Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

To venture into that forest at night was to consider yourself a dead man, to put it nicely.

To venture into that forest at all was a death sentence regardless.

But here a young man was, cautiously stepping through the ever so eerie woodlands in the dead of night, searching for something. Answers, clues, evidence– to prove that theory that so many people in town have been whispering about, that there were creatures in this forest who were known to consume the lives of people…

Vampires.

They were vampires, vampires who preyed on the people of Silverton and dragged them deeper into the forest– causing them to go missing without a single trace. Their bodies were never located, and none of their belongings could be found either– no matter how much someone searched! Nothing could be found! It was as if they were fully consumed by the forest itself.

And he wanted to see if this was true. But in his ignorance, he had failed to gather the proper tools for this search– perhaps one could say that it was a last-minute decision of sorts on his end. He was only armed with a flashlight with terribly poor range, but in his mind, it worked for what it was. He also had a measly pocket knife, as if it could protect him against supernatural creatures like vampires. In his ignorance, he too did not even notice he was being watched, being followed… very, very closely. The fellow just continued on his pitiful search for answers, walking deeper and deeper into the forest until…

He might just consider himself lost.

It was so late at night so the forest was quite obviously rather dark, the only light to keep him company aside from his flashlight was the full moon that shone brightly above. If it were earlier in the year, the foliage of the trees would’ve absolutely obscured it– but it was the middle of winter so the trees were fully bare. Regardless he still had lost his way, so the ignorant human man was seemingly perfect fodder for the creatures that lurked in the night.

It soon became rather apparent to him that he was being hunted. It started off small, the rustling of the thickets around him as a clear indicator of some kind of animal being nearby, but when he shone his flashlight in that direction– there was nothing there. But it continued to happen as if he was being toyed with… and he was certainly being toyed with, enough for the man to start speeding up his pace as he tried his damnedest to remember the way he came. His fast walking soon became running as the rustling of the bare vegetation about him became much more, and he swore that something was jumping tree from tree– chasing him that way. Stomach-churning giggling could be heard reverberating all around him as he went, and the fear that crept into his mind increased tenfold.

And yet, he kept on, in the hope of escaping this experience alive.

But the poor poor ignorant man’s fate was already set in stone, for those who venture into this forest never leave it. No matter how fast he ran, it was simply no use, for his movement was quickly halted by one of the creatures after him having crashed roughly into him from behind– tackling him and causing him to fall onto the ground just as roughly. He was disorientated for a short time from this, but it was enough time for the monster to begin ripping into him starting with his shoulder. It gave no mind to the screams he’d let out, instead, it continued to rip and tear into his flesh until the young man's shrieks died out alongside him.

One of the other vampires who accompanied the first hopped down from the tree it had once been perched in, having previously watched the scene playing out in its entirety. It joined in on the feast, crouching down and taking hold of one of the man's limp arms and sticking its fangs into his wrist– beginning to slowly feed on him in a much cleaner manner than the first. There too was another, but rather curiously… it chose to stand a distance away from the other two.

Though even still, it watched them, a look of slight discomfort on its features.

The second vampire, after being satisfied with its fair share of blood, looked on at the third with an annoyed expression. It– no, she had pale skin, though her face had been littered with freckles. Her silvery-white hair was tied into two pigtails, a bow at the base of each. The outfit she wore was rather peculiar too, especially in comparison to how her hair was styled, being that of what you’d imagine a very very professional businesswoman would be wearing. Only the gods would know how she managed to get around this forest in heels of all things, let alone a decently tight pencil skirt.

But she’d speak aloud to her fellow vampire, letting that annoyance be heard clearly, “God, you’re useless! Why did you tag along when you knew you weren’t going to help us?!”

The third vampire it– he  simply locked his hands together and averted her gaze, “Well you know I don’t like hurting humans anymore…”

“That’s always your excuse! Don’t even bother coming with us if you’re not going to do shit to help.”

He just frowned at that but did not say anything more in the worry he’d upset her further, he knew better than anyone else to not get her super angry...

Now this vampire looked somewhat akin to the pigtailed one, he had similar fair skin, though he bore no freckles as she did. His hair too was that same silvery-white, but it was fluffy and short. What made them especially different was his height, because he was pretty damn tall, making him almost shrinking from her words considerably pitiful. His outfit was rather different from hers, being made up of a thick winter trench coat with a fluffy collar, a sweater underneath that, black jeans, and boots. Rather strangely he too wore a pilot hat, although this fellow was most certainly no pilot, it was all decorative.

“Oh be quiet,” The first vampire finally spoke after licking her lips of the blood that stained them, “You complain when he doesn’t come hunting, so no matter how useless he is, be happy he tagged along.”

This one was somewhat different than the other two, while she still had that same silvery-white hair color– it was somewhat curly and styled into a bob-cut. Her skin was a deep tan in comparison, and as she was currently still feasting her nails had been sharpened into long claws that were almost expertly precise in the way she used them to cut into the dead man beneath her. Her getup consisted of a cropped jacket, which had a similar fluffy collar to the prior vampire, rather short jean-shorts with thigh highs, and underneath it all she wore a black bodysuit. She also wore boots too, though they went up to her ankles and were lined with fur as well.

The male vampire's heart just about fluttered at what he considered her defense of him– while the pigtailed vampire let out a ‘hmph’ as she stood back up,

“Useless is still useless, I don’t even know how you function without tasting human blood.”

“I um– have my ways?” He shrugs with a nervous grin.

“Huh, right, yes– of course, of course you do. Whatever… I’ve had my share, I’m sure you two or at least one of you who’s actually useful will clean this mess up,” She sends a glare the way of the male vampire, causing him to shrink in on himself just a little bit more, before insectoid wings sprouted out of her back and she launched herself up into the air.

“Stay safe!” The male vampire yells after her, ever so friendly towards her despite her rather harsh attitude towards him.

That then left only the two behind, and as the female vampire continued to eat– it too left her companion still standing there rather awkwardly. No matter how much he had grown to hate watching his groupmates attack, kill, and eat humans, it didn’t feel exactly right to him to leave her there all by herself. While yes she was completely capable of defending herself if need be, he still worried! Who knew if there were any more humans out in these woods waiting to catch her off guard, or large animals who wanted to fight her for the kill she just made– or hell, other vampires who wanted to fight her on that kill… who knew! It’s best to stay in a group, especially out here.

“You should go home,” The female vampire says unceremoniously, cutting him out of his thoughts as she flashed him a toothy grin, “Or if you want to watch me continue to reduce this man into nothing, then be my guest.”

“Oh– I just didn’t want to leave you by yourself. Maybe we could leave… together? Whenever you’re done… I’m fine with waiting.”

She stared at him for a moment longer, enough for him to almost want to take back what he just said– but before that the woman just sighed, “I’ll take him to my den then because you’d be out here all night with me and I’m sure your ‘human sleep schedule’ will be ruined if you do.”

“Well, I do have a job! Haha!” He smiles at her brightly, putting his hands on his hips, “And admittedly I may be a little tired right now. I just wanted to make sure you were okay before I left to go home!”

“How thoughtful,” She says with a tinge of sarcasm laced into her tone, rising to her feet as she slings what's left of the man's corpse over her shoulder, “Let’s get going then.”

“Yes ma’am!” He gives her a salute rather comically, eliciting a huff of a laugh from his companion. But soon after, bat-like wings stretch out from her back and she launches herself up into the air much like the pigtailed vampire had done before her. Her speed caught the fellow off guard, and he’d quickly unfurled his own wings which were respectfully avian-like in nature. He would follow her as best he could, leaving the forest quiet once more– the only evidence remaining of the attack being the blood that pooled under the man as he was ripped into. That too, would disappear in due time…

Another life consumed, another soul to be forgotten, another story, another poster to be plastered all about town until those who cared about him lost hope. Another idiot who refused to keep to himself and meddled in things he shouldn’t have, resulting in his pitiful ending, how sad a tale.

But this was a common occurrence, and it never stopped more young stupid individuals from trying to take a look for themselves. It never, ever did.

Chapter Text

For Uzi Doorman, life was pretty simple– dare she say boring.

She’d been in Silverton for over a year now, living all by herself in an apartment, though she lived rent-free because her father insisted upon paying for her rent as she attended college, which he– also paid for. Maybe it was his way of apologizing for practically neglecting her for most of her childhood, focusing on his job and only his job for the majority of it, instead of… y’know… actually talking to her– but she guessed she was just fine with this arrangement anyway. It’s not like she had to see him daily anymore, suffering through awkward as hell conversations. It made her way less stressed and made focusing on college and college-related things much easier.

Though there were always the occasional calls where he’d try to check up on her, see how she was doing in college or just in general, those were the most awkward because he seriously knew nothing about his only daughter. That was his problem, not hers, she didn’t make him neglect her…

The only fascinating thing in her life, or rather– in the town she was now living in was the whole thing about the vampires. Those rumors had existed for years before Uzi herself came to live here, but they immediately caught her interest because the prospect of vampires actually being real was very exciting to her. Dare she say she had increasingly grown obsessed with the topic… she couldn’t help it, her interest in the supernatural was a little unhinged, obsessive even– she had to admit to that. Besides, the fact that the missing person cases increased ever since she moved here got her extremely curious, it was just incredibly odd to her.

In any case– about college, college was also beginning to get boring too. Boring and tedious, but when had it not been? But she felt like she was absolutely droning (hah) through it all at this point– and it was only her second year now! The one thing that kept her sane was her hope that she could create really cool shit with her degree in engineering in the future, she had always wanted to make her own railgun… it wasn’t exactly illegal to make one to her knowledge anyway.

But something else had caught her attention and it was nothing related to college, not the vampires, not her wanting to build a literal weapon– but the behavior of her good friend, she could even say best friend, Thad.

Uzi knew him to be what first popped into her mind when she hears the word jock. But while he was most definitely one hell of a jock, unlike most others she had known– he was stupidly fucking nice. It’s how they became friends in the first place! Who knew that one of the most popular people in their highschool would stoop to her level and befriend the ‘lonely scary emo girl’ after witnessing and putting a stop to her getting bullied by his sister and her friends one time. And they’d remained friends ever since, even if the beginning of their odd friendship was rocky because Uzi couldn’t trust people for shit– the two of them having moved to this town to attend the same college because it was close to their hometown, and it seemed like a lot of the other kids who graduated followed suit.

So had his sister and her… friends, one of which used to be one of her own in the past– but in recent times things seemed to be much cooler between them as a whole so she was fine interacting with her, and the others too– she guessed. Still, even if they were chill now that wouldn’t erase the shit she did to her in the past! No way! She’d be paying for that for as long as she lived, Uzi would make sure of that. Especially her former friend she’s still on the fence about considering a friend again even if she actually apologized. Yeah.

But more specifically, Thad’s change in behavior was that whenever she saw him in passing at college, or when they’d be hanging out in general– he looked… stressed, maybe a little scared too? That second fact surprised her because if she knew Thad as well as she thought she did he was rarely scared by anything at all– not even horror movies!  So for him to be acting like this, always looking over his shoulder like something or someone was going to lunge out at him was incredibly odd to her.

Incredibly odd and frustrating, because in some regard he clearly didn’t trust her enough to let her know what the hell was going on with him. So Uzi finally decided she was going to solve this issue and get him to talk about what was bothering him so much. Or she’d lose her shit.

…

Maybe.

In any case! On a day the two were finally set to hang out– they were in Thad’s truck as he was driving through town. The thing that Uzi liked to do the most was absolutely blast her favorite music through the speakers, not giving one single shit about if it was heard from outside the vehicle at all. Thad didn’t seem to mind himself! just looking forward with a smile on his face, because he was far too used to this– ‘deaf’ to the loud music now. She was just glad he was mostly being his normal self again, no stressed out looking Thad for the time being…what a relief.

But then out of nowhere, he’d turn down the music, gaining a glare from his friend who was far too absorbed in her favorite tunes– though that too was something he was apparently used to because he was very unphased by her glare,

“So Zi, where do you wanna go today? I’m cool with anything.”

“Ehhh, I don’t know, anywhere that has good food around here,” Uzi shrugs, she’d honestly eat anywhere, she wasn’t exactly the most picky person.

“Most places here have good food, that doesn’t give me many options!” He chuckles, “Maybe we could go to that cafe you like so much, hows that sound?”

Uzi paused for a moment, becoming rather quiet, remembering… something that had happened to her– or rather, a someone who worked at that cafe that she didn’t quite want to see again yet. Yet.

“Uh, maybe another time...” She turns to look out of the window, somewhat avoidant.

“Aw, but you love that place! And that guy who works there who you said was cu–” Before he could finish that statement Uzi reaches over and slaps a hand over his mouth, brows furrowed and her cheeks darkening.

“Bite me!! I just don’t want to go there right now!!” She yells, before slumping back into her seat properly with her arms crossed. Yeah, he was right and she hated he was right but she didn’t want to see that guy right now!! … Nor did she want to admit to the fact that yeah, that guy was stupid cute.

“Alright! Alright, let’s just go to– Mcdonalds! Mcdonalds is a good and fair choice, yeah?”

“Yeah, that’s fine. Even if the food is hit or miss…” She waves a hand.

“Sounds fine to me! Mcdonalds here we come!”

Then Thad turns back up the music, letting Uzi resume her favorite activity of jamming the fuck out. But she can’t really get into the music again, because her mind wanders back to what had been bothering her regarding Thad this entire time– his odd as hell behavior. Sure he was acting like his normal self now, which she was happy about to be fair, but she was and still is hellbent on figuring out what the hell was wrong with him.

Thus, Uzi rather shockingly turns the music down herself this time, looking over at him again, “So Thad, this is kinda random but– you’d tell me if something or like… someone’s bothering you, right?”

Immediately his demeanor changes, and he visibly looks stressed all over again but nods at her quickly,

“Uh– yeah? Yeah, totally I would.”

“Liar,” She frowns at him, brows furrowing again, “Somethings been bothering you and you’ve not said shit to me.”

“Uh–”

“Friends tell friends things, so if someone’s fucking with you you have to let me know so I can help you, I’ll give them a piece of my mind! I’ll beat them up, even! They have no clue what I'm capable of!”

His grip on the steering wheel tightens ever so slightly, and he lets out a sigh, “You… wouldn’t really understand…”

“Of course I would!”

“It’s– it’s a fight I don’t think you could win.”

“Huh?” Now she’s confused, her expression echoing that sentiment.

“It’s… complicated. Like, stupidly complicated I wouldn’t know where to begin. And I just… I don’t want to see you or anyone else I care about hurt. I don’t want to burden you with the knowledge I’ve got now either…”

“Dude, it wouldn’t be a burden to me. You can tell me anything and I’ll listen, plus it's not like I’m gonna like… tell anyone else… if it’s something secret to you. I’m stupid good at keeping secrets,” Uzi places a hand on her chest with a proud look in her eyes at that last bit, and she really wasn’t lying about how good she was at keeping secrets. She recalled that she’s kept secret for years now the fact that sometimes Thad uses ASMR to help him fall asleep… she can’t really judge him, sometimes some of those kinds of videos are relaxing. All she knew is that he didn't want her to tell anybody... so she didn't, simple as that.

“You’re… not wrong about that,” Thad smiles a little weakly at her, “I’ll… okay. I’ll tell you– just not now! When we’re there and settled I’ll tell you. I admit this has been weighing on me for a while, I just don’t know what to do about it at all. Maybe telling… someone will make me feel less weird about it.”

“A while? How long is a while…?”

“Um– a week?” He says with some hesitance.

“A week,” She repeats, “Okay, dude now you’ve got me curious, but I guess I’ll be patient and wait.”

Uzi simply shrugs, turning the music back up, one could say she was pretty satisfied with this outcome. While she was regularly rather impatient with stuff she really wanted to know– he was going to tell her! Soon! So hell yeah, she was high-fiving herself mentally for being a good friend even if she was somewhat pushy about finally getting it out of him. But that’s what good friends do! She uh– she thinks. She thinks.

The loud music would rage on until they finally reached their destination, finally quieting when Thad parked and the two exited his truck. Upon entering the establishment, the duo would order their food, Uzi insisting upon paying for the both of them–  and they found an area of the lobby where it was ‘more secluded’ in Thad’s words. Uzi only wondered why the hell they needed a secluded area for him to tell her what happened but she couldn’t think much further about it when one of the workers walked over to their table to deliver to them their tray of food.

After they’d left, with Thad thanking them, Uzi looked at him with a too-serious look and settled her hands underneath her chin, “Okay, now spill.”

A laugh escaped him at how funny she looked despite being so serious, but he let out yet another sigh as he began to recall those past events that burdened him,

“God, where do I even begin…”

Thad was used to going to parties, he genuinely enjoyed playing stupid ass drinking games, chatting with friends and new people, and overall just having a damn good time with other people his age. Sometimes he had invited Uzi to come along with him, insisting she’d have a fun time– but in her own words she was ‘too cool for parties’ and he learned to accept that eventually. She was introverted, he was extroverted,  he could respect that! Plus he knew she always planned on gaming or working on art whenever she didn’t have anything else like schoolwork to do, which he also could respect. Art was kind of her job anyway, and it was one hell of a good way to make money– another thing to respect!

Tonight was no exception to his love of partying though, because this one was much bigger than most parties he’d attend usually. He didn’t exactly know the host all that well, but he did go to the same college and it was very apparent that he, or rather his parents, were very well off because goddamn their house was big. He kinda wondered why the hell this guy didn’t go to some more upscale college but… he wasn’t going to think too hard about that.

Currently, it was later in the night and Thad was honestly feeling a little bored at this point, so he took to just roaming the home like a normal person and attempting some idle chatter with anyone he’d come across. But most people here were fucking shitfaced, high off their asses, or just plain ol passed out by now, so there wasn’t exactly much conversation at all to be made…

But then he saw her.

She stood out like a sore thumb, but in like– a good way. A really good way! This woman was stupidly pretty and he was fully aware of that. There was also the fact she was standing all by herself, leaning against a wall, boy did she look absolutely uninterested in everything that was going on right now… which really wasn’t much to begin with. She was probably just as bored as he was, he didn’t exactly blame her– there wasn’t much to do at this point for either of them!

But what stood out to him about her was her unique appearance, he just hadn’t ever seen someone so boldly pull off white as a hair color and make it look good– that and how it contrasted so heavily with her darker skintone. Her outfit of choice was also pretty unique, in his eyes anyway, because by everything this woman absolutely pulled off the combination of a cropped jacket and jean shorts perfectly . It was damn clear she absolutely caught his attention, and seeing that she was all by herself and not drunk out of her mind like many others here, he chose to walk on over to her and try to talk to her.

Leaning up against the wall right beside her he begins to chat with her,

“Sooo, you enjoying the party?”

“If watching drunk idiots is enjoyable then it's debatable,” She replies, voice cool and calm, her eyes meeting his and he realizes that rather strikingly they’re golden– and sort of… cat-like? Were they contacts?? Even so, they were pretty, holy hell. How unique could she get?

“Well watching people be idiots is pretty fun, but when they start accidentally breaking stuff or throwing up it’s… definitely not,” He lets out a small chuckle, “But anyway, I don’t think I’ve ever really seen you around here. Are you new to town, maybe?”

“You could say that, I guess.”

Now that– sort of confused him. Though he’d brush it aside for now, “Ahh right. Well, you just sort of stood out to me, I’m surprised I haven’t seen you around til’ now especially if you’re attending the same college as the rest of us… I’m Thad! It’s nice to meet you, and welcome to town I guess?”

“Hm, thanks. Name’s V.”

Okay damn, she could get more unique! That’s definitely not a name he heard very often. Or at all.

“V? Like V-e-e?” He asks, and she shakes her head.

“Just V.”

“And it’s not short for anything?”

“Nope! Just V,” V states again with a little laugh, “I get that a lot though, so I understand the confusion.”

“Nah it’s fine, V’s a cool name! I like it.”

“Thanks again, I guess,” She gives him a small grin before turning back to face the chaos of the party, and so does he– though he doesn’t exactly leave her side just yet.

Things would grow pretty quiet between them for a while, aside from the loud music being played that reverberated about the house. At some point, they both had watched as some idiot broke one of the coffee tables in the living room by jumping on it– the whole scene visible to the two from the hallway they were standing in, and he had to suppress the urge to think the laugh V let out at that was cute . But afterward– silence again, and Thad really didn’t know what else to say to her, reaching through his mind to find… something… anything to start up a conversation again. Even if their previous one was rather short, he still wanted to talk to her more!

But then it hit him. While he wasn’t exactly a believer in the rumors and theories himself, it wasn’t a bad thing to probe her on her own opinions about them. If she had any, really–

“So V, you heard about those vampire rumors?”

“I’ve heard it mentioned to me countless times that people disappear in the forest bordering this town, so yeah, I have,” The woman nods in confirmation, “Do you… believe in them?”

“Nah, I think they’re not exactly true,” He admits with a shake of his head, “But one of my friends believes– I don’t have the heart to discourage her theories about them and stuff, she’s really passionate about it all! Sort of makes me want to believe them, honestly. You?”

“That’s sweet of you,” V would giggle, “I can’t say I agree that they’re untrue, there is something in the forest making people disappear. But it’s good you don’t believe, it's better that way anyway– the thought of a guy like you disappearing makes me… kind of sad, actually.”

“Oh– What– What do you mean by that?” Boy was she a mystery, confusing him and playing with his heart-strings a bit. Get it together Thad, you just met her!

“From our conversation, I feel like I’ve already formed somewhat of an opinion of you,” V crosses her arms as she explains, “You don’t seem like an entirely bad person, especially from the way you treat your friend despite your differing opinions. And honestly, I’m very glad your first thought when coming up to me wasn’t immediately to flirt with me– that’s just plain annoying. To say the least, people like you are… good , I guess, the world needs more of them. Good people who aren’t judgemental or annoying.”

“Oh! Well thanks! Don’t you worry about me at all, I’m not gonna go off into those woods anytime soon or at all,” He assures, though a small, little tiny part of him is unsure of it. He was… admittedly a little curious. Just a little. But he wasn’t dumb enough to go out there, “ I also try my best to not be annoying, you’re kind of the only not drunk person here anyway, so I’m glad that I’m doing good on that end.”

“Yeah, you are,” She smiled at him again, and he felt like he was going to die because she was just that pretty, “Interacting with drunk people is the worst ever.”

“I feel you there, I’ve had a few drinks tonight but it’s hard for me to get absolutely plastered, rest assured I feel like I'm sober right now.”

“Lucky you then, hm?” She tilts her head at him slightly at that last bit.

“Lucky me!” He agrees with a grin of his own.

There was silence between them once again for a while afterward, but it was silence that Thad was pretty much fine with– he found it kinda comfortable. However, it too was a silence that would have to end eventually, as V spoke up this time and pushed herself from her leaning position,

“I think it’s about time I get going before more things get broken, even if it’s hilarious to watch.”

“Aww man… but that’s fair! I guess I’ll– see you around? Maybe?” Thad does little hesitant finger guns at her.

“Hm, maybe,” She seems to consider with a shrug,  “But it was nice meeting you, Thad.”

“You too V! Have a nice night, get some rest– or don’t… do whatever you want!”

She laughs at his words once more, “I’ll see about that,” and soon after leaves the area. Man, was that some interaction– but it was a good one in his eyes! Damn, he should’ve asked for her number or something because he really liked talking with her even if it was brief. But he really didn’t want to bother her so maybe another time, maybe the next time he saw her he would… if there was a next time. He hoped.

But after some time of lingering there by himself, Thad goes to the living room to find a good place to sit for just a while longer before he heads home himself, maybe to find someone else to chat with– but he swears he sees V just as she’s leaving arm-in-arm with another party-goer and boy were they close. Eh, it was her business, none of his! He just hoped she enjoyed her night.

Little would Thad know, but the guy that V left with? Would end up missing by the next morning, and hadn’t been found ever since. Once he learned of that, a small part of him thought of those vampire rumors again… but surely V couldn’t have been a vampire.

…

Right?

Honestly, he didn’t know and maybe didn’t want to know, choosing to move on with his life. There were a ton of more important things to worry about than rumors, college especially. Even so, as he went on about things just as he usually did– that ever so mysterious woman popped back into his mind from time to time…

“So, you met a girl that you think may or may not be a vampire?” Uzi raises an eyebrow as she stuffs another fry into her mouth, it had been what she was doing the entire time he was telling his tale of sorts, “Also fuck you vampires are real. Hell, she might actually be one, you wouldn’t know! We don’t even know what they look like but her appearance sounds suspicious.”

“Can’t say I disagree with you now, Zi, like at all… that’s not the entire story…”

Uzi stops as she is just about to eat another fry, “What?”

“Let me explain what happened a week ago… the uh… second time I saw her…"

It had been a couple of weeks since Thad had initially met V that the topic of vampires would come back up in a conversation again. Though shockingly, it wasn’t something brought up by Uzi like usual, but by people he had considered himself acquaintances with– not exactly friends, he really couldn’t consider them friends with the way they spoke about Uzi in his presence, but definitely acquaintances. During a break in between one of his classes, they were the ones who insisted upon hanging out with him in the lunch hall so he truly had no one better to talk to. They were getting increasingly on his nerves over time though, if he was honest.

“So Thad, I know you know about all of those vampy rumors going around,” The one girl of the group, Danielle, stated to him as he was mid-bite of the sandwich he brought for lunch. The three were sitting across from him, and the group consisted of obviously Danielle, and two other guys– Nash and Adam. They were what you’d think when you thought ‘popular kids’, they were dressed rather well and were far too full of themselves honestly, as if in college popularity even mattered all that much.

Like he himself? While he was decently known, because he had a reputation for being stupidly kind and friendly to those around him, he wouldn’t exactly consider himself popular. While he definitely was back in highschool, because he was the football team's star quarterback, he was happy to be less known here. Well, he was known to these guys… but still! He liked the relative peace, but he was still greatly considering joining the football team here next year.

Swallowing the bite he’d nod, “Yeah, Uzi’s like…a fanatic about them, how would I not know? She rambles to me about them not only in person but through text, it's hilarious.”

“Oh ew, don’t bring her up,” The girl grimaced at the mention of his friend's name, “I can’t even fathom how you still hang out with her.”

“Well, I’ve known her since highschool… longer than any of you,” Thad points out with an exasperated sigh, “Why wouldn’t I hang out with her?”

“She’s a freak,” Adam speaks up, “She’s like… crazy, from what I’ve seen– super weird too. sure, we’ve all heard about the vampire stuff, but she’s insane about it. Seriously hanging out with her is gonna drag you down more, I know that.”

“Seriously?”

“Well, it’s true!” Nash says, leaning forward in his chair as he does so, “I swear I heard her talking and like– giggling to herself one time, super creepy.”

“You act like we’re still in highschool, this is college. If you’re worried about who I’m surrounding myself with then you’re focusing on the wrong thing entirely, we’re not teenagers anymore there is literally no need at all to judge her for what she’s passionate about or how she acts.”

“Whatever…” Danielle just shakes her head.

“Not only that you’re literally shittalking my friend to my face, do you see how stupid you sound?” Thad continues regardless, trying to get them to understand.

“We get it! God you’re protective, it’s gross,” Nash groused.

“Not protective, more like sick of you guys talking badly about my friend, and if you keep on I’ll go find somewhere else to eat. Now what was it about the vampires?”

“Oh yeah! The vampires!” Danielle perks up again, “We’re thinking about going out to the forest tonight to see if we as a group can find one.”

“Wait– What– …really?” Thad squints at her, a frown finding itself on his face, “You know that no one ever comes out of that forest alive, plus weren’t you just judging my friend about her interest in them…?”

“Yeah! And…yeah... But we want to change that whole thing about no one coming out of there alive and stuff, we were thinking about inviting you along.”

“C'mon you’ve gotta come with us, you’d totally deck one of those vampires– you’re strong!” Adam would add.

“I mean yeah, but it just sounds dangerous, and no offense– really dumb.”

“What, you scared?” Nash raises an eyebrow, leaning back in his seat with his arms crossed, “Thad’s scared? Color me surprised.”

“I’m not scared, I just don’t wanna possibly yknow, disappear,” He waves a hand, and in the back of his mind he recalls the words that the ever so mysterious V spoke to him… she didn’t want a good guy like him to disappear. But all the same, the nagging curiosity that he was trying to stomp out of his mind was creeping right back in. Dammit. Dammit!

“Nah, you’re totally scared.”

“I’m not! God– you know what? Look, I’ll go with you guys only because I want to make sure none of you get hurt. Happy?” Thad finally submitted to the pressure and his curiosity. God, he was awful, and he felt awful for going back on his word to that mystery woman. But his reasons were pretty honorable, although these three were kinda assholes he didn’t exactly wish death upon them. It was definitely best he went with them.

“Yay! Look I knew we’d convince him, thanks Thad!” The girl cheered with a grin, “We could totally meet up next to the old factory that borders the forest like… at ten tonight? How’s that sound?”

The three boys would agree, though Thad was still relatively hesitant as he did so. It was a terrible, really bad idea… but he couldn’t back out now. Not only would it bruise some of the pride he held, especially over him not being a wuss, but at his core it just felt really wrong to let them go out there by themselves. Like he thought before, he really didn’t want them to die even if they were assholes.

Regardless, eventually his break would end, and he was off to his next class… nervous as to how tonight's events would go. The day passed very regularly, he didn’t have many classes today. That gave him plenty of time to prepare himself for the possible shitshow that would happen tonight. But he’d have to remind himself that vampires weren’t real, it was just an extremely extreme rumor that was just that. A rumor. Only a rumor. Yup, totally, something he could NOT believe in the slightest.

…

And then there he was.

Sitting in his truck parked outside the old, abandoned factory. He got there the earliest, it was around 9:40pm when he pulled up– and he was just sitting there like a dumbass waiting for the others. He honestly didn’t know why he chose to arrive here at this time anyway, it just– felt right?

In any case, he did bring a few things with him in preparation for their search. All stored in a backpack was one, a flashlight with new batteries so that it had no chance of going out at any point during their time here. Secondly, a goddamn machete his stepmom gave him for one of his birthdays– an odd gift but one he appreciated a lot, it’d be useful! Thirdly, he heard that vampires had a weakness to garlic so therefore he brought some… yeah he was a little unsure about it to be honest. But lastly! He brought some granola bars, cus, yknow, who knows if anyone will get hungry.

Soon enough the other three would pull up right next to him in their own car, Adam was sat in the front passenger seat and rolled down his window,

“You got here early, damn!”

“Better to be early then to not be,” Thad reasons with a shrug, “Did you guys bring anything or…?”

“We brought weapons!” Danielle yells from the backseat, “And flashlights!”

He’d let out a sigh of relief at that… so they weren’t coming here completely blind, it was better than them bringing nothing at all. Thad exits his truck just as they’re exiting their own vehicle, pulling the scarf he wore over his face a little as a chilly breeze hits him. He was damn glad he dressed warmly for this, it was the middle of winter and it was cold as hell out here. They luckily had the same idea too! So there wasn’t any issue with anyone freezing and possibly getting sick from being out here too long, though honestly they shouldn’t be out here for too long in the first place.

Thad just surmised that they’d look around for a bit, and if they didn’t find anything then they’d head back to their cars and just go home. That’s just what he thought but… who knew what would happen. Not even he was prepared for what would happen next.

Everything started off pretty fine in his eyes, he naturally took the lead in the group because not only did he want to get this over with– but the rest of the group agreed that it was much better that he led them! Because he was the ‘strongest’, and– he couldn’t exactly argue with that. Sue him for being proud of his physical strength, he went to the gym pretty often, though he wasn’t gonna brag about it. He definitely knew his limits, but he had this, this was fine.

At some point very early on, Nash stopped the group and dug around in one of his jacket pockets and pulled out several purposefully cut brightly colored ribbons,

“If we’re gonna be smart about this, we’re gonna have to keep track of where we’re going! So I’m gonna tie these around some tree branches as we go, and when I run out we should head back. Alright?”

Thad could not argue with that, finding that to be a very damn good plan. The other two were less on board, Adam letting out an annoyed groan, but he couldn’t find himself caring much– it was better to be smart than to get lost at all.

Thus they’d continue on, shining their flashlights all around the woods as they cautiously stepped through it, only the sounds of the snow crunching beneath their boots and their breaths could be heard as they went. Occasionally there was the hooting of an owl nearby, which got a fright out of Danielle and caused the two boys to laugh at her– the girl hitting Adam roughly in the arm for it which got them both to cut it out. Thad paid them no mind, although he found it a little silly, simply allowing himself to look forward and around him with the help of his flashlight, keeping his other hand firmly gripped upon the handle of his machete. Better to be safe than sorry.

But in the back of his mind, Thad swore that something was watching them… it just made his hold on the machete even tighter. Something wasn’t exactly right here…

“Guys I ran out of ribbons,” Nash’s announcement took him away from those thoughts, and he looked over to see Nash feeling around his pocket and removing his hand to show the group that there was nothing left.

“That’s because you tied them around every branch you saw! Ugh!” Danielle huffed, crossing her arms with a pout.

“Well for one– no the hell I did not! Two, I thought it’d be useful!”

“Yes you did, you fucking useless idiot!”

“Guys guys!” Thad steps between them to try to diffuse the situation, “We did agree to head back whenever he ran out, right? It might suck, but it is what it is. Let’s just get going.”

“Ugh, so fucking lame, I thought we’d actually find something and I’d be able to tell all my girl friends about it!” Danielle continued with her complaints, growing more irritated by the second.

“Oh boohoo, look we’re gonna freeze our asses off if we do–” Adam began, but the sound of something rustling nearby caused him to stop abruptly.

Where they were standing right now was in the middle of a clearing, all around them were trees– it was like they were in some kind of arena. It was awfully convenient that they had stopped here and something was very clearly with them in the forest now. Somewhere where all of them could be seen… huh…

“Wh-What was that?” Nash muttered, looking around frantically.

“Don’t know,” Answered Thad, stepping forward and shining his flashlight in the direction of where the sound came from. Nothing, nothing but a leafless shrub was there.

“It’s probably like… a coyote or something, it couldn’t be that big of a deal you know,” Danielle says in a rather condescending manner, “Don’t be a baby about it, Nash.”

And then it happens again, paired up with hauntingly, crazed giggling coming from the trees above them.

“That is not a fucking coyote!” Nash shrieks, pointing his flashlight up into the trees. To the group's horror, there is absolutely something up there and it is not any animal that they know or are familiar with. Even with a flashlight being pointed at it– it still remained cast in shadow, the moon framing its humanoid figure from behind as it sat there, crouched for the time being, staring down at them.

Before anyone could do anything, not even make a break for it back the way they came– large wings outstretched from the creature's back as it launched itself up and off the branch it clung to. It dove downwards, claw-like hands outstretched as it landed upon Nash and took him down easily. Nash screamed and thrashed as it hovered over him, a wicked smile stretched upon the creature's strangely human-looking face– before it quickly unhinged its jaws and bit down hard on his neck.

As the scene played out, the previously confident Thad could not find himself moving, stuck in place as he watched. He only stared on as the creature… no… as the vampire ripped and tore into Nash’s neck– his screams growing weak as blood frothed into his mouth. Even now Thad knew he couldn’t save him.

But he stared, he stared not only because he was afraid but because this vampire its– its face reminded him of someone. Someone who came across his mind from time to time although he had only met her once and never again, someone who he found mysterious and who he couldn’t exactly read well…

That woman… V… this creature it– no… she looked exactly like her, the face did at least. She had that same hair, the same complexion, the same golden-colored eyes though her scleras were pitch black now. But her body, she was larger here– much larger in form, her lower body was covered in fur that was almost as white as the snow around her, and her legs were bent at such strange angles that it almost looked like an animals would. More of that fur covered her arms, her hands being large and clawed, and the fur too covered her neck and chest area. The large wings that stretched from her back were something that was hard to not take notice of, looking just like a bats.

… So she was a vampire. V was a vampire. This was so unmistakably her, and he couldn’t believe how much of a fucking idiot he had been to not think so beforehand. Her odd yet– strangely alluring appearance was a sign! He should have known!

“Get it, Adam!” The yell from Danielle then caught his attention, enough to see Adam’s attempt at creeping behind the vampire with the baseball bat he had brought with him as his weapon of choice.

“No stop!” Thad tried, but he was too late. Right before V could turn around, the commotion interrupting her in the midst of her feasting, he’d managed to crack her on the back of the head with the bat. But that didn’t injure her but instead made her very angry, and before Adam could flee the one thing Thad had yet to take notice of stabbed him right through his stomach.

Her tail. It was her tail that did that. It was covered in that same fur, but it was thin and long and its tip was a stinger of sorts– almost resembling that of a scorpion. But it stabbed right through Adam, the vampire letting out a mix of a hiss and a growl as she maneuvered her tail to launch him harshly into a tree on the other side of the clearing. He’d slump over where he had landed, and Thad had no clue if he was still alive or unfortunately… dead.

“Th-Thad! What– What do we do?” He’d hear Danielle's voice again, absolutely desperate and just as terrified as he was, as if it finally dawned on her how urgent and serious the situation before them was. If she hadn’t yelled, maybe Adam would’ve… he couldn’t think of that right now.

“Stay behind me,” He’d tell her as he glanced over at her, “We’re going to get out of this.”

When he looked forward again to where the vampire had been– he realized she had vanished. And that made him worry more because he knew in some regard she wasn’t gone for good and that she was watching them again. Just waiting to spring out at them to attack like she did the first time with Nash. In the back of his mind, he knew that in some way… they weren’t going to get out of this. Those rumors, those goddamned rumors, they were true– anyone who steps into this forest at night is a dead man. He would be a dead man. God, he was so stupid– why did he agree to this? Not even Uzi would do this!

The forest was quiet once more, for a while anyway. Thad stayed just about in the middle of the clearing by now, ensuring that he and his remaining companion weren’t anywhere near the trees where they could easily be snatched up and killed by their foe. It was a waiting game until V chose to reveal herself again…and when she did he’d be ready.

…Or, he thought he would be.

Danielle didn’t listen to him, over the time they waited for the vampire to return she grew restless and more paranoid, even annoyed at their predicament as if her friends didn’t just get killed right in front of her.

“I think it’s gone, we should just go,” She says.

“I honestly don't think that’s a good idea, the moment we go back into the forest it’ll try to pick us off. We have to be smart about this,” Thad reasons, words spoken in a much more soft, hushed tone.

“I– I don’t care! I need to get out of here!”

“We both do! I know you’re scared but don’t do something stupid!” He tries to grab her arm to stop her from moving away from him, but he’s far too late as she shoves right past him headed back the way they came. He starts to try to follow her– but stops himself as he watches her enter the tree line. While a part of him had some hope of her survival, that hope melted away as she was soon tackled by a shadowy figure that no doubt was the vampire hunting them. He had to avert his eyes to not have to see the bloodshed of her death, but the screams he did hear, he heard them well. God were they awful.

It only left him, he was the only one left alive. And honestly, despite everything, he wanted to remain alive and was not going to let this vampire get to him– he was going to be smart about this. Thad was going to stay here and let her wait for something that wouldn’t be coming, even if he had to wait all night until the sun rose again in the morning.

He’d slowly take the backpack he wore from his shoulders and place it on the ground, making sure to keep watch of his surroundings so she didn’t catch him off guard. He unzipped it for now, not exactly pulling anything out of it yet, but if he needed anything from his bag he could grab it quickly. Still though, he remained there right where he stood, and again– for another long while it was still silent in the forest. He tried to not look at the corpses that surrounded him, and instead, focused on the treeline around him to see if he could locate the vampire where she was watching him. Because by far, he knew she was watching.

But her only weakness was impatience, he guessed, because eventually those haunting giggles were heard again. Movement throughout the trees was visible to him, but instead of getting intimidated by her attempt to try to scare him again, he continued to stand his ground and waited for her to strike. And strike she did, much like how she had attacked Nash– she’d pounce at Thad from the trees, wings outstretched, trying to knock him over in the same way.

But before she could reach him, he’d stepped out of the way and slashed at her roughly with his machete, in the back of his mind he thanked his step-mom over and over for this gift… because it clearly did damage to her as she let out a shriek of pain. He had managed to cut her pretty good on the side of her torso, feeling very proud of himself, but some of that confidence faded as she looked right at him with the most pissed off expression he’d ever seen. Far more pissed off than she had been with Adam, definitely because he got a good hit on her.

She’d again try to pounce at him with much more intent behind her attack, her anger growing much more apparent as she growled at him when he miraculously managed to evade her once again– grabbing his bag where he had left it and went to throw the garlic he had brought at her. It did… nothing– nothing but make her look at him confusedly, but it gave him enough time to grab the bat that was left beside Nash’s corpse.

He tried not to stare too much as he took the weapon, turning around soon enough to attempt to crack the vampire across the head as she was now close behind him– just like Adam had tried. But she grabbed the bat right before he could strike her, terror creeping back into him as she effortlessly tightened her grip upon it and broke the damned thing in two. As he was distracted, she threw the weapon away and delivered a painful kick to his stomach which launched him across the clearing.

A choked sound escaped him as he hit the ground, pain soon blossomed throughout his body as he struggled to pick himself back up– he wasn’t done yet, he was not going to die tonight! But the vampire before him began to cackle again, and with his pain-blurred vision, he could see a wicked smile spread across her face as she slowly, purposefully approached him. Almost desperately, he held his machete out at her as some sort of warning– but effortlessly she’d smack the thing from his hand like it was nothing.

The vampire grabbed the front of his jacket, lifting him up with it as he struggled and found himself gripping upon her forearm as she did so. Thad closed his eyes and braced himself for what would soon come to him– he would die here, he would die here a fucking idiot who shouldn’t have let himself be pressured into coming, who shouldn’t have been so nice as to want to look out for those three who he had failed to protect… but why… why did she tell him not to come here when she was going to kill him now? Why?

…

But his death never came.

Cautiously, Thad opened his eyes again to look at the vampire– to look at V who was staring at him in return rather closely, almost uncomfortably. Her eyes had returned to how they were like before, normal human-looking white sclera’s yet with those same yellow, piercing irises.

“Oh, it’s you,” She’d finally speak after saying nothing this entire time, her voice the same as it had been before, “I thought I told you that you shouldn’t come here, but of course… you didn’t listen to me. Typical. Typical humans, you never listen, and look what you’ve gotten yourself into.”

…

What??

Before he could actually think about it, he found himself replying, “You– you didn’t… recognize me?”

She frowns at him and drops him abruptly, Thad coughing from the pressure that was finally lifted off of his neck. He takes a couple of breaths and watches as V moves herself into a seated position– if this situation weren’t as terrifying and as odd as it was he would think that it was strangely… adorable– she was sitting on her haunches much like a cat would, with her wings wrapped around herself as she continued to observe him.

“That still negates the fact that you came here anyways, but I guess I can forgive you because you delivered me a fantastic meal tonight.”

“... you– you guess? What– I– I didn’t know you were a vampire!” He doesn’t even know why he’s talking to her but he can't stop, “and I– I didn’t want those three to die… even if they kind of suck… they didn’t deserve that.”

“They did deserve what happened to them,” She says matter-of-factly with a shrug, “They weren’t being smart, especially that last one! You, on the other hand, held your ground against me even if it wasn’t for long. Now that… that takes guts, honestly, I’m kinda impressed.”

Thad doesn’t even know what to say back to her… he’s just utterly speechless and in disbelief at how this situation unfolded. He’s sitting here, still alive, yet absolutely dumbfounded, and now he’s talking to the vampire who he almost got killed by– who also killed three people right in front of him.

“You’re lucky I like you,” V continues regardless of his speechlessness, “And that I recognized you… and you know what? I’ll let you leave, only if you don’t tell a soul about me or what happened here. I’ve gotta eat somehow, and more idiots coming here means more food, I rely on their stupidity."

He blinks. What???

“And… what… what would happen if I… did?” He's hesitant but finds himself asking, again, without really giving it much further thought.

“Then I won’t be so merciful,” She flashes him that wicked grin again before her expression relaxes back into the neutral one she held before.

“Oh.”

“That's all you have to say? ‘Oh?’ ” She lets out a giggle, “Go free! Go home! Don’t tell anyone, but know I’ll be keeping an eye on you.”

Fear took hold of him once more, and he couldn’t reply to her– instead, he just nodded as he slowly stood back up. His legs felt weak, but he didn’t want to look even weaker in front of this intimidating as hell vampire who continued to watch him with those eerie golden eyes of hers.

Before he left, he would collect up the machete that was tossed away from him alongside his bag, looking back to V for a moment who simply gave him an expression of mild curiosity but she didn’t move or say anything more to him. He still tried his hardest to not look at the bodies of the people he had arrived here with, shaking his head and moving to head back the way they entered the forest, following those vibrant ribbons that he now was ever so glad for…

The entire time, he thought that V would go back on her word. But strangely, so so strangely– she didn’t, and he managed to make it out of the forest and back to the old factory, back to his truck that remained parked right beside the group's car. He frowned, he felt awful… and he hated that he partly agreed with the vampire, while they didn’t deserve to die they definitely didn’t go about the situation well at all. He knew that it was all terrifying, he was scared himself– but– he just wished they listened to him!

And now look how things are…

…

He couldn’t dwell on it, he’d fish his keys out of his pocket and unlocked his truck, hopping into the driver's seat and starting it up. From the forest, he swore he saw two golden dots, two golden eyes, focused on him from the darkness– but again he’d shake his head and focus on getting out of there.

“Thad holy shit.”

Was all that Uzi could say after hearing the rest of his story, just staring at him fucking slackjawed as he himself had been staring down at the table with a pitiful as hell expression…

“Okay… honestly… I did not expect that. For one, seriously? You let those assholes convince you to go into the forest?? Not even I would do that!” She throws her hands up in the air at that last part, to exaggerate her point.

“Yeah, I know…” He frowns, “I shouldn’t have done that.”

“I’m just glad you got out of that alive, like really glad… you’re lucky as hell. So fucking lucky. Don’t feel too bad about what happened to them, they’re fucking assholes, like how are they going to judge me and my obsessions when they got themselves killed like fucking idiots… ugh.”

“Don’t say that–” Thad tries but she cuts him off quickly, “But it's true! It’s true and you know it!”

Her friend just lets out a sad sigh, “I just feel bad, I wish I could’ve done more.”

“You didn’t have to do anything for them Thad,” Uzi points out, “It's not like you could've, they got themselves into that mess, you got out of it all alive because you were smart. Though– yikes, you’ve been all scared over that vampire watching you?”

“... Yeah…”

“Well don’t be, if she tries to get near you I will kick her ass. You’re like the nicest guy I know, I don’t want some murder-happy vampire making you all weird and scared. I hate seeing you like that, dude.”

“Thanks, Uzi,” He smiles at her a little, “For– that– and– you know, hearing me out about it all.”

“It’s like, whatever, plus,” Uzi waves a hand, soon after averting his gaze as she continues in a much quieter tone, “I get where you're coming from. Cus' you're kind of like… not the only one who’s had a close encounter with a vampire recently either…”

…

“WHAT?!”

Chapter Text

“WHAT?!”

…

Now it was Thad’s turn to look at Uzi with that dumb, slack-jawed expression as he waited for her to say something, anything in return. But right now? Right now she was feeling pretty damn awkward because his out-of-nowhere outburst gained them the stares of the few people who were also in the lobby eating, maybe even some of the workers too– and all served to embarrass the hell out of her. Even if he didn’t intend for it to. Still!

“Dude shut the hell up–” She whisper yells and then glares at him, “People are looking at us—”

“Okay okay, sorry,” Thad puts his hands up defensively, “But still, what??? You never told me this??”

“I was getting to it!”

“Riiight– and how long ago did this even happen?” He raises an eyebrow, and Uzi admittedly cannot look him in the eye when she confesses–

“Like… three days ago or whatever…”

Thad visibly resists the urge to yell again and slaps a hand over his mouth, but the look he gave her all wide-eyed and stupid told her it all. And when he was finally calm enough he’d ask,

“Why didn’t you tell me??”

“Why didn’t you tell me about your experience instead of me having to force it out of you?” Uzi counters, arms crossed.

“Okay yeah, no, that's fair,” Her friend lets out a defeated sigh, though he asks her yet another question, “And was that ‘random hospital visit’ you told me about related at all to uhh… what happened to you?”

Oh yeah, the hospital visit. Those three days ago, she had gone to the hospital because she had quite a nasty injury on one of her legs that she lied about what actually caused it. Even now it still stung and hurt like hell, she was regularly treating the wound too but she knew it’d scar. Regardless, she kinda had to lie, who would believe her if she said that a vampire had attacked her and that she made it out of that experience alive compared to so many others? She was just like Thad, she was damn fucking lucky. And she lied to him too about what happened, not thinking he’d believe her either.

“Yeah, not even gonna lie this time, it was,” Uzi confirms with a nod, “I can tell you about what happened to me if it makes you happy… plus… if I’m honest I do need to talk about it to someone. It’s kinda… sorta the reason I didn’t wanna go to the cafe today.”

“Really?”

“Yeah…”

“Okay, hit me with it, I’m all ears,” Thad sits back in his chair, then adds, “Also next time, let's both try to be more honest with each other…it’d definitely help us in the future. It’s just… odd how this happened to both of us, but it serves as a perfect learning experience. At least I think it is.”

“Ugh… yeah, you’re right– I’ll try,” Uzi concedes with a huff, “But okay… so you like– you know that guy from the cafe that I think is– ugh– cute or whatever? Well…”

For as long as Uzi had been here in Silverton, she’d always frequented this one cafe in town because not only were the drinks fucking amazing in her eyes– it was probably the best place for her to study or for her to draw someplace where she wouldn’t be bothered. There was also always this one person who worked there who made her day feel much brighter by just talking with him. It was absolutely gross of her to think like that, it was too sappy for her self-proclaimed dark and brooding nature. But it was the truth, she had to admit to it, even if she never talked extensively with this guy other than him taking her order and calling out her name whenever it was ready. She didn’t even know his name, shockingly enough.

He was just kinda… interesting overall? And in retrospect now, sort of suspicious because no normal person looked the way he did. He had pretty fair skin, paired up with fluffy silvery-white hair that she had pondered asking him how the hell he managed to keep it that color consistently and for as long as he had without it fading or his roots showing. She just didn’t want to seem sort of… creepy for noticing that his hair stayed that same perfect way all of the time, ew, even that thought was kinda gross of her to think. Then there were his eyes, like, they were kinda hard not to notice because they were strikingly yellow. Not like amber yellow, just– yellow yellow, bright yellow.

Contacts? Were they contacts? Yeah no, she wasn’t gonna ask because that also sounded really weird for her to do.

Further than all of that, he was just really friendly. Not just with her obviously, that she knew well because she was not special at all, but with every customer who came into the cafe. Hell, she’d observed time and time again how he could have a very extensive conversation about just anything with someone he didn’t even know, something she couldn’t even dream of herself doing. He was a clear-cut extrovert, the total opposite to Uzi who kept to herself and focused only on what she was doing at the time.

Right now though? Uzi was here just to draw, she really needed to wind down after the heaps of schoolwork she was busy with otherwise. And where else did she find the most comfort in being then at this very cafe, sitting in her preferred spot off in a little corner so that she couldn’t possibly be bothered by anyone. Not like they’d want to approach her, due to her overall dark, edgy wardrobe that was a harsh contrast with the bright and warm interior of the building. But from her spot, she could see the front counter perfectly, standing up there was none other than that damn guy who smiled so brightly that she wanted to punch herself for continuing to think he was cute.

Dammit Uzi, She’d think to herself, You’re not a teenager anymore. Quit. It.

She’d just shake her head and refocus on what she had been working on, and if she was honest she didn’t even know what she wanted to draw in the first place. Most of her work generally was made for other people; it was her job because she didn’t have a proper one. Or a ‘proper one’ as her dad would say, but he never pressured her to get a 9 to 5 and continued allowing her to do as she wished… which she was incredibly appreciative of. Anyway– Uzi liked drawing for other people, she really did! But it had been so long since she’d drawn for herself, and she soon found herself drawing something absolutely random…

… 

Yeah, no, she was drawing that stupidly cute guy. She kind of couldn’t help it– she kept starting a sketch and then erasing it, then starting another sketch and just wanting to pull her hair out because she didn’t like it. But then she felt strangely inspired when looking over at that guy, now speaking to yet another customer, and thought it would be pretty good practice trying to draw him– realism was something she was still trying to perfect. Or rather, just get better with it in general, even though it wasn’t her usual style at all.

But there she was, doodling away to her heart's content and from time to time– looking back up at her ‘reference’ whenever he was in her line of sight and not making drinks where she couldn’t see him. She continued on like that for a while longer until she considered her practice finished, the result of which she was rather pleased with. A little nagging urge told her to continue on, so there she was drawing this dude even more like what she was doing wasn’t kinda creepy at all– or so she’d think normally. It was practice! Just practice! He was the perfect ‘muse’ in her eyes and she absolutely couldn’t help herself.

She’d look back up at him for a little bit again to study his features some more, then looked back at the page that had slowly but surely filled up with even more sketches of him and added to the current one she had been working on. Another time she’d look up again to look at her muse and her heart absolutely dropped into her stomach at the fact that he– he was not where he was before, stationed behind the front counter, but in front of her now. Staring down at her with that same friendly expression although with a new hint of curiosity–

“What are you drawing?”

Shit! Uzi quickly slammed her sketchbook closed, yelling out at him, “D-Dude– what the hell?!”

“Oh!” He blinks somewhat rapidly, stupidly cutely GODDAMMIT– and holds his hands up in the air, “I’m sorry! I just– I just noticed you were drawing over here I was kinda curious!”

“You should’ve said something, seriously!!”

“I— probably should’ve! I’m sorry!” He repeats again, the pitiful and apologetic look on his face absolutely killing her because it made a little part of her self-proclaimed dark and edgy soul feel a little bad for yelling at him. But he shouldn’t have snuck up on her! That was rude!

“Hmph,” is all that comes from Uzi as she looks back at her closed sketchbook. She thought he’d leave her alone, but apparently not! Because he just kept standing there, awkwardly, though with that same dumb cute smile on his face. It honestly annoyed her a little bit– she– she didn’t know why! Ugh! This guy! Messing with her emotions by just existing! And like– standing there and stuff!

“What do you want…?” She narrows her eyes a bit as she looks back up at him.

“Oh! I—I just wanted to know if I can sit with you.”

“Uh huh, aren’t you working right now?” Uzi then points out, eyes darting back to the counter to see that someone else had replaced him up there. Huh.

“I’m on break right now!” He explains cheerfully, “Soooo do you mind?”

“Whatever, do what you want,” Uzi simply waved a hand at him dismissively as she opened her sketchbook back up, notably to a fresh page so he didn’t see the one that was just full of sketches of him. A part of her pondered if he had actually seen what was on that page, and if so– how much of it did he even see? Oh god, that was fucking embarrassing, it was better she didn’t ask him.

The stupidly cute barista guy– she seriously should have asked him his name– took her words as an invitation to sit across from her. Uzi tried to continue to pay him no mind as she started idly sketching out shapes to see if she could manage to draw something else… but again, just like before, everything she started looked like garbage and it was very clear she was growing frustrated with her lack of inspiration. If only her prior inspiration wasn’t sitting right in front of her!!

“So uh, you go to the college in town?” He asks, seeming somewhat hesitant, and Uzi looks up at him again.

“Yeah, I do.”

“Oh, that’s cool! What's your major?”

“Engineering,” She replies simply, looking back to the page she was trying to work on.

“That is also very cool! Do you plan on doing anything with an engineering degree in the future? Sorry if that’s prying I’m just curious,” He sounds so genuine as he speaks, like he’s actually interested in her and her life. Maybe he is, it just feels weird he’s even talking to her right now, it was different from what little conversation she was used to.

“No it’s fine, I don’t really know what I want to do with it but I’ll definitely have it figured out later. I uh– do wanna build something though,” Uzi herself hesitates at that last part, would he find her weird if she told him her aspirations?

“Like what?” He cocks his head to the side as he speaks, and Uzi tries her hardest to resist the very STUPID urge to think he’s cute again. Goddammit.

“... A railgun.”

“A railgun?”

“Yeah, a railgun, is there something wrong with me wanting to build one??” Her eyes narrow at him as he puts his hands up again and tries to explain himself–

“No no! Nothings wrong with that! I swear! I- I think that’s cool it's just not every day you hear about someone wanting to make a weapon–”

‘Well now you’ve heard,” Is all she says with a huff, doing her best to return to acting like she was ignoring him. Or she was trying to. But he still apparently wanted to talk to her! Which was– really whatever…

“A-Anywayyyy– I see you’re an artist– I mean, you seem like you come here to draw a lot.”

“What, you’ve been watching me?” Uzi then accuses half-jokingly. As if she hadn’t spent the last half-hour ‘watching’ him… more like observing him… to draw him… totally not the same thing–

Again, he absolutely scrambles to reply, “No of course not! Uh– well– kinda? Not really– It’s just you’re one of our regulars! You get the same thing and you always sit here. You stand out a lot too, in a good way not a bad way,  it's hard not to notice a pattern with someone you recognize.”

Uzi eyes him suspiciously for a moment and then shrugs, “Uh huh… yeah… I guess that makes sense. Still creepy though.”

“How??”

“Just you looking at me that much.”

“I– I have to keep watch of the dining room! It just so happens you’re often in said dining room, which makes it perfectly fair for me to have noticed you so much.”

“Dude chill I was just joking,” Uzi lets out a little laugh as she waves a hand, “But uh– yeah, I do art. It’s kinda my profession right now, or what makes money.”

“Oh really? Can I see your stuff? If you’re okay with that!”

“No dude it’s fine, sure, I mostly do like… digital stuff so give me a moment…” Uzi pulls out her phone and goes to her photo gallery– honestly, she didn’t even have all that many pictures to begin with that weren’t either of her art or of her cat, Midnight, which was a totally original and not common name at all for a black cat. She never really liked taking pictures of herself, but there were some days when she felt she looked nice enough to snap one or two. Most of her recent stuff was just art, so she’d show him a few pieces and that’d be all.

She’d show her phone to him, a little nervous as she swiped through her recent images for him as he took in each piece with an increasing look of absolute amazement. He– He actually really liked her stuff… It was surprising honestly, well, it shouldn’t have been because this guy always seemed so damn nice. He was nice, she realized, really fucking nice. It made her feel a little warm inside, such an odd… strange… absolutely weird feeling. Gross.

“Woah! These are so cool! You’re such a good artist, no wonder people buy art from you!”

“Haha… thanks, really,” Uzi lets herself smile at him, “I guess I am that good, but there’s still stuff I need to work on.”

“Stuff you need to work on? Your art’s incredible! Much better than mine, and I’ve been drawing for a long time,” He chuckles a little nervously, and Uzi wants to shut him up because she cannot handle someone else talking badly about themself– especially their art.

“Don’t say that, I’m sure your stuffs pretty good too.”

“Oh! No no… it... it's really bad,” He explains with a sigh, “Like chicken scratch compared to yours.”

“Bah! Y'know art’s subjective, someone's bound to like and appreciate your art… I think I would,” Uzi says, that last part she added without really thinking about it– but it was said with sincerity and it seemed to brighten up his mood. A win in her book!

“Maybe I can show you mine next time you come here! If– If you wanna see, I’d hate to think I’d be bothering you with my nonsense.”

“Nah, artist to artist, I’d love to see it,” It was Uzi’s turn to be genuine now, there was really nothing better than trying to uplift someone who also was an artist. And that also helped further brighten his mood! That smile she always saw on his face returned fully, which made her feel even warmer on the inside. Goddammit, cute barista guy, stop making her cold heart warm, she’s got a reputation to uphold!

“I’ll be keeping my little notebook on me for whenever you come here next then!”

“Sounds like a plan, I’ll probably be here tomorrow cus’ its the weekend… maybe– I don’t know, honestly. I’m doing something tonight that may be a little risky,” Uzi remarks, again, feeling a tad more hesitant in saying the last bit because he might just end up thinking she’s fucking insane for what she was planning on doing tonight. Most people already kinda judged her in that regard, she didn’t exactly want to risk him judging her…

“M-Maybe?” He repeats, tilting his head a little bit, “What are you planning on doing tonight?”

Uzi laughs nervously,” So y’know the abandoned factory at the edge of town?”

“Oh, yeah! Yeah I do, what about it?”

“I’m gonna go there to try to see if I can find anything vampire-related,” She says with a grin.

“... vampire… related?” He asks again, and Uzi nods–

“Yeah! You know, those vampire rumors and stuff– I believe them wholeheartedly. Ever since I moved here I’ve been kinda uh… sorta… pretty much very obsessed with them. Can you blame me? Vampires being real is such a cool fucking concept, if we ignore the fact they’ve been causing people to disappear from the forest near town. But that’s like, the people who are dumb enough to go into the forest to begin with– I’m not!”

“Ohh… haha… yeah, vampires being real would be interesting,” He chuckles and averts her gaze, “I don’t know if I totally like… believe in them like you do. Not like I’m judging!”

“You’d better not be! If I make it out of exploring the factory not only alive but having found a vampire, because I’d assume those guys like to roam around there too since it's close to the forest– then I’m gonna rub it in your face!” She leans over the table and points right in his face, causing him to lean back a tad.

“It ummm… just seems a little dangerous, don’t you think? What if you don’t make it out alive?” He inquired, and Uzi sat back in her chair normally to ponder that…

“I mean, I don’t think it’d totally matter if I disappeared… I don’t know who’d exactly miss me all that much. Besides, if I die to a vampire then I die knowing that I was right and so many people who have doubted me were wrong, I feel like that's fine enough.”

“Oh, that sounds… really sad, I just– I know I can’t stop you from going out there tonight but just know that– I… I would miss you,” The stupid, stupidly cute guy says, and then quickly adds afterward, “Because you’re one of our best regulars! And from the conversation we just had, you seem really nice…at least that's what I think. I’m sure there are other people you know who would miss you too.”

Ooohhh god. This guy. This guy. Tugging at her heartstrings like no tomorrow– but she had to steel herself! He didn’t even know her, and although he was sweet and truly concerned… Uzi had her own aspirations and obsessions. She was obsessed with finding at least one vampire, even if it killed her, to prove herself right. She wasn’t stupid enough to venture into the forest, especially alone, but she apparently was stupid enough to explore an abandoned factory that seemed much safer than the former. Yeah, much safer.

“Look, I get the concern but don’t worry about me, you don’t even know me,” Uzi tries to explain, “Like sure yeah… we’ve been talking for a bit but there's a lot more to me that you don’t even know. I’ll be fine.”

“... Right… I’m sorry, it’s just uh– all of the… disappearances have had me a little on edge. It’s a bit reasonable for me to worry, even for a stranger,” He frowns, looking remorseful again, and it threatens to tear Uzi’s heart asunder. Keep it together!

“I get that, I guess, it’s alright,” She reassures with a wave of the hand, “But I will be fine. Honestly, I am pretty sturdy!”

“For your size?”

“Are– Are you calling me short?!”

“N-No! Well- Yes?? You’re kinda way shorter than me, it's hard not to notice!”

“Bite me!!” Uzi yells, leaning over the table again before slumping back into her chair with a huff.

Things were pretty quiet for the two after Uzi’s outburst, she was just trying not to look at him because he was just that infuriating for pointing out the obvious height difference between the two. But she sort of has to look at him when she hears an alarm coming from his phone,  and he seems a little sad as he silences the alarm and goes to talk to her–

“Looks like my break’s over! It was— pretty nice talking to you, I’m sorry if I bothered you at all… I didn’t mean to call you short. I think you’re pretty cool!”

“Uh… thanks or whatever… It's fine. It’s cool.”

“Just stay safe out there! I know you said I don’t really know you, and that's true, but… like I said there definitely are people out there who would miss you, and care about you and your safety—not only just me. I’d be sure to bring my notebook– tomorrow?” He says that last part with some uncertainty yet a tinge of hope in his tone. Like he… wanted to see her. Huh.

“Yeah, tomorrow,” Uzi confirms with a nod, “I’ll be here.”

And for the sake of this stupidly cute guy, Uzi found herself swearing that if she was proven right, and she encountered a vampire, she was going to get out of that situation alive. Not just for him, but for the few who did still give a shit about her– She’d feel horrible if she disappeared and Thad had no clue what happened to her.

Honestly, she didn’t even tell him of her plans because she knew he’d discourage her from being stupid like that– plus he was already acting somewhat… weird lately? Which went above the dumb vampire-obsessed stuff Uzi was getting herself into, so she didn’t want to stress him out more with her nonsense.

There were also her aunts… her cousin… and begrudgingly maybe even her dad who cared about her too. She… couldn’t let her inner thoughts make her forget the fact they wouldn’t want her to die either. Fucking hell there was also her cat– who would take care of Midnight if she was gone?! That guy, damn him and his good-naturedness, helped her realize that again, and a large part of her appreciated that a lot. But outwardly, Uzi wouldn’t say anything to him, because that’s just how she functioned.

…

For a little while, Uzi lingered in the cafe and continued observing her ‘muse’ as he worked and acted as he usually had with other customers. She never really expected to actually talk to him today, it was– nice? A little bit? And slightly draining, but she wasn’t exactly used to holding long conversations with someone she wasn’t very familiar and close with. Maybe she could become closer with him but… that’d be a future thing. Yeah, a future thing! Sure the thought was kind of cringy but he actually seemed to be friend material.

Then, as Uzi was headed home to prepare for her exploration trip to that factory, she realized she had forgotten to ask him for his name. Dammit! There– there was definitely always next time! That’s what she’d tell herself as she walked home, her apartment being within walking range of the cafe. Tonight would be… real interesting, and she hoped that what she was looking for was actually there and the trip wouldn’t be for nothing. All she could do was hope, not only for her success but for her survival.

…

And there she was, at almost around 1am.

Uzi was used to pulling allnighters, her sleep schedule was absolutely fucked and she owned that fully without a shred of shame. And right now? She was running not only on her own excitement but on an energy drink she had downed right before she came this way, just to boost her energy a little bit more. The abandoned factory had been fenced off for a long time, much longer than she had been living here, but it was nothing Uzi couldn’t handle. She’d climbed plenty of fences before– rebellious teenager things, the likes.

But there was this weird lingering feeling that she was being watched, and had been for a while now, as she walked all the way here. It made her feel super uncomfortable, because even when she looked around she couldn’t see anyone or really anything that could’ve remotely been what had given her that discomfort. She’d be okay though! She thought so anyway, because Uzi was smart and brought a few things with her especially because she was out so late.

There were the essentials, pepper spray and her taser– shockingly her dad was very adamant about her carrying those on her at all times. But there was also the sick-as-hell hunting knife her Aunt Alice got her for her 15th birthday. Sure yeah, she didn’t have much use for it like… ever… right now it could be really useful if she did get attacked by a vampire! Or like, some weirdo who decided it was apparently smart to creep up on her this late at night… she’d shake the thought away, no need to get anxious.

But due to her vampire hunting knowledge, she had shoved a few stakes she had carved up into her bag alongside some garlic. There had also been a bottle of holy water that she remembers she very awkwardly approached a local priest to bless for her. Oh yeah, and she obviously brought a flashlight– she wasn’t dumb! It was stupidly dark out here!

The only other thing she had brought besides her phone was an older handheld camera, something her uncle gave her before he rather tragically passed away. His death was a mystery to Uzi if she was honest, all she knew was that he had apparently been attacked by a bear in the woods while he was out taking pictures of local wildlife. But a part of her thought there was more to it… she had her theories…

Regardless, she cherished that damn camera and knew it’d be an important part of her documentation of any possible findings. She was just going to be careful about not accidentally breaking it and honestly felt bad that she was using it for this, her stupid obsession.

“You were much better prepared than I ever thought to be,” Thad comments amid her explanation, “I mean… I would’ve totally asked you for pointers but I didn’t really want you to know what I was up to.”

And with a smirk, Uzi replies, “Uh huh, cus you knew deep down that I was right and you were wrong and got it proven to you in an uh– well– pretty shitty way.”

She falters a little at the last part of her statement… that was still definitely a sore spot for Thad. Even if those three deserved it for being stupid fucking idiots and not listening to Thad when he was trying to help them survive. Stupid! All of them! He shouldn’t feel bad for any of them!

“Yeah…” Thad only nods.

“B-But anyway! Let me continue!"

As she stood before the fence that separated her from her goal– a part of her wanted to turn back around and go home. But she’d prepared for so long, it’d waste all that effort she put in to collect her supplies and all of the researching and theory crafting she did! And Uzi, for one, was not a coward and she was going to do this whether the smarter part of her warned her against it.

A noise would catch her attention though, pulling her from her very uncertain thoughts, and her eyes were drawn to a peculiar thing perched upon the fence not far from her. It was… an owl, a snowy owl actually– its yellow eyes focused on her with an expression she didn’t think she could read exactly. Well, it was a bird, duh.

“Oh… hey there,” Uzi talks at the thing, awkwardly, “Don’t mind me! Just a girl going to climb a fence to explore a creepy abandoned factory, like normal people do. Well if normal people were like, obsessed with uncovering the truth and proving myself right, like I am.”

Obviously, it didn’t reply but continued to simply stare at her, its gaze almost piercing into her if she really cared to read more into its presence. Uzi shrugged and looked away from the bird, preparing to climb the fence– but then she stopped in some degree of realization.

…

Wait a minute.

Wait a fucking minute–

Snowy owls aren’t native to this region.

And unless this fucking thing escaped some nearby zoo, there was no way in hell that some snowy owl was casually living out in the wilderness of this town even if it was the middle of winter. Quickly, Uzi looked back up to where she saw the owl perching, and it was gone– like it had never been there in the first place. What the hell.

“Okay now  I have to actually be going crazy,” She says to herself, “Hahaa… god this is stupid. No going back! Nope– not at all –”

And without another word, Uzi finds herself climbing the fence without much of a struggle and dropping down on the other side of it. No going back, she’d repeat like a mantra in her mind, she’s already here and she’d be damned if she was going to not come back with a shred of evidence. The factory itself was pretty sizable, and for its age, it looked to be in pretty decent condition. It made her wonder why in the world it was left abandoned in the first place… not even torn down or anything, but she never put in the time to ask around to get the truth about the situation. Oh well, she really could care less about that.

Uzi strolled right into the building rather unceremoniously, though with a tinge of caution because although things looked good on the outside– who knew if the inside was the same at all? She sure as hell didn’t know! The floor creaked underneath her boots as she walked, and as she looked around, she noticed she was in a large room that was filled with old rusty machinery, the walls of it also being noticeably covered in graffiti. No doubt other people had come around here to leave something behind, if she had some spray paint on her maybe she would’ve too. But a lot of the graffiti here was immature stuff, like yeah drawing huge dicks on the wall is soooo funny, the most creative thing ever. Yeah, totally.

She shrugged it off for now, using her flashlight to guide her further into this dark, depressing creepy ass building. The one good thing about it was that it was slightly warmer in here than it had been outside, which was a blessing even if Uzi was wearing warm clothes, the rather chilly weather had still fucked with her regardless. It’s why Fall was probably her favorite season, it was getting cold but not too cold so she could wear her usual jackets without being judged for it like in the warmer months. Something like that.

In any case, Uzi wouldn’t admit to the fact that inwardly? Inwardly she was getting increasingly unnerved by just being here, almost regretting not asking someone to come along with her– but no no, she was Uzi Doorman and she was not a coward and could do this alone! She was most certainly not a coward as she walked towards a wooden staircase that was in some form of disrepair– pointing her flashlight upwards to what appeared to be the second floor that would be somewhat difficult to get to…

Difficult for anyone who was a coward and who wasn’t Uzi, because she saw it as one hell of a challenge. It could really be worse, she thought, as she carefully made her way up the staircase that had noticeably been missing a couple of steps. Not that it was any major concern to her even as the old wooden structure creaked underneath her, and as she successfully made it all the way up to the second floor. She’d proceed through the area that hadn’t been as open as the first one but had smaller rooms that appeared to be furnished at some point. Strangely though, the ones she peeks into are empty– but one she stops at makes her… incredibly fucking confused to say the least.

What looked to be a pile of old, dirty blankets was made into a… ‘nest’ of sorts in the corner of the room, and the first thought that came to her mind was that maybe some homeless person was living here but… a part of her, the vampire obsessed part of her, knew better. There just was no way no normal person would be not only regularly climbing that fence but living here with just some weird bed to call their own. This was evidence in her mind, and it prompted her to pull out her camera and snap a picture of what she saw.

“Better than nothing…” Uzi mutters to herself, gently placing the camera back into the pouch of her hoodie.

Uzi continued to explore the second floor, but rather disappointingly she ended up finding not a single shred of evidence other than the weird bed she had seen before. Lame, that was lame, sooo incredibly lame and disappointing– so she set her sights on going back downstairs and exploring more around there. She realized she kind of glossed over the first floor initially, so maybe giving it a second chance and a better look over could net her some better evidence. That’s what she thought anyway, heading back down those creaky wooden stairs much like the way she went up them.

Now? Now she’d explore this floor with much more thought put behind her actions, passing by the big room with all of the stupid graffiti because she knew well there wasn’t really anything there for her to find. She instead moves to a room connected to the big one, and in shining her flashlight around it she discovers… more old machinery! Great! Amazing! That was exactly what she wanted to see, she should have expected it it’s a factory for god's sake. But she was growing increasingly frustrated at the fact she barely found anything useful that could convince people to believe her.

It’s not like she could show them a picture of the weird nest she found and go ‘Look it’s evidence!’ because they’d think like ‘normal’ people and say it’s probably where some squatter is staying. It’d be hard to believe, and she needed solid proof, even if it wasn’t the appearance of an actual vampire.

Her immense frustration kept building up as she continued through the old building, though it dissipated as soon as Uzi caught sight of something red. She quickly moved her flashlight over to what she saw, and on a wall not far from her was a very very clear splatter of blood. Evidence, it was evidence, holy shit it was evidence– and she almost fumbled for the camera still being held within the pouch of her hoodie to take a picture. Uzi couldn’t help but giggle at the fact she found something, shoving the camera back into her hoodie as she scanned the area around the stain to see if there was anything else…

And there was.

There was a trail of blood going from where it was splattered upon the wall to where it looked like the person who was bleeding had been dragged on the floor. Honestly, she felt bad for whoever was met with this fate– but it truly could not have been her as she pulled her camera out again and snapped a few more pictures as she followed the borderline ‘path’ of blood before her. Who knew how old it was, all she knew was that it definitely was not fresh but didn’t seem exactly old either? Huh, maybe its origin could’ve been one of those dumbasses who spray-painted all that dumb shit on the wall in that big room. Not like she’d really know, all she could do was speculate…

This path would lead her to probably one of the most unnerving sights ever, which was uh… the opening of a very dark and very scary ass looking basement. Like seeing into a hole straight into the abyss, her flashlight only illuminated the stairs that led down into it. What was worse was that yeah, the blood trail was leading down into said scary basement, and the sharp stench of not only blood but something else she couldn’t exactly name wafted from it. It made her cover her nose a bit with the scarf she wore, did she really want to go down there?

…

Yeah, she really did want to go down there. Uzi was not a coward, she was not a coward! She already came this far and one spooky ass basement wasn’t going to stop her. Taking a deep breath, she slowly walked down the stairs. The horrible smells were getting worse and worse but she couldn’t stop– over and over again telling herself that she couldn’t go back now. Maybe she’d regret doing this, maybe she wouldn’t… but what she did know was that the few steps she took into the basement she would soon immediately regret.

What she saw was unbelievable, but at the same time, she felt so horribly vindicated even if what she saw was horrible in itself. Bodies upon bodies littered the area, it was like a mass disposal site of the people of… whoever… whatever vampire lived here dumped down here when they were through with them. As much as Uzi wanted to move, as much as she wanted to explore further– this entire thing, god it was so fucked, she couldn’t even will herself to take pictures of this scene because she was in such a state of shock by looking at it.

Then, she'd hear a voice from behind her… 

“… Look what I’ve found.”

…

Uzi could not fucking believe it.

This was so unreal.

She was right. She was so horribly, horribly right.

Willing herself to turn around, standing at the top of the staircase was a figure she couldn’t entirely make out, but she knew well it was humanoid… though a part of it was also not? Its eyes were glowing even in the darkness, and they were so very notably yellow. That reminded her of… goddammit, him.

But this wasn’t him. Its voice was masculine, but it wasn’t his voice so surely, surely this could not have been that sweet barista guy with the weird yet cute appearance. Either way, all Uzi could do was slowly back away from it, deeper into the basement, as it casually walked down the stairs with so much confidence that it made her sick. It gave Uzi enough guts to point her flashlight right at the figure, to see it in all its weird vampiric glory–

Inwardly, Uzi let out a sigh of relief at the fact this wasn’t her cute barista guy. But still regardless, this was a vampire who had pretty similar attributes to him. Same eyes, same weirdly colored hair– though not as tall and it was definitely scrawnier looking. Though still all the same, taller than her, and intimidating as hell.

“Hahahaa… look at you, dumb human, I’ve been watching you all along!” It says to her, cackling wildly with a grin on its face, “Now you’ll be added to the pile!”

…

Uzi’s fear quickly melted away and was replaced with… disgust.

Despite her situation, despite how absolutely fucked all of this was– Uzi could not help but spout,

“Seriously? I’m about to be murdered by a freakin’ vampire and THAT’s what you say??”

Silence fell between them for a time, the vampire staring at her with an expression of disbelief. Uzi would use this as an opportunity of sorts to get the hell out of there, running straight towards the distracted vampire and jabbing her taser that she was SO glad she brought with her into its side. It made a pained noise and slumped over, allowing Uzi to move past it and up the stairs as quickly as she could. A part of her wanted to take a picture of the damned thing but– no! Nope! She finally decided to listen to the smarter part of herself and was focusing on getting out of the building entirely.

But her tasing the vampire didn’t keep it down for long apparently, as she soon heard it scrambling up the stairs in pursuit of her. She was super fucked, but she was entirely convinced that if she made it outside and across the fence she’d have a better chance of survival. But those hopeful thoughts of hers were torn into pieces as the vampire gained on her, and she felt an absolutely horrible pain in her leg as something, most likely the claws of the damned thing, slashed her there. Not long after it would crash into her, causing her to fall forward and for the precious camera stored within her hoodie to fall out and break.

…

It was a loss that Uzi couldn’t mourn for long, especially not right now, and she quickly turned around to look at the vampire directly to see that it had changed. It wasn’t as human-looking anymore, and it had grown in size– all Uzi could describe it as was that it began to look more like an animal. An animal that was just about to pounce and reduce Uzi to shreds, it would kill her, or try to– as soon as it got close enough she quickly fumbled around in her backpack to grab for something, absolutely anything that she could use to defend herself with.

Her hand landed upon the bottle of holy water she stored in her backpack, miraculously it hadn’t broken when she fell. But with enough strength, she swung it over and smashed it over the vampire's head, the contents of it spilling all over them and…

…

And doing nothing.

Fuck.

She doubted anything else she had brought that was specifically meant for vampires would’ve worked either, and in doing this it only made the vampire still very much intending on killing her even angrier.

This was a huge stupid mistake.

She shouldn’t have come here, hell– even if she brought someone with her, things would’ve stayed the same. She shouldn’t have come here at all, and yet here she is about to die because of her insatiable curiosity about stupid fucking vampires. She didn’t even know if these things were vampires anymore because they were already so different from what she had spent hours researching about! Trying to fight back was just about hopeless, it was already the end of the line for her anyway.

Maybe Uzi should’ve just stayed unaware instead of trying to prove herself right… now she’ll die here and all of the people who cared about her would not know what even happened to her. Aside from that guy, that stranger who didn’t know her at all, who she told about her stupid plans and everything.

God, she was so so dumb.

Maybe she deserved it…

But before anything more could happen, another figure appeared and it crashed right into the vampire that was so close to killing her. Uzi’s eyes widened in further bewilderment, here she was expecting to die but something– someone prevented it. Who was this person??

Their face was obscured, as their back was turned to her– but this was clearly another vampire and one that she felt that she knew in some way. They had a pretty interesting outfit, most notably wearing what looked to be a pilot's hat and a winter coat, with a strangely feathered tail lashing out from underneath it.

“Gah, you!” The other vampire spat out from where it was sprawled out on the floor, “What are you doing?! Trying to steal my kill are you?!”

The new vampire did not reply, well, they didn’t reply with words as instead one of their hands formed into sharp claws. Uzi did not want anything to do with whatever beef those two had, watching as the vampire approached the other, and willed herself to get up despite how much she realized that holy hell her leg hurt like a bitch. It’d be hard to explain this injury to anyone, that's if she got out of this alive– because not even she knew the intentions of the newcomer. If they were protecting her or if they were fighting the other vampire just so that she could be their meal– who knew! All she knew was that her best bet was to get the hell out of there as quickly as possible.

A battle between the two audibly raged behind her as Uzi entered the large room again, the exit being so close but so goddamn far away as she tried her best to get there. When she was out of the building and past that fence– maybe she could spam call Thad so he could pick her up and take her to the hospital or something, it wasn't that hard to wake him up if he was asleep right now… it was all hopeful thinking.

A crash from behind her drew her attention away from the exit because her curiosity was far too much– and what she saw was absolutely wild. The new vampire had the other pinned to the ground, hand around its neck, and clearly they had done a number on it as it was pretty damn messed up. Holy hell, so that's what vampires were capable of? Even to their own kind…

But now she had a better view of the new vampire, a better view of its face.

…

And she couldn’t fucking believe what she saw, or rather, who she saw.

Now this, this was her cute barista guy. This was so unmistakably him, though his usually friendly expression was replaced with one that was much more– menacing. His scleras were a black color too, which made his golden eyes stand out much more, definitely menacing… it also made her feel something else she couldn’t name right now. Seeing him made her understand a lot more about what he said to her earlier that day… he knew didn’t he? He knew that vampires lived here, and he had tried to persuade her not to explore this old place. Yet she didn’t know he knew and went anyway, hell she didn’t even know he was a vampire up until this point! This entire situation was so scary and weird and honestly starting to irritate her more because she had so many questions now!

Regardless of the thoughts swirling about in her head, said cute barista guy proceeded to pick up the other vampire by its neck and threw it into the other wall– leaving it as a crumpled bloody mess as it looked on at him desperately.

“I– I’m sorry! You win! I… I’ll go!” It cried as he stood over it, the other vampire scrambling to its feet to unfurl out wings she never knew it had as it fled from a hole in the ceiling.

…

Which… left her alone with him.

He’d look over at Uzi, and Uzi didn’t know how to feel right now. She didn’t know whether she should trust him, or she should try to book it like she originally planned– but all she knew to do now was back up and make space between them. Especially now that he was approaching her, slowly, just as Uzi was backing up– to which she ended up losing her footing and falling right on her ass.

Ow. Fucking ow.

“Hey–  stay back!” Uzi yelled out, now fumbling for her backpack and pulling out the hunting knife she had brought to point it at him.

He stopped, blinking at her a bit.

“Do you think I’m going to… hurt you?” He asks, sounding just like she knew him to be- dare she say a little offended.

“Wh-What else are you going to do?! You’re a damn vampire! Why– Why else did you fight that other one?!”

He blinked some more, and shook his head, “No no, I was protecting you!”

“Why?!”

“I told you I didn’t want you to die,” He points out, “So I made sure you didn’t. Speaking of which… is your leg okay? It looks pretty bad.”

“Pshh… I’m– I’m fine! Don’t worry about me!” She waves him off, trying to deny the fact that goddamn it did fucking hurt and it hurt bad. She needed to stop the bleeding or else she’d start bleeding everywhere, her pants had already been absorbing a majority of the blood as is– but then she started to wonder why he wasn’t affected by how much of her fresh blood was around. Was he not hungry? Weird. Weird as hell.

“Are you sure?” He steps forward a bit– and Uzi returns to pointing her knife at him again, “Don’t get near me!”

“Okay! Okay, I won’t– I’ll just sit here,” He complies and moves into a seated position, his weird tail wrapping around him as he continues, “I’ll just sit here til’ you’re comfortable, kay?”

“Whatever…” Uzi tries her best not to look at him, but she can’t help but take a good look at his appearance. Sure yeah, he looked the same as he always did, except for the fact he was wearing a whole different outfit that made him look… cooler? Yeah, cooler. But that tail was definitely something she was curious about, getting a good gander at it now she realized that strangely he had a stinger of sorts at the tip of it. Weird.

He was really nothing like the vampires she researched so much about, the other one wasn’t either. God yeah, if the holy water didn’t work then she definitely doubted stuff like the stakes or the garlic she collected would’ve worked either, so if it weren’t for him she would’ve been a goner. She couldn't help but be a little thankful that he was here.

Uzi pulled off her scarf to use it as a makeshift bandage for her leg, wincing as the fabric touched the open wound but she started wrapping it around it anyway. She definitely needed to go to the hospital… calling Thad was off the table because she needed to get there sooner rather than later and she knew that.

“Do you like… have… wings? Like the other one?” Uzi hesitantly asks him, and he visibly perks up as she addresses him.

“I do!”

“Right…”

“Do you need my help?” He asks, his head tilting to the side almost adorably, god she hated thinking that.

“I don’t have any other choice… you’re sure you’re not gonna try to eat me or anything?”

“Wh-Why would I?” He looked shocked now, like genuinely shocked, “I came here to save you! I mean– I was sorta watching over you the entire time, I… I should’ve stepped in sooner than I did, I’m sorry.”

Oh.

Putting two and two together…  he was that owl… huh, no wonder it looked out of place. Whatever, she’d ask more later–

“Ugh… well, at least I’m not dead and I'm in mostly one piece,” Uzi says with a shrug, “It’s… okay. And like, thanks for saving me. This situation it’s just so… so fucking weird, I’m still trying to wrap my head around it.”

“That's understandable, it’s not every day you encounter a vampire and then get saved by another one,” He simply nods.

“Yeah…” Uzi can’t help but nod a little herself, “But just know I’m only trusting you right now that you actually will get me to the hospital and won’t try to eat me.”

“No no, that’s- also understandable… but I really do promise I won’t try to eat you.”

Just like before, the way he sounds is super genuine. She can’t find a hint of dishonesty in not only his tone but his face, this dude was the epitome of truthfulness, goddamn.

“Okay,” She relents with a sigh, but then a certain question pops back into her mind and… dammit this may not be the right time to ask but she had to know or she’d lose her mind over not knowing.

“Can I ask you one more thing?”

“Oh? Yeah sure,” The vampire nods.

“I never… had the chance to before, what's your name anyway?”

As she asks he’s already standing up, brushing off his coat and saying, “Oh! It’s N!”

“N? Like the letter?” She squints at him, and the vampire… now finally named… nods again.

“Yup! Just N, short and simple. Now you think we’re good to get you to the hospital? I think if we stay here any longer your legs gonna bleed more and I don’t know how useful that scarf will be, if I’m honest.”

“Ugh– yeah, yeah, let's go,” Uzi groans as if his concern for her is bothersome and not absolutely warranted. And without much warning, this damn stupid cute vampire scoops her up in his arms and fucking princess carries her. What the hell. What the hell.

The flurry of emotions she’s feeling she doesn’t get much time to really process at all, because right after avian-like wings sprout out from N’s back as he launches the two of them up into the air. She yelps and holds onto him, trying her hardest to not look at the ground– which elicits a little chuckle from him–

“Haha– sorry about that! It won’t take long at all for me to get there so don’t worry…”

And Uzi mutters, "… bite me."

Thus, off they went to the hospital…

“So he dropped me off there in the parking lot and I got treated, thank fuck for insurance, I told them I got attacked by some wild animal and they believed me,” She says simply, “That’s my story.”

“... Well I’m glad your vampire was um… much… nicer than mine,” Her friend remarks, “Geez, all this vampire stuff is… definitely a lot, now knowing that you met one too. Technically two, actually.”

“Yeah…”

“What do you think we should do now?” He asks, “While I have no clue about V, she did spare me but she’s still watching over me and is real intimidating… N seems much more hopeful. Why exactly do you not want to talk to him again?”

“It’s just– awkward okay?? I’m still processing everything that happened it was only three days ago. But the more I don’t go over there to talk to him the worse I feel because he’s nice and did save my life and I promised him I’d come look at his art,” Uzi lets out a sigh, slumping down into her chair, “Plus like… I have so many questions too, I don’t know where to begin.”

“Y'know what, that’s fair. But I think you should try to talk to him as soon as possible, even if it is awkward. I mean hell, maybe he knows a bit about the vampire I’m dealing with?”

“I hate that you’re right,” She frowns, “You suck Thad.”

“Just trying to be helpful, there’s also the fact they kinda have similar names. In any case, you could stop by the cafe tomorrow and see if he’s there and… just… see where it goes. Again, even if it's awkward,” Thad suggests, “I know you can do it, Zi.”

“Ugh… bite me.”

…

Uzi knew what she was going to be doing tomorrow.

Chapter Text

Uzi honestly didn’t know what she was expecting the next day when she just about begrudgingly went to talk to the vampire that she– admittedly had been avoiding for… a couple reasons–

But she absolutely did not expect the spectacle that was this guy, this guy who she used to call that cute barista guy but who now she knew was named N, practically groveling at her feet and begging her to…

“Please don’t tell anyone about what I am!”

To say she was dumbfounded was the understatement of a century, it was not only that but mixed with utter embarrassment because why the hell was this dumbass doing this in public?? The cafe was mostly empty right now aside from the other staff, but still! So embarrassing! She needed him to shut the hell up right that second and get off the floor, or she’d completely change her mind about even trying to talk with him and walk straight out that door and never come back.

…

Maybe–

“Dude! What the hell are you talking about? G-Get off the floor! Seriously! Or– Or I will tell everyone!”

She was bluffing obviously, she wasn’t that much of an asshole. But it got him off the floor, though looking like the epitome of a kicked puppy. Honestly, Uzi couldn’t help but feel a little bad about being a good deal frustrated with him at the moment… but it’s his fault for being so ridiculous.

Uzi would direct him over to her usual spot, motioning for him to sit across from her as she sat herself. She honestly was trying not to make it evident she was slightly nervous even if he just caused a big stupid scene that embarrassed the hell out of her– she didn’t even really know where to begin!

“I really am sorry for– doing that…” N began to say, looking down in further remorse, “I just– I was worried! Really worried!”

“Why?” Uzi’s eyes squint a bit as she asks, almost scrutinizing him.

“Because I haven’t seen you in a few days! I thought maybe you wouldn’t ever come back… and then I sort of started overthinking– I was really surprised when you did come back today and I sort of… panicked. Yeah…I’m sorry.”

“Huh… okay yeah– I get it, I understand,” She’d nod, “But I honestly kinda was avoiding you for a bit. Just to get my thoughts together, nothing against you, but like… you know that entire thing was a lot to take in. I needed some time to do that.”

“That… makes sense, again, I’m really sorry,” N frowns and starts looking pathetic all over again, “But does that mean you’re… not going to tell anybody about what I am…?”

“Wh– Of course not!” She absolutely cannot believe that he took her bluff at face value, “I– I only said that because I wanted you to get off the floor! Besides I wasn’t even planning on it before… seriously I’m not that much of an asshole.”

Plus he did save her life, she was definitely not that cruel as to make things harder for him because he did something good for her. But she wouldn’t say that out loud–

“Thank you, what a relief, thank you Uzi!” He just about cries out, “It’s just– no one else really knows I’m a vampire… except you now… and my manager Ron, he was shockingly okay with it. Maybe some of my coworkers?? Though they've never said anything about it.”

“I am not even gonna ask.”

“That’s probably for the best since I’m actively avoiding trying to question it myself,” Her companion lets out a nervous chuckle, fiddling with his hands.

“Well I can say… and please don’t freak out– It kinda isn’t just me and your weirdo manager but I did sorta… kinda… basically tell one of my friends about you and that dumbass who tried to kill me.”

He seems to pause for a moment, his head tilting slightly, “You… did?”

“Look, it was only because he met a vampire himself! Almost got himself killed but he managed to get out of the situation alive because the vampire chose to spare him,” Uzi explains.

“Ohhhh… okay,” He appeared to take it well enough, which was a relief for her because she honestly didn’t want to see him freak out in one way or another again. It’d made her embarrassed all over again, and she swore she’d leave that building so fucking fast if it happened–

“That sorta leads into what I want to talk with you about… do you know a vampire by the name of V?”

N perks up at the name, and it’s immediately obvious to Uzi that he definitely knows her in some regard before he even says anything,

“Oh yeah! Yeah I do! V’s apart of my group… I should probably explain my group as a whole– it’s just me and two others, we’ve been living in this city for… almost two years actually. V’s probably the one I get along with the most but she’s also kinda– distant? I feel like she also dismisses me a lot. Anyway! She’s probably the more violent of us all really, especially against humans, um… very good at killing people. Very good. Probably the best out of us all. She lives in the forest that borders the town, too.”

Uzi stares at him not even knowing what to even say really, and he then adds, “A-And I mayyyy kinda have a crush on her– you can’t tell her okay?!”

“Rest assured my lips are sealed,” She does a zip motion across her mouth to get her point across, stifling a laugh in the process, but it eases him enough for him to continue–

“And then theres J, our leader! She’s not really the nicest to me at all, honestly she treats me like garbage… After all, I kinda am being a traitor because I don’t drink human blood anymore!”

“She sounds like a bitch,” Uzi deadpans.

“She’s just looking out for us all!” He defends, “Even if it's not in a… very nice way… it’s just how she is!”

“Uh huh… right…” She didn’t even feel like arguing with him, “Whatever you say. All I’m saying is that that V you know is the one who attacked my friend but just chose not to kill him.”

“Oh… huh, that’s unlike her, and I mean really unlike her,” N puts a hand on his chin in thought, “I honestly can’t really see a reason why she’d do that… I’m being serious, V has never once in all the time I’ve known her spared a human life even if they were begging her. That’s what I mean by she’s pretty violent… like she enjoys inflicting pain upon her victims violent.”

That had Uzi dumbfounded, and even more frustrated… was there really no actual reason why that damn vampire decided not to kill her friend? It wasn’t like she was complaining, she was relieved to know that Thad out of that whole group survived. The others she could give less of a shit about honestly, call her heartless but they absolutely sucked and a part of her was glad they were gone. Judging her and her interests, serves them right…

“Right okay, I get it! That really doesn’t give me any answers as to why she decided she just wasn’t gonna kill my friend but that's whatev–”

Her words were cut off by a sudden vibrating from her hoodie's pouch, and she fished out her phone which was the source of it. The screen showed that it was Thad of all people calling her, what a goddamn coincidence– and she looked back at N to say,

“You mind if I take this…?”

“Go ahead, you’re fine! I probably need to go tell my manager I’m on break anyway,” He waves a hand with that ever so polite smile on his face.

“Thanks, really,” Uzi can’t help but flash him a tiny smile back, getting up from her seat to move outside of the shop to finally answer her friend.

‘ Hey Zi! How are things going? ‘

“Well you kinda just interrupted me talking with N, yknow the vampire I know, but otherwise things are cool.”

‘ Oh my bad, should I call you later or–? ‘

“Don’t worry about it, what’s up?”

‘ Well I just left school, I was waiting until I was out to tell you about something that happened earlier today. ‘

Now this got her curious, “Spill, Thad.”

‘ Gotcha, so basically while I was eating lunch uh… V showed up. ‘

“You’re kidding.”

‘ I wish I was…”

“Okay, so what exactly happened? Did she do anything…?” She asks, the prior curiosity she held grew even more so now– what was that weird vampire up to…?

‘ I mean… yes and no? Honestly, the entire time I was trying to keep my cool outwardly but I was scared shitless, can’t even lie about that. She was sitting across from me… god knows how she even managed to get on the grounds… but she was just sitting there. Menacingly. When I asked her why she was even there, she just told me it was because she wanted to check up on me or something. ‘

“That’s fucking weird.”

‘ Tell me about it, she just kept sitting there and staring at me. Call me dumb and I think I sort of fucked up doing this, but I asked her if she ‘wanted a bite’ and I think she assumed I was implying if she wanted a bite of me or something but I meant my sandwich! I don’t know, can vampires even eat people food?? ‘

“... You are very, very dumb– but continue.”

‘ Right so, she just kept staring at me but more so like… how can I describe it… an angry cat? Like if she weren’t right in public surrounded by a bunch of other people she’d pounce on me and rip me into shreds. That kinda stare. ‘

“Uh huh…”

‘ And then I guess she got so fed up with me being a dumbass that she got up and stomped away. She uh, said something vaguely threatening to me before that… that was probably the weirdest thing I’ve ever experienced… like ever. ‘

“I think she got frustrated with you because you weren’t acting scared of her,” Uzi points out, “That’s probably what she was trying to do, trying to intimidate you, but it didn’t work in her eyes so she fucked off.”

‘ … Right… I should keep that in mind. Not acting scared. ‘

“And it probably also was because you did say something really dumb.”

‘ Yeah can’t argue with that. ‘

“In any case, I think I have a way to get her off your back. N does know her, he says they’re in the same ‘group’ alongside with this other vampire named J. I’m probably gonna ask him if he can take me to wherever V’s staying in the forest, cus she lives there, so I can tell her to leave you alone.”

‘ You think that would work? ‘

“Well N’s nice, I think he’d have my back. I mean dude he fucked up another vampire protecting me in the first place– I’m sure he’d be okay with potentially fucking up one of his weird teammates," She says, though right after sort of reminding herself that- right… he has a crush on this one in particular. Wonder how that would play out.

‘ That's fair, just stay safe out there. And thanks, really, for doing this for me. ‘

“Pshhh I’m just doing what any good friend would do, go chill out while I go talk to N about my plans.”

‘ Gotcha! Let me know what happens if anything. ‘

“Of course, I’ll also tell you about anything else I learn about these weird not-vampires later too. You know I’m gonna ask him a bunch of questions.”

‘ Sounds like you, seeya Zi. ‘

“Byyyeeee,” She says before hanging up, letting out a sigh afterward. What a weird situation, like seriously, what was with that chick? She gets the whole ‘making sure he doesn’t say a word about her to other people’ thing but he kinda already failed at that and she didn’t even know. So much for keeping watch over him, she guessed.

Walking back into the cafe, she found N sitting right where he sat before. He was just idly scrolling on his phone as he waited for her, though he put it down as he caught sight of her again. He looked so weirdly happy to see her, god, she was not used to that. Especially from someone she still barely knew.

“Sorry about that, that friend I was telling you about called me to tell me about something that happened to him today,” Uzi lets out another sigh as she sits back down in her own seat.

“Oh? What about?” His head tilts as he asks in that same stupidly cute way–

“Well apparently your friend V went to visit him while he was eating lunch and basically was trying to intimidate him. But that leads to what I want to ask you, can you help me… I don’t know– get to wherever she’s staying so I can tell her to fuck off and leave my friend alone?”

“Ohh…uh…” He looks nervous as he avoids her gaze, before looking at her straight on again, “Sure! I’d love to help!”

“Really, that quickly?” Uzi raises a brow, sort of unconvinced.

“I had to think about it… really quickly… and I think if I were there, V wouldn’t attack you on sight. I think.”

“You think?”

“Let’s hope that’s the case,” An unsure grin plasters itself on his face.

Uzi lets out a huff, “Whatever dude, if I die I’m going to haunt the absolute shit out of you.”

“Haha, that's fair– But seriously, while I really don’t want to hurt V, I will make sure she doesn’t hurt you. Rest assured, on my honor!” He then very valiantly places a hand over his heart, and she can’t help but suppress a little laugh at that.

“Alright, I’ll hold you to that. What’re you up to later cus I really wanna get this done and over with tonight, not in the mood to wait until another day.”

He appears to think for a moment… before replying, “Well, I do get off work in… uh… a couple hours, if you’re willing to wait for me.”

“No worries I gotta do homework,” Uzi waves her hand, “I’m cool to hang around.”

“That’s great! I do close, but I’m sure my manager won’t mind if you’re only here waiting on me… he’s very nice!”

“I can tell,” For some reason, oddly, Uzi couldn’t help but find herself smiling again. This guy was just so… cheerful, she wasn’t exactly used to it, someone being constantly nice all of the time. Thad was like that but with N it just seemed sort of… different-ish? She couldn't really put it together.

Regardless though, for the rest of his break– which was only like… ten minutes or so– they’d talk about random stuff. Uzi really wanted to ask him more about vampires and whatever he knew about his kind, but she was saving that for later when he’d have all of the time in the world to tell her. She was going to get her info, and she was going to write it down so she could get a better scope of how these pretty much not-vampires functioned. She was just forever grateful she even managed to meet one who was seemingly… normal? Normal-ish? Honestly, if he had naturally colored hair and eyes she wouldn’t have been a bit suspicious of him at all. He just seemed like a completely normal, functioning member of society… unlike some other vampires apparently.

She just really needed to know what the hell he meant by ‘I don’t drink human blood anymore!’, she kinda glossed over that earlier but it got her curious all over again.

…

Later, Uzi, later.

The several hours Uzi spent waiting on N practically breezed by, Uzi having spent that entire time on her laptop that she very smartly brought with her. She had already planned to stick around for a bit either way.  Sometime in the middle of the very strenuous task that was engineering homework, he'd come on over to deliver to her– her usual? and also a chocolate covered donut. How– thoughtful… ew why did it make her feel all warm inside all over again–

“It’s on me,” Is what he’d say to her and he’d do some finger guns at her, “For uh– not ratting me out.”

God he was so stupidly cute that she wanted to pull her hair out, the only thing Uzi did was thank him and tell him that he didn’t have to worry at all, again, she’s not an asshole! Not that much of one, anywho. Who knew what like… the government would’ve done with him if it was common knowledge of what he was, now that– that was a scary thought.

She’d brush that scary thought away, for the rest of the time focusing solely on trying not to lose her mind over stupid ass fucking math problems. She was eventually snapped out of that focus as N tapped the top of her laptop screen, looking up at him practically looming over her, his height be damned.

“I’m all wrapped up for today, I gotta lock up the cafe and then we’ll be out of here, kay?”

“Oh, alright,” Uzi nods, moving to pack up her laptop and all of the other materials she brought out in that grueling ass fucking process. Honestly, as she looked around she was shocked as she saw that not only was the dining area as clean as ever– and also the lights were off so it was dark as hell–  she was sure back where they all worked was too. N was clearly one hell of a hard worker, she prayed he got paid well because he at least deserved that.

N was waiting for her at the door, the darkness of the building appearing to make his yellow eyes glow. She'd have to write that down… weird vampires have glow-in-the-dark eyes apparently-

As she walked over she'd ask, “Do you always close?”

“Oh– yeah! Pretty much. I like to clean and stuff, usually that means I’m here alone for an hour or two doing just that, the morning crew is always grateful for what I do because of that.”

“God, you’re better than me, I would not even try,” She chuckles, “That being said, I’ve never really had a job like this one before. Or ever.”

“Oh? Why not?” Now he asks.

“Honestly, I don’t think I could handle customers… like rude customers… or just people in general, It’s really easy to fucking piss me off, and being professional is something I’m shit at,” Uzi then explains, “Like when I say it's easy to piss me off I will literally pounce on a bitch if they cross me. I hate rude people.”

“Oh geez… well that makes sense,” N opens the door and lets Uzi exit first– walking out after her and then locking the front door. He’d then continue, “So how do you pay for college and stuff?”

“I uh… don’t?” Uzi shrugs, “I mean, my dad sort of pays for my apartment and my college and stuff. It’s stupid complicated, but I guess it’s his way of saying sorry for being a shitty ass fucking dad. You don’t wanna know.”

N puts his hands in the air, “I will not ask any further, then.”

“It’s definitely better that way.” Uzi agrees, really not wanting to talk anymore about her dad.

“A-Anywayy–” Her companion graciously changes the topic, “You ready to meet V?”

“Ready as I’ll ever be, she will think twice about fucking with my friend.”

“Heh, I’m not really sure she’ll feel bad but she might listen. Might. She doesn’t exactly take humans seriously,” N explains, motioning for her to follow him over to his car.

For some reason… a part of Uzi expected him to want to fly them over to the forest– but yeah no, they were in public there were still people out. Maybe it was just her really wanting to be up in the air again, because as much as she was in pain the first and last time he did that… it was also really… cool?

…

That would be something for later then as well, him flying her around maybe… if they were to actually become friends that is. Uzi never had a good time making friends, it’s why she surrounded herself with really… no one at all. The most she had as a friend was Thad, mostly because he refused to let her be all sad and alone for the rest of highschool. Sure, she was on better terms with people like Lizzy and… Doll… but to consider them friends? Uzi was still pretty unsure.

N seemed good though, just like she thought previously, he was good potential friend material.

The ride to the forest wasn’t exactly the most exciting thing ever, that’s what Uzi thought anyway. There wasn’t any conversation happening, and she honestly did not want to ask if she could play her music– who knew if he’d be okay with it like Thad was. So all she did was idly scroll on her phone for a bit, vaguely acknowledging that damn did N keep his car neat and tidy and smelling… decently nice? Couldn't say the same about Thad's truck, it wasn't filthy but he wasn't the most cleanly person in existence. 

“Oh hey, I almost forgot to ask,” N finally speaks up, “How's your leg?”

Uzi looks up from her phone, “Oh it’s doing better, it kinda barely hurts as much anymore so I’ll be good in no time. I had to get stitches, though took that shit like a champ.”

“Ah, well that's good! Again, I’m really sorry that that happened… I should’ve stepped in much sooner,” Theres a touch of sadness in his voice as he says this, he feels that bad? Geez…

“Seriously dude, it’s fine,” Uzi asserts, “You did step in when I was about to yknow, die, and I made it out alive. Me getting a sick as hell scar in the future is no issue to me, even if it did hurt like hell getting it. I’m fine, you’re fine, that other vampire is fuck all and I hope they learned their lesson. Stop feeling bad or I’ll get annoyed.”

“Okay,” He just nods, “I can try. But I’ll make sure that never happens again.”

“Don’t worry you won’t even have to do that… I don’t think… I really don’t wanna almost get killed again. But I do wanna go re-explore that factory someday.”

“I could go with you? For safety?” He then suggests.

“You’d… want to?”

“Yeah! I like hanging out with friends! Well, admittedly it’s something I’ve never really done before because I don’t really have friends to hang out with,” N lets out a laugh like this isn’t the saddest thing she’s ever heard, and he turns to her for a moment, “I– I can consider you a friend, right?”

“Y-Yeah!” She finds herself nodding a bit too quickly, “Sure dude.”

“Great! Ooohh I have a human friend now! And J told me I’d never make any friends, hahaha…”

“Well you’ve proved her wrong, I’d absolutely rub that in her face if I were you."

“Hah, maybe. V and J don’t really care much about humans though, not like I do," He tells her, and Uzi seriously can't help but think that they suck so bad.

So she lets him know that too, “Well, then they suck."

“…They never really have tried to get closer with people like I have,” He explains, somewhat hesitantly.

“Still, they suck.”

“Guess I can’t make you change your mind…” The poor fellow admits in defeat, simply shaking his head.

“Nope!” She can't help but snicker, "And unless I see any change myself I will still always think they suck."

N seemingly had nothing to say in return to that, so Uzi truly had won in that regard… hell yeah. It was right in time for them to finally have reached the edge of the forest- well, right outside the edge of the forest. It was beside a park area that usually would be decently populated but right now it was only just the two of them there. N parked in the designated parking lot, and Uzi was the first to exit the vehicle to stretch her limbs.

“So are we walking all the way there, or…?” She asks.

“Oh- yeah! It’s sorta… kinda… pretty far into the forest,” N admits with a nervous laugh, “ but I know the exact path there so we won’t get lost!”

“Riiiight… okay, cool, that’s fine,” She didn’t want to admit that she wasn’t particularly the most excited to have to walk through a dark forest at night but whatever. N was there, and N knew where they were going.

The walk over to the forest was pretty uneventful, though Uzi noted that N seemed a little distracted by looking over at the little kiddy playground area… yeah no she would’ve gotten distracted and gone over there too if she weren't on a mission right now. He refocused though, continuing to lead her as dutifully as he could.

He stopped though right before they would enter, turning to her,

“So, you ready?”

Uzi groaned, “Yes, stop asking! Let’s get this over with.”

…

She could only really hope things went smoothly, but she trusted N… as much as she could trust someone who was also unsure–

Yeah, she was gonna hold onto a whole ton of hope.

=======================================================

A little consolatory gift for this chapter ending on a BIT of a cliffhanger... have my first concepts for our three main vamps! They're def subject to change, I only meant to draw V (because im STILL not fully confident on how I draw humans... I DONT DRAW HUMANS USUALLY!!) but was gassed up enough to get busts of the other two done as well lmao

Enjoy <3

Chapter Text

The forest of Silverton was as dark as expected, the sun had long set and left Uzi’s surroundings in darkness. If it were earlier in the day, when the sun was still out, maybe she would’ve been much more confident. But right now? She was really unsure if she could hold it together.

For some time, she was fine with just following behind N as he led her to their destination, but her nerves got the better of her– she was getting the absolute creeps right now. It was why she then moved to walk in tandem with him, as best she could anyway, still very unfamiliar with their surroundings. He said nothing about it though, apparently too kind to tease her for being a huge ass wuss. She was far too stubborn to even admit to it herself, she could handle things like scary games or movies or really WHATEVER horror-wise– apparently even an abandoned goddamn factory for as long as she had managed to stomach it. So then why the hell was some forest fucking with her?

Maybe it was the potential actual real-life dangers it held, well– the factory did as well… but this was much more of a confirmed thing in her mind. It very clearly contained a vampire who evidently killed three people without breaking a sweat and who had almost killed her friend too. Not to mention all of the previous victims of this vampire too, yeesh. Who knew what else was even lurking here… she just shook her head so she could stop thinking of the practically unlimited possibilities, trying to not creep herself out even more.

To further get her mind off of the creepiness of this creepy ass forest, she had decided that right now was the perfect time to start asking N the numerous questions she had swirling about her brain. She was curious, sue her! All of what she had previously known about vampires turned out to be a sham, and she wanted the facts and the satisfaction that she would probably be the only one to know the truth. Sure, maybe it’d be better if other people knew more about these ‘not-vampires’ as she’d called them, but Uzi really couldn’t find herself caring much personally.

“So uh… N, can you tell me more about your weird… species? Cus’ all I know is that you’re definitely not traditional vampires, but still vampiric, right?”

He gives a glance her way, eyes notably just as glowy as they were in the darkness of the cafe,

“Sure thing! What exactly do you want to know? I don’t know everything myself but I can try to be as helpful as possible.”

“Uhhh– shit… let’s see… do all of you guys like, look the same? It’s sort of what I’ve noticed, with the whole white hair and yellow eyes thing,” It was hard for Uzi to really narrow down a good enough starting question, but she concluded that this would be the most simple entry to the whole ‘interrogation’ that would follow.

“Hmmm… well now that you mention it, I guess so yeah!”

“Really helps you stand out, huh?”

“You could definitely say that,” The vampire lets out a chuckle, “I just don’t see a reason to change how I look, I like how I look!”

“I mean, fair enough,” Uzi shrugs, she personally liked his whole… look. It was for sure unique, alongside him being stupidly fucking tall. And he was cute, sue her for acknowledging that.

“I can say, we do have different forms and stuff too. Like right now, I’m in the form that makes me look closest to a human… still kinda far from it… but much more human-y than my other forms,” N would continue, causing Uzi to get curious all over again.

“What’re the other ones…?”

“Well! You’ve seen one of them, that owl form, most of us can change into those animal forms at will. I don’t think V or J really use theirs much… but I use mine for quick transportation, it’s very useful being able to fly around without anyone really suspecting anything.”

“Yeah that’s until someone, like me, realizes that snowy owls aren’t native to this region,” Uzi then points out, “But by the time I did realize that… you were gone.”

“I am very quick,” He smiles, a little smugly.

“Lucky ass… okay Sonic the Hedgehog, what’s the other form?”

“Pfff– The other form, it’s much more… monstrous I guess? Like usually, we’re still humanoid but more beast-like… in my case, I become much more bird-like with feathers and all that good stuff. And bigger too, it’s like an upgraded version of what I am right now, technically speaking. Not only in size but in strength!”

“Goddammit now you’re making me jealous,” She groans, “Why are you guys so weirdly cool?!”

“We were– born that way?” N offers, though he’s clearly unsure.

“Ugh… speaking of that… how do you guys even age and stuff? You’re around my age, right?”

“We uh… age very slowly is all I can really say, I definitely should be around your age right now if that’s anything,” Again, he sounds very unsure about this as well– but he then adds, “Maybe a little older, actually?”

“Great,” She deadpans.

“I’ve been around since the uh…  late 1930s too? If I’m honest, a lot of my past memories are really foggy.”

Another addition, and another thing for Uzi to find pretty… peculiar about him.

But she takes this time to joke instead, “Goddamn you’re fucking old.”

“Hah, I guess I am,” But her companion takes it in stride.

“Okay! Onto the next question, what’s with the whole you not drinking human blood anymore thing you mentioned to me before?”

“Oh! Well that’s pretty simple, some years ago I stopped drinking human blood and switched purely to a diet of animal blood… I don’t really like harming animals either so I source it from a butcher in town. That butcher I also think probably knows I’m a vampire but hasn’t said anything soooo… yeah,” He speaks rather casually about this like it’s the most normal thing ever, but it's normal to him because he’s a vampire. She brushes that aside for now, and thus asks her next question–

“What exactly stopped you from drinking human blood? Like was it just on a whim or…?”

This makes him stop in his tracks, Uzi comes to a stop beside him in mild confusion. He looks pretty troubled, and she honestly starts regretting even asking him that stupid question because it clearly had something pretty rough as its answer. Before she could tell him to forget it so they could move on– N proceeded to respond to her query rather truthfully,

“I guess… realizing that you humans were no different from me. Um, It was… 14 years ago I think? I met this human woman I was sent to kill with a group of other vampires– not my group mind you, it was like she was a big deal. And she was because she managed to kill all of the other vampires but me and as we fought I honestly didn’t really understand why exactly I had to do that.”

“...Oh.”

He continues, “We sorta ended up at a standstill, it wasn’t really me sparing her as it was her sparing me– but she looked scared out of her mind. It made me wonder why I was even doing this, why she deserved to die– because surely she had people who cared about her back home. And… I just didn’t want to try to hurt her anymore, and it was clear she also didn’t wanna hurt me especially because I backed down. So I let her run away, and I ended up lying to J about killing her… and I’m a really bad liar, a really bad one– so I’m shocked she even believed me.”

“Damn, that’s… rough, geez N,” Is all Uzi can say in reply, stuck in a bout of shock at this new information he sprung on her out of nowhere. She was asking for it though! Asking so many questions as she did.

“Ah– yeah, it is, isn’t it? I’m– I’m sorry for dumping that out on you out of the blue! That was pretty heavy! I’ve just had no one really to talk about it…” He gives her an apologetic look, and she can not have him being sorry about something like this.

“Dude, don’t apologize. We’re friends, right? Friends dump shit on friends all the time, I do that with Thad a lot– it’s cool. Plus, you don’t seem like you’ve had an outlet to dump shit onto like ever, huh?”

“Yeah you’re right about that, I haven’t. I’m pretty new to this friends thing, yknow?  I mean, J and V are my friends but they’re very… “

“Sucky?”

“I guess, yeah,” N can’t help but agree, though he seems hesitant to do so, “I don’t think they… would’ve understood at all. V probably wouldn't have cared but uh- J would’ve been mad… really mad.”

“Yeah, that sounds about right. But now you have me, and with me around you’ll have someone to… talk to, I guess. Like– I don’t know what exact vampy bullshit you’ve been through and may definitely not know what to say about it but I will listen,” Uzi asserts, her words rather genuine.

“You will?” He sounds so unsure if she actually means it, and that just about breaks her cold dead heart even more. Who hurt this guy?? Like– she clearly knows who’s hurt him… but still who the fuck made him think his feelings didn’t matter?!

“Well… yeah, dude, I wouldn’t lie about something like that," Her tone is softer than it usually is, she wanted him to understand how much she meant it.

“Awww Uzi that’s so sweet, thank you!” N exclaims, sniffling like he’s just about to cry.

“Wh– Not sweet! I am not sweet!” Uzi returns to her usual tone- pointing in his face, “I’m just being a good friend!”

“A really sweet good friend!”

“I– Bite me!!!”

The mood seemed to have brightened much more now, N laughing aloud at her flustered reaction as she glared at his dumb stupid self. She couldn’t really stay mad for long oddly enough, she did make him feel better, plus right about now she was feeling way less scared of the forest around them.

The two returned to the path to V’s abode within this wilderness, Uzi still walking right beside N. She was busy trying to brainstorm more questions to ask him, but as it turned out she didn’t really need to…

“I can say,” N starts, gaining Uzi’s attention again, “I think that human blood is probably the best for us vampires. We uh… we regenerate pretty easily, like if I got my leg cut off it’d probably grow back not long after.”

“Oh that sounds gross–”

“It is kinda gross, it’s definitely why I’ve been avoiding getting into any fights! Especially now that I have been ingesting animal blood instead of human, my diet causes my regeneration to be less quick than it usually would be. But that’s a fair trade-off if it means I won’t have to hurt anyone anymore.”

“I mean, yeah that's fair… and pretty nice of you and stuff,” Uzi nods along.

“Actually, I think me saving you was the first time I’ve gotten into a fight with another vampire in a while!”

“Oh really?” She tries to play it off, but for some reason that sentiment does something weird to her heart.

Did her life really matter so much to this guy that he’d forgo his avoidance of conflict just to save her stupid self? N was an enigma, honestly, she really didn’t know why she was worth all that trouble. He’s definitely told her before yeah, and he certainly didn’t have any problem fighting that other vampire too… she just… couldn’t fully comprehend it. Ugh.

“Yeah, I’m pretty rusty when it comes to fighting,” He says.

“Rusty? You kicked that guy's ass! I didn’t see all of it… and honestly, I wish I did– but you clearly showed em’ what's what. Rusty my ass.”

“Ahahaha… I guess I’m not a bad fighter. Oh yeah! I can tell you more about us– Contrary to popular belief we don’t burn up in the sun– but uh– our skins pretty sensitive, mine is anyway! I should’ve also mentioned this to begin with too… but usual vampire deterrents also don’t really work on us. Especially garlic… I actually really like garlic! Garlic bread’s one of my favorite snacks.”

“Well that explains it… ughhh…” Uzi lets out a groan, his words solidifying her prior assumptions, “I should’ve known, I prepared for nothing.”

“You did your best! Especially with what you… thought you knew, no one really knows much in depth about us. Until now!” He’s obviously trying to make her feel better this time around, but Uzi is too busy cringing on the inside remembering again how she practically begged that priest for that holy water. To have it wasted on some not-vampire who it didn’t do anything to… dammit.

“... I guess. What’s with your tail?”

“My tail?”

“Yeah, your tail, why is it like that? You had some sorta weird stinger at the end of it… at least I remember it was that way,” Uzi explains, a part of her hopes she can see that fucking thing again because oddly it was cool to her.

“Ohhh my tail!” And just as she wished, his tail would sprout out from behind him and wave around, “It is a stinger, the venom that comes from it is pretty painful. Thankfully, our saliva helps neutralize it– definitely helps when I accidentally stick myself with it, hahaha!”

“Huh, neat. Honestly the more you tell me the more I realize you guys are nowhere near vampires at all.”

“In a way, yeah, we definitely are not your traditional vampires… at all. But we kinda don’t really have a name for what we are? I guess?? I– I never thought about it really. If we have a name.”

“Fair enough, I’ve been calling you guys ‘not-vampires’ for a bit but that sounds kinda dumb,” Uzi lets out a little laugh, “Maybe just vampires is okay. Although you’re like… not actual vampires.”

“Yeah, I’m fine with that! No complaints here!”

“Then it’s settled, you guys are just vampires. Vampires that have… stupid cool abilities I fucking wish I had,” Uzi couldn’t help but sound a little bitter, she truly was stupidly jealous. Like– seriously– wings? She always WANTED to have wings.

“I’d say I wish you were a vampire too but the uh… desire to drink blood would probably freak you out,” N lets out a sheepish chuckle.

“Ehhh I’ve had worse urges,” Uzi remarks casually, and N just looks at her with a very confused expression– but shrugs it off right after. Probably thinking it was smarter not to ask, and it definitely was.

The formerly quiet forest continued to be filled with the chatter of these two new friends, moving on from the topic of N’s vampire-ness to other much less… complicated stuff. It made the last stretch of their journey pretty easy, especially because when Uzi was given the ability to talk and ramble on about anything she really liked it didn’t seem like she’d stop. It’s not like N minded either, he listened rather intently even if he didn’t exactly understand what she was talking about.

Uzi made a mental note in her head, force N to watch anime with her in the future. It was absolutely CRIMINAL how he barely knew anything about the ONE thing she was deeply passionate about– explaining that he was far too busy to watch really anything– and thus vowed that he would not stay in the dark about the wonder that is anime. When he was less busy.

“We’re here!” N finally announces, causing Uzi to perk up.

The cave before them was… ominous to say the least. No shit really, why wouldn’t some vampire live in some creepy cave deep in the forest that she couldn’t see into at all. Sure yeah, it being night right now was a factor in that, but she bet if it was still day then the inside would’ve been cast in shadow regardless. It admittedly made her nervous all over again, the confidence she held previously wavering– but she pushed those feelings aside because she was here for a reason and she really didn’t want it to seem like she was wasting N’s time.

He brought her here– walked with her all the way here just because he wanted to help, and she seriously wasn’t at all going to make all that time spent null and void because of her anxiety spiking up right now. Uzi let out a breath, she was not gonna get intimidated by this vampire, she was going to do what she set out to do or so help her she’d never forgive herself for backing out.

“Just stay right here and I’ll go get her, kay?” N’s voice once more pulled Uzi from her thoughts, the vampire was already walking closer to the cave and Uzi had no issue with staying put. When he entered it, it was almost as if he had completely disappeared– she could not see him at all but she could certainly hear the conversation that would follow…

“Hey, V! Uh– Good morning! sorry to wake you so early!”

“... What do you want,” Came the noticeably tired-sounding voice of V right afterward, clearly not exactly pleased to be woken up so early. So… vampires were normally nocturnal, huh? That’s what she was concluding right away by their conversation, and it honestly made a stupid amount of sense.

“There’s someone who wants to talk to you outside!” N replies, remaining as positive-sounding as he always had.

“Ugh– don’t tell me… is it J? Tell her to fuck off and leave me alone, I’m not hunting with her, she calls you useless but then feeds off of my kills whenever we hunt together. Not interested.”

“Oh– it’s not J actually! It’s someone you… don’t know, she just wants to talk to you, it's really important to her!”

“... uh huh…” She then lets out a sigh, “Fine. But if this ends up as a waste of my time– do not even think about bothering me ever again.”

“It won’t be I promise!”

It took some time… but out came both the vampires into the open. Uzi could sort of visualize what V looked like in her head from the way Thad had described her in the past but seeing her in person now…

…

Her one thought, why in the fuck were these vampires hot? Like– seriously?!

She was supposed to be pissed off with this one, and while she still definitely was– and a tad scared of her but she wouldn’t admit that— she couldn’t help but admit to the fact that yeah Thad was right, V was stupidly pretty. It’s no wonder she not only managed to have Thad hooked by her appearance alone at first but also got someone to leave that party with her so easily… geez.

V’s catlike-gaze focused on Uzi now, dragging her back into being pretty intimidated as much as she hated that she was–

“Ohhh… I see, you brought me something to eat? How kind of you N, but honestly she’s far too… scrawny,” She made a motion with her hand and Uzi could not help but start getting oddly offended, “More like a snack than a proper meal. Disappointing.”

N quickly interjects, stepping in front of Uzi, “She is– not a snack! Not food at all, actually! This is my friend, Uzi, and like I said she’s here to talk with you about something really important!”

“Yeah so take me seriously,” Uzi steps out from behind him to stand beside N, giving V a good ol glare which she… barely reacted to. Yeah, she wasn’t taking her seriously.

“Honestly N, I’m surprised you’ve managed to make other friends, let alone a human, color me shocked. But alright, Draculina, what do you want?” V crosses her arms, leaning forward in a sort of… mocking fashion, at least in Uzi’s eyes.

“I- What– Draculina– Ugh… whatever! Look! You know Thad, right?”

“Thad? Hmmm… lets see…” She places a hand on her chin, acting like she’s in deep thought searching the depths of her mind for the memory of Uzi’s friend– before her eyes land back on Uzi, “Yeah. I know him. What about it?”

“Don’t play dumb, you should know why I’m here.”

“No, honestly I don’t have the brightest clue why you’re here.”

“Oh my god… Thad is my friend," Uzi motions to herself, “He told me about you, and especially your little stunt in trying to intimidate him earlier. Don’t act like you didn’t do that.”

“Huh… so he lied to me,” V moves to place a hand on her hip, “Maybe I should’ve rethought not killing him, a shame really, he can’t keep his mouth shut.”

“Dude. The only person he told about you is me,” Uzi was quick to rectify V’s assumptions, “And honestly– that’s only because I pushed him to tell me. If you want someone to be mad at be mad at me for that. Thad isn’t someone to go blabbing his mouth off especially about someone like you to other people.”

“And why did you push him to tell you, hm?”

“Because he’s my friend! Seriously have you never been concerned for anyone in your life before?! He wasn’t acting like himself, he was scared of you, and the fact you told him you were gonna watch over him and shit– who wouldn’t be scared? On top of the fact you killed three people in front of him!”

V doesn’t respond and simply keeps staring Uzi down– allowing Uzi to continue, “And I’m not saying I’m fully against those three dying, they treated me like I was some absolute freak, but the way you’re treating Thad is not right. When Thad promises something, even to someone fucking weird like you, he usually means to keep that promise. I don’t think he’ll tell a soul other than me about you and what you are, no one would pretty much force the truth out of him like I did.”

“And… what does any of this matter to me?”

Uzi was starting to feel like she was losing brain cells trying to talk to this woman. She takes a breath, “Look, I just want you to leave him alone. Thad’s a good guy, he always has been, I don’t want him to act all weird because of you trying to scare him.”

“And if you can’t leave him alone, maybe try being nicer to him?” N finally chimes in after being oddly quiet the entire time, and Uzi can’t exactly disagree with what he says.

“Be… nicer. To a human?” V raises a brow, returning to her prior stance of crossing her arms.

“It’d make things easier for everyone, pleeaasee?” He holds his hands together and tilts his head to the side– wait…  oh my god– is he giving her puppy dog eyes??? Uzi could not believe this, trying not to absolutely lose her shit laughing right now–

V looked at him with narrowed eyes as he continued this display, before eventually submitting to the pressure and groaning, “Ugh— fine!”

“Thanks, V!” He immediately snaps out of it, smiling brightly at her.

“Whatever, as long as it makes you leave me alone. Are we done here? Is there anything else you want from me? Or can you two losers leave and let me try to go back to sleep.”

“I am completely satisfied! What about you, Uzi?” He looks over at his friend, dumb smile still plastered on his face.

“Hmmmm…” Now Uzi acts like she’s thinking about it really hard– noticing how V’s expression grew more and more irritated the longer she went on, “Yeah no, that's about it.”

“You are so lucky N’s here, purple freak, so lucky,” V says through gritted teeth.

“Ha, yeah, try me,” Uzi challenges, and then mutters, “Geez, you are like an angry cat, Thad was right…”

“...” V doesn’t reply though it's obvious she’s pretty pissed off, simply turning around and slinking back into the cave– disappearing just as soon as she reentered it.

For some time, the two stand there in silence… before N speaks up, “So that went well!”

“Do you usually do that puppy dog eye thing with her?” Is the first thing that Uzi asks, looking his way and finally being able to laugh a bit over it.

“It is a method I try not to use a lot but it was greatly needed here,” He replies matter-of-factly, “... I knew she wouldn’t be convinced otherwise, anyway.”

“... pfff… well if it works, she seems like a pain to deal with regularly I do not know how you do it…”

“I’ve known her a long time, it’s just how she is,” The fellow simply shrugs, “You ready to start heading back?”

“Oh– yeah! Just– can we like… not walk back? I really don’t want to walk through all of that again,” Uzi admits, and she really did mean it. Her leg was starting to hurt, honestly.

“You want me to fly us back…?”

“Uh, no duh!”

“Hmmm.. Well, I don’t see any problem with it, I’ll just fly us back to the park and drive you home,” N was completely on board, and Uzi was busy punching the air mentally because HELL YEAH she managed to convince him easily!

What she wasn’t ready for was N scooping her up into his arms again, just like the first time, announcing, “Upsy-daisy!”

Uzi had to settle herself within his grasp, hands positioned on his shoulders and absolutely flustered, “D-Dude! Warn me next time you pick me up!”

“Oh! I’m sorry!”

“Ugh… it’s like… whatever, let’s just get going,” She couldn’t dwell on it for long, and honestly really didn’t want to before she started overthinking–

“Yes ma’am!” N grins at her as his wings appear and stretch outwards, launching the two of them up into the air and through the trees.

This time around Uzi is much more prepared and isn’t as scared on their way up as she was before, allowing herself to observe her surroundings much better. It was… peaceful, honestly, seeing the forest at night– especially above the trees. There was no looming danger up here, and compared to the city she could actually see the stars now.

“It sucks that this forest is so… dangerous and apparently filled with vampires, this view is to die for,” Uzi comments, “You’re so lucky you can fly, you don’t have to worry about that at all.”

“You’re right! It’s pretty convenient for getting from place to place, though I can’t do it all the time because I’d get found out,” He replies, “But whenever I’m out of the city the sky’s my limit, there’s this big field I usually go to where I can fly as much as I want!”

“Fuckin’, lucky,” Uzi pouts.

“I could… fly you around sometime?” N then suggests.

“Offer accepted,” Her mood immediately improves, eliciting a chuckle from the vampire.

“Alright! It’s a date then!”

“WAIT WAIT WHAT–” 

Chapter Text

“... What exactly do you mean by ‘be nicer to him’, anyway?”

N perks up from the question, his eyes finding the form of his fellow vampire friend, V.

Previously, he had admittedly been avoiding looking her way as she, for lack of a better word, had been butchering the absolute hell out of her recent prey as he’d long known her to do. Another person who found themself within V’s territory, another person who became another one of V’s victims because of their curiosity. It was honestly nothing shocking for N, he had witnessed and previously (regrettably) done much worse, but right now– he really didn’t want to see what she did best.

At the moment, she was sitting atop her victim– or rather what was left of them, licking at her blood-soaked clawed hand much like a cat grooming itself. She apparently was finished for now, that’s until she’d drag the corpse to her cave to dispose of it fully.

“O-Oh! Well, you know there are a lot of things you could do for him that are nice,” N replies, “I mean for one, you can just treat him better and not try to scare him– which you promised to do anyway, which is good! Another more viable thing is maybe just… doing something nice for him? Like a favor or something. You couldddd also apologize for what you did befo–”

“Tough chance I’m not sorry,” V interjects, cutting him off, “I was hungry, they were my food. Not my fault they chose to explore my territory, and that he went with them.”

“Right then… maybe just apologize for trying to scare him even more…?” He then hesitantly suggests, assuming she’d shoot this suggestion down too.

He assumed, though she instead only stared at him for a long moment… before her expression softened ever so slightly as she let out a sigh,

“I’ll… see what I can do, whatever is in the realm of what I feel comfortable with doing.”

“As long as you aren’t mean to him anymore, and you don’t feel like you’re forced to do anything– I’m happy with whatever you decide to do, “ N can’t help but smile brightly at her as he always does, V’s always been very stubborn– but her even asking him for suggestions made him feel like she wanted to try. He was happy about that! It was good news in his eyes.

“Ugh, yeah yeah…” V shakes her head as she averts his gaze, “I get it. Stop looking at me like that.”

“Ah, of course, sorry,” He lets out a little chuckle.

Unbeknownst to N, an idea had already started to bloom in her mind…

It had been give or take maybe… a little bit over– three weeks since Thad had last seen V?

It felt pretty odd to him if he was honest. There was still the chance she was watching over him in some way, but now he wasn’t feeling that looming presence of someone watching him. On top of that, he was genuinely feeling much better than he was before! The day after Uzi went to confront V, she spilled all of the relevant details of that whole interaction and how it concluded– and admittedly, he was hella impressed by how she managed to get things the way they were.

Major props to her vampire friend, too. Those puppy dog eyes must’ve been killer if they had easily convinced V. He’d have to thank the guy if he ever had the chance to meet him.

The one thing he seriously didn’t know what to think about was all of the stuff Uzi learned from her vampire friend about vampires, all of that she proceeded to spill to him, too. Like, sure yeah, it was interesting but also… confusing? Thad thought thinking too hard on how these vampires even existed would probably make his brain explode or something, he was already reeling from the revelation that they were even real in the first place.

There wasn’t really any need for him to dwell on it; he didn’t want to– all he knew was that this insanely scary and… weirdly pretty vampire was finally off his tail, and he could move on to more important things in his life. School, work, and just– hanging out with his friends in general would be made much easier now that he wouldn’t have to constantly be looking behind his back anymore.

The one good thing to come out of this vampire situation was that Uzi had ended up making a friend out of it. N, the vampire who thankfully had saved her life and then went on to help her with talking to V, he seemed like a pretty swell guy already even if Thad’s knowledge of him was still pretty limited. He was really happy for her! Uzi wasn’t someone who hung out with many people, well, not really anyone else at all but him. She didn’t have any other friends, and yeah sometimes when they hung out they were accompanied by Lizzy and Doll– but she never seemed the most thrilled to interact with them.

It was mostly Doll, though. He knew their history so he didn’t entirely blame Uzi– but with his sister, she seemed just a little more chill with her. A little. They’d still argue though, not entirely seriously in the way he saw it, but he was still working on getting them all to get along in some way. It just seemed like Uzi finally had someone new that she got along with very well!

Even if the guy was a vampire, she had explained to him that apparently his vampire buddies pretty much treated him like shit most of the time and that he just really needed– and deserved– a much better friend. And as much as Uzi would refuse to believe that this was sweet of her to do, insisting that she was NOT sweet in the slightest– Thad definitely knew better. Besides, there was a whole bunch of more stuff to her new friend too, he was unlike other vampires in the way he chose not to hurt humans, which Thad could give mad respect to. Overall, from what Thad learned about the guy he was very cool and nice, and if Uzi liked him– he was sure he’d like him too.

“Blehhh I wish N could’ve joined us but he told me he was busyyyyy,” Uzi groans from her spot on his couch, lying upside down with her legs hanging over the back of it, “I’m still trying to set up a time for you guys to meet when he’s not at work… you too but– N always works!”

Thad lets out a chuckle, “That’s pretty considerate of you! We’ll figure something out, I’d love to meet the guy.”

“If you guys can even meet in the first place, he just tells me that he hates letting his coworkers down, but they can pick up the slack for once in a while, geez,” She complains further, eliciting another light chuckle from her friend who was– admittedly– rummaging through the cabinets in his kitchen.

You could ask why he was doing that… and he’d give a simple answer– he forgot to buy snacks for their annual movie night. It was just something they had been doing since probably… forever– whenever they especially weren’t busy the next day, cus’ they’d be watching movies all night.

And of course their movie night was tonight, so… that was fun! It wasn’t like he couldn’t just go run to the corner store nearby and buy snacks; he totally could’ve, but it was having to break it to Uzi that was the issue. He knew she’d be a little pissy with him, the snacks were a big deal for her, she needed something to munch on while they watched or in her words she ‘wouldn’t enjoy it as much.’

They did take turns hosting these movie nights too, and one big rule in that was that they’d buy the snacks and pick the movies when it was their turn. Thad had the movies covered, he always had a list planned at all times because there were a ton of movies he wanted to watch, plain and simple. But for the snacks… yeah, that was his bad– he admittedly was getting a little more distracted lately. Like, for the past few days–  and that was because of that same incredibly scary but too pretty vampire that managed to creep back into his mind.

He didn’t even know why he was thinking about her again. He shouldn’t have been, he said he was going to move on with his life now that she was basically leaving him alone for good– or it seemed that way– but apparently not! Apparently not at all, because recently he was just vaguely thinking about her. A lot.

Thad just wondered what she was even up to now that he wasn’t a priority in her mind anymore– and honestly, no shit, she was probably doing the same thing she always did. Those poor dumbasses, dumb just like him, who went into that forest were simply no match for her. Further than that, and on a more serious note, he just… wondered if the way she treated him before he found out what she was was genuine. Maybe it was bad for him to really think about that, downright pathetic even, but a little tiny part of him hoped she actually meant all of what she said to him that day– this too, he didn’t really know why.

But it kept bothering him for these past few days, nagging at him from the back of his mind, and really fucking him over because he just couldn’t simply stop thinking of this scary woman. A part of him just wanted to ask her verbatim if she was being truthful with him or not, but would she answer him clearly? Would she even give him the time of day? Hell, would he even see her again to even be able to do that in the first place? He had no fucking clue.

His thoughts were weird. He really should’ve been focusing more on feigning to find any snacks he had in his cabinets to buy himself some time– though it seemed like something else would happen that would distract the both of them from the issue at hand! Which was– pretty good for him! Maybe, for now.

There was a sudden knock at his front door, and while Uzi clearly had no clue who was there– on the other hand, Thad knew exactly who was there.

“Come in!”

The door would then open, revealing to the both of them… Lizzy, accompanied by Doll. Oh shit.

“Sup, losers,” Lizzy announces her presence in her usual ‘Lizzy way’, “Heard you were having a movie night, so I just had to come.”

“Wh– you invited them?!” Uzi moves to a proper sitting position, looking from the two girls at the door to Thad, who was still in the kitchen. It became increasingly obvious that she wasn’t happy about this… no no, not at all.

“Yes and… no??” Was his response– it was true though! He offhandedly mentioned the movie night to his sister, and she was interested enough to want to tag along. He thought it’d be fine, and coincidentally forgot to tell Uzi that she was joining them… goddammit, he was distracted… but he didn’t entirely expect her to bring Doll too. He should’ve expected it, though, those two were rarely ever apart.

He found their closeness kinda cute, but it made this situation especially a good deal difficult for him. Great.

“Settle, Uzi, can I not spend time with my brother?” His sister crosses her arms, still standing in the doorway with her girlfriend.

“Well– no– yes– ugh… this is kinda a friend thing that we do though! And have done for like, years, why now do you wanna join us?”

“Well, why not?” Lizzy counters, and then looks to her brother, who’s still just dumbly standing there in the kitchen, “What, you didn’t tell her I was coming?”

“Honestly, I forgot to,” Thad admits with a sigh, “Sorry guys, I’ve been pretty… distracted by stuff. It’s fully on me, please don’t fight over me being a dumbass.”

“Ugh… well, they’re here now, I guess they can stay,” Uzi just lets out a sigh of her own, more defeated than anything, apparently too out of energy to argue it further.

The entire time, Doll remained silent– just watching on at the conversation with her usually uninterested expression. Yeah, Thad never really fully understood Doll… but hey, if his sister liked her, he was cool with her. Mostly. He was still at times unnerved by Doll, he didn’t even really know why. He guessed it was just the vibes she gave off? Doll was always slightly unnerving, ever since his sister first became friends with her back in middle school– that feeling really never fully went away when they became adults.

Honestly, it just became a little bit worse. But that was something he could think about later–

“So, how do these movie nights of yours work?” Lizzy asks as she strolls over to the couch and takes a seat. Of course, Doll sits beside her, and Uzi noticeably scoots a little away from them to put some space between them.

“Well we pick a list of movies, and watch them all night up until morning until we crash and fall asleep,” Uzi explains, “We usually take turns hosting… and it’s obviously Thad’s turn this time, he’s got the list of movies that he wants us to watch.”

“Mine are pretty tame, but on Uzi’s nights it’s all horror movies,” Thad adds.

“Because horror is a work of art, dammit. Some of them are kinda shitty though.”

“... Sounds fun,” Doll comments, speaking for the first time since they got there.

“It’s super fun, that’s why we do this often,” His friend agrees, and then the one thing that he didn’t want to happen happens, “Anyway– Thad, you got all of the snacks and stuff?”

Shit.

“Ooooh you got snacks? Movies are always the best with snacks,” Lizzy’s expectant eyes are now on Thad too– and he seriously is about to lose it goddammit him and being distracted by that vampire!!!

“My god, this is like the one time I agree with you–”

“It makes sense, it’s why there are always snacks being sold at the movie theater,” Doll pipes up again, “It’s why they often make more money from concession sales.”

“It’s why I smuggle snacks into the movies, no way I’m paying for that overpriced shit,” Uzi huffs, “Like, no thank you! The least I’ll buy is a drink or something. But sometimes I sneak in drinks too, I’m not fucking rich.”

His sister genuinely seems impressed, “Ohh, wait that is smart, purple girl, you need to seriously teach us more.”

“I’ll– think about it,” Uzi says with some hesitation, but then gets back to addressing Thad again, “But seriously dude– snacks? We got them? You know when it's your turn you need to buy them.”

“Uh– haha, about that, I might’ve… forgotten to buy snacks…?”

…

“You have got to be shitting me,” She’s immediately disappointed.

“I’m sorry Zi, it honestly is my fault, I don’t know what the hell is wrong with me–”

“Oh calm down, Thad can just go to the corner store and buy stuff from there, no need to throw a hissy fit about it,” His sister, bless her, interjects. Though he doesn’t really know if this will make the situation any better.

Uzi retorts, “Dude you weren’t even fucking invited–”

“But I’m here now! And, f-y-i, my brother did invite me. And because he forgot to buy snacks in the first place, it means that me and Dolly can ask him to get us stuff too. Is that good enough?”

“... It’s… fine, I guess.” Uzi seems to calm down a bit, but again, she’s clearly very much not the happiest. Reasonably, he doesn’t blame her, he feels bad–

“I deserve to spend just a bit more money…” Thad sighs in defeat, “I know what Uzi usually gets– what about you two?”

“You don’t already know my favorite? What brother you are…” His sister gasped in feigned offense, “Chips Ahoy, and if they don’t have that, just buy me whatever is cookies.”

“Aight’, and you Doll?”

“... sea salt chips. Kettle cooked.”

“Anddd– noted,” Thad nods, “Alright, I’ll try not to be long. Don’t uh– kill each other while I’m gone, ‘kay?”

“Well if they don’t bother me, I’ll think about it,” Uzi shrugs, “Can’t promise anything though.”

“Keep the peace, that’s all I ask, let’s have a chill night, yeah?”

“... sure,” Not a very convincing answer– but one he’d have to accept, knowing how Uzi was.

“Oh settle, we’ll be fine. Hurry up and go grab the snacks so we can start watching! What are we watching this on anyway?” Lizzy looks over at Uzi.

“On my laptop. I have a shitload of pirated movies, its my pride and joy–”

The conversation carried on as Thad grabbed himself a jacket and threw on some boots– he didn’t feel like bundling up was completely necessary as he’d only be gone for maybe… 20… 30 minutes? Yeah, that sounded fair, he was trying to be quick about this anyway. He just hoped that in that span of time, the girls would continue mostly getting along as they seemed to have been so far. Mostly. He planned on apologizing to Uzi more later, he really should’ve thought the entire situation out more… he seriously needed to get V out of his head. He wouldn’t see her again, she was leaving him alone for now. Get it together, Thad.

He’d leave the apartment as Uzi was still rambling to Lizzy, who apparently– was actually paying attention…? That was an improvement! He honestly expected her to be all up in her phone and not giving Uzi the time of day, but she genuinely seemed interested in Uzi’s insane collection of pirated movies. Thad never really wanted to question Uzi and her ways, so he never did– especially her collection.

Things were pretty calm outside as he made his way on over to the corner store, especially for a Friday night. He just didn’t see a lot of people out and about, he knew damn well there were bars around here where some of his fellow college students liked to hang out– that wasn’t much of Thad’s thing though. He preferred going to house parties, which was more his thing, or doing these annual movie nights with Uzi when he just wanted to wind down and relax.

Sometimes guys like Thad get a little overwhelmed by the usual chaos he saw at parties he went to, shockingly. He could handle the much more controlled chaos of Uzi’s reactions to the movies they watched, especially the horror movies she was so fond of.

The store itself wasn’t exactly empty, but it wasn’t exactly full either. It was later in the day, so he wasn’t expecting anything less. The only people he saw were a slightly suspicious-looking group of guys on the other side of the store, and the clerk at the counter who was… not really paying attention to anything around her actually. She was very clearly on her phone under the counter, and Thad couldn’t judge her for that–  working this job seemed hella boring.

He continued to pay her no mind and went to grab the snacks he was asked to get. Notably, he made sure to get Uzi more, a form of apology through snacks. He knew she loved Flamin’ Hot Cheetos and Sour Patch, so he made sure to stock up on that just for his friend. Thankfully, this place had Chips Ahoy for Lizzy, and the chips Doll liked too! Overall, a big win for Thad so he didn’t have to compromise on what he’d get for them. He’d lastly grab some Doritos for himself, cool ranch was his favorite, and he grabbed some drinks too.

He forgot to ask them exactly what they wanted… but he did have water at his apartment– so he just got some energy drinks for Uzi, and lemonade for Lizzy because he simply knew what his sister liked. If anything, he was sure she’d share it with Doll.

Before he went to pay for his stuff, he swore he saw one of the guys swipe something off of one of the shelves and pocket it… Yeah no, he wasn’t getting involved. It was simply not his business he rightfully reasoned, moving his haul up to the counter. Upon setting all of his items down, the girl at the counter would look up from her phone and to say the least she looked– tired. She let out a sigh and started scanning his items, and Thad wasn’t above idle conversation so…

“Long day?”

“Tell me about it,” She replied, exhaustion evident in her voice, “But I’ll be here all night! A price I have to pay for going to college in this weird ass town.”

“Ah yeah, I getcha, not the best place to spend a Friday night, I’m sure.”

“Not like I’ve got anything better to do,” She shrugs and then looks up at him again, “Like, it could be worse… Oh hey– wait… you’re Thad, right? I think I recognize you from one of my classes. You like, also helped me find the lunch hall this one time–”

“Yeah! I like helping people, it’s the one good thing I can do. You’re…” He looked through his memories to try to remember this girl… he wasn’t the best with names, and really… remembering people he didn’t interact with often.

“Caitlin.”

“Caitlin, right!”

“I don’t expect you to remember me, we don’t really… talk or anything,” She lets out a laugh, “But it’s cool to see you outside of school. That reminds me, do you know anything about what happened to those three who usually hung out with you in the lunch hall? I eat lunch at the same time, you know, and you guys were kinda… loud sometimes. It’s hard not to notice they’re kinda just… gone now, are you like– okay?”

“Oh yeah that… I’m– fine,” He was growing nervous now, because he knew well what had happened to them. Calm down, Thad, calm down.

“They like, just… vanished. It’s kinda scary thinking about it…” She carries on, unbeknownst to the fact he was absolutely shitting bricks right now.

“I honestly… wasn’t the closest with them– they hung out with me, but I didn’t really consider them friends, it’s complicated,” Thad admits, “They talked… very… badly about one of my friends. Right before they… disappeared, I considered just– telling them to stop hanging around me.”

He was kinda lying– but not entirely lying at the same time. He just really didn’t want to really imply he was involved in any of that stuff. He lived through it, and he was going to take that whole event to his grave– even if it included him hiding the truth of what happened to them. Maybe it was horrible of him to do that, but there was still a vampire who preferred that he keep his mouth shut– or his life would be on the line.

“Oh really? Well in that case, all I can say is that goddamn they were fucking annoying,” Caitlin immediately got to speaking her truth as she’s bagging all of his items, “Full of themselves assholes. The girl, whatever the fuck her name was– tried to diss my fucking outfit one time. Like god, I’m sorry I don’t have the energy to get myself looking all pretty just to go to class after I spent the last night studying my ass off. It’s sad they disappeared, but they’re the dumbasses who probably did dumb shit to end up disappearing. Everyone knows going into the forest is a death sentence, I’m sure they did that, can’t doubt it!”

“Oh–”

“Sorry about that dude, I just really needed to get that out,” She sighs, “ You really are helpful… You know? Oh yeah– your totals $34.67.”

“You’re good, I understand–” Thad fished his wallet out of his pocket and pulled out two twenty-dollar bills, “Here you go, just keep the change. Consider it a tip, I guess, it’s not much but I hope it’s something for you.”

“Oh shit– really? I could buy a coffee or two with this… god knows I’ll need one– thanks Thad,” She smiles at him, “Stay safe out there, alright? All these disappearances are concerning, even if they happen a lot, it doesn’t make it normal at all. It’d suck if that happened to you too, you’re a pretty good guy.”

Her words reminded him of something someone had said to him before…

“I appreciate the worry, but I’ll be alright! If anyone wants to try to fuck with me I’ll teach em’ a lesson,” He flexes one of his arms jokingly, eliciting a laugh from the girl.

“Whatever you say, seeya ‘round.”

“Seeya!”

He collected his bags and promptly left the store. The conversation made his time away a little longer– but surely they wouldn’t have minded, right? He just liked talking to people, it was in his nature to. Even if it annoyed his sister from time to time, having to wait on him to be done with his conversations… haha… he just couldn’t stop being himself. But the trip back to the complex was probably just as peaceful as his stroll to the shop was– well… at first it was, anyway.

Things seemed pretty chill, the night was still decently quiet and calm. Like before, there wasn’t really anyone out and about– hell, there weren’t any cars driving past him on the road. It was so completely perfectly empty that it helped him realize about maybe… two… three minutes into his walk– that he was clearly being followed. What was his luck…

He noticed when he left, that the random group of guys who were in the store with him were leaving as well. Often he acted stupid and was stupid– but right now he wasn’t going to be; whoever was following him was not the vampire who plagued his mind constantly for some reason, but this group who apparently saw him as a target. Maybe it was the fact that he boldly pulled out cash in front of them, forty dollars at that, and just let Caitlin take the rest. Honestly, he just felt bad for her– who could blame him for being kind? He wasn’t rich by far, but it made her night much better.

He really was the perfect target.

Well, in his eyes, it was better him than her, he would feel horrible if they chose to rob her instead of him. That’s what they wanted from him, right? His money? Why else were they following him, quiet apart from their very audible footsteps that were coming closer and closer and closer…

“Hey.”

Thad stops in his tracks and turns around to face them. Definitely shady looking, there were four of them, and all of them were wearing black. Notably, they also all wore their hoodies over their heads to hide their faces… decently smart for to-be criminals.

“Sup! Nice night, isn’t it?” Thad replies in a friendly manner, trying not to seem scared at all. He’d been through worse and had been scared by worse… but still yeah, this situation wasn’t ideal in the slightest. Best to keep calm and keep up the friendly act.

That caught them all off guard, but one of them stepped forward and very boldly pointed a knife right at him, “We don’t want trouble, we just want your wallet.”

“... What wallet?” Maybe playing this dumb was stupid, but it was all he had.

…

“Do you think we’re fucking stupid?! The one you pulled out earlier!”

“Oh– Sorry dude, I don’t know what you’re talking about. Now if you guys don’t mind me, I’ve got places to be and things to do, I’m sure you guys do as well. So let’s just be chill and go our separate ways, yeah?”

Now that, that definitely wasn’t the smartest thing to say at all. Because in an instant, he went from standing there with his bags in his hands to being on the ground because he just got punched the shit out of. It was made worse by the fact that he got knocked on his ass in a fucking alleyway, the perfect place for him to get jumped and robbed. Good going, Thad!

His head was reeling, but he couldn’t just sit there and take the oncoming beating. They were approaching him now, and the first thing he thought to do was to kick at the closest guys' shins to cause him to fall over– giving Thad enough time to get up himself so he could find something to use in this dark ass alleyway as a weapon. Feeling around with his limited vision, his hands found purchase upon a–  old piece of wood? A very interesting choice for a weapon, but hey, he wasn’t against using what he had.

It got put to work very quickly as he immediately used it to slam against one of their chests, then again kicking whichever guy he was defending himself against in the legs hard. Another one of the guys tried to punch him, this hit he thankfully managed to dodge this time around, and he instead swung the piece of wood over his head and he could audibly hear the damn thing crack against it. The entire fight was confusing, being one guy against four, especially in a dark alley– but he held his own for as long as a guy like himself could.

But obviously, that wouldn’t be for that long– as his weapon suddenly became useless as it straight up broke the next time he tried hitting one of them with it. That seemed to piss this guy off, and the next thing Thad knew he was knocked on his ass again and his stomach hurt like hell… getting kicked pretty hard there. On top of that, he was now farther into the alleyway– and completely vulnerable! He truly didn’t think he could recover as quickly as he did before, though still he tried– trying in vain to stand up to keep fighting.

“What is wrong with this guy? Doesn’t he know when to give up?!” One of them says, annoyance clear in his voice.

“N-Nope,” Thad chuckles, “That’s… kinda my thing.”

“Be quiet! We wouldn’t have done this if you just complied and gave us your damn cash, fucking stupid ass idiot–”

“...I can agree, though, he really doesn’t know when to quit. It’s funny, isn’t it?”

…

This voice…

Thad looks past the men closing in on him, and if he wasn’t absolutely imagining what he saw… then this was V.

V in the flesh, the one vampire he thought had decided to leave him alone after all, she was here right now. The light from the streetlight outside the alleyway cast her in shadow, reminding him of their second meeting. Though the one thing he saw clearly were her glowing yellow, piercing eyes.

“Do yourself a favor and piss off lady, this doesn’t involve you,” Says another one of his to-be robbers, “Unless you want it to… I’m not above hitting a woman.”

“That’s cute,” V teases, letting out a little giggle that he knows is fake, “Do you really think I’m scared of you?”

“Wanna bet?”

“Try me.” Although he can’t see it well, he’s absolutely sure she’s grinning right now.

The man growls and stomps over to her, all the while his three buddies watch on. Thad’s glad they’re leaving him alone now, but… he was sure that things were gonna start getting pretty ugly pretty soon. Not like he could stop it, not like he wanted to stop it– as horrible as that thought was.

He’d reel his arm back, preparing to straight up punch V in the face, but in a very quick motion he was slashed across the neck by her wicked claws. He’d fall to the ground, gurgling on his own blood, and Thad really tried to block that sound out because god, it was not fun to listen to.

Regardless, this immediately instilled fear in the rest of the group, and the scene played out much like Thad thought it would.

V, skilled as she was in killing people apparently, took the rest of them down easily. It wasn’t like Thad wanted to watch, some parts he had to just look away from. But there was a lot of… screaming… blood… and the crazed giggling of a vampire who was having far too much fun with this.

It then left him in the alleyway, surrounded by the bodies, and the only other person with him who was still alive was… V of course. He was just sitting there kind of dumbly, looking up at the vampire who stared down at him with those still so piercing eyes. It made him feel slightly… awkward? Maybe a little uncomfortable? Give him a break, she had been on his mind for the past few days, and when he never thought he’d see her again– here she was in all of her glory! And– she just– basically saved him?!

…

Wait, why did she save him?

…

Huh…

“Consider this my ‘apology’ for trying to intimidate you before,” She says casually, answering that question for him–  like literally killing four people in front of him was a normal way of apologizing. Well, they did try to beat the shit out of him with the intention of taking his money so…

“Haha, you know you– didn’t need to do that,” He sheepishly chuckles, “I– I could’ve totally handled that myself. I would’ve been fine! Yeah–”

“...You can dodge bullets?”

“Wh– Huh?”

And then he had a gun pointed right at his face. A handheld pistol, specifically, and fear just washed over him all over again.

“Oh my god… obviously I’m not going to shoot you, what use does this even have to me?” She suppresses another laugh and tosses the gun lazily to the side, “But seriously, you really think you could’ve dodged getting shot? I mean, if you could’ve, I would be impressed. Believe me, I’d be impressed.”

…

Okay, yeah, she was right. He was being a dumbass, she was absolutely right. So one of them had a gun on them, yeah? Why didn’t they just lead with that and not the knife– holy shit it was a good thing she stepped in when she did or he would’ve gotten shot. He was lucky as hell.

But she continues on, “Y’know, dumb can only be cute for so long until it starts getting annoying…”

“Yeah, I definitely can’t dodge a bullet,” Thad sighs as he finally admits, “Thank you, really, for this. I’m still not exactly chill with all of the murder, though.”

“Please, what else did you expect me to do? Talk to them? This is what I do best. You’d have better luck with N on that front, but he wasn’t the one who just saved your life.”

“Yeah… I’m sure.”

“Besides, how else can I survive?” She shrugs, and then weirdly starts licking at one of her blood-soaked hands– promptly grimacing and sticking her tongue out right afterwards.

“Eughhh–”

“Oh?”

“... This blood. Is disgusting.”

“There’s a– difference…?”

“To me there is, maybe it’s just because these men are gross in general.”

“... Riiiightt…” Thad nods along, choosing not to question it too much, though he did want to question something else, “So… how’d you find me?”

“Hm?”

“I mean, don’t you usually stay in the forest? I wouldn’t think you’d be anywhere around this area unless you were… following me?”

“I was not,” She says quickly, a bit too quickly. Suspiciously.

“Uh huh,” He doesn’t quite believe her.

“Listen, I was not following you,” She repeats, truly insistent, letting out an annoyed breath afterwards.

“Aight,” He holds his hands up defensively, “I’ll believe you.”

“Good. I wasn’t following you or watching over you, I was just trying to find food that doesn’t usually already come to me in the first place and… stumbled upon you and your situation.”

He can’t help but let out a snort at her further insistence, which didn’t exactly make her any happier. Admittedly, it was kind of– weirdly– cute? He should be scared of her, seriously, and he was– but like– she was acting weirdly human right now. Kinda like how he initially met her, she felt real. Not like a monster.

He’s dragged out of his thoughts at his bags, which he had almost forgotten about, being thrown into his lap– the heavier cans of energy drinks hurting just a little bit as they made contact with his surely bruising stomach. Talking with V made him forget he got kicked there… ouch… yikes… but he’d live! And it was V who threw them at him anyway.

“I don’t even want to know what even caused this–”

“They tried to rob me,” Thad quickly answers.

“–But it’s best if you run home, lest you get yourself in trouble again.”

“And you’ll come save me again?” He can’t help but test his luck with V, even if he is playing with fire.

“Haha, very funny. In your dreams, you’re lucky I found you.”

“Right… found.”

“... God, I should’ve let them kill you–” She groans, “Or I should’ve done it myself.”

“You promised not to kill me to uh, your vampire buddy… and Uzi–” He corrects hesitantly.

“Wrong. I only promised them that I’d either leave you alone or be nice to you.”

“... oh.”

“But he would be unhappy with me if I did kill you,” She places a hand on her chin.

Bless that fucking guy, whenever Thad properly met N he swore to god he’d thank him over and over and OVER AGAIN–

“Though really I do need to go… I’m not eating from these men. They’re disgusting. I’m sure your legs aren’t broken so seriously, take my advice, you should run home before someone finds you in this… scene I’ve made,” She looks away from him, “I know how you humans work, you’d be blamed for this.”

“... you’re right,” Thad nods, and hesitantly tries to stand up. He winces at the slight pain in his stomach as he does so, but overall he manages to get up– successfully! Hell yeah!

“But one more thing…” Her cat-like gaze finds itself upon him once again, and he feels a little weird from that.

“Oh?”

God, what is with her pointing things in his face… Instead of a gun like before, it’s the tip of her tail being pointed dangerously close to his face.

“... If I ever hear that you’ve called me a ‘cat’ or just– something absolutely stupid like that to anybody ever again, I will rip your tongue out. Got it?”

Thad gulps, staring at her almost dumbly with his eyes wide open, and he nods a bit too quickly, “Yeah– Yeah, of course I gotchu!”

At that, her weirdly glowy eyes just narrow, and she turns away from him. Her tail was lashing about to really express her unhappiness right now– much like a cats would… oh goddammit, could she honestly blame him for thinking of her as a cat?! Even if she threatened him, his thoughts would remain the complete same, although yeah– he wouldn’t be speaking them aloud he had a lot at stake here. His tongue was at stake!! He needed his tongue! He especially needed his taste buds because how was he supposed to properly taste all of the foods he had yet to try?!

Okay yeah, he needed to calm down– V was already leaving anyway. He wanted to say goodbye but it did kinda fully dawn on him how absolutely fucked everything was right now. She was right, horribly so, he did need to get his dumbass out of dodge right now– picking up his bags and carefully stepping between the very gorey carnage that V left in her wake. He prayed he didn’t get any blood on his shoes…

“Seriously, if you two assholes won’t go out there with me to go check on him I’m gonna do it myself,” Uzi grumbles, having moved over to the window to peek out of it intermittently– in hopes of seeing Thad walking their way. Right now though she was not looking, more focused on talking to these two useless fucks.

It had been over an hour since he’d been gone, and reasonably she was concerned. There was this odd feeling of fear that was eating her up, too. It was dark out, something could have gone wrong and none of them would’ve known it.

“Oh settle girl, Thad just likes talking to people. He’s probably talking the ear off of whoever's at the store,” Lizzy waves her off casually, which pisses Uzi off even more because goddamn isn’t he her brother?!

“I agree, he does that a lot,” Doll nods.

“Dude, if something bad happened to him, you wouldn’t care?!”

“Uh, duh, I would care, he’s my brother– but I know my brother and I know he doesn’t shut the hell up and likes talking to strangers. He’s fine, but him being gone for so long is a little… weird…”

“See?!”

But before the conversation could be carried out further, the front door opened. Anddd… there was Thad! But he looked– different? Something obviously happened, if the bruise on his face was evidence enough.

“Th-Thad?! Are– Are you okay?!” Uzi immediately goes up to him, and looking at him closer he really looks kinda fucked up.

“Haha… y’know… I just kinda almost got robbed…?”

…

It was like a switch flipped for Lizzy because she went from chilling on the couch to being up instantly, approaching her brother and moving his face around to inspect the damage properly.

“Thad, what the fuck?! Why didn’t you just give them your money?!” She scolds her brother, Uzi found it kinda fucking hilarious– but those thoughts were stomped down by her worry.

“Uhh– haha– I value my money…?” He replies, being far too casual about the fact that he literally almost got robbed.

“Oh my fucking god you’re unbelievable–” Lizzy shakes her head, and she stomps over to the kitchen.

“Well, in my defense, I didn’t expect to get almost robbed. I mean, one of them also had a gun, so I could’ve almost died.”

“WHAT THE FUCK?!” His sister yells from the kitchen.

“Okay yeah I agree with her, what the fuck?” Uzi is looking at him in disbelief, “Whatever, just, sit your ass down you’ve clearly been through a lot.”

“Don’t gotta tell me twice,” He offers Uzi the bags and she takes them, leaving Thad to go over to the couch and plop himself down on it. He noticeably winces as he does so, yeah, even if he was strong, Uzi knew he would’ve had other injuries than just the bruise on his face.

Lizzy returns, noticeably kinda teary eyed from worry, with a makeshift icepack and shoves it in Thad’s face, “You are such a dumbass.”

“Yeah, I know sis, thanks,” He presses it against his face, smiling at her a bit.

“Okay so– how did you even get out of that situation?” Uzi then asks, again, she knew he could hold his own… but that’d have to account how many people were trying to rob him. Was it just one? Or a group? She needed answers.

“Oh uh– it’s…” He seemed hesitant to really answer… but he let out a sigh, “Okay, I need to tell you two something really important that’s been happening to me. And Uzi.”

…

What the hell was he doing–

“... What are you talking about?” Lizzy’s eyes narrowed slightly in confusion as she went to take a seat beside him.

“So, I don’t think I could’ve gotten out of that situation if it wasn’t for the person who saved me. I mean, there were four guys and one me, I definitely would’ve died.”

“... That does not make me feel any better–”

“Just listen, this might fuck me over in the future– but because this person came back into my life I can’t really hide it from you anymore, sis. Not you either, Doll, 'cus if I told her she’d tell you. You guys know about those vampire rumors?”

“That there are vampires in the woods, or more specifically… prowling around this town,” Doll answers.

“Exactly. So basically, to fully summarize– me and Uzi both know two vampires, like, actual real vampires.”

“THAD!!” Uzi finds herself yelling, “I fucking vouched for you that you wouldn’t tell anyone about her!”

“Well it’s too bad! She should’ve just let my dumbass die because I can’t exactly hide this shit from my fucking sister,” He motions to Lizzy, “But yeah! This one vampire, who almost killed me before but decided for whatever reason to spare me– just saved me from those guys who were trying to rob me.”

“Oh my fucking god–”

“And!” He’d add, “Uzi knows one who also saved her, but from another vampire.”

“Thad!!!” She was going to beat his ass oh my GOD–

…

“Okay, you two,” Lizzy speaks up, voice stern enough to get both of their attention, “You two are gonna tell us everything. Fuck the movie night, I want details of everything that happened to you two.”

“... Do I really have to?” Uzi sighs, it was already kinda embarrassing enough for her to have told Thad all of that mess.

“Yes! Especially because you both decided to hide it. Now sit your ass down, we have all the snacks and time in the world, we’re gonna make this fun. Who’s going first?”

Uzi decided to sit cross-legged on the floor, and she pointed at Thad, “I elect him, he’s the one who told me first.”

“That’s fair–” He nods, “Very fair.”

“Okay, now spill!” Lizzy claps her hands as to tell him to hurry the fuck up.

Instead of the movie night liked planned, the rest of the night was filled with stories from Thad and Uzi, though of course Thad told the whole of his first. As the explanations went on, Lizzy appeared more and more interested– who knew that someone like her would find this weird shit they went through fascinating. All the while, on the opposite end of things– Doll didn’t seem to entirely care. Well that’s too bad for her.

All Uzi knew was that goddamn she was fucked. 




=======================================================

IM HERE WITH MORE MOTHY ART REGARDING THIS AU
art is pretty slow for me, and will probably continue to be slow- cus I just unofficially opened commissions and three of my buddies commed me lol 
BUT HERES WHAT I HAVE DRAWN-- 

Vamp AU V slight redesign, WITH CLOTHES!! 


A cylly bust concept :) (She's not appeared yet, but she will.)


And lastly, my wip designs for Uzi and Doll!