I don't understand the big deal, I mean, I am a vampire. I am strong, fast, agile. Sure, I can't step out into the sun, but that is a minor detail, I can wear something to help that. I just want to help them, they are starving and suffering and I can't keep up the pace I'm working at. There needs to be change or else everyone will suffer, everyone I care about.
"Feliciano, please, you could even die!" Francis yells over the phone. He calls every day and tries to convince me to stop the running for election. I had already put my name out there and will be on the ballot. The voting won't take place for a few months, enough time for me to get some votes. In fact I have an interview later today.
"Francis, I'm sorry but I have to. I'd rather die trying to make a difference than suffer and watch my friends and family suffer as well."
"But, Feliciano, you don't understand." This starts to anger me, what don't I understand? Lovino and Ludwig still try to talk me out of it, they keep throwing excuses in my face. What could I not know by now?
"I… I'm scared. Not just for you, but for Lovino, for Ludwig, and me… Roderich won't stop with threatening you, he will go after those close to you. You know how dangerous Elizabeta can get, you care about us right? Getting yourself mixed into this will only cause trouble, he's too strong please Feliciano I don't want to see anything bad happen."
I stand there, the phone loosely in my grip. I hadn't thought about that, and he is being realistic about it. "I have to get ready for my interview, I'll talk to you later." I hang up the phone and slump onto the couch. Damnit, no matter what I choose people are at risk.
I look at the time, 4:23. My interview is at 5:30. I get up and walk to my room, open the closet door and pull out my black shirt, brown tie, and my black dress pants. A knock on my door interrupts me taking my clothes off.
"Brother, are you getting ready?" Lovino asks on the other side of the door.
"Yes, I'm getting dressed now!" I finish putting on my clothes, grab my tie, a belt, and my fedora. I take all the items into the bathroom where I put them all on, including a small amount of cologne. Cool, yet professional. Thankfully the interview is inside, but the fedora is for walking to and from the car, people will be crowded around and I don't want my skin to sizzle around them. I walk out into the living room where I grab my good shoes and black gloves. Fully covered. A cross necklace dangles in front of my face.
"Lovino what are you doing?" I jump backwards.
"It's made out of steel, but, if you can manage to wear it for the interview I think it would be really good… Just, don't let it touch you, alright?" I gulp. He puts it around my neck and the cross rests between my pecs. It is unnerving to have a cross that close to me, but this will be shown to norms as well as myths, so this will show the norms that I am normal, and to the myths that I mean business.
We leave and get into the car, Lovino drives for us. Our windows are heavily tinted to help keep out the sunlight, but I have gotten sunburn before. The window shades are bigger than the norms are to help keep out the sunlight, thankfully, because that is the only thing keeping my sun from bursting into flames. The drive is silent and awkward. Lovino really doesn't want me to go through with this, but he still supports me.
"You know, Francis called again." I say shyly. "He's still trying to talk me out of it, but today he told me he is scared, not just for me but, you too. And Luddy, and him. Are you scared too?" I ask him. I look over at him but he doesn't take his eyes off the road.
"Of course I'm scared, idiot! Why wouldn't I be scared?! If you go along with this you're going to get yourself killed!" I stare out the window letting his words sink into me. It is true, Roderich has powers unlike others. He's a special kind of myth, he's half mare, half high elf. A mare allows itself into people's dreams and can even turn into things like horses and plants. Then there is Elizabeta, she's a banshee and will do whatever Roderich tells her to do.
"We're here." Lovino pulls next to the pathway to the building. Security guards wait as reporters and random strangers try to take pictures, ask questions and make their way towards me. I get out of the car and make my way to the front doors, ignoring everyone before me. I close the door behind me and sigh in relief that I was able to keep my cool. A clock nearby says that it is fifteen minutes till the interview.
"Excuse me, Mr. Vargas?" A voice calls out to me. I look up at the stranger and nod my head. "Follow me please, you're late and we still need to put some makeup on you." He walks away and I follow him to a dressing room. I sit down in the lone seat and they quickly put makeup on me.
"Don't worry, it is only stuff to prevent you from sweating under the heat of the lights. No one will notice." They rush me out of the chair and push me into another seat. They take off my fedora and start messing with my hair.
"Wh-what are you doing?" The man starts running a comb through my hair.
"We're just going to style your hair a little and put something in it to stay in place." After the guy runs the comb he grabs a bottle and rubs the insides of it in his hands. It smells pleasant, kind of sweet. He massages it into my scalp and my hair looks pretty cool. He puts the fedora back on my head and shoos me out of the room. Some other people come by and drag me to the side of the stage. The host already is beginning the intro and soon invites me onto the stage. I take a seat across from him as a crowd of people clap for me. The cheers die down and the host looks at me.
"So, why are you running for mayor?" He asks me. I look around surprised, I thought this was going to be a bit more professional than it is, but I guess to norms this isn't as big of a deal.
"Well, I live on the south side of town and I notice a lot of problems down there. Those problems have been there for a while now and I realized that no one else will run for mayor and if I don't do something, no one will." The host nods several times before continuing on.
"I see. So are you doing this for certain people?"
"Certain people, like my brother, made me realize what I needed to do. But I am doing this for everyone out there struggling."
"So, you are planning to help the south side of town. What about the north side of town?" Panic starts to hit me because I didn't do any research on the north side of town, I don't hear of any problems.
"I was just planning on keeping things the way there are and if there are any problems that arise I will do everything in my power to fix them." My answer was acceptable because the man smiles and nods again.
"Why should people vote for you?" I look at him then at the audience and cameras.
"I am an honest person, and I want to make everyone's lives as good as possible because we only live once, why should someone have to live theirs in a poor, miserable way."
"Haha, good man! I like how you think. So true, so true… You have a very nice necklace, are you christian?" Truly I am not, being a myth, especially a vampire, made me lose my faith in God.
"Yes, I am." I carefully take off the cross and hand it to him.
"Is this steel?" He asks. I nod in agreement. "It's very well crafted."
"My brother gave it to me, a gift to me for today actually, for good luck." He returns the necklace and I carefully place it back around my neck, making sure it doesn't touch me. If it did I would burn and it would bring out my true self.
"Well, I wish you luck in your endeavors. I see no reason not to vote for you." The guy smiles and then it cuts to commercial. "We're done, you can leave now."
"Thank you for letting me talk about my running for mayor, it won't be easy running against Roderich, but I think I can do it." The guy walks away from me without a word.
'That was weird, it seemed as if he weren't interested at all." I leave the building and wait for my brother to pull up with the car. A reporter not to far away calls out to me.
"Mr. Vargas! Mr. Vargas!" I look over towards him. "Do you honestly believe you can beat Mr. Edelstein?" He asks me. I smile at him.
"Of course I do, I would do anything for the people I care about." Lovino pulls up with the car and I get in. "How was I?" I ask him.
"Could've done better…" I glance at him. Clearly I did well, he just doesn't want to admit that I have a chance at becoming mayor. The fight will be hard, but I need to do this.
We arrive back to the house to find Ludwig and Francis. "What are you two doing here?" I ask them.
"We saw your interview." Francis says as he comes over and hugs me. "Honey, this isn't safe." This infuriates me so much that I push him off of me.
"Is this like an intervention to you!?" Francis looks back at me with hurt eyes. "This isn't a joke and I don't appreciate you guys not supporting me when this means so much to me." Ludwig get up and grabs a hold of my wrists.
"Look me in the eyes Feliciano." Slowly I do as told. Luddy doesn't normally touch me in such a forceful way, it's scary. His eyes look different than they normally do. "I love you, and I'm scared for you. Without even trying he was able to give you a bad bruise on your shoulder, imagine what he could do while trying." He lets go of my wrists and pulls me into a gentle embrace. "I'm sorry, but you mean a lot to me and I'm truly scared that if you run for mayor you will literally die." I hug him back. Luddy normally knows better than I do, so maybe he's right. Maybe running for mayor is a mistake.
The doorbell rings twice and Lovino answers it. I hear the door open but he immediately tries to close it. Roderich stands at the door and pushes it open with little force and walks past my brother. Ludwig holds onto me tighter and starts growling at Roderich.
"Down boy." He says with a smirk. "I'm just here to talk to Feliciano." He puts out his hand for me to take. Ludwig growls louder and even starts to transform.
"Hey Luddy, calm down. It's alright, he just wants to talk." I scratch right behind his ear and he slowly starts to calm back down. After he turns back to normal he resentfully lets go and I take Roderich's hand.
"Thank you. It is just a talk. Now, may the others please leave the room." He turns around and scans everyone.
"I'll be fine, please do as Roderich asked." Everyone goes outside and waits for our conversation to finish.
"I watched you today. You did a good job fooling those norms. You honestly think that you can beat me?" He stares at me strangely.
"Yes sir, I do." He does scare me, it's hard not to be intimidated by him. He is tall, strong, and is a master of magic.
"I hope you understand that it will be near impossible for you to beat me." He smiles in an almost sinister, yet innocent way. "Before this begins, you must know that whatever happens is to keep the sake of this town safe."
"I know, and the same goes for me." I stand up straighter, trying to defend myself from his intense intimidation.
"I remember when you first moved here, and when you got bitten." His right hand moves to the base of my neck and lightly rubs where I had gotten bitten. "I showed you and your brother around town, the grand tour… And this is how you repay me for helping you?" His hand grips my neck tightly, the pain sending me to my knees. "I took care of you when you were still looking for jobs, I let you stay in my home and made you food." The pain gets worse the more he talks. "I found you two good jobs, I even introduced you to Ludwig. This is how you're going to act when I had taken such good care of you?" I look up and his eyes are glowing at me. If I don't do something things could get really ugly.
I start to transform, but the grip keeps getting tighter. "What do you think you can do? You will never be stronger than me." I can feel his eyes stare at me, burning into me.
"I don't need to be stronger than you." My eyes meet his and I start putting him under my spell. He slowly loosens his grip until he finally lets go. Once I'm free from his grip I stumble across the room and out the door.
"Feliciano, what's wrong?" Francis walks over and puts his hand on my shoulder, making me wince slightly. He pulls his hand away worried. "What did Roderich do?" He asks. Ludwig and Lovino both go into the house to look for him. "He started getting angry and latched onto me. I escaped by putting his under a trance." The two of us walk in to find Luddy and Lovi standing around Roderich, fascinated. He looks so relaxed, so calm, almost like he's sleepwalking.
"I've never seen him so relaxed." Francis says. He walks over and waves his hands in front of his eyes. "He is just so vulnerable right now. It's weird to see him like this."
"Luddy, will you help me take him home?" He nods and walks over to me.
"Are you ok?" I nod at him.
"He got a really bad knot out of my neck, and his a pressure point. He didn't really do any damage but some bruising." He gently hugs me, letting me know that I'll be alright.
I look over to Roderich and command him to follow us to Ludwig house. It's only a block and a half away. When we get there we see a car parked in the front driveway.
"Great, Gil is home." Ludwig grunts. I stay outside with Roderich while Luddy goes inside and gets the keys.
Gil is a norm, but his two best friends, Francis and Antonio, are myths. Along with his brother Luddy. He has no idea about the myths world, we can't risk him finding out and freaking, or him telling the norms about us. Maybe one day he will find out, but for now we can't risk it. Luddy comes back outside but as he starts walking to me I see the door open again. I start to panic and push Roderich behind the car so Gil can't see him.
"Feli! I haven't seen you in a while." He hugs me and I return it. I have to be careful because my fangs are still out and my eyes are glowing red from keeping Roderich under the trance. "How are you?" He asks me.
"You know, running for mayor and stuff." He smiles.
"Oh yeah, I saw your interview! You did a good job." I nod. I feel uneasy around Gil, only because I'm scared to show him our true selves.
"Well, we gotta go do some chores, I'll see you later." Gil returns to the house and I can breathe easy again. We get Roderich and ourselves into the car and are on our way to his house. "That was close, but we have to tell him someday. He can't go his whole life not knowing about what we are when we make up such a huge part of it… It's not fair to him." Ludwig sighs, he knows that I'm right.
"We will one day, when he can realize that we won't hurt him." That would be for the best. The last thing we need is to have Gil freak out and then tell everyone about us, best case scenario people think he's crazy and gets sent back to us or to a mental institution for thinking vampires and werewolves exist.
Luddy turns left onto the street Roderich's home is on. He is a rich man, way richer than anyone of the myths, and richer than those from the north side of town. Being a high elf, he's greedy and would do anything for wealth and power. His other half though, the nightmare, gives him his strength. We pull up his driveway, a fairly long one, and get him out of the car. I stand him in front of his door and ring the doorbell. I get back into the car and release Roderich as we drive away.
Ludwig drives us home in silence. Now he is even more worried about me.
"You really won't back down?" He asks me. I look over at him, he looks sad.
"No Luddy, I won't. I'm sorry." He sighs.
"I understand, I won't pester you anymore. But, I will help you if you need it. If you're going to do this you're going to do this correctly." I smile at him. He's really a good guy, a kind one too. My left hand grabs his spare right one as we drive home.