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Earlier that night, Apo came crawling back to the other coven members at the castle. Driven out by the townsfolk, outcasted, shunned for what she was, as if she asked to become a vampire. None of them had. Even so, she was welcomed—albeit half with scorn and mocking. There was even a toast.
That was the story, at least.
Of course, Pyro was the one to propose said toast. It was a fond and friendly gesture, really, regardless of his initial laughter. Even if she still turned up her nose at the taste of blood, despite being a vampire. And as the rest of them chatted after, he couldn’t help but notice the disdain lingering in her expression, up until the moment where she turned away and slipped out the door. Something within him drove him to follow.
Leaving the rest to their chatter, he did just that, following Apo out into the night. He trailed some few feet behind her, and she didn’t look back, just strolled through the forest after crossing the bridge. He almost wondered if she knew he was following her, until she suddenly paused.
“What do you want, Pyro?”
He frowned. “Nothing, I just…are you okay?”
She turned to face him, a half-tired, half-grim look on her face. “What do you think.”
“Right, sorry.” He glanced at his feet. “Do you…want to talk about it?”
The question ignited a small spark of anger in her eyes. “Oh, it’s nothing, really. I just was forced to choose between sacrificing one of my fellow townsfolk or sacrificing myself for everyone else, only for them to throw me out the second they figured out the truth of what I became. It’s not like I did it for them, to make sure it wasn’t someone else instead—not like I was protecting them, just to be shut out by people who I thought were my friends just like that.” She took a step closer, fists clenched. It was strange, being so angry—she only needed to sell this lie, and yet, her anger felt so genuine, as if this had been the whole truth of the matter instead of a ruse. “And now I’m forced to come crawling back to you and your ‘sire’ to be mocked for my weakness in being outcasted. I’m fine! Really, I’m doing just great.”
Pyro lowered his head further, brows knitting in shame. “I’m sorry, Apo—look, I didn’t want this to happen to you either—”
“But you didn’t try to stop it, did you?”
“I couldn’t!” He snapped his gaze up to meet hers, apologetic and desperate. “Do you know the kind of power Sire has over me? I can’t just defy him! I couldn’t stop what happened even if I tried!”
Apo opened her mouth to argue, then sighed. “You know, I would say that you could have chosen a different side even then, but…”
The feeling of shame grew in Pyro’s gut. “But you tried that as well, and that didn’t work so well for you in the end.”
She nodded reluctantly.
“Look, Apo…” He took a few steps closer. “The reality is…we’re sticking by each other because where else do we have to go? I mean, the townsfolk will reject any vampire immediately, we’re all just the same wretched beasts to them. They have no sympathy for us who were mere victims, they wouldn’t have just embraced me if I told them in the first place and they knew, they would have exiled me in an instant. Hell, they may have even driven a stake through my heart right then and there.”
“I…yeah, you’re right,” Apo hugged herself, gaze falling to the ground. “You’re right. I guess at the end of the day you’re just adapting to your new means of survival. And they don’t agree with that, so…where else could you even go but somewhere off in the woods together.”
Pyro nodded, smiling bittersweetly. “We’re kind of all we have—this little coven of ours.”
“And I guess I’ll just have to join it,” she met his gaze again, as much as it pained her to do so. “If you guys will have me.”
“Apo, I assure you,” he placed a hand on her shoulder. “You’ll be warmly welcomed as one of us now, if you’ll just accept it.”
Soaking in the weight of his words, she smiled, fighting against the guilt rising within her. I wish you wouldn't look at me with such kindness.
He took another step forward, wrapping his arms around her in a tight embrace. Something washed over her, and her breath caught in her throat for a moment. It’s as if in an instant, she remembered the time she and Pyro spent together in those first days in the town—building up their house together, bringing Truffle home, gathering and preparing food together, helping others around town—and she remembered those couple of days where Pyro seemed sick, when his skin had grown pale, eyes a bit redder than they should have been. She thought about her own time in the town, having to hide what happened, what she’d been turned into, and she wondered if that was how he felt initially. There was a twinge of guilt among an overwhelming feeling from those memories that she couldn’t even place. It was a lie—the exile, being rejected, all of it was just a lie—and yet, something about it felt so real in this moment. Perhaps she was just empathizing too hard, or maybe thinking about the whole situation brought upon anger and guilt that became redirected towards this false story, as if it gave her an outlet to express it.
And as those memories and emotions welled up in her, she let out an involuntary sob right before wrapping her arms tightly around Pyro, burying her face in his shoulder as tears blurred her vision. She didn’t understand why she was crying. It was made up—even with her distress down in that room, when the silver trapped her in and she had to beg for Martyn to listen, when she had to plead with the others to just listen to her, fighting to keep herself calm, backed into a corner like a meek prey animal, begging not to be seen as a monster as some of the others held their stakes and the news spread like wildfire—still, it was just a lie, it wasn’t true, they didn’t outcast her or throw her out, it was just some scheme.
But maybe a part of that still hurt, and maybe she started to consider how he might have been hurting, if he really was hurting like that, when it happened. Maybe she overlooked the pain he might have felt, merely because he seemed so quick to accept what he became, the new means of survival forced upon him that presented as him just becoming a monster. She overlooked the humanity that lingered in him, and neglected the reality that he had to live in now, with his own threats and struggles and fears for his life when he's only trying to survive. And now she had to lie to him, too, whether that could make them even for anything or not. She’d forgiven him at this point, remembered that he was her friend, and a part of her hated to see how happy he seemed to “have her on their side”, how guilty and apologetically he looked at her, the way he smiled as he gave her a warm and sincere welcome.
And the way his arms were around her now, hugging her tighter, letting her tears soak into the fabric of his cloak. And still, he smiled, reassuringly, comfortingly. She could feel it radiating from him.
“It’s okay,” he whispered to her. “You’ll be welcome here with us—we could be roommates again and everything! It’s gonna be alright. You’ll be safe here.”
She turned her head to the side, looking away, leaving her head laying on his shoulder as a hand rubbed her back soothingly. You don't understand, Pyro...
"Right," she mumbled. "We'll be roommates again..."
They were both just doing what they needed to in order to survive.