William's Rebirth

William awoke drowsily, trying to figure out just where he was and what had happened to him. The first thing he noticed out of the ordinary was that his spectacles were missing. He searched for them, but they were not to be found. Then he realised; he could see just fine. The room wasn't even lit that well, but his vision wasn't impaired in the slightest. He appeared to be in a woman's room. There were curtains of velvet and lace, numerous porcelain dolls on a shelf. Why was he here? What had been the last thing to happen to him…? That woman. Of course. She must have taken him here. She had kidnapped him? No, that couldn't be right… could it?

"William..."

He turned around at the sound of her voice. He didn't know how he could see her, but he could see everything in the room completely clearly. Why was that?

"I'm hungry," he said, forgetting his manners. A smile spread across her face, so seductive and yet so childlike.

"Then we must get you someone to eat!" She said, clapping her hands. She left the room, skipping, her dark cloak flowing out behind her. Did she just say 'someone' to eat? No, no, she can't have. He must have misheard her; she must have said something, not someone. Reluctantly, William followed her out of the door. The sun shone in through the windows in the hallway, and he walked over to it, drawing back in joint fear and pain when he saw his flesh burning. He looked back the woman. She was smiling at him, laughing at his sizzled flesh. What was happening here?

"Come, my William," she said, beckoning to him. "I must have lost track of time. It's not night yet. You'll have to go hungry for now." She walked back into the room and he followed her.

"What's happening?" He demanded as soon as they'd gotten inside the room again. "Why did I burn? The sun… why did it hurt?"

"Silly Willy. You're different now… You have power, power beyond your wildest dreams… Not human anymore, William." She was smiling as she said all that, laughing slightly, almost cackling. William was thoroughly confused. What did she mean, he wasn't human? She drew closer to him, and he backed away. She was scaring him again. He had always been so easy to frighten. He backed up to the wall, and then had nowhere to go. She walked closer and closer, so close that he could feel her breath on the skin of his cheeks as she spoke.

"Vampire," she said. "You're a vampire." She whispered it into his ear, drawing away abruptly afterwards, grinning like a lunatic. William had only just realised that she actually was a lunatic. Well, that was just unfortunate, wasn't it? She was apparently the only one who understood him. But she scared him. And she'd turned him into a vampire… Could he even believe that? Vampires. It was absolutely impossible.

"I can't be," he said. The madwoman walked back over to him, wrapping her arms around his neck, smiling and swaying slightly.

"Oh, you are. You are…" she said. She closed her eyes, her head drifting back. Her hair was loose… So interesting to see. Women always wore their hair up in a bun and hid it with a bonnet, curled it, pulled it out with their brushes… William much preferred seeing hair loose and natural.

"I'm a vampire," William repeated, transfixed. "You made me a vampire." He wasn't even sure if he truly awaited confirmation. What was most often associated with vampires? They didn't like holy objects… Well, there were none here to take note of… Eternal life, never growing old… He'd just have to wait to see that one. A stake to the heart… Nobody was trying to kill him. Burning in the sun… He knew he did that. Drinking human blood… His eyes widened with the revelation of what the woman had meant when she had said 'someone' to eat. He was expected to drink blood. He wasn't sure what he thought of that. From what he remembered of the taste, it wasn't disgusting exactly, but it was metallic and hardly pleasant. He didn't want to have to live off that… But was it really living? Vampires were supposedly dead, weren't they? He pressed his fingertip to his neck. There was no pulse. He was definitely dead.

"You killed me," he whispered.

"I freed you," she replied. "I freed you from their spineless mockery… Made you one of us, one with the night, a hunter. I killed you… But I gave you eternal life."

"Yes," William agreed. "You did. But tell me… what is your name? I don't believe you've told me…"

"Heh heh… Silly Willy. My name is Drusilla," She said. The name suited her. "Are you tired? I'm tired… I need to sleep…"

"I just woke up… But you can sleep…" William said. Drusilla shook her head.

"Not alone. Not while you're here…" William was confused. She wanted to sleep with him in her bed? But they hardly knew each other! She sank down onto the bed, beckoning to him. He walked over to her hesitantly, just sitting on the edge of the luxurious lace and velvet covered bed. She reached around his waist, pulling him down to her, nuzzling her head in his neck. He was completely confused right now. But she appeared to get to sleep pretty quickly. He was certainly grateful for that. He knew he couldn't sleep now. He had just woken up, after all… He was a vampire. It all seemed far too much to take in.

William had not slept all of that day, but his companion had. Drusilla stretched, very much like a cat, when she woke up at sunset. She opened her eyes and looked up at William.

"Did you have a nice sleep?" he asked her. She nodded.

"I dreamed that there were pretty dolls all around, running and playing like children… But it was windy, and it blew their tea party away," Drusilla said. She stepped out of the bed, and began wandering around the room. How interesting that was. Animate dolls…

"I'm hungry…" William said.

"We'll have to take you out then," Drusilla said. She stopped where she was walking, turned around, and headed back towards the shelf for she dolls. She took one from it, cradling it in her arms. "But we're not going anywhere without Miss Edith…" She danced over to William, lace gloved hand held out for him to take. He took it, and they walked out of the room. The hallways out here was moonlit now, nothing harming. Drusilla led William outside into the street. It was deserted except for one young woman in a hurry, likely not entirely oblivious to what might befall her. Except she was expecting something much less… supernatural.

"Eat her," Drusilla said.

"How?" William asked.

"You'll know how," Drusilla replied. William walked over to the woman. He wasn't sure how to kill her. He'd seen Drusilla's face go strange… But how did she do that? Even as he was wondering, he felt his teeth sharpen. It didn't seem voluntary to him, not yet at least. He grabbed her young woman by the shoulder and she turned to face him, eyes wide and terrified. He felt a strange thrill go through him as he realised that she was scared of him. No one had ever been scared of him before. He could hear her pulse, and as he stared at her he found himself truly hungering for her blood. He held her still – he noticed that he was much stronger now – and bit her neck, his new fangs piercing the flesh so easily he was surprised. The woman screamed a bit, before going limp in his arms. But there was still blood left, and he was determined to drink every last drop. When it was all gone, he dumped her body on the floor. Drusilla reached out to him, and kissed him, licking the blood from his lips. He cradled her head with his hand, tangling it into her dark curls. She was beautiful, like a princess. He withdrew from her embrace.

"Drusilla… There's somewhere I need to go…" He said. He supposed he didn't really need to go… But he wanted to. He longed for revenge against what they'd said to him.

"Ooh, can I come?" Drusilla asked, knowing what he was going to say, he was sure.

"Of course you can, love," William said. "In fact, I might need help…"

"What are you going to do?" She asked. William thought about it. He knew who he was going to do something to, but he didn't quite know what he was going to do to them… Then the thought came to him.

I'd rather have a railroad spike through my head than listen to that awful stuff...

Well, what better way to kill someone than to use their own idea? Better than anything he could ever have come up with…

"Those people who teased me at the party… I'm going to put a railroad spike through each of their heads…"

Drusilla's face lit up, and she clapped her hands and squealed like a small child. "Oh, my William! That's a wonderful idea!"

James was just returning home from an evening at the theater, when he noticed that someone was watching him.

"Who's there?" He called out into the night. He was answered only with silence. He frowned and carried on walking down the street. His mind was playing tricks on him, a sure sign that he needed more sleep.

"James," He turned around again at the sound of his own name, but again he was greeted only with the darkness… He stared, trying to discern anything that might have spoken… And there it was. A dark figure, silhouetted against the gaslight.

"Who are you?" He demanded once more. There was no answer. "What do you want?" He heard a chuckle, and the dark figure took a step toward him. He was more than a little shocked to see William, a woman with him.

"What the bloody hell do you think I want?" James was surprised. He had never heard William swear before. When James didn't answer, William went on, pacing back and forth up and down the pavement. "You riducled me, insulted me… And I want payback!"

James couldn't say he wan't shocked. The main reason he and the others had been cruel to William was because they had never believed for a moment that he would retaliate. He had always been such a quiet boy, always sitting alone writing bad poetry… But the way he was acting now was so different… And there was a woman with him!

"What kind of payback?" James asked. William smiled in a way that was so different from the way he usually appeared. He held up his hand, revealing something shiny and metallic that caused the light to reflect of it. A railroad spike. James had a horrible sinking feeling. "You can't mean to-" He started, but found himself unable to carry on speaking. William laughed.

"You know what I find strange? I killed that woman earlier, but I felt nothing. Well, I felt something all right, but it sure as hell wasn't remorse! I enjoyed taking her life, drinking her blood…"

"Drinking her…"

"Blood. I'm a vampire now. Drusilla here made me one," William said, gesturing to the woman beside him, who was, evidently, Drusilla. James laughed out loud. He didn't know what it was, but something had clearly caused William to become a madman. Perhaps he was simply drunk, but he was acting even more like a deluded fool than normal, if there had ever been a 'normal' for William.

"You're actually going to use that aren't you?" James asked, pointing to the spike William was still holding. He grinned, flashing fangs.

"Oh, you bet I'm going to use it," He said. He took another step forwards, pushing James down to the ground. James yelped out, terrified. William laughed. He raised the spike above James's chest and stabbed him, but not deep enough to kill him immediately. Just to cause pain. Maybe this was a little disproportionate, but William was having fun and he wasn't about to stop. He kept stabbing almost randomly until the man was dead.

"One down," He said.


Did anyone like it? I think I wrote this one pretty quickly. There will be more on Claudia at some point, I promise. Please review if you like it, or think there is something really bad about it (other than Spike being evil, but if you didn't like that, why read this in the first place?).