#kid!dirk

before and after

+ more about the knife

I don’t know if this is exactly what you had in mind, but this is where my mind went to. I think this could explain rowdies revelation of the effects of their powers on normal people vs “psychics”.

~

Svlad is only 10-years-old when he first hears the Blackwing workers whispering about vampires having been brought in.

Vampires? Vampires are real? Svlad’s imagination starts running. How are vampires the same as whatever he is? Is he really as dangerous as vampires? Vampires are monsters? Is he a monster too?

A few days after Svlad first heard whispers of these vampires, the Priest comes into his room.

“We need you for an experiment.” He says.

Svlad closes his eyes in defeat. Not again.

“Let’s go, Icarus.” The Priest says and gestures for Svlad to get off his bed.

“What do I have to do now?” Svlad asks, knowing full well that he couldn’t get out of whatever they had planned for him.

“New subjects have been brought in. Project Incubus. Their powers are… Very specific. We want to test them on you.” The Priest says as he walks Svlad out of his room, through the grey hallways of Blackwing.

Svlad pales. “The- The vampires?” He whispers in horror.

The Priest smiles. “Oh, you’ve heard of them have you?” He asks.

“Why do I have to see the vampires? I don’t want to. I’m afraid.” Svlad says.

The Priest lets out a chilling laugh. “They ain’t gonna suck your blood. Not that kind of vampires.” He says as he types a code into a machine to let them in another wing of the facility.

“They’re not?” Svlad asks.

“No. They’re… Psychic vampires.” The Priest says.

Svlad has no idea what this means, but it doesn’t make him any less afraid.

The Priest walks Svlad into a small room with three intimidating looking men, tied up against the back wall. The room is full of guards. The scary men have masks on that only cover half of their face. Their eyes track Svlad as he’s forced into the room.

“They feed on energy. Psychic energy. When they feed on normal people, it leaves the poor folks in pretty bad shape. Some have died. But you… You’re not normal people, are you.” The Priest says.

He walks Svlad into the center of the room and sits him on a chair facing the three vampires.

“You- you want them to feed on me?” Svlad squeaks. His first instinct is to run, but he knows he has no chance. The room is filled with guards and The Priest would just punish him for it.

“Yes. We have reason to believe it will affect you differently. You’re full of all kinds of psychic energy. But we do need to test the theory.” The Priest says and ties Svlad down in the chair.

“But- but what if it hurts me?” Svlad asks, panic settling deep within his 9-year-old body.

“It shouldn’t.” The Priest sighs.

“But you’re not sure!” Svlad exclaims.

“Well, we’re about to be. We need to do this in order to learn more about Project Incubus. Settle down. The experiment’s about to begin.” The Priest says and walks out of the room. Svlad feels tears gathering behind his eyes.

Six guards walk towards the three vampires. The guards look scared as well. They remove the masks from the men’s faces and basically run out of the room.

The men stare at Svlad and he feels like crying.

“Sorry kiddo, but we’re hungry.” One of the vampires, the biggest one, says and suddenly they all open their mouths and take in deep breaths.

Svlad can no longer see the room nor can he really feel his body physically present in it. His mind goes blank, yet he’s very aware of being conscious. A headache starts forming at the back of his head and he feels a pull from his mind to the vampires. A bright blue light is all he can see. Eventually, the pull and the headache become too much and he starts crying. He has no idea what’s happening, but it’s all kinds of uncomfortable. Random images flash before Svlad’s eyes. Some of them he recognizes, some of them make no sense. Some of them scare him. The headache intensifies as the images keep flashing and the light gets brighter. He has no idea how much time has passed; it could be seconds, it could be hours. Just as he’s sure he’s about to pass out, possibly die, it all stops.

Svlad feels like he’s been drugged again; his body feels heavy and his mind is numb. He feels cold. Very cold. He slowly opens his eyes, the small, grey room slowly coming back into focus. Guards are already fighting to place the masks back onto the vampires’ faces. The Priest walks in again.

“Icarus?” He calls out, walking to stand in front of Svlad. Svlad slowly lifts his eyes to meet The Priest’s, finding him smiling.

“Well, would you look at that. You’re fine.” The Priest says and unties Svlad. Svlad breathes heavily, feeling like he can’t quite catch his breath, no matter how much he tries.

The vampires are staring at Svlad, their eyebrows raised. They turn to look at each other, an unspoken message being shared by the three of them.

“I’m- I” Svlad mumbles, not sure what he wants to say, except that he does not feel fine. He’s not quite able to get his mind fully working yet.

“Interesting. Very interesting.” The Priest says and gestures something to the mirror on the wall, which Svlad suspects conceals people behind it, watching everything.

“Come on.” The Priest says and starts dragging Svlad back towards his room.

Svald’s feet feel shaky and if it weren’t for The Priest painfully holding him up by the arm, he’s sure he wouldn’t be able to stand up the whole way.

The Priest types in a code to open the door to Svlad’s room and pushes him in.

“See you tomorrow, Icarus.” The Priest says and closes the door, leaving Svlad alone.

He can’t quite wrap his head around what has just happened. He feels shaky and weak. He feels drained.

He lays on his bed, and quite quickly, tears start falling down his face again.

The crying makes the headache caused by the vampires worse.He can’t bring himself to blame the vampires, they were obviously being held by Blackwing just like him, but they still scare him.

Svlad wishes to never have to endure whatever he just had, to never have to face the vampires again, but something tells him it’s just another useless wish the universe will choose to ignore.

The Priest had look much too pleased with himself earlier.

~

Every Little Thing Anticipates You by coloursflyaway

I’m all for kid!dirk angst.

and boy did this turn out to be angst.

~

Svlad’s throat was sore from screaming.He didn’t know how long they’d been driving, how long he’d been stuffed in the back of this van, but it felt like forever. He started to feel like the van would never stop.A voice came through the wall between him and the driver’s seat.“Seriously, kid, shut up! No one but us can hear you and it’s getting real annoying.” Said one of the guys that had dragged Svlad into the van.He did not stop screaming. He screamed for his mum, he screamed for help, he screamed for God to help him. But nothing happened. The van kept going in a steady pace, taking Svlad further and further away from everything he knew.The van had stopped for periods of time, took weird turns, gone up weird ramps and Svlad kept waiting for him to be let out.Eventually, he wasn’t able to scream anymore. No voice would come out when he tried. His throat hurt and his face was swollen from tears.What did he do to deserve this? It wasn’t his fault he was different from other people? He never asked for it? He tried to be normal, he did. He’d promised to be good, he promised his mum he would be good. He wasn’t given the chance.Svlad didn’t know how much time had passed, but by the time the van came to its final stop, his stomach hurt from hunger and he felt incredibly tired, like all energy had been drained from him.The door to the van opened suddenly and the light hurt Svlad’s eyes.A man with cold eyes and an evil smile stood before Svlad.“Welcome home, Project Icarus.” He said.“What?” Svlad croaked.“This is Blackwing. This is where kids like you belong.” The man said and leaned in to the van to grab Svlad by the arm.“Where’s my mum?” Svlad asked, trying to lean away from the man’s touch but the man was strong. He forced Svlad out of the van.“You don’t have to think about her anymore. She sure won’t be thinking about you.” The man replied and started dragging Svlad towards a grey building. Svlad tried to take in his surroundings in case he could get away from the man. he felt like a heavy rock was placed on his heart when he realized he wasn’t in England anymore. “Wh-what?” Svlad asked.“Your mother told us to take you here. She didn’t want you around. Why would she? This is your home now.” The man said and punched a bunch of numbers into a machine and the doors to the building opened with a loud ringing noise.“She-““She’s not your mother. Not anymore. This is your new life.” The man said and gestured around the facility they had entered. There were a lot of grey walls, long hallways and weird, too artificial smells. The hallway was cold. Men in white coats watched through a window as the man dragged Svlad further down the hall.“W-why?” Svlad asked, fresh tears forming in his eyes. His arm had started to hurt from the way the man was gripping it.“Because you’re not normal. You cause trouble for normal people. You belong here, where we can keep an eye on you.” The man replied.“I won’t cause trouble, I promise, I-““Yes, yes you will. You’re dangerous, Svlad. It’s not fair for other people. With you here, normal people are safe.” The man interrupted.Svlad let out a sob. He’d heard that he was different his whole life, but dangerous? Was he really? Was his mum scared of him? Is that why she let those men take him away? Is that why she didn’t love him anymore?The man stopped in front of a door with a weird symbol on it. It was a big diamond shape with a smaller circle inside it and a horizontal line across it.“This is your room.” The man said and pushed Svlad in.The room was dark and cold. It smelled like chemicals. There was a small bed, a cabinet and a table with a single chair. And nothing else.“You might wanna sleep. Tomorrow’s a big day.” The man said and turned to leave.“Why? What’s tomorrow?” Svlad asked in a shaky voice.The man smiled in a way that made Svald’s stomach turn. “Your first experiment.”“My what?” Svlad whispered.“You’re different. We want to figure you out.” The man said then his expression turned more threatening than any Svlad had seen before. “And I do suggest you help us to. You don’t want to know what happens if you don’t cooperate.”Svlad whimpered. He felt hot tears make their way down his face again. He was afraid of many things; the dark, spiders, monsters under the bed… But he had never been afraid of anything as much as he was of this man.“Please, just let me go, I promise I’ll be good.” Svlad begged.“I can’t do that, Svlad. You’re a monster. This way people are safe and you can be useful. We can make you useful. This is the only way.” The man replied. “And stop crying. It’s annoying.” He added.Svlad tried his best to make the tears stop. He held his breath, trying to control the sobs. He was shaking. This couldn’t be happening.“Why are you doing this? Who are you?” He whispered.The man smiled again. “You can call me The Priest.” He said and slammed the door shut behind him, leaving Svlad alone in the cold, dark room.And during the next decade or so, in that cold, dark room little Svlad would disappear and Project Icarus would take his place.

~