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Drift’s roommate was… strange. She was a detective; she spent most of her time trying to solve mysteries logically, figuring out what had actually happened, even when people around her insisted that it was monsters, or the supernatural, or something else completely illogical.
Whereas one of the first things Avid had decided to tell her was that vampires were real, and he’d stubbornly held onto that belief, all the time throughout being here.
He said one of them had attacked him- and Drift was still fairly certain that it had just been a regular person, because people attacked each other all the time, there didn’t need to be a supernatural explanation for it. She’d seen non-supernatural reasons for people to attack and even kill one another a dozen times over.
She’d been trying to be kind to him, though. He might have been wrong, but he wasn’t really hurting anyone, and seemed more terrified and a bit paranoid than anything else.
But, as one of the others had reminded her, she’d chosen to room with him, and, as much as he was… strange, he wasn’t a bad guy. It was pretty evident in the way he’d immediately, the moment she said she didn’t believe in the vampires that seemed to haunt his mind, said he’d protect her, even if she wouldn’t protect herself.
He was, fundamentally, a good but misguided person, and she knew she could be a bit blase- it came with the territory of being a detective, having seen one too many scenes like this play out, coping with the fear and- not trauma, nothing had actually happened to her, even if she did have nightmares, on occasion- everything that she’d seen, so she figured that, maybe, they’d be able to level one another out.
So far… she wasn’t sure, yet, if it was working, but neither of them were dead yet, and she’d even managed to convince Avid to get a bit of sleep, once she realised he was on his 72nd hour without sleep, but nonetheless still refusing to go off to bed, violet eyes staring almost unblinkingly out the windows, saying she’d make sure nobody came to hurt either of them, vampire or no. (She didn’t believe in vampires, but it was agreeable enough to keep visitors away; she didn’t particularly want to talk to anyone in the middle of the night either way, and Avid seemed to find that reassuring enough to at least sleep a little.)
The length of time he was asleep for wasn’t even really that long- a bit over an hour, maybe, long enough for Drift to get through writing a semi-comprehensive report about the day, jotting down everything relevant that had happened, anything that might connect to an actual, non-vampire mystery, like whatever had happened in this town all those years ago, or what exactly was happening with all those lights they were consecrating.
Or- she assumed he was asleep that entire time, but she didn’t know exactly when he woke up, just when she… heard it.
Little sobs, muffled into the woollen blankets they’d gotten together, but not entirely muted, still loud enough for her to notice, to glance over at the bed and see Avid’s shoulders shaking, face buried in blanket and thus not visible, though she could imagine how wrecked he’d look if she could see it.
The chair creaked beneath her as she stood, and Avid visibly tensed, the footsteps that followed having his (red-rimmed, tear-filled) eyes peeking out to stare at her, and she wasn’t sure what his expression meant, but she could imagine it meant something, some hurt or fear or shame at being seen.
She bit her lip. She was usually pretty good at cheering people up, but she didn’t really know how to deal with Avid’s whole… everything.
“I… noticed you were crying?” Silently, she cursed herself, her utter lack of tact.
Avid buried his face back in the blanket, mumbling something just loud enough she could hear he’d said something, but not what it was.
“What was that?”
Still quiet, but no longer completely muffled, “‘s nothing important. It was my fault anyways.”
She frowned. “I’m sure it wasn’t.”
A short, harsh laugh. “It-” Avid faltered, before finally lifting his head, showing her his face, eyes blinking rapidly as tears trailed down his face. “You don’t- can’t- get it, and you- you don’t even believe in vampires, anyways.”
Drift bit her lip. “I believe that whatever happened to you was real, I just… don’t think it was actually vampires.”
“Yeah.” He sounded so absolutely defeated, not even bothering to argue with her, and it was so different from him during the day, the high-strung, almost manic-seeming man who ran around town shouting to everyone that vampires really, truly were real.
It meant Drift had to carry the conversation more than she was used to, the rhythmns they’d fallen into completely demolished by a bit of sleep and- presumably- a nightmare.
“I- I mean, you can still talk about it if you want, though? I’m not going to be mad at you for talking about vampires.”
If it gave him peace of mind, she didn’t see any reason not to talk to him, humour him at the very least, when he was so clearly- whatever was going on with him, something was hurting.
He swallowed, glancing down at his hands, still holding the blanket, as if searching for something in them.
“I shouldn’t, there’s… I got enough sleep, I should get back to mining and get some silver anyways-” He pushed himself up, letting out a soft gasping sob but trying to hide it behind a cough and wipe away all his tears, as if Drift hadn’t already seen all of them.
“Hold on, no, you barely slept at all, whatever you do, you’re not heading back out there to get killed by some zombie.” Drift crossed her arms, trying her best to look intimidating.
Avid glanced between her and the door. “I don’t…”
“Look, we don’t need to talk about it, or whatever, that just helped me, sometimes.” When she still had friends willing to talk to her about her nightmares, at least. These days, she coped just fine on her own, thank you very much.
A quiet breath. “Right, okay, I… I just need a minute, and then I’ll be…” His gaze drifted down to his hands again, opening and closing his fingers a few times, befor esnapping back up to look at her. “You have nightmares?” He asked tentatively.
“Sometimes.” She shrugged. “You know, you… you see things, when you’re a detective. You see people- nothing supernatural, nothing forcing them to do it- doing enough awful things, and…” She shivered, trying to regain some of her usual cheeriness, even though Avid had said she should try to get somewhere more in the middle, less overtly cheerful- she just… didn’t like fixating on the past. Not when she had a whole future to look forward to. “Yeah, I mean, everyone has nightmares anyway, don’t they?”
Avid’s eyes were saucer-wide as he stared at her. “Yeah, I just, I hadn’t realised you’d get it. I mean, mine are… you know how I haven’t been sleeping?”
“Yeah?” Of course she knew; she was the one who’d insisted he needed to.
“Well, I, um, right before I went out into the woods, the thing I’ve been having nightmares about happened, and.” He took a breath, adding, quietly, “Nobody listening to me about it hasn’t exactly been helping, I’m really scared, Drift.”
Drift’s brow furrowed as she tried to connect the dots in her mind- was he saying his run-in with the supposed vampire had happened only a few days before arriving in Oakhurst? A flash of guilt ran through her at the idea that she’d dismissed him as crazy along with everyone else- something like that, that recently… she could understand why he’d be like that afterwards.
“I know, Avid.”
He shook his head. “You don’t, you’re just humouring me and that’s fine, I guess, but last time it was my fault, and it’s going to be my fault this time, too, but I don’t know what to do.” Fresh tears spilled out of his eyes, and he pulled his knees to his chest, dropping his head onto them.
“I might not believe in vampires, but I understand you being scared. And I promise you I’m being careful, and- can I be blunt?”
“Okay.”
“I don’t think it was your fault, Avid. Whatever happened, it wasn’t your fault, and, if people here get hurt, that won’t be your fault either.”
That had his head shooting up to stare at her. “Oh, no, no no no, it was completely my fault, I-” Half a dozen expressions crossed his face in just a few seconds. “I screwed up.”
“I’m sure you didn’t.”
“No, Drift, this one’s… I’m…” He trailed off, taking a shaky breath. “I did something wrong, and sh- I mean, the whole- what happened was my fault.”
Drift let her expression land on something serious. “I’m sorry that happened to you,” She offered, because she didn’t have anything else to say.
“Yeah, I’m…” He brought a hand to his face, using the back of it to wipe away tears as he sniffled. “I’m sorry to, uh, trauma dump and everything, I know I can be a-” He let out a sad-sounding laugh. “A lot.”
“You’re fine, Avid, I’m glad you have… I mean, you deserve to have someone there for you, and I’m willing to be that peron, if you’ll have me.”
“Sh-” He bit his lip, hesitating. “She’d like you, you know.” And Drift didn’t know exactly who she was, but she had a guess, and, if her guess was right, that was some of the highest praise Avid could have given her.
“I hope so.” She smiled at him, reaching a hand over to take one of his and squeezing it. “You okay to go back to sleep?”
The haunted look in his eyes said just about everything Drift needed to hear.
“Or you can, like, just rest a little, no sleep or anything, and I’ll keep an eye out for vampires? I’ll sit right beside you.” Or, really, she’d keep an eye out in general, but now really wasn’t the time to tell Avid that she didn’t believe in vampires, she didn’t think. Not after he’d just been so open with her, when he was clearly hurting so badly.
If he noticed her wording, he didn’t say anything about it, just slowly lying back down with a grateful smile. “Thank you, Drift,” He whispered.
“Of course.”
“Next- next time you have nightmares, I’ll be there for you instead, okay? Just come to me and I’ll… I’ll try my best to help, okay?”
She gave him a little smile. “Okay. That sounds… nice.” And it did- it sounded nice to have someone care for her like that, she thought.
She wasn’t sure how long she sat like that, just that, eventually, night bled into morning, and Avid was still soundly at rest beside her- such that she realised he’d fallen asleep, but, this time, he seemingly hadn’t had any nightmares. She wondered, half-hoped that she’d helped make that happen, by being right there, a silent promise of safety.
For all his strangeness, Drift couldn’t regret making the decision to be housemates with Avid, not when she was pretty sure the arrangement was helping them both.