#coraldonutbread

Silence and the scent of stale gasoline trickled in first, followed closely by stomach pangs beyond anything Quin had ever felt. Where the hell was she anyway?

"Maybe if you opened your eyes, you cheesehead," Quin grumbled as she shifted trying to get into a more comfortable position only to find herself restricted. Tied down? 

Whatever was encouraging such a lazy wake up was gone in an instant, her eyes wide open and hands slapping at the straps that held her tight. Straps…seatbelt…car…moose? Her memory as to how she got there was muddled at best, but one thing she was sure of, this crumpled death-trap was her car. Had to be since she wouldn't have been driving someone else's being so new to town. A few haphazard tugs at her seatbelt she began twisting and hyperventilating. After a half hearted attempt at freeing herself of the seatbelt it was but mere moments before Quin was attempting to crawl out of the jagged opening that she was fairly sure should have been a windshield. 

Cassius wasn’t one to openly hunt, he’d prefer a more willing donor. Lately, however, that wasn’t working out for him. Whether that be finding a supplier, so to speak, wasn’t around or he didn’t have the time to get over to one of his usual haunts. So, in the dead of night, he hunted down animals that he would usually consider low-hanging fruit. “Beggars can’t be choosers,” he muttered as he discarded the animal that found itself as his victim. Suddenly, her heard a faint noise coming from nearby. Plink. Plink. It smelled like… gasoline? No one could mistake that smell. Rising from his crouched position, he took a deep breath before following the sound of the drips. Upon discovering the wrecked vehicle, Cassius winced. Broken glass, old blood… this couldn’t be good. 

“Hello?” He called out, crouching down to peer into the vehicle, boots crunching on the shards of glass below him. Cassius heard the struggling, someone was in there. “Let me help you out, yeah?” 

Quin was certain she had to be hallucinating, surely she didn't just hear a voice. Yet, there they were, coming into focus albeit upside down. A bonified, living breathing person. And they were speaking again. 

"OH, um, yes please. I think I may have had a bit of a…tumble?" She cringed as she spoke. Even in such a situation she managed to try and downplay the problem at hand. Suddenly aware of what she must look like, she moved to fix her hair only to find it matted and sticky. She didn't have to see to know that blood caked her head and hair and the very thought had her head spinning. 

"I'm sorry," she mumbled "I must look a fright."

Just push through it Quin, you need to get out and fainting isn't going to help.

You should be dead, is what Cassius wanted to say. The way the car was crumpled and flipped over, she very well should be. He knew better than to say such a thing, one problem at a time and all that. “Just a tumble? Your car is completely wrecked. Given the circumstances, you look better than most would,” he replied. Laying down on his front, he began to assess the situation. He was right, she should  be dead. Then how-? Ah, there it was. Right on her neck, the tell-tale sign of a vampire’s bite mark. Then, getting a good look at her face, he saw her eyes. Red and glowing. A new vampire. “Well that changes things,” he muttered to himself, eyes wide with worry. He had to get her out of there and fast. “Just going to-” he reached his arm in through the broken window, holding her in place as he unbuckled his seatbelt. No point in hiding the strength, he thought to himself as he knew full well what he was going to have to explain to her later. “Alright, let’s try to get you right-side up and out of that pancake, yes?” He gave her a worried smile, beginning to let go of her so she could work on crawling out.

"Well I tumbled from somewhere," Quin quipped back, eager to distract herself from the reality setting in. She had been about to ask what changed things but was distracted by the sheer force this stranger was able to hold her in place with. Logic told her that it shouldn't be that easy, but then again, that seatbelt gave way easy enough to his intervention. Maybe she had just been panicking too much? Or she was a wimp. 

Still trying to sort through the growing pile of questions in her mind, she nodded slowly to the stranger's words and braced herself with her arms above her head…or below…being upside down was a bit too disorienting for her.

Slowly, and blessedly with assistance, Quin emerged from the wreckage miraculously alive. A wonder she lacked the energy to ponder.  

Body beating brain to a topic of interest Quin found herself blurring out "Do you have food? I'm starving," much to her embarrassment.

Sighing in relief as the woman was able to crawl out of the wreckage, he took a moment to assess her. Nothing broken, though her hair was matted with dried blood, which left little to be desired. Unless of course, you were a member of the shambling undead like himself. Swallowing hard, he decided no one was around to tell her otherwise. “Food, yes. Ah…” he scratched the back of his head, remembering the animal he had abandoned. “There’s something you may need to know,” he admitted as he pressed his lips into a thin line. Man this was awkward.  “First of all, my name is Cassius.” The man started, pressing a hand to his chest, a serious expression now on his features. “The reason you survived, the reason I was able to sense you,” his eyes began to glow a deep red, much like her own. “I am a vampire. And for one reason or another, someone decided instead of leaving you for dead, decided to turn you into one of us.” It wasn’t a very elegant way to deliver the news, but he didn’t know how much time she had before she started to frenzy. “But that’s the reason you’re so hungry,” he continued. “We need to get you fed. Blood.” He gestured his hands awkwardly, giving a terse smile. 

"Yeah, no. I'm Quin, by the way. And thank you for helping me, but I mean food. Cliff bar, some almonds, stray purse mint. Those sorts of things."

Vampire. HA. Truly an odd time to be making jokes but it did not escape her that even before the accident she did rather look like someone who might get a kick out of such a thing. It had to be a joke. Except…

"How did you do that thing with your eyes? What do you mean you sensed me? Shouldn't it have been harder to get me out of there? Have you seen my phone?" Hunger and desperation and maybe a dash of what the fuck swirled around her mind so fast she could feel the tinnitus in her damn chest. 

"You can't mean blood blood. I'm a vegetarian, for like a decade now," Quin stifled a gag as she mentioned blood. She couldn't even say the word without cringing. 

Cassius hummed, pretending to look for something in his pockets. “No, nothing on me, left my purse and mints at home.” His eyes stayed their glowing red, mostly because of the smell of the woman’s blood. He was good at controlling himself, but there was an extent to how well he could compose himself. Still, she began throwing rapid-fire questions at him, and he knew he had to respond to them all. “You’re coated in blood, and I happened to be hunting nearby. Our faces do this when we’re… in hunting mode, for lack of a better term.” He paused before answering her next question, knowing he was handling a delicate situation rather poorly. “And that’s partly how I sensed you, aside from your car leaking gasoline, that’s a distinct smell, that. And for a normal person, yes that should have been difficult. But as you can see, I have a few quirks. Strength being one of them.” At the last question, he blinked. Phone? Ah, yes. Kneeling down again, he assessed the inside of the car, or what was left of it. “Might have gone flying during the wreckage,” he mused before standing back up, wiping the debris away from his pants. 

He couldn’t help but bark out a laugh despite the situation. A vegetarian becoming a vampire? Cassius couldn’t help himself. “I know it sounds ridiculous, but how did you survive that wreck?” He pointed out once composing himself, crossing his arms over his chest, eyes narrowing. “Left side of your neck, right here.” He touched the side of his own neck, “feel the puncture marks.” He instructed, tapping a black nail repeatedly to the area on his own neck. “Unless you got a very specific puncture mark from the glass, that looks like a bite to me.” He gave her a minute, knowing he had given her a lot of information in such a short period of time.“It’s dangerous, for someone newly turned,” he began to explain in a gentle tone. “If not properly cared for, you can go nothing short of feral. And I don’t particularly care to see that happen to someone, especially when it poses a very real danger to yourself and the people around you. I know it’s a lot to take in all at once.” He shifted on his feet, head tilting to the side. “Let me help you.”

Quin quirked a small smile despite herself. As she listened to Cassius's explanations she began to pace, to mentally catalog the information that just didn't belong in reality. At least it didn't belong before. 

"Hunting mode? So mine will do that too?" Her face surely betrayed any calmness she was trying to grasp at. 

My dad is going to be worried sick. The thought made her lip quiver, how does one explain to their parent that they are…dead? Ish?

Quin stopped pacing, reaching her hand to the spot she was directed.

"So if I dont…feed, I disappear? Like, mentally? Survival mode kicks in and I don't exist?" It made sense, really. Survival tends to be the trump card. But if serving meant what he said it would, Quin was going to need help.