Blood Bourbon

Vampire Hunting 101

Daryl

The explanation on vampire anatomy took them across the city in the car provided by the organizers and continued down the first couple blocks they were trick-or-treating. Steven relaxed as he seemed to notice that the streets had a fair number of kids but not so many as to overcrowd him. He turned toward Daryl after a long list of tricks to kill an undead foe. "Do you think you'd want to be a vampire, if you had the choice?"

Daryl blinked down at the kid, frowning at the terrible realization that he was being pulled into emotionally deep territory. "Depends. Do I get to stay myself? Or do I become something awful?"

"Maybe you get the choice. Like. You can choose to be awful or you can choose to be yourself. Or like, maybe those people who become awful were never really that good anyways." Steven shrugged. "It would suck to just be a monster all the time though. But it would be nice to live forever."

"Yeah. That's definitely a plus." Daryl reached over to nudge the kid's shoulder, stopping on the bottom of the steps and Steven went up to the next doorway.

They hadn't been out long, but he could tell the boy was already slowing down. He didn't know how to broach the subject, didn't think it was his place to do so, but something made Daryl ask the next question when they were walking toward the next house. "What about you?"

Steven looked up to him and instead asked an unexpected question. " You were sick when you were a kid too, weren't you?"

Daryl let out a slow breath then inclined his head. "Yeah. I had neuroblastoma when I was really young."

"One of my nurses told me you did. She was trying to tell me that not everyone with cancer dies... and when I told her I didn't believe her, she told me you did. She showed me all the rodeo clips on YouTube with you in them." Steven offered a shrug though his expression seemed open and hopeful. "Were you scared, when you were fighting that cat?"

"Really scared." Daryl wasn't going to explain that he couldn't remember the majority of the night, instead answering solemnly in what he was certain was the truth. "Even worse when it tackled me into the river, I'm afraid of water."

Steve let out a slow breath and nodded at Daryl's revelation. "I know I'm probably going to die. Just because you survived, doesn't mean I will, and it's not going well, and I think it would be easier if I did die sometimes. All this is really expensive for my dad and now my brother and sister can't go to university and in the end, I'll probably be dead anyways. But I'd live forever if it meant I could be a good guy forever. Like Blade or Selena. You know?"

"Yeah, you have a point. You could do a mighty lot of good, with a few more extra years." Daryl murmured as they walked down the street, ignoring the walkways towards waiting houses in favour of being able to talk.

Daryl did not know how to respond, finding himself out of his depth when it came to talking survival with a young boy. He didn't remember his time in hospital, did not remember if he had been aware of his mortality, and since he had left treatment, Daryl had done everything in his power to live as much of a life as possible.

Finally, Daryl gave Steven a gentle nudge and grinned as the boy looked up to him. "You like ice cream?"

Steven nodded, a grin breaking over his features before he glanced down the street past Daryl. "Can we hunt vampires first?"

"Sure, buddy." Daryl turned to look the way Steven was, raising a brow when he saw a sign indicating one overly enthusiastic parent had set up a haunted house, or vampire dungeon, apparently. "Want me to lug that around for you?"

Daryl nodded to the bag of candy. When the boy nodded, he found himself taking it from Steven's hands and half jogging to keep up as they crossed the street towards the house in question. They seemed to have wandered into a quieter part of the neighbourhood, where not all the houses were set up for trick-or-treating. Daryl glanced at a house they walked past, which appeared to be having a more grown up party behind taller hedges and a metal fence. Cars were parked along the driveway and street, people seemed to be wandering somewhere into the darkness of the yard.