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jerevino · 6 years

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sink in - chapter 2.

freewood vampire au: first chapter here, find it on AO3 here.

The wait for Geoff had to have been the worst hour and eighteen minutes of his life. Gavin had settled himself in the lobby, jumping at every sign of movement. He must have given the doorman a reason to be suspicious - a jumpy, scrawny man sitting in the lobby at near two in the morning must have screamed drug addict to anyone who caught a glimpse.

It wasn’t his fault that intense fear and crippling paranoia made him look suspect. He’d just witnessed a murder, after all, and that was enough to make any man look insane. In the moment, Gavin hadn’t realized the extent to how bloody messed up the situation had been. Mostly, he’d been worried about saving his own skin and getting the hell out of dodge. But the more he thought about it, the more Gavin realized that he’d narrowly avoided death, and he’d witnessed the horrifying work of a man who had surely killed before.

Which is why he flinched every time he heard footsteps above him, or saw the flashing lights of a car on the road outside. The logical thing to do would be to call the police, and let them deal with the killer on the loose. Except that the killer had his personal information, and the feds didn’t have the best track record for being quick to catch the bad guy, and Gavin was so hyped up on adrenaline that his thoughts were all mush.

When Geoff finally pulled up outside, Gavin all but sprinted into the vehicle, catching his sweater in the door as he slammed it shut. So much for playing it cool, then.

“Don’t you have any shit?” Geoff asked, offering the Brit a quirked brow above those tired eyes, but it was better than what Gavin expected. He’d been fully prepared to climb into the car and be berated for a good half an hour for waking me up from a killer dream, dude -- and its that word, killer, ingrained in his head that sends Gavin reeling.

“No, it was only one night, and I didn’t feel the need to bring much. The cameras all belong to the movie crew, anyway, and the shoots over now, Geoff, and we just need to get the hell out of here.” Gavin spoke too quickly, eyes scanning the surrounding parking lot even as Geoff peeled out.

“Dude, what happened? You look like a ghost tried to buttfuck you.”

Gavin hesitated, mouth hanging open halfway around a word. Dragging Geoff into this mess might not have been fair to the man who’d driven to an entirely different town just to pick up his sorry arse; but he needed to explain his sudden demand for rescue. With a heavy sigh, Gavin turned to offer Geoff his most serious expression.

“You’re not going to believe a word I say, but its true, Geoff, I swear. I saw a man sucking a woman out, and-”

“People fuck in the streets all the time, Gav, don’t tell me you’re scared of a naked lady.”

“No, Geoff, not sucking like sex, sucking like -- Like a vampire. He was drinking her blood, and it was flippin’ disgusting. She was properly dead. And he said he could kill me next if he wanted, but he wasn’t going to, and then I ran like the damn wind.”

Geoff went silent for several long seconds, the only noise coming from the hum of the car, and the nervous tapping of Gavin’s foot on the floor. Finally, Geoff spoke with a stern, oddly quiet voice that made the Brit feel even worse about the entire situation.

“Did you call the police?”

“Do you think I’d be in your car now, if I had?”

“You didn’t call the fucking police, Gavin?” Geoff exploded, hand coming off the steering wheel to smack his passenger upside the head. “I don’t know how they do it in England, but here in America we fucking call the police when we see someone committing first degree murder!”

Gavin flinched, not at all surprised by Geoff’s anger. He wasn’t bloody stupid, he knew what he should have done. But given the circumstances of his own personal safety, Gavin had had no choice but to consider his options first.

“I know that, Geoff, I’m not an idiot, am I? He’s... got my wallet. I don’t want to call the police, because I think he might actually hunt me down and drink my blood, too. I like my gushy bits on the inside!”

Geoff opened his mouth to retort, bit his lip, and changed his mind. Instead, he spoke a tad more soft and tried something else. “So, you crash at my place tonight and call the police in the morning. At least then they’ll be looking for this guy, and you might get an armed guard or something to look after you until he’s caught. Dude, they might even put you in the witness protection program!”

Gavin didn’t find Geoff’s joke very funny, and he opted to look out his window instead of humour that thought at all. “It was awful and I think I might have offended him. I pissed off a vampire serial killer, oh god.”

“How the fuck did you manage to do that, Gav?”

“I told him being a murderer wasn’t all that impressive.”

“Seriously? Only you would manage to find a psycho killer and get on his shitlist for something different than being a potential target. Dude, all I did tonight was watch Jeopardy and pass out at nine.”

“Geoff, this isn’t a joke!”

No matter how many times Ryan did it, disposing of a body didn’t get any easier. He’d mastered the art of stealth (or so he thought he had, until the British punk had shown up and put a dent in his ego), but the cleanup didn’t get any less messy, and the exertion of lugging a body out to Swift Creek didn’t get any less frustrating.

With one strong heave, the body toppled over the edge of the crevasse, tumbling down the cliffside until it landed in the fast moving river below. It might wash up downstream, another town over, but the cops would never find where it had come from before Ryan was the hell out of dodge.

He stepped back, running a hand through his hair with a heavy sigh. There was still blood on his shirt and staining his teeth, and he couldn’t wait to get home and take a nice, hot shower. It had been several long hours since he’d made the kill, and the sun was due to rise in less than sixty minutes. The cleanup had taken too long this time, and Ryan cursed himself for getting sloppy. The British kid had really thrown him for a loop.

As he’d fled the scene with body in tow, his mind had been on the damn voyeur and his stupid mouth that had somehow managed to poke fun at Ryan’s exploits, despite the obvious fear in his eyes. He had half a mind to be impressed, if it weren’t for the very real possibility that he’d have to skip town again if the kid squealed. Ryan had the fortune of producing very little DNA that could be linked back to him, even if he were in the system - but that luck went to waste the second witnesses were involved.

Being a vampire was a fucking waste.

Ryan wished that the package had come with what all the teen movies said; eternal beauty, immortality, superhuman abilities, and the inexplicable collection of equally stunning mates to spend the rest of his life with. Instead, he got a lack of appetite for the food he had once loved, a crippling bloodlust that came about every few weeks, and cleanup duty that was as messy as it was inconvenient.

Sure, his wounds were always superficial, and the adrenaline from a kill was a hard high to beat. And maybe he hadn’t aged a day in twenty four years. But the cons far outweighed the pros as far as Ryan was concerned.

He’d taken a little detour on his way home, stopping a few blocks down from the scene of his kill to listen for sirens. Enhanced hearing had also been part of the vampire-package, but all that meant was he got to hear his neighbours having sex three floors up, and the man mowing his lawn across the street scared the everloving crap out of him every two weeks like clockwork.

To his surprise, the streets were deafeningly quiet; which meant the kid hadn’t called the cops. Either he was afraid of what might happen if he did, or this Gavin fellow didn’t care enough to bother. Either way, it was less of a headache for Ryan in the meantime, and with a significantly lighter heart, he made the drive home.

By the time the sun had risen, Ryan had disposed of his bloody clothing, taken a hot shower, and settled onto his mattress with Gavin Free’s wallet in hand. He perused through the cards inside, chewing his lip as he considered another course of action. Realistically, the smartest thing to do would be to ignore the problem altogether, hoping that his witness would forget the whole thing. Worse came to worst, he had his escape plan. He wouldn’t have to deal with the kid at all, if he was willing to think on his feet.

Or he could instill the fear of God himself into the Brit and ensure his silence for good.

Yeah -- that sounded like a lot more fun.

Gavin hadn’t slept a wink, huddled on the sofa in Geoff’s living room with his eyes darting from front door to window, to front door again. By the time they’d gotten back to his place, the sunrise had only been a few hours off, and now it was shining directly into his eyes. As the minutes ticked on, Gavin had tried to convince himself that he was safe; that the chances of being found were slim. Even if the killer had already ransacked his apartment, there were no clues that would point him to Geoff’s home.

Still, his body was too tense and his mind too charged up to even attempt sleep. At one point, he’d attempted to turn the Xbox on and play some games to keep his hands busy; but they turned out to be too jittery, and after his twelfth consecutive defeat in Halo, Gavin had tossed the controller aside with a huff.

By the time Geoff was awake and functioning, Gavin had almost managed to fall asleep. He was jarred to full consciousness by his friend’s loud groaning as he thundered down the stairs, grumbling to himself about needing a cup of coffee.

Gavin didn’t have the energy to be angry, silently thankful that he hadn’t fallen asleep and let his guard down. He watched quietly as Geoff buggered about with the coffee machine, contemplating how best to bring up the current situation, when -

“You look like shit, dude.”

Gavin gave a wheezy laugh, rising clumsily to his feet to help himself to a mug out of Geoff’s cupboard. “Yeah? I guess witnessing a bloody murder isn’t part of my normal beauty regime. S’that dark roast?”

Geoff frowned, running a hand over his own tired features. “Are you gonna call the cops, then? You’ve had some time to think about it. I hope you’ve gotten it through your idiot British brain that you can’t fuckin’ leave this alone. Someone died, and it’s your responsibility to fix it and shit.”

Gavin worried his lip between his teeth, opting out of meeting Geoff’s stern gaze by snatching up the coffee pot to pour himself a cup of joe. “I… Guess I’ll have to. I dunno, Geoff, it just doesn’t feel safe. He’ll know it was me. Aren’t serial killers good at hunting people down?”

“Yeah, idiot, and he’ll continue to do that exact fuckin’ thing if you don’t call the god damn cops, Gavin. You’re waiting too long, he could be halfway to fucking China before the cops get their asses in gear. You’ve gotta do it. You don’t have a choice.”

Gavin sighed, sipping his coffee-- promptly cursing when it burnt his tongue. “Fine. Can we swing by my flat, first? Just to grab a few things. I want to get in there before he does.”

Geoff didn’t look happy about that, but he nodded begrudgingly. “Yeah, sure. Lemme finish my coffee, and take a dump, and then we can go. Should I bring my gun?”

Gavin’s eyes bulged out of his head, and Geoff snickered. “You’re the one jumping out of your own skin, so I figured I’d offer. I won’t bring a gun, but we’ve gotta be careful. See you in twenty.”

Gavin thought it’d be better if Geoff stayed in the car, just in case the freak was watching. Better not to blow his only safe-house, after all. He had Geoff on the phone though, as a precaution, but the walk up into his flat was the most nerve-wracking three minutes of his life. He’d fumbled with the keys, ignoring Geoff’s laughter on the other line at the sound of metal clinking against the floor.

Gavin whirled around his flat in a hurry, knocking over bottles and throwing unnecessary clothing out of the way. He shoved the essentials into his bag, packed up his laptop, and his phone charger. He felt as though someone were breathing down his neck, the hairs standing on end. He pushed the feeling aside; all he needed now was some batteries from the kitchen for his camera, and he’d be all set.

He rummaged through drawers, cursing under his breath as he struggled to find those blasted double A’s. Geoff was ranting about some stupid pedestrians on the road, urging Gavin to hurry the fuck up. Gavin breathed a nervous laugh at his friend’s complaining, whirling around to leave with batteries in hand, and---

“It’s nice to see you again, Gavin Free.”

His phone clattered to the ground, the front door closing shut behind the killer.

#freewood #vampire au #my fic

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