I stared towards the GPS, only two more hours to reach our destination. That destination being, of course, NYC. It almost felt like a cliché to be driving directly towards that city, but to a certain degree it made sense. There were labyrinths of unexplored tunnels under the city, so where else would you hide a vampiric civilization? Not even mentioning that, underground, you didn’t need to fear the sun.

We stopped at a toll booth, fishing around for any loose change in the car. Sarah eventually pulled out a couple of quarters from behind one of the cushions, and we were on our way. The car ride was pleasantly silent, the night sky unfortunately devoid of stars, and a nearly full moon hanging precariously above.

I started to think about that as we fell into the traffic moving across the bridge to New York. If vampires and witches existed, wouldn’t werewolves? It would be worth asking about at some point, in-case we ever had an unfortunate run-in with one. At the moment, Sarah was asleep, and whilst Sam was awake, I wasn’t certain that he’d end up knowing more than me.

“Who knew a city could look so ugly,” He commented, as we drove into NYC proper.

I snorted, looking towards the side of the street, where trash bags were hanging tall, waving as a scarecrow would, and a drunk man tottered off to the side of the street. How a person could decide to live here was anyone’s guess. A glance towards the GPS told me that we were finally getting close, and I pulled the car off onto the side, on what I could only guess was a parking spot.

Sarah had stirred at this point, and all three of us piled out of the car.

The building itself looked abandoned. It was of gothic architecture, and I was half-expecting to see Gargoyles, or perhaps stone lions. Neither of which adorned the structure, but I could almost swear that I saw a spot upon the stone railings where they would’ve sat had they existed. There must’ve been some interesting arguments about the merits of such decorations when the place had first been crafted.

We walked towards the door, made of an ornate wood, and half a sculpture in and of itself. It dwarfed us in size as we walked closer, and I stared blindly towards the handle, wondering if I should toss it open, or wait for someone behind it to address us in some manner. After a moment’s thought, I rose a hand and knocked.

When there wasn’t any answer, Sarah moved in-front of me and shoved the door open with a roll of her eyes, “The place is abandoned, I thought that would be obvious,”

I huffed, before moving into the space, “I don’t know anything about Vampire Culture. They could be really obsessed with the whole ‘abandoned gothic architecture’ thing like they are in the movies,”

She didn’t say anything for a long moment, just moved towards a decrepit elevator, “That’s a fair point,” She finally replied.

With the press of a button, the rusted metal bars pulled themselves open. I blinked as a yellow light flickered on within the middle of the elevator, revealing sheets of dust; to the point where you could notice where old footprints had disturbed a past layer of said dust. Cobwebs extended as jeering jesters within each corner, and threads of spiders seemed to threaten to jump from the innards of the machine. Without any sense of hesitation, Sarah moved into the middle.

As I studied the interconnected carnage of that dilapidated machine, I couldn’t help but wonder if she’d lost her mind; or if she’d never had one to begin with. Pushing down my disgust, I walked into the direct middle of the elevator, trying to ignore the shambling and shaking of the spiders in every corner.

“This is how people access the vampires?”

She shrugged, tapping the glowing down button, “I imagine there’s entrances that have seen more use, but this is the only one we knew about,”

As Sam shuffled from the middle, he extended a hand towards one of the webs. I was just about to warn him off of the action, when a flame lit up the tip of his finger, and shot down and through one of the webs. He looked towards me and smirked with a shrug.

“So… Can you do that for the rest of the elevator?”

He considered it for a moment, before flames shot from his hand to each of the major branches of web, “You owe me though,”

I almost smiled at that, then said, “It pays off a sixteenth of the debt you owe me,”

He rolled his eyes, before looking back towards the gate, “How long is this supposed to take?”

“We’re going down pretty far,” Sarah replied, “So around fifteen minutes,”

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

As if to punctuate her words, the shuttle that lowered us deeper into the Earth shook. It was a horrible shuttering, built upon by a loud and horrid screeching sound. After a few minutes of this, the sound suddenly stopped.

“If this thing breaks, we need some sort of plan,” I finally managed to say as my heart stopped racing.

Miraculously, nothing else of note happened, and we landed upon new terrain in relative peace. The metal cracked open, and we pushed forwards into a darker landscape. Or, a landscape that stayed dark for all of five seconds. There were torches upon the walls in-front of us, the sort powered by electricity, and harboring surprisingly bright lights.

We moved through a polished cavern, where old dirt had been packed away underneath stone, and hints of ancient traffic lay within the beat-down concrete, and the peak of old wooden stalls. Yet, any noise that was made was clearly made from nowhere near us.

Instead, we spent our walk in silence, eyes alert and waiting for something to peer from within the vague shadows that we passed. When we had finally begun to relax, we came upon a door. The door was not high enough to block out the entire cavern, and rays of light washed out from within. I’d expected some sort of guard, and looked towards an intercom instead. A small, almost polished, button lay underneath.

Pressing the button emitted a loud buzz, and then the crackling of static. Minutes passed, and silence bloomed like precipitation, before someone finally answered from the other end.

“Please state Name and Title,” The voice held very clear worry.

I pressed the button, and looked to Sarah, hoping to follow her example; she walked forwards and said, “Sarah, Witch,”

I nodded, before stating, “Warren, Psychic Vampire,”

Sam stepped forwards, “Sam, Dragon,”

There was a heartbeat, before, “Please state your proper identification, dragon,”

His eyes widened, and he grit his teeth before saying, “Goron, Fire Dragon,”

Another, then, “Warren, state your classification,”

I looked around in confusion, when no answer was seen within the eyes of my companions I said, “I don’t know. That’s… Part of the reason I came here,”

Another buzz came over the intercom, and a loud thudding echoed from the door, “The way is open. Enter and head directly towards the Council. It’s the largest building in the center of the city, circular in its construction, you won’t miss it,”

With the door opened, you could see from within a complicated set of mechanisms, likely designed to make opening the door a bit more difficult. The area we walked into appeared to be a buzzing market district, with a few stalls frantically pulled away from the no-longer-inert door. One of the stall owners was glaring at us, but when his eyes met mine, he frantically looked away. I didn’t bother to ask what that was about, instead staring towards the building that awaited in the distance.

It towered over everything around us, almost like a colosseum designed to dwarf skyscrapers. Beautiful marble carved its creation, making something that seemed to shine, even from a distance. The building itself was a monument to architecture, both past and present alike, with ceaseless sculptures seemingly blooming out from the body of its behemoth. Faces of ancient men and women, of weapons and arcane designs, all seemed to sit within its framework; a monument of pure art.

I felt myself moving towards it, almost unconsciously, and from the sound of footfalls below, I could guess the same was rushing through them. I got another step, before my foot snagged onto something. Tripping over myself, I only just barely managed to catch myself, and another person.

Something flashed within his eyes as we looked towards one another, quickly disappearing. He was a raggedy old man, hardly more than skin and bones, with strange animal skins almost pasted onto his body. After I’d helped him steady himself, he smiled, his teeth jagged and yellow.

“Why thank you, such a kind young man you are,”

I smiled nervously, “It’s nothing; really it’s my fault that you almost fell,”

He shook a hand, “Nonsense, nonsense. Now, I really must be on my way, you understand,”

I nodded, “I do too. Let’s hope we don’t go tripping over other people,”

He chuckled, his voice almost like a hyena, before he disappeared into the crowd.

I felt myself visibly relax after he’d disappeared. It hadn’t been his appearance that had set me off. There’d been a feeling radiating off of him, of power, a power that seemed just barely contained behind the façade of a frail frame.

“What was that about?” Sam asked from behind me.

“I… Don’t know. Let’s just get to the Council so we can figure out my classification, I guess,”

The walk there was equally as fascinating. Unlike the city above, this city wasn’t separated into separate districts. You were just as likely to find an apartment stationed above a café as you were to find a butchery and a bank right beside one another. I decided to walk into one of the butchery’s just to make sure that they weren’t using human meat or something, and found it to be a surprisingly reputable place; with all of the ordinary animals, and no… cannibalistic pieces on the market.

Houses seemed to be placed almost indeterminately, and as far as I could tell there weren’t any specifically residential areas. You could find places where there were more houses than shops and markets; but the markets still tended to be an active staple of the area, with the increased population causing increased competition between different markets and stores close by.

Eventually, we drew nearer to the colosseum esque building. As we did, all of the buildings, stalls, and other such commodities stopped. It was so sudden that we couldn’t help but notice it. Even the stone underneath our feet turned abruptly into a hard, almost ashen dirt.

As soon as my feet stepped upon the dirt, the noises of the world behind us dissipated entirely. It was like stepping into another world, as we walked closer towards the only entrance in-sight.

“This feels ominous,” Sam remarked as the door before us seemed to twist and churn with impossible shapes and shadows.

I couldn’t help but agree, yet forced myself to step forwards anyways.