Chapter Text
“Where’d you say the party was again?”
“Wait, you’re still not here yet?!”
“No! I’ve been driving through Crutch Woods for…honestly, I don’t know how long. All I hear is my car, begging to be euthanized.”
“You needed a new car last year, my guy, like, the fact that it’s still going—“
“Ax!”
“Am I wrong?”
“That’s not the thing to focus on here! I’m in the middle of the woods for a party that I’m not even sure I wanted to go to. Are you sure you gave me the right directions? This place isn’t even on the map.``
“I’m positive! Just—“
A howl pierced the night's uneasy calm.
“What the fuck was that?” The phone felt heavy on my shoulder. I whipped my head around: trying to pinpoint the sound. I figured it was a wolf. The fear of driving at night—okay, driving at all, was getting to me.
“August?” Concern filled Axel’s voice: he must have been calling my name more than once for him to sound like that.
“It’s fine.” It wasn’t. “It’s just a wolf, I think.” As if to say “fuck you”, the window to the backseat shattered. At that moment, all I could hunk was oh, hell no! I hung up on Axel and turned the car around. Another howl erupted from somewhere. It sounded closer. I gripped the steering wheel and bit through my tongue. I tasted iron and pain and fear. As the car sped through the woods, whispers, tucked in the night breeze, nipped at my ears. Ever so often, I’d check the map and it said I was going the right way….but the whispers started to break off and get louder. I swore and went faster. I was almost in the clear when my shoulder started to burn and the world began to melt together.
I opened my eyes and grimaced. My head hurt and my eyelids were weighed down by some mix of lethargy, discomfort and fear. Yes, fear. It started as a small sense of wrongness: not unlike the feeling I’d get back home where I’d be shoved into dresses and skinny jeans and then sat down and given a hairstyle I didn’t want. It started like that, but then it morphed into dread and an acute awareness that I wasn’t in my bed.
I lightly inhaled through my nose. Whatever it was, it smelled like expensive cologne was sprayed on pennies then sprinkled with…cinnamon? When I finally woke up, I heard a familiar voice.
“Why’d you hang up?”
I was done. I was hungry and tired and, thanks to whatever happened earlier, out of patience. I looked up at him. He was shirtless. Naturally. And his black—I’m sorry—raven hair clung to his forehead in strands. He had his hands on his hips and a smile that I desperately wanted to slap off of his face. I stared at him. He stared back. I wanted to yell at him until he went deaf. Instead I sat up. As it turned out, I was lying on a couch. Then I went in.
“What did you do?!” My words sounded too raw, too horrified. “You KNOW how I feel about driving—how I feel about driving at night—“ I didn’t quite sob. But I didn’t quite not sob either. “Why would you—“
“I didn’t mean for this to happen.” His head was tilted down, his arms dropped limply to his side. He tried to meet my gaze but gave up after I sent him a scathing glare.
“You mean,” I said bitterly, “you didn’t mean to give me imaginary directions to a nonexistent party and then pretend to be concerned while I almost get eaten by wolves?” I was smiling the kind of smile you only see when the line of insanity had been crossed. Anger was currently the only thing I could stand to feel. Anger and, I guess, fear. I was terrified but seemed to be ignoring that for the sake of pride.
“They were actual directions,” he tiredly said.
“Directions to where?” I bit out.
“Okay,” he clasped his hands together and finally looked up. “There was a party in the woods. I got invited by an ex I still talk to. He said it was so he’d have an excuse to plan something because, well, he’s Ethan and Ethan hates relaxing. “ Alright, so far, this tracked. I knew Earhan and he was just as extra as Axe, if not more so when it came to plans and preparation. I could tell he was waiting for me to say something so I decided to be nice.
“Okay.” I made my voice as dry as possible.
“I asked him why the spot didn’t show up on the GPS,” said Axe. “He said he didn’t know but it didn’t matter because he could just give out maps to everyone he invited and, when we’d all eventually get there, we’d thank him because it’s—“ he cleared his throat and attempted to mimic Ethan. “‘just that beneful!’”
“So….” I was losing my patience. “How does that have anything to do with the map being wrong?”
“The map was right,” he sighed.
“So, what? I followed it wrong?”
“No. You followed it right.” His forehead wrinkled. He was going to tell me something he either knew was stupid or knew I wasn’t going to believe.
“So, “ I asked again, “what?”
“August.” He was suddenly very close to my face. Like, if I moved my head, we’d kiss. “Look at me.” I looked at him. His skin was kind of pale, but not sickly. His eyes had on a heavy coat of liner and stubble was sprouting on his jawline.
“What am I supposed to be looking at?” I raised an eyebrow.
“Me,” he grinned. For s second, nothing changed. Then, a tiny wave of dizziness hit me and I closed my eyes. When I opened them again, he was still smiling. But his 2 canines looked longer and brighter. I moved my eyes to meet his now deep red orbs.
“So, you’re a vampire.” It sounded stupid when I said it out loud, but what else was I supposed to say?
“Yeah. And before you ask, I wasn’t planning on draining your blood and leaving. I don’t actually know what happened, but I’m pretty sure you entered our realm.”
“Your…what?”
“Realm. World. Whatever you wanna call it. You somehow passed through the vail and that’s why you’re here.”
“What vail ?” I asked
“It’s…a long story,” he said. “Do I have to tell it?”
“Yeah,” I laughed. “Yeah, you fucking do.”