As I approach the gate, one of the guards looks over and salutes me. He shouts out. "It's him; he's here!" The other guards turn and look at me. They pull their swords out and run towards me. "I'm sorry." I say this as the darkness flows from my body and envelops the guards in front of me. I wince when I hear their bones snap and crunch. I hear their screams of pain.

I breathe, "I can do this. I have to do this." I say this to myself, trying to convince myself. Citizens of Dadakish walk outside and see what's just occurred. One begins to scream as the other tries to flee. A tear falls down my face as the darkness races towards them. It connects to the one that was screaming and swallows her whole. Then it directs its course to the man who fled.

The man trips on a rock and hits the gravel hard. Dust flies everywhere as the man turns around and sees the darkness in front of him as he looks into the void. He sees his life flash before his eyes. Everything he could've done. The things he wishes he would've said to his family But none of that matters now. The darkness engulfs the man as he screams loudly in pain. "Please stop; I don't want to die." I hear the man scream out as his bones snap and crack. Soon, the man will be gone.

But someone else was coming out of the gate. The figure walks out and looks around. "Daddy, Mommy, where are you?" Hearing this, my heart breaks. "I just took a mother and father from their child." I cry as the little boy looks up at me.

"Hey, mister, have you seen my mommy and daddy?" The little boy asks. I hold back a sniffle as I answer. "I think I saw them go over there as I pointed to where the man had fallen. The little boy nods his head and smiles. "Thank you, mister; you're the nicest mister I've met today besides my daddy." Hearing this, I started to shake. The little boy runs to where I pointed. Turning around, he sees the darkness and freezes.

Turning away, I hear his cries of pain. "Mommy, Daddy, help me!" I hear his bones crunch, and then everything is silent. I throw my hands down to my side as I stare into the ground. I look at my hands. "What have I done? An innocent family is now gone because of me." I fall to my knees, look up into the sky, and cry. Lumen appears beside me and places his hand on my shoulder. "I'm sorry, Kamen; I know that was hard for you. But in doing so, you're healing your soul and strengthening it." I look at him. "Is that supposed to make me feel better? I just killed a family. I'm a monster." I say, rubbing the tears from my eyes.

"How many souls do I have to devour before it's fixed?" I asked Lumen. He looks at me and frowns a little. I know that look; it's not a good answer. "Currently, you have to devour at least 200 souls to fix yours. To strengthen it, I'm not sure myself. It could be thousands. If you had a tree of life, this wouldn't be a problem. I'm sorry, Kamen." Lumen says this as he disappears. Looking at the village. I sigh and realize what I have to do. Walking into the town, I look around and see everyone talking to each other about what they heard outside. "They seem like such nice people. I hate to have to do this." I say as I sigh.

I wave my hand out, and the darkness slips out and starts flowing to everyone that can be seen. Everyone screams and tries to run away. "I wish I didn't have to hear their bones and screams. This would make it less difficult." I say this as I see the darkness envelope people. The older people of the village are the first to succumb to the darkness. Their bones are nearly as loud as the younger ones.

Some of the villagers decide to fight back and run towards me with their fists raised really to attack. Before they can get to me, I raise my other hand and engulf them. Their cries don't sound as terrible as the others. "Am I enjoying this?" I think to myself as I feel my chest start to feel hot. I feel like I'm having an adrenaline rush. It's intoxicating—the screams of pain. I slowly lose myself as Lumen appears before me. "Kamen! You have to control yourself! You're letting Vestis slowly gain control!" Lumen yells out. I snap out of it, and the feeling goes away. "I need to find a way to keep him from gaining control of me." I think to myself as I see more and more people slip into the darkness.

I walk through the town and see the busy shops. I go into every one of the shops, devouring everyone. Leaving no one alive. I go to the next shop; it's an armor shop. I feel like the group would have gone in here. I walk inside and see the man behind the counter. He smiles at me as I raise my hand. He raises an eyebrow before realizing that I'm about to kill him. The man grabs a dagger and mumbles something, and I see the dagger glimmer. As soon as the man throws the dagger. I release the darkness. The dagger goes through the darkness and strikes me in the shoulder. "What the hell?" I think to myself as the man is swallowed whole. I look down and see the dagger. It's silver with something engraved on it. I pull it from my shoulder and read what's engraved. 'Property of Lord Algost'. I squint my eyes and look around. I don't notice anything else that's engraved. I decide to walk through the back of the shop and see a door. I open it and notice that it leads to a basement. Looking around and seeing no one, I walk down the stairs into the basement.

There's a torch lit on the far side of the wall. I look around and notice there aren't any other light sources. I walk through the basement, walking past shelves with different types of things on them. I notice mason jars on one shelf and walk up to them. I gag when I notice what's inside it.

There's an eyeball in it. I look at the other ones and see that they vary in size. Each one has a different body part. I go to the end of the shelf and notice a book. I pick it up and notice that there is no writing on it. "It's just a plain book. Why have it next to these things?" I say it out loud, opening the book.

My eyes go wide in shock as I realize what the book is.

"It's a book on various monsters and races and how to kill them," I say out loud. I hear a noise. I look around and don't see anyone. I turn back to the book and read more. ' The results of the were-beast blood would determine that silver bullets would affect the beasts at a cellular level. Further testing is needed to see if anything else in silver would work as well. Page 16.'

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"Jesus, so that guy was experimenting on different species?" I say this as I turn the page and read. 'From what we can gather, silver swords as well as silver-laced food have the same effect, but with the food, it takes longer. I would suppose that it's because of the were-beast stomachs. It would have to be the result of evolution or other outside assistance. The test subject seems to react more violently to the food than to the weapons. More will be seen at a later date. Page 17'

"What the fuck is up with that guy?" I think to myself as I hear the noise again. I turn around and notice a door that wasn't there a minute ago. Curious, I walk up to it and listen. The noise comes again. Sighing, I open the door. Opening the door revealed what I would assume is a were-beast. "Get away from me, you foul," the werebeast sniffs. "You are no mortal man. You're a vampire; what is a vampire doing here? Did that man trick you?" I shake my head. "No, I dealt with that man. What are you doing here?" I asked the beast.

"I was coming through the village looking for a healer for my brother; he's come down with silver poisoning. I believe that man has been out there messing with him when suddenly I felt a strange feeling in my side and blacked out. I woke up here with that man."

I look down and notice spots where my hair should have been. I asked the beast. "Did he experiment on you?" The beast bares his teeth. "That man did, in fact, experiment on me. He did numerous things to determine what we're weak against."

I nodded. "I saw the book and read through it. The things he did to you." I say this as I show him the book. The beast growls. "Destroy that book." I shrugged my shoulders and burned the book, but secretly I had grabbed a different book and hid the real one in the darkness to read later.

"Now that the book has been destroyed, tell me your name." I say to the beast: The beast huffs. "Not that it would matter to you; you're just going to kill me. But for the hell of it, My name is Alexander." I laugh. "Why would I kill you? You hardly seem like the person who would have a pure soul." I say to him: Alexander grunts, "My soul is purer than most."

I waved my hand up and let the darkness come out a little. "Then I supposed you wouldn't mind if I took it from you." I say this with squinted eyes. Alexander whimpers at hearing that. "My soul actually isn't that pure; I've killed dozens of people." I bring the darkness back into me and look him in the eyes. "That's good; you seem interesting. It would be a shame if I had to kill you." I cut the shackles off of Alexander and lend my hand out to him. "How about you come with me? I'll treat you better than that man did." Alexander rubs his wrists, looks up, and sees Vestis behind me pulling his eyeballs out of his socket and juggling them. His eyes go wide. I turn around and don't see anything.

"Is there something wrong? Am I not good enough to show you mercy?" I say to him: He shakes his head and grabs my hand, unsure of what he saw. "I've told you my name is Vampire. What is your name?" He asks me. I slapped my chest proudly and said, "My name is Kamen, the all-mighty vampire god." Alexander starts laughing. "You sure are an unusual vampire; normally vampires would hunt us down and kill us for sport." I look at him and shake my head. "Well, I'm not like normal vampires. I'm different." I say as I raise my fingers into a piece and lift my leg up.

Alexander can be seen in the corner, vomiting from what he just saw. "That wasn't that bad, you ass." I say this as I turn around and leave the room. Alexander notices, wipes the vomit from his mouth, and follows. "Where are we going next?" He asks, walking behind me. I turn around and sigh, looking at him. "I'm going to continue doing what I came here for originally. The things you'll see will shock you. But don't be alarmed." I turn around, walk up the steps, and leave the shop.

Alexander steps out of the shop and smells the air. "It's been weeks since I've smelled the fresh air." He says this as he hears a scream from the next shop over. Running over there, he slams the door open to see me devouring a family of four eating pizza. "Kamen, what are you doing?" I look at him and frown. "I'm doing what has to be done to fix my soul." I say as I move onto the rest of the diner. Alexander sees everyone get engulfed by the darkness. Being a were-beast or a werewolf. His hearing is heightened.

He can hear every bone break, every single tiny little fragment breaking apart, and their shouts of pain pound his ears like a torrent of gunfire. He places his hands on his head and falls to his knees. It lasts all of 5 minutes until the last scream dies down. He looks up and notices everyone is gone. Not a trace was left of them. He stares up at me in shock, not being able to understand the monster that is in front of him.

He gets off of the floor and takes a few steps back. I frown at this. "I knew this would scare you; I promise I won't do the same thing to you. This is just a necessary sacrifice." I say to Alexander as he just stares at me frozen. I slap him in the face, and he comes out of the daze. He looks at me and bares his fangs. "Please, Alexander, don't do this." I plead with the werewolf.

Alexander swipes his claws out at my throat. I catch his hand and throw him to the ground. "I don't want to hurt you, Alexander." He looks up at me, realizing he can't win against me. I look down at him and sigh. "If you don't believe me, then let me do this." I touch his head and let the light flow from my hands, and soon he notices his old scars are healing up and are being replaced with hair.

Shocked, he can barely speak. "How did you do this?" I turn around and walk toward the door. Before I open the door, I turn around again, look him in the eyes, and say,

"I have the power to help or destroy people. Be thankful that I decided to help you instead of adding your soul to my collection." I go out the door, and Alexander sits on the ground and thinks to himself. "If he chose not to kill me, then his word is at least honorable. I need to repay him someway."

Deciding, he gets off the floor, runs out the door, and follows me. For the next several hours, he hears a continuous roar of pain-filled screams. Soon the last villager is gone. I turn around and look at Alexander. "If you decide to continue following me, there will be more death." He thinks about it and nods. "I will follow you; having spared my life, I can't possibly repay you with anything worth while. So I will repay you with my loyalty."

He raises his hand out to me, and I shake it. "Let's go then, Alexander; there's more to do." I say this as I walk and ask Lumen. "How many more souls do I have to devour before mine is fixed?" Lumen takes a minute to respond. "Currently, your soul is fixed and is slowly being strengthened. You should be able to use your powers more than you could before."

"I'm glad to hear that." I say as I close my eyes and imagine Alexander and I in the center of the living room at the Algost family home.