August 2021 Microfic!

Hey all,

Ahhhh I’m moving in two weeks ahhhhhhh!!

This is a big move so it’s taken a lot out of me and put a lot of stuff on hold that I want to be working on. But the good news is, once it’s over, I can actually get back to the visual novel I’ve been working on!

Anyway, I’ll talk more about that later. In the meantime, we’re here for vampires. Perhaps appropriately since I was thinking of Tsukihime when coming up with August’s theme, this turned out a little dark for a bit. I had fun writing it though! Hope you enjoy reading it!

~Benn {Doomgender} Ends

Theme: Vampire

Prompt: “Mayhaps a sequel to the March 2019 story? A check in on how the hunters long term project is going.”

Original suggestion by:  Tenebyss (I really got a lotta mileage outta this idea, thank you!)

Sequel suggested by: Samantha Flowers (Thanks for giving me an excuse to revisit!)

~3248 words

CW:

• Stalking an unsuspecting person at night
• A rising urge to hurt someone you don’t know, in second person (you do this, you feel that)
• Vampire stuff
• Blooddrinking/sexualization of injury
• Intoxication
• It’s got a happy ending
• It’s a little bleak for a while though
• So keep an eye on that

~~~

You’re getting caught up thinking of the past as you walk home through the park at night.

Three years.

Three years since she brought you home.

You were making the best of it on your own, but she was right when she called you a wild animal.

The fact that you hadn’t killed anyone yet was a small miracle.

But, things are different now.

She’s been training you, watching you, feeding you, building your tolerance, your self control. You’re not a monster anymore. You can control it.

Or at least.

You hope you can.

But.

You see.

There’s this girl.

And she’s all alone.

All alone with you.

…

The woman who looks after you left in the afternoon, on a mission to chase down some kind of monster that has been attacking people in her district of the city. She gave you some chores to take care of, which you breezed through in a practiced sweep. But, you put off the groceries for as long as you could. Usually she encourages you to do out of the house chores while the sun is still up, but since she didn’t specify this time, you figured you could give yourself a break. Store’s open all night long anyway. The sun drains your energy anyway. What’s the harm in doing it last, as long as it gets done before she gets back in the morning? And what’s the harm with taking a shortcut through a place no one should be anyway?

Now though, you’re starting to get a little worried.

It’s just.

You see.

There’s that girl.

She’s been walking for a while

And

You’ve been following her.

You’ve got a shopping bag full of veggies and eggs and milk in your right hand.

In your left hand, you’ve flipped your ring around, and you’re pressing the silver-tipped point of it into your palm.

You can hear the slight sizzle of aching skin.

But that girl up ahead can’t.

In fact

She hasn’t noticed you at all.

When did you start moving so silently.

Old habits

Die hard

It seems.

…

You’re of two minds. One mind is counting the girl’s steps, and timing yours with her’s. The other mind is trying to remember how to scream.

You press your tongue against the back of your fangs. Pressure. The pressure is supposed to reassure you. It’s supposed to help calm you down. Because when you’re hungry your fangs ache and pushing on them is soothing. But right now, it’s just reminding you of how nice it would be

To feel flesh

Scrape

Against your teeth.

The part of your mind that knows how bad this has gotten wonders idly if you could call for help if you could get to your cellphone. The other part has already dropped your cellphone about a quarter mile back.

What’s so special about this night and this place and this girl? 

It’s not like you to lose control like this.

What’s so special about this night and this chase and this girl?

It’s not like anyone would notice if she didn’t make it home.

…

You feel your thoughts shifting as your skin prickles with heat. You know what you’re doing, but you just can’t quite figure out how to

“Stop it.”

The first words you’ve heard for half an hour. The girl speaks. She’s half turned to face you, glaring daggers. You can’t move. You already hadn’t been breathing.

“I know you’re following me. I have a knife. Whatever you’re up to, get lost. I’m not afraid of punk losers.”

Oh.

The girl’s eyes on you.

And it’s like a spell is broken.

But.

It’s the spell that held you back.

You take a step towards her. She takes a step back, and pulls out the knife, holding it before her like a cross against the devil.

But you’ve caught her eye. And the next step you take, she doesn’t move. Can’t move.

You close the distance like that, one step at a time. Your silver tipped ring has broken skin, but it still hasn’t even slowed you down.

“W-what are you.”

She says it quietly, incredulously. 

“It’s okay. You can scream and yell and hate me, if it makes you feel better. There’s no one close enough to change what’s going to happen, though.”

The knife quivers in her hand.

“What the fuck are you!”

She does yell. You hope it’s cathartic.

“I’m sorry, you know? I’m not normally like this…”

Your voice quavers more than hers does.

“I really don’t care what you’re like. Get the fuck away from me!”

“I really, really wish I could. You see, there’s someone who looks after me, and I really don’t want to let her down.”

The girl looks as angry as she does scared.

“I’m gonna stick you in the gut if you get any closer!”

She can’t move though. She just holds the knife out in between you and her. So, you walk into it. The blade slides into your stomach with a slick pop. Dull pain shoots through you, as you look at her, seeing the red of your eyes reflecting in hers. Her eyes are wide, her mouth agape. 

“I just. I know it’s silly, but I was kinda hoping that knife was made of silver. If it was silver, it might have been enough to stop me. Long enough for you to get away.”

She looks up at you, and you can almost taste the pulse under her skin.

“You know, since I died, I always avoided walking in parks? It’s dumb, but they make me uneasy.”

You don’t need to keep eye contact anymore. Your hand is on her shoulder, and terror grips her legs. So you leer at her throat as you talk.

“It’s like, a superstition thing. The first days, while I was still figuring everything out, I had this thought. I thought, if I’m going to fuck up and kill someone, it would be in a park. I don’t know what it was about that image, but it stuck with me. So I kept to places where I’d be easily interrupted. Clubs and bars and stuff. Places where it’s hard to sit and finish a whole meal. You know?”

You close your eyes and let the living smell of her wash over you.

“So, I guess, I must have known on some level what I was doing as soon as I took this path. I could say I was just testing myself, but that’s not it. And even if I was, I failed.”

The girl manages a few shaky words.

“Why— me.”

“Oh? It’s not really about you. You’re not anything special to me. It’s just like. Both of us were in a place we shouldn’t have been, is all.”

She seems to be in shock. Faintly, you feel the urge to reassure her.

“Ah, but, if it makes you feel any better, I’m not gonna live long either. When the person who takes care of me finds out what I’m about to do, she’ll kill me too. So really, it just turned out to be not our night.”

Your rambling finally tips her scales. She screams. A tremor goes through you. She starts to squirm, and the knife twists in your stomach.

“Yeah, that figures. Go ahead and get it out. For what it’s worth, I’m sorry. I don’t want this either. It’s just that also I want it more than anything else in the world. Because I’m a monster.”

You don’t know when you started crying, but you realize finally that the tears staining the girl’s shirt aren’t all her own.

A bag of milk and eggs and veggies falls to the path with a thump.

And whatever tiny scrap of self control you had left gives out.

Her screaming quickly loses strength after you bite deep into the soft curve between throat and shoulder. A flood of heat, of drunken overwhelming pleasure, roaring through you like the tides. You feel her struggling slow, her body go limp, her weight falling more and more against you, like a lover in repose. You can’t see her face, but you can feel her hot, ragged breath in the air, losing it’s urgency as the strength is drained from her limbs.

And you feel strong.

You feel unstoppable. 

Why did you care about anything else?

Why care what that stupid monster hunting jackass wanted from you?

It’s just a human.

It’s just a life.

And you’re so hungry.

People kill for less all the time.

What does it matter, if she believed you could be different?

Your tongue traces the holes in her skin, tasting the fresh sting of the girl’s blood, biting again when the flow slows down.

You’re a monster.

An animal.

The basest of pleasure

The wildest of instinct.

Really it’s that woman’s fault for thinking you could be tamed.

The girl’s heartbeat is slowing. She’s calm. She makes no more noise then the occasional small gasp. She’s hardly even there, and you’re practically alone. Just a little more and you can never take it back.

And that woman will never smile at you again.

…

…

………

A snarl, as you manage to move your left hand. A wince of pain, as you jam your ring against your right hand. As hard as you can. It burns, and the bone creaks. It hurts, but

Anything to get it to let go.

With a hiss of purest rage, you pull your greedy mouth away from the girl’s neck. Every speck of your existence demands that you continue. Looking at the bead of blood dripping from the wound before it closes up, you almost do.

Your head is on fire.

Your teeth throb.

You are not sated.

You didn’t even drink that much from her!

How DARE you stop?

For what?

So you can go back to tablescraps of some wannabe hero?

So you can playact at being human?

It’s already too late.

You’re *soiled*.

…

You manage to sit the girl on a nearby bench. She’s still in a daze brought on by your bite. You catch her glazed eyes again, from a good ten feet back.

“Looks like only one of us is going to die today. Small comfort I guess, given how I’ve hurt you...”

You swallow. She’s looking at you blankly, and she’s got a loose grip on that knife, and you want to tear her apart with you hands, and lick each piece. And it would be easy. You stab yourself with the ring again.

“A-anyway. Go home. Get home safe, and try and forget this. It was a weird night and you met a strange person and you were scared and then it was over and it wasn’t worth thinking about ever again.”

The girl nods. Without a word, she stands up, and walks briskly in the direction she was headed before you stopped her. You turn your back so your can’t see her go, so your feet can’t betray you yet again.

…

After a good ten minutes of waiting, you can’t hear her anymore. Sitting down on the bench, letting out a long long breath. You prop your arms up with your legs and rest your face in your palms for a while.

“Welp. I’m fuckin’ dead.”

“You still look pretty lively.”

You fall off the bench with a yelp the moment you hear that familiar voice. You look up in panic, at the woman you know must be here to put you down.

“F-funny meeting you here, Miss.”

She’s wearing a long coat, sitting on the bench, and carefully polishing an ornate hand crossbow-style weapon that fires silver rods. You have no idea how she managed to get this close without you noticing, but she has a long record of doing things that should be impossible for a human.

“Decided to press your luck a little tonight, huh pet?”

You make no motion to get up from the ground.

“Yeah well, I guess it was only a matter of time, huh? I lasted longer then I expected when I turned, so I can’t say I got off too bad.”

She casually tests the weight of the weapon, and arms it.

“You think I’m going to kill you?”

You don’t look away, even as your body screams at you to make a break for it.

“I mean yeah, rightly. I almost killed that girl.”

Still not looking at you, she points the weapon at your head. You wince, but don’t move.

“She didn’t look that bad off to my eyes.”

You open your eyes.

“I attacked her!”

“You’re a vampire. I’ve never seen a creature with your instinctual drives who *wouldn’t* have taken the opportunity you did.”

She pulls the weapon back, inspecting it.

“I’ve also never seen a hungry vampire give up a kill like this. No witnesses, no complications. You had her.”

She looks you in the eye.

“Why let her go?”

There’s a long pause between you, as the slightly cool breeze picks up. Autumn nips at the heels of summer.

“I just. Don’t want to become the kind of person who kills people.”

A long sigh in response.

“It’s not a path that I recommend.”

And she disengages the firing mechanism, clipping the weapon back to the harness under her coat.

“You’re a lot stronger than I gave you credit for.”

And that’s when you notice the blood.

You smelled it faintly before, but you figured it wasn’t hers. But no, there’s blood soaking her top, through her coat.

“M-Miss! What happened?”

You stand with a start and approach her. She doesn’t stop you.

“Oh, it’s nothing. The monster I was hunting, he was just a little bit faster than I expected. And far cleverer than you, certainly.”

Carefully, you peel the blood soaked coat from her shoulder, exposing a ragged series of still bleeding-gashes. 

“Miss, this isn’t a little cut! You’ve lost a lot of blood! How are you even still moving??”

She rolls her eyes as you fuss.

“I finished my work and made my way home to treat my injury, only to find that a certain misbehaving creature that I’m responsible for had disappeared. So, clearly, I could rest later.”

There’s enough blood in your system for your face to flush pink with a complex mix of emotions as you use your claws to delicately cut shredded sections of shirt cloth away from the wounds.

“You thought I was going to kill someone.”

“And I was nearly right. I caught up to you after you got ahold of that poor girl. I had your head in my sights from fifty paces. You would have been dead before you realized you were dead.”

You look at her. She’s turned her face away from you again.

“So why didn’t you shoot?”

She clears her throat, enough motion that it jolts her wound, making her wince. She catches herself before she makes a noise of pain.

“You had less than three seconds left in your life when you let her go. Congratulations, my little pet. You’ve passed a test I had hoped to never administer.”

You nod slowly.

“It would have been safer for the girl if you killed me outright.”

She doesn’t say anything.

“You should have killed me the second you saw me lay a hand on a human.”

She doesn’t say anything.

“So why?!”

Your voice is raised. Confused, angry.

“Why didn’t you just kill me!!”

You stare incredulously as the faintest hint of pink stains her cheeks.

“I didn’t. Want to.”

“Ah—”

She coughs, winches, and slumps back on the bench.

“Call it personal discretion. Don’t make a big deal about it or I’ll change my mind and execute you anyway.”

You stand stunned for a moment, then bite the inside of your cheek in a vain attempt to stifle a smile. You gesture towards her wound.

“Can I—”

“If you must. Don’t get carried away or—”

“You’ll shoot me in head, yeah I know. Okay, try to relax.”

The smell of blood is making your head swim a little, but you’ve got a decent handle on it. Now that the wound’s clear, you can help close it up. Carefully, gently, you start to lick the gashes, cleaning up the blood, and saturating it with the intoxicant that is produced in your saliva. It reduces pain quickly, but the critical bit is that it staunches bleeding and closes wounds at an astonishing pace. The story goes that ancient vampires used to be far less likely to kill their prey, but as the human population stabilized it became less of a concern. The power to heal lingers, a sort of evolutionary holdover. Not that vampires ‘evolve’ in the traditional sense.

It’s a little undignified, lapping blood off her clavicle like a dog on a hot day, but ah well. It’s settling the lingering blaze of hunger ignited by your earlier incident, you’re glad to have a chance to do something besides resist the urge to do harm.

As you work, holding firmly onto her arm and other shoulder, she lets out a long, slow moan that likely ended up sounding more sultry than she intended. She leans her head back and untenses her muscles, taking deep breaths shuddered by the intoxicant hitting her.

Maybe it’s because of her weakened state, but it seems to be affecting her faster than usual. Her face is flushed like she’s had too much to drink. 

“How are you feeling, Miss?”

“Annoyed.”

You run your tongue along a particularly sensitive area, and she shivers giving out a slow wavering ‘haaaa..’

“Why annoyed?”

“Because you are annoying. Your face is annoying. Your insistence on helping me is annoying.”

There’s just the slightest edge of a slur to her words. You’ve never heard that before.

“You really must have lost a lot of blood, damn. If you weren’t such a pain in the ass you’d be dead.”

“You’re.. A pain in the ass..”

The wounds have closed up, but it’ll leave marks. More scars to add to the network of old injuries. 

“There we go. You cut anywhere else?”

“Probably.”

“Be more helpful.”

“No.”

You can’t help but laugh.

“No wonder you don’t drink in front of me, you’re practically cute.”

“Do not disrespeck— respect me.”

“I would never.”

Carefully, you help her to her feet, her weight fully on you.

“This isn’t going to be easy considering the fact that you’re covered in secret silver.”

“Mmm..”

You start walking, half dragging her along. It’s a long way home. The two of you are silent for a while.

“I still think you should kill me.”

She raises her head, eyes still hazy.

“You— are getting absolutely getting punished for this.”

“For biting that girl?”

“That too.”

You snort. With her this close, and in this weakened state, the urge to tear into her swells in your chest. But. Unlike earlier. It feels a little distant. And not just because you’ve already eaten some.

And she smiles faintly at you, before her head lolls back down. A single moment of uncomplicated affection, without pretense.

You sigh heavily.

You think you might be able to ignore the urge a little easier now.

Maybe something in you broke when you stopped yourself earlier.

You look down at her again. She might be asleep, for how even her breathing has become.

“Well. Let’s just worry about getting you home for now.”

~~~