#Gonna paint the eyes today these are just black testers

[avanii]

Working on a big, floppy Quilava plush with removable flames! It's not quite lifesize but it should be able to balance over my shoulder just fine :D

[btsmakesmehappy]

Sweet Scent | 2

Genre: Agent au. Colleague au. Mutual pining. Angst. Fluff. a little thriller.

Pairing: Agent!Jungkook x Forensic Doctor!reader

Word Count: 5,6k

Rating: 18+ (M)

Warning: Shy boy Jungkook. A lot of flirting and teasing. Mention of death (murder case). Threats using human organ (Not explicit)

Chapter: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |  completed

Summary: Why does he always look so nervous in front of you? Is it because of your excessive flirting? But how come you don’t tease him when he looks so incredibly cute every time he blushes?

Series Masterlist: The Company

A/N: wew, It took me longer to write this. Thankyou @arizonapoppy​ for cheering me up and beta reading this story. and again: this writer doesn’t know how agents work.

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The smell of coffee sneaks into your nose, waking you up. You open your eyes slowly, stealing a glance at your watch on your wrist. 8.13 am.

Immediately you sit up on the mattress, stretching your body. You blink as you realize Jungkook is standing in front of the coffee machine with his back to you. “Why didn’t you wake me up?” you ask groggily, rubbing your eyes with the back of your hand. It’s so weird how your throat feels so dry when you only sleep for an hour.

Jungkook turns away from the machine and walks over to you, handing you a cup of hot coffee. “I did, fifteen minutes ago. But you didn’t even move a bit. You were literally sleeping like a log there.”

You hum as you drink the coffee. It’s weird how the coffee is perfectly to your taste, but that’s not important right now. “So what do you need again? I told you that I’ll call you as soon as I get the lab results, right? I swear, if you want that right now, I am gonna-”

“No. That’s not what I want right now.” He walks to your desk and sits on the chair, facing you. The nervousness can be seen in his doe eyes. “I think we also need to check the victim’s belongings again.”

You sigh and take a big gulp of coffee. “Fine, but let me finish checking the specimens first. I am afraid they will be damaged if I don’t work fast.”

The corners of Jungkook’s mouth perk up. “Thank you. That’s fine.”

You rise from the mattress and walk over to him, putting one of your hands on your hips. “You are asking this much and I only got a hamburger?” you pout.

Jungkook’s eyes wander anxiously, avoiding your eyes. He lets out an awkward laugh as he sips his coffee. “What do you want then? Pizza?”

“What about dinner? Preferably date-style?”

Your suggestion makes him choke in his coffee. A faint blush painted on his cheeks. “Wh-what?” his coffee drips from his chin to his shirt, leaving a trace of black liquid on the blue shirt. You are almost sure that it will leave a stain.

The panic he showed seems like a rejection to you and it somehow leaves a sting in your chest. You reach his shoulder and pat it lightly. “Just kidding; I am okay with that hamburger. And well, this is my job also.” You laugh awkwardly as you grab your lab coat. “So let’s get to work then.” You walk to the lab beside your office as you tie your hair into a bun.  

Jungkook watches your receding back as he takes a deep breath. Your scent is still lingering in the room, the scent of lavender mixed with something musky. Relaxing and intoxicating. He always wonders what makes you smell like that, how unique it is that he can notice it with just a small whiff. How your scent is so you.

The scent that makes his hands turn clammy. The scent that makes his heart beat faster. The scent that always takes his breath away.

Thankfully for him, you didn’t ask him any further. Never occurred in his mind to go on a date with you. Just the thought of him being with you in the same room has already bothered him so much, he can barely think. If only he would admit that deep down he wants to go on a date with you. And just like that, gratitude turns into regret.

You let out another sigh as you massage your sore neck. The smell of substances fills the lab, all mixed together, making you nauseous. And the lack of sleep doesn’t help either. “Do you remember anything from the crime scene? Anything could help.”

Jungkook shakes his head. “You can’t find anything?” he asks. Jungkook lets you work by yourself as he watches you from afar. Not because he wants to stay as far as possible from you and the conflicted feelings you give him, or because he’s already felt comfortable sitting at your desk, but he doesn’t understand any of it and he doesn’t want to disturb you. True to be told, he loves seeing you working.

You shake your head weakly. Maybe it is because of your lack of sleep, your brain is not functioning well. You silently regret your decision for doing this alone. This is literally going nowhere.

��Good morning, guys!” A man dressed in what seem to be plaid pajamas enters your lab suddenly. “Geez, Y/N! Could your face be anymore tired?” His smile plastered on his face, in contrast with your own face.

You roll your eyes. “Fuck off, Tae.” It’s one of Taehyung’s traits that you dislike, how his bubbly exterior just somehow gets on your nerves, especially in times like this. Not that you hate him. Hell no. He’s an amazing friend. He might be the first agent that you’ve become friends with, but only God knows why whenever you’re with him, you just feel tired after. You really think that he’s absorbing all of your energy into him.

He lays a brown bag on the table and gives you a light hug. “Cranky. Did Jungkook make you stay up late?” he says, winking to both of you.

Jungkook stutters as the blush creeps on his cheeks. “Wh-what. Well I sort of did…” You shoot Jungkook a glare to stop him from saying anything that would make Taehyung make fun of both of you, which makes him cough awkwardly. “But that’s not.. anyway, why are you here, Hyung?”

Taehyung chuckles. “I’m just dropping off some pieces of bread from my girlfriend. She wants to say thanks.”

“Woah, thank you so much, Hyung.” Jungkook’s eyes twinkle as he walks faster to the bag. “I don’t think she’ll return to the bakery this fast.”

“Hey, my girlfriend is a strong woman! Although I also hope that she takes a day off. Anyway, just share them with Y/N, okay?” Taehyung waves and walks to the door. “I’m going to drop this other bag of bread off for the others, and maybe help them too. I don’t think Jungkook would want me here.” Taehyung says as he smiles meaningfully to him and walks away.

“Hyung!” Jungkook whines, his face is reddened.

You giggle at Jungkook’s antics. “Why don’t you want him here, Kook?”

His eyes turn shaky with you looking directly into his face. “No reason.” He avoids your gaze again. He rummages through the brown bag and pulls out a piece of bread. “Just eat some if you want to.“

He bites his bread and slowly chews it. Today, he is eating a piece of cream-cheese and almond bread. It is his most favorite bread from the bakery, Palate Cleanser.

It is a bakery that Taehyung has been talking about for several weeks. Not only does it belong to his new girlfriend, it serves delicious bread. Sure, Jungkook has never been a picky-eater, but he loves it. So after Taehyung gave him a tester, he became a new loyal customer of that bakery. Well, the bakery is just a few blocks from the Company too, so it is rather convenient.

You are still working with that huge-ass machine that whirrs like a washer. He perches on one of the desks,  while he watches you from behind. And suddenly he smells something.

A smell that is familiar to him.

A smell that he noticed when he was in the crime scene.

"Do you smell this?”

You turn your head to him, confused. “Huh, what?”

He hops off the desk and walks around. “This smell. I smelled it in the crime scene. What is it?”

His statement perks your interest and you take a big breath. “I don’t smell anything.”

Jungkook takes a bigger sniff. “It’s there. Why can’t you smell it?”

“Well, sure that bread of yours is smellier than you think. I can only smell your bread.” You shrug as you turn again to face the machine.

“What?” Jungkook looks at the bread in his hand and takes a sniff at it. His eyes widen as he is realizing something. “This is it. This is what I smelled. Well, kinda.” He yells as he pushes his bread to you.

You raise one of your eyebrows as you hesitantly sniff his half-eaten bread. “This sour thingy?”

“What? No! It is the cream-cheese. What I meant is this bittery smell,” he picks some pieces from the bread and hands it to you after he smells it.

Your eyes widen as you see what is in Jungkook’s hand.

Almonds.

“Cyanide…” you whisper.

Jungkook tilts his head. “What?”

You walk quickly to the computer. “It must have been it. It just makes sense now.”

“Cyanide? Why can’t you smell it too?” Jungkook asks as he follows you from behind.

“There’s only a handful of people that can smell it. It is not specific, actually. Oh my God, I totally forgot about it.” You tap on the keyboards and hit the enter key. “Yes. It is cyanide poisoning.”

Jungkook looks at the screen, “so he was poisoned?”

You nod. “Yes. I need to check his toxicology report first. Will you tell Jin about it?”

“Got it. I’ll tell him and get a warrant to search the hall.” Jungkook walks quickly and grabs his phone from his pocket. He taps his phone to call and puts it on his ear. Jungkook stops in front of the door and turns back to face you. “Thank you, Y/N.”

You clear your throat. “Just go already!”

After Jungkook leaves, you still have the weird feeling that has accumulated in your chest from proximity to him. Just a mere sentence from his mouth is enough to leave your chest in turmoil. It took you just ten minutes to finally function normally again.

Well, you are lucky enough to find out the poison as soon as you did. If you had let the body lie in that room without any investigation, the evidence could have been lost. You wouldn’t have found the truth.

Still, after you know how he was killed, your work doesn’t get any easier. There’s no other trace of cyanide in the victim’s belongings.

It’s another roadblock.

That’s why you have been dialing Jungkook for the thirteenth time. And in the midst of your fourteenth call, you decide to end your call sooner. It’s no use calling him right now.

You close your laptop and gather all of your lab papers. After making sure that you have everything, you walk out to the door to find Jungkook. The sooner you finish this work, the sooner you’ll go home.

You hop into the elevator with much difficulty, given your full arms. Why didn’t you use a bag for all of your stuff? Your elbow hovers next to the “7” button, and after a moment you resolutely bump it.  Your mind wanders. Was this the right idea?

Well, why wouldn’t you?

This floor is for elite agents only. You have never stepped foot on this floor until now. It is not that you were curious, but you know that this mission, or rather this case, is an important one. If Jungkook wanted the report as soon as possible, then he should want it as soon as possible, right?

It’s your job.

It’s not because you want to see Jungkook.

It is not.

At the sound of the “ding,” you step out of the elevator. Which way to his desk? The floor is huge and there’s no map or anyone who can help you. It’s Sunday, after all. You close your eyes to sharpen your hearing, but you still can’t hear anything.

You sigh in defeat as you shuffle your armload of paper to reach into your coat pocket to find your phone. Your fingers have just grazed it when you are jostled by someone bumping into you from behind. You barely avoid spilling your report file and you turn around to face the one who has collided with you.

“Oops. Sssowry.” A skinny man with fair skin apologizes as he bows to you, slurring his speech. The fumes of his breath threaten to pickle you like one of your cadavers. His eyes are kinda reddish, too. Still, his walking posture is as you saw him in the past, ignoring the fact how he has turned this giddy.

“Min Yoongi?”

He raises his eyes to meet yours as he straightens back up. He squints, trying to remember your face. “Oh!” He beams. “You are the hot forensic doctor. What’re you doin’ here?”

Your cheeks feel hot as you hear the awkward nickname. Sure, you know that your appearance is above average, but that doesn’t mean that you deserve that name. You let out an awkward laugh. “I’m Y/N. I need to see Jungkook, he didn’t answer my call…”

Yoongi nods in understanding and points to a blue door with his thumb. “He must be at the meeting then. I’ll let him know, or you know what, just come along, I’m already late too.”

You raise one of your eyebrows, but still walk behind him closely. “Is it okay? I don’t want to disturb the meeting.”

“Nah. It is actually about your case too, so what’s the harm?” He knocks the door rhythmically and after hearing a permission he goes in. Yoongi’s eyes travel to the young man sitting in the corner. “Jungkook-ah. You got a visitor.”

Jungkook raises his eyebrow and sneaks a glance to the door. When he sees you, his eyes turn wide in panic. “Y/N? What are you doing here?” He stands up quickly and walks toward you.

You smile awkwardly. “I called you several times but I got no response so here I am.” In the silence, you finally look around. There are five other men sitting around the conference table looking back at you and Jungkook, intrigued. The tension in the room gets less serious than before as you look around the meeting. “Sorry, guys, for interrupting.”

A smaller man with plump lips sends you a mischievous smile as he nodges Taehyung’s elbow. His eyes turn into crescent. “Nonsense! Great to see you again, Y/N.”

“Hey, Jimin. Long time no see. Sorry, it won’t take long. I just need to hand off this report.” You set your case file on the meeting table and start searching for the report you mentioned before.

“You can join us, if you want. It will be helpful, too.” Jin, a wide-shouldered-man, the leader of this mission, speaks without looking up from the laptop in front of him.

“Yeah! Join us. It sucks to only see these brats all the time.” Jimin says as he indicates an empty chair.

You clear your throat awkwardly. “Sure, if you say so, but I think I’ll go grab my other stuff too from my office. I also think I left a machine running.” You take a few steps back as you laugh dryly. “I’ll be right back.”

“Wait, I’m coming with you too.” Jimin rises from his seat and follows you.

The meeting room turns silent as Jimin closes the door behind him, there is only the sound from the projector on the table.

Jungkook freezes, not knowing what to do. His eyes just stare at the spot where you stood before. This action somehow attracts the attention of the older agents as they all share knowing glances between them.

“You know, Kook. If you really like her, you should just say so,” Taehyung says as he smiles softly to Jungkook. He props his chin on his hand, studying Jungkook’s response.

Jungkook’s doe eyes widen and turn shaky with the sudden suggestion. His cheeks turn bright red. “Wha-what? No. I don’t like her. I mean, I don’t like her like that…”

“So it’s okay if Jimin likes her then?” Yoongi speaks up abruptly, making all of the other agents turn his head to him. The agents hide their smiles and then turn again to Jungkook who is looking more nervous than before, anticipating his answer.

Jungkook casts his head down, looking at the floor. He bites his lower lip harshly, trying to hold his lips from muttering a word that he’ll regret.

“What’ll you do, Kook?” Hoseok asks again, softly. This time it sounds like a reassurance rather than a question. The way Jungkook acts is a new thing for him. He’s never seen Jungkook like this and it needs no licensed therapist to see how whipped Jungkook is for the doctor. If only Jungkook himself knows it.

Just the time Jungkook is about to open his mouth, Jin slams his hand to the table. “Sure, maknae’s love story is very exciting, but we have a job, okay? Let’s resume our meeting.”

Taehyung snorts as he crosses his arms over his chest. “Party-pooper.”

Jin turns his head to Taehyung. “Yah. You have been a pain in my ass since you joined this mission. What do you want to do then?” he throws his hand in the air in frustration. Their conflict from the night before is still hot in his mind.

Yoongi pats Jin’s shoulder softly. “Just think of this as a break, Hyung. You’ve been working non-stop. I also suggest that we should just call it a day and get some sleep. We won’t get anything more if we force ourselves like this.”

“But, still…”

A sudden ring fills the room. Hoseok pulls his phone from his pocket and puts it on his ear. “Hey, Jimin. What’s up?” His eyes widen and his expression hardens as he listens to the rest of the call. “Okay, we’ll be there soon.” He says as he ends the call and puts the phone into his pocket. The other agents look at him quizzically.

“What happened?” Jin asks warily.

Hoseok sighs and says quietly, “Someone broke into Y/N’s office.”

You stand quietly in the elevator with Jimin still smiling weirdly beside you. “Why are you following me?”

“No reason. I’m just bored.” He hums. He’s not as bulky as Jungkook, and, compared to Jungkook, Jimin is like a thin child, even though Jimin is two years older than Jungkook. Well, you do recall that Jimin has just started his field mission just for a several weeks, and he worked as a handler before.

You snort. “Sure.”

Jimin turns his head to you with his hands clenching his chest. “What? You don’t believe me? I feel hurt!” he widens his eyes comically.

“Sure.” you say, rolling your eyes.

Jimin pouts and sighs in defeat. “Fine. I just need to put something inside Sehun’s drawer.” He pulls a black-leathery curled thing from his pocket and shows you. “I want to get my revenge.”

You laugh and to think that he brings it everyday to find a perfect opportunity is amusing to you. “And you think I won’t tell him that you put a fake snake in his drawer?”

“Y/N, don’t tell him, pleasee~” he whines cutely as both of you step out of the elevator. Sure, you know that he’s cute, whining like that, but Jungkook’s cuter for you.

Why the hell do I keep thinking of him?

“Just give me a reason not to tell him then.” you walk past him as he stands with a pout on his face.

He puts his hands under his chin, thinking deeply and suddenly he smiles knowingly. “I can tell you anything you’d want to know about Jungkook.”

It’s your turn to freeze on the spot. You turn your head slowly to meet Jimin’s eyes, giving him the widest smile you can give. “And why would I want that?”

Jimin shrugs and walks again to the office, still his smile doesn’t leave his face. He looks confident, overly confident. “I don’t know. I just thought that maybe you’d want it.”

You stomp ahead of him as you approach your office’s door. “Fine, I won’t tell Sehun about the snake.” You turn back and point your index finger at him. “Only because I know how Sehun hates snakes and his reaction is hilarious.” Your narrow your eyes as you continue. “Not because of Jungkook.” you whisper.

Jimin hides his smile. “Sure.”

You tap your card on the door and open it. Your eyes widen as you step inside your office. The sight inside your office makes you shiver immediately. Papers are scattered everywhere. The chair is thrown into the corner of the room. The glass cabinet’s shattered to pieces. “What the-” Color drains from your face as you proceed further, carefully stepping around the glass shards on the floor.

Jimin turns pale as he stands in front of the door, not knowing what to do. “Y/N, I think we shouldn’t enter for the time being. I’ll call the others first.” He grabs his phone and rapidly taps it. “Just don’t go any farther!”

His voice however doesn’t register, as your feet draw you closer to your desk. A burglar? What would a burglar want to steal in this office? There’s no expensive things in the office, well, except your coffee machine. But they didn’t need to trash this place in the first place, right?

At the sight of your desk, your knees weaken. Your eyes widen in fear and shock as you struggle to hold your body upright. Finally your legs give away, and you collapse to the floor. Your hands scrabble to regain any strength and hold your upper body from falling.

You breathe faster. You want to scream as loud as you can, but there is nothing left from your lips. Your hands tremble. You try hard to stop it by pushing them harder on the floor, pushing the glass shards right into your palms. The pain doesn’t make it to your mind right now, when what lies in front of you has every power to take your mind away.

Tears trickle from your eyes. Your vision turns blurry covered by your tears. As you blink them away, you also hope that the sight is gone too. But no matter how many times you blink, you still see the same thing.

And it is nauseating.

Pounding hurried footsteps in the hall outside your office finally helps you  regain some of your senses. You open your mouth slowly, trying your best to gather as much sound-air-or anything as you can as the breaths come too quickly to be of any use. “Help…” you whisper.

The other agents barge inside your office. Their faces have a mixture of expressions: mad-shock-confused-worry, and somehow you can see all of it on Jungkook’s face when he sees you slumped on the floor with bloodied hands. “Y/N?” Jungkook calls cautiously, trying to gain your attention.

“Kook…” you sob harder, which makes Jungkook immediately run to your side.

Jungkook holds your shoulders softly and studies your face, his eyebrows frown in worry. “Are you okay?”

Instead of answering him, you weakly lift up your arm to point to your desk. The agents all turn their heads to your desk, and terror overtakes their faces.

There’s a heart stabbed with a scalpel on your desk.

“What the..” Jin whispers.

Taehyung steps backward, hand to his face as he fights the urge to vomit. “Is that a fucking human heart?”

Jungkook doesn’t say anything, he just pulls the blanket from your makeshift bed to wrap your wounds. Gently supporting your elbow, he helps you stand. He doesn’t leave your side, holding you close to him to prevent you from falling. He turns your face to his chest, away from your desk, while Yoongi examines the heart.

Insistent tears keep falling from your eyes, even though you try your hardest to hold them back. What the hell is that? What does that mean? Why on my desk? Why?

“Hey…” Jungkook whispers into your ear. “Don’t think of anything. Just take a deep breath. Count in for four, out for four, slowly.”

You follow his instructions, looking up from his chest, searching deep into his eyes. Those brown eyes don’t run away from you this time, instead they look back into yours softly, calming your nerves. Those eyes travel to other parts of your face as well, making sure you’re okay.

Jungkook tightens his hands into fists, trying to stop himself from brushing your tears away from your face. How he hates to see you crying; He’s never realized it until now. He hates it. He always sees you with a smile on your face, and it always makes his heart beat faster. And now? With tears falling from your tired but still beautiful eyes, his heart aches.

“…. It’s just my opinion.” Yoongi’s voice breaks through your reverie as you calmed down. You turn to the speakers, giving them both of your attention again.

“So it’s from a dead body?” Hoseok asks warily.

Jin runs his hand through his hair, “Alright, someone please take a look at the mortuary. Jungkook?”

Jungkook looks at your wet face once more, hesitant to leave your side. Finally he nods and moves his body away from you.  

“I’m coming with you…” you whisper as you grip his shoulder, forgetting that your hands are still covered in glass shards wrapped in the edge of a now-destroyed blanket.

Jungkook turns back to face you, glancing at your bloodied hands. It must have hurt. He holds your shoulder softly. “No. You should treat your wounds.”

“But…” I want to be with you.

“Jimin-hyung, please help Y/N?” Jungkook asks Jimin, ignoring your protest. Jimin stands by your side, slowly and gently gesturing you to follow him out of the door. You sigh in defeat as you follow Jimin, your eyes keep stealing glances to Jungkook.

Jungkook’s eyes are still lingering on your back when you walk away and his heart aches harder. I want to be with you too.

“What’ll you do, Kook?” Hoseok asks again. This time it sounds like a reassurance rather than a question.

“You know, Kook. If you really like her, you should just say so,” Taehyung says as he smiles softly to Jungkook. He props his chin on his hand, studying Jungkook’s response.

Does he like you?

Maybe.

Actually, he has never thought of this.

Feelings. They have never been programmed as part of his routine. He is an agent, a soldier. Feelings make him weak. Feeling is messy, messier than blood splattered on the wall when he bombarded a body with bullets. He once told himself not to trust his feelings. That’s why it was so hard for him to talk or be with you. His feelings are growing stronger after time and it’s suffocating him.

And the harder he denies his feelings, the stronger they get.

What is this feeling? Why is it so painful to see her like that?

No matter how many times he repeats his question in his mind, the answer is the same. It is the only rational reason for such an irrational topic.

He swallows the four-lettered-word that almost slipped from his lips and shakes his head to clear his mind.

He’s gonna investigate this case quickly. Just so he can see you. Just so he can look after you. And with that thought, he runs from your office.

You sit on the bed in the infirmary, gazing on the white wall. This room is supposed to smell like an antiseptic, just like a hospital, but instead it is just dusty. Everything is cleaned every single day, but it is just like there’s no one working here for a long time.

Jimin rummages in the cabinet beside you trying to find what he needs. After he finds the disinfection solution, tweezers, and some gauzes, he puts them on the metal tray and sets it on the bed.

Jimin reaches for your hand, opening the ruined blanket softly. You wince as the movement shoots another pain through your hand. “Sorry.” He purses his lips.

You shake your head weakly, tears threatening to fall. Why am I only feeling the pain now? “It’s okay.”

He looks at your both hands, examining them carefully. “There’s a lot of shards. It’s gonna be painful.”

You gulp. “I know.”

“We still don’t have a new doctor assigned here, so would you mind if I do it instead? You can tell me if I do it wrong.”

“Okay,” you answer.

He pours the disinfection solution over your hand. The pain starts accumulating as you bite your lips to stop yourself from screaming. He takes a pair of tweezers with his right hand and using his other hand to hold your wounded hand gently. Slowly, he begins to pick the shards from your hand.

After fifteen minutes working on the wounds, Jimin smiles in satisfaction and rises from his seat to get a bandage.

A knock on the door fills the room and Jungkook walks inside slowly and stops just before you. His eyes darted to yours immediately, looking worried. “How’s her wound, Hyung?”

Jimin returns with some rolls of bandages. “There’s a lot of wounds, but luckily they weren’t too deep.” Jimin begins to cover the cuts slowly.

“Whose is it?” you whisper to Jungkook. You’re not gonna lie that it’s been bothering you. To think that someone stole an organ from supposedly protected cadaver sends shivers to your spine.

Jungkook clears his throat and looks at your face hesitantly. “It’s from Baekho’s body. That body is ruined now.”

Your eyes glisten with new tears as your hands begin to tremble. The sight of a human heart stabbed on your desk filling your mind. You see organs everyday, it’s part of your job, you are used to seeing it. But it’s a different feeling when that organ was stabbed unknowingly to your desk. “What’s happening? Wa-Was that a threat?”

Jungkook hesitates, you can see it in his brown eyes. He sits beside you and reaches for your now-bandaged-hand and holds it gently, afraid of hurting you any further. “I’m sorry.”

His honeyed-voice, that you love, sounds as if he is in pain, and it somehow pains you even more. “That’s okay. I’m the one who agreed to it in the first place. And besides, I chose to work in this field, it’s only a matter of time that I get something like this, isn’t it?” you laugh dryly, but deep inside, you’re afraid. Well, how can’t you?

Jungkook’s hand tightens. “Still, I shouldn’t put you in any danger.” He sighs. “Which is why I’m gonna take you home after this.”

Your eyes widen. “What?”

“If they don’t want you to investigate about Baekho, then you shouldn’t do it.” He looks straight at you. “It’s for your safety.”

You turn your palm to meet his, holding him back. “Kook, I must finish it.”

“No. This is a dangerous case and it was stupid of me to ask your help. I don’t want you involved any further.” He closes his mouth for a moment, trying to mutter appropriate words. “I don’t want you to get hurt, Y/N.”

You shake your head profusely. “I don’t want to. I have to finish it. It’s my job.”

“Y/N…”

“See, I’m fine! It’s just a few cuts.” You desperately move your bandaged hand; you can still feel the pain shooting through your hands, but it’s not the point right now.

Jungkook holds your hand tighter and looks deep into your eyes. “I know, you’re not okay. Your hands are still trembling, Y/N. Please listen to me.”

You sigh. You know that Jungkook is stubborn, it won’t be easy to persuade him, but you know that he’s right. Maybe this case is too dangerous for you. “At least until I finish the report for today, please?”

He bites his lower lips, deep in his own thoughts. Jungkook lifts his hand to bring your bandaged hand to his lips, grazing your knuckles softly. “Are you sure?” His eyes never leave yours.

It takes your breath and your mind away, his hot breath against your skin and his brown eyes looking straight into yours. You can still feel his soft lips, hot on your skin when he puts your hand down, still holding it gently. Your heart thumps inside your chest and down to your wrist. Can he hear it? How does it feel so right with your hand in his? You nod. “I’m sure. I have you, right?”

“Yes.” Jungkook squeezes your hand gently one more time to reassure you. “You have me.”

A cough interrupts your interaction with Jungkook. “Well, this is awkward.” Jimin puts your other bandaged hand on your thigh as he rises to clean up the mess. “I’m just- I’m gonna take this call. Bye.” Jimin points at his phone, even though the screen is dark, and hurries out of the infirmary.

Heat rushes to your face; you forget that Jimin was still beside you. You look at Jungkook’s reddened face, completely sure that he also did the same. With that thought, the smiles slipped on your faces.

He releases your hands immediately and scratches the back of his neck. “Sorry, I ruined your blanket.”

You tilt your head in confusion. Then your eyes dart to the blanket on the floor.  “Ah… That’s fine. It was good first aid.”

“I’ll buy you a new one.”

You nod and smile. “Sure, thanks Kook.”

“I-I also want to buy you dinner.” He clears his throat, his eyes travel to the wall in front of you. “Not in this building. I’ll take you to a proper restaurant.”

Your eyes widen with the sudden invitation. It’s weird but somehow it brings a smile to your face. Your smile turns into a wider one and you hide it by biting your lower lip. “I’d love that.”

Taglist: @kb-bangtanenthusiast​ @w0lfqu33n​ @gee-nee​ @jaienn​ @nctssidehoe​ @codeinebelle​ @kali-20 @mygalaxysupernova​ @jeoncookie-bts​ @kookunot​ @1-in-abillion​ @beingbeings​ @enchantingbrowneyedgirl​ @yiyi4657​ @jinsalpaca​  @giadalin​ @spring2787​

Taglist open!

[mirkwoodshewolf]

An All Hallow Queen’s night; AU! MONSTER Queen x teen reader

*Author’s note*

Hey all well I tried to get this done yesterday but some things came up and I just couldn’t but after putting you all through some haunting Hallowqueen fics throughout last month, I thought I might make it up with a more fluffier fic than my mini series turned out.

I hope that everyone had a good and safe Halloween last night and as we approach the 1 year anniversary of the movie Bohemian Rhapsody coming up in the next day or two (some in England or Europe might’ve already celebrated it, however in America we get some things a week later than ya’ll lucky ducks) anyways I hope that everyone had fun and if weatherwise it didn’t work out for anyone I hope you all still got candy and treats.

Now for this fic there is some haunting elements because this is an AU! Monster fic as you can tell and I first want to give credit where credit it due. Ever since seeing the beautiful Hallowqueen artwork that was done by @amedvleec​ in honor of the first ever Hallowqueen celebration (and I hope we have more of this in the Halloweens to come, cause this was honestly a LOT of fun for me, hbu?), I was inspired to try and write a fic based off your artwork and what you had made the guys in your drawing. It was hard to figure out where to take it but I finally came down to it. So I want to THANK YOU FOR CREATING SUCH A BEAUTIFUL PIECE OF ART AND I LOOK FORWARD TO SEE WHAT ELSE YOU COME UP WITH :)

Taglist:

@psychosupernatural​

@plethora-of-things​

@ixchel-9275​

@waddles03​

@geek-and-proud​

@queendeakyy​

@precioustyler​

@platawnic​

__________________________________________________________

It was that time of year again, the time of year where kids can wear their costumes and run amuck.  The time of year where houses are done up all horrifying and you can scare the living shit out of some people, yep I’m talking about Halloween.  And this year was gonna be the best Halloween ever.

Especially since this year I was hosting the yearly Halloween party for Team Queen.  The roadies, sound techs, and of course the band members themselves were all gonna come over to my place and we were gonna have ourselves a little ‘Spook-a-poloza’.

I was putting the final touches to the outside of the haunted ‘maze’ that would be down in my basement and my cousins were putting on the last touches of their costumes and makeup.  Once the webbing looked good I stepped back and observed.

“Ohh yeah. Very terrifying.” It was then I heard a clank at my window, almost like someone had thrown a pebble at my window. I walked over towards the living room but I saw no one there.  I shrugged it off and went over to check on my gummy ‘cockroaches and caterpillar’ Jell-O cups when I heard the clank at my window again.

At this point I was getting a little scared as I walked right up to the window and turned on the deck light.  All was quiet when suddenly someone jumped out and literally scared the shit out of me.  I then heard the familiar chuckles and laughter and there dressed in his normal concert all black attire with two black gloves both imprinted with diamond claws, and wearing cat ears on top was Freddie Mercury.

“Damn it Freddie!”

“Did I scare you darling?”

“What do you think you bastard.” He chuckled before heading over to my front door.  I opened it up and allowed him in.  He grinned and opened his arms out for a hug.  I accepted his hug and allowed him inside. “So why so early Fred? Usually you’re the last one to arrive.”

“Well it’s Halloween, plus if it’s your party I’ll always be the first one to arrive. Especially if I get to spend more time with you.”

“Ohh I see, you were just trying to beat Deacy from coming over first.”

“Oh okay fuck it yes that’s the reason why.” He said bluntly to which I laughed.  

“Well since you’re here, care to be my taste tester for my ‘cockroaches and caterpillars’?”

“If it’s anything your cooking darling, count me in.” I led him into the kitchen and allowed him to test out my Jell-O creepy crawlies.  As he tried a caterpillar I heard the doorbell ring. “Okay get back to me with your answer when I get back. And don’t pig out on them like you did at the Christmas party.”

“No promises darling.” He said as I left the kitchen and went to the door to reveal some of the roadies.  I welcomed them in and that’s when I heard a voice cry out.

“(Y/n)!” I turned and soon coming out of the car was Brian along with Roger.  I smiled and waved to them.  As they got closer I saw that Roger had added what appeared to be spider eyes in a triangle shape on his forehead and he had in fangs and from his fingertips to a couple inches past his wrists were painted black.  He also had spider webs wrapped around his arms so I began to think he was a half human half spider creature.

White Brian was dressed in a poet’s shirt (chest exposed of course), black silk pants, and around his eyes was smoky black paint along with some raven feathers.

“Let me guess. Uhh…..Edgar Allen Poe’s ‘the Raven’.” I said pointing to Brian. “And…..a spider of some sorts?”

“A drider, but minimized without the legs. But yes. And how could you get Brian’s costume?”

“Because unlike you, (y/n) is well educated in English literature, unlike you uncultured swine.” Brian said as he came up and wrapped an arm around me.

“What can I say? I had a Poe phase my middle school year. Hey do you guys know when Deacy’s said to come over by?”

“He told us he’d be here my sunset. Wanted to ‘get into character’ as he said.” Roger said doing air quotes.  “Why you ask?”

“Just wanted to know.” Truthfully Deacy had called me earlier this morning telling me that he needed to tell me something.  But it was the tone in his voice that got me worried cause it wasn’t his usual cheery self that he usually uses around me.

“But until then, your second favorite it here.” Roger said as he came up and twirled me into his arms before wrapping me up in his arms.

“Yeah. He’s inside being my taste tester.” I teased. He gaped his mouth open before tickling my sides which made me shriek and squirm in his embrace.

“You take that back you little minx or the tickling continues.” He threatened.  I kept squirming before I finally managed to get out of his arms and said.

“Rog you know I hate it when you do that!”

“Exactly why I did it. Now get back into these arms you cheeky thing.” I shrieked and raced back into the house with Roger chasing after me.  I soon met up with Fred in the kitchen and immediately hid behind him then just before Roger could grab a hold of me, Freddie stood between us and he said.

“Hold it blondie! No one messes with my darling witch but me.”

“Sod off Fred this is personal.” Roger teased as he eyed me playfully.  I stuck my tongue at him.

As the night grew darker there was still no sign of Deacy but most of everyone I had invited was now in my house.  While I was getting some ‘blood red punch’ Peter came up to me and said.

“Someone at the door for you.” I walked my way through the crowd and opened the door but saw no one there.  I raised my brow and stepped further outside.  I looked around but still couldn’t see someone, that was until I felt two hands grip my shoulders and I squeaked and turned to see Deacy.

“Deacy!”

“Aww c’mon poppet you’re not already scared are you?”

“I’ve already been spooked by Freddie and my dick cousin Cody earlier today, at this rate I’m gonna have a heart attack at the tender age of 16.”

“Well it’s a good thing I’m here then. You know that I’ll always protect you, right? I’m way more scarier than any monster or person that tries to do you harm.” I giggled softly and said.

“I doubt that.”

“Why not? I could only show you my loving side for a reason. But then again you always make me go soft for whatever reason.” He said as he leaned his forehead against mine, a common trait he and I did to show a sign of affection.

I got a better look at his vampire costume. Like Freddie, he wore the very outfit he wore last November at the Rainbow theater, the famed all black suit with white under shirt that exposed his chest.  His long hair seemed more wilder than it usually was and he had on fake nails that resembled claws almost.

“Love the vampire look. Seems Fred isn’t the only one sporting his Live at the Rainbow attire.”

“He kinda suggested this outfit would make my vampire look more authentic.”

“Well I like it. Please come in, let’s get out of the cold.” He followed behind me and with that all the guests had arrived. I then got my microphone and had the DJ cut the music as I got everyone’s attention. “Alright if I could have everyone’s attention. Just for a second.” And of course most of the people ignored me.

“Oi listen up you fuckers!” Freddie’s voice cried out throughout my house. He turned back towards me and winked at me.

“Thanks Fred. Okay first I want to thank you all for coming to the 1975 Halloween party. Now I want to avert your attention to the cards you all were required to get the second you all walked through the door. This year’s party will also be centered around a Murder Mystery game. Based on the card you have received, you have been chosen to either be a villager, a police officer, a witch/warlock and finally the werewolf. Now the werewolf, police and villagers are very obvious characters, but if you have been given a witch or warlock card. You have the option for saving a victim or like the werewolf, you can create more werewolves.”

I could already see people getting intrigued, especially the guys.  I smiled and continued.

“Now this game will go on for the rest of the night and whoever can guess who the main werewolf is by midnight is the winner. So as the party goes on, be sure to ask questions as your character. Any questions?” Brian raised his hand and I pointed to him.

“So if the villager is attacked by the werewolf, how long should it be for the villager to die?”

“I’d say give it 3-5 minutes. And werewolf don’t go overboard with the killings. Otherwise that’ll make you more obvious. And the way you attack is just tickle their palms for a brief second, but make sure it’s noticeable for your victim to get it.” Peter raised his hand next.

“When the villagers die, where do we go?”

“Excellent question. You have the option of becoming a wondering spirit. I’ve got some sheets prepared those that want in on the fun. You can wonder around but you can’t tell the name of the werewolf who killed you. Any more questions?” No one raised their hands. “No? Great, enjoy the party everyone and remember—be careful out there for this werewolf hunt begins…..now!” The party continued on.

The night went one and soon within 10 minutes, we heard the first scream and the first person to die was Johnathon, Roger’s roadie.  And it was then the investigation began.  I looked down at my card and saw that I was a witch.  So I got into the mindset of my character and just lurked around debating on what to do.

It was then Deacy came up to me and said.

“Excuse me Miss. Just a quick question, you wouldn’t happen to know just who was behind the recent killing would you?”

“I may or may not officer. But you know I think I saw Brian looking a little suspicious. I did notice he was the last one to shake Johnny’s hand before he died.”

“Thank you ma’am.” I grinned as he walked away and I walked the opposite way.

The murder mystery continued on and so far most of the roadies and Peter ended up on the dead list.  I looked around and that’s when Freddie came up to me and he said to me.

“Have you any idea who killed all those lovely dears?”

“I wish I knew Fred. I’m sorry about Peter.”

“Yes, I swear whoever killed him will pay for this barbaric betrayal.” We shook hands and that’s when I felt him tickle my palm. Ohh cheeky Freddie, very cheeky. I walked away from him and looked at the time to see that it was 9:25pm.  Maybe I could make this even more interesting and maybe do an outside death scene.

I walked out of the backyard but kept the back door opened so that people could hear me over the music playing.  I walked along the hay maze my cousins helped me set up when I heard the sound of rustling.  I stopped and looked around.

“Whose there?” I asked.  I didn’t see anyone else come out here, so either it was those damn squirrels or the neighbor’s dog again, then someone’s snuck onto my property. I grabbed the closest big stick I could find that still had a bunch of branches at the tip to make it look like a daggered stick.  It was then coming around the corner was a man.

I quickly grabbed my torch and shone it on him and to my disgust I saw that it was Paul Prenter.

“What are you doing here Prenter?”

“Isn’t it obvious? I’m here for the party.”

“Well there were two invitations I sent out. One to invite, and one not to invite. And I know I put you on the latter list.” I sneered at him.

“On the contrary love, I think I was put on the former list.” And I know this sounds crazy but I swear to god I thought I saw his eyes turn pure black as he grinned at me. “And I think it’s time I gave the hostess my profound gratitude.” He then lunged right at me as he roared an animalistic type roar.

Soon my screams could be heard from miles away. To one who could hear it, it sounded like I was literally getting murdered.  I raced through the maze trying to escape from Paul.

*3rd Person POV*

From inside the house, only four people could hear the screams over the loud music.  Freddie, Brian, John and Roger all met up with each other and Roger said.

“Was that (y/n)?”

“If it is, then that girl’s got a skill in acting.” Admitted Brian.

“No my darlings, I don’t think this is part of the game.” Freddie said wearily.  Deacy sniffed the air and gasped before growling lowly exposing his fangs.

“What is it Deacy dear?”

“Prenter!” he hissed.  At hearing his name the other three were in alert.

“That son of a—I’ll kill him I swear I’ll fucking kill him!” growled Roger.

“No Roger dear, leave him to me.” Freddie said as his demeanor changed from stoic to dark on a dime.

*My POV*

I kept running as Paul seemed to be getting closer and closer to me.  I could hear his rabid snarling and maniacal, haunting laughter.  As I ran a corner and tried to push on, I suddenly tripped and felt this sudden pain in my ankle.  I cried out and turned to see Paul finally leap towards me.  I ducked away but it was then I heard another snarl and soon hay just shot right over me as part of the wall exploded like a bomb going off.

I could hear what sounded like a tiger’s roar mixed in with either a lion’s or leopard’s low growling.  Slowly I lifted my arms away from my head and just lay there in shock.

“(Y/n)? (Y/n)!” It was then Deacy came in from behind me and he knelt down beside me. “Oh poppet, are you alright?”

“Paul—he…his….I….AHH!” I screamed as I felt Deacy take my left ankle into his hand.

“Well thankfully it’s not broken. Just a little sprained. C’mon let’s get you some ice and heal that up.” He picked me up bridal style and turned back the way he came but my eyes were just glued to the broken up wall in the maze.

Back inside up in my room, Deacy was bandaging up my ankle before taking one of my bathroom mini-towels and placing the bag of ice in it before finally placing it on my ankle.  I hissed and he said.

“I know it hurts for a while, but it’ll help decrease the swelling.” I really wanted to say something about what happened in the maze, but I knew I would only sound crazy.  “(Y/n), poppet are you sure you’re okay?” I look up at him and said.

“I—I probably watched the Exorcist one too many times. That—that didn’t happen, it couldn’t have happened.” I said in denial. But looking up at Deacy, he didn’t look at me with sympathy or like I was crazy.  In fact he looked—understanding.

“Poppet, remember when I said I had something to tell you?”

“Yeah. But—what does this have to do with what just happened?!”

“I promise all will make sense, but first I want you to answer me this.” He sat down close beside me, he wrapped his arm around my shoulders and continued, “What exactly do you know about monsters?”

“What?”

“Please (y/n) just—just answer my questions.”

“Well they—they aren’t real. I mean that’s what my auntie always said to me when I was little. Deacy what’s going on? Why ask me about that?”

“I promise you everything will make sense. Now tell me; what do you know about vampires?” At this point I was growing not only impatient but more confused. Why was Deacy asking me these questions?

“Deacy please just tell me what’s going on!? I’m not only still shaken up by—well whatever the hell was going on with Prenter out in the maze but these questions aren’t making any sense!”

“Listen to me (y/n). I’m…..trying to ease you into this delicately. Hell we vowed to never tell you this but now—not only with what just happened but we finally came to an agreement that you deserved the truth.”

“The truth about what? Are—did you guys commit murder or something?”

“No, no nothing like that at all. But please just answer my question and I’ll answer yours.” He stroked my cheek softly.  I looked up at him before sighing heavily.

“Well—my knowledge of vampires only limits to Dracula and other films regarding Vampires.”

“And what are those things?” he asked me.

“Well they—only come out at night.”

“Well truthfully it’s just no sunlight. Cloud days or stormy days they can come out.” Okay how the hell would he know that? “What else?”

“They uhh—drink blood. And they live forever.”

“Yes. And in a way they can, yes. Anything else you can think of?” I thought about it before saying.

“They have fangs? I don’t know! Deacy please enough questions what the hell is going on!?” I said panicked.  He takes a deep breath in through his nose before exhaling and turning fully towards me.

“Okay poppet. I—I want you to look into my eyes.”

“Okay.” I said wearily.

“I mean really look into my eyes.” He emphasizes as he cups my face in both his hands and leaned in very close to me, so close that our noses kept brushing against one another.  I kept my eyes on him and that’s when they changed from the bluish grey tone, to blood red.

At that point my heart just stopped and my body tensed up in fear.

“Tell me I’m not dreaming.”

“No, you’re not. And these aren’t special contact lenses either.” At that point I began to panic and it was then as Deacy took out the fake fangs, longer more realistic fangs grew out as he hissed and groaned. “Bloody hell my fangs have such bad timing.”

At this point like anyone should, I began stammering.

“Y-So—so y-you’re…..a-a-a real…..”

“Yes poppet. I’m a vampire. A real one.” And cue the panic and trying to get away.  I tried to get off the bed but Deacy caught bot my wrists and tried to calm me down. “No, no please (y/n) don’t run. You’re going to damage your ankle even more. Don’t. Don’t it’s okay. Stop struggling. Please relax.”

“Let go of me! Let go! Let go! Let go! Let go!” I begged and pleaded as I kept thrashing around.  Deacy kept hold of my wrists and kept trying to soothe me.

“(Y/n) please calm down. Relax. Shh, shh. I’m not going to hurt you. I wouldn’t dream of hurting you. Look into my eyes.”

“No! You’re going to use that freaky mind control and make me your blood slave!”

“Okay you don’t have to look into my eyes but just—look at me. Look at me.” He cups my face again, his thumbs gently stroking my cheeks.  “I’m still the same Deacy you know and love. Please love trust me.” I looked at him still in a panic but he kept looking at me with the same warmth and loving look he’s always given me.  Even though now his eyes were red.  “Breathe for me love.”

I took in a deep breath as he did the same.

“That’s it love. Let’s get your heartrate down. In for three, out for five.” We continued the breathing exercises until I was finally calm. “Good girl. That’s my girl.” He pressed a soft kiss to my forehead.  Okay, getting a kiss from a vampire, never knew that would happen to me.

“So—all this time you’ve been…..”

“Yes.”

“And the guys….are—are they—vampires too?”

“Oh god no. You’ve seen our arguments and fights right?” I nodded. “It’d be—absolute hell if we were all vampires. No I’m the only vampire. But—the guys are also creatures of the night too.”

“What are they?”

“Well. Brian is a shapeshifter, but he mostly prefers to transform into a raven. Freddie is a familiar.”

“A what?”

“A familiar. They’re companions to a witch.” I thought about it and suddenly it clicked.

“So wait is—is Mary?”

“A witch? Yes. But don’t worry, she’s a good witch. A white witch, that means she only dabbles in light magic compared to what most witches are known for.” Okay so the few times I met Mary I’ve been talking to a real witch. “And roger is a drider.”

“A rider?”

“No love a drider. D.R.I.D.E.R. And—you may not like it when I tell you what that means.”

“I might as well know what it is so just tell me.”

“Basically you’ve got your half man half animals right. Like werewolves, mermaids, sirens, all that. Well a drider is a half man, half spider.” At that I shuddered.

“Spiders. Of all the things why did he have to be a spider.”

“Well, be thankful he’s not a naga.” He plainly suggested.

“I’m afraid to find out what that means.”

“Half person, half snake.”

“Oh fuck no! No, no, no, no!” he chuckled, even with the fangs, I could still see that sweet tooth gapped smile he’s always had. “So—monsters are real?”

“Yes. We’re all around. We can blend well with human society, but on All Hallows Eve, our true forms slowly come out till the stroke of midnight when our true forms take full shape.”

“So you—” I trailed off.

“I what? C’mon love don’t be shy. I know this is a lot to take in but don’t be afraid to ask me all the questions that are probably running through your mind.” He stroked my cheek gingerly with the back of his index finger.

“You’re—not going to eat me?” he let out a disbelieved chuckle.

“No. Well I mean…..”

“Deacy!” I whined fearfully.

“I’m kidding poppet. Of course not. I’ve told you time and time again, that I’d never let anyone hurt you. That also includes myself, come here.” He held his arms out to me.  I looked at him cautiously but he assured me with those red eyes of his that he wasn’t going to try anything.  

So I slowly leaned in and leaned against his shoulder like I always do whenever we hug.  I felt his arms wrap around me and he rubbed my back comfortingly.

“Of course I would never eat you. And neither would the lads. We all care about you too much.”

“How long have you been like this?” He hummed and said.

“Wow, never thought I’d be asked that. It seems so long ago, I don’t know if you’ll like the answer. But—I’m around 537 years old, give or take.” I gaped at him.  537 years old? Holy shit!  “Compared to the others I’m still the youngest. They’ve been around for millennia’s. Freddie of course is the oldest out of us. Then Bri and then Roger.”

“What else can vampires do?”

“Well, think of us as basically superhuman. We can lift things normal humans can’t. Our senses are sharper, and we can shapeshift our forms. Brian helped me gain control of that ability shortly after I met them roughly 196 years ago.”

“You’ve known them for that long?”

“Yes. Hard to believe isn’t it. Especially when we formed the band just recently. But I was living with them at the time as Queen was being formed.”

“But something doesn’t quite make sense. I thought vampires only drank blood, but I’ve seen you eat cheese of toast. And steak and shrimp. I thought vampires couldn’t eat human foods?”

“Well just because I’m a vampire doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy a human meal every now and then. While I can eat it, I can’t taste them as you humans taste things. The only thing I can taste is blood, but that doesn’t mean I have to live solely on blood. I don’t know where that came from.”

“Blame pretty much every vampire movie made.” He bopped my nose playfully and that’s when I grew nervous.

“What is it poppet?”

“Have—have you ever…..and I don’t mean this to be offensive but, answer me this. Honest and truthfully Deacy. Have you—ever bitten anyone?” he sighed heavily and said.

“I think what you’re asking is if I’ve killed anyone?” I looked down shamefully. “What would you think of me if I did? How would you feel if I told you that I—stalk my prey? That when I feed, I drain every last ounce of life out of them?” I grew pale and pushed back from him. “Love don’t worry. I get my blood through a blood transfusion program. It puts less suspicion on us, and saves more of my kind. But I won’t lie there are vampires who freely kill wherever they go. That they see humans as no more than blood bank pets.”

“Do they—live here in London?”

“Afraid so. But like I said before, I’ll always protect you. So will Freddie, Brian and Roger. In fact I’ll let you in on a little secret, come closer.” I lean a bit closer to him but keep a good foot away from him. “Closer.” I lean closer and that’s when he meets me halfway and whispers in my ear. “Vampires are afraid of driders.”

“For real?”

“I’ll admit I was afraid of Roger myself when I first met him, but he—sorta grew on me as the century went by. So you’re well protected especially if Roger is by your side should a vampire try to do anything to you.”

“Guess I’ll need to apologize to him telling how Fred was my second favorite Queen member.”

“Nah let him believe he’s in last place.”

“You are so cruel!”

“They don’t call me the kind of the one liners for nothing.” He bragged.  “And you know, I’m quite surprised you never figured it out at least with me. Why did you think I never let you in the loo whenever I was getting ready?”

“So wait, Vampires really don’t have a reflection in the mirrors?”

“That’s the one gag that’s actually 100% true. Due to the silver material mirrors contain, we can’t be shown. That’s why I ask you for final looks before I go on stage on how I look.”

“So all that stuff about garlic and wooden stakes?”

“Completely false. Garlic just smells bad so that means anyone can be killed by garlic just because of the smell, and a stake can’t even pierce through a plate of ribs all the way through, so how the hell is it supposed to kill us? You would need to do repeated stabs in order to even attempt to get to our dead hearts.”

“And staying in during the day?”

“That is true to a degree. It’s only sunlight we can’t stand. But if it’s a cloudy morning then we can survive. But nighttime is the preferred method because our eyes are so sensitive. Driders have the same effect we do when it comes to sunlight.”

“So that’s why Roger’s always wearing sunglasses inside and out.”

“Exactly. Clever girl.” He said as he gently ruffled my hair.

“Now I have to ask. What happened outside with Paul, he’s—is he a monster too?”

“The worst kind of monster there is. A demon. He’s been poking around near us as a way to gain human souls for hell. But you don’t have to worry about him anymore, Fred took care of him.”

“You—you mean that—thing was Freddie?” he nodded. “But he—he didn’t even look human.”

“Familiars in their true form look more like goblins. They have some knowledge of magic but not a lot. And they’re the only creatures that can actually kill demons.”

“And that’s what Freddie did?” I asked.

“Prenter had it coming when he decided to attack you. Especially on All Hallows Eve when our powers are most strong.” I leaned back against his shoulder and asked the million dollar question.

“How did you become a vampire?”

“Hmm, never did I think I would tell that story again. It’s pretty long.”

“Well I’m sure the guys probably sent everyone home so the party’s cancelled. I’ve got all night if you’d like.” He stroked through my hair and he explained.

“Well; long before I met Veronica. Centuries before she was born. I—had another love. To me—she was everything, but to her I was nothing but a pet. A blood bank that would sustain her.”

“Ohh Deacy.”

“I mean—I knew the signs that she was a vampire. Because back then people weren’t as skeptical as they are today. So just from the signs I knew who she was, but—I didn’t care. I loved her. Anyways, one day there was a fire. Our house was in full blaze. A beam fell from the roof and, went right through my chest. I still have the scar to this day, you can even see it today.” He pushed back the left side of his attire aside and there I finally saw the faint lining of a scar that looked like something had stabbed him. “I guess—in her final mercy. She fed me her blood. The next thing I knew, I woke up stronger, condemned, my senses were sharper.”

“And—what happened to her? Did you ever find her again?”

“No. She—disappeared. I never saw her again, even to this day I’ve never found her. Best bet is that she probably got herself into trouble and ended up getting killed by humans. So…..ever since then I’ve been completely alone. Till I met the other three, then Veronica. And finally you.” He softly grinned down at me before brushing my hair aside.

“Is—Is Veronica a vampire too?”

“No. She’s like you. A mortal.”

“Does she know? About you and the guys being….you know.”

“I told her last year. She—caught me in the midst of my transformation. I—I was so afraid she’d leave me and see me as a monster instead of who I was to her. But……god or whoever above bless her, she still accepted me for being what I am. And now we’re raising our own little family together. Sure it may seem wrong for humans and monsters to be together but I don’t give a fuck.”

“I was told that vampires couldn’t procreate, is that also a lie?”

“Yes. In fact—vampires are basically the reigning kings and queen of creating actual life.”

“So you’re quite prolific then, aren’t you?” he laughed and bowed his head shyly.

“Yes you could say that. And at only 537.” He stroked the back of my head and he said, “Are you still afraid of me? Of the guys?”

“Honestly. Not of you. But then again I’m still shaken up at the fact that everything my grandpa said before he and nan died about monsters not being real is a lie. And due to the fact that I was almost killed by a demon. It’s—all too much for me to try and process.”

“And that’s understandable love. Brian said straight up as soon as you got close to us when you became our assistant that we should tell you the truth as soon as possible. But Fred and Roger said we couldn’t do that to you. You were so young, we wanted you to keep that innocence for a little longer. Plus we—didn’t want to lose you because of what we are.”

“I get why you guys kept this from me. But knowing everything now, you guys maybe monsters in a literal, physical sense. That doesn’t mean you’re monsters in the figurative sense. But it—it’s still gonna take time for me to completely accept that the famed band Queen are creatures of the night.”

“Again, I understand. Just know that—even though we are monsters, we are still the same four boys you know and love. And we still love you just as much. We can still love and care just like humans can, we have flaws, we feel lonely. Sometimes even more than what you humans go through when it comes to loneliness. But all the same emotions humans go through, we go through them too.” I nodded and he smiled and hugged me close to him.

He nuzzled the top of my head before pressing a few kisses on top of it.

“How’s the ankle now?”

“Still a bit numb, but I think it’s just due to the ice. It doesn’t hurt as much as before.”

“Let me take a look at it.” He scooted downward and removed the rag from my foot and quietly observed it.  He gently placed his hand over it and my cold skin mixed with his slightly cold hand, it sent shivers up my spine. “Well it’s coming along fine. We’ll just need to keep it propped up and iced and you should be able to walk again in the next few days.”

“Thanks Dr. Deacon.” He grinned before turning towards my clock.

“It’s nearing midnight.” I turned to my clock and saw that he was right.  It was now 3 minutes till midnight.  Damn where did the time go?  “Shall the lads and I see ourselves out?”

“Well I mean, if you wanted to, you guys can stay here for the night. My cousins probably long went home by now so it’s just me in the house now.”

“Well I—we wouldn’t want to impose.”

“You’re not. I love having you guys here. Plus I don’t know if I’ll be able to sleep tonight after what just happened with Paul.”

“No worries poppet. We can protect you.” He said as he stroked my cheek gingerly. There was a brief moment of silence before Deacy continued, “The guys are on their way up here.”

“Wait—how did…..”

“Telepathic connections love. Anyone that’s close to a vampire can be connected through a telepathic link between each other. So that means I can connect with the guys, Veronica, my children.” ‘And now you.’ I gasped as I suddenly heard his voice in my head.

He chuckled softly as he grinned and I heard his voice again say.

‘Can you hear me poppet?’

‘Yeah. I can hear you.’ I answered in my head. He touched my forehead with his and brought me closer to him when a voice spoke up.

“I see you just extended your telepathic bond with our beloved (y/n).” We looked up and there stood Bri, Rog and Freddie. Bri then spoke again, “How’s the ankle love?”

“Getting better.”

“So—Deacy told you everything huh?” Roger said as his eyes showed nothing but pure shame.

“Yeah. I know the truth about you guys. It’s—a lot to take in but….I think with time I can accept this.”

“And that’s all we can ask for darling. Just as long as you never change your mind about us. See that what we were doing around you was just for show wasn’t an act. That’s who we really are.” Freddie said as he came up to my other side and placed his chin on my lap.

“She’s allowed us to stay here for the night while our full transformation begins.” Deacy told the guys.

“Are you sure lovie? You—may not like what you see from some of us.”

“As long as you don’t destroy my house then I have no problems Rog. Besides sooner or later I’m gonna have to see your true selves. You all have already seen mine when I told you about my parents about to sell me in the black market for drug money had it not been for my grandpa.”

“She’s right Roger dear. It’s only fair.” Freddie said as he sat up and rubbed my back comfortingly.  It was then my grandmother’s mini Victorian ‘grandfather clock’ chimed away signaling that midnight had arrived.

Fred and Deacy both got off my bed and it was then the boys began to morph.  Deacy’s hair grew longer almost down to his mid back, his fingers grew longer and his nails more sharper to a point.  Brian grew about a foot taller and his skin changed from that slight tan color to a greyish tone, his eyes went from hazel blue to purple.

But the biggest change came from both Fred and Roger.  Roger’s lower half began to stick together as now 6 spider legs started spurting out. A spider body began to consume his lower half and the three eyes that stood on his forehead finally began to come alive as they moved around till they locked right onto me.  And Freddie—well his entire human feature almost disappeared as his legs disappeared into the tentacle like tail that I saw earlier in the maze.  His fingers grew longer and longer, and his head morphed almost into an alien shape like bulb.

His eyes went from brown to an amber-like orange, but what was almost haunting was the fact there was this black, magic smoke surrounding him, as well as moths that fluttered around him as he stood there. Another thing I began to notice was that in this form, he had no mouth.

At the last chime from my clock, the guys stood there in their full forms right before my very eyes.

“(Y/n), you—okay?” I’ll admit I’m stunned to see them like this, hell there’s still a part of me that wants to flee for the hills (and I hate to admit it that it was mostly because of Fred and Rog at this point. Out of the four of them, they take the prize for being the most horrifying to look at).

“I—”

‘If it help darling.’ In this form Freddie’s voice was more like a haunting whisper of the wind. ‘I can change into my other form.’ Other form? Oh god what would that look like.  Then almost at the snap of a finger, a black cat stood in Freddie’s place.

He was pure black much like his hair was in his human disguise, and he had the orange eyes.  He was pretty lean in his cat form and he meowed as he came up towards my bed.  I smiled as he hopped up gracefully onto my bed and walked up towards me.  He meowed again before making a trilling sort of meow as a motorboat purr came out of him as he nuzzled me.

I picked him up and held him close to me as he licked his lips.

“I guess I can see why you and Mary have so many cats back home. Can you speak to them?” he meowed before nuzzling my cheek and even licked it.  I went ahead and took that as a yes.

“He says yes, and they keep him company most of the time.” Explained Deacy.

“So you guys can understand him in cat form?” I asked as I scratched under Freddie’s chin.

“Yes. Soon in time you’ll be able to understand him too.” Stated Brian.

“Dick move Fred, you know that I can’t turn into a cuddly cat or animal to ease (y/n) into this.” At that point I heard Freddie growl.  Now I didn’t need to understand familiar tongue to know a growl like that.

“Hey now don’t be ugly Freddie.” I warned him as I adjusted him in my arms.  He then squirmed a bit wanting me to set him so I obliged and he rubbed up against my leg before plopping down against it, exposing his tummy.  “Okay you’re forgiven.” I then rubbed his stomach like a dog and I heard his purrs grow louder. I think it’s clear to me that he’s the only cat that ever likes belly rubs and scratches.

“Are there—anymore questions that are on your mind about us?” asked Brian.

“I think I’ve been filled enough for one night. I’m still trying to process Deacy’s backstory but in time I’ll ask about you three later.”

“Understandable lovie. We’re sorry again that we never told you in the 3 years you’ve known us. We just……”

“I know Rog. Deacy explained it to me. And to be honest if I were in your shoes I’d probably do the same thing. But…..” I trailed off sadly.

“What is it love? C’mon tell us.” Deacy said as he came up to me and placed his hand on top of my shoulder and gave it a soothing rub with his thumb.  I took a deep breath and sighed.

“Are the three of you immortal as well?” At hearing my question Brian answered.

“Yes. We’ve been around for millennia’s.”

“So—that means you four will have to watch me grow old, wither and then die.” At hearing that, the four of them grew solemn that was until Deacy spoke.

“Well love, there—there is one way. But it requires the greatest sacrifice.” I turned to him and at that point Freddie took his leave and morphed back into his true form. “One night during the Sheer Heart attack tour, we all sat down after you went to bed. And we talked about this matter very deeply. Out of all our years of living, you have been the one that made us feel what it meant to be—human. You’ve given us so much that—that we can’t bear to watch you slowly wither and parish with time.”

“You’ve always been there for us. Taught us that it was okay to not be okay.” Brian added.

“To not let the growing media put you in a spotlight that is not true.” Added Roger.

‘That it’s okay to have flaws and insecurities. That you don’t always have to be perfect to everyone.’ Freddie added.

“So—the question I have for you is this.” He took both my hands in his, he looked deeply into my eyes and said the four most dangerous, most trusting words that a vampire can say to anyone. “Let me turn you.”

At hearing those four words, my heart stopped and I stared at him in shock.

“I know it’s unfair for me to ask that of you. We’d be asking you to give up everything you’ve ever known. Leave the remaining family you have and having his curse upon you. But there’s no other way.”

“Isn’t there some magic spell that Mary can use?”

‘Magic can be used to increase a witch’s life force but putting a mortal. A pure mortal like you under one, could have serious consequences. I would not risk it even if Mary were to find a spell to do just that.’ Freddie said.  I nodded and thought long and hard about it.

“Will—will it hurt?” There was silence in the room till Deacy asked.

“Is that a yes?” Before I could reply, he cupped both sides of my face and said in a serious tone. “I need you to be 100% certain that your answer is yes. Because if it is, there’s no going back. And there are no do-overs. Once you are turned, that’s it. Now I’ll ask again. Will you let me turn you?” I kept silent as I thought about this long and hard.

Yeah I mean I would leave my cousins behind but we hardly ever saw each other since they are legally adults and have their own lives.  I just call them whenever I need help with something or they help keep the mortgage on my grandparent’s mansion since I couldn’t afford it yet.

Plus I don’t want to die while the boys kept on living.  I wouldn’t dream of putting them through that grief after all we’ve been through together, what we could go through together.  So I gave Deacy my answer.

“Yes.” He exhaled nervously before suddenly embracing me.  At first I thought he was going to bite me right then and there, but all he did was stroke down my hair and rock me from side to side.

“I promise love, I’ll teach you everything I know. I can officially be your ‘brother’. I won’t let you fall off the wagon. I’ll take care of you I promise.” Wow I mean I knew Deacy was sensitive but never did I think this much.  I actually kinda liked it.  At least I knew I wouldn’t be abandoned like he was when he was turned.

A little bit of time passed by and Bri and Fred left the room leaving Roger, Deacy and I in my bedroom.

“So—how exactly is this going to work?” I asked.

“Well there are many ways that a turning can happen, but it all has to come to one common denominator. The turnee has to be at the brink of death.” Deacy explained.  Why didn’t that surprise me? “And since I wouldn’t dream of doing something like shooting or stabbing you, I think it’d be more humane to go the traditional way.” I nodded but didn’t say a word. “(Y/n), something’s on your mind love. Tell me.”

“I—I don’t know I just…..”

“Do you regret saying yes?”

“No it’s not that Deacy it’s just…..”

“Just what?”

“What if—what if something goes wrong? Like you find my blood so tasty that you can’t stop. That you just forget about turning me and just kill me right here on my bed.”

“That’s why I’m here lovie.” Roger said as he stepped towards me.  He placed his black-clawed hand on my other shoulder and he continued, “As I’m sure he probably told you. Vampires fear nothing except for one creature. Driders. If for whatever reason Deacy’s primal instincts take over, one stern word from me and he’ll immediately back off. Because throughout history our venom is so potent, that it has the ability to kill other immortal creatures, including vampires.”

“Especially since his species of drider is the most dangerous and the kings and queens of all. Roger is a black widow drider.” I turned towards Rog and he merely shrugged.

“I don’t like to brag.”

“Oh please every year you like to show off the famed red hourglass you’ve got.” Deacy rolled his eyes.

“Watch it bat boy just remember who you’re talking to.”

“Okay guys, guys, guys. Human female in the room remember?” They ceased their arguing and Roger apologized.  Deacy brushed the hair out of my face and tucked it behind my ear and he said.

“I’ll try my best to not go overboard. I’ll only drain just enough to where you can still drink my blood. And like Roger said, he’ll be here in case anything does go sideways. But I promise I’ll try to control myself.” He kissed my forehead and had me lay down on my bed.  He hovered over me and he asked me. “Are you ready?” I swallowed hard and exhaled a nervous breath.

“Yes.” He stroked my cheek and whispered in my ear.

“Just relax love. It’ll feel like getting a shot, then some numbness. I’ve got you poppet.” I felt his nose go from my cheek down to my neck.  He stopped at the middle section of my neck where probably my veins were more noticeable. “I can hear your heartbeat, and I can smell it too. Relax love. It’ll be more painful the more tense you are.” It was then I felt Roger’s hands take my right one and he gave it a comforting squeeze.

“I’m giving you permission to squeeze my hand as tight as you want to. If you feel afraid or any pain, you can squeeze my hand. You won’t hurt me.” I nodded briefly.  I felt Deacy place a kiss on my neck before I felt his fangs graze against my skin.

Then just like getting a shot at the doctor’s (however unlike a little needle, these were two hypodermic fangs) I felt a prick at my neck.  I gasped and squeezed Roger’s hand.

“It’s okay lovie. Just look at me, look at nothing but me.” He cupped the side of my face and stroked my left cheek so that I wouldn’t look at Deacy.  “Just focus on me lovie. I can share with you some drum solos I’ve had in mind for the Christmas concert we’re scheduled to do.”

I hummed and as he spoke, I felt myself getting lightheaded.  Roger was going in and out of focus and my mouth was now gaping out.  I felt numb and tired and that’s when I heard Roger say.

“Deacy stop. She’s ready.” But I heard an animalistic growl coming from Deacy.  It sounded much like a lion’s growl, maybe even a bear I don’t know.  My vision was growing black and I heard Roger snarl. “Deacon enough! You’re going to kill her!” At that point I heard what sounded like a lion mixed with a snake’s hiss as Deacy jumped back from me and I saw the blurry figure of Roger standing over me. “ENOUGH!!!”

I then felt light, faint strokes around my head and Roger’s muffled voice said.

“(Y/n), lovie can you hear me?” I faintly groaned and that’s when Deacy came back into my blurry vision and I heard him say.

“Oh god love I—I’m sorry I-I-I didn’t mean to go overboard I….”

“Just quickly give her your blood before she passes out.” Roger told him.  It was then I saw Deacy bite into his wrist and I felt it touch my lips.

“Here love, drink.” I placed my lips over it and at first gagged at the taste of his blood.  It was like licking 1000 pennies all at once. “I know love, I know it tastes bad but it’ll pass. Please love you have to drink or else you’ll die.” He cups me behind my head and much like a baby, places his wrist back to my mouth and I slowly began drinking his blood.

It tasted revolting at first but like he said, it soon turned out to be the most delicious thing I ever tasted. Kinda like—my favorite milkshake at Kenny’s ice cream parlor.  I don’t know what came over me but I found myself gripping Deacy’s forearm and greedily drank his blood.

“Now, now, not so fast love. Easy. Easy poppet.” He cooed as I let him stroke my hair.  I kept drinking and drinking until I had my fill.  I separated from his wrist and exhaled. “You messy little thing.” He cooed as I felt a wet rag wipe away my probably bloody mouth and chin.

“D-De….”

“Shhhh, just rest now.” He whispered.  Suddenly feeling exhausted I closed my eyes and fell fast asleep.

*3rd Person POV*

As John looked down at her, he couldn’t believe he almost ended her life.  Even though he’s had human blood thousands of times from the blood transfer program the hospitals do with vampires, it had been centuries since he got it from the actual source.

It was like—he had been taken over by centuries of natural instincts and he just needed to keep drinking from her.  But thankfully Roger was there to stop him. He would’ve never forgiven himself had he killed her.

“Thank you Roger.” He nodded.

“Just don’t scare me like that again. I was literally seeing the life drain from her eyes. Don’t ever put me in the position again.” The two rhythm players of Queen looked down at the young newborn vampire about to be born.

“You can leave now Roger. I’ll stay with her.”

“You sure?”

“Yes. I know what it’s like to not have the one who turned you leave you. I don’t want to damage her psyche like that. I am her brother now. And she deserves to see me when she first awakens.” Roger nodded but before he left, he stroked (y/n)’s hair and nuzzled her head before giving her a soft kiss to her forehead.

Once Roger left the room, Deacy lay down close beside her and held her close to him.  He allowed her head to rest on his chest and he protectively wrapped his arms around her.  Rubbing her back and stroking through her hair, he knew touch was crucial to her at this point.

About an hour and a half later, she began to stir and the first thing she felt were back rubs and scalp massages.  She moaned and curled deeper into Deacy’s chest.

“Morning sister.” She looked up and as he looked into her eyes, her normal (e/c) eyes were now blood red.  Her nails were more pointed but not as long as Deacy’s were.

“De-Deacy?”

“Yes sister mine. It’s me. How do you feel?”

“Needy. Why do I feel needy brother dear?”

“Because sister mine, much like newborn human babies, newborn vampires need to have the skin to skin contact with the one that turned them. Unlike the wench that turned me, I won’t abandon you.” She buried her face into his neck and buried her hand into his suit and stroked around his shoulder and even went down his chest to touch the scar he had shown her earlier.

Deacy did the same thing as he nuzzled her head like a lion nuzzling their pride mate and tucked his hand under her shirt so that his hand was now touching her bare back, rubbing soothing circles.

“That’s it poppet. Just cuddle against me. It’ll all be okay. I’m here, I’m here.” He whispered as he continued to bury his face into her hair.  

[dlkardenal]

Behind the Scalpel #2 - Dar’s journey with cover design

Hey there, traveler!

Today I’d like to share a personal story concerning both the woes of being a writer, my mentality on self-publishing, and our current project. This is the story of how I created the cover for our WIP.

To tackle a few things heads up, I’m not a complete amateur when it comes to graphic design, however, I am only scraping the surface. I’ve never received any education in graphic design but it became a kind of guilty pleasure for me as soon as I found the magic of MS Paint, so I’ve got some years of self-education, reading up on the topic and long hours of just d*cking around with graphic software behind my back.

Given that, I’d only recommend doing the cover yourself if you know what you are doing or you don’t have any other options – me personally falling in the latter category. We are trying to self publish with little to no funds, to begin with, and thus have to make some tough decisions. One of them is the fact that we can’t afford to hire a professional cover designer, so I either do it myself or not at all. Since giving up is not an option, I decided to do it or die trying. Here’s how I did it.

Basically, I created the first version of the cover before we finished the first draft (not the first English draft, the first draft in our native tongue.) All I knew that it’s shaping up to be a desert fantasy, so I need something with that feeling. So as every newbie would, I hit up google, typed „desert fantasy art” and clicked images. I found a nice looking art, added a black border, slapped a title onto it and this is what arose from that witches’ brew of a design:

So, there are a couple of problems with this. First, it is boring. You look at it, admire the art for a splinter of a second, and go on about your business. Second, which keeps coming back, is the genre. This one looks like a Jane Austen romance when it should scream epic adventure and magic and stuff. The third problem was the method I acquired the art because Google Images is rarely a place to browse for royalty-free stuff you’d use on a book cover. But I was content with this for a while, shoved it into a folder on my laptop, and kept writing the book.

Months pass by and we both started to lose enthusiasm and needed something to fire us up once more. I remembered the rush of excitement when I designed the first cover, so I got on my trusted laptop to do it all over again – this time trying to follow the law and use royalty-free images. But learning from the first cover, I wanted to do something exciting, something someone would click on out of curiosity, so I started browsing digital artworks on Pinterest. This is actually good advice for anyone looking for inspiration – but inspiration only. Don’t go wildly right click-saving things from there, or you run into the royalty thing again.

What I found were fractals. If you’re not familiar with the term, fractal arts are procedurally generated, mostly geometrical images which look trippy as fuck and if an artist gives their personal touch, they can look spectacular. To give a great example, I searched for royalty-free (see? I’m smart :3 ) fractal images and found this:

As you can see it is really eye-catching and I haven’t seen this style used as cover before, so I thought I can make something different. I got to work, added shaded borders, and a more fancy title and created cover v2.0.

Way to go! But there were still problems with this. We realized that one of our strong suits as writers is painting a vibrant world that’s easy to imagine yourself into. By using a lot of different senses in the descriptions one could almost feel the heat of the desert, the cooling sea breeze from the port, or the smell of roasting shashlik – but this cover didn’t give off this vibe. It felt cold, brittle (hence the silver) so it still needed a few changes. That was pretty easy to fix, I just tampered with the color temperature and voile! Cover design v2.1 was born:

Now, this was hinting at the right vibe, it looked almost like a quicksand swallowing the title which was all nice and good, but this was about the time we run into a bit of advice we then saw everywhere – research the market. Now, dear readers, what the fuck does that mean? It took me a while to figure out, but what people mean by that is to go on Amazon or Barnes&Noble or wherever you satiate your bibliophile thirst and look at other successful book covers in your genre. So I did, browsed Amazon best-selling fantasy books for hours, and noticed a few trends. First, most fantasy books didn’t use a fancy font, those were mostly for romance novels. The second is, pretty much every fantasy (by that I mean the myriad of Brandon Sanderson, George R.R. Martin and Anthony Ryan books) used some kind of image in the middle instead of just the title. Armed with this knowledge I jumped back on GIMP and got to work once again.

Now it was looking more like the big names, an epic but simplistic font, a thing in the middle (in our case a two-headed viper bracelet, a piece of important jewelry from the book) and even a quote. Now was the time for me to send it to my taste-testers: my younger sisters, both book nerds in their own genre.

And they told me they liked the previous font better. They found the snake and the quote a nice touch, but the font was too bland. Because at this point I had no idea who to trust with advice, I rushed to correct it and come up with a new, better version combining those two elements. So after a bit of designing again, cover v2.3 got birthed into this shining world.

Looking fancy, eh? This was the time I learned how to create a golden text effect without photoshop (yeah, I forgot to mention, photoshop would eat up, chew, and spit out the 4 GB ram in my 6 years old laptop, so I use GIMP instead). This was almost perfection… almost. We were content with this for a few weeks, right before we ran into several niche fantasy covers we quite liked that were more on the simplistic side, with a dark background, a fancy title and a beautiful border frame. We thought if it caught our eyes, it would catch other people’s attention too, so the designing bug bit me again and I opened GIMP for the umpteenth time.

The idea was simple: create a black background with the fractal as a border, an artistic title and maybe some extra touches. This was the point we regressed back into the black and silver style because black and gold was too mainstream. It was more difficult to get right, but eventually I came up with this:

This time I was sure I hit perfection. It reminded me somewhat to Game of Thrones, it had two viper heads and a simplistic style. Around this time we found our first somewhat useful beta-readers, so I was brave enough to show them. The answer was in line with our reoccurring theme of being unable to paint a clear genre image: they thought it looked like a contemporary girl novel with some spooky snakes for a bizarre cavalcade effect. I’m gonna admit it, it felt like shit but being an author is about constant growth and learning from bitching beta-readers, so I decided to do some more research. I found a couple of useful resources, to be precise, a blogpost from Neha Yazmin (link here: https://nehayazmin.blogspot.com/2020/05/Book-cover-design-tips.html ) and a youtube video by Just Angus (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SgJV8wGkcI). They’re both useful and entertaining, so go give them a look. We realized looking beautiful to us means nothing if people pick up the book and think about the wrong genre, thus they will be disappointed by the book by default. We had to make it look like an adventurous fantasy set in a magical desert, so I had to change my entire mindset.

I was browsing Pinterest one evening and found the magical looking Arabic calligraphy, precisely Take the Leap by Everitte Barbee. With a rush of enthusiasm, I grabbed the image and ran away with it, not thinking about some important things, and created this.

Now things were shaping up to be almost pitch-perfect. The font was fancy but fantasy-esque, the style was eye-catching but minimalistic, it screamed middle-eastern and it was unique. But remember the important things I shrugged off? One of them was the royalty-thing again. Turns out this image (or to be precise the ink and paper version of it) was already used in another book cover. Also, Arabic calligraphy uses words from the Quran. Now, I’m not a very religious person and I know next to nothing about Islamic religion. As much as I adore ancient Arabic aesthetics, I think it’s common courtesy to leave things you don’t understand a word of alone and not use them obliviously in commerce. But I believe I hit something on the head with this silhouette filled with fractal art, so I searched for some free stock images until I found what I was looking for. So, at the end of this surprisingly long wall of text about almost a year of redesigns and trial-and-error style approaches, I’ll leave you with our final cover (for now at least). I hope you found it entertaining and somewhat useful, if you have any questions or even critique, please, let me know in any way you prefer. Bah, it was nice to get this off my chest. Stay sharp, travelers!

Dar

 The current version of our cover: