It's dark, cold and lonely in this place. The last thing I can remember is anger, pain and suffering. I keep hearing these horrifying, blood curdling screams. My mind is not stable. The darkness begins to fade away into a light Gray haze.

A man's silhouette reaches out to me saying 'It's not your time.... yet...' He repeats the phrase over and over until it becomes an echo in my head. Then he fades away, just as his call had done. The haze begins to clear up and is now pale white.

Flashes of gleaming light surround me. The screeching, and clashing of metal on metal is in perfect harmony with every flash I see. Finally I hear another sound, except it's more of a piercing sound of a sword penetrating flesh. Someone has fallen. I saw, no longer white, but a crimson red. My vision finally clears, but there's a slight tinge of crimson in my perception, blood has stained my sight.

I see a man standing over a body hauling a sword out of it. Blood dripped from the sword. The man looked over in my direction.

The man's voice was very familiar, and sounded almost exactly like the silhouette had, as he spoke. "It's not your time boy, it's not your time." The man had been walking towards me as he said this, and he kept walking towards me, until he passed by me. He vanishes just behind me, outside my depth of sight.

I looked down, the ground was drenched and stained with blood, not just from the body lying lifeless in front of me. I turned around, bodies lay scattered all over, buildings were engulfed in flames burning, smoke filled the air, the air had a stench in it from the decaying bodies.

As I passed bodies, when I began to walk in the direction the man with the sword had been heading, each of the bodies had either been mutilated or murdered, none died from suffocation, none died naturally.

When I passed a barrel of water, I stopped and turned to peer into it. I saw a reflection not of my own but of a boy, covered almost head to toe in blood. I concentrated, specifically, on the eyes of the boy. He looked familiar. He was no human, vampire, nor demon. I saw in the boy's eyes death, darkness, chaos.

Is this who I really am...

I snapped out of sleep into consciousness, sitting straight up in my bed in a cold sweat. This nightmare has been haunting my dreams for several years. It consistently would become more vivid and frequent around the same time each year, the anniversary of the Crimson Night. I was too young to remember much of what happened and it never quite left me alone as I grew older.

My father never really talked about the Crimson Night, it seemed to put him on edge as it was also a scarring memory for him. He did tell me once that it all went according to plan, and if it were not for me he too would have been killed. So I took this as a satisfactory reason and never asked him about it again. I shook off the memories and smacked my face awake, seeing as it was nearly 6AM, I was on duty at the Death Hunters' headquarters.

As I crept out of my bed and began my morning routine, my thoughts began reviewing my new mission. I was now the new commanding officer of the Blood Barons, a ragtag band of Death Hunters belonging to a well organized militia group known as the Trion Titans. Under the command of its former leader, my father, Ewan Alistar. He recently went missing on his last mission, in the wilderness of Asia Major. His last known location was six months ago somewhere near the border of China and Burma, he was heading south following a group of Shadowmen.

After a refreshing shower, and filling breakfast, I headed out the door of my condominium in the suburbs of Bangor, Maine. Though it seems like a wonderful place to be, it was one of the last refuge for survivors of the Blood Wars. The only safe haven on the east coast. The Blood Wars brought a massive influx of Deathwalkers, a range of mythological species that have roots going as far back as ancient Egypt. They were known as vampires, werewolves, and many other dark spirits that have roamed the face of the planet and were hidden from society.

One day there was a nest of vampires that found an ancient crypt that was known to hold the remains of the last surviving member of the Dracula bloodline. according to records that the Death Hunter Corp. were able to decipher from the nest archives; Vance, the last surviving descendant of Nosferatu, a cousin of Dracula. Started the Blood Wars, and created the alliance of Deathwalkers.

It is thought by the survivors of Vance's raids, which took place all over the world, that he had ties in all things dark and covered in death. The Deathwalkers Alliance lasted 10 years and destroyed much of the cities and large towns across the globe. Humanity was not prepared for such an aggressive turn of events, let alone being led by species of vampire, something thought to have been a legend or myth.

Pulling up to the entrance of the Death Hunter Corp. building was a sight I always felt to be comforting. Seeing as I was now a key member of such a prestigious organization. We were the last line of defense against the Deathwalkers. With the help of the UN forces and many groups of freelance Death Hunters, the advance of the Blood War had been severely damaged. A battle ensued in the streets of New York that had Vance and his nest cornered. Dion Martell, Simon Romero, and Marcus Alistar were leading an advanced group of Death Hunters into Vance's den.

I climbed the front steps of the Death Hunter HQ. It used to be an old train station with access to the local subway. We gutted most of the interior only keeping the essentials along with an office that dealt with the trains that ran through the station. They were mostly cargo trains full of supplies and munitions for our district. Entering the main lobby, I headed down the left side of the building following a hallway that led to a group of rooms. This wing of the station was turned into the Death Hunter archives, where we kept all case files and their associated mission logs. There was also a collection of literature that dealt with many of the unknown species of Deathwalkers. This wing became a second home for me, I even had my own office!

As I opened the door to my office I could hear Dion cackling down the hall in reception. He was saying something flirtatious with the new intern. I just shook my head and hung up my coat in the corner on a coat rack. I opened one of the filing cabinets pulling out records related to Vance and the Blood War.

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Reviewing the mission in New York, there was always something odd that happened in Vance's den. The advanced group consisting of the founders of Death Hunter Corp. knew our mission was going to be successful. We had been following the movements of the Deathwalker forces for weeks, hearing conversations about a new discovery that Vance had been looking for through most of the 10 years of the Blood War. It was known to be a blade that flowed like water in a skillful hand.

This blade had been known as one of the Sion Trinity's greatest discoveries. The blade and hilt were made of silver that flattened at the bottom of the pommel where a bright blue sapphire jewel sat. The blade had a legend of its own, known to have ended many Deathwalker lives. Vance used the blade as a source of power over the vast range of species that made up the Deathwalker forces. It was something we had to recover and end Vance's reign.

Dion was the first to enter the den, it was an old abandoned warehouse on the wharf in New York. We fought through waves of deathwalkers just trying to approach the building, with our small advanced group we were skilled and have been known to be quite skilled in slaying. Simon was our lookout, he was posted atop an old nearby water tower. He had a sniper rifle loaded with silver bullets and a custom made wooden bullet of his own creation. Simon had wooden stakes dipped in holy water and infused with garlic oil. Even though there is no record in the Death Hunter's possession that states garlic as an effective way to fend off vampires. Simon brushed each bullet with garlic oil as a trademark just for seer entertainment.

I followed Dion's lead, and signaled to him that I would swing around the back of the warehouse to make our advance a two-pronged assault. It was not long after I entered the building that you could hear Dion firing his weapon as he advanced to the center of the warehouse. The warehouse was sectioned off letting large transport enter the main gates, near where Dion entered. I climbed a set of steps that took me into the office space of the warehouse which was in an upper section overlooking the truck bays.

With Dion's advance I was able to enter the upper section with little resistance made up of two deathwalker guards. They were of the vampire species, making them no match for my skill with dual wielding handguns. Armed with Simon Romero's special bullets they were unable to react fast enough to my sudden appearance. As I continued to progress past the ash marked seats, checking both directions beyond the doorway. It was clear that Dion's uproar gained the attention of the others. I began checking the first office, where Vance directed his forces from.

There laying on a blood stained desk was one of the Sion Trinity treasures. The blade of the Watermind. it was known to have cursed all those who wield it. The Watermind would send its wielder into a flurry of thoughts that made them go insane. Almost every recorded case had each wielder found dead from drowning with their eyes gouged out. It is said the curse floods the wielder's mind with voices that torment them, keeping them in a state of insomnia. Once the curse has taken hold of the wielder, after three days of no sleep they would hallucinate seeing visions that burned their eyes out. Some say that the curse made the wielder so insane that they scratched their own eyes out to stop the hallucinations.

Pushing the casefile away from me, I turned towards the window behind me looking out at the landscape outside the HQ. It was overgrown, and deserted streets. You may see the random scavenger out pulling usable material from the many abandoned equipment that littered the city. Buildings falling apart from lack of maintenance, who would have thought 10 years of abandonment would leave a city like Bangor in such a state. I could hear the voices calling out to me from the Watermind, even though it sat at the other end of the building in the Armory. If it were not for the pendant that my father gave me I would have succumbed to the influence of the blade.

I shook my head a bit, and grasped the pendant hanging from my neck through my shirt. The voices became muffled and faded out. I turned back to the casefile laying out on my desk. Scanning through the documents I stop upon Dion Martell's report.

There was no conflicting information to the other reports, except for one. When Vance left his office to find out what ruckus was in the truck bay area. There sitting atop a shipping container was Dion, crossed legged and slung over his shoulder an assault rifle and in his other hand his family heirloom, a katana named Nirvana. Dion rested the blade on his shoulder looking up at Vance with a smirk and a piercing gaze. Vance's face was covered in blood since he fed recently. He let out a maniacal laugh, raising his arm. His body seemed to turn into black smoke and peeled off him turning into bats.

In a moment Vance's body was dispersed into a cloud of bats that swarmed towards Dion. Dion leaped off the top of the container towards the truck bays. He made a mad dash to the opening putting distance between him and Vance's bat-formation. The bat-Vance followed Dion out through the truck bay. Once bat-Vance reached outside he materialized from the bats into his human form. Simon Romero saw them emerge from the warehouse and in seconds he had his rifle cocked and ready to fire. Vance finished materializing, giving Simon an easy target.

Then of all things, the unexpected happened. As Simon squeezed down on his trigger a shadow began to grow just behind him. Being a clear night with a cloudless sky Simon's instinct was already on edge and he could see that he was being surrounded by Shadowmen. Simon quickly released his trigger and grabbed his silver cross around his neck and began to chant a prayer in German. It was an incantation that banished dark spirits from the immediate area. The Shadowmen shrunk back to its humanoid form and put its hands in front of his face shielding itself from the incantation and then vanished.

Without a second's notice Simon leaped over the railing on the water tower and climbed down the tower, he could still see Vance and Dion having a standoff. Simon quickly swung his rifle over his shoulder and pulled out a six shooter revolver from a chest holster and pointed it in the direction of Vance and Dion pulling the trigger as his aim was set on Vance once more. The bullet left the gun chamber and fired off towards Vance's position. If anyone were to see the series of events unfold afterwards, it would have been unbelievable. I could not have predicted what happened next and I had the best view of the whole thing.

I grabbed a shipping blanket from a nearby closet in the office and wrapped the Watermind in it and headed into the warehouse. As I reached the truck bays I saw the closing events unfold. A shadow stretched out from the outer wall of the warehouse towards Vance, who had his back turned to me and the shadow. It was a Shadowmen connected with Vance's shadow and began filling his silhouette making it a thick black that was visible even at night. I heard a gun fire from Simon's position, but it was not enough. The Shadowmen engulfed Vance in an instant and possessed him. The Shadowmen was a stronger version than the regular foot soldier shadowmen, fusing itself with Vance.

Shadow-Vance was pulled down into a dark pool that was similar to the Shadowmen's texture. Shadow-Vance was now only a shadow on the ground. His last words were recorded by Dion Martell. "Curse you Death Hunters! It seems I am destined for something greater! Hahaha! Burn in hell you scum!" With that Vance was gone and Simon's bullet zipped by planting itself in the side of an adjacent building. Dion, Simon, and I gathered the few surviving members of the advanced group and made our retreat.

Sitting back in my chair, I placed my hands behind my head and stared out the door of my office. We stopped the advance of the Deathwalkers, but we only won the battle. The organized group run by Vance fell to shambles and the Blood War became a part of history. The efforts of the Death Hunters became world renowned and Death Hunter Corp. was founded. I still felt uneasy as the end of one battle came to a close, another was set to begin.