All my life I’ve been told that I was an asshole.

My parents, friends, comrades… everyone kept their distance from me and I knew why. It wasn’t like I liked being an asshole but it also wasn’t that I could quit now either.

Ten years ago when they wanted to take away my little sister, I struck back and killed three of them. Of course, I was punished and had to stay in the village jail for three years. But strangely they let me out on the condition that I won’t interfere with them. They, ‘the takers’ I call them were a secret that the elders of the village protected for generations and they didn’t want me spilling the beans so they put a curse on me just in case. Which did make me wonder- why did they let me go and not just kill me?

I joined the hunters and became one. Everybody started to treat me differently and I didn’t like that. Before I knew it, my attitude changed and I forced myself on everyone, teasing them, cursing them, and perhaps helping them.

Not everyone liked it. And I was all alone: even my family left me. But two people stuck by me through thick and thin. I ridiculed them, they ridiculed me. But we had respect and perhaps a little more with one of them. We often trained others but they’d eventually leave our party and in the end it was always the three of us.

But it all changed right before my eyes. We were supposed to be here to hunt for Dolphinos. And yet, why was one of those two- the two I respected and loved- dead before my eyes?

My body froze and I couldn’t really feel anything. Just what was this thing in front of me? I’d never seen anything like this in my life.

Even ‘they’ couldn’t compare to this-

“No, it is I who should be sorry-”

Spray-

Spray of red-

But before I could react, the other one also went out before me. I couldn’t do anything. I couldn’t do anything back then and I couldn’t do anything now. Was I always this powerless? Didn’t I take oath in that cell that I’d change? Move! I racked my body. But it was frozen.

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Fear.

Primordial fear.

The thing in front of me was so frightening that I couldn’t move a muscle.

Slosh!

The sound of the ocean- I’m still alive right?

But as the last drop of blood dripped from her neck- Bretta’s neck, I knew I would die too. But that didn’t mean I was going to just sit back and be killed by the murderer of my comrades- my friends. Move!!! And I had to protect the last member- the newest member of my team too.

“Argh!” I screamed, I screamed my heart out. I was about to die but the last member- the boy was still alive. If I could just…

“Oh, I haven’t forgotten about you-” The monster began. It looked human but with those scales, it was clear that this thing was a monster. But I never heard anything like this even in the deepest depths of my nightmares. “Didn’t I say I always save dessert for the last?”

It was looking straight at me, blood still dripping from its fangs. The lifeless body of Bretta fell on the floor and it grinned sizing me up from afar. And then it dawned on me. Ten years ago there was an outbreak of vampires in the village. But come to think of it I never saw a vampire with my own two eyes. But the village elders said something about them having red or in rare cases golden eyes. And the thing in front of me certainly had gold in its eyes. “You- You’re a vampire?” I stuttered. I wanted to kill it, but I knew I didn’t have any chance.

“Not quite off the mark but not quite there either.” The thing charged straight at me. “I’ll tell you more once you’re dead.”

What the hell? And what was I supposed to do with that information after my death?

Its claws looked sharp and I was about to die from them. I closed my eyes waiting for my death; death that did not come.

What the- My eyes fluttered open and the thing just looked at me, without blinking. Yet again I was frozen solid. “What in the-” Before I could finish the sentence the monster’s head went flying and blood splattered everywhere, coloring me crimson.

“You okay?” A voice rang out. A masculine voice, probably of a middle-aged man; in the distance. He walked towards me, his footsteps, barely audible. “Kid! You okay?” Something in his hand.

“Ye-yes…. who – what- I” I couldn’t say anything and I couldn’t begin to even wonder what just happened either.

“Don’t panic and listen to me carefully.” He came close to me. His body was fully covered: he was covered in gray robes and looked rather skinny and tall. I couldn’t see his face: just his black shady shades were visible. I’d never seen him in the village before. “That was just one of them.” His voice was awfully cold. He was dead serious.

He quickly bent down, checking Bretta’s pulse. “Potions?”

“None…” I wasn’t the brightest. But I wasn’t that dumb either. “You mean… there’s more?” My voice was lost in the echoes of the sea and the vanishing red dots within.