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The passing of the blood moon came in a warm mixture of paling red sky and pastel orange dawn. The forest lost its reddish hue as sunlight started peeking through the branches, making even harsher shadows under the trees. Drift's mangled body was engulfed in sunrays akin to spotlight, the blood surrounding her becoming the only memory of the crimson night prior. Avid didn't want to look at her anymore, but it was as if the heavens themselves were confronting him with the chilling reality of his actions. Her blood on his person was starting to dry, but the tears were still coming and his breathing never evened.
He wanted to howl, to scream and pull close whatever was left of her silhouette, but he couldn’t risk losing his fragile composure, lest it bring back the raging animal within him. But he couldn’t leave her, he didn’t have a remote town to take off to, nothing he could make right, not this time. The only possible revenge he could enact was on himself. He choked on another pitiful, quiet sob.
“Well, that's a shame,” said an all too familiar, nasal voice behind him, making him snap his head back to the present. He didn’t hear Scott approach, he never did, not even with his heightened senses, and the smell of Drift’s blood seemed to have masked the subtle perfume that always accompanied his arrival.
“What. What do you want,” Avid said shakily as he looked his way, watching the vampire make slow but confident steps towards him.
Scott’s perfect lips pulled into a small, knowing smile as he looked more closely at the scene before him.
“Well, I came over to get our penultimate target down, but it looks like you took care of that for me. You really are the sweetest,” he mused, and Avid felt like he was on the verge of throwing up.
Scott stopped his stride as he reached the edge of the forest shadows. It was a silly thought to believe the sunlight would stop him from doing anything, but Scott has always prioritized his own comfort, Avid knew that. Still, he could pretend the barrier between them was real and that he wouldn’t infringe on his grief, that he was safe, that they were miles away, that he wouldn’t touch him. Avid always liked clinging to small delusions.
“I had a feeling you weren't entirely human. That you were a hypocrite in more ways than one,” he said, narrowing his eyes slightly as he looked over Avid’s kneeling figure. Tattered clothes and bloodied hands gave away any semblance of humanity the hunter might’ve had previously. But Avid still felt his face twist in righteous anger.
“I’m not like you,” he spat, because he wasn’t. It was laughable to compare them, frankly, Scott’s elegant, dashing figure and Avid’s crumpled body, covered in dirt and filth, had nothing in common. Everything Scott did was calculated evil, while Avid has always been a frantic mess of good intentions, but bad outcomes. At least Avid had the right idea to suppress his monstrous nature with potions and remedies all his life. Until now, he supposed. But they were nothing alike.
“Oh but you are. I think you know that. You don't have to be a vampire to be capable of ripping a person to shreds,” he said, all the while very curiously looking over the damage inflicted upon Drift’s body.
“I-It was an accident! I didn't mean to!” Avid couldn’t stifle his voice from cracking as he said it, knew he didn’t need to explain himself to Scott, but as he spoke, it became less and less about the monster in front of him. Perhaps he could snap Scott’s attention away from Drift with his ravings at least, the smell of her blood surely enticing the vampire to get closer. ”She didn't know it was me, she was trying to kill me, I couldn’t- I just lost-”
“It’s always an accident with you, isn't it, Avid?” Scott interjected, and it was like Avid’s blood turned to ice on the spot.
Scott wasted no time breaking the imaginary barrier of light between them, strolling over to his frozen figure, perching next to him like a bird of prey, way too close for comfort. Avid couldn’t find the strength to move, and simply looked into Scott’s half-lidded red eyes, little hard gems that, despite their beauty, couldn’t hide the hatred they held for his person. No amount of long lashes and fake smiles could ever sway Avid to believe otherwise.
“And it's always about self defense, right?” Scott said, voice soft, but not quite a whisper, his words a mockery of consolation. Avid could hear the tips of Scott’s pointed ears sizzling ever so slightly under the sun, the only parts of his body not protected by shadow. He could smell him better now too, from up close. Repugnantly sweet, as always. He leaned even closer, cold breath against Avid’s ear. “Was it self defense, when you burned Shelby's house down? When you tried kicking Owen out of town? When you accused me of killing Shelby? When you pushed Pyro to his potential death?”
He couldn’t take it any longer.
“Shut up!” he screamed as he launched his body against Scott, all semblance of reason thrown out the window. His hands pinned Scott’s neck to the ground and tightened, as if it would stop him from talking.
“You’re all monsters! You really think I’d fall for your guilt tripping after everything you’ve done? After you killed all of Oakhurst?!” He shook as he yelled, feeling his face heat up in fury and eyes fill with even more uncontrollable tears. Anything Avid had ever done to Scott’s coven was truly laughable in comparison to their sins. Or wins, he supposed they considered them. He wondered if Owen felt triumphant as he lured Mr. M. into the woods, lied about agreeing to turn him, then dug his claws into his gut. He didn’t even feed. They would’ve noticed the bite marks on his corpse. He wondered what Shelby thought of that.
Scott didn’t even flinch under his grasp, keeping his voice unnaturally steady as he spoke, “Now, don't exaggerate. My coven is thriving. And you're alive too. For now.”
Avid was sick of his threats. He reached over his chest, still keeping one hand on Scott’s neck as he tried to grab the stake. Except it wasn’t there, he realized in a panic. He must’ve lost it somewhere in the woods. He glanced over Scott’s ever growing smile for a mere second before their positions were flipped. Scott effortlessly pushed his weak wrists against the ground and straddled him as Avid thrashed.
“Not so confident without your trusty toothpick are you?” He mocked, digging his claws slightly against his pinned hands.
Struggle was futile. It always was, especially when it came to Scott. Avid felt himself deflate, a sudden, corpse-like feeling overcoming him. He was already dead.
“...Whatever. Just kill me already. Finish the job. Isn't that what you've been leading up to all this time?” he said, turning his head away from Scott’s intense gaze.
“Maybe. If you finally broke, then I guess you're no longer fit to play with,” he heard the vampire say, and Avid thought it would all end right then and there, but Scott made no effort to move. He was expecting a response. A comeback. Something clicked in Avid’s mind that he was subconsciously already aware of.
“So that's what it's been to you all along.” He felt his face twist into a deeper frown and sighed slightly. “You were....playing toys. It's always been just a game of cat and mouse to you.”
Scott laughed gently, as if Avid said something mildly amusing. “My, and here I thought all this time you were dumb as a rock. Guess you do have moments of clarity.”
Avid had no more fighting spirit in him. He glanced back at the monster, hoping his words would reach him. “I'm done playing, Scott. I mean it. You won.”
The man above him was quiet for a moment. His face would've been unreadable if Avid didn’t learn to recognize his expressions well enough at this point. Scott was taken aback by his words, perhaps for the first time since they’ve known each other.
“So you're just giving up?”
Avid furrowed his brows in confusion. “Why are you surprised?”
“I'm not. Just disappointed.”
Funny. He said that like a stern parent, almost. Like he expected Avid to fumble and apologize, to promise to be better, to show more drive and determination after saying that. Maybe Avid would’ve laughed, if he could.
“I'm so tired. Everyone's gone. You got everyone. What's the point anymore?” he said, his voice foreign to him. Scott let go of his hands and sat upright at that, straightening his back. He frowned at him with disgust, as if Avid was a particularly ugly bug walking up his polished shoe.
“You're so pathetic. Don't forget you killed Drift, not us,” he scoffed.
Avid winced and tried to get Drift’s image out of his mind, tried to hone in on his hatred for Scott again, just to feel something other than the crushing guilt. He couldn’t remember much of what happened after he transformed, but even if his actions during the blood moon weren’t entirely his own, the outcome was still disastrous. Perhaps his own survival instinct and desperate fear of death was what doomed everyone else to their tragic fates. He knew he was being saved for last, that he had a certain immunity, and yet never truly stepped up into the role of a hero, couldn’t save or protect a single person. Did he not try hard enough? Why did he refuse to tell Drift the truth about himself? Why did he leave her alone when there were bloodthirsty monsters walking about? Why didn’t he think that she would go looking for him? Perhaps he was as stupid as Scott believed him to be.
“What's the difference anymore…” he said quietly, more to himself than anyone else.
“I thought the difference was actually the whole point of your little crusade,” the vampire said, already starting to roll his eyes dramatically. “Vampires kill because they're evil. You kill because you have to.”
“That's still true. You're all vile. You especially.”
“No need for flattery darling. You won’t goad me into killing you anyway. Not yet.” And with that, Scott got up, wiping his dirt-stained knees gently, leaving Avid still prone on the ground. The hunter was momentarily stunned, but the dots connected in his mind fairly quickly. As much as he wanted to bury and forget his own cursed nature, it’s not like it didn’t come with certain… perks. It wasn’t that Scott didn’t want to kill him. He just couldn’t. Not without proper tools.
“Some vampire you are,” he laughed humorlessly, for the first time in days.
He could see Scott already turning away out of the corner of his eye. “I’m giving you time to get your act together. Come nightfall tomorrow, the barrier around Oakhurst will be broken. Who gets to walk out of it though…” He turned his head slightly to look at Avid on the ground one last time. “Well, I suppose that depends on whether you're willing to fight or wither and die on your own accord.”
And with that, he vanished into thin air. But Avid could still faintly smell that sweet perfume in the air. He wondered how long he would have to keep laying there for Scott to finally leave him be.