Chapter Text
A week of vacation.
It honestly sounded great after he had worked for the better part of two centuries, surveying vampires he didn’t know if he could trust, dealing with cases of other rogue ones, investigations and paperwork after paperwork.
Suits to say that he deserved at the very least a week, he had never complained and very rarely failed a job.
But once that week was over, he picked up the first newspaper he got his hands on, the most recent one, skimming through to see what he had missed when in bold large letters read something he could only sigh at.
‘Severed head found clogging storm drain’
Fucks sake.
It didn’t take much more flipping through to find that two people have gone missing on top of that, conspiracies of a serial killer already rising and all that was found was one head.
It could have been a simple homicide, but the tools for dismembering a human being isn’t something an average person in an overpopulated city would have access to, the sound it would cause trying to break through bones, and that isn’t including where the rest of the body would have gone, or how they would have hid it to bring somewhere no one would have seen.
And two more missing?
It all sounded… inhuman. As in no easy job for an average person.
But easy enough for a vampire.
Especially one he hasn’t kept his eye on in a whole week.
Step after step, Abolish’s pace remains steady but rushed, sidestepping every person in front of him, the newspaper is crumbled a bit from where it is rolled up in his grip. As he racks his brain for any moment Scott could have maybe had the opportunity.
It wouldn’t make sense for any other vampire to do so.
There were few in NewYork City, most working for or with the organisation, and showed no aggression to humans, in fact most of them empathized with humans and have by now learned to live alongside them, while distant, with hobbies and passions that kept them grounded.
But only one antsy vampire came to mind that has given Abolish a few scares beforehand.
Scott who had no real connection to humans, no hobby other than wandering around, who shows no empathy to anyone and has never seemed to have taken anything seriously.
Abolish was sure he had seen Scott almost sneak a few bites on humans a few times if not stopped by the fact he was being watched.
So. With no other suspects as blatantly obvious, he had to find Scott.
Which wasn’t hard given his routine of lounging all day at home until the sun came close to setting.
Abolish didn’t bother waiting for the elevator, rushing up the stairs and down the corridor until he reached the vampire’s door, taking his own copy of the key he had gotten a while ago to let himself in, no need for invitation.
What greeted him was the closed blinds of an almost pitched black room if it weren't for a singular small lamp turned on for mostly atmosphere it seemed.
“Abolish!” Shelby happily greeted him from where they and Drift were crouched at the coffee table of the small apartment, while Drift simply waved before getting back to rolling her dice for whatever game they played.
It took a bit longer for Abolish’s eyes to adjust to the darkness, slower than a fully turned vampire, to notice Scott lounging on the couch flipping aimlessly through the magazine, not bothering to look at Abolish until a few seconds later.
“Abolish~ It’s been a while since I’ve seen you stalking me,” His voice is all too sweet as he beckons Abolish over with a wave. “Miss me so much you just had to barge in?”
Irritating.
He did walk in, nodding in Shelby and Drift’s direction politely before striding to the couch towards Scott who seemed confused before Abolish whacked him in the head with the newspaper, causing both Shelby and Drift to jump in surprise.
“Care to explain?” He says his voice monotone as he looks down at Scott. “I go on a vacation for a week, a week of not supervising you and I come back to see two people have gone missing, and on top of that, the decapitated head of another person found in the storm drain, all nearby to where you frequent.”
The room is dead silent before he hears a sigh, more like a huff, as Scott’s piercing red eyes look up to him through his bangs. “And you think it’s me who is responsible?” He says shortly, no friendly banter or joyful tone that usually accompanies his words.
“Your eyes are redder than usual.”
“And so what if I have had a good meal? Can I not indulge myself? Am I banned from that too?” Scott whines as if offended, it’s almost scary how fast his tone can change from cold to playful, as he rolls onto his back to sit up, tossing the magazine over his shoulder, his other arm thrown over the couch. “I don’t appreciate getting blamed so easily, what honestly makes you think it’s my doing?”
“It seemed too convenient that as soon as I’m gone trouble seems to magically spawn around you.”
“But it couldn’t have been Scott! He’s been with us a lot more this week! I think we would have noticed if he even had a bit of human blood lingering on him!” Drift interjects already on Scott’s defence.
“Exactlyy~” The elder vampire looks smug, brushing the hair out of his face, giving Abolish a sly smile.
Irritating. Again.
That's the best word that he could possibly use to describe Scott as of late.
Still not fully convinced, Abolish decides to take his time to look around the house, specifically Scott’s room which is mostly clean, and as Drift had pointed out, no lingering smell as rich as that of human blood, at best he could maybe smell that of a cow’s around the house.
“I think we would have noticed if he had brought home a whole human to eat and dismember.” Shelby giggles from the other room before clearing her throat to shout a little louder. “And we wouldn't have let him do that anyways!”
Which he guesses she is right about. Clearly nothing here happened at the very least, not something that Shelby and Drift would seem so relaxed about, so begrudgingly, Abolish walks out of Scott’s room facing the elder vampire with only a small nod.
“Guess not.”
“Not even an apology? For barging in uninvited and rummaging through my place?” Scott laughs.
“For all that you have put me through, Scott, I think an apology is the least of your concerns.”
Scott only gives a non committal hum deciding to get up to stretch. “Fine, fine. If you say so.” He strides over barely brushing past Abolish to his own room, pausing at the doorway before turning around, hand holding on to the frame to look at Abolish. “Say, where are you heading after? I also plan to head out soon.”
“Nothing of your concern.” Abolish doesn’t bother to linger. “I’ll be leaving now, sorry for the interruption."
Scott seems unamused, receding to his room to presumably get changed, while Abolish walks out the door, but right as he starts closing it, does Drift seems to spontaneously shift into a bat, spooking Shelby, “Wait! Abolish!” she rushes after him and slips right through the fraction of the open door to transform back on the other side right beside him. “I- wanted to talk to you.”
He raises a brow at that, looking back to Shelby, they seem also confused.
“Just us two, if that's fine.” She adds on.
“... Sure.” He closes the front door, decidingly walking first as Drift follows, the stairwell and corridors echo even the quietest of sounds, so the two take their time walking to somewhere much more open to drown out their sounds, walking in silence down the stairs and through the lobby until they reach the entrance to the apartment complex.
“What was it?” He finally asks, looking to Drift to see her stand up straighter.
“You’re not getting off of Scott’s back are you?” She crosses her arms in an attempt to show her stubbornness or confidence. “It could have been another vampire, and what makes you even think it’s a vampire at all?”
Sighing, Abolish unrolls the newspaper, handing it to her. “Listen. I just got back from a week of not supervising him and this is what I see.” He points to the two separate paragraphs in the newspaper. “This, suddenly happening, while Scott is left unsupervised, all this from nearby here and where he visits, when he has already tried taking a few bites out of people. I don’t think I’m wrong for going to him first.”
“Taking a few bites?-” Drift mutters quietly, her eyes furrow as she skims over the text. “Kinda stupid confronting him if you did think it was him.” She mutters. “But this is all you know? Only what’s here? You can’t accuse him off of that!”
“No… It was stupid. Sure.” He admits he had rushed for answers a bit too soon. “I had tried rushing for evidence before he had a chance to get rid of it in case he had seen my return.”
“But he didn’t do it!” She interjects. “Me and Shelby were with him most of the time!”
“And how long was he left alone?”
“-Like, four to five hours? Every night when he walks alone? But me and Shelby were with him the rest of the time!”
Abolish gives a small hum, pulling out his notepad and clicking his pen trying to write down his thoughts.
“Oh don’t act like this is an interrogation!”
“Just writing down what I’ve gathered.” He clicks the pen again after a bit of scribbling. “I will go back to the organisation now, to try to gather information to see if this is somehow related to a vampire and try to contact authorities for more information on the case.”
Drift doesn’t seem that assured, but she has nothing else to argue about. “Alright… And, keep me updated, if you can? I could help!”
He nods, no words as he leaves, last thing he does see is Drift’s eyes glued to the newspaper.
---
The busy streets kept a constant sound in the background, noisy chatter, thumping of footsteps, and the sound of traffic as cars honked and drove past.
Personally, it was too loud for him.
He doesn’t think he could ever get used to it, the round the clock commotion of people rushing from place to place pushing and brushing past each other, the sheer volume of people within just a block, how now instead of houses sat large skyscrapers where people lived stacked above one another, only for overcrowding to be such an issue.
It was overwhelming to say the least.
Even now he crouched in an alleyway, picking bits off his sandwich and throwing it to the rats at his feet, not like he wasn’t hungry, he was starving in fact, it just didn’t taste the same when Owen didn’t make it, he half haphazardly had put it together that morning before his classes, with whatever meat they still had in the fridge.
On a better day Owen would have made it for him, wrapped it in tissue and aluminum instead of the lousy zip lock bag Pyro had put it in now.
It was sad to look at, and it tasted miserable.
But, Owen wasn’t feeling too great, and it was their fault honestly, they still felt bad about it, and they would go home soon now that their classes are over, they just… They just wanted time to be alone and think for a moment.
Preferably he would ask for a quiet place for things like this, but alas, that was too much to ask for in a busy city, so he settled for as deserted of an alley he could get, with rats at his feet.
Cute creatures, if only they didn’t bite, he would want to pet them, however these ones especially keep trying to bite off his fingers when he throws them a piece of his sandwich.
Taking a chunk of meat from his sandwich, he twirled it around in the air, watching as they circled around their heads following his hand, few trying to jump up to catch it. “Cute little fellas.” He can’t help but mutter as he throws the piece a few feet away to watch them all scramble for it. “You all must be starving!”
Letting out a laugh as he sees them all jump over one another for that little bit of food as he himself takes a bite out of the sad sandwich, hearing more squeaks and little taps as even more rats seem to run down the alleyway.
At this rate he is going to look like one of them here.
It took Pyro a bit longer to hear the quiet clicking of footsteps however, following the rats, it took them too long to notice until said footsteps stopped and all that was left were tiny squeaks that ran around his feet.
From the corner of his eye, he saw leather shoes, more like heels, in the dark alley illuminated by the faint blue light of that of a phone screen above.
Bracing himself for the weird look he would receive, Pyro looks up slowly, attempting to keep a stoic looking face that wouldn’t make him look like a psych ward patient escapee that spends his time talking to rats.
His shoulders tense however when he sees exactly who is looking at him.
Who is standing above him.
Those piercing red eyes that could take him apart piece by piece, deconstruct him and rebuild him anew and just a fraction of who he originally was.
It’s Scott.
Scott Goldsmith.
With a cold and shocked expression on his face as if Pyro had once again told him he had killed Avid. Gripping his phone with his pointed nails, staring straight at Pyro unblinking, unmoving, you would almost think he was a statue
Pyro gulps down whatever piece of the sandwich he had in his mouth choking on it, coughing to the side with great struggle as he reaches to take a sip from the can of beer he had on the ground that wasn’t part of the surrounding trash, trying his best to ignore how shaky his hands are as he takes down a large painful gulp.
“-Uh…” Pyro wants to run. Get up and book it out of there even if he knows he is slower than even the weakest of vampires. “-Can I help you?”
Great job at keeping his voice steady.
He sounds like a broken instrument trying to play a few notes.
To that, Scott blinks, and there is no other way to describe how he does so than just, off from human.
It takes too many long grueling seconds for Scott to finally speak, it takes that time for Pyro to realize he can probably hear their heart beating out of their chest, so they take a few seconds to try their best to breathe and relax.
“Feeding rats?” Is all Scott says.
It’s short, waiting for them to talk and incriminate themselves further, as Scott does.
“I… Do enjoy that, yes?” All they can think of is wanting to vomit. “Sorry- You shocked me a bit just staring at me!” They laugh nervously. “Has… Has anyone told you how uh- enigmatic your eyes are?”
God just kill them now.
Even that seems to have caught Scott off guard as he huffed a quiet laugh they can barely hear, crouching down to their level uncomfortably close to Pyro, eyes again, staring straight into their very soul.
“I have received more compliments than you can imagine in my lifetime.” Scott smiles showing two faintly concealed fangs, that smile never seems to reach those eyes as he rests his arm on his knee to hold his own chin by his hand, head turning slightly to the side. “Some… A little odder than others. Such as yours.”
“...Right.”
They try their very best to rack their brain for anything to continue the small talk, to keep Scott distracted. They don’t even know what the two of them are doing now even! Does Scott already know it’s them and is playing around to watch them stutter trying to come up with excuses? Because they doubt they managed to even come close to fooling him.
All they receive back from their brain is static and a whole lot of panicking.
So, despite the nausea, they decide to just… Eat another bite of the sandwich, right in Scott’s face with a loud crunch of the bread and salad as they try looking away to focus on rats.
To confuse the enemy you have to confuse yourself first. He guesses.
Scott only wrinkles his nose, in what Pyro can imagine as disgust.
“What are you eating?”
“A… sandwich?” His words are muffled due to his mouth being currently full while replying.
“Yeah I can tell that.” Scott remarks. “What’s in it?”
They honestly don’t remember, having picked whatever they first saw in the fridge.
“Ketchup?”
“What’s the meat?”
“... Pork.”
“Huh.”
A wave of nausea almost overcomes them but they swallow it down with another sip of beer. Scott has not backed off even a bit since spotting him, in fact, he had seemingly shifted closer to Pyro.
“Do you?” He coughs a bit like an idiot. “-always ignore peoples personal space? You are just… very close.”
That seemed to have gotten Scott out of whatever trance he was in, staring at Pyro as if deciding whether or not to drain him or tear him apart for fun. Blinking a few times, Scott finally leans back enough to extend his other hand to Pyro to shake. “Your name?”
What narcissist asks for someone's name before saying theirs?
Nervously letting his near empty can on the ground, Pyro extends his hand, sweaty with bread crumbs, to meet Scott’s who grasps his hand firmly, the tips of his nails ever so slightly digging into their skin.
“Jack. I’m- My name is Jack.”
He doesn’t miss the way the others hand moves past their palm to their wrist for a moment to feel at their pulse, looking back to Scott’s eyes they see him give a small closed mouth smile, which scares the living shit out of them, before his eyes finally meet Pyro’s, glinting red as he holds on even tighter to Pyro’s hand.
His hand is so cold contrasting to theirs.
“I’m Scott.”