Chapter Text
Everything was… blurry. Not just for the tears in his eyes, but the whole world felt muffled and out of focus, out of reach, as he walked through the woods in a numb, shell-shocked state.
He wasn’t thinking about where he was going. He had no idea where he was. He just kept walking, because what else could Avid do?
They had betrayed him. And he felt so god damn stupid for believing in them. For thinking that he was safe with those two. What the hell was he thinking? That Owen and Pyro had just… accepted it? That they would forgive and forget? All the things he had said, everything that he had done, and all of their own threats and promises of torment?
He didn’t remember leaving that place.
The path his legs walked on their own felt familiar. Jarringly familiar enough to drag him back to the here and now, and suddenly realise that the trees felt different. Great, towering pines shrouded in a persisting mist, just like the ones around Oakhurst, yet different. Older? More… familiar. Trees he had spent years, not months, under the shade of. Trees he knew from childhood.
Avid rubbed his eyes as the shape of a small hut came into view, still trying to drag his thoughts away from what happened. He was home. Somehow, he had made it back, and would have to do the one thing he had been dreading this entire time.
She was in there. Waiting. Exactly where he left her, after… after he. Did what he had to do.
He had to do it. Right? Even if it wasn’t exactly what he thought, it was still the only option. And he’s learnt so much since.
‘I don’t remember leaving’
He grabbed the door handle, and braced himself for what was waiting. Tried not to think about what she would look like after lying there for months. Failed to not think about what happens to dead things that are left to rot in abandoned shacks in the middle of the woods that no one visits. He can’t turn back now, he has to be strong. He has to be brave for her. He has to do the right thing.
Swinging the door wide open, he reflexively turned his head away; but he couldn’t stop the smell from coming.
It was… clean? The distinct scent of oil, leather, and metal permeated the air. A faint hint of smoke from the fireplace. The myriad of herbs and spices and all manner of alchemic ingredients, salts and bone dust and vials of blood samples; everything that should be here, except decay.
Slowly, he looked up, enhanced eyes already adjusted to the dimness of inside. There was a figure, standing over the workbench, torso wrapped in bandages. Startled by the sound of the front door opening, they scrambled for a nearby knife, and turned around.
“Avid!?”
He couldn’t believe it. She was alive!? How was she-
Elle stared back at him with the same shock and disbelief, tears welling in her eyes as her face broke into a grin of absolute relief and joy, dropping her weapon and rushing forward to embrace him. “You’re alive!?” they both said in unison.
She squeezed him tightly, Avid too numb to hug back. His brain catching up, looking at her closely, he couldn’t help but suddenly recoil; she was different. Her skin was marbled with patches and streaks of colourless black, completely covering one arm, her hand ending in pointed claws. Half of her face was coated in it, and twisted by it- her eye had been turned a bright yellow, with a serpents’ pupil, and a sharp bony horn jutted up from her brow.
Taken aback by his sudden reaction, Elle looked him over in turn and tilted her head to the side. He looked down at himself; his own deathly pale skin, sharpened nails, the gothic attire which wasn’t his own, ashen hair and bloodshot eyes; of course. How could he forget? How could he be so hypocritical?
“I- I’m sorry” he croaked.
“No! No, Avid, it’s okay,” Elle reassured. “I’m… still getting used to it too.”
“No, I mean… I failed. I couldn’t-” he gestured at himself. “I’m… one of them, now. For real. I couldn’t resist it, I couldn’t escape it. And now. I- I don’t know.”
She took his hand, flinching slightly at the coldness, interlocking her own clawed fingers with his. “We’ve both been changed. And I don’t blame you.”
He looked up, confused. “You don’t hate me?”
“It’s okay, Avid,” she said. “We’re both alive, and that’s what matters. We can fix this, we can keep going.”
“Fix this?” he asked, thinking of the cure they had already found in Oakhurst- it wouldn’t be as simple as that.
“Yes!” Elle exclaimed. “Just think about how much more we can do with our research now, with your blood, and mine! Making our own cure, creating our own tonics and potions, it’s never been easier!”
Relief gave way to doubt. No, this isn’t how it would go; this is too easy, too nice. “You… you just want to go back to the way things were? Even with us both how we are?”
“Of course! Why wouldn’t we?”
“Just… pretend that nothing happened?”
She furrowed her brow, unsure of why Avid wasn’t as excited as she was. “We’re both alive, though. And whatever happened is in the past. We can move on.”
Avid stepped back, looking outside, at the trees that were so familiar, so much like the pines in Oakhurst. So, so similar. He felt dizzy, and the fog grew thicker. He didn’t remember leaving.
“This doesn’t feel right,” he muttered.
“What do you mean?”
“No, you- you died, I killed you; I had to! I don’t know what you became, it wasn’t a vampire, but I killed you!”
She reached out to him, but he pulled back out of her grasp. “Yes, but… Avid, it’s okay. I got… better. I became this! Something new, something stronger!”
“No, you- she wouldn’t say that. She wouldn’t want to become a monster like this, like I have.”
“We knew the risks! I was ready for whatever would come our way!”
“But you wouldn’t celebrate it!” he shouted.
She recoiled, face turning to a cold, stern scowl. “What are you saying, Avid?”
He can’t remember leaving that pit. The dark fog crept in closer, and closer, rising slowly.
“This isn’t real.”
And everything was swallowed by shadow.