This is my very first attempt at fan fiction, which was heavily inspired by reading many of the amazing pieces on this site. Just an FYI: This story tends to have a more female view of Eli, though it arguably does not matter, and tries to paint Oskar as somewhat more heroic, when push comes to shove.
A fair bit of warning: This is a dark story. Very dark. I would not recommend it to anyone under the age of majority. There is violence and a very mature theme. There is implied, but not described sexual content. In this regard, it skirts closer to what was present in the book than what was present in the movie.
Thanks for taking the time to read!
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Oskar sat alone in the sparse room, idly fiddling with a book that he wasn’t all that interested in. His attention was definitely elsewhere, which really didn’t help the fact that he had thought the book to be dull to begin with. Being bored sucked, but being bored and vaguely worried sucked even more.
Today he had to wait almost an hour for Eli to wake up. He was having some trouble matching her sleep schedule, and was finding himself either under or over shooting the sunset. Nevertheless, he was usually pretty content to see her big smile when she did wake, or find himself wrapped up with her when he arose. Today, however, was different. He had woken up early today, and had had to wait for Eli to rise. The smile he had come to expect wasn’t there this evening however. It wasn’t just her lips that were missing it though, the smile that usually lit her eyes was missing as well. She had wore a grim look as she wished him a good “morning”, and seemed to do her best to avoid him as she went about her wake up routine.
Oskar had been slightly concerned, since he was pretty sure he hadn’t done anything to upset her, and since she had… fed… the night before, he figured she wasn’t all that hungry. Still, he had thought that even a Vampire was allowed to just be crabby every once in a while, and did the best he could to push the worry out of his mind.
However, after she had straightened herself up and dressed, she again had refused to meet his gaze, and mumbled something he had not quite caught. Oskar had asked her to repeat herself, and this time managed to hear her voice, sounding oddly small, say “I have to go pay the rent”. Then before he had been able to say another word, she had quickly opened the front door to their small apartment, stepped outside and closed it behind her. That had been less than ten minutes ago, and Oskar had been confused ever since.
After having left home, Oskar and Eli had found it difficult to find any sort of permanent lodging. There were just too many questions that arose when a pair of kids wanted to rent an apartment without an adult in the picture. After having to handle several rejections, the pair had started to worry that they would be unable to find a place to live. This all changed when they met Mr. Kihlstedt. Instead of rejecting them outright he had listened to their fabricated story, and seemed genuinely thoughtful. The man had an unlikeable air about him though. He was far too thin in his baggy suit and reeked of cheap cologne, but this had been the farthest they had gotten so far. He had said that he thought they could come to an arrangement, and had asked Oskar to move their things into the apartment down the hall while he and Eli worked out a deal. This had suited Oskar just fine, since he knew that Eli could be very… persuasive. Oskar had waited a little while that night before Eli made her way to their new home. She had looked vaguely unhappy then too, and Oskar had figure that Mr. Kihlstedt had asked for a high price.
And tonight Eli had gone to pay the rent yet again, and had seemed very unhappy because of it. Oskar couldn’t blame her, since Mr. Kihlstedt was a rather objectionable man, but still, something was clearly wrong. Shaking off his indecision, Oskar forced himself to his feet. He didn’t want to risk upsetting Eli further by following after her, but the nagging feeling in the back of his head wouldn’t go away. She could be mad at him later if she wanted to, but he needed to make sure everything was okay.
Stepping out of his apartment, he moved quietly down the hall. Outside of his and Eli’s apartment, Mr. Kihlstedt’s office was the only other room being used on this floor. Still, Oskar felt the need for stealth, like he could be found out any second, and some sort of master plan would be foiled. So he walked quietly, towards the office. He made his way to the closed door, and stood there for a second, trying to hear the conversation on the other side. The door was too thick for him to make anything out, though he thought he could hear Mr. Kihlstedt… grunting?
Oskar grabbed the handle of the door and gave it the smallest turn, verifying that it was unlocked. Very slowly he cracked the door, trying to gain the smallest peak inside. Immediately, he wished he hadn’t.
Oskar couldn’t decipher the scene in front of him, and stared for what had to be the longest second of his young life. They were so close. But it looked so terribly wrong and distorted. An ugly scene that was vulgar and wicked. Mr. Kihlstedt was a sweaty mess, grunting like a dirty pig, and Eli just laying there, her face a mask of no emotion. No thought. Her dead eyes giving nothing away. She stared at the ceiling, as though she were trying to count the cracks in the paint, or maybe even see through it to the stars above.
For another insanely long moment, Oskar just stared. And stared. His mouth opened and closed, but no sound came out. Finally, after what had taken every once of will he had, he managed to whisper a single word.
“No.”
Immediately Eli’s head whipped towards the door, and saw Oskar standing there. The empty mask she wore dissolved in the blink of an eye. Fear, horror, sadness, shame… All went over her face as Oskar met her gaze. A thousand words could have been conveyed in that one look, but neither one would have been able to tell the other what they might mean. She tried to twist, to turn, to fight, but leverage was against her, and it simply seemed to excite Mr. Kihlstedt who became all the more forceful.
“NO!”
That had not been a whisper. It was not a soft exclamation from young lips that only vaguely knew what was happening. This was a roar. This was a guttural bellow of anger and hate. This was primal and filled with something dark and wicked. Oskar almost scared himself with the sheer rage he expressed. Almost.
This time Mr. Kihlstedt most definitely heard, and he turned his head, startled at the sudden interruption to his activity. Seeing the boy in the doorway though quickly quelled the small fear he had felt at possibly being caught. Instead, he just waved his hand and growled, “Get the fuck out of here.”
In three powerful steps, Oskar crossed into the room, reaching the brutal scene in front of him. Mr. Kihlstedt tried to swat at him with his free hand, but Oskar carefully ducked the clumsy blow, reached into his pocket, and withdrew his small knife. Without a second thought, he flashed it forward, burying the steel into the vile man’s kidney. The man gasped and tried to turn around, tried to stop the attack, but Oskar was not done. He pulled the blade out, and then reached up and angrily yanked back on the man’s hair, pulling him completely off of Eli. Then, with an angry thrust, buried the knife into the man’s throat, and tore forward. Blood and gore exploded from the wound, spraying backwards onto Oskar, and spilling forward onto Eli. The man tried vainly to clutch at the mess that had been his throat, but the blood loss was simply too much.
For several seconds nobody moved. Mr. Kihlstedt tried to whimper as the life slowly drained out of him, but simply lacked the will. Eli stared at the blood covering her, the dying man on the floor, and into the angry yet terrified eyes of the boy that just might love her. Despite the sheer amount of blood, she felt no hunger, no desire to gorge herself. She didn’t think she could have even if she had wanted to. She wanted no part of that man touching her anymore. Rejecting his blood was almost a final rejection of the hideous being itself.
Oskar simply stood, impassively. He was still unsure what exactly had happened and what exactly he had done. Should there be remorse? Should he feel badly for taking the life of this man? Something told him that some part of him should feel guilty at the very least, but if the guilt was there, he could not find it. The knife fell from his grasp and clattered onto the bloody floor. Oskar then reached down and picked Eli up. He held her by the shoulders and stared intently into her eyes. Looking for something. Some sign possibly of what he should do. Then, he pulled her towards him and simply wrapped his arms around her.
They cried together like that for several minutes. Silent tears fell down Oskar’s face, while Eli whimpered and buried her head against him. She tried to speak, but could only give off incomprehensible sobs as her body shuddered. Oskar held her tighter and tighter, trying to wrap himself around her, hoping that he could somehow shield her from everything. This was beyond him though. He had no idea how to make this horror better, his 12 year old mind barely understanding the situation. All he knew was that he could be there for her. That was all he could offer.
Slowly, Eli managed to calm herself, and pulled her head away. Everything had come out in that moment. Over 200 hundred years of pain and suffering she had bottled in. Something she could do when it was just her, but impossible to pull off when she shared her life with another. There was nothing she could do to change the past or the choices she had made. Those were done. But she had to live with these choices, and was now realizing that there was somebody else that would have to live with these choices as well.
Looking into his eyes, Eli could not find the words. There weren’t any. She had done the only thing she had known how, and that was to survive, no matter what. She hadn’t thought about the consequences. And here they were. She knew fell well that the blood was never going to fully wash off of Oskar’s hands. Blood shed for her. Not shed to feed her, blood shed to protect her. Somehow, there was a difference. She held his gaze for several seconds and finally managed to mouth two words, soundlessly.
“I’m sorry.”
Instantly, Oskar grabbed her and forced her against his chest once more, and the two sank to the ground. Eli cried and cried. Tears of a thousand crimes, a thousand lives and a thousand horrors. Oskar just held on for all he was worth. Letting her spill as much as she could. As much as she needed to. Finally, when her sobbing had subsided, he brought her head up and gently kissed her on the lips, oblivious to the blood that caked their faces. Then, staring at her intently, and with the force and determination he never knew he had, whispered two words of his own.
“Never again.”
-END-