Chapter Text
Paintbrush had been a vampire for a while, maybe about five years, they were 18, an idiot, and got bit by a vampire turning them. They learned how to hide it pretty well very quickly, mostly staying a little at home introvert, feeding on random people they didn't know and never enough to kill.
Those were their rules, luckily it was easy due to them living at Oj’s hotel, a place where basically everyone was allowed if they had an invite, though Oj mostly invited any rando he saw and then hired them or just let them stay if they couldn’t work which created an eclectic group. All of them stayed on the upper two floors and the hotel worked as an actual hotel of the bottom floors, paintbrush worked as one of the room attendants, which was a simple job though.
The town itself was also a bit tourism spot for a bunch of vampire sightings, which also causes a lot of vampire hunters (but also a lot of vampires), just something Paintbrush needs to be careful about.
It was a simple day, just cleaning up a room where someone just finished staying in then going back up to their room, where their roommate was, Fan, they were good friends with fan, but he’s had a recent obsession with your commonplace monsters, including Vampires, which is pretty awkward when he doesn't know that his roommate is in fact the monster he’s obsessing over.
They decided to start drawing on their drawing tablet, a nice destressor from their nice little life, also they made more money with it… people pay them to draw things… that’s a plus.
“Hey- Hey, Paintbrush, wanna see something cool I found on Vampire’s recently”
“Fan I’m sure whatever it is I already know it, you know I had a vampire phase when I was like 12”
“No no- Paintbrush this is like how I could turn INTO a vampire. Wouldn’t this be so cool? I would personally let myself get bit by a bat if I could be a creature of the night”
“That sounds like a quick way to get Rabies”
“Okay maybe not that, but I will still try, do you know how COOL it would be to be a vampire”
“Honestly sounds like it would suck dude”
“Hah! Suck. like how vampires suck blood, I see what you were doing there!”
“That wasnt a pun, Fan, just generally the idea of being a vampire would be terrible”
“How would you know, you may act like a vampire but you’re no– wait a minute? Are you a vampire?”
“No. dude you’ve seen me do things like eat, do your vampire facts say vampires can eat human food?”
“I guess you’re right… but if you are a vampire… PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE TURN ME INTO ONE” They look over to Fan, they were genuinely considering it so they just sigh and go along with it.
“Alright… I’ll bite, yes. I am a vampire, but, do you think you could deal with being a vampire?”
“... knew it… also Yeah I mean of course, with the amount of research i’ve put into this im sure I could”
“You could never go out in sunlight again”
“Who needs sun when you have ETERNAL LIFE paintbrush” Well actually paintbrush could go in the sunlight but they felt… older? When they did they had eternal life but it’s like it wore off and they felt like a normal 23 year old… if that makes any sense? They didnt need to make sense, they mostly just asked it because it was your typical vampire thing.
“What about having to feed on people around you”
“Not the greatest but I could live with that”
Paintbrush listed every single thing negative effect of being a vampire (true or not) they could think of and Fan just said he could deal with it, actually the only thing he really hesitated on was the garlic thing, which made paintbrush laugh a bit, they miss garlic, but not enough to vomit their guts out whenever they eat anything with garlic in it, so they just say they’re allergic. Paintbrush for the most part forgot that Fan was a fellow introverted nerd. So after about 20 minutes, they agreed.
“Alright alright, I’ll turn you, just… don’t tell anyone this was me, I know people would FREAK out”
“Yes yes whatever” Fan positions his neck.
“Never actually turned someone so you're my guinea pig here”
Paintbrush bites Fan’s neck and drinks some of his blood. They weren’t actually sure
“Alright.. I think that worked?”
“You think?”
“Again, never tried it, you'll eventually be a vampire I think.”
“Right… and if I don't?"
“I dunno I am not trying this again”
Nothing happened for the first few days, paintbrush was actually kind of relieved that nothing had happened, and then on the 6th day, fan was found dead in his and Paintbrush’s room, luckily Paintbrush was cleared of notable suspicion due to them hanging out with lightbulb that night. The two of them were standing at the back of the huge crowd that had formed around Fan’s body, mostly due to Paintbrush not wanting to attract any attention just in case Fan wasn’t dead and the vampire thing worked.
Of course the main people up front were Test Tube who was absolutely freaking out and OJ who was mostly telling people what to do about said dead body, and keeping Test Tube away from Fan for the time being. Paintbrush couldn’t fully tell what was going on due to the rest of the hotel staff being in front of them but from what they could gather, Fan was actually dead.
And then a few minutes later, when most of the crowd dissipated and paintbrush started cleaning up Fan’s things, there was screaming from downstairs, to be exact, around the entrance of the building, and to be more exact, The screams of Paper, which piqued their interest.
They quickly came downstairs to the first floor. To which Paintbrush and a few others came down to see the commotion.
“Fan- Fan he’s standing right there but he’s dead, Guys I’m not going insane, you can see this right?” Fan was there. And Alive, just paler than he already was, long fangs, pointy ears and looking dead. He actually got turned into a vampire… shit.
“Yep guys! All good, I’m pretty cool lookin now!” Everyone in the room paused at what they thought was a group hallucination, OJ was the first to move, touching fan, dead pulse, cold to the touch.
“Well good news, you’re not crazy hun. Bad news, I think the vampire rumors the town is famous for are real… uh Paintbrush, go get Test Tube while I put him in a quarantine until we know what's going on, Paper, but the hotel on lockdown, nobody is entering or leaving until we catch any and all vampires in this building and report them to local hunters”
“Wait what!?”
“It’s for the best, Fan, Paintbrush, Paper, you ready”
Both paintbrush and paper nod and go . Well that’s an issue that Paintbrush now needs to deal with that… they need a plan to not get killed, but first Test Tube.
Paintbrush gets to test tube’s door and slowly knocks on it, trying to ignore her very obvious sobbing. They quickly hear a weak voice.
“Come- come in”
They take a small step in, Test Tube had a small lab in there, but she was currently on her bed, sobbing, something about Fan. Paintbrush walking into the room.
“Look, Test Tube.” They sigh, they know Test Tube isnt going to take this well so they rip off the bandaid “Fan’s Alive… ish…. he’s a vampire.”
“What.” They could hear Test Tube starting to hyperventilate. Shit.
“Look look it’s gonna be fine, they’re going to find the vampire and it’ll all be fine”
“HOW WAS I THIS WRONG!? HOW IS FAN ALIVE?” After that she just goes silent and continues hyperventilating, faster and faster, there’s not much Paintbrush can do other than just be there until she calms down.
“I’m going to let you figure out how you feel about this, Hotel’s on lockdown by the way”
“Hm.”
Paintbrush goes back downstairs to what was going on, and it was utter chaos, pretty much everyone was turning on each other while OJ Lightbulb and Baseball were really trying to get everyone to calm down. Their five regular guests and the only ones currently staying there (Knife, Bow, Dough, Apple and Marshmellow) were confused as hell and staying in their rooms for the time being.
Paintbrush quickly pulls Lightbulb away.
“Lightbulb can we talk in my room real quick?”
“Of course Painty…. Uh OJ! BASEBALL! I’ll be right back you can handle this right?”
They both nod and Paintbrush brings Lightbulb up to their room, locking the door behind them, they were panicking.
“Woah, Painty, if you wanted to do something you could’ve asked up front.”
“Not that Lightbulb but I am panicking.”
“Ooooh. This is one of those situations. What are ya panicking about dude?”
“I dunno just everything, the fact my roommate got turned into a vampire, everyone turning on each other, th–”
“The fact you’re a Vampire and scared to get killed?”
“Wait you know about that?”
“Painty it was kinda obvious I’m sorry.”
“How did you ever figure it out?”
“Let’s see your big like for sweaters and being weirdly cold all the time, I’ve never felt your heartbeat, your garlic allergy, you always cover up when we go outside, Omga there’s a lot of signs… but if it makes you feel any better I dont think anyone else knows.”
“Good… now what do I do about it”
“Turn everyone who opposes you into a Vampire like yourself.”
“That sounds like a terrible Idea lightbulb”
“But it would work!”
“It would…”
“Just think about it my guy”
“I’ll only do it if I absolutely need to”
“Your choice. I’m going back downstairs to deal with the rest of the staff and stuff, you go do whatever.”
Lightbulb kisses them and leaves, and they sit there, thinking about everything that happened today, with all their eyes on them it’ll be harder to do basically anything as a vampire, they also start to wonder if there were any other vampires in the building, they think about people with weirdly pale skin and weird traits… nobody comes to mind. They’re probably alone in this…