THE KINGDOM WHERE NOBODY DIES
Tagging → Andrea Sheldon and Johnny Arcos Time Frame → Friday Night | October 16th, 2015 Location → Johnny’s Home/Fun Burger General Notes →
Childhood is not from birth to a certain age and at a certain age The child is grown, and puts away childish things. Childhood is the kingdom where nobody dies.
Andrea finally began to slow down, long after twigs and rocks made her feet bleed and re-heal, bleed and re-heal. She found herself in front of Johnny's, stilling in the walkway. Standing there for several minutes, she finally stepped forward, letting herself in and probably breaking the lock. It came off so easily, she didn't think of it. She knew he was sleeping because she could smell him -- old, but still flesh and something like blood. His room was found that way, and she was at the foot of his bed in seconds. Her first instinct was to call his name, but the sight of veins below his jaw and the ​smell​ clouded everything. She crawled over him, breathing in and biting her lip. Her touches were light as she admired him, but she soon became impatient with herself, holding him down with a metal grip and feeling her canines grow again. Only when she got closer to his face did she pause, eyes watering from warring hunger and emotions. Gripping tighter, she spoke. "Johnny?" She hadn't said a word since she left August's, and after the screaming her voice was left hoarse and rough.
Johnny: Pale eyes snapped open as dreams of hollowness were beckoned away by the call of his name. Someone was on his chest and given the pitch darkness of his room that pale eyes had yet to adjust to, Johnny did not know the someone. It was not a hunter, that much he knew despite the way Someone’s hands were clamped tight around his flesh in ways no one dared to touch him in decades; hunters might be able to climb into bed with him undetected, but why? And there also seemed to be a lack of animosity that hunters usually invoked in him, the emptiness was not rising to the surface like it tended to do nowadays. He sniffed the air and found no scents familiar to old scotch and aged books - the only scent he recognized was blood. So much blood. “Hello,” he said gently, blinking a few times.
Andrea leaned in closer to his face, sniffing and shutting her eyes, picturing the way August's head left his body so she could find some kind of control. "Johnny...this is very bad..." she managed, swallowing and releasing her grip on him a little. "I can't..." she didn't know what to say. She couldn't do a lot of things. Every minute was a switch between anger, hunger and confusion.
Johnny recognized the voice the second time around, listening past the raspiness and the scent of blood to grasp what was most familiar. "Andy?" He sat up and all the lights in his room flew on, illuminating this broken, bloody doll of a woman sitting on his lap with her... dark eyes and long, sharp teeth. "What... This is very bad," he agreed, his eyes going dark and darting all over her frame, looking at all the parts of her bitten, where all the blood was siphoned from. "Andy, try to talk."
Andrea cracked her neck, trying again to control her bloodlust and calm herself. She opened her mouth to speak, but it only came out in heavy breaths and the next thing she knew, she was sobbing. She would look back on this later and be grateful she still had the ability to cry. "I...he..." She pulled her hands back, having no faith in them before wrapping her arms around her slumped form. She stared at a spot next to the bed, telling herself to focus, focus, focus. After what felt like so long, she tried again. "I was with August." The name alone had her feeling like she was going to vomit. "He...we...slept...he wanted me to trust him, with my body," she continued. "And then he did this and everything I forgot came back and everything was so..." She wasn't in a state to find the right words for things. Clutching herself tighter, she finally met Johnny's eyes. "I took his head."
Johnny:Â "August. Was a..." Johnny tilted his head, letting the statement hang as it was obvious and would do nothing to help Andy at the moment. He could see her, the look in her eyes, the way desperation grew in them. He nodded to her, clasped his hands to her forearms, his fingers brushing at the blood that had begun to dry and flake there. "You took his head. That is alright. You are with me now. I will take care of you." He let his eyes fade to blue again, human again because he thought she might need to see human again. "How do you feel? Angry? Sick? ...Hungry?"
Andrea stared into his eyes, her mouth open as she continued to shake. She couldn't stop shaking. Nodding slowly, she loosened her grip around herself. She was beginning to calm, if only a little bit at the sight of a familiar face in the artificial light of his bedroom. She gulped, only nodding again to indicate that she felt all three of the things he spoke. She also felt dirty, afraid, wronged and...hungry. He'd said that, but it was worth repeating and her mind kept returning to it.
Johnny:Â "I am going to stand, my raggedy one," he informed her, not breaking their eye contact. "If you come with me, I will help you, I will clean you up and we will get food, yes?" His suggestions were not really suggestions as he was already moving the pair of them - albeit slowly - but they were heading toward the bathroom nonetheless. He did not have to glance at his bed to know that the immaculate white of his sheets and covers were now ruined, but he lamented that he could never seem to keep puddles of blood off of it for more than a month or two. Pity. The shower was already started, so he walked them both into it, clothing and all.
Andrea shut her eyes when they entered the bright bathroom, taking deep breaths before slowly opening them again and stepping into the shower. She faced him, only not entirely, her eyes fixed on the tile floor. She felt her tank top grow heavy against her skin, the only piece of clothing she had on. Not bothering to move her hair as it hung in her face, she tried to take deep breaths and let the hot water overtake her. She still couldn't bring herself to move much. There were no goosebumps on her skin from the change in temperature; even with a constant stream, the warmth felt temporary.
Johnny:Â It didn't take long to clean her, almost no time to dismiss the shirt off of her with a wave of his hand and he made short work of threading his fingers through her hair and letting the blood run out, his finger absently following a trail of it as it slid along the scar on her back. "Talk to me, Andy. It will help me know what to do next."
Andrea closed her eyes again, telling herself that this was someone she trusted and August was gone now. Decapitated at her hands, the hands she felt she couldn't control, but he was gone. Slowly, she began to cry again, the only thing keeping her present being the feel of his fingers in her hair. "I don't...I don't know who I am." Her voice wasn't back fully, still scratchy and above a whisper. "The whole time, I wasn't thinking like me or acting like me, I was just a...a puppet. I haven't even seen my dad and I was just this bloodbag and I thought I was trusting him with my body -- that's what he said I was doing." The realization that she'd given her virginity to him dawned on her again and the anger boiled beneath her skin, manifesting itself in veins below her eyes, now beginning to glow again. "I didn't want that to happen Johnny. He just took it from me." Reaching up, she gripped his face, the first contact since she pressed him against his bed. "I'm not even me now. I don't get to be me."
Johnny tsked her as if this was a situation to chide a person in, but the witch had never been one to comfort others. He could offer her vengeance, but she had already come in with her hands stained from that and while he understood that this was a violation of her, as a person, as a woman, Johnny found it hard to pull from feelings that were not anger at the moment. "You will always be you. As long as you choose to be," he told her. "No one can take that away from you. Especially not a rotting man. We will set you to rights together, Raggedy Andy. You will see. And you will have control." He didn't bother with the song and dance of summoning a towel for them and drying them off after guiding her out of the shower, he just ​willed​ them dry a second before manifesting clothes on both their persons. "There now," he told her, a smile curling around his lips. He stroked the now dry hair away from her eyes and looked at her carefully. "You still look like you. Come now. We will eat." Then he took her hand and walked out of the bathroom, out of his apartment and into the cool Colorado night.
Andrea nodded again, telling herself his words were true. It wasn't like she ever felt in control before, but what she was feeling now was like a tailspin - everything out of her hands. Her clean hands smoothed the oversized button-down she now wore as a way of keeping them still for a few moments. For the first time, she smiled a little when he assured her she still looked like her. It was so simple but it gave her genuine happiness to hear, and that feeling was so foreign in that moment, she couldn't have been more grateful for it. She followed him outside, twitching a little as she listened to wind pass through three branches and animals scurry nearby and miles away. She could see so clearly, something that felt so unnatural without glasses. "Where are we going?"
Johnny: "We will eat," he repeated, ushering her into the car that had suddenly appeared there. He brushed cat hair from his front seat and sat down, barely putting his foot on the gas before they were taking off down the street. All the while, he talked to her. "I was thinking about you today. It has been a long time since we shared a meal and spent any time together. I had come to the realization that I do not know what television shows you watch and I wish to remedy this." There, he would invoke memory, he would guide her to think of human things, of innocuous entertainment and things she would ground herself with before she became... before she ​Became​.
Andrea sat, fiddling with her fingers and staring straight ahead. Her face kept changing against her will, and it was probably because of the growing emptiness she felt the hungrier she got. Snapping out of it, she looked over at him. "I was..." Instead of mentioning or thinking about being on bed rest, she shook her head. "Well...a while ago I was um, back in that phase I go through where I just watch documentary murder shows. Like ​Children Who Kill​ and ​Snapped​. It's gripping stuff. Oh...and uh, cartoons like Bob's Burgers. Two extremes," she said, laughing a little though it came out as more of a scoff.
Johnny hummed a chuckle, using the excuse of keeping his eyes on the road to keep his gaze forward so she wouldn't see how calculating it was despite the fact that he wasn't given the deadened streets a lick of attention. "Those are the forensic shows, yes? Only that or cartoons... I could be persuaded to watch with you." He rolled his neck; he was tensed and things popped. Then the car slowed and he realized they were in the parking lot of a fast food restaurant. He sighed and craned his neck some, his eyes quickly spotting the open sign and the two people working the late night shift. "Food?" he asked, even as he climbed out of the car.
Andrea got out of the car as well, following him inside the Fun Burger she couldn't remember ever going to. The inside was nearly blinding until her eyes adjusted to the fluorescent lights. The employees shifted out of their slumped positions and into customer service mode at the sight of them. "Hi! Welcome to Fun Burger. Are you ready to order?" The girl speaking to them from behind the register looked no more than twenty, and her co-worker, leaning on the counter behind her was much less enthusiastic. Andrea stood there, folding one arm around her middle and picking her lip as she scanned the overhead menu. Not only did the high-definition images of fast food look unappetizing, they began to make her a little queasy. So she turned her attention to the blonde girl in front of her, all wide face and big eyes. "I'll just...have..." suddenly she found it hard to even finish a sentence. The hunger had been needling at her all night, but now it hurt. Her head was spinning, and the only thing clear to her was the blue vein through pale skin on the gentle curve of her neck. "Um..." she kept trying to finish, but it was impossible. "Ma'am? Are you alright?" the girl asked, looking at Johnny for confirmation. Andrea clenched her fists, biting her lip and feeling the change happen again, only this time welcoming it. Before the girl would even gasp, Andrea flew across the counter, the both of them crashing into the soft drink dispenser before her fangs were sinking into flesh. Pepsi and fruit punch spilled rapidly onto the floor but all Andrea could focus on was the satisfaction of drinking directly from the vein. When she could feel it running out, the thought alone upset her. Snapping the girl's neck, she searched for the co-worker, who was already running towards the parking lot, screaming and crying. She could hear "No," over and over again and somehow the idea of a chase only energized her. She was in front of the boy in seconds, wasting no time on conversation before picking him up by the neck and draining him even faster than his friend.
Johnny walked into the restaurant with hollowed eyes, his intentions clear from the moment he ​willed​ the sight of any security cameras away. It was foolish for Sangren to have a 24-hour access to anything these days anyway he would assure Andrea later. Much later. She was moving fast, partly instinct, partly hunger, all parts desperation. He hated seeing that desperation in her. It was different now, the way she moved, not much different from the way the tiny, dark smoke person moved in her - all reckless limbs and open mouth - but it was different, animal yet not. Demon yet of this world. He supposed that was what vampirism was. He never had an interest in it before now. With a sigh and a strawberry milkshake in hand, Johnny stepped over the young, dead girl, glassy eyes no longer looking at him unsure - no longer looking at anything of this world - and he followed Andy and her meal into the parking lot. She was fast now, so fast, and the way she ate was atrocious, blood everywhere, all over the front of his Calvin Klein button down, so when he reached her and the body, the least he could do was reach out and hold her hair back as she ate.
Andrea dropped his body to the asphalt once he'd grown limp. Standing straight, she calmed. Her eyes returned to their hazel color and her face was as it always was again. Her mouth was covered in blood and so was the shirt she wore, but finally she felt better. Physically, she felt better. "Sorry about your shirt," she said, eventually looking down. "I...couldn't really think for a few minutes there." The satisfaction was so blinding, she didn't think about the two dead bodies or what their names were or the fact that she'd killed them. She'd fed, and it was a good feeling; something she really wanted.
Johnny smiled at her, a real one, unabashed and crooked teeth and his own satisfaction. "It is still better than the shirt you were wearing before, I'm sure." He held his hand out to her. "So now that we have eaten, we can watch... What was it? ​Children Who Kill​. Sounds sinister."
Andrea licked her lips, wiping her chin with her hand and licking it because she couldn't stop herself. She looked at him, matching his smile and taking his hand with her cleaner one so they could walk back to the car. "It's um, like a list thing they did on the E channel. Like a countdown to the grizzliest crime committed by a kid. I don't know why it's so fascinating." She wouldn't compare them to herself.
Johnny didn't reply until they were both in the car again. "Innocence lost is always fascinating."















