Chapter Text
Avid was gazing from afar, just hidden within the treeline. Scott was standing up there on the hill. Infront of a grave, his grave.
It had been a long time is all he's been able to gather.
A. Very. Long. Time.
How would Avid even be able to approach him. He died, Scott buried his body. Scott had mourned him all these years.
Avid's tail swishes behind him from the stress, white hair is brushed away from his eyes. Hes still the same person. Same vampire. Just with a few extra features.
Hes just watching Scott hes surprised the man hasn't spun around looking for him.
Scott always lingers longer than the others. Taking his time to say a few words. Scott bends over placing the black roses on the stone.
Avid takes a step out of the shadows the sun is almost behind the horizon, hes worried Scott won't recognise him, hes changed so much. But Scott's changed too. His eyes are tired but they hold a sense of peace, he still holds himself high but there is a looming weight that could have only come from experience. Avid's steps are silent, his footsteps muffled by his demonic features. Hes got some weird paw thing going on.
Avid feels his heart flutter as Scott bends down to place the rose on the grave. He isnt paying attention enough and steps on a pike of leaves. The crunch that resounds sends Scott instantly the defensive. His eyes flaring dangerously red before catching Avids. Then he freezes the glow ceasing instantly.
"Uh, hi."
Scott couldn't move, his eyes were locked on the vampire infront of him. Avid. Avid. Avid.
Avid was the vampire in front of him. Well half vampire? He wasnt sure. But Avid was dead. Avid has been dead since Oakhurst. Avid was killed by his coven, by his fledgling had betrayed him. Owen someone he had, somewhat, welcomed, if he could call it that. He hadn't treated any of his fledglings that well not until. Avid...
Yet right now, the first fledgling that had truely sparked some change, that fledgling's body was standing befor him. The body who he never got to live his life with. The body who had warmed and relit his cold dead heart.
The person whos body should have turned to ash that day. The person he should have never had to carry up the hill they both stand on now.
The person that he bewailed the death of, because that person should have been given the chance to live life without fear, without the bounds of mortality, the chance to live his life with the one he loved. A chance that Scott had wished he had.
That person's body was standing before him. He must be dreaming again. Because it couldn't be Avid, there was no way. Scott had spent days and nights lamenting about the man. He couldn't be here now. The impersonator takes a step forward and Scott takes a step back. If there were a time in his life where he doubted the vampiric cure it all it would be now.
He wants to open his mouth to say something to the imposter. To say anything. He want to yell at them for trying to trick him. He want to kill them for daring wear Avid's face. But he can't even bring himself to look away. Stunned into silence.
If someone had a stake here and now he'd surely be dead.
"You-" Scott straightens himself up, he can't be weak here. "Who are you? And why have you stolen my friends face?" Scott growls claws out ready to attack.
The imposter looks hurt for a moment then understanding fills his eyes. "Scott-"
"Don't say my name! You think you can walk on up here impersonating someone long gone?" Scott snaps at avid who flinches before raising his hands. "Its me. I-I came back. I don't know how, b-but I did." Avid tries to explain he can almost taste the tension in the air, hes treading lightly any wrong word could end up with him dead again.
Avid didnt want to die again. The last time he was brutally beaten at the bottom of a pit by two he had come to trust. His last memory being that forsaken stake plunging into his chest. The scars along his arms ache. Along with his heart that beats with phantom pains.
"How could I believe you?!?! How do I know your not some-some.. Skinwalker?!" Scott had to think there looking for anything.
Scott recalls the times he spoke about the cryptid with Shelby, explaining how the beasts would take the shape of those you love to draw you in. Scott had scoffed at the idea then, most of the fables Shelby had told were really fiction. But now...
"You and I both know those dont exist, Assuming Shelby hasn't discovered them yet." Scott freezes yet again this imposter knows of Shelby and her cryptid hunting. Had they been been watching him, them? How much did he know?
"Scott its me, Avid." Scott feels wetness building up in his eyes but blinks it away. "No its not, you're not, you- Avid's dead, I-I buried you- him." He corrects himself talking to the fake watching as sorrow falls upon his face at the words. It was convincing Scott would give him that, but he refuses to believe it. If there had been a way to bring Avid back Scott would have found it.
Hours spent hunched over, scowering books and tomes some layered in dust untouched by mortal hands. Others falling apart in his hands well used and loved. Scott had trailed loose end after loose end looking for something. Anything...
"I don't know how it works and I look different but.." Avid pauses trying to formulate the explanation. "I think it had something to do with the thing that attacked me and Elle." He gestures to the discolouration on his arms and horn on his right. Scott turns away from him hunching his shoulders closer to himself.
"I woke up in the dirt a week ago. Scott-" the elder vampire's eyes flash bright bloody red again, a warning. "I refuse to believe this!" Scott explodes "What kind of monster are you to be wearing the face of the man I fell for!" The platinum blond quickly starts approaching, his claws out and ready to fight.
"How dare you approach me while I mourn a life that never got to live!" He takes a swing at Avid who quickly dodges. "How dare you taunt me with his face today of all days!" The swipes are messy uncoordinated nothing like Scott's usual style. This fight, rather than one driven by survival, is driven by rue and fire, and flames only burn so long.
"He was the first in millennia to have givien his unconditional love to me, and you steal his likeness, his voice, spitting on his legacy." The swipes are getting messier and more discombobulated. Avid could have sworn he'd he'd red dripping down Scott's face. Was Scott crying? For him..?
"How could you?" Scott's voice cracks and he stops attacking. Trying to stop the tears that are falling. "How long has it been..? Since you last saw me- I uh I mean him...?"
"Five hundred and six years, eleven months and ten days." Scott mutters out, has he really been counting this entire time? "I-Im sorry," Avid stutters out, "You should be." Scott's voice is bitter and raw from the yelling. "Im sorry I didnt stop them, Im sorry I couldn't have been there for you, Im sorry for leaving." Avid turns away from Scott refusing too look at the man hes caused so much pain.
"Im sorry that I came back, I didnt think it would cause you this much pain." Avid shudders bloody tears welling in his eyes. "Scott loving you was a wonderful experience, and I never regretted any of it. I-I'll leave you to mourn."
Scott stands there bitterly crimson streaming down his face as Avid returns to the shadows of wenst he came.
"You- you shone just as brightly as the sun the day you fell. Im sorry I couldn't save you." Scott stares as the last of Avid disappears glowing eyes glancing back at him one last time before he leaves. His knees soon buckle unable to hold the weight of vexation on them any longer.
He feels as though hes made a mistake. As though hes let his love slip through his fingers once again. Thousands of thoughts, and hundreds of souls scream at him to chase the fake, to chase Avid. Yet his legs are stuck, made of brick and morter.
Avid dashes through the forest stifled sobs barely noticeable at the speed he was going. He leaves his Romeo on the same same hill where they said goodbye 500 years prior.