#by having the additional layer of fuckery that was alex Doing That

[bardicbeetle]

sitd bsi - the baring of teeth

Today I start NaNo (but that is for the daytime hours) So tonight, have a little blatant self indulgence, have an alternate ending that never was for The Massacre(TM) Warnings for vampire typical violence and blood, and given the context, major character death <3

“Do you think you can stop this?” Eric cracks a smile again, Alex’s blood dripping across his face. “Do you think you can hide from what we are?”

Their legs are shaking. It’s not going to be long before they give back out. “There is no we here.” Alex spits back. “This is a sick fucking power trip you’re pulling. None of them are like you.”

Eric laughs so loud it seems to echo inside their head. “Oh sweetheart, I don’t know what they told you, but Daniel is worse than this. He has always been worse.”

“Shut up.”

“D-”

“I said shut up!” The words leave Alex in a scream that drags all the air from their lungs. It doubles them over, but for a bare moment, Eric is silent.

“I don’t know who you think you are,” Alex whispers, slowly pushing back up to stand straight, “Or how bad you think this is for me, but I have been through too much—lost too much—to let this be the end of it. I’m not about to lay down and die just because some jackass wants to play god.” Every word carries them another step forward, Eric matches them until his back is to the wall. He’s smiling again, that split open grin, not really a smile, just baring teeth.

Alex is hoping for some kind of miracle.

Because once they run out of words, they’ll have nothing.

Somewhere, they wonder if killing Eric would count.

Somewhere else they wonder if they even care.

If he would let them.

If any of it matters now.

“You stand there and think you can make this fucking hurt me—calling me by the wrong name and telling me the people I care about are monsters—I know monsters. I’ve spent my whole goddamn life getting as far away from them as I can. So kill me if you want, make me kill that girl if it gets you off, but you’re nothing, and the second I can, I will take you with me.”

He laughs again, softer, private almost. Like it’s not for them.

“You want to, don’t you.” It’s the first thing he’s said all night that doesn’t carry an edge of mirth. That doesn’t play like some sort of sick joke. “You’re barely upright, barely alive, all rage and adrenaline and desperation. You want to rip into me just to shut my mouth if nothing else.”

“Stop it,” Alex growls, staring him down and fighting the urge to shut their eyes to the vision he’s painting. Everything is so hazy at the edges they’re not sure if the next blink will even result in continued consciousness.

“You think it would feel good don’t you,” Eric whispers, leaning back against the wall now, body relaxing into the brick. “You’re not wrong, nothing better than the moment your fingers run red—but it would be wasted on me. Wouldn’t fix anything. Wouldn’t sate anything.”

“Stop.”

“It’s her you want,” He nods towards the bar where that woman had vanished. Lilacs. Sweet and cloying and overpowering—

Alex shakes their head, regrets it when the room spins. “No. No.”

“Pity,” Eric mumbles, and they wonder again if it’s just for him. It’s not like the rest, it doesn’t project like the words he speaks at them. “I’d let you, you know.”

And those words don’t sound like him.

Alex hears Daniel.

Hears their discussion in the darkened yard.

If I really thought you couldn’t do this, if you didn’t want it—

I’d let you.

I’d let you.

Eric has a stake in one hand—the one he’d made them drop at the house?

“One more round then, —?”

“Stop fucking calling me that.”

He raises both hands in surrender, eyes never leaving theirs.

“Fine. One more round, Alex.” He holds out the stake, blunt edge towards them. “You can kill me, or I can kill you and flower-girl over there. Catch.”

It’s still horrid and mechanical, watching their body move without their own input. But Alex catches the stake as it’s thrown towards them.

“No getting out of it this time. Me, or both of you. Decide. Now.” The room goes airless with those words, heavy and vacant in a way that makes Alex almost drop to their knees.

Decide.

Decide.

I’d let you.

Something breaks.

The haze at the edge of their vision goes red.

Alex has moved before they really realize what’s happening.

To his credit—fuck that, fuck him—Eric is true to his word.

He lets it happen.

Alex’s next moment of clarity is with both hands wrapped around the stake where it’s lodged in his chest. Sliding down the brick with him, inches away from breathless laughter that is getting wetter and redder with every heave. Nothing is different. Nothing changes. Their body is still screaming and raw and starving.

It's almost a relief.

“Told you,” Eric chokes out, one hand lifting to their face. Still wet with the blood of one of the many dead. Alex’s blood now mingling with his own as it runs from behind his lips. “but just in case—kill her.”

~*~

@cjjameswriting / @falling-rivers / @maabonwrites / @blve0 / @inexorableblob / @blueberrypoptart / @betwixtofficial / @drowsy-quill / @ezwriting / @ofinscriptions / @vaguelyhumanekid / @meatandboneasmr / @h-faith-marr-writeblr / @necros-writings / @poetinprose / @flyingbananasaur / @oldestenemy / @multi-lefaiye / @dotr-rose-love / @abalonetea / @albatris / @incandescent-creativity / @kaiusvnoir /