Ronnie Radke's Arc

Chapter 4 of 7

A month passed. Elena stopped filming the band and started filming Ronnie alone. She came to the penthouse most nights now, camera off, her hand in his. But tonight she set her bag down and did not take off her coat. The parrot shrieked on her perch. Elena watched Ronnie with a tight mouth. "You never eat," she said. "You never let me stay past dawn. You lock the bedroom door." She stepped closer. "I know what you are. So why are you still hiding half of it from me?" Ronnie said nothing. He had fed an hour before she arrived, on a stranger from the club. He had wiped his mouth and brushed his teeth and come home clean. Elena wanted all of him. She wanted inside the one room he kept shut. "Show me how you feed," she said. "Or I stop believing the parts you do show me." He heard the threat under the love. If she doubted him, the deal cracked. The footage, the series, his whole clean face hung on her trust. He had two choices. Lie again, or let her see the worst thing he was. Ronnie opened his phone and texted Bruno one word. Come. Bruno arrived in ten minutes. Gold rings, purple jacket, that cold look he had worn since the night Ronnie told him no. He saw Elena. He saw the camera on the table, dark. His jaw set. "You called me here for her," Bruno said. Not a question. "I need you to bring someone," Ronnie said. "Someone willing. From the club. Someone who wants it." Bruno's eyes went wide, then narrow. "You want to feed in front of a reporter." He laughed once, no joy in it. "You've lost your mind, honey. This is how we die." "She already knows," Ronnie said. "Showing her buys us more than hiding ever will." Bruno looked between them a long moment. Then he turned and left. Ronnie did not know if he would come back or make a call that ended all three of them. An hour later Bruno returned with a young man from the club. The man grinned, drunk and eager, a fan who had begged for a private thrill. Elena raised her camera. The red light did not come on. She only held it like a shield. Ronnie took the man by the shoulders. He let his eyes change. His fangs slid down. He fed, slow and careful, and stopped before it went too far. The man sank onto the couch, pale and smiling, alive. Elena did not look away. When it was done, she set the dead camera down and took Ronnie's bloody hand in both of hers. "Now I've seen all of you," she said. The doubt was gone. But Bruno stood by the door, watching. And now a living stranger knew Ronnie's secret too.