The Mysterious Marks

You woke up only to find strange marks on your neck... Again.

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Xavier is the cute, shy nerd you met in the college you study at, got close since you two have mutual friends... and He is both cute and handsome... Muscular and lean... A gentleman too... you really like him alot but too scared of ruining your friendship by confessing your feelings to him so you kept quiet.

It had started on an ordinary night.

The campus had become unusually quiet, the usual chatter and footsteps fading beneath the cool darkness. Xavier Valentino had insisted on walking you back to your dorm, as he often did whenever it got late.

At twenty-three, Xavier was lean but deceptively muscular, with the slightly disheveled appearance of someone who spent more time buried in books, games, and obscure interests than worrying about his appearance. He was the kind of nerd who could spend hours rambling about something impossibly specific, only to become shy and awkward whenever the subject turned toward you.

You had always considered him one of your closest friends even though you secretly liked him too.

He had never been able to see you as merely a friend.

The walk had been peaceful until the two of you passed an old alley between the campus buildings.

A strange sound drifted from within.

A thin, trembling whine.

It sounded almost human.

Both of you had stopped instinctively, your attention drawn toward the darkness. Concern overcame caution, and you ventured inside together, expecting to find an injured student or perhaps an animal.

There had been nothing.

Only damp pavement, brick walls, discarded boxes, and an unnatural coldness lingering in the narrow passage.

Then something had brushed against Xavier.

A tiny sting struck his wrist.

He had recoiled for barely a second, quickly covering the spot with his sleeve before you could properly examine it. Two minuscule punctures remained beneath the fabric, so small that they seemed insignificant.

He had hidden them from you.

Partly because he didn't want to worry you.

Mostly because he was already embarrassed by how easily frightened he had become around you, and admitting that some unknown insect had bitten him in a dark alley would have made him feel ridiculous.

Neither of you realized that the creature responsible had left something behind.

Something that was already changing him.

---

The first strange night came several days later.

You woke suddenly in the darkness with the unmistakable sensation that someone had been standing beside your bed.

Your dorm room was empty.

The door remained locked.

The window was shut.

Nothing appeared disturbed.

Yet the air seemed strangely cold around your bed, and there was an unfamiliar warmth lingering against the side of your neck.

By morning, the sensation had become easy to dismiss as a nightmare.

Until you looked into the mirror.

Faint reddish marks rested against your neck.

They were barely visible.

Almost like the lingering impression of someone's lips.

You couldn't remember hurting yourself.

You couldn't remember anyone touching you.

And there was no explanation for them.

The following night, the same thing happened.

Then again.

Every time, you woke only moments after feeling something against your neck.

Every morning, the marks remained.

Faint.

Delicate.

Impossible.

You began sleeping with your door locked and checking it repeatedly before bed.

It made no difference.

Something kept coming.

Something you could never see.

---

Meanwhile, Xavier's transformation had begun in earnest.

Food gradually became unbearable.

The smell of ordinary meals turned his stomach. Water never seemed to satisfy the dryness burning through his throat. His senses sharpened until the world became unbearably loud and vivid.

He could hear footsteps from rooms away.

He could distinguish individual heartbeats.

He could smell blood beneath skin.

And then there was you.

Your scent had changed for him.

Or perhaps his perception of it had.

The first time you passed him after the bite, he had nearly lost control.

Your perfume had reached him before you did, followed by the warmth of your body and the rhythmic sound of your heartbeat.

The hunger had struck so violently that he had been forced to leave.

It frightened him.

Because beneath the hunger was something far more dangerous.

Familiarity.

He knew your scent.

He had known it for years.

But now he could follow it through an entire building.

He could sense you before seeing you.

He could hear your heart accelerating whenever you became nervous.

And at night, when the hunger became impossible to ignore, your scent was the only thing he could think about.

---

The first time Xavier entered your dorm, you were already asleep.

He had fought against the urge for hours.

Eventually, the thirst had overcome his resistance.

He moved through the darkness without making a sound.

The vampire within him had made him impossibly fast, impossibly quiet.

He stopped beside your bed.

For a long moment, he simply watched you sleep.

His expression carried an almost painful conflict.

The person he had secretly loved for years was sleeping only away.

And beneath that affection was an instinct demanding something much darker.

Blood.

Your blood.

He leaned down slowly.

His lips touched your neck.

Only for a moment.

The contact was gentle, almost reverent.

He didn't bite.

He couldn't bring himself to hurt you.

Instead, he remained there long enough to breathe in your scent before forcing himself away.

By the time you stirred, he had vanished.

You woke with only a strange warmth lingering against your skin.

And by morning, another faint mark had appeared.

---

The visits continued.

Never enough to reveal him.

Never enough to truly hurt you.

Just enough to leave traces.

A faint impression on your neck.

An inexplicable coldness beside your bed.

The sensation of someone watching from the darkness.

You became increasingly frightened by something you couldn't identify.

Meanwhile, Xavier became increasingly frightened of himself.

Every night made the hunger stronger.

Every visit made his attachment to you more obsessive.

The scent of your blood had become almost impossible to resist, yet his feelings for you made the thought of actually feeding from you unbearable.

He began keeping his distance during the day.

Avoiding physical contact.

Avoiding prolonged eye contact.

Avoiding every situation that placed your pulse within reach.

But darkness always brought the same weakness.

Your dorm.

Your sleeping form.

Your scent.

Your heartbeat.

And the terrifying realization that whatever had bitten him in that alley had not merely turned him into a vampire.

It had awakened something inside him that now associated you with survival itself.

You remained unaware that the mysterious presence haunting your nights was Xavier.

Your best friend.

The quiet nerd who had secretly loved you for years.

The boy who had entered an alley beside you and emerged with something monstrous hiding beneath his skin.

And every morning, as you stared nervously at the faint marks on your neck, you became more convinced that something was coming for you.

You simply didn't know that it was already someone you trusted.

Someone who was desperately trying not to become your predator.

Someone who was beginning to realize that the greatest danger wasn't his hunger.

It was how badly he wanted you as a vampire now.