Page 29 of Drink Up, Darling
“I was only ever ninety percent sure. I’ve had a lot of free time, you’re aware of that, and I spent a large proportion of that researching. Random things at first, but for whatever reason, I grew attached to the concept of ‘The Vampire’. I did enjoy horror as a youth,” he looked up to Athens and grinned, no longer affected by his tone, “and I always believed out of all the fantastical supernatural creatures that keep us up at night, the concept of a vampire existing in the real world made the most sense to me. So I searched to find answers.”
Dariel sat motionless, trying to collect his thoughts as the other man spoke. Athens only seemed to be getting closer and closer, despite having not moved another inch.
“It took me years. For years this idea occupied my mind as I read through account after account and stories anddocumentaries, and I made a list of every trait that could scientifically be explained. Drinking blood was a must, and sunlight made sense, but only to an extent. You cannot simply flake into a million ashes at the slightest touch of sun, so I had to have my wits about me as I searched. Taking all these accounts with a pinch of salt. Most other things I couldn’t quite explain—manipulation? Mind control? Possibly, it made sense to cover your tracks, but I couldn’t back it up by science. Reaction to silver? Again, it could work, but why? What made you resistant? Then there are matters of the heart. You are undead, are you not? What keeps you breathing? I was truly fascinated by these baffling concepts, and they plagued my mind. I was adamant by this point I would have to prove to myself that vampires existed one way or another, so I never stopped theorising and scouring the internet for every little drop and sprinkle of an answer and I?—”
“Okay, you’ve clearly done your research. I’m impressed with the dedication,” Athens cut him off, “but how did you findus?What made you conclude Dariel and I were who you were looking for? How did you manage to narrow your search?”
Godwin raised his hands and laughed once. “Well, actually, it was you, Mr Hale.” He narrowed his eyes towards Dariel, who thrust himself back into the chair in shock, hand pressed to his chest.
“What did I do?” Dariel asked with a panic. Athens’ arm tensed behind him.
Godwin stood and walked over to the fire, prodding it with a poker and laying another log on before he spoke again. Dariel let his eyes wander over the other man’s body as the tendons in his forearms flexed, his sleeves having been freshly rolled to the elbows. He didn’t have to turn to know Athens was staring too.
“Did you know there is a story out there claiming you’re undead?” Godwin said into the flames.
Oh, shit.
How had he gone this long without hearing about this? It was inevitable his slip up would have come back to bite him, this just wasn’t quite what Dariel had predicted.
“Go on…” Dariel said, closing his eyes.
“Well, the undead implications came later. Though the initial article itself, or should I sayforumpost, was more indicating your immortality. It appears quite some years after you became relatively well known in the public eye, a woman came forward with an article titled ‘It’s HALEing Vampires’. A nice play on words, claiming you’d not aged a day since she met you in the early nineties. Harmless really, I’m sure it happens to many celebrities with good skin care routines and surgeons, but the comments underneath were most enlightening.”
Oh, here we go.Dariel leaned his left arm up onto the edge of the sofa and caught his chin and mouth in his fingers, feeling Athens shift.
“It is apparently common knowledge your birth year has been tracked to 1971, making you thirty-one at the time of the article, and hitting thirty-six currently. Again, not too much of an issue, as I said, many celebrities continue to bask in their youth well into their forties and fifties. But someone grew quite adamant that was not the case.”
“The bar,” Dariel said, sighing.
Godwin turned to fully look at him, the embers continuing to cast a pretty glow over his form. “You know?” His brow raised.
“Unfortunately, I believed I’d gotten away with it.”
Athens pulled at his shoulder. “You got caught?” He looked at Dariel with a firm scowl.
Dariel ground his teeth in guilt, holding his hands up in surrender. “Possibly.”
“How did you manage that?”
“Well I told you Dariel was quite a fan of a single malt, did I not?” Dariel tried to play it off in jest, squinting his eyes and flinching away as Athens playfully swatted him on the back.
“You absolute idiot.” Athens shook his head in disappointment.
“It was a long time ago! I presumed he would have forgotten!”
“Are you aware of what this man claimed, Dariel?” Godwin’s tone remained quite serious. He stayed standing with the poker in hand.
“I can guess,” Dariel said slowly, clenching his teeth again.
“He claims you accosted him in a bar in 1992, then dragged him out into the alleyway and bit him, drawing blood from his neck.”
A snort sounded behind—Athens. “Boy are you lucky he said that last part. Otherwise your career would have gone down the drain there and then.”
“He started it!” Dariel snapped.I think so anyway.
Athens still had a smugness to his face, surrendering to the shout. “Hey, I wasn’t there! Not judging, just saying.”
“Well, yes. Dariel, Athens is quite correct, because the comments below were making fun of this man, seriously not buying his story.” Godwin finally sat back down. “From what I could find, this man never took his story elsewhere, and thus, the speculation ended with that forum post. No one believed him, I mean, who would? Vampires aren’t real, are they? Well,” he gestured to himself proudly, “here’s a man who chose to believe.”
