Chapter Text
Pearl and Cleo had only been sharing a house for a few weeks, having built it by hand when they arrived at this hellhole.
Cleo had noticed something was up with pearl ever since day one, the way their friend had hoisted beams with little to no effort, even if she pretended to strain, that wasn’t a one man job.
Pearl had also shown some interesting behaviours, when they still had no bed in their home she seemed strangely comfortable curling up on their new wood flooring.
And with how Pearl made Cleo feel, it seemed to Cleo she was always just standing a little too close for comfort, always brushing shoulders when next to her.
Despite Cleo’s growing suspicions, they had grown quite fond of this blue eyed girl, always feeling safe and secure when dozing off, knowing she was there to protect them.
But that was before Cleo had been turned.
Now she always felt the weight of this information, the guilt of not trusting pearl with it. She was pearl’s friend …right?
The nights grew more difficult, their hunger eating away at them and the inability to sleep leaving them without peace. The days grew more uncomfortable, the sun making their skin itch and the little lies told for her own safety building like a sandbar, inevitably going to wash away, leaving them exposed.
Then, one night as she snuck out to quench her thirst with creatures of the forest when they looked back to make sure they hadn’t disturbed Pearl’s peaceful slumber, to their horror, Pearl’s bed was empty.
Cleo panicked, she checked for Pearl’s shoes, a hint to where she may have wandered, as thoughts of the worst that might’ve happened to their pearl raced through their head. Wait. their pearl? No, she can’t feel this way, she doesn’t need another friendship ending secret to keep from her. This wasn’t the time to think about that, pearl was in danger.
Pearl had taken their boots, the footwear they used for their excursions into the woods, of which Cleo had been pestering them to stop, “those woods are dangerous alone, there’s vampires”, she had said, just a couple days ago. Oh the irony, warning of a far off danger when it’s sleeping in your own bed.
As Cleo hurriedly threw on their own boots and cloak, they couldn’t help but think,
Why would pearl be out this time of night, she wasn’t a vampire herself, right? No. Cleo would’ve noticed, Pearl’s heartbeat has been practically impossible to ignore ever since they’d been turned. But now, out in the woods alone at night?? Pearl could be cornered, turned, killed.
They didn’t care for protecting their secret anymore, they threw open their door and rearranged themself into their bat form, taking off into the sky to search,
If one of those vermin laid a claw on Pearl, Cleo would never, never, let them leave this cursed town as any more than ash blowing in the wind.
As Cleo swooped between treetops scanning the ground for any hint of where Pearl may be they were interrupted by a howl.
Mind racing at possibilities of the scene ahead, could pearl have gotten into a tight situation with a pack of wolves? No. right? It was probably just a pack hunting some wild boar, but the vampire had already changed their course and was racing towards the source of the disturbance. Preparing for a quick transformation they approached stealthily, searching for movement from the forest floor.
That’s when they saw it.
Illuminated by the bright moon in the sky, the hulking wolf-like creature, covered in matted grey fur with a warm brown undercoat. Bright, blue, intelligent eyes contrasting their blood stained maw. It was
gruesome beautiful.
The victim of this creature was luckily just a boar, though barely recognizable, this left some hope in Cleo’s still, cold heart. Though, with something like this roaming the woods she grew even more concerned for their vulnerable roommate.
What if it already got her
She pushed the unwanted thought out of her mind. Pearl can fend for herself, right? Cleo had to trust her companion’s abilities, but now she had even more reason to find her, she had to warn her of the bloodthirsty beast.
Or
They could simply distract it, if she could make sure it stayed hunting her then Pearl would be safe from it, all Cleo wanted was for their only reason to keep this town safe to come back, protected within the walls of their home. Safe from the horrors that lurked in the dark.
Cleo dropped from their perch high up a tree and circled down to the ground, a few feet up and 10 meters away they returned to their human form, picked up a pine cone and chucked it at the threat. They missed but the movement had caught its attention.
Their plan was simple, make it chase them, turn into a bat and lure it to the vampires’ castle where they were sure whatever played out would benefit herself.
But the beast, it locked eyes with them. Those strangely caring eyes, crystal blue, they flickered quickly from hungry to startled to fear .
This caught the vampire off guard, that wasn’t supposed to happen. That’s when the creature dropped its meal and ran.
Cleo couldn’t let that happen, it was going the wrong way, what if it ran into Pearl and it was her own fault. Cleo rapidly turned to their bat form and took off in hot pursuit, while the beast was far more agile than it looked, the bat dealt with far fewer obstacles up in the sky. The vampire couldn’t see well through the rapidly passing branches but could track it and based on the scent of blood.
Cleo overtook the beast and landed in front of it.
“I can’t have you doing that” she said, going for sass but voice breaking with emotion.
“There’s someone out here in the woods right now that I need to say something to and if you’re the reason I’ll never see her again-“ taking a breath to steady themself, “I would hunt you down to the ends of the earth, for ruining my only chance at a real life, my redo, my last chance at lo-“
she cut herself off, what was she saying?. Is that really how they felt? Was it not just the hunger and loneliness that made them feel this way? Their spiralling was cut short by something touching their cheek,
their eyes shot open to see the creature had strode up and was rubbing its bloody muzzle against their cheek, the smell was overwhelming, sparking a pang hunger. She locked eyes with the animal, its eyes seemed nervous, seeing this, Cleo felt the need to comfort it, giving it a warm smile and a peck on the side of its snout, resulting in the beast letting out a gentle whine and relaxing significantly.
This beast isn’t cruel, it just hunts to survive. Cleo began giving it pats and detangling debris from its fur. It laid next to her, placing its head on her lap, they only now noticed that in their earlier spiralling they had fallen to their knees, they now felt a lot more relaxed, and as they cared for the wolf it seemed to doze off, Cleo would watch over it for the night, giving it a moment of peace.
Despite being worried, they knew Pearl would be ok, she was capable, had unnatural strength and, if anything went wrong tonight Cleo would hear it.
As they watched the full moon dip below the tree line, they felt the weight lift from their lap, the wolf was gone, in its place was…
PEARL??
The girl seemed so at peace, curled around Cleo with her head resting on their thigh, face pressed against the vampire’s waist. Cleo wouldn’t dare disturb her, any questions could wait for the morning, now, Cleo just wanted to keep Pearl safe. She knew she definitely needed to talk to Pearl about, well,
…everything