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The crows cawed as Cedric walked back toward the Manor. It wasn’t a pretty sound, nor a kind one, but it was noise nonetheless, and in a forest as silent as a recent corpse, that felt like company. The rest was silence: thick, creeping into his ears, pressing against his chest.
Life was being shit.
School was shit. The teachers talked as if the world hadn’t shattered a few months ago, as if dates and assignments still mattered when someone had died at the family table. His father... his father was a different kind of shit, heavier, quieter. Since Mom’s death, Gabriel had become a ghost who paid bills and closed doors.
—Fucking idiot...—
Cedric muttered, not entirely sure who he meant.
Probably his father.
And what was he supposed to do?
Keep going, pretend, walk as if nothing were wrong. As if the wound weren’t still open, red, fresh, even though time insisted otherwise.
Oh, fuck everything.
The Manor appeared between the trees, huge, elegant, unnecessary. Cedric looked at it with the same affection one gives a well kept grave. He pushed open the front door.
Silence.
No laughter, no footsteps, no Mom’s voice humming something while tidying things that didn’t need tidying. His father wasn’t there. Or he was, but absent. Cedric no longer knew the difference.
He climbed the stairs, which that day felt longer, steeper, as if the house itself were mocking him. Each step creaked beneath his boots, exaggerating his exhaustion. When he reached his room, he tossed his backpack somewhere undefined and let himself fall onto the bed like a defeated body.
He had homework, he had emotions.
And both seemed intent on killing him.
Maybe he’d make a list: homework vs emotional collapse vs absolutely necessary sleep.
He never decided.
Because someone knocked on the door. Someone had dared to profane his sanctuary.
Cedric lifted his head, ready to bite.
—What the fuck do you want!?—
He spat.
The words burned his tongue the moment he saw who was on the other side.
Kieran.
His little brother stood there, eyes bright with unshed tears, one cheek red and swollen, hands trembling as he held the doorknob.
All of Cedric’s internal alarms went off at once.
—I-I’m sorry... I didn’t mean to bother you...—
Kieran murmured, his voice broken.
And he started to close the door.
—No, no, no! Hey! Wait!—
Cedric jumped up.
So fast that he ended up face first on the floor.
—Shit—
He growled, getting up quickly, stumbling again, but reaching the door just in time to stop it from closing.
—I wasn’t talking to you—
He said, breathing hard.
—I’m sorry. I didn’t know it was you.—
His little brother lowered his gaze. Cedric really looked at him for the first time. The small vampire was disheveled, hair messy, shoulders hunched as if he wanted to disappear.
—Do you want to come in?—
Cedric asked, lowering his voice, as if the world might break if he spoke too loudly.
Kieran nodded without looking at him. And came in.
Cedric closed the door behind them.
It was almost comical watching Kieran try to climb onto the bed by himself, his little legs didn’t quite reach. Cedric came over and helped him without saying a word.
Silence settled in again, heavy, uncomfortable.
Cedric couldn’t stop staring at the swollen cheek.
—Do you need a hug?—
He asked.
His little brother nodded.
And then, those eyes that had resisted crying for so long finally gave in. Tears spilled out like a secret that could no longer be kept.
Cedric held him tight, firm, as if he could protect him from everything. The crying filled the room, small but devastating. He didn’t like weakness, never had. But something inside him boiled, dark and protective.
—Did Dad hit you?—
He asked, anger clenched between his teeth. It was absurd, he knew, but for months now he’d developed the healthy and completely irrational habit of blaming his father for absolutely everything... even the weather, if it pissed him off.
—N-No... it was Aunt Carmen.—
Ah...
Aunt Carmen, the bitch. Mom’s sister, who must have been adopted or thrown out a window at birth, because she didn’t share a single drop of humanity with her. Cedric clenched his jaw.
Mom had given her life for something precious. His little brother wasn’t to blame. If it had been Cedric in that place, Mom would have sacrificed herself too. Because that’s what she did: love without measure... because she loved, because she was a mother.
Carmen didn’t understand that.
She took advantage of Gabriel’s absence, took advantage of Cedric being at school. And she poured her poison onto a child.
Cedric had already tried to rip her eyes out once, in crow form.
He could do it again.
He let Kieran cry until the sobbing turned into tired breathing.
Because he was just a child. A child the world had already taken too much from.
—Do you want to stay with me?—
Cedric asked softly.
He pulled away just enough, grabbed his notebooks, and after rummaging through them, found an old one he no longer used. He handed it to the younger boy along with a pencil, as if that simple gesture could say everything he didn’t know how to put into words.
—You draw—
He said.
—Keep me company while I survive the academic suffering known as homework.—
Kieran wiped his tears and smiled.
That smile... it was worth everything to him.
That night, with homework finished, Cedric went down to the kitchen for two glasses of blood. When he returned to the room, Kieran frowned, he hated the taste, but still drank when his brother handed him the glass, making an adorable grimace that pulled tenderness out of nowhere.
The little vampire set the glasses on the nightstand when they were done, while Cedric organized his things for the next day, preparing for that low budget shitshow called school.
Then they lay down together. The older one settled Kieran into the bed, turned off the light, and lay beside him. He covered them with the blankets and let the child hug him, clinging as if letting go meant falling off the world.
Cedric hugged him back.
—Cedric...—
Kieran whispered, his voice tired.
—Yeah?—
—You’re not going to die... right?—
That word.
Death.
Cedric hugged him tighter. Kieran complained a little.
—I’m never going to leave—
He replied.
—Do you understand?—
Kieran nodded, half asleep.
—I’ll always be with you.—
He kissed his forehead.
—Do you promise?—
—I promise. Forever. I’ll be so stuck to you that you’ll get bored of me and you won’t be able to get rid of me.—
He let out an evil little laugh.
But Kieran pouted.
—I’ll never get bored of you!—
He protested.
—Because you’re my brother!—
Cedric smiled in the darkness.
—Okay, okay... Now sleep.—
The promise lingered in the darkness, as firm as the blood they shared.
Cedric closed his eyes when his little brother relaxed, falling asleep before him.
And maybe that was what mattered most: that, for the first time in months... the world didn’t seem like complete shit.