A crackle in the woods.

  On one heartbeat, she peeped over her shoulder. Pinching the chest with her palm, she paced and paced and paced… just a little more, where? where were they? Where had they been?

  Pearls of tears birthed on the edges of her eyes. Her heart had a hard time choosing if it should accelerate or stop in its tracks. For she had broken the norm, the rules of this world. She thought it was just some nonsense of the old, but deep down she too, was scared of the consequences.

  “N-no…” she mumbled. “No… no no no no please…”

  She turned around herself, her mind fighting the darkness that tried to overwhelm. The strings of her heart danced over burning flames—like a fire tragon.

  The winds had stopped while she moved. But to where? It seemed as if the forest was resisting her every existence, shading away her hope deep in its roots.

  “This… this is my fault…” she wept, grabbing her hair. “They were right… the customs were right all along…”

  She was now trembling under the single sun, the singularity.

  “None shall walk under the singularity when all the suns or moons align. For if they do, severe consequences await them…” She stuttered the old sayings of the ancients under her breath, with tears streaming down her face. She knew the customs. Still, she decided to break them. Now she was hoping someone would hear her cries and save her from its consequences.

  But no one did…

  She blinked again, trying to clear her teary vision. Three shadowy figure stood before her, binding her arms and legs before shutting her face with a leather bag. It all took three heartbeats.

  Her face was wet with her cries. Should she scream under this hood? Will anything ever happen if she did? She didn’t know, but she could guess. The forest had drained away the hope from her muscles.

  The last line of the customs were all she could remembered.

  But on her fourth heartbeat, the shadows had vaporized in the air, setting herself free.

  Freedom in the greenery… with the shadows disappeared in the air. In place, there stood a man before her.

  “What? Didn’t… they leave? Then who is this?” She mumbled. This wasn’t the same man who was trying to kidnap her. They had black hair, and he had blonde.

  But that didn’t terrify her. What did were his peculiar red pupils that stared intently at her with curious eyes.

  Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  She fell back, crawling until she hit a tree behind her. Her pupils shrank as she tried to run away. But her legs gave up.

  “STAY AWAYYY!!!!!” She screamed for help. “SOMEONE HELP MEE!!!!! A… A VAMPIRE!!!!!”

  A moment’s notice—suddenly all of her guards reappeared from the woods at insane speeds, as if flowing with the spirits. They charged at Hitsuki, all of their swords pointing at his throat, expecting a battle.

  But he… surrendered?

  It took a while for them to digest the whole situation, and another while for all of it to make sense.

  “How is he still alive?” One of the guards whispered. “Shouldn’t he be dead by now?”

  “Did the lunaris develop a cure to resist the suns?” Another asked.

  “Impossible, if the lunaris did that, then we should’ve been able to resist the burns of the moonlight as well!”

  All ten guards looked at the man with red eyes in wonder. They have only read about them—the vampires, one of the lineages of the lunaris. They have never seen one, but they couldn’t say Princess Hanahoshi was wrong as well.

  “Who are you?” The commander, Tsuyo asked, grazing the neck of Hitsuki. Blood spewed from his throat.

  “@%&@ @%& @%$ ##$%@$” he replied in all gibberish in a language they didn’t understand.

  [T/L: “What are you saying?”]

  They tied him up, for they didn’t know what to do. The Queen shall decide his fate. But if he truly were a sunaris, he had very unique genetics.

  It was now midday.

  The guards decided to take a break from their expedition as Princess Hanahoshi was feeling unwell. If a simple journey for harvesting some eggs suddenly turns into a horror scene of her getting captured and seeing a vampire-human right after, anyone would feel the same.

  “Captain, would you stop looking at your family?” One of the younger guards laughed.

  “Listen, Yowa. You won’t understand it right now. The power that the bond of a family holds. It can fuel an army, it can bring victory.” He replied.

  Among the commotion, Captain Tsuyo kept looking at his family—he had ten pictures. It featured her wife, a stunningly young beautiful woman staring at him with pearly eyes. She held a child who played with her silky brown hair and a two-year-old boy.

  He smiled, touching the cheeks of his wife. He tried to imagine the warmth of her touch through the lifeless paper.

  He immersed himself in the moment, thinking about the times at home. His children would play with his muscles while he watched his wife happily cook for all of them.

  It would be a while for him to return home, for he had just come back from the holiday. But he couldn’t wait longer to meet them.

  But life in the royal guards didn’t seem dull either—all because of his cheerful subordinates.

  It was all just a moment. A moment of happiness. He closed his eyes in the peace. The winds soon had started picking its pace. It was cool. Very cool. Too cool…

  It burned.

  He saw a flash, a burning of his flesh. He saw a scene—his juniors laid lifeless over a pool of blood.

  And he was with them.

  But why? It was such a great day. Why did the sky suddenly turn its backs on them?

  A red pupil appeared among the void. For it was not a pupil at all, but a moon.

  The blood moon has arrived…

  Only a custom appeared in his mind, as he felt a burn on his skin.

  | None shall walk under the singularity when all the suns or moons align. For if they do, severe consequences await them… |