Chapter Text
Consciousness came to Scott Goldsmith like being trapped under a frozen lake, finally breaching the surface of the ice with a gasp.
The tomb he was placed in was cold around him; the typical comfort of his resting place turned suffocating from being trapped there for… how long? He checked his internal clock. Six hundred years.
What.
The ache to free himself from the stone coffin increased tenfold, and Scott opened his eyes with a start. His eyes struggled to see through the darkness, truly concerning since, as a vampire, he had night vision. Running his hands along the lid, Scott pushed with much more effort than he should’ve had to in order to free himself. The top scraped open, letting a dim stream of light fall onto his face.
Scott took in his first deep breath of the musty air in six hundred years. He sat up blearily, looking around the abandoned crypt slowly. The stone architecture was crumbling in multiple areas along the roof and walls. The vampire could hear the steady drip of water falling from somewhere on the roof.
Scott scowled and clambered ungracefully out of his grave, feeling weak in all the worst ways. He was an ancient vampire! He should never have to feel weak again! But here Scott Goldsmith was, six hundred years after his forceful nap, standing on unsteady legs as a nearly debilitating swell of hunger rose in his stomach.
“Oh my Lord,” a familiar grating voice spoke from above him, “You are finally awake.” Scott twisted his head up to stare at the wispy silver form above him.
“Hello, Linda,” He rasped out, immediately clutching his throat in horror at the way his usually smooth voice rattled out of his lungs. Linda doubled over with a barking laugh, swirling through the air around him to get a better look at his form.
“You look awful!!” the ghost cackled, “This is amazing! Even your blue hair is back!”
“What?!” Scott cried out in alarm.
“And your blue eyes, too!” she giggled, thoroughly enjoying seeing the once all-powerful vampire in such a state of weakness.
Scott glowered at the vengeful spirit as he slowly made his way out of the gloomy crypt with as much grace as he could manage while starving out of his mind. He normally enjoyed a bit of doom and gloom, but perhaps being trapped in the musty area for so long had him wishing to see the sun of all things.
“Where are the other four?” Scott grumbled out to the still-snickering ghost. Linda hovered in front of him, translucent lips curling into a frown.
“The other four? They’re gone now,” she said bitterly. “Matthew and Alice left once you got put to sleep by that witch, Hector left once all your feldglings died, and Milo decided to go haunt some human that messed with his grave around a hundred years ago or so,” she listed off on her fingers. Scott stopped in his tracks, something similar to a sting of pain going through his unbeating heart.
“All my fledglings are dead?” He murmured in disbelief.
“As far as I know! I would feel bad for you,” a grin made its way back onto the spirit’s face, “but I sure as hell don’t.”
The vampire rolled his eyes, shoving the annoying emotions threatening to surface back down into the depths where they belonged.
“I’m just upset none of those pathetic things stayed around to keep this place in shape,” He scoffed, reaching the stairs that led up out of the crypt. They wound around the wall in a spiral, looking majestic and very long. He begrudgingly made his way up the stairs, stomach clawing at him, and Linda taunting him all the while.
“Is the poor, oh-so-important vampire hungry? Are you missing your stupid little coven? Huh? Now you know how I feel. Weak, stupid, powerless-”
“Did you just call yourself weak and stupid?” Scott asked, a smirk rising on his tired expression. Linda’s mouth dropped in shock before it quickly morphed into a glare.
If looks could kill… Too bad Scott Goldsmith was already dead.
“Oh, you are so dead. You’re dead. I’m going to kill you,” She hissed, trying to scratch at him pointlessly since her claws merely phased through him.
“You’re a little late for that, dear!” He laughed mirthlessly. Normally, pissing the ghost off was wholly amusing, but Scott couldn’t find it in himself to feel anything other than tired at the moment. And hungry.
Linda let out an inhuman snarl and dove through the vampire's chest repeatedly, making Scott hiss and shiver.
“Knock that off,” He growled at her. He nearly wished he hadn’t made a deal with that witch to make him unkillable. While he truly loved his immortal life and the power of being immune to death by a stake, sometimes the price was more trouble than it was worth. Would he still have agreed to the deal if he knew that he would be cursed with the ability to see and talk to all the vengeful ghosts he had murdered?
Scott thought on it for a moment and ultimately decided, yes. Yes, he would. Otherwise, he wouldn’t be alive right now, would he?
Scott finally reached the top of the staircase. The building that previously covered the entrance to the crypt was completely gone, allowing the murky sunlight barely able to shine through the clouds beam down on the vampire. He was surprised when he didn’t feel the usual burn of the natural light scorching his pale skin.
Wow. He really had fallen from his vampiric grace, huh?
Noticing the way the vampire didn’t flinch back from the sunlight, Linda scowled.
“Oh, come on, the sun doesn’t even hurt you? Where’s the poetic justice in this horrible world?” Scott ignored her in favour of looking more closely around his former home, if he could even call it that. All that stood in place of his beautiful manor was a pile of rubble.
“Oh yikes.” Linda finally looked up at the crumbled outline of Scott’s former home. The vampire silently stood in front of his ruined home with a resigned look on his face. He would be lying to himself if he said he was surprised it wasn’t fully intact, since apparently no one had been here to keep it thriving. But how did it get completely demolished?
Scott walked over to stand in the middle of the once grand hall. He stared down at the singed wood with a grimace.
“My mahogany,” He whimpered sighed with disappointment. Truly, he wasn’t that upset by it. Not really. Haha.
“You know what, I’m actually not even happy about this,” Linda commented, “This place was really nice.”
“Thanks for the sympathy, Linda,” Scott said flatly, picking his way through the rubble to find anything potentially useful. The ghost huffed in response, trailing behind him as he carefully rumaged through the charred materiel of the manor. He held a battered tapestry up, half of it burnt and the other half torn beyond repair. Hopefully, the person who did this to my home is still alive so I can kill them. He scowled.
A sudden and sharp stab of hunger ripped through the vampire’s stomach, reminding him of his priorities. He hissed, brushed dust off his expensive clothes and strode quickly towards the lush forest on the other side of the bridge. He skipped across the crumbling bits of the bridge with an elegance that hadn’t been lost despite his generously long nap.
As much as Scott wanted to ignore the useless feelings bubbling up, he couldn’t shove the flare of upset below the surface. His beautiful bridge, once distinguished and intimidating, as well as his glorious manor, were now no more than ruins. All that was left from Scott’s life six hundred years ago was the clothes on his back and Linda.
Speaking of the stubborn spirit, the near silence that now enveloped the inhuman pair was far too quiet to be anything but suspicious. The vampire turned around as he stepped off the bridge, immediately noticing the meddling ghost putting her spiritual energy into throwing a rock at his head.
Scott sidestepped the flying rock easily, and it sailed through the empty air before inelegantly hitting a tree. He stared wearily at the cursing ghost, who was glowering and waving their transparent hands around angrily.
“I’m going to kill you,” She growled. Not bothering with a witty reply this time, Scott continued into the quiet forest, hunger driving him deeper into the brush. Linda, glowering, followed behind him with a grumble.
The vampire’s nose spots it before his eyes do: a lovely, delectable cow a few trees away. Stifling the low growl that grew in his throat, Scott didn’t waste time creeping closer to his first meal in centuries. The cow lazily munched on some grass, oblivious to the hungry vampire closing in on it.
In a quick leap, Scott jumped onto the cow, biting down on its neck and bringing it to the ground. Its cries weakened before eventually dying off as he sucked more and more blood from the puncture wound.
Scott drained his meal of its scrumptious blood, humming with pleasure at the feeling of his muscles being strengthened and tiredness leaving his body.
“That’s much better!” He exhaled happily, standing up from the bloodless corpse. He dabbed his mouth with a handkerchief and smiled up at his ghostly companion. Linda glared down at him with her arms crossed. “You must be in a good mood! You didn’t even try to possess the cow so I couldn’t get a meal!” Scott hummed, feeling much better after getting some blood in his system. He hadn’t come close to quelling the growl in his stomach, but it was a start.
Linda rolled her eyes and huffed defensively. “Possessing animals is so annoying! Makes you feel brainless just like them.”
“Right, I remember you saying that! You must’ve possessed a lot of animals then, hm?” Scott snickered, fingers covering his mouth.
The ghost’s reaction didn’t disappoint. Curses spewed out of her like a geyser, and she attempted to throw another rock at his head. This time, the rock didn’t even lift off the ground.
“Damnit, hands, pick up the rock!” The ghost hissed, trying and failing to interact with the physical world. She let out a growl and gave up, looking up at Scott like it was his fault she was bad at doing ghostly things. “It definitely is your fault, by the way,” she said, reading his expression, “I was able to do that fine for centuries while you were asleep.”
“I’m sure you were, dear,” He answered condescendingly, earning himself another hiss.
He stopped his leisurely stroll through the forest at a fork in the overgrown path. Hmm… Well! Beyonce said to the left, so to the left I go!
With a stifled chuckle, Scott continued, “So anyways, why have you stayed with me for this long, Linda? Everyone else is gone! It’s just the two of us now. One might think you’re attached!” he teased. The spirit looked at him like he had just shoved her into a pit of vipers. With a flurry of sputters and hisses, she rushed to disprove him.
“QUITE THE CONTRARY,” she yelled next to his ear. Scott winced at the volume, but a smirk stayed on his lips. “In FACT, I am only still with you because NOTHING could ever make me forgive you for what you did.”
“You’re still not over that?” He said with a mock pout, “I’ve said I was sorryyy.”
“YOU LITERALLY HAVE NOT,” she screeched again, “Even if you did, I would still stay here to make sure the rest of your torturously long immortal life is as horrible as it can be!”
“Aww, I appreciate it, dear. Life truly would be so boring without you,” Scott chuckled,
stepping over a root.
A ghost’s attention was such a fickle thing. Some moved on to the afterlife for the most minor of inconveniences to Scott. Once, –though if anyone breathed a word about it, Scott would kill them immediately– the vampire had stubbed his toe on the side of his bedpost, causing at least twelve of his growing number of angry, hovering spirits to be satisfied and move on to their afterlives.
He huffed to himself in amusement at the memory, earning a confused and annoyed look from Linda.
But some ghosts’ attention and vengeance were so powerful they stuck with Scott for centuries on end, though those stubborn ones were few and far between. He stole a glance at the shimmery figure who was still glaring beside him.
Scott figured the typical time a ghost spent pestering him was around fifty years. Not too long for an immortal being, although the constant stream of angry spirits made it impossible to have a moment's rest.
He thought back on those years with distaste. It was very lucky he didn’t have any new fledglings at the time; that would’ve been every bit a disaster. At one point, fifty-two ghosts were hovering over his head at once! That was when it got all too much for the all-powerful vampire, and he knew he had to fix his issue immediately.
It took Scott nearly a century to finally perfect the best solution to his stupid ghost problem. With just a few ingredients mixed up into a potion, a possible ghost’s vengeance could be redirected away from the vampire.
Whenever the vampire was about to kill someone, or noticed someone dying who could be particularly out for his head, Scott would take his concoction, effectively hiding his presence from the new vengeful spirit. It was easy enough. The ghosts would often latch onto the next thing they had a specific qualm against, or move on to the afterlife, as all tortured souls should.
Unfortunately, a few spirits would seep through his defence occasionally, merely from Scott’s inability to properly take the concoction, or random spirits he hadn’t known would be out for his head.
Overall, though, his solution had succeeded; at the time of his forced slumber, only five pesky ghosts remained to annoy him.
And now there was one.
Too bad it was Linda out of all of them. Of course, the single ghost who hated him beyond reason would stick around just to be insufferable.
Scott blew a sigh of air out of his nose as he tilted his head contemplatively. Though now that he was here, left to rot in a coffin for centuries with no one he had known around anymore, it didn’t hurt to have a familiar face to talk to.
Scott Goldsmith was no stranger to loneliness. Those centuries spent trapped in his own mind, asleep, but not quite, had acquainted him quite well with the emptiness of isolation. It almost felt good to have Linda around, no matter how annoying she could be. He stole a quiet glance at the spirit, who looked tired, annoyed, and hostile, but almost relieved in a way he had never seen her before.
Scott let out a small hum in consideration. Linda, with her unfailing glare, turned to him again and bared her teeth in a short hiss. The vampire sent a sharp-toothed smile back, uncaring.
So much to think about nowadays…
“Where are we even going?” Linda spoke into the silence.
Scott frowned slightly, “I’m not quite sure. These woods have changed a lot since I was last awake. I’m not exactly sure where I am, but this feels like the right direction.”
Linda grumbled, “Right, of course, we’re just wandering aimlessly.”
Suddenly, the sweet scent of blood hit the vampire's nose all at once. He sucked in a sharp breath.
Humans… and more than one.
A grin grew on Scott’s face even as a pang of hunger settled in his stomach.
“Don’t fret, Linda, I believe things are about to get interesting.”
Settling into a brisker walk, Scott Goldsmith and his ghost continued down the path towards the humans waiting patiently for them.