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likeavilain · 8 hours ago

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Ultraviolet | Joakim Karlsson

adult content | minors do NOT interact.

⋆ 𝐏𝐀𝐈𝐑𝐈𝐍𝐆. Jolly X female!Reader.

⋆ 𝐒𝐘𝐍𝐎𝐏𝐒𝐈𝐒. You and Jolly have a much greater connection than simply meeting after an accident.

⋆ 𝐖𝐀𝐑𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐆(𝐒). melancholy, vampirism, violence, blood, experiments.

It's okay to not agree with the characters' attitudes during the fic. It's good to remember that the story is fiction from the author's sick mind and of course they will make dubious decisions according to my fantasies. Nothing is done to be compared to reality.

The night was suffocating, wrapped in a cloak of shadows and a biting cold that seemed to hold the world's breath. Dense clouds crawled across the sky, obscuring the full moon, its silver light reduced to a pale specter that barely pierced the oppressive veil. The air carried the scent of wet earth, mingled with something metallic and invasive. The forest's silence was broken only by the muffled sound of footsteps and murmurs in a language that did not belong to that place.

I could feel the disturbance before I saw them, like a shiver running up my spine and invading my mind. My sharpened senses picked up every minuscule movement, the irregular rhythm of human hearts, the soft clink of metal against the leather of their attire. Intruders. Their audacity was as absurd as it was predictable, armed with technology that sought to challenge nature itself, believing that gadgets of light and nets could tame the unknown.

They were here for her.

The Ultraviolet. Not just a simple plant, but a living fragment of an ancient secret, a pulsing curse that my family had kept contained for centuries. To touch it was to touch the abyss, to toy with forces that should not belong to human hands. But these men, these scientists, came with the same blind purpose as always: to possess.

I watched them for long minutes, camouflaged in the darkness like a living shadow. The steep incline offered cover, and the trees around me whispered in complicity with the wind. My muscles were tense, every fiber of my body vibrating with the anticipation of a predator about to strike.

��You shouldn’t be here.” My voice came like a muffled thunder, heavy with fury, breaking the thick air and freezing the invaders in their places.

For a moment, silence was absolute. Then, in unison, they reacted. Floodlights snapped on, bright beams slicing through the gloom and forcing me to squint. Weapons were raised, fingers ready to fire. I moved before they could act, a shadow between the trees, fast and relentless.

The first fell with a muffled cry as my hand sliced through the air, tearing the rifle from his hands and breaking it as if it were cardboard. The second tried to run, but was thrown against a tree with a swift motion of my arm. The dry snap of breaking bones echoed through the night.

But they were many. And they were prepared.

A shot hit my flank, a burning pain that seared like acid through my flesh. I staggered for a second, but pressed forward, my fury overshadowing the suffering. Every strike was precise, every movement carrying the force of a beast desperate to protect its territory.

They screamed, and the sound of panic replaced their initial confidence. Iron nets were thrown over me, binding my right arm and dragging me to the ground with brutal weight. I tried to break the metal, but a second shot hit my shoulder, and the intense light seemed to eat away at my skin.

Even so, I didn’t stop. My vision began to blur, but I still managed to strike. Another fell, his helmet crushed against the ground; a third was hurled toward the group, knocking two down on impact. The lights flickered erratically as they scattered, disoriented and terrified. The smell of their blood filled the air, mingled with the metallic scent of their weapons. My muscles burned, every movement tearing a cry from within, but I kept going. The last group fled, their footsteps echoing through the forest as they disappeared into the darkness.

When the last trace of human sound faded, I allowed myself to feel the weight of the pain. My chest rose and fell in short gasps, and the wounds burned like live coals. I staggered, my knees buckling under my weight. The ground seemed to give way beneath my feet, and then I noticed too late the ravine ahead.

The fall was swift but painful. Branches scraped my skin, rocks tore at my flesh, and the world spun in a whirlpool of darkness and stars.

When I finally stopped, the impact left my body immobile, every muscle screaming in agony. I looked up at the sky, where the clouds began to part, briefly revealing the pale glow of the stars. But soon, even they disappeared, as the absolute darkness enveloped me.

The smell of aged wood and medicinal herbs was the first sign that I was in some place safe. My senses returned to me slowly, as if they were hesitating to return to the real world. The pain in my flank was sharp, cutting like the echo of a distant scream, perhaps due to the force of the impact from the fall.

But there was something else... Something I couldn't identify immediately.

A presence. A voice.

"I'm glad you're awake!" she said, the softness of her voice touching the very fibers of my being, like a distant melody, yet firm, as her skillful fingers moistened a cloth in the basin beside the makeshift bed. "You'll be fine..."

When I opened my eyes, the light of the lantern beside me almost blinded me, forcing my eyes to squint as my vision adjusted. And then, I saw her. She was leaning over me, the delicacy of her movements with the cloth contrasting with the intensity with which she watched me. Her hair fell in untamed waves, but it was her eyes that paralyzed me, as if each one held a universe. One, lighter, had a familiar color, but the other, deeper, dark-hued, disarmed me, piercing me like a sharp blade.

Something within me yielded before that gaze, as if she were a key capable of unlocking what I had long tried to conceal. And then, I noticed the mark.

My gaze was irresistibly drawn to her arm, where a spiraling black scar seemed to pulse with an energy I vaguely recognized. The feeling that something within me connected to it made me shudder, and a chill ran down my spine.

"Who are you?" My voice came out hoarse, almost a whisper, as if the question was a denial of everything I had learned up to that point. Fear, something I hadn't felt in centuries, bubbled in my gut, and doubt twisted in my chest.

Could it be a trap?

She raised her eyes to me, surprised, but didn't pull away. Something in her look, perhaps the calm tranquility of someone unaware of the true threat I represented, made her seem even more enigmatic. "My name doesn't matter now. You're safe. Rest."

Safe. The word sounded like an insult. A cruel irony. But my body, exhausted and aching, lacked the strength to argue. When I tried to sit up, a searing pain made me fall back onto the bed with a heavy sigh.

She pressed my shoulder with a firm hand, stronger than I expected.

"Don't move. You've been hurt quite badly. It's possible you're still in pain. I've treated your wounds as best I could." Her voice was a strange balance between gentleness and authority, something uncommon among them.

I couldn't believe anything that came from the mouth of a human, I knew better than that. I had been raised to distrust them, to believe their kindness always had something hidden, something that could destroy me. But she... She seemed so genuine.

A part of me wanted to believe, but fear still ran through my veins. Nothing enraged me more than being indebted to a creature, and this felt even worse when I remembered she was human.

"You shouldn't have helped me." I closed my eyes, trying to stifle the turmoil of emotions that threatened to engulf me. Guilt, confusion, helplessness... It all consumed me.

Nothing was more detestable than this debt, this feeling of fragility. And she... She treated me as if I were an ordinary wounded person, as if I were not a monster who could kill her at any moment.

She sighed, moving the ceramic basin away, as if my words hadn't touched her. "I was washing my clothes in the river, your body appeared there. I saw you were injured. It was the right thing to do. You didn't seem like a threat..."

Her smile was brief, but something in it unsettled me. How could she see me like this? A predator, a being that hides in the shadows, hunting its prey, and yet feel no fear? Something about her didn't fit, and that was what intrigued me the most.

I watched her in silence, noticing the tension in her body, the lines of exhaustion beginning to draw on her face, the slow way she moved. But what really captured me was her gaze. There was no fear, only... compassion. Something I had never known how to handle.

Something that, I realized with a tightness in my chest, made me want to understand.

"What's your name?" she asked after a long silence, her voice soft, almost an invitation to trust.

I hesitated. I knew the risk carrying my name represented. But like a fog dissipating before the light, my answer came before I could stop it.

"Joakim."

She smiled, a gesture so genuine it made me question everything I believed.

"It's a beautiful name. Do you need help getting home? I can help you get there, but I’ll need you to guide me along the way."

I couldn't answer. My mind was at war, struggling against the idea of trusting someone like her, and with growing resolve, I lifted myself from where I had been lying, tucked in my shirt, and made her glance away from my exposed abdomen, returning her focus to my face. Every part of my body seemed to burn excessively for a fraction of a second, but I had to be stronger than that.

"I thank you for what you did for me today..." I said softly, bowing my head in a long nod.

My steps dragged to the half-open door, and gradually, the scent of the herbs grew fainter, along with her perfume, and how cruel it seemed to deal with the fragrance of the real world after having dealt with something different in the past hours.

"Take care. I hope to see you again, Joakim!"

She said softly, halting my steps at the doorway, making me glance over my shoulder. Smiling, she was still sitting in her chair, hands in her lap, and hair pulled back, accentuating her clavicle, installing another strange feeling with the shadow from her wrist, drawing my attention back to the mark.

"But I don't."

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