Chapter Text
Chapter 4: Yellow
{Dingy yellow represents caution, decay, sickness, and jealousy. }
Flashback – 150 years ago
“If you don’t behave, god will turn you into a soul eater when you die.” That’s what mother used to say to her little son. Axl thought it was cool, to be a soul eater. This way he could punish his father, even though he thought the old man’s soul probably tasted like garbage.
But Axl never experienced a life as a soul eater. He was only 7 when a deadly earthquake destroyed his homeland and before he could feel any pain in his body, some angel came and took him somewhere cold and uncomfortable.
“Are we going to visit the lord?”
The angel laughed and kept walking through the dark hallway. “Fortunately no. Why? You want to see him?”
“I want to go back to my mom. I don’t want to become a soul eater.”
“So you know that you’re dead?” The angel sounded surprised, his confused gaze staring at the redhead as if he was growing horns.
Eventually they stopped at a wooden door, and Axl waited for the angel to open it with a key.
“This is your room. You’re going to live here from now on.”
“So I won’t become a soul eater?”
“I can turn you into one of those monsters if you insist.” The angel’s soft laugh was beautiful and warm.
“I really wanted to eat my father’s soul for everything he did to my mom.”
“That man’s still alive, so you can take his soul and send him to hell if you promise to be a fast learner.” He knelt down in front of the little boy and put his hand on his shoulder. “You’re going to be a death angel, and I’ll be your mentor.”
“But the monk said people go to heaven and hell after death.”
“Your soul is too powerful to be wasted in those shitholes.” The angel smiled and stood to open the door for Axl. “Now go to your room until I send someone. I’m Nik, by the way.”
Axl hadn’t smiled that much in his short life, but Death was too beautiful to be scowled at.
End of the flashback
“I think we should just kill them. Even the healthy ones don’t have enough food to survive. Keeping them is a waste of resource if there’s no remedy.”
The old headman’s voice was cold and emotionless, and his sweaty, bald head was shining in the dim light of the candles and lanterns. Axl and Otto, the fortune teller, were sitting next to him. His older son, Mat, at the other end of the table and two other hunters were settled across from the redhead. The younger son, Eden was also supposed to participate in the meeting, but he was absent and the headman seemingly didn’t give a damn.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea. People will be angry.” said Otto with a calm voice.
“My grandchildren are sick too, and I’m okay to let them go for the sake of my village.” The headman’s son frowned and dropped his gaze, simply because he didn’t dare to talk over his father even for saving his own kids. “What do you think, Rose? Don’t you agree with me?”
Axl looked at the headman’s brown eyes and let out a deep sigh. He really trusted the redhead even more than his own son, and Axl had to thank his angelic powers for helping him to get people like him so easily. Maybe this was the reason why Slash liked him so much, it wasn’t a real love and-
“Talk to me, Rosie. You’re not here to watch my beard.”
Axl pressed his lips together and dropped his gaze. “I… I agree with you. Also, I think it would be good if… if we burn the corpses to completely get rid of the infection. Burying the bodies will do no good.”
“What about their families?!” one of the hunters raised his voice.
You never cared about those vampires’ families when you slaughtered them, that’s what Axl wanted to say, but decided to keep his mouth shut.
“It’s not personal, boy. We have no choice. I’ll make amends to them later.” The headman joylessly laughed. “If we survive.”
“How are we going to do it?” Otto asked.
“Poison their food, make it painless. And keep it a secret, we don’t want to scare anyone and make them hide their sickness.”
Then he got up from his chair, raising his hand to end the meeting and dismiss them, but Axl’s voice stopped him.
“Sir… I… can I talk to you for a second?”
The headman who was contented from Axl’s suggestions, patiently nodded to hear his words. The redhead didn’t speak until the others left the place.
“What is your decision about… the man you prisoned last week?”
“The vampire?”
“Well, actually-”
The headman interrupted him with a sickeningly happy laugh. “I have a very good plan for him, thanks for reminding.”
Axl hid his sweaty hands behind his back. “What are you gonna do to him?”
“People need a bit of entertainment, don’t they?”
That word, entertainment. Hearing it sent a shiver down Axl’s spine, because he knew what it meant. “But… Otto said you shouldn’t kill the vamps anymore.”
“Oh, Otto can go and fuck himself.” His joyful laugh made Axl nauseous. “We’re born to hunt those bastards, a little disease can’t stop us, stranger.” He mockingly patted the redhead’s hair and left the room.
Axl stood there for a few seconds, and when finally managed to move his legs, decided to pay a visit to Slash after three days. The man was hungry, heartbroken and most importantly, in danger. Axl knew he had to do something. Why didn’t he make the man escape from Emerald in the first place? God, it was his idea to imprison him in the first place. The angel really thought he could protect the half vampire from getting killed, and also… he didn’t have the heart to lose him for one more time.
You stupid, selfish piece of shit. Now he’s going to suffer because of you. Again.
He rushed headlong to the cottage, not even checking the outside to see if anyone noticed his unauthorized break-in.
“Slash! Get the fuck up!” Axl hissed and sat next to the sleeping man, shaking his shoulder to wake him up. “Slash! Come on!”
Slash’s body was suspiciously cold, and it made his blood freeze. He swiftly grabbed the curly head’s hand to check his fingers. His skin was pale as the snow, and Axl was thunderstruck to see the red blood clots under his nails. Even worse, his special night vision helped him see the pool of blood and… something similar to a human’s finger.
It was a thumb. And the red smelly liquid wasn’t Slash’s own blood. Unfortunately.
Axl shook Slash’s body with wide eyes. “Slash! Wake up! Oh God, please tell me it’s not what I’m thinking! Slash wake the fuck up!!”
Slash slowly opened his eyes, trying to see the redhead through his puffy eyelids, his vision blurry and cloudy like he was in a dream (nightmare). “Oh… Mister Heartbreaker…” he said with a shaky smile and an unfocused gaze. He couldn’t register the concern and horror in Axl’s eyes, how he was pale from fear and his whole body trembling with anxiety.
“Slash… what have you done…?” the redhead’s voice was quieter than a whisper, his voice wavering as if he’d seen the most terrifying thing in the world. “Whose blood is this?!”
Oh, you know better, Mr. Death.
The curly head laughed and rolled on his back to stare at the ceiling. “Delicious.” He giggled like a madman and tightly clutched his stomach.
Axl noticed how his fangs were bigger and sharper than before, covered with blood and a tiny piece of meat stuck between his teeth.
“Throw it up!” he sat on Slash’s chest, forcefully grabbed his chin to keep his jaw open and stuck his fingers into the vampire’s throat to make him gag. The curly head grasped Axl’s arm in a vain attempt to be let go, his eyes full of tears and wide open because it was hard to breath and… hard to handle seeing those blue eyes red with rage and madness.
The redhead’s jaw was clenched, his silent weeping started to turn into sobbing as the realization hit him. And then he took his hand out of the man’s mouth, leaning in to press his forehead to Slash’s cold one. His tears were soaking his bloody skin, somehow washing the red stains.
It was pointless. Even throwing up all the blood and meat in his stomach wouldn’t stop the changing process.
The images playing in Slash’s mind were sickening him to the core, and Axl decided to use his goddamned power to see them, because he couldn’t and did not want to hear the vampire’s voice for now.
It was a human, obviously. The victim was a normal human, and Axl knew him. The tall man with long blond hair and a prominent scar on his left cheek, was the younger son of the headman.
So that’s why he didn’t show up at the meeting.
The bulky son of a bitch was potted, as if alcohol was dripping from every single one of his holes. He was there to do harm, to hurt the weak, lying man on the floor. Slash was hungry, his stomach empty for three days. He didn’t have the strength to answer Eden when he yelled and cursed. Slash didn’t even flinch or make a sound when a harsh kick landed on his chest.
The blond man was angry at his father for his decision, as if he knew about that “kill the dying ill before the time comes” thing before it being announced in the meeting.
“I’ll kill them. I’ll kill them all.” That’s what Eden said while gripping on those long curls.
He played with fire, too furious and emotional and drunk to feel the burn on his hand. Why he was venting his rage on Slash? Probably because he couldn’t let it out on his father or any other villager, and nobody cared if the curly head had a bruise on his cheek or a broken rib in his chest.
“My parents, my coward sibling, the motherfucking Axl Rose, that faggy rat.”
The last words surprisingly opened Slash’s eyes, as if they were worse than those forceful kicks and rough punches. His fist abruptly hit Eden’s rosy cheeks, making him fall backwards.
“Don’t you dare!” Slash’s voice was stern and hoarse, sobering up the man’s hazy brain. He crawled on the floor to force his weight on Eden’s body, punching his left cheek one more time. The human’s face was already covered with blood, one of his teeth been thrown on the floor.
Slash was hungry. Slash was hungry and…
And thirsty.
Pure horror replaced the rage in Eden’s eyes as his gaze met with Slash’s red orbs. “Don’t. Fucking. Dare.”
He sank his fangs into the man’s sweaty skin of his neck, and started to feast on him. Eden was a strong man even when his body was limp with alcohol and blood loss, so he managed to get himself free.
But Slash was thirsty. He’d been thirsty his whole life. This was his real entity, not what his mom thought.
Eden tried to get out of the cottage, and he succeeded. But before completely getting out, the vampire grasped his wrist and bit his hand. The blond man screamed with pain and fear and locked the door with one hand before running away, panting and audibly gasping for air.
“What have you done…” Axl lifted his head and cupped Slash’s face to see his face. Those eyes, they had changed. Searching for the remains of his lover in those beast-like, wild eyes was useless, and it broke him even worse.
“Please don’t cry.” Slash’s hands were gently touching the redhead’s cheeks to wipe the tears. It was heartbreaking, the way he still loved Axl, recognized him, and adored him. It was like his heart hadn’t changed in the process of becoming a vampire. The pumping organ still remembered its habitant. “I’m sorry.”
How are you so able to hurt me like this…? Slash’s voice echoed in his brain. He was right. Axl was there to hurt Slash in every way possible. He was literally Death, born to destroy people’s lives.
A tumult of shouting made Axl jump on his feet. There was no time to run away, no place to hide.
Someone opened the door with a key and a kick, and Axl turned even paler as he saw Mat, Otto and some other hunters. They were armed and ready to kill the threat, and the redhead didn’t know what to do.
“Rose, you alive?” Mat aimed his weird-looking pistol at Slash who was now sitting on the floor with a deep frown on his face as if he was in so much pain and discomfort.
“Why wouldn’t I be?” Axl whispered and stood in front of the curly head to hide the changing man behind his back. “I don’t think that’s necessary.” He pointed at the gun and cringed at Mat’s mocking scoff.
“This bastard nearly killed my brother. We have to get rid of it.”
Axl took a step back. He had the ability and power to take their lives and get Slash free, but he wasn’t allowed. He had a mission to take fifty souls from this village before leaving and if he made it fifty one, his superiors would impeach him. “But… this man’s not a vamp-”
Axl’s words were interrupted with a loud sound of heaving and vomiting from behind. He slowly turned his head to see Slash on all fours, puking blood and bile, unable to breath and ready to pass out. The redhead wanted to sit next to him, rub his back, sooth him and say that everything’s going to be alright, even if it was a lie. Was it possible? Yes, but it cost ruining his mission and also his reputation.
Seeing Slash’s frailty, Mat put the gun back to his holster and walked to ill-looking man and sat down next to him. The curly head was now clutching his stomach so hard that his knuckles turned white, tired eyes glued to Mat’s amused ones.
“Let me go.”
The redhead thickly swallowed at the broken whisper asking for the freedom he wasn’t going to achieve.
Mat’s lips laughed, his eyes didn’t. His punch met Slash’s pale and sweaty cheek. Everyone in the room heard his neck snap, and Axl flinched.
The headman’s son grabbed Slash’s curls and dragged him on the cold and dusty floor. Axl didn’t manage to stop himself from grabbing Mat’s arm. “Where are you going?”
“Gonna teach him a lesson.”
And a few moments later, Otto was the only one who stayed. Axl helplessly sat on the ground. His legs couldn’t bear his weight anymore, even his neck was too tired to tolerate his heavy head.
“I had to stop him.”
“He’s still changing. He’s dangerous.” Otto folded his arms. “You still have to stop him.”
Axl raised his head with wide eyes. “You knew?!” he swiftly stood and walked to the fortune teller to grab the collar of his coat. “Then why didn’t you tell them that he wasn’t a blood sucker?!”
Otto blankly stared at Axl. “Why didn’t you, Santa Muerte?”
The redhead dropped his hands down and watched the taller man leave the cottage, satisfaction written all over his face. He was too proud and happy for messing with the destroying angel, the male Santa Muerte.