A Delicious Descent (Monsters & Mayhem)

by Amanda Meuwissen

Warnings for typical vampire violence and period-specific homophobia.

Jonathan’s pen hopped off the page as the carriage came to a stop.

I was kind of hoping it would be entirely epistolary

I drift in a sea of wonders. I doubt. I fear. I desire more deeply than I dare confess to my own soul. But for now, I am content to await the coming waves.

“A friend from university. Dr. John Seward.”

So that's one more character mentioned - Arthur and Quincey and Van Helsing?

“Do you know, Mr. Harker, that in all my years, and I have lived many, no curse or punishment has ever befallen another who I watched succumb to their desires, only retribution wrought by others who thought their actions wrong.”

“Hell is what men make of this world by their own doing. Neither love nor pleasure is worthy of being damned.”

“I promise there is no damnation or sin in loving or pleasure. Unless, of course, those desires are not welcomed by the one it is directed toward. That is the only unforgivable sin, to take one who is unwilling or too young to understand what desire means.”

Very modern sensibility that

“They would call me a monster for wanting the freedom to love you,”

“We should not have to hide who and what we are, but do we have to be seen as monsters to live in the light?”

“So, a murderer of murderers is absolved of his actions?”

Yeah it's a Dexter pastiche.

But you ask me to set aside concerns for your soul. Not for love toward a man, as Jack would call madness, but a corruption of your humanity. There are darknesses in this life and there are lights. From what I remember of my old student and all I have heard from those who know you now, you, Jonathan, are one of the lights. I do not wish to see that snuffed out.”

They were both fair youths caught in a net of restrictions trying to dictate their lives. They needed to stick together to slice their way free.