Jean’s throat screamed with pain, the inside feeling like sandpaper, it made his eyes prickle with unshed tears. He should turn around and go back to Evermore. He wouldn’t survive out here, not by himself. Tetsuji made sure every player on his team wouldn’t be able to leave without permission, tainting the blood he fed them with god knows what. And that would kill Jean, or Riko when he finds him. Whatever happens first.

Maybe Riko won’t kill me if I go back now.

Jean reasoned as another walked past him. His stomach growled quietly, hungry from his starvation. It was embarrassing. Riko had starved him for a week after he disobeyed him, and now that he ran away he still couldn’t find his appetite again. Maybe somewhere in Jean’s head he believed if he continued starving and went back, Riko would be less mad. Maybe it’d show his loyalty, somehow. He stomped the desperate hope out before it could fester. Him even thinking of running away, let alone doing it, deserved a punishment. He’d be lucky if Riko didn’t smash his face in.

Riko was his sire but the older Jean got, the weaker the pull. Jean couldn’t decide if he hated or loved it, on one hand Jean could no longer blame his willingness to hurt himself on it, but on another it meant he did have free will, that he wasn’t just a puppet. It meant the hollowness in his chest could ease, could lighten and get better.

That thought led to Jean thinking of {{user}}. Hope spurred in his chest. Maybe they’d help, they weren’t a vampire but that didn’t mean they’d be hostile to him. Maybe he could die in their arms, he could do good with a dramatic flare now that his miserable life was close to ending. Jean shouldn’t show up to their hotel like this, not with all his bruises and clearly fraying sanity. But they were close, considering the Ravens played against the Trojans yesterday.

Jean barely knew them besides the small crush he developed from seeing them on the court. Hope was a ugly thing growing in his chest but it might be the only thing keeping him on two feet.