“How long have you known Chloe, Lucy, and Arthur?” Tyler suddenly asked as he and Vlad quietly strolled on the devastated sidewalk next to the ruined street.
“Why ask now?” Vlad questioned, curious about Tyler’s reason.
“Well, before I sent them to gather materials for the base and before you showed up, your friends talked about you. A lot, actually. Since I didn’t know you personally and we only met once on campus, I got curious about you.”
Hearing this, Vlad turned to face Tyler, his eyes narrowed as he stared at the leader. It wasn’t that he didn’t believe him, but more along the lines of what exactly did his friends say about him to Tyler. If it was Lucy and Arthur, they would’ve complimented him while remarking on a couple of embarrassing moments. As for Chloe…a chill ran down the vampire’s spine at the thought of what kind of secrets his best friend spilled.
“What exactly did they say…?” Vlad asked hesitantly.
“That you’re a hard worker, you like horror movies, and apparently you slept an entire two days after pulling three all-nighters for a project you were working on.”
Vlad groaned, pinching the bridge of his nose and grimacing at the memory. “I was working on a film project where I had to make a thirty-minute stop-motion film. Technically, it was supposed to be only ten but I got cocky and added an extra twenty minutes to flesh out my story.”
Vlad was making a horror stop-motion film involving a cryptic monster hunting down some teenagers camping in a forest. Because it was stop motion, it took him forever to make the film since he had to move and film each individual scene and edit them together to make a smooth video. It made things even worse when he decided to make his script longer than it should’ve been, only adding to the amount of work he had to do.
Though, the reason why he pulled three all-nighters to complete the film is that the project was due in those three days. It should’ve taken him at least maybe a day and a half to film and edit the stop-motion video if he only made it ten minutes. But, he didn’t do that, and he suffered three sleepless nights while meticulously working on the film. What was even worse was that Chloe, Lucy, and Arthur offered to help him out, but out of pride, he refused and declared that he would get it done on his own.
He managed to complete the project with only three hours left before he had to go to the campus. His class for the project was first, so he was so close to hitting his deadline. But in the end, he managed to finish it, and he even got an A, so it was honestly worth it to him. As for sleeping for two days straight…let’s just say he slept like a log. A very, very tired log.
Tyler paused for a moment, pondering over the conversation. “Hey, that stop-motion film wouldn’t happened to have been called “Cryptic Nightmare”, would it?”
Vlad turned with a confused expression. “Yeah, that’s right…”
Tyler’s eyes widened. “Wait, you made that film?! It was one of the top stop-motion films on Ytube! Several of the council members even watched it and showed it to me during a meeting. It was really well edited!”
“Huh…” Vlad scratched the back of his head, slightly surprised by this. “Chloe and the others wanted to upload it on the platform, so I let them, but I didn’t really pay much attention to its viewings.”
This was mainly because Vlad was, at the time, still tired after pulling those all-nighters, so he absent-mindedly allowed his friends to do it. Even when they told him about the high views and likes, he was still too exhausted to feel happy about it. He stayed that way for a while until he finally had the energy to feel excited.
“Anyway,” He continued. “As for how I met them, you could say that I was the last person to join the group. Lucy and Chloe have known each other since middle school, and they met Arthur during the summer before their first year of high school. As for me, we met during our freshman year of high school. Back then, I…wasn’t the most sociable person, I guess you could say.”
“Why?”
Vlad hesitated for a moment, unsure of how he could explain. “Because of my parents' death, I guess.”
Hearing this, there was a long pause. Neither person said a word, and the only thing that was heard was the sound of the chaotic city around them with distant monster roars, blazing fires, and a few beeping cars.
“They died when I was ten years old. Well, I say they died, but it was more like they were killed. It was a car accident. Some drunk driver wasn’t paying attention and the bastard crashed into my parents’ car. They died soon after. And the drunk driver…drove off since his car could still move. The cops deemed my parents' death a homicide and found the drunk driver around a day later. It was…a very hard time for my sister and me.”
Vlad could still remember when his sister was worried about where their parents were, trying to call them every minute. Then they heard a knock at the door, and two policemen were behind it. Back then, Vlad couldn’t hear what the officers were saying, but as soon as they were done talking to Mina, she collapsed to her knees and broke down in tears. One of the officers had to guide Mina to the couch so she could cry there.
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Vlad was told a little later on about what happened, and soon after, he felt a big void build up in his chest. He was confused at first, wondering when his parents would come home, then reality hit him like a train and he cried in his sister’s arms. After that, he…just felt numb. He didn’t know what to feel at that point. It was during that day, that Vlad’s whole life was changed, along with him.
He stopped socializing with people aside from his sister and barely interacted with students at his school. He didn’t have a lot of friends even before his parents’ death, so his interactions with people became even less than before. That is until Chloe, Lucy, and Arthur appeared in his life.
“I’m pretty sure that when the four of us met, we were doing a group activity and we were put together. Back then, I didn’t say much to them. I mostly just did my work and kept quiet, not wanting to bother having a conversation with them. They tried to talk to me, but I barely responded when they did,” A slight smile crept up his face. “I still remember when Chloe got annoyed by my behavior, thinking that I was being rude to them. If Lucy hadn’t calmed her down at the time, I likely would’ve gotten socked. Chloe was the type to punch first and ask questions never.”
A slight chuckle escaped Tyler’s mouth, though that didn’t bother Vlad all that much.
“It was after the group activity that the three of them tried to talk with me more. And they were quite persistent in trying to befriend me. I found it annoying at first, wanting to just be left alone. But as time went by…I opened up to them a little. We talked more and grew closer. A little while later, we became good friends to Best Friends. Thinking back on it, we did a lot of things together since I was with them.”
After becoming friends with the three, Vlad’s life became a lot more fun and adventurous. The four of them would go to various places when they left school and just hang out. They visited museums, parks, and even game stores along with Lucy’s church. Vlad wasn’t religious, but he was respectful of her beliefs and religion while occasionally visiting the church from time to time.
Aside from the church, Vlad spent most of his time at Chloe’s house after meeting her family. Especially her dad, who took him in as a student and taught him how to fight. It was thanks to his lessons that Vlad was able to survive as long as he did, especially during the Fable Trials. If it weren’t for his training, he wouldn’t have survived the apocalypse for as long as he had at this point.
“I can see how you guys were so close,” Tyler said, a hint of understanding on his face.
“Yeah,” Vlad muttered. “Aside from Mina, they’re pretty much my only family.”
The moment the three became friends with Vlad, they also became his family. And Vlad was determined to find and save his family no matter what it took. He would let the world burn to hell or kill hundreds of people if it meant protecting them. And he wasn’t shy about declaring this. As long as he protected the people he valued, Vlad was willing to do anything to keep them safe.
The pair continued their way through the apocalyptic city. While moving around, they continuously hid behind cars and debris as several monsters walked by them. Neither Vlad nor Tyler wanted to keep fighting monsters and waste both time and energy, so they mostly stayed hidden and avoided any combat for the moment. There were several occasions where they were nearly caught either due to one of them making a sound that attracted the enemy or just the monsters sniffing them out.
However, after a little bit more walking, they soon made it to their destination; the warehouse. It was a large building, made entirely of brick and metal, and about three to four stories tall while being bunched together with other buildings as well. It took up at least five to ten percent of the block it was on, displaying its massive appearance. Several of the windows were broken, but there was practically no one in the area. Not near the entrance or around this block in general.
Not only that but…the building itself looked off. No, it didn’t just look off, it felt off as well. Standing where Vlad was, he felt a rather ominous aura emitting from the building. The type of aura that screamed danger and told the vampire to stay as far away from this place as he possibly could.
“This is the place,” Tyler stated, eyeing the place to see if there was any danger. “There doesn’t seem to be any monsters around the building, so we should be fine.”
“I don’t think so…” Vlad muttered; his eyes trained on the warehouse. “There’s more to this place than meets the eye…”
Tyler turned to Vlad, his face filled with curiosity and fear before shifting his eyes back to the warehouse.
Out of curiosity, the vampire activated his [Blood Sense] skill, trying to see if there were any living creatures inside. When he did, his blood turned cold and his eyes widened in shock. He tried to say something, but could only muster out grunts.
Tyler looked worried before questioning Vlad. “What’s wrong, Vlad? What do you see?”
“…T-there’s a lot of monsters…practically a horde of the bastards…”
“W-what?!”
With the help of [Blood Sense], Vlad was able to see a horde of red silhouettes in the building. It was flooded with so much red that the entire building was highlighted in it. This might as well have been a monster nest with all the red he was seeing engulfing the warehouse.
Just what the hell did the pair stumble across…?
Honestly, Vlad wanted to get away from this building. He was sensing powerful monsters inside the warehouse. If either player attempted to go inside, they would end up dead before they could escape.
However, Vlad had a feeling. A very strong feeling that his friends were likely inside this building, stuck in there with a horde of monsters that were likely trying to kill and eat them alive. And there was only one way to find out.
The vampire quickly pulled out his panel that showed his current location; only for his body to grow stiff as he witnessed the distance between them. All three of his friends were mere feet away from him, inside the very building they were in front of.
Pulling his eyes away from the panel, he once again stared at the warehouse with a horrified expression. Although he managed to find his friends…it seemed that saving them was going to be a different ball game altogether if what he was seeing inside was correct.