Chapter Text
A month ago, Avid had woken up, gasping, wild amber eyes taking in the nothingness in front of him.
At first, he’d wondered if he’d woken up from one nightmare- Limbo- and gotten dropped into another where he simply sat in the void. Then he had realized that he could smell the wet notes of the earth directly in front of his face, feel the harsh roots beneath him.
He was awake and he was alive.
Or, well, as alive as you could be while buried six feet under.
He had clawed and ripped at the ground above him, mulch falling away easily.
And he had burst upwards, heaving in deep lungfuls of chilly spring air as his face met the dark night sky.
He had gotten up, pulling himself out of the dirt, hands covered in mud. He had turned to look behind him, to see…
His grave.
Where the words ‘Here Lies Avid’ were carved, rough but still legible after… however long it had been.
How long had it been?
Now, Avid was standing in the dusk, claws clenched against his palms. He had left Oakhurst about a week ago- traveling by rough paths, skidding over muddy hills thawed by spring’s grasping touch. He’d gotten himself here, in a clearing, thoroughly lost, staring up at the great navy-blue expanse that swept away above him, dotted with stars.
With a sigh, he rubbed his hands together. It wasn’t dark, exactly, not for him, but the murky grayish-blue shadows of night still did nothing to ease his nerves. Neither did the finely attuned sense of movement he seemed to have gleaned, which made him twitch at the slightest shake from the leaves above him.
He was nervous, and alone, and thoroughly confused.
He could remember- he remembered everything.
That doesn’t make things better, he thought morosely.
Especially since the horrid scene of Owen and Pyro descending upon him kept replaying in his mind, over and over again.
How they had betrayed him when only a hour earlier they had promised that they wouldn’t kill him. That they were his allies.
His coven.
As if.
Now, he laughed at the thought. We were never a family. Even though Shelby wanted us to be.
Avid felt an odd twinge in his heart as he thought that, wondering quietly to himself whether she was still alive. He couldn’t tell. He had lost his connection with Shelby when he had….
Died. It was the right word; it was what had happened.
He was something else now, no longer a vampire. Lifting his hands up closer to his face, Avid studied the long claws that protruded from his nails, how his fingertips faded to ashen black. With one hand, he felt the texture of his horn, smooth and glassy. Sharp as a knife at the tip.
It had been a shock when he’d first woken up- to find that he had grown a tail, and one horn, and that one of his arms was nearly completely black. Oh, and that his eyes were now bright yellow, like searchlights. That they cut through the darkness with unnerving amber light.
Because of that, though, his actual night vision seemed to have reduced. It was nothing like when he was a vampire- how he missed being a vampire- shapes were discernible, but blurred, details questionable at best.
Avid sighed, dark, shadowy tail flicking behind him. He could feel the whispery touch of the leaves on the tip of his tail, tickling, distant. He could control his tail, feel pain through it- but it was a detached sensation, separate from whatever normal bits of him there were anymore.
Really, he’d wanted to stay in Oakhurst. Walk through the castle, the town. See if maybe Scott and the others were still there.
But in reality, he’d taken one glance at the town, at the dried scent of blood that still wafted from it, at how the houses seemed to be collapsing into themselves, and he’d fled. He wasn’t sure whether he regretted that decision or not. It had felt right to leave, back then, but now… he doubted himself.
Avid shook himself, squaring his shoulders. He’d made his decision, and now, he needed to continue moving. He wasn’t sure what exactly he was looking for, but it felt as if there was somewhere he needed to go, needed to be.
Off-handedly, he wondered whether Fate was calling him, like it had to Oakhurst, all those years ago. He still wasn’t sure how long it had been, not exactly, though his estimation was something like a hundred years, just from….
How Oakhurst had looked when he left it after waking up.
Kicking a pebble as he walked, Avid cautiously probed the back of his mind. Something was back there, and that something was very… intrusive. It felt like a clump of darkness, brooding there in the back of his head, sometimes sending out exploratory tentacles that his instincts immediately attacked. It felt like it was alive, and Avid really, really, didn’t like that thought.
He also didn’t like the fact he couldn’t turn into a bat anymore. I mean, what’s the point of becoming a literal demon if I can’t do anything cool?
So, alas, he had been walking for the entire journey so far. And it was exhausting.
Avid stopped again, frowning. Feeling that tug at his heart, at his very soul.
Fate?
A cold malice radiated through him, causing Avid to blink. It wasn’t coming from the demon-related blob of darkness, it felt more like… something was watching him. Angrily.
Wracking his mind, Avid tried to remember the old stories about the Universal Powers.
There was Fate, of course. Quite well-known. The one Avid was convinced had led him towards Oakhurst in the first place.
There were the twins, Prophecy and Destiny. Smaller, but certainly not insignificant. According to the legends, they had been around since the dawn of time, and had first taken the form of Instinct before splitting in two.
And finally, the one that was almost certainly the most powerful, but also the least understood. Duty.
A chilling satisfaction rang through the air, swirling around Avid like the breath of a god.
Which, he realized rather harrowingly, was probably what it was.
He glanced up towards the sky. “H-hello? Is that you? Duty?” He stammered.
No response.
That’s fair enough, he thought. I suppose, if you were a god, you’d assume some random guy that you were telepathically communicating with would have gotten the memo by now.
Very well. No more questions.
~.[].~
Avid was really, really getting sick of walking. His shoes were definitely not in the best condition, after being, well, buried, for a hundred years, and he’d never had the best stamina anyways. He had been a scientist, not a hunter. Well. Not a true hunter.
Or a true scientist, he supposed.
Avid stopped. Looked around. Dawn was waking, the sun’s gaze slowly peeking up over the horizon, but it’d be a good couple of hours before sunrise truly came.
He was standing on a tiny path- probably made by deer- in what seemed to be a prairie that was very, very quickly running into a dense forest. The woods ahead were dark and twisted. Great oaks soared upwards, their branches spreading their canopy to the sky. Tiny aspen came curling up beside them, twisting for space and sunlight. Cedar creaked in the light, chilly breeze.
He considered for a moment, tail twirling behind him, brushing the dusty ground. He could rest here, maybe, and try to devise a plan.
Maybe even figure out why demons were considered so terrifying if they couldn’t do anything.
He sighed, coming to a stop next to a small hillock, sitting down on a rock cold from the predawn air. Avid regarded his hands with a cold gaze, the blade-like claws glinting darkly. His blade-like claws.
Those weren’t even new, really. Vampires had claws. His were just… a bit longer. With a short exhale, he began tracing the shape of the shadows along the rock with one finger, disinterestedly watching the sandy dirt turn and collapse in the grooves he was making.
Then he yelped, a high, shrill sound definitely not fit for a creature of darkness, as literal darkness began crawling up his arm.
Avid jumped up, shaking his hand violently, trying to dispel the….
Shadows. I’m holding shadows.
The thin, cloud-like sheet of darkness twisted around his wrist like a bracelet, resting there, thrumming faintly. He could feel its pulse on his undead skin, how the magic vibrated through his very being.
Blinking curiously, he unclenched his fist, and the little shadow began making its way back to the rock- which had lost any sign of light or shadow during the event- curling like mist over the ground.
He watched in fascination as it seeped into the stone, shadow returning to the rim of the boulder.
Well. He’d just found out something very interesting.