#singdreamchild

Elora wasn’t too pleased with him when she realized Cassius knew someone to get them out of their situation. After all, two days had passed. Two days, and they had resorted to turning their phones off to conserve their little battery, only using the portable charger when absolutely necessary. The service in the house was spotty, and it was hard to get a signal if they ever got one. They were getting along as two people trapped together in unideal circumstances could. Though the vampire’s hunger was starting to become known, he could ignore it long enough until they got out of there.

That’s right, It had been two whole days since they got trapped in the nightmare house. To say Cassius was antsy would have been the understatement of the century. Thankfully, he hadn’t missed any work yet, but he would lose his mind if he didn’t leave there soon. The house was teasing him. Any way that he would use to blow off steam and relax was being used against him. He went to grab a book from the parlor, and it jumped to another location on the shelf. He went for a different book, and that one jumped, too. He would go to write something down in his journal that he had packed in his satchel, and the pen exploded in his hand. He was so close to screaming that he couldn’t keep his head straight. Elora sat at the other end of the parlor, banging her head against the wall. The excitement of the place had long since faded for the both of them. 

After Cassius had sent his location to Lil, his phone had died, and the last of the battery pack he had brought with him died with it. He didn’t even know if she had gotten the message or if his location had even been sent. He had to hold out to hope that it had gone through. He still remembered the burning fear that had gone through him as his phone died right after he sent his location. He hadn’t even dared to look at Elora for her reaction. He looked over to Elora. The house had been doing its best to keep her awake right when she was on the brink of sleep.  He had tried sleeping to pass the time, but the house didn’t take kindly to that either. Begging to drum a little beat with his hands, Cassius began to hum a nondescript song. Anything to pass the time, right? Nothing else seemed to be allowed.

When Elora had suggested a night in a sentient house, she wasn’t expecting to be trapped. She figured if worse came to worst she could always light a fire as a way of convincing the house to release them. But now it seemed that whatever spirit was inhabiting this house was perfectly content to let the house burn if it took the two of them down with it. 

It was times like these that she really wished her “talents” could be used on the undead. Instead, here she was, stuck in a possessed house with a vampire. She may as well have been a regular unpowered person at that point, no entrancement abilities to speak of. 

When she got there, she was so excited, and thought the experience would be a huge thrill. Now, many hours later, she was hungry, tired and pissed off. She envied Cassius for not needing to sleep as she did. However, she began to appreciate the company as Cassius started to bring a little music into the situation. The cursed gramophone that had hailed her entrance when she had first arrived had long since gone completely silent. 

She picked up on the melody Cassius was humming and began to harmonize. She didn’t know what she was humming along to, but it was good to have any kind of light or joy in their situation. For the first time in about 10 hours, she cracked a smile as they continued their duet. 

While this was a welcome break from the gloom and doom of their situation, this wasn’t getting them any closer to freedom. All she could think about was where Cassius’s friend possibly could be, or if she even knew they were there at all.

Lilian Ballard really didn’t fall much. It wasn’t personal to the season, but it seemed like it was the season for people to want to engage with the odd and supernatural. Maybe it was the dying of the light or some other poetic reason, but it meant she had a fuck ton more work and it was colder. It was annoying, and she really wished people wouldn’t. She hadn’t expected her old history teacher to be one of them, but after a location drop and being told that he was trapped in a sentient house of all things, Lil was pretty sure she needed to have a town hall or something. 

Still, that would have to be done later. While she didn’t like the season, she wasn’t exactly going to leave people to get eaten by a house. Pulling up to the house she got out quickly, a hood covering her hair and knowing that the house was about to be mightily pissed at her. She hadn’t ever really had to get anyone out of a sentient house before - usually people didn’t go in and most of the time when they did they couldn’t contact an exorcist to get out - but it wasn’t something she knew nothing about. She knew if she went into the house there was a high likelihood she wouldn’t come back out. 

So, she had a plan looking at the house and counting the windows she saw one with a light on where the others were empty. Knowing she needed more information, and that Cassius' cellphone was apparently dead, opening the trunk she took out something her sibling had mentioned might be useful in something like this. They seemed to actually want to face this scenario, and for once Lil was glad. Still she thought it was stupid. 

After all, it was  a fucking t-shirt cannon. Packing the stupid thing with a walkie talkie she had stuffed into a t- shirt she paused for a moment picking up a rock as well and putting it to the front. 

The house would repair itself quickly but - well it was at least worth a try to break the glass long enough to get a walkie talkie through. Moving to angle it to the window that seemed to have light in it, Lil aimed and shot it, hearing a crash, and quickly ducking in case anyone saw what she did. After a moment she waited, and hesitantly picked up her own walkie talkie. 

“Yo teach you up there? Roger,” Lil said into her walkie talkie hoping that the plan Jude had written in their notebook actually worked. “I need some information to help get you out. Roger.” 

Cassius’s humming was cut short the second that a shirt went crashing through the window. He blinked at it momentarily when it landed, then looked across to Elora, then back to the wadded-up cloth. He looked at the window, which had already repaired itself. Of course, it did. Then the damn shirt began to talk. Cassius deflated instantly as he recognized the voice of his former student. “It’s Lil, she got my message.” He told Elora as he scrambled for the walkie-talkie. 

“I’m here!” He spoke into the walkie-talkie with wide eyes. Cassius clutched at the object as if it were his lifeline because it was. He needed to get out of here, and he needed to make sure Elora got out of here. “I’m with another person. We’ve been stuck in here for two days.” His gaze flickered over to Elora, wondering what she thought about this. “Whatever you need to know, we’ll do our best to answer or find out.” He then spoke into the walkie one last time. 

He stared down at the walkie, blinking a few times. He hadn’t expected that he would actually get out of this place. He was grateful that he had a student who had experience in supernatural activity and that he had run into her in the past few months to find that out. “Finally, we can get out of this fucking place.” He muttered, looking up at Elora. “Let’s hope the house lets us out.” He then added, having a feeling that this building wasn’t going to let them go willingly.

While Elora usually hated a good jam session getting interrupted, this interruption was very welcomed. A t-shirt came crashing through the window, bearing a message that Cassius’s friend actually did hear their plea for help! 

“Teach? I didn’t know they were a student of yours. How old is this kid?” Elora remarked, picturing themselves being rescued by some teenaged kid. She may have been more comfortable taking her chances in the ghost house. Still, they had come this far, so it was worth a shot to trust them for the time being. 

While Cassius was speaking to them over the line, Elora cut in with “did you bring snacks?”. In spite of their feast on the opening night, she was starving yet again with very little in the way of sustenance. She’d take anything at that point, even hard candies. 

“Oh the house’ll let us out alright. It’ll let us out or I’m burning it to the ground! Hear that you fucker? Let us out!” She shouted at the ceiling, hoping she was heard. If all else failed, threats usually worked well. She heard the foundation settling a few times in quick succession, almost as if the house was letting out a low pitched laugh at her threats. 

Hearing the voice through the radio Lil smiled to herself thinking that she’d have to tell Jude that it did, in fact work. “Awesome! Hey so two people are in there? That’s not bad at all. The times a little concerning though - so well okay I’ve got a plan. I’m going to throw two person-shaped dolls and you’re going to try and get out of that room. I don’t think it’ll let me break open that window again, but I’m going to cause a big distraction on the first floor that should get them to focus on me. I can’t enter unfortunately because it’s absolutely going to try and kill me first. If I confuse it I think you can slip out and it’ll think the dolls are you two.” She paused for a moment pulling out the two life sized dolls she always found weird. They were useful though - something that didn’t help her wanting to throw them into the house. Careful to pull them up to the edge of the foundation she moved back to the talkie, saying, “Right also - whatever you do don’t stop moving once you get out of the room okay? Stick together.” 

 At the question of snacks Lil couldn’t help but chuckle and said, “I’ve got snacks.- Also he was my teacher a while ago. I’m not a kid. Let me know when you both are ready, and I’ll start terrorizing the house. ” Pulling out the baseball bat in her trunk as well as some baseballs she waited. 

Cassius nodded his head slowly as Lil explained her plan. He looked to Elora to see if she was ready to do this and then nodded his head a bit quicker when she scrambled to her feet. “You want us to move to the first floor by the door? Another window?” He asked the walkie, brows furrowing as he sought out clarification. He thought about how no one had likely noticed he had gone missing. He thought about how he had a date with Lukas that he’d missed, and he hadn’t been able to tell him that he was stuck in this stupid house. He thought of Zofia whom he was actively trying to help, and how she was probably confused as to where he went. At least she had Richard with her. Man, his life was a mess. He shouldn’t have decided to do this. But still, he had an inkling that Elora would have done it anyway, so he didn’t want her to have gone through this completely by herself.

He looked to Elora, who seemed confused that the girl rescuing them could be a teenager. “I’m older than I appear,” he said vaguely. She knew what he was, so he didn’t feel the need to clarify. He looked down at the stupid suit the house had made him put on, thinking for a moment about going for the clothes he had changed out of. “I can’t leave my boots behind,” Cassius gritted out as he made his way to the bedroom where they had changed. The door slammed itself shut as he went to walk into the room, and he growled. “I’ve had those boots for years, I’m not leaving them here!” He yelled at the house, pulling on the doorknob before knowing he’d have to give them up and buy another pair. Now this was personal, he’d lost his favorite shoes.

“Oh, okay well…it’s a good thing you kept in touch with your high school history teacher! I know most people don’t but in this case it’s really bailing us out!” Elora cheered internally when the girl on the other end of the line mentioned that she brought snacks for them. “So our plan is to piss off the house so bad that it forgets about us? Seems…sketchy. But I’m willing to try anything to get me out of this damn dress.” she said, pulling at the collar of her ball gown. These things were really only meant for light dancing over the course of a few hours, not to be worn for a full night of manual labor. The heat was really starting to get to her, to the point where she found herself longing for the icy chill of a fall night in Maine to greet her when she finally made it past the front door. 

“Oh leave the damn boots, Cassius! We gotta move!” She shouted backwards as she found Cassius had stopped to try and retrieve his old clothes. She had to admit, his clothes certainly looked more expensive than hers, but he also probably had the means to buy more if he needed to. Now definitely was not the time to make any delays or draw attention to themselves while Lil was trying to make a distraction. It was now or never. 

“I just hope she’s able to pull this off. We’ve only got one shot at this”, Elora said over her shoulder to Cassius 

“Probably the door. The house is interested in you guys staying in - will probably let you through a door easier.” She couldn’t help the laugh, knowing that Cassius probably wasn’t happy that he was having to call the exorcist. She wasn’t exactly a terror in his class specifically - but she was a delinquent in the truest sense of the word. 

Still, she waited in position carefully avoiding the foundations of the house knowing that it was going to try and kill as soon as she started. Luckily though the door was easily pulled without going onto the foundation of the property her feet solidly on the yard as she counted to three.  Pulling the door of the house it swung open eerily  and gritting her teeth she pulled the door knob shouting in “Get a move on -” before throwing the first doll in. The door snapped shut barely missing Lil’s fingers as she rolled her eyes. Giving it another second and pulling her shirt over her hand she pulled it open again - “Ha fucker I knew you’d make it hot,” She muttered throwing the other doll in. 

Getting back onto the radio and flipping the bat back up she said, “Dolls are in. I suggest moving it as I start breaking things.” 

With that she put down the walkie on the sidewalk and picked up the bat, throwing a ball in the air and then hitting it to a second story window next to the one she had broken. Lil just hoped the cops weren’t on the way as she went again. 

Cassius gave one last glance toward the bedroom where his boots were, then hung his head. He’d have to resign himself to getting another pair of boots. He shook his head as he forced his feet to continue moving towards the exit of the house, keeping in stride with Elora. He listened as Lil spoke over the walkie-talkie, frowning. It was definitely strange to have to resort to someone he once saw as a student who didn’t put much effort forth in class. Turns out that would end up saving his life one day because she knew stuff like this. “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but thank you for not paying attention in class and learning about weird supernatural shit.” He spoke into the walkie-talkie before pocketing it. 

Lil gave her warning, and the pair were positioned by the front door. It was the door to the backyard, one that was overgrown and long forgotten by the outside world. For a moment, he almost felt bad for the house. Not bad enough. Windows started shattering after Lil threw the dolls in. The house was distracted, it was now or never. Cassius put a hand to the metal doorknob, and it was burning to the touch. He pulled his hand away with a hiss, then forced himself to grab hold of it again and yank the door open. 

The house seemed to creak and groan in protest as Lil continued her rampage. Cassius gave one last glance to Elora before gripping the woman’s hand and hurrying out the back door. They were in the backyard. They were outside. The vampire looked around in bewilderment, unsure if he was believing what he was seeing. He heard the glass continuing to shatter, and the backdoor flung itself shut with a loud bang. “Let’s… get the fuck out of here.” He suggested to Elora. “Lil, we’re out. Get out of here, and I’ll reach out for a way to repay you.” He spoke over the walkie-talkie. “The last thing we need is to get caught by the cops.” He added before rushing out of the backyard and into the front yard. 

Lil snorted at the idea that she didn’t pay attention much in class. It was true enough, but a weird thing to bring up now. After all, more people would have been fucked if she had paid attention in most of her classes. Her bat still swinging, she let some of the frustrations of the past few months go as she kept the breaking happening. There was some catharsis in the actions as she felt the anger of the house itself. Getting closer to the house she started just smashing the bottom windows feeling the angers seething in the house as it tried to grab the obnoxious girl. Moving back slightly and raming the bat in again she managed to avoid the fate laughing in almost a bitter way. 

Who needed therapy, when you could break down houses after all. Still after a moment she heard Cassius over the radio again and with one last smirk she smashed a final hole into the window. 

“Rodger Rodger, I’m going southbound so probably go north. Cops aren’t usually very quick, but the neighbors did see me and they will be here in ten based on my description. Larry is going to have a field day with me, but should let me go. Liked my mom back in the day -  don’t get stuck in any more houses now you two.” Lil said into the walkie talkie letting the others escape was most of the mission today. She’d have to come back to set the building on fire, burn it to the ground and somehow destroy the foundations. She’d probably ask Alan if he could demo the house - although it would probably cost her.  Still, today wasn’t the day to do that as she could already see lights in the neighborhood light up.  Instead she bolted back to her car swinging the bat to the back before climbing into the car. She should have said that it wasn’t necessary to pay her but well, she might need a favor eventually.

Through all the breaking glass and explosions, Elora felt a strong sense of calm and relief as she and Cassius finally exited out of the house. After two days stuck playing house with a relative stranger from the coffee shop, she was finally out and able to live her own life again. First order of business would have to be running home and changing out of that ball gown. She could only hope Mack wouldn’t make fun of her too harshly for her antiquated fashion choices. 

“Wait up! I can’t exactly run quick in this!” Running from the cops wasn’t something foreign to Elora, but she usually had sneakers and jeans on. She also didn’t have increasingly large goo puddles to dodge. If push came to shove, she could use her abilities to get out of trouble with the law, but only as an absolute last resort.

Of all the places in the world, Luis would not have expected something like this to be where he found a sense of refuge. But it certainly held a fitting atmosphere on those nights when he couldn't manage to fall asleep. The later night hours he'd hoped brought fewer regular human stragglers. 

In any case, the clientele he saw most often had little issue with the low light. For his own part, Luis kept to the bare minimum that he'd hoped would help him fit in - his eyes a vibrant amber to allow him to see perfectly well, his canines longer and sharper, though he didn't make much of a show of them. Staying fully human for too long left him restless, whether he liked it or not. It felt wrong. 

But it was always a risk to shift where people could clearly see him.

Not that it was less of a risk at the Masque of the Red Eye. But it was one of few places where he’d been bold enough to shift at all in Wicked’s Rest. It’s what drew him back here.

Granted, Luis wasn't that frequent of a customer, at least from his own perspective, but he'd certainly found himself seeking the broody atmosphere for company more these past few months.

The balam would always sit off to the corner, having brought either papers of his own to scrawl on, or borrowing a book or two the establishment offered. He only stayed for a couple hours most nights he showed up - he still needed to try for some sleep.

That was the habit for his visits now, though he always remained wary of standing out too much, drawing too much attention. If nothing else, he was certain the people around him were not balam themselves. It would still be a danger to be caught and figured out for what he was.

And considering that he'd found himself being stared at every so often these days, he was probably not fitting in as well as he had hoped. Staring back probably wasn't helping, now that he thought of it, lowering his head to stare down at the table instead.

Masque of the Red Eye was an establishment that Cassius knew well. Whether it be grading assignments or writing in his book, the coffee shop felt like a second home to him. It also helped that the vampire looked like he blended in with the place too, with his black on black apparel and piercings galore. Whether the baristas liked him being there was a different subject entirely, he rarely spoke past pleasantries and small-talk to really find out. After he got his order, he shuffled himself off to a table against the wall with his folder of papers tucked under his arm and a red eye in the other. 

Noting the other patrons for a moment, he let his eyes graze over his surroundings. A quiet evening, he noticed the man in the corner looking around from person to person, as if searching for something. Or thinking about how many cups of coffee he could get away with drinking because boy did he look tired. Deciding to be a bit of a nuisance once the man looked his way, Cassius stared back, raising an eyebrow before he quickly put his head down. He was unsure if caught the stare or not, but shrugged, finally opening the folder he had laid out in front of him, staring at the words on the students paper for a long moment before finally reading it, taking a sip from his drink as he worked. He raised his head to look at the stranger in the corner again, then back down to the paper in front of him, briefly wondering how long he could bore a hole into the table, right now it seemed more exciting than grading.

Once he’d averted his attention, Luis had taken to fidgeting idly with a pen to keep himself occupied. Nevertheless, whether it was animal instinct, a paranoia born out of having stayed up too long, or simply boredom that tempted him to look back up, he wasn’t sure. Though the sense of indignation he felt at the thought of a jaguar feeling stalked may help narrow it down.

Penning down his thoughts, plain or poetic, he’d found and expected to be helpful, yet the page sat blank, save for a couple small lines and dots made accidentally. Fatigue weighed him down, just enough to make the idea of putting down words undesirable to start, yet not enough to make him sleepy.

Once again, that had his attention turning to the other patrons, incidentally catching the same one looking his way another time. That may as well have been enough evidence to assume a mutual interest by. Several moments later, Luis stood up and approached the blonde, showing far less reluctance than he felt.

“Luis. Pleasure to meet you... Looks like both of us are looking for a distraction here.”

It was as good an introduction as any. If he wanted to talk, he’d talk. If not, Luis could always just return to his own seat or make his way elsewhere.

Now up close, while the balam had worn black pants and a similarly dark denim jacket, underneath the latter a plaid shirt was clearly visible, sharply contrasting with its green and bright yellow pattern.

Usually Cassius was better at ignoring strange behavior, especially in a coffee shop like this one, but sometimes he also felt a need to be as nosy as possible. His nosiness reached a point, and that point was when the man decided to make himself at home by walking right up to him and speaking with him. 

Today, the vampire was dressed in black slacks, dress shoes, and a black button down dress shirt. He still had his work bag with him, with essays to grade now placed onto the table. His long hair was tied back into a small bun to get it out of his face. As the stranger spoke, Cassius placed his hands over the papers, as if protecting them from harm.

“Well Luis, most people don’t look around a place like they’re casing the joint,” he responded, brow raised in suspicion. “Don’t suppose someone looking to rob a place would introduce themselves though, so I suppose you’re off the hook for now.” He flashed a brief smile, one that didn’t quite reach his eyes. “Cassius.” he finally introduced, turning his attention to his coffee and taking a drink from it as he eyed the stranger he now knew as Luis.

The evident protectiveness over the papers was noted, though only really drew Luis' attention and curiosity towards them. It made sense to want to know what there was to be so closely guarded about, no?

Barring querying into that, the first question that danced in the forefront of the balam's mind was to ask what someone was doing out here at a late hour.

Needless to say, he had his doubts on how wise that would be to pursue.

"Oh, no, no. I'm well enough off without having to steal. Especially from a place like this. Legal trouble aside, it would suck to get banned."

It was at least a relief to know that even if he'd seemed suspicious, it was at least not his species that drew attention. He could live with people quietly assuming he might be a thief if that was all it was.

Having missed the signs the smile he'd been given was likely fake too, Luis had already drawn a conclusion that Cassius seemed quite nice. He mirrored the smile back, to make himself hopefully more pleasant in turn. The tips of his canines just barely poked out from under his lip once he did.

"If you'd rather I leave you to your papers, let me know. But, hey, if talking things through helps you focus? Or work? I'm all ears. What are you up to, anyhow?"

Cassius nodded his head slowly as the stranger he now knew as Luis spoke, feeling a little better knowing he wasn’t truly casing the joint. Not that he would have succeeded, There were enough people in here that he wouldn’t last. 

As Luis returned the smile, much more friendly than his own, Cassius realized he wasn’t about to get out of this situation that easily, nor was he about to blatantly tell the polite man, however much he believed he should be sleeping instead of the shop so late at night, to leave him be. 

Noticing the sharp canines proved interesting for Cassius, as most people usually didn’t have teeth like that. Sure, he had his own, but he had the luxury of being able to hide his away. Unsure what to make of this information, he filed it away for later. 

TIlting his head back and forth, he weighed his options on how easy it would be to tell the man toi simply mind his business and leave him to his work, but he just couldn’t. He didn’t like being blatantly rude unless the situation absolutely warranted it, and this one didn’t. “I’m a history teacher, and I’m trying to finish grading these papers that my students wrote.” He explained, tapping a pointed black fingernail to the now uncovered papers. “They’re on Ancient Greece, most of them chose to write about the Hellenic religion, but that’s on me giving them creative freedom.” He shrugged a shoulder, as if this had happened to him before.

Pleased by the fact he'd found a willing conversation partner, Luis quietly invited himself to sit down opposite of Cassius, though leaning back to maintain distance.

It would be weirder to just be standing there, wouldn't it?

"I would say it sounds interesting, but it does sound like it gets repetitive quickly. Especially with teaching largely the same thing every year, right? Have you tried telling students that if they want to work on the same topic they have to collaborate and make it together, or make it so only one student can pick a topic and it's first come?"

He could see positives to the idea of being a teacher too, of course. There were lots of people to be meeting, and that meant lots of different experiences and perspectives that might colour their work. It seemed like it gave the opportunity to share your own passion and research with people. Then again, to his own mind, almost any job seemed fascinating in its own right.

He just needed to space out any questions he might have.

Hands tucked into his pockets, Luis' mirrored smile had faded out to the usual neutral, eyes on Cassius more so than the newly uncovered papers. 

Cassius watched with a blank expression as the Luis sat across from him, realizing that it was going to happen sooner or later, so he just accepted it instead of saying he wanted to be alone. Which, wasn’t entirely true. Sometimes it was nice to talk to someone, even if he didn’t know a lot about them. At least it wasn’t awkward small talk anymore.

He nodded his head as the other spoke, letting out a sigh as he decided the grading wouldn’t be happening that night, not that his heart was really in it at that current moment anyway. “I usually would make them choose a topic no one else picked, but these are freshman students, and I really don’t expect as much from them as I do from my AP students,” he explained with a wave of his hand. 

Picking up his cup, he took a long drink from his Red Eye (extra red, of course). Closing his eyes for a moment before finally returning the cup to the table in front of him. “I’m something of a night owl, which is why I’m out so late,” he began with a tilt of his head, suddenly curious. “But why is it you’re out so late? Can’t sleep?”

To hear the question he’d avoided asking now having been flung his own way caught Luis just a bit off guard for the moment. He’d thought himself fitting in with a fabled supernatural crowd here.

But now that he thought about it, he hadn’t noticed fangs when it came to his companion either. The realisation alone was plenty to make him self-conscious enough to hide and un-shift his own set for the time being and hope to not have already been noticed.

No fangs, no vampire, right? It was vampires that the place was supposedly extra popular with, right?

By the time Luis remembered to actually answer the question, an awkward silence had lingered from him for several seconds. Enough to give the impression he intended to ignore the question probably.

“Oh. You could say that. ‘Can’t sleep’… Is it true that teachers play favourites with students? Seemed to be a thing you’d always hear about while in school or in college with professors, but it’s not that easy to prove.”

Cassius watched Luis carefully, unsure at what point it was socially acceptable to bid him good night and be on his way. He didn’t want to offend the stranger, but at the same time he felt deeply uncomfortable with small talk. Maybe if he flashed his red eyes and fangs the guy would – no, that’s a stupid idea. He shook his head, as if shaking out the strange thoughts that swirled through his mind. 

“Do I play favorites? No.” He answered simply, tone monotone. “No offense to most of my students, but they’re not exactly the most thrilling of subjects.” He shrugged a shoulder, thinking back for a moment. 

“Sometimes if I notice a student has a crush, I’ll sit them next to them. That’s about as far as it goes.” Cassius thought back to all the years he had taught, and it made him wonder how many more years he could keep doing the same thing year after year. “When you’ve done it for as long as I have, you have a tendency to not get attached to students anymore.” He explained, waving a hand in the air as he spoke. 

Luis found himself nodding idly along with the answer. The logic did follow. If he thought about it, having a favourite student was something like having a favourite regular customer for himself, right? Others might have them, but there's no actual reason to.

"That does make sense. How long have you been teaching?"

Fully prepared to go on with questions ad nauseam if not stopped, Luis didn't look too intent on leaving any time soon.

That was until he felt his phone start to vibrant insistently in his pocket. There was no need to look in order to know it was an alert meant to keep him from staying out too long.

"Oh, sorry. It looks like I need to go. Thank you for the chat! Maybe we'll run into one another again sometime, yeah?"

He excused himself, getting back up quickly lest he find himself stalling for however long instead of leaving, and went back to gather his few things together seconds later. 

Cassius blinked as the man left as soon as he had come, finding himself wondering what he had been doing in the first place. Oh right, grading. He looked back down at his papers he was working on, then to the space Luis had been in. What a curious fellow, was all Cassius could think before closing his folder. Deciding to be done for the night and follow suit with the man suddenly leaving, packing up his things and making for the door.

When you’d lived for as long as Sofie Du Pont had, some things became a habit after a while. For example; she’d been wearing the same perfume for the last one hundred two years, she wore her hair up in a twist more often than not, and at least once a week she would treat herself and go out to dance. The last one had become a habit in more recent years, when she’d had very little to enjoy. She had lost everything she had known for centuries, and yet, some things did not change. Just because the life she knew was gone, the steps to a waltz or a foxtrot hadn’t magically changed into something else. The music stayed. The dizzying, thrilling feeling of being alive remained when she twirled around a dance floor with some stranger. 

The need for habit had driven Sofie to look for some place to dance in the strange little town of Wicked’s Rest. Luckily, she’d come across Dance Macabre just a few days after stumbling into town.She wasn’t incredibly fond of music after the latter half of the twentieth century, but she’d come to learn she couldn’t afford to be picky. If it had a beat, she let it sweep her up in the rhythm, and danced however she damned well pleased. 

Which was exactly how she’d found herself off on the corner of the dance floor, dancing to a new song with steps from a different time. She didn’t know the name of the song blaring through the speakers, but she did know that it was similar enough in tempo to the minuets she had danced to when she was a newly made creature. So alone Sofie twirled in the corner of the room, so far removed from home and her own time, and yet determined to maintain some semblance of normalcy.

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Having a habit of moving places every few years, Cassius found himself in a rut. Every weekend he’d shuffle out of the crypt he kept himself in and would frequent the local club. Whether that was to find an innocent enough victim or to truly just enjoy the scene depended on the night. Tonight, however, he wasn’t all that sure what his plan was. More frequently than not, he found himself growing bored. Bored of the same routine, bored of the constant moving around to save face. But this night club let him have a moment away from that. As routine goes, he wore his best pair of black leather pants with his trusty pair of platform Doc Martens and a plain black shirt with a leather jacket thrown over it. Spikes adorned the shoulders, of course. Couldn’t leave without some spikes. 

Now Cassius wasn’t much of a dancer, more of an observer when it came to Dance Macabre. Not that he couldn’t, more that he never really was interested enough in the crowd most of the time. From the live beating hearts of the local alternative crowd to the other undead that frequented the establishment, it began to feel like home to him after the first round of visits. The bar was a help, of course. Nothing like a spiked type O- in a glass to really get him warmed up. 

There was a curious member of the club tonight, standing out amongst the crowd on the dance floor. Cassius had  never seen someone twirl around to darkwave before. He watched the footwork, beginning to compose a poem in his head as he continued to blatantly stare at the woman. It was almost a breath of fresh air, in a way. After all, he danced to the beat of his own drum, who was he to stop her from dancing to the beat of her one-person waltz? Fuck it, Cassius thought to himself as he swept himself over to her, quickly stepping into rhythm with her dance, taking her hand and spinning her around. “Can’t say I see many people ballroom dancing in a nightclub,” he spoke to the woman, an amused grin playing across his face. 

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There was something so soothing in the repetition of the steps, that Sofie found herself lost in her own little world. How many years had she danced like this, in gilded ballrooms, in resplendent gowns. One, two, three. In dance halls after the world had been at war, and everyone was far too happy to celebrate. One, two, three. In candle light, in the middle of the night; from string quartets to big bands. Everything else may have changed; she may never chat with Seraphine again about the opera, or dance with Henri in a place such as this, or crack a bottle of Cheval Blanc with Adrien to pair with the blood they drank. Everything else may have been irreparably changed, but the steps always stayed the same. 

But then something did change. A hand found hers, another finding her waist after twirling her around. A surprised laugh left her like some desperate bird fleeing the cage of Sofie’s reverie. She snapped her eyes up to see who’d fallen in step with her. They were taller than her. Clad in black and spikes and leather. And yet, they fell gracefully into the dance with her. A radiant smile lit up the vampire’s face, her eyes crinkling at the corners. Maybe some changes were welcome ones…

She let the stranger lead her in the dance, her steps never faltering. Sofie cocked her head to the side. “Well, I can’t say many people join in. I’m usually left to my own devices. But you dance beautifully…” She trailed off, her voice lifting at the end of the sentence in search of a name. 

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It had been so long since Cassius last danced, it had been back when men went off to war to fight in the Great War, back when they had to move around more frequently to keep up appearances and avoid suspicion. It had been his sire’s idea, of course, all ideas were. It was like he blinked and he could remember every detail. “Go ask the dame to dance,” Richard had told him, nudging him in the side. That was back in the fashion of dress shirts tucked into high-waisted pants. Back when swing dancing and the foxtrot was the big craze. He mentally shook his head, snapping back to the present moment. 

He felt safe in the club, knowing most of the clientele were of the undead variety like himself. That his dance partner he has chosen was like him. “Cassius,” the vampire responded in kind, flashing a brilliant toothy smile. “Can’t say I’ve seen you here before. And believe me, I would have noticed.” It had been a while since he last let himself get carried away and enjoy himself, let his existential boredom drift away. He kept up his footwork with the woman, letting the days of his mother’s insistence that he learn how to dance drift back into him. “How to woo a woman,” she had called it back in the day. He inwardly rolled his eyes at the thought, thankful the times had changed. 

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Cassius. Sofie smiled to herself. A good name. An old name. Not many parents named their children anything interesting after the twentieth century. Even Sofie’s name was relatively common, for as old as she was. She wanted to know more. “I’m fairly new to town. I only found this place a few nights ago. Are you sure you don’t say that to all of the girls?” She teased, raising a playful eyebrow. 

She let him lead her through the dance, thinking less about the steps now that there was someone to dance with. The music and dance should have been at odds, but there was a strange grace to it. They simply worked together. The music was from a time in her existence that Sofie didn’t care to recall, but it still fit together like some long forgotten puzzle piece. Perhaps not everything was bad back then. 

“And who exactly are you, Cassius?” She asked, her eyes alight with curiosity. “Not many people fall perfectly into step in a dance hardly anyone does anymore. Especially not to this music.”

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It was rare that Cassius was this bold. It was rare that he talked to people here, let alone danced with them. There was something about her, he decided, that spoke to him. A kindred soul, in a way he couldn’t quite place. “New in town?” He echoed, now understanding why he hadn’t seen her before. “Well you chose a rather special place to take up residence,” he mused with a smirk. He knew full-well what lurked in the shadows of this town, good and bad. He wasn’t sure what it was, but something drew people like him here. One of the better places he had lived so far. Maybe it was something to do with the waterfront view, it's hard to get tired of that. He shook his head as he finally reopened his eyes, plastering a smile onto his face as he turned his attention back to his dance partner and stepped in a way that they moved away from the little scene that had been created.

Cassius felt a little goofy dancing the way they were to the music playing. Still, he let himself have fun with it and enjoy himself. Of course he enjoyed the darkwave music that blasted through the speakers, it was an offshoot of the music he had grown to love. There was something about the rhythm and movement that it held, slow, but still had a kick to it. The dark tones that still held a way to dance and lose yourself in. 

“Who am I? We’ll isn’t that quite the loaded question from someone who hasn’t told me her name,” Cassius pointed out with a raise of his brows. Still, he answered anyway. “I… guess you could say I’m a bit of an old soul, and about as old as I feel.” He couldn’t help but laugh inwardly at himself, maybe that wasn’t the best thing to say. He opened his mouth to say more, but turned his head as he heard the shattering of a glass at the edge of the dancefloor, watching as the patron went to pick it up and cut themselves on it in the process. Usually he could cover himself up better, but he had come to the club under the specific urge to get something to drink at the bar, thirstier than he normally let himself be. The smell of the blood hit him, and for the briefest of moments, his eyes flashed red, almost breaking his dance with the woman to move towards it, but instead quickly shut his eyes as he worked on bringing himself down. Hopefully she hadn’t seen it. He prayed she hadn’t seen it.

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She couldn’t quite tell what had made her pick up and head North. Maybe she’d heard about the town in passing, or that she saw the name and thought there would be a certain level of irony for a creature of the night to live in a town with a name like Wicked’s Rest. Or maybe she had simply looked at a map and figured that Maine was as good a place as any to hide and try to start over. Any slayer who had done their due diligence on the Du Pont’s and the Fleur de Sang wouldn’t have thought to look for them outside of a major hub of culture. And yet, there Sofie was. Dancing with a stranger in town in Maine of all places.

Sofie shrugged, an impish gleam flashing in her eyes. “I’m nosy. It can’t be helped.” She knew full well she hadn’t given him her name. She was used to this approach for no other reason than the simple fact that it was easier. She’d always loved to talk about life, the experiences she’d had, and finding out what others had seen and done. But that worked better when she was surrounded by other vampires. In the decades she’d been alone, she’d learned that if she could avoid turning the conversation to her, the questions of where she was from or what her family was like might not turn up. It spared her an awful lot of panic from not knowing what to do when she had to take action.

“Is that so?” She asked. It was an intriguing answer, but she’d met plenty of self professed old souls over the years that were exactly as old as they appeared. Time would tell if this was the case with Cassius. Her thoughts were interrupted when a glass shattered somewhere across the room. If she’d turned her head a quarter of a second sooner, she might have missed the color his eyes turned before he shuttered them to the world. And then she smelled the reason why, and she knew her eyes had gone from their human looking warm brown to the deep red that told the world what she really was. She looked up at him cautiously, a fang poking out as she attempted a smile. “Well in that case, you can call me Sofie.”

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Cassius let out a soft chuckle at her admission, shaking his head as took a moment raise his arm and twirl her around once. “I suppose that makes two of us.” A playful smirk hung on his face as he leaned conspiratorially. 

“People can say they’re not nosy but they’re lying.” He nodded his head with a mock-serious expression as he pulled his head away from her. 

That was one of Cassius’s biggest problems when it came to sticking around for too long, people wanted to learn about you. Neighbors bringing over cookies as an attempt to peak inside his space, accusations him of being too recluse from others. Still, the almost determined boredom he seemed to cling to was beginning to crack, he hadn’t stuck around anywhere for as long as he’d stayed in Wicked’s Rest. Partially because he kept up a weak hope that his sire would find him. No, he thought to himself, physically shaking the thought away from his head as if a bug had landed on him. 

When he saw her fanged smile returned to him, he felt a sigh of relief wash over him. Dumb luck seemed to side with him today, but he now knew better than to let himself act like that again. “Well it’s a pleasure to meet a kindred spirit, Sofie. Welcome to Wicked’s Rest.” Cassius spoke as the song ended, taking a step back to give her a flourished bow with a smirk, playing it up a little bit. 

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Her hand that was entwined with Cassius’ lifted above her head as he let her twirl. It was so easy to think of all the times she’d twirled just like this, in gowns far more beautiful than the simple camel-colored sweater dress she wore that evening. Though she did have to admit, it was far easier to dance like this without having to worry about stepping on her bustle. She spun back to see the smirk that lingered on his lips, and Sofie grinned.

That grin only grew when she caught the glint of a fang in his smile. Sofie had made the right choice to come to this town. It had only been a few weeks and she’d met two vampires already. As the dance ended and Cassius bowed to her, Sofie had to admit to herself she rather liked this kind of welcoming committee. She swept herself into a curtsy more befitting of a duchess in a ballroom than of a young woman in a nightclub. 

“I suppose I was asking the wrong question, then.” Her voice dropped slightly. They were still in mixed company, and she didn’t want to risk some human who wandered in overhearing. “The correct question would be when did you learn to dance like that? And for a follow up question, would you care for a drink?”

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He nodded slowly as she reworded her question to him. “Back when I was growing up, my mom thought she could make me dance my way into higher society.” Cassius chuckled at the fragmented memory, how desperate his mother would get when he would skip to run around the train tracks with the neighbor boys. Kids were a lot more easily entertained back then, even when the play was noticeably more dangerous. “Turns out our interests weren’t aligned,” he added with a shake of his head.

It wasn’t lost on Cassius that he had been rather stupid to be so open and honest about who he was with a complete stranger, but there was something about her that just screamed at him to trust her. That maybe, for but a moment, being alone wasn’t such a bad idea, that knowing that another undead could be somewhat relieving. For the second time that night, he found himself thinking the words “fuck it.”

“A drink, I don’t see why not. I’ll buy, since I’m the one who decided to barge into your one-woman waltz. Which, by the way, was rather impressive.” Cassius found it easy to talk to the woman, usually it took some warming up before getting into the ability to talk to people, let alone make such moves on one. He leaned to talk to her as he walked over to the bar. “You’ll find that they serve our kind here.” He murmured to her before standing up straight once more. “I’ve found that despite everything, it’s easy to be myself here.”

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That was a story that sounded all too familiar to Sofie. Zofia Kowalska didn’t have anything going for her, so she’d dragged herself up to the top and sacrificed whatever she needed to become something more than just a ladies maid. Including sacrificing Zofia. Sofie had no regrets about the choices she had made, only that she didn’t know that even after she gave everything up for something new, she would lose that too. Her eyebrow raised slightly and the end. “No interest in dancing, or in high society?” A touch of that long out of practice Polish crept into her voice. Maybe her new companion would think her a fool. She tried not to fuss too much.

And it did seem that way for a moment. That she’d stumbled into something so wonderfully familiar as having someone to talk to, and mucked it up instantly. That no longer present heartbeat of a moment where she thought he’d politely turn her down and wander off into the night, and Sofie would be left alone again. And then he agreed.

Company, Sofie had found, was something to live for. The little conversation and moments where she wasn’t alone with her things and her thoughts in silence. So the smile that lit up her face was a thank you, whether or not her new friend realized it. A huff of a laugh left her. “I found once I reached a certain age, I no longer gave a damn if it looked silly if I danced alone. Even for all the time in the world, life is too short to not dance. And while I do enjoy dancing alone, it’s always preferable to have someone to dance with. Thank you for joining me.” She looked up at him as he leaned in to pass along the nightclub's little secret. Her smile turned conspiratorial. “You weren’t kidding about this town being a special place.”

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Cassius twisted up his face as he thought for a moment, then shook his head. “Not for me anyway. But if that’s what you like, I think I’d give it a shot.” He smiled at her as they sidled up to the bar, hoping he hadn’t offended her tastes too much. “I find that finding what you love and sticking to it to be admirable.” He gestured to his clothes, piercing, and eyeliner. “Clearly I’ve found something that works for me in my own right.” He tapped a finger to his nose piercing with a wink. “Maybe you could teach me sometime. I’ve always wanted to try high tea. Maybe a wild ballroom dance party now and then could be fun. I’ll have to dust off my dancing shoes, though.”

There was something about Sofie that Cassius found endearing. There was no reason to be anything but her authentic self. He was so used to letting himself be alone, and before that, dictated by what his sire thought they should do. Thinking for himself, doing something for fun rather than necessity. It was still foreign to him to break a routine and not feel like something has gone wrong. Sofie, though? She didn’t seem afraid of that at all. “I think there’s a lot I could learn from you and your ability to dance like no one’s watching,” he decided with a sincere smile as he held her gaze. “I’m glad I decided to take that chance and be your dance partner tonight. It was fun, and different from what I always do, which is wallflower. A terrible habit, I know. 

He grinned to her, nodding as he ordered himself a bloody mary, giving a knowing look to the bartender so he knew. As long as he had been in Wicked’s Rest, Cassius still wasn’t sure enough of the etiquette of how to order without being obvious. They needed a secret wink or something. “There’s more than meets the eye, that’s for sure. With that crack from the mines, I feel that’s more prevalent than ever.” 

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Sofie studied his face carefully as he took a moment to collect his thoughts. She was almost certain if she still could, she’d be blushing. “I think it suits you.” Her eyes flickered over his features, assessing everything he’d done to his appearance to make him more himself. The image of him sitting for tea or attending a ball didn’t seem to fit with the image he presented, but she would be more than happy for the company. “Balls are only boring if you invite the wrong people.” She could recall parties that had lasted into the small hours of the morning, and the feeling of so much joy that she felt as though she’d never come back down again.

Her gaze softened. Sofie hadn’t been expecting such a sincere compliment. “It would only be terrible if you never danced at all, especially if you’d rather be enjoying your time. Lucky for you, I think you have some time to break yourself of that particular habit.”

She raised two fingers and wiggled them at the bartender, indicating she’d have the same. She didn’t have any idea how to ask for bloody in this place, so she hoped that would do the trick. Otherwise she might be tempted to go find whoever cut themselves on the broken glass. Sofie focused on Cassius, coaxing her mind away from the thought until it became a dull roar of background noise in her head. “The crack, that’s right.” Her face scrunched up as she tried to piece together what she’d heard over the past few days. “There was an accident, no? It all seems strange.”

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Cassius hummed for a moment as the bartender slid over their drinks to them, taking a sip from it before looking back over to Sofie. “You may be the first one to tell me that,” he admitted, “I appreciate it all the same.” He took another sip from his drink, attention pulled back to his glass. He had a moment of what the fuck am I doing go through his head. In truth, he had no idea how to keep conversations going for this long, and was starting to struggle. He was still used to the crutch his sire held for him, it was almost overwhelming to him, being allowed to form his own thoughts, his own opinions. He cleared his throat, shaking his head of the thoughts. “I imagine balls to be political in nature, at least the ones I grew up around were.” His face turned from that vague panic back to a charming smile, as if nothing had happened. “I don’t think that I’ve ever attended a party that didn’t have some sort of ulterior motive. Then again, I suppose that decision wasn’t up to me.” He shook his head, annoyed that he found a way to bring that man up again.

“I know very simple moves, you’ll have to teach me if you want me to be able to keep up. Didn’t attend enough of those classes, remember?” Cassius reminded her, calling back to earlier in their conversation with a raise of his brows.  “I suppose there’s a certain freedom in dancing. I think I forgot how much I actually enjoyed it.” 

Cassius frowned at the thought of whatever had occurred in the mining accident. The weird black ooze rumors, the talk of strange hermit crabs. “The whole situation is bizarre, I’m not very sure what to make of it quite yet.” He bit the inside of his cheek as he thought of the various rumors that had begun to circulate online. “But on the bright side, there’s a pretty good cash prize if you can design a design of the crack.” 

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She raised her glass in a little salute before taking a sip. Sofie paused with the glass pressed to her lips. “Truly?” Her eyebrows raised in surprise. “Self expression is interesting in any form, fashion included. It’s better than wearing whatever someone else is wearing simply because it is en vogue.” She studied him carefully, his face betraying him for barely a moment. He was a curious one… it might take her some time but she would learn more. “Ah well, yes, those sorts of parties were boring. All of the mama’s vying for their daughters to marry the most eligible bachelors, and all of the business men and soldiers and nobles kissing up to their superiors in the hopes that they might rise above their stations.” She rolled her eyes at the memory of some foppish thing trying to curry her favor sometime in the mid nineteenth century. “Those were dreadful. But the salons? The gatherings of artists and poets and thinkers? The parties with those sorts? Those were a dream. Especially if they had been around for a century or so.”

The vampire grinned. “You’ll have to be patient with me, I’ve never taught before. But I would be more than happy to show you what I know. If I could learn, so can you.” Sofie hadn't even seen the inside of a ballroom until her twenty-sixth year, and by that point she was no longer merely human. It had taken her quite some time to get any good- poor Henri had suffered more than a few crushed toes. Her mouth quirked up at the memory. 

Sofie snorted. “A contest I would be unlikely to win. I collect art, I don’t create it. If I tried it would be one of those stick men children are so fond of.” __________________________________________________________

Cassius thought for a long moment about life back in his home country, how stuffy the Lords and Ladies all seemed to be. “See that’s all that existed in England. Probably still does, to an extent,” he replied to her comment the horrors of such boring parties, if they could even be called that. More like an excuse to network, if he had to decide. “Salons should still be a thing,” he decided with a nod of his head. “It would be nice to be surrounded like-minded people all talking about art.” He couldn’t help but laugh, pointing a finger over to Sofie. “A vampire salon in Wicked’s Rest, now there’s an idea.” He meant it as a joke, but part of him didn’t mind the idea.

He held up a hand, a mock-serious expression on his face. “I’ve spent a very long time teaching students, I can be a very patient student.” Cassius spoke as if it were a vow, a promise of a next time. “Though I can’t say I have a very good dancing space…” he drifted off, thinking about the very real living situation he had. “Yeah, that wouldn’t work.” He chuckled nervously, praying she didn’t ask him to elaborate. How do you explain to a beautiful woman that you live in an crypt? You don’t, that’s what. “I think with your art skill and mine combined, we could rival a kindergartener,” he offered in terms of drawing skill, nodding his head enthusiastically. __________________________________________________________

Sofie’s eyes sparked at the statement. Now that was an idea… what better way to find new vampires than a salon? There had to be more like her, clanless and adrift. That could be a way to make a new start. “That is a brilliant idea. I might have to will this into existence.”

Her eyebrow rose slightly, but she shrugged. “I have a similar problem. When you collect things for three centuries it takes up a lot of room. Though I suppose if I reorganize…” Sofie thought for a moment. “I just might be able to create a suitable classroom.” But something about this sounded familiar. Hadn’t she been speaking to a teacher the other day? Her face bunched up in a scowl as she thought. “You wouldn’t happen to be the teacher with the student who used an internet video as a source, would you?”

“The children in town should watch out then. We clearly have them beat with our artistic prowess.”  __________________________________________________________

Cassius watched as the woman’s eyes lit up at the idea of the salon. “Planning on finding more of us, hm?” He questioned, raising a brow at her. “Well I do hope I get to be included in on this. Maybe finding more of us would be… a bit more exciting, no?” He pulled out his credit card to pay the tab, handing it over to the bartender then turning his attention to her after it was handed back to him. “I may have been,” he spoke before he finished off his drink. “Kiwi bird with laser eyes. If that sounds familiar then yes, that would be me.” He chuckled at the memory, and the horror of finding out the entire situation wasn’t at all made up.

Taking the receipt that was given to him, he filled it out. Then took the second one and began to write on it. “Well Miss Sofia,” Cassius began, sliding to piece of paper to her. “Until next time. We’ll dance again soon, I’m sure of it.” He gave her a small bow, hand pressed to his chest before turning and leaving. __________________________________________________________

“Of course you will be,” Sofie raised an amused eyebrow. “You gave me the idea, so by default you have to be the cofounder. It’s only right.” This was what she had been missing. Company. The corner of her mouth twitched as he beat her to the check. Next time, she vowed to herself, leaving a few dollars on the bar as a tip. “It sounds very familiar. Pleasure to meet you in person.”

Sofie couldn’t remember the last time she’d been on an actual date. Maybe never? At least not in the modern sense of the word. She’d been courted in the past, but it seemed terribly antiquated now. All the chaperones and the chastity and what not. They were vampires for heaven's sake. Surely the need for such formalities had gone the same way as their pulses. It wasn’t as though something as innocent as holding hands or a kiss would set them ablaze. She found she much preferred the modern traditions instead. 

He’d brought her flowers. Flowers. She smiled looking at the orchids as she twisted a corkscrew into a bottle of wine. The petals were a pretty yellow speckled with red, and she thought they brightened up the room beautifully. By the time Cassius was walking her to the door to return her home for the night, she simply wasn’t ready for the evening to end. She wanted to know more. And to not have to talk in coded language in case someone were to overhear. She poured the cabernet into two glasses and handed him his, before perching the sofa with her legs tucked underneath her. “So. Teacher, poet, vampire.” It was so nice to be able to say the word aloud. To not have to skirt around the truth. “What other titles should I give you, Cassius? Other than soon-to-be world renowned dancer.”

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In truth, Cassius had never been on a date before. All he knew of them were what other people told him or what movies and tv shows taught him. It wasn’t really something that he’d done before. He found that it was moments like these were moments where he resented the man that sired him. He waved the thought away as soon as it came on, he wasn’t thinking about that, not now. Just to get the full dating experience, he had treated her to dinner at The Codfather, followed by a movie. He had decided to bring her flowers that had a meaning. That was something he had picked up as a hobby back in the 1880s, something that helped him pass the time and impress his sire with. That’s where a lot of his hobbies had come from. These orchids were yellow, which represented new beginnings, while the red represented romance. He didn’t mind if she didn’t know what it meant, it was just a little touch that brought him some joy. 

Now Cassius found himself in Sofie’s apartment, talking openly about themselves, something he hadn’t expected but welcomed all the same. “I’m just a teacher who writes poetry in his freetime that happens to be a member of the living dead.” He rephrased, shaking his finger at her. “You know my hobbies when I haven’t heard about yours. You’re clearly a dancer, and you said something about an antique shop? Tell me more about that.” He insisted, more interested in learning more about herself than talking more about him.

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She snorted into her wine glass as he shook a finger at her as if her were chastising her. “I’m not certain I would call myself a dancer. I would never get up and perform. I have dreadful stage fright.” Sofie confessed. “I’m fine if it’s a room full of dancing people. No ones watching then. Like the other night, at the club.” She explained. “Well. Maybe not quite like the other night, since it turns out you were watching, but you get the idea.”

“Ah yes, I did mention antiques. I don’t own a shop- if anything, this is my shop.” She waved at the apartment around her. “Almost three hundred and fifteen years worth of stuff.” Or what she still had left of it. She wasn’t sure what had happened to the things she’d left behind in France, when it seemed returning was only a matter of time. She imagined they had been pawned off, or wound up in a museum or archive somewhere. Just another scrap of someone’s history to be observed. And she certainly couldn’t risk going back to get everything when she was on the run. She had made several trips, but picked the pieces she left behind strategically. The things that she couldn’t sell for very much got left behind, except for a few items she couldn’t bear to part with. She realized her expression had drifted into something melancholic and she cleared her throat, sitting straighter. “I’ve hardly enough room for me in here, and old things in good condition can go for quite a sum. So I sell it.” She shrugged, her mouth turning back up into a smile.”Though it is entertaining when people are confused how someone so young acquired so much. One of the downfalls of turning when I was only twenty-six, I suppose. I usually tell them I inherited it from my grandmother.”

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Cassius looked around the apartment, taking in the antiques with more detail. All of it ornate and fancy. “Three hundred and fifteen, huh?” He chuckled before taking a sip from his wine. “Only two hundred and five on me, maybe two hundred six. I stopped keeping count, honestly.” He waved a hand, as if age meant nothing to him. Which, if he stopped to think about it, it really didn’t. Not for himself, anyway. 

He watched as her face fell, it was clear to him that these items mattered to her, which made him question why she would sell it in the first place. Cassius didn’t dare pry, especially since he hadn’t bothered to keep anything of sentimental value from his past. As she sat upright and put on a facade, he knew he had touched on something a bit too personal. “Well your grandmother seemed to have quite the collector’s eye,” he smirked at her, taking another drink of the wine. 

“Well, since I broached a particularly sensitive topic for you, I owe you something in return,” he decided with a smirk. “Ask me anything, I promise to be truthful.” Cassius put up three fingers, giving a mock scout signal. 

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“Only two hundred and six? You missed all the revolutions in the eighteenth century, you poor thing.” She almost envied him. The French Revolution wasn’t exactly the best time for someone who seemed for all intents and purposes to be nobility to live in France. At least it all turned out fine for Sofie. “One of the blessings of what we are, I suppose. We would have been two ships passing in the night otherwise.” And she certainly preferred existing in a world where she could meet people like Cassius. 

Sofie laughed, nodding. “Ah yes. Babcia Zofia left me all of her belongings. I was the most doting of her great great grandchildren.” It was one of the many variations of the tale she told people who ask. 

“It’s not that sensitive, don’t worry.” Her face must have betrayed more than she’d thought. “If it was, I wouldn’t make a business of it.” Not entirely true. If it led back to the life she was accustomed to, there were a great many things in the apartment she’d be happy to part with. Sofie’s smile turned feline. She loved these sorts of things. “I suppose I’ll have to make sure they’re good questions… What is the most interesting event you’ve witnessed over your time on this earth?” She asked for her first question. 

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“Yes, I know. I missed all the good stuff,” he mock-lamented, placing his head in his hands for added dramatic effect. “Shame on me for missing both the English fighting the American colonies and the beheadings in France. Definitely a good time to be alive.”  Cassius shot her an accusatory look, though it was all in good fun. “It’s strange to think about being human, isn’t it? Living out a normal life and passing away of old age at eighty-something.” He took another sip of his wine, thinking for a long moment. “I can’t picture my life any other way anymore.”

He laughed in response to her very real, very believable great great grandmother. “Well she has a beautiful name, almost as beautiful as her doting great-great grandchild, of course.” Cassius gave Sofie an approving nod. 

Her question made him think for a long moment, he had witnessed things, yes. But nothing truly interesting. He stuck to his routines with his sire, rarely aloud out of his sight. “Does learning that vampires exist as I lay dying count?” Cassius asked in earnest, swirling the wine in his glass around as he thought back to his last human moments. “Because if you think about it, vampires being real is pretty interesting.” 

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“Oh it wasn’t all war and beheadings,” Sofie laughed. It had been far too long since she’d been able to speak freely about things such as these. “It was the new ideas- the music! You never got to sit in Vienna at the world premiere of La Nozze di Figaro.” A wistful smile overtook her features at the memory. “What a time.” She nodded slowly in agreement. “I never would have seen as much as I have if I’d stayed as I was… and we wouldn’t be sat here, comparing notes on a combined five centuries.” I wouldn’t be here with you. That’s what she meant to say. But she couldn’t quite make her mouth form the words. Not yet, at least.

Sofie smiled, bashful. It had been a long time since anyone had called the first name she’s had beautiful. She had gone by it occasionally when her little family had traveled abroad for short spans of time to avoid suspicion, but it had been at least a hundred years since she’d used it last. It had been almost as long since someone had last called her beautiful. She was certain that if blood still warmed her veins, it would all be flooding her cheeks in a blush. “She and I both think you’re a flatterer.” 

Her smile faltered slightly. That was the one unfortunate reality to becoming a vampire. You had to be on death's door to become one. It was a touchy subject, and she didn’t want to overstep. “I think it counts… What happened-” She started, before shaking her head. “I don’t mean to pry, I just… How did it happen?”

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He listened to her go on and on about the eighteenth century with a smile on his face.  Cassius truly loved watching people talk about things they were passionate about. There was something in there eyes that lit up when they spoke about it. “Well the most exciting thing I experienced in my growing up was playing on train tracks.” He admitted with a laugh. “Used to think that was the greatest adventure. Definitely nothing like living in the height of luxury like you seemed to.” He shrugged, he didn’t mind that he had missed out at key points of history, he rather preferred to experience new things. Leave the history to the lessons he taught in class. 

Cassius paused for a long moment as she asked that question. The question that he’d never really been asked before. “It was tuberculosis,” he began. “Back then, we called it consumption, as I’m sure you remember.” He took another drink, expression pensive. “I had been living with, who I thought at the time to be nothing more than a human doctor. He worked at the nearby sanitarium. He knew the ins and outs of that disease. Knew the progression, the symptoms.” He stopped, shaking his head. “For the longest time I thought that I really knew him. That I…” he took a deep breath, willing the words to come out. “I loved him. Deeply, and in a moment of desperation, he revealed who he was to me. I was coughing up blood at that point, and he didn’t want to lose me.” He shook his head, expression turning to one of anger for the briefest of moments. “I thought I was delirious, that surely that that must have been it.” He let out a humorless laugh. “When I woke up a day later with a thirst I had never known, I realized that it wasn’t a fever dream.” He finished off his wine, his shaken expression turning to one of indifference. “Your turn, how did it happen?” He then asked, raising a brow to her. It seemed only fair after he admitted something he didn’t let himself think about. 

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Sofie’s teeth caught at the inside of her cheek. It hadn’t always been luxury. It wasn’t something she ever let herself think about for too long. Some days it was easier to pretend she’d always been a DuPont. That she’d never known a life before that. But on the nights she’d sit up and remember, the thoughts of before haunted her almost as much as the thoughts of how it ended. 

Consumption. Her face fell completely. A terrible disease. She’d known of many who’d fallen to it back in those days, but never anyone she’d known personally. It wasn’t as though vampires could catch the illness. As he spoke, she found herself leaning in toward him. She found herself resisting the urge to reach out and out a hand atop his own. And then Cassius said he loved them. This doctor he spoke of. Sofie wasn’t sure she’d ever had a love like that. She’d had dalliances with people over the years… men, women- it made no difference to her. But she didn’t think there had ever been someone so in love with her that they would make her anew, and she didn’t know if she’d ever felt the same. She did know though, that it wasn’t polite to step on other people's toes. Was he still in love with them? She forced her brain to stop spinning out, and when her thoughts had stopped spiraling, Sofie saw that she’d reached out for him anyway. 

And then the question was turned to her, and she wasn’t sure why she was scared to admit how she’d turned. Sofie had never been ashamed of it before. At least she hadn’t thought she’d been. “You’re out of wine,” she said absently, plucking his glass from his hands and hurrying to refill it. Anything for a momentary distraction. But once it was back in his hands she didn’t see much of a choice. Especially since she wanted to keep it fair. “I’m from Poland, originally. Gdańsk. I was the youngest, so I was sent to work. But I never wanted that. I wanted to be the pretty maiden in the fairytale. To ride off into the sunset and live spectacularly…” she took a long sip of her drink. Her tale seemed shallow in comparison. “I was working as a ladies made, and the woman I worked for had guests from France… Seraphine offered to give me more. Everything I had ever wanted. So I accepted her offer. What did I have to lose?”

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Cassius watched as Sofie distractedly went to refill his wine, opening his mouth to stop her, but then let it fall shut again. Maybe he had said too much? No, he had definitely said too much. Mentally kicking himself, he shook his head. Then, she began to tell her side of the story, and he listened in earnest. From maid to storybook fantasy, he couldn’t blame her in the slightest for going after something that seemed so far out of reach in those days. “I can’t say I blame you,” he spoke in response. “Bonus points for not having near as depressing a tail as mine is.” He shook his head, tapping his pointed fingernail against the glass that was in his hand. “As gruesome as the way I went out was, I don’t… I don’t think I would change it.” He confessed, looking over to her finally. “After all, I wouldn’t have discovered the Roaring 20s or watched the world go to war not once but twice.” He scratched the top of his head, a smile on his face. “I wouldn’t have discovered a genre of music that made me feel alive for the first time in over a hundred years.” Wouldn’t have met you, he didn’t say aloud. 

He crossed one leg over the other, deep in thought for a long moment. “If you had asked me ten years ago if I’d be happy to meet another vampire, I’d have told you to get lost.” He admitted, giving a sad smile. “But I like this town, there’s something about it. There’s a lot of weird that goes on but I mean… look at us, we’re vampires.” Cassius gestured to the two of them to emphasize his point. “I guess what I’m trying to say in a drawn-out way, is that I’m glad that everything fell into place so that we could meet.” He looked away for a moment, slightly embarrassed. “I do mean that,” he added as he looked back up to her.

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Sofie’s eyes shot up to meet his. She scanned his face, looking for any sign of reproach and found absolutely none. A tiny sigh left her, and a smile began to tug at her lips once more. “Perhaps we were put in the right place at the right time so the opportunity would present itself. Fate intervening to ensure we could see and enjoy and experience all the things we need to that were too far ahead in the future for us to have gotten to on our own.”

She sat back down next to him, tucking her legs back under her, the little dove her side had dubbed her. She leaned forward to pick up his hand in one of hers, and gave it a gentle squeeze. “I’m glad too.” After a moment, Sofie worried it may have been a bit much, taking his hand. She let him go, folding her hands in her lap.  “I suppose I still have a third question to ask don’t I?” She worried her lip with her fang absentmindedly. One question had been fluttering around her mind like a caged bird demanding to be set free. “And is your heart still his? The doctor who turned you, I mean.”

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Cassius frowned as she pulled her hand away from his, having half a mind to keep squeeze it from retreating, but ultimately decided that he knew better than that. “He left back in the eighties.” He began, making sure to look her in the eyes. “He left without a word. And as far as I’m concerned, is dead. And if he’s not, he’s certainly dead to me.” His eyes held a burning hatred, one that held resentment and hurt. But as soon as it had appeared, it was gone again. “I’ve had a long time to get over it, rest assured.” He couldn’t help the nagging in the back of his head, a nagging that needed to know what had happened to him, what drove him away. “Of course I’d love to know what happened, but… if he wanted to be found, he would be.” The vampire looked away from her for a moment, holding the glass a bit tighter, almost tight enough to break it. “No, to finally answer your question, he does not.” He finally looked back over to her, his grip on the wine glass relenting. “I promise you, I wouldn’t have even danced with you if that weren’t the case.”

He took a drink, one that lasted a bit longer than was appropriate. “In truth, it’s a fair question to ask.” He admitted, running a hand through his hair; a nervous tic. “I’ve found that looking forward is better than letting myself get stuck in the past, as ironic as that is for a history teacher to say.” He paused for a beat before continuing. “I can’t change what happened, nor would I really want to. Because every decision I’ve made has led me to this moment, here with you. I don’t know if that would have been the case had I held on to the hurt he caused.” He let out a mirthless chuckle, shaking his head. “I suppose the mood changed hasn’t it? Apologies.”

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They were so similar in some ways and different in others. They’d both stayed with their sires for years. The relationships there has been vastly different, but both Sofie and Cassius had stayed with them, and they’d both ended up alone. But the fact that someone who had supposedly loved Cassius, had cared for him, and just abandoned him… it didn’t sit right with her. The pain that was in Cassius’s eyes told a story. He had cared for that doctor deeply, and whoever the bastard had been, he’d thrown that love away for whatever reason. If he wasn’t dead and Sofie ever had the displeasure of making his acquaintance, she’d let her distaste be well known. “Good,” her voice was a soft echo in her quiet of her apartment. “I think, even after all that time… especially after all that time, if he would leave you with no explanation, he was never deserving of your love. I’m sorry he did that to you, you deserve better.”

Sofie watched as he raked a hand through his hair once more, strands of it sticking up as they pleased. A crooked grin wormed it’s way across her face, and she reached out and smoothed them back into place, not thinking too much about the action. “If it has, it’s only my own fault for asking such nosy questions. I did warn you, I believe. Ask me anything, it’s only fair, drogi.”

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Cassius didn’t say a lot of things he thought of when thinking about his sire, a name he didn’t dare to speak, didn’t dare to think. Not anymore. He wanted to know what happened to him, it was the reason he had stayed in place for so long, hoping that, just maybe, he would find him. A lot of that hope had been lost after the first year, he stopped caring after ten. While he no longer felt the way he once did, that didn’t mean  that it didn’t hurt any less. All the thoughts he didn’t care to think about, he quickly suppressed to the back of his mind as he always did. Compartmentalizing it for later.

He nearly froze as she let her hand smooth his hair, but quickly composed himself as he looked over to her. Deciding to be bold, he took her hand and let his eyes narrow as he thought up potential questions. “I suppose I could go for the obvious one, but I think I have a better question in mind.” He chuckled, nudging her playfully. “What would you say to another date?” He asked instead, deciding to lighten the mood.

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Cassius’s hand caught hers. She hadn’t been expecting it- foolish of her, since she had crept into his space without checking. It just felt normal. Like she had been fixing his hair for years, and not that this was the first time she’d done it. Sofie did not pull away. Instead, her thumb drew lazy circles against the side of his hand. 

“What would I say to a second date?” She teased. “A whole world of questions to ask, and that is the one at the top of your list?” Sofie grinned. She couldn’t say she blamed him, as it was the only item on the list of ‘important questions to ask before the night was over’. “I would say yes, obviously. Say when and where, and I will be there.”

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Cassius chuckled at Sofie’s response to his question. Sure, he could have asked something juicy, but where would be the fun in that. “It’s a valid question!” He defended, pulling his hand away as if he were offended. With the grin on his face, it was easy to tell he was teasing. The whole idea of finding someone again, someone who just made so much sense for him, it was still foreign to him. Something about it made him feel as if it weren’t something for him to experience, as if he weren’t allowed. But then there she was, someone that kept him on his toes, someone who gave him a reason to come out of his shell, even if only for a brief moment at a time. 

“Alright, my second question.” He started, positioning himself so he could face her. “I suppose I can get a little deeper here, since you did it to me…” he paused again, clearly trying to think of a question. “You’ve talked about being involved in salons and balls and wanting to live a fairytale. What brought you from there to Maine?” He questioned, tone gentle since Cassius knew he was encroaching potentially painful territory for her.

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And there it was. The question with such a complicated answer. “Because it was safe.” She began, her gaze drifting away from his face to somewhere back in another time and place. “The things with dreams- the thing with fairytales is that they end. Because it’s a tale of a fixed point in time. It never talks about what happens after you close the book and set it back on the shelf. No one tells you if the prince really loves Cinderella, or if the faerie ever comes back to bestow another curse on Sleeping Beauty…Or maybe the fairytale ends only to start a new story. And since you’ve grown up and no longer need fairy tales, it’s darker this time. Harder. More complicated.” Sofie blinked, realizing she was sat there answering a straightforward question in metaphors.

“My family” Sofie began again, this time getting to the point of it. “Decided to move for a while to America between the World Wars. Henri- my brother,” She wasn’t sure if there was a better term to call someone who was made by the same vampire, but they had called each other as such their entire lives. “He pushed for us to relocate. So we did. To New Orleans for a time, then up to New York. And it was fine for quite some time. At least we thought it was. Apparently, back home in France, some of our clan were… Going missing. Being caught by hunters more and more frequently. But I didn’t know, I was too busy enjoying what this country had to offer. I suppose whoever it was in France crossed the sea to find the rest of us. And they did. Henri and I ran after they caught Seraphine and Adrien. And then after a while of running, one night Henri just… Didn’t come back. So it was  just me. I drifted for a while, mostly because I wasn’t sure if staying in any one place for a long period of time was wise. But I managed to collect most of my belongings back, as you can see.” She gestured vaguely to the room. “And I started staying in places longer… I don’t know if they’re really after me any longer. And this place seemed as good a place as any.”

Sofie took a silent sip from her glass, punctuating the story. “It’s easier to talk about the early times. People like those stories better. So do I.” It was easier to try and rebuild on the promise of the good times than the threat of danger.

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Cassius listened with rapt attention as she told her story, all the details that pulled at his heart strings. “I’m sorry that happened to you.” He spoke in earnest, taking her hand again and squeezing it lightly, to let her know that he was there. That he meant what he said. “A hunter after your clan is… alarming, to say the least.” He murmured as he took another sip of his wine, staring out in front of him blankly as he collected his thoughts. “They would be glad that you’re honoring the good times you had with them,” he turned to look at her again, expression soft. 

He couldn’t imagine what it would be like to have his found family ripped away from him in such a violent manner. It had always been just him and his sire for as long as he could remember. They never added on to it, always just the two of them. There was a chance that he had been hunted down, but it was hard to know for sure. “I hope for your sake you’re no longer being sought after by whoever did this to your people.” Cassius squeezed her hand again. “And if they are, I’m here to help you however I can.” He vowed, face turning serious. “And if it brings you any solace, you’re not alone. Not anymore.”

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She snorted, amused in a sort of macabre way. “The fact that I was so blissfully unaware is perhaps more alarming.” How she hadn’t noticed so much was going wrong so quickly was still beyond her. Perhaps too much attention was paid to enjoying her lifestyle rather than finding a way to make it sustainable. Sofie smiled sadly, and nodded. “But I thank you for listening.” She laughed this time- a genuine sound. “They’d be more horrified that I’d decided on Maine of all places, but I’m rather pleased with my decision.”

She held on to his hand for a long, silent moment. It was a physical reminder that she wasn’t alone, at least not in that moment. She had never been all alone, not when she was Zofia from Gdańsk, and not when she was living it up in France as Sofie DuPont. She had struggled with being alone more than anything else. So she appreciated the hand to hold, even if it was a temporary one. 

But then Cassius kept talking. Sofie’s eyes shifted back to his, looking for an answer to one final question. Why? Why put himself at risk, knowing that she may very well still have a target on her back. “I…” she didn’t quite know how to respond. He had addressed some of her deepest fears in a single sentence. “You should not put yourself in danger for me. If there is someone still after my clan, they would likely go after you two. I want people, yes, but only if they accept being associated with me may still come with a risk. 

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Cassius hummed, thinking for a moment. “That’s the nice thing about hiding,” he spoke with a smirk. “No one ever suspects Maine.” He then put his wine glass down on the side table, careful to not let go of her hand. “When I was a young vampire I was… a very messy one.” He began to explain. “We moved around a lot to avoid hunters. His logic was you can’t get caught if you never stick around long enough to attract suspicion.” He chuckled to himself, shaking his head. “I think Richard would be more horrified that I dared stick to one place long enough to let myself get caught.” There was a sour tone in his voice when he finally said his sire’s name.

If it had been twenty years ago and Sofie had told him this, he would already have one foot out the door. Something was different for him now. The idea of having something to belong to, not just continually running away from some unseen force. “I’ve spent my entire life running away from hunters. I’ve encountered them, fought them. Ran from them.” He looked at her intently for a long moment before continuing. “But I am not afraid of them. I never have been. And if this hunter is still after you, I’m not going to run away just because it would be convenient.” He knew that they’d only been on one date, but she meant more to him already than just leaving her to her own devices, alone and running. That’s what he had been doing all his life, and he was tired of it. “Think me crazy or no, I’m more than willing to stick by your side.” he patted her hand with his free hand, nodding once. “I mean that.”

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“Except for that one American author who sets all of his damned books here.” Sofie shook her head. Maybe the author was one of them? Anything was possible she supposed. She refocused on the hand in hers as Cassius began to speak again. “Richard wouldn’t have liked my clan much then. We stayed for long stretches… but we didn’t really hunt.” She confessed. “Or maybe they did, I don’t know… I never had to.” 

Sofie was at a loss for words. It was either the kindest or maddest thing anyone had said to her. She was inclined to lean toward the former. The vampire lifted their linked hands and pressed a kiss of thanks to the top of his. Not alone anymore. I’m not alone. “Well, I don’t think I see enough of you either, Cassius. So I would like you to stick around.”

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