Since when had he been this skinny? Jack couldn’t help but stare down at his body while the water of the shower washed the blood from his skin. He could see the stab wounds, closed, and he managed a small smile at the sight of his abs. Julias had been forcing him to eat right and exercise for five years now, and it certainly paid off. Despite his small size, he was a lean and tough little thing, and he ran his fingers up his abs to feel them, and the multitude of stab wounds that still marked them.
But he wasn’t just lean anymore. He was thinner. His stomach was pulled in just slightly. His skin was thinner, and paler too. Well that made sense, he had just lost an insane amount of blood. But then, how the hell was he still standing, and moving around as if perfectly fine? He could see the stab wounds like he was some recently stabbed, embalmed corpse.
And that hunger, that hunger wasn’t going away. It ached inside him, and not just in his gut. He could feel it coursing through his limbs. He could feel… something inside him, clawing at him. Something inside was fighting him.
Eventually he got out of the shower, and stood in front of the mirror. He wiped away the moisture with a nearby towel, and let the vapors fade away with the turning ventilation. Slowly, his face came into view.
“Oh my god….” He put a hand against the wall and leaned in close. What the hell happened to his face? His face was pale like the rest of him. His eyes had no sparkle. Everything seemed so… still. So dead.
“… dead. Oh my god. Oh my god oh my god oh my god.” Jack spun around and scampered to gather the clothing Julias laid out for him. He struggled to get on his boxers, and his pants came on one leg at a time while he tried to get the bathroom door open. His efforts earned him a hard land on his side and arm in the hallway, and Julias leaned around the hallway from his stool in the kitchen to peak at him.
“Dead! I’m dead, Julias! What the fuck! I’m a zombie. I’m a god damn zombie! Oh my god oh my god oh my god.” Jack didn’t even try to get up. He just lay there, half naked with his pants only on one leg and his hands on his face.
“Figured it out did you?”
“How can I be a zombie? What the flying shit god damn fuck, Julias! Zombies aren’t real.”
“You’re not a zombie.”
“What?”
Julias gave a sigh and walked over to Jack with a reached-out hand. The big guy pulled him up and, with a half-smile, helped Jack sit down so he could put on his pants.
“You’re not a zombie. You are dead though.”
“I, I…. ” Jack had to take a moment to breathe. Breathing didn’t seem to do much though. The little man let his head fall and his chin land in his palms with his elbows on the counter, before his head slid further and his eyes planted in his palms instead. Breathing wasn’t doing anything.
“I wasn’t supposed to do this to you so suddenly, Jack. I was going to ease you into it, and you were supposed to have the option to say no. I… you got pulled into this though, and it was either let you die, or turn you.”
“Turn me… oh god, you….” Jack almost choked on his tongue. He forced himself to raise his head and make eye contact with Julias. The steely gaze, the pale skin. Julias didn’t look like this before, but now he had that same dead look Jack did.
“We’re vampires, Jack.” Julias gave Jack a tiny little smile and exposed a long fang. It wasn’t normally there, but there it was clear as day on his lip before he hid it in his mouth again. He slid another glass of red toward Jack.
“Vampires. Vampires… fucking… vampires.” Jack’s eyes lowered down to the glass. They sank into the pool of it, the swirling mass of its intoxicating appearance. He never cared about the stuff before, and now he couldn’t stop looking at it. “… that’s blood isn’t it?”
“Yes.”
“You gave me blood.”
“Yes.”
“I… how could… Julias, I….” Jack pulled his eyes away from the drink with great effort. It looked so fucking delicious. “Julias you fucking turned me into a vampire! And you’re a vampire, apparently. I’m freaking out, ok. I am freaking the fuck out.” Even as he complained and ranted, Jack had to stop to drink that delicious, sweet, fulfilling glass of red. That throb in his stomach wasn’t going away, not completely, but the blood drink was at least suppressing it.
“I know, I know, and I’m sorry. This is never easy for anyone. I… I couldn’t just let you die, friend.”
“But I am dead!”
“Well yes.” Julias scratched at his suit collar. He was still covered in blood, and Jack had to cringe at the sight of it. All of his blood. “We’re vampires. Kindred.”
“How come I’ve never seen it on you before? You don’t normally look so… dead.”
“Kindred can perform the blush of life. It makes us look human and function like a human for a little while.”
“So you’ve been a vampire, a Kindred, this whole time? How long? … how old are you?”
His words hit something sensitive. Julias turned around and reached into his fridge to get another bottle, and poured the two of them another glass. Now Julias was the one who was avoiding Jack’s gaze.
“I was turned during the first world war.”
“The first… world war… World War One. Wow.” Jack ran his fingers through the buzz of his hair. “Wow, you’re… wow that’s old.”
“Joys of being Kindred. You don’t age.”
“Wait, is that why you got me exercising and eating well? You were going to turn me?”
“I was preparing you, yes, but I was never going to force you. I was going to explain everything, and that’s what that business proposition was about earlier. Then I was going to explain what being a Kindred meant. Immortality, but a blood lust, the beast inside, the Danse Macabre, the politics and the other Kindred and the-”
“Dude, dude! I… ok I am barely keeping it together. I am….” He put his head in his palms again, and let the weight of the insanity pull it down to his elbows. “I just… I need to think. I need to think. I need to contextualize. I… you said, earlier today, that my family and friends would think I was dead? That I’d… be staying here in South Side?”
“Yeah.”
“… so my life… it’s all gone?”
“Yeah…”
Jack had to get up. He left his glass behind and started to pace around with his fingers on his buzzed hair. They both went silent. Jack wanted to pant, but breathing didn’t come naturally anymore. All the little fidgets of his body were gone, or at least lessened. He had to make the pacing more frantic, just to make it seem justified.
“So I’m… immortal now?”
“You won’t age, but fire will burn you like dry paper. And… sunlight will do the same.”