Psychopaths Can't Love

Memories

A/N: Here we are again. You probably hate me, but here I am.

Trigger warning: Blood, traumatic experiences, dead bodies, self-harm, depression, murder/manslaughter, and intense feels.

Seb was nothing but panicked. He could barely breathe. He had no idea where the hell the rest of his regiment was. All he knew was that he'd fallen somewhere and gotten knocked out. Now everyone else was probably assuming he was dead. Oh, hell.

Footsteps close by paused his thoughts.

Play dead play dead play dead.

Seb didn't know if the person approaching was American, an Iraqi soldier, or an Iraqi civilian. He couldn't risk seeming alive unless he knew for sure the person was American.

All of his hopes were crushed when he heard a distinctly Iraqi accent.

Someone roughly rolled him over and felt his neck, checking him for a pulse. Seb knew that his beating heart betrayed him.

The gruff voice cut into his ears again, and unfamiliar hands opened his eyes.

Seb found himself staring into the face of an Iraqi soldier. He looked as if he was in his mid-thirties. A shallow-looking wound had dried on his face, making him look menacing.

The soldier opened his mouth to take a breath, showing his teeth. He unmistakably had long fangs on either side of his front teeth.

Seb gasped and tried to wiggle backwards, away from him. The soldier pressed a boot down on his chest, right onto his already-broken ribs.

Seb went to cry out in pain, but the soldier clapped a hand over his mouth and said something that was most likely something along the lines of "shut your damn mouth." The soldier pressed his free hand on one of Seb's shoulders to keep his torso down and bent over towards Seb's neck.

Seb struggled more. He had never believed in vampires but he certainly did now.

The soldier sank his fangs into Seb's neck. Seb felt the skin break and blood come rushing out immediately.

Seb wanted to scream, but the hand clamped over his mouth kept him from doing so.

So you're a vampire now.

~

Seb came stumbling into the medic's tent, praying that he'd live.

The Iraqi soldier had basically left Seb to bleed out and die in the middle of nowhere. Seb was surprised that he'd been able to stand up, let alone find his regiment again.

The medic looked up in alarm when he saw Seb.

"Moran! What the bloody hell happened to you?"

He pushed Seb down onto a table and began cleaning the blood off his neck.

"We've been looking for you!"

"Fell and got knocked out," Seb answered, surprised his voice still worked after hours of disuse.

"Yeah, but how the bloody hell did you cut your neck up?"

"I... um..."

The medic succeeded in clearing enough blood to see the actual wound itself.

"Oh, you got bit," the medic said casually. "You'd be surprised how many guys that happens to. There must be a lot of vampires running around here."