My day was a strange one, that was for certain. I had left the safe house in the early morning hours to run errands for my two new… friends, I guess. They were friends, but I guess I just always thought of them as supernatural creatures first. It was just strange to think that I had friends who were not human, like the Chasses. Hypocritical, I know, seeing as I was the monster of monsters. I took a duffle bag from the safehouse along with me on the trip to the two vampires’ nests. I’d bring back whatever I could fit in the bag, and nothing else.

  I made it to Martin’s bar first, using the keys he had given me to make my entrance into the closed building. Once making my way through the darkened tables, behind the bar, through the kitchen, and past the metal slab that separated Martin’s den from the rest of his establishment, I found his stash. There was an assortment of daggers and short swords of varying design and style from medieval to modern times. These were not like the Chasse weaponry. Not a hint of it was silver, only pure steel or iron. There were no symbols or warding on them either. These were crude, simplistic weapons designed to do one thing. I grabbed a few different options as well as a change of clothes for the old vampire before I hit the road.

  I was in and out of Martin’s fairly quickly, roaring my borrowed motorcycle back to life after locking the place up. I whipped out of the lonely parking lot and zipped down the street in broad daylight. The duffle bag was heavy, just not for me. It hung behind my back as I cruised to my next stop. Unlike Martin’s, I had never been to the next place before.

  Alex’s place was about ten minutes away from Martin’s. It was an apartment complex in the downtown area. It was a very heavily populated area. Cars were constantly passing in front of the large building that overlooked the street. There were no keys given to me for this, only directions to a certain balcony. Once I parked my bike and rounded the building, I spotted the window that was lined with aluminum foil on the inside. Alex told me it would be the balcony door to the left of the foil that would be unlocked. She also made sure to tell me where to get what she wanted, and to not, “fuck with anything else” while I was here.

  This had to have been easier to do in the dark of night, but in broad daylight was another story. I was inside very quickly once I knew nobody was watching me. I rushed up the side of the building to the balcony before wandering eyes on the street spotted me. At least, I hoped nobody saw. That would be a whole new issue in and of itself. As soon as I planted my feet on the balcony, I stepped through the unlocked door and faded from sight.

  It was dark inside, every window blotted out with something. This was definitely a safe place for a vampire. She made this place just how she needed it to hide during the day.

  The whole place was surprisingly clean. I’m not sure what I expected honestly, but seeing the place was a surprise. I found her dresser in the bedroom, exactly where she said it’d be. The dresser was another shock. When I opened the drawers, I saw an overflowing wealth of all sorts of lingerie, undergarments, and similar clothing to the type she’d always worn at the bar. This was all a part of her pull. The way she lured in her prey… murderous vampires. I knew what I’d see since she requested something with a little more “breathing room,” but it was slightly awkward going through her underwear drawer. Especially since I would have to bring all this back and hand it to her. Nevertheless, I scooped up a bunch of random stuff and shoved it in the duffle bag.

  As I stuffed what looked like a red bra into the duffle, I saw a very small and older-looking picture frame sitting on a bedside table. It sat directly beneath the lamp, facing the bed where I knew she lay. Her impression was faintly visible on only one side of the thin sheet-covered mattress. I stepped over to the bed, sitting where she obviously lay, and examined the photo even closer. The picture was of a couple, definitely taken a very long time ago. Maybe even before I was born. The girl was obviously Alex, but from when she was still human. Her hair was much less potent and more natural red. She was smiling as her hands wrapped around the arm of a man who looked close in age to her. The time was different, the clothes were styles from an age past. If I had to guess, it was probably in the late 1980s. She still had all of her tattoos that she had currently, but her clothes were more modest than the look she presented to the world now. Something in her eyes was different, too. Not just the obvious vampiric red I had seen… but an innocence. She wasn’t tainted by the darkness of the world yet. Whatever happened to her, it hadn’t happened yet in this picture. This must have been one of her happiest memories that she still had.

  I took a step back from the bed, reexamining the area. I realized now: by the placement and position of her sleeping arrangement, the context of this picture in her vacant home, after all of this time, and the fact that she never venture anywhere else in this bed… she laid in this spot every day as the sun burned her out of the living world, staring at this picture until she fell asleep.

  I started feeling something different in my mind towards her. Alex wasn’t the same person I thought she was anymore. She wasn’t the same person she presented herself as, not at her core. One thing I realized about her was that she seemed lonely. She missed whoever this man was beside her in the photograph. I know what Martin had told me about her, but I wondered… what exactly had happened to her. How long had she been living like this?

  On my way out, I got the impulse to have a look around. I wouldn’t touch anything, but I wanted to see what kind of things I could find out about Alex. She was one of the most unique creatures I had met in this life. She was a mutation of the normal vampire breed because of her cannibalistic nature, which made her very powerful. I wondered what kind of things I’d find in her lair.

  I peeked into the kitchen… nothing. The refrigerator was empty, the cabinets were bare, but I did find something on a counter that caught my eye. She had a bag of sour candy sitting by itself in the kitchen. It was already opened and half eaten, making me realize that she had a similar taste to the extremes like I did. It was funny how something so small could make me think we had something in common, even if it was only slightly.

  I actually didn’t want to invade her privacy anymore, so I began my exit. I left the same way I came, dropping lightly to the pavement below the balcony as soon as I saw the coast was clear. I had everything Martin and Alex sent me for, and it was only around noon at that point, so I decided to take a very scenic route.

  Even though we were all friendly now, I wanted to be alone for a while longer. Seeing Alex’s apartment and her photograph made me think of my own family. It brought up emotions of the loss in my life, and I wanted to be alone for a while longer. I took my time returning since we had to wait for sunset anyway. But eventually, I came back to the safehouse.

  “Well, that took you longer than I thought,” Martin said as soon as I walked through the blazing sun that crept past the door frame. “I began to think you ran into those two shadows again.”

  The sun still hung in the late afternoon sky, blocking the path for my two friends to leave the safehouse. I shut the front door, cutting the light off from the entrance so the vampires could move freely without burning to cinders. Yet, when I looked around, I only saw Martin. Alex was out of sight somewhere.

  “Sorry, I figured I’d take a ride for a while. Clear my mind after all that’s happened,” I said.

  Martin nodded with understanding.

  “From the clinking around in the bag, I take it you found everything,” Martin eyed the packed duffle.

  “Yeah, I got options for you guys,” I said, unzipping the bag. “I wasn’t sure what weapon would suit you best, so I grabbed a couple of different ones to choose from.” Lingerie and cutoff shorts spilled out of the bag as I searched for the weapons beneath.

  “Please,” Martin raised his hand. “Let’s give Alex some privacy. I’d hate for her to think I sorted through her personal items.” Martin seemed worried about it in a strange way. “We can let Alex grab her things first.”

  “Trust me, I don’t think she’ll care. She sent me straight there for these. I saw a lot of the stuff she’s got tucked away in her dresser. I don’t think she cares,” I offered.

  “Still, I would not want to make her uncomfortable,” Martin insisted. “She is like a daughter to me, and I wouldn’t want to invade her personal space.”

  “Okay,” I said, a little confused. I had not thought of their relationship as a father-daughter dynamic. I thought it was more intimate.

  I pushed her underwear back down on top of the metal blades and zipped it closed.

  “Where is she anyways?” I looked around throughout the blackened spaces of the house.

  Martin smiled, “Alex is a creature of habit. She sleeps a lot during the daytime hours, so she’s resting in the bedroom.”

  I found myself quickly perturbed, and it was only fueled by the monster, “She’s asleep in my…”

  Martin quickly cut me off, “My bed… I think that's what you mean.” He was quick to remind me, again, that this was his house. I was just a guest. “She, too, can stay here if she wishes.”

  I nodded, realizing I should be more grateful that he was letting me stay here.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

  “Sorry,” I said. “Sometimes I…” I tried being honest. “Sometimes the thing in me has a lot of push. It gets away from me sometimes.” I picked up the duffle bag, “I’ll set this in there for when she wakes up.”

  I silently walked back through the little passageway to the open bedroom. Sure enough, there was Alex, sleeping on her side in the bed I had grown accustomed to passing the time in. As I set the bag at the side of the bed, I saw her eyes were completely shut and she wasn’t even breathing. She almost looked like she was dead. There was no discernible motion that I could see. The way her body was positioned, facing the small bedside table by her head, reminded me of her bedroom. She looked like she had fallen asleep while staring at the empty table, exactly how she did in the privacy of her own home. Even without the picture standing upright by her face, I knew she still imagined it there. I backed away quietly so I wouldn’t wake her.

  Once I was in sight, Martin asked, “You say 'the thing inside,' do you really think of it as a separate person?”

  I nodded informatively, “Yeah, most of the time anyway.”

  “Do you ever think that is just a copout?” Martin asked unapologetically.

  “A copout?” I asked, trying to maintain the annoyance and keep it from leading to anger. I took a seat in the darkness, on the couch opposite him. Waiting to hear more.

  “When I was young, and newly turned, I also thought that of myself, in my darkest moments, as being separate from the real me. However, it took me many years to see that I am all that is here.” Martin pointed to his chest as he spoke.

  “You think you know something about me?” I asked bluntly, not masking my distaste for his words.

  “I think I know something about myself. I think I’ve seen something similar in many others before you.” Martin never slowed his momentum. He was being brutally honest. “We all feel the push inside of us, once turned. It is not natural for a human to feel these things, so it is not something anyone is accustomed to initially. But the “beast” inside us all is our own. It is us, nothing more. The darkest parts of our personalities are brought out by the violent natures of your new tendencies, no matter what you are. You’re no different, Sam.”

  “But you don’t know what I am. Not even I do. How can you know anything for sure?” I doubted his words.

  “You’ve proven time and again that you can control it when you have the right motivation. In time, I think you’ll learn just how in control you can be… once you accept it,” Martin said, looking into me like he saw great potential. “Thinking your actions are driven by anything other than your own mind, giving in to fulfilling your needs, is a folly. Passing the blame on someone, or something that doesn’t exist, will never make things better. You must accept that there is no one else. It is only you under there. That’s when real control is possible.”

  Martin stopped speaking, leaning back to recline against the cushions of the couch.

  I thought about the possibility. What would that mean if he were right? Did I have the control to possibly return to my family? Did I have it this whole time, and I was just too weak to see it? How could anyone find the strength to resist in the beginning if it was just them, and no creature pulling the strings?

  It all started reminding me of Alex and how she’s never tasted human blood. I wondered about her early life, and the picture on her nightstand. Who was that guy standing there with her? Was he family? What happened to him? I found myself wondering about her. I wanted to ask Martin about her again, but that might not be the best thing to do in the present situation. He obviously cared about her more than I realized before the whole duffle bag thing.

  Then, as Martin and I sat in the darkness, waiting for the sun to hide itself below the horizon, I thought about his family. What was his story?

  “What happened to your family?” I asked quickly. “I mean… I’m sorry. It’s just with everything that’s happened, it makes me wonder. I know you were turned by Charles, but I’ve never heard your backstory before.”

  Martin smiled, “That’s alright.” He looked over to the slightly glowing edge of light that crept past the curtains to the wall, “I suppose we have a few more minutes before we can begin our hunt.”

  I leaned forward out of my reclining position, sitting up to pay attention to his story. Martin almost mirrored my movements, preparing to explain a part of his history in the dark of the house.

  “I was born into a large family in the late seventeen hundreds. There were ten of us, counting all my brothers and sisters.” Martin lightly chuckled in the creeping dark, “My parents had their hands full with us. We weren’t rich, nor were we well-connected. My father was a fisherman. My mother stayed home to take care of all of my brothers and sisters. We lived in a small house that barely fit us all… I miss those days. Our family was extremely uncommon with so many children, but we were blessed to have what we did.” Martin was remembering some of his most important memories, and it showed in his expressions. “I was much older when I was turned, however. As you can well see, I look like I am still only thirty-five years old. Yet, I lost family before I was ever turned into a killer.”

  “How?” I asked.

  “I lost two sisters and a brother to influenza before I was even fifteen years old. My father was murdered in a muddy street over the few coins in his pockets. I was the eldest of my brothers when my father died. I took on his role and took a job at the docks, just like my father. I started working when I was about sixteen years old. Most boys that age already worked, but I was working even harder. I had a mother and six siblings who looked to me to take care of them.” Martin’s look grew darker and more reflective. “As the rest of us all grew, we slowly went in different directions. Most of my younger brothers died in the War of the First Coalition. We were never sure exactly what happened, but they never came back. My sisters did what they could to help bring in money through honest means, but… prostitution was hard for lower-class women to avoid. It wasn’t an easy life…” Martin slowed his story.

  “I’m sorry, Martin.” I meant it from the most human part of me that was left. I really felt for Martin.

  “It’s all history, Sam.” Martin was at peace with it all, continuing with the story, “As time went on and we slowly lost everyone, I stayed with my family. I fished every day, working for whoever would hire me on their boat. When I was done, I’d fish on the river to catch as much food for my siblings as I could, without having to spend the little money I earned. I continued that way until the night I met Charles.”

  “Your creator,” I remembered the silver-haired vampire who helped fight with us. Martin and Charles’ combined strength couldn’t kill the insanely powerful chimera, Phineas. Still, I believe they did stall him long enough for me to be able to separate his head from his shoulders. Aside from the offshoot version of Alex, Martin and Charles were the strongest vampires I knew.

  “Yes. I was returning home with a massive haul of fish,” Martin smiled at the memory. “I caught so many that I could barely carry the weight; that was a good day. I stayed past dark on a riverbank just a mile or so from my home. The fish were almost jumping into my nets like they wanted to be caught. I was walking back with my catch when it happened. I never saw him coming; he just took me in the dark of the night. Something was different for him that night, though. He didn’t just kill me, he turned me into one of his kind… to be his ward or servant,” Martin explained. “That’s what he says… but I think Charles was lonely, although he’d never admit that. The rest is as you’d expect. I outlived all of my family, I grew into a darker version of myself, and I killed mercilessly for a long time, just like Charles. Together we were… a blight that would pass through villages.” Martin's voice was full of regret. “Once I came to the States, I started realizing what I had become, and I felt my true self trying to reemerge. Once I stopped blaming the monster in me and realized that it was I who made those decisions, I just couldn’t go on. I couldn’t live with what I had done in my many years, and I sought death. I heard talk of hunters and went to find them. When I laid myself down at their feet, they did not kill me. They kept me trapped within a cell of silver. As I stayed in their cage, I heard children running and playing on the floor above my head. It stirred thoughts of my childhood; before the flu, before the war, my father, everything I had buried for so long. It was Carter, Clara, and Frank all running around the house above. I listened to them play, cry, and fight constantly. I felt like I was there with them.”

  “Autumn told me once about the vampires that tried to make you kill them all,” I said, remembering the story.

  “Yes, but I couldn’t. When I looked at all of their little faces, they reminded me of my own brothers and sisters. I saw all of my loved ones that I outlived in their family. Even now, they remind me of what has been lost for so long. I love Carter, Frank, Clara, and all of the rest of them like they are all of my siblings. They keep me connected to those memories from way back then.”

  I slowly nodded as I now looked at the carpet. I understood Martin now more than I ever had. He was exactly like me… Well, he was exactly what I thought I would be like when I outlive everyone I know and care for. Will I be able to maintain my humanity once I’m truly alone? Will I find others to care for, people who will remind me of the moments I hold most dear?

  After a while of silence, we heard shuffling around in the bedroom. Alex had awoken from her slumber. That’s when we both noticed the sun was down, and the vampires were free to leave the safety of the walls around us.

  In a few short minutes, Alex returned to the living room with a duffle bag full of weapons, but empty of her excess clothing. She was wearing the jean cutoff shorts and a very low-cut shirt. Her look was a strategy, I saw that now. These young vampires were driven by their emotions and urges. She could play the unsuspecting victim to these younger creatures that didn’t understand themselves yet, only to turn the tide on them. It also helped her stay hidden. If vampires disappeared from a vicious attack by another vampire, word would spread. If they disappeared after finding an attractive girl to take into the shadows, none would suspect the helpless girl. I started to realize; Alex was a smart predator.

  She tossed the duffle bag at my feet, clanking the weapons against one another, “Take your pick.”

  “I’m all set,” I pulled my silver blade out from behind my back.

  “Actually, Sam, it’s probably best if you leave that here. If someone were to see you using that, it could lead back to the Chasses. It’d be better if you had a normal weapon for tonight. No silver,” Martin suggested.

  I nodded, “Okay… no silver, I tossed the blade on the kitchen counter. I reached for a shiny knife in the duffle that was of similar size and test fitted it into the same sheath around my waist. “Like a glove,” I said.

  “You didn’t mess with anything else in my place, did you?” Alex asked accusingly. “I know raiding my underwear drawer must have been a thrill for you, but I hope you kept your time there short.” She seemed mad at me for bringing her clothes… like she asked.

  “Uh… you're welcome,” I said, actually confused at what was going on.

  “Your clothes are in there, Martin. I got all mine out,” Alex spoke to her friend.

  “Thank you, Alex. Once I change, we can head out,” Martin said, smirking at me. He was obviously amused by Alex’s resistance towards me doing my job.

  Martin picked up the duffle bag and headed into the bathroom to change. Then it was just Alex and me standing in the darkness of the living room.

  “Where’s all your stuff?” I asked, curious where she put it all. I brought a lot, just grabbing handfuls of things out of her drawers.

  “It’s on your bed,” she laughed, obviously jabbing at me. I think she enjoyed it.

  I don’t know what my face did, but she was pleased with herself. Whatever expression I held was enough ammo for her to keep attacking me verbally.

  “Don’t worry, you creep. I’m not leaving anything here for you to keep as a souvenir. Your grubby little hands have already been on my stuff too much as it is,” Alex spoke down to me as she walked into the kitchen.

  “Wow,” I said loud enough for everyone to hear. “I can already tell that this is going to be a hard night.”