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miniscrew-anon · 1 year

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Dead on Revival

I just put out 2 funny vampire ficlets so here’s an angsty one in the Count Darkula Verse to balance it all out. Takes place about a day or two after the alley incident from St0rmys last snippet

—-

At a distance, Dark can almost think he’s sleeping.

Four is dressed in his favorite oversized hoodie and tucked beneath a heavy comforter. He’s laying on his side with a pillow tucked under his arm like he always does after a feeding. His face is serene and he looks comfortable in Shadows bed.

He looks asleep. But he’s not.

He’s dead.

If Dark got close he bet he could see the pallidness of his skin. The absence of warmth. The stillness of his chest. The gaping hole in his sternum where chunks of vital organs and spine were blown out the back of his chest.

Or maybe Dark wouldn't find that. It has been over two days now. It might be closed already.

Dark isn't willing to get close enough to check. Just stepping into the room was already risky enough.

The wall behind the bed has sprung to life when Dark walked in, pulsating and writhing. A dark, shapeless mass stretches floor to ceiling. There are no visible eyes but Dark can feel it watching him, ready to wash over him in a wave of fury if he dares get any closer. The edges of it whip and lash, a clear warning.

Dark crosses his arms and leans against the doorframe casually. "Hey, Shads. How's it going?"

The mass doesn’t dissipate. But it does creep down the wall to curl around the bed instead. It wraps its tentacle-like tendrils around the bedposts and loosely curls into the blankets. Hovering over Four’s body and hiding him from view.

"Leave."

The voice is distorted, stringy and full of echoes. A deliberate choice or merely a consequence of having no vocal chords in this form, Dark doesn’t know. It has a certain intimidation factor to it that would probably scare off most mortals, so Dark figures Shadow is doing it on purpose.

"Sorry, but I can't go. I just got here." Dark keeps his tone light but his body firmly planted where he stands. "And we have to talk."

"No."

"Yes. It's important. It concerns Four."

The black mass surges at Dark. It wraps around him and consumes what little light there is, swallowing the pale yellow that comes in from the hallway. Dark is swallowed into the belly of this beast, surrounded by an abyss of pure blackness. It’s only the feeling of solid floor beneath his feet that remind him that he’s still in the physical world and not the emptiness of the void.

Shadow's voice is a mere hiss that comes from everywhere and drips venom, reverberating through Dark like the bass at a rock concert.

"What about him?"

Dark blinks calmly, deliberately not letting his hackles rise. "Man, you're tense. Relax, I come in peace. Pinky promise. I just want to know what the plan is for when he wakes up."

The darkness swirls around him, agitated.

"You know, the plan. Your plan. For his first feeding.” Dark kept himself casual, shoving his hands in his pockets. “I’d like to talk about it with you but I’d also like to be able to see. Because as cool as the visuals are, they're a bit distracting. You mind backing off a bit? Like I said, I’m not here to start shit.”

There is a moment of stillness. Dark stays relaxed as he’s assessed.

Then the room begins to reform through the darkness. Like a thick fog is lifting. Floor, walls, furniture all reappear.

“Thanks.” Dark shifts back to lean against the wall and face the dark cloud that still hovered heavily over the bed. "Anyway, I wanna know what you’re going to feed him when he wakes up. Because he's going to be hungry, Shads. Newborns always are. I’m sure you remember your first time."

The shadows shift around in thought. They coagulate closer to the floor, gaining something like weight to it. It’s still inhuman, but it appears almost solid enough to touch.

"It'll be worse for him thanks to that hole in his gut." Dark continues, daring to take a step into the room. When Shadow doesn’t lash out, he takes another. "I don't know if you've ever healed from something like that. But it takes a lot of energy to mend a wound like that. Especially since he got it as a mortal."

“I can pull someone off the street,” Shadow finally speaks up. His voice sounds more normal now, just a twinge more raspy and hoarse. “Or you can. Not like it's something you’ve never done before. I don’t know why you’re even bringing this up.”

Dark stops a mere foot away, just outside Shadows form. He narrows his eyes in ire. "I bring it up because I don't know how in control he's going to be when he feeds for the first time. He might kill someone, if we're not careful."

Shadow scoffs quietly, putting on his usual snark like a mask. “So?”

Dark exhales sharply through his nose. “I’m serious, asshole. If he’s hungry enough, he’ll be like an animal. He’ll tear his meal apart.”

"So I get someone no one will miss." Shadow waves him off. “I’ll clean up the mess and dump the leftovers. I’ve done disposal before. It’s not a big deal.”

Dark almost snaps at the dismissive tone. He forces himself to breath a lungful of air he doesn’t need and unclench his fists. Relax his posture and ease his tightened jaw. Tempers the urge that’s been building since the alley to grab Shadow by the throat and beat some sense into him.

Shadow has tunnel vision right now. Dark reminds himself. He’s scared. He’s young and he’s stupid and he’s scared. He doesn’t get it. He doesn’t understand. You know it, you saw it. In the alley. He just doesn’t understand.

Dark is going to make him understand.

So he takes another breath and keeps himself from yelling. "Clean up isn’t the issue. I’m talking about what happens after.”

Shadow stills. His form shrinks even more. Now Dark can see a shadow of his real body among the darkness, glowing eyes cast down to stare at the body buried between the sheets. One of his newly formed limbs, blurry like physical static, lightly wraps around Fours limp wrist.

“After?”

Dark nods. “Yeah, after. Because he’s going to snap back to his senses sooner or later. And once he does, he’s going to realize what he’s done. And I don’t know him as well as you do, but he doesn’t strike me as the kind of person who’d be okay with killing an innocent bystander."

Very few people would be okay with something like that. Plenty of the undead Dark has met over the centuries regard their first kills as their first step into full blown depravity, willing or not. Freshly awakened vampires can act like animals - tearing open veins and ripping flesh from bones. The hungrier they are the more brutal the kill. It’s usually fatal and it’s always messy.

It’s a hard thing to live with, and even harder to come back from. Even experienced killers flinch away from brutal murders like that.

Dark swallows thickly, phantom copper tang in his mouth.

“You don’t want that for him, Shads. Trust me,” He murmurs. “You cursed him with immortal life. Don’t curse him with eternal regret, too.”

The darkness shutters, a barely contained gasp of pain.

It swarms and coalesces, revealing Shadow in his true form, sitting at Four’s bedside. He holds Four’s hand, brushing stray hairs behind Four’s ear with a touch so tender it makes Dark want to avert his gaze. But he doesn’t. He watches the two of them, regret aching like a physical stake in his chest.

“This is a responsibility, right?” Dark prods quietly.

Shadow quietly readjusts the blankets he moved when he sat down. He tucks Four back under the covers, covering him just like Four always liked. He swallows thickly.

“Right. Yeah.'' Shadow says. “My responsibility.”

He stands, shakily shoving his hands into the front of his blood stained hoodie. He turns his red-rimmed gaze up at Dark, eyes lost and distant.

“So,” He asks shakily, “What did you have in mind?”

——-

I took some liberty on vampire transformation. A bit of borrowed lore from Buffy on it taking a while for the change to set in. And a little from Demon Slayer about going feral for food upon awakening. Plus the whole Shadow having shadow power was too much fun to not include.

I kinda of love vampire Dark. like a whole lot. I feel like he’s a lot more mature than HSH or lmtcoy Dark because he’s so much older. He’s got more control to him. He might not really get mortals but something like this he understands completely.

And I don’t think I’ve really covered Shadow past being a snarky shit. I don’t get the chance much because there’s so few things that’ll actually break down those walls. But this specific situation is ripe for shadow actually being and feeling vulnerable for a change. For a whole variety of reasons like guilt for letting Four get killed, guilt for changing Four despite Fours initial wishes, fear at almost losing his partner, worry for what comes next, worry over how Four will take the change.

And I’m so hecking hungry for vampire angst

#townhouse au #count darkula #hsh shadow #hsh dark #I NEED more count darkula verse #I need to know how the other boys are taking this/going to take this #I need to know how Four handles being undead #I wanna know what he said to Shadow before he died #I wanna know why all the vampires were in one convenient alleyway #was it vampire hunters? I hope it was vampire hunters #that’d be cool

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