[PM] Excellent, so I can add this to my contacts. And what sort of dance lessons? I have three hundred years of dance styles to choose from.
[PM] Well... Probably more like two hundred fifty, give or take. I can honestly say any trend after the nineteen sixties I never bothered to learn.
[PM] Yes, rest assured this isn't a number to a random restaurant.
[PM] I can't say I would know a good dance to learn in the first place. I'm afraid that will have to be up to you.
[PM] Not a fan of the more modern era, are you? I find that there's more freedom of expression with the 60s and onward, personally.
TIMING: last week
SETTING: outside sofie's office
SUMMARY: sofie still has people trying to find her. zane just wanted to check out some antiques
She was in the little store front she rented in Nightfall Grove, sorting through some pieces for a meeting the following day. The client was from out of town, but they had heard about her through a friend of a friend, as people usually did. This time is was Tiffany lamps. Lucky for the man, Sofie had a few. Lucky for Sofie, they could go for a pretty penny. She was about to lock up and go enjoy the rest of her evening when she heard a noise from the back room. She froze. She was fairly certain she’d locked the back door when she’d come in. She stood silently, listening. There was a clank and a hiss of muttered curses. She bolted for the door.
They’d found her- they must have found her. It has been years and she thought she’d been careful- wasn’t she careful? Apparently not, because as she bolted she heard footsteps chasing behind her. Sofie’s feet pounded against the floor and she took off out the door and started running down the street. She got a few yards before she ran directly into someone. Her mind still racing a mile a minute, she didn’t think as her eyes flared red and her fangs grew. She hissed like a cornered animal, and stumbled to get her footing. “Let me go,” was all she said.
____________________________________
Talking with the antiquities dealer online had brought up stuff Zane had gone some time without thinking about. He’d never had many possession, even back home with his parents, and all the moving around had never given him a chance to change that. The only things he had from his childhood had been the clothes on his back and the memorabilia currently wrapped in a sock and contained to his pocket. He hadn’t tried to look at it after turning, having packaged it away after some warnings from Alma about the effects on the clan. Now, he wondered why he even clung on to the golden cross, not having worn it for five years and never getting the chance to again. Maybe the antique lady was the perfect person to take it off his hands.
While debating the rashness of this decision, Zane didn’t really have time to prepare for another person barrelling full force into him. It was all he could do to not fall down, hands bracing on the woman’s upper arms to steady the both of them. Red eyes stared back at him and fangs glinted in her mouth and for a moment, Zane’s panic overtook the fact that she was like him. Just out in the wild. Panic heightened as he finally spotted why this strange vampire had been running - someone was chasing her. Was it another person who tracked down vampires? Shit.
His own eyes flashed red as he looked down at the stranger, hands moving away from her at the hissed warning. The one in pursuit seemed to slow for a second, clearly evaluation the situation before he was nearing again, now at a slower, more calculated pace. “Follow me,” Zane said without thinking, wanting to grab at her hand but thinking better off it, as he took off down the street, away from the danger. Hoping that she would follow him.
——————————————————————
Red eyes. They had red eyes, like her. She wasn’t sure if she wanted to sob in relief or scream at herself that she was going to get some poor unsuspecting vampire killed with her. A hasty glance over her shoulder told her she didn’t have much time. To make any decisions on how to proceed. It was fight or flight, and Sofie knew in a fight she didn’t stand a chance. If she survived the night she was going to ask Metzli to teach her to properly use a knife.
Sofie didn’t hesitate. She let out a strangled “Okay,” and took off down the street after the stranger, hoping that the hunter fell behind or changed their mind. She glanced over her shoulder every so often, to see if they were still being pursued. She scrambled to keep up, and reached out to hold on to the stranger so she wouldn’t lose them. “I’m so sorry,” she managed as they ran. “-Didn’t mean to get you in a mess too,”
_________________________________________
Zane felt the grip on his sweater sleeve which was comforting. It meant that he was neither alone in running away nor had the woman been turned to dust behind him. This was the first vampire he’d met outside of the clan and he was not going to watch her get turned to dust if he could help it. Maybe she was all alone, didn’t have a clan to look after her and make sure she was okay. Speaking of, at this rate Alma would end up giving Zane a chaperone. These run ins were getting way too frequent. Or maybe he just needed to stop being dumb, who knew.
There was no real plan to this running, the closest place he could think of was the University downtown, which might provide them with enough cover or at least a hiding spot. The words suddenly spoken caught him off guard. Sorry? She hadn't really done much, this was just shit timing. “It’s fine,” came the quick reply as he spared her a glance. She looked genuinely guilty. “As long as we don’t die,” he added as they were still being chased.
“Don’t suppose you have any fighting skills?”
__________________________________________
Sofie gave a weak laugh. “No, obtaining some was on my to do list for the week. I guess I should have bumped it up in my schedule.” Wonderful time to make jokes, Sofie. You’re about to die with this poor stranger, but at least your epitaph can say she laughed in the face of death.
She riffled through her purse for something she could use. Anything. She was beginning to realize just how little her sire had taught her. We are perfectly safe, ma colombe, why would we need to fight? A voice from ages past whispered through her mind. This is why, Seraphine. Sofie thought in reply. This is why.
She pulled out her keychain with the tiny swiss army knife attached and held it up. “It’s worth a shot?”
Staring at the tiny knife, Zane evaluated their options. They could keep running, sure. But there’s was also two of them and one of him. Vampires were strong and according to what little information he’d gotten from Alma, pretty hard to kill. Not impossible, obviously, given that he’d witnessed a literal execution just days ago. It wasn’t even like they needed to fight him to the death. Just… scare him off.
“It’s definitely worth something,” Zane agreed, shoving over a trash can they ran past in hopes of slowing him down. “Stop on three and charge at him? Maybe if he thinks we can fight him he’ll run off?” As far as plans went, it wasn’t a good one. Running through the whole town, wondering if he had back up on the way, also wasn’t high on that list. He could grab at something in the vicinity, use it to force the man away, not giving him a chance to stake them or whatever it was he planned on doing.
—--
Sofie watched over her shoulder as the trash can bounced on the side walk, rolling directly into their pursuers path. At least her new companion could keep his head on his shoulders at a time like this. Another glance over her shoulder and she watched the hunter skid to an awkward halt to reroute around the trash and continue his chase.
“It’s as good a plan as any,” Sofie grimaced as she said it. “On three.” She agreed. “One,” God this could go badly. “Two,” if she made it out of this unscathed she was going to invest in security cameras and better locks. “Three!”
_________________
Stomach jolting with anxiety, Zane turned, focus divided between his friend in crisis and the now startled man. The choice of “weapons” wasn’t good but the broken bottle would have to do, snatched up from the sticky ground and immediately held out towards the threat. The man looked more confused than scared, really, which Zane couldn’t blame him for. A small swiss army knife and a broken bottle in the hands of two, clearly very incapable, vampires. What, like Zane was going to tear into his jugular with his teeth? He didn’t even really plan on getting those jagged bottle edges anywhere near the man’s skin if he could help it.
“Back the fuck off.” It was his best attempt at intimidation, a somewhat poor one at that but still. More things to say rattled around his brain, bottle a bit too unsteady in his hand. “There’s two of us now but more on the way,” was what it finally landed on, a bold faced lie but hopefully the intensity of his fear made it sound somewhat believable. He really, really didn’t want this to end in a fight.
______________
Sofie came to a halt after the word left her mouth. She glanced at her compatriot and his broken bottle. This was either going to go very well for them, or very, very badly. By some miracle she managed not to look surprised at his bluff. No one was coming to help them unless this new vampire had some magical panic button that would have aid on the way. But based on the bottle and the tiny little army knife they had as weapons, that wasn’t very likely.
The hunter skidded to a stop. In the street light Sofie could see them better now. They looked on the young side, and now that they were faced with two vampires who looked ready to bring this to an end, they seemed unsure of themself. They shifted on their feet for a moment, and Sofie took the opportunity to fake a lunge at them. The novice hunter turned and ran, the prospect of more vampires clearly too much for them. She watched as they ran, dumbfounded that it had actually worked. “Thank you,” She said, sounding mystified as she watched them disappear after turning a corner. She finally turned her attention to her new ally. “Thank you. If you hadn’t come up with that, he would have chased me into a corner.”
______________
Zane stared after the man for a moment too long, muscles still tense with worry as he turned back to the woman. “What? Oh, yeah, no problem. Watch enough movies, you get good at bullshitting, I guess. Good call with the fake out, too.” He watched her for a while, brain finally getting a moment to fully comprehend the situation now that imminent death wasn’t on the agenda. Another vampire, seemingly on her own, and one that hadn’t seemed exactly surprised by the man trying to chase her down and stab her.
Energy swelling up in his limbs now that it had nowhere to go, Zane’s feet were on the move, starting to walk at a considerably slower pace than they’d been traveling just moments before. Getting some more distance between them and the would-be murderer didn’t seem like a bad idea, anyway. “Did you know that guy? Because I saw someone I know get turned into dust by some stranger and he tried to chase me down as well. Is that like… a thing?”
—--
Sofie drew deep breaths into her lungs, even if she didn’t need them. If nothing else, the motion of it was soothing. She shook her head emphatically at his question. “No, not don’t…. At least I hope I don’t.” If she did know who it was, she would have had a much bigger set of issues. “They must have been trailing me, or noticed I kept off hours- I thought I was being careful enough.”
The second half of his sentence registered in her mind and her face fell. “Oh… oh my goodness I am so sorry.” Her apologies were useless, but what else did she have? “It is ‘a thing’ for us, unfortunately.” She explained. “Our existence isn’t exactly…” Sofie searched for the right word. “Palatable. To some.”
___
So it had been a stranger, aware of this woman’s… undeath. Did they have a file somewhere about vampires? How would they even know, Zane hadn’t told anyone outside of his clan so was he on that list now? Had the guy outside the hospital known that he was a vampire and made sure everyone else knew it? Man, he should have told Alma about the encounter with the stranger with the bad knee.
She was apologizing now, for the death of a vampire she hadn’t even known and Zane decided that he liked her. “Right.” It was all he could think to reply. Not palatable. So Zane had a group of people that accepted him now but as a result, his very existence was an offense to others. Excellent… “Guess they skipped that part in the clan introduction,” he added under his breath, finally slowing his walk to meet the stranger’s eyes. “Speaking of, I should probably get back. I’m not a big fighting help but I could walk you to someone from your clan, make sure you get there safe. Oh, uh, Zane. By the way.” He reached out a hand for a lack of a better greeting even though running from death with someone just made him want to hug them.
______
Just how new was this vampire Sofie thought to herself, that he doesn’t know about hunters? Or just how lax was his clan on the important details of vampire life? Although she supposed she shouldn’t judge. She knew of hunters when she was still a young creature, but hadn’t accepted the reality of them until years later.
The expression on her face soured for a moment, but settled into something that vaguely resembled a smile. “I’m the only one in my clan around here.” She was the only one in her clan period. “I don’t live too far from here though, just a few blocks away.” Sofie took his hand and shook it. “Sofie, it’s a pleasure.” The discussion of clans had her interest piqued and she couldn’t help but ask. “So what clan are you a part of that they skip the important detail of slayers in the introduction?”
_________
There was a definite shift in Sofie’s expression as he talked about clans but with the high of surviving death still metaphorically running through his veins, Zane didn’t linger on it. The explanation came, he supposed, in her reply. She was the only one here, which was interesting and also quite sad. Zane couldn’t imagine having to go through everything on his own; getting food, being stuck inside on sunny days, talking to someone about the nagging voice in his head every time he went too long without feeding. “Sorry to hear that.”
Without asking, he had taken on the job of walking her home. As bad as his protection was, at least it had helped her out earlier which was something. The question about his clan made Zane pause, wondering just how hush-hush things were supposed to be. He knew that telling people about town about his newly acquired undeath was a big no but telling other vampires… “I think they’re just trying to ease me in, I guess. They did warn me not to wander about too much but I get restless easy so…” Yeah, it was almost definitely obvious that he’d skipped a whole part of her question but he didn’t know Sofie yet. He liked her, innately trusted her in a way but Alma and the other didn’t feel like his to talk about. “Maybe I should tell them to work on a pamphlet or something. Would probably have made some of this easier. Not that I’m, like, complaining or anything. Just… different, is all.”
__________
The only answer she provided was a shrug. He was young, or so she assumed. It was best not to scare him with stories like hers when he was just getting started. “It’s alright. You get used to it, I suppose.” Sofie lied. Sofie had never gotten used to it. Not the quiet, not the solitude, not the boredom. Not the little reminders of what she would never get back. None of it.
So when Zane fell in step with her, she was grateful for the companionship. It would be nice to not have to walk home alone. “It’s certainly a change.” She offered a friendly smile, her nerves finally settled. “It takes some time to get used to all of it… How long have you been this way, if you don’t mind my asking?
_____
Zane nodded along, hoping she was right. That it would start to feel more normal - being able to smell people’s blood, no longer having dreams, not feeling his heart race after a good run, sometimes wondering what it would feel like to actually sink his fangs into something… “Here’s hoping. No turning back, anyway.” Just another of his rash, ill thought out decisions to deal with.
Sofie had a calming effect, he found. Her smile was genuine and it was nice to talk to someone while not having to wonder in the back of your mind what they would taste like. Sure, Zane had that back at the house but at times, he still felt like the new addition. It had been months but for some of the vampires back at the house, it probably seemed like a blip. He was the kid, constantly being reminded about the sun and asked whether or not he’d accidentally eaten someone yet. All jokes, sure, but every one of them chipped away at something unseen. So he hesitated at Sofie’s question, not wanting to get the same patronizing attitude from her, too.
“Not… not long. Which you probably already guessed seeing as I don’t seem to know shit.” He laughed but it fell flat, the condescending undertone reminding him to shove it all back in. No need to overshare with this still-stranger about the most likely unnecessary worries over his new life. “You?”
—-
A snort of a laugh erupted from Sofie. “Well, it was a hint. But don’t feel bad. I’m well past my three hundredth birthday, and I’m still learning some things.” She was careful to keep her voice low. It didn’t seem like anyone was around to eavesdrop on their little conversation, but since their introductions had been made while on the run from a slayer, Sofie wasn’t about to take any unnecessary risks.
“Though if it helps, I suppose you could look at it this way.” She began, looking over at the younger vampire as they walked along. “You were a human all your life. You existed in that state for many years. Did you have being a human completely figured out? Can you say beyond a shadow of a doubt you knew exactly how you would react in any possible scenario? Do you know for certain exactly how many years you would live for?” She shrugged. “It’s not so different existing like this. Unless you plan to spend your now elongated existence doing scientific studies on how you and others of our kind function, you will still be in the comfortably uncomfortable camp of not having all of the answers.” Sofie cocked her head to the side. “Did that make sense, or have I just confused you more?”
______
Three hundred? Zane couldn’t even begin to wrap his head around living out a whole human lifetime, much less three of them. “You don’t look a day over a hundred?” he replied sheepishly, not sure how else to process this information. He knew that Alma, for instance, was definitely older than she looked but he’d never heard a number this big in regards to years actually lived said out loud before. Questions were already bubbling up in his chest but this wasn’t the time.
He listened carefully as Sofie spoke, now fully feeling the weight of three hundred years of knowledge. Zane had gone through more than a few existential crises considering his age but realizing that your life wouldn’t end with the world imploding left a lot of things to think about. It had been a stroke of luck to even find a career that he actually enjoyed, seeing as his twelve year old self hadn’t been wondering about what he wanted to be or do when he grew up.
“Definitely still confused but… comforted, I guess? I don’t know, just… ten years ago I thought I wouldn’t make it to twenty and now I have all this time and no idea if I’m spending it right or even if I made the right choice-” Zane cut himself off, feeling the uncomfortable spiral spinning out of control in his head before he reigned it in. “Sorry. Side effect from almost dying just now, I think. You’re… really nice to talk to. Thank you.”
_____
A delighted laugh rang out, echoing down the empty street. “Flattery will get you everywhere.” She grinned. Sofie knew full well she had surprised him with her age. Most people didn’t think the young woman standing beside them on the street had been around since the time the state they were in was still a colony.
A sympathetic smile unfolded on her face. She could remember back to the start. The memories had grown fuzzy with time, but she still remembered the cyclone of questions that had swirled around in her mind. Time had provided some clarity, but even now she still had questions and what-ifs. She had more what-ifs than anything else in the world.
“You’ll never be entirely sure it was the right choice.” She sighed, patting him gently on the shoulder. “It was the choice you made. From that choice are endless strings of different futures. But you can’t untangle the knots you’ve made on your string. You just have to keep making new choices, making your string longer as you tie it to new choices.” She shook her head, tossing off the melancholy. “Well, so are you. You can talk to me anytime. I’m sure your clan has plenty of answers on the way they do things. But if you ever want an outsider's perspective, you’re always welcome to mine.”
_____
It was an odd one, this feeling of instant connection with a complete stranger. Zane could count on one hand the number of facts he currently knew about Sofie but it seemed that running from a weapon together made things like facts matter less. It was as if he knew all he needed to at this moment and apparently, so did she. As of right now, she was the only person on earth that knew about his real identity and, however vaguely, his struggles with it. Confiding in someone had been nice. It had never felt right, talking to the rest of his clan about this as they all seemed so comfortable in their skin, so sure in their purpose. Talking about it would have only made Zane feel like more of an outlier than he already did. But Sofie seemed to be some kind of outcast herself.
The gentle shoulder pat was comforting in so many ways and never before had he been so grateful for a situation that made him fear for his life. Not that he’d had that many life threatening situations before but the numbers were really racking up these past few months. “I think an outsider’s perspective will definitely come in handy.” Zane smiled, feeling the last of the night’s panic simmer away in the woman’s presence. The offer seemed like a genuine one and he would definitely be taking her up on it.
TIMING: Before The Sound of Silence
LOCATION: Mistwood Park
PARTIES: @sofiedupont and @chasseurdeloup
SUMMARY: Kaden runs into Sofie while definitely not out hunting.
Usually, Sofie hated silence. But sometimes she simply needed to get as far away from everything as she possibly could. She couldn’t explain why, but the answer for her had always been cemeteries.
She supposed it was the peace that they promised. The eternal resting place for those who had slipped off their mortal coil. There was usually nothing to disturb her other than the occasional song of a nightingale. Sofie sat beneath a tree near someone’s headstone who was only a few years younger than she was. She supposed that was also part of it- the irony of it. She belonged in a place like this. It was easier to remember that now that the grand party that had been the Fleur de Sang was over. She belonged beneath a tree thousands of miles away from this town. But she had thumbed her nose at death, and had been running from it for centuries now.
Sofie sighed, letting the night air fill her lungs. Then a scent caught the breeze. Someone was there. She plucked a rock from the ground and placed it atop the headstone as she stood up. Goodbye for now, friend. She forced herself to jump when she heard a twig snap nearby. “You startled me, I didn’t think anyone else was here.”
___________________
Kaden didn’t typically frequent cemeteries, at least not if he didn't have to. The perks of not being a slayer. Most of them were dark and old and musty, not a place he really enjoyed. Still, he helped out with a few necrophages now and then. More hellhounds and gwyllgi had died by his hand than he could count at this point. On his way home from a “walk” (hunt) in the woods, he had every intention of passing right by the cemetery and ignoring it.
Instead, he turned and walked inside the gates. He sensed something in the area, though he couldn’t say what. Then again, in this town it felt like the hairs on the back of his arms were permanently standing on edge. There were so many monsters and shapeshifters, his hunter sense all got muddled and blurred. Not to mention living with a werewolf sure threw him off balance. So in all likelihood, there was no supernatural beast waiting for him in the cemetery, but it didn’t hurt to check.
The place was huge, definitely not some old rundown graveyard that he was used to seeing. This almost felt like a park built around the memorials and tombstones lining the paths. A sensation shot down his spine and Kaden pivoted towards it. Knowing his luck, it was only going to be an agropelter. Even so, he tried to be as quiet as possible. Turning the corner, he took a sharp breath when he saw he wasn’t alone. Merde. Kaden started to back away – go finish his hunt elsewhere – when a twig snapped beneath his shoe. Shit.
So much for walking away. “Uh, yeah, sorry,” he said, stumbling over his words. “I didn’t think anyone else was here, either. Kind of late and all.” He still had half a mind to walk away then, but what if the monster he sensed was something much more dangerous than a little chickcharney? Putain. He couldn’t just leave her here to fend for herself. Guess the hunt was over before it started. “What brings you out here this time of night?”
___________________
“I suppose I just lost track of the time.” A shrug of the shoulders and she all but dismissed how late it was. Sofie had to imagine there were people doing stranger things than hanging out in cemeteries after hours. After all, this one was practically a park that had a dual purpose as people’s final resting place.
“It’s quiet.” She explained simply with a smile. It was a rare thing, for Sofie to crave a moment of solitude. She almost always preferred the company of others. It was easy to get lost in the stories and lives of others and let any of her own worries slip away. But sometimes the noise didn’t help. On those rare occasions, she’d slip off someplace quiet, and she had found cemeteries offered the peace she needed. “It’s easier to think out here. They’re not going to judge me.” She said, waving to the headstone she’d been sat next to. “What are you doing out here so late?” She asked, turning the question back on the stranger.
___________________
Her voice sounded like she had money, or at least grew up around people who did. Or maybe she just had manners, Kaden couldn’t say one way or the other beyond the fact that it sounded proper. “Guess that can happen,” he said, trying to feel if whatever set off his hunter senses was still around. It was about the same as it was when he’d stepped into this part of the cemetery. Good. Granted, he’d lost the trail a little, hard to say what direction it was going in. By all accounts, he should go follow it, leave this whole weird interaction behind. Right, how was he going to explain that? And keep her from following and out of the cemetery? Putain.
“I can’t argue with that,” Kaden said with a nod. He was turning his head, trying to look for any sign of any supernatural creatures or necrophages lurking around in addition to trying to spot the fastest way out of there. “Huh?” her question caught him off guard. Merde. How was he going to explain running around a cemetery at night with knives, a pistol, and a machete hanging from his belt. “Oh, uh, I’m… out for a walk. Here. Because…” Putain, he should have stopped talking while he was ahead. “Fastest way home. Cutting through here just saves some time.” He had no idea if that was even remotely true but it sounded like it could be, right?
___________________
He was a bit rough around the edges, wasn’t he? Sofie supposed that it might also just be that she’d startled him by being in a cemetery in the evening. She supposed there were a great number of scary stories that began in such a fashion. He smelled normal enough- probably just some human out late in the evening. Nothing really to worry about. Except for the veritable artillery he had strapped about his waist. Now that could present a problem. But given the fact that he hadn’t simply attacked her and politely attempted to remove her head so she would become a very old pile of dust, she had to assume she was safe from that sharp looking machete. For now.
She glanced over her shoulder further into the cemetery. It might not be a lie, she supposed. It wasn’t as though she’d scoped every inch of the cemetery, so she wasn’t sure if there were homes surrounding the property. It was a strange enough town that Sofie supposed it was possible- probably, even. She let the thought go as she nodded. “Fair enough. The shortest distance between two points being a straight line, and all that.” Except it probably wouldn’t be a straight line if he had to move around headstones and mausoleums. “That for cutting your way through the bushes?” She teased, nodding to the machete. She knew she shouldn’t bring attention to it, but she figured any sane person would. Or anyone who would be voted most likely to die first in one of those horror films today's youth seemed so keen on watching in the cinemas.
___________________
“What?” Kaden had to look down to follow the path of her eye line, straight to the machete. “Putain de merde,” he mumbled under his breath. “Right, that. I…” He reached up to rub the nape of his neck, trying to pull some sort of excuse out of thin air. “I mentioned I was animal control, right? Sometimes I need to get to some pretty strange places. Gotta cut through. Branches and bushes. And things.” Kaden wasn’t too sure how plausible that was considering that, in his experience, the weapon was a lot handier with monsters than animals.
“Not to mention, you never know when you’re going to run into trouble in this town,” he added, “Doesn’t hurt to be prepared.” He watched her, wondering if she was aware of all the strange going-ons in town and to what extent. Most people seemed to handwave it all easily enough. If he hadn’t grown up seeing the same reactions time and time again, it’d be nearly unbelievable the sheer amount of denial one place could harbor. A familiar chill ran down his spine again and his hand went to the handle of his weapon as he glanced around them, looking for the source. Merde. He’d forgotten he wasn’t alone, instincts had taken over. He managed to redirect his hand to his front pocket, trying to make it look natural enough. “So, uh, anyway, which way are you headed?”
___________________
Sofie’s eyebrows shot up at the expression, and she failed to conceal an amused snort. “Manners, Monsieur.” The vampire chided, amusement still hanging in her voice. “The dead will roll over in their graves with talk like that.” She shook her head at his explanation. “No, you neglected to mention that part.” She supposed that made sense. Some people let their property get turned into tangles of vines and thorns, and something that sharp would probably be the easiest way to get past.
And then of course there was the fact that this was Wicked’s Rest. Sofie shuddered to think of what sort of creature might require a knife that large. At least she was armed with Cassius’s knife now. It was a comfort to know she wouldn’t be relying solely on running any longer. So long as she followed through on taking lessons from Metzli. Her eyebrow raised a quarter of an inch as she watched his hand float onto the handle of the blade. She didn’t smell anything off. Perhaps he was just skittish? She hoped as much. While she did have a knife tucked safely away in the pocket of her skirt, she did not want to use it. She looked around at his question, and the corners of her mouth were towed downward as if by tiny anchors. “That is a marvelous question. The exit? I don’t quite remember the way I came in, and I’m a bit turned around in the dark.” It was a half truth- she could see just fine in the darkness, but she truly couldn’t remember which direction she’d come from. “Do you know which direction the nearest way out is?”
___________________
Kaden’s face scrunched in confusion as she scolded him. “Right, uh, je suis désolé, mademoiselle.” Did that just really happen? Did he just get scolded like a child? “I think they’ll recover. Probably not the worst they heard.” He had to wonder where she learned French swear words. He’d only been in town for so long, they couldn’t have caught on that fast. “I’m actually a little shocked you knew what I was saying. Most around here don’t.” Which was fine by him. As strange as it was to not speak his native language as often as he used to, he didn’t mind when people had no idea he was cursing (and sometimes insulting them) under his breath. At least most people had no idea he was swearing.
His focus fell from his lingering hunter senses as she spoke. “I guess that’s what happens when you wander into cemeteries at night.” Whatever it was that was out there, he wasn’t about to leave her here to find out by herself. Kaden had to wonder if this was how a lot of residents of Wicked’s Rest died – lost in the cemeteries at night. It was hard to see at times, even for him and seeing in darkness wasn’t a huge issue for him. “It should be this way,” he said pointing towards the left. “I can pretend I have some manners and walk you out. If you want.”
___________________
A delighted laugh left her at another sound of the place she called home for so long. “Ne t'inquiète pas mon ami, ne t'inquiète pas.” She chirped, happy to speak the language once again. “I lived in France for many years. You pick up a thing or two after a while.” Sofie explained. And after a few centuries, you picked up even more.
Her smile grew sheepish and she shrugged as if to say what can you do? “You may have a point there.” She wasn’t scared to be alone in the night, but she supposed someone with a beating heart would be, so she made sure to play the part. Her mind wandered back to previous evenings, and that was enough to make her shiver. “Yes please,” Sofie said gratefully. If that slayer came back, he likely wouldn’t finish the job if it looked as though he were attacking an innocent young woman. “And I was only teasing.” She grinned. “My brother had a far worse mouth on him than you- nearly every other word out of him was a swear.”
___________________
“That explains it,” Kaden replied in French. “I’m from Lyon, just moved here pretty recently. It’s definitely been an adjustment.” He hadn’t let himself think much about home or change or let himself miss anything, at least as much as he could. It wasn’t worth dwelling on, it would only dredge up too many other things with it. He didn’t have time for that.
“Ladies first,” he said, holding his hand out in a gesture allowing her to take the lead, exaggerating his movements. If she was going to tease, he could follow suit. “That so?” he asked as they walked along the path towards the– well, one of the exits. He didn’t actually know if where they were headed was actually closer to the cabin or farther away. Guess he’d have to figure that out later. “See I try to make a good impression when I can. Have to keep the cursing to every other sentence at first, you know?” Thankfully his hunter senses weren’t getting any stronger. They weren’t letting up exactly, either. Putain. The wind whistled through the trees, the only break in the lingering silence. “So, where’s your brother now? He in town?” That was how small talk worked, right?
___________________
The location clicked in her mind. Hadn’t she recently chatted with someone online from Lyon? “I lived in the Val de Loire. Near Amboise.” It had been like something out of a fairytale, and it lived on as such in her memory. The name of the town brought a wistful smile to Sofie’s face. “It is lovely here, but it’s definitely a change of pace.”
She laughed, tilting in a half-curtsy before continuing on the path. “Merci,” Sofie walked along, hopefully in the direction of an exit. She didn’t particularly care which. The wistfulness left her smile at the question, but she managed to keep it from dissolving entirely. “Ah,” she cleared her throat and shook her head. “No. No, it is just me here. I almost miss all his swearing. ” I miss it constantly. She didn’t offer an explanation, but didn’t close off the line of questioning either. “And what about you? Any family in town?”
___________________
Val de Loire? Wait a minute, someone else mentioned there. And Amboise. Kaden narrowed his eyes, working to piece the puzzle together. “Wait, are you the one with the crabs?” Huh, maybe that wasn’t the best way to phrase it. “I mean, in your vase. I think we talked earlier. About those. And coffee.” Putain, he didn’t need to make himself look like more of an idiot than he was. “Anyway, yeah, pretty different here than France. Some parts are nicer.” Like the distance from his sister. “Some parts, less so.” Like the cheese.
Kaden nodded. “I know the feeling.” Sort of. As much as he hated Keira, he missed her. Or at least the version of her that would make silly masks for them both every Purim. He wasn’t sure she existed anymore. “My sister, she’s still in France. But, uh, my cousins are here. That’s why I came.” Not that he knew them as well as he felt like he should to be the guy crashing on their couch. Even so, something was still there, something shared that he couldn’t name that bound them together. It was enough. “You been here long?”
___________________
Sofie blinked a minute, before it clicked into place in her mind. “Yes! That is me!” She exclaimed. Every day that passed over the years had taught her the world was an incredibly small place. She had figured it would be only a matter of time until she came across the person she’d spoken to online. “That can be said of anywhere I believe. I do miss it from time to time. Especially the coffee.”
It must have been nice, she thought, to have people nearby. Even cousins. To have familiar people. She supposed she was slowly collecting something akin to it. The more undead she came across and befriended, the more she felt less alone. And that was they key, she’d found, to making immortality worthwhile. Companionship. Sofie shook her head. “In town? No, not terribly long. I only arrived a little under a month ago. I’ve been in the country for a few years though.” It wasn’t entirely a lie. A little under a century wasn’t a terribly long time in the grand scheme of things.
___________________
“The coffee and pastries are on top of the list of things I miss,” Kaden agreed with a small smile. Maybe he would get used to the absurd amount of sugar used on this side of the pond. Yeah, probably not. Still, there was something a little comforting about having someone else in town who was also new and had lived in the same part of the world, even if there was a gap in time there.
They turned a corner and Kaden could see the pathway that led to the exit just ahead but as soon as they faced it, a chill swept down his spine. It was here, whatever monster he had been tracking. Had to be. He paused and held his hand out to let her know to slow down. “I think we might not be al–”
The hunter barely got the sentence out when a black flash of fur launched itself at his head, screeching on the way down. “Putain! Fucking hell, merde!” he shouted while flailing to get the creature, whatever it was off of him. He felt tiny teeth on his ear and smacked at the source, missing as it slinked away and slapped his head instead. Kaden was about to grab hold of the thing when it leapt off him and towards his current companion. Shit.
___________________
She slowed, confused as he held a hand out. The sentence hadn’t finished before a squirrel from hell flew onto his head. Sofie yelped in surprise. Wide eyed surprise allowed her to take in the situation. Her initial instinct upon seeing the flying ball of black fuzz had been that it was a squirrel. Watching as it scrambled around the man’s head, it was evident that it was no such thing. “Merde-“
Sofie bent to snatch a stray stick off the ground, hoping she could use it to poke the little beast off. This had been the wrong decision apparently, as her fingers had just closed around the stick when the screeching and chittering got closer, and she felt fur and little paws on her head, moving down onto her back.
The vampire shrieked, a string of swears leaving her mouth as the not-squirrel crawled around to her front. Sofie tried to whack it off with the stick, but it’s little hands grabbed it with a strength that didn’t match its small stature, yanking the improvised weapon from her hands. “What the hell?!”
___________________
Fucking agropelter. This little piece of shit wasn’t even what set off his senses. He could still feel them ringing out but he sure as shit couldn’t focus on them while the fucking fae squirrel was fucking there. “Putain de merde!” Kaden turned to his current companion to see if she was okay and saw the stick she’d been using flying to the side. She was lucky that wasn’t her entire hand.
What a fucking time to be without any iron weapons. Sure, he should be prepared for anything, but he still wasn’t a fucking warden and an iron knife took space away from carrying something else that was usually more useful. Kaden grabbed a plain-old knife from his belt and reached out with his free hand to try and yank the creature away from her. Piece of shit was fast and leapt away from the hunter’s grip onto his arm. He tried to shake it away and it only crawled onto his other shoulder. “Goddamnit!” He couldn’t stab it like this, all he’d do was stab himself. Kaden looked to his left and tried to shrug the argopelter to his other shoulder before slamming it into the tree next to him.
That was going to fucking hurt in the morning. Hell, it hurt now. “Did I get it?”
___________________
Sofie didn’t like that a creature a fraction of her size could wrench something from her hands like it was nothing. The fact that it was scrabbling all over her companion was worse. If it could do that to a stick, what would it do to a limb?
She looked around for something to throw at the little bastard when the man pulled out a knife. But how was he going to stab something that was on his back? Her question was answered quickly enough as the man launched himself into a tree. There was a little squeak from the creature, but silence followed. “I think so,” Sofie said softly, creeping her way around to catch a glimpse. “It looks like you knocked it out… Are you alright?”
___________________
Kaden rubbed his shoulder as he looked down at the limp body of the agropelter sprawled on the ground. The hunter crouched down, leaning over to try and listen, check if he could hear a heartbeat. He had learned to filter sound and was usually able to ignore most things his enhanced hearing picked up, but now he was concentrating. He could hear the wind through the branches, crickets chirping, and a small, faint heartbeat coming from the small creature. Alive. But knocked out, like she said.
That wasn’t what made his brows knit together. It was what he didn’t hear that surprised him. Kaden wanted to shoot a glance up at the woman standing next to him, but he refrained, keeping his eyes on the monster on the ground. He wasn’t listening for its pulse anymore. He was hoping that he was mistaken. He was hoping that if he listened a little harder, he would hear a thumping sound coming from her chest.
Only, there was nothing.
Putain de merde.
Kaden stood up and nodded. “Yeah, I’m alright. I’ve had worse. At least nothing dislocated.” He didn’t know what to do now. He didn’t even know what sort of undead he was dealing with, if he was even correct in his assumption. There was no point in making any move. Not now. He just had to keep acting normal. Like nothing had changed. He could do that. He could definitely do that. “Uh, what about you? Did it, uh, bite you or anything?”
___________________
Sofie watched and waited as the man stooped over the creature that was decidedly not a squirrel. She didn’t quite know what he was waiting for. Perhaps he was looking for the tiny rise and fall of the little thing’s chest to verify it still lived.
“Oh good,” she was relieved to hear it. If only so the scent of blood wouldn’t catch her nose. She wasn’t particularly hungry, but she didn’t want to have to explain a sudden inhuman hue in her eyes. She paused at his question, frowning a little. She inspected her arms quickly, but nothing seemed wrong. And she’d felt no teeth carve into her flesh. She’d managed to emerge unscathed from the little beast’s ambush. “I’m alright… I think it just crawled around and… grabbed that stick- what is that little thing?” Sofie peered at it curiously. It was far too small to be as strong as it was.
___________________
“Good. That’s good,” Kaden said, reaching up to rub the back of his neck. He could feel his pulse picking up. Putain, he had to get it together. Nothing had changed, nothing had happened. Only everything had changed about the situation. She was dead. Well, undead. But they were in a cemetery and he was escorting a dead woman home. It was hard to push aside the instincts that had been drilled into him for years, the ones that told him not to trust a monster, to not let them live. Kaden wasn’t sure if he was more afraid of Sofie or the thoughts that had invaded his mind.
Wait. Merde, she’d asked him a question. “Oh, uh, that?” Putain, what was he going to say? It sure as hell wasn’t going to be the truth. “Uh, looks like a kind of squirrel. Aggressive variant. They show up in town sometimes. I’ve had to deal with them often enough.” Kaden took a deep breath and looked around to get his bearings. “Exit should be right over there. Almost out of here,” he said offering a small smile as he gestured towards the path out.
___________________
She could smell it, when his pulse picked up. Thankfully, she wasn’t particularly hungry. Brown eyes remained brown, no hint of the inhuman red to be seen. It made sense, of course. The poor man had just been fighting off a-… well Sofie didn’t really buy the line that it was a squirrel. Squirrels didn’t look like that. She had seen hundreds of thousands of squirrels in her lifetime. That was not a squirrel.
“That is the ugliest squirrel I have ever seen.” She muttered. Better to let him think she believed his lie than to raise more questions. She looked over to where he gestured and smiled. She could just barely see the exit from where she stood. “Ah! Lovely! Thank you so much again.” She said as she resumed walking.
___________________
Kaden huffed out a nervous laugh. “Yeah, well, genetics can do weird shit.” That was the best he had as far as an explanation. He followed behind her as they both walked towards the exit. Every branch or twig that they walked past on the short walk to the open gate was like walking past a knife on the ground, moonlight glinting off the metal, calling out to him to pick one up. If for no other reason than for safety.
Not that he knew for sure that she was a vampire, fair enough. She could just as easily be a zombie. But she looked too pretty, too put together to be a zombie, even if he knew that they could look just like normal people. Something about zombies, he just always assumed they were a little more dead somehow then the rest. Couldn’t explain it.
His hand hovered near the hilt of his machete all the same. Regardless of what she was, beheading killed most things. He was still on edge with every step towards the exit. Sure, she had been nice and cordial and if she was going to drain his blood or eat his organs or anything else terrible, she’d had plenty of chances to do it before. And she hadn’t. But he was a hunter, he knew that things weren’t always as they seemed.
Before he could finish debating himself in his own mind, they were at the gates. “Well, here we are,” he said, gesturing towards the entrance, acting like he hadn’t been ready to pull a knife out on her at any moment just then. “I take it you can make it the rest of the way home all by yourself.” The smile he flashed her was shallower than any of his earlier had been. “Kaden, by the way,” he added. “In case you were wondering.” Stupid, he shouldn’t have given her his name. There was no fucking reason beyond being polite. Putain. “Nice to meet you. Get home safe.”
___________________
Sofie happily walked along toward the exit, blissfully unaware of any further danger that could befall her that evening. And from the looks of it, they were almost to the exit. She’d be on her way home and curled up with a pot of tea in no time at all.
She smiled and looked back to the kind young man who’d shown her the way to the exit. A kindness that not many people would extend in this town, for fear of what might happen in the shadows. “So we are.” Sofie sighed, looking back down the path. She’d have to remember the way if she came back to this particular cemetery.
“I know the way from here.” Sofie nodded, pointing at a street sign. “I have my bearings now.” Kaden. That was a nice name. It suited him. “It was a pleasure to meet you, Kaden. I’m Sofie. Sofie DuPont.” With a little wave, she started on her way down the street. “Have a nice evening, Kaden.” She called over her shoulder before disappearing into the night.
TIMING: current / evening
LOCATION: wormwoods
PARTIES: @sofiedupont & @mortemoppetere
SUMMARY: while on a walk in the woods, sofie runs into someone she hoped she wouldn't see again... and then they both run into something worse.
CONTENT WARNINGS: Mentions of child abuse
She had gone out for an evening stroll.
Of course, the woods in the late spring evening probably weren’t the best idea, but it wasn’t as though Sofie had a great deal of options in regards to time. She rather liked not being burnt by the sun, even if she did miss the warmth of it’s rays on her skin some days.
But lighting wasn’t her current issue.
The issue was that she was fairly certain that she was being followed.
The vampire had picked up her pace, heading out of the woods, She’d get out of the woods, head to the Masque, and then go home with two red eyes. It’s fine Sofie, stop being so skittish…
A branch snapped behind her.
Sofie choked back a scream and whirled around, expecting to see a monster. Instead, she saw a man.
A man that she had seen before.
“You,” She said, immediately taking three steps back, her hand searching for the small knife Cassius had given to her to carry. “I’m not bothering anyone, and I’ve already told you as much as I know. Please, just let me go home.”
______
Why did people still go into the woods in this town? How many ‘missing’ posters would it take to finally dissuade hikers from wandering out among the trees, becoming one with nature or whatever it was they liked to do out here? It was stupid. There was no fucking point to any of it.
But it paid the bills, anyway. Emilio had had a few clients come to him recently with missing loved ones who’d last been seen in this part of the woods, and while he had little hope of finding any of them alive, he figured if he could find out what was killing them he could stop it from killing anyone else.
When he spotted another person wandering in the woods ahead of him, he was entirely prepared to tell them to get the hell out before they wound up something’s dinner. But then he got closer, and that familiar shiver went down his spine. Undead. Suddenly, he couldn’t help but wonder if this stranger was the one responsible for the disappearances.
Deciding to follow to make sure, he stayed a ways behind her. But then —
A branch broke. She turned around, and familiarity flooded through him. Shit. “I’m not looking to —” Wait. A branch broke. Emilio faltered. That wasn’t him.
It was the only thought he could form before a hulking mass appeared from the woods to their right, letting out a low chortle. It was a hodgepodge of different things, one of the ugliest goddamn chimeras he’d ever seen. And it clearly wasn’t just animals, either; Emilio spotted a face in the midsection, one of the ones that had been staring up at him from a file on his desk for days now. Shit.
“Maybe you should go home now,” he said dryly, turning to the vampire with a frustrated glare. “Before you get in my way.”
—
He started talking, saying something about not looking to do something. Given her recent track record, Sofie wasn’t so sure she believed that. She looked confused as he cut himself off. Then she understood why.
Sofie wasn’t sure what it was exactly. She did know that it was massive, and that it was perhaps the single most horrifying thing she had ever set her eyes on. A startled shriek rang through the trees as she took several steps back on instinct. Faces and limbs that jutted out at strange angles- everything in her told her to run.
Her gaze pivoted to the slayer, who was glaring at her?! Why was he glaring at her? She’d done nothing wrong! “Believe me, I don’t want to be in your way.” She said, taking a few slow steps backward, her eyes back on the creature in horror. One of its faces swiveled and locked onto Sofie. And much to her dismay, it decided it was more interested in her than it was in the slayer. It started for her.
She hissed, spinning on her heel to run, fishing her knife from her pocket. “I think it’s a bit late for that now, though!”
_____
It was clear that she didn’t believe him, though Emilio couldn’t bring himself to care. She might not have been involved in the massacre that killed his daughter, but she’d still broken bread with the people who were. She’d still stayed in their homes, still made small talk with them around the house. Guilty by association might not be enough to justify him putting a stake through a heart, but it was certainly enough for him not to care if she thought he was a threat to her.
Mostly, he wanted her to go. Seeing her here felt like a reminder of a thousand things he’d rather not remember, the grief and the rage swelling up in his chest all at once. Sometimes, he let himself forget all the things he’d lost. He closed his eyes to it, he pretended it was nothing. But in moments like this? With someone who knew, even if he’d only said the words in a fit of anger? That became much harder.
In a way, the chimera was almost a relief. At least it gave him something else to focus on, some other beast to fight. He’d always done so much better with things like this; when the monster only existed inside his head, slaying it became an impossible task.
But, of course, things still couldn’t be easy. If things were easy, the vampire would have run. And maybe she’d been about to, before the chimera started her way. Emilio would have been lying if he said there wasn’t a part of him that, for a moment, considered just letting the beast tire itself out killing the vampire. For a moment. But the moment didn’t last as long as it would have a few years ago, because they never did anymore. He hadn’t been cold since Flora was born, even if he’d tried to earn that coldness back after her death. He couldn’t let the goddamn vampire die, even if he was supposed to. Even if it was what his mother would have expected.
So he surged forward, kicking its tail and grabbing its spine to jerk it back away from the vampire and towards him instead. It turned one of its terrible heads, and he found himself looking into the eyes of that girl whose picture was still on his desk. At least he could probably get her family something to bury, depending on how he played his cards here. “Lo siento,” he told the head quietly. It opened its mouth and let out a screech that sounded half human, half animal. Emilio ducked the swing of one of its many arms. “You might need more than a small knife if you’re going to stay. El fuego es bueno, for these things.”
______
He grabbed the beast so she could… run? She blinked rapidly as she thoughts raced to catch up with the present situation. Sofie was no fool. She knew the man probably wouldn’t care if she was killed by the thing in front of them. But then why was he helping her? Maybe he wasn’t trying to help at all and was just going for the kill. But he’d pulled it’s attention away from her. She couldn’t just leave him there.
She glanced down at the knife and then back up at the beast. He probably had a point regarding the size of the knife. “Kurwa mać,” Sofie hissed before digging through her bag. She knew she had a lighter somewhere- she’d taken to carrying one in the twenties and never broken the habit. She cursed until her hand met metal in the depths of the bag.
In her distraction she wandered too close, narrowly missing a well aimed swipe by the… whatever the hell the damned thing was. Cursing with a renewed vigor, she searched for something to light on fire. “ogień,” she muttered to herself over and over, half distraction, half plea for something flammable. Her eyes fell on a large stick. That would work. She hastily tore fabric from the bottom of her shirt and wrapped it around the end of the stick. Moments later, it was ablaze. “Now what?!”
———
He was a little surprised that the vampire didn’t turn tail and run the moment she had an opportunity. Just as Emilio had no reason to care if she lived or died, she owed nothing to him. If she were smart, he thought, she’d already be halfway back to town by now, leaving both man and beast behind her. Maybe this meant nothing beyond the fact that she simply wasn’t very smart, then.
He continued to wrestle with the chimera as she rummaged through her purse, grunting as it sunk teeth into his arm. It was the teeth from the human mouth, at least; there was an alligator mouth attached to another part of the body that would have done far worse damage than the duller teeth of a human girl, not designed for ripping flesh.
The light of the fire seemed unnaturally bright, perhaps due to the slayer’s night vision. Emilio, with the chimera’s teeth still locked around his arm, looked up to the vampire with an expression of disbelief. “Now what?” He repeated the question, with a shake of his head. “Fucking kill it, that’s now what. Find a part that looks like it’ll burn and burn it.” He yanked his arm free at last, taking a few teeth along with him when the beast refused to let go. Were teeth an acceptable piece of remains to deliver to a next of kin? They might be the only thing of the girl that was salvageable when this was finished.
—
She had just looked up from her bag when teeth sank into flesh. She let out a yelp, and moved faster. He was fine. Probably. He was a slayer, he probably dealt with worse things than giant horrifying amalgamations of dead people and animals biting into his arm all the time, right? Sofie didn’t quite buy that lie. He may have been terrifying, but he didn’t deserve to die a horrific death.
But then he was yelling at her in disbelief. The vampire scowled back at him. “Excuse me if it’s my first time fighting a fucking monster!” She hissed as she sized up the monster, looking for a section that seemed flammable. Sofie didn’t want to think about it too much. She got as close as she dared, and held the flames to a particularly hairy patch of the beast, hoping the flames would catch.
It let out an animalistic howl of pain before lashing out, catching Sofie in the chest and sending her flying back onto the forest floor. She wheezed, looking back at the make-shift torch. It was still burning. She scrambled to her feet and moved to try again, tossing the lighter in the direction of the slayer. “It’ll go faster if it’s burning in more than one spot.”
_____
“How the fuck is this your first time fighting a monster?” How old was she? Did it matter? Even if she was only as old as she looked — something Emilio doubted, given her demeanor — she was more than old enough to have experience with this sort of thing. The first time he’d fought a ‘monster’ in the vaguest sense, he’d barely been old enough to stand. He didn’t even remember what it had been.
(He remembered being afraid, though. He remembered winning the fight, but being punished anyway. And he’d deserved that. Slayers weren’t supposed to be afraid. He’d known that, even then.)
Someone had failed her, at some point, if she’d made it this far without learning to fight something like this. Especially in this town, as often as things like this popped up. Someone had failed her, but that was hardly important now. What was important now was killing this son of a bitch before it killed him, because dying in the woods in front of someone who had broken bread and made small talk with his daughter’s murderers didn’t sound nearly as tempting as going home and getting a drink. (There were days when it would have. He knew that.)
He caught the lighter as she threw it to him, deciding not to mention that he had one of his own in his pocket. He fumbled for a branch, ripping off his shirt and wrapping it around the wood before setting it ablaze. “Two directions, then,” he told her, shooting her a glare through the smoke and the flames. “You from your end, me from mine. Hit it until it stops moving, and don’t burn the fucking forest down. You can handle this?”
—
“What do you mean ‘how is it my first time’?!” She hissed, dodging out of the way of a rather sharp pair of claws that looked like they may have belonged to a bear at one point. “Chyba sobie kurwa żartujesz,” Sofie muttered, shaking her head. “This has more limbs than the monsters I’m used to!” The monsters that held stakes and knives and crosses, the monsters that looked like him.
He caught the lighter as Sofie dodged the blows the monster tried to hit her with. Being faster than a human helper in these scenarios, she decided. Otherwise, she’d be half eaten by that crocodile head by now.
“Two directions,” she echoed. She could worry about whether or not he would just kill her after he killed the more imminent threat later. For now, they just had to survive the next few minutes and burn this thing without burning themselves to crisps alongside it. “I can handle it.”
Slipping closer with preternatural speed, she held the flames to it once more, not daring to stay in one spot longer than a few moments. Horrible screams echoed into the night as the flames started to catch. “It’s working!”
_______
“I mean, how is it your first time?’” Emilio repeated the phrase with a grunt, ducking to avoid another swipe of claws. Was that arm from a bear? Jesus. He made a note to check up on Nora, even if it was a ridiculous notion. He knew she was fine, just like he knew the arm on the chimera’s body wasn’t from a bugbear. Something in him ached anyway. “You have to be, what, a hundred? And you’ve never fought a monster like this? Ay, this is kid stuff.”
Kid stuff that kept coming dangerously close to getting those reptilian jaws around him. And that sweeping tail was unfamiliar — something supernatural? That was worrying. There was no telling what kind of hidden abilities this thing might be packing. Their best hope at making it out of this shit was to kill this monster as soon as they could.
Which, he could begrudgingly admit, was easier done when coming at it from two directions was a possibility. The vampire (Christ, he didn’t even know her name) moved in with her torch, and Emilio moved in with his. Burnt flesh of various kinds sizzled, the scent filling the air. As disgusting as it was to think so, it almost smelled like barbecue.
“Don’t let up,” he barked the order at the vampire, holding his own torch in closer. The chimera screamed and writhed, swiping at them both, but it was too far gone to do anything. Already mostly on fire, already too late to be saved. That wouldn’t stop it from going down fighting, though. That bear arm, now aflame, swiped towards him again, claws sinking into his side. Emilio let out a grunt as they tore themselves free, stumbling a little. Ah, shit. Blood dripped onto the ground, and the chimera kept on swiping. Dodging was getting more difficult. “I need to back out,” he yelled, perhaps an octave too high. “I’m — Shit. If you don’t keep on it, it’ll probably kill me.” It wasn’t a request, wasn’t a question. It was almost like he was offering her a choice — keep on it, or let him die. Keep carrying that risk, or run away. He honestly wasn’t sure which option she’d go with.
—
“Just turned three hundred-fifteen, but who’s counting.” She shot back, with something vaguely resembling a smile. “I’m scared to ask what you’d consider ‘grown up stuff’.” It wasn’t really the time for jokes, but they could both be eaten by the thing writhing and lashing out in the clearing in the next few minutes. So it seemed as good a time as any.
A human hand lashed out, blunt nails scrabbling to grab purchase before Sofie yanked her arm away, batting the limb off with the torch. The smell of the smoke was wretched. Each new burn on the beast was a reminder of how flammable she was. And just how bad it would be if she didn’t get out of there when the beast was finally nothing but an ember in the woods.
Her eyes went wide as claws tore into the man’s side. That was very bad. The scent of blood caught her nose. She was too focused on not getting murdered to keep her eyes from shifting hue. Red eyes stayed focused on the flaming, writhing mass in front of her. “Go on, I’ve got this.”
Sofie wasn’t certain if it was a lie or not. What she did know was that if he stood there, bleeding out and wounded while he tried to dodge blows, he wouldn’t survive the next few minutes. And she’d already died once before. And perhaps, in whatever small way, helping him might help to absolve her of the sin she hadn’t known she’d committed.
She could do this. she could last a few more minutes.
Sofie dove out of the way of a set of teeth she couldn’t waste time to identify, whacking the head with the torch. She lit up a tree branch, ripping the branch from the limb as the leaves crackled and sparked. The beast let out a frustrated screech as it continued to be engulfed in flames. She took the branch and jabbed it at one of the heads, trying to get its eyes. The howl she heard served as confirmation that it worked. The flames grew higher and higher, and as the vampire dodged she noticed its attacks slow until it collapsed in a firey heap, unmoving.
She ripped her sweater off, she followed her nose to find where the slayer had gone. She moved cautiously, as though she were approaching a wounded animal. Sofie held out her sweater. “To staunch the bleeding.”
____
“It’s not scary if you’re a grown up,” he snorted, half a joke. Most people didn’t find his humor particularly funny, but he still did. Maybe it was okay, sometimes, if you were the only person laughing at your jokes. Target audience and all that.
He saw the familiar shift in her expression when the smell of his blood hit the air, though he’d learned not to worry about such things. A slayer’s blood wasn’t exactly what a vampire would consider a tasty snack, given the way it burned going down. Emilio had weaponized his more than once. Something told him he wouldn’t have to do so today, though. For all that he disliked her, he didn’t consider her a threat. Not anymore.
And, in any case, he was in no state to fight. He stumbled back without really waiting for her to confirm that she’d keep the fight going. Whether she did or didn’t, there wasn’t much he could do about it on his end. Either she’d run and he’d die, or she’d stay and he’d live. It was entirely out of his control.
It seemed she’d chosen the latter, though. Emilio forced himself to stay on his feet despite how badly his legs wanted to give way underneath him, watching her finish off the chimera with gritted teeth. When she turned to move towards him, he made an attempt to wave her off with a bloody arm. “I’m fine,” he snapped, letting his uninjured arm fall down to cradle his side. With his shirt already removed to make his torch, the wound was fully exposed. It wasn’t as bad as it could have been, but it certainly wasn’t good. She had a point about needing to stop the bleeding.
Emilio glanced around, eyes falling on the burning corpse. Cauterizing it would be better than holding a sweater against it. He yanked out a knife, marching passed the vampire to hold the blade to the flames, stubbornly avoiding the alternative she was offering in the form of her sweater.
—
Sofie raised an eyebrow. “No, you very clearly are not.” She said stubbornly. “You were just slashed up by whatever that was- the bear paw, if I’m not mistaken?” Despite the blood, she managed to get her eyes closer to brown than they had been moments before. Thank goodness she wasn’t particularly hungry… and she’d had a few centuries to have a modicum of self control.
Alarm bells rang in her head as he moved toward the fire. She was no medical expert, but that would definitely hurt. And would still need bandaging. “Please just let me help you- I understand that you’re more than capable of taking care of yourself, but just take the sweater. So that the smell of you cooking doesn’t send more of it’s friends our way.
The vampire held it out, her eyes pleading. It was worth a shot. “Besides, you should go to the hospital. If that wound goes deeper than you can cauterize, what are you going to do then? You’ll still bleed to death, even if you’re not leaving a trail. You can use this as a tourniquet.”
__________
“Sí, sí,” Emilio confirmed, “a bear paw. It’s a chimera. The…” He waved a hand at the smoldering corpse. If she’d killed it, she at least ought to know what it was, right? And besides, the conversation seemed to be shifting her back from her hunger pangs. Even if his blood wouldn’t taste great, he wasn’t looking to lose any to her hungry teeth. He was losing enough to the ground as it was.
He stared at the fire and the knife turning red as she spoke, gritting his teeth against both the physical pain of the injury and the irritation in her concern. She wasn’t supposed to be worried about him. What was with the undead in this town? Her, the vampire nurse who kept trying to help him… Couldn’t any of them leave well enough alone?
He laughed sharply at her suggestion of a hospital. “That isn’t going to happen.” Even if he wanted to go to a hospital, they’d ask questions he didn’t want to answer. Hospitals asked for things like insurance and social security numbers… neither of which Emilio had. After all the shit he’d been through, he wasn’t going to let something as silly as deportation be what sent him back to the country where everything wanted to be the thing to kill him. He continued holding the knife over the fire, but turned to shoot the vampire a quick glare. “If I take your sweater, you won’t mention the hospital again? I’m not going. And I don’t need to go. I’ve had worse than this on my own.”
—
A chimera. The image of a beast with the head of a lion, a serpent for a tail, and a body that of a goat floated through her mind. A thing of myth from ancient times. Sofie looked back at the smoldering heap of limbs and faces that twisted into a hulking mass. None of it matched, and that was perhaps the only thing that reminded her of the old myths. So she supposed the name fit.
She watched as the flame made the metal blade glow. Her frown grew by the second as he stood there, bleeding, and determined to fix it by causing himself more pain. There were better ways to fix it.
She blinked, not expecting the final question. It seemed he was relenting. “I will stop talking about hospitals if you use the sweater as a tourniquet instead of burning yourself, yes.” Sofie lifted the soft fabric once more, holding it out as though it were a peace offering. “Here.”
_____
The fact that she was still here at all was something of a surprise. Making sure he didn’t die was one thing — strange, sure, but not entirely incomprehensible — but staying to chat afterwards? He’d made it pretty clear he didn’t care for her, and he was confident the feeling was a mutual one. So why was she watching him prepare to cauterize his wound with such concern? Why was she urging him to go to a hospital? Why was she handing him her damn sweater?
His nostrils flared in quiet frustration as he dropped the knife to his side, taking the metal away from the heat and letting the Maine air cool it again. “Fine,” he grumbled, removing the hand that was clasped over the wound to snatch the sweater from her. He pressed it against his bloody side with enough pressure to make him see stars, vision graying out for a moment before finding a new equilibrium. Emilio grunted, jaw tightly clenched. He refused to let the pain show on his face, though the way he’d paled certainly betrayed some discomfort.
Looking up at the vampire, he gestured to the sweater soaking up blood on his side as best he could without displacing it. “There. Happy? I’m ruining your pinche sweater for you.”
—
For as uneasy as she was around hunters, she was fairly confident that this man was not about to plunge a stake into her chest. The poor thing had more important things to worry about. Like the fact that a bear claw had torn into him. He paled as he pressed the sweater into his wound and Sofie watched him carefully. She wasn’t about to leave the man in the woods for dead. She wondered how difficult it would be to get the man back into town by her own in case he went down… perhaps Zane would be able to help with the man’s reluctance to go to the hospital. And Sofie certainly couldn’t blame him for that- if she went to a hospital, she’d turn into a walking experiment.
“It is just a sweater.” She said calmly. “I can get a new one. It’s better to lose a sweater than it is for you to die. Do you think you can make it back to town, or shall I call for help?” It was a strange sort of calm. The sort that creeps in during emergencies, or times of uncertainty. But Sofie would gladly take calm over fear.
———
At the thought of her calling for help — one of her contacts, most likely, since he doubted she’d trust any of his — Emilio’s heart kicked up a beat in a way he hated. Paranoia tore through his chest, whispering warnings in his ears. Trap. That’s a trap. She’ll call someone to finish the job so she can keep her hands clean. It was a nonsensical fear; if she wanted him dead, she would have just run and let the chimera do it. He reminded himself of as much, even if it was hard to do around his screaming mind.
“I can make it back,” he ground out, still pressing that sweater to his side. “Don’t call anyone.” He didn’t comment on the rest of her statement — that she’d rather lose her sweater than watch him die. He didn’t understand it. He didn’t understand a lot of things, these days. It was easier when the world was something black and white. There were times when Emilio still missed it.
—
She realized she still didn’t know the man’s name. He was bleeding in the woods since he had to contend with another person being present for a chimera attack. But then, maybe it was a good thing that someone else had been there. He’d gotten hurt, after all. If he hadn’t had backup, he might have died. Sofie took a step back, nodding.
“I won’t call anyone… do you need a phone to call someone you know?” Of course he didn’t trust her, even if she hadn’t made a move to harm him. But she could still try to help. “I’m Sofie…” she wasn’t sure if a name would work. If an introduction would do something to humanize her. It was worth a shot…
_______
“I have a phone,” though he wasn’t sure who to call. Rhett, probably, though he was likely to complain even as he stitched Emilio up. Things with his brother still felt tense, uneasy. He couldn’t help but remember their fight in Mexico, when Rhett left and Emilio let him. Maybe Owen would be a better bet, or even Nora. Both were likely to mock him, but it would feel better than the stifling nature of Rhett’s concern, the kind of worry that could only come from someone who knew you a little too well.
In all likelihood, he knew, he’d call no one at all. He’d go home and deal with his injuries the same way he always did, and they’d heal into messy scars a little slower than they might if he knew how to care for them properly. In any case, he didn’t want the vampire — didn’t want Sofie wasting either of their time with her concern. “Emilio,” he grunted in response. “I don’t think I’m giving you your sweater back.” There was no way all this blood was coming off, and it’d be a cruel trick to give her something covered in his blood when his blood would hurt her. Especially if she really was just trying to help. “Stay out of the woods,” he advised. “There are things out here scarier than you. They’ll kill you if you don’t know how to fight.”
—
“Alright,” she’d really done all she could. Especially since he’d reject all of her offers, save the sweater. At least he’d taken that much. It made her feel like she’d helped him at least a little.
Sofie looked at the blood soaked fabric with a little shake of her head. “Like I said, it is just a sweater. It isn’t important. Throw it away. Keep it. Use it the next time you need a makeshift torch. It doesn’t matter. Life is more important than a sweater.”
She was less afraid of him, now that he wasn’t a nameless shade stalking her on the streets at night. He had a name now. And a face. “That doesn’t surprise me… I am not so scary, I don’t think.” It was an attempt at a joke. The barest hint of a smile flickered on her face. “Do you want me to walk with you out of the woods? In case something catches the scent…” Sofie gestured to his side. He wasn’t in much of a shape to keep fighting. He could use someone to watch his back.
________
She wasn’t scary. That was the problem. People could stay in a house with men who would rip a toddler to shreds days later, could tell jokes with them and chat around the breakfast table, and they could do it all while being harmless. Emilio thought of Lucio, who’d never directly hurt anyone he loved but was responsible for all their deaths anyway. He thought of himself, not harmless by any stretch of the imagination, not even towards the people he’d never wanted to harm at all.
He closed his eyes at her offer, feeling just as nauseous at the idea of walking alone as he did with the idea of being with someone. The options warred in his mind for a moment until he shook his head, letting his eyes slide open again. “No,” he replied. “I’m fine on my own.” If something caught the scent of his blood, it would kill him. But most days, Emilio felt dead already. What was the risk? “You should go.” She should have gone a while ago, before the chimera found them at all. She never should have been here to begin with.
—
She knew she should stay, but he wouldn’t want the help of a vampire. Sofie knew as much. She wouldn’t be trusting of a slayer holding out their hand and promising aid either. She nodded, taking a few steps back. “Be safe, Emilio.” There was no sarcasm, no ill will.
Sofie disappeared into the woods, but she stayed nearby. Close enough that she could watch him as he made his way out of the woods. Close enough to intervene if he needed help. He might not accept her aid, but she couldn’t leave him wounded to fend for himself. It wouldn’t sit right with her conscience. She He hadn’t left her to fend for herself with the chimera, so she owed him that much.
——
He couldn’t tell her the same, couldn’t tell her to be safe when he still wasn’t sure how much he’d mean it. Emilio didn’t particularly like lying, even to people he disliked. So he only nodded, ducking his head and walking away.
He could feel her following him, but it didn’t feel like a threat. More of a precaution; an attempt to make sure he’d actually get back to his apartment without getting himself killed in the meantime. It was a little irritating — he was fine, he didn’t need anyone, he was doing fine — but he knew she meant well. He paused when he finally stepped out of the woods and back to the edge of town, glancing behind him as if to prove some great accomplishment, as if to say I told you so. But wherever she was, she was out of sight. So Emilio sighed, still holding that bloodied sweater against his side, and trudged on.
If nothing else, he’d go home and have a drink. Just to prove that he could.
Timing: Late evening, about 2 weeks before the events of Deliverance
Parties: @thenavysealkie @sofiedupont
Location: Harborside, near the shore
Trigger Warnings: None
Summary: Sofie takes a spill into the ocean while walking down the beach, Marcus jumps in to save her.
It was a beautiful clear evening. The sun had gone down, and a cool spring breeze blew in off the water. Sofie took in a deep breath, letting the cool salt air wrap her up in its embrace. It wasn’t often she missed home- her first home, to be specific. But since moving to Wicked’s Rest, she’d found that heading over to Harborside helped soothe the ache in her chest that pulled her hundreds of miles away. It was quiet out, not many people out and about. She supposed maybe it was still a bit too cold out, but if being a bit chilly hadn’t bothered her for the past two hundred seventy years, it likely wouldn’t start bothering her now.
She’d decided to wander the boardwalk a bit further, down to the docks. It was an older section, and she wasn’t really paying attention to where she was stepping as she made her way to the edge to take in the view. Sofie was far too busy looking up at the night sky. And then her foot fell through a rotted board.
The water was rushing up to meet her as she flailed, trying to grasp onto the dock as she fell. She had no such luck, and fell into the water with a tremendous splash. Down, down, down- the one good thing about this was that she wasn’t on the clock to get her head above water. She looked up as she let herself sink a moment, watching the moon ripple from beneath the waters surface, when she saw a flurry of motion coming toward her
________
Marcus was near the shoreline, attempting to meditate as best as he could. He had been much less focused as of late. The effects of being without his pelt were beginning to present themselves to him, and he knew that he needed to get it back in order to be his normal functional self again. Without it, Marcus felt as though he was incomplete, and losing more and more of himself with each passing day. It had been almost a month since his pelt was stolen, and it was only a matter of time before these symptoms became unmanageable. Already his muscles ached in a manner that could not be ignored.
He tried once more to tune everything out and only focus on his breathing. Figuring out a plan to reclaim his pelt would only happen if he was focused. He was somewhat annoyed when a splashing sound broke his concentration, only for him to realize that someone may have fallen in. Marcus immediately got up and ran towards the shore to see if he could spot anybody in distress, but there was nothing. Not even any bubbles from somebody losing the last of their air. He thought this was strange, but decided to go into the water to investigate anyway.
Marcus dove deeper under the surface of the water until he spotted her. A woman slowly sinking further into the deep. He figured she must have been about 1,500 feet away, a daunting swim for some. But he needed to get to her, and fast. Strangely, although she appeared both alive and conscious, she seemed to make no attempt to return to the surface and save herself in any way. Marcus figured this must have been because of the heavy looking clothing she was wearing, although the lack of air bubbles certainly did throw him off.
With no time to dwell on the topic too much, he cut through the water with impressive speed. In a matter of only 20 seconds or so, he reached his target. He grabbed the woman by her underarms and, seemingly effortlessly, brought her back up to the surface.
------------------------
A man. That was strange. What was stranger still was the speed at which Sofie watched him swim toward her. She’d let herself drift quite some way from the surface, just enjoying the way the lights danced above the surface, and the next thing she knew, a stranger was streaking through the water and attempting to drag her back up to the chilly evening above. She supposed she’d give him a hand- it was only polite since he seemed to think he was saving her. She kicked along, more in a rush to get the stranger some oxygen than she was for herself. It wasn’t as if she actually needed it.
They breached the surface, and she was sure to make a good show of drawing air into her lungs, coughing and sputtering as was befitting of someone who had recently taken an unexpected swim. She blinked rapidly, lifting a hand to swipe the water from her eyes so she could see better. “It just fell out from under me,” Sofie flailed an arm in the direction of the rotted board that now dangled off the edge of the dock, a chunk of it bobbing in the surf below. She grimaced as her waterlogged sleeve poured water off it. “It just fell- do they not do maintenance on these docks or something?” It was a fair question, and one that someone probably shouldn’t be asking after what could have been a very grave situation.
Typically, she was a good swimmer, but the heavy knit of her sweater had become very water logged. Not to mention her very ruined shoes. While Sofie didn’t doubt she could make it back to sure on her own, the mystery man who had jumped in after her would probably get her there faster at the rate he swam. “I’m sorry, I should be thanking you.” She realized at once. It was very bad manners to not thank someone for rescuing you from drowning, even if you couldn’t drown. “Thank you-“ a well timed wave to the face cut her off. This time, Sofie sputtered for real. At least this up close and personal experience with the water had temporarily cured her of her homesickness.
_______________
Marcus broke the surface and was pleased to see he still had the woman safely in his arms. He heard her mention the board of the dock seemed to just fall out from underneath her. He glanced at the wood and noted that it had begun to rot considerably. He cringed inwardly a bit, as this was something he probably should have spotted and brought to somebody’s attention already. He could only nod his head when the woman questioned the amount of maintenance that went into the dock.
Marcus was relieved when he heard the woman thank him. Or, rather, begin to thank him. A massive wave cut her off, and he couldn’t help but laugh at her situation. He quickly stopped himself, hoping she hadn’t heard him and taken offense. After a rather rough swim back to shore, it wasn’t easy carrying another person and about 40 pounds of sopping wet clothes, they finally made it back to shore.
He looked over at the woman and remarked “I have to apologize about the board, it’s a good thing I was here to step in. I’ll make sure someone knows to do a little maintenance around here. In the future, I’d advise not to get too close to the water in clothes that heavy. It’s like your whole outfit is actively trying to drown you”. It always baffled Marcus how normal humans seemed to underestimate how deadly the water could be to them. Of course, it held no danger to him, but he had heard of and seen many drownings first hand.
“I’m Marcus, by the way” he said while extending a hand to the woman who looked a bit disheveled in her soaked clothing and runny makeup. He figured she probably wasn’t in the mood for pleasantries at this point but still figured it would be rude not to at least introduce himself to somebody after saving their life.
She sputtered, her head coming back above water to hear laughter. Laughter. Sofie tried not to bristle at being the butt of a joke. A pathetic wet-cat mess being dragged back to shore by what she could only assume was a lifeguard with how well he swam. She supposed she’d see the humor in it when she wasn’t getting a mouthful of sea brine.
“Well I wasn’t planning on going for a swim.” She knew it sounded petulant, but she didn’t care. “I was walking, and the sea decided to attack me.” Definitely petulant. Maybe it was because she had been thinking of days gone by when she was a much younger thing. Sofie hadn’t fallen in the water since she’d been a little girl, so the petulance was only fitting.
“My outfit is protesting inhumane treatment.” Her shoes were destroyed, and given the slippery slide of seaweed against her heel as she walked ashore, one of them was also missing. He did have a point. Her clothing hung heavy around her, streams of water puddling onto the earth. Sofie began to ring her hair out, grumbling as her fingers caught in tangles.
Her focus shifted back to the young man who had rather selflessly jumped in to rescue her. She mustered up a grateful smile. “I’m Sofie.” She sighed, setting her wet hair in a damp knot atop her head. “Thank you for coming in after me- how on earth did you learn to swim like that? I didn’t think we had any Olympic athletes in town.”
______
Marcus froze a bit, understanding he had been a bit sloppy. Of course, he was in pretty good shape and had a history in the navy, so being a naturally strong swimmer wouldn’t be unbelievable. It certainly wasn’t anything that would make the average person presume any supernatural involvement.
He gave a smile and simply said “I’m far from an olympic athlete. Just did a lot of swimming growing up, and my time in the Navy definitely helped strengthen my swimming abilities too. We had to learn and train our bodies to move ourselves through the water wearing fatigues and heavy equipment. I’ve also had to go in and save a few drowning comrades in my time. Needless to say, you definitely picked the right person to drown in front of.” He looked again at the drenched woman, trying desperately to dry herself off.
“I apologize that the sea decided to attack you so viciously. Old sailors would sometimes say that the ocean herself was possessed by a violent spirit who relishes in carrying souls to a watery grave. Waves lashing out as if they were fingers, pulling in whoever it can. Why it had such a problem with you in particular, I’m not quite sure.”He, of course, was trying to make some light-hearted conversation by adding in a little humor and history trivia. He decided to add some rationality to his point so the woman before him didn’t think he was crazy for actually believing a giant body of water had a mind of its own. “Of course that’s just what old sea dogs would say to each other to add a little spice to their journey. And to make the occasional shipwreck and drowning make a little more sense and be more bearable. You were probably just unlucky. I’m sure you’re miserable standing there soaking wet like that, is there anything else I can do to help you?” Marcus asked expectantly. He had saved the woman’s life yet she seemed more annoyed with him than anything. He didn’t want to end this whole ordeal on a bad note and genuinely wanted to make her more comfortable.
------
She paused in her movements, inspecting him with a curious eye. She wasn’t so convinced that doing a lot of swimming would explain the way he’d cut through the water. The Navy- now that might explain it. But maybe… Sofie focused in on her senses, trying to discern what he smelled like through the salty evening air. There was still something salty about the way he smelled but there was something sweet about it too… Not quite as sweet as the fae, perhaps. Maybe a bit like saltwater taffy? Curious…
“I certainly did,” She finally allowed herself to smile a bit. She wasn’t annoyed with him, and the poor thing probably thought she was. Sofie was, however, very annoyed at whoever had constructed the dock, no matter how long ago the offending board had been nailed into place. “I can’t imagine swimming in clothing, let alone heavy equipment.” Out of the water, her clothing felt like it weighed a hundred pounds. Under the water it hadn’t been much better.
She laughed, amused by the idea of it. The violent spirits of the sea would have been very disappointed to find that they couldn’t kill Sofie. It was hard to drown what already wasn’t breathing. The realization made her tense for a moment. Thank god he hadn’t tried to check her pulse. He would have been very confused by a walking talking woman with no pulse, and Sofie didn’t think she had it in her to ensure someone who had attempted to rescue a woman from drowning didn’t run off screaming about the walking dead.
Looking down at herself she tried to assess what she might need. One bare foot on the ground made it glaringly apparent what the first desperate need was. Wet clothes could wait a bit- it wasn’t as though she could catch her death. “I don’t suppose you have a spare set of shoes lying about, do you?” Sofie asked with a sheepish smile.
-------------------------------------
Marcus looked at the woman before him. She certainly looked a complete mess. Now here she was, one foot bare, there was no way he could have just let her walk back home without offering her something to wear.
“I don’t live too far, just up the road actually. I could give you a pair of mine to walk back in. Although I do have to warn you, they’ll look like clown shoes on you. But they should at least make do for the walk back home for you, just be sure to give them back after you’re done with them. And maybe make sure you get rid of any excess water in them before you give them back too”. While Marcus enjoyed the water, there was nothing worse than the constant squish with every step when trying to walk in waterlogged shoes.
Before Sofie could respond, Marcus grabbed the woman in a fireman’s carry and seemingly effortlessly carried her up the road so she wouldn’t have to walk in bare feet. He was surprised with how light she felt, almost as if she were skin and bone. But from what he could tell, she looked like she was a healthy weight. Maybe he wasn’t getting weaker after all. He continued carrying the woman, who definitely seemed caught off guard by the action, for only a few minutes until they arrived at his home. There, he set her down and told her to wait just a moment before going inside to find a pair of shoes. He turned the porch light on for her, and noticed how pale she looked. Sure, she was drowning for a bit there, and didn’t seem like she saw much sun to begin with. But she seemed extremely pale, almost like a corpse. He gave a wary look to the woman before darting back into the house for the smallest pair of shoes he could find.
-------------------------
“Clown shoes are preferable to no shoes, I suppose.” Sofie sighed, stooping to pull her lone remaining shoe off. “If they’re too waterlogged, I’ll buy you a new pair. It’s the least I can do for the water rescue.”
She let out a surprised yelp as her feet left the ground, her hands flying to grab purchase on Marcus’s shoulders so she wouldn’t fall. Sofie certainly hadn’t expected to get a free ride back to the man’s house. It wasn’t as though walking the way barefoot would have hurt her. But of course, he didn’t know that. When her feet hit the porch, she resumed her efforts to straighten herself out.
Sofie noticed him look at her just before he walked in. Almost assessing her… But there was something in his eyes that made it clear he knew something wasn’t right. She made a conscious effort to look as though she was shivering. Maybe if she played human a bit better, she could blend in. A human would be cold after the events of the evening, if not from the water, then from the shock. She made certain when he came back out she looked the part. “Thank you again, it’s very kind of you.
___________
Marcus could sense something wasn’t quite right, but he couldn’t place his finger on it. A woman, fully conscious, making no attempt to swim up and save herself or even releasing any sort of breath while apparently drowning. Dressed in period clothing and pale as a sheet. Either she was trying very hard to emulate an18th century French aristocrat, or she was an 18th century French aristocrat. But that was impossible, right? He couldn’t tell. So much crazy shit had already happened to him since coming to this town he wouldn’t question it if his damsel in distress turned out to be more than she appeared.
It didn’t quite matter at the moment. She was cold, barefoot, soaking wet, and in need of some help. She clearly didn’t pose any kind of threat to him. He set his mind back on the task of finding a pair of shoes for her. He didn’t have much in the way of spare clothes to give. When he jumped ship, he only had the clothes on his back with him, and he hadn’t been able to buy very much since arriving in town since that also left him with no money. He found a pair of boots with a high back, figuring they’re much less likely to slip off of her feet. It would just be very awkward trying to walk in them. Oh well, he figured, beggars couldn’t be choosers and it wasn’t like he had much better to offer anyway.
He made his way back towards the front door, pleased to see his guest still standing outside where he left her. He was sure the temptation was probably strong for her to peek her head through the threshold and look around, it was a natural inclination for most people to be a little bit nosy. However, she stood stock still, giving somewhat exaggerated shivers every now and then. Funny, he thought, I don’t think she was doing that before. He decided to run a little experiment.
He approached the threshold of the door and held out the shoes in his hands, but still inside of the home. For a normal person, this would be a minor inconvenience, having to reach their body partially inside of the house to grab the shoes. But if she was what he thought she was, then that fact would quickly make itself obvious. One thing about selkies is that they have very rich blood, which makes them a target of many different predatory creatures. One of the most dangerous of these predators being vampires. For his own survival, he had learned how to identify one and evade them properly. He wasn’t entirely convinced she was one yet, but he did figure a little testing couldn’t hurt.
She watched out of the corner of her eye. Her eyes trained ahead, Sofie kept glancing back to see if anything had changed. To see if they’d returned with shoes in hand. And she silently swore to herself as she watched his hand stop just short of the threshold of his house.
She kept her gaze away from the door for a long few moments, just waiting. Maybe he would come closer. Maybe he’d step just outside. Maybe he’d turn away and she could vanish into the night. Unfortunately for Sofie, none of the hypothetical scenarios she tried to will into existence came to pass.
The vampire turned as though she heard a creak of the floorboards. She flickered her eyes from the shoes, to the floor, to her still dripping wet frame. “I don’t want to get your floor wet.” She said apologetically.
_____
A reasonable enough explanation, Marcus thought. But still, it wasn’t like she’d get his floor wet reaching a hand just past the threshold of the door. Still, rather than be overly rude with the woman and push the issue further, he figured he had all the intel that he needed. She clearly wasn’t in the mood to hurt him at that point, and he was already safely in his home. He’d need to be wary of her in the future, but for now he was safe to let the poor soaked woman go.
“Of course, I’m sorry. Didn’t realize I was making you reach in so far.” With that, he walked forward and handed her the shoes. “Here you go. They should at least be okay for the walk back home. Get home safe now, and try not to fall into anything on your way back.” he said, a bit jokingly. This was certainly the most relaxed he had been around her kind in his entire life. He watched the woman gratefully don the shoes and start walking away from his front door, her feet making a squishing sound with each step. With that, he turned and entered back into his house to try and get some much needed sleep.
TIMING: Current
LOCATION: Sofie's apartment
PARTIES: @sofiedupont & @singdreamchild
SUMMARY: The vampire couple sees a happy family walk past the apartment. It drives them to think about what could have been.
CONTENT WARNINGS: None
Time had never been something Sofie had really considered.
Everyone seemed to appear on the universe’s timeline at their own pace, and left it in the same fashion. She’d never really wished to have been born at another time. She’d found contentment in her life, experiencing the things and people she’d met.
They had been sipping coffee when a family had gone by. Two doting parents with a rambunctious little boy between the two of them. A smile tugged at the corners of Sofie’s mouth as the boy squealed with laughter as his parents swung him between the two of them.
It was the kind of thing that always warmed Sofie’s heart to see. Except this time, the smile was a little sad.
It wasn’t until hours later, curled up on her couch with Cassius that she even began to allow herself to consider it. “Do you ever wish,” she asked quietly. “That you had been born in another time?”
____
Cassius watched as the young family walked past the window, a strange tugging at his heart made him feel something he had repressed for years. He hadn’t had a family in so long that he had simply stopped allowing himself to feel anything for it. Sure, he had a makeshift family with Richard once upon a time, but that ship had sailed as well. Seeing a happy family, it reminded him that no matter what, he could never have it. He was dead. Dead things didn’t get a happily ever after. Willing himself to forget about it, he settled on the couch with his latest novel that he had picked up from the local book store.
Now halfway through the book he was reading, Sofie interrupted Cassius’s reading to ask him a simple but loaded question. He thought for a moment. “I find that if I wish for things that can never be, they only make me feel sad.” He answered, looking to her with a curious gaze. “I wish I was born after the creation of modern medicine.” He decided, putting his bookmark in the book and snapping it shut. “Where’s your mind at?” He then inquired, brushing a stray strand of hair behind her ear.
He had a point, of course. Wondering about what could have been only made what was sting. Even if what was, was good, and if she had to live all three hundred years again to get to this exact spot, there were few things, if any, that Sofie would change. She did manage a soft laugh. “Yes, you were quite lucky in that regard. Inoculation was only just starting to catch on when I was a young woman.”
She was not certain where this conversation might go. But she wouldn’t lie. She was far too old to be anything but honest. Especially about the complicated things. And yet, it wasn’t a particularly easy conversation to have. She closed her eyes a moment as gentle fingers brushed her hair back. “It’s silly.” Sofie started, trying to downplay it. “I just see families sometimes… like the one from earlier. And I wonder. That’s all.”
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Cassius frowned as she explained her woes, and it made him stop and think to his earlier thoughts. “Being what we are comes at a price,” he began, setting the book down on the end table beside him and turning to her. “When I was alive, I would picture myself with a family. When I woke up undead, that was one of the first things I had to learn to come to terms with.” He took her hand, a subtle look of sadness of in his face.
“It’s hard not to wonder what could be if the situation was different.” He began, rubbing his thumb over the back of her hand. “There are a lot of things I wish I could do. Being able to bask in sunlight being the biggest one out of them. But the situation is as it is, and there is nothing that can be done to fix it.” Cassius shrugged, wishing he had a better solution. “We can’t change what is, we can only look to the future and hope for what will be.” His gaze was hard to read, most of it calm, but some of it as if a storm was brewing behind those words. “We are what we are. I’ve come to accept what that comes with.”
He had a point. Of course he did. He had been alive nearly as long as she had- a person didn’t come to be that old without a few pearls of wisdom. A few things that they had learned to accept. But when he said it was one of the first things he had to accept he had lost, something in her chest tightened. Some ache she couldn’t set aside. Maybe it was trying to picture him with someone in his own time. Little children with poet’s hearts like their father. He took her hand, and she held it tight.
“I thought it was easy for so long… living without things. I was an old maid by the standards of my day. Six-and-twenty, and still unwed? I’d have to care for my parents in their old age, or work as a lady’s maid the rest of my days… I never gave much thought to having a family when I was young.” Her voice was quiet. As if it wasn’t a truth she admitted freely it often. Sofie closed her eyes as he mentioned the sun, pretending that if she wished hard enough, she might still feel warmth against her skin that wouldn’t spell out her demise. She looked back at him, and there was something about that expression… the calm before the storm, perhaps. She wanted to push. To ask what had the storm rolling in. She didn’t voice it aloud, but her eyes asked the simple question ‘what is it?’
______
Cassius hummed, giving a slight shake to of his head to shake away his thoughts. “It’s just hard to stay looking forward when little moments you know you can never have rear their head in front of your eyes.” He spoke in return the look she gave him with only her eyes. Of course he could read his face like an open book, for he only let himself speak true around her. The pain he felt in his chest was only emotional, but knowing that didn’t make it hurt any less.
“I’ve come to accept things because if I don’t, it’ll make me feel miserable.” He spoke, shaking his head as he picked up his book. “I’m sorry, I don’t like talking about this.” He pulled his hand away and opened the book to the marked page he had left off on. Sometimes these things were just too hard to put into words, so he withdrew.
And once more, he had a point. And Sofie cared for him far too much to speak of things she knew would make him miserable. But that didn’t make the ache in her chest go away.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to upset you.” Her voice was a whisper. She tugged a blanket from the arm of the sofa onto her lap. She didn’t need the warmth, but there was something comforting about the weight of it. He withdrew into his book. She wouldn’t force his hand. Sofie wanted to say something more. She wasn’t sure what. Maybe just to know that if they had met in another time, under different circumstances, if they could have had that.
_____
A few hours had past since they had spoken. But in the back of his head, there was a nagging that demanded him to face what he could never had. Cassius didn’t look up from his book as he spoke. “I lied.” He spoke simply, staring at the words at the page, but not taking them in. “I think about having a family all the time. I think about what it would be like to have children and a normal life and doing little things out in the sunshine because I can.” He finally looked over to Sofie, taking her hand. “I think about these things with you. And it hurts that it can never be.” He confessed, brushing his thumb over the back of her hand.
Seeing happy families, as cute as they were, hurt him a bit. It reminded what he could never have and what had been ripped away from him. But at the same time, he woudln’t have had it either way. He wouldn’t have made it to see himself with a family. “Perhaps we should get a cat.” He suggested with a coy smile. “It’s not a child, but we could definitely treat it like it is.” He chuckled, thinking to how caring Sofie would be with a pet in the house. “Or even a dog, if you’re into that. But not being able to walk it when it needs to be walked sounds like a bit of a downside.”
She had slipped into silence easily enough. The only sound was the occasional turn of a page. It lulled her into her thoughts. So when after time had gone by, she was startled by the sudden sound of a voice. Sofie looked up at him, confused. Lied? He was talking to the book at first, but the words were clearly meant for her. The words were both a burn and a salve. The pain was the same, and there was some comfort in that. In knowing that they would both want the same thing. He took her hand, and she held onto it tightly. “I like to think,” she sighed “that somewhere in the multitudes of universes that have us in them, that in at least one of those we met before. And that we could have that. In some place and time.”
There was that smile. It tugged at her heart, and her face slowly warmed into one to match his. “A cat.” She contemplated the idea for a moment before nodding slowly. “I think a cat suits our personalities far better anyhow…” Sofie grinned. “And what would you name a cat, Cassius Hawthorne. This is an important, and entirely serious question.” Her tone and the delighted gleam in her eyes said anything but.
_____
A faint smile took over Cassius’s lips, leaning in to press a kiss to her temple. “I have no doubt that in the multitude of universes, you and I are together in every one.” He murmured against her before pulling back. It was a hopeful thing to think about, the idea of different worlds, and in that world that he would be human and he would be happy. His mind flicked to Richard, what if in another world– no. No thinking about that. He blinked once, willing the thoughts out of his mind and back onto Sofie.
He thought for a long moment about the idea of a cat. A living breathing thing that he would take care of. “I want a black cat,” he declared with a smug look. “I like the name Nocturne.” He mused, lost in thought of the idea of being a goth vampire with a black cat. It really tied all the stereotypes together in a neat little black bow. His eyes then lit up with all the possibilities. “Or something from Shakespeare,” he then suggested as he leaned forward, lost in thought as he cycled through the names of several characters that the playwright had created. “Desdamona, Ophelia, Lord Stanley, Earl of Derby…” he trailed off, quite amused with his last suggestion.
She relaxed as his lips pressed against her temple. Sliding her arms around him, she pulled herself closer, to the point where she was practically sat in his lap. Sofie noticed his gaze grow distant. She tipped her head up, placing a kiss just under his jaw. “I like the sound of that.”
Sofie laughed, nodding slowly. “A black cat, alright.” She liked that he leaned into the stereotype. The black clothes, the poetry… a black cat would be the cherry on top. “Black is the badge of hell, the hue of dungeons and the school of night.” She mused. “You could borrow one of their names. Kit instead of Christopher. After Marlowe.”
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Cassius kept thinking of names but all his brain wanted to do was come back to Lord Stanley, Earl of Derby. “I really like my last suggestion.” He murmured with a playful expression, eyes alight with excitement. It wasn’t a child, but it never would be. That was a dream that he had learned to give up long ago. But the idea of an animal that they could care for together sounded quite nice. “Whatever we name it, it shall be spoiled rotten.” He decided as he pulled out his phone, making straight-faced eye contact as he opened Amazon on his phone and began to search for various cat supplies they would need and adding it to his cart. “Spoiled.” He repeated as he added a cat tree to his cart.
“I suppose we’ll need a solid place to live first,” he suggested as he stopped adding things to his cart with wild abandon. “At least, me not living where I do. I feel like a cat wouldn’t like a windowless crypt to live in very much.” He thought for a moment, knowing he’d have to seriously start looking into it. “And as much as I hate the idea of helping the bastard, I’d like to have a basement where we can hide Richard. Last thing I need is him getting caught and killed by a bunch of hunters that realize he’s here.”
She snorted at the lengthy title. “His lordship. Derby for short.” It was ridiculous, and yet Sofie loved it. Peering over his shoulder at the screen, she pointed at little mouse shaped toys that the website claimed had catnip in them, as if to say add those to the cart for the lordling.
A new home and a cat. It was impossibly domestic. It was easy to forget all the chaos that had been the last few months. Slayers, disappearances, reappearances of elder vampire sires…. She had to admit she liked this better. It felt impossibly human. A basement for Richard though. The thought of the elder vampire lurking beneath the floorboards wasn’t a thrilling one, but he was still important to Cassius. “I can look for a house… find a realtor or something.”
_______
Cassius smiled at the nicknames, thinking of all the possibilities that his life had the option of going in, but he found himself with Sofie, someone he felt he would have never deserved if he gave himself the opportunity to truly think about it. He knew he was lucky, but he also knew that he had lived a very long life full of a lot of nothing. Sofie lived her life full of opulence with other people that she had seen as a family. He had lived running from place to place, only really knowing Richard. He never got the opportunity to truly live his life until he was finally on his own. And even then, it took him a long time to finally be okay with that.
“Let the search begin,” he spoke with raised brows. “I know nothing about house hunting, so wherever you think we should start, I’ll leave you to it.” He nodded his head, brows knitting together in confusion at the concept of looking for a place to live. That had always been Richard. After Richard left, he had taken refuge in places that others wouldn’t dare to live. Crypts, for the most part. He may not know much, but he knew that as long as it was with Sofie, he could figure anything out.
