The hunger that ravaged most newborn fledgling vampires was intense, and often times consumed vampires to the point of insanity, and yet Conrad still insisted on waiting as long as he could in a sort of test of endurance to see how long he could last before succumbing to the unearthly hunger. He hated going to Worth's for various reasons, and he grumbled to himself about the unfairness of it all as he left his apartment yet again to make an appointment with the man and set out into the night.

He hated the transition as he made his way through the artsy part of town he lived in to the slummier bits, as everything went eerily still. No usual city-slick sounds intruded upon him, and he couldn't help but feel he was being watched.

Immediately, he put up his guard as best he could, afraid of who, or what, he'd run into. Rather, more specifically, he was frightened at the aspect of running into enemies of Adelaide who'd learned of his existence and come seeking his eradication for whatever reasons. Conrad hadn't yet had the opportunity (or the will) to try and figure out how to use his vampiric skills properly and remained in a constant state of vigilance.

And yet, he still very nearly jumped out of his skin when two oddly familiar faces appeared abruptly before him, having seemingly apparated from thin air as Conrad just about fell over from surprise.

"Oh fuckme, you came outta nowhere."

If his heart had still been beating, he was sure it would've gone out then. The taller of the pair grinned, showing his fangs as he shook his head, chuckling.

"Well well, lookie what we got here; Adelaide's pup out for a night on the town."

He made as if to give a kick, and Conrad visibly flinched, waiting and bracing himself for impact. It never came.

Scowling, Conrad leered at the other vampire as his ringing laughter reached his ears, bouncing off the walls of the alley and echoing around them. He noted that the dark skinned vampire's companion seemed to roll his eyes in obvious disapproval.

"What do you want?" Conrad managed to spit out once he'd composed himself, crossing his arms in indignation.

"Aw, what? I'm not allowed to drop in on a friend?" His grin was ever present, a hint of malice hidden beneath it as he spread his arms wide before him. Conrad scoffed.

"We're not friends."

Casimiro feigned a look of hurt, turning to look aghast at his partner before draping his arms over Finas and giving a sniffle, the shorter vampire shaking his head at his partners antics.

"Oh, Fin! He says we're not friends! Oh, boo-hoo, boo-hoo, boo. Fucking. Hoo." His joking nature diminished into complete seriousness in an instant, effectively putting Conrad further on edge. Casimiro turned a rigid face toward the young vampire, who, despite his apprehensive attitude, managed to stand his ground as the other advanced on him slowly. "And, who, exactly, do you consider to be your friends then, hm? Surely not those pathetic mortal whelps you hang around with."

"Yea, well, so what if they are? Why should it matter to you who I call friend?" What it was, exactly, that had gotten Casimiro so riled up was beyond Conrad, and as he flicked his eyes nervously between the two older vampires, he caught the gaze of the shorter vampire. Finas, who stood back silently, offered neither support nor ill intent and was watching the ordeal with a solemn eye. Swallowing nervously out of habit, Conrad redirected his attention back to Cas.

Said vampire let out a sharp 'ha' at Conrad's words, backing away from the confused fledgling to shake his head, chuckling deeply.

"He thinks those freaks are his friends! Ha, he really thinks that!" he elbowed Finas, who inched away disapprovingly as Casimiro cackled away at some unspoken joke. "What a riot!"

Conrad watched this display with a frown, anger quickly rising as he tried to figure out what the hell was going on, but was too afraid to speak, lest he say something to further provoke the deranged vampire. Luckily, he didn't have to wait long before Casimiro began explaining.

"How do you think that's going to work out in the long run, huh? Really, I'm dying to know."

"I don't- Did you come here just to mock me? I can't say that I'm finding this all that funny." Casimiro's question was vague, and he didn't know how to respond, and thus fell back onto his usual line of defense; bitching as much as possible about the situation at hand until the offender got tired and moved on. The half-blind man laughed and waved a hand, dismissing Conrad's statement.

"Don't flatter yourself, runt. Me 'n Fin were just on our way to lunch when we stumbled upon a lost wittle vampire. What'sa matter, lose your sense of direction along with your mortality? Nearest human hot-spot's the other way."

Ah. Conrad was going to have a field day trying to explain this one.

"Oh, er, no. I uh," he hesitated, fingering the high collared shirt that hid his puncture wounds out of nervous habit, trying hard to come up with a convincing lie. Story telling was not Mr. Achenlecks forté, however, and he ended up stuttering about nothing until Casimiro interrupted.

"Visiting a friend, or..." Casimiro's voice was smooth and calm as he crept back to the young artfag, his fingers outstretched like that of a spider to pull the collar of Conrad's fancy shirt down to inspect what lay beneath. The vampire's face fell into a thin line of disapproval as his eyes lay upon that which Conrad hid, tsking under his breath. "Mm, thought as much."

He felt as though a deadly secret had been exposed, and wished he had had the guts to bite someone so those gosh darn holes would go away; they were always causing problems, wherever he went.

Before Conrad could come up with an excuse as to why they were still there, Casimiro had slapped him hard clear across the face, a scowl on his own. Conrad could only stare in surprise, a hand rising to where he'd been slapped, as the Italian (or maybe he was a Spaniard) eyed him with disgust before returning to Finas' side.

"You're pathetic." He spat, eyeing him with disdain. "You think by honoring their lives they'll honor yours? How long do you think you can last like that by relying on that wacko 'friend' of yours who calls himself a doctor?"

Casimiro was obviously well past angry, but Conrad couldn't figure out why the other un-dead man should give a damn. They hardly interacted with each other, and it wasn't like he was a nuisance to the other by not drinking from a human. He found he was unable to speak however (still in shock from the slap he'd received prior), and opted for raising his brow in confusion instead. Cas scowled.

"You don't get it, do you? You honestly think you can get by by getting that bagged blood shit from the old hack? How old is he, do you know?"

"I-wh. I." he blanched. "What does Worth's age have to do with anything?"

"Just humor me. Do. You. Know. How old he is. Yes, or no."

Frowning, Conrad shook his head and a smug look crept over Casimiro's face.

"He still doesn't get it. Ha, what an idiot." He made to elbow Finas again, but the shorter successfully evaded, giving him an evil look which Casimiro chose to tastfully ignore. "Alright kid, let's try this again. Where do you see yourself in 50, 60 years?"

"I dunno," he said slowly, eyeing the two vampires warily. "I guess I'd be around..."

"In your 80's, at least." Finas supplied.

"And you won't look a day over whatever the hell you are now." Casimiro said cheerfully, yet Conrad still failed to see the point.

"So?" he said, a frown creasing his features. "Isn't that part of being a vampire? Eternal life and preservation and all that?"

Casimiro looked on expectantly, waiting for Conrad to grasp the concept he'd been trying to get across, but received nothing more than a confused glare. Another sharp laugh erupted from his mouth as he turned to Finas in blatant disbelief.

"Fuck, Christ, he still doesn't get it! How dense can you be?" He barreled over onto his shorter counterpart, laughing manically as he clutched at his stomach for air he didn't need. Some human habits never died.

If Conrad had any blood in him, it would have been flushing to his face as he stood in embarrassment, watching the taller vampire laugh at his apparent ignorance. Finas gave him an apologetic look on behalf of his estranged friend, but made no move to shut him up.

"The fuck is so funny?"

"You. You don't fucking get it, kid!" he stood up straight, smoothing out his jacket as his laughter quietly ebbed away. "You, you fucking refuse to feed on humans and rely on a two-bit hack who looks like he could drop dead at any minute for food! You truly are the worst vampire I have ever seen; I can't believe Adelaide sired you!"

He paused to look at Conrad's face with a smirk before he continued.

"One day you're gonna wake up and realize a hundred years have gone by, and you won't have aged a wink. You really expect your 'friends' to do the same? You'll get older, and you'll stay the same, but your friends? No, they'll get old and wrinkly and die. You really think they're gonna last forever like you? No, my friend. You'll live forever, but they'll keep getting older and older till they end up six feet under. They won't carry on like you."

It took a minute for Casimiro's little speech to sink in, but when it did Conrad felt his whole body go numb in cold realization of what the maddened vampire had said. He'd never thought about that before, oh God, he'd never bothered to even think about the repercussions of what being a vampire had besides having to rob people of their lives. What Casimiro had said was absolutely true; Hanna, Veser, Toni, and even Worth could all be gone one day, and what then? What would become of him? How would he cope? He stared unseeing before him as an odd, unpleasant sensation crept through his body.

A dry laugh came from the tall vampire as he leaned against the brick wall, watching Conrad's reaction with a slightly amused look.

"Now you understand. Humans are no good, kid; they're just gonna up and die. And this little blood exchange you got going on with your dropout friend? Gonna haveta end; obviously can't rely on him forever, you're actually gonna have to start killing people. Your lifeline will be gone."

"I-" his mouth was dry and it felt like it'd been stuffed with cotton. He was still dazed, trying to imagine life without that little ragtag group he'd come to appreciate. It was impossible; it hurt to think that he'd continue living long after they'd died. He stared at the two other vampires with wide, vulnerable eyes, and this seemed to satisfy Cas, but he wasn't done giving the young vampire a reality check quite yet.

"And if you think for a second that they'll wanna live forever like you do, you can forget about it. They'd rather get old and die and fucking start families or some shit than be a monster like you. Immortality is great, but not for them. Fine for you, not for them. Oh, and the best part? You get to watch it all go down.

"It'll start off slow; they'll tire out more quickly, and then they'll start complaining about aches and pains you'll never get to feel. Or maybe they'll take up smoking and speed the whole process up. After they reach about age 30, it's alllllll downhill for them. Which brings me back to this; just how old is your doctor friend?"

Conrad's mouth was frozen wide in a silent 'o' as the implications became clear. The human lifespan was short, especially compared to his, and with Worth's crazy lifestyle, he could literally be gone any day now, and where would that leave him? Hanna? Anyone?

Casimiro's smug look was resting on his face once again as he watched the young vampire grapple with the cold facts of his new life. Finas looked almost sympathetic to Conrad's plight, and when the taller of the two opened his mouth to speak again, he promptly smacked his partner in the stomach and gave him a sharp glare that said he'd done enough. And really, he had. One look at Conrad and anyone could tell he was absolutely crushed.

And then, Conrad was running, putting distance between him and the two vampires who'd managed to pull the rug out from under his new life as fast as he could. He was pained and confused, angry and frightened as he ran, his mind a turbulent whirlwind of thoughts he didn't want to acknowledge. Casmirio's haunting laugh was ringing around in his head, mocking him as he moved through the alleys to some destination he wasn't completely aware of. He didn't know where he was going, he just knew he had to get away before they decided to reveal more horrors of his unnatural life.

It was all unfair, everything that was happening to him was so far out of his control it was, well, yea. Unfair. All he wanted was to live a semi-normal life, but ever since that night with Adelaide and Hanna, his life was just one big mess after the other, and there wasn't anything he could do about it. He tripped over something, and he went crashing to the ground with a strangled cry. Conrad tried to get up, he really did, but found that he didn't have the energy for it and resigned to simply lay against the ground as everything caught up to him. His mind was clouded with thought and emotion and he didn't think he ever wanted to get up, even if that meant having to wait until the sun came and reduced him to ashes. What was the point if everyone he knew was just going to end up in a hole in the ground someday?

And as long as he was alive, all the humans he'd ever get to know would ultimately meet the same fate; as long as he kept living it'd be a never ending chain of getting to know people only to have to watch them die. What kind of life was that? Who in their right mind would possibly want to go through all that pain and heartache? He wondered briefly as he lay there against the cold ground how Fin and Cas dealt with it. He sighed and curled up into himself, a heavy cloud of melancholy and overall depression hovering over him. As if his life hadn't been fucked up enough; now this.

Conrad was so absorbed in thought he didn't realize who's alley he was curled up in until the very distinct voice of a well-known doctor friend washed over him.

"What in the hell're y' doing, ya fag?"