Hey people are reading this, right? Tell me what you think about it. I'd love some feedback but if you don't want to comment then a PM would be fine.
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They were several metres away from the others when Eren started to talk.
"I just wanted to say, I don't have a crush on you," he said. "I don't feel that way about you."
"Oh, thank god," Historia said with a laugh. "I was scared, for a minute - I didn't want to have to turn you down and ruin our friendship."
"Me neither," Eren said. "I really like you. You know, as a friend."
"Hey, Eren," Historia asked. He looked at her, listening. "What did Armin mean, with "the Fritzes don't come here"? What did that mean?"
Eren looked straight ahead, and shoved his hands in his pockets. "I'm not supposed to tell anyone," he said.
"I'm good at keeping secrets," Historia offered. "I won't tell anyone."
Eren let out a breath. "Okay. So, Kenny used to tell us a story when we were kids, something that his grandfather used to tell him. He said that when our ancestors were fleeing persecution in the 1300's, they stayed in this area. But their hosts were... odd. One by one, our ancestors realised that they were changing. And on the full moon, they transformed into wolves."
Historia laughed. "So you're telling me that your family is descended from werewolves?"
"Yeah, it's just a story made up to scare us from trusting strangers too much," Eren said quickly. "But Kenny also says that his grandfather told him about a strange encounter he had in the woods. There was a family that looked exactly like humans... but they weren't. Not really. They were fast, and strong, and dead. Grandpa Ackerman called them the Alukah - vampires."
Historia thought of Ymir's ice-cold hand, and the way she had stopped the car, and shivered. "Tell me more."
Eren continued. "Supposedly, this family was different to their peers. They didn't hunt humans, only animals. So they made a treaty. The Ackermans wouldn't turn the Alukah over to the local government, and the Alukah wouldn't hurt any human."
"And what about the Fritzes? Are they like the Alukah?"
"They're the same ones," Eren said, and Historia's blood ran cold. "Allegedly."
"But the Fritzes just moved here..."
"Or, they just moved back. Don't worry, I don't actually believe that crap. They're probably just descended from a bunch of weirdos. Anyway, I'm not allowed anywhere near the Fritzes, and they're not allowed anywhere near us. Levi would skin me alive if he found out I could have been here at the same time as one of them."
Historia laughed nervously. "Yeah, what a bunch of nonsense," she said, not quite believing herself.
When they got back to the others, they endured only mild teasing from the others. They set up the fire, and sure enough, the flames were blue. Because of the salt, Sasha explained. It was mesmerising. Beautiful, in fact. And the whole time, Historia thought of the story Eren had told her.
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In the dream, Historia was in the forest. The light filtered through the canopy, casting strange shapes on the forest floor. Birds chirped.
Eren came into her view, his face panicked. "Run!" he cried, but his voice was obscured, as if they were underwater. In the distance, somebody screamed her name. Was it Sasha? It sounded like her voice.
"Historia, you need to get out of here now!" Eren cried again. Historia turned around, searching for the direction Sasha had called from. It sounded like she was in danger.
Twigs broke behind Historia, and she turned back. Eren had disappeared, and in his place stood a massive brown wolf, with blazing green eyes.
"Eren?" She asked. The wolf seemed to have human intelligence. He raised his hackles, and growled at something in the distance. Historia turned around yet again to see Ymir step into view. She seemed to be glowing from the inside out. Her freckles shone brighter than the rest of her skin, like stars. She held out a hand.
"Come with me, Historia," she said. The wolf that was Eren growled more, and jumped, right at Ymir-
"No!" Historia cried, heart racing.
She sat up, in her bed. 7 AM, her alarm clock read. Her laptop was open on the bed next to her, and she was glad she hadn't knocked it off in her sleep. Turning it on revealed the last google page she'd had open, a page about vampire lore. Her dream had most likely been brought on by the research and Eren's story yesterday. Yeah. That was it.
She'd read through a lot of pages last night. A lot were for movies or RPGs, which sounded interesting, but ultimately didn't help her. One site had looked promising, but turned out to be the fansite for some hetero Mormon erotica. The site she had been looking on before she'd gone to sleep was the most legitimate-looking; it hosted an A-Z list of vampire legends around the world. Almost every culture had their own version of a vampire.
Historia closed the window, annoyed. Here she was, researching vampires. It felt stupid. Ymir and her family couldn't be vampires, right? But Historia couldn't think of anything that proved her wrong. The Fritzes didn't come to school when it was sunny. Ymir was fast, and super-strong. Her body held no heat, and thus she most likely didn't have blood. Come to think of it, Historia had never seen Ymir or her siblings eat anything. Why would she need to eat food, if she drank blood instead?
Historia spent Sunday trying to take her mind off vampirism by watching something on Netflix. Something light and happy, where nobody's heads detached to search for fetuses to snack on - some of the types of vampires Historia had read about had stayed with her, and not in a good way. She still felt mildly nauseous.
As she watched some crappy highschool romcom, Historia dreaded the return to school.