips. “Yeah, of course. I tried to buy one on Ebay, but somebody else got it first.”

He stares at me hard. “You’re lying. Why are you lying?”

I roll my eyes. “Hailey, can you get the first aid kit out of my trunk?”

Hailey had gone back to pacing, and stopped when I said her name. “Seriously? How can you be so damn calm?” She walks to the trunk anyways.

“Well, for two reasons actually.” I say. Darex slides down the side of the car, apparently not strong enough to hold himself up anymore. “One: I don’t smoke, so I’m not dying for cigarettes right now.” She sends me a death threat through her eyes. “And two: Have you met my dad? He comes home bloody from a bar fight practically every night.”

Hailey throws me the med kit and continues her pacing.

“Okay, Derek.”

“Darex,” he corrects.

I frown. “I know, I was making sure you still knew.” It was his turn to frown. “Wow, you really don’t like jokes, do you?”

Response: Frowning.

“Okay, Darex,” Half a smile. “I’m going to dig out the bullet, then stitch you up.”

“There is no bullet. It was a Plasma Beam,” protests. “And you should clean the wound first.

I roll my eyes. “Right, Plasma Beam.” This guy watches too much Star Wars or plays too much Halo.

“Hailey, grab me two beers, please.”

Stops pacing. “You really want to do this drunk?”

I turn to her. “I don’t think I can do it sober, and I need something to clean the wound first.” She nods, grabs three bottles. “I only need two.”

She laughs. “This one’s for me.”

I open the bottle and pull up his shirt. I have the dying need to wolf-whistle. Under all the blood are some of the finest abs I have ever seen. And I’ve watched the Twilight Saga. My eyes avert to where all the blood is coming from.

Darex was right, it wasn’t a gunshot. It looks like a burn, but it wouldn’t be bleeding like this. It’s disgusting to look at. I come to the conclusion that it was a knife wound over a burn.

I look up at him and his blue eyes send a message to me. Told you it wasn’t a gunshot.

“This is going to hurt,” I warn him. “Probably a lot.”

He closes his eyes and nods. “Just do it, then you two can leave.”

I start tipping the beer bottle, but stop before the first drop can escape. “My company isn’t that bad.”

He opens his eyes and stares at me, bewildered. “You’re basically letting me bleed out right now!”

I frown. “I’m trying to help you, but when you’re like this, it’s very difficult.

He opens his mouth, probably to say something about my bad manners, but Hailey interrupts up both. “Just help him!” And she tips the bottle, allowing the liquid to pour down onto Darex’s wound.

He yells in shock and pain, then finishes with some very colorful words.

I turn to Hailey, who’s giving Darex an apologetic look. “Very subtle, Hails. Good going.”

I pour the rest of the bottle onto his wound and he grits his teeth together.

“Now, stitch it up,” He says. “Once it’s stitched up, it’ll heal.”

“Bossy one, aren’t you?” I dig what I need out of the kit and turn to him. “If it’ll heal, why does it need to be stitched up?” I guess I’ll play crazy with him for a little while.

“Because the blood won’t be able to exit my body, and the healing cells can attach themselves to the red blood cells,” he explains.

I take a swig of beer and pour some onto the needle. “White blood cells fight though.” Science was one of the few subjects I’m not failing.

“Maybe in your bodies. Not in ours.”

Another drink. Maybe I’ll make this into a drinking game, each time he says something crazy, or something annoying, I take a drink.

“Here we go, Crazy.”

“Darex,” He corrects.

Another drink.

I jab the needle into his tan skin. He tenses up, but I keep going.

“By the way, she failed sewing class.” Hailey tells him. “She couldn’t even sew a button back onto a shirt.”

“Those holes are so small! It’s impossible, okay!”

“Then why did the rest of the class pass?”

I turn to her quickly and DArex gasps. “Can you please focus on the needle and string inserted in my skin!”

I roll my eyes. “Oh don’t be such a baby, I’m basically done.”

Another drink.

Five minutes later I had doubled back and his wound was all frankensteined up. I was going to dump the rest of my beer onto his closed wound, just to clean it up, but I found that it was empty.

“All done,” I stand up. “Now, what should we do since we can’t call the cops?”

“It’ll be healed soon, you two may leave now.” Darex tries to stand up, but he falls back down.

“Yeah, that’s not happening, buddy.” Hailey says.

He frowns at her. “My name is Darex.”

I need another beer.

Hailey turns to me, her face full of annoyance and disbelief. “Seriously? You couldn’t have saved a sane one?”

I shrug and turn back to Darex. “Screw it, we’re taking you to the co‒” I stop in mid-word and stare in disbelief.

Darex is closing his eyes, looking like he’s focusing on something very hard. But that isn’t it. I’m staring at his wound.

Very, very slowly, unless I’m drunk, the skin seems to be swallowing the stitches and connecting itself back together.

Darex is healing himself.

What the hell are you?