Chapter Text
When you least expect it,
your path will begin.
Again,
and again.
Count not your time.
Count how many times your eyes have opened,
while you were aware of it.
Count the familiar ache that arrives without reason;
the feeling of a phantom that isn’t there.
Count the roads that feel already walked;
otherwise lost on the new tracks.
Past the vast fields and forest.
Where the earth fractures itself; where the light can’t reach your skin.
Deep below our world an answer might there be,
the silence awaits,
the dark consumes.
As fluid as water;
black underneath, golden around,
the judge merciful might be;
guided towards a release you’ll be.
The world your hand finally will let go.
And your freedom will reach your soul.
— The Last Passage by ███ ████ ███████
He had enough
This wasn’t going to be part of his plans at all, but as the problems just keep getting worse and worse, he couldn’t just stand around and pretend like nothing was happening.
He was already done with these kid games. He would do anything in order to get himself out of this forsaken place.
So here he was, lantern in hand and lighters in his pockets. The forest didn’t have anything to do with this mess, but it was necessary. He would ask the forgiveness of nature when the time was given, but right now? Actions must be taken…
He gripped the chain that was attached to his lantern and breathed deeply, letting it loose ever so sightly, allowing the lantern to fall, but righted the grip on the chain before the lantern made contact with the floor.
He made a few experimental swings to get enough momentum, before thrashing the lantern around in circles.
And everything lit it up, like hell itself.
The fire consumed like a ravaged beast, dried leaves on the floor caught on fire instantly.
The fire soon begun to claim the bark…
The fire soon begun to spread…
And Abolish Veylocke…
Just watched while the fire lit his face in warm colors.
But he had more work to do. This fire could luckily handle a decent amount of forest, but no, that wouldn’t be enough.
He stepped out of the ring of fire that was surrounding him, taking advantage of the brief immunity that his lantern trash gave him. With several long strides, he spread the fire with the many lighters in his pockets.
The smell of burning wood and leaves was the only thing in the air. Big curtains of black smoke curled up towards the sky, almost as if the smoke itself wanted to snuffle out the sunlight.
The whole forest atmosphere had transformed into vivid hues of red, orange and yellow. It completely shallowed the cold tones of the daylight that painted Oakhurst.
Abolish had successfully ran out of lighters. But right now, he had worse problems. He hadn't thought the day would be windy enough to spread the fire this much. Soon enough, he found himself in the most dense area of the forest, where, the fire had caught up quickly and engulfed the area in an inferno.
Abolish squinted his eyes as he tried to see past the fire and smoke; the heat was unbearable and forced him to cover his mouth and nose with a handkerchief he always carried. He tried in vain to avoid the fire and find an opening to get out of there. Maybe, just maybe… He should have thought this through a little more…
He moved quickly, avoiding the spreading fire as best as his capabilities allowed him. His eyes were teary and red, his throat tight, itchy and burning, his nose was in the same state; the handkerchief couldn’t do much at this point. Abolish coughed roughly as his vision blurred even more, his head begun to feel dizzy. He was having issues breathing, his senses were failing him. Where was he? Another series of violent coughing ripped from his sore throat.
He didn't have real view of his surroundings, there was fire in every direction he looked at. Dumb, dumb, dumb! How could he have been so reckless with this!? Morcant didn’t teach him like this. He certainly wouldn't be proud of him and neither would his parents. Right now the world was making him pay for his sins; was this karma? He didn’t know.
His vision was blackening out in moments. His chest feel so tight… Everything was so hot…
A loud snap was heard right next to him, similar to a bone being snapped in half. But it wasn’t a bone. It was a tree. The base of a massive fire-engulfed tree snapped by the constant weakening that the fire was giving, and now it was falling right on top of Abolish. He tried to run but his body wouldn't listen.
His head felt like it was about to explode. He could feel his body aching with soreness, but he was frozen in place. His vision was too blurry to even try to make something out. Was he out? Did he live? Someone got him out of the fire? How–
“Are you the one with the big foot?” A Scottish accent reached his ears, interrupting his train of thought. A voice that at this point he identified perfectly, but it was partially muffled by the constant ringing in his ears that he hadn’t noticed until that moment. Why would Goldsmith help him? Why… Hold on… “big foot”? An aching pain throbbed in his head but he tried to play it off. He was disoriented, and his vision was still sightly blurry, but he could make out three silhouettes in front of him.
“This is the butler.” He could hear Cleo say. Why would Cleo refer to him as 'the butler'? That had happened only on the first day. Why does this feel so…
“I was just about to say. Could you get us a beverage or some food?” Scott spoke again. Abolish's vision finally cleared and he froze at the sight in front of him.
“He looks like the ones we have” Another voice -Martyn- sounded a bit more muffled as his brain started to spiral even more. He blinked once, twice. This isn't happening. This isn't happening. He ignored the three individuals in front of him completely, instead looking around and found what was the ruins of Oakhurst as they found them the first day this nightmare started.
He looked to his left seeing the crumbled tower that surrounded the town beacon. The beacon was turned off. Oh, greatest above… No, no, no, no.
Abolish's body moved on its own before he could even begin to think clearly. Completely ignoring the voices behind him, the comments of: “What a rude butler” or such. He jogged out of town, he wasn’t desperate or something like that, nononono, he was perfectly fine, his heartbeat wasn’t in his ears right now, nope, absolutely not. The barrier wasn’t up, the barrier wasn’t up. He couldn't live this again. He wouldn't live through this again.
In an instant a beam of light shot into the sky, lighting up between the grey clouds like the flash on a storm, the clouds shifted around in a distressed dance, moving in circles around the beam until it disappeared and the sky went back to normal as if nothing had happened. A shock of energy filled his body, an energy that should have comforted him; a holy beacon had been consecrated, but it only filled him with more dread. He hadn't even jogged for half a mile before he was met with that dammed barrier. Abolish clenched his fists and punched at the barrier, effectively doing absolutely nothing. Ragged gasps left his mouth. He couldn't help but mumble incoherently, feeling the urge to curse at everything.
Why was he back?
WHY WAS HE BACK HERE!?
He sighed deeply, resting his forehead against the barrier. Feeling the magical-whatever force that it made to repel him. He wanted go back home… He missed Morcant…
After a while of calming himself down Abolish made his way back to (old?) Oakhurst. He saw that everyone was already starting to settle up and this only confirmed even more his current situation. He was back the day it all started.
He needed to be careful. He didn’t know how things could change. He didn’t know if he should care if something changes. He didn’t–
“VAMPIRE!!” He heard that damn high-pitched yell being directed at him. Great, just great. What did he do? He ignored the nuisance, unbothered. It was better than feeding into his hysteria and he certainly wasn't in the mood for it.
Passing by, caring little about the stares he was getting, he made his way towards the town beacon, giving a glance at that hellish thing. Oh… How badly did he want to destroy that thing even though he knew it was useless. The things seemed to be indestructible.
“Excuse me…?” Someone spoke behind him. It took him a bit to identify the voice. The tone sounded so… different, but it was him, it has to be him. Turning around to face the one that wanted his attention, he found the scholar, he was right. It was Pyro; but he had gotten so used of the tone Pyro carried as vampire that hearing how he sounded before was… strange? He didn’t know how to put it.
“Yes?” Abolish asked, voice monotone but still had a (strained) politeness. His face, as always, didn’t show any emotion. And he was grateful that he had grown up like that, because right now? He wanted to kill everyone… Well, maybe not everyone. Pyro was fine…
“My name is Jack! Jack von Pyroscythe. But you can call me just Pyro. I think I saw you earlier but you weren’t there when everyone introduced themselves,” The scholar said, offering his hand for a handshake.
Abolish hummed in acknowledgement, staring down at Pyro’s hand for some good time before reluctantly grabbing it and giving a polite shake. “Abolish, it’s a pleasure. I had… Some issues early on– forgot something really important and had to go for it,” He lied. Because he had to. But, of course, the scholar wouldn't notice the lie at all. They smiled back.
“And what brings you to Oakhurst?”
Oh, how he does regret coming to Oakhurst in the first place… “My family ties came from Oakhurst, so I came here to pay my respects to my parents,” he said as he locked his gaze with Pyro's blue eyes. Abolish never paid that much attention to the scholar. It wasn’t like he had much time to do so. Could Abolish do something? Would that be wrong?
“Oh my– I’m so sorry for that,” Pyro said a little guiltily. He shuffled a little, looking a bit nervous about the constant stare Abolish gave him. “I– Uh… Hope you settle well here and– uh– have a great day!” Pyro rambled before walking away. Had Abolish stared too much?
Abolish would never admit it out loud, but he felt bad for Pyro. Knowing likely what waits for him in the coming nights. He didn’t know what to do. He wasn’t exactly sure what had happened.
He had read something related to his current situation back when he read stuff in Morcant’s library when he wasn’t in constant assignments, he hadn't really believed that it could be a thing. Either way, he wasn’t sure if this was some sort of alternative timeline in the past or if he just went back in time. He didn’t know if it would be safe to change the flow of things but everything seemed normal so far… no, technically not, because now Avid had claimed him to be a vampire for some reason. So, in fact, he had already messed up with something, great, he would have even more paperwork when he escapes this place. If he managed to do that.
He ran a gloved hand through his hair, he could physically feel the headache building. Continuing his pacing through Oakhurst, he ended up stumbling upon Owen and the doctor. Most likely Legundo was asking Owen about the bandages the lumberjack had and if he could help. Abolish really tried to avoid being noticed by anyone, but Owen noticed him anyways.
“And who are you?” Owen said skeptically, narrowing his eyes. Jeez, did he have something on his face? Why was everyones suddenly so wary of him?
“Oh! You’re… Abolish, yeah, we spoke earlier, didn’t we? You weren’t there when everyone gathered up for introductions, right?” Legundo said. He had introduced himself to Legundo…? Oh… so, the events that had happened before he had became aware had occurred the same as before…
“I– yes. I had an emergency to take care of something at that moment, Legundo,” Abolish said, looking towards the not-known-to-town vampire. “And you are?” Abolish tried to play it off, as if he didn’t know anything at all.
“Name’s Owen,” The vampire said, his posture was tense, like a cat ready to lunge, why? Abolish didn’t know, and he really didn’t care.
“You should go meet the rest, better to let yourself be known,” Legundo said to Abolish, but then his brow furrowed at the sight of something. “Are you hurt?” The doctor suddenly asked.
“What?” Abolish asked back, was he hurt? Like- he felt like he was run over by a stampede of horses but he didn't feel physically hurt. The doctor suddenly stepped forward. “Can I conduct a quick check up on you?” Legundo requested, practically in all of Abolish’s personal space.
“Sure…?” The butler hesitantly agreed, before he was grabbed by the arm and dragged over to a half-ruined stone wall, where Legundo obliged him to sit down. Owen just scoffed, glancing one last time at the butler before leaving. Abolish's gaze lingered on Owen's retreating form but was interrupted by the doc, who placed a hand near his forehead before moving his hair out of the way. "You have a burn mark on your forehead, how old is it? How you get a burn in that place to begin with?” The doctor questioned, looking through his stuff for the items needed.
A… burn mark? He instinctively raised a gloved hand to touch, but Legundo didn’t allow him to do that as he grabbed his wrist in a firm grip. “Do you have a mirror or something?” Abolish asked since the doc didn’t want him to touch the injury at all. The doctor gave him a worried look, before pulling out a hand mirror from the bag and handed it over. He grabbed the mirror and shifted it around to get the best angle. His whole body froze. Right there in the upper of his forehead, where his hair could almost perfectly hide it from view, was a reddish mark, but it wasn't completely nomal, it looked more like a direct hit of sorts and then there was the damage of the burn —a damage that he already lived— he stared at it, gaze locked completely on the mark. He winced, not from a real pain. But more of a phantom pain that extended all over his skull and spine, a pain that made his whole skin itchy.
Legundo carefully pulled Abolish’s hands and arms out of the way, and started to treat the wound. Abolish didn’t move or make further noise. He was more zoned out trying to make sense of everything.
“Alright. Good news is that it seems like it’s almost completely healed and will only leave a scar. But still, try to avoid touching it or grazing it with anything, okay?” The doc said, placing a hand on one of the butler’s shoulders.
“Thanks doc… I’ll keep that in mind,” Abolish nodded slowly. He stood up again once he made sure that the doctor wouldn’t ramble more about checking anything else on him. He gave a polite farewell and instead of roaming around Oakhurst, he went out to get some wood. The quicker he gets his ‘house’, the better for him. He unattached the stone axe from his belt, giving a swing to the tree. Then another, and another.
By the eighth swing the tree creaked loudly and fell to his side, raising a cloud of dust. Out of curiosity he checked the rings in the stump of the tree. The trees were old, and that made Abolish feel somewhat bad for what he did, even though it hadn’t happened yet. Either way, it wasn’t like it mattered now. Moving over to the fallen tree, he drove down his axe into the trunk, chopping smaller logs to make it easier to carry back. As he did, he couldn’t stop feeling as if he was being watched over. Sometimes he would look around with a calculative gaze, finding nothing. But the more it went on, the more he started to feel weird, it was different. There was an obvious gaze, one that he could manage to track, but there was another that sent him on alert.
He stood still, axe embedded into the trunk, he listened and tried to focus. There, in a swift movement he turned to face the direction of where he felt those pesky eyes. He saw a figure hidden between the trees. Narrowing his eyes, Abolish took his axe and walked over to where he saw the figure. However, he found nothing but a few twigs that had been snapped. If he could guess, he would say that it was probably one of the vampires, which one? He had no idea.
But if they were watching him, it was because they found something intriguing on him, probably. Which, by any means, didn’t signal anything good…
Fortunately for Abolish, no one really bothered him once he came back to town and begun to make his shack; this time a little bit more functional as he knew better. He needed efficiency, the quicker he managed to gear himself up, the quicker he can deal with everything and get out of Oakhurst.
By nightfall he had made a lot of progress. Well, at least it would have been like that if it wasn’t because of a duo of annoying vampires who decided to spring a conversation on him while he was busy.
“You know. I’ve never seen a butler act so mean to anyone, that’s very unprofessional of you,” Scott said in a silk smooth tone as he approached from behind in perfectly silent steps. Owen on the other hand… didn’t even bother to be quiet.
Abolish sighed deeply, he straightened himself up and turned around, facing himself directly at Scott. “Do you need something, sir?” He said as politely as possible, hiding his annoyance under his façade. He needed to keep himself composed…
“Hmm. So you have some manners at least…” Scott hummed, glancing up and down at this ‘butler.’ “Yes. In fact. I would like to ask you if you would like to go with us to explore the area,” Scott said with his usual charm and a small smirk that didn’t allow him to show any fangs.
“Right now I’m pretty busy,” Abolish said, it was true. He was busy and it was an absolute suicidal thought to go with both vampires anywhere. Besides, he didn’t have a reason to go with them-
“The scholar is coming too,” Owen added, with his arms crossed.
Great… Someone save him from this suffering.