A Bloody Tale (draft)

draft about magical N-Bs and a nonbinary vampire escaping a supernatural church.

vod playlist link.

Completed work.

Content notes: offering blood to heal a vampire. Christianity-fueled bigotry. Hallucinations. Mentioned medical trauma. Food scarcity.

Content note: as this tale concerns a vampire, this tale gets a bit bloody. One character offers faer blood to heal it. There’s also religious themes and a church, and one character has auditory hallucinations including one where said character is deadnamed but no one’s deadname is stated within the text.

---

Shiver was laying around the dramatic gay faer was, and Shadow was frying up some eggs in this little campsite out in the middle of nowhere when the sun. fucking. stopped.

A whole ass eclipse just fucking happened. Just completely unprompted. The sun was like “i’m done with you assholes, i’m smooching the moon today!” and the moon was like “fuck yeah, babe! let’s do it!”

“That’s strange,” Shadow said. “There’s not supposed to be an eclipse today.”

“No?” Shiver asked.

Shadow shook his head.

This was no natural eclipse.

Instead of simply blotting the celestial bodies, a whole vat of ink began to spill throughout the sky. Light blue became seeped with a purple so dark, most would call it black.

There was naught else Shadow and Shiver could do beyond observe. They ate their dinner, Shiver in particular keeping faer ears out, Shadow keeping themself attuned to what lay beyond the physical. There was immense magic about. And Shiver began to hear the rasps of someone whose every breath brought pain.

By what would have nightfall, some of the purple ink-like magic dipped down right next to their campsite and began to swell into a disc.

Shiver looked at Shadow, hair frizzling up with static, eyes and fists crystallizing with ice. Fae was expecting a battle to meet them.

Shadow, on the other hand, approached the portal cautiously. They moved with their arms behind their back. More curious about the world than Shiver. Not that Shiver wasn’t curious at all, fae was just already outside faer comfort zone just from being outside; and now this fucking bullshit happened.

The next fucking bullshit that happened didn’t change faer opinion on the outdoors.

The portal swallowed up Shadow. Shiver tried to recall them, but something about this portal must’ve interfered with such things. Shiver panicked and followed after them.

“{Shadow!}” Shiver called out to them, mind blaring with panic.

Fae found them surrounded by skeletons. Bony warriors scuttling forth with rusting swords and rotting shields.

Shadow roared, setting their attackers ablaze with heat magic.

The skeletons kept moving towards them. The flames becoming cold and blue.

Shadow’s eyes widened.

Shiver was running towards them as fast as faer cold.

Fae sent a thunderstorm. Lightning scattered the bones and equipment.

“Are you okay!?” Shiver asked, holding Shadow, anxious to have them close, to know they were there.

“I am,” Shadow said, trying to use the more emotional aspects of their telepathic to calm faer. It would’ve been much more effective if the bones weren’t rattling.

Shiver heard them immediately. Fae turned around. As soon as fae saw them, fae hauled ass and Shadow in the first direction where skeletons were not.

The crypt was never-ending catacombs. [it’s the same columns and bullshit. a whole hallway of columns and it sucks *cuz it doesn’t end* and it’s like didn’t we just pass this hallway? fuck]

Shiver would look over his shoulder.

Shiver heard the laughter of doomed children. Faer eyes became sunken in.

Shiver, startled, looked over faer shoulder. Fae heard faer mother calling. By faer deadname.

“She’s not here,” Shadow said. “You’re out of your family’s reach. They’re never going to find you again. Besides,” Shadow smiled, “they’d be somewhere like this.”

Shiver shook faer head. Faer family would spontaneously evaporate from how “ungodly” everything here, wherever here was, was.

The next sound, Shadow heard, and not just because of sensory feedback from Shiver. This sound was actually present.

A piano and a congregation above them. Singing about love and stamping out sin.

[pastor dialogue i guess. it’d be amazing if they had until the end of the sermon (or song) to find a hiding place]

[so they find the vampire]

[vampire is weak from not having its medication]

Shiver held out faer wrist.

“Nobody cares that my mom needs…” Shiver thought about saying extra, but that didn’t satisfy faer. “outside insulin. No one’s ever called her evil for it.”

Hell, even Shiver had never called her evil, and fae had plenty of justification to do so.

“Besides, Shadow can kick your ass if you take too much,” Shiver said.

Razorthorn, on the brink of blood loss, didn’t have enough energy at that moment to ensure Shiver was truly informed about the rigors of donating. Survival instincts took over.

[epic battle against skeletons, our heroes eventually get out through the portal just in time!! huzzah]

[at the last toll of the bell]

[so they’re back at camp]

[Razorthorn is enjoying the first sun it’s felt in years.]

“Does it hurt?” Shiver asked, worried, not knowing much of vampires outside of pop culture.

“Some, not me,” Razorthorn said, basking in the light, its scars plain for Shadow and Shiver to see. “It’s nice to feel warm again.”

THE END.