Chapter Text
The sight that awaited Percival when he walked into the back alley, their usual meeting place, was something he didn't know how to process. There was Credence, which wasn't unusual, but he was crouching on the floor, hands covering his eyes and his breathing heavy. Next to him laid a cat, covered in so much blood that it was almost impossible to recognize as that. And it wasn't only the cat. There was blood all over the place, on the floor, on the wall, on Credence's clothes, his hands, everywhere.
It wasn't like Percival has never seen something like this before. It wasn't even uncommon in his line of work. It wasn't even the amount of blood that disturbed him, or the dead animal. It was the fact that this was Credence cowering and weeping on the floor.
"Credence..." he whispered, not sure how to approach the boy, but taking a tentative step forward. He stopped short, however, when Credence's head shot up, an expression of pure terror on his face, his eyes unfocused, tears streaming down his pale, blood covered cheeks. He was shaking so violently, Percival wanted to cover him in a blanket even though he knew the shaking didn't come from the cold and probably wouldn't stop.
Credence opened and closed his mouth several times without saying anything. His hiccups traveled through the empty alley way and Percival wanted it to stop, didn't want to see Credence in distress like this. But he also knew there was no easy way to solve this, no magical cure to take all the pain and suffering away. Credence got turned and there was no cure for that.
"Mr. Graves..." Credence whispered, a few minutes too late to be a response to his words from before. "I didn't... I... wasn't..." he said, deep breaths between his words like he had trouble forming them. Credence suddenly looked down at his hands like he had just noticed how bloody they were and his breathing quickened again, fresh tears rolling down his cheeks.
Percival had watched the whole scene without moving, but Credence's next words made him jump.
"Help me..." a new wave of hiccups rolled over Credence and Percival spun into action, falling to his knees and pulling Credence into a hug, his bloody clothes be damned.
He knew it was irrational, he knew Credence was supposed to be dangerous, he knew he should eliminate him immediately or at least bring him to the according authorities he was working with. But he couldn't. He just couldn't bring himself to do anything of the sort. Instead he went in to comfort and soothe.
Credence was still shaking under his embrace, gripping onto Percival's shirt for dear life, his eyes focused on a point Percival couldn't see. He knew it was a dangerous move, but he took Credence's face in his hands to make him look up at him, wiping his tears away with his thumbs. Credence's eyes finally seemed to settle on him, now really taking him in.
"I didn't mean to do it." Credence gasped out eventually, his eyes so full of sadness and regret, his pale skin contrasting with the blood still present everywhere.
"I know." Percival answered and swallowed thickly. Of course he didn't mean to, but that didn't change the facts. Credence was one of them now, irretrievable. He could tell Credence was trying to take deep breaths, albeit failing miserably.
"I just- I couldn't do it anymore! I was so hungry." Credence wept and Percival pulled him to his chest, trying to calm him down.
"It's alright, Credence. Everything is going to be okay." he whispered into his hair, stroking his neck. And if Percival just kept telling himself that, he might even believe it at some point.
- A few months earlier -
It was a busy day at the Watchers Council. Everyone was hurrying through the corridors, frantically trying to make everything work the way things were supposed to work. There had been an influx of new vampires around the streets of New York, confused and hungry and looking for the only thing that could keep them alive, if you could call it that.
Looking like a normal security firm on the outside, the Watchers Council was investigating far more concerning matters. In the past their work had always been fairly easy, looking for the occasional vampire that was making trouble and eliminating them. A lot of them hid well, paid attention to only ever drink from animals or steal blood bags from local hospitals, only ever taking so few that it went unnoticed most of the time. Other times they found willing human participants, not drinking enough to kill, just barely enough to sate their hunger. But those kinds of relationships usually never lasted very long, either because the vampires got too greedy or because the other person came to their senses. In either case, these situations never ended well for the people involved and it was Percival's job to find them before anything like that could happen.
His job was fairly simple. Look around the city for new information of what could be vampire activity, investigate and eliminate the target if necessary. He was usually dealing with older vampires who have gotten careless and had drawn Percival's attention. Recently, however, there were a lot of freshly turned vampires acting up around New York. Finding them wasn't the hard part, because they were usually reckless and insatiable. But they were also hard to control, not used to their new found powers and therefore very dangerous.
So you could say Percival wasn't particularly happy about this new turn of events. They were still trying to figure out where all these new vampires came from. There had to be some kind of reason behind it. Some connection that none of them have figured out yet.
Huffing out a breath, Percival left the building to look for some more clues hinting at new vampire making trouble. Before he got very far, however, he noticed him. The sad looking boy at the other side of the street, handing out leaflets without any confidence behind it, was able to grab his attention. Percival thought he might have seen him before on this very street, handing out the same leaflets, getting ignored by the same people and Percival wondered if he was there regularly or if that had just been a coincidence. Deciding to investigate this further, he walked across the street and towards the dark haired boy.
When Percival was standing right before him, the boy cautiously looked up and then down to his shoes again, but he held out a leaflet for Percival to take, seemingly surprised when Percival actually took it in his hand.
“Evil creatures among us! Help stop this vampire outbreak!” the headline read in big black letters and Percival took in a sharp breath. Percival and his organization tried to keep everything about vampires hidden from the public eye, as to not cause a mass panic around the citizens, doing their work in the shadows. But of course that wasn't always possible, especially not when human blood was involved so often. But aside from the occasional saved victims and some fanatic groups, vampires were still perceived as a myth by most people.
This boy, however, seemed to belong to one of these groups, so Percival decided to try and get more information. They did get some useful intel from these people from time to time after all, although Percival couldn't say he liked working together with them.
“What's your name, my boy?” he asked and the boy seemed to startle at being addressed, probably thinking Percival wouldn't pay him any mind, just like everyone else.
“It's Credence, sir.” he said, looking anywhere but at Percival's face. Percival tried to catch his eye and the boy, Credence, looked up from under his lashes shyly.
“So, Credence, my name is Percival Graves. Now tell me, why are you handing these out?” he asked, genuinely curious. Credence looked a bit too young to be part of one of these groups of his own free will, although you never knew.
“Mother says we have to spread the word about the threat that vampires are posing to our people. I have to pass out these leaflets before dinner... every day.” Credence said, clutching the remaining papers to his chest like they could protect him. While his mother wasn't wrong about the threat of vampires, Percival certainly couldn't approve of these methods. Spreading the word about vampires would only make people more anxious. Percival looked down at the leaflet again.
“And what about you, Credence?” he asked, folding the paper and putting it in the pocket of his coat. Credence gave him a confused look.
“Sir?” he asked, not understanding what he was supposed to answer.
“Do you believe there are vampires among us?” Percival said to clarify. Credence let out a quiet gasp and then looked deep in thought for a moment.
“I never really... thought about that. Ma says my real parents got killed by a vampire, but I was too young to remember any of that.” Credence said in a hushed voice, like he was afraid someone else could hear. But then his eyes widened in what seemed like shock. “I mean- I- I would never say mother doesn't speak the truth. She must know what she's talking about, I'm sure.” He seemed incredibly flustered, when he was really just questioning his own beliefs.
“Well, sometimes I'm not sure what to think myself, but it certainly can't hurt watching out for yourself on the streets.” Percival tried to soothe the conversation, looking around to watch the other people hurry past them. Watching all these people go by, seeing all the alley ways all around them made Percival consider something. “Speaking of these streets, you said you were here every day?” he asked. Credence nodded.
“Yes, sir.” he said, mimicking Percival and taking a look around the street, trying to guess what Percival wanted from him. Percival pointed at his office building across the street and Credence's gaze followed him.
“I work in that building over there. We are the Watchers Council and you could say we're keeping a watchful eye on this city.” Percival explained as best as he could without giving anything away and Credence nodded in understanding. Percival pulled out his business card from the inside of his coat and held it out for Credence to take. “If you ever notice anything suspicious around here, you can call me.” he said. Despite taking the card from him, Credence looked incredibly flustered and Percival looked at him in concern.
“I'm... I'm sorry, Mr. Graves, I would really like to help out, but... I don't have a phone and ma will only let me use the house phone for emergencies.” Credence said, bowing his head down in embarrassment, again not looking at Percival's face. Percival considered this for a moment. He really thought this boy could be good intel on what was going on in these streets. He pondered his options for a moment and made a decision that he may or may not regret in the near future. He was usually very cautious about pulling other people into his line of work, but something about this boy was drawing him in, making him want to figure out this mysterious boy from across the street.
“Then how about this: I'll meet you here in a week from now and you can tell me if you noticed anything. If you see something that seems urgent, you can come over to my office and ask for Percival Graves and I'll come, how does that sound?” he suggested and Credence's face seemed to brighten a bit.
“Okay.” Credence said, with a determined nod, apparently happy that he was of use and Percival gave him a warm smile.
“Great, I'm looking forward to our meeting next week then.” Percival said and went to turn around. He still had a job to do after all. He couldn't let others do all his work for him.
“Yes, uhm, see you next week... Mr. Graves.” Credence said behind him, which put another smile on Percival's face.
Little did he know that getting involved with this boy would eventually be the downfall for both of them.