So Long Salvation

4

For anyone who needs it, that song up there is Mental Health by Billy Raffoul. Give it a listen, it's great :)

This is possibly the longest chapter I've ever written??

Mikey

Smoke shoots up, covering Mikey's face in a thick layer of grit as he sets the vampire's corpse ablaze and topples it into the already-fuming chimney.

It was chance, really, pure happenstance that Mikey should run into him and his companion--who'd, once she'd seen the match and smelt the burning skin, got wise and ran off, obviously letting wit and rationality outrule emotion. And, as Mikey is a mere human being and he can't actually be in two places at once, he had to deal with the fact that one more vampire would be roaming the city streets on his watch.

Though, running into them and killing the one is enough luck in itself to reduce the escapee to a little metaphorical stone beneath his shoe, a niggling thought in the back of his mind that's as easily swept away as the small pile of vampire ash that managed to miss the chimney.

Mikey uses his foot to sweep it off the edge of the roof.

Up ahead and down, on the streets below, chattering people and the clap of cart wheels spinning can be heard, and Mikey makes certain to stay as well-hidden from any straying eyes as possible. That is, of course, easier said than done on the roof of a two-storey house, but it's not impossible.

Mikey makes his way to the far back corner where the house is pushed up against the backs of more like it, bending so as to stay as close to the roof as he can--thus minimizing his spectrum of visibility to the general public--and using the chimney along with the slope of the roof as cover.

He keeps his steps light and quiet, just in case. (Vampire bodies usually burn up and disintegrate quicker than a candle wick, but on the off chance that that one didn't, Mikey doesn't want to give anyone a reason to go looking on their roof after they see the rotting corpse in their hearth.)

No ruckus ensues on the streets, nobody screams about the strange man on the house, and Mikey unfolds his back until he's standing straight the minute he gets to the roof's edge.

It's a far drop, but of course it's a far drop; he knew what he was doing when he made the climb. Mikey scurries down the side--using drain pipes and bricks and window sills as leverage--with all the ease and grace of experience.

When he lets himself drop, a foot from the floor, grit and soot float down off him, disturbed by the rough force of the landing, as he wipes his hands along his already-dirty coat.

There's no blood, of course; Mikey wouldn't be as skilled as he is if he left evidence--but there is chimney dust, and grime, and although Mikey isn't the sophisticated man his parents had hoped he'd be, he doesn't exactly appreciate the mess.

But no cleaning can be done until he's back home and out of this side alley, so Mikey pretends he's come to terms with the foulness of it all and starts towards the noise of the bustling street.

He doesn't get very far.

"You have a little something--"

Mikey startles, hand shooting out unconsciously for the nearest thing to him--a shard of broken glass at his feet. 

Nevermind that he's wearing a coat filled with vampire-hunter-approved weapons.

"--on your face."

He whirls around and stupidly raises a hand to his face. It comes back fully coated in dark soot.

The vampire looks almost sheepish when Mikey throws him a sharp glare.