James's Complications

TRIGGER WARNING: This chapter has mention of blood and child death. Please read at your own discretion.

After James had left Edwin in his booth, he decided to ditch the theater entirely. Leaving the front doors, he quickly went down the front steps and made his way back to the edge of the rich part of town.

He listened intently to the sound of his boot heels clicking on the cobblestone, and how the sound changed as the road slowly shifted back to dirt and pebbles. James pushed his way through the front gate of his farmhouse before entering through the front door, slamming it shut behind him as he pressed his back to it.

He didn’t realize it, but his breathing was incredibly heavy and his heart was going at a million miles an hour. James brought a hand up to his chest and he gripped the fabric into a ball over where his heart sat.

Another dead end. Edwin didn’t have any knowledge of his case, and he found himself sincerely questioning the validity of this vampire that seemingly doesn’t exist.

He pushed himself off the door and staggered his way over to a chair in the living room, leaning against the back of it as he tore his bow-tie off and unbuttoned the first few buttons of his dress shirt. At that moment, he felt his mother’s necklace swing out and he his mind travelled back to Edwin.

Images of the man soared his mind. His eyes, his lips, his chest… the way his porcelain skin sparkled under the lights from the box seat and the lights of the stage; howhis voice echoed through his mind like a soft silk dragging elegantly along his spine.

James gripped the back of the chair as his mind shifted to more unholy thoughts of Edwin saying his name in a hushed and aroused tone into his ear. The thoughts of his hands wrapping around those thin wrists and pressing them down into the bed, drawing his fingers along every curve of his body as he watched Edwin’s back arch from the sheets beneath the both of them.

A drop of blood landed on his hand and his eyes widened as he brought his fingers back to his nose, pressing gently. He then pulled away with a desperate look of confusion as he saw blood once again. That was the second time today, and without really thinking, he screamed.

His mother’s necklace flashed and a burst of purple magic spread out in a circle around him, tossing his living room into disarray and he dropped to his knees.

“Wh-What is happening? Why am I thinking like this?” He looked at his hands as they shook and he aggressively began to shake his head to try and clear it. He was stressed and tense; stress can very easily make one’s nose bleed. That had to be it.

“What brings down my stress?” he asked himself aloud. Then it came to him. “Baths…”

Barely a moment after saying so, he was in the bathroom filling his water basin with hot water.

Quickly, he undressed himself and tossed his clothes haphazardly to the floor before climbing into the hot water. He sank all the way in, fully submerging his head and embracing the silence that came with it.

James let his mind focus only on the water, letting it flow over him and push all of his thoughts away. And right when he felt the urge to breathe in deep, he resurfaced from the water and gasped. His head fell back as his brown hair floated around his face in a circle while he stared up at the ceiling.

“You’re alright, James… you will figure this out,” he reaffirmed himself before closing his eyes and resting his head against the edge of the tub.

Meanwhile down the road, a mother stood on her porch with a lantern, scanning the fields and the road for any sign of her son.

“Edward?! Where are you?! You know you’re supposed to be home before sunset!”

A shadow moved at blinding speed across the field and the woman gasped. “Edward- that is enough! I swear if you are trying to scare me-” She picked up the skirt of her dress so she could walk across the field towards where she saw the shadowy figure.

“Edward?” she asked hesitantly as she stepped out into a clearing, holding the lantern out to see better.

“CAW!” a crow called before fluttering up in front of her, causing her to scream and fall back.

“Wh-Why you- no good-” However, she didn’t have time to finish her sentence. She lifted back up the lantern, the light illuminated over a familiar figure laying still on the ground.

“Edward!” she shouted, as she bent down to it. She grabbed his shoulder and rolled him onto his back. “You about scared me half to-”

Her eyes finally processed the blood coating the side of his neck and face, and the woman let out a blood curdling scream. Her hand retracted from her son's cold and lifeless body as she scooted back on the ground. “NO! My- my boy!! My baby!!”

She crawled back over to him and carefully lifted his head into her lap and she held him close to her chest as she sobbed. “Oh my baby boy- I’m so sorry…”

The woman faintly heard the sound of a dog's bark and a man calling out. Her eyes barely saw the flicker of the approaching lantern light as she held Edward close. She even barely registered when her neighbor put his hand on her shoulder to help her up and to bring Edward’s lifeless body inside. The word vampire slightly peeked through her consciousness from her neighbors mouth, and she remembered the man her son had talked about just barely over a day ago. He must know something.

However, at this moment, neither she nor her neighbor noticed the shadowy figure staring at them through the window, a nod emanating from them before they disappeared once again into the night.