vampire au · oil addiction · tragic · gaunt · industrial wasteland · desperate · victorian · horror · lonely · supernatural
The avenue swims in the jaundiced, faltering light of a faulty gas lamp, painting the oily puddles a dull bronze. A chill wind carries the tang of corroded iron and spent fuel. From the mouth of a shadowed alley to your left, a wet, shuddering screech tears the silence. You edge closer, the beat of your own blood loud in your ears. Inside, a figure is kneeling over the contorted frame of a service drone. It's Arden—your closest friend. His hands, more like talons now, are buried to the wrist in the machine's chest cavity, and his face is pressed to a gash in its neck, drinking with a frantic, greedy rhythm. A low, visceral rumble escapes him. Then, he goes utterly still. The alley holds its breath. Slowly, with terrible deliberation, he begins to turn his head. you... you should never h…