"Ah, good to see you again, old friend. Come sit down."
The pale man beckons with one hand toward the towering fellow who has just stepped into his chambers. His other grips the stem of a goblet full of something crimson. A smile crinkles his angular features as he watches his old friend lower his lengthy frame into the armchair across the table.
"It's good to be seen and good to sit," the tall man says, "I always appreciate the size of your furniture."
"Grand scale is not always for the sake of extravagance. Some of us do think of more than just impressing others with our furnishings. You sound like you could use a drink."
"I've learned that any time is a good time for a drink though I don't think I'll be having what you are. Something strong and brown should do me fine."
The pale man nods to the butler at the door who immediately attends toward preparing something for their guest.
"It's not easy to come upon a good beverage in your travels, I know. I'm glad that I can offer you something finer than you'd likely scrounge for yourself."
"I can scrounge better than any but even so, it would be no comparison."
He reaches out with a large leathery hand to take the tumbler from the butler, a smile parting his thin black lips. The two men nod and raise their glasses.
"To what, old friend?" the pale man asks with a raised eyebrow.
"To respite, well-worn friendship, and to the drink itself."
"A damn fine toast."
Glasses clink and their contents are sipped. The pale man raises a seemingly clawed finger.
"Perhaps we should have toasted the days of old, overdone though it may be."
"For nostalgia's sake?"
"For our own sake, old friend. Nostalgia be damned, we've merely lived from misery to misery but there was something about our earlier days, something about the reverence and the passion. There was a certain vitality."
"Speak for yourself. I've taken great efforts to distance myself from my youthful passions. I seek not reverence but anonymity."
"Ah, yes, of course, you would rather fade into the crowd than have it stand in terrible awe around you."
"In so many ways as we are cut from the same cloth, we are not. While I seek only compassion in the hearts of man, you seek their hearts for very...different...reasons."
The pale man smirks and eyes his drink.
"You must feel somewhat insulted by their general perception of you, though? The shuffling simpleton, the gargantuan man-child, the misunderstood brute. It's offensive."
"I cannot deny they are all truth in part, my friend."
"Curse your aged bones! The younger you would have squeezed the breath from them!"
"And that is but one proof their portrayal of me as a fool is not so inaccurate."
"You are a fool now for not putting terror in their breast!"
"Perhaps it's best we pause to drink before this fool-talk brings us to blows."
The pale man snorts amusedly and reaches for his glass. Pausing before he takes a sip he cocks his head with a reflective glance toward the ceiling.
"Perhaps I am being the fool, old friend. You have a grace for them that I cannot muster. While the years have given you perspective, I can still only see red when they besmirch my good name," he gives an amused glance down at his drink before taking a swig.
"Heh. We both know you'll see red regardless of whether they speak well or ill of you."
"Fair point indeed. But I won't have you painting me as the only one with certain....passions...festering in the pit of me."
"I will readily admit they are forever clawing at the door, old friend. You could say parts of me want to indulge in such affairs and truthfully I may be more parts than I am myself, after all."
"And what if you should open that door? What if you should let those parts that would crush their throat in your grasp run free, if but for an evening?"
The giant sits unmoving and for a moment there is nothing but the tick of the ornate grandfather clock filling the silence.
"I cannot deny I might find a satisfaction I have longed for for ages..."
"Then why not indulge with me? Why not put down our drinks, leave this table, and go out into the good night beyond these walls for but one night of the pleasures of our youth?"
Suddenly shifting and stiffening his posture, the tall man leans forward on the table, decreasing the distance between them.
"Shall I remind you of the wars that have come to your very doorstep? Shall I point to my life as a nomad forever dwelling in shadow? Shall I speak of your life as a recluse forever locked away in castle and catacomb? Shall I speak of guns, torches, and pitchforks? Shall I speak of unrest, of uncertainty, of the world ready to descend upon you with unflinching determination to end your very existence? These are your days of old, these are your nostalgic longings, these are the reasons why I keep the doors within me bolted shut, old friend. I will not deny that there is a monster straining beneath my skin, seeking to burst through every scar that crosses my flesh, but he must remain a under lock and key, a prisoner and a relic, a reminder of who I was and who they made me and who I do not wish to be."
The pale man smiles and gives a slow applause.
"Bravo, my friend, bravo. I assure you I do not clap with insincerity but again must reiterate my utmost respect for your firm determination to be a better man."
"One must be a man to be a better man. I can only attempt to be less of a demon."
"In truth, you are an inspiration, a voice of reason against the dark hunger that claws at my innards. Were it not for discussions like this I would no doubt find myself giving in to my vices. Rather than having a pleasant evening with a dear friend, I would be defending myself among the ashen ruins of this place against a horde of them with a bloodlust that puts my own to shame. Thank you for keeping me in check, comrade."
"Your words are flattering and I must return your gratitude. You do well to tempt me, I must confess, for it causes me to fortify my resolve. Left to my own devises I worry that I might easily regress but you provide a landmark with which I might find my bearings amidst the fog."
The pale man raises his glass.
"I believe we should drink to our friendship once more!"
The giant nods and glasses clink. For a moment they sit in the quiet, in the savoring of the peace and acceptance they find at this table. The pale man raises gnarled fingers to thoughtfully stroke his goatee.
"What more are you pondering, old friend?" the tall man asks.
"I am debating the best approach to confess my true intentions for inviting you here this night."
"You need not map a course, my friend, but tell me plainly."
"I know how we might find fulfillment for our darkest desires. I know an outlet, a reason and a cause for which we can open the doors wide to unleash and gratify the snarling beasts within our bones."
"I cannot deny my reservations are outweighed by my curiosity."
"There are others. More like us than like them. They come from the other side of the curtain. They have begun to rise up and to spread, slowly at first but their numbers are increasing. They are like a sickness, a plague, a mindless cancer seeking only to consume. We are immune, due to our...unique..nature, invulnerable to infection. This makes us ideally suited to combat this disease. If you truly seek to make reparations for your past then find yourself the will to join me in seeking out and destroying this emerging disease."
Leaning back in contemplation, the tall man's heavy brow furrows above his yellow eyes.
"I have heard murmurs of those of whom you speak. Only the faintest of whispers, fragments of information unfit to be pieced together. I had hoped to find kindred spirits but...purpose, above all else, has forever eluded me."
"Then find it here, my friend. Find it in dismantling this wretched affliction. While this thoughtless swarm might not taste fear as we descend upon them, we can still find the solace of old in rending them to pieces. And you can rest easy knowing we do not assault those with beating heart and light of life but only those who have already crossed the dark divide and now walk as puppets of the simplest of instinct. You can crush their skull without the slightest remorse but instead with the assurance that you are bettering and protecting humankind."
"Something stirs within me, old friend. Indeed, I would say two things: first, the firey-eyed deamon who thirsts to slake his rage, a companion I will now need to learn to wrangle at my command, and second, a fresh, new face, someone who has been struggling to have his birth for some time, a steely-eyed fellow of heroic resolve."
"You may very well be more parts than whole, old friend, but I do believe in this battle you might find you can merge them and find a wholeness you've never known."
"I must admit, you are doing a wonderful job of rallying me to your cause."
"Our cause."
"I believe a final toast is in order then, my dear Dracula."
"Then raise your glass, for they will no longer know you as the wretched fiend of Frankenstein's creation but as a noble warrior and champion for their survival."
"To new found purpose!"
"To the battle before us!"
"To the days ahead, for they shall shine so bright as to drown out the shadows of the past!"
"To spilling rivers of blood without remorse!"
"To not letting our zeal overtake us!"
They share a laugh as their glasses clink for the final time this night.
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