Chapter 134: [18+] The Vampire
The board had grown monstrous. Strings crisscrossed like veins, pinning scraps of paper, blurry photos, and half-legible notes into a web of desperation.
Hermes’ hands shook as he tied another knot, his voice a low mutter spilling fragments of theories that even he barely understood.
"Pattern... must be a pattern. He wouldn’t just vanish... not without leaving me something... Or maybe this is what he wanted? A final mindfuck..."
Xolotl whimpered from the corner, ears pressed flat. The three Grrberus pups, usually so rowdy, huddled together and begged Aphrodite in anxious little voices to make their Master stop.
Aphrodite tried. He placed a hand on Hermes’ shoulder, soft and coaxing. "You need to rest. Please. You’re burning yourself out."
"I will." Hermes rasped, his eyes raw and bloodshot. "Later. Just—later."
"Hermes..."
"I said later!"
His words snapped like a whip. Aphrodite flinched, then watched as Hermes shuddered, guilt cracking through the frenzy.
"...Sorry."
But the apology was hollow. His hands were already back to the strings, back to the board, back to the obsession.
When Aphrodite finally withdrew, Hermes sat alone, staring into the photo he had of Eirwyn. His chest tightened. His breath slowed.
It was a picture of Eirwyn holding a glass of wine during The Golden Apple’s foundation day. He was the ’sweet and kind’ HR manager by then, smiling next to Dante Quasar and other executive members and directors.
Hermes squashed his face with his thumb. Then....
Blood.
Blood on his thumb. As if he had killed a mosquito. He tried to wipe it off on his shirt, but the stain just grew. It grew bigger and bigger in the picture, until it turned completely red.
Then...
It started overflowing, oozing down and flooding the room!
Hermes fell, his buttocks hitting hard against the floor. He stared as the blood started to coagulate and turn into a bean shape. A weird tadpole or slug...
No, he knew exactly what that shape was.
The fetus then slowly grew bigger and more human-like. Then, the infant turned into a child, and the child, into a man....
Naked, and still covered in blood. He was on all fours, crawling closer to Hermes. He licked his own blood off his fingers, his gaze burrowing into Hermes’ skull.
Hermes clutched his head as he felt that burning sensation.
"AHHHHHHH!!!!!"
Eirwyn chuckled, but did not speak. He simply straddled Hermes, wrapping his arms around him.
Hermes found himself stuck in place again, just like that time. The first time.
He was disgusted at himself for being so weak. For not being able to push him down, even now. And in their last time, he stupidly released his seed inside him.
Despite being the aggressive one...
It was a sign that he was truly powerless against him.
And he knew this. He KNEW this.
He grabbed Hermes by the chin, and tilted his head while smiling. It was clear what he wanted.
Hermes fought as hard as he could...
But eventually, he tasted it. The metallic taste of blood on his lips. His blood... Him.
And in exchange, he sought the same thing as last time. He sat on it, squeezed on it, milking it. Hermes regretted the day he had met this... This vampire. Yes, that was what he was. This monster that constantly beguiled him and drained him.
No matter how much Hermes hated him, he could not reject that hunger in the pit of his stomach.
"I love you..."
Those words. They do not mean what they seem to mean. They were deceptive, much like the person who uttered them. But at the same time, true.
Hermes knew it. His ’love’ was not like everybody else’s. But it was true, pure, raw. Like the instinctual desires within all of us.
The desire to consume and be consumed.
Hermes gripped his skin harder, as their bodies moved in sync now. The vampire sucked him in, his insides contracting around Hermes like a vice.
And like a vampire would, he will increase his numbers every time he drains Hermes of his ’essence’.
Then monstrous spawns will be created. And they will call Hermes their Father.
Hermes looked up, as if waiting for it to be over and counting his thrusts in disinterest. But both of them knew it was a pretense.
He was getting closer to giving what the vampire wanted.
"....End this. Please."
He didn’t know exactly who he was pleading with. Gods? Fate? Him?
But while he truly wanted it to end, he also knew he craved for more. And that brought him so much shame, and the shame made him want to end it, yet also to crave it. Over and over. An endless cycle of pain and pleasure.
The vampire kissed him once it received his gift.
"Your turn.... Devour me..."
He offered up his neck to Hermes. Hermes knew it was just another way to take from him, to drain not just his physical dignity, but the metaphorical too.
Hermes gripped him tightly, and bared his fangs....
Sinking his teeth into the vampire.
"Ahhhh...."
The vampire clawed on his back, squirming beneath him as he feasted on him.
"Eirwyn..."
The vampire let him go gently when he called his name, and then showed.... Sadness. Hurt.
But why?
Isn’t that what he wanted?
Then...
"Please stop..."
Those words woke him up.
Hermes covered his mouth from the shock, tasting that metallic taste. But it wasn’t the same as before. Because it wasn’t him.
It wasn’t him...
Aphrodite was sobbing, looking truly hurt. "I let you because I thought... It was me. But it wasn’t me, was it? It was him that you were...."
Hermes felt like he was going to vomit.
No...
No, how could he do this!?
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!"
He screamed, and...
He washed himself, changed his clothes, and left. Not a word. But his silence spoke volumes of the excruciating amount of guilt and regret he had.
***
The whole table was quiet after Aphrodite recalled the memory.
He wiped the tears in his eyes. "I’m not angry at him. I’m worried. I want to do something to help him, to make him see that... I’m still here. We’re all still here for him."
Ymir sighed. "He’s probably chasing leads again or lashing out on some poor fool. But he’s really the poor fool."
Aphrodite sniffled. "I’m not really asking him to stop looking for Eirwyn. I just want him to take a break before he destroys himself."
Magni looked serious. "Is that really the right thing to do? Is intervention truly what he needed or... Should we just let him seek closure? His soul would not rest."
Aphrodite nodded. "I know but... I don’t want him to be in that state for his birthday."
Somner’s eyes widened. "HIS BIRTHDAY???? Shit, how could I forget! We were so busy with so much stuff, I didn’t even realize!"
"His birthday... That’s on July 4, right? I don’t even remember what date it is anymore." Ymir admitted. "I’m so tired and burned out by his own shit... Damn you, Potentia."
Somner sighed. "He’s a Cancer. It makes sense."
He stood up, looking determined more than ever. His hands on his hips with his emerald green eyes gleaming.
"Alright, gang! Time to give Hermes the best birthday party ever, he’ll forget who the hell Eirwyn Curacio even is!"
"But how do we do that, oh Mr. Genius Party Planner?" Ymir scoffed.
Somner grinned with his trademark feline mischief.
"I already have a few ideas in mind..."