Should I put the playlist in a separate chapter or a really long author's note?

Eras for this story, btw;

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The vampire drew away from Frank as quickly as possible, a flash of white lightening pressing his back against the wall across from the young man. Frank panted softly, his shoulders aching from the bruising he knew was forming on his skin from the harsh grip of powerful hands pinning him down. He brushed a thin spiral of cobweb away from his shirt, staring at the vampire in a state of awe. The moonlight slivering onto the pale man's face, his eyes glowing in the shadows and his fangs glistening behind his parted lips, he was everything Frank remembered and more. His heart still pounded quickly from almost being attacked, but the fear was quickly erased by the realization of the vampire who more than likely was only trying to feed to prevent from starvation. He stopped, recognizing who Frank was, and that was one other thing about him that amazed Frank to no end.

"What are you doing in here?" The vampire's voice was low, his voice a bit shaky around its sharp edges after shoving away his hunger.

Frank fumbled for his phone that had fallen onto the dusty ground beneath his feet. Wiping away the particles of debris, he pocketed the device and focused on the vampire. "I knew you'd be here."

The vampire looked momentarily puzzled. Weariness crossed his face after the puzzled look faded away and he came more guarded, taking one more step away and drinking in the sight of Frank with his colorful eyes. "It's dangerous here, being out in this city at night is something you really should not be doing again."

Frank almost smiled when he hinted at that night long ago when he saved Frank from the jaws of another immortal being. The slight lifting of the corners of his lips vanished at the memory of demonic eyes and an unhinged jaw, teeth attempting to rip into his skin like it was nothing but stream covering the tenderness of his bloody veins. Frank touched his neck, his hand shaking.

"I know it is. But I . . . I have so much to say to you, I couldn't stop myself from trying to find you." Frank was away of how similar he sounded to a stalker, and perhaps his obsession was unhealthy, but this was no ordinary person he tracked down. He wouldn't back away now.

"We aren't supposed to interact unless I have plans of draining you completely." The vampire stepped slowly into the light, his pupils pulsing wildly. "Neither of us want that, so I suggest you go back home and forget about me."

Frank's expression shifted into one that showed how absurd he thought the vampire's statement was. "I'm not leaving."

The pale man arched his thick eyebrow in a surprised manner.

Frank took one step forward, resulting in the vampire lifting one pale hand up and stopping him from coming any closer if he cared at all for his own safety. Their eyes locked together, both of them fearing one another to different levels and for different reasons. Frank wasn't afraid of the creature he was, he feared the possibility of him running off into the darkness and never returning as he did long ago. Slipping through the cracks of his fingers, the only memorabilia he had left being the painting carefully concealed back at home.

"I haven't been able to forget about you in fourteen years," Frank said softly. "You saved my life. You had the opportunity to have me to yourself, but you didn't. You took me home safely and left before I had a chance to thank you."

The vampire continued to stare at him with those piercing eyes swirling with color and liveliness. His face remained in the same frozen expression, his body still as a stone carving, and Frank wasn't sure if he was breathing. He licked his lips, stepping into the moonlight for the latter to see him better when he spoke.

"I've been looking for you for so long. I wanted to see you again, thank you, make sure you're real and not something that my brain created. After looking for years, I learned that you couldn't be my imagination because . . . some parts of the world know about vampires. I know about you and what attacked me that night." Frank shakily brushed a lock of his hair away from his face. Looking up now, he noticed the way an eerie glistening emotion passed over the vampire's molten eyes. His lips twitched, gaze moving over the entirety of Frank.

"You have not a clue what you've tangled yourself into. I require no gratefulness and my nature is not something you are meant to find out for yourself, the consequences are dire." The vampire became rigid, shaking his head back and forth, his ebony locks coming forward to frame his pale face.

"Everyone who's attempted to expose you has disappeared or been killed." Frank whispered, swallowing thickly. "But I promise I won't do that to you. All I've ever wanted for fourteen years is to thank you. I assure you, I won't tell anyone about what I know."

"Promises are empty." His voice was liquid fire, a dangerous tango between silk and relentless flames. "If any one of us is exposed to the human world, we have no choice but to slaughter the human. Too many of our kind have went against these rules and risked everything, I can't be casted away as a traitor."

Frank knew what he being told. Frank needed to be killed tonight, silenced and taken to the grave to protect the secret of this ancient race no one could imagine being a real possibility. He couldn't help but notice the stiffening of the vampire's stance, how he finally looked away to avoid the gaze of the human stood across from him. Frank wondered if he found regret in speaking those words, or if he was unwilling to abide by the rules he strictly needed to follow.

"Then why didn't you kill me when I saw everything?" Frank breathed. If the rules were so implanted into the heads of all vampires, Frank should have been killed ages ago regardless of the fact that he was a child. Though he knew himself, the vampires did not, and their weariness should have had their fangs ripping into the tender and young skin of his throat to keep him silent for eternity.

"I may be a monster built to murder, but I would never kill a child." Gerard shook his head, a look close to one of a person being offended flashing across his eyes for a split second before it hardened back into the same stone cold stare Frank had trouble keeping in his line of vision for long. It was the sort of look that sunk underneath your skin and cut through the bone, wrapping around your core until the chill of it rose goosebumps to the surface of your flesh.

"I'm no longer a child." Frank challenged the vampire. If Jamia were here, she would be hitting him on the back of the head and nagging him for being so stupid as to state the obvious to a hungry vampire close to pouncing on him. He wanted to test this vampire, see if his goodness ran dry during the years they'd been apart. He believed he wouldn't be killed tonight, nor any other night.

The vampire took two bold steps forward, his lips hardening into a thin line. "You are pushing your luck, human."

"You won't kill me." Frank stood his ground stubbornly. The other man looked shocked for a moment. His pupils shrunk inside his eyes and stayed that way in the swarming olive green color filling the circles of his irises.

Suddenly, Frank was stunned by a hand as cold as ice wrapping around his throat, abruptly shoving him back against the wall in a quick flash. His back was aligned with the cold stone of the crumbling walls and the vampire was so close to him in all of his glory, his eyes glowing a violent shade of red while a solid body kept him trapped and unable to move. Frank gasped, feeling the hand shaping around his throat almost pass the brink of applying pressure too tight to allow air to escape into his lungs. The vampire hissed, low and dangerous, and Frank watched with wide eyes as a set of fangs elongated behind the set already on display in his mouth, sharp enough to tear him to shreds.

He believed, for a fleeting moment, that he'd been wrong to judge a vampire based on one experience many years ago. This version of him was starved and arising to perform his feast on the people of New Jersey before disappearing to another state and draining more citizens until he was satisfied. Staring into his mouth full of sharpened teeth, Frank saw the demise he unknowingly awaited for, the day curiosity would kill the cat in a rain of blood and misplaced trust. Frank gasped, wriggling, begging the vampire with his eyes not to take his life away before he had a chance to truly live it.

The vampire lunged for his throat, teeth glinting like the predatory eye of a tiger attacking its prey. Frank shut his eyes and looked away, his heart pounding impossibly fast but his body falling limp while he fought not to pay attention to the way he was being murdered. He wished there was switch somewhere in his body he could flip, one that would turn off the noise flooding into his ears and one that could make his heart stop beating before someone else had the opportunity to do so. He awaited the pain, the feeling of pulsing blood flooding into the hungry mouth of the person who once rescued him from exactly this, and his body would be found somewhere in a river for his best friend and his family to cry over while they fought to find his murderer.

But nothing ever came for his throat. No pain intruded his body from teeth sinking into his flesh, no blood poured out from any open wounds on his body. Frank fell to the ground in a heap, his knees making a great impact on the carpeted stone. He groaned at the pain shooting up his thighs, his kneecaps throbbing from the rough landing and his skin heating up like it did whenever it bruised. He gasped for air, scrambling to further down the hall, looking around wildly to find the vampire once more.

His eyes found the vampire, but instead of meeting the sight of a predator preparing to pounce once more, he found a pale and beautiful man pressed against the wall far away from Frank, his eyes wide and his chest rising and falling rapidly. He stared at Frank, his expression crumbling into one piercing deep into the human and bringing out shock, shock so deep he felt it in his bones. Frustration, hatred, especially as the vampire punched the wall behind him and left a large dent in the foundation. Frank flinched, feeling the vibration of the hit echoing in the walls and causing tiny crumbles of cement to fall onto the floor.

"Fuck." The vampire growled, his eyes filling with a lining of red. It alarmed Frank, watching such an odd color rising into the whites of his eyes and tinting the whites of them when he blinked. A trickle of blood fell from the corner of his eyes streaking across his porcelain pale flesh and leaving a trail of red in its wake. Frank was trembling, pressing his palm against the floor and attempting to heave himself back up into a standing position despite the shaky state of his legs. Everything he processed was slightly blurred, but not from the way his entire body swayed and weakened after seeing death and its reaper. The reaper who wept blood and couldn't bring himself to complete his task. Frank stayed silent, he had nothing to say and his throat was permanently tightened, he'd choke on any words he'd attempt to let out.

Again, the vampire moved. He struck quicker than the blink of an eye, raising his balled up fist and bringing it down onto the stone wall again with a crack as loud as the strike of thunder rumbling in a blanketed gray sky. Frank reeled back at the startling noise and his heart jumped into his throat. The impact of such strength hitting fragile walls caused a misfortune to rattle both of the men to their cores. Underneath the vampire's fist was a large fissure implanting itself into the wall, rumbling and expanding, tiny lines traveling up the cold stone until they branched out and became wider, heading towards the roof at an alarming rate. Frank panicked when the vibrations coming from the blow began under his feet and dust began to fall from the crumbling fixtures up above. The sound ricocheted throughout the house, traveling underneath the cement and concrete until it all split open and the wooden composure holding the place together began to groan and crack just like the rest.

Frank looked up in horror as one of the wooden planks from the ceiling snapped in half, falling at an alarming rate before hitting the ground in a pile of splinters, sending dust flying in every direction followed by the strong sent of wet, molded vegetation. Frank slammed his palm against the wall and backed away, a strangled noise escaping his throat to express his shock. Going pale, he watched another thick plank fall, this one being one of the main supporters of the mansion, breaking in half with tiny shards scattering across the ground.

"Move!" The vampire cried out suddenly. Frank's head snapped up, rounded eyes looking at the latter who looked like he'd just witnessed a crash on the sight. His heart skipped a beat and terror filled him, his body jerking back.

Suddenly, Frank was encased by a coldness resembling that of the ice creating glaciers on the sea. The world around him became a blur, but nothing could block out the thundering noises of the mansion falling apart, the fixtures spiraling towards the ground and the walls splitting open. When everything around him finally stopped blurring out, he gasped out loud, his head snapping in every direction to take in the scenery. He was all the way across the mansion from where he'd been standing, and in his place was a sharpened plank of thick and molded over wood, something that surely would have crushed him if the vampire's arms hadn't wrapped around him and saved him from a brutal death. Saving his life once more.

"We have to get out of here." The vampire's voice sounded strained, a note higher than usual. It was hard to hear over Frank's heavy heartbeat and the ringing in his ears, the groaning and eerie screeching of the mansion turning into ruins.

"Where?" Frank called out over the noise, looking up into the pale and gaunt face of the man protecting him.

"You're coming with me." The vampire tightened his hold around Frank, and again, they were flying. Everything around Frank was a blur of black and gray, flashes of the moonlight passing by him in a moment quicker than a wink, and the red of the carpet was blood brushing against the canvas of the short abundance of color whirling around him. The air was cold as it slapped against his skin in streamers, but nothing could beat the freezing hands gripping him tightly and keeping him off of his feet, the strong body and arms shielding him from the collapsing house he wandered into only moments ago. He quickly realized, as he looked up at the vampire, that they were not flying, but running towards something he knew nothing about.

Frank shut his eyes, shrinking into the vampire's arms and waiting for everything to end. At this point, he knew he would not be returning home tonight or any time soon, and he accepted that he may be killed while under the supervision of a vampire whose life he'd interrupted. Instead of mold and the suffocating stench of wetted dust, he smelled the scent of old pages in a book, the echoing sharpness of blood, and the pleasant scent of smoke after blowing out the flame of a warm scented candle. The smell of the vampire, filling Frank's head while being so close to him. He clung to it to block out the rest of the chaos, the ruin he feared he may have caused.

When it was over, Frank was set down onto his feet and air around him stilled. The coldness enveloping him disappeared, but he was still trembling, dizzy and overwhelmed. Opening his eyes, he met the worried gaze of the vampire who bent down the small distance in their height so their faces were at level with one another. Frank slowly looked around and he didn't recognize where they stood. Once again, they stood in a hall, but the stone was different - heavier, lighter, dimmed and cobweb coated twitching lights lining the walls to flush out the pitch black. The ground was coated in dirt and dust and the imprint of the bottom of Frank's shoes showed up when he took a step back. At the end of the wall was a dead end, cold stone Frank was sick of seeing.

"Where are we?" Frank asked, his voice small and shaky.

"Somewhere safe." The vampire took Frank's arm, tugging him towards the dead end.

Frank's eyebrows furrowed and his footsteps stuttered from the unsureness overcoming him. "What are you doing, that's a dead end?"

The vampire said nothing. He stopped in front of the wall dusted in dirt and he pressed his fingers against the uneven suface, moving them around until his fingers curiously dipped into something implanted into the wall - a button, being pushed into the seemingly solid surface and causing the entire wall to rumble with a sound going far beyond what it showed at first glance. Frank stumbled backwards, stunned into silence as the wall began to slide open slowly in a shower of dust and crumbles of tiny pebbles, revealing what seemed to be a darkened elevator made of the same darkened stone making the entirety of the mansion.

"Come with me." The vampire held his hand out to the weary human inspecting every inch of the mysterious yet astounding elevator hidden behind the wall, not quite being able to take in everything at once when he heard everything falling apart through the ceiling above their heads. The groaning of the rusted metal, the stone as it made an impact on the ground upon falling and breaking into pieces.

Frank took the vampire's icy hand and allowed himself to be pulled into the elevator, unknowing of what would come as the aftermath of creating such a chaotic mess.

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A/N: That was shorter than I expected, but the next event is too much to squeeze into one chapter, you know? I hope it was good though!

What do you think so far? I like the vibes I get from this fic, and I really like the concept of vampires crying blood? I think it's somehow really intimate, vampires are like these stone cold evil beings people make up and when they cry, it's rare, and it's blood. Might just be me who likes that.

Hope you're ready for the next bit! I'm still taking songs recs, if you have any left, playlist is coming soon along with one you can access on Spotify.

-aprilxo