At the end of the day, Lukas' circumstances might have changed and completely turned upside down with him becoming a Vampire but that didn't actually change who he was.
Lukas still felt like the same human as he always had been, and that wasn't the best of feelings to have. The reason why he chose the Vampire Nightlife game in the first place was to pretend to be someone else.
Or if not someone else, then just a better version of himself.
And that was hard.
Doing the actual work to be a better version of yourself was always a daily struggle, and somehow, just talking with the uncooperative Vampire tested Lukas' nerves.
He wouldn't have tried if it was only him that he had to worry about.
And yet he thought of Chaerin being gone, and then Lily being sick and he let out a breath that he had been holding and tried one more time.
"Yeah. I was a visitor of theirs, but then I went out for awhile and returned without them around. I could have panicked and called the authorities, but I was hoping that maybe you heard of something?" Lukas said calmly and evenly.
The teenage Vampire realized that Lukas was unbristled with his attitude and then frowned.
"Well… there were some panic alright. Some folks came around saying that they're looking for Chaerin Atticus and Lukas. Grandma next door starts hyperventilating."
"That's… that's not good at all." Lukas' urge was to find Chaerin at once, but he stayed still and listened to the young man.
"It wasn't, especially when it was the Carmilla House apparently who wanted to take the two." The young teenager scrunched up his nose and looked at Lukas. "You're the other person that they're looking for?"
"Yeah, but that's not important. At least, not right now. What happened to Chaerin and the rest of the people?"
"Well, obviously, it wasn't a pretty sight. I think they went to the hospital, psych ward while they tried to push Chaerin to just go with the Carmilla's folks. But I don't think she did."
"How were you able to hear all of this in the first place?" Lukas asked.
"Eh. Happened outside of the door and in the corridor, of course you'd eavesdrop, just in case something bad was happening. Folks don't usually concern themselves that much with each other, but if something happened to them, well what if something happens to me next door? Of course, I'd check."
Lukas was more or less satisfied with the answer, it fit right into his idea of what people might do in their situation. However, that didn't make his worries and concerns vanish about Chaerin.
"Alright, thanks. Sorry for wasting your time, but I'll get going to this hospital now." Lukas said, and quickly bade the young man goodbye and then rushed out of the building.
The young Vampire's gaze followed Lukas before he left and once Lukas was gone, the young man grumbled.
"Uncle's not going to like hearing any of this, if he hadn't heard of it already."
***
When Lukas finally located the hospital and Chaerin, he ended up finding her outside of the hospital room and just by the chairs all by herself.
She looked pale, and she had her hands folded together tightly that her knuckles popped out and there was a lost look on her face. Chaerin didn't even realize that he was there until Lukas squatted in front of her and took her hands.
"Hey," Lukas said.
"Oh. Lukas…" Chaerin blinked back away what seemed like tears and had a watery smile. "I… I didn't think you'd find me. Theodore, Stacy and Alexei seemed to have found their way into one of the Overlord's Houses? I thought you'd be with them by now."
"Yeah, I thought the same as well, but of course I needed to go back and let you know. Sorry I took awhile. Things aren't so great at the moment, huh?" Lukas said, squeezing her hand and then taking a seat beside her.
"No. It really isn't." Chaerin admitted quietly. "Maybe coming here was a bad idea after all."
"Is that so?" Lukas said.
He was not the most sympathetic guy, and while he did have a soft spot for Chaerin and Lily… that was only because they were special to him. However, that didn't exactly translate into having the social skills to help them with what they were going through.
Countless of Visual Sim Date VR games he may have tried in the past, but actually going through a scenario in real life was still a different matter.
There wasn't any dialogue options for him to choose which would quickly solve the problem, heal the pain and gain love points all at once.
"Yeah. I… I didn't think it was that bad." Chaerin's voice held a little wobble. "I wanted to despise them for not even trying to make things work with me and Chelsea, but even it was painful for me to see my grandmother go through something like earlier. I don't even know her that much, but it's not right for a person to have to grieve this much that they lose themselves in the process."
Things… weren't fun with Chaerin right now.
To even think about something like this right now was like a stupid thing for Lukas, and yet this was like seeing the other side of the coin for the 'obsessed and fun' character that he was supposed to meet.
"I'm…" Lukas glanced at Chaerin before he stared up at the ceiling. It had the same awful sterile white color as human hospitals. "I wish I knew what words to say right now, or that we could help with your grandmother... but I really don't know if we can. We can try to support her, and yet at the end of the day, it's still up to her to decide whether to face reality or not."
"I know." Chaerin quietly said and then sighed. "We… we should try to head to the Carmilla House now, shouldn't we?"
Updat𝒆d fr𝒐m freew𝒆bnov𝒆l.c(o)m