Under a Phantom Divine

Tommy had a night off and he couldn't have been more happy. Or at least he would have been, had he not gotten a call that ruined his whole night. A certain murderous vampire from his past, who loved to rear her pretty head every decade or so and remind Tommy of why he hated everything. He really should know better by now not to answer the phone when it was a number he didn't recognize, but he never knew if it was a patient or not. Though, he supposed he should be glad that the she-devil had called instead of her normal routine of popping up without warning. But it was a harbinger of unpleasantness. Tommy had hung up as soon as he had heard her voice and it sent him into a raging spiral. Tommy just couldn't imagine why she would keep reaching out, keep trying to be in his life. Act like he was the one being unreasonable. Well, Tommy didn't think it was all that unreasonable not to want to spend time with the woman who killed him.

Shaken to his core, Tommy needed a drink. He didn't keep anything around his apartment, not because he didn't enjoy the occasional drink, but because he was so busy he never had time to sit and drink at home. And it was much more depressing to drink alone. It at least wasn't a problem if he was drinking alone surrounded by other people who were also drinking alone. That was the reason the vampire had put on a well fitting black shirt and black jeans. Habitually, Tommy rolled his sleeves to his elbows. The sun had set and the vampire had embraced his status as a creature of the night and stalked through the streets to the one place he knew he could find a drink that could get a vampire drunk. Tommy settled himself on a stool at the bar, ignoring the dancers on the floor and the people around him as he singularly focused on getting something that could take the edge off just a moment.

Tommy signaled the bartender and showed his ID to verify his status as a vampire so he could get a bloody concoction with which to carry the alcohol into his system. With a sigh Tommy, gave the barkeep his card to hold onto, accepting that this was not going to be a good night for his wallet. Thanks to her he couldn't even get drunk like a normal person. Tommy scowled at the blood placed before him for a moment before he lifted it to his lips and let the blood of some stranger fill him. The music was a little loud for his taste, and he found himself getting no less irritable as he drank. Honestly, he just wanted to lose his mind for a bit and hit something. But he was a doctor, he couldn't be seen getting into fights. Alas, he'd have to get his anger out of the old fashion way, by drinking until he couldn't remember why he was angry. Finishing the drink, he lifted a finger to signal for another. The vampire nursed his second drink a little slower, relishing the buzzing feeling rising in his head.

The one problem with going to a place where he could find a drink, was that chances were extremely likely there would be other vampires around. Tommy hated them all, he hated being one of them. He didn’t understand how they had settled so well into their new lives. Nursing the bloody cocktail, Tommy briefly allowed his eyes to wander. It was a check to see what other miserable souls were drinking together. His eyes fell on a rather strange, and unsettling sight. A vampire, who by all accounts could be several decades or even centuries his senior but stuck in her young body. The whole thing struck him as fundamentally unfair.

Turning back to his drink, Tommy wallowed in self-pity. There were vampires out there that made it seem like a blessing. A gift even. Like his sire, they couldn’t even imagine how someone wouldn’t want this kind of life. The stability he maintained in his life was always torn viciously away by Eliana’s presence. Any peace he had made with his fate was ripped to shreds and he was reminded how painful a betrayal…

With a growl, he tossed back the rest of his drink and signaled for the bartender to bring him another. Inhibitions lowered, Tommy let his head fall forward into his hands and his hands clench into fists in his hair. The thought of her filled him with nervous energy. A need to do something, anything to make the pain and the anger stop. “How many more of these do you think it’ll take to kill me?” He asked rhetorically, ignoring the slightly worried look the bartender gave him as he handed over the drink. If only, he thought and started in on his third.

Tommy glanced at the girl-vampire out of the corner of his eye and his lips drew up over his teeth in a snarl. “I’m dead that’s what happened,” he snarled, “Why don’t you mind your own business?” His eyes flashed briefly from blue to red then back. He turned his attention back to his drink, but to their credit, this place knew how to get a vampire drunk. The inebriated vampire felt his inhibitions slipping and his walls cracking. God he hated people. Why couldn’t they just leave him alone? Why hadn’t Eliana left him alone?

“Why did it have to be me?” He asked his new companion. “Why you? Who gets to decide this?” He gestured around the bar. He scowled at his drink, he should be disgusted, he should be repulsed. But all he wanted was more! What horrid curse this was! To desire the lifeblood of another creature. Hell, he didn’t even care whose blood he was drinking.

((OOC: No worries! Sorry I didn't leave you much to go on!))

Tommy gave a sigh and shook his head. It wasn’t worth it. There was a part of him that wondered if she was as young as she seemed. Did children turned vampires really grow up? Tommy shuttered to think about being stuck in his teenage body for the rest of eternity. At least Eliana had spared him that curse. “It doesn’t matter,” he said, his mood changing like the tide as the alcohol took hold of his emotion and shook them like a rabid dog. He wanted to be angry and rage, but he was not so far out of his wits that he would let that happen.

For a hundred and fifty years he had been this monster and he was no more okay with it than the day it had happened. How on earth was he going to handle eternity? This moment of weakness was just a moment, in a few hours this too would wear off and Tommy would be back to his normal grumpy self. But right now, his alcohol fueled frustration wanted nothing more than to take someone down with him. Anything to feel just a little bit of something that wasn’t bitterness and anger. At least with all the blood he was drinking he wouldn’t be risking getting drunk and draining someone.

“What do you care anyways?” he snapped at her suddenly. They were all on the same curse, maybe she was one of those vampires that had asked to be turned. His nose wrinkled as he tried to suppress a growl. He hated vampires who thought he ‘should be grateful’ for his new lot in life. It was the main reason he avoided covens. He refused to be happy about this. How could he even begin to explain? It was far too long a story and far too painful to endure reliving.

Finishing off his third drink, Tommy made his first decision of the night and refrained from getting a fourth. He rested his elbows on the bar and let his knuckles put pressure on his eyes. Why couldn’t he just live in peace? Why did she had to come back? Every time it brought a resurgence of anger and hurt and love. He didn’t want to remember loving her, but it was like he didn’t have a choice. “Why didn’t she just ask me?” He whispered more to himself than to his companion.

Tommy felt a surge a relief when she got off her stool, presumably to go away. But apparently Tommy was not that lucky. He growled when he felt a hand on his back. Why was she touching him? It took all of Tommy’s drunken control to not turn around and tell her off. Even so, his lips curled up over his teeth and he bared his fangs. Struggling with his ‘dark side’. There was a part of him that couldn’t believe this was happening. All he wanted was to drink away his pain, but there had to be someone who wanted to converse. More miserable than he set out to be, Tommy cursed any god that was out there for this bad luck. Eternal damnation apparently was his fate.

Worse still! She wanted to talk? Her patronizing didn’t go over well and when she pulled her chair close. Too close. Tommy didn’t even like it when his friends got too close. Tommy surged to his feet, nearly knocking the barstool over as he took a solid step away from her. “Who do you think you are?” He full on snarled now, “You don’t know me, but you’re going to patronize me?! You can shove your help right up –“ A heavy hand fell on Tommy’s shoulder and he looked into the disapproving face of the bouncer. “I’m leaving anyway,” he snapped and shrugged the bouncers hand off. “Close my tab,” he said to the stunned looking bartender who scurried into action at the ferociousness in Tommy’s eyes.

Why can’t everyone just leave me alone? Tommy thought bitterly as he waited for his card in the now strangely quiet bar. Everyday was a painful endeavor and just once he wanted to forget it all. His hands clenched, but even here vampires were like a poison taking his quiet drink in peace and turning it into hell.