“Excuse me, young sir,” the old man called out, the unsuspecting young man passing by stopping in the middle of the sidewalk. For a second, the old man took in the visage before him, ran his eyes over the young man’s face. Sharp jaw, bright eyes, tall build, broad shoulders—he looked to be at the height of his youth, b with a kind of voracious tenacity that looked like he was ready to challenge the world. He saw the young man shiver; it had been snowing hard the past few days and the blanket of snow that travelled all the way up the man’s knees looked like it was only growing. “Could you help an old man?”

“Of course!” the man chirped, trudging through the snow to come up to the old man’s house, having no problem helping a stranger. He was so young, so bright; the old man almost felt bad. It was too bad really, no one ever came by here anymore. He had to take what he could get. The young man stopped at the door, shaking off the snow that had collected on his shoulders and cluttered his hair, smiling abashedly. “Sorry, it’s been snowing like crazy recently! What do you need?”

“My heater stopped working,” the old man croaked, pointing out towards the back of the house, not even sure he was pointing the right way. The young man craned his neck as if trying to see what he was talking about, smiling anyway. “Could you help me take a look at it? I would call someone, but I don’t know when they would be able to come out and help.”

“Sure! I don’t know how much help I can be, but I’ll try my best!”

The old man smiled genuinely as he led the man through the house, taking him to the basement where the “heater” was waiting. He kept idle chatter with the young man, wanting to make him comfortable. It was the least he could do.

“What is your name?”

“Lee Jae-hwan, sir.”

“What are you doing walking out in a storm like this? I haven’t seen anyone out here in a long time.”

“Ah, my sister called me and asked me to come over. I usually wouldn’t in this weather, but she just broke up with her boyfriend and needed someone to comfort her. She can get really bad, so I was on my way to see her.”

So open and sweet; the old man almost wanted to scold the man for speaking so casually with a stranger about his personal life. Being so careless could get him in trouble one day. But that didn’t matter now.

“Here it is,” the old man said, pointing down the old, rickety steps that led to the basement. Jae-hwan hesitated then, eyes squinting, the only light a small hanging lightbulb that swung dangerously above them. It was dark and not at all inviting; many before him had been just as cautious. He stole a glance at the old man, his smile faltering. The old man tilted his head as he smiled back, putting a hand on the young man’s back reassuringly. “If you can’t do it, don’t worry. I’ll just try and fix it myself. I don’t think it’ll be too cold tonight-”

“Oh no, don’t worry, I can do it!” Jae-hwan said brightly, smiling wide again as he confidently went down the steps. The old man paused again, watching the man go down the steps with ease, not even waiting to see if the old man had followed him.

He pursed his lips.

Each time was hard, seeing such young lives full of ambition and life unwittingly stop to help a seemingly helpless old man. Each time was hard, but it was necessary. And that was what made it bearable.

“Are there any lights down here?” he could hear Jae-hwan call out. “I’m not sure I see a heater…wait, is that a…person? I don’t think—ah!” Jae-hwan’s voice was cut off with a loud squeal and the sound of skin tearing, and he knew it was time.

The old man raced down the steps as fast as he could, his hands trembling and nearly tripping over his own feet. He was panting by the time he got to the bottom of the stairs, and he realized that damn he was getting too old for this. He d along the dark room with practiced ease, clicking on a light that did little more than bathe the room in a soft glow. He glided along to a dark corner that was hid from the light almost purposefully, eyes immediately trailing down to the unmoving body on the floor, a dark figure hovering over it.

The figure was that of a man not much older than the body on the floor, clothed in dark heavy clothes that did nothing to hide the large metal chains that were clasped over each wrist. Each shackle was bolted to the floor, heavy and cold, that did little more than prevent him from running away. As the old man approached, the figure lifted its head, showing that beneath a ratted mess of hair was a youthful face, one pale and soft as if a man of the world itself. The old man smiled, staring into the familiar red eyes as he searched for a trace of lucidity, restrained himself until he could tell if the man he knew had returned. Eventually the chained man stopped panting, blinking owlishly at the old man before a small whine escaped his blood-red lips.

“H-Hak-yeon ah.”

The old man lunged onto the other, wrapped his tired arms around the chained man’s neck, decorating his face with flurried kisses. “Taek-woon ah…you’ve come back.”

The chained man, Taek-woon, gently pushed Hak-yeon off of him, his chains rattling as he held Hak-yeon’s wrists. “You…you’ve grown so old.” There was no insulting or taunting tone in his voice, only sad acceptance. Hak-yeon smiled sweetly, pulling one hand away so he could caress the other’s cheek.

“Yes, my love. It’s been a while since anyone’s come by here, the stories have been getting worse.” Taek-woon leaned into Hak-yeon’s touch, letting out a shaky breath as his eyes trailed to the still body on the floor. Hak-yeon’s eyes followed his and let out a sad sigh, lamenting at how the once young face was now pale and crinkled, every last ounce of blood dry.

“What…what was his name?”

“Lee Jae-hwan,” he answered dutifully. It was why he asked; Taek-woon always wanted to know their names. He remembered every single one of them. He left out the part about the young man’s sister waiting for him—he knew Taek-woon wouldn’t be able to handle that.

Taek-woon nodded softly, looking away from the dead body and back into Hak-yeon’s eyes. A small smile appeared on his lips, leaning his head forward so that it rested gently against the other’s. In that moment, it didn’t matter what Taek-woon was, or that he now looked old enough to be Taek-woon’s grandfather. In that moment, they were mere lovers again, both so inexperienced and naïve and ready to take on the world together. They were back in a time where their only worry was having enough money to buy food.

Back when they were happy.

“I love you,” Hak-yeon whispered, his hands holding Taek-woon’s face.

Taek-woon nuzzled closer, his chained hands tentatively moving up to hold Hak-yeon’s waist. “I love you too.”

Hak-yeon kissed him, held the kiss for as long as he could, desperately ignoring the strong taste of iron that still clung to Taek-woon’s lips. He knew it wouldn’t be long before the madness consumed Taek-woon again, leaving him as nothing but a mindless monster that could only be sated by the blood of humans. Each time was shorter—at first he had been able to go a couple days without a single drop, but as the years went by and the bodies piled, time became their enemy. They tried to fight it, Taek-woon forcing Hak-yeon to chain him to the floor so that he could never hurt the other, but in the end the madness consumed him.

Now he could barely last ten minutes without needing to another dry.

“I love you so much, Taek-woon. I love you so much and will do whatever I can for you.”

Taek-woon groaned, already losing himself but fighting the best he could.

“I…I love you too, Hak-yeon. I love you…I wanted to spend my life with you…”

“And you will. I will do everything I can for you.” He will continue to collect people for Taek-woon to feed on. He knew it was selfish, had embraced his selfishness the day Taek-woon stumbled home bleeding from his neck, eyes blood red and so confused. He would do anything just for another second with Taek-woon, for just another second where he could hold the other and have the other hold him back.

“No…” Taek-woon moaned, shaking his head, his hands on Hak-yeon’s waist tightening almost painfully. “Please, just let me go. Stop feeding me…eventually…eventually something would have to give, right?” Hak-yeon kissed Taek-woon again, could feel the other’s fangs scrape against his lip.

“I…of course, my love. I’m sure something would give.” He was crying now, and even though he knew Taek-woon was close to slipping again, he wasn’t about to leave. They both knew nothing would really give; the madness would just consume him for the rest of eternity. But neither would say that, instead holding onto the ridiculous notion with every ounce of strength they had. “Taek-woon…you’re my everything.”

“Hak-yeon…I…I…” Taek-woon’s shaking stopped, his body stilling, and Hak-yeon realized this was it. His heart was hammering dangerously in his chest, his body so tired and heavy and old. Taek-woon slowly lifted his head, eyes delirious and unseeing. “I’m hungry.”

“Then feed, my love,” Hak-yeon soothed, running his hands through Taek-woon’s hair one last time, watching sadly as Taek-woon’s eyes followed the movement. “This is the last I can give you.” He smiled, his hand touching the other’s cheek one last time before he felt sharp fangs dig into his neck, closed his eyes as he felt his life right out from him.

There truly had been a time when he had imagined a future where he and Taek-woon would grow old together. Where they would live and die together.

This wasn’t how he had imagined it, but it was something he had accepted long ago.

Hello!

I don’t really know where this came from, I vomited this up in about two hours and did very little editing. I’ve been having a hard time recently because of personal things and have been struggling with the two stories I’ve been working on—it felt really good just taking a break and writing this out. That and I low-key always wanted to try a vampire story but never did because I knew it’d be and there are way better vampire stories out there.

Also—one-shot! Never thought I would be able to write one of them, it always seemed so hard. Keeping characterization and description to a minimum with a plot that can be shortened to a single chapter, but here I am! I hope it’s not too bad…this is what happens when I’m left to my own devices and just write whatever the hell I feel like. like this happens.