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“Tap, tap creeeeek.
The old, worn wood of the porch bowed under the heavy, rhythmic footsteps of the monster. Boots so old they could be called antiques, stained black from a century's worth of dried blood ingrained in their leather. A ratty, tatter creature, pale as a corpse, skin grey and warped, eyes redder than poppies. He stalks through the night, taking livestock from their pens, snatching up children in their sleep, then… BOO!”
The group gathered around the fire all shrieked and dissolved into a merry laughter! “Wha- hey! I’m not done yet-!” he said while failing not to laugh with them. These people, all gathering ‘round this great campfire, had traveled from all over all looking for new beginnings. Oakhurst was being rebuilt, slowly but surely, into something once again full of life.
“Oh comm’on Owen! Now just how is it you’ve got some many of these ghost stories!?” Martyn asked with boisterous mirth. Owen huffed, resigned to not finishing his tall tail with the laughing having yet fully dissolved, “Well I did live by the edge of the woods, way back when. I am a lumberjack after all- people used to whisper all sorts of things about these very woods”, he couldn’t help but sinisterly wiggle his fingers towards his companions. His action only spurred on more giggles from the crowd.
It was the doctor who spoke next, “Alright, alright, let the poor man finish his story.” Owen waved him off, “Nahw, now worries mate, there wasn’t much else to tell. Hey Sauveer, why don’t you give us a tail, being a novelist ‘n all!” a hearty round of rowdy cheers and agreement went up, Sauveer’s laugh being only slightly nervous sounding.
With raised hands he quelled the crowd, and became dramatically animated. “Once upon a time, deep in the dark, dark wood of Swaveria (swah-VAIR-ia), a young girl girl with big round glasses and red hair was wondering down the forest’s path..”, Shelby let out a loud gasp, she was a bit of a silly girl, and believed in every single story about the supernature she ever heard.. well except for- “And then from the dark a vampire jumped out and gobbled the girl whole! Leaving nothing but blood on the path!” The group groaned while Shelby let out a sigh of relief, laughing and saying, “Well it’s a good thing vampires don’t exist at all and are in no way real!”
Several people mumbled at this, but it was Apo who spoke up next, “Uuuuuugh, I thought we were done with the vampire talk!” he groaned. Avid was the one who spoke up next, much to everyone’s displeasure, “Hey! You never know! They really could be out there!!” His pitched and whiny voice defended, once again making several of the group groan, with Ren’s heavily accented voice mumbling ‘Nought this ahgain’.
“Oh come on now- Sauveer I thought your story was great!”
“Oh why thank you Owen, at least some people appreciate it- besides, I never even got to finish mine!” Sauveer assured with his confident air. Chleo was the one to cut with her monotone snark, “Yeahh but it waz’a’bit short now innit?” it was Sauveer’s dramatically offended gasp the rose the group's spirits once again.
//
Oh, how he almost missed it. Their laughter still echoed in his mind, their life, their joy.
The memory drifted away as footsteps approached him.
“Pyro.” he greeted curtly. “Owen,” Pyro greeted in turn. There was silence that stretched, and Owen let it run till it was uncomfortable, he knew Pyro would speak this thoughts unless prompted. The quiet let the forest around them breath ambience into their pause. It was nearing autumn, birds and bugs alike making their chitter, and the rustling leaves occasionally drifting to the forest floor. Owen knew silence, it was his old friend. There was an awkward, stifled cough from the young creature.
“Sire, ehrm, Scott wanted me to find you. He said it's for one last meeting before tonight”, he said, catching the slip that had, just a few nights ago, gotten him several rounds of light-hearted teasing from the others. Owen only hummed, continuing to look out over the cliff he had found. The area had many small mountains with sharp drops on one side or another, Owen found them to be a good spot to look out over the wider area. Pyro still was standing there, and Owen didn’t have to look to know the fellow was fidgeting his watch. With a tired, heavy sign Owen spoke up, “Tell Scott I’ll be there, ‘ts not like I’m going to miss the final meeting before what we’re doing.” He waved Pyro off and bid him goodbye, to which Pyro returned with a chipper ‘I’ll tell him for you’ and was off in a cloud of bats. Owen mused, briefly, if Pyro was even more a people pleaser than some others he knew. With another sigh, he settled a bit more and waited for the sun to set, the shade from the tree above him casting the right angle of shade to allow him peace from what little sun made it through the constant clouds.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The council gathered around the beacon, its soft yellow glow gently illuminating the faces of all the remaining townsfolk. Apo had told them what was planned, the young officer’s oath to protect others never weavering, even through his new hunger. He didn’t dare to join them then, not only because of the beacon's holy light, but to keep the others from realizing what he had done. All were armed with silver armor pieces and wooden shields adorned with the town’s banner, an orange to yellow gradient with a white circle in the center. Not a soul broke that silence, but they all knew they would need a plan if they were to survive the night.
Finally, Avid spoke up, “We know what we are gathered here for,” nervous glances were thrown around as Avid took a breath and spoke slowly, “And we know that we must survive. That.. That some might not make it through the night, at least not as themselves.” The room held its breath, and he spoke again, “We need to plan, we know silver works, and we know that Scott at least can’t be killed by normal means. We also know that some of the newly turned are reluctant and unwilling.” Avid worried his lip, his nerves and uncertainty filling the room with suffocating silence. It was Ren that spoke up next, the older man taking brief charge of the meeting, “We’re all gathered here to unite, here to stand together in the face of the darkness we know’s approachin’. And approachin’ it is. In the face of this great evil we must rally! Build up our walls, prepare our silver arrows, and come together to protect one another in the face of uncertainty!” Cheers and cries went around the room as the group assembled clung to the hope given in those words. Ren nodded to Avid, who nodded back, then looked to Martyn.
Martyn had held up his shield and banged his silver-iron sword on it, “We won’t fall to those blood suckers will we!” More cheers and cries went up as people started shouting out ideas, use stone to reinforce the town’s walls, fortify the houses so they can be used as fort, make more arrows and harvest the last of the garlic. Those with holy gifts and abilities had made a battalion, while others gathered supplies in any building that they had not been invited into. The doctor had moved his medicine and clinical equipment into the stone church. Cleo, with Pearl, had helped move the town’s spare armor and arrows there as well. They worked together, hanging silver amulets and talisman on the spiked wooden walls of the town. Others gathered garlic and strung at the 3 gate entrances. Windows were boarded, even those who would not be fighting (the doctor and Ren) had been armed with at least a shield and a silver dagger.
They would be ready, ready for when the blood moon rose over Oakhurst… and for when the creatures of the night descended upon them.
~~~~~~~~~~~ (extra scene) ~~~~~~~~~
It was nearing sunset, the golden light thrown across the evergreens below. Owen was, not that he’d admit it, worrying over the night ahead. He had his objectives, yes. To kill, to maim, to.. avoid certain people in the hopes of not having to keep his word for his threats. The person he wanted to encounter least being the doctor . . .
//
The door opened to the strangest mix of smells he had met yet. Medical alcohol, metal instruments, and spiced cider mixed in the clinic’s air. He was glad the doctor didn’t keep much garlic around, unlike some in the village, he was a serious and practical man in that sense. Said doctor, who was sitting at his desk with his tape recorder, turned and gave a small but sincere smile to his guest. With a click he paused his recording, putting it away in one of the desk’s upper drawers.
“To what do I owe the pleasure, Owen? Got a sore elbow from chopping wood?” Owen’s reply was a chuckle, not loud but no less full of mirth. At the doctor’s prompting he took a seat in the cushioned wooden chair, and was offered a cup of steaming mulled cider. He took it gratefully, even taking a sip and commenting on its pleasant flavor (it tasted of ash and bile, only experience kept his body from rejecting the gift entirely). The building was lit by a few wall candles, casting a warm glow across the both of them as they chatted about this and that. “Those beacons are very strange, though I can’t deny their.. presence, the conclusions people are jumping to have me concerned.” Owen hummed in agreement, taking another sip of his cider, “Between the oddities and what the old books we’ve been finding mention, I can’t say I’m too surprised they’re jumping to those sorts of conclusions.” It was the doctor’s turn to hum, casting a glance towards a notebook lying to the side on his desk. Owen hadn’t noticed previously and his curiosity was piqued, “Oh? What’s this Dr.Legs, if you don’t mind me asking that is” he queried gesturing towards the book. The doctor hesitated for a moment, before sliding closer to open it. Inside lay the doctor’s own neat and looping writings, notes and lists of known fact about.. vampires. Owen stayed silent, hesitating, but his curiosity got to his tongue, “I .. I didn’t realize you believed in the things Avid and Daisy were saying …” he trailed off as he ran a hand over the page, noting it to be a list of speculated vampire weaknesses, and which ones were… confirmed. Oh dear. “Hehe, what all this doctor?” Owen tried to lighted the heaviness that permeated, the smell of sterile equipment now burning his noise. The doctor said nothing, at first anyways. He too ran a hand over the page, the conflict in his eyes highlisted by the candlelight. With a breath, he spoke, “Owen.. neither of us can deny what we’ve all felt in the air. There’s.. a weight in the air here, silence that seems uncanny. And I’ve..” he took a deep breath, “I’ve seen something Owen, something out there in those woods that, that my science can’t fully explain. I’m not.. fully on board, not like Avid, Daisy, Sauveer and Martyn are. But I’ve seen something. I’m not going to start any sort of panic, I know that fear is often more dangerous than the danger itself. But I need to be prepared, Owen. I took an oath to protect and save lives. Even if I’m .. hesitant, or reluctant, I must be prepared.”
The doctors’ words were fading, but the ringing in Owen’s ears grew in its wake. A panic, not the kind that sketches or claws, but the silent, creeping, dreadful kind. The kind that makes Owen’s chest feel too tight, even though he hasn’t had a need to breathe in over two centuries. He sits up straighter, hand being pulled back from the book. The doctor, his friend, looked him in the eye. His face was blank, in that same stoic yet resigned way he had mastered, with eyes that searched to both reassure and to receive reassurance.
//
The memory drifted away, the smell of spice and rubbing alcohol carried away on the pine scented breeze. The last rays of sun were dipping on the ocean’s hazy horizon. With a sign that carried grief and shoulders that bore the weight of a mountain, Owen stood from his spot on the cliff’s edge. A last look was thrown to the setting sun as he took a step forward. Wind whipped, roaring loud as it rushed past his falling form. He held no fear for falling, he hadn’t in a very long time. With a single thought his form twisted, dark brown leathery wings catching his small body. Off into the night he flew, towards the ruined remains of that once great castle.
Tonight they go to war.