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It was a cold autumn night in the mostly undisturbed forest by Oakhurst. All was peaceful. The wind blew slightly, rustling a few leaves, maybe a few blades of grass. But other than that, things were tranquil.
Until…
A man walked into the forest with purpose.
His occupation, well… he stole from dead people. And let’s just say, a little birdie had told him, there was a random ass grave located in this mysterious forest. And what else had he heard? A castle was also situated nearby. There was a big chance that this grave was hiding many riches.
These riches would be his. Then he would sell them on the black market and buy some fent.
As he walked through the forest, he kept a close eye out for anything out of the ordinary. Nobody dared to visit this place for a multitude of reasons. One, it was quite far from the city. Two, centuries ago apparently there had been a genocide. And centuries before THAT genocide, there was another. And three? Many years ago many people had gone missing after setting off to Oakhurst. This was NOT centuries ago.
But this graverobber was too greedy to care. He just wanted money. Ever since he lost his job as a manager at JojaMart, he had become desperate. Started doing fent, started robbing graves… the man he used to be was gone. And soon he approached the random ass grave with his shovel.
He adjusted his glasses and squinted at what had been carved into the tomb.
Here lies Avid.
“Hm… weird name. I suppose they died so they wouldn’t have to hear it anymore,” the man quietly chuckled to himself.
He lifted his shovel and began to dig. He breathed heavily as he did, he never cared for manual labour. But if this got him rich… Well, then it would all be worth it in the end.
He carefully dug, layer after layer of dirt, until he exposed the body. No coffin or anything. The body wasn’t even rotted at all. Was this recent?
As the man touched the body, it was cold, very cold, as expected of a dead person. But it was definitely puzzling how the grave was said to have been here for many years, while the body was in such perfect condition. He lifted it out of the grave with no problem, they were not very heavy.
“Your clothes certainly look like that of a rich man’s…” he mumbled, if not to the body, then to himself.
They were dressed in a white button up, a muted purple vest with gold buttons… real gold? He carefully fiddled with the buttons. Other than the clothes, this tomb held nothing of great value (Walmart reference), which disappointed the graverobber.
But if he had to strip a dead man’s clothes from his body for some sort of chance at getting money? So be it. He had undone the buttons and was taking off the person’s vest now. He got it off and set it aside.
As he was looking away he could have SWORN he saw the body twitch out of the corner of his eye. He immediately turned to stare at it. No… it was just late and his mind was playing tricks on him. It was just the fent. It was just anything else other than-
It twitched again.
And he saw it this time, clearly.
“Oh fuck…” he mumbled.
HOW WAS IT ALIVE? It had been so cold. Its skin was as white as paper. This man was never the type to believe in the supernatural, but if this body was alive? It definitely was not human. But then again, maybe it WAS the fent, maybe this was all in his head.
Nope, it’s eyes were opening. It slowly rose up…
“I’M ALIIIIIVEEEEEE!”
The man stared… then, “AHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!” he screamed.
“AHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!” the formerly dead person screamed back.
The man took off running… and the THING quickly followed him.
“AGHHHHH, NO NO! THERE IS A ZOMBIE CHASING ME!” the man screamed in fear.
“WHERE??” Avid looked around but no zombies were there, he realised the man was referring to him, “OH, I’M NOT A ZOMBIE I’M A VAMPIRE! I think…”
The man looked back in horror as he ran, but he fell into a tree. His glasses flew off of his face and he could not see, he began frantically feeling around for them, but it was too late, the… creature had already approached.
“CAN YOU STOP RUNNING?? I’M NOT GONNA HURT YOU!” The creature was very loud, causing the man to cover his ears.
“Must you shout!?” the man hissed.
“SORRY! I’ve been asleep for years- ALSO! This is kind of just how I talk.”
The graverobber blinked.
“Asleep?” he questioned, “You mean to tell me, you were ASLEEP? Underground!? Beneath heavy layers of dirt!?”
“Well, I like, died, but turns out something that attacked me when I was a kid was some kind of demon, and it kept me alive, so I was dead but not dead, kind of just asleep you know, and-” he continued to ramble on.
This had to have been some kind of nightmare, or drug induced trip, there was no way this was real. When the graverobber came back into focus, the creature was STILL yapping.
“Do you ever shut up?” the man asked sharply. He wasn’t thinking straight, but he probably shouldn’t have been talking to some sort of non-human thing in that manner.
“Why are you rude??? You dug up MY grave, took off MY clothes- wait, WHY DID YOU TAKE OFF MY CLOTHES?”
“Uh…”
“You weren’t robbing my grave were you??”
“Oh, look at the time. I’ve got to be going now-” the graverobber tried to run but was quickly caught by the thing.
“NOT so fast. Explain to me what you’re doing here? What were you doing with my body???”
“I… uh,” GULP, “I wanted your riches…”
The vampire’s stomach growled.
“Well I WANT A SNACK!”
And just like that, the graverobber’s life was cut short. Avid had sworn against eating people, once upon a time, but he was hungry, and let's be honest, he'd always been a bit bloodthirsty no matter which side he’d been on.
He’d never been around long enough in this form to have learned his powers well, so he kind of clumsily slashed at the man until he died. Then he began to feast. It was a very filling meal, it really hit the spot, like water when you’re thirsty.
But before he was even done his mind immediately went to his friends. Were they still around? He HAD been in a grave. Somebody made that for him. Probably someone like Drift or Shelby. He wasn’t sure if Scott had actually cared about him or not. That guy was hard to read. But he figured he would find out now.
After eating the graverobber’s body, Avid attempted to drag what was left of him to the hole he’d previously been lying in. But this man was JUST SO FAT. After a while of dragging though, he managed to throw the body into the grave. Then he used the shovel to bury him.
“Annnnnnd done…” he let out a sigh of relief.
Then his gaze wandered toward the direction of the town. He still remembered it vividly. But who knows how long he had been gone. He just hoped everyone was still there, waiting for him…