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If someone were to ask Avid silly questions like “what was going on with abolish”, “was that guy telling the whole truth”, “what was his deal”, or “where did he come from”, he! Uh. Well, he wouldn’t have any answers. Abolish was cool, and quiet, and a skeptic, but he was also one of the few guys who would even kinda sorta humor Avid when it came to a lot of the topics that made him receive untrusting looks from the rest of the members of town. Abolish was nice.
More than that, Abolish was nice to Avid. And maybe that was kinda enough, for Avid. Not to push. Not to question. Not to bug him too hard.
It was late one evening, after the town had started to hunker down for the uneasy evening and after all the beacons had been turned earlier in the day and books gathered up. Avid’s seated on the top floor of the beacon tower, someplace he didn’t usually go, mind a tumble that he couldn’t quite make sense of.
He opened his mouth. He closed it.
He wasn’t really sure where he was going anymore. Things were getting worse, that was doubtless. His wound was seeping steadily, making him go through more of the bandages than he was prepared for, causing worried looks from Drift and, worse, disgusted looks from the other townsfolk when they smelled the scent of rot on him.
He felt filthy.
Avid closed his eyes, feeling the breeze on his face.
Drift was nice. She cared about him. Shelby used to be nice, and he wanted to believe that she still was, but now she wasn’t someone anymore, she was something. Martyn and Apo and Ren and Sausage and Cleo gave up on him, or were grumpy with him or were tired of him or whatever it was, he wouldn’t spin the wheel for them. Pearl was nice enough, but she was Cleo’s, and he wasn’t getting in the middle of that.
Legs was nice. No- he. He wasn’t. He was stressed and he cared and he wasn’t nice, but that wasn’t something Avid held against him. Avid wasn’t the kind of person that people were nice to. Avid was the kind of person that people got annoyed with and gave up on. Except for Elle, and he saw exactly where that got her.
Someone sits down next to him. He’d have panicked and nearly tripped off the ledge, except when his eyes fly open, he sees Abolish. The other man is still in his uniform, those warm, dark brown eyes studying Avid as his red earring glints in the moonlight.
The bit of unease melts. Avid’s mouth wobbles into a shaky smile. “Uh, hey. How’s it going tonight, buddy?”
“Not bad. Couldn’t sleep. Just came to check up on the beacon, and saw you all alone up here. What are you doing?”
“I dunno. It’s stupid, the beacons down there. I’m not even actually protecting it, am I?” Avid’s heart caught in his throat, and he traced one nail over the fabric of his slacks. “I’m just being annoying.”
“Nobody’s up here to annoy. I don’t think you’re doing that good a job of it, if that’s what you’re trying to do.” Abolish said.
Avid thought for a long moment. “I’m. Not trying to annoy anyone, right now.”
“See? Then you’re doing a great job.” Abolish offered him a small smile, shifting to sit down more comfortably. His voice was always soft on Avid’s ears, and his demeanor matched. Avid wanted to believe him. “You’re not annoying me.”
“Thanks.” Avid glanced at him, and his breath caught in his throat because he was an idiot. Something about the side of Abolish’s face, silhouetted in the dark, with that earring hanging from his left ear and his full lips and pale skin and thick lashes… something about him was beautiful.
Avid felt heat gathering in his cheeks and something stupid lodge in his throat. He swallowed. “Are you a vampire?”
Abolish turned towards him, eyes wide and blinking rapidly. “Ex-cuse me?”
“You’re way too pretty not to be!” Avid exclaimed. “Is that it? Or- or- or-”
“Avid, stop talking.” Abolish cut him off before he got very far. “I’m not a vampire.”
Avid wrung his hands in his lap. “But how do you know?”
“Because if I was a vampire, I’d have staked someone in town. And I haven’t, so that’s how you know. If someone turns me, I kill them. Got it?”
“How can you be so sure?”
“I’m always sure.”
Avid followed the instincts, the urges that blurred the lines, and lunged at Abolish, pinning him back against the rock and straddling him. “You can’t be! What if- what if you thought you were fine, but you really weren’t? What if you pretended you were fine and told everyone you were, but things were worse than you let on? What if you got turned but it was like, Shelby? You couldn’t kill Shelby. I couldn’t kill Shelby.”
Abolish cocks his head to the side, his black hair shifting from where it was fanned out against the stonework. “Are you sure? You don’t know what any of us would or wouldn’t do.”
“I- I-” Avid deflated. “If I turned into something else, would you kill me? Whether I attacked you or not?”
“I’m a butler.” Abolish said, flexing his wrists in Avid’s grip. “Is that all?”
“How can it be everything?” Avid asked. “You didn’t even answer my question.”
“I’m not going to.”
“Why? You’re a butler, who’s to say you could even kill a vampire if they turned you?”
Abolish rolled his eyes, honest to god rolled his eyes, and then Avid was being slammed into the stone where Abolish had been just seconds before, no time to process besides the air that whooshed out of his lungs in a startled grunt and the sight of Abolish’s darkened silhouette against the sky.
Abolish ducked close, so close that their breath mingled. “They wouldn’t have time to even beg, Avid. I’d kill them. Any of them. So if you’re wavering, if you’re thinking about it, don’t involve me. Got it?”
Avid nodded slowly. Abolish pulled back, narrowed eyes admiring his handwork as he set about straightening out Avid’s wrinkled vest.
“Besides, Avid, your other question. If you turned into something else I’d investigate what you were, and if you couldn’t be gotten under control, I’d put you down.”
A sickened relief flooded him. Avid swallowed weakly.
Abolish flashed a smile. A cheeky one, not one Avid was used to.
“Got it?”
“Yeah.” Avid replied. “Um, yeah. I got that. Loud and clear.”
“Good.”