Chapter Text
Victor was pacing in his room. Vampires did not need to sleep and honestly he hated that fact now; it would be so good to touch his head to a pillow and fall into dreamless sleep.
This plan only had two problems: the first, it wouldn’t erase the fact that he had to go on his first hunt that Halloween, and second, he didn’t have a pillow. Or a bed, for that matter.
One of those would be easier to solve. He could just go to a normal human store and enchant the cashier so they could get him all he needed. The other one was harder to surpass.
Victor was a shitty vampire. He knew that.
Vampires were supposed to be scary, and stealth, and drink blood from arrogant men and enchanted women. Vampires were supposed to be some of the most terrifying monsters out there.
And he — well, he just wasn’t it.
No, Victor had always sucked at being a vampire. At least according to his aunt. His compelling abilities came on and off, his bat form didn’t seem to fly straight no matter what, he had never scared even a butterfly, and above all, he had never drunk human blood.
His aunt always told him he was such a disappointment because of it. That when he finally had his first victim, he would become a proper vampire. For him to have the power to do that, though, he would have to feed on people's fears first, and he wasn’t good at that either.
Every person had their own monster. Monsters fed on people's fear and it made them stronger. Simple, right?
His parents had been responsible for a couple dozen humans, each in different stages of life. Victor wondered sometimes how those humans had been faring these last fifteen years. He knew some monsters had taken advantage of the ‘free’ humans to get stronger, but a couple had been so integrated into his family line that no one had taken charge. Especially the one girl his aunt had been talking about for a few years now.
Nova Bright.
Both he and his aunt were very much aware of what happened to his parents; their disappearance had been thanks to one of the strongest monster hunter families in the region, the Brights. Their daughter, Nova, was one of his mother’s realm and he had known for a good while now that she was going to be his first human. He could feel it deep in his gut.
The first human connected to a monster was the most important one. Their fear was the most fulfilling, the connection between them would be the strongest.
Victor had never met Nova, had never seen her or had any sort of contact. Still, he knew things about her. He knew she had a passion for being on the outside. He knew she felt her happiest on Friday nights and that she hated being told what to do. He knew she loved receiving gifts and that she was an avid reader. They shared a connection; the emotions coming from her were supposed to be for him to be able to terrorize her, for him to figure out what made her happy and destroy that. The worse she felt, the better he would feel.
Except he couldn’t.
For a few years now he had been reminded that he was allowed to go after her already, that he didn’t have to wait for his 18th birthday. It was a deadline, not a starting point. Even so, he pushed aside. He was not like his other friends, Vera and Vargas, who excelled at being vampires and were already terrorizing their humans for months now.
His aunt was right; he was a failure. He didn’t have the strength to even get revenge on his parents. If the Brights get rid of his father and mother, he could punish them back by getting rid of their daughter.
Or at least turn her life into a living hell.
Monsters could not kill their humans. At least not right away. As they were the source, it would be bad just killing what made them alive. No, the one way to kill a human was by scaring them to death. Only then could a monster suck out all the human energy and move on to a new target to do all over again.
A knock sounded loudly on his door, “Get out of there right now!” His aunt screamed, making all Victor's plans to fall asleep disappear.
His lovely aunt, what a pleasure it had been to get taken away from his parents' care and being thrown under the roof of one of the most self-righteous vampires out there. Anyhow, that was the life he had. Thanks to the Brights.
“Hello Auntie, you look spectacularly imposing today.” Victor said with flourish as he joined the woman in the dead room.
“You look like you are planning to bolt. You will not disrespect your parents’ memory like that, right?” She knew him too well. Of course, she had raised him for fifteen years. No matter how much he wanted to hate his aunt, he couldn’t. She was his only family and she never gave up on him. Maybe she should have just read more parenting books before taking a three-year-old under her wing, but well, that's in the past now.
“Never, Auntie. I was just planning the best ways to scare that girl. Heard leaking private social media is really in.” He actually had one class in school called ‘Scaring Humans 101’, let's just say it had been an experience.
“Young people and those weird fears… Back in my day people feared getting lost, serial killers, their parents... Now it's all about phones this, economy downfall that.” She complained while moving through her bag. Victor much rather hear her complaining anyway. “You have one week left before Halloween.”
“I know, Auntie.” God knew he was well aware, as if she would ever let him forget it.
“You also know that if you don’t start feeding on fear until then you won’t be here for much longer.”
“I know. I'm starting today just to be sure.” He mumbled. Victor didn’t want to start that day, or any day for that matter. But his birthday was in ten days and after turning eighteen he would need the fear to survive. That was non-negotiable. Besides, the fact that the day was the same where fear was at his highest was both a blessing and a nightmare. On that day all monsters would be out. Either to see him fail or to see him succeed.
“Then what are you waiting for?” His aunt asked with a raised eyebrow.
“Nothing, I was about to leave.”
He was not about to leave. In fact, if she hadn’t called him, he would have hidden there for many more hours. But life, or well, death in his case, was knocking on the door and it was time for him to finally step up.
Without allowing himself to chicken out or to change his mind, he barged out the door.
He was in a cemetery, his family's one. Home sweet home. He knew he could just turn into a bat and go straight to the girl. But he decided to walk; he needed time to think about what he would do. Would he just use his wind to create some embarrassing situation for her? Would he try to scare her with his fangs? Would he choose to be completely invisible and keep whispering things in her ear inflating fears until he could pull off something really scary?
Nothing seemed like a good idea. So he just kept walking. He didn’t know where she was, but he could feel it. Like a pull at his gut pulling him to wherever she was. That was the supernatural connection again. Allegedly all the humans he would have in the future would have a similar feeling because he would be able to locate all of them. But in his head it was odd. For years he had his connection with her, only her. He couldn’t imagine being connected to anyone else.
Everyone warned him that the first bond was the strongest; that must be why it was getting to his head. It didn’t matter how many humans he would haunt later, right now she must be the receptacle of all his focus.
The day was sunny but it didn’t burn his skin, no. That was a well-placed myth. It was good because it made humans feel safer during the day. And the safer they felt, the easier it was to freak them out unexpectedly.
He chose to be visible, since he was going to be close to humans for the first time in his life, he better start getting used to it.
Monsters had three options. Be invisible to humans, be visible to everyone, or be invisible to humans with the exception of their own human. The last one was the most used in terrorizing overall because it made them feel like it was all going on inside their heads. It was great to feed their inner fears.
Monsters could always see each other.
Sometimes he wished they couldn't, so that way he would be able to hide from his aunt, or from the werewolves who liked to annoy him at school, or the best would be to hide from himself. But that he knew to be impossible,
The walk was shorter than he expected. All those years and she had been less than an hour away from him.
It made sense, in a way, it would be harder to stalk a human if he lived on the other side of the planet. If Victor had to guess, he would say all his parents’ humans lived in Seabrook like them.
He did not find himself in a large suburban home like he expected, no, he was facing a school.
Seabrook High School.
It was late afternoon, so the place was not that full like he thought it would be during normal school hours. Victor stared at the place for a second, gathering strength to actually do this.
Should he turn invisible? Should he wait to follow her home? Should he strike right away? How do you even scare a seventeen-year-old girl?
He was debating all the options while staring at the old brick building when somebody collided into him. If he was more attuned with his supernatural abilities, he would have noticed it before happening, but as usual he was not that great with it.
“Oh, I'm sorry.” A female voice started speaking as he took one step back. Victor was not used to humans, at all. Was that a form of greeting?
Unsure of what to do, he looked at the girl for the first time, and if he had a human heart, it would have stopped beating at that moment.
It was her.
His instinct screamed inside of him. It's her, it's her, it's her.
He expected many things from Nova Bright, but he had never imagined that she would look quite so ethereal.
Victor had been around other monsters all his life, and there was always something special about them, eyes too striking, nose too straight, hair too shiny… there was this kind of perfection that monsters had with the purpose of luring in their victims more.
Nova was no different, her blonde hair fell perfectly behind her back, her blue eyes made him doubt her humanity, even the small things like her full lips or the long eyelashes made it impossible to tear his eyes away.
If Victor was a predator made to attract unknowing humans, Nova was the monster hunter made to attract him. He needed to remind himself of that; if she had the chance, she would kill him, much like her family did to his parents.
It was silent for too long, he realized. Victor was staring at her, his own personal nightmare and daydream, not saying anything.
“Are you… lost or something?” She asked again with raised eyebrows. Why she didn't just leave was unknown to him, but he was glad for it because it meant he had extra time to fill in the mental image he had now of her.
“Hmm, yes.” He tried, knowing his window of opportunity would close soon.
“Can I help you?”
No.
Yes.
Maybe…
“Well, I'm looking for…” He looked desperately around, trying to think of some lie, he hadn't planned this enough ahead, he needed more time. “The counselor’s office, I'm a new student.” Victor blurted, already regretting his choice.
He would have to compel a bunch of people to make this lie work, he would have to go to school. What idea was that?
“Oh. I didn't know we were going to have a new student! I’m part of the student body council anyway, I will take you.” She smiled at him warmly and he wasn't sure how to react to her. Her presence should not feel so welcoming. Nonetheless, he forced his mouth to smile back, making sure his fangs were well hidden. “And I'm Nova, by the way.” If he wasn't sure by now, that would've been his confirmation.
“Victor.”
Perhaps he should have given her a different name, but it was too late now.
“Let's get you going then.” She turned back, waiting for him to follow her to the hallways of this strange school.
“Uh, sure. Weren't you heading outside, though?"
The question made her stop and look around once. The strangest thing was he could feel her confusion. He had never been so close to her before to have such a clean read of her emotions; it made him dizzy.
“I thought I had left something here… I don't know. It's not important. I still have some time to get you settled before going home.”
Without saying anything else, he followed her. He could feed on her fear later, he decided, he just wanted to understand her life a little first.
…
He had to enchant the secretary. Nova didn’t look for one second, and suddenly the elderly woman was apologizing for losing his transcripts and was already printing a schedule for him. He understood why some monsters spent so much time on the human world, life was pretty easy. Well, for a vampire at least. Maybe some lesser monsters like banshees or zombies would have a harder time adjusting.
Nova talked a bit here and there, explaining some things about the school but he could sense she was a little uncomfortable too. He wished the connection was more specific so he could pinpoint why, but for now that would be all he received.
When the secretary started talking to him, he thought she would leave, having fulfilled her duty of helping him find the office. But no, she stood there waiting for him with a curious look.
Victor needed for her to stay away a bit so he could think. Or maybe he needed her even close so he could find the best way to terrorize her.
After he was dismissed, she tried to integrate him a bit. It was… sweet. Monsters didn’t do sweet, but deep down he liked it.
“Well, tomorrow you’ll be able to see the school more. Now most people have already left, we only have extracurriculars going on. Do you have any interests?” She inquired politely.
“Uh, maybe drawing? I don’t know if that counts.”
Her shoulders relaxed a bit, “Of course it does! I can introduce you to Ms. Cher, she's the head of the arts department and she can fill you in better. Wanna go now?”
“Sure…” he put his hands in his pockets, following her lead.
They walked quietly.
“So…” she tried again. “Drawing?”
“Yeah, not the best or anything. But I like to sketch here and there." He answered, trying to sound uninterested. She looked at him with expectation and he decided to allow her to break the ice. “How about you?”
“Well I think my best piece of art was when I managed to draw a sheep for a school banner that looked like a cow instead of a dinosaur.”
“At least cows are fun, right? It could have looked like something worse.” Victor offered, trying to pretend like he wasn’t staring at her with his peripheral vision.
“Exactly!” She smiled, "that's what I told my friend, but she insisted I should never draw again.”
“Well, I'm sure it was for the best.”
“You already turned on me? That was quick.” Nova acted as if she had been hurt and for some reason that made him smile. She didn’t sound like a bloodthirsty hunter.
He was about to answer when a beetle flew through the window and passed in front of them pretty close to their faces.
Nova let out a small scream and took a step back. He looked at her and in that brief moment he could see an… aura around her. It was red, and it seemed to sing to him. Fear.
It could be so easy to pull it to him, to snack on that simple emotion. But it had been so quick that when he realized what was going on, it had already disappeared. Nova had stopped and placed a hand on her heart. He could hear with his vampire senses that it was beating fast. He lifted an eyebrow at the strange demonstration.
“Sorry…” she took a deep breath. “That was weird, I've never been scared of bugs before. I guess it took me by surprise.” She shook her head and started walking again.
Victor followed, focusing on what she said. She never had that fear, until he was there. Was it thanks to his presence?
He knew monsters were responsible for humans feeling fear, but he never thought much on the fact that until now Nova technically didn’t have any monster haunting her. Thinking now, over the years he felt all kinds of emotions coming from her, but it was true; he never felt fear before from her. Victor thought he had to be the one to cause that emotion in her, but it appeared that only his presence already kickstarted some smaller fears.
Maybe it would be easier than he thought.
Maybe he should have paid more attention to fear class at school. He had always been so much more interested in art, history, and literature that he usually just ignored the rest.
After acquiring his place in the arts program, which he didn’t need to use any sort of influence, he left the room only to see Nova still lingering. Maybe she did feel some pull to him too. Or maybe he had truly been acting odd for a human.
His biggest reference for human behavior had been all the seasons of Friends and Glee. Which granted he was aware were not the most precise representations, but it was already better than the things his aunt knew. She still refused to call cars by their names. Victor had never met any of her humans, but he hoped they were all over sixty, otherwise she would have a hard time understanding them.
“What now?” He raised his eyebrows.
“Honestly I don't think there's much more you can do today. I'm meeting a friend to grab a coffee across the street, wanna tag?”
She moved her fingers nervously on the bag strap on her shoulder. Nervous, but not scared.
Victor did not quite understand the end of her sentence, but he guessed she was probably inviting him to join her, which of course said yes. He had to. He still hadn’t found a way to scare her.
“Sure…”
All their interaction until now had been a little awkward, but well that was just Victor in a nutshell. For some reason, she hadn’t been scared away yet.
The walk had been ridiculously short, she wasn’t kidding when she said it was across the street. They hadn’t even stepped out of the school, and he could already see the place. It was a simple, even cozy, place that he was sure was probably a nightmare earlier on. To deal with teenagers everyday… The owners either loved it or hated it.
They walked inside and there was a guy about the same age as them sitting with a mug in his hand. The bell on the door made some noise and his gaze met the two people walking inside. Victor could see the furrowed eyebrows with his presence. Was he interrupting something maybe? He looked discreetly to the side to see Nova’s expression. She looked the same, her heart did not pick up or anything, her emotions remained pretty neutral… it was probably not a boyfriend or a crush or anything, just a friend like she said.
It didn’t matter, of course, if she had someone. His only job was to cause her fear, the way she lived her life was none of his business. But… If she had a boyfriend or something, he could use it to scare her more, that was why he was thinking about it.
“Ray! Sorry it took so long, I was showing Victor around,” Nova said cheerfully, gesturing to the vampire.
“No problem,” he said with a small frown that made Victor think it was in fact a problem. Well, he certainly did not care about that human, only his.
Nova looked expectant from one boy to the other, which made Victor sigh.
“Nice to meet you.” He gave up, nodding to the boy sitting down.
“You too, I’m Ray.”
“Victor.” He replied, even though Nova had already said both their names.
Ray was what Victor would guess to be the average human, brown curly hair, brown eyes, white skin, teeth with a small imperfection and reddened skin expected from a teenager. There was nothing wrong with him. But the sight of this normal boy made Victor even more sure on his theory of Nova being clearly a monster hunter. Next to a regular human it was impossible to mistake that she had something a bit… more on her.
She sat on the booth in front of Ray, which gave him the choice of sitting next to the guy (no thanks) or sitting facing the guy (why?). Not wanting to take too long, he crawled next to Nova.
“So, Victor, where did you come from?” She asked, and he couldn’t deny it felt a bit good seeing her ignore her friend to talk to him.
“Not far, did you grow up here?” He changed the question on the spot, not really in the mood to create a lie now. He just wanted to learn a bit more about her. Was she a trained hunter? If so, had she noticed anything off about him and that’s why she had been trailing around.
Fuck, he hadn’t considered that.
He had used his compulsion when she was in the room.
His aunt was right; he was the worst vampire in the world.
“Yeah, my parents are pharmacists so they always travel for conferences. I mostly grew up going from one friend’s house to another. Usually all in the same neighborhood."
Victor knew her parents were not pharmacists, but he couldn’t say anything about it, so he only nodded.
“And that’s how we became friends.” Ray interrupted, “we live next to each other.”
“Huh.” Was the only sound that Victor made. He wasn’t particularly trying to mess with Ray, but it was fun.
“Yeah,” Nova gently brushed her shoulder with his (it was odd being around humans, that's all), “this guy has been around for a long time.” She winked at him, and some of the tension on Ray's shoulders dissipated. Victor couldn’t help but notice the exchange. She seemed to be quite the friendly person. Did that make his job easier or harder?
A waitress appeared to take their requests and Victor noticed he didn’t think to bring around any mortal money. He was in doubt of using his powers a bit more or just skipping his coffee before Nova spoke, “Two hot chocolates with cinnamon, please.” He only stared at her. “My welcome treat.”
That had been… unexpected.
“Sorry,” she noticed his silence. “I should have asked what you wanted first, I don’t know why I did that.” Her hands were placed on the table as she attempted to get up, probably to call the waitress back and change the order.
“Hey, no need.” He touched her arm, pulling her down. “It’s my favorite.”
It really was, he was not a coffee person. Since vampires did not sleep or get sleepy, he never saw the appeal. Victor liked sweet things a thousand times more.
Nova blinked at him once before settling down. “Me too, weird coincidence.”
“Yeah, weird.” He laughed a little awkwardly.
Ray was still looking at them with doubt. He didn’t need to be able to read any emotions to guess that. Still, Victor just mostly ignored the guy, focusing on the unfamiliar sensation of being so close to his human.
Some small talk happened here and there before Nova stated she had to go. Victor just sat quietly when she got up to go pay and Ray followed along like a flash. He figured he would let the boy talk to his human since he was so eager to.
He just watched as Ray grabbed Nova’s arm and they spoke quietly; he could sense that she was a little bothered. He was not there to help her or defend her, so he just watched what seemed to be a discreet fight going on between the two friends. If he wanted to, he could use his senses to hear it. But he was not that curious about mortal drama.
“You are ridiculous.”
He turned his head in a single moment. Seeing another vampire now sitting in front of him.
“You know the goal is not to scare other vampires, right, Vargas?”
One of his closest friends, Vargas, laughed at him. “If you weren’t so lost on her, you would have noticed me sooner.”
“Why are you here?”
“My ward was feeling quite the strong emotions. Had to check.” He said using his head to indicate the boy still gripping his human’s arm.
“Him, really?” Victor said, unbelieving. “You got lucky, that seems like an easy one to scare.”
“Meh… it depends on the day.” He pondered before extending his hand to eat one of the leftover fries in the middle of the table. “I guess I should thank you. You just gave me material for some more fears.”
“Did I?” Victor asked in good humor. It really hadn’t been his goal.
“Yeah, I guess my boy did not like his little girlfriend giving you attention.”
“Girlfriend?”
“Nah, I’m joking, he’s just always obsessing over her but there’s nothing there.” It was Vargas’ time to raise his eyebrows, “Why? Are you interested? I can set you up with him easily.”
Victor snorted, he missed his friend in the last months. “In feeding of some fear? Yes. I just have to figure out how.”
“You know you did literally the worst approach. We shouldn’t interact with them in a way that makes them think we are real.”
Victor looked again to behind him, seeing the duo still discussing. Well, it was already done.
“I know. But here I am now.”
“You know she’s from a monster hunter family, right? Be careful, Victor.”
“When am I not?” He joked, flashing one of his mischievous smiles.
“Umm let me think... Oh right, always.” Vargas rolled his eyes. “I think they are done fighting for now. Let me know how your silly attempt goes.”
Just when he finished saying, Nova touched his arm lightly.
“Were you saying something?”
Victor furrowed his eyebrows at his friend. Of course, he would choose to make himself invisible to humans and make him seem like an idiot.
“Oh, just thinking of a song.” He played off.
She smiled at him again, what had he done to win so many smiles from her?
“I do that all the time too. If you like music, you should come to band practice Friday night. It’s always fun.”
Friday. It was when he usually could feel she was happy. One more mystery he solved, whatever happened there seemed to make her very happy.
“Do you play?”
“Oh god, no. I just go to watch, but there’s usually food and more people. It’s really fun, I promise.” She said enthusiastically, taking a step back so he could get up too.
“She sings.” He looked back at Vargas to hear what he said.
Victor opened his mouth to answer, but his friend made a sign on the side of his head moving his finger like you do when you call someone crazy. Oh right, if he answered people who weren’t there those humans would probably think he was crazy.
“Looking for something?” Nova inquired. Why did she have to notice everything about him?
“No,” he dismissed. “So, you go there every week just to watch?” he insisted, wanting her to share the knowledge Vargas just gave him. Unsurprisingly, she gave away pretty easily. Maybe she was someone who trusted easily, because once more she opened up with no trouble.
“I mean, yes. Sometimes Wyatt gets me to sing one or two songs, but it’s mostly watching.” She lifted one hand like a scout, “I swear the songs are good.”
“I guess I have to see that for myself then.”
“Pretty smooth.” Vargas mocked him behind his back. Ugh, he wanted to hit his friend.
“Perfect. I guess I’ll see you tomorrow then?” He nodded and watched her walk away, feeling her quiet contentment taking the bond between them.
He saw Ray waiting for her at the door, both started walking down the street as he turned back to his friend. Finally free to talk to him.
“Wanna go follow them?” Vargas proposed lifting one eyebrow.
“I thought you would never ask.”
…
Victor felt freer walking around invisible to humans.
He and Vargas followed their two humans with no rush. It gave Victor a chance to stare at Nova without looking too weird. So that was the girl inside his head for as long as he could remember.
She was… not what he expected.
But also, exactly how he knew she would be.
Still, the strangest had been how she acted around him. She had no reason to like him, to be that welcoming to inviting him to do things with her. But she did, and he was glad for it.
Truth was, he wanted to get to know her. She would be his for the rest of their lives. He would see her grow old, go to college, get married, have children… maybe he would even haunt her kids someday. It was unnerving.
How did the other monsters do this? Know they were making the life of someone they would see forever a bit worse. He would have to make her doubt herself, be the reason she would throw up before an important interview, have her looking back while walking on a dark street, be the reason she would fail a test or never even apply to something she wanted. He could make her life hell without her even knowing.
But that wasn’t him.
Or at least, he hoped it wasn’t.
Maybe that had to change.
“I didn’t think they would fight for this long.” Vargas noted breaking Victor’s line of thoughts.
“No offense, but your ward is a pain in the ass.”
He hadn’t really been paying attention to what they were saying. But at first, they were fighting about him, then about something at school, at some point the boy brought up something about her father… Honestly, Victor was tired for her. Ray was so annoying.
“I know. But at least it makes it easier.”
“Blood, I don't know if it's worth it. If I end up with a human like that I might just have to eat garlic bread.”
“Geez Victor, not all of us can have the pretty ones.” Vargas joked while rolling his eyes. “Just wait for what you have next, I'm sure the universe will have a payback if you keep being like that.” He gestured to all of him and Victor wasn't sure if he should be insulted.
“I would rather no human at all.”
“That’s not an option.”
The conversation sobered up without wanting to. Vargas was right, Victor should just be happy it was Nova, he doubted other monsters had such strong connections to their wards. Actually he knew it wasn't common, his aunt had said that to him many times before, usually followed by a comment on how good it would be if he just made some use out of it and became an actual respectful vampire. Yeah, considering how much he did not cause any fear today, she was in for a disappointment, as usual.
“I know. I just need to understand her a bit better before setting anything in motion.”
“If you say so…” He trailed off, looking again at the pair in front of them.
The fact they were following the duo like some stalkers actually made Victor feel better about himself, if that made sense. Being a stalker, giving psychopath vibes was definitely more of a monster attitude that he did not possess.
“You know what,” Vargas started again, “Watch and learn.”
Then, still walking, he picked a small rock off the ground and threw it next to Ray. The boy looked back and Victor could see his face getting pale as he looked at Nova and then back. The second time he looked, though, there was this disbelief in his face that he knew was a hidden fear. For one second Victor was scared he had been seen, but quickly he checked and he was still very much invisible to humans. Then what…
Vargas laughed and Victor actually was a bit embarrassed by how he was confused. “What did you do?”
“You know, just gave him the classical fear of being followed.”
“Wait, how?” Truth be told, Victor fell asleep in more scaring classes than he should have.
“You know, just let him see me for a second and when he looked again there was no one there.” Vargas explained with raised eyebrows, "That's why showing yourself to your girl was a bad idea, takes away the unknown element.”
Victor locked his vision on Nova’s hair; she was walking normally, not noticing at all how her friend's breath got a little lighter. Vargas made it look so easy, why did she make it harder?
The humans slowed down, giving Victor the perfect excuse to not say anything. He knew his friend didn't mean it as something to actually get him down, still it was obvious how unfit Victor was to all of it. Following Nova’s every move, he noticed how she hugged Ray and turned to the big white house. Of course she lived in the American picture-perfect suburban home. Somewhere inside that house there were probably all kinds of weapons and equipment to get rid of him. Yay. Although it was good that he knew now where she lived, finally he had a place to connect to the pull inside of him. That home was where he was called to more often than not.
She walked inside and he didn't dare to move any longer; he was not going to risk getting on the monster hunter house. He was no Hansel and Gretel to walk directly into a trap. At least, he had that much forethought. Good, maybe he had actually learned something in school after all.
“Are you going to stick around?” Vargas interrupted his observation.
“Well, I guess not. I'm not going in and neither am I going to be waiting here the rest of the day. I can just get it done tomorrow.”
Whether his friend believed his excuse, he didn't know. Being truthful, he needed to know more about her. Years of building up expectation would not be solved in two hours, he needed more time to watch her, to understand her — that was it.
“Whatever man, you better get your shit together and quick.” Was all his friend said before turning into a bat and flying away. Yes, the monster community was that opening and welcoming.
Maybe Vargas was right by his implication, maybe Victor was being a crybaby and he should just go to Nova and find an easy reason to get her scared, it shouldn't be hard, his presence by itself allowed fear to dig in more easily.
Once more he looked at the house, a window on the second floor lit up and without thinking he already knew that was her room. Yes, it was easy.
But then he thought about all the questions he still had, depending on what he did, there were sides of her he wouldn't get to see.
No, he just needed a bit more time to form the perfect plan.
So he left, and his human would remain none the wiser for the time being. That was the sensible thing to do.