Hiya People, so this went a completely different direction then I had imagined. I have no idea if it worked or not but the words felt right when they were down. Thank you for the continued support and I look forward to writing the next chapter...if this goes down well :) (NOTE: bold italics is a flashback/dream. It feels stupid to write that but my lovely editor friend didn't get it XD) Let me know what you think!
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Disclaimer: I don't own any of these characters!
Hal couldn't sleep.
He had spent the whole weekend cleaning, he started in the kitchen and worked his way outwards. He had successfully managed to avoid all awkward conversations with Alex about his weakness and had tried to forget about kissing her. Tried being the operative word. If anything, the somewhat childish analysis of her reaction to that brief kiss was keeping him sane. It completely overtook all other thoughts, keeping his darker self at bay. So far he had attributed her shocked expression to his complete lack of control in the living room. He needed to ignore the obvious if their friendship was to continue unhindered. She clearly still liked him. Her outrageous flirting and sidelong glances were enough to confirm Hal's guesses. What scared him most was how much he liked it, those sneaky words spoken just for him.
I want her.
But that was just during the daytime, at night he physically ached for her. She always knew how to turn a dire situation into a joke, she critiqued every aspect of the front he presented to her and she knew how to wriggle around his walls. With Alex he felt safe, secure and...loved. It was then that Lord Harry would present himself. Hal's nights were filled with horrors of the past, screams and death. He could never share this with her, his light-hearted ghost. She still winced every time Tom went through the change, she thought his screams were horrific. She had heard nothing compared to his past.
Every night they would come to him. The visions of all he had done wrong. Hal cringed at the memories. He pushed the images out of his head and focussed on Alex. Her face, her clothes, the way she stamped her feet when she was annoyed. Her god-awful cups of tea, her clunky boots, her soft brown eyes. He relaxed more into the thought of her and fell into a restless sleep. Lord Harry snuck up from within and twisted the dreams. Dragging the past back to haunt him, growing stronger...
It was the Summer of 1857 and Lord Harry had consumed him, anyone that caught his eye would most likely be dead within the hour. Sins of the flesh were his speciality, he had never been more corrupt. The laws of the land were beneath him, he answered only to Mr Snow, who was content to allow Hal to do whatever he wished, so long as the evidence was disposed of. It would not be long before he could overthrow even he, the power and strength of London filled his belly. However Fergus, one of Hal's most loyal fledglings was beginning to bore him. He had recruited him only two years beforehand on a whim. It was an idiotic mistake. The man had no gusto, no imagination. Lord Harry liked to chase his victims down, allow them to think they might escape before draining them slowly, one bite at a time. In his game of cat and mouse there would only be one victor.
Fergus didn't appreciate the delicacy of fear tinged with hope, he had not yet refined his taste enough to tell the difference in the blood. He was barbaric and unsophisticated, choosing victims still in the flush of youth. He said their blood was sweeter, that it reminded him of his childhood. Hal didn't give a damn, he was even considering staking the savage. He was all for killing the infants, but simply ripping their throats out was so very tiresome. It was just predictable. The Victorians, as they called themselves at the time, had heard of the vampiric demons, they expected a bite. It was just too easy. Vampires naturally had heightened body strength- against a human brute force would always win, especially the half-grown ones. Lord Harry was among the elite, he aspired to reach new levels of decadence with the most extravagant kills. Brute force demeaned him.
They had taken to draining adolescents from the factories, seeking to reach new levels of depravity simply for the sheer joy of it. Hal hoped that allowing his companions sick little infatuation would help him to realise the fundamental truth of their longs lives, everything fades, emotions, desires, only then were you infinite. London ran amok with vampires, they drank without restraint and slaughtered thousands. The humans blamed diseases such as Cholera and Influenza, but there were many supernatural victims hidden in the mass graves. The physicians of that time turned a blind eye to mysterious deaths. The philosophy being ignore what you couldn't explain. Lord Harry grew sick of it.
One dark snowy night Hal had returned to their place of lodging to find a truly beautiful child sitting at the foot of his bed. Her fluffy white night-gown was stained with blood and she clung to a stuffed animal. He had watched her for a time, taking in her pearly white skin, the delicate doll-like hands and her blood-stained blonde ringlets. She had no heartbeat. Her eyes were completely black, and on the floor by the bed lay her dead mother. Poetry, he had called it. This is my version of extravagance, Fergus had said.
The rage was overwhelming. Humanity disgusted him, it was merely a means to feed and be quenched. But to turn one so young, to condemn her to the life of an immortality, enslaved to the devil before she had even lived was unforgivable. Lord Harry turned on Fergus and quelled the urge to reduce him to dust. Needless to say the child was destroyed near after, he and his recruit argued furiously and Hal had made his might known. The tiny smidgen of affection he held in regard for his companion prevented him from sending Fergus to hell with the babe.
He had left their room, in search of something to ease his mind. On that night alone 23 women and children died for Fergus's sins.
Hal woke with a start, the taste of their blood still echoing in his head. Without thinking he reached for the bedside cabinet and pulled open the draw. Within moments he had unscrewed the black bottle-top and was downing the precious liquid inside. The insatiable fire blazed within him and his heart pumped furiously.
It had begun.
So does it work? What will happen with Alex and Hal now? ;)
Also...only two days until Being Human...yay!
Review's or general vamp talk are all very very welcome!
Blackvelvet97
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