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The moon painted the sky blood-red as Avid walked through the forest. Since Owen's rampage through town and Cleo's turning they were running low on food. While Drift and Martyn were practicing in the training-pub-jail and Legundo had busied himself with research, Avid thought he'd find pigs along the edges of the forest and lure them back.
Maybe the town's newfound faith in him had emboldened him too much. It was a terrifyingly exhilerating rush of fear and hope in his veins. There was hope now, that it would turn out differently. But there was still a chance it would repeat if they weren't careful.
"Careful" wasn't the term for what Avid was being right now.
"You shouldn't be venturing these woods alone."
Avid whirled toward the voice behind him. Owen stepped out of the treeline, cloaked in a mud-brown cape and his eyes reflecting the moon's light.
Avid couldn't explain the fury that sparked in his chest and enveloped his lungs like a bonfire closing around his heart. "What is your problem with me, huh!?" He shouted. "I haven't done anything to you!"
Owen chuckled darkly. "No? You've been hunting us since the start!"
You have got to be kidding me. "Because you're vampires!" Avid cried. "Because — b-because you're evil, and you've been — you turned Pyro! A-and Shelby, and you've — you've been hurting people!"
"Oh, please." Owen rolled his eyes. "We're not the only ones hurting people. Last I'd heard, you'd chased Shelby out of town with your lantern trick."
"That was — that was because she's a vampire." Avid stuttered. White-hot anger flooded his veins again. "You made her a monster!"
"The only monster out here is you, Avid." Owen snarled and stepped forward. "And all your misconcieved notions about being a hero."
"You keep calling me that!" Avid snapped. He wasn't a monster. Even if he — it was self-defense. Self-defense. "Wha — why, why!? Why are you so convinced I'm a monster!? I'm just trying to help people —"
"Because you're just like them, Avid!"
Owen's voice cracked like thunder. Avid flinched back. His hand fell on the stake over his heart.
The forest fell silent. Heavy breaths fell into the quiet like fallen leaves.
Owen was a vampire. He was a monster.
But when Avid looked closer, he saw something heavy in his eyes. His back hunched like he'd been carrying more than wood on it for centuries. It looked uncomfortably like anger. Uncomfortably like grief.
"Them?" Avid's voice worked before his mind did.
Slowly, Owen's shoulders fell back. Avid watched as his chest rose and fell in a deep, heavy breath. Owen cast his gaze into the trees.
"The people of Oakhurst before you." Owen explained. "200 years ago."
2,799 people.
"They…well." Owen made a sound almost like a laugh. It was too sad to be one. "In an act of what they thought was heroics, they — well, they murdered the person I wanted to spend eternity with."
Avid lost his voice.
"They didn't care about all the good he'd done, all the aid he provided." Owen's lip curled like the memory was a rancid smell. "They only cared about what he was."
A vampire.
The story crashed against Avid's worldview like a wave.
Splinters cut Avid's hands as the stake dropped to the floor, reddened with blood.
No. No, no, no. "You've made up stories before."
Owen laughed bitterly. "I suppose I have." He conceded. He looked back to Avid. "But regardless, it's the unfortunate truth that people that believe they're doing good often do the most harm."
For a long moment, they stared at each other through the dark. Red moonlight filtered through the canopy like blood splattering the grass.
Avid's fists clenched. "So — so what, you think you're doing what's right!?" He shouted. "You think murdering a bunch of innocent people is the right thing to do!?"
Owen's eyes flashed and he showed his fangs. "Do not think to compare our situations, Avid."
"Really? Why not!?" Avid stepped close enough to see burgundy swirl in the mud brown of Owen's eyes.
"The people here are a plague!" Owen snapped. "You're all — you're cold, ignorant, selfish creatures!"
"Yeah? Well — well so are you!" Fire welled up in Avid's chest again. "You — you took the bravest, most kindest person I know, and — and you took her!"
Anger and grief choked the words out of his throat. Red light smudged through the tears in his eyes.
Owen fell silent.
Avid swallowed the lump of guilt in his throat. It settled like acid in his stomach.
"She — she was a hero." Avid choked out. "A-and one day, she left to go — to go stop a monster. Like she always did."
"I'm fine." His partner smiled as canines poked too sharp over her lips. "Better than ever, actually."
"When she came back she — she wasn't the same." He held the stake tighter. "She attacked me. She attacked me, and I —"
Splinters cut Avid's hands as the stake dropped to the floor, reddened with blood.
"— I-I lost her." Avid closed his eyes like he could block out the memory. "I lost her."
Silence lingered in the air. It felt too thick to breathe.
Avid tried to remain angry, but something heavier had settled in his chest now. A stone weighed down by both of their grief.
"…I didn't turn your partner, Avid." Owen said quietly.
"I didn't kill your friend." Avid whispered back.
They lingered barely a foot away in the dark. Owen's breath rustled Avid's hair like a chilling breeze. Avid's shuddering exhale brushed Owen's face. Owen's breath caught.
Avid's head slowly fell forward and Owen's came to meet it.
They stood together in the dark. Owen's forehead felt cool against Avid's.
Grief settled between them like a heavy blanket they both shared.
Avid thought I'm sorry and hoped Owen could hear.