Chapter Text
Avid stumbled through the woods, tree after tree after tree. The world blurred around him. He was too lightheaded for this. But he was almost there. Step after step after step. Just one more step. Just one more tree. One more step. One more tree.
“A-Avid, I…I made it.”
That was a lie. He was in the middle of the forest. But telling himself that helped. One more tree.
“You’re back! …Are you okay?”
“I got bit. Grab the flask, grab the- the flask.”
“I-I’ve got it. Here.”
One more flask. That’s what he’d told himself at the time. His legs felt like jelly at this point. He forced himself to lean against a tree, gasping for breath. How long had he been running now?
“Elle, you’re incredible! This is exactly what we needed; it’s another cure!”
One more cure. One cure too late. Too late for Elle.
But surely he was almost to Oakhurst. Just one more tree.
“Avid, stay away from me!”
She was too late, too. He hadn’t had a choice. He had realized, in that moment…only one of them could leave there alive.
Avid leaned against another tree, his hand drifting to the stake strapped to his chest. The last thing he had grabbed before leaving everything behind. One more stake.
…If Oakhurst was what he expected, that would be a lie, too.
He had never been so happy to see wooden walls in his life. Finally, Avid reached the edge of the forest, greeted by the first glimpse of civilization he’d seen in hours. The infamous walls of the equally infamous town, hidden away from everything, like the universe itself didn’t want anyone to find it. But he had made it. Maybe now he could finally learn the truth about himself.
Except the first thing Avid noticed when he entered the gates was that the label “town” was laughable. This was a few piles of rubble and abandoned building foundations disguised as a town. People hadn’t lived here for a long time.
“H-Hello?” Avid called. Normally he could project, but he hadn’t spoken in hours and his throat was dry, so his voice came out more like a whimper. He scrambled for the water bottle he had tossed in his bag, emptying the whole thing in seconds. His voice a bit stronger, he tried again. “Hello? Is anyone there?”
He heard footsteps. “Hello?” Avid rounded the corner of a broken stone foundation before him, actually seeing people on the other side.
Three strangers he didn’t recognize stood there. “Do you live here?” The first stranger had tan skin, ruffled brown hair, and a trimmed beard. He crossed his arms, and Avid couldn’t help but notice the posh white gloves on his hands and the ruffled white cravat around his neck.
Avid shook his head. “N-No, I just got here.”
“As did we all, it seems.” The second stranger seemed less affluent, wearing some kind of sheet around his body. It had been white at one point but was now stained with a variety of brown substances that Avid didn’t want to think too hard about. Avid’s gaze drifted to the man’s face; he had a large scar down the center of his face and a monocle covering one of his eyes. He looked scary.
“None of you are from here either?” Avid glanced around at the strangers, who all shook their heads. His eyes settled on the third stranger, who had been notably quiet. While the black-haired man wore rich clothing like Glove Man, maybe he didn’t come from the same background. “Are you a butler?”
“Not exactly.” Butler Man’s voice was quiet. “But I guess in a sense.”
“‘In a sense,’ okay,” Avid said, putting his hands on his hips. “...Right.” How could you not exactly be a butler? That didn’t make sense.
“I’m a famous author,” Glove Man announced. He puffed out his chest, a large grin on his face. “I’m known in the book world as ‘M.’ You may have heard of me.” He had a flair for the dramatic, clear through both his gestures and tone.
But Avid shrugged. “Never.”
“Nope,” Butler Man said.
“Can’t say I have,” Scar Man added.
Avid giggled at the blank expression on the author’s face. He sighed. “You’re so uncultured. But fine. You can also call me Sausage.”
“I’m Legundo,” Scar Man said. “I don’t mind going by ‘Legs’ as well.”
Avid snorted. “Legs?”
Legundo side-eyed him, his green eyes piercing. Avid awkwardly shrank back. “A nickname I picked up as a teenager. It was unfortunate at the time, but I’ve learned to embrace it.”
“I…see.” Avid tilted his head. “And what’s with the bedsheet?”
“The bedsheet?” Legundo looked down at his clothes. “You mean my surgery robes?”
“I hope you’re not performing surgery in that,” Avid said defensively. “It looks like you just escaped from an asylum.”
Sausage laughed. “You do!”
“I’m a doctor!” Legs cleared his throat, lowering his voice. “...Apologies. But yes, I’m a doctor. I’ve been on a journey through the land to try and help others, as many as I can.”
“Wow.” Avid fiddled with the bandage around his neck. He wished his own intentions could be so noble. “I’m a man of science myself.”
Legundo raised an eyebrow, inviting Avid to continue. “I do a lot with research and experimentation… Like potion-making and stuff.”
“Alchemy?” Butler Man asked. Avid had forgotten he was there.
“Yeah! I’m an alchemist. So my specialty’s in collecting ingredients, experimenting with potions… Hunting vampires…” He rested his hand on the stake strapped across his chest.
All three of the others laughed. “I’m serious!” Avid protested. “They’re dangerous! I’m gonna find all of them, a-and I’m gonna kill all of them.” He blinked away the unwelcome image of his best friend bleeding to death on the floor of their home, the wooden stake in her chest stained red, that flashed in his mind.
“Great, so he’s a lunatic,” Legundo muttered, crossing his arms.
Avid huffed. Maybe someday he’d tell someone that and they’d believe him. “Fine. Well, believe me or not, but I’m gonna do it. And you’re gonna see I was right all along.” He walked off to explore the ruins of Oakhurst.
He stared blankly at the ground, thinking through the things that vampires were weak to. Stake, check- he always kept that on him. Silver… Well, he didn’t have any silver. He was far from rich. Maybe he could find some in the caves. And there was one other thing…
Green stems poking out of the ground caught his eye. Avid knelt to the ground, carefully digging out the familiar-looking plant. A wave of relief washed over him as he brushed the dirt off and realized what he was looking at. Garlic!
Armed with the knowledge that garlic could grow here, Avid scanned the ground of the ruins with new vigor. Now that he knew to look for it, it was everywhere! There were more patches of garlic scattered within the walls of Oakhurst than there were piles of rubble from abandoned buildings.
He got back on his knees and harvested all the garlic he could reach without crawling through the dirt like a crazy person. If the other strangers here already thought of him as a lunatic simply for believing in vampires, scrambling for garlic like a beggar on the streets definitely wouldn’t help.
More voices rang in the distance. Once Avid gathered all the garlic nearby, relieved to see the familiar stems scattered through the rest of the ruins, he tucked it away in his bag and hurried over to the voices. A giant group of people came into view. Eyes wide, Avid stopped to count them. That was a whole eight people, including the three he met before and five total strangers. He hadn’t interacted with this many people in…forever.
As he approached, a young woman with dark red hair spoke. “I’m Apo. I’m from the military.”
Avid leaned against the rotting wood of the ruined house behind him, crossing his arms as he studied this Apo’s clothing. He wouldn’t normally imagine someone sent by the military to wear a black and pink dress. She looked more like she was dressed in her sunday best than prepared for any military work.
“What does the military want with Oakhurst?” Legundo, the alleged doctor, crossed his arms against his chest.
“Um… Well, they told me to set up an outpost here…” Apo cleared their throat. “They want Oakhurst protected.”
There was an excited gasp to Avid’s right. He glanced in that direction to see another young redheaded woman. This one had glasses, and her red hair was far messier than Apo’s. “Because Bigfoot’s here, right?”
“What?” Apo scoffed. “No. It’s a tourist trap or something.”
“A tourist trap?” Avid echoed incredulously. “The supernatural walks amongst us!” Elle flashed through his mind again. He forced her away again, gesturing to the broken village nestled in the wooden walls. “This town and whatever happened to it is evidence of that!”
“I agree!” Avid whirled to his right, realizing with a start that Bigfoot Girl had appeared right beside him. “I think these woods are filled with the supernatural.”
Someone who believed him? Avid nodded, feeling the first flash of hope rush through his veins that he’d felt in a long time. “Yes, yes, yes!”
“I mean, I’m here looking for Bigfoot.” She adjusted her glasses. “But there’s definitely werewolves in these forests. I’m wondering if fairies could be involved, maybe even wood elves.”
…Oh. That brief flash of hope flickered away. “…Right. I’ll…pretend we’re on the same page. Sure.” He dug through his bag to grab the garlic he’d just harvested. “Well, I’m Avid. Vampires are real, and I’m here to protect you from them. Here.” Before anyone in the group could protest, he handed a piece of garlic to each of them.
Most of the strangers were silent as he forced each of them to take some garlic, but he heard groans and mutters that some were trying to keep quiet. To his surprise, the last person he handed the garlic seemed to be the most receptive, taking it more willingly. “You know what I think?”
Curiously, Avid looked up to see who it was. A friendly feminine face smiled back at him, her light brown hair tied back in a ponytail. She wore a monocle over her left eye, a bowtie drawn around her neck. “What?” Avid asked, feeling a weaker flicker of hope.
“This would make a great ingredient in a dish!” The brunette’s tone was as bright as her smile.
Avid sighed. Of course. At least she was a bit nicer about it. “No, I’m being serious. Vampires don’t like garlic; it hurts them. If you keep that on you, you should be safe. And eating it is even better.”
She cleared her throat, glancing around at the rest of the group. Avid curiously followed her gaze; the group was already breaking apart, dividing into smaller conversations. “Let’s go somewhere a little quieter.”
Avid followed her to the other side of the broken house they’d been standing against, hidden away from the prying eyes of the rest of the strangers. “What do you want to talk about exactly?”
The brunette turned back to him, the smile still sitting on her face as she held her hand out. “My name’s Drift.”
“Avid.” He shook her hand. “Why did you come to Oakhurst?”
“Well…” Drift hesitated. “It’s just such a mystery, you know? All the stories around it…” She fiddled with the golden chain of her monocle. “I’m a detective, and I wanted to see if I could maybe solve this mystery once and for all.”
He’d heard the stories. He wasn’t sure who hadn’t. Oakhurst had a history of violence, death, and destruction. All kinds of myths and rumors had developed about what the reasons behind it were. Some claimed it was plague. Others, war. No one seemed to agree on what the source was, but everyone agreed that Oakhurst’s soil was drenched in the blood of those who came before.
That was something he was used to.
“Lucky for you, I’ve already solved your mystery, then.”
“Let me guess. Vampires?”
“Don’t say it so sarcastically; I’m being serious.” Avid crossed his arms, glancing around. “You’ve heard the legends, right? That 200 years ago, the town was destroyed in a horrible massacre.”
Drift raised an eyebrow at him. “And you think it was vampires?”
“Drift, I know it was vampires.” That was why Elle was gone.
Before the friendly detective could respond, a commotion rose from what sounded like near the middle of town. Panic set in. He glanced apologetically at Drift before hurrying after the noises. If vampires were here, a commotion couldn’t be a good thing. He heard Drift’s footsteps behind him.
Sure enough, he found a group of people crowded around the middle of town. He recognized Legundo and Butler Man, but the others were strangers he hadn’t met yet. Everyone was just standing around talking; the commotion he heard must have simply been their conversation. His anxiety faded with that knowledge, and Avid took the time to steady his breath.
He hadn’t really cared about any of the strangers up until this point, but one of them gathered in the center of “town” here caught his eye. The first thing Avid noticed about him was his bright blue hair. Hair dye was such a luxury; this man was rich. His clothing told the same story: a dark red button-down shirt, a ruffled white cravat, and an old-fashioned black cloak with a standing collar. Every single item on his person probably cost more individually than Avid’s entire net worth.
…He also looked kind of cute. He couldn’t have been more than a few years older than Avid, maybe 27 or 28? And the blue hair, while a bit gaudy, suited him well. His dark blue eyes drifted curiously over to Avid as Avid approached the group. Avid glanced away, intimidated at the thought of making eye contact with him.
“Is this the one with the big feet?” Pretty Boy asked, his gaze burning into Avid.
Avid cleared his throat. No, he couldn’t let these types of thoughts distract him. He was here for a reason. “Don’t listen to the Bigfoot girl,” he said, forcing himself to meet Pretty Boy’s eyes again. “She’s kind of downplaying the whole seriousness of the situation here.”
Avid heard Legundo huff and mutter something under his breath, but he ignored him. If he let a few skeptics get in the way, he wasn’t going to get anywhere. “Who are all of you?”
Pretty Boy spoke first. “Right. Introductions. I’m Scott. I’m from a couple of towns over; I own a manor and estate.”
Yep. Rich. That was even more obvious than the vampires hidden somewhere in or around Oakhurst. “It’s nice to meet you, Scott.” Avid smiled brightly back, stepping up to him. “Here.”
Avid dug back into his bag, pulling out what he realized with a start was his last spare piece of garlic. He had to harvest more soon. When Scott gave the garlic a confused look- something Avid had grown used to in the last thirty minutes- Avid pressed the garlic into his hand, forcing Scott to take it.
As their fingers brushed, Avid was hit with a thought. “Your hands are cold,” he remarked.
Scott shrugged, pocketing the garlic. “It’s chilly out.”
Personally, Avid was too hot, but he had just been running for the last couple of hours.
“Anyway, I could trade you vegetables.” Scott fished a potato out of his pocket and handed it to Avid.
Clearly the nobleman didn’t understand why Avid gave him garlic, but his heart was in the right place. Avid grinned back at him. “Thank you for the potato.”
“I hate to interrupt this…wholesome moment,” a voice said behind Avid. He turned to see a blond man with a bandana wrapped around his forehead. “But can we talk about whatever the hell this thing is for a second?” He pointed into the ruined stone foundation they stood next to in the center of town.
Avid curiously studied the remains of the building they stood next to. It was the one building that actually still looked like a building. It looked like it had once been a stone tower, with some of the walls still standing. In the center of the tower was a crumbled stone staircase that once spiraled to another floor but now simply led to nowhere. And it wrapped around the object inside that caught Avid’s eye, the object the bandana man was pointing at.
The object was some sort of lantern…or…something. It was bigger than a lantern, sitting directly on the stone floor. It was covered with some sort of glass case, and in the center sat some strange beige substance. Calling it a lantern couldn’t describe it, but maybe no words Avid knew could. It was supernatural. And it was calling to him.
Ignoring the stares of all the people surrounding him - something he had gotten quite good at in his life - Avid stepped forward into the abandoned tower. Before anyone could say anything to him, he reached out to put his hand on the strange object.
“Are you insane?” an orange-haired woman hissed.
“Touching random things you find in a ruined town is definitely a choice.” Scott crossed his arms.
Avid shook his head stubbornly, following through and touching the object. A flash of energy ran through him. He gasped as what felt like a million sensations hit him at once. But he didn’t remove his hand from the beacon.
“The beacon…” he murmured aloud.
“The what?” Bandana Man furrowed his brow.
Avid made eye contact, raising his voice. “It’s called a beacon!”
“There’s definitely something happening…” Drift stepped inside with him and pressed her own hand against the beacon. Her brown eyes widened. “Whoa.”
“See?” Avid grinned, looking to the others in the group. “Come here! Try it out!”
Bandana Man was the first to join him and Drift. “You’re all…sparkly and stuff.”
“Am I?” Avid glanced around, noticing little white sparkles dotting the air around him. “Oh my goodness!”
“I think it’s coming from the beacon,” Drift said. “And look at the center!” The center of the beacon, the strange beige substance, was gradually changing color. Avid could see little orange flecks replacing the beige color, growing stronger and larger.
The orange-haired woman joined the group, placing their own hand upon the beacon. Avid giggled. “Yeah, there you go! I… I think we’re consecrating it.”
“You’re doing what?” Avid glanced outside again and realized that Scott was the only one who hadn’t joined their little circle.
“I’m consecrating!” Avid grinned at him. The confused and mildly concerned expression on the pretty nobleman’s face was priceless; somehow it made Scott look even cuter. He was going to have fun getting under this man’s skin. “Scott, get in here!” He gestured with his head to the open space to his right.
Scott said something in protest, but his voice was drowned out by Drift and Bandana Man both echoing Avid’s encouraging words. Avid joined in, cheering Scott into joining them.
Scott gave up arguing, even if just to shut them up. But despite the group’s excitement to see Scott approach the beacon, something went wrong. Scott stepped close to the beacon, close enough to reach out and touch it.
And everything stopped.
The white sparkles that shimmered in the air around the beacon disappeared. The comforting orange glow at the center of the beacon was snuffed out. The dreary beige returned. Whatever progress they had been making was lost.
Avid slowly, hesitantly, reluctantly, turned his gaze from the interrupted beacon to Scott, who simply stood there, acting like nothing was wrong. Suddenly, staring into Scott’s pretty blue eyes just felt wrong. A chill ran down Avid’s spine, and he looked away.
“W-What happened?” Drift asked.
“Scott walked in,” Avid said, forcing himself to avoid the nobleman’s gaze. “Scott walked in, and… And it just stopped.”
Scott scoffed, gesturing toward the orange-haired woman on the opposite side of the beacon. “Cleo literally removed her hand; what do you mean?”
Avid had seen the orange-haired woman- Cleo- move out of the corner of his eye when Scott walked in. But the timing of it all… The way Scott’s heels clicked on the stone in rhythm with the beacon’s response. The way the sparkles in the air vanished, like the lack of a sparkle in Scott’s cold gaze. The way he had avoided getting involved, almost like he knew what would happen…
Avid nervously swallowed, trying to keep as much distance between himself and Scott as he could while still keeping his hands on the beacon. Despite the interruption, they were already making back the progress they lost; Avid didn’t want to ruin it again.
“You know what, I didn’t want to be involved in this. This is why.” Scott waved his hand nonchalantly as he left the ruins of the tower. “I don’t mess with that stuff. You enjoy.”
“What a buzzkill,” Bandana Man mumbled as Scott walked away.
Avid forced the nobleman out of his mind, trying to focus on the blond next to him instead. “A-Anyway, what’s your name?”
“Oh, Martyn.” Without taking his hands off the beacon, Martyn shimmied closer to Avid, filling in the gap to Avid’s right. “You said you’re…?”
“Avid. Nice to meetcha.” Avid glanced back at the beacon before meeting his eyes again, cracking a small smile. “Folks who consecrate together stay together.”
Cleo frowned. “How do we even know this is going to do anything?”
“Well, clearly it’s doing something.” Avid nodded to the sparkles that had returned to the air around the beacon. “We’ll…know when it’s done…or something.”
“It takes a while,” Drift said. “We’ve been standing here for what feels like ages now.”
Avid hesitated. “Scott did interrupt it, but you’re right. Um… To pass the time, what brought you two here?” He glanced between Martyn and Cleo.
Martyn scoffed. “I didn’t want to be here. My family left me behind in the woods. I was lost out in those trees for days before I stumbled my way here.”
“Your family just… left you behind?” Drift’s eyes were wide, mimicking the expression Avid was sure he was making.
“It’s not the first time that’s happened.” Martyn was shockingly casual about this whole thing. “Father will come pick me up sometime in the next couple of weeks.”
“Alright…” Avid gave a forced chuckle to fill the awkward silence. “Cleo?”
“Well, my family came from Oakhurst,” they said. “They got out before everything went wrong.”
“The vampire massacre, you mean?” Avid asked dryly.
Cleo rolled her eyes. “Plague. It was just plague.”
“Just plague?” Martyn shook his head. “That’s still not great.”
“No, it was horrible.” Cleo scowled, an expression that felt very pointed at Avid. “Which is why people making light of it with silly stories is so irritating.”
Avid opened his mouth, protest ready. Then there was a flash. All words escaped him as he was hit with a rush of sensations, making his whole body all tingly. The bright orange that had been marbling the strange substance in the center of the beacon took control, and the beacon glowed with its newfound orange identity, any hint of the lifeless beige erased. All the anxiety that had been running through him felt like it disappeared, replaced with a big warm hug.
Hesitantly, Avid pulled his hands away from the beacon. The other three did the same, but the comforting feeling and pretty sunset orange remained. As he processed the sudden shift, he heard a commotion and realized that it was the murmurs and gasps of the rest of the strangers gathering around the beacon to see what had happened.
“We consecrated it!” Avid raised his voice to clarify to everyone. “I don’t…quite know what that means, but… I think we did something good…?”
A voice scoffed. Avid recognized it. Sure enough, Legundo crossed his arms. “Did you not see the sky black out?”
“Well… No, I didn’t.” Avid glanced up curiously, but the sky looked fine now. It had been gray and cloudy all day, so not the lovely blue sky he and Elle used to stare at whenever they had free time, but the sky at least looked normal. “But come stand here by the beacon and tell me that it’s something harmful.”
He spotted blue hair in the crowd and felt a sense of dread creep back in as he realized that Scott was watching. Avid scrambled for his bag, reaching inside for the last piece of garlic he knew he had. While everyone talked amongst themselves, he hurriedly peeled a clove away and bit into it. The acrid taste was one he hadn’t experienced in a while, but he could get used to it again. Clearly he had to; it wasn’t safe for him. For anyone. Not while Scott was here.
Scott was dangerous.