I ONLY OWN THE PLOT NOTHING ELSE
Another Vampire Story
Sitting in my dark room, I look around slightly disgusted by the candles that are spread around my room. It's really more like a prison if you ask me. Just looking around the room I feel nothing but disgusted, sickened, overall just plain repulsed of this underground colony, its home though no matter how depressing. I get up and head through the catacombs of the underground colony and head up the stairs to the woods. There are guards for anyone who has ventured too deep into the forest in the off chance they venture into the cave that is the gate to the coven.
Honestly, I have become sickened by myself to the point of death and as much as I wish, death depressingly never comes. I was born dead. I can't even look at myself in the mirror. Literally. There really is no point in having them down there if everyone is just invisible when they look into them. Anyway, out of the hundreds of possible spawns, I had to be one of the only two to "live", the other being my brother Cato. He seems to be the real apple of my father's eye. He's strong, healthy and almost everything I am not. I am not saying I am weak and unstable or anything of the source, but Cato has always been… better. At least to father he is. My mother, no matter how much she denies it, feels the same. Cato has his pick of anyone he wants. It doesn't matter though. The ladies swarm for him while I stay on the side falling in love with the men that wish to be him. Add that to the thousands of other reasons people despise me.
No matter how many people hate me otherwise, I still speak my mind and am still treated like a prince… well, if you count getting slapped around because of your love life then yeah, I'm the luckiest prince around.
Luckily for me I've grown as if I were human, but stopped at the age of eighteen keeping a look that I prefer, not that I chose to end aging, but it happened at an age I looked very young. Cato being the perfect man he is, aged a few more years to the ripe looking age of twenty-one when in reality we're both 267 years old. Yup, the both of us lived through both the Thirty Years' War and the Bubonic Plague. The plague was harder to live through though because vampires would have an even slower death if we accidentally fed on someone who was infected.
The woods are very beautiful to me. I do get a little sad at the fact that I've never seen them during the day time. A few of the vampires that have not been born a vampire always tell me of the beauty of it all, how the trees creating shade and the purple wine cups are open. All the same I still wouldn't change a thing because when I am alone there is just sweet serenity. The road to the closest village isn't too far off the road is calming and once in a while I can hear an owl hoot or something crawl on the forest floor. The sounds of the crickets are nice until I realize it's just crickets trying to get lucky.
I keep walking along the dirt path until I see the glow of torch lights in the village streets and hear the echo of musical instruments playing. Nothing of my tastes really, I prefer the pluck of a viola and not when a drunken man is swinging the bow on the strings to make the sounds of a screeching banshee. Honestly only a man who happens to be plastered from too much booze can enjoy that sound. Then again, it is the sound of wine and a good night so it wouldn't hurt to spend some time with a few villagers. When I get there, the town square is filled with nothing but drunks losing their sanity in a drink and harlots flirting with some of them. I just decide to ignore all of them and just steal a bottle or two of wine when no one is looking and just leave.
Finally after a little searching I saw a table of wine, whiskey, rum, and beer. I peeked around first to see if anybody was watching me, not that it would matter you'd just have to lightly push one of these people and they'd fall over and knock out. Like tipping a cow. The thought makes me chuckle as I walk away then I feel a finger tap on my shoulder.
"I saw that," The person whispers in my ear over the music. I turn my head slightly to see a very familiar face, and probably the only welcome person I actually like.
"What are you doing here Eris?" I chuckle out as he leads me away from the crowd of cheering people. Eris was one the only person to look out for me and take care of me whenever I did something stupid like try to go out in the sun and get terrible burns on my exposed skin. Back a few years before I was born, when he was about, eighteen he was manipulative in order to steal currency so his family could pay their taxes and was sentenced to death when an aristocrat caught him. Somehow a Common Adder got into his prison cell and bitten him. This was around the time father started the colony and was looking for followers, and exchanged his loyalty in order to keep his life.
"Well I was a little and hungry so I went out to feed and when I was finished people were cheering and I'll be honest I saw the beer and thought 'Why not it's been a while since I've gotten drunk'."
"Two questions. One, are you drunk, and two, why is everybody so happy?"
"Well, no Peeta I'm not drunk but it sure is funny as hell to see humans get drunk and apparently not a single person in this village has been killed by a vampire in over a month. It's gonna suck for them when they find that dead body tomorrow."
"You killed someone didn't you Eris?" I ask with a blank face knowing my best friend.
"Correction. We killed someone." Eris has a huge smile on his face holding up a dark bottle. I frown at his immaturity. "Come on Peeta don't give me that look… I'm only looking out for you, you haven't eaten in a month and the thought of animal blood makes you want to heave."
"I don't like killing people and you know that."
"But Peeta-"
"No Eris, no buts."
"You're not even killing anybody, I am. Listen; if you drink this bottle of blood I won't bother you with the topic for the rest of the month." I still didn't grab the bottle from him.
"That depends,"
"On?"
"Who was it?"
"Some old man that got lost in the woods, no one of importance."
"You killed an old man!"
"Don't be all goody two shoes with me, he was well past his prime and probably had some form of heart disease."
"Just give me the fucking bottle!" he hands it over as I snatch the glass bottle from him and drink down the coppery liquid as if it was my first in weeks which it really was. When I finish the entire bottle and tried to get a few extra drops from the bottom I finally notice Eris smirking at me. "What?"
"You amaze me you know that?"
"What do you mean?"
"Nothing, I just can't see how you could survive without me."
"Asshole," I threw the bottle at his head, but he ducked quickly enough to where it brushed the top of his black hair. "What the hell is this supposed to mean?"
"You're just too good Peeta." Eris snatched the wine bottle I forgot I was holding and pulled out the cork with his teeth and spit it somewhere into the darkness of the forest. "I mean, the few times you did kill you always came to me with a guilty conscience and thought out all the possibilities of who they were and who else it affected, actually giving a shit. I can't do that I was always raised to care about those that matters most to me and just screw the rest of the world." Eris took a nice long gulp of the delicious violet-red liquid and passed it back to me. "So… why did you come out tonight and alone? You know there are always hunters around."
I rolled my eyes at his worrying using the same answer I always use with him whenever he asks me the elementary question. "I was tired of the darkness inside of the colony." I swear he still treats me like a child and be over protective.
"Okay then, fine." He put on another one of his smiles and wrapped his arm around my shoulders. "How about we go get you tanked?" he laughed and pulled me back in the direction of the village.
It took me four bottles of wine, eight bottles of rum, and three small glasses of whiskey and a mug of beer before I got tipsy, not even drunk but fucking tipsy, it is such a rip off. Eris had left at some point saying 'don't stay out too long so the hunters don't suspect' or something along those lines. More people dropped like flies when they couldn't handle their liquor whilst I stood there bored making bets with myself of which who would be next to fall. When the torches went out I could tell it would be a couple hours or so before sunrise and that I should leave so I stumbled to get one more pint of beer.
As I drink and make my way to leave I feel someone grab my arm and pull my face to theirs and capture my lips in a sloppy and disgustingly inebriated kiss. Nothing at all like a man's lips with the feel of stubble and chapped lips, but slobber and the taste of what I think is cooked meat. If going a month without a killing is something to celebrate like this, I wonder how these people are going to react if vampires ever go extinct. Anyway, the woman's kiss wasn't taken away soon enough but it was taken away forcefully enough to damage the inside of my lip because this drunken bitch took pleasure in putting my lips between her teeth.
"Honestly Katniss what has gotten into you?" I heard a man shout as I tend to my hurt lip. I only have to bite myself with my fang to heal it, but I don't want a mortal seeing my fangs by accident when there is a huge possibility that there are still some non-drunk hunters roaming about. It's dangerous enough as is that I went into the village. The drunken girl recoiled into the arms of a very handsome man with piercing grey eyes, olive skin, and just the right amount of facial hair. "I apologize for Katniss' behavior, I suppose she's had a bit too much and I was walking her home."
"It's alright." I squeak out and mentally scold myself for looking so foolish in front of suck of a handsome man. I can see him laugh at me because in reality I don't hide the mental scolding; I looked away and grumbled to myself.
"You're not from around here are you?" he asks still holding onto the crocked girl who was now smiling and giving me kissy faces.
I stutter, "N-No." looking over at the girl I presume Katniss with a slight look of revulsion. "I live with my family in the woods a few miles from here." Well, what I said wasn't a total lie.
"You know that's a very dangerous place to live. You and your family should uproot here; it's not the safest place, but at least we hunters can help protect you."
"We? As in… her?" I point over to Katniss who looked like she was about to finally pass out.
He gives another hearty laugh before replying, "She's not usually like this. Honestly, I'm surprised Haymitch was able to persuade her to drink in the first place."
"So tell me," I smile, but first make sure that my fangs aren't our as if I were to feed, "Why aren't you like her?"
"Trust me I've had a few beers, but I don't hold my liquor very well… I also find it a waste of time to just drink and end up with a terrible headache the next day." Our smiles fell when Katniss fell out of his arms and onto the stone floor of the town square.
"I tend to not leave my home so, is this an occurrence that happens often? I mean, people drink and have sex in the night then pass out less than an hour later because I can get used to this?"
"Goodness no, we're lucky if we get to do this more than once a year. What with those damn blood sucking life stealers out in the woods." I tense at his term of 'damn blood sucking life stealer' due to the fact that inside no matter what… I'm going to be one of them. "Can you help me take her back home?" I hear the man call trying to pick the girl off the floor.
"Why not just leave her?" I say in a dry tone in which he took as a joke except in all honesty I already don't like Katniss.
He is able to pick up Katniss bridal-style and look damn good while doing it. "Her house is just a couple of streets away," he points in the northern direction, "Not too far and then maybe I could show you my place? Maybe you could stay until morning?" Jesus H. Christ I hope he's flirting with me. "I'm Gale Hawthorne by the way."
"S-Sure. I-I'm P-P-Peeta." I somehow get out.
"Are you cold? You sure are stammering a lot."
"No, I'm just fine." I say really fast.
Gale smirks at me and starts heading north. "Is the stammer natural or do you just do that around people you find attractive?"
I stop walking, a little panicked but then keep my composure and start walking. "Just the ones who are very charming." I look over to see him blush at the complement. As we keep walking I find out his interests, hopes, and dreams. Gale tells me of his family and about his three younger siblings. He's not the type who locks up what he finds personal, he has told everyone of his desire to be with men and that makes me enraged on the inside because I cannot have his life. At least the part where everyone accepts him, I being the exact opposite to where only a few people like me enough to accept me.
It doesn't take him long to get Katniss inside her house and he lead me in the direction of his home. He did so by pulling me by the hand then wrapping his arm around my shoulders. I'm pretty sure if I could bush I would be at this point. "Are you sure you're not cold? Your hand was extremely cold when I grabbed it."
"I told you Gale, I'm fine. Winters don't bother me at all. Besides, you know what they say, cold hands warm heart."
"If you say so," he pulls me over to a small shack a few streets over and unlocks the door and allows me to enter first. There was nothing much to it, but a living space, and three doors that I presume led to a kitchen, bathroom, and his bedroom. "Make yourself at home. I apologize for its size."
"Don't be. Not everyone is as fortunate as others." I hope to myself that it doesn't sound too snobbish. He smirks at that and leads me to the couch where he feels free to invade my mouth with his tongue. I try pushing him off me but give up and tell myself I wanted this since I met him… less than an hour ago. Gale chuckles into the kiss at my 'weak' attempt to push him off where in actuality I could take over with ease, but… humans can be too stupid to believe anything, so why not let Gale have his fun.
After about five minutes he pulls away to breathe and I fake gasps so he doesn't come to the conclusion that I am a vampire before I get a good go around with him. "You taste vulgar." He states plainly. "How much did you have to drink tonight?"
"Wow you must be terrible at holding your liquor because I only had a glass of wine and some rum." I lie through my teeth. Gale dismisses the topic and goes back to invading my mouth. "Do you have somewhere more… private?" I inquire when he pulls away to breathe again. Gale pulls me off the couch and leads me to the bedroom.
Yeah so I don't know if I want to continue this or not, but please review and tell me what you think.