I heard the scurrying of rats as I stirred awake and quickly looked around the small camp. It seems I was one of the last ones to wake, besides Selendris and Kyle. There was the flicker of candlelight and the campfire. Lighting the grey stone around us, keeping all the tiny things from crawling into our camp. Chlorus was re-wrapping Malcolms wound with fresh bandages and my father sat watch. I make my way to the center of the camp, sitting on a broken chunk of stone. We had arranged a few makeshift seats around a campfire.

"Ugh..." I groan as I rub my sore arms. I had bandaged them before going to bed last night and they were sticky with dried blood. I would have to exchange them as well. They both had been cut by the lady vampires swords, which only grazed me, luckily. I got off easy considering Malcoms' sorry state. I warmed my aching limbs, the campfire keeping the frigid morning air at bay. If they didn't underestimate us and attacked with that savage power from the start, we'd likely all be dead. It'll be difficult without a healer to keep Malcolms wounds from festering and getting worse. We're only miles from the town, and a hundred miles from the next one. We'd be lucky to find a small settlement between here and there. Maybe a hunters cabin or two. "Want some coffee?" Chlorus offered, finishing up Malcolms wraps. He had pulled one of the many pouches that hung at his side, concealed within his robe. Producing ground coffee from it.

"Yeah, thanks." I say joining him besides the fire. "We weren't discovered during the night thank the gods- but let's not count our chickens before they hatch." Chlorus said. "I know of a place we can get Malcolm taken care of... It's not far, but the women can be a bit eccentric." I hope he didn't mean would visit some old crone out in the woods, I've heard stories about those types. The lone witches and wizards that isolate themselves, studying magic and potion making. They are left alone for a reason. "Let me guess, she wants two chickens and your first born child in exchange?" I asked rhetorically. Chlorus chuckles; "Yeah, something like that.".

Eventually Selendris woke up and noticed Kyles hand on her face. She slaps it off causing him to jut awake. "I'm up- I'm up-" he says looking left and right. They both join us at the fire. We all had bags under our eyes, our rest was hardly restful. I ached all over from exhausting myself last night. I was pretty much on the run for six hours straight. It was worth it, I can only imagine if we stayed in the town. Maybe we would survive, boarding up the house and staying quiet. But only for a day or two.

I passed around some jerky from my travel rations, as the bread had been soaked by the river and was mostly ruined. I did have extra canteens with water also, so we were good on that front. I managed to keep my satchel during our little adventure through the forest and it served us now. The bandages had since dried from our plunge in the river, and we'd need them desperately. Together with what Chlorus brought, we had a small stock of supplies. We all chewed the rubbery meat and took swigs from the canteens. Lots of us just starred into the fire drearily. "Why are you helping us? You could've easily went right past us last night." Selendris asks. Chlorus nods, tying a little string around his coffee pouch. "I'm tired of watching people die." he said. "But I'm afraid these vampires are immortal as the texts claimed they were. I unloaded everything I had on that guy and he was only incapacitated." I had noticed that, it was reduced to a meaty pulp and was still reaching out, healing. "Ghouls, I've ended ghouls. Easy. But anything upwards of that seems to be impossible. Starve 'em of blood, dump 'em in a river, burn them in the sunlight- it all just slows 'em down." So they did have quite a few weaknesses, but no permanent solutions. I thought the raids were bad, that the wars our nations waged were bad enough. But this was a world ending threat.

"So we're screwed." Kyle said, dejected. My father only sat brooding as typical during our conversations. Every now and then he would nod along or give a grunt of affirmation to let us know he was listening. But I suppose all this was outside any of our expertise but Chlorus's. So he had the floor. "Not quite, we've pushed the vampires back before- historically, and we can do it again... We just got to remember how." Chlorus had started to help me with my forearm bandages as he talked. He peeled the bandages off my wounds, I could tell they would leave scars. Two slashes lay parallel creating a jagged pattern across both my arms. He dabbed the wounds with a bit of alcohol from a flask. "I came here with some others to try and warn the city. But just as we were making our case to your towns tribunal all hell broke loose. The others... They didn't make it." he said somberly. "I'm sorry.", Selendris had said. "Thank you." Chlorus said. Apparently Malcolms family had safely gotten away, he had stayed behind to buy them time. They were with a caravan of survivors with tougher fighters like Malcolm. We were going to pack up soon and gain some distance between us and the vampires, maybe catch up with them.

But first- I made my way down the catacomb tunnels. I needed to take care of some business. Once I reach the crossroads that lead to the stairs I took a turn deeper into the catacombs. Eventually I found a respectable corner where I unleashed the beast. "Aaaaah..." nothing like the first morning piss after a bar fight. This was kind of painful though. Think I saw some blood in it. Kinda scary. "Ay'a pigsy that's a bit rude innit?" I heard a rough voice say. My head whips around in every direction, I'm kind of caught with my guard down considering my situation. I saw no one in the mostly barren hall. "Nature calls..?" I say, kinda loudly since I didn't know where the voice was coming from. "Where are you?" I ask. The voiceless apparition responds in a cockney accent; "I'm everywhere. I'm in your head, I see your future~" it sounds like its- it's above me. As I glance up I see a pair of violet orbs floating in a skull looking back at me. The skull belonged to a skeleton that was clinging to the ceiling looking down at me. "Ooh shit!" I say stumbling back, my hand lands in my puddle. "That's not very hygienic." the skeleton says as I wipe my hand on my shirt.

I turn and run down the hall. "Guys- necromancy, guys!" The skeleton crawled past me like a beetle. Gripping the roots that hung from gaps in the stone above. It quickly flipped down from the roof and blocked my path, standing up to full height. A bit taller than me. He put his palms out; "Ay calm down ya' idjit- People always react to the skeleton thing, I'm starting to take offense!" I slide to a stop before him, swooping up a brick of stone from the ground. The skeletons tone goes from overly familiar to stern- "Ay easy there... You won't like how that ends." he points to the stone in my hand. "Better than you pulling my intestines out... And eating my brain. Bringing my body parts back to some necromancer." to that, the skeleton laughed. "Haha, no, I gave up the intestines a long time ago. Doesn't do any favors for my digestion.", waving his bony hands over where his stomach would be. His bones weren't white, they were dark grey, almost black. "What's your name kid?" I'm not kid, I'm 23. But I guess age might be at a different scale for an undead monster. "Jarrath..." I say. "Did ya' get your arse kicked Jarrath?", an astute observation. Bloody bandages, bloodied side, torn shoe. I didn't look fresh. "You should see the other guy..." I tell him, looking around thinking of possible escapes. He chuckled at that, "You're funny kid. Remind me of myself at your age."

The skeleton gave me another once over, his purple flaming orbs in his skull effectively served as eyes. Though his jaw didn't move when he talked, he would make a facial expression every now and then. Like leave his jaw partly opened after saying something as if to say; 'how about that?'. "Yes... You'll do...", I could almost see imaginary eye brows raising as he spoke. "I got a job offer for ya'. I could use an up an comer, an survivin' a barney rubble with a few 'ampires is a good sign you don't balk from a challenge-" he said pumping a fist in approval. My face no doubt twisted in confusion, he shrugged and said; "My name is Ribs, ya' know, on account of my rib bones." referencing a hand over his rib bones.. "Being a skeleton and all-" I groan in annoyance.

It was getting harder and harder to be afraid of this skeleton as the interaction went on... "Anyway," his purple spheres roll in their sockets, "I serve an eldritch god of horror and pain." he pauses, gauging my reaction to that. Honestly it doesn't surprise me anymore than the fact that he's a skeleton not trying to immediately kill me. This isn't the first situation I've been in lately where everything changes drastically moment to moment. After another moment, he holds out a hand pinching nothing. "THIS, will be your payment and your charge.", he waves his other hand over it and reveals a slim vial now pinched in his hand. He holds the vial outstretched into the air like it's some grand object- "Drink this!" the fluid inside seemed to stick the sides. "And YOU. WILL. BE. REMAAAAADE-AAHH!" he shouts. Gazing into the vial. I don't know how the others haven't noticed his shouting, perhaps he used a spell similar to the one I use when I play my violin to keep sound from traveling so far...

He stood posed for a moment longer, vial raised into the air. Before returning to his default stance. "What? Not a good offer? We could start you off on a gold stipend." I'm partly stunned, but after a moment I respond. "What.. Job?", he crosses his arms, "Oh nothing too difficult, kill a dragon, rescue a princess, you know- the typical stuff.". I take a step back towards the hall behind me. "Uh, I already have a job... So..." I turn to run, but he suddenly appears directly in front of me like he's been standing there the whole time. With an open palm, he slammed the glass vial to my chest, shattering it. "No reason a person can't have two jobs!" I collapse onto my back from the force. A purple smoke rose from my chest where the vial broke. I felt tiny glass shards embedded into my chest. My vision pulsed, blackness enclosing my vision a bit more with each blink. I fight to stay awake but inevitably fade into unconsciousness.

---

I felt the stone grinding against my face- I was being dragged. Surprisingly, it didn't hurt. "Yeah, no I'm not lying. He literally begged me for the job." I noticed a bony grip on my ankle, casually dragging me. "Oh- trust me! This guy has real moxy. The perfect mix of stupid and ballsy. Just the RIGHT kind of stupid, you know? Kind of like you Phil." Ribs said. My body felt like crap before, but I was mostly just warm now. I couldn't feel my cut up arms, my sore body. It all felt so distant. I couldn't will myself to move, a level of exhaustion I've never felt before. I only groaned. "Oh? Is he up from up from his nap? That was fast. Don't worry we're almost there. -Ya' know what? Hold on a sec~" he said. I felt him drop my ankle to the ground. I couldn't see him, but eventually I heard his bony feet shuffle next to me. "Could you hold this for me?" he asked. I managed to turn my head ever-so-slightly to see him standing above me holding a large block of stone. Then everything went black again.

---

I stirred again, my face was a bit achy. I was leaned against a sarcophagus. In a small room with a metal gate as the door. Closed and chained. The ceiling was caved in with tangle of roots coming down, leaving a circle of sunlight on the floor in the center. Green clovers grew in clumps along the walls. *Clink* "What the fuck?" I groaned. Seems I was chained as well. My ankle had an heavy iron shackle around it, attached into the wall. I could slowly move now, whatever he drugged me with was wearing off. My clothes were in tatters at this point, not just from being drug around but what happened yesterday as well. Speaking of which, I hear dragging. I look towards the iron gate, and I see a skeletal pair of shoulders come into view. He was pulling a corpse. With a *THUD* he dropped the heavy body outside the cell. Bloated as if they had drowned, it was a large man- mid forties, Their eyes glossed over with death. "I got you a freshy Jerry." he looks over at me, and I glower at him. "Oh, don't look at me like that. I'm giving you a huge opportunity here.".

"Where am I? ...What do you want?" I ask weakly. Ribs fumbles with the lock on the gate, producing a key seemingly from thin air. "What do I want? Hmm... I always liked beaches, I'd make a homestead on the waterfront... Marry, have a couple of brats. I'd make a good da'." he said opening the gate. He grunts as he lifts the shoulders of the man again. "I'd bring Phil, he could teach 'em to dig for earth worms." he drags the body into the center of the room before plopping it down. "Oh, and you're in the tomb still. My home... Welcome... Here's din-din." he said, gesturing towards the body with two open arms. The sunlight shone behind his black skull like a halo as I looked up at him. "I don't eat people.", I say dismissively. Ribs only shrugged and turned to leave. "Suit yourself.", The gate slams shut and he locks it. As he turns a corner out of view I hear him say; "No Phil! Bad Phil!".

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

I groggily willed myself to flop over, trying to distance myself from the body. What was in that vial? That skeleton must be a hell of an apothecary. My father and the others were probably wondering where I went. I hope they didn't wait up for me, who knows if the vampires will visit the cemetery tonight. Though, I don't know why they would. Maybe to search for survivors like them.

Unable to do much else, I waited. Time passed. Every now and then I'd hear Ribs say something as he passed near my cell. Random musing about chores like cleaning the tomb which has clearly never been cleaned. Gradually I regained mobility. The warm feeling slowly changed to heat as time went on, I felt like I should be sweating by now. As I looked at the corpse, I saw a gleaming small pin. It was holding his vest pocket closed. I knew how simple locks were made, I could try to pick this one. I reach for it but as my hand passes beneath the sun light a searing pain flashed through it. "AH!" I pull my hand back, rubbing the back of it tenderly. It was pink, a bit of steam wafted up to the ceiling. "Oh no." if this means what I think it does... "Hey- you fucking pile of bones!" I stood and walked to the end of the length of the chain that held me towards the gate. "HEY!" I shout into the vacant hall of what appeared to be a makeshift dungeon.

"I hear ya! I hear ya! Wake the dead why don't ya?" Ribs called out as he approached the cell. He stood for a second. "What?" he asked. "What was in that vial?" the skeleton only rolled his purple orbs. "Listen, I'm a busy skeleton, I got a lot of errands to run." I reached out to the sunlight again and after bearing through the pain, I hear a *Sssss* sound I pull it back. The burn from before slowly faded so I assume this one would. "Well that's not a very smart thing for a vampire to do." Ribs said incredulously. My mouth dropped. "Why am I a vampire?" I ask. He just shrugged, putting his hands on his hip bones. Then he appeared to have a sudden epiphany and snapped his fingers- "Oh! You see, when a daddy vampire and a mommy vampire love each other very much..." he created an "O" shape with one hand and started to point at it with the other. "Stop. Just stop. You're impossible. What are you? What is... THIS!?" I said waving my arms all around gesturing to my cell.

"Oh, well duh. Of COURSE you would be curious about that." he knocks the side of his skill with a knuckle. "Remember? You agreed to take the job?" He asked. "NO! I explicitly remember not agreeing to anything!", "Well, you said yes with your eyes." he said, crossing his arms. "Just be straight with me, man." I demanded. In that moment I heard a squeak. And a guinea pig waddled into view, it was a fat little ball of fluff. "Phil! Don't say that! You'll confuse the help about our relationship!" he just puts the back of his bony hand to his mouth and leans towards me; "He's just a flirt don't mind him." he whispered at me. "If I'm a vampire...", "You are a vampire." he said. "Then why am I still me? I'm not an evil psychopath.", the skeletons eyes just narrow, like the flaming orbs just squinted; "No asshole ever thinks THEY'RE an asshole, ya' know..." I really don't have time for his sassy attitude. "Cut the crap! The vampires I saw turned almost instantly, and went for blood!" I shout through the bars. "Sounds like you're talking about ghouls, don't worry you're not a ghoul. You should thank whatever god you prey to for that one, ghouls are proper arses." Ribs replied.

I slid down the wall with an exasperated breath. Closing my eyes fighting back tears. Dead, like that. My entire life, over. How long until I was no longer myself? "Hey... It's not so bad... It could be worse." he said consolingly. I keep my eyes closed, saying "Worse how?", an awkward silence followed for a few moments too long after that. After awhile I heard him say- "You could be a skeleton." I opened my eyes and looked towards him. He just stood there I assume plain faced starring at me. A happily chirping guinea pig was in his arms. "A skeleton that turns people into monsters.", I tell him. "Alright, alright. I'll throw you a bone? Get-it?" This time I roll my eyes at him. "Okay, not in a joking mood... That vial, did turn you into a vampire. Mourn it, shout, it's your party you can cry if you want to...", so it's a guarantee then... I saw those monsters, even the ones who weren't ghouls were sociopaths. I heard them talk about how they would feed, torture and trick people. "It wasn't an easy choice, but we're on a timeline here. We need to get to work." I looked down towards the bloated corpse. "What the hell man." I say. "What? It's not like he needs his blood anymore.".

"You still haven't told me what I'm supposed to do. Why it requires me being like this." I said. Ribs gave Phil a few headpats while saying "All in due time, life doesn't always care about what you want, ya' know Jerry. Once the change sets in and you figure things out a bit, we can enter phase 2 of our plan.". He turns and goes down the hall. I look back down towards the corpse. Fuck.

---

If I'm a vampire, what does that mean? Time went on, imprisoned I had not much else to do but think about it. I thought being a vampire would mean not being myself anymore- like a man possessed. But I'm still here. I'm thinking and feeling same as before, as far as I could tell... I closed and opened my hands repeatedly. How long did this change take, what kind of change? Maybe I could survive it? Almost as if on cue, I heard a crackling sound, it was hard to place. The area around my eyes starts to itch. Badly. So I rub them, as I do so I can feel something coming loose, like an eye lash dangling off from the others. I pinch up to grab it and pull. Peeling it, I realize it was the front part of my eye. Horrified I quickly pull it from my vision, holding a thin clear film the shape of my eye in my hand. "Ugh.." I repeat the process for my left eye. I wordlessly look at the gleaming glass like flaps. "Gods, I hope I didn't need those." I say after a minute, tossing them across the room. From then on, the changes happened quickly.

About a half hour later, I felt popping in my mouth. Grainy chunks started to fill my mouth. In a renewed horror, I spit up bloodied fragments of my teeth into my palm. I explore my mouth with my tongue- thick pointed teeth were emerging from beneath the broken teeth. My tongue essentially pushed the old teeth out. It was all so surprisingly painless. I could feel numerous other changes happening, my insides were churning. And the cuts on my arms had healed to scarred pink lines. My finger and toe nails eventually followed a similar route as my teeth, popping out as thicker black nails grew out from beneath them. It all happened so rapidly. In real time I saw the black toe nails pushing out. There was a bit of blood, but it wasn't painful. After wiping it away I didn't see any wound.

As time went on, the sunlight seemed to grow brighter, blinding, I wanted to slink away from it into the darkest corner. The light that bounced from the ground and filled the cell even irritated me. Causing a slight itchy prickling sensation on my skin. And a smell started to fill the room. It was familiar, but new. It was like a slab of beef that was grilled a few hours ago. I cringed my eyes closed as I realized the source. My stomach rumbles. Gods. I never thought I'd ever salivate over a disgusting corpse. It's been dead only a day it seemed, likely drowned trying to cross the same river we crossed. Come to think of it, the skeleton knew about our fight with the vampires. It seems that he gets around, if he pulled this body in from outside the cemetery. I've heard of undead summons, deep in dark crypts owned by necromancers. But not around a town like ours. The kind of danger we had was less sophisticated, like a giant centipede or troll. There were no stories of people coming across a skeleton at the local cemetery... My hearing seems to of approved, since I could hear Ribs more often, talking to Phil. "How's this look Phil? I think it completes the room.", after a moment of silence I hear him say; "Well then you arrange it, if you're such an interior decorator.".

Sun gradually set and stopped pouring through the hole in the ceiling. A welcome reprieve. Ribs didn't visit again for the rest of the night. As my teeth came through, I still heard the mysterious source-less crackling sound from time to time. My muscles hardened, my ears became ever so slightly pointed. As time went on, I just tried not to look towards the body. Now that the sun was gone, I could easily reach it if I wanted. But I didn't want to lose myself, maybe that's what set me off. Made me a monster. Taking that final leap, I could feel the urge. I felt hungry, and every time the smell hit me I would swallow hard. Maybe I could just borrow blood from people, I could be a nice vampire. I didn't feel any different, besides my senses being stronger. Smell, hearing, sight. The urge to bite into some random dead dude. What powers did a vampire have besides what I knew about? They're strong, tough, and fast. Can see in the dark well and discern scents easily, as I'm learning right now. I recalled back to what I saw the ghouls do back in town. What they could do, crawling up walls and leaping far distances. I wonder what Chlorus would think. He's likely seen this kind of thing before, vampirism against a persons will. Hours pass.

I sat, picking at my new finger nails. They were hard, like metal. I see why the ghouls slashed at people, these could easily open someone up. Even as the night turned to it's darkest, I could see fine. As if it were day. Albeit with a blue hue instead of yellow. As the sun rose the following day, I crawled into the sarcophagus. It didn't have a lid, but the edges blocked the bouncing sunlight a bit better. My stomach really started to rumble. My lips were pulling back, revealing my sharp teeth. It was like I was a prune slowly drying up. I heard Ribs walk down the end of the hall to my cell, until he stood outside it for a moment. "Now, that won't do. You need to eat, Jerry. Your bodies reserves fueled the change, but now you need some coals in the fire." he said shaking his head. I gazed towards him from within the opened stone coffin. "Leave me alone. Just let me wither away and die.", Ribs just laughs, "Is that what you think will happen? No, you'll get so hungry you'll tear apart that body. And if it wasn't here you'd be skulking around the cemetery grounds looking for fresh victims." he said. I curl up into the fetal position. "You know, your troop is still here, looking for you." which made my eyes pop open.

I stand up, wincing at the sunlight. "Why? It's been a full day!", Ribs would be grinning if he had lips. "Guess they figured you got lost in the catacombs or something, they've been mapping the tunnels searching for you." he puts a bony hand over his rib bones. "Warms my heart, da' loves his son.". If they're still here, and I lose myself, then... I glance towards the corpse again. "That's right. If it's going to happen regardless, might as well be on your own terms. Time to learn the vampire way of doing things." he said. On my own terms... That's right. "Wait- no!" I jump into the sunlight. My vision flashes white, there's a blinding pain engulfing my body like I was submerged in boiling water. It doesn't last long before everything goes black.

---

I groggily open my eyes. "Guess you had to learn some how." I heard ribs say. My vision had black splotches in it, it was night now and I sat near the corpse in the center of where the sun shown. "Suicide is tough for a vampire, especially for one as powerful as yourself." I couldn't believe it. I tried to move but I just slumped back to the ground. "The most important bits of your body are resistant to sunlight. Your body chars up into something harder than stone until nightfall." I reached out with a hand, and then I saw it- my arm was just flesh and bone. A black rock like substance was crumbling away in the dark. Revealing strings of meat and sinew, burned down to the bone. "Wha-" I try to speak but it comes out graveled. It was nearly impossible to speak. I ached all over, a prickly sensation all over my body. I felt smaller, I had chunks of missing flesh. "Now you're definitely gonna need to eat, and you'll need a second serving for sure. That puts more work on me, you know I'm a busy skeleton right?" he asked. I let out a gurgled weep. "You're lucky that corpses aren't in a short supply right now." he said. The look I gave him must of been critical because he immediately followed that up with; "I'm not killin' em, just recycling them is all." he said as he left down the hall. I heard him mumbling about hauling dead bodies around like some kind of undertaker.

I laid in a pile for awhile, not many other options but to. After awhile- I saw a flash cross my vision. Flashes of red. Visions of gnashing teeth. Uneasily I stand to my feet, and move away from the corpse. I felt my body involuntarily flinch and twitch. My head whipped towards the body, I had to force myself away to a corner of the cell. The flashing images and urges only became more frequent. It started to feel like I was dreaming and awake at the same time, the images interwoven together. I knew I stood here, but I also was out in the forest. Stalking. I was looking at Kyles horrified face as I lept onto him. Chlorus charging me with daggers drawn. I felt chills, a feverish feeling as a battle ensued. I saw images of me cutting them all down, slicing their throats. My father came into view, I was bashing his head into a rock over and over again. My throat watered and my stomach rumbled.

I drug my nails down the wall, leaving claw marks on the stone. The next set of visions didn't recede. I was a prisoner held hostage by my dark obsessions. Just a reel of violence and carnage played out before my eyes. In the city, I was hunting with the ghouls. I watched as a dream version of myself drank the blood of his victims. It was like drinking hard alcohol in the way that it hit me so suddenly. But it was sobering. The cool blood tasted like a seasoned sauce that would go on the grilled steak I mentioned earlier. The visions faded, as my hunger was sated. I came too above the body. Blinking away the visions. I was kneeling before it- it's entrails covered my fingers, I lift my face away from it... Gods... What have I done?