Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The dark hands claw and pull on his skin. It oddly reminds him deeply of his illness back when he was human. Except, instead of cold nights, it’s scorching infernos. Blackness surrounds him in all directions; He is unable to escape as he plunges farther and farther into hell. Is he going to hell? That is what the vampire assumes as he is being dragged deeper into nothingness.

If only he could spend the rest of his days with Louis. That is all Owen wishes for after all. A land of peace including the one person to ever appreciate him for who he is. He had seen Louis, briefly in passing before he was forced away. Louis had come to see him off.

He truly is a good man.

Air burns his skin just as holy water. Is it even considered air? It’s awfully dense. It ignites a flame in his throat. Although vampires do not need to breathe, it can be quite painful to go through the motion of “holding your breath.” Darkness tugs in his peripheral, slowly descending into his vision like a disease. Strange how things can become even darker than before when there is no light.

Something must be off with his eyes. Vampiric sight would have lit this place up instantly. It isn’t like he cares. This is his own fault. Owen does not fight; He just wants to rest. His one and only watched him with such a pitiful expression. Why would he want to continue?

The universe sure likes to toy with him.

His eyes blink open. Why can’t he just rest? He feels weak, weaker than a disgusting human. It’s the same he felt when he first awoken in Oakhurst two hundred years after massacring the town. Never before has he suddenly felt so claustrophobic. Has the cure not worked after all? If that is the case, had he imagined everything with Louis? Where is Abolish?

Oh.

There’s dirt in every direction, was his body buried after he supposedly died? The darkness no longer holds down his arms; His clawless fingers dig its way up. Dirt crumbled onto his face as he gets closer and closer to the surface. The sun doesn’t burn his skin as it should. He must have dropped a few levels when he chose death.

It is either he lived somehow, or hell looks weirdly similar to Oakhurst. This is where he buried himself all those years ago. Ironic. He’s made up his mind: Even if this is the real Oakhurst, it is still hell.

Wandering aimlessly, Owen stumbles upon a familiar sight, does he feel a bit of déjà vu? Pearl and Pyro stare at him from across the tiny lake. Pyro is also dead, so this must be hell. He didn’t know Pearl was dead too, when did that happen? Who killed her is the better question.

Pyro looks human, or like a stage one vampire. Human radiates off the both of them. Disgusting. The man energetically waves before diving into the chilly water. The girl he is with follows soon after. Pyro’s head pokes out of the lake as he hoists himself up and turns to give Pearl a hand. The same outstretched hand is now expecting a shake from Owen. “Hello! I’m Pyro, and this is Pearl. We are attempting to make our way to Oakhurst!”

Is his life flashing before his eyes? If so, it skipped much more important chapters. “Owen.” He doesn’t take the hand. “If you want to find Oakhurst, walking in the opposite direction would be beneficial.”

“Are you from here?” Pearl cocks her head with the question.

“Something like that.”

Why are they acting as if they don’t know him? As if they don’t know all the atrocities he has committed. Pyro is much too happy and carefree from the last Owen remembers. “Could you perhaps show us the way?”

“Of course.”

Owen takes the lead in the stroll towards Oakhurst. It is harder to resist draining animals when he feels this weak, but he still doesn’t know what is happening.

“So, what do you want with Oakhurst?” Owen asks despite already knowing their answers.

Pearl and Pyro respond with the same exact words, or he assumes. Owen toned them out midway to town. Something has changed, from his memory, they investigated the lake tower. This time they didn’t. That’s marvellous though, the more the humans don’t question the strangeness of Oakhurst, the longer he has to figure out what is going on.

Last time he saw Oakhurst, the walls were rebuilt with a much steadier material. At least half of the houses were in ashes. The walls the humans fortified aren’t even built, neither are the horrendous houses.

He splits from the two followers and walks to the middle of the ruined town. The sight disturbs him. Somehow, he remains in control of his limbs, but logic says his next thoughts are impossible. No way he is back in time. He just wants rest. Maybe if he makes a scene Abolish will slay him once more. But would the outcome be the same? A pitiful glance and dark hands restraining any fight left in him?

Owen will decide later. As for now, he will play the same game as the first time, act as a human. He can barely tolerate normal humans; These ones are on a whole new level of annoying. Only fate knows how long his mask can last.

When he spots a certain blue-haired man, Owen decided to fade into the shadows to avoid talking to the elder vampire, but in the process, he bumps into the next worse person, Legs. His clean robes make Owen miss the blood he stained them with.

“I apologize.” Owen grumbles in his usual quiet tone.

“Are you alright? You are not injured?”

A feeling of distain grows within him, being away from town made him forget how peaceful it is without the constant check ins.

“You don’t believe in the supernatural, do you?” Apo asks. If it isn’t for the fact Owen knows them all, he would think it’s a ridiculous first impression.

Legundo turns towards the town beacon. “No, but the one throwing garlic at everyone is doing something in there that feels… wrong.”

“Don’t play with forces ye don’t know, don’tcha know?” Ren leads as they all approach the small space surrounding the beacon. His accent is as atrocious as it has always been.

No beacons have been consecrated — nor desecrated. There is not one time besides the beginning that he can recall the town beacon being neutral or the deep red colour that soothes the vampires. At this point, Owen has almost confirmed he is back in time, a second chance if you will. Had Louis given it to him? Not one of the humans nor Scott will be suspicious if he agrees with Ren on the matter. “Yes, we should not touch this, it could be devastatingly dangerous.”

“Come on! Just huddle in close!” Avid — the second must irritating human — doesn’t stop kneeling.

“I’m not participating in this.” Apo says bluntly. Not that it matters, the consecration must be nearing finish by now. It’s confirmed when it glows a bright yellowy orange. The pit holy beacons give vampires begins in his stomach, no doubt it will only grow. Everyone shifts uncomfortably, but Owen knows the humans feel better, safer.

“Doesn’t that feel delightful!” Avid lets out a heavy breath.

“You have to admit; It is a cool little thing here.” Drift pushes off her knees to stand straight again. Of course, no one denies or acknowledges the feeling it gives them.

“There are a lot of people in here, in this town.” Owen states to no one in particular, the only thing on his mind is why is he here, and should he play human for as long as possible?

“There are, and none of us are from here.” Doc comes up behind him with Abolish a few feet away.

If Owen could get headaches, he would have a migraine. Why must he have conversations twice? “I thought Oakhurst was abandoned.”

“It’s because of the curse, don’tcha know?” Why must humans try to sneak up on him!? It doesn’t work due to his flawless hearing abilities, but it is quite annoying when everyone enters a conversation from behind.

“More supernatural nonsense?” Owen’s arms cross over one another.

“It’s true!” Sausage beams from beside Ren.

“It says every two hundred years there is a plague that emerges and wipes out the town, leaving zero survivors for new generations, don’tcha know.” Ren explains.

Owen wishes to rip each one of their throats out with his bare — clawless — fingers. Louis wouldn’t want that. Louis would want him to join him in heaven, not be dragged to hell. Luckily the conversation is over as everyone gathers around the beacon. He hears whispers he doesn’t bother giving a second thought too. Time passes as he doesn’t listen to a word spoken too him. It is all introductions he doesn’t need to remember since he knows them all despite his best wishes.

He finds himself chopping down trees like he used to as a lumberjack. His peace is disrupted as Avid and Drift climb their way out of a cave. “WHY ARE YOU STANDING THERE ALL QUIET!?” Ah yes. Avid’s wonderful screaming. Music to his undead ears.

“I am chopping trees for the town.” Owen nonchalantly digs his axe into the stump of the tree in front of him. A few hits and he is calling out. “Timber!”

He can hear Avid rambling in Drift’s ear. Already he is filling the girls head with un-logical vampire symptoms. Do not get Owen wrong, he is a vampire, but Avid doesn’t need to be spewing his theories in her ears.

“Would either of you care to give me a hand with this?”

Drift grabs the tip of the tree and lifts with her legs. She has always been one of the smarter characters in this god forsaken town. Avid, with his arms crossed, gets into a whispering fight with himself as he and Drift carry the tree. In about two more feet of distance between them Avid decides to jog to catch up. With Owen carrying the stump, and the two humans at the front helping him navigate, he doesn’t need to fake a struggle. They drop the log down on a stack of other logs.

“I deeply appreciate your help. It is much harder on my own.” He lies through his fangs.

“We are happy to help!” She elbows Avid in the side. “Right, Avid?”

“Yes, yes! Of course! What were we talking about?” The last part is only whispered in the assumption Owen cannot here it, but he can.

“So, what were you lot doing exploring a dark cave by yourselves?” Owen smacks his gloved hands together to get dust off them.

Avid flinches. “Mining silver! And we weren’t alone, we had each other!”

“If you say so.” He peers down at the starting pile of chopped wood. “Plenty more to go. Would you mind joining me?” Owen looks at the humans who helped him.

“The moon will be rising soon, I saw we call it a night.” Drift makes the good call as Avid looks to be internally fighting himself over something. He likely wants to pick a fight with him. “Does either of you have a sleeping bag I could borrow?” She looks between the two men, and they blink back at her.

Owen swings his axe on the branches of the tree he cut moments before. “Why don’t we start a fire? Tomorrow will be for beds and housing?”

“Awesome!” Drift picks up the remaining branches to help Owen hall them over to an old fire place. Avid silently walks behind them. His eyes never leave Owen’s figure.

They drop the sticks. Owen picks up two decent sized stones and bashes them off one another. Sparks fly through the air. Hitting the pile of chopped wood, flames ignite. Ashes float in the sky as the night passes by. What a waste in his mind. The red moon freaks everyone out, but they calm down soon enough. Well, besides Avid. Midway through the night, people came in shouting about the undead, zombies and skeletons. A group of them sits near the fire most of the night.

Nearing five in the morning, Owen begins to build what last time was his and Sausages house. He almost has walls up when Sausage joins him. He isn’t the best builder, that is obvious to Owen. A child has better skills. If the situation were the same as last time, he would have only supplied wood to Sausage, but now that he helped rebuild a castle for for goodness sake, he feels his level of skill is higher than the human’s.

“What’s going on here?” Owen knows the answer already, but he finds joy in tormenting the boy placing signs by people’s doors. Avid jumps and begins to sprint away stammering about just placing signs around.

As dawn approaches, Avid goes around yelling about a house judging contest. They all have a day to build and decorate their temporary homes.

“What if a vampire comes along and sets it ablaze?” Owen asks with false worry to Avid and Drift as he looks over their house. Not much is done, but the walls are built and there is a roof to cover their heads.

Drift gets a bit too close for his comfort. “Can they do that?”

“All it takes is a flint and steal, and up it goes.”

“Why would a vampire do that when they have teeth? They bite people, not set stuff on fire.”

“Vampires are very ingenious creatures.”

“So you do believe in them?” Avid grabs Drifts shoulder with eyes that seem to sparkle when someone so much as might believe the creatures he rambles about. His eyes lock with Owen’s for the first time of them being there.

“You seem to know a lot about vampires.” Drift steps back, shrugging Avid’s hand off her shoulder. Her gaze looks Owen up and down as if examining for anything suspicious.

“I’m pulling your leg.” Owen smiles, resting a hand atop Avid’s head. He ruffles the already tangled hair before walking away. It’s odd how much joy he feels from making the proclaimed hunter flip.

The last time around, Pyro and him drove a stake deep into his heart. If he wishes to speak with Louis again, it may be in his best interest to not repeat those actions of hatred.

He returns from an outing to find food. Sausage had most of the house built at this time. Joining the two standing of the roof, Avid starts to declare that Scott is no doubt a vampire.

“Oh, for goodness sakes, not this again.” Owen sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose.

“Why? What makes you think he’s a vampire?” Sausage indulges him.

Owen hears footsteps approach them. He remembers this conversation. At least it seems no one suspects him yet. “Hello, everybody.” He calls down to them.

“We heard you talking about vampires!” Pearl shouts back up to the three on the roof.

“IT’S SCOTT! IT’S SCOTT! I THINK IT’S SCOTT!” Avid freaks. Even rudely cutting Owen off in the process.

“Yeah, Scott’s a vampire.” Sausage and Owen say in unison. Sausage continues speaking though. “He’s going to suck your blood!”

“No, no, no! Look at the signs! The signs are all around us!!!”

Owen crosses his arm. “Yeah literally, because you placed them everywhere.”

Pearl puts a hand to her chin and confides in the four, Owen, Sausage, Avid, and Drift, about a red beacon. Scott must have started desecrating them. Owen hasn’t noticed feeling different.

The conversation goes on longer than he would prefer. They get back on topic of Scott, just before he walks up and Avid goes crazy saying how he killed Shelby. He isn’t necessarily wrong, but that has not happened yet. Shelby — of course — ends up walking over to the group. Avid embraces her for a reason unknown to the girl at the time.

Him, Scott, Shelby, and Pyro begin to speak about the books together. “I think I am going to go out and search for more books, would any of you like to tag along?” Scott asks.

Pyro immediately agrees to tag along, but unlike last time, Owen declines. “I need to check on if Sausage is done interior decorating.”

He doesn’t feel the slightest bad about Pyro’s fate. Being a vampire is lovely. He should be grateful. Owen is deciding to take the long way, keeping his identity a secret from even the elder.

“Can I come see your house?” Shelby enthusiastically asks as she walks a few feet behind Owen. They haven’t talked much yet, so he can feel her nerves radiating off her.

“Of course you can.” Owen pushes the door open to their home and invites her in. He is fond of Shelby. Maybe he can keep her on his side.

She is in awe at the inside alone. Everything is decorated quite nicely. There are even two beds placed apart in the corner. “Where did you get such comfortable sheets!?” She lays on the bed like a starfish.

“I crafted it from wool from sheep in the forest.” Owen admits he is proud of his work. Even if he doesn’t need a bed, a comfortable surface to sit on is always a plus in his book. Anything is better than the dirt they stand on. “I made an extra pair if you would like.” He opens a cabinet and pulls out a white blanket and sheets. Owen pauses at the sight of Shelby, who looks like she will explode of gratefulness.

“I appreciate it!” She smiles widely and snatches the sheets from his hands. She bolts from the household, no doubt to lay the sheets out and take a long nap. The dark circles under her eyes tell him that much. The door swings shut.

Owen turns to dig out some raw meat, but is interrupted by the familiar odd feeling. Scott must have turned Pyro. He works rather quickly. It might become an issue for Owen if they become level three soon. All that matters at the moment is that even though there are three vampires in Oakhurst, they believe there are only two.

Chapter Text

Enlightened eye. The perfect book for him to claim he has when only he wishes to leave less for the humans. Oh, right. He is currently on their side. Isn’t he? That begs the question of should he give them the book and claim he got the same one earlier? He’ll hold onto it for now.

As usual, the freezing water shoots off him as he is spit out the stop of the strange elevator. His hair and clothes are still damp, but other wise he is dry. Hopping over the hole in the way of the steps, he rings out his hair. Stepping onto the dirt path, he hears Avid and Drift approaching.

“He’s up to no good, he’s suspicious.”

“Where did he- we all have a back story.” Drift stops speaking as they see Owen approach.

He ignores the fact they are obviously having a conversation about him. “Hello. Who’s up to no good?” A moment of “um”s and “ah”s later, Avid spits out the name Legundo. Owen cannot help but agree. From his perspective, the doctor is nothing but bad news.

“I don’t think he has his medical license, and I think he could do a lot of damage.” Once they get the lie going, it is easier for them to continue it.

“Goodness me, oh no.” Owen places a hand on his chin. “Martyn had said the Doc wanted to perform surgery for a simple sprained ankle.”

Avid stares at Owen, he lets his worries out. “What are you doing all the way out here alone?” Owen can hear his unspoken words. Searching for humans to suck dry?

Placing the silver axe M made for him on the floor to lean against his leg as he digs through his vest. “I discovered this book; It’s titled Enlightened Eye. It was in the tomb just up there.” He holds the book out to the humans.

“Why haven’t you used it?” Avid suspects.

After neither take the book, he pockets it once more and picks his trusty axe back up. “I just found it. All it prescribes is night vision. Lanterns do a fine enough job, don’t you agree?”

“Night vision would be magnificent to have! You are so lucky to have that!” Drift perks up at the mention, but Avid elbows her in response.

“If you find nothing of value on your adventure, I will gladly trade it.”

Drift doesn’t say anything back, but he can tell she will seek him out once Avid inevitably wanders off. They split off from each other and as Owen walks away, he heres Avid mumble to the girl. “Did you see that! He came out of no where!”

Checking he is now alone, he shifts into a small, fluffy bat. A flurry of tiny, winged animals burst out with their flapping wings carrying them higher. Owen learned fast after turning that the multitude of bats is to disguise which one the vampire is. This way he gets to stretch his bat form and get back to town faster at the same time. Wind brushed past him as he sores through the trees, careful to not run into anyone.

Owen sits on rock of the old fountain; Murky water lays behind him with no movement. A farm is set up within a few feet radius around the broken piece of Oakhurst history. When he last saw this fountain, its water tainted with the blood of all the civilians that burned Louis. People have been running past all day in hurry to put the finishing touches on their homes.

Right on queue, Avid rushes by with a large smile. “House judging time!!!” His sing-song voice carries through the mostly empty town as the folk exit their homes to meet for the contest. They all form around the fountain. Owen hasn’t moved; His legs are still crisscrossed.

“It’s time already?” Scott questions from behind Avid. He spins around to capture a look at Scott who has a skull mask covering his upper face. Honestly, it is such a small part of their time there, he forgot it was to hide the vampires red eyes.

“AH!” Avid stumbles back and pulls the stake out of his belt from reflex. “When will you take that off!”

“When will it stop bothering you?” Scott cocks his head to the side with a smirk. Unless you aren’t looking, you can see the slightest bit of elongated fangs. You can hide your fangs in stage one, but stage two it becomes impossible. Avid seems to notice them too as his expression turns to a scowl, his knuckles fading to white.

Owen jumps down from his perch on top the fountain and steps in between them. “That is enough. Shall we get this contest over with?”

Avid scrambles with the stake in his hands and shoves it back into his belt. “R-Right. Yes! Whose house is first?”

“The best one first!” Sausage shouts as he points to his and Owen’s house. “Check this out.”  The group of fourteen is lead to their home. It is small, definitely not the castle that Owen had gotten used to, but it ended up half decent looking.

After some complements from the townsfolk, Avid says. “We aren’t judging on beauty; We are judging on vampire safety.” Just as last time, they receive a five out of five. Ironic since one of its owners is a creature of the night.

“You’re scaring the townsfolk with all this vampire talk, young laddie.” Ren crosses his arms as he steps up to Avid. Owen stays silent, and after a quick complaint from a few others, Avid rushes them along to the next house.

“What’s this beauty!” Drift compliments the MERP Manor. “It’s perfect, no notes!”

From his spot a few feet from Scott, he sees the man turn into a bat for a split second, faster than human eyes can see, and turn back to his humanoid form. Owen cuts down one of the bats with his axe as everyone shouts variants of “kill ‘em!” and “Get ‘em!”

As the chaos calms down as the surviving bats fly away, Avid and Drift’s house gets the lowest rating out of the houses. Avid tries to bump it up but everyone collectively agrees to give them a zero. To change the subject, Avid questions why Scott and Pyro went out in the middle of the night by themselves. Of course, Owen knows the answer, but none of them do. It’s surprising how accurate Avid’s suspicions are.

A flurry of light blinds the vampire. He had forgotten Martyn used Holy Word during the contest. Without a warning, it backfires on the blond because many humans also freeze in confusion. As soon as Owen gets control of his limbs again, he steps back, faking confusion. If he remembered this would happen, he would have made sure he was out of range. Hopefully, no one noticed him pause his movements.

After the contest, just as Owen had predicted, Drift found her way to beside him. “Do you still have the book?” When he digs the book blessed by the holy spirits from him vest pocket, she seems to sparkle at the pretty velvet cover inscribed with golden letters. “Should I open it up?

“It is all yours.” Owen gestures with his hand for her to open it. The familiar sight of the book bursting into flames irrupts in front of him, although he expects it, the girl had no idea it was going to happen. Perhaps he should have warned her?

All it does it startle her. “Suddenly.”

“Do you feel enlightened?” He jokes with her. It was not all bad pretending to be a human last time around. Some of them — for example Drift, Pearl, and Abolish — never annoyed him much while he stayed in town.

“Can we go into the mines?” Her eyes are wide with excitement. He nods and she grabs his bandaged wrist to force him along. Once deep in the mines he started to dig, she looks around in shock. Are the books power as strong as vampiric sight? He will never know. He can see her as clear as day, can she see him the same way? “This is fascinating!”

Owen decides to test his luck and lean against the stone walls of the mines. “Is that how you and Avid believe vampires see?

“I suppose it is.” Drift locks eye contact with Owen. “Say, how does it seem like you have the ability to see me clearly?”

“That is a simple question to answer.” He starts. “I am a lumberjack; I am used to chopping trees down in the dead of night. Although I cannot see my surroundings, I am very keen on what is there and where.”

“If you say so.” Drift begins to climb the stone to get back to the surface. Owen helps hoist her up before pulling himself to the surface.

“Since we waisted the day on a silly contest, I’m going to leave the town now to go and get resources.”

“That’s not a good idea.” Avid speaks up.

Ren continues for him. “It’s the middle of the night, don’tcha know?”

“The night never hurt anyone.” Owen continues towards the gates of Oakhurst, but it is obvious that both Avid and Pyro flinch at his words. “You need to stop being such a scaredy cat of the night, and I’m going to show you how.” Forcefully grabbing Avid’s hand, not caring about how cold his skin must feel, he pulls Avid out into the night along with the five or six people coming with them.

They walk through the forest and Owen steps into a small clearing. “Does everyone have their moving buddy? We all need a buddy!” He turns to Apo. “Apo, I will go with you.”

They all claim their buddy and continue adventuring in the night. As promised, Owen sticks with Apo the whole time. Sticking next to her, Avid has no reason to blame him along with Scott for staying out of the tomb. He still goes on about Scott staying up. Scott may end up leaving town quicker if all these suspicions keep adding up. Owen can tell on their faces that the humans are beginning to get suspicious.

Somehow, against all his wishes, Shelby drags him along fishing. Will Scott and Pyro still try to turn her with him tagging along? Or with they go after him too? He must admit he is getting quite a splendid amount of food from fishing.

“I’ll be back.” He steps away as he notices Martyn, Sausage, and Apo.

“Oh hello.” Martyn stops dead in his tracks.

“Hello. What are you lot doing?”

“Sorry, we thought we saw some monsters.” Apo steps up to him.

He glances at the three. “Well, we are fishing.”

“Why are you fishing so far from town in the middle of the night?” Martyn’s tone tries to hide suspicion, but it doesn’t work.

“The fish bite more at night!” Owen defends himself.

“So do monsters!” Martyn fights back.

Owen stops the fight before it begins, if he continues, they might think it’s weird how much he is defending himself. Humans’ way of thinking is so flawed. He remembers their forty-eight-hour plan to believe the supernatural. It lasts the rest of their life, but they do not know that yet.

“Come fish, I suppose.” Owen leads them to the water. If they stay there, Owen cannot be exposed, and Shelby might stay an ignorant human.

“Do you have spare rods?” Apo asks as she pats herself down for any materials she could use to make one.

Owen shakes his head. “Unfortunately, not. Here is mine.” He holds the brand-new rod out to Apo.

“Thank you.” She casts out, waiting for a fish to bite.

Martyn tries to do some ice breakers, but he leaves immediately to run after Scott. It’s sort of funny watching the crew he is with question why Martyn would just leave without explaining why. Sausage and Apo run after him, leaving Owen, Pyro, and Shelby alone at the riverside.

“So how have your stays been? Any sightings of Bigfoot yet, Shelby?” He sits on a large stone as the other two catch more fish and toss them into the bucket they brought down. Apo took his rod, so he cannot fish with the other two.

“No signs yet!” She pouts. “But I have noticed strange things happening with the animals.”

“Strange things? Like what?” Pyro asks, nervous sweat drips from his brow.

“They run off at nothing, spooked by an invisible force! There is something here!” She exclaims enthusiastically. With another fish on her line, she pulls it back in.

“I see… how odd.” Owen places a hand on his chin as he pretends to not know what she is talking about.

“Where did Scott say he is going again?” Martyn appears behind the trio.

“To light so torches?” Pyro immediately defends his sire.

“Well, there are no torches that way, I tried to follow him down the beach. No sign of him. It’s like he walked ten paces that way and poof.” Martyn makes an explosion gesture with his hands.

“Maybe he got lost?” Shelby looks worried as she speaks.

“He was walking on an open beach!” Martyn’s voice gets louder.

Seeds of suspicion are planting in Shelby’s head. She looks into the darkness of the beach her roommate claimed he was going to light up. This is good. He might be able to convince her to leave the two once Martyn leaves and Scott is back. At least he has a reason to leave, Apo took his rod.

Scott wanders out of the trees, startling the the two humans and Pyro. “Your friends are looking for you.”

Martyn grumbles. “I’m going back to town.”

“May I follow? Apo took my rod so there is no use in staying here. Shelby, would you like to come too?” If she says no, Owen will not push.

“One more fish and I will head back!” She says with her bait in the water, waiting for a bite that may take minutes to come.

Martyn hesitantly heads out with Owen. Neither talk as they make their way back. To Owen, the silence is comforting, but he has no idea what Martyn thinks of it.

“May I come in?” Owen asks as they make it to Martyn’s house.

“Make yourself at home.” He responds. Flipping through his chests, Martyn is lost in his own thoughts. As he equips himself head to toe in silver armer, he turns to Owen. “What?”

“It’s amazing how you have a complete set of armer while I’m stuck with nothing.” Owen points out.

“Do you have no silver?”

Owen shows his empty pockets. “I gave them all to Sausage to make tools for us.”

“MARTYN!” They hear Apo scream through the door.

Sausage swings the door open. “Why did you leave us!?”

“I went to follow Scott, and you know what I happened? Scott completely vanished!” Him and Owen step outside to join the two. Perfect, he is now able to get into Martyn’s home whenever he needs to.

They senselessly fight as Owen peers back in the direction of the lake they just left. How unfortunate. He tried to keep Shelby alive, but humans do not tend to catch hints easily. He toons back into the conversation when Martyn begins yelling about the castle beacon.

Owen stays back as the three charge off in the distance of the fallen castle. It appears he is slowly gaining their trust. He has more trust from them than when the day began. There is no need to socialize more than he already has.

Eventually Shelby and Pyro arrive back in the village. She hasn’t learned to hide her newfound strength yet, so she is effortlessly carrying a full bucket of fish in one hand.

“Another day, huh? Were you fishing as well?” Avid asks him.

“Yeah. Shelby has it all.”

Avid glances at the mountain of fish in the bucket and looks surprised. “You actually did go fishing? Wow.”

“Owen, can we chat for a second?” Legundo says as they step away from the group. Owen hides his distain for the man to the best of his Abilities. Abolish tags along too. Amongst the three of them, they list off the whereabouts of the other townsfolk. “Who is unaccounted for?” Legs is so easy to trick- to get to trust him. They have barely communicated, and he is asking for his help.

Owen lets out a sigh — or the vampire equivalent — when one of the beacons is desecrated. The feeling of being strangled has lessened. He quickly composes himself as he catches Abolish staring. He knows the hunter won’t attack him just for being a vampire, he won’t even tell the rest of the humans.

Scott and Pyro are lost causes, but if he can keep Shelby close, he will have better chances. Pyro was curious about the cure last time, if they can get him away from Scott there might be a chance to get him on their side. His whole purpose is to make up for the damages he has caused so he can speak to Louis again. What exactly does that entail? Can he lie to the humans and still get into heaven? He hopes… oh. He has not hoped for anything in so long. Human feelings are truly contagious.