Burned at the Stake: Part 5
Master list
Part 4
Couldn't wait till tomorrow to post.
Content: Vampire whumpee, human whumper, human caretaker, gun violence, blood, pistol whipped, possible eye injury (not described much), betrayal my beloved, vampire trafficking, dragged by the hair cause I'm obsessed, gun wound, blood drinking (but it's satisfying tho)
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Esial woke up to the sound of the front door closing. He laid there in the bed, almost dizzy with how comfy he felt. The blankets were all unimaginably soft, as was the padding he was laying on. He laid there, giddy with the feeling as the general glow of sunlight lit the room gradually through the cracks around the fabric.
He’d have to move to make sure the fabric hid the sunlight better, but he just wanted to sit and enjoy resting.
He dozed off, unaware of the world again. He woke up when Kyle came back and eventually got himself out of bed. He glanced out the window and was surprised to see the sun in the sky through a partially open blind.
He jumped back with a yelp to get away, but realized he hadn’t been burned.
He frowned and stepped forward, moving the blinds and looking at the sun. He hadn’t seen it in so long, it was strange to look at it now. He could feel the warmth of the sun beams, but they weren’t burning him.
He tapped at the strange see through object in between him and the outside. Maybe that was what was protecting him?
There was a knock on the door to the room and it opened up. Esial could smell blood.
He turned and Kyle smiled at him. “Hey, I got breakfast.”
Esial tilted his head. He wasn’t really sure what a ‘breakfast’ was, but he hoped it had something to do with the blood he was smelling.
He followed Kyle to the other room where there was some food on the table.
“I don’t know if you’ll get sick from eating again after starving for so long, so you have a little and if you feel okay you can have more in an hour or so. Is that alright?”
Esial nodded. “Okay… I can have it?”
“Yeah, the blood is in the cup and you should have some of the sandwich.”
Esial sat down on one of the chairs as Kyle sat to eat as well and lifted the cup to his lips, sipping it slowly. He closed his eyes as the blood coated his tongue. It was cow’s blood, and while there was a strange tang to it he didn’t recognize, it was the most delicious thing he could imagine.
“I have a neighbor downstairs who’s a vampire,” Kyle said warmly. “I was able to borrow some of that from him so you’d have something before I run errands later.”
Esial licked into the cup as far as he could reach before lowering the cup, licking his lips as the blissful feeling he’d lost when the sun scared him reemerged.
“Thank you,” he said to Kyle.
Kyle shrugged. “I should have stopped her sooner. I’m sorry, man. She told me she’d let you go.”
Esial frowned into the cup, reaching in a finger in to scoop out some more for himself.
Kyle finished his sandwich before getting up. “I’m going to run errands. I’m going to figure out how we go through the process of getting you taken care of. Don’t want to force you to live with me forever.”
Esial hummed, though he didn’t really understand all that Kyle meant, though he was glad to hear that Kyle didn’t intend to keep him like the woman had.
“I’ll be back in a bit,” Kyle said with a wave as he grabbed some jingly pieces of metal and left out the door.
Esial watched the door for a bit longer before he started to poke around the place. He still couldn’t guess what anything was, though he could assume some of their uses, but he was certainly amused with guessing what certain items were as his wounds slowly began to close.
……………………………….
Joanna had waited all day. When she found her vampire missing, that had made her already bad day worse. She’d gone out drinking the night away after finding a buyer to take the vampire. He was a creepy old dude. Samuel, or something like that. She had his phone number written down so she thankfully wouldn’t have to rely on her hungover state of mind.
She already knew who had taken Esial. The only person who’d known the vampire was here in the first place. She couldn’t really call the police and get it back, so she’d have to do it herself. And she would get it back. Kyle wasn’t tough enough to stand up to her, and the vampire was still weak enough she was certain she could deal with it, especially with a pistol ready to go in her pocket. One shot to the brain and it would certainly go right back to sleep long enough for her to make the deal.
Still, Joanna waited till nighttime so she could drag the vampire out without burning it to a crisp and get noticed and caught.
Something tugged in her heart as she thought about what she might have to do to Kyle but she shook that off quickly, She’d only have to do that if her friend tried to stop her.
Joanna stood at Kyle’s door, his spare key in hand. She could hear people talking inside in Ancient Egyptian. She steeled her resolve, and pushed open the door, gun in hand.
…………………………………
Esial really liked Kyle. The man’s Egyptian was a little rough, but it wasn’t like Esial could say he was a master at English. Kyle was still teaching Esial new words and the vampire was drinking them as quickly as they came, enjoying it all. He had eaten every hour and all of his burns were healed. He’d even been given some proper clothing. Kyle had seemed rather disgusted by the towel Esial had been wearing, and Esial couldn’t help but agree. He tugged at the shirt he wore, still trying to figure out what it was made of as they chatted.
“So, the plan is that I’ll take you to the rehab center tomorrow. They said you could stay there or stay with me in the evenings, whatever works for you,” Kyle said in a mixture of Egyptian and English so Esial could best understand. “You don’t have to decide tonight.”
“I like it here,” Esial suggested.
“How about you wait till you’ve seen that place? It’s really nice. All the bells and whistles. They’ll be able to get you an education and then help you get set up in society with a job and everything. There are a lot of cool options for vampires… though you might be a little limited if you come from the generations that can’t tolerate the sun. Still, I’m sure they’ll have something that will work for you.”
Esial nodded, happy with the knowledge that he could be out doing things again. Maybe even hunting!
There was silence for a moment and Kyle sighed. “I’m really sorry about… everything. What happened to you? Why were you in that clearing?”
Esial frowned, thinking back. It had been a very long time ago and it almost didn’t seem to matter anymore. “I…. don’t really remember. I think they were scared of me?”
He didn’t relive those memories very often as a heart, so they had been mostly forgotten in the vastness of endless agony and boredom. “Maybe…. I think there was another demon around who did something, and they thought it was me? I think I killed some of them when they attacked me, but I was just defending myself.”
Kyle seemed a bit taken aback. “You don’t remember?”
“Not really.”
“That’s…. Strange. I can’t imagine not-What’s wrong?”
Esial stared at the front door, he heard something in the handle click and he smelled-
Esial grabbed Kyle as the door slammed open, pulling the young man down behind the counter they had been sitting at.
There was a loud bang that rang painfully in Esial’s ears and dust shattered out of the wall behind them, settling in their hair.
“Kyle, get out here now,” Joanna said sharply, the door now closed and locked behind her.
“You don’t want to do this, Joanna,” Kyle replied, back pressed against the corner as he carefully looked around the edge. He had some object in hand that Esial didn’t recognize, punching at buttons, but before he could finish that, Joanna was standing over them, the strange weapon in her hand pointed at Kyle’s forehead.
Kyle froze, staring up at her.
“Put the phone down,” she said darkly.
Esial trembled, unsure of what to do. He didn’t know how the weapon worked. Would it kill Kyle before he could knock Joanna away? Kyle had a firm hold on one of Esial’s wrists, maybe to keep him from trying.
Kyle did so, and Joanna kicked the object off down the hall.
“This is how it’s going to go,” Joanna said, leaning down. She grabbed Esial by the hair, making the vampire shudder and grab her wrist with his free hand, remembering very clearly the last time she had done so. “I’m taking the vampire, and you’re going to come with me quietly. Mmkay? I’m selling it off and you’re going to be involved so if you tell the police, you’re getting arrested too, got it?”
Kyle gritted his teeth for a moment, but she touched the still hot tip of the weapon to his forehead, making him flinch back and hit his head off the counter. “Got it?”
“Yeah, fine,” Kyle snarled.
Esial could see the fire in Kyle’s eyes and knew that his rescuer was making no promises to this woman. Joanna could tell too, it seemed, because she whipped the gun across Kyle’s face, sending him fully prone to the ground.
Esial moved, trying to wrench himself out of her grasp and get Kyle, but the weapon was pressed to his head. The dust still in his hair felt heavy with the promise of what pain this weapon could promise.
“You, Vampire, are going to behave yourself, or I kill him,” Joanna said, eliciting a groan from Kyle as he tried to get an elbow under himself, his hand to his face.
“What happened, hsss, to me being involved?” Kyle asked, looking up at her through his fingers.
“You just made it very clear you’re not going to comply. This could have been so much easier if you’d stayed out of all this, Kyle. I don’t want you to die, but you’ve made this complicated,” she said standing up and dragging Esial up with her. “Get up, Kyle.”
Kyle did so, hand over one eye. His breathing was picking up, and he was getting paler by the minute. Esial could smell his blood.
“Alright. You’ll be walking ahead of us, and if you get any bright ideas-”
There came a knocking at the door and the three of them froze.
“Kyle?” someone called through the door. “You alright?”
Kyle was silent and Joanna finally hissed, “Tell him everything is fine.”
Reluctantly, Kyle cleared his throat. “Joseph?”
“Yeah, you alright?”
Kyle didn’t even hesitate. He simply screamed. There were no comprehensible words in the scream, but is soon took on the sound of pain as another bang ricocheted in Esial’s skull and Kyle went down with blood spewing out his side.
Esial heard the door splinter, he heard Kyle wailing, he heard Joanna’s blood pounding, and he heard his hair rip as he lunged forward, sinking his fangs into the arm holding the weapon. Her blood sprang up into his mouth, and some ancient instinct told him to drink.
He’d eaten all day, but his body was still starving and this….. He’d never had human blood before. It was…..
Tough hands pried him off of a fallen woman and he lunged to try and get more. There was nothing in this world that could taste that good, he was sure of it. His mouth sang with flavor and all he wanted was more. He would be fully healed to the point where he could fight hippos again. No one would ever hurt him again, he would never be held down by chains and he-
“Oi! Leave it!”
The words pierced his mind and he became aware of how he was salivating, the spit and blood dripping down his front, He felt bloated and overful, there was energy coursing through his veins and stars appearing in his vision as the vampire named Joseph hauled him back away from where Joanna had fallen, still breathing. Barely.
There were other people in the apartment, some using devices and talking to people Esial couldn’t see and someone was holding Kyle’s wound.
Esial couldn’t control his breathing, and he was still enough for Joseph to get a better grip on him. “S’alright, man. You back?”
Esial twisted his head to try and see Joseph’s face. He didn’t respond other than to simply tremble, ignoring the blood pooling out in two different places in the apartment as someone clamped their hand over Joanna’s wound.
“It’s alright,” Joseph said steadily. “You’re alright. I’ve got you. Looks like Kyle’s gonna be okay too.”
Esial slowly relaxed, hearing loud wailing noises not made by any mouth approaching the building. “Alright….”
Esial: @whumpsday @honeycollectswhump @writereleaserepeat @tragedyinblue @hyrules-sleepiest-knight
Before you go
I know a lot of you really like this, I am planning on doing more in this world and Esial and Kyle will show up in those as side or main characters. If you want to be tagged in anything made in this world (I don't have a name for it yet but I'll think of one) let me know.
Part 6
