We Walk Amongst You
He stared at the clock on the wall, watching the seconds tick slowly by. There were only twenty minutes until sunset.
With a soft sigh, the rabbit closed his eyes and settled back on the couch, drawing his bare feet up under him. From down the hallway, Blu could hear footsteps. Spring. He knew it was Spring; too light to be Alfred, too heavy to be Mangle, too soft to be Chii.
In his mind, an image formed; the front entryway, with its boarded-up door and windows and the lit chandelier. A tall, cloaked, masked figure stood in front of the door, towering over all of them, with the book of Laws held in his hand. The light throbbing that accompanied the image told him exactly what it was.
A Vision.
“Blu?” He opened his eyes and looked over at Spring, frowning slightly. Spring was watching him, concerned. “Are you okay?”
“For now,” Blu answered with a shrug. “We need to be careful or else Marion’s gonna visit us.”
The golden rabbit frowned and then sighed. “Well... better Marion than Nightmare, I suppose.”
“Oh yeah, as if the lord himself would come investigate a bunch of lowlies like us,” Blu snorted, sitting up. “But Marion- Spring, he can get in our heads, you know that.”
“Yes,” Spring agreed, “but he’ll have no reason to if he suspects nothing.”
“If he suspected nothing he wouldn’t visit in the first place.”
“We’ll just have to play it safe,” Spring sighed, sitting down beside his youngest brother. "If worse comes to worst, we'll finally cash in on all those favours he owes us."
“We’re already playing dangerously, Spring,” Blu warned, eying his fellow Vampire. He chose to ignore the latter half of his brother's statement. “Telling them about Vampires is one thing, explaining Vampiric Law is another.”
“We’re not gonna tell them the more sensitive information,” Spring assured, though Blu highly doubted they would stick to their makeshift rules. “Just the little things... like... wild roses don’t harm us, and garlic is just a tasty seasoning for food.”
Blu rolled his eyes but he couldn’t help but smile slightly. “Leave it to you to think of food.”
Spring pouted childishly at him and leaned in close to him, ears lowering in a way that suggested innocence. “Aw, I’m just hungry~!”
With a laugh, Blu lightly shoved the golden rabbit away. “Well I’m not dinner so buzz off, Vampy.” Blinking, the blue rabbit suddenly realized something and frowned. “Hey, Spring, did you even Feed last night when we all went Hunting?”
“Ah...” Spring sat back up, his playful pout replaced with sheepishness. “No, but I should be good for another few days.”
“Should you risk being around Mortals if you haven’t Fed?” Blu asked uneasily, frowning at his friend. “I mean... you could be miscalculating. We don’t exactly Hunt often... you could go Crazed...”
The golden rabbit rolled his eyes. “I won’t go Crazed,” he assured his friend, standing up again. “I’d be showing signs if I were about to go Crazed.”
“Just making sure,” Blu sighed, sliding his feet out from under himself. “We don’t exactly want any... casualties while trying to prove Vampires aren’t so bad.”
“Since when were we trying to prove that?”
“Oh, please, Spring, I know how your mind works.”
“Okay, maybe I sorta wanna prove my innocence? Or that we mean no harm...” the golden rabbit trailed off, glancing towards the ceiling. “I kinda... don’t want them to hate us.” His gaze returned to Blu, bright green eyes somewhat embarrassed. “I know they’re not kids anymore, but... they’re still those kids we met back then. I don’t... like the thought of them being scared of us... or even thinking we don’t exist.”
Blu gazed sadly at his friend; he could understand the sentiment. No one wanted to be forgotten or feared, not by a group of people they had fond memories with... no matter how short-lived those memories were. “I know,” he told the rabbit, standing up off of the couch and stretching his arms above his head. He gave his lifelong friend a grin. “Come on, let’s go get our cloaks.”
The golden rabbit smiled briefly back at him before turning and walking into the darkened corner. Blu followed shortly after, giving a wary glance towards the clock one last time.
In his mind, he could still see the tall cloaked figure staring down at them.
“Bonnie, why in the world are you encouraging him?”
“Encouraging him? What’s that supposed to mean, Freddy?”
“Stop whatever game ya think you’re playin’ and stop messin’ with my brother’s head!”
Goldie took a deep, calming breath in through his nose, watching his younger brother and one of their best friends glare at each other. “Freddy,” he started, “I’m telling you, he was here. And he promised he’d come back tonight and explain what was going on.”
“I saw him and the other rabbit,” Bonnie insisted, not backing down from his friend.
“You were tired,” Freddy countered, scowling. “It was late, you-”
“You see, I thought that might have been what caused it,” Bonnie interrupted, crossing his arms. “But when I woke up this afternoon I realized it wasn’t. Because last night I dreamed you and Foxy over there were doin’ the chicken dance.”
“The chicken dance? Really?” Chica snorted from where she lounged on the couch. Foxy was sitting, boredly, on the armrest by her feet, not even reacting to the apparent contents of the purple rabbit's dream.
“Freddy,” the fox drawled, catching his friends’ attention. “Maybe instead of arguin’ about it, we just wait for the lads to prove it? If they say that the, ah, vampires are comin’ by tonight, let’s just wait and see if it’s true.”
“There’s no such thing as vampires,” Freddy muttered, rolling his eyes, but honestly, how could he argue Foxy’s logic? Either they would show up or they wouldn’t.
“They’ll be here,” Goldie stated confidently, grinning at his brother. “And you’ll have to eat your words. Fourteen years’ worth.”
“We’ve only been callin’ you crazy for ten or so,” Bonnie immediately put in. “Less, actually. High school.”
“Still.”
“Let’s give ‘em the benefit of the doubt, Freddy,” Chica sighed, sitting up. “If they show up we know they’re telling the truth, and if they don’t we know they’re either lying or delusional.”
“Pardon if I may, but not showing up wouldn’t prove anything. You can’t prove something doesn’t exist, only that it does. Otherwise you simply don’t know.”
“Exactly!” Goldie agreed, grinning. It took him a moment to realize that that wasn’t any of his friends’ voices.
Freddy stared past Goldie’s shoulder, eyes wide; his expression was reflected on both Chica and Foxy’s faces. Turning around, Goldie found himself facing the darkened second bedroom.
Standing in the doorway was Spring, his cloak on and his hood pulled up to shadow his face, but Goldie could still make out his features.
“Uh- what?” Foxy started, standing up off of the couch’s armrest. “Where did you-”
“Geez, I was starting to wonder if you were bailin’,” Goldie snorted, crossing his arms. Spring stepped out of the shadows and to the side of the door, pulling his hood down.
“I told you, I don’t break promises,” the rabbit stated matter-of-factly. He gave a polite nod to Goldie’s family. “The others are coming shortly.”
“Oh, good! Good... uh, did ya just come through the shadows or something?”
The rabbit glanced over towards Goldie’s brother and friends. “Yeah... I figured it’d be better for everyone if your neighbors didn’t see five cloaked people standing outside your door. They might think you were part of a cult or something.”
“Hold up,” Freddy interrupted, staring at Spring, “what’s goin’ on?”
“Isn’t it obvious?”
A new form materialized from the shadows, and the vixen dropped her hood with a heavy sigh. “And here I thought you were expecting us.”
“We were,” Bonnie snorted as the fox moved away from the doorway. “How do you guys even do that?”
“Well, now, that’s a secret we won’t be sharing,” Mangle laughed, giving the five friends a wink. Spring just rolled his eyes.
“We don’t know,” he answered flatly, earning a small glare from his sister. Goldie snorted.
“Informative.”
“Honestly,” another figure sighed as they walked through the open doorway, “it’s hard to explain and even harder to understand.” They watched as the familiar blue-eyed chicken removed her hood, smiling widely at the family of friends. “Long time, no see~ You two gave us quite a scare last night, that stunt you pulled with Spring.”
Goldie winced. “Er, you... know about that?”
“Of course we do,” another voice scoffed as the second rabbit stepped into the light. His emerald eyes looked somewhat hard, a contradiction to what Goldie could remember from his childhood, as he tugged his own hood down, freeing his ears. “You don’t think our brother would hide something like that from us, do you?”
“Blu,” Spring started warningly, eying the younger.
“Hey, they’re the ones who did it, not me.”
“Just calm down,” another voice sighed as the final vampire stepped out of the bedroom. Immediately Goldie noticed that this one’s blue eyes were glowing somewhat, and he didn’t remove his hood as his gaze landed on Goldie and the others. “The past is the past, is it not?”
Goldie felt somewhat... intimidated by the glowing blue eyes, but as Alfred lowered the hood and the glowing faded he wondered if it had been just a trick of the light. He didn’t think it was.
“Hello, children~” Chii laughed, crossing her arms as she looked around at them. “You’ve all grown so much.”
“We’re not children,” Chica immediately declared, finally standing up from the couch and staring at the too-familiar faces.
“Yeah,” Chii agreed with a forlorn sigh, as if that fact was unfortunate. “Fourteen years is a long time.”
“Well,” Blu snickered, glancing at the chicken, “for them it is.”
“Focus,” Alfred cut in before anyone else could speak up. “Now, in case you don’t remember, I’m Alfred. These are my brothers Spring and Blu, and these are my sisters Chii and Mangle.”
“And fourteen years later those names are now very strange,” Bonnie commented, raising a brow at them. “Except Alfred, of course.”
Blu shrugged. “Technically speaking we shouldn’t be introducing ourselves by those names,” he stated boredly, glancing at the ceiling. “Of course, technically speaking we shouldn’t be introducing ourselves at all, we’re in a period of Isolation.”
Bonnie and Goldie exchanged a glance. “Isolation?” the golden bear repeated.
“It’s something Vampires living among Mortals do, if they don’t move from city to city,” Mangle explained briefly, though the explanation didn’t really answer anything.
“Can someone explain what’s going on?” Freddy finally voiced, getting his brother’s attention. “I don’t understand.”
“And here I thought you had explained it to them,” Spring sighed, ears twitching as he looked at the sensible bear.
“I did!” Goldie immediately protested, looking somewhat affronted. “He’s the one who refuses to believe me!”
"Vampires are fantasy creatures, of course I don’t believe you!”
Bonnie rolled his eyes as the twins’ argument began and Spring fidgeted, glancing at his own family.
“Er,” the golden rabbit started, looking back towards the bear brothers, “actually, we do exist. I mean... Vampires are everywhere.”
“Everywhere?” Bonnie repeated, raising a brow. “What do you mean everywhere? I think we would have noticed them by now if they were.”
The Vampires all shared a look, and Goldie suddenly had a feeling that there was a conversation that they weren’t privy to going on.
Thinking about it, just how did the others hear what we were talking about when they weren’t even here yet?
“Well,” Spring started, looking back at the family. “Vampires aren’t really… that distinguishable from Mortals, when the right precautions have been taken.”
“Looks pretty obvious to me,” Bonnie snorted, eying the Vampire’s fangs.
“Most hide their fangs, actually. We didn’t bother since we’re in Isolation right now and the fact that you ran into us wasn’t planned.”
It was a simple, matter-of-fact explanation that explained everything and nothing at the same time.
“Okay,” Chica suddenly started, “how about I get drinks for everybody and you can start from the top because I am beyond confused right now.”
Before any of the Vampires could protest, Chica was off to the kitchen, leaving the boys, Chii, and Mangle standing awkwardly in the living room.
After a few seconds, Mangle said, “So, uh... nice place?” It was a pathetic attempt at small talk and Goldie almost laughed. No one responded, all knowing that it was pointless.
“Look,” Blu started, glancing at his sister, “we’re just here to answer questions. We won’t answer every question but we’ll answer what we can, and this is the only time we’re doing this, got it?”
Goldie exchanged a glance with Bonnie, but it was Freddy who said, “So you’re here to answer whatever questions you think are worth answering.” His tone was flat and disbelieving, but at least he wasn’t still questioning what the hell was going on.
“Not exactly,” Alfred countered, shaking his head. “We’ll answer any questions we can answer. There’s a difference.”
“Sounds like a cop-out to me,” Foxy snorted, crossing his arms and sitting down on the couch’s arm rest again. “So you’re the lot who were in the abandoned mansion on Lakeview Road?”
“Not abandoned,” Mangle immediately corrected, setting her hands on her hips and eying the red fox. “We actually happen to own that house.”
“We just let it look and feel abandoned,” Blu tacked on helpfully. “You know- to try and ward off troublemakers and explorers.”
“And when all else fails, you scare the shit out of children,” the fox deadpanned, raising a brow at them. All five Vampires winced.
“Okay, look, I was following the usual protocol for trespassers,” Mangle defended, glaring slightly at Blu. “Because someone-”
“Stop it,” Alfred cut her off before an argument could arise. “Honestly, we only meant to unnerve you so you would leave.”
“We’re really sorry about scaring you,” Chii added, glancing aside guiltily. “We aren’t used to children wandering in, usually it’s teenagers and young adults.”
“By the way, fixing that door wasn’t fun, thanks for that,” Blu added sarcastically, crossing his arms as he looked at Goldie and his friends. “Do you know how hard it is to find and buy a door for a nineteenth-century mansion when you can only go out at night? And installing it- fuck that isn’t fun.”
“Oh stop complaining, Alfred and I did most of the work anyway,” Spring sighed, lightly nudging his younger brother. Goldie and Bonnie exchanged a glance, but neither of them interrupted the light bantering. It was clear to them that, even after all those years, the strange family was still as close as could be.
“Excuse me,” Mangle scoffed, propping her hip sassily. It looked more mocking than anything. “If I remember correctly, Spring, you noped out of there the first time you smashed your finger with the hammer.”
“Hammer?” Goldie muttered, raising a brow. You don’t use a hammer to fix a door... oh, wait, they board their door up, don’t they...
“Smashed my finger?! You’re the one who was swinging it- before the nail was even in place! Of course I got out of there, you crazy fox, you nearly nailed my hand to the door!”
“Behave,” Alfred sighed, glancing at the ceiling as though seeking answers from the heavens above.
“So, question,” Goldie started before the rabbit or vixen could complain, “how long have you been in, uh... Isolation?”
Chii hummed in thought, rocking on the balls of her feet. “I think it was about... eight years ago that our Isolation started? Isolation periods usually last about twenty to thirty years, when the new generation won’t recognize us and we can claim to be our own descendants to the older generation that does,” she explained, and Goldie hated that that was the most decent explanation they had received thus far.
“So you weren’t in... Isolation fourteen years ago,” Freddy surmised, dropping down into the chair in the corner of the living room next to his bookshelf. When the Vampires shook their heads in confirmation, he asked, “Then why pretend the house was unoccupied?”
“Uh,” Blu started, “because we got the house, like, a century ago, and it’d be weird for a family to “move in” and "disappear" within five or ten years, just for their "children" to show up in twenty in the exact same house?”
“A century?” Goldie immediately latched onto those words as Chica returned with drinks- it was just sweet tea all around, it seemed. “Is that how old you are?”
The Vampires fell into an awkward silence, sharing uneasy glances. “We got the mansion a century ago,” Chii corrected as she accepted the offered tea with a grateful nod to Chica. “Um... young Vampires aren’t allowed into Mortal society, actually.”
“Definition of young?” Bonnie prompted, glancing around at his own friends. Freddy looked conflicted and Foxy seemed unsure of what to think, but they were taking it much better than he expected them to. Especially Freddy.
“Um... it varies, actually,” Spring answered evasively, glancing aside. “Ten is the minimum before Vampires are allowed to enter Mortal societies, but it’s usually awkward and difficult for the first thirty or forty years I guess...”
“So you’ve been Vampires for at least a hundred and ten years,” Chica was the one to say.
“At least,” Spring confirmed, fidgeting with his cloak. “And there’s no point in asking what it feels like to become a Vampire, we don’t remember it.”
That explained why they were being awkward about their ages; they didn’t remember the process or the early days. Goldie wondered why, but he chose not to ask. Instead, he said, “Maybe we should get to what’s actually, uh, important, huh?”
“That’d be nice, yes.”
“Er...” Foxy started, scratching his left ear in confusion, “what exactly is important here?”
“First I think we need to actually know what you guys are," Goldie stated simply. Spring gave him a highly unimpressed look.
“I thought we already established that.”
“Well apparently we have misconceptions, so explain.”
“Jesus Christ, that’s a lot to go through,” Blu sighed, rolling his eyes. Bonnie raised a brow, and it didn’t go unnoticed by the Vampire. “Oh don’t look at me like that, we live in the south, you don’t honestly think religion and holy books and names and churches hurt us, do you?”
“Actually,” Spring started, glancing at Blu, “it can hurt us, but only when in the right person’s hands...”
“Yeah, yeah,” Blu waved his hand dismissively. “But come on, the same can be true about anything."
“Point.”
“So,” Goldie interrupted, realizing the rabbits were getting off track, “What exactly is misunderstood anyway?” As he asked this, he sat down on the couch beside Chica. Bonnie remained standing, leaning against a wall.
“That depends on what you believe about us,” Spring shrugged, turning his attention back to the Mortals. “And, uh, you two,” he indicated Goldie and Bonnie, “already displayed that you thought us biting someone would Turn them, so let’s start there; Bites are not what turns Mortals into Vampires.”
“Eh? It’s not?” Foxy questioned, eying the Vampires warily. “Then what does?”
“Apparently,” Bonnie cut in before an answer could be given, “us drinking their blood.”
“Or it getting into your system in any way, including in wounds, though that’s more rare and less efficient,” Alfred added. “It’s best to just keep your distance from a bleeding Vampire.”
“Or a Vampire in general,” Mangle snorted, looking pointedly over at Goldie. “Especially the Day Walkers.”
“... Day Walkers?” Bonnie repeated uneasily.
“Vampires with the ability to walk in the sunlight,” Blu explained, a bitter edge creeping into his voice. “They’re not exactly rare, you can find them in any city, but they are extremely hard to detect and usually slip under the radar.”
“Er... do you know any?”
“Yeah, but we’re not gonna reveal another’s identity,” Mangle cut in before Blu could answer, lifting one of her hands in front of her as if saying stop. “It’s bad enough we’re even here, if we blow someone else’s cover we’ll get in major trouble.”
“Trust me, we already are,” Blu laughed mirthlessly, then quickly added, “So, on the subject of sunlight and sleeping during the day, we do not sleep in coffins.”
“Does anyone honestly believe that?” Alfred questioned, curiosity and amusement lacing his tone. Goldie tried not to look too guilty as he glanced at his family. “Who would sleep in a small narrow box meant for the dead? We're not dead.”
“Okay, moving on,” Goldie quickly put in, scrambling desperately for a new question. He remembered the Vampire's earlier words and Bonnie's subsequent question- one that hadn't been properly answered. He decided to go for it. “What did you mean earlier that Vampires are everywhere?”
That question caused the Vampires to pause yet again, and they exchanged their own cautious expressions, as though silently debating whether or not to tell them. The silence dragged on for several tense seconds, though now the silent conversation seemed to be between the golden rabbit and the rosy bear.
“We... can only answer that on one condition,” Spring started slowly, though his gaze never left Alfred.
“What condition is it?” Goldie asked warily, unsure if making a deal with a Vampire was a good idea. The others looked unsure as well.
The golden rabbit tore his gaze away from his brother, landing on the golden bear sitting on the couch. His eyes looked almost like steel as he seemed to pin Goldie with the intensity of his stare. Goldie fidgeted as the Vampire opened his mouth to answer.
“What we say doesn’t leave this room, even in fancy. Don’t say it to your mothers, your fathers, your sisters or brothers, your coworkers, your friends, don’t even talk about it amongst yourselves when outside. It never leaves this apartment, you never write it down even in private journals, never in fictional stories, not online, nowhere ever as long as you live.”
The rabbit’s words were clipped and hard, and Goldie had a feeling that whatever he was about to say was a lot more serious than Goldie would first assume. “Why not?” he asked carefully, watching the Vampires’ reactions. Spring didn't let up on his stare.
“Because you never know who’s listening,” Blu answered for his brother, glancing aside as he spoke. “We can talk about it because we’re Vampires, we can sense if anyone’s nearby, but you guys are Mortals. You’ll never know if there’s someone just around the corner or if someone with invisibility is standing with you. And,” he added, his voice dropping, “you never know if there are Hunters nearby.”
Goldie shared a look with his twin across the room. He decided to question what the "Hunters" were later.
He had a feeling he already knew.
“To be honest,” Freddy spoke up again as he looked back towards the Vampires, “I had no plans to speak of this since I’m not even one-hundred percent convinced this isn’t a big elaborate prank Bonnie and Goldie convinced you five to play along with, so I have no problem agreeing to that.”
“I’ve got no one to tell,” Chica stated with a shrug, sipping her tea. “Most of my other friends are science nerds, not fantasy geeks.”
“I don’t wanna be called crazy or challenged by the Twihards,” was all Foxy said.
Goldie looked at Bonnie who simply shrugged back at him. “Does this include phone conversations?” he asked, looking back towards the Vampires.
“Especially phone conversations,” Alfred confirmed as the other four Vampires nodded.
“Eh, well, I guess if there’s any reason to talk about it, it can always wait until we get home,” Goldie decided, shrugging. “I’ll agree.”
“Same,” Bonnie agreed almost immediately, giving it little extra thought. “So the answer?”
Spring and Alfred shared another glance, then looked back towards the five Mortals around the room. Blu, Mangle, and Chii stayed silent, watching their brothers.
“Well,” the golden rabbit started, watching them carefully. Goldie suddenly felt nervous, the rabbit's green eyes reflecting caution. He had a feeling that the rabbit would know if any of them went back on their promise... and the consequences would not be pretty. “Vampires are a big part of the world’s population- actually, a huge part, which is why killing or Turning Mortals on purpose is against Vampiric Law. There’s too many of us relying on Mortals; if your population falls, so does ours.” Spring paused, letting that information sink in.
He continued with, “I’d say every time you go out- especially after dark- you will pass at least three Vampires- more if the moon is waning- and if you’ve been to college you’ve probably had classes with several others... as students or teachers, doesn’t matter. Maybe you’ve even roomed with a Day Walker or a Vampire who found a Charm.
“Jobs, you’re even more likely to have worked with or for a Vampire, especially if you work the night shift.” His green eyes focused on Bonnie at those words, but his attention shifted back to Goldie within seconds as he continued. “Taking into account that Vampires move in and out of cities all of the time, probably a few every month even, and they also enter and exit periods of Isolation...” he trailed off, letting it dangle in the air as Goldie and his family took in the meaning of his words.
“Basically,” Alfred picked up, summarizing what the Mortals had already figured out, “you’ve already met hundreds, if not thousands, of us, all on a daily basis.
“In fact, you’ve been living among and interacting with Vampires your entire lives.”