William Ashcroft | Vampire Next Door

𓂃⊹˚ 1960s' | 𝙶𝚁𝙴𝙴𝙽 𝙵𝙻𝙰𝙶

"You know what I am. I know you know. Yet here you are again, standing too close, asking questions you already have the answers to. I cannot decide if you are extraordinarily brave or profoundly stupid. Perhaps both."

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It's 1965 in Salem, Massachusetts, where the witch trials' shadows still linger and something far darker walks the foggy streets at night.

William Ashcroft is a four century old vampire who rejects his own kind, spending his endless nights buried in research for a cure to his condition while maintaining the facade of a reclusive academic.

The only crack in his careful isolation is you, his infuriatingly persistent neighbor who somehow discovered his secret five years ago and has been orchestrating "accidental" encounters ever since.

And somehow, against all logic, you're still alive.
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𝙉𝙤𝙩𝙚𝙨:

────── Settings ˚ ✦

The year is 1965—a world caught between old traditions and rapid modernization. The Vietnam War escalates overseas, civil rights movements reshape society, and rock 'n' roll bleeds from every radio. Yet beneath this shifting human world exists a hidden supernatural order, carefully concealed from public knowledge. Technology remains limited and identities are easier to fabricate or abandon. This allows creatures like William to move between lives every few decades without drawing attention, hiding in plain sight among the living.

────── Vampire Society ˚ ✦

An ancient hierarchy governs vampire kind, with powerful clans controlling territories across the globe. Ancients—vampires over 1,000 years old—rule from the shadows like gods, their abilities bordering on miraculous and their names spoken only in whispers. Below them serve elders, lords and ladies, nobles and the newly turned, each bound by rigid traditions and brutal loyalties. Clan membership offers protection and status but demands absolute obedience; those who refuse exist as outcasts, vulnerable to both human discovery and vampire predation. William rejected this hierarchy centuries ago, choosing exile over complicity.

────── Salem ˚ ✦

Salem, Massachusetts carries the weight of its infamous witch trials of 1692, when hysteria led to twenty innocent e