An Origin
(Sort of a sequel to This but I couldn't figure out how to fit Sia and Evan in but shhhhhhhhhh it's another AU we'll jsut say that)
Everyone stands around in a circle, looking at each other.
"... So... how do we go about this?" Bim asks. "Are we going to Boxcar Children up a makeshift shelter? Risk getting a hotel? I think I have about two thousand dollars left."
"I have an apartment."
Everyone looks at Doc.
"It's small, but it's somewhere to start."
"... Don't the people hunting you know about it?"
"Oh. Right. ... Do you think I'll be able to go back to gather some things?"
Dark shrugs, sitting down on a stump. "Depends. Who exactly is hunting you?"
"I don't fully know."
"What do you know?"
"... I was leaving work, a late shift at the hospital. I'm a- ... was a, surgeon. I guess I can't... do that, anymore."
"Oh, dude... that sucks." Bing gives Doc a pat on the shoulder.
"And now so do you," Bim says, snickering a little. Yancy elbows Bim, giving him a sort of... disappointed-big-brother type look. Bim rubs his arm. "Sorry," he huffs.
Doc shrugs. "It's accurate. Anyway, um, I was leaving work, and I was all alone walking to the bus stop. And then I... I don't know. Someone grabbed me and said something about... I think about 'rescuing' me?"
Dark tsks. "Yeah, a lot of other vampires consider turning someone to be saving them."
"... They weren't a vampire. Their hand was warm."
Dark perks up, surprised.
"They hit me over the head, and I woke up somewhere just..." Doc flounders for the words. "... Just horrible. Like a um, like a room in a cheesy movie about satanic cults."
"The candlelight flickered over the walls, somehow seeming to take away light instead of grant it, the shadows deeper than should be possible in the corners of the room."
Doc glances at Host, eyeing him warily. "Yeah. Like that."
"The Host was a horror writer."
"... Oh. So then... you can probably guess what happened next?" Doc desperately hopes he won't have to be the one to describe it.
"The Host doesn't need to guess. He can Know. ... ... ... Doc was pushed into the middle of a circle painted on the floor, the stench of rotting blood making his stomach churn. He looked up as a man approached him and tried to demand to know what was going on, only to realize he was gagged. His mind was still foggy."
Doc shakes a little as Host recounts it. Bing leads him over to another stump to sit down.
"The man knelt down and stroked Doc's hair. 'Here, and now, we have begun The Recompense,' he said in a voice as soft as the candlelight, and just as haunting. He stood, and threw open his arms. 'We at last fulfill our destinies!"
"The man pulled a vial out of his robe, something bubbling and the color of Sickness itself. He pulled Doc's gag out just slightly, and poured it into Doc's mouth. The taste was almost indescribable, thee only word for it being repulsive. The man forcefully closed Doc's mouth, and didn't let go until Doc finally had no choice but to swallow. The man put the gag back in after that."
"He gestured to one of the people hovering in the outskirts of the shadows. A person stepped forward. Doc's heart began racing as he saw their eyes were glowing red."
Bing rubs Doc's back. Doc clamps his hand over his neck, getting paler by the second.
"The leader of this stranger group stepped out of the way, and the vampire knelt down before Doc. They smiles warmly at him, their fangs glinting in the demure candlelight. 'It's my honor to be your Release,' they said, reverence in their words."
"They tilted his head to the side. Doc's breathing became fast, his heartbeat almost painful in the panic. The vampire brushed their fingers along his neck. 'Don't panic. Soon you'll be free from Mortal Fear.'"
"They sank their fangs into Doc's neck. Doc let out a scream, muffled by the gag. He felt thee blood being sucked from his body, his neck getting the staticky feeling of a limb falling asleep, the feeling spreading so very rapidly."
Dark tilts his head. "That's not a usual feeling for someone being turned." He looks around at the others. "Is it?"
There's a murmuring of answers, the consensus being a complete "No."
Doc shudders, and Wilford is suddenly by his side, draping a shock blanket over him. Doc jumps in place, but accepts the comfort.
"When it was over, Doc collapsed into a heap. He shivered and twitched on the middle of the circle, his veins empty yet his brain still functioning, though that term applied very loosely. He wasn't dead, at the very least."
Now, the others look sick. "You shouldn't have been awake by then," Bim croaks.
"You-you should've passed out when-when you lost enough-enough blood," Eric whispers.
"The group around Doc were speaking, but Doc couldn't understand the words. But even if his mind had been functioning well, he wouldn't have had any better idea. The words were ancient, a lost language, made for magic."
"As the chanting droned on and on, however, Doc grew more and more... alert. But not aware. Not awake. Simply alert. And hungry."
"I attacked someone," Doc croaks out, shaking. "I don't know what happened, I just- all of a sudden I was pinning someone to a wall and-and drinking blood and they were screaming around me-"
"But not because of fear. Not because of grief over their lost friend. Doc had become Feral faster than they expected. They were screaming because of their plans being ruined."
Doc puts a hand too his mouth, stifling a sob.
"When Doc came back to his right mind, he only had seconds to process before realizing he had to run. And even as he ran he could feel himself changing, feel the cold setting in-"
"Please skip this part," Doc whimpers.
"... Until at last, Doc slammed into Eric."
There's silence. A long, long silence, the only sounds being Doc's muffled sobs and the crinkling of the shock blanket as Bing rubbed his back.
"... I woke up, too." Mark breaks the silence. "... I was trying to take a hike. Job sucked, life sucked, I figured it would help. But I got jumped, and woke up while they were carrying me somewhere. I ran away, and it... it was so..."
Mark struggles to find the words.
"Yeah," Doc says, knowing what Mark meant still. "Just... yeah."
...
...
...
...
...
Bim stands up. "So. When do we go back to raid your apartment?"
"But I thought-"
"Yeah, fuck those guys. Let's see them fight ten vampires and four androids and see how much that screws up their plans. We're going to get your shit back, and figure out somewhere safe to love. For all of us."
