The Vampire's Mistress: MYG

5

"Do you know why vampires are associated with bats?"

Unsurprisingly, it was Taehyung who asked me the question on a winter evening in our study room which was filled with the warmth of the auburn flames from the fireplace, much like the colour of Taehyung's hair.

"Because of the natural resemblances with the vampire bats, I guess? Why do you ask?" I whisper back, not wanting to shatter the silence prevailing in the huge room crowded with studying fellows.

"Silly, Adora. I always knew you weren't the brightest," Taehyung rudely remarked, causing a stir in my guts. How much ever I liked Taehyung's vast knowledge on Count Dracula, it never settled well with me that he knew the Count far more than I did. It always reminded me how far away I am from the said being.

"If that's untrue, mind enlightening me with the fact?" I asked airily, trying hard to conceal my peeked interest.

"Hmm, should I?" Taehyung teased, making me give a frown and a side glance,"Okay, okay. I'll tell you. But I'm doing you a huge favour and you better return it."

Taehyung had become quite a friend to me by then. He rose up from his chair, returning with a small, pocket-sized book. He placed it on the table in front of us beside the book on Sekhmet, the Egyptian feline warrior goddess and first known close-to-a-vampire.

Astonishingly, I read the title of the book Taehyung just brought, Oxford English Pocket-sized Dictionary. The mysterious boy picked up his reading glasses to put them on and started to skim through the word book. Letting out a triumphant 'Aha', he showed me the book, pointing at the word 'batman: a person working under an officer, acting more like a personal assistant.'

I was sure that my face doesn't ever give out my mind, until now. The confusion was unsettling, so must have been prominent from outside for Taehyung to catch on. "First let me explain to you why your logic is not correct."

"You see, vampire bats do not suck blood. They puncture a little bit of their prey's skin and lap at the blood that flows out: the process is not the most painful and humans probably wouldn't feel much of it. The blood though, is a supplement and a necessity for these mammals and they can't survive without it for two days."

Taehyung unmindfully sketched a bat on my notebook as he spoke, yet his skills made it look veritable enough. My eyes were lost in tracing the outline of his big hands but my ears were swallowing all the information it could. My vision only drifted to his face once he stopped speaking.

"So what does it prove?" I ask, my mask of indifference back on my exterior self. He pressed his lips tight, trying to hold back a chuckle. He put a tuft of my hair behind my ear with the hand not holding a pencil.

"Did you see what batman means?" As I nodded, he resumed talking, "the association of vampires with the mammals came forth with this word. Linguistics and symbolism are complex as they are, confusing the lettered ones when even a small fragment of the history is lost or distorted somehow. The vampires are simply the associates of the Devil himself, the batmen of Satan. They do not really have habitual similarities with some mere mortals."

"So they don't suck blood?"

"Nope, only the souls."

"Pardon me, but whatever do you mean now, Kim Taehyung?"

"Vampires kiss their prey with utmost passion, taking the soul and spirit with each tug on their skin. They only suck the blood out of their system when they feel generous enough, not wanting to let them life through the misery."

That's just brutal.

"And why do they do it? As a ritual for worshiping the evil or to maintain immortality?"

"Does Spawns of Satan really need a reason to make the life of the imbeciles miserable?" Taehyung chuckled, the villainous laughter booming against the walls and gaining everyone's attention, after he pronounced such disturbing words.

But, why is this so fascinating?

"What makes Count Dracula so special though? You are saying the plural form, so there must be loads. Why is everybody so obsessed with this one?" I ask, as though I am not one of the most obsessed ones.

"Good question. There is no specific answer to it. But most probably it was his innate sinfulness and barbaric ways, that made him almost synonymous to Satan himself."

"But, the proletariat class was more heartless than him, you said so yourself."

"The folk lore?"

"Yes!"

"And you believed me?"

Our discussion was halted at its zenith point as Kim Seokjin, out of nowhere, arrived at our side of the table and slammed his book hard. "If you are finished with your studies, hurry to your rooms now. Your gossip about fairytales is disturbing the others." Boy, have I ever seen the older this angry.

I stood up to leave but Taehyung stood to talk back, "You wouldn't say this if you knew the truth, pabo." Stupid, he meant to say.

"I wouldn't get ahead of myself if I were you, Taehyung," Seokjin retorted with a low voice, earning a scoff from Taehyung before the younger boy marched out, looking mad enough to strangle someone.

"I really don't like how you spend so much time with him. He has some psychological and behavioural difficulties, which might affect you. I really don't understand why the authority is letting him mix with the others," Seokjin spoke in an exasperated tone, which was very unlikely of him.

"Promise me, Adora," he sighed and took my hand, "promise me you'll stay away from him and his business. He seems like trouble."

Seokjin, always the protective one. Always the one to shoulder every responsibility even if it is not entitled to him. Always the one to feign the role of the protagonist.

I shook my head in a confusing rotation before running out to my room. In your pipe dreams, Seokjin - I said to myself in my head. I will never abandon the only person par a friend, who is also my link to him.

Forgetting the fact that Kim Seokjin is always right.