We Tell Ourselves

"**We Tell Ourselves**" is the second episode of Season 1, the second episode of the One Bad Night story arc, and the second episode of the show overall.

## Synopsis

*After a horrific incident, Lee returns home terrified and hungry.*

## Plot

### Part One

Lee coughs as he wakes up, still in the alley. Jill stands at the end, arms crossed and a frown on her face. Through his ragged breaths, he manages to ask her "what's going on? Who was..." Jill walks towards the body next to Lee, kneeling down and telling him that "the guy who attacked you? His name was Henka. He was an asshole, don't worry. Nobody's gonna miss him." Lee tries to stand up, only now noticing that his wounds have been healed. He looks at his ripped shirt and Jill says "I don't know the guy who turned you, though." Lee looks up, whispering "turned?" to which she smiles at him and tells him "welcome to the club."

After the intro, Harriet and Boris stand in the now empty alley staring at Henka's body. Boris looks on amazed as Harriet kneels down, taking out her phone and commenting that "there's no bite marks." She takes a few photos before taking out a UV torch. As it shines on the blood on the ground, it begins boiling. She confirms that it's a vampire, with Boris asking if she thinks "our guy from yesterday did this?" to which she shakes her head, telling him "it's not the same method. It's clean. No messing around. I think this *is* our guy."

Lee gets back to the flat, sneaking around so as to not wake Polly up. He goes to the bathroom and tries to wash up the blood. He lifts his shirt up, looking for the wound that Henka gave him, finding nothing. His hands shake and his stomach begins hurting. Lee grabs his sides for a few moments, pain shooting around him. When it subsides, he begins crying quietly.

#### Flash-back

Back in the alley, Lee asks Jill what she means. She then tells him that "you're a vampire now, Lee. That guy, whoever he was, he fed you his blood. It saved your life, but it turned you into a vampire." Lee back up a little bit, saying "vampire? You...you're a vampire?" She tilts her head, still smiling a little, telling him that "now, you are, too." Repulsed, Lee tells Jill that she's sick before running from the alley, passing the car where Harriet and Boris are sat. They notice him, with Boris asking "something going on?"

### Part Two

#### Present Day

Lee leaves the bathroom, the cramped living room is cloaked in darkness. He goes to the window as Polly's voice can be heard coming from her room. She asks him if he enjoyed himself and he tells her yes before seeing two figures on the street outside, hidden in shadow. He says that "I need to head out again for a bit." She protests, but before she can leave the room and see him, he has already left the apartment.

Outside, he walks up to the figures, who have now moved under a bus stop as it has started raining. Lee asks them who they are and what they want, and they reveal themselves to be Jill and Isiah. Isiah then tells him "you should come with us, son."

At the AVD, Harriet sits at her computer, filling in paperwork, when she is approached by her superior, Valerie Allen, who tells Harriet that she looks "overworked. When was the last time you slept?" She then insists that Harriet goes home and gets some rest. After a bit of resistance, she relents and gets up to leave. On her way out, Boris asks if she'd like him to take her, but she refuses, telling him to "get autopsy results on the guy in the alley. I'll be back in the morning."

Lee follows Isiah and Jill to a small coffee shop. Isiah buys them drinks while Lee looks around, agitated, before the older man tells him to calm down and that "nobody here's going to hurt you." He then tells Lee the truth: that he has been turned into a vampire and that the process is irreversible. He tells him that "from now on, you'll have to consume human blood to survive. Human food can be eaten, but you won't be able to get any nutrients from it. Sooner or later, you'll feed." After a few moments of silence, Lee says that "I could go to the...the camps. The...the Turned Vampire Centres. They let newly turned vampires go there because they haven't..." to which Jill can't help but laugh. She tells him that the "TVCs are a joke. All communication from the outside world is taken away. You're escorted everywhere at gunpoint. You have to work to make your keep and if you don't work, you don't stay...and they can't just let a vamp go, so..." she makes a gun sign with her hand. With Lee looking horrified, Isiah leans forward and tells him that "you have three choices now, Lee. One: Turn yourself in, never see your sister again, and work yourself to death. Two: Don't turn yourself in, and inevitably kill someone to feed. Or three: Don't turn yourself in, but I can help you find an easier, less brutal way of getting the least amount of blood you'll need. Me, Jill, and a few other vampires we know do this under the guise of a members-only book club at the university."

Lee, still nervous, finally speaks, telling them that "this can't be happening. I'm gonna be fine. Look at me, I'm fine! I don't want to...hurt any of these people." he gestures to the few other people in the shop with them, but Jill then tells him that "everyone in here is a vampire, Lee. That's why we chose it. Why would a coffee shop be open at night?" He slowly looks at the other members, panic on his face. Before anyone can say anything, Lee gets up, telling them that "I think I'll just...y'know, figure this out on my own, yeah?" Jill tries to make him stop, but Isiah stops her with a word and she sits back down, calling him a "fucking idiot."

### Part Three

On his way back, Lee notices that he can see straight down otherwise pitch black alleyways, but keeps shaking his head, muttering to himself. He turns a corner and bumps into a group of men. He apologises, but they start sniffing the air. When one of them says that he's "a new one, aren't you?" he tries to speak, but can't say anything. The man, Nils, as the others call him, then tells him that "since you're one of us now, ya gotta learn who's boss in these parts." Lee begins to say that he doesn't want any trouble, but Nils punches him in the stomach as the others watch on, laughing.

In her car, Harriet watches the scene unfold as the group of men begin beating on Lee and start dragging him over to a manhole. They pull it off and push him down, following him in. After looking around for a moment, Harriet parks her car and gets out, following them. She barely manages to pull off the manhole. Once off, she whispers "shit" to herself before climbing down herself.

Bloody faced, the other men drag Lee down sewer tunnels, eventually ending up in a large chamber where many of the tunnels meet. They place him in front of a tall, stocky man at the end of the room. He sits with a group of other vampires, but turns towards Lee as the others push him to the floor. Without saying anything, the man then looks up at the ones who brought him. They refer to him as the "widowmaker" and tell him that they "found this one on our way back. Recently turned." The Widowmaker looks Lee up and down for a moment before smiling and nodding to the side, saying "take him." A few of the men then drag Lee off, who screams "wait" but is ignored.

Back in the sewer tunnel, Harriet watches on as Lee is dragged away down another tunnel. She pulls out a pistol. Back on the surface, Polly looks out of the window in her apartment, waiting for her brother to come back. Isiah re-enters the coffee shop and shakes her head to Jill, sat one the same table.

## Trivia

* First appearance of Valerie Allen
* First appearance of Nils Fier
* First appearance of The Widowmaker
* First appearance of the Blood-born