Pretty Little Hungry Thing
This article is a part of Spooktober 2024 and is still a work in progress. Written for the Grotesque prompt.Contains references to torture, homophobia (by others and internalized), and murder. Also contains brief use of homophobic language as an insult. Kill them. Feed. It's what you want. It's what you need. Edward Harlow whined, pressing the heels of his hands against his eyes, as the voice echoed through his skull. The voice of the man who had tortured him. Who had...had he killed his father? That was...good? No, it wasn't good. That was murder. But he also...didn't care? He had been a bastard. A bastard. He had beaten him up, Dad had beaten him black and blue when he had found him with Nate. Sweet, innocent Nate who kissed him and held his hand. Dad had called him names - dirty, filthy names - and punched him, kicked him, spat on him. Called him dirty. Embarrassing. Gay. Fag. He hated it. Hated him. Hated himself. He didn't? He did? God, he didn't know anymore. "Stop," Edward begged out loud. "Please." His head hurt and had hurt for days on days. His teeth, some of which were suddenly sharper than they had been, were aching and cutting into him, filling his mouth with blood. Stomach cramping like he was starving. Body feeling strong and weak at the same time, like he could collapse and never move again as well as run and run and run and run. You will feed, pretty little thing, the voice purred in his ear. Or had purred in his ear before? When the man tied him up and cut him over and over and over again? Only now there were no wounds. Just blank, clear skin. Had it been real? You will kill, the voice or memory of the voice continued. Feed! Feast! Sate the hunger in your belly! You feel it, don't you, pretty thing? Like that hunger for that lovely brunette boy I saw you with? Nate. His Nathan. Sweet Nathan. Who he had yelled at to leave. Driven off. So he wouldn't hurt him...or worse. His teeth ached. To bite. To drink. To feed. It was a grosteque, ugly thing in him. "STOP!" The hunger was a drumbeat in his chest, a steady thump-thump-thump. Overpowering. Urging. Want want feed want bite kill FEED. Edward collapsed in the middle of his apartment, hugging himself so tightly that he felt his ribs crack, and groaned in pain. Just give in, pretty, the voice crooned. Loud. Everywhere. Cracking his skull apart and digging fingers into his brain. I'll be watching to see what you do. Make daddy proud. Make daddy proud? Make his dad proud? Oh, Edward would make Dad proud! He could do both! Silence the voice and make Dad proud! Suddenly surging to his feet, he grinned, too broad, too wide, feeling the flesh pull and nearly tear as he smiled and smiled and smiled. There was a pretty brunette girl in the nearby girl's dorm, who smiled so prettily at him in their shared English class. Brunette...like Nathan. Blue eyes...like Nathan. He could hurt her instead of Nathan. That was what Dad had wanted right? Him to want girls? Well, he would want them. Want to hurt them. Kill them. Feed on them. Laughing wildly, Edward stumbled out of his apartment, leaving the door wide open behind him. There was only one goal in his mind now. Kill. Feed. He needed it. Wanted it. At the outside door, he stopped, sobbing softly as he leaned onto the handle but didn't push through. He pressed his forehead against the cool pane of class in the door and breathed, "I don't...I don't want to...please." Then the thump-thump drum of the hunger hammered into him again and Edward surged through the door with his teeth bared, his own blood on his tongue. He would make daddy proud.
Timeframe: 1971
Location: Columbia University, New York City
Event: Edward Harlow, who had thought he was finally free of his homophobic father while at college, struggles with the aftermath of vampire Cael Ward, the Walking Death, murdering his father and torturing him before turning him.
Consquences: Edward Harlow gives in to his tortured hunger and begins to go on a killing spree, deliberately focusing it on women that resembled Nathan Walker, who was briefly his boyfriend at college.
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