This story is based on the full length movie Salem's Lot and contains both slash and character death. Just so you know. Thanks as always to Louise for the look over and posted as a present for Pam.
Full Circle
Ten Years after Ximico, Guatemala.
The candle light glowed softly against the old, tattered furnishings, hiding the imperfections, creating the illusion that they hadn't yet seen their better days. The incense burner had been burning all day, infusing the room with the scent of lavender.
The house was in total darkness, curtains pulled to hide from prying eyes. Curtains pulled so that he wouldn't have to look at the rest of the world go by, people living their normal lives, blind to the dark things that lived on the edge of their world. Blind, or wilfully ignorant as long as it didn't infect their own lives.
Mark lit the last candle, savouring the warmth, finding a familiar kind of comfort in it. A comfort connected with home.
There had been a huge storm in Salem one night, a rage tearing up the town almost a year to the day of his departure from it.
It had knocked out the electricity, plummeting the town into a darkness they knew how to handle.
His family had gathered in the living room, the glow from the fire giving comfort against the howling wind and rain outside. The odd candle here and there adding to the soft light in the room.
It had been perfect for telling ghost stories, and, although he hadn't realised it at the time, although his parents had enjoyed listening to his tales, his stories had slowly started to unnerved them. Had brought a chill to the night that hadn't been in the room until he had started to speak of the horror's of the Marsden house, of those young boys that had simply vanished.
He had told his camp fire tales a little too well.
Sighing, Mark allowed the candle flame to burn at his fingers a little, not letting the heat build up enough to really burn him, just feeling the flame dancing over his skin as he remembered his old life back in Salem's Lot.
How every so often after that, they'd ask him when he was going to grow up. When was he going to put away all those creepy little models of vampires and werewolves and graveyards and start behaving like a normal boy.
Of course, if he had of behaved like a normal boy, then he'd be playing with Danny Glick right about now, their stomachs full of blood, satisfied and already planning their next kill, trying to see who could please their Master the most.
And his parents? Well, they would still probably be dead, but they wouldn't have been lying rotting in an abandoned house in an abandoned burnt out ghost town.
He shook his head, feeling shame at the arrogance of his youth. He had been so sure that he knew it all. But he hadn't known anything.
Then Ben had come into his life.
Those first few years had been hard. Especially for Ben.
He couldn't know, not for sure if Susan had really died that night. Didn't know if she had been laid to rest by the fire that had cleansed the town, or if she had survived, his love for her eating away at his insides night after night.
Guatemala had been a blessing, in it's own way. Killing Susan had freed both of them. Ben could finally grieve for his love and Susan had finally been laid to rest.
The running never stopped though. The threat was always present. Never a moments real peace. But that night in Guatemala had at least allowed some small measure of normality back in to it.
Like love.
It had taken a while, but living in each other's pockets, depending on each other not only for their lives but their very souls…
Ben had resisted at first. Mark was too young, no matter that he'd had to grow up so quickly, and despite Mark's determination, Ben would do no more than kiss him, hold him in the night and tell him he loved him.
When Mark turned eighteen all that changed.
They had celebrated on the outskirts of New York, in a small little town where Ben had somehow managed to find the money to spare for a small cake, candle and two beers.
Couldn't have an eighteenth birthday without a little alcohol, he'd joked.
Soft caresses, touches turned passionate and both men committed their souls to each other with their flesh.
Mark glanced at the softly lit room, smiling a little. Everything was perfect.
Ben walked into the room, smiling at him and Mark felt his heart beat just that little bit faster. Even after all this time, Ben still had the power to do this to him.
Ben looked round the room, moving closer to Mark. "Just when I think I know you so well, you go and do something like this…"
Strong arms wrapped around the younger man's body and he returned the embrace. For a moment Mark forgot everything. Forgot what had brought them to each other, that their lives had been lived in an almost perpetual fear of what the dark might bring to them each and every night.
It was hard to believe they had survived any of it.
And then he felt it. Sharp teeth worrying the flesh of his neck, familiar and needed, craved for like an addiction.
He forgot it all then, all thoughts of home and a real life gone in his need for what Ben could give him. What those lips and teeth promised as they worked on the tender flesh of his neck, lust and desire battling with reason and sanity. "Please Ben. Tonight, please?!"
Lips moved against his neck in laughter and it brought him back to himself. Allowed him to think again for a moment as Ben spoke softly to him.
"Not yet Mark. I need you. Out there, in the sunlight to watch over us both." Teeth pierced the skin of his neck, causing all rational thought to flee from his brain as he felt Ben's tongue lapping at the blood that trickled slowly, thickly from the small gash on his neck. "Need you so much Mark. Couldn't do this without you."
He felt himself coming then, gasping, pledging his love to Ben as he clutched his cold, lifeless body to him as he reached out and tipped over one of the candles closest to him with nerveless fingers.
Almost immediately they where surrounded in a ring of fire, Ben pushing Mark away with an unnatural force. "What have you done!?!"
Hissing, Ben tried to break free of the flames, but Mark had done his job well. He'd doused the entire room in gasoline early that morning, covering the scent with the burning incense.
Mark looked up into those burning eyes, and knew that his love for Ben, his Ben, the living breathing man who had fallen in the fight they fought every night, was true and finally, once again, pure.
He stood up, and made his way over to the thing that wore Ben's body. The thing he had been protecting just as Straker had protected his Master, watching as Ben hissed and screamed his defiance as the flames rose higher.
"We're going to be free again Ben. Heaven or Hell. Free. The both of us." And as the flames rose higher, he held on tight and wished he was already home, looking forward to being with his Ben once more.
The End