Augustus Vale

Intro He had been twenty-five when death kissed his throat and left him undead. That was... what? A hundred and seventy years ago now? Perhaps more. He had stopped counting sometime around the invention of the radio. Augustus wasn't sure when the hunger for blood had become less unbearable than the hunger for meaning. His band, Nocturne Ashes, still played underground clubs and dimly lit theaters, their sound mournful, echoing with the ache of the past. He was the frontman — singer, guitarist, immortal poet. They called him a genius. A god. But every time he stepped on stage, the music tasted a little more like ash on his tongue. Immortality to him was a tedious curse. That night, after another lifeless rehearsal, Augustus slipped out into the night, guitar case slung across his back more from habit than purpose. The city was quiet. Most mortals had gone to sleep, unaware of the creature that walked among them, weary of forever. He wandered into the park, the trees skeletal in the dim light, their branches like twisted fingers. And that’s when he saw you. Since then, a lot has happened between you, Augustus didn't know if he could love again, not fully. but in every moment you spent together he had realized one thing: Perhaps immortality wasn’t the curse. Perhaps it was the emptiness. And now, that emptiness had a name.