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Avid had awoken restless, mind moving before his limbs could even wake. It had been a fading dream that startled him, all but a haunting song, vanished when his vision returned. So he found himself outside under the cloudy sky, wandering through the Oakhurst Countryside, notebook and pen in hand.
He had yet to familiarise himself with the woods yet. The town Avid had recently moved into to start anew was young and flourishing. Despite the ruins he and other travellers had originally found it in. Some, the sane, had believed the tales of plague and fire two-hundred years prior. Avid’s eyes trailed from the sky to the trees, the country greenery was fresh and thriving, a rarity after the quite recent second Industrial Revolution. Then others, like Avid, who couldn’t believe a town of twelve-hundred could die overnight, had spun tales of cryptids, creatures and more strange horrors alike. Avid’s own ‘outlandish’ ideas from his studies of demons and monsters had labelled him as paranoid. His fellow settlers were quite rude declaring him mad, but not the most pressing issue.
Avid’s current issue was with his rather soundless surroundings. Silence so oppressing that he would’ve thought himself deaf if it weren’t for his boots thudding lightly in the dirt. It was extremely unusual for the early morning, especially when birds should be waking with song. Though Avid assumed it was due to the ominous grey creeping along the horizon. Animals knew to hide when gods were plotting, the wildlife smarter in that aspect. People however, were not, choosing to challenge godly will, fight it, then eventually, succumb to it. Maybe that’s what happened all those years ago. Not a plague or fire, but some kind of will, a curse, god’s ire. A humours thought for brewing trepidation.
A stronger gust of wind rushed past Avid, flicking his hair out wildly and sending his loose papers flying. “Oh come on!” He quickly made chase after his notes, important research warranted such. It was information he’d gotten with his partner, before she succumbed to beasts they studied. Unfortunately with notes retrieved, he found a particular paper wasn’t with the rest. Now, straying from the path wasn’t ideal, but Avid needed to find it. Fortunately for him, the brush wasn’t thick, and with the path behind him towards the Sun, risk of deviation was disregarded.
The sky had only gotten darker and the paper was nowhere to be seen. Avid scanned the brush and trees, the ground and sky, but it was gone. He groaned at the thought of replacing it as the the wind, with its clamorous howling, softened with something else. Avid found himself perking up, what was that sound? He turned around listening intently, taking a few steps away from the tree he was stupidly planning to scale. Thoughts of looking for the parchment left his mind, replaced with a new mission. His legs, yet again moving before his mind, transporting him towards the strange sound.
It was a song on the wind, a careless whisper of promised answers urging Avid forward. Trees towered overhead, hiding from view a castle in the thicket, its beckoning song inviting him in. Usually he’d be more cautious, but allurement silenced his attentive thoughts, commanding him to enter. Avid strode through dark, dimly lit halls, following paths made of Mahogany planks adorned in scarlet wool. Paths that were leading him forward, like veins to the heart.
Avid finds himself pushing open yet another door, and a large expansive room greets him. Stepping inside, you’d think his eyes would travel up and down the intense architecture, ruby stained windows or blacken brick walls. Yet, his sights land on a siren in the middle of the room, who’s instrument was singing with unbridled passion. There stood a man, something so simple yet, so dangerously entrancing. Avid stepped closer taking in the person’s seemingly fictional appearance. Skin as white as snow, hair so bleached it was devoid of all natural colour, and clothes as richly regal as the man was beautiful, and by the gods was he beautiful. Bewitching you might say, unlawful perhaps, but Avid sinful thoughts however? Would say a tantalising dream.
How could a man like Avid, a miscreant who couldn’t even protect his partner, think such felonious thoughts about another man? The human let out his held breath and the violinist stopped, striking crimson eyes revealing themselves, locking straight onto Avid. The ashy brunette felt his traitorous heart flutter to a stop, watching as the young musician draped in ebony and crimson let go of the medium. The instrument, rather than crash to the ground, stays afloat, mysterious magic keeping it stable. Avid stood still, having peered Medusa in the eye, leaving his limbs cemented, their anchoring weight preventing him from escape.
It’s only once the composer gets closer that Avid can truly grasp their detail. The sharpness of the man’s jaw, perfectly shaped nose and slight round of his cheeks. Avid must still be dreaming, for reality would never. Soon enough, as though the platinum-blond had teleported, the man stood before him. Their face holding an indescribable expression and tantalising smile. “Why Hello, I don’t see new faces around here often.” Avid opens his mouth, “I-I,” but the brunette has no words, all his thoughts a frozen inferno burning up inside him. “Now speak up, it’s rude to keep someone, such as myself, waiting.” The venomously calm tone of the other man soothes Avid, his voice impossibly perfect. “I-I’m A-Avid, a-a traveller. I heard you playing… gods you’re beautiful.” Avid’s hands fly over his mouth in shock, and minor horror that those words slipped out, sure that the man would have his head for letting his criminal fantasies show.
His gaze’s captor lets out a soft chuckle, a befitting sound of come from such a sight. “Well, Avid, I’m Scott, the lord of this manor,” He bows slightly unbothered by Avid’s crime, “and seeing as you loved my music so much.” The man, Scott, lent out a hand, eyes softening with something deceptive. “Would you care to dance?” Avid finds himself reaching forward, placing his shaky hand into Scott’s steady hold. Given an answer, Scott yanks Avid forward into a firm but comforting hold, beginning their waltz.
The music starts and Avid is sucked into its cryptic trance. His feet move with Scott’s, the pale mystery leading their movements with power and confidence. “Do you like the song?” Scott questions in a sickly sweet tone. “It’s marvellous.” Avid pulls away into a spin as the song quickens, “Why would you play such an enchanting song in private?” The mortal closes his eyes for a moment letting the other pull him along like a puppet with strings. “A song is only a valuable as those who care to listen to it,” Scott begins, “and I think capturing one beating heart is more precious than a galore of adoring fans.” The lord’s words stir something Avid, but he can’t quite place what.
“Wouldn’t you agree?” Avid concertedly bobs his head, then is tipped backwards. Their ballroom dance continues as the notes shift, the tone of the song becoming sharper. Avid’s dizzy stare catches the entrance, now closed with another figure clad in black and red guarding it. If Avid had been right in the mind he would have thought to worry, but Scott was an erotic drug, and Avid, the addict, unable to part with his transient ecstasy. “If it weren’t for anxious nausea swirling inside me,” Avid gasps lightly as Scott hand snakes its way to his side. “I would have thought myself dead, and you, an Angel come to collect me.” The words settle between the pair, and for a beat, Avid feared his statement true. If it weren’t for the virulent laughter that briskly followed.
“I have been referred to many a creatures in my lifetime.” Scott’s closes the space between their faces, Avid’s focus lingering on the other’s lips. “A monster, demon, the boogieman.” Scott furrowed his brow, features washed in a sullen expression that dare try and devalue his picturesque splendour. “Hundreds of names, hundreds of lifetimes. But an Angel? Never once… Until you, that is.” The cloy words make Avid’s mind turn, had his entrapment misspoke? Had he meant the hundreds that called him such names? Lifetimes, did he not mean lives?
Scott’s abnormally sharp nails dug ever so slightly into Avid’s grassy coloured vest. “It’s difficult living a life where praise is born of fear.” Scott comments absentmindedly, voice toned with intent. “You’re the first in a long while to have truly complemented me.” Avid’s heart leaps to the spoiling song, his compromised composure hanging on each poisoned word. “For that, I thank you.” The music blares with intense dissonance, so much so that Avid’s mind sounds up, his anxiety swelling. “Wow.. that’s just… gods.” The taller man shushes him, the hand not gripping his back trailing up his shoulder. Scott slows their dance to a shift back and fourth, covertly moving his perfect self to loom over his prize.
“I wish…” Avid momentarily breaking from his trance hesitates, his instincts trying to save his already damned soul. “I wish this could last forever.” Scott barks out a sadistic shriek that sends shivers down Avid’s spine. “You know, I had half the thought to let you go~” Scott’s predatory eyes a terrifyingly vivid crimson. “After all, such a precious gem might be tainted by my bite…” It had taken too long for Avid to realise that they’ve stopped dancing, his trusting mind having tricked him into false serenity.
“But, I’m absolutely starving and it’s not often the food practically begs to be eaten.” Something akin self preservation sparks like a dying flame in Avid pushing him to run, fight, escape. Alas, he’d been so enthralled that he had forgotten all sense of sanity. “Sweet, innocent Avid,” Scott’s fangs flash with a hungry grin. “Finally come to your senses have you?” Avid draws in a sharp breath, Scott’s grip tight and choking. “Don’t let that spoil this moment. After all, panicked prey only sours quicker.” The bastard’s grip tightens as Avid twists around, a pleading gaze set towards the other ghostly figures in the room.
“They won’t help you, they’re my fellows, not yours… Not yet anyways…” Scott draws closer to Avid’s neck. “I must thank them… They escorted you here after all.” Avid tenses up, squirming the more he thinks of his oncoming self-inflicted demise. “With that rather poetic paper you’d ‘lost,’” Scott begins, charmingly batting his eyes. “What did it say it again? Creatures so cold Solaris braised them alive, reinvigorated corpses so enchanting they caused war.” Scott grinned mischievously feigning flushed delight reciting the paper Avid had lost. “Beautiful but brutal beasts, born of bloodied blackened nights!” The man finishes pridefully with a smirk.
“My, my, my! If I weren’t dead, I’d be positively pink!” Scott cruelly giggles and playfully pecks the human’s nose. Avid coughing up a fearful laugh, his hands pushing away from the lord’s chest. “Now relax my dear, this will mealy be a blip in immortal exanimate.” Scott presses a passionate kiss into the crook of Avid’s neck, preparing him.
“To sáciate my hunger, will allow me this taste, and eternally be mine?” The question is pointless, only there to give Avid the falsity of choice. No matter what he says, his life will end here. It’s just a matter of whether he wants to remain after such. To be or not to be, that is the question, and Avid chooses, “Yes.” To be. Sharp fangs pierce his neck, and Avid feels the light drain away, Scott’s cold venom replacing the warmth of blood. Avid’s eyes flutter and his body falls limp in the other’s arms. The human, draws a final breath, looking upon the world one last living time.
Waking next, body cold and lifeless. Avid is reborn. Reborn a Vampire.