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“This place is creepy.” Was the first thing Clarke said as they stepped inside the old mansion. That was practically what it was, it was a small-ish mansion that had been in Lexa’s family forever – well she calls it small but Clarke most definitely doesn’t. They were planning on spending the week here; they wanted to get out of the city for a bit and just spend some time somewhere quiet. And Clarke had really wanted to see the place Lexa had so many stories about. However, there was something creepy about this place; driving up here, Clarke could feel a chill go down her spine, there was just something weird about this place. “Why did we come here again?”
“You liked all the stories I told you about here.” Lexa started, reminding her as they walked inside. “And you wanted to check it out for yourself by spending our holiday here.” She led Clarke down the hallway and up the stairs, not saying anything as they walked up to one of the bedrooms. “This place still gives me the creeps.” She shook her head at herself, Lexa hasn’t been here in years now, at least half a decade probably. And the only reason she was here was because of Clarke – well, they both thought it would be a good idea to get away from the city for a week and Clarke chose this place. They loved the city, they loved the people and the noise and just everything about New York City – but every now and then, it felt nice to get out, go somewhere quieter, calmer. “I can’t believe you dragged me back here.” Lexa said jokingly to Clarke, setting the bags down on the bed.
“Oh come on.” Clarke told, taking a step closer to Lexa, “It’ll be fun.”
“Babe,” Lexa looked at her, well tried to because she was standing too close. “Personal space.” She added. “I’m sweaty and gross.” The climb up the stairs and the walk to the bedroom was a long one, and carrying the bags didn’t help. She had her’s and Clarke’s ones, Lexa didn’t want her to lift anything heavy right now.
“I’m far enough away.” Clarke rolled her eyes, “The baby’s making sure of that.” She almost complained, looking down at the baby bump. It wasn’t that big, not really, she was about 20 weeks in by now. “You know I could’ve brought my bag up right?”
“Yes,” Lexa nodded. “But I didn’t want you to.” She put her hand on Clarke’s sides, “You’re carrying enough already.” Lexa gave her a small smile. “So, what do you wanna do first?” She asked, “Do you want creepy stories or do you want to check out the creepy spots?”
“I wanna check ‘em out while you tell me stories about them.” Clarke answered. “But let’s get changed first?” She asked, finally stepping away from Lexa. “Get into our pjs?”
They were sitting in the library now; the mansion was honestly a huge place – without Lexa, Clarke is almost entirely certain she would have gotten lost. It was old and creepy and just better than Clarke had expected really. She didn’t know much about the place, only the bits and pieces that had Lexa told her – it’s been in her family forever, she used to come here as a kid and she’d also told Clarke about some of the unusual things that had happened. So yeah, Clarke was definitely excited to spend some time here. The library was probably what she was looking forward to the most, it was huge, full of really old books, and journals, and just so much…knowledge. Clarke was sitting on one of the armchairs, Lexa on the floor with an old journal in her hand, flipping through the pages.
Clarke had asked her about the mansion, asking its origin story so to speak. It had been in the family forever, Lexa actually doesn’t know how long to be exact, could be over a century if anything. There wasn’t much she knew about her ancestors, not much her parents knew either – it was pretty interesting though because everything she seemed to know about them was through these old journals. It could’ve gone two ways from what she could see – they were either vampire hunters once upon a time…or they were the vampires.
“So is this place haunted?” Clarke asked casually, looking around the enormous room, a really old book in her hand, not really reading it. The ceiling high bookshelves, the old books, that unique smell of the old pages – it just felt amazing to be in here. “Or are those just stories you told me to impress me?”
Lexa laughed at that, “I don’t think that’s how you impress a girl, Clarke.” She answered. “I don’t think the place itself is haunted, it’s just the people who lived here were a little creepy.”
“But are their souls haunting the mansion?” Clarke asked with a quirked eyebrow.
“It’s not a mansion.” Lexa rolled her eyes, only receiving a questioning look from Clarke. “And…maybe, if they were human.”
“Don’t you mess with me.” Clarke only shook her head at her wife, sounding very serious. “What about the cold spots then?” She asked her, not asking anything more about the supposedly supernatural ancestors. “I swear I got chills walking past at least two of the portraits.”
“It’s this thing called having an overactive imagination.” Lexa answered with a smile. “I’m pretty sure this place has been in the family since at least the 19th century.” She added, looking around the almost ancient building. “And I mean…a place this old has got to have a creepy feel to it, right?”
Clarke nodded, “Did little Lexa like coming here with her family?”
“She did not.” Lexa answered honestly. “It was just…creepy.” She shrugged. “Noises in the night, weird shadows…cold spots.” She agreed to Clarke reluctantly. “But I mean, it’s old, there’s no heating other than the fire places, so that kind of explains the cold spots, and well, old so creaky floorboards and doors…”
“So give me some scary stories.” Clarke responded. “That’s why I’m here anyways.” She let out a small laugh. “So you didn’t like being here, were you too scared?”
“I was not scared.” Lexa rolled her eyes, that was mostly a lie because she used to be and the thought of coming back here wasn’t that great. “I just got used to it after a little while.” She added. “But I wouldn’t get out of bed at night, even if I needed a glass of water I would not leave the room.” She laughed at herself. “This place is scary, okay? Especially when you’re a little kid.” Lexa said defensively because Clarke only laughed at her. “Sometimes pictures disappear from the paintings and I swear they walk around the halls.”
“No they don’t.” Clarke rolled her eyes, almost sounding like she was trying to convince Lexa, “That’s ridiculous.”
“Hey, if you wanna stay up all night and get the shit scared out of you, be my guest.” Lexa offered. “My ancestors were into some…weird stuff.” She added, “And when they died, they decided to stick around.”
“So…it is haunted.” Clarke sat up straight, “What do mean by weird stuff, though?” She asked, curious and wanting to know what that might be. “And why would you keep something so interesting about yourself from me for so long?”
Lexa couldn’t help but smile at her, “Because I didn’t want to weird you out.” She settled. “Look I don’t know much about them,” She started, looking down at the journal in her hands. “Because my parents don’t and neither did my grandparents. But…” Lexa trailed, “I spent a lot of time in this library – it’s literally my favorite room in this place.” She told her with a small smile. “So I’ve gathered a good bit of information as to who they…might have…been.”
“I’m intrigued.”
“So I’ve come to two different conclusions.” Lexa added. “But there’s like a 90% chance you will either laugh at me or run off once I tell you what they are.” She rolled her eyes at herself but Clarke only watched her expectantly, waiting for her to continue. “Vampires or vampire hunters.” She finally answered. “Either one of those two.”
“I don’t know which I like more.” Clarke replied with a smirk. “How far back do those journals go?” She asked, looking at the one in Lexa’s hand. “Oh!” She said suddenly before Lexa could answer, “What if…” Clarke started, “It’s both of those?” Lexa only gave her a small confused look. “Vampire hunter that fell in love with a vampire?”
“That would be awkward wouldn’t it?” Lexa asked with a smirk. “But you might not be far off.” She shrugged. “These go back to like the late 18th century. And what confuses me is…” Lexa flipped to a specific page, scanning over it before looking back at Clarke. “There are positive things about vampires. But there’s also some very graphic scenes, describing how they were killed.”
Clarke thought for a moment, “They only killed the vampires that were causing harm?” She offered.
“Could be,” Lexa shrugged, “Listen to this bit.” She said to Clarke before looking down at the page opened in front of her. “It was a long and tiring night. Eventful really. Not to mention bloody. There was so much blood…if only it was human I could put it to use.”
“Well, that’s not creepy at all.” Clarke commented sarcastically, Lexa smiling at her before continuing. “And your ancestors were not good writers.”
“They really weren’t, they were awful, it hurts reading these sometimes.” Lexa agreed with a nod before returning to dramatically reading out the page open in front of her. “It seems like the wooden stakes aren’t enough. I put it through one of their non-beating hearts but all it did was stall for a moment. Decapitating seems to work the best, but it also makes the biggest mess. There were five tonight. I decapitated two, stabbed the others through the heart with a silver dagger. The blood, as it seemed through my hands, was cold. Almost like my heart…made me wonder if I was one of them.”
“I see where you get your flair for the dramatics.” Clarke said with a small laugh at the last line. “That’s definitely a vampire hunter.”
“But there are journals that talk about how blood tastes and how basically weird it is to feel someone’s pulse.” Lexa said in response.
“Mixed signals, yeah.” Clarke nodded. “So is there a chance you’re like…part vampire?”
“Maybe…” Lexa bounced her eyebrow suggestively. “I may have read something about one of them biting their lovers…” She added slowly, “I think they killed them, drained out all the blood…”
“I will not sleep with you tonight if you don’t shut the fuck up.” Clarke told her with a glare.
“You really want to sleep alone?” Lexa asked seriously, “In this mansion?” She shook her head slowly, “I don’t know if that’s a good idea.”
“Did you know I hate you?” Her wife asked her, not missing a beat.
“The worst thing I remember happening was something grabbing my feet from under the bed.” Lexa responded, pretending to ignore what Clarke had just said. “And it just…wouldn’t let go?” She looked at Clarke, not really knowing how to describe it – weird things happened all the time in this house. “Blood dripping from the walls is another thing I remember.”
“That’s a lie.” Clarke said instantly. “And you know it.”
“It’s not,” Lexa responded, a little loudly. “I swear to you, it’s not.” She tried, “I’ve seen it happen, like straight out of a horror movie.” Lexa added. “I hated coming here because there was just so much going on.”
“No more scary stories.” Clarke finally settled, almost sounding like a warning.
“I’m pretty sure I saw someone from one of these journals walking around the halls.” Lexa continued anyways. “Oh, do you wanna see something cool?”
“No,” Clarke answered without hesitation but Lexa got up anyways, walking over to one of the shelves and retrieving a wooden box. “What is that?” She asked once Lexa returned, sitting back down, not really sure if she wanted to know.
“Vampire killing kit.” Lexa answered with a smirk.
“Lexa no!” Clarke looked away, “I don’t wanna see that.” She whined, almost a shriek really.
“You’re the one who wanted to come here.” Lexa put the box down before getting up and squeezing into Clarke’s armchair. “Okay you don’t have to see it.” Clarke only rolled her eyes. “But hey, what if I am part vampire?” Lexa raised her eyebrows.
“Shush.” Clarke warned.
“So that would mean,” Lexa pretended to not have heard what Clarke just said. “Our baby…” She put her finger on Clarke’s stomach, “…is also part vampire.”
“I hate you.” Clarke answered simply. But she wasn’t wrong, the sperm for the baby was from a donor and the eggs were Lexa’s – they wanted the baby to be theirs and this was the best way they’d found to be inclusive, so to speak. They were happy with it being this way and that’s all that mattered. “How can I trust you and baby vamp to not eat me?”
“You can’t trust me to not do that…” Lexa muttered quietly causing Clarke to smack her on the arm once she realized what Lexa just said. “What? It’s not like you don’t enjoy it.”