Sierra returned to her room and shut herself in as her father ordered her to. She couldn't decide which was worse, the inability to end her life and seek hopes in the wretched world she knew or the disputes she had to take part in because of her mother. They always fought for a reason that had something to do with her.
She grabbed her blanket again and forced herself to sleep again. She knew her father would drink until he starts destroying everything around him. She knew that if she came out he would say nasty things to her. She didn't blame him because if she didn't exist, he would be free. What a pity! Both father and daughter desired death but no one could make the first step.
People relax when they are home but for her, school was better. The tension rose and she found herself with her dark thoughts again, repeatedly hovering over the same thing. Her body turned around, facing the ceiling. Her eyes went to the clock on the wall, it was tickling and she was counting her breath. The sound was almost hypnotizing in the serenity of the night. Her body relaxed, staring at it. She was so focused on the tickling that she couldn't hear the slamming of the door signalling her father had finally calmed down. So she slept.
Duncan arrived in front of an underground tunnel, he ran towards the door he had to reach before dawn. Vampires didn't sleep like humans. They had a different kind of sleep. They spent years awake and when their powers start to deplete, they make their own coffin and bury themselves underground until they wake up again.
He was a C-rank executor. No matter what he did, he couldn't get over it the fact that his own powers were a mystery. He was a bit stronger than humans. In fact, a lot stronger than regular vampires. He couldn't measure his power so he chose to hide it until an opportunity arises to show it off.
"Here we go again!" he said as his foot stepped inside.
The work he did was dangerous. The other vampires made fun of him and to confound the matter further the pay was pathetic. But he didn't have a choice. The Empress' verdict was absolute. He had to serve until he reached normal adulthood in the vampire race, which is a half-century of human life.
Duncan had to show himself weak in front of the others because the vampire world is full of predators. In many missions, he got himself injured to a point everyone thought he would die but he didn't.
Behind the door he opened was the association of the executors and the main bureau. It was a big building that stretched from underground to the surface. The capital of Revampirina had an underground life for vampires as they hated the day. The executors who arrived early sipped cups of blood handed out by the association itself. Their gazes followed him as he moved to the receptionist.
"Hey, how are you today, Duncan? I heard you successfully finished a mission for your rank, congratulations. Will you treat us to glasses of blood and human's eyes treats?" the girl who was the receptionist was a cold-blooded previous executor. She smirked aiming for his pay. However, Duncan was used to her teasing. He declined her politely.
She jovially burst out in laughter and jumped from behind her counter. She was wearing a maid outfit tainted with black, red and white. Her sharp nail traced the tip of his face. "You are as cute as ever. I have a little mission for you," she pulled a paper from her breasts and handed it to him. "There is a wendigo on loose around the city. Find it and bring us his head."
"Katherine, you made the paper wet with your sweats. Give me another one."
He forced himself to stay as polite as possible. It wasn't good spiking strangers' curiosity in the middle of a group of predators.
"You will have to do with that. I am giving you powder luck. There is also a group mission you can do but there is no one who would accept you. So go and take care of that first."
He checked the details on the paper for the new mission. Apparently, the wendigo has killed ten humans. Human dead means the stock has depleted and they had to renew it. They like it when one dies or two but ten; they have to replenish ten in the city. The vampires won't like that.
Wendigos are creatures like ghouls. They have sharp teeth and corpse looking-like bodies that repulsed everyone at sight. They liked to possess humans and eat their own kind, which means the wendigo this time is a human and he ate the ten victims. No one knew how humans turned into wendigos or how they were possessed by one. Possession is easy to manipulate but turning into one was the complete opposite. The human can't turn back.
It was a loss for vampires...
"Who is that? I never saw him. He has a weird stench around him," someone said at the other end of the hall. He spoke loud enough for Duncan to hear him, but he didn't care. He was used to those remarks.
"You don't know him. It's normal! You stayed hollowed in your castle for a while. He is the human that joined us three years ago. You know the condemned. He has human blood in his veins that's the reason behind the stench. He is called the weakest executor. He was in the C-rank since he joined us. Even joining us, he was ordered by the Empress."
"Man, it must be amusing seeing a hybrid fight the urge to save his other part. He must have it hard," the stranger saw how Katherine greeted him first and behaved towards him so he turned hostile towards him. Katherine was a wild female vampire and she was the wish of many vampires. "He isn't worth a dime."
"He has great luck for surviving. You know how many times he got injured and had to stay in his castle. The Empress gave him the one by the hill because he was able to pass the test. It was the luck of him."
"The castle by the hill… that cursed one. I don't think I envy him about it."
"Keep your voice down or he might hear you. It's a bad thing to hurt the heart of a child."
Duncan's eyes swept the hall in one swoop then disappeared back into the underground city. He avoided meeting the eyes of the ones who were talking about him. It wasn't worth creating troubles. The city underground was almost empty as it was night; the vampires are taking their time outside. The reason why humans had to be behind their doors at eight was because of vampires; they had the right to walk the streets and live their life outside at night.
The sun didn't burn them but because of the sensitivity of their senses and the urge to drink blood, they had to stay underground.
Duncan had a new mission and he had to do his part in showing himself as weak. The Empress was observing him and he wanted her to stay away. She was a crazy vampire who liked black and white. He got out of the underground city and finally saw the moon high in the sky. He thought about the human who talked to him and the way she fought the urge to end her life.
He understood why she preferred death. Her life wasn't worth living. However, she will be free when she will reach adulthood. After high school, she will work and will be independent. She won't stay in that house for too long. She simply had to endure for two more years and everything will be fixed.
The cold breeze brushed past the tip of his nose as he stood on top of one of the four towers around the city. Four towers, those are high in the sky. His eyes searched for her house before dawn stroke again and he remembered the cemetery visit he didn't do because of her. He rushed to where he left the basket of flowers and went to the cemetery.
The tombs were as he left them. He cleaned the entire graveyard then put a golden reminiscence over each tomb. He arrived at the tomb where Sierra sat a moment ago and put two flowers then moved to the symbolic tomb of his parents. Surprisingly, he found a similar flower waiting for him there, the same one Sierra left for the teacher. He asked himself when she moved to put a flower there.
"I put it there," a shadowy voice spoke in the air as by telepathy.
"Who are you?"
"Someone who haunts this place," a strange black dog appeared out of thin air. It had a long tail like a shadow, a smoky shadow. It was tall enough to compare to Duncan's height with glowing red eyes. "I am the new Grave Grim of this area. No one will steal your corpses."