Chapter Text
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When Pyro awoke and found themself lying in the middle of a damp, dewy forest clearing he immediately knew something was wrong.
Extremely wrong.
The last thing Pyro remembered before finding themself… well, in the clearing, was an excruciating pain around their ribs.
As they tried to sit themself up he realised he could still feel a throb in his ribs. It wasn't as prominent as it had been the day before. Or had it been a day? He wasn't sure but he didn't want to put too much thought into that. First of all, he needed to sit himself up and find out where the hell he was.
So, despite the throb in their ribs, which was getting more unnerving by the second, he pushed himself up, steadying himself by digging his claws into a cluster of grass blades just beneath his palms.
“God,” Pyro gasped, sharply inhaling for a breath of air he didn't need to breathe due to their vampirism.
Now that he was partially up (and awake), he started thinking about where he could possibly be. The woods of Oakhurst didn't look like this. Unless someone from the town pulled another stunt of burning the forest down… but that didn't explain this.
The wood here was birch wood. Not pale oak and certainly not dark oak. Now he was truly starting to wonder. Where in the world was he? Now that he was sitting up right he realised he had more freedom to move then he did whilst laying down. So that's exactly what he did. He looked around, in every direction his head could go hoping to find something but all he could see was… a path?
The path certainly wasn't something from Oakhurst. It had flowers blooming from each side all the way to the end, or at least where his eyes could see to. It's not like he had been teleported out of Oakhurst overnight. Was it?
Pyro took a moment to try to remember anything. Even something small could be helpful. So he thought. Although the thing he remembered wasn't helpful. It jus made him more confused.
You see, Pyro remembered himself in the dining room, Shelby slowly approaching him, like he was a pig she wanted to tear the throat out of. Like he was prey. With no way out. His memory was still blurry but he could recall Shelby stalking towards him, stake behind her back. He could recollect his questioning pleas as his fledgling revealed the stake from behind their back. They relieved Shelby, cornering them before driving the stake through their heart.
“Oh. oh god, what have they done,” he muttered, trying to force unnatural feelings of hatred toward Shelby to start but he couldn't. His heart couldn't hate Shelby, despite being stabbed through. That was his fledgling. He wanted to hate them. She killed them. But he couldn't help but feel disappointed. Not in Shelby. But in himself. His death was deserved. He knew that. He was glad he had killed Avid but the weeks after the murder weren't the same.
Sire wasn't the same. Shelby wasn't the same and most of all. The coven would never be the same.
He rubbed his temples until something came into his mind. A thought that didn't quite make sense. He was supposed to be dead.
Ugh, he would get to that later. Right now he needed to find civilization. Plus, he was getting hungry. And no one likes a hungry vampire.
Pyro braced himself for the pain of getting up and pushed himself onto his knees. He could only imagine how horrid walking would feel if simply standing up felt like he was being dragged through the pits of hell. And they were still only on their knees. He had a long way to go till he was up and he could feel the sun burning against him.
He continuously tried to stand for 27 long minutes before collapsing back against his knees. He took a deep breath, which he kept doing for some reason, before heaving over into a ball of sobs.
He was so angry.
Not really at Shelby, although he wasn't sure it would stay like that.
He was angry at Owen, who was the one who convinced him with that snarky smirk on his face.
Of course they had wanted to rip Avid apart but he wasn't actually going to. He thought about it often but he wouldn't have done it without the push.
Owen said Sire would worship Pyro after he killed Avid. He wouldn't be an obedient servant any longer. At least that's what he believed. God why did he believe Owen?
It took about another 10 minutes before Pyro could stop replaying the stake going through his heart and the shake of their voice as Shelby took their power to speak.
Pyro decided that
1) he needed to get over Si–Scott.
And 2) If he ever had to lay his eyes on Shelby, Avid, Scott or Owen again he would either rip himself apart or give them silent treatment.
Yeah, that sounded right.
Okay, now he really did need to get up.
Instead of struggling like a lunatic like his previous attempts, he struggled through the grass and over to the nearest tree to brace himself on.
After 5 minutes of pushing up against the tree, he was standing. Although he wasn't too sure it wouldn't last. So, he started limping as he waddled toward the path and started following the trail.
He was grateful for the lanterns hanging above his head as he pushed through the forest, which was almost fully dark. He must've been set back to stage 1 after he was staked.
After approximately 5 minutes Pyro found himself in a city. They looked up at the buildings but that wasn't what grabbed their attention. It was the sky, the stars, even the moon captivated him. It reminded him of Oakhurst. Although the moon was no longer an unusual red colour he couldn't help but feel an extreme sense of nostalgia.
The only thing that grabbed his attention away from the moon was the strange buzzing noise coming towards him. No, not a buzz. It sounded more like a roar. Pyro turned his head to see where it was coming from just to be launched forward by a large bump behind him.
As he turned around he saw a… a big hunk of metal. With wheels.
“This is not what I need right now,” He muttered as he glared at the metal hunk, which had stopped before him.
He groaned as he rubbed his hip, which had been hit with the most force.
As they sat on the pavement, determining whether or not he would bite the person who had just hit him he froze. Someone was standing directly above him. He hadn't noticed their approach. Before he could make up his mind on whether to bite them the person started to speak.
“Hey… Are you okay?” the voice spoke as its owner peered down at him.
“I-i suppose I'm okay…” he replied, hesitating on the last word.
“Are you sure? You look rather sick?” the person asked.
“I’m just having a bad day,” Pyro insisted, hoping the person would turn away, “thank you though.”
She hesitated before signalling for someone else in the metal hunk to come over.
The woman who stepped out was someone who he hadn't expected to see again.
Apo.