PARTIES: Jenny (@whimmortal) and Caleb (@dirtwatchman) LOCATION: Eluria Cemetery TIMING: Early June CONTENT WARNINGS: Head trauma, sort of SUMMARY: Caleb finds Jenny in the cemetery about to be a snack for a feral vampire.
"I don’t understand. Are you trying to die?"
It wasn’t uncommon to see the undead out and about in Eluria at night. It was something that Caleb truly had to get used to but he could safely say that he’d seen enough vampire and zombie attacks on unsuspecting humans in the past couple of months for him to be a little desensitized to it. He always felt bad but by the time he came onto the scene he would either see the aftermath or be too late to stop anything. Most of the time it was the aftermath and most of them…weren’t pretty.
The whole situation was showing him how much this town really needed his old business dealings. Zombies were starving, vampires were frenzied, and he knew he couldn’t provide enough of his services to stop it completely but maybe he could save a life or two by selling brains again. The problem was, his old client list was full of people who couldn’t trust him anymore and he could never get the undead he witnessed killing to stick around and talk after. Understandable, but inconvenient.
So he stuck to what he knew, keeping his head down for the most part, and cleaned up the human bodies after the dead got to them. At least it was keeping him and the very select few who gave him another chance fed.
He wasn’t quite sure what to do when he came upon an active scene though. A girl, human he presumed, and a vampire with bared fangs not too far away. It was a nightmare in the making. She was unsuspecting, fresh prey for a predator she didn’t stand a chance against. Only frozen to the spot for a second, Caleb felt himself lurch forward toward the pair, his trusty shovel in hand. “Hey! Get away from her!”
The vampire paid him no attention. It stalked forward, ready to consume her. The tool connected with the vampire's head moments before it could bite the girl, knocking him to the ground and stunning him just enough for them to get away. “Come on, we gotta go.”
Where did a person begin, when they wanted to find a vampire to turn them? In the books Jenny had read on the topic, most vampires tended to seek a human out and drag them in their undead world in one of many ways. Elena and Bella had been classmates with their vampires, Dracula was more threatening and forceful just as Carmilla had been. It didn’t often happen that a story was about a human trying to find the vampire — perhaps because prey did not often seek out predator.
But Jenny was different! She wasn’t just prey: she was prey intending to become predator. So she was trying to subvert the classic vampire tale, while still using her encyclopedic knowledge of vampire tropes. Cemeteries was one of many clichés in her beloved stories, which was why she had been seeking them out at night time.
Most nights had been pretty boring so far and had ended with her scrolling aimlessly down various social media apps while feeling absolutely useless. The longer she went without successfully tracking down a vampire, the more she wondered if there was only one out there: the one from the parking lot.
But tonight was different. Tonight, Jenny had managed to sync up with a vampire’s schedule. She didn’t quite know it yet, though, as she was sitting on a bench with her notebook laid open on her lap, the page covered in doodles and a few words of inspiration. At least the cemetery offered a nice atmosphere for her story-writing attempts, if anything — though maybe she should focus on it less, and more on the vampire creeping up on her. She wasn’t even aware of the impending irony of the situation.
Someone else was paying attention, though, and she was ripped from her thoughts and attempts at creativity by the shout of a man. Jenny jumped out of her skin as well as from the bench, head whipping from the approaching figure with a shovel to the recipient of his words.
And there it was. The very image of a vampire in his prime. She stood still on the spot, her notebook falling on the dirt and her pen following soon after. White fangs, hands reaching for her (though they were without the long Orlok nails) and hunger painting every inch of his features. Jenny felt herself inhale deeply as she registered every single detail, telling herself that this was the truth, the definitive truth of vampires — this was how they looked in the real world. Some shows and movies had gotten closer than others. She had not yet grown used to the sight in real life.
She wasn’t sure if she was scared or excited. Those emotions had always seemed similar to her anyway, but it didn’t matter: before she could commit to either of the feelings, the third party had jumped into action. The sound of shovel against head did not fit here, in this classic vampire tale, and yet it rang through her head as the vampire crashed against the ground.
Jenny finally moved. “What did you do?” The words were a desperate exclamation as she looked up to the stranger with the shovel. “Why — what did you just fucking do?”
Running. They should be running away from the vampire that temporarily stunned on the ground and was starting to regain his senses. Caleb could feel the glare of the man, his hackles raised as the impending danger loomed closer. But instead of using her legs, and brain for that matter, this girl was yelling at him.
“What did I do? I saved your life?” It came out as a question even though there was a hint of indignation in the words. He could hear the vampire growl behind him and he started to look between the two, trying to get into why she was so angry about his rescue attempt. Unless it wasn’t a rescue at all? Had she not been in danger? Eyes flitting between the two, Caleb briefly considered the idea that this could have been some sort of game between the two of them. He’d heard of crazier things before, right? “Are you two like-?”
Before he could finish the thought the vampire was on his feet and heading straight for her again. His fangs were bared and it definitely didn’t look like this was some sort of game between them both. It looked like bloodlust. It was a reflex, his shovel came up again to knock the vampire back on his ass but this time Caleb’s impatience got to him. He brought the curve of the shovel spade down as hard as he could, using the tool to sever the vampire’s neck. Normally, he was fine with letting the undead feed themselves, he had to do it too, but this one was clearly too dangerous and aiming to kill.
So it wasn’t a sex thing, that much he could gather. Why was she so angry then? “I don’t understand. Are you trying to die? Because that's what was about to happen. He was out of control.”
Jenny's gaze flicked between the shovel-man and the vampire on the ground, wondering what to make of this situation and the other's answer. “Who says you did?!” There had been no clear indication that the vampire had intended to kill her. She had collected proof that vampires were capable of drinking without killing — and she wouldn't mind two more puncture holes on her body. She could manage, if that was how she would get closer to her dreams.
She wanted to argue some more when the vampire sprung him, immortal strength keeping him from being down too long. If she had been hit in the face with a shovel, she would have remained on the ground, conscious or not. Jenny once again took in the sigh in front of her, the glinting teeth and the threat of it. He did look mighty hungry. He did seem somewhat dangerous. There was a chance that this vampire did end his meals with murder, but she didn't want to think about the reality where she could have ended up a nameless dead body in a graveyard.
It was quite a good place to commit a murder, all in all.
These weren't things she tended to think about, however. She preferred to think of cemeteries as dark, gothic places with a tinge of romanticism. The shovel-man did seem to think about it, though, acting swift and skilled with the makeshift weapon as he clapped down the vampire once more. Jenny didn't scream out this time. Her instincts were catching up. (The survival ones, this time — not the ones that wanted to be immortal.)
She was eerily quiet, frozen at the spot as the sound of a head being forced off filled the air. It couldn't be that loud, yet it was deafening. Jenny felt a wave of nausea pass through her body, starting at the toes and reaching all the way to her esophagus. He had killed him. She stumbled back, feeling her lips tremor. Was it the nausea, still, or oncoming tears? She didn't know. She didn't know a thing, which was the issue.
“You killed him,” she stated dumbly. Her feet passed over her fallen notebook, making a muddy imprint. “I didn't want to die. I wasn't —” She had read about vampires who were out of control, of course. About those that killed for pleasure. About the monsters in the night. About young, female victims. That wasn't supposed to be her story. “I —” She trembled. It was mighty cold. “You killed him.” Should she not also be scared of him?
‘You killed him.’ The words washed over him and suddenly Caleb felt the cold again for the first time in six years. Ice was flooding his veins, shocking him back into the moment. It was like he’d been on autopilot before, not really thinking before acting on impulse but now the truth was starting to emerge. He watched her silently, saw her body trembling, before he slowly turned his head back to the slight smattering of dust on the ground and the reality that had been slowly trickling in before turned into a flood of realization.
He had killed him.
The subconscious yet wrong want of taking a human (undead? person’s?) life had taken over for once since he’d started noticing the nagging feeling. It didn’t even help that it had been done in response to the face of danger, especially when he noticed how light he felt after he’d become fully aware of what happened. It was a release of the pressure that had been building up over years and years of suppressed trauma, a release that he hadn’t known would be so damn satisfying. For a moment Caleb was intoxicated with this feeling, basking in the glow of the violence.
And then it all came crashing down. Thoughts of this person possibly still having family out there or friends who would miss him started berating him and panic swelled in his chest. This had been a person who, yes, was trying to hurt someone but was he any different than the vampire he’d just killed? This could easily have been him at the hands of a bored hunter trying to rid the world of things that went bump in the night. But Caleb had taken the life. Him. Not Aesil. Not the monster that took over when he hadn’t eaten. Not even the hunters that would praise him for the action. Him. The question he’d been asking himself for months was now answered; apparently he was capable. And the slight euphoria that came with the act scared him more than anything.
“I didn’t mean to.” He didn’t know whether the whispered words made things better or not but he cleared his throat and tore his eyes away from the ash to look at her trembling form again. The zombie kept his words gentle, losing any edge they’d had before in hopes that he’d stop scaring her as much. “I wasn’t…thinking. He was trying to eat you.” The excuses kept pouring out and he was sure he would have kept going if he hadn’t noticed the shovel still in his hand, the vampire’s blood or…whatever it was coating the blade of it. He let it fall from his hands, sure that the mere act of holding it would terrify her further. “I was trying to help. How can I help?”
Even if the vampire had been as dangerous as the other had assumed, the swiftness with which he'd sprung into action to decapitate it was more startling to Jenny. That she had seen. The fact that she had been close to death herself faded in comparison to the cloud of dust that belonged to an actually dead person. Later, she might lie in bed and reflect on her proximity to being a drained corpse with horror, but right now? She just watched the dust slowly fall to the ground. Somewhat like snow.
She really was cold. She wrapped her arms around herself, clutching onto her sides with desperate fingers as if she wanted to claw at herself. This had happened twice now. The other time had been violent and brutal, done by someone who’d known what he’d done. Who’d snarked at her, held his superior knowledge on the situation over her head. This stranger may have acted with swiftness, but he certainly did not look like he did with much regularity.
And yet, there were two murderers here. One would-be, who was dead, and one holding a shovel, who was responsible for the dust circling the air. Jenny felt something rise, something ugly and pathetic. Crying was something best done behind closed doors, preferably under the covers or under the shower. But she'd always been a fast crier, much to the dismay of her family and even some friends. Her lip trembled. “So you did mean to,” she pointed out feebly, “Because you were trying to help.”
It was clear, then. In her quest, she'd placed herself in a position where she had needed help and now there was someone gone. And maybe he hadn't actually been intending to drain her until she died, but to her that didn't matter. She had looked like someone who needed help, the vampire had looked like he held murderous intent and the stranger had answered it in kind. “Do you ...” Her eyes moved around the graveyard, arms wrapping tighter around her middle. “How did you know? Why did — Are you — You're scaring me.”
The only thing worse than fully becoming a murderer? Watching tears run down someone’s cheeks. Alright, so that wasn’t quite true but having someone start crying right in front of you when you didn’t know them at all was always such an uncomfortable thing to deal with. On one hand, Caleb wanted to comfort her somehow. On the other…well, he had just murdered somebody right in front of her so he was pretty sure comfort was out the window. The only good thing that came from her tears was the slight distraction they were giving him from what just happened. He could focus on her discomfort without focusing on the why of it all.
Her words made too much sense though. He didn’t like them and he didn’t want to accept them but they were clearly true. He had meant to kill the vampire in the name of keeping someone else alive. “Uh…yea, I guess so. I was trying to help you.” As if clarifying that would make anything better. It was excuse after excuse but it was all he could do to justify it in his own mind. He was keeping her safe and if that meant killing another maybe he could accept that. Maybe that was okay.
Oh…oh he did not like her full on calling him out for scaring her. Caleb took a step back from her as soon as she said that, the familiar feeling of guilt washing over him again. It took him back to the memories of Aesil and the many who had said that to him when the demon was in control. He felt as if he had stepped into that role again and that caused him to step away from the shovel on the ground as well. “I’m not trying to scare you.” Caleb ran a hand through his hair, pulling softly at the strands as he did. “I knew because I’ve seen a few things while working out here. That vampire wasn’t in control. I don’t think he would have stopped.” But he couldn’t know for sure, could he? “Also…he shouldn’t have been trying to feed on you in the first place. There were other ways to get his meals.”
She wanted to go home. The feeling took hold of her strongly and suddenly, in a way it hadn't in many years. It wasn't the house in Oldtown she was longing for now – that place she longed for aplenty – but the home that stood in New York. It wasn't a real place she yearned for. The building existed, as did the rooms, but the scene Jenny was thinking of was a figment of her imagination. One where she could curl up with her mother on the couch under a shared blanket and be held by her. The way a mother and daughter would sit in a movie. She wanted the safety of home, the locked doors and comfort that hid behind it. Even if didn't exist.
She used to feel like this as a child, as a teen and even now still, as an adult. She clutched her sides, felt the tears starting to pool in her eyes and slide down her cheeks. Who could she turn to, now? Where should she go? She wanted away from here, from this graveyard and the dust and the murderer and her own mortality. From her fear. From being someone who needed help and from help looking so violent.
She was so dumb.
“Okay,” she said meekly, still keeping her distance from the stranger with the shovel. “You did, but okay. I appreciate the effort.” Jenny wondered if she should ask permission to leave, or if she should choke all her instincts and question the other. Because he knew things. “You...” She gulped, swallowing a sob. “Work here? Like … what?” Groundskeeper would be the best answer, but maybe he held down some kind of strange of job that had to do with graveyards. “I didn't want to … I don't want to ...” She shook her head. “Thanks. I guess.” The dust was falling. Jenny was still shaking. She didn't say that she wouldn't mind if a vampire drank for her, as long as it wouldn't lead to her death. “Like what?” A hiccup. “What do you know?
He took another step back as she so casually said once more that he had scared her, Caleb shaking his head softly. “I’m sorry.” But there was nothing else he could say. He was resigned to being a person she feared from now on, joining a long list of people in this town. She was alive though, and that was enough. “If it helps…I’ve never really killed anyone before.” At least not on purpose. His monstrous side was a different story but she didn’t need to know about that. She was trembling enough as it was.
“Uh…” He looked around as if the answer to her question should have been obvious. He wasn’t really sure what else there was for a cemetery other than the people who took care of the grounds. They didn’t have a funeral home on the property, not like with his last place of employment. “I just take care of things. Dig the graves, clean up after stupid kids who think seances are fun, clear away the dead flowers to feed the deer with…” Caleb shrugged a shoulder, not sure what else she would want to know about his job. Nobody had ever been that interested before.
The next question stunned him into silence, the zombie really not sure what to share with her now. On one hand, it was good to make people aware of what they could be running into in the cemetery. On the other…he could pique her interest enough to look into things and possibly discover more than he wanted her to. Vampires were the discussion right now but tomorrow it could be zombies. “....I know you should run if one is chasing you.” The words were almost deadpan, the blunt nature of them uncommon for him. He just didn’t want her asking too much so playing dumb was the best option. “I know some of them can’t control themselves…I don’t know what they call it but it’s like a bloodlust thing. They’ll drain you dry.” A pause before he sighed. “And most of them won’t care.”
Did it help? The fact that the other had never killed before until now? Until Jenny had been standing around here foolishly, like life bait for a prize that she might not get? No. It did not help. Dread and guilt and anger swirled aggressively in her stomach, making her nauseous. She wanted desperately to turn back time to when she’d left her house and make herself stay there. Her lip trembled and she cried now, wiping at her eyes furiously as if that would make the other not notice it. “Yes, uh, it helps. Sorry you — sorry you had to.”
That made sense. That there would be someone who did that kind of work. The hour was questionable, but then her being here at this hour also was, and besides, they’d kind of established that Jenny was suspicious of the other. But it was either a convincing lie or a strong truth so she didn’t fight him on it. “Sounds like a great job,” she said sarcastically, somehow still the kind of person to look down on someone for their career choices. Never mind that it was people like Caleb who made her cemetery visits better, or that she had been saved by his presence. Snobbery was hard to cull. “Somebody’s gotta do it I guess.”
He wasn’t offering her any new information. This was vampire 101, anyone who watched a show or read a book about them knew this. Maybe it was that simple, maybe it was just like in the novels she’d devoured. “Yeah,” she said, nodding. “I guess … that sounds about right.” She wrapped her hands around herself. She had questions for the other, but all her instincts were yearning for the safety of her car, if not her home. “I’m done here, I think.”
He knew it was bullshit. There was no way someone would think that helped at all and then start crying right after. But he was tempted to let it go because what else could Caleb say in this situation? It was done, the person was dead, and she was safe. He wouldn’t apologize again. Still, the tears made him uncomfortable and for a split second he considered trying to hug her to try and make it better. Would it make anything better though? Most likely not. It would probably scare her more, actually. He could feel himself shifting awkwardly from one foot to the other as he debated all of this in his mind before finally settling on nodding and leaving it alone.
“I actually like it.” He shrugged at her, not phased by the snark to her words. It wasn’t the first time someone had looked down on him for his type of work and it wouldn’t be the last. He had grown tired of trying to defend it over the years. It was quiet (for the most part) and nobody bothered him (again, for the most part). In fact, a lot of people took one look at the pale cemetery groundskeeper and ran away in fear. Those were the fun nights. He always liked coming back the next day and hearing rumors of ghosts weaving through the headstones the night before. As much as he complained about his life, there were a lot of enjoyable things that came along with it.
It was probably not nice that he was relieved at her dismissive words. He should be wanting to help her understand but his own paranoia and rising sense of self preservation was rearing its ugly head. Nodding again, he looked around them in search of her transportation. “Do you…want me to walk you out?”
Her fingers were reaching for her car key, playing with the fob and its keychain inside her jacket pocket to keep her hands busy. She turned it over and over again, skating over the bumps of the buttons in anticipation of clicking them once she was close to her car and finding solace in that safe enclosed space. There, she’d be able to blast music and more importantly, drive away and act like she had not seen what she had.
Jenny did not believe the other when he said he liked his job. There weren’t a lot of people out there that liked their jobs, and they certainly weren’t going to be cemetery groundskeepers. Unless they were real creeps … which was another reason to get going. Even if the other wasn’t a serial killer (though he could have been lying that this was his first kill), she had very little intention of getting to know him better. No, she was upset and embarrassed and no longer wanted to be witnessed by a person who had claimed to save her. “No,” she said determinedly, shaking her head. “Just … get back to work, or whatever. I can find the way myself.” And with that she turned on her heel, stalking towards the parking lot with what was probably not the fastest route — but she’d be damned if she walked past the other and gave him a closer look to her tear stained face.
