𝜗ৎ tags/tw: mentions of blood/death, nightmares, subtle flirting, enchantments (idrk how to include this but at the end reader gets essentialy hit with a sleep spell), kidnapping, cliff hanger, not proofread
ও˖ ࣪⊹ pairing: vamp!bruce wayne x f!reader
𝜗ৎ a/n: hey everyone, i wanted to post this earlier put i've been completely wrapped up in The Cruel Prince trilogy, and i am now completely obsessed. i couldn't put those books down for the lifeee of me</3 but yeah, i hope you enjoy this part, i think this is going to be one of the darker chapters because im kind of afraid of making this too creepy lol, feedback is appreciated!!<3
Vegetables boiled slowly on your kitchen’s stove. You hoped Bruce wouldn't feel like you were going overboard with lunch, but something about showing someone how important they were through good food always warmed your heart. It was still early so you still had time to prepare a small desert too, but you hadn't yet chosen what you'd bake.
Although everything seemed perfect, something felt wrong. You had woken up with this weird… feeling on your stomach that made you anxious, but you didn't know why that was happening. Looking around, you realised everything was quite dark. It was almost as if you'd been cooking in complete darkness! Quickly, you opened up the curtains in your kitchen and in the living room.
Much better, sometimes you felt like a real vampire with the way you forgot to open up your blinds.
Now, with all the natural light, you decided to flip through your recipe book to choose a desert. But as you were sitting there, looking at your favourite recipes, you remembered something. The flowers. You forgot to water your flowers. Bruce didn't like you going out there alone, it was dangerous, but your flowers would wither and he was just being dramatic. Dropping the recipe book on the kitchen counter top, you grabbed the watering can from under the sink and filled it up. It was old and intricate, painted with a dark green just how you liked things.
Leaving everything on the stove, you promised yourself it wouldn't take enough time for the food to burn or stick to the pots. The weather outside was peculiar, there was no breeze but the sky was dark grey, as if it were about to rain, however, you couldn't smell any signs of humidity or incoming rain. Going straight, to your favourite bed of flowers, you ignored the feeling in your gut telling you danger was lurking. Your brain tends to overthink and make you nervous for no reason.
Suddenly the sky got even darker turning into a greyish purple. A shiver ran down your spine as you watched the clouds suddenly disappear, and when you looked back to your flowers, they were dead.
“No, no, no, no, what happened?” The flowers had been fine when you arrived. You watered them everyday, this could not be happening. Was your mind playing tricks on you?
“This was your own doing.” Startled, you turned to see an unknown man behind you.
“That does not matter, what matters, is that you have broken the rules, dear.”
“What? How did you get inside my property?” The man smiled and it looked terrifying, you understood at that moment, that he was not a human. Bruce had warned you, if only you had listened–
“So curious. Did he not warn you to stay inside?” He tutted. “You never do listen, and that’s why the curse will never end.” A sinister laugh that echoed in your mind left him. “This is always so fun. I wonder how many years it will take him to find you again.”
You took a step back, looking everywhere for something you could protect yourself with.
“Now, now, you know that is quite useless, dear.” He took a step closer to you. “Let us just end this for now, shall we?”
His words made you snap to the realization that you wouldn’t escape this alive. Tears welled up in your eyes and you shook your head. “Please. I do not want to die, just tell me what you want! Bruce and I–”
“Stop making stupid bargains, my purpose is to hunt you for as long as Bruce does not keep his end of the promise. I will never understand why that man keeps believing he will break the curse. He will not, and for that you will die.” His face contorted into an otherworldly frown, and then you watched in horror as a blade extended from his arm, as if it was part of his body.
You were suddenly frozen in place, and you watched as he raised the blade before smiling wickedly. There was nothing more you could do other than close your eyes, pray it was painless, and hope Bruce would not give up on you.
“No!” You sat up in your bed, drenched in sweat and tears. Was it all just a nightmare? Your phone was on your bedside table, the hour and day seemed to be correct. You took in your surroundings, your bedroom was the same as it always was, some light escaped through the curtains, and you still had the whole day ahead of you.
If you had a list of strange occurrences in your life, you could add this one to the list. It could just be a nightmare driven by the things you read the day before, and because of everything that’s been happening, but it felt too real. The smells, the colours, the pain. You felt a strange pain in your chest that couldn’t be related to a panic attack. And even if it was just a nightmare, the house you were in felt familiar, but you had never seen it before.
Also why was Bruce mentioned, right? This motivated you to ask him about the curse, because the thing you couldn’t deny was that all of this just started happening after you met him.
You got up and prepared yourself for the day. It was already close to lunch time, so you cooked a fairly simple but delicious dish, nothing like the pot roast nightmare you was cooking.
It didn’t take long for Bruce to arrive after you had finished preparing everything. He texted you to let you know he had arrived at your building, and you went to open the door right away.
The minutes you spent waiting for him to climb the stairs up to your apartment were quite unnerving, because for one, this felt a bit intimate in a way, and you had to address the fact that you had been searching his background for your own peace of mind. Finally, you heard a gentle knock that snapped you away from your thoughts.
On the other side of your door stood Bruce, looking unfairly handsome, with a beautiful bouquet of variations of your favourite coloured tulips. It was an undeniably nice gesture, but your heart flipped because you dreamt about watering flowers just like those.
Bruce slowly looked you up and down with an intense gaze and you felt like you were being ravaged, if he looked at you like that when you were in normal clothing, imagine how he’d act when he saw you dressed up. You wouldn’t go there.
He greeted you and peeped inside. “Oh, whatever it is that you’re cooking, it smells divine.”
“Thanks! Come in,” You made space for him to enter. “Make yourself at home! I didn’t cook anything fancy, just an old recipe I always make when I have guests.”
“It sure smells fancy,” Bruce stopped to look around your apartment. “You have a really nice place here. I see the lamp you bought from me fit in perfectly.” He was right, you had a cozy and nicely furnished apartment that looked straight out of Pinterest.
"Aw that’s really sweet. I love decorating.” He nodded and got a few steps closer.
“I see. You know, there’s just one thing missing.” You gave him a slightly confused look to which he smiled charmingly before offering you the flowers he had in hand. “Here, these are for you. They honestly do fit your apartment perfectly.”
You accepted the flowers with a big smile and took them to the kitchen to place them in a jar. “I agree. Thank you, these are my favourites,” A soft laugh escaped your lips to hide your attempt at looking anywhere but him. “I don’t know how you keep remembering small stuff like this about me.”
Bruce frowned slightly. “No detail about you is small. To me, it’s a privilege to remember everything about you.”
That stole the breath from your lungs. You both stared at each other for what felt like an eternity, how did he say things like that, in such an unfazed way, he wasn’t nonchalant about what he said, he just spoke as if caring about you was his second nature.
You cleared your throat and averted your gaze. “We should eat, I don’t want the food to get cold.”
The conversation about the curse didn’t come right away, you both shared stories about your life, he complimented your food, and overall you had a lovely time. It was at the end when you were both eating dessert that you gathered the courage to address it.
“Bruce, please don’t take this the wrong way, but can I ask you a question?”
He raised an eyebrow at you. “Of course, questions are meant to be asked.”
You nodded and took a deep breath. “Do you know anything about the Curse of the Wayne’s?”
His jaw visibly flexed and for a few seconds you couldn’t read him, but then he put on a relaxed look. “It’s the reason my family business almost shut down. I take it that is what you were researching yesterday?”
“It was,” You averted your gaze. “I didn't want to pry, I just visited your shop's website and the next moment I’m going down a rabbithole.”
“It’s okay, I understand. What do you want to know?”
“Well… Is your family related to the Wayne’s from that town that doesn’t exist anymore? Where the wife appeared dead out of nowhere?”
Now he couldn’t contain his emotions, it was clear this conversation was making him uncomfortable. “No. We share a last name but we are not related. You know, what that article that you were reading doesn’t say is that the villagers ended up setting fire to the family mansion after the son appeared. They believed the husband had been possessed by the devil and that he was pretending to be a new man to escape execution. That led the town to its ruin, and that’s how our town was formed.” He sounded weirdly mournful.
“How… How do you know all of that?”
“When you get a crazy reporter accusing your dad of being a vampire, you go out of your way to know every fact.”
“Yes, I guess you’re right. Sorry if this was weird, I was just curious.”
Bruce shook his head. “Again, I get it. Sorry if I sounded mad, I just foolishly believed those articles were gone.” You guys were silent for a few seconds. Why did he want the articles to be gone? If no one believed the investigation back then, no one would know. As if sensing you were suspicious, he looked at his watch. “We have to go in a few. I’ll help you clean up.”
Arriving with Bruce at Wayne’s Antiques, you had never seen it so full. Your neighbours that claimed not to know Bruce were right there, seeing you with him. You tried to go talk to them, but before you could, Jason called you over to the register.
He exclaimed your name enthusiastically. “So, how have you been? I hope you were able to get some rest after that whole ordeal.”
“Yeah, I’m much better now.” The lie felt natural on your lips, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. Lately you had been lying a lot, to yourself and the people around you. “There’s not much we can do now.” You looked to your side where Bruce should be, but he was gone now. Jason could probably tell you were confused, because before you could say anything he laughed.
“Bruce does that sometimes, don’t mind him. Did he tell you what event we’re hosting?”
“Something about lucky charms?”
He nodded. “Yes. Every year we host this event, basically everyone that visits the shop gets a vintage item that has a different purpose. Some are meant to attract love, others protection, others prosperity,” He signalled you closer and lowered his tone with a playful smile. “Honestly, these are mostly just trinkets Bruce acquires because they have this story about how the owner had a crazy amount of lovers and associated that with the object, but whether or not it’s real, no one needs to know.”
“They are free, after all.”
“You get it. And they are pretty.”
You were going to choose a pretty locket on the protection bowl, but Jason held up his hand.
“Wait! Since you’re a special customer…” He reached under the table and pulled out this beautiful silver engraved key, with a dark red ruby in the middle. “Bruce told me to make sure you got this one in specific, and let me tell you this, the other items might be bullshit, but this one isn't."
“What is it supposed to do?” You asked while analyzing every beautiful detail on the key, you were mesmerized. It felt as if there was an enchantment on the beautiful piece.
“It grants protection. You can be sure that this key will always lead you to safety.”
“How does he know this one actually does that?”
Jason gave you a contemplative look. “He told me an ancestor of ours made it.”
“Wait. This is a family heirloom? Jason, I can’t possibly–”
“No. It’s yours now, no returns. Don’t think about it being an heirloom, I didn’t even know it existed, plus you need all the protection you can get.”
You sighed. “I suppose so. Thank you, I’ll see if I can find Bruce to thank this once again.”
He nodded triumphantly. “See you around.”
For some reason, you couldn’t find Bruce anywhere, it also felt like there were less and less people in the store. They didn’t talk to you either, everyone seemed busy admiring the shop, which was definitely understandable. However, you didn’t care much about that, there was something calling you to the insides of the shop. You had been here so many times already, but you never explored past the entrance and the room full of lamps. The shop was way bigger than it looked from the outside, and from what you had judged before. There were multiple rooms you figured were just like the lamp one, you peeped inside one of them and saw a beautifully old full length piano. You’d explore that other day, now you needed to go to the end of the corridor. There, you found a staircase going down into what you presumed to be the basement, for someone that found basements to be creepy, you felt weirdly comforted by this one. It looked just like the rest of the shop and there was yet another door, the only difference with this one was that it was locked.
Maybe this was a dumb idea, but you took out the key you had just received and tried to put it into the lock. But surprisingly… It worked perfectly. Slowly, you entered the mysterious room and it was as if you had entered a different dimension. The room was tiny, but it had a few archways with overgrown ivy and moss, it looked straight out of a fairytale. As you took in your surroundings, a light sleepiness took over you. It was just so beautiful, and you felt so safe… Your drowsiness started to feel heavier and heavier, but before you could fall to the floor asleep, strong arms enveloped you.
“There you go, my love…” He lifted you up into a bridal style. “I will not allow them to take you away from me this time. I promise.” His voice sounded pained.
“Bruce…?” Words seemed to escape you as if you were already sleeping.
“You will be safe, and we will have our life back. I am sorry for doing this, but I don’t know what to do anymore, sweetheart…”
His words slowly faded into nothing, and the last thing you saw before succumbing into sleep was a bright portal opening up.
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