The light shone brightly on the luscious green plains as the sun slowly rose toward the sky.
"Wakey wakey, Big Brother," Eve whispered into the hate reader's ear. "There's a ~big monster~ trying to eat youuuu."
Jason groaned and lifted his head, staring blankly at the girl in front of him with wearied eyes.
"RAWRRRRR," the silver-haired vampire screamed with delight as she raised Karl into the air. The black-striped Doom Monkey dangled from beneath his raised shoulder joints and wriggled in her arms like an infant cub.
"Eve, stop it! Let me down!" Karl shouted.
Jason giggled and sprinkled Karl's forehead with dirt, thinking back to his favorite movie scene as a child.
"Karl, everything the light touches will be yours one day," he mocked in a deep voice.
The Doom Monkey looked at the hate reader quizzically, but latter simply brushed it off and laughed again. He got up and caught sight of a suspicious brown blur heading in their direction and rubbed his eyes.
"Umm, Eve. Behind you?"
The brown blur approached swiftly, and Eve swiveled around to take a peek. Two biolves charged toward them in a rampage and reared their hooves, kicking up a storm of dust around them. Known for the strength of a bison and the heightened senses of a wolf, these special A-ranked species were a serious threat to normal Islesians and could evade simple attacks or incantations with ease.
Blood began to circulate in the silver vampire's hand and quickly expanded into the shape of her favorite weapon. Holding the blood scythe at a distance, Eve lowered her gaze, and the smile disappeared from her face.
"I'll take the right one," she said matter-of-factly, cold as the arctic wind.
"Okay, I'll take the left then," Jason said with a smile, happy to fight alongside his sister once more. He concentrated on the palm of his hand and closed his eyes, threading his stream of blood into a beautiful bow. Nocking the string with his ember-lit arrow, he felt a tug at his leg and noticed Karl hiding behind him.
"There's only two of them," the Doom Monkey said as he stuck his tongue out. "It wouldn't be fair if I joined too. Today is my day off."
Flicking his middle finger at the little monkey in disapproval, Jason recentered his gaze on the rampaging biolf and released his arrow to the wind. As the sun beamed brightly down on him as if setting the stage for a grand finale, he hastily released two more arrows and snapped his fingers.
Feeling the cold and inevitable grip of death strangling its throat, the left-most biolf slowed to a halt and tried to dodge, but the arrows were simply too quick. Within an instant, the A-ranked creature was struck in the flank three times and exploded in a ball of flames.
"Finally done, Big Brother?" an excited voice asked mockingly.
"Yep," Jason replied with a faithful nod.
He turned in the direction of his little sister where a poor biolf lay neatly cleaved in half with a single flawless stroke and patted her on the head.
"Tsk. How are these creatures so weak?" she complained, clicking her tongue in disappointment and tossing her scythe into the air. "They're not even worth training on at this point. I can't believe I got my blood pumping for this."
She scrubbed the blood stains from her skirt and released a frustrated scream.
"It's…not enough. I want to fight," she muttered to herself as she narrowed her eyes. "I want to fight. I want to fight."
She looked around the barren plains until her eyes landed softly on the black-haired vampire. A hideous smile filled with evil intentions began to grow on the young girl's face as she asked sweetly, "Big Brother, won't you fight me?"
She blinked her eyes rapidly and blushed in the cutest way she knew how.
"What? Why would I do that?" Jason said, a hint of confusion apparent in his voice.
"Well, we never got to do our final spar, and only you are close to my level."
She puffed her cheeks and frowned slightly, waiting for her brother's decision.
"Hey, don't pussy out," Karl said, eager to watch another fight.
Jason glared toward the black-striped Doom Monkey who whistled nonchalantly and said, "I can't help you. Can't you see I'm busy?"
He pointed in the direction of the two biolves and gestured an eating motion with his hands. Rubbing his stomach, he quickly scampered away, leaving room for the two vampires to go all out.
Eve flashed a bright smile in response and transformed her left hand into a sanguine claw.
"Surely you can entertain me for long enough. Right, Big Brother?" she asked playfully as a shiver trickled down Jason's spine.
"Well, whatever. Ready or not, here I come!"
Immediately, the stunning silver-haired vampire smiled and disappeared from Jason's sight. Nocking an arrow on his bowstring, Jason closed his eyes and concentrated his heightened royal senses on hearing and smell. In an instant, the black-haired vampire took notice of several scampering footsteps and quickly released an arrow in that direction.
The blood arrow whizzed through the air and embedded itself deep into the ground beside the target, missing only by the breadth of a hair.
"Eek, Little Karl, are you okay?" replied the Doom Monkey. He froze in fright and cupped his hands over his private areas.
"This has to be on purpose," he said as his voice quivered. "Master, please stop shooting at me. I promise I'll be good. I'll even do the cooking tonight."
Jason clicked his tongue in disappointment and released another arrow in the opposite direction, where the scurrying steps of another figure were heard. Feeling the wind brush against his cheek, he knew instantly that the silver-haired girl had dodged it with ease and hastily bit his finger, his mind grasping for another idea. Droplets of blood hit the floor beneath him as he nocked a third arrow and prepared to snap his fingers.
His thumb and middle finger connected, but something was off…the sensation of victory wasn't his. Seconds before he could explode his final arrow, the hate reader felt a cold blade sweep across his feet and throw him high into the air. Disoriented, he opened his eyes in horror as he fell toward the thousands of blood spikes on the ground that stared him straight in the eye.
Eve puffed out her chest with pride and smirked at her ingenious plan.
"Not today, Brother. I know exactly how your skills work."
The silver-haired vampire confidently dispelled her veil of blood and revealed her position to the world. Just then, a crackle and a pop startled her as the sound of sizzling grew evermore present. She jumped back and coughed as she inhaled a bit of smoke, panic kicking her system into overdrive.
"Karl, are you cooking somethi —"
BOOM!
The black-haired vampire snapped his fingers and exploded the fallen droplets of blood on the ground. He had purposefully lured her into performing her favorite sweep combo and trickled ember-lit droplets beneath him in order to make her stand overconfidently on the right spot. At once, the spikes of blood vanished into thin air as the silver-haired vampire disappeared into a hazardous cloud of smoke.
Jason walked over toward the explosion site with a smile and sat down.
"Eve," he said sincerely. "Let's make a truce."
He squinted his eyes and looked for the little girl's figure, but she was nowhere to be found.
As he closed his eyes to concentrate on his hearing, the silver-haired vampire grabbed him by the neck and leaped off his leg with a kick. Placing her right leg on his throat, they fell toward the ground with a heavy impact. Eve opened her mouth wide and bit the hate reader hard on the head with a chomp.
A spurt of blood shot from Jason's head as he tapped the ground furiously, unable to breathe.
The silver-haired vampire's eyes flickered azure blue for a second, and she ran to grab a packet of ice from her ice box. Placing the frozen packet on her brother's forehead, Jason instantly jolted awake, his teeth chattering, in a state of confusion.
"Huh? How did I lose?" he asked curiously to his sparring partner.
Eve paused for a second as her face turned black, devoid of any pity. In a deep and serious tone, she recited, "Alucard Rule #5: Never turn your back on an enemy. If you don't confirm their death with your eyes, it is your death that is confirmed."
"But don't worry, Big Brother! I made sure to hold back."
Jason rubbed his throat pitifully and coughed a few times. 'That was holding back?' he thought to himself. 'I was seconds away from dying!'
The two vampires walked over and sat down next to Karl, who had used the remaining fire from the explosion to cook the biolves for dinner. As the trio munched on the scrumptious meat, Karl suddenly jumped up with joy.
"Man, I can't wait to use my scuba suit!" he shouted excitedly. "I've never swam before so it'll be fun!"
"More like, you can't wait to see that mermaid again," Jason said, poking the monkey in the cheek. "Isn't that right, you little player?"
Karl paused at the thought before shaking his head violently.
"No, I just want to see what it feels like to swim. I've always been scared of the water."
Jason recalled his tortuous swimming lessons as a child and shivered. Were it not for his parents forcing him to paddle stroke after stroke alongside the community swimming pool's lane ropes every day, he would have never wanted to swim again in his entire life.
"I can teach you when we get there," the hate reader said with a feeble smile, Karl's sheer enthusiasm winning over his heart.
"Really, Master? You'd do that for me?" the Doom Monkey said as his eyes sparkled. "You're not so shitty after all!"
With their bellies full and their hearts warm, the misfit adventurers watched the golden rays of the sun descend from the orange sky. Within minutes, Karl started to snore loudly, harmonizing with the buzzing flebees. Eve rested her head in Jason's lap and as the hate reader lifted his hand to stroke her shiny silver hair, a sudden scream caused him to flinch.
Watching his sister grab her heart and clench tightly in pain, Jason felt his hand quiver and his breath turn ragged.
The flames of resentment had grown stronger than the night before, and the teenager tried to repress the nagging in his throat with a loud gulp. Guilt welled up in his stomach, causing him to feel dizzy and nauseous, and soon, the contents of his dinner came crashing to the floor in a pile of mush.
"No," he said to himself, his seed of self-hatred resurfacing. "Why do you get to be happy when others suffer in your stead?"
"THINK! COME ON! THINK!" he screamed internally, scrambling for ideas. But once again, despair was his only option.
Minutes of soul-wrenching pain creeped slowly for the azure blue-eyed girl as she ceased to twitch and fell gently into her brother's arms.
When the sun rose and morning came the next day, the hate reader and his companions completed their morning endurance routine and set out once more to find the mermaid's tear. They sprinted full steam ahead toward the sea and within hours, reached the beautifully decorated golden gates of Atlantis. As they passed the first gate and neared the end of wooden dock, a bewitching mermaid shrouded in mystery popped from beneath the seas.
Singing a beautiful harmonic scale, she licked her lips with a sneer and charmed the naïve group of three with the most wonderful tune of their lives. Hearts enraptured by the sound of music, the hate reader, silver-haired vampire, and Doom Monkey slowly walked into the sea with unnatural smiles and lifeless eyes as the mysterious mermaid said,
"Greetings, travelers. I have been waiting for your arrival…"