#* . ⊹ 𝕃.ℝ. › hope 001

[hellishmuse]

001. laurie & hope @tribridcrsed

Since waking up nearly two years ago, life had been a whirlwind for the vampire who now stood inside an empty bar with a glass in his hand. Falling in love a second time had never been on his bingo card, and letting her slip through his fingers after a devastating incident certainly wasn't either. With the glass in his hand, he flipped through a folder of records with the other. All the places they'd been, the people they'd killed. He should have stopped keeping track months ago, but he couldn't. There had to be someone keeping tabs, someone checking in on them. Things were already well past alright, but keeping tabs was all he was capable of by this point.

He'd tried, god had he tried, to reel her back in from the beginning. He'd tried to be there for her when her family died, tried to be supportive when she turned her humanity off. For months he tried and tried, doing everything he could think of to bring her back down to earth. Despite her killing his one friend, he couldn't not try.

Even as his thoughts told him maybe it was time to give up, he just white-knuckled the glass of bourbon and closed the case files, dragging his hand through his hair before downing the rest of the glass. This nightmare had gone on for far too long. He'd thought by now, after a year that she'd find her way home, find a way to turn her humanity back on. But still, he stood alone, hope dwindling. Turning off his own humanity certainly would have solved the problem a lot sooner, but he couldn't bring himself to do it. He'd been lost in that world for far longer than Hope, and he could still remember the guilt that came with turning it back on. He couldn't go through it again, but he could stand by and wait for her, wait to help her through it. Because despite her absence, everything he did was still for her.

He lifted his head, eyes finding hers immediately, barely recognizing them. They felt so different. Cold. He cleared his throat, looked away. "Missed stealing your old friend's liquor, huh?"