A week ago - 30th April

"Lilith, wait!" Aliard exclaimed, as they burst through double doors. They're greeted by the strong smell of sweat alcohol and the thumping of club music. Lilith continued dragging Aliard along, blond hair bouncing as she danced through the crowds.

"C'mon, I wanna do one more shot," Lilith shouted over the music, barely audible, and continued dragging Aliard to the bar despite his protests. Aliard couldn't help being annoyed, he really wasn't drunk enough for this. The smells in clubs were nauseating and the people unbearable, unless you were drunk too; sadly he wasn't. At least he had Lilith he reminded himself, eyes drifting over to her.

They'd been dating almost a year now, and it'd been the greatest year of his life so far. The cute dirty blond could make the most boring events fun.

"Shots!" She shouted in Aliard's face as she handed him a dubiously green vodka shot, completely distracting him from his ruminations.

"I'm pretty sure vodka is clear," he frowned, taking a deep breath.

"All okay?" She hesitated, moving to take the shot back.

"It's just really hot in here," He grabbed the shot and downed it before she could say anything else. But he really didn't feel that great.

"Fuck, that's disgusting whatever it is," Aliard grimaced. "You know, I'm not meant to drink much, so that's the last shot for me. Doc's orders," he said, "well he said no alcohol, but what's a few shots?" He shrugged, stomach churning. Can't let her outdrink me though, he thinks.

"Yeah yeah, you didn't even wait for me to drink," she complained as she downed the shot, her face contorting in disgust at the taste.

"Ugh, yeah that's the last house special for me too." She sticks her tongue out. Walking toward two familiar faces at a table nearby. 

Aliard follows weating, stomach still churning. The acrid taste of stomach acid wells up his throat - not good, he thinks.

He grabs Lilith before she gets too far and shouts in her ear, "Uh, I'm gonna get some fresh air it's too hot in here for me. You chill with Scarlett and Dawn, I'll be back in a sec."

She raises her hand, about to voice her protest when she realises he's already halfway to the door. She drops it, pouting and struts over to Scarlett and Dawn.

Aliard runs down the stairs outside the doors. There's a split in the hall.

"Fuck." He mutters, taking the left way. After a few turns, he stumbles into an emergency door leading to a side-alley, somehow completely missing the large printed words "ALARMED DOOR".

Aliard stumbles through the doorframe, his pale face turning a shade paler as the cold air hits it. Rubbish, small bins and dumpsters line the alley. Discarded bits of cardboard, metal and wood are scattered everywhere. Aliard haggardly walks into the middle of the alley and slips on a metal pipe, catching his fall just in time to drop his hands to his knees and spew vomit everywhere.

The sound of retching echoes through the alleyway, bouncing off of the cold brick walls. As the retching dies down Aliard straightens, standing up shakily, face dead-white in the cold. He simply stands there as the shock of vomiting recedes, gradually becomes aware of his surroundings. He looks up in shock when he realises he can hear the eerie, mournful, bell-like sound of a Chopin nocturne, past the muffled thumping of the club music. It seems so out of place, yet perfectly suiting at the same time.

"So strange," he mutters, wincing as his throat grates painfully on the words from the vomiting.

He almost felt as though he had been transported through time to Paris in the 1840s. The cobbled ground beneath his feet only adding to his fantasy.

A cat sprinting by, screeching as it does, wakes him from his reverie.

"Doggy," Aliard whispers, glassy eyed; so absorbed in the sounds of the piano that he doesn't hear the slow thudding of footsteps behind him.

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He gasps in pain, grabbing his neck as he falls to his knees, one hand splashes into the vomit breaking his fall. Blood seeps between his fingers, dripping to the ground. His eyes, scrunched in pain, widen as he sees the blood. His hand trembles as he removes it from his neck, it shines bloodily in the dim alley lights. He stares, dumbly.

The sploshing of blood, on the vomit covered ground, compels him to stand.

And as he does, he's greeted by a smiling man.

Face bloodied, fangs bared. White hair falls lazily across his face. Crazed red eyes staring straight at Aliard.

"Too slow, too slow! I gotcha good," the bloodied mouth chuckles, "ah, the blood burns, ow, ow, ouchie," his face twists, and then he bursts out into rabid laughter.

"You're the first I've met that hasn't squirmed in pain! I wonder what'll it take to make you squirm," he squints, suddenly lashing out at the wall beside him.

"TALK TO ME," he screams, bits of brick sailing through the air.

He takes a step forward, "oh by the way," he smiles, "I've decided to kill you."

Aliard takes a trembling step back, and from the corner of his eye spots a thick wooden stake used for signs. Red eyes follow Aliard's and spot the stake too.

"Good good, a big stick, it's just what you need," he shouts, laughing. He starts walking toward Aliard slowly, hunched over as if to mimic an animal stalking its prey.

Aliard stumbles desperately, his shirt dyed red with blood shows a ghastly figure slipping on the trash that litters the alley floor. His hands, slick with blood, slip as he tries to pick up the stake, eventually grasping it weakly he shifts the point to face the white haired man.

"And what're you gonna do with that, hmm?" He smirks as he walks closer. "Stab me? Look at you tremble, that thing barely weighs anything, you're pathetic." He laughs manically.

Aliard nods weakly. His arms tremble as he holds the stake, "I'll stab you if you come closer," he croaks.

"Stab me then, stab me!" The man shouts hysterically, running toward the stake.

Aliard thrusts the stake forward, closing his eyes and turning his head away. He squeezes the stake close to his body. There's a sickening sucking, gurgling noise as the stake slides in and blood tries to rush out, seeping past the edges of the stake. Aliard shudders and turns his head. Their eyes lock.

Blue, dead and unreactive. Red wide with shock and disbelief.

Aliard stares numbly into the red eyes, which tremble as the white haired man looks down.

Aliard's skin crawls as the white haired man looks up; and smiles.

"This hurts, it hurts so much. Oh, but can you feel it? Can you feel that," his smile widens, fresh blood seeping from his mouth. "The name's Noname," he rasps and sinks to his knees, giggling. The stake twisting in Aliard's hand as the angle changes, but he doesn't let go.

"Now remove this from me." He looks up, red eyes wide. "Won't you take it out? It really hurts." He mimics a puppy dog face.

Aliard glances down, his hands holding the stake that's plunged deep in Noname's chest, blood gurgling and making a horrific sucking noise as the stake shifts, and he vomits all over his arms and Noname.

Noname screams, "what the fuck," and then screams more. He falls back, the motion tearing the stake from his chest. Blood sprays out. "Agh, fuck it's so sore, am I gonna die? No I'll never die," he laughs manically to himself as he wipes vomit off his shirt.

He looks up at Aliard, his wild red eyes boring into him, too weak to stand he slumps down. "I'll never die," he giggles.

"Fuck," Aliard says, raising the stake. "Silence is a true friend, who never betrays," he says to himself as he plunges the stake with all his energy into Noname's body, gravity driving it faster and deeper than before.

Noname screams in pain, "Stop, you're gonna kill me. You're gonna kill me," he screams.

"No, no. I can never die," he giggles after his screams die down.

The sickening stabbing noise rings out again and again as blood sprays all over Aliard and the alley.

Aliard didn't know when Noname stopped screaming, he was barely aware of anything. He just knew he had to keep stabbing.

Aliard didn't know when he had dropped the stake. He didn't understand anything that had happened.

He looked down at the mutilated body and those lifeless red eyes. There was so much blood that Noname's hair was crimson red.

Aliard turned around, and walked wordlessly to the door he had emerged from. The second he got into the club he started running, staggering occasionally. Screams emerged around him as he reached the stairs. The white light lit the red blood brilliantly as he sprinted up the stairs, ultimately bursting through the doors on the second floor. He stumbled partway through the crowd until he saw Lilith, and then sank to his knees screaming violently.