North

Within the Northern vicinity of the city, the wealthy gather behind meticulously trimmed hedges and high-class architecture. The pristine streets are paved with stone and the storefronts are brightly lit and inviting - for the right clientele. In the North, every establishment is eager to cater to the rich and the wealthy. Many such places are used to the sometimes peculiar requests of the otherworldly but here there is little that money cannot buy - whether it happens to be illegal or merely involves looking the other way. Vampires and Dark Hunters are often found upon these Northern streets, their long lives often contributing to their sizable wealth which allows them the luxuries that the North provides.

What You'll Find Here

Eternity
The VooDoo Room
The Witchery

Where you invest your love, you invest your life;


Posted on May 06, 2020 by DAREIOS
North


It's not the long walk home that will change this heart, but the welcome I receive after the restart.



Days passed, and then weeks, and Dareios never heard from Miya again. At first, the charming doctor was all he could think about. Day in, day out, he managed to get through his meetings and public appearances, but any time his phone pinged (which was often) his beady eyes flicked to the screen hoping it was a message from her. But it never was.

Then the world came to a screeching halt.

First the reports came in from far-flung countries. A virus from a bat - of all things - had manifested itself into a deadly concoction for humans. The headlines in the beginning were cautious but hardly dire. That changed quickly. Soon Dareios had to give twice-daily addresses from the confines of Anacosta Heights brownstone, encouraging the residents of Sacrosanct to stay home, to cover their faces if they had to leave, and to most of all, stay calm.

People were dying in Sacrosanct. But supernaturals were less affected, or so it seemed. The science wasn't there to prove or disprove anything, but conspiracy theories ran rampant. Those unfounded conversations turned to racism, where human residents were calling for the lockup of supernaturals, who some ill-informed people believed were the cause of the virus. This blow-up was a nightmare for Dareios, who tried to keep the city's population calm and inside, and he dispelled "fake news" at every opportunity he had.

It was exhausting.

Soon his regular meetings would bring him to the city's lone downtown hospital, where he met with the infectious disease physicians at the frontlines of taking care of the city's infected. The updates were usually quite grim. But Dareios funneled his own personal wealth into research and vaccine development, hoping to stave off more deaths in the city. Each day passed and he was still left in limbo - there was no light at the end of the tunnel. At least not yet.

It was a chilly, wet night when Dareios was finally leaving the hospital for his umpeenth time. A car waited for him curbside, but he waved off his assistant by saying he just needed a minute to himself. One the nurses inside had suggested taking a stroll through the hospital's gardens on the backside of the campus, and so he set off to find them alone. He trudged down the damp sidewalk at a brisk pace, burying his chin into a scarf he had wrapped around his undead neck. He wasn't cold - he was vampire and therefore couldn't be cold - but the habits he formed to make himself look more human were hard in place.

Dareios sighed deeply and stopped in his tracks for a moment, his gaze wandering out over the wet bushes and flowering plants lit up tastefully across the park. Out of the corner of his eye, he spied the heap of a body, tucked nearly on a wet bench in the distance. Alarmed, he strode closer, and was surprised when he recognized the face of the woman asleep there on the bench.

The vampire wasn't sure what to do. Miya hadn't called him. He took that to mean she didn't want to see him. And how awkward would it be, for a vampire she was clearly afraid of, to wake her up in an empty park at night? Dareios looked around again at their desolate surroundings before his eyes fell onto the cell phone Miya had placed next her. On top of it was a familiar logo - his logo.. She had his business card out, just sitting there, next to her slumbering body.

A smirk worked its way across his lips and he knelt down on one knee. "Miya." He said softly, slowly placing a hand on her shoulder. "Miya, are you okay?"

Dareios Auerbach | Vampire | Vinyl

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