Everywhere Adria looked was fire, it filled the entire place. Even though it was burning, there was nothing in sight for it to burn. And then he realized once he raised his hands that it was only burning himself. He screamed and struggled as much as possible to be rid of the flames, but they continued until he was totally consumed.
And then the scene changed and he was in space. A void of sorts. It was dark on all ends. "Big brother!" A little familiar voice whispered. Adria felt a tug from his shirt and then he turned about immediately. It was a very familiar face. At least a part of it was familiar. While most of it was peppered with blood stains and bite marks that had little worms leaking out of them like ice cream melting down its cone on a sunny day. Half of the body appeared eaten and the upper half held tightly to Adria's shirt.
Adria panicked and backed off speedily.
"What's the matter, big brother? Don't you love me anymore?" Chubin crawled onto Adria's body. "I thought you said that you loved me. You said that you would always be there for me. Well! look at me now. You weren't there for me. And now, I look like this! It's all your fault big brother, all your FAULT!"
Adria fell on his ass as he continually backed off. However, Chubin held tightly to his leg. Then Adria heard another familiar voice.
"Team-leader! Please save me! I have a wife back home. I still want to see her!" A man with a half-eaten face held tightly to his legs. He struggled hard and finally, he pushed away and ran. However, he had no idea where he was running to.
"Ah! Finally! I see you have decided to embrace me. To embrace your true nature!" Adria heard a deep bass voice, he looked around but could not see anyone.
"Where are you looking at? I am right here!" Adria heard the voice by his left ear. He immediately turned around and there it was. the source of the voice was a person sitting on a throne made entirely of human skulls.
It was a person that looked exactly like Adria, except he had horns on his head, blood red eyes, sharp vampire teeth, big black leather wings, sharp thorns all over the body, and an upper and lower body that was three times the size of Adria's own.
"I have told you before, You should accept me. I'm your true nature." The entity on the throne spoke lightly with a smile staining the corner of his lips.
"No! No!! Not you again! I told you before. I'm not you. I'm nothing like you." Adria denied shaking his head.
"Are you sure? I doubt there would agree with that?" The entity pointed behind Adria and as soon as he turned, all Adria saw was a multitude of half-dead or half-eaten people staggering towards him as they stretched for him.
"No! No!! stay away from me. All of you. Stay away from me!" Adria panicked and tried to back off, however, everywhere he turned was filled with half-dead people. They swarmed around him and started pulling at his clothes and his body.
"Hahaha!!!" The entity on the human-skulled throne laughed heartily.
"Please! stay away from me! all of you, just stay away from me!" Adria struggled hard as he might. However, he just couldn't shake them off his body. Slowly, they drowned him, and all he could see was the entity laughing at him on the throne of skulls...
*Knock! Knock!! Knock!!!
Adria opened his eyes. The knock at the door had woken him up. He tried to sit upright, but a splitting headache assaulted him. This was not the first time something like this was happening to him. He instantly knew what it. He immediately hurried for his clothes on the floor. He pulled out a small bag from his jacket and brought out the syringe from within.
He could feel that the transformation had already started, and it hurt like hell. His fingers kept on shaking as he tried his best to keep his focus and use the syringe. His fingernails had already started to get longer and his grip around the syringe was weak. However, he knew he couldn't stop now.
His neck was too far for him to reach. He used both hands to hold the syringe and he stabbed it into his thighs. He fell on the floor and although it took a longer time than usual, the changes stopped and the fatigue stepped in. However, the continuous knocking at the door did not let him have his rest.
"I'm coming! I'm coming!!" He struggled as he used the bed to lift himself up.
Nora had been waiting at the door for some time now. She just could not understand why she was the person always sent to attend to this lazy guy. It was true that junior officers like herself were given a significant amount of work, however, she won't mind if it was anybody else but Adria. She really did not like him one little bit.
Aside from the event on the plane, he had the guts to rough handle her yesterday, by throwing her at a vampire.
Adria opened the door, "hey colt! If you have finally changed your mind, this is not the best time for me. Maybe sometime later in the afternoon would be better."
"Firstly, no thank you, sir! Secondly, it is already evening. You slept through the entire day." She corrected with a frown on her face.
Adria looked outside and realized that he had lost track of time. After the events of the previous night, he had gone drinking with Sqautterbloat and his old pals. Hell! he couldn't even remember how he got back to his tower.
"Oh! that explains the hunger!" Adria rubbed his tummy.
Nora rolled her eyes, "Sir! I have an invitation here." She handed him a small letter, "It is to mourn the two that died yesterday."
Adria frowned, "Two people died yesterday!?"
"Yes sir! Both the Vampire and the victim were soldiers, sir. Although it was an unfortunate accident, Colonel Sqautterbloat is holding a wake keeping on their behalf."
"Ahh! Damn it! Do I really have to come!?" Adria complained.
Nora could not believe what she was hearing. After all, the victim of yesterday's attack was a woman Adria had a fun time with only minutes to her death. In fact, one could say that her meeting with Adria led to her death. She was very sure Adria knew this. Both of them were the first to see the victim. Yet, he was acting like it was a bother, or like he had better things to do.
Nora forced herself to smile, "Although orders of this category are given to Officers as invitations, I am sure you know that this still remains an order from Colonel Sqatterbloat." She saluted and walked away.
Adria sighed. After a quick wake up smoke, he showered and got dressed.
This small farewell ceremony for the soldiers was not held in the Mess, rather the Parade ground.
It was dark and the first thing Adria saw when he arrived was...