Chapter Text
In the space between his ears and mind, Abolish can hear the glass crack.
Little spiderweb splinters into countless pieces, ready to shatter at good aim. If he really listens, he can hear the glass crunch beneath his feet. Instead, he storms over leaves and pebble, aimlessly walking through the woods. Wherever he ends up doesn’t matter to Abolish, as long as it isn’t Oakhurst.
Forsaken. Disregarded. Anything he says apparently doesn’t matter to Oakhurst, he doesn’t know why he still bothers.
In cruel humor, Abolish stumbles over a rock.
The glass stresses. Fissures and fractures breaking outward, like starbursts of lightning. The universe has a sick sense of humor.
On impulse, Abolish picks the rock up and hurls it at the nearest tree. It didn't help much, but it was something he could tire himself out on.
“You're far from town.”
Abolish isn't going to let Owen rile him up. He came so far out to be alone.
“I guess I am. What do you want?” Abolish squints to properly see Owen in a tree. He thinks the vampire has to be a bat, because there's no obvious, person-sized shadow up there.
“This is quite close to the castle. I could ask you the same,” Owen replied.
“I'm not out here to attack you guys, so it's none of your business.” It took Abolish a lot not to roll his eyes.
The small shape of a bat swooped down, landing into the shape of a tan, moonlit vampire with skin-stretched wings. Owen stood up, about six feet in front of the human.
Abolish clenched his fists. Stressing, the glass was stressing under so much pressure. Abolish didn’t want himself to shatter tonight- Maybe in the future, but not now. Not here.
“It’s quite dangerous for a human like you,” Owen tilted his head. “Wolves are travelling East this time of year. You don’t want wolves to maul you, or a vampire for that matter.”
“I haven’t seen a single wolf since we got here.” Abolish replied, “I’m sure I’ll be fine.”
“You’ve seen vampires though, haven’t you? Wouldn’t want one to turn you.”
“I’m sure you’d love that,” Abolish muttered through gritted teeth.
“Of course, I could just kill you as well. I don’t need to turn you.” Owen shrugged, cheerful. “I could make it as slow as I wanted and hang your corpse in Oakhurst as a warning.”
Abolish, as tense as he felt, was also very, very fed up at that moment. Perhaps that’s why he, in a stroke of bad luck, had accidentally rewrote his fate via sarcasm.
“If you’re going to daydream about your fangs in my neck, you might as well just do it,” Abolish grunted.
Owen had paused, cocking an eyebrow. “Do you really mean that?”
He shrugged, a non-verbal answer.
Abolish doesn’t remember much after that. Owen might’ve knocked him out, because when he woke up, he was inside somewhere dark with a soreness in his neck and a surprisingly warm body against his.
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“Has anybody seen Abolish? He's not in town.”
Drift looks up from her current task. She's hauling water to her old bathtub, because while the water can get warm it's not filling itself.
“Uhh. Not since last night,” she replies.
“Aye, methinks the same.” Renhart apologetically shrugged.
Legundo sighed, scratching the back of his head. “I was going to ask him about the cure, but I haven't seen him all morning. He has to have told somebody about where he's gone.”
“He's probably out mining. He'll be back by noon.” Cleo called across Oakhurst from her farm.
If Drift thought about it, she really hadn't seen Abolish since the night before. Which was out of character, because the man was always there, one way or another.
“I'm sure he'll pop up, Doc.” Drift said with a smile, “He’s probably just mining.”
“I checked the mine though. He's not down there.”
“Oh. Maybe he's in a mine in the woods?” Drift asked.
“He could be. I haven't seen him since last night. With the vampires all worked up..” The doctor sighed. “Maybe I'm being paranoid.”
“What's up?” Martyn poked his head around the beacontower.
“Legs is worried Abolish is missing,” Drift explained, setting down her buckets of water.
“Oh, I saw him last night. He was leaving the town- said he'd be back by midnight,” Martyn said. “Why, has nobody seen him all morning?”
“Nobody has. You are the last person to have seen Abolish, Martyn.” Legundo sighed.
“I can ask the others if they've seen him yet. I'll be right back.” Martyn turned, running around the tower to find other people in town.
“Have you checked his house? Maybe there's some clues in there.” Drift put a comforting hand on Legundo’s shoulder. He attempted to give her a reassuring smile.
“I did. His bed looked unslept in.”
Abolish surely came home. Drift hadn't thought any vampires were aggressive enough to attack and leave dead any random humans in the middle of the woods.
“I'm sure it's fine. He's fine,” Drift said again, moreso to herself.
“Nobody's seen Abolish today. Not since last night. I don't think he came back,” Martyn called, returning back to the two.
That’s worrying. Drift knows how fit Abolish is to survive on his own, but most of the vampires are as pale as ghosts. As far as she knows, that means they’re really strong. And don’t vampires like going around in packs? Abolish versus a pack of white vampires doesn’t seem like a positive outcome for the human.
“Let’s call a meeting. We should discuss this as a group,” Drift nudged the doctor towards the beacontower. Martyn volunteered to gather everyone inside.
A meeting hadn’t made much progress on his whereabouts. Ren had said he’d seen Abolish leave in the night, but the man had said he’d be back within an hour or two.
“So Abolish had been missing all night and a good chunk of the morning, and nobody noticed?” Legundo asked, incredulous. “How does an entire village of not even ten people not notice that?!”
“It’s not like he’s a large presence!” M argued. “He’s so quiet and broody, it’s like you’d never see him coming!”
“I would never consider Abolish as broody, but alright.” Pearl chuckled under her breath.
“So we send out some search parties. I’m sure it’s not that much to worry about; Abolish is responsible.” Cleo held out her hands in a hapless gesture.
“I get that, Cleo, but at the same time, he’s been missing for hours on end!” Legs exclaimed. “The fact nobody noticed is what’s the problem.”
“Well then, let’s organize ourselves to search for the lad.” Ren shuffled out the beacontower door, voice fading off, followed by many. “I am sure he be out there, don’t’cha know..”
Avid, who was uncharacteristically silent the entire time, darted through the other door. Drift caught him outside before he got too far.
“Drift, let me go! I could ask Shelby about it!” He whispered urgently.
“You can’t go off on your own!” Drift replied, quiet and worried. “If Abolish was ambushed by the vampires, going alone could make you a target too!”
“Then you can come with me!” Avid’s other hand went to Drift’s wrist. “Drift, Shelby isn’t dangerous. She’d tell us the truth, and we’d get an answer on Abolish.”
Drift’s shoulders sagged. She sighed. “Fine, but let’s be quick about this.”
The other perked, dragging the girl out as they bolted for the mansion.