Chapter Text
Of all the varieties of hell Cleo had lived through in her extended lifespan, this was something truly miserable.
She couldn’t bring herself to think it over— couldn’t stomach the truth behind it. And it went on like that until she couldn’t stomach blood, either.
They weren’t incapable— the drive and the capability were very much still there. But it was as if their body had simply chosen to work against them— a coordinated assault from all angles, leaving only a pathetic excuse for an immortal in its wake.
* * *
A knock pierced the darkness, echoing through the dark oak walls. Quiet, careful footsteps rushed towards the point of origin, followed by the sound of rusted hinges creaking open.
Each noise felt like a hammer being pounded relentlessly into Cleo’s head— inch by inch with every shuffle of feet, creak of the wood, and gust of wind.
Pearl had been doing all she could to help, but there truly wasn't much to be done. The lanterns in the house were snuffed out, the windows were sealed shut, and Cleo was curled up in bed with Pearl sitting at the foot of it. That was as good as good could be in this situation.
But that didn’t mean it was any sort of fun.
Cleo had been lingering dangerously close to demanding Pearl stop breathing for over an hour just because of how grating the sound was in their current state. But that train of thought was rudely derailed as their roommate stood to answer the door, adding the loud drum of her footsteps to the cacophony of suffering.
Cleo winced, groaned, and then dragged the covers further over her head.
“Hello, Legs,” Pearl greeted with a hushed voice (but not nearly hushed enough to evade the ears of a vampire). “Thanks for coming.”
“Of course.” The doctor replied, matching her volume without question. “But I fear I am lacking the expertise needed for this situation.”
“Well, you’re still a doctor, aren’t ya?”
Legundo let out a soft chuckle. “Yes, I suppose.”
The two fell silent, but their footsteps were quite the opposite. Pearl was light on her feet, and that in and of itself added swing to the hammer. But Legundo was far heavier, and stepped with more fervor than any man his age should’ve. Cleo had to hold back the urge to yell at them both out as they approached and brought their horrid footsteps with them.
The noise did finally pause, for a moment. A weight returned to Pearl’s spot on the bed, while the other presence stood by the head of it. A reassuring hand moved to rest on Cleo’s thigh, followed by the sickening crack of old bones shifting position. It made them want to vomit, despite how many times they had heard it before while traveling with the doctor.
“Hey, Cleo. Pearl told me you aren’t feeling very well,” Legundo’s voice came from much lower than it should have. He must’ve crouched to better meet Cleo’s reclined level.
“The way she described it sounds like a fever– migraine, fatigue, and the like.” He continued. “I wouldn’t typically be worried, but I wasn’t aware vampires could really… get sick.”
It wasn’t a secret that the doctor’s vast knowledge was limited. He, of all people, struggled heavily when the supernatural came into play. Cleo couldn’t fault him for that– especially when he stuck around and tried to help anyway. They just didn’t have the heart to express just how futile the effort was.
“...They can’t.” Cleo croaked out, wincing at the sound of her own voice.
She sounded rough.
Evidently, she didn’t sound that loud, either, as Legundo took to peeling back the blanket covering Cleo’s face.
They didn’t resist as much as they wanted to– not for a lack of trying, mind you. But their limbs were as good as gelatin, their will at the moment far more flimsy than that.
The comforting hand rubbed soothing circles where it sat as Cleo adjusted to the cruel, overstimulating world outside of her protective barrier. Her eyes managed to open to a glaring squint, aimed at the one who dared disturb any semblance of peace she could get in this state— which appeared to be a very apologetic blob of white and tan.
“I’m sorry– is it still too bright?” Legundo asked.
“I can see in the dark,” Cleo grumbled. “There is no escape from it.”
The doctor chuckled again, but it sounded far more nervous than amused.
“Sorry.”
“Do you have any ideas on how to help?” Pearl finally cut in.
Compared to the doctor, her voice was like silk.
“Not exactly,” Legundo glanced over at her. “Were it a regular fever, I’d have a number of remedies to offer. But if this isn’t really a sickness, I doubt anything would work.”
Pearl let out a dissatisfied ‘Hmf’, quickly followed by, “Well, you’re the smart one, here— use that brain of yours to find something that will!”
Her inflection wasn’t as much demanding as it was frustrated– and thankfully, the doctor didn’t appear to hold it against her. The request did, however, prompt the man to turn back to Cleo and sheepishly ask,
“Do you need any blood?”
Cleo audibly groaned at the thought.
“She can’t keep it down.” Pearl oh-so helpfully translated.
It was difficult to make out the doctor’s features, but the concern seeping into his voice was obvious.
“Is that… normal?” He asked, carefully.
“Take a guess.” Cleo snipped.
Legundo held his hands up in surrender.
“That came out wrong. I know it isn’t normal, per se, but is there a precedent for this kind of thing at all?”
Cleo’s nose scrunched in indignation as she recalled the only circumstance she had ever witnessed.
“Not unless you are a newborn vampire and your sire’s an actual dick.”
The event was all but lost to their memory—- a fog of that fell over what was far in the past. But Cleo could never truly lose the feeling that came along with what they had seen…. it wasn’t pretty, not in the slightest.
“You’ve got one box checked,” Pearl muttered only for her own amusement.
“How do those two correlate?” Legundo asked. “If being a newly turned vampire is anything like human infancy, then I might understand where these symptoms are coming from. But what does a sire have to do with it?”
Cleo huffed out a sigh.
She really didn’t want to be the one to explain everything again after the mess that was the day prior, but she knew the doctor was only trying to help. And he couldn’t do that with nothing to work with.
Then again, the thought of speaking in long, coherent sentences seemed not only unattainable, but also sounded like misery incarnate. Still, Cleo had to offer something.
Slowly, and with great struggle, Cleo pushed herself up onto her elbows to better face Legundo. Pearl scooted a bit further into the bed, reaching out to assist if needed.
“Fledglings need to be around their sires for, erm.. for when they’re first turned.” Cleo began, trying her best to keep her voice steady. “They need time for their abel-… abilities to set in, and uh, to get used to their new senses. Being near their sire makes them… uhm— tells their instincts that they are safe, so that can happen without interruption.”
That was, in fact, the bare minimum of a sire’s responsibilities– but that was neither here nor there.
“If you take— er, remove the sire, or if the sire removes themselves, the fledgling is stuck like… well, this, until they can unlearn what the… uh, their instincts are telling them to do.” She continued. “It doesn’t make the most functional of vampires, and that is if the fledgling survives at all.”
It was the sad truth of things. Survival of the fittest wasn’t exactly a myth in the vampiric species. The strong survived and the weak, regardless of how they had become so, were killed.
Tension laced the air as silence fell over the room. Cleo would’ve appreciated the quiet had they not been able to hear the lungs of both humans around her expanding and contracting.
“...So you’re…” Pearl spoke up, her voice faint and almost wobbly. “...You’re dying?”
Cleo blinked at her roommate.
“Did you actually listen to anything I just said?”
“You said that vampires who have this,” Pearl motioned to Cleo as a whole. “happening are bound to die!”
The rise in volume was another strike to the head. Cleo squeezed their eyes shut to try and ease the pain, but it didn’t do much of anything.
“Only if you are a literal infant!” They shot back through gritted teeth. “I wasn’t born today!”
A pause.
“Agh! Not born– I wasn't turned–” Cleo cut herself off, taking a breath. “You know what? I don’t have the energy for this.”
They flopped onto their back, pulling the blanket back over their head.
A giggle floated in from Pearl’s direction. A menace, that one.
“I don’t mean to add salt to a fresh wound, but I do think Pearl is thinking in the right direction.” Legundo joined back in. “If you aren’t a newly turned vampire, then why are you experiencing these symptoms? And assuming you mostly hid in town after you were turned, why haven’t we seen you with these symptoms before?”
Cleo snorted a laugh, throwing the blanket back down and turning her head towards Legundo.
“My sire is a fledgling. Shit gets weird when that happens.”
Understatement of the century.
The entire vampire population of Oakhurst truly was unique in that regard. Fledgings didn’t turn fledglings because their sires were competent enough not to let them. There were rules, order, and established normality.
But these weren't exactly typical circumstances.
Everything was contained within a small territory that the vampires had to share, along with a non-reproducing food source that was bound and determined to kill them or be killed trying. It was a recipe for disaster, and whatever deity looked over the lands had cooked it to perfection.
It was only luck that Scott had caught enough instinctual strays that he was forced to course correct. Not much was corrected, but it was a start. At least all of the fledglings had an actual sire–....
“...Oh.”
“Oh? What does ‘oh’ mean?” Pearl asked. “You don’t sound too happy.”
Cleo turned her gaze to the ceiling, blinking hard a few times. Without looking, they swatted at the other side of the bed until their hand grasped a plushy mass.
“Pearl,” Cleo offered the pillow to her. “Would you kindly hold this over my face until I stop moving?”
“Ooookay, that went from zero to ten very quickly,” The doctor cut in before Pearl had the chance to reply. “What did you realize just then?”
Cleo puffed out a sigh, rolling onto her side to face Legundo. “My sire was changed.”
“You can do that??” Pearl squawked.
“When did it happen??” Legundo asked, with equal curiosity and far less dramatics.
“That thing me and Apo went off to yesterday? It changed things around a bit.”
Cleo had preferred to pretend it didn’t happen, but suddenly there were consequences afoot.
Of course nothing could be that simple when it came to vampires. How could she be so naive as to think otherwise?
The doctor took a moment to absorb, nodding along to his own thought process.
“Okay… and what does that mean for this situation?”
Cleo couldn’t help but grimace. It truly was the worst of solutions.
“It means… I need to go to the castle.”
Pearl and the doctor traded a glance.
“Is that… safe? While you’re like this?” Legundo asked.
“Unfortunately so.” Cleo replied, dryly.
“And you think they’ll be able to fix you?” Pearl asked.
“I’m almost certain.”
Neither of them seemed content with those answers. But despite whatever doubts they were harboring, both Pearl and Legundo offered a smile.
“Alright, then.” Their roommate clambered over Cleo’s legs and hopped off the bed. “Let’s get you to the castle, then.”
Cleo couldn't help the way her unbeating heart sank. “I don’t…”
They pushed themselves back onto their elbows, attempting to sit up. The doctor, ever-helpful, swooped in to assist until Cleo’s legs were dangling off the bed. It was easy to tell he had assisted many patients like this before.
“Come on, up and at ‘em!” Pearl snagged Cleo’s hands and began to tug the vampire upright.
Cleo resisted, “Hold on, you can’t–”
But their weakened body gave in all too easily. Feet hit the wooden floor, gelatin limbs swaying without control. Cleo barely had a moment upright before they were tumbling into Pearl’s chest.
Their roommate only barked out a joyous laugh, wrapping her arms around Cleo to keep them steady. “See? There we are,”
Cleo didn’t typically shy away from Pearl’s touch. It was always warm, welcomed, and all encompassing– especially with the loss of body heat that came with immorality.
But this was different. Too close, too suffocating– what felt to be an inescapable grasp trapping Cleo against the unrelenting pump of blood that echoed out from Pearl’s chest. What was usually a gentle reminder of life became an earthquake that shook the very fibre of Cleo’s being, her own heart pounding in tandem for a vastly different reason.
In a moment of panic, Cleo shoved at Pearl with all of her weakened might. It was somehow enough to dislodge herself from the taller woman and stumble backwards, although the action was anything but graceful.
Both Pearl and the doctor were taken by surprise before they rushed to help, but Cleo swatted their hands away. She plopped back onto the bed rather roughly, wincing as she landed. It practically knocked the non-existent air out of their useless lungs. But that didn’t stop them from gritting out,
“You–You’re nah–not coming with me.”
Both human parties stilled. Legundo dutifully read the room and took a step back from the conversation. Meanwhile, Pearl’s expression slowly fell as the words absorbed.
“...What?” The soft, accented voice that Cleo had come to adore was drowning in conflict– objection. “Why not?”
Cleo was almost glad that their vision wasn’t at proper functionality. They could only imagine the look on Pearl’s face to accompany such a tone. It would’ve made things more difficult, they were certain. But she had to understand…
“It’s vampire stuff,” Cleo had to forcefully push the air out of her lungs to form the words. “an–and it’s weird. I don’t wah–nt you there.”
An involuntary gasp tore its way from Cleo’s throat, forcing air back into her lungs. Her eyes squeezed shut with the same force her hands gripped the edge of the bed. The world was falling out from beneath her– it had to be. And there was nothing Cleo could do but tuck her head against her chest and pray for it to stop.
A huff of air came from Pearl’s direction, followed by tip-toed footsteps towards the bed. A weight settled beside Cleo, the scent of their roommate filling her senses as a shoulder pressed against their own.
“...You know,” The gentle hand returned, curling itself on top of Cleo’s white-knuckled grip. “I won’t judge ya.”
Of everyone in Oakhurst, Peal was the only person Cleo could never accuse of such a thing. She had jumped onto the vampire band-wagon from the very beginning– from the moment Cleo was turned. There were no demands, no scrutiny, only acceptance. And there was absolutely nothing that could ever convince Cleo that something so integral to Pearl’s character had suddenly changed.
“...I know.” Cleo took a deep breath. “I just–...I don’t like it, Pearl.”
Vampirism has been a part of Cleo’s life in one way or another for as long as she could remember. It was impossible to say she truly hated it— it would be the equivalent of hating herself and all she had become because of it.
But… actually being a vampire was different. More visceral, more tangible— more real. It brought all of the ugly up to the surface and presented it for everyone to see.
It was their normal– what they had grown up with– yes, but it wasn’t them.
And now it was.
“...I don’t want you to have to see it.” Cleo whispered. “...Please?”
Pearl sucked in a harsh breath, her hand tensing on top of Cleo’s. A beat of silence went by before it left their roommate's lips as a puff of resignation.
“You’ll bring the doctor with you?” Pearl tried, her a twinge of hope behind her words.
If Cleo didn’t want Pearl around for it, why would the doctor possibly be a better option?
“He’ll walk me to the castle.” Is what they decided on. A compromise.
“But what if they try to hurt you?”
“If theh–they try to do anything other than fix me, I’ll kick their asses.”
That made Pearl crack up. It wasn’t some miracle solution for worry, but it was the best Cleo could do.
And not only was it for Pearl’s benefit to hear, it was also a promise. Cleo didn’t care if they currently had the strength of an infant– they WOULD strangle their jackass of a sire if it came down to it. In fact, they almost hoped it would just to have the satisfaction of doing so.
But that was more than Pearl needed to know about the situation.
“Alright, alright,” The brunette said, pushing herself back onto her feet. “But ya have to come back good as new, yeah?”
Cleo lifted their head as best they could, their lips curling into a weak smile as they viewed Pearl through cracked eyes.
“Of course.”
And that left only one order of business to sort out. Both the vampire and her roommate turned their attention to the doctor, who was practically pressed into the corner of the house to avoid interrupting the previous, intimate moment.
“...Oh, uh. I take it you want my input?” He spoke up with uncertainty.
“We want you to get your butt over here!” Pearl waved him over. “Come, come, you’ve got precious cargo to transport.”
Cleo snickered.
“Ah, I get that much,” Legudo followed the beckon over to Cleo’s side, turning his attention to the fatigued vampire. “The issue is, I’m not quite in my prime anymore. I couldn’t carry you the whole way up to the castle, even just acting as a crutch. So I’m not quite sure…”
“Wha– are you callin them fat?” Pearl accused with a very visible smirk to accompany it.
Still, the doctor floundered. “That’s not what I meant and you know it–”
Before the two could further prod at one another, Cleo released a heavy sigh.
“I might be able to… it could work.” She mused, mainly to herself. “Just… gimme space.”
Pearl and Legundo traded a mildly concerned glance. But they didn’t have time to properly question Cleo before her body began to fold in on itself.
Was it the best idea? Probably not in her current state. But Cleo didn’t have another obvious option, and her brain was too far mush to deliberate any further.
“Oh, oh-kay, I guess this is happening–” The doctor squeaked, stuck somewhere between fascinated and horrified.
“Oh! Oh! It’s little bat time!” Pearl cheered with enough enthusiasm for the both of them.
It took a great deal of effort to force their bones and muscle into place, but Cleo managed to drag their bat form out of their hapless body. The effect wasn’t quite as grandiose as it had been before– no glorious rise into the sky, no wind in their wings, no freedom to be felt. Rather, it was as if the previous weight had been tripled against the tiny creature, making it all the more apparent to the miserable vampire.
“Aw, sleeeeepy bat,” Pearl scooped Cleo up like a ragdoll, pressing their muzzle against her cheek. “Be safe, ‘kay?”
Then, Cleo was passed over to a very hesitant Legundo. He handled them as if they were made of glass, careful and calculated with every move.
“I.. guess we should be going, then.” The doctor pressed Cleo snugly against his chest, his eyes studying her nervously. “Are you doing alright?”
Cleo didn’t have enough left in her to respond. Instead, she let out a pitiful snuff and bapped her nose against the medical gown that now surrounded her.
Pearl giggled.
The doctor let out a fond sigh. “I’ll take that as a yes.”
Not a moment too soon, Cleo’s senses were filled with the crisp, chilled air of Oakhurst. Pearl had said something as they were being carried away, but everything was becoming far too hard to grasp.
With the heat of the doctor’s hand cradling them and the soothing, repeated vibration of his movements as he traveled along, Cleo found themselves being swallowed by the nagging, heavy darkness.