Hamartia

Chapter Ten: Once Upon A Time, There Was A Vampire

Song - Strong Swimmer - Vistas

Recap: 

The rest of the group felt like they were intruding on something private.

In a way, they were.

Hector angled up his head, his lips meeting Knox's, in a sweet see-you-later. It was brief, but to Knox, it was just right for the time, as in, it was very much needed. Then they broke apart, resting their foreheads against one another's. Knox's hand reached out to hold Hector's, and they stood there for a few more moments, each listening to the other's heart race. Each feeling more relaxed than they had felt earlier. Each knowing what the other was trying to say.

'Be safe'. 'I will'. 

Chapter Ten: Once Upon A Time, There Was A Vampire 

The sky began to darken further, stars peeking out through the light blue sky as it began to fade to a pinkie-red colour and then into a yellow-orange, as the sun began to set, dissolving into the horizon line. Flocks of birds flew around in the sky, barely visible above the smoke plumes of pollution and steady street traffic as the busy city was starting to come alive in the night. The street lights started to look like sign posts, guiding the way for pedestrians and drivers alike. Together, Hector, Elyssa, Bobby and Desdemona traipsed around searching for any sign of their estranged friend. Hector kicked an empty can of fizzy drink at a pigeon which just sat on the ground. It hit the pigeon and sent the feathery creature flying into the path of a truck which got bird guts sprayed over its windshield. Hector immediately straightened his back, acting like it wasn't him and walking away. The truck driver cursed out of the window, swerving all over the road until he drove into a lamp post. The drivers behind him cursed and frantically honked their horns at him.

"What the heck, Hector? Why did you do that? Why just why?" Elyssa exclaimed in annoyance as she was annoyed at her brother for having caused an accident that was drawing them all the attention in the world. The others in their group appeared to have been in deep conversation, ignoring the chaos that Hector had created in favour of their discussion. It was back to the first elephant in the room. The elephant that had grown and was looming over them as they spoke, peering into the depth of their desperation as they hunted for a sign of their runaway friend.

"What are you on about, Lys? I didn't do anything." Hector shrugged nonchalantly. He stretched his hands above is head in a yawn, as the accident behind them began to fade into a tiny pinprick in the past. They turned onto a wide alleyway which sprouted from the main street that they were on. Bobby had a dark expression on his face, which made created wrinkles where there had not been wrinkles before. They underlined how tired he looked, which was a surprising concept as usually most vampires in the media never looked tired or haggard. Maybe this was reminiscent somewhat, of his life as a human before his death as a vampire. He broke away from Desdemona, as she caught Elyssa's arm, hooking her arm through in a false aura of friendliness, when she was more interested in something that she was sure Elyssa hadn't told them.

Elyssa looked at Desdemona; strong enough to manoeuvre herself out of the vampire huntress's grasp, but too weary from lack of sleep and exhaustion that she did not want to.

She held herself elegantly still, as her dark blonde hair cascaded down her back, waves of pin-straight hair without the need for combing it through like a human. The upside to being a vampire was no longer caring much for hygiene; the more blood you had, the more beautiful you looked. Desdemona's grasp was tight like a wrench on hot iron – almost too much for Elyssa to bear. It was a misconception that humans held about vampires – that they felt no pain. If Elyssa walked into a table, she would bruise and she would feel pain. The only time a vampire felt no pain was the day that they were born. The reasoning behind this was that all the senses were heightened so much so that pain is dampened by everything else. The biggest difference between vampires and humans was the laws that bound them on the morality basis, the eternal life standard, the beauty and the fact that vampires have to survive off of human blood. Vegan vampires existed very much like vegan humans, vampires that survived off of the blood of plants mixed with animal blood, but they tended not to survive as long as vampires that lived off of the blood they sourced from blood donors.