Seated upon a throne of impossible splendor, a woman with fiery scarlet hair surveyed the room with an expression that barely acknowledged her challenger. Her crimson gaze lingered on him as if deciding whether he was worth the effort of her disdain.

To say she peered down with cocky disregard would be too generous; it was more as though she found his presence no more significant than a stray smudge on her otherwise immaculate surroundings.

Undeterred, the challenger stepped forward. Without uttering a single word, he drew his blade from thin air, materializing it from seemingly nothing. 

The woman sighed and snapped her fingers.

As though acknowledging her sole authority, the space within the grand throne room began to ignite. Within moments, scarlet sparks developed, coalescing into orbs of searing flame that hung menacingly throughout the room.

"Since you so clearly wish to court death, I shall grant your wish. You should be delighted, it's an honor to be burned by my flames."

With unearthly beauty, a smirk flashed upon her lips as she spoke. "Be sure to tell the souls on the other side who cut your life short. I am the great Vampire Empress, my name is—"

As they battled, the cries of war ripped through the entire city, lining the streets with bloodshed and violence.

On that night, mankind would triumph over the vampires. The Vampiric Empire would fall at the hands of the knights of the Magic Order.

And on that very same night, the great Vampire Empress would have her unspoken name engraved into the halls of legend.

- January 8th, 2024, Miami, Florida. Hundreds of years after the fall of the vampiric empire and exactly one year before the end of the world.

The soft hum of the classroom was interrupted by the quiet musings of a girl with shimmering violet hair. She leaned on the windowsill, her dulled eyes looking for some distraction.

 Even as she scanned outside the window, there was nothing for her to latch on to. Nothing abnormal, nothing even slightly unusual; there was only the mundane cityscape that she'd grown used to seeing. There were skyscrapers and large buildings, signs of true grandeur, but they were in the distance—just close enough to see and imagine but not to touch and experience.

Before she could think about it any further, a true anomaly disrupted her world, one she was all too familiar with. 

Standing atop his desk, a boy with dark skin and a pompous grin threw his right hand up into the air with dramatic flair.

'Piercing the veil of normalcy and embracing the supernatural!'

That's how I would put it at least, but the myriad of stifled laughter and the glare of pure annoyance on the teacher's face would disagree with my statement. The only person with a different expression on their face was the violet-haired girl. Her deflated look was one of a knowing of what would come next. 

"On my soul as the unparalleled Dark King, I cannot bring myself to simply allow this mockery of education continue! Do you mean to tell me that we are merely expected to memorize these silly equations while the very nature of the world is at risk?"

The teacher pinched the bridge of his nose and mumbled something about an early retirement. Unequipped to deal with the situation, he did as he usually did and turned toward the violet-haired girl in the back with a pleading expression. 

"Charlotte, could you please..."

Begrudgingly, she stood up from her desk and sharply glared at the boy who always caused her trouble. 

"Alright, that's more than enough. Sit down before you embarrass yourself any further."

A booming reply met her plea, as though the volume of the statement could make up for realism or credibility. "Ha! Sit? As if the whims of the Dark King can be contained by such mundane furniture! Can none of you feel it? The coming of a great storm and the passing of bygone days. Yes, I can feel it. On the name of the great, unstoppable, amazing, super cool, handsome Dark King Ve—"

As if on cue, the boy's unstable footing finally betrayed him. With a spectacularly ungraceful wobble, he tipped backward, arms flailing, and crashed to the ground in a heap.

At that moment, the entire classroom broke out into laughter and Charlotte sighed. 

Yet, as the classroom erupted into laughter, I only felt a sense of detached longing.

Well now that that embarrassment is all said and done, I believe it's time to pull back the curtain and show you who your dutiful narrator for this tale shall be. 

I am the Pretend Dark King Veri and it's a pleasure to make your acquaintance. 

Hopefully, now that you've seen me in action, you've been amused by my antics, but you may also have found yourself to be absolutely repulsed. I couldn't blame you for either response. Even still, do me the honor of answering a question. 

Do you believe in the paranormal?

To be clear, I mean stuff like aliens, ghosts, monsters, etc. Even magic would count. 

Well, personally I do. Or, at the very least I'd like to believe in them. Really, wouldn't the existence of stuff like that just be great? Everyone, every single person in this whole world would get a chance to be special. Everyone could have their own unique abilities and lore and no one would be left out. It'd be a utopia of dreams.

"Ah, that'd be the best..." 

"What in the world are you thinking about? Have you been listening at all to what I've been saying?"

Sadly, we don't live in some musical or fantasy, we're all tied down to the realities that we were born into. No matter how much we try to break out or go against the tide, we all end up back where we started. And of course, in this mundane world, no matter how much I bark, someone like me could never be special.

I know that already.

With her hands on her hips, the girl who'd dragged me out of the classroom was standing in front of me in an empty hallway. From the windows, the setting sun filled my view with vibrant orange and yellow hues. Stepping directly into the light, the girl in front of me didn't allow me to enjoy them for too long. 

"Listen to me you half-brained lunatic! Stop for a second and actually hear the stuff that comes out your mouth. Can you stop pretending for five minutes and—"

Charlotte seemed just about ready to burst out into a tirade, but with my characteristic lack of grace, I knew exactly how to get out of the situation.

"Hold your tongue girl! Is this something you should be saying so openly aloud?"

"Wha-What does that even mean? What are you some kind of comic book villain?" 

With a melodramatic sigh, I answered her ignorant inquiry, "The Union of Holy Justice has ears everywhere! If they hear even a whisper of something they don't like, they'll be here within moments! Do you even know what you could've done? No, you clearly haven't a clue! I cannot mingle with such clueless individuals."

My empty words left her in a daze, that's when I saw my opening.

Like an all too eager track runner sprinting out the block before the gun's been shot, I made my escape. I fled down the hall and evacuated the school building at lightning speeds, leaving Charlotte slack-jawed. 

"Annoying. How'd I end up mixed up with a guy like that?"

That was the only thought on her mind as she attempted to recompose herself.

Just before she had the chance to walk back into the classroom, Charlotte spotted something shining on the floor. Looking down, she'd found my phone, lying there all by its lonesome. Unable to overcome her good nature, she picked it up and put it in her pocket. 

Lucky for me, it was after school and I could go home. The only reason all those kids had stayed after school was for extensive SAT tutoring.

As I exited the school gates, I could feel that my social battery was running critically low. I was completely exhausted, though that isn't much of a shocker after playing my Dark King persona all day. 

I guess it'd be better to say that I'm exhausted every day after school. That's why despite walking to school nearly every day, I hated having to walk back home.

 I deeply didn't want to walk home, but went I tried reaching into my pocket to order a ride, I found my pockets to be empty. I could've done a lot of things, but instead of being proactive, I slumped my head low and resigned myself to walking.

As I stepped forward, a myriad of ethereal blue cracks on the earth grew, meeting my gait. Their abnormality signaled the end of the beaten path. With each step, I unwittingly drew closer and closer to the unknown world that I so desperately wished to see, a world far less glamorous than I'd dreamed.

This isn't the bellowing epic of a hero in the making. This also isn't the grand tale of an empress returning to her former glory, nor of humankind overcoming evil. This is one of the countless lost stories, the kind that slip through history's cracks. Though unlike many, this tale is likely better off forgotten. This is the story of a pathetic boy who struggles hopelessly and in his struggle, attains everything that both this world and the next have to offer.