#though which vampire property determines just how bad its going to get

[jenonctcity]

Running From The Dark

Charia Kingdom – Renjun

Smut, Fluff, Angst.

Fantasy!Au, Supernatural!Au

Warnings: Mentions of blood/injury, minor character death, explicit sex, mention of abuse.

Word Count: 12.8k

 (All of this series links up. The timeline of the story runs in the order of the master list from top to bottom, Mark - Jisung. Each members part can be read as a stand-alone, but I would recommended reading all the parts in order so the story adds up.)

Charia Kingdom - A place that has equal amounts of sunshine and rain, hot and cold, rich and poor, and, humans and creatures that couldn’t be identified as that of human status. Ruled by the Lee family with a king whose cutthroat and unforgiving nature is feared by many. The poor not cared for by people who have everything, where disease takes the lives of those unfortunate enough to not have the funds to purchase medicine. A place where humans live among  creatures many would find terrifying. It’s no secret that Vampires, Werewolves, Wizards, etc live amongst them like normal people. Unless you murder someone, you’re considered normal. Everyone lives their own lives, whether it be a happy life, or a sorrowful life…

Being chased from the royal family’s castle at the age of 16 was never something Renjun hoped for when he was growing up. Having lived in the castle since his birth, his mother, the castles witch, raised him alone. After finding out a huge secret and confronting the king, the king has Renjun’s mother killed, leading Renjun to use the dark powers he never knew he had to curse the Prince of the kingdom. After a bounty is put on his head for his crimes, he lives his life on the run, burrowing away in a cabin far out in the depths of the dangerous forest. A place where many lethal creatures live. Now 19, Renjun has lived in solitude for 3 years, and never expected a girl to break into his home in the dead of night. The girl he encounters is on the run herself, but refuses to tell him why. The stubborn, mentally strong, and brave girl persuades him to let her stay with him. Can he live alongside another being when he’s still got dark magic flowing through his veins and a huge secret heavy in his heart?

The strong wind whipped against your face, alongside stray branches and leaves from trees you didn’t notice in your haste. The shadows from the trees created a darkness in the forest that made it hard to navigate your way through, despite the bright moonlight peering through gaps in the trees; you could hardly see. Your hearing was perfect though, and the demanding shouts of men’s voices was what kept you running even though the dangers you faced the deeper you got into the forest. Your lungs burned from the stress you put them through, running nonstop for an hour was no joke and you felt the ache in your legs. But you had no choice, you couldn’t be caught by the men trailing you or you’d be forced into a life you did not wish to pursue. A bead of sweat cascaded down the side of your cheek, falling from your jaw as you dodged a large branch that was at head height, you ducked underneath it, but immediately stumbled from a dip in the ground. You gasped in surprise, one of your knees coming in contact with the ground before you caught yourself. You winced at the loudness of your gasp, hoping the men not far behind you hadn’t heard you. You couldn’t run any longer, the pain becoming too much, but you refused to give up. You hid behind the largest tree you could find, holding your breath despite the urgency of your lungs screaming about how they needed oxygen. The voices got closer, your stomach twisting in anxiety at them finding you.

“(Y/N)! Come out come out wherever you are.” A deep voice sang with a sickly-sweet laugh following it. The light of a lit torch casting more shadows to fall from the trees as they neared you. “Mr Kim will be a very, very disappointed man if he doesn’t get to have his little bitch.” The voice continued to taunt you, your eyes filling with tears, all hope of freedom rinsing out of your body. “He’s not very forgiving you know…He’s going to do very bad thi-”

The echo of a high-pitched howl cut the man off. His voice halting to a stop the second he heard the threatening signal of a nearby creature. Hushed voices talked amongst themselves before the rustling of leaves told you the men had given up before you, retreating from the forest to escape the beast of the night. You heard more rustling, your heart pounding in your chest and your hands getting clammy, a fright you’d never felt before sending freezing chills down your spine despite the heat of the night. The sound got closer, but you had a feeling it wasn’t the men coming back. You looked to your left, being as quiet as you could as you peered around, hoping to look for a gap in the trees so you had an easy exit if you needed one. You couldn’t see anything under the guise of darkness, so you swung your head to the right. Bright green eyes beside your face had your heart almost stopping, your breath getting caught in your lungs as you stood shell shocked. The snow-white fur of the lean wolf almost glowed under the moonlight, it looking soft to the touch. The wolf stared at you, its head flicking up slightly as it sniffed at you. It took a step closer, its face getting closer to yours. You wanted to beg it not to kill you, but you knew nothing about werewolves. Could it understand your language? Did it have a human form? You had no idea. The wolf rubbed its face against yours the same way you saw a cat once rub its face against its owners’ leg. You took in a sharp breath, confused by the wolfs actions, as it turned away and ran into the dark of the night. Letting out the breath you were holding, you couldn’t help but think the wolf had purposely sought you out to help you.

“Thank you!” You whispered shouted into the darkness, hearing a bark respond in the distance. You took off running again, not knowing what you were looking for and heading towards. You slowed to a walk after half an hour, not even knowing if you were walking in circles as you passed a large boulder that looked strangely familiar. Or maybe you were just going insane, maybe you imagined the wolf and in actuality you were stuck in the prison you once called home. You tripped over a tree root, your body slamming into the leaf covered floor being enough to tell you this was reality, and you actually were experiencing one of the most frightening events of your life. You stood up with a groan, your knees and palms stinging from your fall and your throat feeling so dry it hurt to make any noise. You brushed yourself off, lifting your head to look in front of you as you saw a glimmer of hope. A small cabin in a barely-there clearance sat like a dream. It looked like it was as worn out as you felt. The brick being a dull colour from what you could see underneath the moonlight. Stray vines and ivy grew up the walls, leading you to believe the cabin had been there for quite some time. Looking at the chimney you noticed a lack of smoke, hoping that it was an unoccupied lot so that you had somewhere to spend the night.

You weighed up your options. On one hand, you could spend the night in a cabin, sure there was a risk that it actually had someone living in it, but you could just leave if it did. On the other hand, you could spend the night in a dark, dangerous forest, where all sorts of unknown creatures could be lurking behind trees, ready to cook you in a stew at any moment. Your legs were carrying you to the cabin before your brain had even thought to pick one of the options you’d so carefully thought about. You dodged all the brambles and tree roots, determined not to fall over now that you could actually see the floor from where the moonlight was boring down between the trees. You found the front door, the blue paint peeling from the wood from wear and tear. Taking a deep breath, you tried the doorknob, groaning when it wouldn’t turn.

“Damn.” You grumbled, trying to think of a plan b. You walked around the property, seeing a dusty window around the back. You wiped your hand over the dust, smearing it but successfully making it easier to see through. You peeked through the window, not noticing anything out of the ordinary from what you could see of the kitchen. You also noticed no food on any of the surfaces. The kitchen counter and the table void of anything other than pots and a large book. You hoped the place had been abandoned and they’d just left bits and pieces around the cabin. You found a back door that held no paint on it, just a simple wooden door, smirking to yourself when you easily opened it. Whoever was last here had obviously failed to lock the back door, which you were very thankful for. You shut the door behind you quietly, flicking the lock on the door so no one could follow you inside. You looked around, being able to see almost the whole first floor of the cabin from where you stood, it being an open layer set up. There was the kitchen that you’d seen through the window, beside that there was a fireplace with an uncomfortable looking sofa sat in front of it, the material made out of patchwork pieces. You noticed in the fireplace a large cauldron, and next to that, a very large cabinet with plenty of labelled bottles on the shelves. This must have belonged to a witch at some point. You hoped she wasn’t coming back anytime soon, knowing they can be very hostile when they want to be, and the last thing you needed was to be cursed to cough up frogs or something. You saw a set of wooden steps leading up to the next floor, but you were more curious about the glistening bright blue liquid you could see in one of the bottles on the shelf. Your curiosity got the better of you, and you walked past the stairs to take a closer look at the bottle.

“Unicorn blood…” You read the label out loud and grimaced, not knowing that unicorns had luminous blue blood. A creak sounded from behind you, causing you to gasp and turn around quickly. You widened your eyes when you saw a young man holding a wand threateningly at you. He stood on the stairs, wearing what you assumed what his night clothes that consisted of navy pants and nothing else. His torso was bare, and you gulped, feeling like you’d not only intruded on his home, but on his privacy. His dark brown hair was almost shoulder length, it looking shaggy from where he had been asleep when you’d barged into his home. You were slightly glad it was a wizard and not a witch, hoping he would be kinder to you than a woman would be.

“Who are you?” His voice was mellow despite his demanding tone, and it felt like soft silk against your ears.

“No one.” You frowned, not really knowing where you got this sudden bout of courage to be defensive from. His frown hardened and he flicked his wand, sparks shooting out from it and making an empty bottle on the counter beside you explode. You jumped in surprise, taking a step away from the broken glass on the floor next to you.

“Tell me.” He growled, his voice no longer sounding as lovely as it first had.

“My name is (Y/N).” You watched him wit nervous eyes, his own dark orbs not once leaving your figure.

“Who sent you?” He took another step down the staircase, the wood creaking underneath his weight, now only one more step away from being on the ground. You furrowed your eyebrows at his words, curious as to what he meant by that.

“No one sent me, I was-” You cut yourself off, not wanting to tell him what you were running from in case he decided to use it against you. “I needed shelter, there was a wolf out there.” You glanced around the cabin looking for possible exits in a hurry, even though you’d only seen the two doors which were now both locked, meaning a fast exit was out of the question. You neglected to tell him that the wolf had plenty of opportunities to harm you, but didn’t, it seemingly having helped you in comparison. He didn’t say anything for a minute, thoughts swirling around his head at what he should do with you. He’d never had anyone find him in his whole three years of living out in the forest, so he had no idea what to do.

“Get out.” He narrowed his eyes at you, taking another step down the stairs. You shook your head.

“No. I can’t go back out there! Something will kill me.” Your eyebrows knitted together, and purposely put a scared look on your face, hoping he would have mercy on you. He took another step, so he was finally on the ground, an evil smirk gracing his face.

“Maybe something will kill you in here.” His face fell back to a hard scowl. His eyes still hadn’t looked anywhere but at you, and you started to feel nervous under his stare.

“I don’t think so.” You folded your arms over your chest, trying to act as brave as you usually were now that he clearly didn’t care if you were scared or not.

“You think you’re brave, but I can see right through you. You’re just a scared little girl…I wonder what you were running from.” His voice held a taunting tone and his smirk grew as he slowly started to approach you. You tried to take a step back but were restricted by the cabinet behind you. You gulped, watching him with worried eyes.

“I told you, I was running from a wolf.” You could feel your palms start to sweat and you were regretting your decision to hide in the cabin. He lowered his wand, letting out a sigh and letting his smirk drop.

“You can take the couch. But you leave tomorrow.”

“Thank you, Sir.” You bowed to him, shuffling over to the couch and slowly lowering yourself onto it.

“If you try anything, I will personally find that wolf and feed you to it myself. Understood?”

“Understood.” You turned you head to him as he ascended up the stairs once more. You let out a sigh, thanking the gods it was a warm night out, so you weren’t going to freeze to death without any blankets. Not wanting to push your luck with the wizard whose name you didn’t even know, you laid down on the couch, having to tuck your legs up to fit properly. It was surprisingly more comfortable than you thought if would be, so you found it easy to drift off to sleep.

---

It was the uncomfortable ache in your neck that woke you up. You groaned as you stretched out on the cramped sofa, the relief you felt in your muscles causing you to moan out loud. You let out a sigh, rubbing your eyes before finally opening them. You jumped in surprise when you saw the homeowner stood over you, staring down at you. He jumped when he saw your eyes open, his face starting to glow a bright red as you stared up at him.

“Pervert.” You mumbled loud enough for him to hear, sitting up and letting out a yawn.

“I’m not a pervert, I just saw you moving and wondered if you wanted some breakfast. But you were still asleep, and I was trying to figure out how to wake you up.” He frowned, crossing his arms over his still shirtless torso. “You’re a very restless sleeper.” He mumbled before walking away from you, heading towards the kitchen which was only about five steps away. You hummed in acknowledgment and stood up, following him to the kitchen.

“What’s for breakfast?” You asked, your eyes trained on his back as he pulled out some bowls from a cupboard.

“Porridge.” He grunted, getting to work on making the food. You watched over his shoulder, grimacing in disgust at the sight of the sloppy porridge.

“I’ve never had porridge before…” He let out a sigh, turning to face you with a face of no emotion.

“That’s because its poor people food, and you clearly come from money.” He looked you up and down, raising an eyebrow at your high-class dress that was torn slightly from your trip through the forest. It was a deep emerald green, made from the finest of materials and tailored to fit you perfectly. “Are you the daughter of a lord or something?” He didn’t look at you as he questioned you, spooning the sloppy food into a bowl and passing it to you with a spoon. You grimaced, hesitantly taking a mouthful and swallowing it fast, too bothered by the pain in your stomach from hunger to care about the taste.

“I am.” You kept your eyes on him as he sat down at his tiny table and chairs, putting his bowl on the table. He also kept his eyes trained on you, not fully trusting of you.

“So why are you in my home and not in your lavish house being waited on hand and foot by your servants?” Your silence had him raising an eyebrow. You awkwardly looked around the room, letting out a long sigh as you debated whether to tell him or not.

“You don’t need to know.”

“You’re in my home. You tell me or you leave.” You looked at him with sorrow in your eyes. He wasn’t expecting to see such an emotion laying behind your eyes, his heart dropping a little at how sad you suddenly looked. He let out a sigh and shrugged. “Whatever, doesn’t matter.” He stood up and turned his back to you as he placed his bowl into a large metal tub used for washing. He winced at how soft he was being with you and he couldn’t help but mentally question himself for how he was acting with you. You finished eating and followed suit, stood beside him with your eyes locked on his body.

“What’s your name?” You asked out of the blue, ultimately disrupting the silence that had settled between you both.

“Renjun.” You furrowed your eyebrows at his name and scrunched your face up in thought.

“That name sounds familiar to me…” You didn’t notice how his fists clenched up at your words, his body becoming stiff as he waited for you to continue. “Maybe I know someone else with that name.” You shrugged it off and let out a soft laugh. “So…can I stay with you?” You smiled widely at him in hopes a smile would persuade him to let you reside with him for the foreseeable future.

“Sure.” He turned to you and plastered on a big smile to mirror your own.

“Really?” You gasped in surprise and perked up slightly.

“No.” His expression fell completely apart from the small smirk on his lips. Your face fell to a pout forming on your lips.

“Please! I can help you out with…whatever it is you do here, and I won’t be a nuisance I swear. I can clean up and er…I don’t know really…please!” When you saw that he wasn’t going to cave in so easily, you let out a sigh and whined. “I’ll do anything, just don’t send me back out there alone!” His smirk rose and he started to approach you, taking slow steps until he had you backed up against his table.

“Anything?” He looked you up and down, not missing the look of fear that flashed on your face as the intimidating stranger had your closed in. He backed off without a second thought, not sure where his compassion for you was blossoming from but he could see you were frightened at the thought of him touching you in an inappropriate way. It then struck him it was probably a man you were running from. “You can stay.” He mumbled.

---

You’d been staying with Renjun for just over a week.  You noticed he didn’t talk much, but you didn’t care, you happily chatted to him even when all you got back was a grunt in reply. He also had a knack for making you jump when you least expected it. He didn’t go out of his way to give you a fright, but the spells and potions he made would often go bang and leave you wondering if he was even good at what he did. You still had no answers as to why he was living on his own so deep in the forest, but you didn’t want to pry, he could kick you out at any moment and then you’d be stranded once more. To say you were struggling with adjusting to life outside of your home was an understatement. You were used to living in a lavish mansion with maids and servants waiting on you hand and foot. So, to live in a cramped cabin and sleep on a tiny sofa every night made you want to ball your eyes out and throw a tantrum. But you held it in. The worst part was…well the toilet, which wasn’t even a proper toilet, but in fact, an outhouse. But you didn’t want to even think about that. The next worst part was bathing. When Renjun had led you on a ten-minute walk to a small lake, you had genuinely thought he was having a joke with you. But his dead serious face told you otherwise. He had told you to bathe in the water and had given you a bar of soap. You timidly poked you toe into the water and the cold temperature had made you gasp so loud you gave him a mini heart attack.

“No. I can’t get in there.” You turned to see Renjun already in his underwear, gasping again and turning around quickly.

“Well then you’ll just have to stink won’t you.” He sounded like he didn’t care, wading into the lake and dunking his head underneath before coming up again. “It’s not that bad.” His words had you frowning. You were used to heated baths in a large silver tub, with the best smelling oils and flowers petals used. So this was a nightmare to you. When you saw Renjun wasn’t looking, you stripped down to your underwear, which were actually Renjun’s underwear as you only had the pair you were wearing when you’d ran into the forest and they were currently soaked in a tub with the rest of your laundry.

“Aren’t there fish and stuff in there?” You raised an eyebrow, slowly taking a step into the water. A shiver ran up your spine and you groaned, taking another step until both of your feet were imbedded in the floor of the lake, the mud making you cringe at the horrid feeling. You took a few more steps until you were closer to Renjun with the water coming up to your hips.

“Mermaids too.” Renjun nonchalantly said, washing himself down with his own bar of soap.

“What?!” Your eyes widened and you were about to turn back around when Renjun’s hand caught your wrist. He gave you a tug and your shoulders were soon underneath the water.

“I’m kidding.” He chuckled, letting go of you and pushing his hair back off of his face. The sun beamed down on his glistening wet skin, and you tried your hardest not to stare at how beautiful his body was. “Do I have to wash you myself or are you just going to stare at me?” He smirked and you found your cheeks heating up quickly, you turned away and started to wash yourself with the soap. “Is that what you’re used to? Having your body washed by your servant’s, little rich girl?” You knew he was mocking you, his tone light and airy.

“No. I’m fully capable of washing my own body thank you.” You huffed, your arms causing unnecessary splashes in the water as you tried to show off how you didn’t find him funny. He simply laughed and you both continued to wash yourselves in the cold water. So yeah, you hated bath time.

Apart from that, it wasn’t all that bad.

You walked through the dense trees with Renjun by your side. He was wearing a black pair of trousers with a loose white shirt that showed off the top of his chest. It was midday, so the forest was lit up well by the hot sun beating down through the gaps in the canopy. You wore one of Renjun’s long shirts as a dress, still not having anymore clothes apart from what you wore the day you arrived at his cabin. But Renjun had told you that he’d sent a raven carrying a letter to someone he can trust. He hopes they’ll bring the items he put on the list so that you can finally have some other clothes.

“So the red berries you can use to make a potion that will kill someone?” You looked at Renjun beside you, his head nodding as a reply as his eyes scoured the floor for the item you were talking about. “And the pink berries you can use to make a love potion?” He nodded again and you made a noise of amazement. “Woah, that’s spectacular!” You picked up a flower that had white petals and a blue bud. “What does this do?”

“Nothing, its just a flower.” He scoffed a laugh, pushing back some loose leaves to uncover the red berries he was talking about. You dropped the flower and stared at the berries.

“Why do you want to kill someone though?”

“Don’t ask so many questions.” He deadpanned, putting the berries into his sack.

“Are you going to make someone fall in love with you?” You tilted your head, unable to stop the questions from pouring out of your mouth.

“No. I make potions to sell on the black market. Potions that can kill, harm, or force someone into something are considered illegal and black magic. But it’s the only way I can get money and food. The person I sent a raven to is the same person who does my deals for me.”

“Isn’t he worried he’ll be caught? You get the death sentence for illegal things like that…”

“He’s a vampire, so no.”

“That’s hot.” You smirked at him, his eyed widened and he gave you a look of shock. You burst into laughter and rolled your eyes. “I’m joking, hey can you make a potion that-” Before you could finish, you stopped talking, the loud shouts that echoed through the trees causing a chill of dread to shoot through your system. The voices sounded identical to that of the ones following you when you were running a week prior. “We need to go.” You gripped onto Renjun’s arm, but the voices got louder and suddenly you were facing the one man you never wanted to see again.

“Hello my love, long time no see.” The man stood in front of you smirked, his thin lips pulling up and making him look dangerous. “I wasn’t best pleased to find out my wife had run away.” His piercing blue eyes looked you up and down. You would have run again, but you were frozen on the spot, and he had five other men stood by his side, all holding swords and looking ready to attack.

“I’m not your wife. We never got married.” You spat with hatred at him, giving him a look of disgust. Renjun stood beside you with a look of confusion on his face, his eyebrows furrowed, and fists clenched.

“I see you’ve already found yourself another man. Such a little whore (Y/N).” He sneered at you and gave Renjun a look up and down.

“I’m not with him. Don’t bring him into this.”

“Who are you?” Renjun completely disregarded everything you just said and threw himself into the situation.

“Did she not tell you about the fiancé that she abandoned? Well, to cut a long story short. I woke up one day to find my lover gone. My men soon found her hiding and she ran into the forest. They tracked her but lost her, and here we are now.”

“No. She didn’t.” You and Renjun turned to look at each other and he hit you with a hard glare. You gulped, a nervous fire burning in the pit of your stomach from how Renjun was staring at you.

“Hand her over and you can go free. But if you don’t, we’ll kill you.” Your ex-fiancé’s lips curled into a blood curdling smirk. Renjun gasped and started to stutter.

“T-take her! I-I don’t w-want no trouble!” He held his arms up beside his head in surrender. Your stomach fell through the floor at how he was giving you up so quickly without even hearing your side of the story. You thought that Renjun was going to stick by your side, but then thought that he actually had no reason to. You were simply mooching off of him and this was his opportunity to get rid of you.

“No Renjun! Please don’t do this!” You grabbed his wrist and begged him, your eyes staring into his and welling up with tears. Your heart was beating fast as two men enclosed on you, not giving you much time to escape as they grabbed you by the arms. “Get off of me!” You squealed and tried to tug yourself away from them. “Stop!” You dug your heels into the floor, but it was no use against the strong henchmen. You looked at your capture and saw his sick, sadistic smile on his face as he grabbed you by the jaw.

“I can’t wait to have you underneath me; I hope he didn’t do much damage to your pretty little cunt.” His words had you shaking at inside, tears falling down your cheeks and you didn’t even want to think of the things he would do to you. “You belong to me. Don’t forget that.” He tapped your cheek and turned to Renjun who was stood looking meek by a tree. “You did good boy. Now go home.” You were being dragged unwillingly through the forest, your back to Renjun but you wanted to scream at him for giving you over like that. You felt betrayed and it was like having a hot knife twisted in your chest.

The tight grips on your arms were suddenly gone, and a purple flash blinded you momentarily. You fell to the floor from no longer having any support from the goons who were holding you captive. You squeezed your eyes shut and heard the sounds of deep grunts, followed by thuds hitting the floor and what you could only describe as knives slashing. Strong arms wrapped around your middle and you whimpered, gripping onto the floor like it would stop whoever was attacking you.

“No! Stop!” You struggled in their arms as you sobbed, wishing you were back in Renjun’s cabin where you felt safe.

“Hey stop, it’s me.” Renjun’s soft voice whispered to you as he pulled you up into his arms. He held you to his chest and shushed you gently. “You’re okay, keep your eyes closed.” He started to walk, carrying you in his arms with ease. You couldn’t help but open your eyes to see what had happened. The sight you were met with had your mouth dropped open and fresh tears to fall from your eyes.

“You killed them?!” You squeezed your eyes shut, trying to rid the image of all six men laying on the floor with their throats slit open. You don’t think you’ll ever forget the sight of your ex-fiancé as he laid on the floor, choking on his own blood as he slowly died. “How did you do that?!”

“With dark magic, I told you not to look!” You hid your face into the crook of his neck as he carried you back to his home despite the fact he’d just murdered six people in front of you. You couldn’t stop the tears the trailed down your face as you stewed in your thoughts the whole journey home. You really thought you were going to be forced into the marriage you didn’t want once again. You let out a long sigh as Renjun gently sat you on his bed. He cupped your face and wiped the tears away with his thumbs. “Are you hurt?” He spoke quietly, his eyes scouring over you as he checked for any marks. “Your arms are going to bruise.” He gently stroked your arms, his fingers barely touching you as he sighed. “When the bruises show, I can heal you.” He sat down beside you and hesitated before he took your hands into his own. He didn’t speak, his eyes trained on your face as he waited for you to break the silence.

“I was born into a rich family, and as soon as I turned 18, they signed me up for an arranged marriage. They recently matched me with him,” You paused, gulping back your emotions as you looked up at the ceiling. “he’s abusive. He would hit me, force me to do things I really didn’t want to do…”

“Did he rape you?” Renjun whispered, his stomach fluttering with butterflies as he waited for you to respond.

“No.” You shook your head, sighing and turning to look at Renjun. “He was waiting for our wedding night.”

“Bastard.” His fists clenched and he growled in disgust.

“So I ran away. That night I broke into your home, I was being chased by his men. A white wolf chased them away and I’m sure it saved me on purpose.” You looked into Renjun’s dark eyes, noticing a strange look behind them that you couldn’t quite put your finger on.

“Snowy.”

“Sorry?” You raised an eyebrow in confusion at him.

“Her name is Snowy. Well, it’s not actually her name, but she can’t talk so I just call her Snowy.” He nodded with a small smile on his face as if he was proud of what she did. He gave your hands a squeeze but made no effort to lose contact with you. You had never felt safer in your entire life as what you felt in the middle of the most dangerous forest, in a run-down cabin, with a man you’d only known for just over a week. You felt a sudden rush of affection and thankfulness towards him, knowing if he hadn’t been with you, then you’d be made to marry that monster. You didn’t even want to think of the things he would have done to you as punishment for running away. You leaned your head in, hesitating before pressing a gentle kiss to his cheek with your eyes closing as you made contact. Renjun stiffened momentarily, but then relaxed, a soft smile playing at his lips as his cheeks started to turn pink fast.

“Thank you for saving me.” Silence ensued after you pulled away, and you both sat wordlessly on his bed for five minutes before he spoke up once again.

“My mother was the castles witch, or healer as some would say.” He took a deep breath and stared you in the eye, you felt his grip on your hand tighten as he worked up the courage to finally tell his story to someone after so many years of keeping it to himself. “I never knew my father, she just used to tell me that he was a coward and we were better off without him. Anyway, throughout my life, my mother would help me with the gift that she’d passed down to me, and I was getting really good with using magic. One night I decided I needed some answers about my father, so I snuck into her work room and spent hours searching for a recipe for a truth potion. I found it and I brewed it in secret whilst she slept. The next morning I slipped it into her drink, and by midday she was spilling all sorts of secrets out that I never knew about.” He let out a sigh and you noticed that his eyes started to fill with tears.

“You haven’t got to tell me anymore.” You rubbed your thumb over the back of his hand to try and comfort him. “If its too much you haven’t got to.”

“No, I want to.” He took another deep breath and sniffed back his tears. “I asked her about my father, and she said that the King is my father. I got really mad that she never told me, and I threw things around and I said some really nasty stuff. I felt like something was boiling inside of me that I couldn’t control. So I left, because I didn’t want to hurt her. The next thing I did was find the King. Obviously, he knew who I was and that I was his son. We argued and I kept shouting at him, he told me to stop or I would regret it. I didn’t believe that he’d do anything though because it just sounded like empty threats, and I was so angry. He’d slept with my mother when he was married to the Queen, so he never wanted anyone to find out. Then a month after I was born the Queen gave birth to the Prince, so the King threatened my mother that if anyone ever found out, he’d have her killed.” His eyes started to blink faster as he continued on with his story, his eyes glossier than before. “I didn’t stop shouting at him, so he had his guards restrain me while they went to collect my mother. He had them hold me in front of her whilst he slit her throat.” His face crinkled up as a sob left his lips, the memory paining him and causing a dam to burst inside of him. You gulped, your own eyes filling with tears at the thought of what he’d been through.

“Oh no…” You let go of his hands and instead wrapped your arms around his torso, bringing him close to you and rubbing his back in slow circles. “Renjun…” His frame rocked from the sobs he let out. He sniffed and wiped his eyes with his hands, letting out a long breath and gulping.

“They killed her in front of me, and there was nothing I could do to stop it.” He pulled away from your embrace and took your hands back in his own instead, missing the feel of your soft hands within his own. He entwined your fingers with his own and kept his eyes on them as he played with them. “They threw me on the floor in her blood, and I felt so much rage and sadness that I didn’t know what to do. I ran back to my room and I grabbed my wand, I wasn’t even thinking, my legs just carried me. I went to find the King again, but before I could get to him, I came across the Prince in the hall.” He winced as he started to explain what happened next. “I grew up with the Prince, he was my closest friend and the Queen would encourage us to play together despite the fact I was a workers son. She’s a very kind woman, and I believe she knew about her husband’s affair, but she never held it against me or my mother. Obviously, he was worried when he saw me covered in blood, and he kept firing questions at me and trying to stop me from where I was going, he didn’t know I had the intention of killing his father. I was getting overwhelmed, especially with my newly found brother being in front of me. Other people heard the commotion and they came to watch, it was when the King came around the corner that I lost it. I saw red. And Jeno was in my way…” He paused as he thought about how to explain what happened next to you. He squeezed your hand tight as he spoke. “I remember seeing a bright green light emitting from my wand as I raised it at him, then suddenly he was laying in a heap by his fathers’ feet, but he wasn’t human anymore…he was a wolf. I can remember the burning feeling I had in my gut as I fired the curse at him, but I didn’t mean to. I never wanted to harm him, I loved him like a brother, and I was devastated at what I’d done. So I ran, the same way that you had.”

“You had no other choice Renjun, how old were you?”

“Sixteen.” He sighed, resting his head on your shoulder as he shut his eyes. “The feeling I had back then was the same feeling I felt today when those men had their arms around you.” His face hardened and he scowled at the memory.

“You were just a kid; you didn’t mean to hurt anyone.” You tried to reassure him, but you knew it probably made no difference to him. “And you had no other choice today, its not like you had a sword and could fight them in combat.”

“I did though, I wanted other people to hurt…I killed all the knights who chased me, I’m a murderer (Y/N), I have too much dark magic inside of me to be anything other than a bad person. It’s my fault that my mother was killed, and I have to live with that for the rest of my life.”

“Renjun, your mother was murdered in front of you, and you were so young I can only assume that you had no control of powers that strong at such a young age. I’m sorry that you had to go through that. But you can’t change what happened.” You lifted his hands up and placed a kiss to the back of one of them.

“I trust you not to hurt me.”

“I would never hurt you…” You both looked into each other’s eyes as he raised his head from your shoulder. You smiled shyly and your breath hitched as his head crept closer to your own. When your lips were a centimetre away from touching a loud howl ripped through the air, followed by a chorus of more howls. You both pulled away and Renjun stood up fast to peek out of the window beside his bed.

“What’s going on?” You asked with a horrible feeling in your gut even though you knew the threat you had run away from was no long lingering over your head.

“I think some wolves have just found the bodies, it’s nothing to worry about.”

“Oh…” You stood up from Renjun’s bed and noticed that the sun had started to set, making the entire cabin eerily dark. Renjun waved his hand over a candle in the corner of his room and a flickering flame brought a new light to the setting.

“When you first came here you said you recognised my name…why?” He furrowed his eyebrows as he looked at you.

“You’re a wanted man, but I think you already knew that.” He let out a soft laugh before nodding his head. You thought back to when Renjun had come across you in his home and he’d asked you who had sent you, at the time it confused you, but now it made sense. He was scared for his life, and he had a right to be.

“Yes that’s why I’ve been living deep in a forest most people wouldn’t even dare to enter.” He winked at you and made his way downstairs, you quickly stepped to the window and brushed the curtain aside, peering out into the dense trees. You could have sworn you saw some amber eyes staring at you from far away, but they were gone just as fast as they were there.

“Its been a long day.” You mumbled to yourself and shook your head, trying to clear your mind. Your cheeks heated up as you thought back to the kiss you had nearly shared with Renjun. The image of his face getting closer to your own with his really kissable looking lips was making your palms sweat. You were in the midst of thinking about how things would have turned out had your lips actually met with his own, and you were debating whether you had feelings for the boy you’d only known a week when his footsteps made the stairs creak underneath him. He was carrying your blanket and pillow in his hands which caused you to furrow your eyebrows at him. “What are you doing with those?”

“I don’t want you sleeping on the couch anymore, I just thought maybe you’d want to er…” His cheeks slowly turned red as he stumbled over his words. “Share the b-bed with me?” Your eyes widened and you glanced at his bed. It was definitely big enough to hold the both of you, and you were surprised that he felt comfortable enough with you to do that.

“No funny business?” You raised an eyebrow at him and smirked, enjoying the way he squirmed under your stare.

“(Y/N)!”

“I’m joking!”

---

The soft summer breeze was doing nothing to cool you down. The sun had caused your body to perspire and your flowy maroon dress to stick to your skin, and you took off your shoes in hopes to get some air to them. The richly colourful flowers mixed in with lengthy grass was one of the most calming things you’d witness in a long time. With the large mountains in view, a running stream so close you could hear the water trickling against the rocks, and the forest framing the spacious meadow, you didn’t want to move. The grass was soft against your body as you sat amongst it, Renjun’s head laying in your lap with his eyes shut, basking in the heat of the sun that was beating down from the endless, sapphire blue sky. You gazed down at his shining skin, smiling at the way his long eyelashes laid against his cheeks. His hair had gotten longer in the past two months that you’d known him, but he refused to let you cut it no matter how much you badgered him about it. You ran your hands through his hair and twirled the long locks around your fingers, he let out a soft sigh from how good it felt to him and nuzzled his head into your touch.

“You’re adorable Renjunnie.” You whispered, unsure if he was asleep or not, but the way his nose crinkled in disgust at your words told you he was still awake. “Don’t try to deny it.” You giggled, scratching his scalp with your fingernails as his eyes blinked open, squinting up at you as the sun was so bright.

“You were singing as you were washing our clothes this morning, yet I’m the adorable one?” He closed his eyes again but raised an eyebrow at you.

“You heard me?” You gasped with your eyes wide in surprise, a blush of embarrassment rising on your cheeks.

“Yes you weren’t exactly quiet.”

“Did I wake you up?” You picked at a flower beside you and slid it into Renjun’s hair. You smiled at your handy work and hastily picked another flower.

“No, I was already awake.” He mumbled and yawned, unaware that you were decorating his hair with flowers because your touch was so delicate.

“You kept rolling on me last night.” You sniggered, his eyes opening in surprise and catching you in the act of putting a white flower in his hair. You’d been sharing Renjun’s bed with him since the day you’d both admitted to each other why you were both on the run two months ago. You hadn’t had anymore close encounters of kissing like that had that day, but your feelings towards Renjun had grown significantly the more you got to know him. You took a keen interest in Renjun’s potions and spells, often assisting him with the brewing of potions and doing the grand job of holding his instruments. There was a time when Renjun got frustrated to the point of snapping, and you were nearly in the firing line of a ball of navy-blue fire that flew through the air. It had missed you luckily, and instead the wall of the cabin had a gaping, smouldering hole where the ball had hit it. Renjun had never apologised more in his life than that moment that he’d nearly hurt you, but it brought the two of you closer, especially when you reassured him that you trusted him.  “Why were you so restless? Did you have another bad dream?” Since you’d been sharing his bed with him, you’d witnessed a number of his nightmares. It would start with soft whimpers leaving his lips and would escalate to him becoming agitated and twitchy in his sleep. You didn’t know whether to wake him or not, as the one time you did, he’d woken with such a start that he’d pushed you off of the bed. You didn’t want a repeat of that, so you always waited it out until his body went still once more.

“No, it was a good dream.” His smile was sleepy, and he stared up at you like you were the only thing he could see.

“Care to share?” You brushed the flowers from his hair just as he sat up, leaning on his hand to keep his body upright.

“No, I’m keeping it to myself.” He winked and let out a soft laugh before sighing. “What shall we do tomorrow?” You looked away from him, staring into the dense trees as you racked your brain for ideas of what to do.

“I want to go into town.” When he didn’t reply to you, you turned to see a scowl on his face, his lips pulled into a tight line and his body visibly tense. “I just want to see other people again you know…I miss the smells, the sounds, the food…” He still didn’t speak, thoughts rushing through his head as you spoke. “Renjun say something…”

“You’re not going.” His face was still stern, his eyebrows knitted together as he kept his eyes trained on you. You scoffed in disbelief; you couldn’t believe he had the nerve to tell you there you weren’t going to do something that you wanted to do.

“I wasn’t asking you for permission.” You shot back at him, your face now mirroring his own hard look.

“I don’t care, I’m not allowing you to go to town (Y/N).” You could both see where this was heading. Your tongue pushed into your cheek and you pursed your lips at him, raising an eyebrow as a silent challenge. All your life you’d been underneath the thumb of your parents, and now you had all the freedom you could possibly want, you weren’t going to allow a male to control you again.

“I’m going. Whether you like it or not.” You shrugged at him, watching as his gaze darkened. His fists clenched as he willed the fire burning in his stomach to simmer down.

“No. You are not.” He gripped at some of the grass in an attempt to calm down. “Don’t push me.”

“What makes you think you have the right to tell me what I do and don’t do Renjun. You’re not my father, or my husband. And even if you were, I sure as hell wouldn’t be controlled by you.” You pushed yourself up onto your knees, getting prepared to storm away at any moment.

“(Y/N) do you not understand how much danger you would be in if you went to the town? You even said so yourself that there are people who work for your fiancés family that could come looking for you. You will be walking around with a target on you. What the fuck would I do? I cant go with you because I’m the most wanted man in the entire Kingdom, and I cant just wait here for you to come home, not knowing if someone’s found you, or if a fucking animal has eaten you while you were on your way home. So no. You aren’t going (Y/N). And if you do go, then don’t bother coming back.” He growled with vigour, his eyes staring to glow a disturbing purple colour. Your mouth popped open as you witnessed what you believed to be dark magic taking over the Renjun that you knew. You’d never actually seen first-hand what the dark magic did to his physcial features, only ever seeing the aftermath of his rage running through him. You didn’t know how to calm him down, so you did the one thing you’d been wanting to do since that day he’d saved your life. You cupped his face in your soft hands and pulled his lips to meet your own. You squeezed your eyes shut, so you couldn’t see if what you were doing was helping him to calm down or not. You felt his hands come to rest on your waist, his grip tight to begin with but soon loosening as you moved your lips in perfect time with his. He pulled you from him and you opened your eyes to look at him. He stared into your eyes, his sight flicking down to your lips as he held his hands to your hips. As you looked into his brown eyes, you noticed that sadness behind them and it made your heart sink. He’d already lost the person who meant the most to him in the world, and he no longer had his best friend either. You could see why he was getting upset and angry and immediately regretted how you acted. He visibly gulped

“I’m not going anywhere.” You whispered as you looked to his parted lips.

“Good…” He leaned in once more and slotted his lips between your own. Your eyes shut automatically and you leaned into his touch, stroking your thumbs against his warm cheeks. He very slowly lowered you against the long grass, holding his body over your own as he worked his lips against yours. The feel of his tongue pushing against your own was something you’d never felt before, but it was a welcomed touch, it igniting a fire within you that was new to you. He moved his kisses down your jaw to your neck, sucking softly at your skin and squeezing your hips with his hands.

“I’m in love with you (Y/N)…” He whispered against you, letting out a sigh and resting his forehead in the crook of your neck. He gulped, screwing his eyes shut as he admitted his feelings towards you. “Please love me back.” You could barely hear him as he’d said the words so quietly, his voice cracking from how he got choked up. It broke your heart.

“Renjun…” You laid your hands on his back, rubbing them around in slow circles. You leaned your head against his, holding him to you tightly to comfort him. “I’m in love with you too.” He pulled his head back to look into your eyes, a small smile on his face as he looked down at you.

“I don’t want to lose you; I can’t lose anyone else.” His eyes welled with tears, making them appear glossy and darker than usual.

“You don’t have to, I won’t go.” You lifted your head and placed a tender kiss to his lips.

“Good.” He murmured against your lips, getting lost in your mouth once more. You kissed him for what felt like hours, but in reality, it was only ten minutes, before he descended to kiss at your neck.

“That feels good.” You smiled, your eyes shutting as he sucked a dark bruise into your neck. He smirked, licking a stripe up your skin and letting out a low chuckle. Your legs wrapped around Renjun’s hips, your hands fiddling with the hair at the nape of his neck as he rolled his hips against yours. An involuntary moan spilled from your gaping lips, new feelings of excitement blooming inside of you that you’d never felt before. “Do it again.” You encouraged him, his hips rolling into yours again but with more force. He smiled, giving your lips one last peck before he sat back on his feels, his eyes staring down at your chest as it rose and fell fast from how thrilled you were. His shaky hands reached out as he took the top button of your dress between his fingers. He hesitated, looking you and biting his bottom lip. You nodded your head when you realised that he was wordlessly asking you for permission. He popped open the first button, then worked on opening the next 3 until your bra was on show. He placed both of his hands over your breasts, squeezing them over the plain material and letting out a throaty moan at the sight of what he was doing. You already knew that Renjun was a virgin, and that he’d never even seen a woman naked until he accidentally walked in on you naked one time. But you also knew he’d read books about sex, and that his mother had gotten the castles gardener to give him ‘the talk’ when he was fourteen. You’d also had ‘the talk’ given to you by your mother at the age of sixteen, and you snuck out multiple times to buy adult books that had very graphic explanations of sex in them. But no one needed to know that.

His hands wrapped around your torso and he quickly untied your bra, pulling the loose fabric from your body and setting it down beside you. “Wow…” He mumbled, his mouth popping open in awe at your body. He leaned in, placing gentle kisses to the top of your breasts while he cupped them with his hands. His lips trailed down, and he took one of your nipples between his lips. He looked up at you as he sucked at the sensitive bud, a small gasp falling from your lips at the spark it sent through you. He looked so innocent and content as he swirled his tongue around your nipple, his hips grinding lazily into yours. He moaned against you, his cock quickly hardening in his pants as he moved to the other breast to give it attention. He sat back on his heels once more, palming at his erection and biting his bottom lip. You smirked, sitting up and not hesitating before ridding yourself of your dress completely, only wearing your plain white panties. He followed your lead, pulling his loose white shirt off over his head before shimmying out of his pants. Your lips met in the middle, his hands framing your face as he drove his tongue into your mouth once again. Without thinking, you reached a hand out and squeezed at his hard length through his pants. He pulled back and sucked in a harsh intake of breath, his eyes screwing shut as he sounded pained.

“Is that good or bad?” You immediately withdrew your hand and looked worried, your eyes wide and dripping with simplicity.

“Good, too good.” He grabbed your hand and placed it back where it was before. You giggled softly, rubbing your hand against him as he bucked his hips up towards you. You slipped your hand into his underwear and gulped when you felt his cock against your hand. You didn’t have anything to compare it to, but you were happy with the size of it, but you had a daunting feeling sitting in your gut at whether you were confident in having something of that size inside of you. He pushed his underwear down and set them aside with the rest of his clothes. He watched your face as you stared at his rock-hard appendage, your hand having stilled. “Are you okay?” He took your hand in his and pressed a soft kiss to the back of it. “We don’t have to do this if you don’t want to.”

“Renjun I’ve been sleeping in a bed with you for the past two months, you have no idea how many times I’ve wanted to do this with you. It’s happening.” You grasped him in your hand once more, shuffling yourself forward on your knees as you very slowly stroked his cock. He reached his own hand out and slowly stroked your folds, his eyes widening in surprise at how wet you were already. He didn’t really know what he was doing, but he found your dripping hole fast and slid a finger inside of you. “Oh…” Your mouth popped open and you found your hips moving instinctively against his hand, rolling them in time to his finger dipping in and out of you. He leaned in and pressed a kiss to your shoulder, his lips trailing up to where he’d made a dark bruise on your neck. You moaned at the slight pain you felt when he nibbled at the sore spot but leaned into his touch anyway. He slowly slid another finger inside of you, stopping his ministrations when you whimpered in pain, your body going stiff and your hips raising.

“Did I hurt you?” You could hear the worry in his voice, it warming your heart that he was being so gentle with you.

“A little, just give me a few seconds to adjust.” He stayed completely still until you gave him the go ahead, his digits slowly moving in and out of you in a steady rhythm. You took in a deep breath and felt your thighs start to quiver from the little pangs of pleasure you felt every time he plunged his fingers inside of you. He pulled his fingers out of you and gave you a gentle nudge as a wordless hint for you to lay down. You laid back into the long grass, the kaleidoscope of colours from the flowers made your colour pop underneath the sun, the light sheen of sweat over your body making you glisten. Renjun was stunned by your beauty. His heart pounding in his chest as he stared down at the woman he’d fallen in love with in such a short time.

“Tell me if I hurt you or if you want to stop.” He spat in his palm and then stroked his cock a few times. He leaned over you, bracing himself up on one hand beside your head as he used his other hand to guide his cock to your entrance. He rubbed the head of his leaking member against your entrance, coating the head with your juices before very tenderly pushing it against the oozing cavern presented to him. You tensed up, wincing as it felt like you were being split in half.

“Stop!” You whimpered and he halted instantly. You felt bad when you saw the worried look on his face, his lips opening and closing as he tried to garner what to say. “Try again…”

“No. I don’t want to hurt you (Y/N)!” He was about to back off, but you grabbed him by the hair to stop him from moving. “Ow!”

“Sorry! Please, try again.” You pouted up at him, your eyes going comedically wide at him. He let out a sigh and nodded his head in obligement. When your hands had let go of his hair he quickly pulled away, much to your dismay. But before you could whine at him, he scooted backwards in the grass, gripping your thighs in his hands and pulling your hips upwards so that you were laying flat on your back again, your legs spread in front of him. He dipped down without a word and licked a stripe from your hole to your clit. A new feeling came over you as his tongue came in contact with the little bundle of nerves you’d only ever read about in the erotic books you’d secretly read. He watched your reaction and parted your folds with his fingers, leaning in and flicking his tongue against the little bud again. “Oh my…” You breathed out, leaning your head back as you felt like sobbing from how good it felt. He pushed his two fingers inside of you again, working them in and out of you as he sucked on your clit. Without you even noticing he added one more finger, moving them faster as he loosened you up. You felt what you could only describe as an explosion slowly building inside of your stomach, your toes curling and thighs starting to shake as the feeling got stronger.

Without saying anything, he suddenly withdrew from you, leaving you on the edge of your orgasm without even realising it. He hovered over you and very slowly started to push his cock into you once more. You still felt a slight string of pain, but it was considerably duller feeling that what it had been on his first attempt. He stopped once he was fully sheathed inside of you, his forehead resting against your own as you both adjusted to the new feeling. “Make love to me.” You whispered, wrapping your arms around his neck and your legs around his waist. His lips met yours in a lingering kiss as he slowly pulled his hips back, pushing inside of you once more. He repeated this until he picked up a leisurely rhythm. He panted and let out soft groans against your lips, your orgasm slowly building back up until you were whimpering for more. You gripped at his back, digging your nails into his perspiring skin as his thrusts started to lose pace. The moment didn’t last as long as you would have hoped, as his body tensed up, he let out a guttural moan as he spilled his hot cum inside of you. He moved his hips slowly for a few moments before he pulled out, the over-stimulation becoming too much for him. He wiped his forehead with his hand and looked down at you.

“I’m sorry, I-I didn’t think it would be that quick…” His cheeks flared up a bright red as he became embarrassed as his short performance. You giggled gently, biting your bottom lip as you watched him.

“You can always use your mouth again…I liked that a lot.” You shyly spoke, your own cheeks flaring up at how lewd your words sounded. A proud smirk rose up on his face as he leaned down, watching as his cum dribbled out of your hole. He used his fingers and pushed it back inside of you, attaching his mouth to your clit and sucking at it profusely as he rammed his fingers in and out of you. It didn’t take long for your first ever orgasm to crash into you like a tree falling on top of you. The air was snatched from your lungs and you saw stars that clouded over your vision. You tried to catch your breath, but you were struggling as your body adjusted to life after your orgasm. Renjun pulled his fingers out of you and watched against as his cum seeped from you, his bottom lip being tugged between his teeth in fascination. He didn’t want to alarm you, so he didn’t tell you about the small amount of blood mixed in with the white of his cum. He grabbed his shirt and hurried to clean you up with it, helping you get dressed and pressing a soft kiss to your cheek. He had to help you stand up, your legs wobbly from the strain they’d been through. You wrapped your arms around him and smiled up at him with a look of pure admiration and love settled on your features.

“What are you thinking?” You grinned up at him, curious as to what was playing on his mind after what the two of you had just done.

“That it was exactly like my dream…what are you thinking?” He’d put his pants back on but opted not to wear his now dirty shirt.

“How happy I am, thank you for taking me in and giving me this life.” You pressed a soft kiss to his jaw, unable to stop the wide smile that spread across your lips.

“I should be the one thanking you, I finally have someone to care about again. I was so lonely…”

“You never have to be lonely again.”

---

The gentle lull of Renjun’s soft voice was causing your eyes to droop. The flickering fire in front of you was creating a warmth over you that made you just want to drift off into the land of sleep. The sun had long gone down, and after a filling meal you and Renjun had cooked together had been consumed, you decided to snuggle up to him on the sofa. It was his idea to read a book aloud as your entertainment for the night. At first, you’d thought of it as a good idea, but the more he droned on, not putting much enthusiasm into making different voices for the different characters like you did, the sleepier you felt. You were surprised in yourself that you didn’t want him to bend your legs behind your ears and give you the fucking of a lifetime like you did most nights since you’d both lost your virginities to each other over a month prior. You’d been surprised when Renjun had brewed a strange tasting concoction that he claimed would prevent you from falling pregnant, and truth be told, you dreaded swallowing the sickly liquid that tasted like dirt. But if it meant you could have as much sex as you liked without the chances of creating unwanted babies, then you’d drink gallons of the stuff. Its not that you didn’t want children with him, but it just wasn’t convenient with your living situation. Your home was too tiny, and you could barely look after yourself at your age after having been spoilt your entire life by your parents. So babies were out of the question until a later date.

“Are you still awake?” Renjun paused his reading to ask you, his head leaning back to try and see your eyes from where you had your head pressed into his chest.

“Hmm.” You made a short noise to show that you were still listening to him, even if you had lost what was happening in the story, he was telling you. You got lost in your thoughts once more as he started again. You thought back to his past, and about how he told you he was the son of the King. A question popped into your mind that you couldn’t help but ask immediately. “If you’re the King’s first son, then aren’t you the heir to the throne?” You cut him off and he went dead silent as he thought about your words. He didn’t often like to talk about his past, and if it got brought up, he would hurry to change the subject, or he’d distract you with kisses and random flowers that he magicked up out of nowhere.

“No. I’m an illegitimate son that was born out of wedlock. I couldn’t ever sit on the throne, and I don’t want to. It’s not the life for me.” He shrugged, closing the book and setting it down on the table beside the sofa.

“Oh.” You didn’t know what to say, so started to look around the cabin awkwardly. You stared out of the window into the dark forest, noticing a pair of amber eyes staring back at you. You remembered back to the time you’d seen them before but had dismissed it as your imagination. You knew it was Snowy’s eyes, as her eyes were a vibrant green, not a threatening amber like the ones staring back into you. You gulped, ripping your eyes away and pulling away form Renjun. “There’s someone…something watching us.” You whispered, a horrible chill rippling through you and settling in the pit of your stomach in a horrible ball of anxiety.

“What?” He frowned, sitting up and reaching for his wand on the table.

“Outside.” You flicked your eyes over to the window subtly, not wanting the creature to know that you were alerting someone of its presence. One thing you’d learned from your time living in the forest was that the habitants of the dangerous woods were very smart. Your stomach dropped further into the floor when the eyes were gone. “It’s gone…” Renjun jumped up and you both went dead silent. You could feel your hands shaking unwillingly as Renjun held a hand out to the fire, turning it from a flickering flame to a dull ember that didn’t give off as much light.

“I’m scared.” You whispered as rustling noises came from outside the wooden walls of the cabin. You gulped, tears filling your eyes as Renjun pulled you to your feet. He wrapped an arm around your protectively, but you knew he was only doing it to comfort you. The rustling circled around the house before coming to a dead stop, the silence eerily haunting you and all you could hear was your own heartbeat thudding inside of your chest. No more noise was heard from outside so Renjun placed his wand on the table once more, going over to the window and drawing the curtain shut.

“It’s gone, probably just a curios wolf. It happens every now and then.” He went back to you and cupped your face in his hands. “Nothing will hurt you as long as I’m still breathing okay?” You opened your mouth to reply, but as you did, the door to the cabin caved in with an ear-splitting noise of the wood splinting and crashing to the floor. You screamed, Renjun pushing you behind him as he made to grab for his wand. In front of you, where the door had once been, was a wolf bigger than any you had seen before. Its fur was as black as a starless night sky. The same amber eyes staring at you as what had been before through the glass of the window. The wolf stared straight at Renjun, not even glancing at you as it bared its teeth. But it made no move to attack either of you. Renjun had his wand raised, staring at the wolf almost as if the two of them were challenging each other. It couldn’t even fit through the doorframe, only its head poking in through the gap where the door once was. You wondered why Renjun hadn’t done anything to get rid of the wolf, not even saying anything as a warning to it. The wolf backed off and disappeared out of sight, leaving you confused and without answers. “Stay here.” Renjun’s voice was stern as he addressed you, his legs moving fast as he rushed through the exit of the cabin.

“Don’t go out there!” You squeaked, not listening to him as you followed him quickly. When your body hit the cool night air you looked at Renjun who was froze on the spot. In front of him was a naked young man, who had hair that matched the wolfs fur, with amber eyes to match. You gulped, not saying anything as you stayed back and watched the two men stare at each other.

“Jeno…” Renjun finally spoke, his voice coming out raspy as his throat had dried up in shock at seeing his brother in front of him.

“Took you long enough to recognise me, considering it was you who did this to me.” The boy growled back, baring his teeth at Renjun like a wolf would. You couldn’t quite believe what was happening in front of you. Renjun had finally been found by his brother and was being confronted about what he did.

“Jeno it was an accident.” Renjun sighed out, running a hand through his hair in frustration.

“I don’t give a fuck if it was an accident! You ruined my life, and then ran off before I could even find out why the fuck you did this to me!!” He sounded mad, his voice coming out like a growl. He stretched his neck out and took in a deep breath like he was trying to control himself.

“I had to run away; your father would have killed me for what I did to you.”

“Good. I want answers, then I’ll decided whether I let you live or whether I rip your throat out.” Your face crinkled up as he said that, tears falling from your eyes as you realised the severity of the situation. Jeno flicked his gaze to you, and then he looked back at Renjun. “You don’t deserve any happiness.” Renjun sighed, dropping his wand to the floor and slowly approaching Jeno.

“Fine.” He took a deep breath and his shoulders tensed as he starting to explain to Jeno. “Your father killed my mother, and I wanted revenge. I was on my way to get my revenge when you got in my way. I told you to move and you didn’t. I couldn’t help the dark magic that came out of me Jeno. I never wanted to do this to you Jeno…you know how close we were, and I am sorry.” Jeno narrowed his eyes as he listened, his eyes widening once when Renjun blamed Jeno’s father for his mother’s death. He screwed his eyes shut and let out a yell in frustration.

“It makes no fucking sense Renjun!!! Why would my father just randomly kill your mother?!”

“Jeno…you don’t know do you?” Renjun’s voice suddenly sounded very soft, almost like he was on the verge of tears.

“Know what?” Jeno gulped as he waited for Renjun to speak. Renjun took a deep breath and spoke clearly.

“I’m your brother…”

(A/N: Hi! I hope you liked this instalment to the Charia Kingdom series, if you liked it, please reblog it and give me some feedback if you want me to continue on with the series. thank you!)

[amariaamaris]

Of Revelations and Shattering

Originally called, Bennett’s Saviors.

----------------

She was done, Bonnie Shelia Bennett could honestly say that she was totally and completely done. All of this started when the Salvatore’s first came to town, everything went downhill from there. 

Bonnie found out that she is a witch, Emily’s amulet (also known as her talisman) resurfaced, then the séance and Emily taking her body over, Damon ripping out her neck in anger, Stefan saving her life by giving her his blood, Anna and her vampire pets, opening the tomb, her grams dying, her help constantly being asked for and taken for granted, Katherine coming to town bringing a whole shit show, Elijah showing up, Klaus coming, Bonnie being forced to fake her death, then risk her life again to bring Klaus to the brink and Elijah betraying them, Klaus leaving and taking Stefan with him, Klaus coming back and forcing Bonnie to get him his answers, Mikael coming to town, Klaus killing Mikael, Stefan stealing Klaus’s family, Stefan forcing Bonnie to help him, finding her mother, waking Esther, Esther channeling from her family line, Elijah forcing Damon and Stefan to kill her mother, Esther and Finn running, Caroline being the only one to help Bonnie and her mom, Elena trying to claim victim, Abby skipping town, Klaus threatening and forcing Bonnie to break the link, Bonnie not being able to force herself to help Damon; hell how was she supposed to do that when she can’t even save herself? Elena giving her shit for not helping Damon; since when did Damon become more important than her friends? Then Bonnie’s friends consistently ignoring her until the need her for something. All of it came to a violent harsh head that completely made her emotions shatter out of her the moment she got back to her grams house.

It was the only place that she felt relatively safe and at peace in, but it only caused her already shattered heart to break more. Bonnie couldn’t stop the heart wrenching sobs the came out of her. She felt well and truly alone as she looked around at the dark house. All the doors to the outside world are closed and locked, along with the windows. Bonnie had enough control still about her person to make sure she locked the front door behind her.

The complete stillness in the house made her body shake, the lack of her grams light and presence made the house feel cold as ice; even though the thermostat said that it was at a warm temperature. Bonnie curled in on her self on the floor of the entryway. Her reality came crashing down on her; her grams is dead - the only person that was there for her is gone and she isn’t coming back, Abby left again, her father is never home and never checks up on his daughter, her friends aren’t even her friends anymore (other than Matt and Caroline), and the supernatural chaos that is going on in Mystic Falls is causing for her to be in over her head.

Bonnie may be a witch, but she isn’t experienced, hell she just found out she was a witch at the beginning of the supernatural bullshit. Bonnie finds herself wishing that her grams would have taught her from the very beginning. She has a sinking feeling that she wouldn’t have done even half of the things she did; if only she had the knowledge that most witches did by her age. 

Bonnie could feel her depleted magic swirling violently inside of her, causing her to tightly wrap her arms around her legs and bury her face against her knees. Bonnie welcomed the uncomfortable feeling of being on her side on the hard wood floor. Hot tears flowed down her face as everything became overwhelming, bonnie couldn’t stop the thought of wanting all of it to end. 

She felt her magic expand and contract, swirling around inside and outside of her. Bonnie felt as though she was outside of her body watching herself shaking, crying, completely losing it as her magic reacts to her realization and suffocating desolation. After she lost consciousness; it caused a chain reaction to snowball outwards.

Her grams’ house rapidly lost its temperature - quickly becoming frigid - causing all electricity to short circuit as the pipes froze and ice climbed and spiderwebbed across the walls. A shield of energy went out to the outline of the property to block anyone and anything from getting in. A violent earthquake started right under Bonnie and expanded out into Mystic Falls and the surrounding towns.

All the while her grams, Emily, and the rest of her ancestors watch on in worry, sadness, empathy, and guilt. They all know that Bonnie shouldn’t have to deal with all of this by herself, especially at her age and lack of education. All of them decide to keep vigil over there descendent. The temperature is decreasing fast and their worry is increasing as they watch Bonnie’s small body violently shiver in the cold.

Ayana walks to Bonnie’s body and hovers her hands over her shuddering form; gauging her energy and lifeforce. She pulls away soon after and exchanges a troubled look with Shelia. Soon after the look is exchanged Ayana disappears and the other Bennett’s gather closely around Bonnie’s body and hope that she can pull out of this.

Meanwhile, Ayana makes some ghostly visits to Bonnie’s so called ‘friends’, the originals that are still in mystic falls, and starts to look for the last white oak stake. Her first move was finding the white oak and destroying the last of it once and for all. Ayana would deal with Esther Mikaelson later, after all... Ayana has a bone to pick.

Ayana quickly finds the white oak stake and teleports herself and the stake to a safe place. She starts on the spell that had been in the making since the Mikaelson children had been turned. She watched as the spell took affect with thinly veiled pleasure. Ayana had never took such joy in watching white oak burn before. It helped that she knew that with this last white oak burning, it was getting rid of anything that could kill the Mikaelson family. After all, she always saw those troubled children as her own.

Once all of it burned to ash, she waved her hand and it scattered to the wind. By the time the nature around the area calmed; Ayana was gone and there was no sign of anything being different. By the time she reappeared she was in the Salvatore Boarding House. Ayana couldn’t stop the sneer that came on her normally serene features as she looked upon the Salvatore brothers and their doppelganger.

They were the root cause of everything bad that has happened to her descendent since day 1 of all this supernatural business. They were the ones that brought all of it to Bonnie’s front door; or rather their front door and dragged her descendent into the mess. Causing Bonnie to lose almost all of her loved ones, other than her father. The thought of Rudy causes Ayana to snort (heck the thought of even Abby does to).

Ayana shakes her head at even thinking of Abby, that was one woman who made her bed long before she was turned into a vampire. “Good Riddance.” Ayana mumbled to herself as her eyes rolled. To put it plainly... Abby Bennett is a disgrace to the Bennett line (her being a vampire is not the cause). 

The doppelgangers voice jerks Ayana out of her stupor. Her eyes coolly flick towards the doppelganger as she whines about the Mikaelson's. Both of the Salvatore's are quick to comfort her and tell her that Bonnie will help find a way to kill them. Causing Ayana to sharpen her eyes and scoff. Kill the rest of the Mikaelson’s? Had the Salvatore's not already caused enough pain and problems? They almost succeeded in killing Finn, thanks to Kol, Finn was able to get out of town. And to bring her descendent into it without asking her? Hell no, Ayana felt iron and determination fill her being. Those Salvatore's and Gilberts (yes both Gilberts, the male one is just as much to blame as the female) are not going to get anywhere near Bonnie if she had something to say about it (which she does).

Bonnie Shelia Bennett would get away from all of this, even if it ends in Ayana losing herself. Ayana gets a sharp and panicked message from all of her passed on descendants and takes one last look at the... creatures and much like the wind she disappeared just as fast as she appeared. Leaving the Salvatore Boarding house to fall further and further into darkness.

When she reappears she is inside the Bennett home. Ayana can tell that the temperature has dropped to negatives. She looks to her descendants hoping that one of them will explain to her what is happening. All of them look just as confused and worried as she is. Bonnie should not be reacting this harshly to being shown what they are showing her. Especially with her full potential in magic coming to her. Then, Shelia rushes through the crowd, “There’s something wrong... something seriously wrong.” before Ayana can even process Shelia’s words; Shelia is already dragging Ayana towards her grandbaby.

Once Ayana was within sight of her, she couldn’t stop the gasp that escaped her lips. Bonnie is shivering so hard that the small entry table is shaking along with the picture frame on top of it. Her skin was pale - deathly so, blue is starting to tint her skin; and her normally thick, rich black hair has streaks of white running throughout it. It also looks as though it could break with a feather light touch.

Right as Ayana went to turn her head to look to Shelia, she grabbed her arm, “No, keep watching... My grandbaby is suffering. Every couple of minutes more white covers her hair.” so Ayana kept watch with the rest of the Bennett's. What felt like hours was only a few minutes and before Ayana’s eyes; another streak of white overtook a piece of Bonnie’s hair. 

Ayana slowly shakes her head, “I’ve never seen something like this before...” she whips around to face all the other Bennett's. “How long has this been happening? I wasn’t gone that long!” Shelia just looks at her, worry overtaking everything about her. “Ayana, you’ve been gone for a week. You lost sense of time. Although you didn’t miss to much; other than the temperature getting lower and lower, then about a day ago the white started to appear, and of course none of my grandbaby’s friends have even bothered to try and check on her.”

Shelia is practically shaking with the fury that fills her being thinking of Bonnie’s “friends”. They don’t deserve her grandbaby and they most definitely don’t deserve everything that Bonnie has done for them. Shelia turns toward fully to face Ayana. “I don’t care what you have to do to help my granddaughter. I don’t care if you get the Mikaelson’s, in fact I would prefer them over her friends.” Shelia practically sneers the word friends, but just as fast as the fury came, sorrow and fear overtakes Shelia; causing her shoulders to slump.

Ayana doesn’t reply, she just disappears; leaving the Bennett's to watch as more white overtakes Bonnie’s hair. The moment Ayana opens her eyes again, she is in the living room of the Mikaelson mansion looking at Elijah, Kol, and Klaus. Elijah is reading a book that looks like it is about to disintegrate, Klaus is painting, and Kol is sprawled out on the couch playing around with his new phone.

Ayana takes a deep breath to steal herself and to bring more strength to her being. After all she hasn’t seen or talked to the Mikaelson children for at least 1,000 years. The moment Ayana feels steel come into her spine, she straightens and allows herself to be seen by them. “Elijah, Niklaus, and Kol Mikaelson you are going to listen to what I have to say and you are going to do what I ask you.” All of them whip to face her in shock and disbelief, their jaws are practically dropped to the floor.

Before they can say or do anything, Ayana starts speaking again. “I understand that you have a lot of questions, but there is no time left for my last living descendent. I need you to go to Shelia Bennett’s old house and find and help Bonnie Bennett. She’s dying and her friends cannot and will not help her. Go and help her now!” There is a long pause as they finally catch up with what Ayana said and their mouths close. “Please hurry, Bonnie Bennett is almost out of time.”

Before they can even open their mouths to respond... Ayana is gone and back with the other Bennett's. “Bloody hell.” The Mikaelson brothers all breathe at the same time. Their eyes go between each other and the space where Ayana used to stand. Klaus’s jaw works a bit as if he is trying to find the words that he wants to say. While Elijah looks stuck deep within his thoughts, Kol is staring off into space his mind working through what Ayana just told them.

The moment Ayana’s words click in his mind he can’t stop his outburst. “Bloody hell! Why are we just standing here. Come on you bloody wankers, I’ll drag your asses with me if I have to!” Then Kol is gone, speeding off towards the late Shelia Bennett's home; leaving his brothers gaping. They snap out of their state soon after and take off after their younger brother.

Right as the come up beside their brother, the notice a forcefield around the entire property. It’s a good thing humans don’t have enhanced abilities because they would all be freaking out. Klaus carefully reached out and brushed his fingers against the forcefield and felt sharp pinpricks against his fingertip as they travel to his hand and up his arm. An involuntary hiss escapes him at the pain as he jerks his hand away; he quickly exchanges looks with both of his brothers as he shakes his hand out.

“This isn’t going to work, we won’t be able to get through this. I highly doubt that the little witch would allow for the forcefield to be week enough for us to run through it.” Kol just gives Klaus a bland look upon hearing his words as Elijah studies the forcefield.

“Come now brother, where is your sense of adventure? Besides, I don’t believe the young Bennett witch is aware of what her magic is doing. Her magic recognizes us as a threat. We just have to only think of helping her. No ulterior motives and not have a hint of harmful intent towards her.”

Klaus scoffs and rolls his eyes “How exactly would you know that Kol? That just sounds like a load of shit.” Kol immediately feels his ire and years of resentment build up. “What else would you suggest brother? For the amount of witches you have had under your control and doing your bidding you really know nothing. Tell me brother, do you know anything about energy or witches unconsiouce protective magic?” At that Kol reaches towards Bonnie’s forcefield, blantantly ignoring Elijah’s warning of “Kol...” and puts his hand through it.

Then Kol calmly walks through and then turns to face his confused brothers. “See brother, control your thoughts and your intent and the magic will allow you to pass through.” Kol carefully reaches out and allows his fingers to run allow the magic - revealing in the dearly missed feeling that nearly drove him mad with grief. “Think of it this way brother, magic is alive and has a mind of its own. It’s only intent right now is to protect its wielder, it doesn’t go off of the past experiences its wielder has had with one person. Magic goes off of intent and energy of the person that is trying to gain access.”

Kol crosses his arms, after of course waving his arm towards the house as if to say ‘come on’. Elijah carefully reaches out and allows for the magic to run against him and through him. Checking his intent, his energy, his heart. Eventually it pulls away slowly and Elijah steps through and ends up right next to Kol. Klaus just studies them a bit, scoffs, and shakes his head. He allows his jaw to work a bit then roughly pushes out a breath and slowly reaches out again.

His hand makes contact with the shield and he feels the magic rise up to him fast and it feels like thousands upon thousands of little knives stab into him. Klaus grits his teeth to stop himself from yelling out. Then, the pain stops... and all he feels is a cool soothing wave go through his body as the magic leaves. Klaus steps through and Kol gives him a smug look and Klaus response is a mutinous glare.

As they get closer to the house they notice veins of ice and frost running all over the house. The front door is covered in a layer of ice, “In all the time I have spent with the witches... I have never heard of or seen something like this.” Before Klaus or Elijah can respond, Shelia appears to the side of them. “You can enter, there is no need for an invitation.” Elijah goes to say that they have to have one, but Shelia smiles a little and holds up her hand. “All of us Bennett witches are here, you don’t need an invitation from the owner because you have one from all of us.” Shelia’s eyes become sharp as steel, “Do not make us regret our decision, you will lose your invitation so fast that your head will spin.”

Immediately all three Mikaelson brothers feel like chastised children (the only Mikaelson that hadn’t done something to Bonnie is Kol and he was daggered almost the whole time) and obediently nod. Shelia automatically gets a smile back on her face and waves them toward the door and then she disappears inside.

Klaus harshly punches the layer of ice covering the door causing it to shatter like spun glass. Then Kol grabs the handle and twists harshly to break the lock and allow the door to swing open. The cold that rushes over them causing all of the Mikaelson’s to let an involuntary shudder run through their bodies. All of their eyes fall to the small shivering body whose hair is completely white.

All of their eyes widen in panic and shocked confusion, Elijah quickly takes off his suit jacket and moves toward Bonnie. Causing his younger brothers to shake themselves out of their astonishment. “Have you ever...” “No, never.” Their words trail into each other causing them to not realize who said what. The brothers are so invested in helping Bonnie that the don’t hear cars park on the curb in front of the house.

They silently decide that Klaus is the best one to carry Bonnie since he naturally runs hotter than his half-brothers. Once they step out of the house they can sense that the Bennett spirits have locked the house up tight and left the place; knowing that their last descendent would be taken care of. Kol, Elijah, and Klaus all tense up the moment the step onto the lawn. Of course the rest of the scooby gang decide that now is a good time to show up. They decide now that Bonnie is worth the effort. 

Klaus can’t stop the scoff of disbelief that escaped him he’s assuming they have deemed her worthwhile now that they need her help. By the looks on Kol and Elijah’s faces they are in agreeance with Klaus. Bonnie’s so called friends immediately crowd the forcefield causing the Mikaelson brothers to watch in thinly veiled amusement as all of them get shocked by it (except for Matt and Caroline, although they are not allowed through). 

Elena finally speaks, begging them not to hurt Bonnie and saying how if they want herself they can take her (they just had to leave Bonnie alone) causing the Salvatores to automatically negate what she said. Elijah cool voice quiets everyone. “Miss Gilbert, not everything is about you and if you paid more attention to your friends rather than whichever Salvatore brother you are sleeping with at the moment... You’d know that Miss Bennett has been in pain for a long time. While she has been getting closer and closer to deaths door this past week.” Elijah calmly tilts his head and plays with his cuff link as he lightly smirks. “You, Miss Gilbert, have been to busy spreading your legs for two different men to care for you supposed best friends.”

Klaus snickers with a grin while Kol outright laughs; while the Salvatores lung at the forcefield and are flung from it (but after it fries them a little). While Caroline's mouth drops open, Matt’s eyes widen, and Elena let out a gasp with hurt in her eyes. Klaus quickly quiets when he notices that Bonnie is still freezing, he frowns as he brings his face closer to her. He realizes that the cold seems to be coming from the very core of her being.

Klaus turns his attention to Elijah and Kol; they quickly speak in the mother tongue and before any of the scooby gang can hope to react or say anything, Klaus is gone and Bonnie with him. Elijah and Kol can sense the moment the shield disappears with Bonnie leaving the area. Although, they can easily sense all of the Bennett ancestors watching and waiting. Elijah pierces the Salvatore’s with a cool and deadly look causing them to stop in their tracks. Damon and Stefan exchange disturbed looks as they both feel a shudder go down their spines. 

Elijah turns his head toward Caroline and Matt, “Miss Forbes... Matt, both of you are welcome to come to the Mikaelson home to check on Miss Bennett. We will be taking care of her wellbeing from here on out. So I suggest that you do not come up with some ill-advised rescue plan. If you cause us any problems or Miss Bennett any grief... You will be found at a later date. Salvatores... Miss Gilbert, you three are not welcome. If you cause problems at my home or for Miss Bennett. I’m afraid I will let go of all control I am exerting to not rip your hearts from your chests.”

Damon, Stefan, and Elena pale, before Caroline or Matt can respond to what Elijah told them; Kol and Elijah are gone. The entire scooby gang is left on the late Shelia Bennett's lawn, gaping at what just happened.

-----

There is going to be a second part... I just feel like this is way to long! I might end up breaking it up into three parts? Anyway, I hope you like how it is going so far!

Peace, Love, and Joy! 

[eventidespirits]

☥ European Vampire Masterpost ☥

Origins...

While no one can know the origins of vampires for sure, it’s believed that the curse of vampirism started, originally, as a blessing from the Goddess of Night – enhanced strength, stamina, speed and an endless lifespan were given to her chosen but in return, they would have to forsake daylight. When this blessing became a curse, no one knows but eventually, it did and the Chosen of Night began to turn into monsters, dedicated more to themselves than to their human brethren...

☥ Basic European Vampire Information  ☥

While the European Vampire is split into (at least) seven distinct “bloodlines” or “sub-types” certain traits are common among all variants these include:

Enhanced strength, speed and stamina – though certain bloodlines (Revenant, Lamia, Feral, Stryzga) possess  far greater strength than others, it can be expected that every vampire will be a good deal stronger, faster and more resilient than they were as humans.

Increased Emotional Volatility – Thanks to the vampiric curse, the emotions of vampires are highly volatile. Everything a vampire feels will be magnified – but negative emotions will be felt especially strongly

An Addictive Personality – All vampires have a high likelihood of becoming addicted to something, whether that be gambling, drugs, dangerous behavior or simply blood (the most common of all) nearly all vampires will have something that they cannot say no to.

Highly Attuned Senses – All vampires have enhanced senses as compared to a human. In addition to this, they have excellent night vision thanks to a highly reflective layer at the back of their eyes (similar to a cat’s)

Sensitivity to Sunlight – While this will vary from bloodline to bloodline, there is no vampiric bloodline that is immune to the damaging effects of the sun’s rays.

Low Level Mental Manipulation – While some bloodlines take this innate, instinctual ability to new and terrifying heights (Nightingales, Stryzga) all vampires are able to influence the mental and emotional states of those around them.

Low Level  Telepathy – like the mental manipulation, all bloodlines are able to pick up on the general emotional/mental state of those around them and can often pick up on things such as fear, dishonesty or lust before the mortal feeling them is even aware.

Highly Addictive Blood – Vampire Blood has a number of properties, ranging from inducing a euphoric state to promoting healing to making a mortal more susceptible to a vampire’s mental/emotional powers and manipulations to causing a mortal to feel an emotional bond/connection to the vampire in question when no such emotional bond existed before.

A NOTE ON “THE VEIL”

“The Veil” is not unique to vampires but rather, something which effects the entirety of the Supernatural. As human belief in their existence waned, the Supernatural began to fade from the sight of Mundane humans, not because it ceased to exist but because humans simply stopped being able to see if for what it was.

A vampire, to the average mortal, will show a few signs of what they are (such as an incredibly languid pulse, lack of respiration, unnaturally cool skin, a sickly/pale complexion) but most signs of their true nature will be invisible to the human until they’ve “Crossed Over” (i.e., been inducted into the supernatural world, thus opening their eyes to its existence).

Most children are naturally able to see through The Veil (due to the imaginative nature of children) but often lose this ability by the time they reach puberty. Some humans maintain this ability (called The Sight) into adulthood and some will only develop this ability at puberty.

The Bloodlines: -The Nightingale -The Revenant -The Siren -The Stryzga -The First -The Lamia -The Feral Other Information: -The Curse -Sire/Fledgeling Relationships -The Change

A Quick And Dirty Vampire F.A.Q.

Can they consume non-blood food/drink: Some of them can and some of them can't -- whether or not a vampire can eat solid food is determined by two factors: whether or not they're willing to put in the effort to learn how to force it down and how connected they are to their humanity. The more a vampire hangs onto their humanity, the easier it is for them to consume human food. However, it doesn't provide any nourishment. Being a hedonistic species, some vampires absolutely eat human food just because they enjoy the taste. All vampires are capable of drinking non-blood liquids but it provides no nourishment (see below) The Monkey D. Luffy Conundrum (aka, do they poop/pee?): No. Vampires can’t process solid food. When eating solids it will, eventually, need to come back up the way it went in. The same goes for non-blood liquids. Do Vampires Fuck: abso-goddamn-lutely. Since vampires are inherently hedonistic, they actually tend to rather enjoy fucking, even if *mostly* as a prelude to feeding/part of feeding. (This ofc varies as ace vamps exist) Do Vampires Cry Blood?: yep. All bodily fluids in a vampire are converted to blood. Including those ones. Do Vampires have Heartbeats? yes, they’re just incredibly slow (35bpm or so). During stress or strenuous activity the heartrate increases to a more human bpm (60-80bpm). Their respiration usually matches this rate. The older a vampire gets/the more they distance themselves from their humanity, the slower their heartbeat becomes and vampires who are detached enough have no heartbeat at all (they're also colder to the touch) Do vampires have problems with silver: some of them. Its sort of a random genetic lottery. Can Vampires Have Kids?: Nope. That equipment doesn’t work that way anymore. They might be able to with some serious magical alteration but in general they can’t reproduce outside of the Ritual of Transformation. Are Vampires effected by holy objects: Yes – though the efficacy of it varies greatly depending both on the faith of the vampire and the faith of the person with the holy object. As long as the wielder has sufficient faith (both in the symbol AND that it will harm the vampire), the vampire will be harmed by the holy object… However, someone who doesn’t believe at all may still harm a vampire with a holy object if the vampire believed/believes strongly in that faith and believes it will harm them.  Will Cutting the Head off Kill the Vampire?: There are a lot of creatures that can survive having their head cut off – chickens are one of them, vampires are not. What about piercing the heart? Since the heart is the core of a vampire’s being, the place where the blood is processed and the place where the magic is centered, piercing the heart can do massive damage to a vampire and if the heart is destroyed, they cannot recover from this. Fire? Fire bad. Vampires don’t fucking like fire because they go up like kindling when exposed to it. While it takes damn near 2800 degrees to burn a normal human corpse to ashes (and even then, the bones have to be pulverized) a large enough bonfire will easily do the trick for a vampire. Can Vampirism be reversed? It takes some pretty serious magical ability to do this sort of thing, but it can be done – provided at least one of two conditions are met: 1) The vampire has never taken the life of a human by draining their blood 2) The vampire has never created another of their kind and spread The Curse. Are half-vampires (dhampir) a thing? Yes. I’m not entirely 100% on how they happen within my lore, but they’re 100% a thing that can happen because a) they occur pretty frequently in folklore and b) I think they’re cool. Can vampires turn into bats/wolves/etc.,?Yes -- though it's usually very old and powerful vampires. Younger vampires within the Stryzga line are capable of turning into various kinds of animals but it still takes at least a century to learn this. Noctem Felidae (an extinct vampire bloodline) were capable of turning into cats and the Lamia bloodline was once capable of changing into

snakes/naga-esque creatures but since the waning of magic after the late Middle Ages, they've lost their ability to do so. Do vampirekin/ “human” vampires exist? Yes! The phenomenon of human psychic vampires/vampirekin/human sanguinarian vampires occurs in my universe – usually, this is because the human in question is a vampire who, at some point, was killed and their soul was able to re-enter the cycle of life/death/rebirth… However, because The Curse has an immense effect on the soul, it carries some of the effects with it into the next life and all lives thereafter. 

(note: most vampiric souls, being lost to the natural order, do not reincarnate ever again… However, if they vampire  manages to avoid either killing a human via draining or making another vampire, their soul is still somewhat tethered and can re-enter the life/death/rebirth cycle, like it’s supposed to! this is where we get “human” vampires. As for what happens to vampires who have done both of those things… No one is sure what happens to the energy that made up their soul. There’s some talk of it becoming part of the entity responsible for the curse)

[mnthpprt]

Chapter 12: Research And Discovery

I gather the plates and take them to the kitchen as a little favor for Sebastian. He is not there, so I give them a quick wash and lay them to dry near the sink. Afterwards, I decide to visit the library, and stop by my room to pick up my thesis notes. Since I am going to be stuck here for an entire month, I might as well do something productive.

“Hi, Leonardo,” I say when I see him sitting at a desk, with his back towards me and his head on his hand. The only response is his soft breathing, quiet and rhythmic. Is he asleep?

Walking closer confirms my suspicion. I nudge him gently, with no result. His box of cigarillos sits open on the wooden surface, along with some matches and a bottle of blanc, and I take one before curling up on an armchair by the open window to read my notes as I smoke. I breath out a small puff that floats out into the midday air. ‘The Conservation of Synthetic Polymers in Contemporary Art’. I stare at the printed title on the paper. My topic of research has not been invented yet, and it won’t be for another 13 years. Resigned, I read through it, trying to come up with an idea on how to make this work.

I’m almost 30 pages in when inspiration strikes. By now, I have already finished my stolen cigarillo, which I leave on the little ashtray on the window sill. Vulcanized rubber is the answer to my problem. It has been around for a few decades in this time, and thankfully, it has very similar properties to the plastics I had been working with. Le Comte said there are books on every topic here, and I decide to put that to the test. I shoot up from my chair and make my way around the large room, scanning the shelves for what I’m looking for.

Jackpot. I spot a section on recent scientific discovery. The chemistry books are very high up, so I pull the ladder from the corner and start climbing, until...

The bottom trim of my dress gets caught as I try to reach for a book. I uselessly attempt to wiggle out the lace from whatever it caught onto, and the movement throws off my balance. My eyes widen as I see the top of the ladder separate from the shelf, and I tilt backwards, falling. I gasp and prepare myself for impact, only to be caught by a pair of strong arms and become enveloped by the scent of tobacco.

“Be careful, cara mia.” Leonardo sets me down and takes the ladder to put it back in its place.

“Thank you,” I breath out, and pull up the hem of my skirt to examine the damage. “This damn dress... It’s pretty, but it just gets in the way. I think I’d rather dress like a man.”

He lets out a low chuckle and returns to the table. After a moment of silence, I look up from the ripped lace trim to see him reading my paper, intrigue visible on his face as he tilts his head.

“This is new,” he mumbles thoughtfully. “Yours?”

“Yeah. I’m still working on it, but time travel complicates things a bit when it comes to research,” I explain. “The materials I’ve been experimenting with don’t exist yet.”

He flips through the pages, reading the various formulas and charts I made, before setting it down and looking at me. His eyes are like aged gold as they pierce through me, and I suddenly feel too seen. I look down, feeling the heat rise in my cheeks. The great Leonardo da Vinci keeps staring at me.

“So, uh... What do you think?” I know he is the quintessential renaissance man, and as such, is knowledgeable in many topics, including chemistry. Back then, it was only known as alchemy, but I’m sure he has caught up with the modern science of the 19th century. My shy question makes him smile.

“It’s fascinating. Though I am not familiar with any of these things you wrote about. Are plastics a new invention from the future?” He leans on the table and I shake my head.

“They don’t exist right now, but they are not exactly new in my time, either. In the future we use them for pretty much everything, but they degrade awfully fast compared to other things. Hence, well, all of that,” I gesture towards the stack of papers, held together by a large clip, and pull out a chair next to him. “By the way, your paintings are also kind of a nightmare to people in my industry.”

“Oh? And what would that be?” He raises an eyebrow and reaches for his box of cigarillos, after which he pulls two out and offers one to me. I take it.

“Conservation. Preserving objects from the past.” Leonardo lights his own cigarillo, but I decline the flame. I want to save mine for later. “You know, one of my mentors refused to work on your Virgin of the Rocks once. He said the sfumato had so many layers it was impossible not to mess up during cleaning, and it’s so valuable the stakes were too high for him to even try. And well, there’s also a lot of debate about whether it was actually you who painted a lot of works. We’re usually the ones who have to analyze them to determine authenticity, but I consider that to be the fun part of the job.”

I catch myself rambling, but Leonardo listens with keen interest. He then laughs, letting out a cloud of smoke. A strand of hair falls over his eyes when he shakes his head in amusement.

“Are you planning to interrogate me like Sebastian, cara mia?” His husky voice is almost melodic as he teases me.

“Oh my god, he really does that?” I laugh in disbelief. “No, your work isn’t really my problem. Besides, I wouldn’t have any evidence for anything you tell me when I go back to my time, so it’s not like they’d believe me anyway.”

“Such a shame that you must return,” he sighs, still smiling. “I’m really starting to like you.” 

My face turns pink upon hearing his words, but I don’t want him to see it. Almost on impulse, I snatch the cigarillo from his hand and use it to light my own. Why am I blushing like a schoolgirl? I feel like an idiot, but hopefully he won’t notice if I play along.

“I’m starting to like it here, too. You vampires are not that scary.”

“Don’t get too comfortable, cara mia.” His warning sounds playful, but I see a hint of seriousness in his eyes. As if to further prove his point, he opens the bottle of blanc and downs it almost entirely. I silently watch as he leaves the glass container on the table, and I spot single drop falling down the side. I catch it on my finger and lick it off, which immediately causes my face to scrunch up in disgust. The flavor is something akin to eating a lemon and getting soap in one’s mouth at the same time.

“What the hell is this made of? It’s awful.”

“I can’t believe you just tried it like that,” Leonardo laughs. I join in with a shrug.

“What can I say? I’m a woman of science.” He just rolls his eyes in response, but indulges me anyway.

“It’s made from a very rare flower. Vampire society has advanced enough for someone to figure out a blood substitute, even if it’s not very good. It only staves off hunger for a while, but it’s better than nothing.”

“No wonder half of you guys hate this stuff. Now I get why Arthur was so eager to bite me.”

“He did what?” His eyes suddenly become dark. I should not have said that.

“Don’t worry, he didn’t actually do it! He just tried really hard to convince me,” I rush to explain. “Might have been my fault, too. We were in the thermae together, so he probably got the wrong idea.” 

“Oh, cara mia.” Leonardo takes a deep breath and runs his hands along his face. “I can’t fathom why you took a bath with him in the fist place, but did le Comte not tell you the two causes of bloodlust?”

“There are two?” I am starting to understand how clueless I am, or rather, how bad le Comte is at explaining things. Leonardo clears his throat and looks at me with a serious expression on his face.

“The first one is hunger, you know that already,” he begins. “The other cause is more... intimate in nature.” I raise an eyebrow at his wording. “When a vampire’s attraction for someone is strong, they crave the blood of the subject to their affections.”

Oh.

“So... What your saying is that seducing one of you can get me killed?” I’m not sure what answer I was expecting, but it wasn’t this. “Well, good thing I’m trying to.”

“If only you could control that, cara mia... You don’t have to try,” he mutters softly, almost too quiet for me to hear. But I do, and blood rushes to my cheeks once again. I look down at my hands, not knowing what to say. What is he doing to me? 

I take a deep puff of my cigarillo to distract myself from the awkward silence that has now fallen between us. Neither of us speak again until the cloud of smoke I exhale has completely dissipated.

“I should probably get myself some of these so I can stop stealing yours,” I say, changing the topic. Leonardo returns to his usual nonchalant attitude and tosses his box of cigarillos on the table.

“You can keep those. I’ll ask Sebastian to buy more.”

“Thanks.” I take it and put it in the pocket of my dress.

“I already told you, cara mia,” he smiles. “No need to thank me.”

[gengarprotectionsquad]

bad horror movie ideas i've been compiling b/c @fleetwoodmurk is an enabler:

thankskilling: the family connections of a 19 year old college student allow him to skirt by any substantial sentencing for violent anti-indigenous hate crimes, just in time for him to make it home by thanksgiving. the soothing whispers of how he “shouldn’t have his life ruined for making a mistake” on property staked in stolen indigenous land invite the wrathful presence of autumn’s bounty-- a ghastly, therizinosaurus-like approximation of a turkey powered solely by the anguish of lives taken in the name of american colonialism. after all, if that family wants their son to have some turkey, then he’ll get his eight foot-tall, blade-handed, undying turkey.    

homebody: forced to pull into a run-down motel by a freak storm, a group of friends initially find themselves faced with nothing more harrowing than the occasional cobweb and staff who never meet visitors face-to-face, even finding a note on the front counter that there’s no fee for staying--so long as they “spread the word” if they find their stay satisfactory. but, after waking up each morning to find that they’ve lost clumps of hair, individual teeth, and even a toe among other body parts, they discover the motel’s one and only employee--a colossal, man-like harvestman that severs human tissue with surgical precision (thanks to its spindly, 15 meter arms) in a misguided attempt to better fool human prey by grafting the fruits of its labor onto its own body.     

goliath’s revenge: a japanese kaiju film director finally pushes his luck just a tad too far, killing the suit actress for the lead “goliath” monster as a direct result of the director’s penchant for strenuous, dangerous stuntwork. when his connections allow him to wriggle his way out of the tragedy scot-free, the suit actress’ furious spirit reanimates in her signature costume--now made flesh and blood--in order to exact a vengeful rampage of monstrous proportions that her former boss could only have hoped to have filmed. 

more under the cut!!!

hivemind: a single mother reeling from a devastating divorce seems to find new purpose in her life thanks to a california-based branch of a yoga group that emphasizes the value of both diligence and mindfulness. as the months go by, however, she realizes that she’s so deeply invested her time with the group that she doesn’t even know the names of anyone in her neighborhood that isn’t involved with them. just as she’s having doubts, she’s invited on a week-long retreat to experience what will hopefully become an outdoor facility of theirs, and that even their founder will be in attendance. she and her daughter do indeed meet the group’s founder--a colossal, humanoid queen ant who is rendered inert by her size, subsequently relying on her psychic abilities to indoctrinate human followers to her side and transform them into “suitable workers” that would happily give their lives for her sake   

children of the night: an exorcist, a private investigator, a trio of true crime podcasters, the local sheriff w/ top suspect in tow, a self-proclaimed “vampire hunter”, and a humble gravedigger all converge on the same cemetery when it becomes host to a series of unspeakably gruesome murders--the site being deemed the “vampires’ playground” for the crimes’ bloody nature. but when the self-confessed suspect winds up cleaved in twain at the scene, it turns out they’ll all have to deal with actual vampires--hulking, gorilla-like, hairless bats with the intelligence of a toddler and a permanent, gummy grin filled with teeth far too dull to consume flesh that hasn’t been playfully beaten to a fine pulp beforehand 

think tank: with the untimely death of a silicon valley tech giant who’d racked up a reputation for being as antisocial as he was exploitative, a documentary crew visits his main offices in hopes of interviewing any available employees in order to determine whether or not that open secret had any truth to it. though cooperative enough, the surly defensiveness that seems to increase in prevalence as the crew makes their way up the corporate ladder leads one particularly-intrepid camerawoman to sneak the crew far further into the building than originally intended and into a hidden basement. this brings them face-to-face with the deceased entrepreneur’s dirty little secret, known as the think tank: a captive “psychic existence” brought into being using the harvested, collective brainpower of every employee who refused to take their boss’s shit but was just too talented to let go 

whalefall: the 300 ft tall, walking corpse of a whale dredges its way up from the ocean floor and onto american shorelines, bringing with it tidal waves of pestilence and plague. when japanese fishermen identify the creature as a bake-kujira--a ghostly whale that harbors only misfortune and undead sealife in the wake of maritime disaster--the federal government opts to not only ignore their insight, but outright blame japan and their whaling industry for its presence. their relative inaction in the name of xenophobia and saving face will serve only to prolong the creature’s attack, with entire coastal towns left to deal with the flooding and zombified deep-sea organisms themselves. 

study skin: a group of hunters grow too impatient to wait for their county’s deer season and set out under the cover of nightfall in hopes of snagging a trophy or two. though met with a highway lined with bizarre amounts of roadkill and a totally silent forest, they disregard their unease and set up for the night. they soon discover the true reason for the minimal duration of the local hunting season when they catch a glimpse of an old friend long-thought to have vanished on a hunting trip, bringing them face-to-face with the hidewinder--a mysterious creature that inhabits the skins of deceased animals in search of larger and more complex bodies to call its own, with absolutely no idea how to look or behave “right” in any of its disguises, and a tendency to become enraged once it becomes clear that it doesnt fit in.

calling card: a freelance musician struggling with being sincere and vulnerable in their own work decides to move to a small, quiet town in southern bumblefuck-nowhere to try and clear their head. to their surprise, they’ve practically moved onto the set of a musical--the town’s residents bursting into song at the drop of a hat out of what seems to be the sheer, earnest passion of their feelings. this pleasant novelty soon turns out to be a town tradition established to cope with the presence of lonesome harvey--an upright cicada-man who emerges from underground hibernation every 18 years to rip select peoples’ vocal chords right out of their throats, crudely tying them together in order to fashion a set powerful enough to function as his own (which he uses to shriek out his signature mating call every summers’ night, in hopes of attracting a partner who’ll never arrive). thus, the townsfolk sing their hearts out so that harvey can gauge whose voice he’ll claim for himself (as opposed to having him mutilate everyone in the name of trial-and-error), and the musician has moved into town just in time for ol’ harvey to make his return.

back of your mind: following the very-much-timely (if a tad mysterious) death of their verbally-abusive mother, her only child returns to their childhood home in order to collect any wayward belongings and maybe find some sort of closure in setting foot on the premises one last time. a patch of black mold on the wall that they spot on their way in seems to...change location, somehow. further investigation and attempts to simply wipe away the mold leave it in the blurred image of a gummy, toothy maw--one that begins to whisper to the visitor, claiming to have missed them oh-so-very-much from the day that they left. the strangeness of the situation keeps them coming back everyday, where the mold’s whispers begin to take a familiarly-cruel edge--at first pleading for the visitor to stay, only to take to yelling at them that no-one but the mold will accept them as the “broken, useless husk” of a person that they are.    

miasma: a long line of charlatans and conmen have managed to convince a small backwoods town over generations that their collection of plastic gems and false talismans will heal them better than any medical professional could ever hope to accomplish. with most of the towns residents now being old, grey, and complacently vulnerable to disease, a new con artist moving in with a case of the stomach flu compromises the health of the entire community. and with the enticing smell of illness, comes the arrival of the scavenger--a black-feathered “vulture man” who knocks three times upon the door of his intended target, before politely entering their residence and leaving within the hour, leaving behind a bloated corpse whose orifices are stuffed with posies laying otherwise peacefully on their bed.  

killing stroke: a promising rising star in the fencing scene is tragically slain in the middle of a prestigious tournament, with the cause of death being attributed to a recklessly-modified underplastron. in actuality, the poor youth’s equipment was sabotaged in order to maintain the career of a legendary fencer. on the anniversary of his death, he rises from the grave and dons his old suit in order to infiltrate that year’s iteration of the tournament--his mission being to cut down not only his rival, but anyone who upholds the same kind of narcissistic greed that claimed his life.  

disassembly line: an upton sinclair-adjacent investigative journalist finds herself looking into the inner workings of a 1900s meat-packing factory in chicago, beholding the full disgusting scope of its exploitative, unsanitary working conditions. managing to acquaint herself with a few of the workers, the lunchtime whispers of one particularly-attractive lady butcher point her in the direction of a devious cover-up involving a nameless employee who “accidentally” wound up in the machinery after making too much of a ruckus about his wages. a nameless employee whose steaming, ground-up remains have now crawled out of the rickety equipment in search of postmortem vigilante justice.    

catch of the day: in spite of the sustainability concerns their operation has racked up over the years, a deep-sea fishing company delves into nigh-uncontested territory--a patch of ocean deemed “dead waters” in reference to the sparse results of other companies’ attempts. their first day dredges up only a single pacific halibut, titanic even by the standards of the species. upon further inspection, the flatfish splits open in a mess of bodily fluids and blackened, inedible meat--as if the fish had already been torn apart and had decayed from the inside out. lost in the shuffle was an amniotic sac containing rapidly-growing, amphibious hagfish “mermaids” that had parasitized the halibut as they had almost all of the other fish in those waters, and that have now been unleashed on a lonely fishing boat sitting miles away from shore.    

razorback bridge: a group of teenaged, amateur paranormal enthusiasts livestream their first “investigation” into a local landmark--razorback bridge, rumored to be haunted by the murderous ghost of a local farmer whose crops were so frequently ruined by invasive wild boar that he snapped and devoted the rest of his natural life to slaying the hogs, eventually losing his life to a boar that proceeded to gobble up his remains without leaving a trace. although officials have long restricted access to that part of the woods due to the aggressive nature of the wild boar inhabiting the area, the teens manage to sneak their way onto the bridge and come face-to-face with ol’ rawhide himself--a ravenous, nigh-unstoppable half-man/half-boar that came to be when the hog that consumed the old farmer had its body possessed and warped by the man’s furious ghost, far too angry to accept even the prospect of his own death.    

vigor mortis: a kindly old mortician prides herself on her ability to restore bodies to exactly how they looked in life, enabling their families to have at least one source of comfort during the difficult coping process of loss. one day, however, she is presented with a body so badly mangled in an accident that she almost suggests to forgo embalming altogether and to simply refrigerate the corpse until the burial service, though she ultimately doesn’t when the distraught client begs for the process to be open-casket. try as she might, the mortician finds herself unable to make any substantial restoration on the body. in the few minutes that she steps away from the body in order to think of what else she could do, she turns back to find that it’s...vanished. she soon finds herself being pursued at every turn by the shambling corpse, now enshrouded in a body bag, and is forced to confront both a mangled revenant and a debilitating case of impostor syndrome.

making up for lost time: a conspiracy theory-themed convention is having its first go in philadelphia, pennsylvania--even hosting an artists’ alley selling everything from “ayyy lmao” keychains to collapsible foam JFK heads. when mysterious burn damage begins to show up on the property, however, the inflated egos of the guest panel speakers representing various “unorthodox investigation” groups not only refuse to give up on the convention, but are so prone to bickering amongst themselves and attempting to assume leadership that they only make it harder for the other attendees to respond to the threat of what seems to be a time traveler. that is, the victim of a first attempt at time travel so badly botched that she’s received what is mostly simply put as “space-time carpet burn”: not only is she burning, but her mind, her soul, and the very concept of her throughout space and time are burning, leaving the unreachable chrononaut in a frenzied panic that threatens to scorch everything she touches right out of existence along with her.    

pearly gates: in the midst of a national emergency, a group of local landlords manage to bully their recently-unemployed tenants into coughing up just enough rent to host a get-together at their luxurious gated community. following a constant sensation of being watched and drowsy recollections of blinding light shining through their windows that first evening, the group awakens the next day to find one of them dead--groveling on her hands and knees with her entire skull seeming to have somehow...inverted. they soon realize that they’re being picked off by an angel--one so enraged by their inhuman greed that it wrenched itself free from the heavens in order to exact furious retribution. 

frontera sangrienta: a softspoken chicanx youth sneaks across the american border on a nightly basis under the noses of both his immigrant parents and border patrol agents, for the express purpose of helping mexican migrants safely make their way over. one night, he is met with a family so terrified that he can make out only one word from their panic--”chupacabra”. the legendary mosquito has developed a taste for american blood after devouring careless tourists and escaped goats, and is in hot pursuit of the family considering that the mother is an american herself. the young man--a “mixed signal” to the chupacabra due to his conflicted feelings over thinking of himself as strictly american or mexican--is now the only thing standing between the family and a pitiful, bloody demise.

52: after a saturation diver is violently wrenched from their diving bell in a freak accident and their remains are presumed lost at sea, a marine salvage team is sent in by the chamber’s manufacturers under the surface-level orders to retrieve evidence for the investigation, but with the underlying message really being to “pick all that shit up so we can just sweep it under the rug quickly and quietly”. upon arrival, the crew begins picking up a bizarre frequency that would otherwise be regarded as whalesong...if not for the fact that it is much higher than the calls of any whales known to inhabit the area. the salvage team then finds themselves being picked off one by one by the source of the noise--it turns out that the saturation diver’s sheer will to live allowed their broken body to adapt to the ocean depths, taking on a warped form not too dissimilar to a beluga whale. now the former diver is left to lash out in frenzied desperation, screaming out a cry for help that falls deaf on the ears of both humans and sealife 

i am but a teenage fool who knows nothing about nothing so please do not dunk on me if nothing i wrote here has any accurate basis in real-world experiences or logic. also i’ll update with more if/whenever i think of any 

[teaspoin]

What You Have is Faith (1/?)

a/n: The beginning of a new mini series! I actually edited this twice (go me! I hate editing so I don’t really do it!) and let me tell you, I actually feel better about my writing now. Who knew? This has been beta read by my dear friend, Alex. Thanks Alex!

A simple vampire hunt could never change your life, right?

Pairing: none... yet

Word Count: 1580

It was a delicate task- get in, take out the 6 vampires yourself while not dying or being turned in the process. Something about hunting vamps always made your adrenaline pump. Maybe it was because they were your first hunt at 17, or maybe it was something else. To you, hunting was all about taking the power away from creatures who used their ability to hurt humans. 

You tiptoed into the abandoned house, your katana gripped tightly in your hands. Most hunters preferred having a machete to take out vampires, but you found yourself more effective with distance between you and your prey. The vampires had found themselves a good house to hold up in. Based on the chipped paint and rotting floorboards, it was probably built in the late 1800’s or early 1900’s, making it a fairly creaky place. This allowed your targets to detect anyone entering the property just by noise. It made your job harder, but it caused you to feel more determined. 

You stood by the front door, your katana held by your side with a tight grip. In front of you, there was a hallway to the left and a staircase to the right. The hallway led into the kitchen, which connected with the rest of the rooms that were to your left. There was a living room and a dining room, as well as a bathroom connected off the kitchen. 

Even though you heard the vampires conversing, that wouldn’t stop you. You entered the room closest to you- the living room. There were 2 of the creatures sitting across from each other, playing a game of chess as a dead body laid on the floor. In one swift motion, you detached both their heads from their body with your sword, and their heads fell to the ground. The thump alerted the rest of the nest, as two more vampires made their way into the living room. 

The adrenaline was coursing through your veins as muscle memory kicked in. Without hesitation, you ran towards the one vamp who was standing in the doorway between the living room and entryway. You removed his head before running to the other, repeating the same action on her. You heard two more vamps trot down the stairs. You quickly moved to stand by the doorway where you had just killed one of the creatures. You pressed your back against the wall and waited for the others to arrive. Once they were standing above the dead body, you jumped out from behind the wall and removed their heads in one motion with your sword.

Their heads rolled on the ground like bowling balls, blood trickling on the floor as they moved. You searched the rest of the house carefully, as you had to make sure it was clear before you left. As you exited the house, you heard an engine roar from the driveway. You had researched the nest thoroughly, and you were sure there was only 6 in the group.

 You had been tracking the nest since it first appeared in northern Washington. The nest was originally compiled of 15 vampires, but they split up after a fight about who deserved to lead the nest. Other hunters were tracking the larger group, but you decided to track the smaller group that had the newborns in it. 

The car that you heard approached the house and parked a sleek black 67’ Impala. You were envious, your 2010 Prius had nothing on that- besides the gas mileage. 

  The two men exited the car and grabbed some bags from the trunk. You snuck back inside and tiptoed to the kitchen. You pressed your back against the wall right next to the doorway, then waited. 

“You check downstairs, I’ll check up,” said one of the men when they entered the house, his voice gruff. As the footsteps got closer to the kitchen, you gripped your sword tight. The tall man walked into the kitchen with a machete in his hand. You jumped out and kicked the blade from his hand, then pressed him against the wall with your sword pointed to his neck.

“Who are you?” you whispered.

“Same as you, I’m assuming,” he struggled. You squinted at him, but he did have the hunter appearance. 

“Prove it.”

He reached for the collar of his shirt and pulled it towards his shoulder, exposing an anti-possession tattoo on his pec. You lowered your sword to your side and let go of the man.

“Precautions,” you shrugged, then walked back into the entryway, the taller man following you.

“It’s clear!” you heard a different man yell from upstairs. He retreated downstairs shortly after, and saw you and the other man standing next to each other. 

“Who are you?” he said, raising a gun up at you.

“Obviously one of you so put that damn gun down,” you snapped. 

He put the gun down, then looked in the living room, seeing the 3 dead bodies lying on the ground. The man who searched the downstairs wasn’t as shocked, as he had already seen the mess you made. 

“Wow,” the man from upstairs said. He was very attractive. He had shorter hair that was longer than the other guys,and it was a beautiful dark blonde or light brown color. His eyes were like an emerald, and the beauty in his face was completed with a slight trace of freckles and short stubble. 

“Impressed?” you giggled at him.

“Pshh, no,” he defended. He was definitely impressed, even if he wouldn’t admit it. “I’m Dean, and this is my brother Sam.”

You looked up to him with wide eyes. “The Winchester brothers, huh? Not everyday you get to meet a celebrity.” 

“You know of us?” Sam questioned. You didn’t know this at the time, but Sam thought of every single bad thing he had done since hunting with his brother again. He thought of the demon blood and Lucifer, then of his soulless journey and leviathans, and more. You could see the dread and regret in his eyes, so you didn’t want to make things worse. You were a hunter, but you still knew how to read social cues, something many hunters didn’t know how to do. 

“You boys are quite the treat,” you smirked, then started to pile up the dead bodies. “I’m Y/N.”

“Alright, Y/N, what are we doing?” Dean asked, helping you.

“We gotta burn them, and I’m sure as hell not dragging 6 bodies and carrying 6 heads out to the fireplace. The house will just have to do,” you chirped up. 

Once you finished with lugging around dead bodies, you went to your car to grab a gas can from the back, but Dean followed you. You unlocked your car and grabbed the can, as Dean stood just inches from you.

“Something you want, hot stuff?” you flirted as you turned to face him.

Dean was taken aback by your comment. No one had been this up front about flirting with him before, but if he was being honest, it was a nice change. “You want to get dinner after this? Not a lot of time to talk after we burn them, so figured we should talk now.”

“Depends,” you said, setting the gas can down onto the ground. “Is it a date?”

“Do you want it to be a date?” Even though it was dark out, you could still see the smirk spread across his face.

“No,” you replied, then picked up the gas can. “Where are we meeting?”

“Diner about 4 miles from here on the main road?” he questioned.

“Alright, I will see you both there,” you wiggled your eyebrows at him, then walked back to the house. Once you were in the living room, you poured gasoline over the mass grave of vampires. When you were satisfied, you lit the match and threw it onto the pile. The three of you walked out of the burning house and headed towards your car. Both cars peeled out of the mile long driveway, and made your way towards the diner.

After you arrived, you parked your car and wiped the dried blood off your face with some baby wipes. Sam knocked at your car window and you flicked him off, then rolled it down.

“You know, Sam, some of us actually did work tonight and can’t go into a public place with blood all over,” you scolded and he held his arms up in surrender. You heard Dean laugh from the drivers side of the car. 

“We’ll meet you in,” he replied, then walked away. You finished cleaning yourself off and threw on a leather jacket over your flannel, hiding your blood stained shirt. You reached into the backseat and pulled out a pair of white converse you replace your brown utility boots. You looked into the rearview mirror and noticed something was missing. You decided to pop on a layer of mascara when something caught your eye. 

There was a squad car parked on the street, with its lights flashing. You observed closely and saw that a police officer was walking both Sam and Dean out in handcuffs, then stuffed them in the back of the car. 

“Those suckers,” you laughed to yourself. You knew they were probably caught for the fire, but you still wanted to get to know them. You decided you would let them sit for the night, then pick them up in the morning. 

[typhonatemybaby]

copypasta about liberalism for later reference.

One: we are defining it from  the outside ( yet still affected by it), and are defining it as being in distinction to materialism. That is: we are at least attempting to not be liberals because we are attempting to be materialistic. We feel materialism is a position that is to destroy liberalism  Ok so what does that jargon mean? Well this is about the idealism of liberalism and about how liberalism has this tendency to see the symptom yet not the cause, to see all of its solutions as being these situations where the structural basis has not actually changed but merely the wounds it created arent there A great example of this was when i was listening to a podcast the other day by afloweroutofstone (aka Brett, a big tumblr-left user, sort of famed amongst the more hardline and esoteric parts of that niche milieu, like for instance, me, for his bad takes), where he talked about his ideal socialist society. I would personally say that Brett is a liberal socialist, that he is an idealist socialist etc. In the podcast Brett talked about how his ideal socialist society would be a sort of mixed-market mutualist one where most property was personal or public, yet the private property form still existed and was still self sustaining. The society had landlords but " your landlord would know you didn't need him", it had renting, and there was still rentiership but that this problem was defeated by tenants unions and syndicalism. I feel this is a liberal approach to the socialist question because I hold that the problems that we face with capitalism arent just these surface problems of " well the poor proles all have to rent and cant own houses and its bad", but also that "private property is the concept that a person can enclose off a space they do not need in order to claim a rent on it. that an individual can extend their legal person over infinity enclosing any part of the world off from another human in order to claim a rent". I feel the solutions he offers are liberal because they rely entirely on this idea of a vast moral mass always being upright and upstanding in their tenants union. Its as if he saw the  Norman Rockwell painting " Free Speech" and conceived of the spirit of that painting as being the spirit of his new socialist society. Two: Liberalism  is dead, yet it was never alive Marx famously said : "Capital is dead labor, which, vampire-like, lives only by sucking living labor, and lives the more, the more labor it sucks." 

I would put it that liberalism is dead politics and it lives by sucking political power from the masses, and lives the more the more power it sucks. This is power that the masses would use for their emancipation yet liberalism not only sustains itself through this parasitism, it defends itself also for it is against liberal societal structures that this power would be directed

This is why we see things like the Overton window, the dissipation of crude activism into the capitalist project and the co-optation of philosophy and cultural appropriation.This is not so much a moral failing of the activists or the philosophers ( though with the obvious exception of  the cultural appropriator)- it is the structure of liberalism going about its work. 

This is achieved via the means of enclosure of the commons, and enforcement of private property. It is an act of societal violence which forces all art to be commodified, and all politics to become subordinated to it. This is also why liberalism is so fiercely defended by those who benefit from private property: the Bourgeoisie. Liberalism is the class ideology of the bourgeoisie, who are the class of Rent and the class of Enclosure. their whole politics is a politics of phantasms: The Legitimate State, the hard workers, the rational calculus of business, the honest transaction and so on.

This brings me to point three which ive sort of already alluded to:

 Liberalism is about venerating the status quo. 

Stirner has something to say about this in the section of The Ego and its Own titled "political liberalism" which remains one of the better explanations of the ludicrous aspects of liberalism:

"The bourgeoisie is the aristocracy of DESERT; its motto, “Let desert wear its crowns.” It fought against the “lazy” aristocracy, for according to it (the industrious aristocracy acquired by industry and desert) it is not the “born” who is free, nor yet I who am free either, but the “deserving” man, the honest servant (of his king; of the state; of the people in constitutional states). Through service one acquires freedom, that is, acquires “deserts,” even if one served – mammon. One must deserve well of the state, of the principle of the state, of its moral spirit. He who serves this spirit of the state is a good citizen, let him live to whatever honest branch of industry he will. In its eyes innovators practice a “breadless art.” Only the “shopkeeper” is “practical,” and the spirit that chases after public offices is as much the shopkeeping spirit as is that which tries in trade to feather its nest or otherwise to become useful to itself and anybody else."