The Moon, the Stars, and the Dark

“What is wrong with you?! We get you a nice and young human, and you set her free!? We are royalty; we don’t set food free!” Your mother’s screech rang through the house.

“Mom, I told you. I don’t want to kill humans anymore. They’re just like us. They feel things, just like us. You said they were animals, and that the only good thing they’re useful was their blood. If that’s true, then how come there’s more humans than vampires?”

The response you got back was a hard slap.

You reached and touched your cheek, knowing for sure that a bruise will form.

Your mother then grabbed you by your hair, quite harshly, and dragged you down the stairs to the basement.

“You’ll stay in there until your father comes! No blood, either. See how you’ll like it.” The woman who raised you said before pushing you inside, causing you to fall on your knees.

You heard her lock the door while you slowly stood back up. You made your way to the door and started to pound your fists on the steel door.

“Mom! Let me out! Let me out!” You shouted before fat tears started to flow down your cheeks.
“Not until your father comes home.” You heard her say through the door.

“But he comes home in two weeks! You can’t leave me here! Mother!” You yelled while frantically pounding on the door.

“Two weeks will be enough time for you think about your actions. You’re a vampire, and you need to start acting like it,” was what your mother said before her retreating steps made way to your ears.

“Mom! Mom! Don’t leave me! Mom!” You yelled in between sobs.

Knowing that she wouldn’t come back, you turned around and slid down against the door, silently rocking back and forth. You slowly knocked on the door and hoped at least one of the maids would take pity on you, but you knew it would be hopeless.

Once your eyes got adjusted to the darkness, you took in your surroundings. The basement was empty. There were no sofas, no heater, and no air conditioner. It was completely and utterly empty.
You tried your best to stop crying, and after five minutes, your sobs had turned into small hiccups.
You sat there for what felt like hours. Time felt like it had stopped. The only thing you could hear was the occasional chatter from the other side of the door, but other than that, complete and deafening silence.

When the two week mark passed, your mother finally opened the door to the basement door and found you covered in your own blood. You had bite marks blemishing the soft skin of your arms, all the way to your hands. Your whole attire was bloody, from the vomit of trying to ingest vampire blood.

You were sitting on the floor, rocking back and forth, gnawing on your nails until they bled. Your fangs throbbed in pain, wanting to get inserted into a human’s soft, supple, and warm skin. The thought made your stomach growl.

Your mother glanced at you with disdain. “I tried to feed you, and you let the food get away. I lock you in the basement for only two weeks, and you try to drink your own blood. Don’t you know you can’t drink your own blood? The only useless benefit our blood does is heal! But it can’t heal the dead, why do you think you threw up? God, what did I do to deserve such an ungrateful and idiotic daughter?”

Your head was too muddled with fatigue and hunger to put any attention on her words, but she continued nonetheless.

“Poor, sweet, little _____. You know the one girl you let away that got you in this whole mess? Well, she was stupid enough to tell others about us, but she told the police who is also a vampire and he got her locked up and told us we could decide her fate. Luckily for you, I know that vampire pretty well, and he has agreed to give the girl over to us,” your mother said while making you stand up by grabbing your arm.

The sudden motion caused your head to swirl. You started to see black swirls in your vision, and you felt the need to vomit again. You were weak-kneed, but your mother wouldn’t have any of it.

“So this is your second chance. Follow me girl.” She said while maneuvering you to the stairs. You went up slowly, mostly because of your slow motions. You and your mom stopped in front of the attic door, and that was when the most delicious aroma hit your nose. It was the most delicious, mouthwatering fragrance you have ever smelled in your eight years of life. Your eyes instantly turned black and your fangs extended.

Your mother continued to talk, but it was entering into one ear and out the other. All you could focus was on the amazing odor between the door and you.

After finally realizing you weren’t paying attention to her senseless words, she finally unlocked the door.

Once she did, you saw the young girl you helped escape two weeks ago. But she didn’t look like a girl to you anymore. She was only food that needed to satisfy the growing and painful hunger inside you.

“Ah,_____! Wait, your eyes—”

You interrupted her from saying anymore meaningless words by pouncing on her, snapping your sharp canines on her arm. Her scream was just music to your ears as you took a long suck of her blood. Feeling the blood leaving her body and entering your mouth was euphoric. The delicious taste of her blood was exploding in every taste buds that rested on your tongue.

You wanted more, so you took your fangs out and with superhuman strength, you pulled the screaming young girl down closer to you by her hair, and forcefully turned her head to the side to reveal her smooth pale neck.

You took a moment just to look at the beauty of the protruding vein throbbing beneath the skin of her neck. Your mouth soon started to salivate once again. You quickly opened your mouth wide and chomped down on that beautiful vein with sickening force, causing another loud piercing cry.
Ignoring her screeches and cries, you continued to suck and suck. With each gulp, the yells of the girl seemed to get weaker.

But it wasn’t enough.

You withdrew your canines and attached them to another body part, and when that wasn’t enough, you scratched at her until you were covered in her blood. You tried everything to get the juicy and delectable blood off of you. You stopped your actions when you saw the young girl. Or what remained of her.

After coming back to your senses, you looked at the mutilated corpse before you. You felt bile rise in your throat once you took in the residue of the young girl. Her entrails were thrown everywhere and her face was unrecognizable.

“God, you’re such a messy eater. Show some self-restraint next time alright?” You heard your mother’s voice while you looked at your trembling hands, hoping that the red staining them would disappear; that this was all a nightmare that I would soon wake up to.

“I taught you better than that _____.” Your mother continued. “Now be a doll, and next time stop with your stupid self-righteous acts and just eat what we give you. Remember, humans are food, and only that.”

With that, she left you there to rot in your own self-hate and disgust.

You moved over to the remains, and brought your wrist to your mouth and bit. Red, rubious blood came streaming out of the puncture. You brought it to the mouth of the dead girl and watched as the blood disappeared in her mouth and waited.

After ten minutes that seemed like an eternity, you grew a bit hysterical.

“Come back!” You yelled and shook the corpse. “Mother said vampire blood can heal humans! Why isn’t it working?”

Then her words started to resonate in your head with clarity.

“The only useless benefit our blood does is heal! But it can’t heal the dead, why do you think you threw up?”

“No! I’m sorry! I’m sorry,” I wailed as I crossed your arms over your face. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to—”

You interrupted yourself with another screech bubbling its way from your throat.

After being in there and crying your eyes out for two hours, you were strangely calm and impassive.

‘Never again,’ you thought to yourself glancing at the remnants of the unfortunate girl. ‘I rather die than do that again.’

With a new found conviction, you finally let the wails of despair you were keeping at bay escape.

-.-

That was years ago. After ten more agonizing years of living with your parents, you were finally free from them. You had to fight them that you were independent now and didn’t need them. It was a hard pill to swallow for them, but after years and years of crying and following and obeying their every whim, they finally agreed. Your parents believed they have taught you everything you needed to know, and quite frankly, didn’t want to deal with you anymore.

Once they gave you the “Okay,” you were out of that house faster than lightning.

You moved into a cozy and small apartment that you had planned before moving out of your parent’s house, which surprisingly, was pretty vacant. You didn’t bother to put up any decorations and left everything basically bared. You didn’t want to leave much behind with what were was going to do.

With the time you spent with your parents, you have taken the lives of so many humans. There were too many to count. There fallen consisted of the elderly, young adults, children, and even full families. You did everything that was commanded of you so you could be liberated from the vampires who called themselves your parents.

But as you did that, you dwelled deeper into the hole of sin. Your whole being was tainted with the murders that you have committed. Every time you closed your eyes, you could hear their screams and picture the fear that was instilled in their eyes as you took their lives. You remember each and every plea they have gave you before you brutally snapped their necks to stop the suffering that would have ensued. You vividly recall their corpses, being burned after you were done feeding. Their lifeless eyes staring at you as if cursing you for your very own existence. But the worst thing of all was that your eyes engulfed in black was the last thing each and every one of them saw.

As you watched their bodies incinerate in front of yourself, you made a promise to yourself.

‘I have to pay for the sins I have done. I owe every single of them at least that.’

And with that in mind, you promised yourself that you would rather starve and die, than drink blood from another human being.

Two weeks have passed since you have moved out and fed. Pain started to ripple through you originating from your stomach. But you didn’t care.

You stayed holed up in your apartment for these two weeks, never leaving until need be. You couldn’t be around humans, the smell could almost drive you insane.

But for some strange reason, you went outside for the first time. You didn’t know if it was the moon calling you, or because of the stars shining so beautiful, were calling you to stare at them for what felt like an eternity.

Before stepping out of the apartment, you put on your black hat and wrapped your checkered scarf around your neck. You walked into the cold night, and stuffed your hands into your long gray jacket. The cold air whipping your hair in every direction.

You ignored it and continued your way to a bridge close to your apartment. It had a spectacular view of the stars and for some reason, it was your favorite place (More like the only place you went to when you moved out of your parents). You looked at your surroundings and noticed there was a small amount of humans around.

As you walked closer to the bridge, you could smell the breathtaking aroma of humans surrounding you, causing your stomach to growl in pain. You overlooked the discomfort and continued to walk. You made your way to the very edge, and took a shaky breath in.

An intense amount of human scent over whelmed you and you stumbled, almost losing your balance.

You exhaled and took another small breath. Suddenly, a sweet and delightful odor overcame your senses. It was near, and you turned to your left. Standing there, was a young man with chocolate-y brown hair. His attire consisted of a maroon jacket over a black t-shirt. He was also wearing black skinny jeans with a pair of combat boots.

You saw him on the other side of the rail and from the looks of it, he seemed ready to jump.
Looking at him made your being be filled with envy. Humans were so lucky, especially being able to take their lives so easily.

‘How I wish I was a regular vampire, and take a stake to the heart. But I can’t die because of the royal blood flowing in me. Why is fate so cruel?’

You looked at the stranger, wishing he’d jump already so you wouldn’t feel the envy anymore. After watching him stand there for about twenty minutes, you grew tired of his indecisiveness.

“If you’re going to jump, just do it already.” You told him, making him jump in fright, causing him to fall.

‘Well, that was unexpected. Doesn’t matter anymore, he got his wish.’

You were about to leave when his voice stopped you.

“Help!”

You looked and the young man was holding on from falling to his death by grabbing one of the suspender cables that was sliding across another in an abstract pattern.

‘Ah, what should I do?’ You thought to yourself as you paced back and forth. ‘If I save him, he will instantly know I’m not human…’

Once that thought popped into your head, the screams of your victims resurfaced to your mind. And that’s when you instantly jumped over the rail and landed roughly on a cable.

“Someone help me!” The stranger continued to yell.

You quickly made your way towards him, and carefully stopped right in front of him.

“Please don’t let me die. I don’t want to die like this.” He wept.

‘What a crybaby.’

You reached to grab his arm when his hold on the suspender cable slipped. Your heart fell to your feet and you jumped right after him. You made your way after him, and held on tightly to his shirt. He was screaming and crying, and you just rolled your eyes but continued to watch the young man.

Once you and the stranger were about to hit the waters, you changed the position that you both were in so that you would take most of the hit.

The pain was even more intense since you weren’t full on blood, but you weren’t weak enough to let the current take you.

You opened your eyes and didn’t see a thing. You still felt the shirt of the young man so you assumed you still had him in your grip. You didn’t hear anything (mostly because of being underwater), but you swam and pulled him up. Once you reached the surface, you took in a breath. You looked at the young man and he was limp, so you slowly swam your way to the sidewalk where people usually took a stroll or came to look at the river.

You cautiously pulled him to the sidewalk before pulling yourself out of the water. You were freezing to the bones, and you knew the young man must have been too. You kneeled beside him, then put two fingers on his carotid artery and took his pulse; it was still beating. You let out a breath you didn’t know you were holding.

Instantly, your eyes went back to his neck. You could tell your fangs had extended even longer, and your eyes started to turn black.

Your eyes pulled away from his neck once you heard him moan and gurgle up river water.

As soon as you saw that, your eyes cleared up to reveal your natural eye color, and you could feel your canines go to their original size.

You stood up, about to leave, when the young man said, “Thank you for saving me.”

“If you don’t want to die, then don’t.” You said before leaving him there. Not waiting for the group of ogling strangers to come and give you praises.

When you arrived at your apartment, you fell to the ground in exhaustion and hunger. You groaned in pain, but ignored it. Wanting to feed, you cursed choosing to live in a city. If you lived in somewhere suburban you could have at least drank from animals (your mother would have had a fit if you had degraded yourself to that level considering being from having royal blood in you), but the only animals here were domestic pets and squirrels. And chasing after a squirrel seemed even too much for you in this state.

So you just laid there in agony, tears rolling down your cheeks. You stayed there in pain for the whole day and before you knew it, it was once again night.

You decided to sit up right which caused the room to spin. You stood up slowly and made your way out the door. You looked up and saw the moon and stars. Or what was left of the stars. Humans and their pollution, ruining the beauty of nature.

You don’t know why, but the moon, stars, and darkness always took the pain away. Not for long, but just enough for you to admire the magnificence of what you can never be. You made your way to the bridge once again, and laid forward on the rail. You tried to forget the smell of whatever humans were around, and took in the smell of the river. Already forgetting yesterday’s events.

After taking a small and shaky inhale, a familiar scent overpowered you. Again, you turned to your left and found the very same stranger standing there from yesterday giving you a sense of déjà vu. Except this time, he wasn’t on the other side of the rail.

You ignored him, and continued to look at the beautiful view in front of you.

“If only I could be a star,” you thought to yourself, ‘if only I wasn’t born into this life. If I was a star, I didn’t need to hurt anyone or feed on others to live. I would just stay up and shine brightly, having people stare at me in wonder. I wouldn’t need to think, I would just exist for a million of years. Sounds so peaceful.’

You raised your hand up as if to reach the stars. But you knew that would never happen. Life wasn’t that simple.

“The stars are beautiful, aren’t they?”

You turned to the owner of the voice, and it was from the guy that begged you to save him yesterday.
“The stars, the moon, and the darkness are all beautiful,” You replied.

“Um, I never got to thank you… For yesterday.”

“Oh, no problem.” You said lethargically, and continued to look at the sky. “Technically, I scared you which caused you to almost fall to your doom.”

“Even so, I mean, if it wasn’t for you, my death would’ve had no purpose. So, thank you.”

You shrugged and watched the stars twinkle slowly.

“… My name is Taehyung, but people call me V. May I know what’s yours?” Taehyung said with a synthetic smile.

You looked back at him and noticed his face was pale, and he had bags under his eyes. Then your eyes turned to his neck, and it caused your stomach to growl very loudly.

He looked surprised and said, “I’m guessing you’re hungry. There’s a restaurant close by. It’ll be on me, it’s the least I can do for you saving your life.”

“My name is _____,” You said, breaking away from looking at his neck. “And no thank you. I would appreciate it if we never meet again.”

You took a peek at his face, wondering what type of expression he would have. You didn’t know what you were expecting to see, but he still had that fake smile on, irking you even further.

“Could you please stop smiling? If you’re going to smile, at least make it look real,” You snapped at him, causing him to look taken back.

“W-What do you mean?” Taehyung asked.

“I’m not stupid enough to not know when a smile is real or not.” You replied with a scoff and grabbed your stomach. “If that is all, I’ll be taking my leave.”

You were about to walk away when he grabbed your arm, stilling your motions.

“Please, at least stay here. We can just talk, okay?” Taehyung told you with genuine desperation in his face.

His face expression was similar to the ones your victims made before you snapped their necks, making guilt fill your very core. So you stayed put.

He released his grip on your arm. “Thank you...? You never gave me your name.”

“…It’s _____.” Ignoring the fact that you have told him your name.

“_____? That’s a pretty name.”

You said a small thank you. But after that, there was an awkward pause.

“So, you’re not going to ask why I was at the bridge yesterday?”

“It’s none of my business.”

“Oh.” He replied. “Can I tell you anyway? I have no one to talk to about it.”

“Go ahead,” You said with a hand gesture for him to continue.

“Okay. Well, how should I start this?” He asked while putting his hand under his chin. “All your life I had to act as someone I’m not. I’m always the go-lucky kid that will go somewhere in life. I’m not allowed to make any mistakes or display any other emotion if it’s not happiness.”

You nodded, urging him on.

“My parents weren’t abusive or anything, but they never let me think for myself. Every decision has been made for me. For example, what school I would attend, what instrument I would learn to play, what I would wear, and even when to smile. I think they even have the date when I will marry or even die planned out.

“I just got into a pre-med school. But I don’t even want to be in the medical field. My dreams aren’t even my dreams. I want to put an end to my life, but at the same time, I’m scared of my death being useless and my existence will be forgotten. Even if I became a doctor, at least I would have been helpful and saved people’s lives.” He sighed then leaned over the rail, looking at the stars with a sad glint in his eyes. “If only I wasn’t born into this life. If I was a star, things would have been much simpler.”

You then looked at him and realized that he and you had some things in common. You could have just left him to die yesterday, but you didn’t. Mostly because you already let too many people die, but he almost made you regret saving him. Maybe letting him die could have saved him from this feeling that you knew so well.

But it wasn’t fair. Not to you.

You saw and caused enough suffering. You tried to end your life so many times, to no avail (mostly because of your royal heritage). Nobody helped or saved you. You’re still suffering.

“Listen, life happens. I can only tell you one thing.” You said while joining him in looking at the stars.
“You only live once. I know, that’s a cliché and overrated phrase. But it’s true. This is the only life you get to live. You’re problems seem so easy to fix for me considering my problems. All you have to do to be happy is do what you want to do. Not what your parents want, not what your friends want, but you. Your parents might have given you your life, sheltered you, and gave you all that you have. But that’s it. They can’t control your thoughts or actions, that is, unless you let them. Trust me, I know. Life is too short for the ‘what ifs?’ You don’t want to regret not doing something when you’re old and about to die. Do what you want now, so when you’re old and about to die, you will have no regrets and pass peacefully.”

He stared at you with surprise.

“It seems to me like if you’ve been through it before.” His smooth like velvet voice rang in your ears.
For reasons unknown, maybe it was the moon, or the stars, or the fact that both he and you are living with regrets, but you told him a part of the truth. “I’ve done things. Very bad things to others whose only problem was being in the wrong place at the wrong time.” You thought to yourself about how your parents kidnapped the innocent bystanders.

“It was mostly because of my parents, and the fact that if I didn’t do it, I would probably die a slow and painful death. But that doesn’t matter to me. I rather die than cause another person misery again.”

And with that, you turned your way and began walking towards to your apartment.

“_____!” Taehyung called after you.

You looked back at him, gripping your stomach.

“Can we meet here again tomorrow? Same time? At 10?”

“Sure,” You replied back, then turned once again with a wave.

You don’t believe it was the moon, the stars, or the darkness. Maybe you keep answering and coming back to him was because of how similar you both were.

But after arriving home, you couldn’t even lock the door. You fell on your knees, the pain from your stomach making it hard to breathe. Your breathing started to come in fast pants, and you had to start thinking about other things to distract of you feeding. You knew your eyes were black, and the sharp points of your fangs, punctured your bottom lip.

You licked at the blood from your lip, and had to keep a moan in. You gently started to suck at your bottom lip to get enough blood in you, but not enough to cause you to vomit.

You don’t know why you did it; you would have preferred to die quicker but then an image of Taehyung came to your mind.

You stayed there on the floor, trying to keep your blood down. You slowly stood up, and made your way to your bathroom. You showered (even if it took you a long time), and changed into fresh clothes.

You then decided to move to your bedroom, and lay on your bed. The dark red covers surrounding you, making you think that if someone was looking at you from above, it would look as if you had taken your life and the covers would look like your blood surrounding you.

You stopped your selfish thinking, and knew this was karma.

But you didn’t choose this life. How was this any of your fault?

You weren’t even a common vampire; you couldn’t even stake yourself. The only way out was to starve yourself if you were from a royal line, but not one royal vampire had ever committed suicide, so what made you think you were the exception?

You had many different thoughts going through your head. You were so far gone that you didn’t even notice it had already gotten dark.

You looked at your window and saw the dark sky. You lethargically (and painfully) got out of bed and put on a clean black jacket. You didn’t care for the scarf or a hat this time, and decided the cold will take your mind of your pain.

You made your way to your door and locked it. As you made your way to the bridge, you tried to focus on the sound of your footprints instead of the laughter and chatter surrounding you.

There were more people tonight, and you didn’t know why. You decided to look up and saw mostly couples hanging around. Most of them carrying giant stuffed bears and flowers. You pulled out your phone and saw the date.

It was Valentine’s Day.

You internally groaned. Another thing that you would never enjoy.

Once you finally made it to the bridge, you smelled Taehyung before you even saw him. His sweet and delightful scent filled your nose, triggering your mouth to salivate.

You stopped next to him, wondering how long it would take for him to notice you. It didn’t even take a second, when he turned to you with a greeting.

“Hey, _____.”

“Hello, Taehyung.” You replied.

“To be honest, I thought you weren’t going to come. I thought I was being too pushy and forward yesterday, but I’m glad you came.”

You didn’t know what to say to that, so you stayed silent.

“I thought a lot about what you said, and I think you’re right. I do only live one life and it’s my life. Not my parents, my friends, or anyone else’s.”

You nodded, happy that he got the gist of what you said. “That’s the spirit.”

He chuckled, and a small smile came to your lips.

“So I don’t know if I’m being to forward when I say this, but I feel like we would be great friends. I don’t know, I feel like we were supposed to meet on the day that we did. I’ve never said this before, so I’m a bit embarrassed,” Taehyung said with a genuine boxy smile.

You looked at him for a while.

The word “friend” kept repeating over and over in your mind.

You’ve never had a friend in a long while. The only time you had a friend was when you were eight years old, and told her a way to escape. Which only caused your mother to punish you, leading to her demise. And your mother thought that royal vampires shouldn’t be able to interact with other vampires who didn’t have royal heritage. She thought they were peasants and that they would have ruin the family’s reputation. But being the only royal family here, you never had the opportunity to make friends.

You looked at Taehyung, probably thinking to himself that he messed up, but for some reason, you got attached to the guy. There’s no romantic feelings involved, but you believe there were some truths to his words about both you meeting being fate.

So after ignoring whatever Taehyung was rambling about, you finally nod your head. “I would love to be friends,” you said while outstretching your hands for a handshake.

‘What I said stopped him from whatever he was saying, and he took your hand and gave it a firm shake. “To our new whole friendship,” he said.

You just nodded and smiled, but then your smile slowly disappeared with the new oncoming thoughts.
Should have I agreed? … I’m not going to be here for long. Maybe this was a mistake.’

The thoughts were silenced after Taehyung asked to take a picture together. You finally agreed after a while and you both took the picture which he promised to send to you.

When he was done complimenting how you and him turned out, he wanted to know when you were available to hang out again.

“Does this mean I get to go home now?” You asked him.

“What? Do you want to leave?”

“Well, no, but that’s what I interpreted when you asked me that.”

“No, I just want to know your time table so I would know when to ask you to hang out. But to be honest, I like our night talks. I feel that the moon and stars are watching over us.”

You couldn’t help but agree with his words.

“Then let’s keep meeting at night,” you told him.

“Are you sure? But I don’t want you walking by yourself at night. These streets aren’t safe for a anybody to be walking by themselves.”

You wanted to roll your eyes at that. You could handle yourself, but if that ever happened, you might not have enough control and attack the attacker.

But wouldn’t it be the same if it was Taehyung?

You didn’t know what to think. So Taehyung decided to take your silence as a “yes” anyways.

“I’ll walk you back today,” he told you, breaking you away from your thoughts. “I mean, if that’s okay with you.”

You slowly nodded your head, promising yourself that you would do anything to protect your new found friend. Even if it means protecting him from yourself.

After having a long discussion of him telling his parents tomorrow that he was dropping out of pre-med school, you and him decided it would be best to continue the conversation tomorrow. After exchanging numbers, both of you walked side by side, and you couldn’t help but try to ignore his scent.

So after you said your farewells and saw his retreating figure, you went inside your apartment, showered and went straight to your bed to figure out exactly what to do next.

You thought back to your mother’s teaching about everything vampire related, when it came back to you. Your mother had given you a journal filled with everything about vampires once you moved out.
You looked through your drawers, and stopped once you found it. The journal had black leather coverings and it was held together with a gold ribbon. You carefully opened the journal and looked at the table of contents.

Once you found the section on vampire blood, you skimmed through, trying your hardest to find whatever you were looking for. After ten minutes of searching, you came across something. The tiles of the section was, The Consequences of Giving Blood to Humans.

Seemed promising.

According to the journal:

A vampire shouldn’t give their blood to a human because the vampire blood would musk the human’s scent, making them appear more unappealing.

After reading that part, you closed the journal, not bothering to read the red text that followed, believing you had all the information you needed.

So with this information in mind now, you close the book and put it back in your drawer.

You decided to think of a plan to give him your blood to consume. It would probably be easier than you would think.

You knew your blood wouldn’t harm him, in fact, it would heal any injuries he would have, internally and externally. He would be the healthiest he would ever be.

It would be like killing two birds with one stones.

-.-

You had slept through the remainder of the night, and when you woke up the next day, you decided to text Taehyung asking if it would be okay to bring coffee the next time you and him would meet. But what stopped you for a minute, was the picture Taehyung had sent you. It was the picture you had taken with him yesterday, and looking at it caused you to smile. After saving the picture, you texted him about the coffee.

He texted you back with a “That would be perfect!” accompanied with a smiley emoticon.

All you had to do now is wait out through the day. You decided to watch TV, and took small sips of blood from your wrist.

You didn’t know how long your own blood was going to keep you going, but you knew it wasn’t going to be long. You were already losing so much weight, but you decided you would make the most of your remaining time left and spend it with your only friend.

Time went by, and it was now night. You looked at the time, and it was nearing ten. So you got ready and made your way to the coffee shop that was right across your apartment.

After getting two cups of coffee, you went to a secluded alley and opened the cup meant for Taehyung. Then you bit your wrist, letting your dark crimson blood drip into the coffee. After your wound healed, you licked the blood of your wrist and closed the cup with the lid.

As you made your way to the back to your apartment, you saw Taehyung already there.

You stopped right beside him, and waited to see when he will notice you standing there. Once he acknowledged you, you passed him his coffee. He gave you a “thank you,” and you watched him take sips of the hot coffee filled with your blood.

You and Taehyung started walking in a comfortable silence, and once you both made it to the bridge, he started to speak.

“_____?”

“Yes?” you replied.

“Do you believe in the afterlife?”

“I don’t know. I never really thought about it before.” You answered honestly. “Why the sudden question?”

“Well, I finally told my parents that I was dropping out of pre-med school, and they didn’t take it so well. A lot of things were said, and it made me doubt my actions.”

“Being doubtful is part of being human,” you said. And being vampire.

“I know, but what if I’m making a mistake? What if it was written in the stars that I was supposed to become a doctor and do something with my life? I would help others, and my life would be of use. I would have served a good purpose.”

“I heard a ‘what if.’ Listen Taehyung, nobody chose the life they are living now. You didn’t ask to be born, and I sure as hell didn’t ask, but here we both are. We don’t know the future, we don’t know what’s going to happen. All we can do is take one day at a time, and go from there.”

“But—”

“No ‘buts.’ Just do what you want to do. And if you don’t like it, you can always try at medical school. You’re still young. You still have options.”

Your answer made him go silent.

“And you keep talking about death, why do you want to die so badly?”

“I-I don’t even know. I feel like I’m just tired of living, of making choices, of trying my best but never being good enough. But if I died, I’d feel like I did nothing. And nobody would remember me.”

You didn’t know what to respond. You have always wanted to die ever since you were eight, but only because it would do well to the humans. To Taehyung.

After having more deep and personal discussions, it was time for the both of us to go home. But not after Taehyung walked me home. As we walked together, you noticed you didn’t smell his scent on him which confirmed your mother’s teachings.

-.-

You and Taehyung continued to meet for another whole week, during those times, you and him were able to strengthen your bond and you were able to keep feeding him your blood, but it was becoming more unbearable for you. Your blood was just not enough anymore. You were constantly dizzy and every time you drank your blood now, you started to vomit.

It had come to the point where you couldn’t even stand up anymore. You were lying in your bed, with agonizing pain surging throughout your whole body. Moving an inch caused pain to soar up in that muscle, or whatever was left of it, so you decided it was best to stop meeting Taehyung now.
You ignored his calls and texts, on purpose because sometimes the pain was too much to focus on your phone.

Four days have passed, and you got worse.

Your eyes were always engulfed in black, and your fangs have refused to retreat.

You started losing your hearing at times, or sometimes the air was too loud. It didn’t make sense, but nothing was making sense to you right now. You started seeing things that weren’t there. You started seeing the faces of humans you killed, and sometimes they were laughing at your misery. Sometimes it was your parents, looking at you disapprovingly.

You were so out of it and in pain, that you didn’t even hear someone knocking on the door.

You swore you heard someone screaming and crying, but then realized it was coming from no one other than you.

Suddenly, you saw Taehyung there. You looked at him, while he watched you with shock. Why was he shocked? You didn’t know. Soon you started crying, and that brought him back from whatever shocked him.

“_____? What’s wrong? Why are you like this? Why are your eyes black, and are those fangs? What can I do?!” He said frantically.

You couldn’t speak right. The only thing you were able to do was point a trembling finger towards your drawer.

He looked to where you pointed and opened your drawer. He pulled out the journal, and you tried to nod. You believe it worked because he started looking over the journal.

You didn’t know if that was the real Taehyung or not, but you didn’t care. The thought of him being there was enough for you to come back to your senses. Your screams and cries were beginning to diminish until they completely stopped.

You laid there in bed, and stared at Taehyung who was reading through the journal quickly.
He stopped once he noticed your nonexistent cries, and he came to your side.

“You’re a vampire?” He whispered to you, before hesitantly grabbing your hand.

You closed your eyes, and painfully nodded.

“Why didn’t you tell me? Why are you like this? I haven’t come across why you’re like this. I want to help you.”

You laid there, staring at the ceiling and thought about everything you’ve done. The murders, the feeding, living but not really living. You thought to every single thing, and that was when it hit you.

You didn’t really want to die. At least not yet. You wanted to see the world and not focus on killing anybody or keeping people away. You wanted friends to spend time with, make memories with. Just like what you and Taehyung were making before you were getting sicker.

You wanted to see what Taehyung would become in life. You wanted to be there, and support him. You wanted to tell him about your secret about you being a vampire, and how you would stop aging after you were twenty-one years old. You wanted to see him grow old and marry. You wanted to see him with his own children someday.

You felt tears flow down your sunken cheeks.

You didn’t want to die. You kept repeating that sentence over and over.

So you slowly raise a hand with all your might, and point towards the end of the pages. He got the hint and started to go over the notes.

You looked back at Taehyung and noticed him crying and writing something on the journal. You don’t know if you were hallucinating or not, but another wave of pain started.

After when you assumed he was done, he had both of his hands over yours. You looked at his hands, then to his face and what you saw fascinated you but at the same time scared you. His expression was very determined, but his eyes was filled with sympathy towards you.

What was he so determined to do?

Pain stopped anymore thoughts, and you only let out screams and cries of pain.

“I didn’t know. I’m so sorry. _____, I want to help you. Let me help you.” His voice cracked. “Your blood, it has healing properties. You could heal so many people. You can make a difference! You can’t die.”

More tears started to roll down from your eyes.

“So, here,” he said picking you up from the bed and placing you on his lap. He was holding both of us with the support of the wall and he turned, forcing you to face him. He put your face close to his neck, and turned to the side.

“N-no,” you weakly told him, trying your best to get away, knowing what he wanted you to do.

“Don’t worry _____, I’ll tell you when to stop. I want you to be alive. I want you to see me prove my parents wrong. I want you to be there when I make something out of myself. And I want you to be there when I fall in love. I want you in my life. You could do so much good to this world.” You heard Taehyung whisper to you.

“Y-You p-promise?” You asked him, when a pain greater than before caused you gasp in pain.

Noticing your pain, he gently pressed your mouth on his neck. But not before giving you a kiss on the top of your head. “I promise.”

After getting verbal consent, you slowly and carefully inserted your throbbing fangs into the vein. At first, you didn’t even try to suck. You only let the blood gently flow into your mouth.

The first taste of Taehyung’s blood was heavenly. You couldn’t even describe the flavor. It was the best blood you have ever had in your life. You would always remember this taste, and you knew that it had already became embed into your memory.

After the first few drops, you started to suck with a bit more force, receiving a gasp from Taehyung.
You started to drink more and more, but once you felt Taehyung gulp. You stopped. You detached your fangs from him but he stopped you by putting a hand on the back of your head.

“K-Keep going. You can drink a bit more. I’m okay,” he said with a breathy tone.

“A-Are you sure?” You whispered back.

“I’m positive. J-Just promise me that you would help others. Your blood can heal many people. P-Promise me.”

“I p-promise.”

After that, you felt him nod and moved his head to where you had better access. You once again inserted your fangs to his neck and continued to drink.

You don’t know why or how you were able to keep your composure, unlike that time when you were eight, but you knew for a fact that Taehyung had something to do with it.

You were so lucky you had him as a friend. Without him, you would have died, filled with so many regrets.

Taehyung was the one who brought you out of the vampire world and showed you that you and him were not that different after all. That being vampire or human, didn’t matter. That there was a way to cohabitate.

It was all because of Taehyung that you were able to realize this. Another thing you realized was that Taehyung was an important person in your life, and that you were glad that it was written in the stars to have met on that fateful day.

Without going to that bridge on that day, you wouldn’t have been able to meet your best friend. Whom you love so dearly.

You started to cry, realizing how much Taehyung meant to you. You removed your fangs to his neck to tell him how much this and Taehyung meant to you when you froze.

You couldn’t feel his heart beat or pulse anymore. You looked at his face, and saw his eyes closed and a small smile on his lips.

Tears started to cloud your vision.

This couldn’t be happening. This couldn’t be happening.

You immediately bit into your wrist and brought it to his mouth. You watched the blood disappear between his lips, and you waited for the blood to heal him.

But after ten minutes, nothing changed.

Tears started to pour one after the other, realizing what you had just done. You shook his body.

Once, twice, and the results were the same. Nothing.

Taehyung was officially dead. You had just killed your one and only best friend.

Sobs came out of your mouth, as you pulled his body into an embrace. “You lied! You lied! You lied!” You kept repeating to yourself. “You weren’t okay! You weren’t! Why did you lie? Why did I believe you?! This is all my fault! My fault! My fau—”

You started to cry, releasing heart-wrenching sobs. “Y-You said you wanted me to be in your life. I wanted to see you grow up. I wanted to see you succeed? Why did you l-lie?”

More tears started to drop onto Taehyung’s shirt.

“Why didn’t you just let me die?”

You laid there, clutching onto Taehyung’s dead body for a very long time. You never once stopped crying. After, carefully placing his corpse onto your bed, you stared at him for a couple of hours trying to memorize every single aspect of him and his face.

You closed your eyes and saw an image of him pop into your mind. It had now changed into the scene where you have both met, which then turned into when you both became friends.

Every single memory played through your head, as you let the tears and sobs flow fluidly.
Then you remember something when you were hysterical from pain. Or was it a hallucination? There was only one way to make sure.

You took your eyes off of him and turned to look at the journal. The journal was on the floor, so you bend down slowly, and grabbed it. You looked through every single page, praying to see something out of the ordinary.

Once you came across the last page, you saw writing in an unfamiliar and sloppy handwriting. Almost as if whoever wrote it was in a rush. And you knew immediately that you didn’t hallucinate. That it wasn’t something you had conjured up in your pain stricken mind.

You turned to look at his corpse then back to the writings and decided to read it.

“_____,

Don’t blame yourself for what has happened. I knew what I was doing, and I hope to God, you don’t blame yourself for what I basically made you do. I would like to apologize for taking away your death. But like you said, you didn’t want to die.

Second of all, you can heal people! That’s why, I will make you promise that you will try to use your vampire blood for good. And about feeding? You have to feed to survive. There should be a way, read the journal.

And lastly, thank you for giving my death a meaning.

Your number one fan and friend,

V (Taehyung). ”