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ohwynne · 1 year

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TIMING: 18 July PARTIES: Zack @zackbanes, Arden @stainedglasstruth and Wynne @ohwynne LOCATION: Worm Row streets. SUMMARY: Arden, Zack and Wynne are going out! Literally. CONTENT WARNINGS: Kidnapping, violence, blood.

There was something giddy about Wynne as they moved over the streets of the Worm Row with two of their roommates. This had become something of a custom ever since their first outing together and it was something they had quickly grown fond of. They were afraid to completely let go, but still — the low lights and the music and the humdrum of people and the beers were all so much more fun with them in tow. “First round’s on me,” they announced, “I got paid today, so.” They skipped as they moved from the curb to the road, looked over their shoulder at their roommates but halting after they did. “Guys…” Behind Zack and Arden were a handful of figures moving closer, and though Wynne tended to lean towards paranoia more these days, they still gave a small nod, waiting until the others were caught up with them before continuing to move.

—

A smile blossomed over Zack’s face as he watched Wynne all but dance down the street ahead of him and Arden. He laughed at their offer to pay for the first round. “No way. I still owe you for eating your cupcake. I’ll get the first round.” Beer was always cheap at the Wormhole, anyway.

Zack caught on to the concern over Wynne’s face before they even nodded to indicate behind them. He followed their eyes with as discreet a look as possible over his shoulder. A few shadows were breaking away from one of the alleys and heading for them. It could just be another group out for a drink that night, or it could be something to worry about. Hard to be sure in Wicked’s Rest, and in Worm Row particularly.

He wasn’t one for shows of masculine intimidation, but it couldn’t hurt in this instance. Reaching over, Zack slung an arm around Wynne’s shoulders and tugged them a little closer to his side. He laid his other hand to the middle of Arden’s back, herding her along with him. Whatever the group behind them was up to, he didn’t want it to interfere with their night.

—

It was hard not to smile around her roommates. Arden had been living with them for about three months, and she had grown to really love and trust them. She laughed as Zack brought up the cupcake, throwing him an amused glance. “I second that, Zack should buy the first round.” The smile quickly melted, though, as she noticed the concern on Wynne’s face as they nodded to something behind them. Could this town be chill for a minute? she wondered, peeking behind her as she pretended to fix her hair.

Great, dark figures in the alley, that wasn’t concerning at all. Maybe she was being paranoid, but after everything that had happened recently, she had good reason to be. Even more so since Wynne and Zack were there.

Arden tensed for a moment at Zack’s touch, but she shot him a small smile. Her mind, though, was focused on the people behind them. She had her knife with her, the one Metzli had made for her, and she was mentally going over some of the moves they had taught her… Better safe than sorry. It seemed to be a good call, too, because before she could really process it, they were surrounded on all sides by a few unfamiliar faces.

“Evening.” Arden offered up a friendly smile, trying to keep her tone light. “We’re just heading to meet up with some friends, we don’t want any trouble.”

—

Wynne seemed to exist between naïveté and paranoia, never managing to trust people the normal amount. With these looming figures that kept growing closer, they leaned more towards the latter feeling — tossing a look over their shoulder even with Zack’s strong arm around their shoulders. The fact that the others seemed wary too only fed their feeling of unease.

And maybe they were all right to be wary. As Arden spoke to the looming figures, they closed the distance, surrounding them all with a speed that didn’t seem human. “This doesn’t have to be trouble,” one of them said, “You could come easily.”

So this was it, wasn’t it? They’d found them. Wynne didn’t recognize any of the people surrounding them, but it was dark and their memory was tricky. Their fingers dug into their coat pocket, touching the knife Emilio had given them when they’d fought the vampires together.

They breathed in and opened their mouth to say something, but the only thing that exited was a yelp as Zack was dragged off of them and Arden, a sharp hand twisting around their free hand a mere second later.

“Leave them alone,” they exclaimed, assuming that these were Protherians, here to take them home. And Wynne refused to have their own transgressions hurt Zack and Arden. Struggling against the iron-tight grip, they drew their knife from their pocket and held it in the direction of the woman who held them. A threat, not yet an action, as Wynne wasn’t yet aware of the true danger of the situation — that these weren’t humans, but supernatural beings.

—

Zack was getting ready to step forward and somehow protect the other two (unclear how, considering they were very quickly getting surrounded) when he was yanked away from Arden and Wynne. “Hey!” he cried, instinctively more than anything.

Almost immediately, he lashed out at the person who took hold of him, just a fist swung wildly behind him. He connected with a lucky strike but the person held on. Their grip was like iron, was stronger even. “Run!” He shouted to Arden and Wynne, throwing his free hand out as if he could sweep them away. One of them had gotten ahold of Wynne already, though, and another was wrapping arms around Arden from behind.

“Don’t do this.” Zack struggled against his captor, another of the group coming over to hold his other side. “Please, just let us go.” He couldn’t feel even the flicker of a flame in his chest. Panic and fear and desperation ate up any of the oxygen his fire would have needed.

“You should consider it an honor,” one of the men holding onto him hissed in his ear. “You’re going to serve such a glorious purpose.”

“Fuck you and fuck your purpose,” Zack spat out, struggling in vain. He reached, again, for his abilities, but there was no fire there.

—

You could come easily. What the fuck did that mean? Come where? They certainly weren’t going to give them any answers, but if they were trying to take them somewhere…

Arden felt Zack’s hand pull away just before he yelled out, and she turned to see him getting yanked back by one of the men, Wynne getting grabbed as well. Shit. She tried to reach for her knife, but before she could, arms wrapped around her waist holding her in a vicelike grip. Taking a breath, she tried to calm herself, remember what Metzli had been teaching her.

“Think she’ll mind it if I take a taste?” the voice in her ear was feminine, unfamiliar. Her question was only met with a few noncommittal responses. “Good.”

A taste. That wasn’t good. She tried to struggle, but the woman held her tight. Her saving grace was her cross around her neck, the one she hadn’t taken off since that night with Emilio. It seemed the woman had gone in for a bite, but she recoiled, loosening her grip enough that Arden could turn her body. One leg behind theirs, she managed to trip her, and then she was free to grab her knife, head swinging around to assess the situation. Two on Zack, one on Wynne, one on the ground– for the moment, at least– and two others. Shit. …Shit. There was no goddamn way she could do this or even get away, but she had to try. For them. That was the whole point of doing the damn training in the first place.

She had to try to go for Wynne. She knew it was what Zack would want her to do, but it still felt impossible having to make that split second decision. The two free ones were coming at her, though, as the woman that had been holding her got to her feet. They were saying something, but all Arden could focus on was the drumming in her ears, her lessons, Wynne. She sidestepped one, managed to slash them as they moved past her before the other lunged at her, taking her down.

It wasn’t the smartest move. She hit the ground hard, landing awkwardly on her back, a groan escaping her as her head smacked against the asphalt. Still, she was able to sink her knife into the man as they struggled on the ground. Unfortunately, getting stabbed by an iron knife wasn’t really a big deal for a vampire in the long term. No, the big deal was one of the chains around her neck snapping. She felt it, the necklace slipping, the cross falling.

Her mother had given it to her, years ago. It had originally belonged to her grandmother before she had passed it onto her daughter, and while her mother had grown up to resent her religious upbringing, she had saved the dainty cross necklace. She had given it to Arden after her father’s passing, after she had finally told her the truth– a simple precaution. Wearing it had saved her twice now, but it seemed the third time was not the charm.

Her mind flashed again to that word Emilio had used weeks earlier. Castigo. Divine punishment. Arden wondered if there was any truth to that as she was pinned down, if in some past life she had done something to deserve this; she didn’t think she had done anything that bad in this life. Maybe god, if one existed, was just an asshole.

Or maybe they were just in a chaotic, entropic universe just riding it out. If so, she would like to get off this particular ride.

—

The knife in their hand was something clumsy, something mismatched. They may have used it before, may have trained with it with Emilio, but this was different. After a burst of laughter, the person that held onto Wynne’s hand spoke, “What are you gonna do with that?”

They didn’t know. They looked at the woman and tried to remember if this was someone from back home, but none of them looked familiar. “I won’t go,” they said, trying to be brave by moving forward and trying to land the sharp of the blade somewhere. “I won’t go.” Insistent words, but perhaps the only insistent thing about them. “Let them go, let them go.”

With the shouts of her roommates echoing through their mind, Wynne had little focus, and the woman that dug her sharp nails in their wrist laughed once more. She smacked at their hand, the impact filled with force and making the knife fly from their grip and scatter over the ground. A second hit followed less than a second later, cracking against Wynne’s face, who yelped at the impact and the blood that filled their mouth.

The Protherian woman wrapped her other sharp-nailed hand around Wynne’s other wrist and pulled them towards her. As glowing eyes looked down on them, they doubted their initial instincts and felt a new sort of dread settle. If these weren’t the people from back home, if these were something supernatural and deadly, then there was no chance for them and even worse, none for Zack or Arden.

The vampire twisted them around, pulling their body right against her own and restricting any chance of movement with their upper limbs. Now, Wynne could see the full scene: Zack, held by two vampires and Arden, on the floor.

They remembered what they’d seen in movies. They opened their mouth and screamed: “Help! Help!” A third cry for aid was never expelled from their body, as the vampire switched her grip with a speed that revealed her undead nature once more and pressed her full hand against Wynne’s mouth.

“Mouthy,” the woman’s eyes flicked to her brethren as she leaned over Wynne’s shoulder, sniffing the blood on their face, “Should we indulge before we get off the streets?”

—

“Not a bad idea,” one of the men holding Zack commented. “Hold him still,” he said to his partner.

The vice-grip on him only grew tighter, pulsing Zack’s breath from his body. His struggle grew sloppier, less strategic and more out of simple desperation. And then, a sharp pain like he had never felt before. Pointed and burning over the side of his neck, something hot and sticky, the familiar feeling of a tongue lathing over skin. Except here, now, it made Zack’s skin crawl. Ice cold fear dripped down his spine in a sickening shiver. Without meaning to, he dragged through a series of shaken, “No”s.

And then, a feeling he had experienced once before, recently. When he was sprawled on the alley with a chunk of his leg missing. That same off-balance dizziness of blood loss. It came on far faster than it had before though, and Zack struggled to keep himself upright. “You can just take me,” he slurred. “Let them go, you can just take me.”

The one person – no. He couldn’t be a person. His teeth in Zack’s neck… The one vampire? laughed. “Oh, you three are just the beginning. There will be so many more.”

—

She was pissed off. She had just wanted a fun night out with her friends, but, of fucking course not. Unless there happened to be a hunter around, she couldn’t see a way out of this. It was six vampires against three humans– they were fucked the moment the group had decided to go for their little trio.

In addition to being pissed off, she was confused. What the fuck even was this anyway? They were the beginning? They were taking more people? One had mentioned something about a purpose. Arden didn’t like how any of that sounded, nor any of the implications that came along with it. She also didn’t like seeing one of her closest friends being turned into a snack for some vampire.

“Get the fuck off of him, you leech,” Arden hissed. She was struggling, trying to pull off any of the moves that Metzli had shown her, but it wasn’t getting her anywhere.

“Well, that’s not very ladylike.”

It was the asshole holding her down, of course. The smile on his face just made her angrier. “Take your sexism and your cryptic bullshit and go fuck yourself,” she spat. It wasn’t a smart move, but underneath the anger, she was panicking. Zack had lost enough blood that he sounded drunk and Wynne was screaming for help and she was just pathetically trying to get away from a vampire who could kill her in an instant if he wanted. Instead, he grabbed her by the shirt and slammed her head back against the ground.

She could only let out a strangled yelp at the sharp pain that quickly dulled to an ache radiating from the back of her head. Fuck. She was fairly certain she was bleeding, and it was really her own damn fault. If there was any chance of them surviving whatever the fuck was happening, Arden needed to stay levelheaded and rational. There wasn’t any room for emotional outbursts or any other kind of mistakes when their lives– the lives of her friends– were on the line.

—

They watched with horror in their eyes as one of the vampires sunk its teeth in Zack’s throat, the no’s echoing through their head even as he’d stopped speaking them. Wynne was wriggling in the arms of the vampire, trying to break free, trying to scream through the hand covering their mouth. These were nothing like the ustras, who had been mindless and animalistic: these were creatures like them, with a cleverness and calculation that made Wynne feel wholly outmatched.

Their panic didn’t subside at the image of Arden being smacked against the ground, and now Wynne’s movements were akin to those of a fish being caught by bare hands. They bit the hand covering their mouth and through surprise (and certainly not damage), it pulled back. “Arden!” Her name was screamed first as Wynne’s body tried to shoot forwards to see if she was okay. Somehow, they were let go.

But it couldn’t be so simple. An iron grip grabbed their hand, pulled them back and constricted them once more, leaving them with one arm stuck behind their back. The vampire that had held them before was licking its fingers through sounds of amusement. Their nose must’ve bled over its fingers, Wynne realized with appalling shock. They were thirsty for blood and Zack was already wobbling on his legs. They wanted blood, but it didn’t seem to be all they wanted.

“Stop it, you’re hurting him!” Their exclamation was met with laughter. The vampire that held them twisted their arm and Wynne yelped, feeling their muscles strain. The one with their blood on their hands came over again, wiping at their face to collect more of it.

“Enough,” a voice boomed, “We’ll have plenty of time to toy with them later. Let’s go.”

—

Things went soft-focus, then. Zack tried absently to reach for his fire but it was nowhere to be found. He tried to struggle against his captors but that was futile even before he had lost the blood he had. In the end, all he could do was drag his feel against the cracked pavement of the Worm Row side-street that he was being brought down.

No one had come to their rescue, but Zack didn’t blame the other Row residents. With all the shit that went on there, people had more or less learned to keep their heads down and mind their own business. It was worth it, if you could just keep yourself and the ones you cared about safe. Not that Zack could do that, even. Clearly.

“Please,” he said. “Don’t take them.” It was the only thought on his mind, really. He knew there wouldn’t be a world where he would convince them to let Wynne and Arden go, but he had to at least try.

He earned a bash to his head for his trouble, against the solid metal of what was the edge of a van. The hit combined with the blood loss made his head spin wildly. Tossed into the back of the van, he slumped against a wall and stayed down.

—

Over the past three months, Arden had spent most of her days seeing Wynne, Zack, and Sully for at least a few minutes each day, but it was often more than that. They cooked and had meals together, they had the occasional movie night, and sometimes they just quietly shared space together as they did their own things. It was the first time she had spent so much time around people in such an intimate way since she stopped living at home. Even then, her house hadn’t been much of an actual ‘home’ since her father. But the four of them, they had become a little family of sorts, in a way that she had never really had before. Of course, she had grown to love them– how could she not?

When Wynne called out to her, the anger dissipated all at once, leaving her with just an overwhelming sense of sorrow and dread and fear. It made her chest ache, the way they had managed to get free only to try to run to her instead of getting away, the way Zack seemed ready to pass out and still he was begging for their safety. Arden was scared for herself, yes, but she was terrified for them. Whatever the hell this was, they didn't deserve to be involved in it. No one did, but certainly not them.

Her eyes stung as she was pulled up and the three of them were forced toward a previously unnoticed van. She tried her best to breathe, to blink the tears away, to look for a license plate or anything else that might shed some more light on the situation. However, another wave of emotion hit her as she watched one of them slam Zack’s head into the side of the van. She winced, her own head still throbbing with pain, as his limp body was shoved into the back. “Zack…” She could barely recognize her own voice. It was more of a sob than anything else, a devastated exhalation. A tear or two escaped before she could stop them. Their captors wasted no time, practically throwing Wynne in immediately after.

Arden didn’t have to wait very long, either. The iron grip that had been keeping her hands pinned to her back loosened, but before she could do anything, hands were on her back, pushing her inside the van. The last thing she saw before the doors closed were a pair of glowing red eyes.

#take me out.#arden.#zack.#threads.

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