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Abolish walked away from the tower, purposeful strides disguising the anger brewing inside his ribcage. The next townsfolk who came across him with an asinine request would get a fist to the face, or perhaps a knee to the gut. Both of them, one after the other, if he got his way. He needed some time alone, away from anyone who might want to so much as talk to him; his house wasn't going to cut it.
People lacked a basic decency that vampires at least were forced to respect : knocking on doors.
He headed for the mines instead, the manual labour a needed outlet for the fuming frustration building up inside. Striking the rocks with a pickaxe instead of a jaw with knuckles would do well to quell the boiling. It would make the anger useful.
This wasn't what he'd meant to happen when he came into Oakhurst. The town was meant to be long-dead, abandoned and cursed to rot into oblivion. And it had been abandoned, sure. But not for long.
Thirteen other people arriving at the same time as him hadn't been on his radar. Two of these other people being vampires had most definitely not been expected. The barrier raised around the town's perimeter had most definitely not been in the plans.
Abolish took off his gloves, putting them in his pocket and wrapping a scarf around his face instead to minimize the amount of dust inhaled. Those precautions had never been necessary before, careful as he was to strike only where he needed to.
Avid crying wolf about vampires had been the final nail in the coffin.
The first strike of his pickaxe left a deep gouge on the rock, its impact rippling up his arm. The silver near here had long since been mined away. He couldn't care less. Abolish swung another hit, as hard as he could, dust and debris flying off the wall. Then another one.
The three strikes, cut nearly parallel to one another, looked like a creature's claw strike carved into the rock.
These people did not want to live.
Not enough, at least, to take a minute to think about their actions before throwing themselves head first into conflict they were woefully underprepared for.
This part of the cave had already been mined dry. Abolish took a step back to admire his work before descending further into the dark tunnels, hoping to find somewhere to at least be productive with his outbursts.
The others here didn't care about their own safety. That much had been obvious from the very first day, Avid the so-called 'vampire hunter' screaming about them at the top of his lungs, when common sense dictated to keep his mouth shut to avoid making himself into a target. There was the doctor's obsession with redeeming Owen, which Abolish had had the misfortune of spectating on more than one occasion. There was Pearl's lack of concern, Martyn's bull-headedness, Sausage's naivete.
And now Apo, destroying hours of gathering silver and smelting and forging and construction work on a tower that no one lived in, when they even had their own — albeit burned — house in town. Because it was ugly.
Prioritizing the aesthetics of a building no one lived in over the safety of the town beacon's holiness was nothing short of suicide.
He had the cure books. He had their safety and his own life to protect. He couldn't afford to keep spending so many of his limited resources on everyone else.
He wasn't sure how long he spent mining. The air was soon filled with dust, his black suit turning grey with it. Silver weighed his pockets down, determined to mine out every last chunk of it. If Apo kept destroying his defences, he was going to need as much of it as he could possibly carry.
And then some more.
His stomach growling is what pulled him out of the trance he'd managed to get himself in, striking at the stone without much thought other than extracting every ore he could find. It was a dangerous state to be in, but nothing much could get to him here, not with how much raw silver was on his person.
Taking a break from having to think was nice, once in a while. His fingers ached for a cigarette. Reaching the entrance staircase, he gave himself a shake, brushing the debris off his suit and out of his hair. The handkerchief protecting his airways was folded and put back into his pocket.
Climbing the makeshift stairwell, Abolish put his gloves back on, rolling his shoulders back, settling again into the character he would have to play for a while longer still. The sky was dark when he came out, a blood moon hanging high in the sky. For all the time he'd already spent here, he still wasn't used to it, the sight runninga chill down his back every time he gave it a glance.
Lighting his lantern, he began to make his way back to town.
The walk back was, unsurprisingly enough, interrupted by membrane wings fluttering high above his head. Stopping for a moment to catch where the noise came from, it wasn't hard to tell that this was a vampire in the form of a bat; few cared to make themselves act believably like the animal. There were plenty of tells for a vampire that had taken the shape of a bat; hovering around someone without going anywhere else, notably.
His notice of the bat didn't go unseen as it shifted back into a human form, Scott gracefully landing next to him.
"I didn't expect to see someone out this late, least of all you," the vampire greeted, an easy smile on his face.
"Got carried away mining silver, is all," Abolish replied, watching Scott's face turn down in disgust. "Nothing riveting."
"Do you need so much of it you keep on mining well into the night?"
Given the current standings, yes. But maybe not for long.
"Well if someone didn't keep breaking all of it, I wouldn't need to go get more." The jab wasn't aimed at anyone in particular, though lingering exasperation was hard to keep out of his voice. Scott's guilty smile said everything it needed to regarding his own hand in that matter.
"Sounds like tiring work," he noted, raising an eyebrow. Abolish had a feeling he knew where this was going. "I have to say, I've hardly ever seen you out of town. At this point, someone'll end up forgetting you exist."
"I don't like fighting," Abolish replied, doing his best despite his current exhaustion to make it into a shy thing.
"Well you'll have to eventually, if things keep going like this." Scott did a rather good job at keeping 'things' and 'this' vague enough, as if he didn't have the power to influence those.
The comment was, unfortunately, rather true. "I'd rather not fight at all if I can help it."
Scott paused, eyes turning away to think for a moment. Abolish could see a plan forming in real time, gears turning to spin it into something worthwhile. There was a glint in his eye once it had fully taken shape.
"I could give you the means to escape any fight you find yourself in," Scott offered.
There it was.
“Really?" Abolish replied, making sure scepticism bled through the remark.
"Really! Think about it, the ability to turn into a bat, to become invisible, the speed you get at night..." All decent enough arguments, if you once again ignored everything else that came with those perks.
"What's the catch?"
The 'catch' was vampirism, of course, but Abolish knew there would be something else to a turning so freely offered.
"You side with us," Scott replied. "We've enough spies planting thorns in our side as is, I'm not looking for another one. You accept vampirism for the gift that it is or you don't choose it at all."
Fair enough. There was nothing Scott could do about him not respecting the limit once he had already been turned, though.
"Then why offer it to the one person who seems so good at blending into the scenery?” Abolish remarked, earning himself a scoff.
“I’ll gladly let you spy on the humans, if that’s what you want. Don’t report back to them is what I meant.”
“I know. Give me until morning," Abolish conceded. "If I'm not at the castle by then, you have my answer."
“And if you are?”
Abolish waved his hand, the answer so obvious he didn’t dignify it with words. Scott just wanted to hear him say it.
Scott smiled, fangs flashing with the warm light of the lantern. "See you then!"
As quickly as he had appeared the vampire was gone, a single leap letting him disappear through the trees. Abolish sighed, rolling off the tension his shoulders had accumulated.
He leaned back against the closest tree, fishing his tobacco and paper out. It was a bad habit, he reminded himself, as he took the first drag. Had he not quickly known of the barrier, he'd have burned through his entire supply during the first week alone, between making a house, figuring out who was safe and who wasn't and Avid's insistence on putting a target on his own back. Even then, he didn't have much left. As he took his first drag, the soothing smoke filling his lungs, he knew it might not even matter.
Abolish was acutely aware that he was the only thing holding this town together, despite no one acknowledging this. He was the only one willing to stay behind when everyone wanted to go out on raids, the only one willing to put in the time to gather a decent amount of silver, the only one who had any kind of training in the fighting of vampires specifically. He was also one of the few sensible people without a clean-cut stance on the morality of vampire, who then wasn’t contributing to the growing paranoia.
He weighed enough to single-handedly flip the scales of this conflict they were in.
Now he had to actually choose which side to be on, rather than just stick with the one assigned at default.
Up to this point, his goal had been to stay human. Well; it had been to survive long enough to build a memorial to his parents once it was over, but remaining human was a priority of his. Even with the discovery of the cure books and subsequent shift in his mission, wasting such a useful emergency fallback so soon after discovering it felt pretty bad.
The books did change his stance on vampirism, though. Leaving human was now less of a priority than leaving alive, to successfully deliver the cure to the one organization who could make use of it on a larger scale. With the vampire's numbers growing still, there was likely a point they'd get tired of fledglings and just start killing.
As much as he trusted his own skill, he'd rather be on their side when that happened. Especially considering the people he was fighting alongside of.
Running possible scenarios for each side of the equation didn’t result in good odds for the humans. Victory — and subsequent escape — felt almost guaranteed should he decide to become a vampire, but things looked a lot less certain if he decided to remain human.
That meant, unfortunately, giving up most hopes of leaving as a human, or at least without being turned. Abolish doubted he could find a way to make choosing a sire part of the deal either, though being turned by anyone but Scott would greatly improve his chances of being cured. Pyro would be ideal, if only because they were villainized by most of the town, their sanity hanging on by a thread as of late. Shelby would most likely refuse to turn him, but her pacifist tendencies would also work in his favour if that was the case. Scott was just annoying.
He still had the cure, the precious manuscripts transcribed in notebooks hidden on his person and in a cache in his house for good measure. It would just take a while get on a level to rival and defeat Scott alone. He had all eternity to do it, though losing the perks of the magical books would complicate things.
The ember of Abolish's cigarette nearly burned his through his glove as he went to take another drag. He let it fall to the ground, watching the glow fade against the dewy grass, before crushing it for good measure. One more wasted.
Being turned was, unfortunately, the easiest way out. Maybe not the safest, since switching sides would put a target on his back, but denying Scott would have the same effect.
Either way, by morning, one group of people would want him dead.
Considering everything he'd seen up to this point, he'd rather be a target for town than the castle.
The castle was rebuilding itself at an alarmingly fast pace. Magic had to be involved, Abolish thought as he crossed the bridge, for such a monumental structure to have risen in just a few quick weeks, with no more than four people. Already its roof was almost done, a sparse few beams still left uncovered. The front door was shut, as was to be expected. Abolish entered.
It took a moment for his eyes to adjust to the darkness. The amount of torches lighting this great hall, or perhaps dining hall, was few enough to be counted on both hands. The ones that were lit were there for ambiance and not much else.
Scott was waiting for him, sitting at the end of the grand table, feet kicked up onto its hardwood surface. No one else was there, at least for now. Abolish had half expected Scott to make a spectacle out of this, a show of what it was like when a human did fully agree to being turned.
"Nice seeing you here," the vampire greeted, swinging his feet down and standing up. He was hard to see through the darkness, though Abolish supposed that might've been the point. The only part of him that stood out was the bright silverish white of his hair.
"Likewise," Abolish replied, the word falling flat in the echo-y room.
If this was to be the easier way out, the least he could do was stack the odds in his favour.
The cure books and all copies he could find and had made, as well as all of the ability books he'd been able to find in town — they really ought to leave a lookout more often — were safely locked away in the cache underneath his house. The silver he'd spent hours upon hours digging up burned quickly, the melted blob left over so thoroughly filled with ash and debris it was completely unusable as a repellent, not with the available smelting apparatus the town had cobbled together. His house was nothing more than charred foundations.
Abolish didn't budge from his end of the table. Scott didn't either. the staring contest that ensued could've put anyone in an early grave, silent command meeting careful neutrality. Abolish held strong.
Scott moved first.
He crossed the distance that separated them, unnaturally long strides quickened by the lack of sunlight filtering through thick walls. Abolish put the table against his back when the vampire arrived near him, knowing it useful support when he would lose consciousness.
He did not grant the vampire the comfort of words, undoing his tie and shirt with steady hands.
"Right to business, huh," Scott commented, a fanged smile growing on his face.
"What else is there to do," Abolish replied, taking off his suit's jacket and laying it on the table. Its collar would be annoying to keep out of the way without staining.
"Fair enough."
Scott didn't linger long, stepping closer,undoing one more button before pulling the collar of Abolish's shirt aside. He let his fangs grazing against the left side of his neck — to find the vein, it's flow far more manageable than the artery on the other side — before biting down.
It, though painful, was far from the worst thing Abolish had experienced. Scott's fangs were sharp, unlike some other bites he suffered in the past; they cut rather than tore, digging themselves a neater path. The instinct to keep himself alive, to shove and fight to try to get away was fighting strong, but Abolish's resolve was stronger. His hands held tightly onto the edge of the table and he didn't move an inch, not when he felt the dizziness start to kick in, not when his vision began to blur around the edges, not when his legs started to give.
He passed out before he could feel himself collapsing fully.
Scott hadn't even had the time to set him down when Abolish woke up, his hands still holding a vice grip onto the table. The elder stepped away, leaving him to stand on his own, wiping his mouth. The hunger would come, Abolish knew, but it hadn't settled in proper just yet. There was nothing alive in the room for it to want.
Things didn't yet feel as different as Abolish knew they would become. It would come, the instinct, the sight, the sharpness. The wrongness Abolish had heard plenty about from other agents who had been turned themselves. But it wasn't here yet.
He took his dusty handkerchief out, cleaning the little bits of blood Scott hadn't licked off before redoing his collar and tie. It was drying already, it's aroma dimmed by its thickness. If the rag hadn't been covered in rock and silver dust, he might've just wrung it into his mouth. For a taste.
"Welcome to the coven." Abolish looked up to meet Scott’s eye, a welcoming smile on his face. It was all but. He took a breath, renewing his vow to come back when this was all over. This would be over. "There's cattle in the courtyard if you're feeling hungry."
Nodding, Abolish pushed himself off the table, testing his shaky legs. The sky was still dark as he arrived in front of the cattle's pen, too weak still for his new nature to alarm them.
He could hear each of their hearts beating.
Hunger drove a stake through his stomach. It wasn't the kind he'd come to know as a human. Not the needles of waiting too long or the void of forgetting that made him feel like he was caving into himself. It wasn't a physical sensation at all; it was an instinct, moving his feet forward before he could think, bringing him all the way up to the fence. It was a hand wrapped not around his chest, his mind, shifting his thoughts into something sharper.
Abolish prided himself on his ability to remain neutral, to keep his feelings far away from his work, from himself even. It was what made him as valuable an agent as he was.
It didn't make this any easier to deal with.
He stopped before entering the pen. Managed to force his feet still before the gate of the enclosure, watching the cattle on the other side of the fence. The cows were of no interest to his hunger, their calm sleepiness a bore. He wasn't starving enough to not be picky. His hand rested on the lock, unmoving.
Scott's footsteps came behind him, stopping by his side. "What are you waiting for?" Abolish hadn't expected the other to be so close to his own ear when he spoke. Still, he didn't startle, his hand only marginally tightening on the lock. He had a better grip onto himself than he originally thought, at least.
He stared at the cattle, their heartbeats drawing him in, hypnotizing, but not enough. Their blood wouldn't be satiating. Not as much as human blood.
"I'm hunting my own food. Leave those for when we actually need it." It was believable enough as an excuse that Scott stepped away, leaving room for Abolish to go. There were plenty of animals in the forest still. There was no need to cull down their backup plan.
Though he couldn't afford human blood. Not yet, at least. Hopefully never, if he had a say in it.
"A hunter, are we? Well, good luck with that. I'm waiting on the others to get back, so I'll be around. Tell them the news and all."
The question stuck around in his brain, echoing endlessly. Vampires could see memories, he'd been told, when they drank blood. It wasn't a conscious thing, only drawing up the most replayed or most important memories.
With any luck, Scott only saw the murder of his parents, maybe a bit of training. The comment could mean anything; best not to linger on it.
Abolish gave a quick nod of acknowledgement before leaving Scott to his own business, going out the front of the castle. He paused at the edge of the table, hesitating for a moment before taking off his suit's jacket, laying it on the back of a chair. It had already been mended enough, there was no need to stain it as well.
Following that same train of thought, he rolled the sleeves of his shirt up to his elbows, making sure they wouldn't slip, then tucked his gloves into the coat's pocket. He wasn't sure how well he would be able to keep things from getting messy.
Abolish left, carefully closing the front door behind him.
The wild animals roaming the forest would get no mercy. They obeyed the rules of survival; so would he. Humans, on the other hand, held grudges. Kept feelings close to their chest deeper than those required for immediate survival.
For now, he would rather not encounter a person. Not when he couldn't guarantee a clean kill.
The sun was beginning to rise. It's waking rays didn't slow Abolish down yet, didn't burn away at his skin. Still, he searched for the cover of trees, the same eyes that could pierce the shadows of the dining room struggling to adapt to the morning light.
Everything was so much more. More intense than he'd ever imagined the world could be. It was fascinating, in a way. Abolish found himself analyzing his own behaviour, a brand new set of reflexes and instincts burned into his mind by the scar on his neck.
The last scar that would ever mark his skin.
Walking just besides the path, underneath the shadow of the pine trees, Abolish forced himself to hold his breath. His lungs were nothing more than bags of air now, useless at best and hindering at worst. Breathing could give him away, not only how he was feeling but also where he was, when he found the strength needed to turn invisible.
He needed to get rid of it as quickly as he could.
There was a deer nearby, just a ways away from the path. The sound of hooves rustling against the pine needle carpet rang in Abolish's ears. Food.
The thrill of a hunt was something he'd never understood. When so many vampire hunters worked towards the big fight, sometimes even forcing one, Abolish preferred working from the shadows. Gathering information before making a decision, only fighting when his own life was on the line. It was neater. Easier. Left way less of a mess for others to clean up later.
Now, still, it felt more like a chore than anything else.
Though he still couldn't see it, the deer's heart hold him everything he needed to know. It was calm. Unaware. Close.
Warm.
Abolish's heart didn't leap. His breath didn't quicken or catch. There was no tell for the jolt of adrenaline that coursed through him the moment he spotted the animal other than the posture he assumed, each step carefully placed, eyes locked onto his target.
Calculating. Distance, standing angle, reaction time. Staying hidden behind tree trunks until the last possible moment.
The deer noticed him. Abolish was faster. Smarter, knowing the direction it would take off in, cutting it off there rather than running to where it had been standing.
He slammed into its side, toppling the animal over. He heard the snap of a leg misplaced as it collapsed onto itself and him onto it, hands digging into its neck, finding the pulse. Finding the blood.
Teeth sank into flesh, pushing deep, cutting through skin and muscle to find and rip through the vein. The fur filling his mouth was quickly forgotten as blood flowed in.
He shouldn't have liked the taste of blood. He never had. It was better than any food he'd ever had, the taste of iron intoxicating. Better because it tasted exactly like he'd expected it to, exactly like he wanted it to. There was just something missing.
He bled the deer dry, mouth working the wound until not a single drop of blood could be drawn out.
Sitting back on his heels, Abolish took an unnecessary breath. He had half a though of butchering the animal to extract the blood stuck in the muscles still, to leave nothing to waste. The urge to sink his teeth into flesh again was strong, to rip and tear like an animal.
Finding another deer would take half as much time and yield twice as much blood.
Abolish closed his eyes, sending a quiet thought that at least scavengers could feast on the near-untouched carcass. The hunger wasn't gone, exactly, but it had quieted. Allowed him a stronger hold over his own psyche.
Abolish could feel his fangs grow sharper with every cadaver he left behind. He could feel his claws getting longer, stronger. His eyesight sharpening still, the sun becoming more and more blinding. Becoming harsher too, burning the exposed skin of his forearms and face, weighing him down to a sluggish pace, shackling his reflexes.
The cover of the clouds was a welcome gift as he reached the edge of the obelisk beacon's pond. It didn't obscure the sun's curse completely but it did lessen it, just for a bit.
His path hadn't led him to any humans yet and he would rather keep it that way. This pond was safer to wash off in than the river or the lake, people rarely venturing into the dead forest without a reason. The Obelisk beacon was holy; there was no reason to come this way. The trail of barely-touched corpses was sure to draw attention if he stayed in one place for too long, though.
Blood had caked onto his arm and face. Layers of it, dried on top of each other, sticking to the hairs on his arm and making it especially unpleasant to open his mouth to bite, let alone speak. He had gotten better at taking a clean bite after a while, but the first few attempts had been sloppy.
The water was frigid as he dipped his arms in it. It became no warmer when he pulled it out of the pond with cupped hands, splashing the bottom of his face.
It didn't.
He could feel the prickling of iciness, though it didn't register as something to be urgently taken care of, or in any way uncomfortable.
He wondered if all pain would feel this way, body's sensations disconnected from the will of the mind. It would certainly be convenient.
Footsteps sounded behind him. They were heavy but rhythmic, heavy on the left side. The heartbeat that accompanied them was slow and steady, though jumped at the blood tinting the water. Abolish knew who it was before turning around.
"Abolish?" Legundo asked, worry pitching his voice high.
Abolish turned around, scrubbing at the last of the blood on his face. He stood up slowly, like someone trying not to spook a scared animal.
His eyes landed on Legundo, already worried, freezing him in place. Blood-red eyes.
"Doctor," he greeted, simply.
The doctor's pulse quickened. Abolish could hear it so clearly despite all the blood he'd already had. He couldn't afford to drink human blood, not yet. Couldn't afford to acquire the taste.
Abolish hadn't gotten all of the gunk off of his arms, and the water washing it left trails of red down his arms as he stood up, the movement slow and careful. Given Legundo's already heightened state, scaring him would be the last thing Abolish needed.
"What happened to you?" Legundo's voice didn't hide his worry, taking on the whisper he often adopted in these kind of moments, in an effort to force himself into gentleness. "I mean... Who turned you? What happened?"
"Scott", Abolish replied. There wasn't much to add. "Found me at the castle." With everything that happened, he wasn't sure he could trust the doctor with his mutiny, or what would be perceived as one. The best lie was a truth.
"That's it?" Of course it wasn't.
Abolish picked at the drying blood on his arms as he thought of a good answer. The tug of the hairs was sharp, familiar. A good distraction from the fresh blood rushing in the doctor's veins and the bandaged wound on his side, scabbed and sewn but not scarred over. The blood of humans wasn't the same as the blood of animals; it made sure to remind him of that. He couldn't focus as much as he wanted to with that heart beating next to him, couldn’t keep the pull of blood as quiet as he needed it to be to think.
The lack of answer worried Legundo, who took a step closer to him. The movement was wary, careful; not free of the prejudice that came with the very existence of a vampire. Or maybe Abolish's abnormally short answers — even for him — set him off.
"How long has it been? I haven't seen you since yesterday morning." His concern was a shame. It made things... more annoying to deal with. Not harder, exactly. But annoying. Betraying trust was always a bothersome thing.
The sun was nearing the peak of its path through the sky, shining its destructive rays down onto Abolish. He took a step back, putting some distance between him and Legundo again. Shifting to the side, too small of a step to be noticed, so that the doctor wasn't cutting him off from the forest anymore.
"Sometime last night." It hadn't been that long. It was feeling like an eternity.
The moment he’d learned people couldn’t really die, Abolish had kept a tally of everyone's vitality, of how often they had gotten themselves killed up to this point. Legundo had taken a few hits already. The forest was dense in these parts of the woods. Nothing was there to be disturbed.
"Are you coming back to town?" The doctor's hand hovered near his sword, standing at the ready.
One look at the silver armour and battle-ready stance was enough for Abolish to abandon that idea. There would be plenty of opportunities for better weighted fights.
"I don't think so."
There were no animals in the dead forest. No wind brushing through the leaves, either. Nothing to break the silence that ensued but their guarded breathing and shuffling feet.
Only one of them breathed. Only one of them shuffled.
"Why not?" Legundo took his hand away from his sword, letting it hang at his side instead. "Cleo and Apo have been living in town just fine."
"Cleo and Apo have been starving themselves to keep their disguise," Abolish scoffed. Thinking of Apo made his blood boil, the frustration bubbling up harsher than it had ever been before. "I'm not doing that. I'm not subjecting myself to Martyn and Avid and Ren's inabilities to comprehend this."
The picking at his arms wasn't enough to keep his hands busy anymore, despite the help of the sharp pain in holding his concentration. Abolish gave them a brush, his skin irritated by all the pulling. This was getting out of hand already. Nobody had warned him vampires would be so... emotional.
"So you're siding with the vampires now." The doctor was almost... disappointed. His voice low and careful, threading on eggshells.
It took Abolish all his restraint not to throw hands. The twitch of his hands was visible, he was sure, claws digging into the palm of his hand to stop himself from making a stupid decision. Everything was so much more. It was hard to control.
"So I'm not actively helping a town that's destroying itself from the inside. I said nothing about the castle vampires."
Legundo recoiled, hand going back to his sword for just a second before remembering himself. He shook his head, disappointed. "We're doing what we can with what we have. Leaving does not help the situation."
Holding his venom was Abolish's biggest challenge right now, more than the constant hunger, more than the sun frying his skin. Killing the doctor now was a horrible idea.
"Desertion is bad, I know. Forgive me for wanting to stay alive."
The corner of Legundo's eye twitched, the military term nagging at a past he'd rather ignore. He shuffled again, took a breath, shook out his hands that had balled up into fists. He was barely holding it together at teh smallest of provocations; truly, Abolish had made the right choice.
"Going and getting yourself turned into a vampire doesn't feel like staying alive." Legundo’s voice was shaking, a desperate attempt at remaining calm. It was fascinating how single words could draw out such visceral reactions from him. He was trying so hard to keep it together.
"It does when being a vampire allows me to leave quicker," Abolish answered. The state in which he lived was meaningless against absolute death. "The cure will always exist. Those beacons will always be there. Scott doesn't plan to die anytime soon."
"But how is being a vampire beneficial here?” Legundo argued, a lat ditch attempt at tugging on Abolish’s heart strings. “What you've effectively done is put a target on your back and you know it."
Anger, trying so hard to crack at the resolve. The doctor was so angry all the time. Ay himself, usually. It was strange to see that directed at someone else.
"What happened to ‘there are good people and there are bad people’? Do you want to tell me how being human is beneficial here? I said it helped me leave quicker, not better, nor that it was an objectively moral choice."
The target he would have worn while staying human was far more dangerous than the one he'd acquired now. Once his status as a vampire hunter was revealed — and it would be revealed, sooner or later — he would be the number one priority.
Legundo stiffened, shock battling horror in the frown of his brows. His entire body was frozen solid, rivalling even Abolish's statuesque standing. The doctor and the soldier both were struggling to come to terms with the calm with which such a suggestion had been made.
He had thought Abolish his friend. A trusted ally, a young man who's posture and habits held the scars combat but who's gentleness and readiness overcame those habits, just like the doctor had. Instead, he saw in the vampire before him only a reflection of his past self whose mistakes he was fighting to undo. Cruel heartlessness in the name of the greater good, without the introspection to recognize it as such.
There were so many plans Abolish had hatched, so many strategies the others had never been privy to. So many interactions of their newfound powers no one had thought to experiment with apart from him that no one else would ever care to find. Humanity was losing this time. He would make sure of it.
No words came out of Legundo's mouth when he next tried to speak. Nothing he could say or ask or beg of Abolish would make him change his stance, the resolve clear in the thin line of his lips, the steadiness of his gaze. Silence. A pause. Then
"Why are you doing this?" It came out as a plea, a whispered prayer for reason. Abolish knew Legundo didn't want his question answered.
It would've been so easy to jump him and take his blood. Abolish would be well on his way to the height of his power after that, if not reaching it already. The doctor was helpless and stunned, too distraught to think of reaching for his weapon. Too broken by the loss of a bond that had only gone one way.
Abolish dug his claws deeper into his own hand, the pain dragging his thoughts away from the human’s blood, if only a little.
If Legundo wanted the truth, then fine. He could have the ugly, selfish truth and wish he’d never asked for it afterwards. He was going to die anyway. All of them would.
"Someone decided to take apart all of the work I put into making the beacon's tower safer," Abolish started, feeling the anger burn through again. He didn't stop it this time.
"Someone decided to strip out all of the reinforcement I had planned and built for the better survival of the town just because it didn't look aesthetically appealing. No one cares about their own safety, they’re always running off to get themselves killed in the night by vampires they don’t know the limits of. So at this point, I'm done. I'm defending myself, defending what I have. If the town gets taken over, that’s on you.
"And I don't care wether I'm a human or a vampire. Unlike you, Doc, despite your insistence that nature doesn't matter." He was done playing nice. He was done going alone with whatever asinine plan the others hatched in which he could identify at least five separate fatal flaws. "I care more about living than I do the moral superiority of claiming you'll never let yourself become the monster in other people's eyes and right now, being a vampire is far safer than being a human, so I'll take it."
Silence.
Only one heart beating. The other going backwards, caving in with each thump.
Only one who's blood was boiling, and it wasn’t Legundo.
Abolish took a deep breath, pushing back the rolling wave of irritation flooding his mind. It had caused far too much damage already. Closed his eyes for a second, the darkness comforting. He just needed to come back to earth. He just needed the vampirism to stop making his every emotion so damn worst.
Maroon eyes met green eye as Abolish faced the doctor again. Neither of them were willing to stand down.
Neither of them were willing to speak.
There were no animals in the dead forest. No birds to sing or caw when disturbed, no wind to rustle though leaves and dead branches. Not even the water of the pond lapped at its edges. No noise to soften the roaring emptiness. Neither of them moved.
Time stood still.
Legundo sighed, breaking the veil of silence. Shattering the quiet that had settled over them.
Abolish had been moments away from turning into a bat and flying off when the doctor spoke.
"So you just give up? One person destroys something you poured some time and effort into and you decide it isn't worth it anymore?" A final call for reason, soft-spoken and cold. A lot more judgemental than Abolish had come to expect the doctor to be.
"Yes." In this case, every time. Because it wasn't just one thing. "One person puts on the last straw in an already heavy load that I've been carrying silently this entire time, because it seems I'm the only competent one here." Because Abolish was sick of making himself a lamb for slaughter. "If finding the outcome that is most likely to keep me alive is abandoning ship, then yeah, I'll do it. I don't care."
"Abolish —"
"I won't put my own life in danger for someone else's. If that makes me evil, dangerous, morally corrupt, then so be it. Those are your morals." Silence, again. Deafening. "But I'm getting the cure out of here to the hundreds, thousands of people that it'll save and I need to be alive for that."
"Why would you be the only one able to bring the cure outside of here?" Poor Legundo's voice was meek, desperate. Trying his hardest to salvage something that did not want to be saved for the second time now. Uselessly, again. He wasn't very good at picking his patients.
"Because apparently, I'm the only one who's been able to think about the longer-term outcome of this." Because he was the only one who could properly distribute its knowledge without making a mess of things.
"I think we're too busy surviving at the moment to really think about the after." Yeah, of course they were.
Abolish turned to look at the beacon, its orange glow sending a wave of annoyance through him. He was too far to feel it’s direct effects, but despised its sight nonetheless. "I'm not."
Desperation was the death of reason. Morality, the rigid and righteous kind Legundo adhered to, was of no help here. Abolish wanted out alive. Legundo didn’t even want to live.
"I've weighed my decision, doctor. Wether you like it or not."
Legundo thought, the spark of realization settling over his brow. Disgust, most of all, twisting his face. "One last thing, Abolish." Legundo's voice was harsh, commanding. Military. He'd made his choice, passed judgement. Abolish was not worth saving. Abolish was the enemy. "What did you do with our silver?"
Abolish turned back to face Legundo, meeting guarded eyes. The doctor had a hand on the hilt of his sword. It wasn't a warning anymore.
"You think I'm going to let this be a fair fight?" Horror. Muted, but expected, pushing through the disappointment of having been right. It hurt, just a little bit. Betrayal, though one-sided as the trust had been, was never a fun sight. "I'm just stacking the odd in my favour. Like I said: I actually gave some thought to this."
He wouldn't let anything get in his way.
"The better question to ask, doctor," Abolish continued, just to drive his point home, "would be: 'Where's my holy water?'"