Chapter Text
Two hundred years had passed since the fateful day fourteen people walked into the abandoned town of Oakhurst.
Under the careful guidance of its two immortal guardians, what had once been nothing but ruins, had flourished into a quaint little village of miners and mystery enthusiasts. The soil, still rich with silver, had proven to be rather lucrative when handled well. And Oakhurst’s grim reputation had attracted quite a few supernatural inhabitants. Humans, vampires, and werewolves all mingled peacefully within the town’s walls. A few farms had popped up along the edges as well. Not the gruesome kind that Cleo had grown accustomed to in their youth, just regular ones. They housed plenty of cattle, enough to satisfy the never-ending hunger of some of the more bloodthirsty residents. Rumors had it that they had a better deal going there than where Shelby, Scott, Abolish, and Drift were currently living. Outside of their idyllic little bubble, the price of steak had seemingly shot through the roof.
Of course, no good thing ever lasted.
Pearl and Cleo had both been on edge leading up to the anniversary of the Curse.
They’d done their best to clear the land of the dark magic that had been cast upon it eight hundred years prior. All the beacons that Abolish’s Shadow Organization hadn’t taken had been carefully dismantled. Each and every crypt had been meticulously sealed up. And the old, empty castle that once loomed dark and sinister over their woods had been turned into a concert venue that hosted dozens of raves each year. Shelby’s suggestion. She was still salty about having had to put so much effort into helping to build their ballroom, only for it to never be used.
Unfortunately, Oakhurst was the one place where no good deed ever went unpunished.
And right as the clock struck midnight, signaling the beginning of the year of darkness, rumors of beasts slaughtering great quantities of the neighboring farms’ cows, sheep, pigs, and chickens with great abandon reached Pearl’s and Cleo’s ears.
Their citizens were well aware of the existence of the supernatural. They weren’t an easily spooked bunch. And, most of the tourism their area received was from fans of the unexplained and gory (and some hacks who insisted on filming every piece of junk in the many tourist traps that had been set up there and claimed even those to be haunted), so they weren’t usually upset by odd sightings either. That was to say that, when they heard people talk about a half-blackened body with a horn protruding from one half of its forehead, and four old graves suddenly being found empty and disturbed, Pearl and Cleo believed them wholeheartedly. Oakhurst was still small enough that most people who lived there knew each other, and they knew better than to pull a fast one on their guardians when they were already on edge.
Pearl, ever the adventurer, had proposed they head out to locate the monsters set on disturbing their peace themselves. Stakes were easy enough to make in a hurry, and they had never gotten around to ridding themselves of the silver weaponry they’d once amassed, even if neither of them could touch it anymore. They could easily round up some of their beefier citizens, hand it all over, and solve the problem before it could turn into a real issue.
Cleo wasn’t so sure that would work, however.
For one thing, while all the graves that had been dug up used to belong to vampires, the description of what the farmers had seen didn’t sound anything like any of them. And, even disregarding that detail, Owen had been cured before his death. Of course, they knew thanks to Abolish’s odd predicament that their methods back then had been far from perfect, so some vampire blood might have remained within him even after all darkness had been flushed out of his soul. But he was at most whatever the Hell their immortal shadow friend was, and those things couldn’t be killed with stakes. An unfortunate incident half a century back, when he’d startled Shelby by breaking into the home they shared with Scott without announcing himself, had proven as much.
No, their best bet was to call some reinforcements.
Apo was no longer an option. Once her beloved had reached elderly age, they’d chosen eternal slumber together. Hand in hand. Besides, while Cleo was happy for her for having been able to reclaim her agency in the end, they’d never quite come to like her or even tolerate her company much. Pearl was the one who’d stayed in touch with her. She was the one who’d gone to visit her before the end.
Some people just didn’t click.
Sausage was doing great. He was off touring the world with his new book (a version of the novella that had made him famous two hundred years prior, but from the point of view of the love interest instead). He was busy. Despite how flimsy and shallow Cleo had always thought him to be, he did make time to stop by Martyn’s and Ren’s graves once in a while. Sometimes years went by between his visits, but he’d never forgotten them. That said, when she called him, she wasn’t surprised to hear him making excuses. There was nothing left for him in Oakhurst. Nothing he valued more than his fame and his job.
Abolish, Scott, Drift, and Shelby, thankfully, were a lot easier to reach and far readier to help. In part because their two groups had maintained a close bond. And in part because the eldest of them was still on his self-improvement journey, and had yet to find a middle ground between his prior selfishness and the excessive selflessness a lot of humans tended to unhealthily idolize. And he and the other three were a package deal. Hell, Cleo was fairly certain they’d all moved in together at some point in the past decade. They made for a very odd little family, but, as long as they were happy with it, who were they to judge?
Their backup arrived in Oakhurst about a week after the beginning of the Curse.
In that time, Pearl and Cleo had done their best to limit cattle slaughter by helping the farmers move their animals to some emergency underground enclosures they’d prepared just in case. On top of that, the local miners helped provide all the other citizens with silver blocks they could install under their front doors. Patrols were organized and were mainly comprised of vampires and werewolves who had a higher chance of being able to handle themselves in a fight with… who they could only imagine were their old friends and foes, back for revenge.
That said, they hadn’t yet managed to capture the four beasts. Or, well, if their hunch was correct, whatever parts of Owen, Pyro, Doctor Legundo, and Avid had been awakened by the nasty magic that still lingered. As a matter of fact, they’d barely caught glimpses. A sad green eye in the crowd when Cleo gave a speech to announce the new curfew. A horned shadow dashing off in the night when patrols walked around with their bright electric torches. The lingering smell of freshly-cut wood Pearl sniffed on a rooftop. Those were the kind of hints they had to rely upon to know their town hadn’t been swept up by a bout of mass hysteria.
And then Abolish was there, and Shelby (who’d apparently started working alongside him at some point), too, and they had everything wrapped up before Cleo and Pearl could even finish explaining how elusive their pests were. They moved silently and swiftly. Both were making full use of the terrifying precision their training had imparted on them. They slipped away while their buddies entertained their hosts with chatter and shared in some blood pudding and wine, and then returned after the sun set, carrying four unconscious bodies in tow.
They reminded Cleo of Oscar. Hers and Pearl’s little vampire kitten. He, too, was a slippery fellow and often ran out between their legs when their front door opened and only came back after decimating the local population of mice. They were trying to teach him to let go of that habit, but he was a stubborn little fucker. They were half-convinced that he knew what he was doing when he looked up at them with those huge innocent eyes, while his mouth was full of several rats still, he was a master manipulator.
Amusement at the scene aside, Cleo had to admit that they were rather taken aback by the appearance of their old acquaintances.
The Doctor looked gaunter than they’d ever seen him before: his cheeks had sunken so far that they could almost spot his jaw bones through his skin, his hands were skeletal, and his skull still sported that awful crack Owen had seen fit to give him while turning him. In the week he’d been back, he’d likely refused to eat. His commitment to the self-destructive path he’d chosen to walk had yet to waver then.
Speaking of the lumberjack, his hair was split in half between brown and white, very similar to what Abolish had going on. So the cure had changed him like they’d suspected, although the ever-present scowl painted on his face tried to fool them into believing otherwise. That anger he’d always carried with him hadn’t lessened. They could see it in the hunch of his shoulders, in the down-turned corners of his mouth, in the way he sometimes growled even in his sleep. A half-feral beast, that one. Even when he was the closest to being human.
Avid… he was almost unrecognizable. Half of his skin had turned pitch black and smelled of rot. The horn protruding from his forehead looked brittle and kept shedding an irritating powder. His claws had grown longer and sharper than when he used to be a vampire. A sharp, bony tail was attached to his lower back and wrapped around one of his legs protectively. Half-demon, that was Scott’s best guess, although he admitted that he’d never seen anything of the like in his two thousand years of life. The rest of them had no clue, so they, nonetheless, trusted his judgment.
As for Pyro… well, truth be told, they hadn’t changed all that much, physically, at least. Their skin was still that odd ashy gray, their hair was white, burn scars from the holy water that they’d once been doused in covered half their face as well as their left hand, and slash marks could still be seen on their face; they’d never fully healed. Abolish, and Shelby had found them by the old Obelisk, where they’d been turned. The two professionals had noted that they’d looked forlorn and pensive. The scholar had apparently made it clear that they’d noticed their presence, but, even still, had done nothing to fight back and had not tried to run. And Cleo could maybe guess why, even asleep as they were, they looked exhausted. There were dark circles under their eyes, pain colored their features, and their eyebrows were obstinately furrowed.
They decided to split them up into three different rooms. They thought two would suffice at first, but then Drift had reminded them of Avid mentioning that his best friend had gone completely feral after being turned into whatever he was now, and had attacked him, refusing to listen to reason. So it was best to quarantine him until they could be certain that he wouldn’t reenact that scene.
With that in mind, Avid was tied up to one of the chairs by the table in the kitchen. They laid the Doctor down on the bed in the guest room (Cleo and Pearl had originally built that one with Abolish, Shelby, Scott, and Drift in mind, but it had never really been used by them in the end, as they always traveled together. The only one who’d ever slept there before was Sausage. And it showed. Paper was strewn about everywhere, an old half-empty bottle of ink and a fancy quill could be spotted on the desk, and a copy of each book he’d ever written filled the shelves), and then sat Pyro and Owen down on a couch in the living room.
Now that that was all in order, Cleo and Pearl left their friends in charge of guarding their sleeping guests and left their quaint little cottage in favor of calling a meeting in the town hall. Mandatory attendance. They wanted to assure their people that the threat had been contained and, unless the Curse decided to throw something else at them, they could go back to their normal daily lives.
Public speaking was something Cleo had never quite grown accustomed to. She still lost her temper far too easily and grew antsy in crowded spaces. But with Pearl’s hand in hers and that bright smile her partner always sported illuminating her world, she knew she’d get through it that time as well.
Hopefully, they’d be quick and get back before their four guests had awoken.