☥ Introduction - Coal Upir☥

☥ Introduction - Coal ☥ Coal pulled his coat tighter around him as he trudged through the heavy snow covering the streets. Lamplight flickered in the darkness, casting eerie shadows on the ground. The winter sun was nearly set, even though it was only 5:00, and the boy wished it was still high, to perhaps melt some of this frigid snow.

Coal shivered and turned into an alleyway. He could cut through here, and cut a good ten minutes off his trip home. His mother was busy caring for his ill sister, and so he was made to take the long walk home from the schoolhouse.

Crouching slightly, the dark-haired pre-teen jumped to pull himself over the short wall, struggling to get a grip with the layer of snow atop and his fleece mittens slipping away with the moisture. He finally managed to clamber up, dropping to the ground on the other side, the cotton rain cushioning his fall. Just another few of these half-walls, and he’d be nearly there.

He mounted the next barricade and froze. There was a man in this alley, on all fours, hunched over something. Over a cat, fur matted and slick with snow, and the ground around it splattered with red. Coal dared not move, didn’t think he would be able to move even if he wanted, frozen in shock at the sight. A soft gasp escaped his lips in spite of himself. The man’s head whipped towards him at the slight sound, red eyes staring right at Coal, bits of crimson trailing from lips. The two were still for what seemed like hours, the boy crouched atop a short wall, the man hunched over in the snow.

Then the man stood and moved, impossibly fast, darting towards him, and Coal fell backwards in shock, tumbling into the snow behind him. The man was atop the wall then, staring down at him from a few feet up, and Coal scrambled backwards, slipping and grabbing at handfuls of slush, trying to catch his footing. In too little time the man was atop him, a fist holding the front of his jacket, pushing him into the ground, the other hand pulling at his scarf.

Coal opened his mouth to scream but the hand was instantly at his throat, turning his face into the snow to muffle his cries. He kicked and flailed, but the man was strong, pinned him down, and he was only a child.

He felt breath against his neck, saw the man’s face right next to his own, blood-dappled lips inches away from him. He saw a glint of something and then-

The man’s face was buried in his neck, teeth biting into his skin. Coal cried out in shock and pain, but was quieted almost immediately. The man sucked at his skin, at the blood stemming from the wound, and bit harder, changing it from a trickle to a steady flow.

His body felt numb, and all he could do was lay helplessly in the snow as the man lapped at his blood.

When the man finally pulled away, it felt like hours had passed. The man stood, licking his lips, sneered, then turned to leave.

Coal tried to sit up, tried to move, but his body wouldn’t listen. Everything felt heavy, the snow beginning to seep into his clothes, his blood staining the white around him. He felt scared, and helpless, and tired. So, so tired.

Soft footsteps crunched in the snow nearby, lighter than those of the first man. Someone new.

The stranger knelt beside him, turning Coal over onto his back. Coal managed to crack open his eyes to see him, new stranger, leaning over him with concern on his face. His hand went to the boy’s neck, and he cursed.

The first man said something dismissive, and the new stranger shouted back at him angrily. The two went back and forth for a while before the first man finally left, huffing.

Flakes lazily drifted down from the sky, like millions and millions of stars falling around him. The crisp December air bit at his skin, but it didn’t hurt. Nothing hurt. It was so… peaceful.

He closed his eyes.

The brown-haired stranger tugged at his own glove and bit his wrist with a wince, tearing skin and letting a small bubble of blood form. He brought his wrist to Coal’s face and let his blood drip into his mouth.

Coal gagged, his body instantly rejecting the stranger’s blood as he coughed and retched. He felt like he would vomit, almost wished he would, as the vile liquid slid down his throat. Coal curled into himself, his body one fire, the stranger rubbing his back (for what reason, he could not discern). The cold snow nipped at his skin, his skin itself burning fiercely, and his body sluggish from blood loss.

Exhausted, Coal exhaled deeply and gave in to the darkness.

☥

Heavy blankets, and the scent of wet flora.

Coal’s eyes fluttered open. He lay on a strange bed in a strange room, a strange man steeping leaves over a hotplate. Coal sat up, and the man’s ears pricked a bit, and he turned around.

“You’re awake.”

Coal’s memory was foggy, and it took a moment to recognize the person before him. The brown-haired stranger, from the alley. The second one.

“Who…”

“My name is Alex,” the man said, taking a mug and filling it with the hot tea. “Are you… are you feeling okay?”

“I…” Coal shook his head, a hand to his forehead, trying to shake the blur away. His body felt strange, like he wasn’t quite inside it properly. His eyes hurt from the brightness of the overhead light, and everything sounded wrong, just a bit too loud. “W-where…”

“This is my home. I uh, found you out there and… you didn’t look so well, to say the least.” The stranger - Alex, brought over the mug and a chair, setting the mug down beside the boy and sitting himself in the seat. “It’s a good thing I found you when I did. Any later and… well, the frost isn’t known to be merciful to fingers.”

“There was… someone was there…” Coal murmured, trying to recall the details, or anything at all really. “He… he had a cat… a dead cat.”

“Take it easy, bud.” Alex gripped Coal’s shoulder reassuringly. Coal flinched away at first, but then relaxed, realizing it was in good faith. “You probably saw a lot of things, but you were pretty frozen. Most of what you saw could have been your mind making things up.”

“No, that’s not… that’s not…” Coal’s fingers trailed down his neck and stopped short when they brushed against a bandage. Digging his nails under it, he peeled it off and felt at the area to find two small puncture wounds in his neck. “He… he bit me…”

Alex’s brows narrowed a bit. “... I saw. It was some… some crazy hobo. I managed to scare him off, but he…” Alex paused for a moment, as if unsure of what to say. “I’m glad you’re alright.”

Coal shifted and took the mug of tea, sipping it. His throat was raw and dry, and he was grateful for the hot liquid to soothe his intense thirst.

“I… I know you don’t know me, but… you’re not well. I-if you’re okay with it, I’d rather you stay here for a few days, then I can take you home.”

Coal choked slightly at that, coughing a bit. “I… I wanna go home.”

Alex shook his head sadly. “You need to wait. We need little time to let things die down, hopefully that creep will have moved on by then.”

Coal put down the mug, though his throat begged him not to. “I… I don’t know you. I guess thank you for helping me, but I… you’re a stranger, and…”

Alex nodded. “I understand completely. And usually I’d be all for that. But right now, the storm of the century is going on outside. Even if I wanted to take you home now, it wouldn’t be a good idea, or even a safe idea, to do so. So while ‘Stranger Danger’ is very real, the blizzard out there is currently the more dangerous option of the two.” Alex thought for a bit. “If you want, I don’t even have to be in the room with you. I can get you my SNES and you can stay in here all day. But I really don’t think it’s safe to go outside, not to mention that you’re sick.”

Coal put the back of his hand to his forehead and only then realized that he was burning up. Staying outside in the cold for so long must have gotten him a cold.

“Storm should be gone by Wednesday night. That’s only three days. I know it might not mean much, but I’ll swear on whatever you want that I won’t hurt you or make you stay past then.”

Coal stared off into nowhere for a few seconds, then finally dipped his head. “If it’s really the only way…” he said begrudgingly, taking the tea again and savoring the hot liquid against his throat.

“I’m really sorry, kid, but yeah, it is.” Alex said with a sigh, then stood up. “I’ll be right back with that SNES I promised. Call if you need anything, alright?”

Then the young man left, and Coal was alone in an unfamiliar place, with a wrong-fitting body.

☥

To be fair, Alex made well on his promise. Coal barely saw him at all, except to bring in soup or tea, or when his fever rose so high he was delirious. Though Coal barely knew this man, Alex was nothing but kind to him. His body still felt wrong, and everything was still too bright and too loud and too everything, but he wasn’t miserable here, and that was something at least.

The time came when Alex knocked lightly on the doorframe, startling Coal a bit as he put down the controller that Alex had provided to help him pass the hours. “It’s time. Storm’s over.”

Coal blinked, and a smile grew quickly across his face. He jumped up from the bed, stumbled a bit, and graciously took the jacket Alex held out for him. There was a look of remorse on the older man’s face, but the boy could not tell why.

Then Coal was snug in his winter clothes and the two headed outside, through a long tunnel, and took the walk home.

☥

Coal knocked emphatically on the door, and it opened mere moments later, and Coal was swept up into the arms of his mother, crying tears of joy to see her son, hugging him tight so as to never let him go again. Alex stood on the front steps quietly, a soft smile on his face at the reunion.

The noise quickly brought Coal’s father as well, and the three of them laughed and sobbed and father scolded him for staying away so long, but mother said all that mattered was that he was back, her son had been returned to her.

It was a long while before the parents’ attention turned to the stranger at the door. Then Alex was flooded with thanks and questions and even more gratitude.

“Little guy got a bit lost in the snow, and took a tumble,” Alex explained when questioned. “I found him, but it was too heavy a storm to bring him home at that point, so I had him stay with me ‘til it died down.”

Both parents hounded the younger man with questions; was their son treated well? Was he made safe and his injuries - if any - were properly taken care of? Alex responded yes, and while they were skeptical, Coal confirmed it all, Alex had been nothing but kind.

When it had finally been decided that the young man was trustworthy, Coal’s mother quickly said “Come in! You must stay for dinner, it’s the least we can do!”

Alex winced slightly at that. “Thank you very much for the offer, but I’ll have to decline.” When pressured, he continued. “I have a lot of work that I need to catch up on, so I’m afraid I need to be heading off now.”

While both of the parents wished to thank him more, they did eventually allow him to depart. Alex knelt down to Coal, gripped his shoulder, and said “Be careful from now on, ‘kay, bud?”

Coal was confused by the seriousness in his eyes, but before he could ask, the young man had already turned and was gone.

☥

Coal’s fever returned rapidly after that day, and both mother and father declared him on bedrest for further notice. One of them was always in the room with him, not wanting to leave their son’s side for a second, but even as he took the foul-tasting medicine, his fever climbed higher and higher. Christmas was nearly upon them, and they prayed daily for their son the be cured of his illness, that he might celebrate the day of the lord to the fullest.

Coal woke suddenly one night, on the eve of. He was so hot, and so cold, and he needed to drink desperately. He stumbled his way through the dark to the bathroom turning on the sink and drinking directly from the faucet. But it didn’t help. His thirst only grew more.

He heard the faintest of sounds behind him and turned to see his younger sister peeking at him through the doorway. Her eyes were worried and wide, trying to find him in the dark. “Coal? Are you okay?”

He could see her perfectly, even in the darkness. The way each strand of hair fell in front of her face. The sound of her heart beating. The way her throat moved as she spoke each word.

He moved without thinking. He was on her suddenly, shoving her to the ground and holding her there, eyes fixated on the crook of her neck. She cried out in shock, then pain, and he dug his nails into her skin, trying to break through. He could barely contain himself. He was so thirsty. She could help him. She could help him. His nails broke skin, and he finally brought his mouth forward to drink.

Something hit him in the back of the head, and he stopped, dazed, as his sister slipped out from under him, screaming. His father was behind him, shouting at him, but he couldn’t make out the words. She was getting away. He couldn’t let her get away.

Coal lunged at her and his father only barely managed to catch him by the back of the shirt, raising him in the air. Coal wailed, flailing, trying desperately to escape his father’s grasp, to get to her, he could smell the blood trickling from the wound. His father turned him towards him, looked into his eyes, and gasped.

His mother came running down the hall, confused, and his father said something quietly that made her jaw drop. Coal still struggled in his father’s hold, frantically trying to reach his sister, hiding behind their mother. She could save him. He needed her so desperately, why were they holding him back? Why were they doing this!?

His mother took a cross off the wall and pressed it into Coal’s forehead, and instantly his skin burned like fire. He screamed, trying to move away, to get away from this thing. His father took the moment to get a better grip on him, pinning the boy against his chest, and, taking the cross in his own hands, started to move downstairs, and outside, and to the car. The whole time Coal was screeching and crying and squirming, anything to get away from the horrible burning against his skull.

His mother was in the driver’s seat, his father holding him down in the back, the cross still firmly pressed against his skin, and Coal was in more pain than he had ever felt before. He was let up for only a moment, and he tried desperately to crawl away, but his father grabbed him quickly again and dragged him out into the parking lot, towards the church doors. There was a pastor waiting for them, leadinging them away from the main building, where people were gathered to pray for the lord, into the graveyard nearby. Coal was forced onto one of the stone benches, his father holding him down, the cross laying on his chest. He could vaguely make out his father asking the pastor about demons, if he could expel the evil that had found home in his son. Coal screamed, pleaded with them to stop, but his cries were drowned out by the psalms of the worshippers in the church.

The pastor placed yet another cross upon his body, this body that wasn’t quite his, and his cries grew tenfold. Couldn’t they see they were hurting him? Why were they doing this!? The pastor lay a cloth over Coal’s eyes, and began to chant. The words hit him like a train, and in that moment, Coal knew for sure that he was going to die. The pain was overwhelming, and his cries faded from scream to soft sobbing. He was going to die. He was dying.

The chanting stopped suddenly with a thud, and his father was ripped from his chest. His mother screamed, and Coal suddenly felt arms around him, holding him tight to their chest, knocking away the crosses and holy water and the pastor. He wept, relieved beyond relief that it was over, he was safe, but his body still ached and burned and felt wrong, the wind whipping around them as his savior ran.

The cloth fell from his eyes, and he saw a familiar figure. “A-Alex?”

Alex glanced down at him for a moment, sadness in his eyes. He said nothing, only pulled the boy tighter to his chest and ran, the buildings passing by impossibly fast, almost a blur behind them.

Coal took handfuls of Alex’s shirt in his fists, nearly delirious with pain, and exhausted beyond comprehension. His eyes closed.

☥

It burned.

Coal sat up with a start, instantly regretting it as he cried out in pain, his body searing at the movement. Alex was beside him, a bag of ice in hand, pressing it gently against Coal’s chest as he woke.

Coal felt an instant relief where the cool touched his burning skin, gripping the cold pack tightly, shaking as tears of pain ran down his face. Alex took another ice pack and pressed it to Coal’s forehead, and the boy leaned in to the pack, relishing in the near euphoric relief it brought him. Everything was wrong, everything was hot and wrong and didn’t fit right, but the cold made him forget, just for a bit.

Alex brought a glass to his face and he drank without thinking. The rawness in his throat that had been there for days vanished, it was like honey and strawberries and everything good in the world. Coal couldn’t even discern the flavor from the instant relief it brought. He could finally, finally drink, and he trembled with satisfaction.

It was gone all too quickly, and Coal whimpered slightly in spite of himself. He needed it, he didn’t even know what it was, but his entire body craved it, it was his only reason for living.

Alex pulled away, and the burn in his skin was gone, not entirely, but manageable now. With the pain went the blur of his senses, and he finally was able to understand what Alex had been saying this entire time.

“It’s okay, bud, deep breaths. It’s okay, you’re gonna be fine.”

Coal took a deep breath, swallowed, and looked towards him. Alex sighed, relieved, then took from behind him another glass.

Coal was instantly fixated on it, and when Alex brought it towards him he snatched it away, gulping it down. Alex sighed again, gathering the cold packs and setting them aside.

When he was done, Coal let out a soft and content sigh, swallowing the last traces of the faintly metallic drink. The burn in his skin was all but gone now, and while his body still felt wrong, at the same time he felt better than he had in years.

“I suppose… you must have a lot of questions.” Alex finally said.

Coal looked up and was about to speak before the memory of it hit him like a truck. “My… they…”

Alex nodded sadly, and tears pricked at Coal’s eyes. “... why?”

Alex moved to sit on the bed and brought the boy close, pulling him into a hug. “They didn’t understand. They never understand. You weren’t trying to hurt them, but they just don’t get it.”

Coal wept softly in Alex’s arms, sadness and confusion and guilt swirling around inside him. “They-... they w-were gonna kill me…”

“They didn’t understand. They thought that what they were doing would help you. But it’s not- it’s not that simple. It’s not something you can pray away.”

“I know - I know you didn’t ask for this, but… when I saw you there, in the cold, I just… I couldn’t just let you die. And I…”

Coal sniffed and looked up, confused.

“...You’re not like them anymore, kid. We’re not like them anymore.”

“then… what are we?”

Alex sighed again and looked straight into Coal’s midnight-blue eyes. “We’re not human anymore, kid. We’re vampires.”

Coal’s eyes squinted in confusion. “B-but that’s…”

“I used to think so too.” Alex loosened his grip, then pulled at his sleeve to reveal an old scar. Two pinpricks, black lines radiating across the skin from the old wound.

“I knew that… if I turned you, then… you would live. I’d be able to get you back somewhere safe, and… maybe you could even go be with your family again. Maybe they’d understand.” Alex shook his head. “It was stupid to think that. But at least… at least you’re alive.”

Coal stared down at his hands, his pale skin and the body that wasn’t quite his. He could see everything in perfect detail, the smallest pores on his skin, and the subtlest movements of his hairs.

“If… if you want, you can stay with me. I can protect you from them, and… I can feed you.”

Coal’s head snapped up, eyes wide. “I don’t - I don’t want to hurt anybody!” He shuddered at the idea of attacking someone like that man had done to him in the alleyway - like he had nearly done to his sister. “I can’t hurt anybody!”

Alex gripped his hand. “You don’t have to. There… there is a way. I can give you my own blood, or animal blood. You won’t ever have to hurt anyone.”

Coal’s eyes closed again. “I… I hate this. I want everything to be normal. I want…” Tears sprung up again. “I miss them.”

Alex pulled him in once more, enveloping Coal in his warmth as the boy cried. “I do too, kid,” he said, mournfully. “I do too.”