AUTHOR'S NOTE?:
I feel much better about this chapter! I think I'm at least getting a swing of present-tense 3rd person (limited). Still shakey, but a little less jumbled! I also wanted to challenge myself to write a more action-based thing. I stick a lot to 'rambling thought' writing, rather than raw interactions. I like how this came together much better than the first chap(might go back n fix some things bout it…), so I hope that's not just me and that it reads a little clearer ;w;
reviews are much appreciated, but thank you for even just skimming my stories!
It took quite a while to locate Vlad. The twisting hallways of his castle resisted carrying noises, the walls thick, the doors well-sealed; not a gust of wind would whistle around the hinges. The longer he searches, the more frustrated and fervent he felt. He wanted this whole endeavor to just be over with, so he could go home content with Vlad's place in his mind. If only it were easier to swallow the feelings of pity that appeared the day prior, if only he could just let them go. But Danny is stubborn and hormonal and won't accept any feelings of conflict in his mind; he can't be uncertain or wavering in his assertion that Vlad is an irredeemable villain. It would potentially impact his fighting, he asserts to himself. That was totally why he did this.
At last, Danny catches a faint hiccupping sound traveling down a hall. It's hard to locate but it narrows things down to: near. He begins to move slower, more cautiously. As much as he was compelled to burst through every door, he had to at least attempt to not set off Vlad's sense by getting too close too quickly.
The sound of breathing becomes clear only a few feet further. Hoarse, heavy, hard breaths, interrupted by hiccups and pauses. A door stands in front of Danny, the noise clearly sourced there. He nearly reaches for the handle foolishly, but remembers- right. Ghost. It strikes him how rude this is but he pushes it out of his mind, because Vlad has been far, far ruder with his intrusions on Danny's life.
Oh-
No.
Vlad's shoulders are shuddering; he is slumped forward on a couch, back facing. At first it appears he is maybe hunched over laughing, but a sniffling sound and quivering exhale stop that assumption before it can fully form. Tall green-tinted bottles litter the floor below him, empty, not a drip falling from their mouths. A delicate silver cup fidgets slightly over the carpet, as though it has just recently been dropped. Vlad's head is in his hands, and what miserable noises erupt from him. His fingers tense to grip at his hair, he humms on inhales as if he is attempting to sooth himself.
Danny doesn't move. Paralyzed. He watches the faint red vapours pour from Vlad's mouth with each shakey sigh, but the man apparently is too distressed- or too drunk- to notice at all.
There is a twisting whirl of emotion in Danny, and none of it can he settle on. He feels at first, a grotesque, compulsive pleasure- the pleasure of seeing an enemy at their most pathetic and shameful. But as soon as he can grasp that emotion, he is disgusted by its presence here. He didn't want to enjoy this. Past the first second, anything satisfying about what he's seeing fades entirely. Then it becomes like watching a car accident; a miserable curiosity, he feels pulled to see what will happen next. Or perhaps, he feels stilled by that desire. It's hard to define any of the emotions that swim through his head, every one feels uncomfortable. He doesn't know what thoughts to deny and which to defend. What reaction was best? What was appropriate?
Vlad wobbles on the couch, looking like he's about to simply fall to his side. He catches himself on his arm, and turns his head up to look directly at Danny.
No, no no. No no. He'd apparently forgotten to hold onto his invisibility, too distracted by watching. Danny stands like a deer in headlights, too overwhelmed, and Vlad shakily pushes himself off of the couch. He stumbles on the bottles at his feet, nudging one away with his foot. He looks in Danny's direction again, but his eyes- they're so glazed over. Vlad is so gone. He doesn't seem to be truly focusing on anything. Danny bares his teeth anxiously and Vlad grins, sauntering forward.
"Have you come here to kick an old man when he's down?" Vlad lowly slurs out, words barely intelligible. "Very impressive, Daniel. You're ever a perfect boy. D'you come here often?" Vlad continues to stumble forward. So absorbed in the spectacle, Danny merely continues to shuffle back until he is touching the wall, not at all resisting the temptation to stay a moment; he didn't feel as if he needed to maintain a special vigilance or high-tail it out of there urgently. Vlad was scarcely a considerable threat; it appeared that even standing was a feat for him right now.
He swings a bottle of wine in Danny's direction, something he didn't even notice him holding. Danny flinches, but he's not close enough for it to hit - "Would you like to join me?" Vlad offers, gesturing to Danny with the bottle once more. "Or are you too goodie-goodie for that?" He humms and wobbles, Danny instinctively pulls his hands up as though to catch him in case he falls- but Vlad raises his hand up to balance himself. He still grins widely. "If you're at my manor you must partake of sss-some decadence," his words break apart at the syllables. He stutters. "Come now," his voice shakes. "I won't tell your m-mother."
Every muscle in Vlad's face tightens like it's trying so hard to brace, he chokes and laughs- or sobs? It's a mixture. His chest shudders and he raises a hand to his head, lets out a long wretched groan, growls in his throat. Danny feels tears prick at his own eyes, and it is officially Enough—it's begun to feel morbid, witnessing this-
"I should probably GO," Danny says mostly to himself. The very second his makes to do this, Vlad's free arm comes jetting out faster than he can recognize (faster than he would have thought the man capable of in his state), slamming Danny back into the wall behind him; Vlad's fingers curl tightly into his shoulder, knuckles white. Danny instinctively closes his eyes.
"D-Daniel?" Vlad shakes out.
Mutual shock, both frozen a second. Vlad rapidly yanks his arm back, stares at it, stares back at Danny, who is too fascinated in the expression on the man's face to disappear like he should; too confused as well. Vlad's breath turns desperate and ragged, and he whimpers: a noise Danny could never have imagined coming from him. Vlad looks stunned. His eyes lose the bleary, cloudy look, now set into a focused shock. It's as if he hadn't expected to be able to touch the boy, as if he thought him only a figment of his imagination.
Did that imply Vlad frequently spoke to imagined people? Danny can't think too hard about that. His stomach twists just breeching the idea of this being a 'regular thing' for the man.
Vlad's face shakes like it isn't sure which emotion to convey, he grabs his head before every bit of him is tense and snarling. "You've come to gawk at me, little badger?" he spits. He has never looked so angry."It isn't enough, foiling my every plan and being the very symbol for my failures? You- intrude into my house-"
Without warning an electric blast is fired, but thankfully Vlad is still quite impaired by so much alcohol, and so it blatantly misses. Danny skitters along the wall, looking like a mouse having just realized it had fallen into a snake's terrarium. He stumbles on the wine bottle Vlad apparently dropped to do the blast.
Vlad attempts to shift into Plasmius, but apparently that is impaired by his state, too- the rings form on his torso but don't pull more than a few scant inches apart before closing and vanishing. Vlad walks forward with heavy feet. Danny shuffles his feet on the ground like an idiot, staring up at the man.
There are still tears in Vlad's eyes. Only a few feet closer, and Vlad suddenly veers to the side to slump against a wall, eyes clutched closed, another choked sob bursting out. He sinks down to the floor on his knees, clutching his temple, mumbling things Danny can't understand.
Finally breathing a moment, Danny watches Vlad only a minute before realizing he's being completely absent.
He vanishes through an adjacent wall, and leaves the manor.