The Dark

A/N

Hey guys.

This story contains dark subjects like a suicide attempt and cutting, so it’s not for everyone.

Trigger warning. We start with the suicide attempt.

Nell’s POV.

Do you know how it feels to not belong anywhere? To feel alone? Hurting so much that you can’t take it anymore? The emptiness inside you? Aching for the darkness?

The thought of getting away from everything is too appealing.

I’m nothing. A nobody. All I want to do is disappear. The urge is so strong that I can’t resist it anymore. And I don’t want to. This is what I want. This is what I need.

I’m sitting in the old bath tub in my run-down bathroom, crying. Not because I’m sad but because for the first time in a long time, I feel relief.

I have a sharp, new razor blade in my hand. I’m a cutter so I know the pain it will inflict, and I’m going to welcome it.

I’m a waste of space. When I stop breathing, there will be more air for everyone else.

The thought of meeting the dark and finally finding peace makes me smile. It’s not because I want to die but because I need the peace death hopefully brings with it.

I look at the razor blade for a moment before I cut deep into my wrist and slowly slide it up my arm, making me hiss. A strong pain courses through my body but I’m used to it and knowing where this is headed makes me smile again.

People say it’s a cowardly thing to do but I don’t care. I don’t think it’s fair that a person who wants to die has to go on living just to please people. They have no idea how hard it is to get out of bed every morning. How hard it is to go on living. How hard it is to put a smile on my face every day and act like everything is good.

People don’t want to hear what’s on my mind. They don’t want to hear the dark stuff because that makes them uncomfortable. They just want me to smile and say that I’m fine. It’s unbearable.

The blood in my vein pours out of my arm and I can’t help but sigh, almost in contentment. Give me peace. Let me fall asleep and never wake up again. An eternity of blissful sleep.

All the dark thoughts in my mind disappear and I sigh again with a small smile. Leaning back in the tub, I rest against the cold surface. I feel the life drain from my body and I sigh once again, my smile widening.

Death, here I come.

~~~~

Levi’s Pov.

“What do you want to do today?” Thomas asks. I think for a moment before I say, “I don’t know. I feel kind of restless.”

“Hm. Maybe you need to get laid.”

Rolling my eyes, I ask, “seriously?” He shrugs. “Yes. You haven’t fucked anyone in ages.”

I quirk a brow. That’s true. “Maybe it’s because I only meet dumb women.” He shrugs again and asks, “so? Just bang em’ and leave em’. Get a release.” I almost chuckle while I shake my head. “No. They can’t get me hard. They simply don’t turn me on.”

Thomas shakes his head himself. “You’re so weird, dude. Why not just take a little blue pill?” This time, I chuckle. “Not gonna happen.”

I like women with substance. Someone who can challenge me. Even if it’s only for a night of passion.

“My dick works just fi-.” I suddenly smell something that makes me stop in my tracks. “Do you smell that?” I ask Thomas. He slowly nods. “Yeah.” We both look up at the run-down apartment building in front of us before I go up the front steps and open the door. “Come on.”

Thomas raises a brow and asks, “where the fuck are you going?”

“Where do you think?”

I go into the building and follow the scent. The scent of blood. “Mmm. I smell dinner,” Thomas says, rubbing his hands together, making me roll my eyes again.

We end up on the third floor and stop in front of a door that I knock on. Nothing. I knock harder. Still nothing.

“Nobody’s home. Let’s just go,” Thomas says.

“Not a chance. The scent of blood is so strong that it’s not just a little cut we’re talking about.” I have no idea why I’m doing this, but I kick the door in.

“Dude!” Thomas says.

I follow the scent into the bathroom and see a young woman lying in a tub, bleeding from her arm. And it’s not just a trickle. It’s cut open. She’s trying to fucking kill herself.

I have complete control over my bloodlust, and so does Thomas, but he comes over to the tub and crouches down, ready to drink. I grab the collar of his shirt and yank him back.

“What the hell?” he asks with a surprised expression. I grab a towel and wrap it around the woman’s arm before I put pressure on it. “Go get your car.” He looks at me with wide eyes like I’ve gone insane. “What the fuck are you doing? It’s free dinner.” I clench my jaw and growl, “GO!”

He backs away, his hands raised in surrender. “Alright, chill.” Then he turns around, runs out the door, and down the stairs.

I put more pressure on the woman’s bleeding arm and gently shake her shoulder with my other hand. “Hey, you. Come on, open your eyes.” I can still hear her heartbeat. It’s faint but it’s there.

Again, I have no idea why I’m doing this. Why I’m helping her. Usually this would be exactly like Thomas said. Free dinner. But there’s just something about her smell.

I lift her up in my arms, hold her to my chest, and run down to the street where Thomas is already waiting with his car. He opens the door to the backseat, and I slide in, holding the woman in my arms. “Drive to the hospital,” I say. His eyes widen again and he whisper-shouts, “what? Are you crazy?”

“JUST DRIVE!”

He starts the car and races to the hospital. On the way there, he asks, “how the hell can you control yourself? I’m seconds away from pulling over and draining her.”

“You’re not touching her!” I say, my voice almost a growl.

We arrive at the hospital and screech to a halt. Still cradling her in my arms, I jump out the car and run into the emergency room. “HELP. HELP, SHE’S BLEEDING.”

A nurse runs over to us, and two others come over with a gurney. “What happened?” the nurse asks.

I gently lie the young woman down on the bed and say, “she cut her arm. She was trying to kill herself.” The nurse furrows her eyebrows and shakes her head. “I’ve never understood why people do that. Poor girl. What’s her name?”

“Helena Watson,” I say because it was the first name I could think of. She nods. “Okay, we’ll take care of her.” They take her into surgery, and I make them promise to keep me updated even though I’m not family. I sit down in the waiting room where Thomas joins me. “So. Since when did we start saving people?”

I chew on the inside of my cheek while thinking, before I ask, “did you know that I tried to kill myself once?” His eyebrows shoot up to his hairline and his jaw drops. “Shit. Seriously?”

“Yes. That was before Marcus found me and turned me,” I say. Marcus is my sire. I haven’t seen him in decades, which I don’t mind at all. That fucker is psychotic.

Maybe her smell plus my own suicide attempt is why I want to help this girl? When I saw her lying there, bleeding in the tub, it stirred something in me. I’m usually not the sentimental type. That side of you kind of fades when you’ve lived as long as I have.

“Can I ask why you wanted to kill yourself?” Thomas quietly asks me. I sigh. “It was a couple of things. My betrothed was killed. I lost my job and other things like that. I wasn’t a mentally strong man back then, so I gave up.” Thomas gives me a sad smile and says, “I’m sorry to hear that.”

“Don’t be. It’s not your fault and it was a long time ago.”

He slowly nods. “Yeah, but still. Is that why you want to save this girl?” I think for a moment before I nod, “I think so. I know how it feels to not want to be in this world, but I also know you can get through it. Plus, she has this smell…”

He quirks a brow and looks at me with an amused expression. “A smell? Seriously?” I almost chuckle. It sounds stupid but there’s just something about it. Something different. Something alluring.

“You know, I’ve never been in love. When I was alive, I liked being a bachelor,” Thomas says. Now I chuckle. “You’re still like that. But you’re still young. I know you’ll find someone eventually.”

I was the one who turned Thomas. There was something about him. Under that horny, bachelor surface, there’s a decent man. He was dying of cancer, so I told him what I was and gave him a choice. Die, or live for eternity as a vampire and he chose eternity.

Some vampires think it barbaric to turn a human. To take their human life away from them but I believe that someone can grow to be more. Make a difference in this world. They just need time.

I don’t go out and turn whoever I want. I only do it to those who want me to. So far, that’s Thomas. He’s only been in this world for about fifty years, so he’s still very young and still has a lot to learn.

After waiting an hour, a doctor comes out to talk to us. “Are you the one who came in with Helena Watson?” Getting off my chair, I nod. “Yes, that’s me.”

“She’s out of surgery,” the doctor says. “She lost a lot of blood, so we had to give her a blood transfusion. It’s good that you brought her in when you did. We almost lost her a couple of times. I’ll send her to the psychiatric ward for a seventy-two-hour observation.”

Hell no!

“There’s no need for that. I’ll watch over her.” He raises his eyebrows before he shakes his head. “I’m sorry but it’s the procedure for suicide patients to-.” I growl and take a step towards him, making him take a step back. He looks at me with shock written all over his face.

“I. Will. Watch. Her!”

“O-Okay. She’s recovering,” he stammers, and I nod before I ask, “can I see her?”

“Are you related to her?” I sigh because I’m losing my patience. “I’m her boyfriend. Her parents died years ago.” He swallows and nods. “Okay. Follow me.”

I look at Thomas who nods too. I follow the doctor down a corridor until he stops in front of a door. “As I said, she’s recovering, so she’s sleeping and probably won’t wake up for a couple of hours.”

I just nod, open the door, and go inside the room. Slowly walking over to the bed, I look at the small woman lying in front of me. “What made you give up, girl?” I whisper before I sit down on a chair beside the bed and brush a strand of her brown hair away from her forehead. “I hope you’ll let me help you. I can show you how good, beautiful, and exciting life can be.”

I pull my phone out of my pocket to text Thomas.

Me: Make a distraction.

It only takes a second for him to text me back.

Thomas: Alright. Give me five minutes.

I check if the bandage on her arm is good, pull out the IV, and turn off the machines. Then I lift her up in my arms, cradle her against my chest, and listen.

Just then, I hear commotion in the distance, so I open the door and look up and down the corridor. Clear.

I sneak out of the room and down the corridor, and sure enough, Thomas is creating a distraction. He’s lying on the floor, shaking violently, faking spasms, and foaming from his mouth.

I walk past everyone, like kidnapping a person is the most natural thing in this world. Over the years, I’ve perfected the ability to blend in. To blend in so much that people don’t even notice me.

Thomas has left the keys in the car for me, so I gently lie her down on the backseat before I get into the driver’s seat and drive off. I know exactly what Thomas is doing. He’s going to fake dying and when they can’t get his heart to beat again, they’ll call time of death and take him to the morgue where he can easily sneak out.

I chuckle. We’ve both done that before and it works every time. Sometimes it’s kind of fun to do, other times it just seems childish, but it can come in handy.

I arrive at my big mansion and pull up the driveway. When I park outside the front door, I gently pick up the girl and get her inside. Going into my bedroom, I lie her down on the bed where I pull the covers over her and get a couple of blankets to tug her in.

Then I sit down on a chair in the corner, take my phone out of my pocket, and call a friend.

Jonas: “Hello?”

Me: “Hey, Jonas, it’s Levi. I need a favor.”

Jonas: “Sure. What do you need?”

Jonas is a doctor. He works at the very same hospital I was just at.

Me: “I need antibiotics, antiseptics, and bandages. Oh, and some blood bags. I won’t be leaving my house for a while.”

I hear a low chuckle.

Jonas: “Would this have anything to do with a certain female patient who disappeared from the hospital?

I smile to myself.

Me: “Maybe.”

He chuckles again.

Jonas: “Alright. I’ll be there in an hour.”

Me: “Thanks. I owe you one.”

Jonas: “Yes, you do.”

I hang up and lean back in the chair. She’s going to freak out when she wakes up, and I bet she’ll be both angry and sad. Angry because I saved her and sad because she didn’t die.

An hour later, my butler comes in to announce that Jonas has arrived. Yes, I have a butler. I’ve lived a long time and I’ve earned more than enough money to live a life of luxury, and I like that. I like being able to spoil my friends. I like being able to get what I want.

Not that I can’t get what I want without money because I can simply hypnotize humans. I can make them get and do what I want them to but I don’t like to do that. It’s better that I have my own money.

“Send him in,” I say to my butler, Alfred. Yes, he’s an older English man named Alfred. If I had to have a butler, why not get a stereotypical one like from the movies. He’s a vampire too and has been with me for many, many years.

Jonas comes into my bedroom with two big bags filled with what I’m assuming is IV fluids, supplies, and blood bags. We smile at each other before we give each other a hug.

“Thank you for coming,” I say.

“It’s no problem.”

Jonas was turned by my sire fifty years later than I was. We’re like brothers and would do absolutely everything for each other.

He looks at the woman as he asks, “so, this is the girl?” I nod. “Mm hm.”

“Alright, let’s take a look at her.” We walk over to the bed where he listens to her heart, measures her blood pressure, and checks her arm.

“So... You saved a suicide patient?” he asks. I nod again but this time it’s slow. “Yeah.”

He takes out a syringe and injects antibiotics into the vein on her arm. He also changes the bandage and hooks her up to IV fluids. When he’s done, I ask him, “do you want a beer?” He shrugs. “Sure. I’m off call tonight.”

I ask Alfred to get us two beers and he brings them in soon after. Jonas and I sit down, clink bottles, and take a sip. He looks at me for a moment before he asks, “why the girl? I’ve never seen you try to save someone.” I sigh and look at her while she sleeps before I say, “I don’t know. I could smell her blood and when I got there and saw her, she looked so lost.”

He slowly nods and thinks for a moment before he asks, “exactly what are you going to do when she wakes up?” I scratch the back of my head. What am I going to do? Well… Well…

“I haven’t thought that far ahead.”

He chuckles and shakes his head, making me sigh. “I know, I know. Not my finest moment,” Then he turns serious. “Well, you can relate to her situation but what if she’s too far gone. What if you can’t help her?” I swallow a mouthful of beer and shake my head. “I don’t know.”