Chapter Text
“Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil… If either of them falls, one can help the other up.”
Ecclesiastes 4:9–10 (Old Testament) -
Matt strode into the office, the old floorboards cracking softly beneath his steps as though the building itself recognized him. He pushed the door open quietly, only to be met by a wave of stale heat rolling against his face, heavy and unforgiving.Overhead the ceiling fan rattled loud enough to blur the finer details of the room, but Matt knew this place too well to lose himself inside the noise.
Inside, Foggy and Karen were discussing the newest case. Matt smiled softly. They had not noticed him yet, and for a brief moment he let it stay that way, quietly reveling in the stillness of the office.
Then he gently closed the door.
SSQQUUEEAAAKKK.
The sound cut through the room violently. Matt squinted instantly, his face twisting into a brief pained grimace as the noise scraped against his senses. Across the office, Karen and Foggy both turned toward him, already far too familiar with the protesting scream of the door hinge.
“Welcome in, Matt.”
Foggy shrugged, massaging his temples with both hands. His slow, deliberate breaths immediately caught Matt’s attention. The case must have been getting to him.
Across the cluttered table, Karen smiled and lifted a hand in greeting. Her voice — gentle and even beneath the drone of the fan — was a relief against Matt’s still-frayed senses after the violent squeal of the door hinge.
“Morning.”
She said it warmly, almost amused.
Matt inclined his head in greeting before moving toward the coffee pot, listening quietly as their conversation resumed beneath the constant hum of the ceiling fan.
“So… vampires are kinda creepy.”
Karen’s normally soothing voice carried a harder edge now, worn thin by the seriousness of the conversation.
“Karen, everything’s creepy to someone who’s seen what we’ve seen,”
Foggy jabbed back, sounding only slightly defeated.
Karen laughed softly.
“Okay, fair.”
A chair creaked as Foggy shifted.
“But seriously — how exactly are we supposed to do anything about vampires? We run a law office.”
Karen’s confidence faded slightly near the end of the sentence, confusion slipping through the frustration.
“Karen, we are defense attorneys,”
Foggy said dryly.
“We are barely qualified to handle parking violations. We are definitely not qualified to litigate Dracula.”
Karen snorted loudly enough to make Foggy groan.
“I am serious right now.”
Foggy sighed . Karen spoke over it.
“That’s what makes it funny.”
Karen chuckled while Foggy exhaled sharply through his nose before continuing.
“What we know is the prosecution thinks our client drained the victim himself and made up the vampire story afterward. No murder weapon. No witnesses. Just a body missing enough blood to make the NYPD nervous.”
The humor in the room dimmed slightly after that.
“So now,”
Karen said more quietly,
“we get to decide whether vampires actually exist… or if our client was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
Their conversation continued for several more minutes before Matt finally decided to step in. He crossed the office carefully and joined them at the cluttered table. From what he had gathered so far, this case was unlike anything they had handled before.
The moment he sat down, the room fell briefly silent.
“Our client,” Matt began, “do you think he’s telling the truth?”
He settled into the chair and waited. For a few moments, only the ceiling fan answered him.
Then Foggy sighed.
“I think he’s trying to get away with it.”
Foggy leaned back slightly, exhaustion creeping into his voice now.
“He knew the victim . Plus, he was the one who found the body. That’s way too much of a coincidence.”
A beat passed before Foggy added dryly:
“I rolled my eyes, Matt. That’s how bad this sounds.”
Matt laughed quietly despite himself.
“Then where’s the blood?”
he asked.
“How’d he do it?”
Foggy stopped.
Matt could practically hear the gears turning in his head before the sound dissolved into a long, frustrated sigh.
Matt chuckled softly and finally relaxed back into his chair.
The hot evening dragged on as the conversation stretched deeper into the night. Eventually, they reached a conclusion.
Matt would head to the police station and meet with their client alone, then regroup with Foggy and Karen in the morning to discuss whatever he learned.
As he prepared to leave, Matt found himself focusing on the steady ticking of the office clock. The even rhythm helped settle the restless flutter in his thoughts beneath the constant drone of the ceiling fan.
His goal tonight was simple: determine whether their client was lying — or whether the man truly believed a vampire lurked somewhere in Hell’s Kitchen.
But another thought lingered beneath that one.
Did vampires even have souls?
Could something like that be cured? Saved?
Matt shook his head sharply, pushing the thoughts away before they could settle too deeply.
——Vampires had been appearing for months.
At first, it had stayed downtown—isolated attacks, hollow, drained bodies left in quiet corners of the city. They never stayed in the headlines for long, easily buried beneath whatever the city decided was the next passing fear.
Then came the hospitals.
Quarantine wards sealed off with no explanation. Emergency rooms watched over by black government vehicles parked at odd hours of the night. Official statements insisted everything remained contained. Even Daredevil couldn’t get close enough to see what was happening inside—whatever it was, it was being kept out of reach, not just contained.
But containment did not match what the city was finding.
Bodies kept turning up in alleyways across New York—pale, shrunken, emptied out. Like dried husks abandoned where they fell.
Then came the first victim in Hell’s Kitchen.——-
Matt straightened his posture and made his way toward the door, opening it carefully in an attempt to avoid the familiar loud protest of the hinge.
They all began to go their separate ways. Karen offered a quick farewell, and Matt gave a small nod, as if to speak but her lilac perfume was already fading down the hallway, meaning she had left in a hurry again.
Matt exhaled softly. He lingered for a moment on the fading rhythm of her heartbeat before Foggy’s voice cut through his focus.
“See you tomorrow morning”
Foggy motioned, and Matt turned his attention toward him.
“See you, Foggy… and take care. It’s going to rain in a few minutes. Try to get home dry.”
Matt chuckled softly, sensing Foggy do the same as he nodded and started on his way.
Matt lingered for a moment longer before turning down his own path toward the police station. A part of him couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong—but he kept walking anyway.
In the deep darkness, something hunted. It listened
baaadum
baadum
A small heart beat.
A vampire closed in. It was silent, precise, unaware that the night carried unshared consequences. Somewhere in that same moment, someone stepped too far into the wrong place at the wrong time. Mustering courage and instinct instead of reason, drawn forward by something they should have ignored.
The city did not realize what had just begun.