Tony Thompson was adopted by a vampire hunter named Rookery when he was three years old. When he forces Tony to kill the vampire that took his nightmares away, the teenager panics.
NOTES; mild M rated, disclaimer, violence, heavy language and trauma themes, mature warning, keep it lighthearted, beware.
Tony Thompson's parents died in a car accident when he was three years old. He was in the vehicle with them when it happened, strapped tightly to his car seat while he watched shattered glass fly through the windshield. He had called out to his mom and dad for what seemed like hours, but only saw his parents' lifeless bodies, hanging limp from their seatbelts.
That day was something that he could never forget, he could never get out of his head, out of his dreams. He woke up screaming nearly every night.
He was put up for adoption because he didn't have any living relatives. The young boy was adopted by a raggy looking man named Rookery. He had slicked back silver hair and deep gray stubble. His hoop earring frightened Tony, but he was kind to him when the forms were being signed, he even ruffled Tony's hair and hugged him tightly.
"Everything's going to be okay, Tony," he had said to him with a crooked grin, his hooked nose bending with the smile. He smelled like garlic, and Tony eventually realized he always smelled like that.
The two lived in a small apartment complex full of crying babies up and down the cramped halls. They made Tony cry too, but Rookery yelled at him to shut up, leaving Tony to cower under his covers until Rookery came to apologize for his harshness.
The first thing Rookery did when Tony turned four was take him to Germany. He made Tony say tearful goodbyes to his friends in preschool, all the while saying, "Everything's going to be okay, Tony."
He had to leave everything behind in California, and was only able to bring a few items of clothing, and a stuffed cow he was given by his parents before the crash. The rest of the things Rookery brought he was forbidden to see.
On the plane, Rookery told him stories about things lurking in the Black Forest mountains. He told of all the wild animals, but most of all, vampires. The man gave detailed descriptions of their powers, their thrall, how they flew, and their fangs. God, the fangs were the part that terrified Tony most of all. Rookery said they were sharp and pointy and could sink into Tony's skin inches and inches, draining every last drop of life from him. He talked on and on until the small child was quivering in his seat, clutching his stuffed animal to his heart.
All Tony wanted was to be home again, in his parents' arms, safe from this strange man. He wasn't like a new father to Tony. He was like a person his mother always warned him not to talk to in public. Rookery scared Tony into silence. He only did what the man let him do.
When the two were inside the cab after the plane landed, Tony wanted to know how long they were away from their new house. He had tugged on Rookery's sleeve. "Daddy-"
Rookery threw Tony off his arm, and closed his hand around his wrist so tightly that it hurt. "You will never, ever call me Daddy, Dad or even Father. My name is Rookery, and you will call me Rookery. Understand?"
Tony let a frightened tear run down his cheek, nodding vigorously, but Rookery didn't loosen his grip. "I- I understand- you're- you're hurting me. Please, please let go."
Rookery gave Tony a tobacco stained grin. "Good," he released Tony and turned to look out the window, tapping his fingers on his dirty pewter jeans along with the music on the radio.
The pair lived in a little two-story blue house. Tony had his own room with a bookshelf and a little mobile. He even had a window seat with long, billowing curtains, where he could look out to the forest and rolling mountains from his little room. Tony was even allowed to go to the local school.
When he was seven years old, a man came to live with him and Rookery. He was very nice, and when he first met Tony, he gave him a little brown teddy bear. "Hello, my name is Manny. What's yours?" he had asked Tony. The little boy immediately knew he liked the red-headed man far better than Rookery.
Manny read stories to him every night when Rookery didn't tuck him into bed. Rookery never did that for Tony, but Manny did.
Rookery was always working at night, so he was asleep by the time Tony left to walk to school in the morning. Then Manny started to drive Tony to school. He would even pick him up if he had time, even though he always looked tired and had deep bags underneath his eyes.
Manny read Tony stories about knights and dragons, princes and princesses in castles, but Tony liked the one about vampires the most.
It was about a vampire in the mountains who met a young boy. They went on many adventures together. It made the horror stories of vampires Rookery told him so much less scary when Tony knew there were at least some good vampires out there. Manny didn't like the story all that much, but read it to Tony anyway.
Manny once even told Tony of a vampire he had seen when he was a child. It had jet black hair and gleaming fangs. He had waved at Manny with light purple- almost gray hand. Tony asked Manny to tell that story over and over to him, describing the vampire with more detail each time.
Tony loved Manny like a father. He was the closest thing he had ever had to one since his parents.
He hugged Manny each night when Rookery yelled for him to start working. Tony would listen to Manny's retreating footsteps until he could only hear Rookery's shouting. The young boy hated it the most when Manny would say something back, because that would normally be followed by a hard slap, and he always knew it wasn't Manny who had done it.
Rookery frightened him more than ever, so he would stop speaking whenever Rookery entered the room. If he was reading a book or playing with his stuffed animals, he would drop it and stare at the man, wide eyed, until he left. He had been Rookery's child for over four years, and he still felt like a stranger to Tony.
Then, when Tony was ten years old, Manny was gone. Manny had tucked him in like every night, but this time after he left, when Rookery was yelling, Manny shouted back so loudly it shook the little house. Tony listened intently, but couldn't make out what they were saying. Then Rookery's voice, for once, lowered to a near silent murmur, and the front door slammed.
The next day, Tony had woken up alone in the house and walked to school. He just assumed the two had stayed out working for longer that night. But when Tony came home, Rookery's door was closed and Manny wasn't there.
He had waited for Manny that night, and the next, and the next, but Manny never came back. Tony didn't even get to say goodbye to him. Manny never even said goodbye.
When Tony was twelve he finally figured out that no one would ever really care about him, and the ones he thought did love him would leave him just as soon as they came. Rookery had made him learn that when he began to turn his anger towards Tony.
When he was thirteen, Tony was looking out the window one night when he saw a stunning brunette teenager walking down the street with his friends. Tony's breath caught in his throat when he saw the boy look at him. He smiled and winked at Tony, who waved sheepishly with a blush creeping along his cheeks.
The teenager quickly reached in his pocket and scribbled something down on a piece of paper. He walked up to the house and climbed the drainpipe where Tony opened the window for him.
The boy held on tightly to the windowsill and looked up at him. When he saw Tony's eyes flick to his lips, he smirked. The brunette brought his lips to the blond boy's gently. Tony gasped.
He realized right then and there how much he liked boys. In class, there were a few girls that had told Tony they liked him, but he had never felt the same for them, and he had never really even like girls in the first place. He only noticed boys in his class, but had never thought about it like this before, but he liked it. This must be what it feels like to be wanted, Tony thought.
The blond teenager's hand reached up to grasp tightly wound curls, closing his eyes. His friends below whistled and hollered, which made the brunette smile into the kiss. When they broke apart, he pressed the piece of paper into Tony's hands.
"Call me," he said in a deep, husky voice. Then, he was gone, sliding down the drainpipe. All of a sudden, Rookery came clamoring out of the house and down the steps, brandishing a gun.
"GET AWAY FROM MY HOUSE, YOU REPTILES!" he screamed, shooting a few shots into the air, which set the teenagers off running, ducking as they screamed. Tony watched the brunette until he disappeared. Tony looked down at the scrawled telephone number on the paper. He bit his lip where he had just been kissed by the beautiful boy, and smiled.
Tony called the number twice. Both times it rang out, and the boy never called back, so Tony never called again either. He was sure that the boy hadn't really cared about him, and was just doing it for his friends to laugh. Laugh at Tony for being a desperate, miserable little thirteen year old who didn't deserve anything good.
When Tony was fifteen, Rookery finally revealed where he went at night.
"Come here, my boy," Rookery had opened Tony's door with a bang while he was doing homework, "tonight we go vampire hunting!"
"But I'm doing this right now, Rookery," Tony murmured, trying not to sound surprised by the fact that his guardian had been killing those things for money all those years. Rookery let out a loud groan and moved swiftly to where the blond boy was lying on the bed. Tony sat up quickly and backed up as fast as he could, but Rookery was already grasping his arm. He wrenched Tony from the bed, letting him hit the ground with a dull thud. He enclosed around the boy, his hooked nose nearly brushing Tony's face.
"You will do as I tell you, boy, you will do it exactly when I say it and without question," he growled, his garlic stench making Tony's eyes sting with tears. He nodded harshly.
"Y-yes- sir."
"Good," Rookery released Tony and the teenager let out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding in. "Now get your shoes on. We'll be out all night."
Tony wanted to mention to Rookery that it was only Tuesday night and he had school in the morning, but he didn't want anything worse to happen if he said something.
He slipped his boots on and shrugged into his coat as he practically chased Rookery out the door. Climbing into his large junky truck, Rookery shoved a device with a sonar vector screen. "You remember Manny, don't you?" Rookery chuckled cruelly. Of course Tony would remember. He just stared at the green line rotating around the circle, searching for signs of a vampire. "He was absolutely useless, but his inventions, somehow, were quite helpful in killing those miserable brats. Called that thing InfraDead."
"You've killed vampires before?" Tony had mumbled.
"Of course I have, you idiot! What did you think I've been doing all these years?" Tony shrugged and turned back to the InfraDead to avoid looking into Rookery's hate filled eyes, sinking farther back into the seat. Suddenly, he heard a small ping from the sonar device. A green dot had appeared on the small screen. Rookery shouted and swerved on the road, switching lanes. "Where is it?" he yelled, grabbing the flashlight sitting next to the seat. He flicked it on, shining the beam out into the night sky towards where Tony had pointed. The truck swerved again.
This time, he drove off the road, and Tony yelped as the truck flew over a ditch, heading straight through the forest. In a clearing, Rookery flashed his light onto a body soaring across the sky, and when the light hit it, the thing fell to the ground.
Rookery let out a childish hoot, approaching quickly to the spot where it fell. He pounded the brake so that the truck, with a sharp lurch, came to a stop. Rookery jumped out, clutching the light in his hands. He stopped for only a moment when Tony hadn't moved from the truck.
"Are you blind? Get your lazy ass out here and help me kill it!" Tony had groaned and pushed open the door, walking with his hands shoved deep in his pockets to the vampire lying down in a creek, looking up at Rookery.
Tony stopped in his tracks to look at it. It's frizzy black hair stuck out and it's pale purple-gray skin was streaked with black ash. It's thin chest was heaving, and he could hear its ragged breaths coming in and out, speeding up as Rookery approached the vampire. It tried to sit up, but fell back after it groaned in pain.
"Do you see, boy?" Rookery said excitedly. "This creature is helpless to me! And soon, very soon, you will be able to do all of this with me! We'll be a team, me and you."
Tony smiled weakly, and he felt a lurch of his stomach as Rookery turned back to the vampire. He needed to stall him. "Wh- what if I didn't want to?" he knew that would get Rookery going, and it did.
He stopped in his tracks. Whipping around, he dropped the flashlight and advanced on Tony. "You, my boy are a vampire hunter now," he barked, throwing Tony to the ground. Tony rolled over to face Rookery, fearful of what he would do to him, if the vampire would be able to get away in the time Rookery was distracted. "You will learn," he kicked Tony, his hard soled boots digging into the blond's ribcage. "To love it," the man kicked him again, and while Tony held himself, shaking, he locked eyes with the vampire, who looked at him painfully, nodding reassuringly before closing its eyes as Rookery brought the beam of his flashlight to its face. Tony yelped and began to cry, tears falling to the dirt when he heard it scream, all of the life left inside of it leaving as it dropped limply to the ground, unmoving.
The rest of the truck ride had been silent and tense. Rookery tapped the steering wheel to a silent rhythm, and Tony stared out the window, wondering what it would be like if his parents had never died at all; if there had been no accident.
He may have had a loving childhood. One with happiness, and good friends and no worries at all. He would have never met the nightmare of a man that Rookery was, and he would have never had to watch him kill a vampire. He wouldn't even have been afraid of them in the first place, because there would have been nothing to be afraid of.
He wished, realizing for once in his whole life, that he was loved. Tony wanted to know what it felt like to want to be with someone for his lifetime, and that someone wanting to be a part of his life as well.
Arriving home hours later after searching aimlessly for other vampires to no avail, Tony collapsed on his bed. Tears began to spill over, wetting his pillow. The blond boy breathed deep sobs, choking on his saliva. Nothing deserved to die, even if it was a vampire. Tony didn't care. Rookery had no right to take a vampire's life if it was minding its own business. Everything had a purpose; it must. Or else Tony didn't have a purpose at all.
He stopped whimpering suddenly when he heard Rookery's heavy footsteps on the hardwood outside the door, and let more tears slip by when the door to Rookery's room closed with a loud bang.
Tony fell asleep soon after that, his cheeks still wet against the pillow. Two hours later, his alarm woke him up for school, and he begrudgingly silenced it to throw aside the covers and get ready for the day. Tony trudged to school, sleepy eyed. He nearly fell asleep in each class and had to pinch himself just to stay awake. He spaced out of every conversation he had with his friends, closing his eyes until someone shook him. Tony eventually made it back to the little powder blue house, falling asleep as soon as he sat down on his bed.
He was shaken awake by Rookery. No, he was pulled off the bed and shouted at.
"What are you doing, boy? You need to get ready for hunting tonight," Rookery yelled. Tony only groaned and turned over on the floor to face Rookery.
Rookery suddenly stopped talking and stood up with a grin on his face. "That's okay, my boy!" he bellowed. "I was thinking anyways... last night when I took you with, you just slowed me down. So, tonight you will be staying home with the InfraDead, and you will be talking to me with this," Rookery tossed a large gray walkie-talkie onto Tony's stomach.
"You will call me every thirty minutes to update me, but when you see a vampire, you will tell me, and guide me through where to go. Is everything clear?"
Tony nodded, clutching the bulky radio in his quivering hands.
"Good, now," Rookery grabbed Tony by the collar and threw him onto his window seat, holding his arm, "this will be where you sit, and you will stay here all night. Don't pull anything funny, because, believe me," Rookery was so close to Tony's face. The blond boy tried to close his eyes to rid himself of the nightmare, but Rookery tightened his grip on Tony, shaking him until the teenager looked into his dark, dead eyes. "You will not find it funny later."
Rookery suddenly stood up with a wide grin on his face. "Right! I'm off now! I'll see you once I return!" the man practically pranced out of the room, bouncing down the steps.
Tony rubbed his sore arm miserably, watching Rookery whistle as he climbed into the truck, turning the key in the ignition, leaping when it started up. The truck began to roll down the driveway, Rookery pulling out quickly, the engine roaring as he raced down the street. Tony stared at the vehicle until it rounded the corner, then he turned his attention back to the sonar screen, its bright green light stinging Tony's eyes.
He stared at the screen with complete disdain until he couldn't take it anymore, tearing himself away from it, looking out the window.
Tony thought back to the boy he had had his first kiss with. He hadn't known his name, and the mystery boy hadn't even known his. And yet, it had been that easy. Tony hadn't seen him again. He had looked for the boy for weeks, watching for hours to see if he walked down the same sidewalk again, but he hadn't come.
Tony figured Rookery had really just scared the teen off, but he had forgotten about the brunette a while ago, never finding himself thinking about that boy until now. He wanted there to be someone out there for him, somewhere. Tony didn't care how long it took, but he wanted to find a boy who was right for him, someone to tell him it was alright. To hold him in their arms and never let go. Someone who could love Tony as himself, Rookery, vampire hunter and all. Some dream, right?
Suddenly, Tony was taken from his thoughts with a start to hear a loud pinging on the device. A green dot had shown up on the device. Tony's heart thudded in his chest. It was so close to the house. The blond threw down the scanner, bending towards the window to see if he could get a glimpse of another vampire, one that wouldn't be killed.
He watched for a few minutes, seeing the pinging dot coming around the house. Tony was just about to give up when he was startled by a flash, a moving blur soaring across the sky. His heart tuned to the ping, and he gasped as he saw the vampire in a better light.
He had a sleek leather jacket, small horns attached to the collar, a deep red cape hanging from his shoulders, billowing in the cold night air. His spiky black hair was slicked back, yet still in havoc around his head, sticking out in many directions, each strand unsure of where it belonged. His pale gray-purple skin wrapped around his chiseled cheekbones and jawline, looking like every glide was cutting through the icy wind. Even from the distance, Tony could see his sparkling maroon eyes, glinting against the stars. God, he was absolutely beautiful, breathtaking even.
He suddenly stopped flying, hovering in the air, looking around, surveying the landscape. The blond could have sworn, for just a second, that the vampire looked at him. He must have looked at him! Tony's mouth popped open, his heart skipping a beat. His stomach fluttering dangerously. He must be dreaming. He must be asleep.
And just like that, the vampire was gone. Tony scrambled for the sonar, watching the mysterious being's dot fade off screen as quickly as it had come. Another one to come and go, Tony sighed.
Tony heard a loud crackling on the radio and, tossing the InfraDead aside, he picked it up.
"Are you there, boy?" a voice like nails on a chalkboard screamed at him. "I know you're there. You need to answer me, I need updates!"
"Umm... no, n-no, there hasn't been anything on the radar. Not tonight," Tony looked at the screen once more, wishing he could see that gorgeous vampire just once more.
"Well that's such a bummer," the voice screeched in the small room. "I guess they aren't biting tonight," Rookery cackled loudly to himself, and Tony gave a short, forced chuckle.
"You'll get 'em next time, Rookery."
Setting down the radio when the line went silent, he shut his eyes and rubbed them furiously. Tony could just sleep a little bit until Rookery called again for updates. He would surely wake up. When Rookery returned that night, Tony was asleep once more. Scoffing at Tony, Rookery took back his devices, closing the door loudly, he smirked to himself when he heard the boy wake with a start.
Tony dreamed so vividly that night, going through every memory of the vampire he had seen, imagining him in Tony's arms, smiling up at him, keeping him safe from the stranger that slept in his cold, empty house. He imagined spending all his nights curled up with him, both oblivious to the world around them. He couldn't imagine the vampire sucking his blood. Tony never really did understand, because he had never heard of the vampires Rookery killed doing any harm, yet they were somehow one of the most dangerous threats to Rookery.