the encounter with glowing eyes

"Stomp…stomp…stomp….BANG"

Ethan leaped off the edge of the building, smoothly gliding through the air. The dark roads below seemed to welcome him as if enticing him to fall into their embrace, but sadly, it seemed Ethan had survived once again as he landed safely on the opposite building. Smoothly, he transitioned into a safety roll to ease the force he'd landed with.

Ethan crouched on the building after completing the safety roll, the fast thumping of his heart echoing throughout his whole body. Yes, this was the feeling he craved—the sensation of brushing against death but swiftly escaping its grasp as if toying with this inevitable force.

Ethan stood up, the adrenaline dulling the pain in his legs from the brutal landing, but as if it didn't exist, he quickly twirled around and yelled at the building he'd previously just been on, "aha I f*cking made it, what did I tell you Lucas? You owe me a bloody tenner!"

The teenager Ethan was yelling at was currently open-mouthed, looking at Ethan on the opposite building. After all, he'd never expected Ethan to actually do it. After all, it was only a joke. The gap between the two buildings was at least 10 meters, not to mention the building he'd jumped to was lower, so even if you made the jump, you could've easily broken your legs on the landing.

"You crazy b*stard, you really did all that for a tenner?" Lucas couldn't help but smile, looking at the crazy Ethan celebrating on the other roof. He'd been close friends with him since they were 12, and even then, Ethan was as crazy as he was now, 4 years and nothing had changed.

"Hey mate, a tenner is a tenner. Never underestimate me. Now c'mon, are you gonna join me over here, or are you scared?" Ethan shouted back, a sly smile plastered on his face.

"Yeah, no thanks mate. I actually quite enjoy living, as crazy as that might seem to you. Meet me at the bottom of the building." Lucas turned around and walked over to the door on the rooftop to get down.

Ethan looked at the retreating Lucas and laughed a bit. After turning around, he looked up at the sky and took a deep breath in. "Ahhhhhhhh, now this is the best way to live." The world always seemed more vibrant after doing some crazy jump or climb, though sadly, it never lasted long. And as if the world was trying to remind him of this fact, his phone started ringing.

"Bzzzzzz….bzzzzzzz….bzzzzzz"

Ethan frustratedly pulled his phone out, annoyed that Lucas had ruined the relaxing feeling he'd been enjoying. "Wow, really can't last 5 minutes without me, can you?"

"ETHAN, YOU GOTTA RUN...POLICE....ARE HERE."

As soon as Ethan heard this, he hung up, panic washing through him, erasing any feeling of pleasure he'd previously been enjoying, dragging him back to the real world—the one he just couldn't escape.

Panic-stricken, Ethan scanned the roof, which was mostly empty except for the door leading to the rooftop, an old wooden chair near the door, and a poorly built brick wall that came up off the edges of the building in an poor attempt to stop people from falling off the side of it.

Ethan quickly ran to the door, hoping that the police checked the previous building first. Sadly, once Ethan opened the door, the first thing he saw were two police officers looking at him with a stern expression. Ethan jumped back in surprise, slamming the door shut.

In a split second after slamming the door, Ethan lodged the old wooden chair under the door's handle, though this wouldn't stop them long, as the police were already smashing against the door.

Ethan was seriously panicking. There was no other escape route, and if the police caught him, as soon as they ran his name through the system, they'd call child services. And if there was one place Ethan would never go, it would be an orphanage,

he couldn't abandon his sister.

In a desperate attempt, Ethan quickly ran to check the sides of the building, hoping that there was some alternate way to get down, and as if it was a blessing from God himself, there was.

4 meters lower, there was some old scaffolding. Though he realized that if the scaffolding didn't hold his weight, he'd die, and if he didn't handle the drop well, he'd fall off the side of the building. So it was either get caught by the police or jump, where even a permanent injury would be good compared to what could happen if he messed up.

Ethan hesitated for barely a second before the police smashed through the door, flinging the old wooden chair to the side. But unfortunately for them, Ethan had already made up his mind, and when Ethan did this, nothing could stop him.

Ethan flew forward and 360 vaulted over the old brick wall. This left him hanging off the side of the building, and after taking a second to plan his drop, he let go.

The police, not knowing his plan or about the scaffolding, were horrified and ran to the edge, hoping to grab him before he fell. But he dropped before they could stop him.

"BOOM." As Ethan landed on the scaffolding, the old weakened wooden planks gave way to him as he smashed through the top planks, letting him drop through to the next level. This messed up his calculations, causing him to land face first.

"Ughhhhh, I think I regret this." Ethan forced himself to stand up and climbed on to the outside of the scaffolding so he could climb down. Though when he looked up, all he saw was the astonishment of the two police officers. In all their time working for the police, they had seen some ballsy escape attempts, but this had to be single-handedly the dumbest and bravest one they'd ever seen.

Though seeing this situation, Ethan realized there was only one thing he could do, as such a time would probably never come again. And while looking intensely at the two police officers, he shouted, "F*ck the police!"

The two police officers looked at him in shock, but this soon gave way to anger. But it wasn't at what he'd said; it was at the massive grin he had on his face when he said it.

They quickly ran back to the door on the top of the building and sprinted down the stairs.

Seeing this, Ethan panicked, realizing that may not have been the best decision he could've made. But after calming down, he focused all his attention on what he was doing.

Ethan had been doing parkour for the last 4 years ever since he'd lost his parents. It had helped keep his mind off of it, since in parkour, if your mind wandered for even a second, you could be dangerously injured. This was a sport that could claim even the most seasoned parkourist with only one mistake. This sport required perfection; it required someone of concentration.

After analyzing the scaffolding and planning the fastest way down, he started to make his way down, using planned drops only to grab another pole after a few seconds. The rusty metal poles tore away at his calloused hands, but Ethan ignored the pain.

He continued to focus on what he was doing, not allowing for his concentration to falter, and within seconds, he'd landed on the street. The face of cold focus and resolve faded away, and gave way to a large cocky smile as he ran and weaved through the crowds, quickly fading away into the bustling of the city.

By the time the police had made it down Ethan was gone much to their dismay.

After about 20 minutes of running and then an extra ten minutes for safety, he pulled out his phone to call Lucas, hoping he'd also escaped. That thought lingered for a second before he remembered who his friend was.

Lucas rarely joined Ethan in doing parkour, but when he did, no matter how hard Ethan pushed himself, he just couldn't compare. The guy was superhuman in the way he moved, jumped, and climbed, but every time, he barely broke a sweat.

Breaking him out of his thoughts, his phone started ringing.

"Yo Lucas, what's up? You manage to get away?"

"You kidding me? You do realize that if I got caught, we wouldn't be talking."

"Okay, okay, calm down. I was just worried. Anyway, where are you at? I'm still raring to go. We could check out that new spot that's been popping up in those Insta posts recently."

"Yeah, no thanks mate. You do realize what my parents are like. If I got caught by the police, I would've been homeschooled till I was at least in my 50s." While some might've considered this a little melodramatic, Ethan knew he wasn't joking. He'd never met Lucas's parents, but Lucas had told him a lot about them.

"Alright, fair enough, Preppy. I'll probably head home too then. No point in staying out if I don't have my favorite sidekick there to help me get some good clips." Ethan had called Lucas preppy ever since they first met. It was his nickname, though not one he enjoyed very much.

"How many times do I have to tell you to stop calling me Preppy? Also, what do you mean home? I thought you were going to visit your sister today." Lucas almost whispered as if trying to make the mention as soft as possible.

"Nah, not today. I got pretty banged up in the escape, and you know I don't wanna worry her." Ethan's cheerful tone radiated through the phone, and Lucas noticed it almost seemed real.

"Wow, if you don't see her when you're injured, you must never see her. Anyway, tell her I said hi the next time you visit."

"Will do. Anyway, I gotta go. I'll call you tomorrow."

*beeeep!*

"Ahhh, time to go home."

I wonder how I would've reacted if I'd known this would be the day my life ended and my new one began.

"Huuupppppp." Ethan slowly lifted himself over the old rusted iron gate, his bruised ribs barely able to withstand the strain of his torso moving. After an awkward landing after hopping the fence, he looked forward and muttered, "home sweet home." Ethan slowly limped towards the old abandoned elderly home, each door and window boarded up, except for the emergency fire exit where Ethan had pried the boards off using a metal pole. He'd been living here for 5 months, and even though the place looked like something out of a cheaply made horror film, it was the only place left he could call home.

He limped around the building and walked through a small path made in the overgrown grass due to him leaving and entering the building regularly. After yanking the old fire exit door open, he plunged into the darkness of the building, the only source of light being the torch from his phone.

The further he walked, the worse the smell got. He'd done anything he could think of to get rid of the smell, but in the end, it proved more resilient than Ethan, and he soon gave up, content with at least weakening it.

He'd found this building around 2 years ago while searching for parkour spots with Lucas. Though after hearing the rumors of the place, they decided maybe it wasn't worth it. But after everything that had happened, Ethan was desperate enough to ignore the rumors about the place being shut down due to many of the elderly patients going missing.

Ethan slowly made his way through the hallways. The white paint that coated the walls had started to peel after years of no maintenance, and the cyan floor was decorated in these little flecks of white paint.

After walking for a while, he came to a large oak door, and with a heave, he opened the heavy door leading him to his room, which, all things considered, was pretty nice compared to what it had once been.

Ethan quickly collapsed onto his makeshift bed, which was really just a bunch of blankets piled on top of each other and a worn-in grey pillow. Looking around, there was a small shoe box filled with stacks of cash. This was the money they had left him and his sister when they had died. There were also a few boxes of food he kept for breakfast and dinner, and the once barren white walls were now covered in posters of bands Ethan liked. But a large section of the wall was reserved for 2 news clippings and a family picture.

Getting up with a groan, Ethan moved over to the wall and peeled the picture off. He stared at it for a second before mumbling, "I'm home, guys." Tears started to well up in his eyes, but he quickly wiped them away with his wrist.

Lying down again on his back, Ethan stared at the family picture. It was of him, his mother, his dad, and his older sister—the only family he had. Ethan seemed to be sucked into the image. He just sat there in silence, looking at the only picture he had of them. Turning his head to the side, he turned the small LEDs on since his phone was close to dying due to him abusing the torch function.

Looking up, his eyes landed on one of the newspaper clippings. His eyes scanned up and down the clipping as if reading it for the thousandth time would change what was written there, but sadly, that wasn't how reality worked.

APARTMENT BUILDING BURNS DOWN 2 DEAD, 12-YEAR-OLD CHILD LEFT ORPHANED

It had been 4 years, but every time I closed my eyes, I could still remember the day vividly: the smell of the smoke clogging up my lungs, the blaring sound of sirens outside the building, and the heat of the flames that licked at my legs.

Ethan shook himself out of it, standing up he looked out of the window "Ahhhhh…..I miss you guys and don't worry I'll look after Jenna, she took care of me for 4 years now it's my turn to look after her".

As he said this the dim orange light of the sun retreated into the distance allowing for the cold embrace of darkness to slowly consume everything.

Looking behind him Ethan walked over to the heavy oak door and lodged a wooden chair underneath the door so no one could get in after all he wasn't stupid who knows what kind of people could wander into the building at night.

Ethan slowly lifted his shirt off to inspect the damage from before-it was bad, bruises ran along the side of his ribs down to his waist but they paled in comparison to the burn scars that wrapped around his upper body.

Ethan knew he would never forget that night but these burns made sure he didn't.

"Seems I've got some extra injuries to add to the collection" Ethan was used to getting injured after his years of parkour, sure they happened less now but he wasn't always this good. Most of the memories he had from when he lived with his sister was her patching him up and nagging him to stop doing it since he came home injured every night.

Though Ethan couldn't stop if he slowed down for just a second everything he had been bottling up would rush forward and consume him.

Slowly Ethan lied down on his bed to avoid agitating his injuries though it was hard when even the slightest movement caused waves of pain to course through him.

"Ahhh" sighing Ethan let the darkness of sleep consume him eager to have a break from the constant flashes of memories that haunted his waking life.

"BANGGGGGG" Ethan woke up startled he'd heard something smash and if there was noise then there was a person.

"Ugh please don't be the police" Ethan slowly got up and grabbed a rusty metal pipe for protection in case the worst happened and it was some crazy squatter.

Ethan quietly opened the door to his room and poked his head into the hallway using a small torch from his room to light it up but after seeing that the hallway was empty as usual he took a reluctant step out of the room.

Every so often Ethan could hear animalistic screeches echo through the building this filled Ethan with confidence since getting rid of an animal was a usual thing for him since they sometimes wandered in here, he just needed to scare them off.

"Snifff…..sniffffffffffff" loud sniffing noises came from around the corner Ethan confidently walked round expecting to find a badger or a fox but instead he found a man-well if that's what it could even be called.

The strange man was wearing a black suit except it was torn and ripped all over his black hair was matted with dirt and blood and a sickly smell entered Ethan's nose it smelt like a rotting corpse.

Ethan took a step back in shock, the creature seemed to hear him and turned round to look at Ethan.

The creatures eyes looked like sparkling blue sapphires that glowed even in the darkness of the hallway, they seemed to compel Ethan he couldn't move all he could do was stare at those otherworldly eyes that threatened to consume his very soul.

Slowly the creature limped towards Ethan every step it took was erratic as if it was a new born baby who had just learned to walk.

The closer it got the more details Ethan could make out for example it's almost translucent skin and the blood that covered the creatures mouth and clothes, in no time at all the creature was standing right in front of Ethan.

He tried his best to run but he couldn't he was paralysed with fear-he felt like a rabbit staring into the jaws of a wolf. The creature opened its mouth and out leaked blood, it's razor sharp fangs grew longer and longer.

Like like lightning the creature pounced ripping away at Ethan's throat. Ethan felt as if his very being was slowly being consumed—he wanted to cry out but he couldn't, the only thing that would leave his mouth was a breathless squeak.

Ethan's mind ran, trying to figure out some way to survive, some way to escape, but there was none.

'Please no… not like this. What about Jenna? I can't leave her alone in the hospital.' Ethan wanted to fight, but there was no energy left in him; the darkness was starting to consume him, and just like that, his heart stopped.

Ethan's body went limp as the creature continued feasting on the sweet nectar of life that was Ethan's blood. Unbeknownst to the creature, a being appeared in front of it.

The feral creature abandoned its meal after sensing the danger in the strange being before it, and with one step, it flew back ten meters, landing on all fours. The creature wasted no time and charged again, believing the being in front of it to be just more prey, more food.

However, even when faced with such a monstrous creature, the strange man's face held no trace of worry. Instead, he seemed much more interested in the child lying before his feet.

The creature's charge never stopped as it moved through the building at incredible speeds. Its rotting mouth opened to expose its large fangs that seemed to shiver in delight at the idea of tearing through the flesh of another mortal.

There was only one problem: this man was anything but mortal, his regal scarlet glowing eyes giving away this fact. The creature, too feral to realize, had started a battle it couldn't hope to win. A failed creation such as it couldn't match the true power of a vampire.

Summoning every last bit of strength it had, the creature pushed it all into its legs and with a bang, the ugly creature went flying through the air towards the man.

And just as it was about to grasp its new prey, just as it was about to once again gorge itself on that sweet crimson liquid, its head imploded, causing blood and bone to go flying everywhere. The walls were coated in the rotten flesh of the creature.

The creature's body continued flying through the air, as it landed it dropped to the floor before burning away into ash. Every last trace of the creature dissipated as if it had never existed in the first place.

The man had barely gazed at the creature instead focusing more on the child lying on the floor.

"I've never heard of someone surviving a feral transformation... how very interesting" the man's face which was expressionless before now held a smile that could be likened to a child opening a Christmas present.