For an Eternity, Maybe?  

by

Eiryia

    “Such a shame, he is so pretty” 

     ...

    “He is dying you know so you better decide quickly”

Seungyoon looked over at Seunghoon who was sitting hunched down like some awkward frog by the dying man two fingers on his wrist just to make a point of his fading pulse.

    “I can tell you like him, but I’m not going to push you. It’s your decision” Seunghoon said and got to his feet. “My guess is that you only got minutes left, so you better hurry up and make up your mind”

Seunghoon then pranced out of the room like some proud lion who had just downed its biggest prey yet.

Shaking his head silently Seungyoon walked over to the unconscious man on the floor. He had lived for hundreds of years, had so much time on his hands that he never knew what to do with it all, but now for the first time in his undead life was he was running out of time.

Sitting down on the floor Seungyoon pulled his newest obsession on to his lap. The man's head was bobbing dangerously at a slightly odd angle and so he grabbed it gently by the jaw, guiding it so that it was resting against his chest. A trickle of blood was still running down from the puncture marks on his neck.

    “I don’t wish this life upon anyone” Seungyoon whispered into the mans ear “but in the end I too became selfish and lonely. I hope you can forgive me one day” 

He had never turned anyone before but followed the instructions Seunghoon had taught him what must have been lifetimes ago. 

A curse, a sacrifice and a reason. He mumbled to himself as he pulled out a tiny folded blade from the pocket of his suit jacket. 

Cutting into his own wrist he saw the dark fluid flow down his wrist. Angling the man's head slightly backwards he watched as drop after drop hit the mans beautiful lips.

    “And so he is cursed, like I, he sacrefices his life.. And my reason.. Loneliness. I truly am pathetic” he whispered while caressing the man’s beautiful face as his own wound closed itself up until it was completely healed looking like it had been moments before.

A grayish tint had begun arising in the undertones of the man’s skin, the pale flush of pink he initially had found so attractive was long gone. 

Gently pushing a couple strands of the man's hair out of his face Seungyoon waited anxiously for him to wake. He had no idea what to expect. Rage? Confusion? Would he try to flee? Seunghoon had told him stories of these runners who escaped and created chaos around the city until they were caught and ended.

Anxious to start explaining himself he the same strands of hair out of the man's face again and again. 

How long had it been now? His sense of time was never any good, but in his undeath had he given up on tracking it completely. He paid attention to the sun and the passing years and that was it.

It started with a light tremble, fluttering eyelashes and then his handsome new potential friend suddenly sat up. 

    "How are you feeling?" he asked arching his neck to get a better look at his face. 

    "Not good, I’m not breathing" the man replied. 

    "You don’t need to, but we do it anyway to keep up appearances" he replied trying to make light conversation. 

    "Don’t need to.." 

Before he knew it had the man gotten to his feet and were sprinting down the hall. Completely taken by surprise he was left sitting on the floor alone watching him go. 

Getting up to follow him after getting over the initial surprise he heard Seunghoon from the living room: 

    "Looks like we got a runner. Remember he is your responsibility. He harms anyone and you are both in trouble" 

Grumbling something about how Seunghoon was the one who had basically killed him earlier was it hardly only his responsibility. 

He made his way down the large marble staircase down into the poorly lit hall leading to the front door. The dust lay heavy in this room as they rarely used it. If they snuck someone in they would use the side door and they often left via the second floor balcony or by the roof. 

The man was sitting in the darkest corner of the large stair room hugging his knees like a scared child. 

    "It takes some time to adjust to, but I’ll help you figure it all out" he said in a low voice holding out on hand calmly as if approaching a wounded animal about to attack at any moment. "Can I ask your name?" he requested calmly stopping only a meter from the poor huddled person on the ground. 

He didn’t reply. For some reason did this provoke him and remembering what Seunghoon had said about blood ties he repeated his question again in a more commanding voice. 

This time had the head of the guy snapped up, eyes full of disgust, staring defiantly at him as he spoke: 

    "Jinwoo, Kim Jinwoo" 

    "Thank you" he replied trying to calm himself. 

He couldn’t remember the last time he had been emotional about anything. Today he was emotional about everything. 

    "Listen, I know this is very new for you. I remember the shock myself from when I was in your situation" he began, but it was obvious to him that Jinwoo weren’t listening. 

    "Why?" Jinwoo asked, clutching at his unmoving chest looking like he was about to have a panic attack. Could vampires even get those? Seungyoon didn’t think so. 

    "You were dying, it felt wrong" He couldn’t explain it well, even to himself. The amount of people they had killed over the hundred years in undeath he and Seunghoon had spent together must have reached way past a hundred by now. Maybe thousand even? At least for Seunghoon who was much older than him. Thinking about how many they actually had killed made chills fly up his stone cold skin. Was it really that bad?

Startled from his train of thought by Jinwoo’s sudden movement he looked down on him on the floor.

    "I’m starting to feel that death would have been better" Jinwoo complained, looking like he had begun to find a different kind of calm. 

Outside the morning sunrise had just began and the low sun hit the colored glass panes of the front door quite beautifully. It was a shame that they didn’t use this room more. 

    "I guess in the end I can choose right?" Jinwoo said getting to his feet. 

Seungyoon weren’t sure what Jinwoo was talking about. Jinwoo was buttoning up his slightly bloody shirt before walking over to the colored glass. 

    "This is quite beautiful" he said, putting a hand to the stained glass. 

He was about to explain how Seunghoon had requested them custom made back when they had moved into the house a good 80 years ago at least. Before he could open his mouth however had Jinwoo grabbed the door handles and pulled the double door open with a loud creak before stepping quickly out into the morning sunlight. 

Seungyoon took in the rather dramatic pose that Jinwoo was standing in, wondering what was up. 

Then it dawned on him. 

    "I’m sorry, sunlight doesn’t really kill us" he said in a low voice as a wave of sadness hit him straight in the chest. His first turned vampire and it had tried to kill himself within the first couple of hours of its new life. 

Jinwoo’s shoulders dropped and he sat down on the large stone staircase. 

    "What does then?" Jinwoo asked mumbling. 

    "I’ll tell you in a month. Give me that much. If you still want to end this then I’ll even do it myself" he promised wondering why he had to add the do it himself part because the thought of it made his insides squirm. 

They stared into each others eyes for a long time then and he wondered if Jinwoo would reject his offer and attempt to flee, but in the end had he reached out a hand towards him like humans do when they made a deal and shook his hand. 

    "Fine" Jinwoo said as he grabbed the hand in his. It felt warmer than his own despite them both being stone dead. Was it the warmth of sunlight or the last fragments of humanity lingering? 

Seungyoon didn’t know the answer to his question, there were lots of things about this vampire existence he didn’t know about and up until now had he not really cared, why that had changed he weren’t sure of. The Jinwoo effect maybe?  

They sat on the stone stairs until the sun was high up on the sky and there were humans rustling around down on the streets always in a hurry. 

    "It’s sickening" Jinwoo mused, eyes fixed on a young woman speaking on the phone on the other side of the street. 

    "What is?" Seungyoon asked curiously. 

    "How I already feel a yearning, no thats not the right word. A need? To kill" Jinwoo questioned his own feelings as he spoke. 

    "Well, we do it to sustain ourselves don’t we?" he said knowing very well that sickening feeling Jinwoo spoke of. 

    "How often? And do we have to kill them?" Jinwoo asked eyes darting to a teenage couple waiting at the bus stop further down the street. 

    "Not that often and no. Some keep human pets, or lovers, call them what you want. That they fed of" he explained thinking about Seunghoon’s most recent pet who was currently in hospital from sever blood loss.

Jinwoo nodded silently. He could tell he got a lot more questions, but for now he was probably content with just getting used to the sensation of death. Living death, and having to feed of others. 

Come evening and Seunghoon had greeted them as they walked up the large stairs. They had spent the whole day on the stairs talking and looking at people. He couldn’t remember the last time he had spent a whole day outside in the sun. It did him no good, but his mood was definitely better. 

    "I’m going out to get a snack, should I bring home the leftovers?" Seunghoon asked and Seungyoon shook his head at Seunghoon’s choice of words. Talking about people as if they were Chinese takeaway from down the block. 

    "We are fine thank you" he replied, guiding Jinwoo by the hand up the stairs. "Tomorrow maybe" he added wondering how long Jinwoo could go without any sustenance. 

He had showed Jinwoo one of the many spare rooms and despite them never properly sleeping was it always nice to have a space to their selves. 

Leaving Jinwoo in his room he had snuck into Seunghoon’s closet and gotten some clothes as his own hardly fit Jinwoo who was of a slightly bulkier build than himself. 

    "So you don’t have to walk around in the dried blood all day. We can go get you new ones of your own once we are certain you won’t go rampant around the city" he said handing Jinwoo the clean clothes. 

He took them silently and walked of to the bathroom. 

Seungyoon wondered if it would be fine to leave him. 

Deciding on some light monitoring he went and got a book from the library and sat down in one of the chairs further down in the hall to read. If Jinwoo decided to leave his room he would know at least. 

Jinwoo didn’t leave his room all evening or the night. When the next morning came Seungyoon had changed his clothes and gone to check on him. 

When he entered Jinwoo’s room had he found him laying on his bed staring up into the canopy of his four poster bed. 

    "My eyesight have improved" he said matter of factly. 

    "All your senses have" he confirmed. 

    "Let’s look at the stars tonight" Jinwoo suggested casually without making any indication that he planned on moving from his spot on the bed. In fact Seungyoon couldn’t even see him blink once. 

    "I’ll meet you on the roof then" he replied, happy that Jinwoo actually wanted to do something. 

Leaving Jinwoo alone he wandered of wondering if he should set up anything for their evening of stargazing. Should he make it cozy? After a while of thinking had he decided against it. Instead he found an old slightly moth-eaten carpet from one of their many storage rooms and carried it w