-Two hundred years ago-

"Janos, come on! Catch me if you can!" A newly twenty Thane exclaims as he runs through the forest. He laughs as he weaves around and between the trees and brush.

Not far behind him is his lover, Janos, who chased closely behind the older, shorter male.

"I'm gonna get you, Thane!" Janos laughed as he sprinted behind Thane. Janos was eighteen at the time of their incident.

"You'll never catch me, you slowpoke!" Thane jokingly sneered as he jumped over a fallen tree. Janos quickly leaped over ht same fallen tree as he followed his lover.

Janos's eyes widened as he noticed the cliff Thane was running towards. Amidst his joy and bliss, Thane forgot to look where he was running.

"Thane, baby, watch out! There's a cliff!" Janos screamed. By the time Thane noticed said cliff, it was too late. He was already skidding down along the side of the cliff.

"No, no, no, no Thane!" Janos cried as he safely followed Thane's sliding figure down the decline. Once Thane reached the bottom, he was badly wounded. Just how wounded, Janos couldn't even guess as he looked down towards his boyfriend.

Janos dropped to his knees beside the elder boy's body. He leaned his head above Thane's heart, but the beat was slower than he would've hoped.

Janos carefully brought Thane's crumpled form closer to himself as his tears dripped onto Thane, the tears mixing with the blood.

"Thane, please, speak to me." Janos sobbed and ran his thumb along his lover's jawline. "Say anything, I don't care what it is, just please," Janos begged his unconscious boyfriend. Thane stayed unconscious.

Janos absentmindedly lifted his head and noticed a large cloud of smoke continuously rising.

'People!' Janos thought then looked back down at Thane.

Janos quickly -but carefully- lifted the elder into his arms and tried making his way closer to the puff of smoke.

"Please don't leave me, Thane. You're all I have left!" Janos muttered through tears and sobs that wracked his body. He pressed a soft, chaste kiss to Thane's bleeding forehead, too scared to cause any more pain with the slightest of pressures.

Janos made it to the small house, still carrying his tattered lover. Once he reached the door, he did his best to knock on the door with his foot. A moment later, a woman opened the door, a smile on her face. "Hello? How can I- oh my god! Get in here!" She exclaimed as she opened the door as far as it could.

She cleared the mess of papers and books from her couch quickly before motioning for Janos to lay Thane down. Janos very gently laid his boyfriend onto the plush, black couch.

"What happened to him?" She asked the still crying Janos as she pulled small jars out of a cabinet.

She then began mixing a few into a mortar and added a little water to it. She made a healing paste.

"We were running," Janos sobbed, "We were running and he didn't notice that there was a cliff. He- he fell all the way down."

"Okay, if I mix a few of these herbs together, I can stop the bleeding." The woman muttered under her breath, then began to smear it along the cuts and scrapes lining Thane's arms and face.

She grabbed a pair of scissors from the small table beside the couch and cut the front of Thane's bloody shirt. She also poured the mixture onto a large slit that was struggling to clot.

"This is all my fault. Thane, I'm so sorry!" Janos whispered to himself as he watched the woman try her best to heal him.

"You're a witch, right?" Janos asked the lady once she ran out of paste.

"Yep! I'm Mary, Mary the White Witch!" Mary exclaimed as she studied Thane's wounds.

"If you're a witch, can you please use some kind of spell and heal him?" Janos asked then bit his lip.

"It would take a great sacrifice of the three of us, but I'm sure I could," Mary states as she picked up a spellbook and turned a few thick pages.

"I would do anything, anything, to have Thane back!" Janos pleaded. He was knelt down beside Thane, holding his hand.

"Would that 'anything' include your mortality? If so, I found what we need!"

"Yes, anything!" Janos sniffled. "I'd give anything for him to be happy."

"Okay then, we can commence! Give me your palm." Mary says then grabs a pure silver knife. She cuts across Janos's palm then pulls it above the mortar.

"I know this hurts, but squeeze your palm. The spell calls for the blood of the two lovers, and the witch casting it." Mary explained as she did the same to her own palm.

"How are you going to get Thane's blood?" Janos questioned as he followed her order.

"The same way I got yours!" She exclaimed then made a cut on Thane's already severely wounded body. She collected the blood then brought it to the mortar where she poured it in.

Mary added a few ingredients Janos didn't know the names of then mixed them together. The concoction made a small 'poof' sound then Mary smiled.

She poured the finished liquid into two vials and handed one towards Janos.

"Drink it!" She demanded then took the other glass to Thane who had just begun to stir awake. She gently led Thane to sit upright before handing him the second vial.

"Please drink this, Thane. It'll make you heal quickly!" Mary sweetly told Thane, who then began to gulp down the bitter, purple liquid. He grimaced at the taste once he finished the vial.

"Okay, we've finished the vials, what happens—" Janos then began to violently cough as he knelt to the floor.

Janos screamed as he grasped his head and throat. "What the heck was in that? What's happening to me?"

Mary's bright smile faded into a grim smile. "I- I told you the curse would require your mortality." She stuttered.

"I know the curse would take my mortality— Wait a minute, curse?" Janos exclaimed. "What will happen to Thane?"

"Maybe you should worry about yourself first, Janos. You will soon grow your fangs and become a vampire. Thane will be the cursed one, though. He will survive this, but not past twenty years old. During his twentieth year of life, he will die suddenly."

"You will be stuck falling in love with variations of Thane only to watch them die! And the best part? The cycle shall last until you two manage to break the curse, but you can't break it without a more powerful witch." She laughed a little as blood began to drip from her nose.

Janos felt the sharp fangs begin to grow as the scent of blood grew more potent with the heightening senses he gained.

"This wasn't a good spell, you've- you've cursed him to constant doom!" Janos screamed then launched himself onto Mary.

"Have fun in hell." Mary snarled, knowing she wouldn't be able to fight him off in her weakened state.

"See you there!" Janos growled then bit her neck, thus finishing his change into a vampire. He pulled her body closer to himself as he drained her dry.

Janos ripped his fangs from the dead witch's neck then turned to Thane, who watched the scene with scared eyes.

Janos walked closer to his lover, not realizing he still had blood dripping down his chin. A smirk rose to his cheeks as he came closer.

"Jae, what have you done?" Thane whispered, unable to talk any louder. He scooted farther and farther away from Janos on the black couch.

Janos flinched as he noticed Thane retreating. "I- I'm not going to hurt you, Thane. Why would you think that of me?"

"I just watched you kill that poor woman out of cold blood, what's to say you wouldn't end me just the same?" Thane questioned, then scooted even farther away.

"She cursed us, Thane. She promised the spell would just heal you, not damn us both. She had it coming." Janos muttered then sat down beside Thane.

"Didn't you think to ask what else could happen? She's a witch, Janos. I thought I'd taught you better than to fully trust a witch!" Thane scolded then wiped the blood from Janos's chin and neck.

"Why do you keep calling me 'Janos,' you never call me that," Janos asked as he laid his head on Thane's shoulder. He stiffened slightly, still shocked from watching his sweetheart of a boyfriend kill a woman.

"I just watched you turn into a vampire, then kill a witch, and yet you're asking why I'm saying your full name?"

"..do you hate me, Thane?" Janos's eyes watered again at the thought.

"I don't hate you, I'm just- I don't know? Scared or shocked doesn't even begin to come close to what I feel. " Thane says the stands up.

"I'm going out for a walk, don't follow me. I'll be back later." Was the last words Janos heard from his fleeting lover.

The second Thane stepped out of the door, he was face to face with Mary's Patronus— a large, snarling wolf. The wolf growled then carelessly attacked Thane.

"No, it's me you want you stupidly overgrown dog!" Janos yelled, but he was too late.

In the span of a single night, Janos watched Thane brink death twice. Only this time, there was no coming back from this, not for a century until he has to meet another incarnation of Thane, who dies horribly.