Chapter Text
"I say we just kill them!" Edgar yelled, pointing his spear at Star and Laddie. "LADDIE RUN!" Star shrieked, pushing Laddie into the bathroom as Edgar and Alan charged. The door slammed behind them and Star heard the brothers scream as they faced whoever had shut the door.
"You're dead!" An angry voice announced to the amateur hunters, and Star recognized Paul's voice. "PAUL!" Laddie screamed, trying to get past Star and to his older brother. Star held him back, eventually resigning to picking the little boy up and hurrying into the conjoining bedroom to hide him under the bed. She cowered in the corner herself, watching as Paul cornered the Frogs in the bathroom.
"You staked Marko!" He yelled, accusatory finger pointed at Edgar. "Yeah, I did, and I'd do it again!" The brunet yelled back angrily, despite his brother's desperate attempts to get him to stop talking. "You're gonna pay for that!" Edgar held up a necklace of garlic and Paul laughed, genuinely amused. "Garlic don't work, boys!" "But holy water does!" The other brother, Alan, shot a small water-gun at Paul's face, and Paul howled in pain as he covered the burning flesh with shaking hands. But the blond recovered quickly, standing to tower over the brothers once again.
"PAUL LOOK OUT!" Star tried to warn Paul as Sam's dog, Nanook, bounded into the bathroom. The dog jumped up on Paul's chest, catching Paul off guard, and heavy front paws sent the vampire into the bath of holy water behind him.
"PAUL!" Laddie screamed, darting out from under the bed before Star could stop him.
Star jumped up to follow him, flashing her vampiric face at the brothers when they went to grab Laddie. The cowards shrieked, and left the bathroom in a hurry.
Laddie was desperately trying to pull a screaming Paul out of the tub, but wasn't strong enough. Star rushed to help, and together they got the wounded vampire out of the burning water. Paul lay on the ground in tears as his skin sizzled, unable to move his completely burned body. Star wanted to comfort him, but touch only brought the boy more pain. "Laddie, stay with Paul okay? Can you do that?" Laddie nodded, and Star rushed out of the bathroom to hunt down the little fucks that had tried to melt Paul to death.
She found them quickly, and frankly, she would have killed them if it wouldn't guarantee making her a full vampire. She settled instead on hog-tying them with their own rope and throwing them in Michael's closet, barricading the door to get them out of the way and ensure they wouldn't be able to weasel back into the fray. Satisfied, she ran back to Laddie and Paul's sides.
Downstairs, Dwayne had ended up in a one-on-one against Michael's kid brother, Sam.
"You're a murderer!" Sam was shrieking, holding a water-gun in front of his chest, trained on Dwayne's face. Dwayne snarled. "You're the ones who tried to kill our brother while we were sleeping!" Sam's glare faltered. "I told them not to!"
Dwayne's posture was still defensive, but less angry. He stopped circling Sam as a gesture for Sam to continue talking. "Really... i-it wasn't right. I told them not to do it. I don't believe in murder of any kind. Not even murdering vampires." "So what the hell do you need those weapons for?" Dwayne hissed, stepping forward.
Sam panicked and pulled the trigger, Dwayne yelping as the burning water ate at his face. He wiped it off quickly before lunging at Sam with an angry roar. Sam screamed, and dove for the bow and arrows off to the side. He loaded the weapon and shot blindly, shocked when Dwayne dropped to the ground.
Did he really hit him?
But his question was answered when Dwayne suddenly shot up. "You missed, sucka." He dove at Sam and Sam shot again, and this time, he didn't miss.
The arrow pierced Dwayne's shoulder and the close range shot had enough force to send Dwayne flying back upon impact. The arrow, still lodged in Dwayne's shoulder, pierced the stereo next, sending a violent electric shock through the brunet vampire. Sam's eyes were wide as sparks flew, eventually dying down and leaving Dwayne's limp body to drop to the ground.
It was silent.
Sam approached Dwayne's body with caution, and noticed with mixed feelings that the boy's chest was still rising and falling. He should finish the bloodsucker off now, while he was down. Sam knew this. But he couldn't. Sam wasn't a murderer. So, with the comfort of knowing the vampire wouldn't be getting back up anytime soon, Sam turned his back to him.
Michael was stood in the middle of the living room, looking around wildly. "Leave, Sammy." "What? But Mike!" "Now."
Without much other choice, Sam left the room.
Confident he was alone with Michael, David stopped fucking with his head and stepped out from the shadows.
Michael faced him, shoulders squared, but his bravado faded when he noticed David’s expression. He looked angry, a look Michael had never seen on the blond before. He'd seen David irritated, sure, but always with an air of smugness. Whenever someone pissed him off, David never got angry because he knew he could exact the perfect revenge. David just didn't get angry.
Michael couldn't help but shrink in the presence of David‘s anger.
"You let them into our home, Michael." "I didn't think they would find you," Michael protested weakly. "And even if I had known that they had, I wasn't strong enough to have stopped them. I'm sorry, David." "Sorry doesn't cut it, Michael," David hissed. "Marko could have died! We're lucky those amateur little shits didn't have good enough aim to hit Marko's heart or we'd have been cleaning his remains off the floor."
"He's not dead?" Michael's shoulders sunk in relief.
"Don't look so relieved; you're not getting off that easy." David lunged at Michael, swiping his claws across the brunet's face. "My blood is in your veins, Michael, why do you keep resisting?" He landed a clean right hook to Michael's jaw. "We made you one of our own and you betrayed us!"
"I didn't ask to be one of you!" Michael yelled back, throwing a punch that David ducked. "Why can't you feel it, Michael? You were made to be one of us, you were made to be with me!" Michael roared, kicking David's feet out from under him, which he soon realized didn't work out so well as he forgot David could fly.
David grabbed his collar and lifted them up into the air, and soon their heads were at the ceiling. "You felt something, Michael, because you wouldn't have gone along with everything I did if you hadn't."
He watched, slightly impressed as Michael's face shifted into his vampiric form, fangs glinting in the moonlight as he snarled. Soon he was floating without David holding him up.
"You tried to make me a killer!" "I tried to make you immortal, Michael, and let's not forget you jumped off a bridge for me." Michael flew forward, shoving David backwards and towards the antlers mounted on the wall behind them. He missed, and David slammed safely into smooth wall. "My turn," he snarled, and roughly shoved Michael backwards, towards the antlers on Grandpa's workbench on the other side of the room. David's aim was much more precise than Michael's, and if Michael didn't act fast, he was about to be impaled.
At the last minute, he was able to flip their positions, and shoved David down onto the antlers protruding from Grandpa's latest creation. David cried out in pain as he was impaled, grabbing onto the antlers as he screamed. Michael immediately let go of him, jumping back.
"David?!" He came back from the blind rage he had been in, and looked at his dirty work in horror. David moved sluggishly for a few moments in vain, before eventually his head fell back and his body went completely limp. Michael covered his mouth, tears welling in his eyes. "D-David?"
"Michael!" Star cried, running in to see the damage. She let out a choked cry upon the sight of David. "Oh my god..."
"Michael!" Sam screamed, and Michael, still in vampiric form, pulled Star in front of him. "Don't let him see me like this," he rasped. "Michael?" Sam entered the room. "Holy shit," he stuttered nervously upon seeing David's body. "Go away, Sam." "Mike, what's wrong?" "GO AWAY!"
Sam opened his mouth to argue when the sound of the front door opening caught everyone's attention.
Lucy had rushed home even faster than she had the night Sam had panicked over the phone. She didn't even get a phone call this time, she just had a feeling. She rushed in the front door, Max on her heels as she had abruptly paused their date to run home and check on her kids. "Oh my god!" Lucy's voice was terrified as she was met with immediate carnage. "MICHAEL! SAM!" Sam ran to his mother's side.
Lucy was fearful, coming home to check on her boys only to find pure chaos and carnage within her own house, and with no signs of her sons. Max was unusually calm as he followed behind her, but Lucy was too panicked to really think about that strange fact. Sam ran to her side and she was immediately flooded with relief as she began bombarding her youngest son with questions.
Michael and Star hid in the shadows as unknown footsteps approached the workshop they stood in. They watched Max walk swiftly into the room, stopping at the sight of David's body. He approached the boy as Star and Michael watched silently from their hiding spot, but when Max reached for David's face, Michael jumped out from the shadows. "DON'T YOU TOUCH HIM!" Max turned to the fledging, unamused with his outburst, but instead of retaliation, he withdrew his hand from David's face and walked out of the room.
"I'm sorry, Lucy," Max announced sweetly, and the chaotic yelling of Sam and his mother quieted. "It seems my boys misbehaved. I told you, boys need a mother." "Max, what are you talking about?" Lucy asked, an arm around Sam, relief flooding her veins when Michael followed Max at a distance. "It was supposed to be so simple... but David has a problem doing what he's told. So perfect. Your boys. My boys. One happy family."
"Like what, the blood-sucking Brady Bunch?!" Sam shrieked, pushing his mother behind him. "A-and, you passed the test! How are you a vampire?!" "A vampire?" Lucy gasped.
"Never invite a vampire into your home, silly boy. It renders you powerless!" "Max...?" Lucy's voice wavered.
"Well I didn't invite ya this time, Max," Michael hissed from behind. Lucy cried out in horror at seeing her son's twisted features. Max turned as Michael flung himself at the older vampire, but Max bitch-slapped him into unconsciousness as Lucy, Sam, and Star screamed.
Max grabbed Sam by the arm and pulled him into a headlock before offering his hand to Lucy. Tears began to flow down the woman's cheeks as she took in the horrific face of the monster that now stood before her, the monster she had called her boyfriend and now held her son hostage.
"But all these plans going wrong doesn't change the fact that I still want you, Lucy."
"DON'T DO IT MOM!" Sam yelled, then let out a strangled cry as Max tightened his chokehold. But with no other choice, Lucy took his hand. Max threw Sam to the ground, pulling Lucy towards him and lowering his head, bringing his fangs to her neck. Right before he bit down, a horn sounded a loud tune, and everyone froze, looking towards the direction of the sound in confusion.
Before anyone knew what was happening, Grandpa Emerson's truck was driving through the fucking wall, shooting a wooden stake straight into Max's heart. Everyone ducked for cover as rubble and stakes went flying, and finally, everyone covered their ears as an explosion rocked the house.
When they all looked up, Max was nothing but a pile of dust.
Grandpa clambered down from his vehicle, ignoring everyone and stepping over an unconscious Dwayne to get to the kitchen.
Lucy hugged her sons with teary eyes, a watery smile on her face as the worst of their nightmare ended, but she soon realized that Michael was not hugging her back. "Michael?" She pulled back, but didn't let go of either boy. "What's wrong, honey?" Michael was looking at Dwayne's body, his expression haunted.
"They were my friends."
Lucy finally took notice of the boy on the floor, covering her mouth in concern. She recognized him as the one of the boys who had circled her on their bikes that one night out front of Max's store.
"Star? I feel different." A small voice came from the top of the stairs. "Laddie," Star cried, opening her arms. Laddie rushed into them, tears in his eyes. "Me too. It's over Laddie, it's finally over." She turned to Michael, expecting his agreement. Michael looked solemn as he shook his head.
"I don't."
"Then it must have really been David's blood he gave you that night," she surmised.
“David!” Michael remembered the blond he had left impaled in the other room, and ran to him. Laddie ran back upstairs to Paul and Star kneeled down to check on Dwayne, while Lucy and Sam stood in the middle of the living room, still shellshocked.
In the workshop, Michael got to work gently lifting David from off of the horns, the sound of them leaving his flesh sickening. Michael sunk to the ground once David was free, cradling the blond protectively. “David, David wake up, please, wake up, I’m sorry...” Michael’s heartache was so palpable Lucy could feel it from the other room.
She followed her oldest son to find him bent over a blond boy that she also recognized, sobbing quietly. Sam appeared behind her, glancing at Michael before looking away, feeling as though he was violating something private just by looking.
“How many more are there?” Lucy asked Sam quietly, and they turned to exit the room. “Two.” Lucy followed Sam out of the workshop and into the main room where Star was knelt over Dwayne. “Mom, this is Star. And... and I don’t know who that is.” “Dwayne,” Star answered quietly, retrieving a dirtied pillow cushion from the destroyed couch to slide underneath Dwayne's head.
“And the other?” Lucy asked. Star looked up at the woman with tears in her eyes and Lucy felt her motherly instincts kick in. “Paul is upstairs with Laddie.” Her voice soured. “And your friends are tied up in Michael’s closet.” She directed the last part to Sam, who turned on his heel and bounded up the stairs to free his partners.
Lucy followed him, but to find Paul. When she did, her heart broke. The boy laying on the floor had long blond hair, but his other features were basically indiscernible, too far burned to have characteristics. Though she's sure that were he not covered in burns, she would recognize him as well.
When he saw her, he croaked out a wish. “Take Laddie away, please. I don’t want him seeing me like this any longer.”
Lucy Emerson had a big heart, and natural maternal instincts. It was what had drawn Max to her in the first place. So with three dying boys, a lost girl and child, and four traumatized humans, two of which were her sons, she knew what she had to do. Then and there, in her sons' bloody bathroom, she made a decision.