#vamp!hunter!mark

He sees only red, As he bites down on their neck. And when they run far away, It’s his pulse he must check.

He sees only red, As the actor goes on. He claims it’s a gift, His voice cheerfully sing-song.

He sees only red, As he storms out of that cursed place. He goes to find a phone, Hopes his former friend gives no chase.

He sees only red, When he learns of his fate. He must be kept far away, Spend his days in hiding and in wait.

He sees only red, As he cares for his remain friend. Watches him slip into madness, His sanity coming to and end.

He sees only red, As the years go by. His flesh never ages, Though the decades do fly.

He sees only red, As he grips his sister’s hand. The light fades from her eyes, And he finds he cannot stand.

He sees only red, As he gives up his will to try. He lets himself fall, Lets his soul die.

He sees only red, Out looking for a meal. But he’s also after family, To sweeten the deal.

He sees only red, As some try to reject his gift. He’s offering eternal power and life, So what is this shit?

He sees only red, When he decides that he knows best. Sure at first they’ll resist, But eventually they’ll come to rest.

He sees only red, When his old friend appears again. Their concern is still there, They’re nearly the same as back then.

He sees only red, When they reject him too. And once again they win, Thinking his words of peace untrue.

He sees only red, When another escapes. He slams shut his door, His fury giving him shakes.

He sees only red, As he comes face-to-face with the one that got away. He’s been keeping away a prize, As though he has any say.

He sees only red, As he attacks and he growls. He goes to stab with a knife, Waiting to hear pained howls.

He sees only red, As he stares down in horror. His old friend lies on the ground, Blood staining the snow on the forest floor.

He sees only red, As he realizes what he’s done.

And he sees only red, When he turns.

And he runs.

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The DA nods. “I’ll take you to my room, it’s right next door.”

They bring you to another completely identical room. They let you lay on the bed. It’s too firm, but you sigh and sink into it like it’s even better than the one at The Manor.

You look at The DA and thank them.

“You’re welcome. I’ll let you know when he wakes up, what he says. Just rest for a bit,” they say. They go back into the other room.

You close your eyes and fall asleep.

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You’re standing in the middle of Mark’s room. There’s no clock, but somehow you know that this is a little over an hour and a half into the future. 

Doc is still unconscious, and The DA is in the middle of saying something to Mark.

“-to break it to them?”

Mark sighs and rubs his eyes with his palm. “Just be honest?”

“They want that cure as badly as we do. I don’t... want to crush their spirits.” They look at Doc. “Either of them.”

“We just don’t know. We don’t even know if they keep a supply, or make it when they need it! We can’t just lead them on.”

The DA sighs. “I know. I’m just sick of watching hope die.”

Mark just nods.

Doc groans, grunts, and pushes himself up. “What...”

He blinks, a sort of gray film clearing from his eyes. They widen, panicked. “Where am I? What the hell is-”

The DA rushes over and tries to calm him down. “You’re in the Hunter HQ. I can explain-”

Doc sits up. “No, why am I here? I said I wanted to stay, they said it was fine! I-” he wraps his arms around his stomach. “No, no, no, not again, I was- I was free-”

Mark moves towards Doc. “You weren’t not really. It was tricking you-”

“Shut up!” You’ve never heard Doc shout like that, so loudly, with such venom. “I was safe! I wasn’t- I told them-”

“Look at me,” The DA signs, but Doc doesn’t obey.

Mark moves around to the side of the bed that The DA is on and sits next to them. “Hey, they’re trying to help you.”

“I don’t need help!” Doc looks at them and feels vomit rise in his throat. This is too familiar. Waking up hungry, in pain, in a bed that’s not his own, confused and scared, with someone sitting by the bedside insisting they’ve done what’s in his best interest...

He scrambles to get out of the bed, falling to the floor as he does so. He feels just- just weak! Not drained, that’s too delicate. He feels like something’s been ripped out of him, something that left a gaping hole where it once was.

“I need to go back!” He gets to his feet. “I- god it hurts-”

“Please just listen, we’re trying to explain-”

“I don’t need you to!” Doc looks for an exit other than the door and finds nothing. “You’re wrong, okay? You’re wrong! It- I was happy! For the first time in fucking years, I was happy!”

“It was going to use you!”

“It was suppressing the hunger!”

“It would have stopped when it wanted you to be hungry! It would have-”

“You don’t know that!” he snaps. He tries to shove past them, but he’s already grown much weaker than he had been in The Manor, His face has lost a significant amount of color, and the dark circles have come back with a vengeance. His hair is once again messy, dull. 

Mark grabs him by the shoulders. “Listen to us! It’s a demon, okay? It got into your head and right now, you’re letting it win! Fight it!”

Doc wrenches away. “It was a haven!” he shouts. “It was the one place on this godforsaken Earth I was safe! The one place that I could- could rest in! That I could have some hope for the future!”

“It has it’s own plans! It’s own future! It doesn’t care about yours!” The DA is almost pleading with him to listen.

“Get out of the way!”

“Doc-”

“GET OUT OF THE WAY!”

He pushing against them, but they’re blocking him from the door. “Just stop, just think-”

“LET ME GO!”

Mark cries out and stumbles back, hand pressed to his chest. A long, smoking gash mars it, blood seeping between his fingers. There’s a knife missing from his hip, and a knife in Doc’s hand.

Everyone freezes. Doc is breathing heavily, his eyes wide with shock. He takes a step back, mouth opening and closing but no words being said. He looks at his hand, and then at Mark,

For a second you think he’s about to apologize. That it was a true wake-up call, something to snap him out of the lingering hold of The Manor.

And then a darkness briefly passes over his eyes, and he looks up at The DA. 

“Let. Me. Go.”

The DA steps back. There’s something wrong with his voice. It’s too low, almost... distorted?

They take out a knife of their own. “Put it down.”

Doc looks at the knife in their hands.

He runs at them.

All you see next is blood. You’re not sure whose it is.

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You wake up with a start, jerking up into a sitting position. You’re shaking, panting, sweating. You quickly check the time.

You haven’t even been asleep for ten minutes.

It could have just been a nightmare.

But... could you risk the chance that it wasn’t?

The cure. If he’s cured, he won’t be so desperate to get back to The Manor, right?

Where would...

A lightbulb goes off in your head. The Hunter Leaders! They must have some kind of log, or map, something!

It’s worth a look. Mark and The DA don’t know where it is, and you’re the only one who can sneak into the Leader’s quarters.

You get up. 

And you pause.

You should get going...

Or.

Maybe you should warn Mark and The DA first. 

But would that change anything? Would they not still wait in the room, guarding him? 

What kind of things would you like to see some one-shots for?

Like... anything. Anything you want to see a character do, or like... a situation, or...

Like, do you wanna see a-day-in-the-life stuff with any of them? More important things? Creepy? Fluffy? Angsty? Throw things back to when Dark was still Damien? To before The Party? AUs of the AU? Something else?

Just like- spew your ideas at me. For full one-shots, which with me can range from like... 400 words to apparently 3,000+. 

(Set it in that AU of the AU concept where The DA has to go to Dark because The Hunter leaders plan to kill them.)

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“Have you seen The DA?”

The other Hunter shook their head. Mark sighed and ran a hand through his hair.

That was the fifteenth person he’d asked. Same answer as all the others.

He sighed. “Okay, thanks anyway.” He walked away, his concern growing.

It was the late afternoon, and he hadn’t seen The DA once all day. As far as he knew they had no solo missions scheduled, and they would have told him if they were on a group mission that didn’t include him. Even on their rare days off, they always at least came to say “Good morning,” when he went out to train.

He wracked his brain. They weren’t in the training area, they weren’t getting food (or blood), they weren’t out talking to other Hunters...

Mark shook his head. He couldn’t assume the worst.

He ran to their bedroom.

They lived in The Hunter Headquarters, like most Hunters, including Mark himself. They had a special room, deeper in the headquarters than the others. Safest place from Dark. Even he wouldn’t try to break into Hunter Headquarters.

He could hear shuffling behind the door. He knocked, and the shuffling stopped.

“Hello?”

He waited. No answer.

“Come on, I know you’re in there. Are you okay? No-one has seen you all day.”

Still nothing.

And then a note slid out from under the door.

Mark picked it up and unfolded it.

You trust me, right?

“Of course I trust you,” he said, looking at the door in confusion. It still didn’t open.

Another note.

Then just trust me when I say you should go. Now.

“What? Seriously, what’s wrong?”

Still no face-to-face. Just another note.

Please. I have to do something, and you won’t like it, but it’s for the best. Just walk away, and

The note cut off.

“And what?” 

And I’m sorry.

He stared at the note in his hands.

“... Whatever you’re doing... you’re sure it’s for the best? For you?”

Another note.

And for you.

Mark nodded. “...If you say so. I trust you.” He sighed. “You’ll be okay, right?”

A pause. A significant pause.

Oh shit.

There would be a moment of just genuine horror on Dark's face. It might even be enough that for a split second, he feels something real, unfiltered through all the darkness and corruption. A feeling of complete fear, horror, and regret. A “What have I done” moment.

It wouldn’t last long, less than a second even. And then it would turn into rage. Rage directed at Mark.

But there’s no time for that. Mark is reaching for The DA, terrified and determined to get them away to safety. Dark goes to grab them first. He can fix this. He can save them, and once he does they’ll be turned, and they’ll realize that it’s truly a gift. 

Mark pulls out a knife and swings, cutting Dark’s hand. “Get the fuck away from them!” he spits. He picks The DA up and snarls, baring his fangs, and runs.

Dark is still processing what just happened. He almost killed them that would have ruined everything! All his plans! How could he make that bad of a mistake?!

And there’s another moment of realization, that he’s thinking of them as a tool, not as a friend. Good god, he just almost killed one of his closest friends, how did he end up... here? In this situation? What is he doing?

He looks at his hands. Their blood is all over them, dripping down his fingers, trickling down his wrists. 

It smells good.

The smell, the hunger, breaks the moment of clarity.

He ended up here because he had to. Because they are meant to be like him, be with him, and for some reason they keep denying that. He’s trying to make things right, the way they are meant to be. Of course that’s what he’s doing.

A common mistake

You don’t play the cards

You play the other player

It feels like you’re being grinned at. Or maybe threatened. Or maybe both. 

Definitely both.

Doc smiles back. “I’ll be here when you do.”

You close your eyes and imagine yourself back at the Hunter HQ. You picture Mark and The DA to the best of your ability, trying to will the gem to take you there.

For a few seconds you feel weightless.

And then,

“Hey, you’re back!”

You open your eyes. Mark is getting up from a chair, throwing down a briefing file on his next mission. “It’s been a while! Where’d you go?”

The DA rolls their eyes and picks up Mark’s file, saving it from the tea that he had knocked over when he tossed it down. “They probably just took a break.”

(So sorry for the wait, Anon!)

He’d be horrified.

He’s never seen The DA feed that way. They both get their blood in thermoses, provided by The Hunters. He’s never even fed the normal way.

He’s patrolling. He’s looking for Dark, hoping that he can somehow save The DA. He’s ready to fight. He’s got his gun, extra bullets, holy water, and silver blades.

He forgets about all of them when he sees it.

The DA has their eyes squeezed shut as they drink. Dark is watching, smiling. “Isn’t that much better than what you had before?” he says. 

The DA shakes a little as they nod. They don’t open their eyes.

Mark is frozen, watching in horror. 

And then he snaps out of it. He tears his gaze away from the DA and looks at Dark. And he’s enraged.

He pulls his gun out-

And Dark grabs his wrist before he can even start to aim.

“It would be rude to interrupt their meal,” he says softly, looking Mark in the eyes. “It’s their first proper one in far too long.”

Mark goes for one of his knives. 

Dark grabs his other wrist too. He tilts his head, and smirks. “You’ve never had a fresh meal, have you? Why don’t you join us for dinner? I’m sure they’d be glad to have your company.”

Mark scowls. “They’ll be even more glad when I get them away from yours.”

Dark tsks. “Not one for manners, are you?” He smiles. “But we can fix that.” He knees Mark in the stomach, then slams his head into a wall.

Well, Dark has made it clear to Wilford that he is not to go after The DA. Wilford is way too unpredictable and unstable, there is a very good chance (like almost 100%) that instead of bringing Dark The DA, he’d bring Dark The DA’s corpse and not understand why Dark is so upset. So, yeah, he’s been forbidden from trying to help Dark out with that. And Wilford does his best to respect Dark’s wishes on important matters. He gets reminded of the rule a lot.

They’ve had a couple of run-ins. Mark did once, got dragged into an interview. Wilford was half trying to interrogate Mark about The DA and The Hunters, because Dark was in a bad mood and maybe this would help, but he also has trouble keeping his mind on track so it got kinda derailed. They had a shooting contest at one point. Mark had to do a lot of bullet dodging. And Mark managed to escape before Wilford remembered his reason for interviewing him in the first place.

Wilford remembers that fondly. Mark was one of his favorite guests.