Chapter 4 An unexpected meeting

Using a bloody rag, he wiped his hands. Then, he tried wiping the knife clean. But, no matter how hard he tried to remove the blood, it wouldn't come out. It seemed as if it had seeped inside the blade. Even when he dumped the knife under the water stream from the sink, the result remained the same.

It was late evening when Vlad tried getting Sebastian back to life for the nth time. But now, it was impossible. With a last look at the mangled chunk of flesh and bones resting on the table, that used to be Sebastian in his prime just a couple of days before, Vlad felt no remorse. All he felt was disappointment. 

Disappointment because it all ended too quickly. Too quickly for him to feel the pain he deserved for what he did to his life. Too quickly for Vlad to vent all the anger he felt towards him in special, and by extension to everyone who allowed something like this to happen. He even felt anger towards his own parents, he felt like he was cheated by them, betrayed and left alone in the world to fend for himself.

In his frustration, he threw the knife he was struggling to clean in the sink and kicked the chair next to it flying and it landed on the other side of the room in shambles after breaking apart in its collision with the stone wall. He didn't feel any pain and didn't realize what he had done or how he managed to do it. His mind was focused only on his internal turmoil, everything else didn't matter.

...

Outside, he was still chained to the chair. His face had a gloomy expression, even though he was unconscious. His teeth were gritted and from time to time he would howl like an infuriated fiend from hell. The veins on his temples were pulsating and his muscles were tightening up on his body.

A growl escaped from his throat as a black mist started emanating from his body.

The chubby man and the shadow were looking at him and seeing the mist started to grow thicker by the moment, a satisfied smile appeared on the man's face.

"Apparently, it was the right choice. Nothing imprints the human soul better than the negative feelings of hatred, simmering resentment and bloodlust. Apparently the first part has been completed successfully. Now, we have to wait for further developments of these memories and when she comes, he will be sent out to do what he has to do."

The shadow, hearing the chubby man talking to himself, turned his attention from the body in the chair and looked at the man exuding a sort of happiness. He had never seen him so excited about something before.

"Aren't you counting your victories before the battle even started? He's only in the first stages, yet you're already climbing on the walls in excitement and singing praises left and right. Don't forget what he has to go through before he succeeds in getting out. You already know his life story. Even for me, it's a disaster, let alone him who has to through it again for a chance of retaining the personality. What make you think he'll play by your rules, even if he retains his personality. Just for argument's sake, let's say, he retains everything. And I really mean everything. What then?"

The chubby turned his head, his eyebrows furrowed in displeasure.

"Don't forget who's in front of you at the moment. And don't forget your position. Just because I took this face, it's only a temporary suit for me! Do you believe me when I say that with a wave of my hand I can extinguish you from existence? You're only a servant of my whims, not even a full-fledged Demon. Just a shadow cast out of my light, and you dare judge my actions?"

The chubby man snorted as his entire body started to emit vibrations in the surroundings that forced the shadow to fall on its knees under the pressure.

It shook as the pressure kept growing, until it couldn't endure it anymore and fell flat on its face. Finally when it reached the point of nearly being extinguished, the pressure subsided and everything returned to normal. The shadow lifted itself up and, even though it didn't say anything, its posture changed immediately in relation to the person in front of it. Now, it was slightly bent, with the head lowered to reach a level lower than the chubby man's height. It didn't dare stand out again in front of him.

At this point in time, the one bound in chains groaned as the black mist fizzled as it touched his body, but was still out of it. He still struggled while the smell of burning flesh started to spread through the air. The mist was consuming itself as it burned out into the man's body. It looked like it was invading the man's body and while doing that, was a consummation on both ends. 

When it was finally over and the mist disappeared completely inside the man's body, it slumped forward. It looked more like a bloodied skeleton. The only form of soft tissue left in his body were his eyes that now were in plain sight. The eyelids were gone. 

When he saw what he looked like, the chubby man nodded and smiled to himself. 

"Now for the reconstruction, he needs to find his hope. And for the final touch, it should be the betrayal that leads to the bloodlust! After that, he'll be ready."

He then turned to the shadow. 

"You'll soon be able to witness our Lord's plans coming to fruition once the old Lady gets here. Go and wait for her at the entrance and bring her here as soon as she arrives. And try not to make any mistakes while doing this, otherwise you know what will happen to you. Don't talk to her, unless you are asked something by her and when answering, don't veer out of what she wants to know. Don't look at her face, otherwise nobody will be able to save you from death. Remember who she is and what she can do. You were by my side when we met her last time and know how it ended even though our Lord was there too. Be careful!"

With a wave of his hand, hee sent the shadow on its way. It bowed without a word and it vanished. 

The chubby man let out a sigh as soon as he was left alone to watch over the destroyed body in front of him and he muttered to himself. 

"I really hope nothing will happen to make our plans fail at the last moment!"

.... 

The days went by one after another for Vlad. At first it was hard for him to be all alone. Sometimes when he returned from school, he almost expected that his life was same as before and he hurried his steps home, only to be disappointed each time he stepped inside the silent house. There was nobody waiting for him anymore and he trembled while trying to suppress whatever feelings of forlorn that appeared in his being. The throat was burning and his eyes were misty with the u shed tears. He would always cough to suppress the weight pressing on his chest. With a hurried wave of his hands he would make his eyes clear again, but slowly, he started turning numb to everything around him after the days turned to weeks and then to months and finally into years. 

He turned into a stone cold person incapable of bonding with anyone around him, no matter what measures were taken in that regard. The others tried, but slowly they left him alone to his own devices when they received no response from him. 

So his middle school ended. He was fourteen now. In fall he would attend high school. 

He was truly alone now as his mother ended her life in the asylum. It didn't affect him too much when he found out the news. He considered himself to be an orphan since that fateful evening. He wasn't interested in finding out how it happened and gave instructions to have her cremated and then he dug a hole in the garden behind his house, under a tree, and emptied the box that contained her ashes in that hole. And then he put the earth back into the hole, covering the ashes. 

After that, he entered the house, sat at the table and had his meal. And life went on, as it was currently. 

What brought a bit of interest in his life now was only his knife, with which he never became apart. Along the way he began to realize that it was changing too. He didn't know how, but it looked like he was able to almost communicate with it and they were able to understand each other. At first he thought he was going crazy with this theory, but as time passed it started to no longer matter to him what others thought, so he started using the knife to make some sort of martial movements. He didn't know how or what he was doing. He only followed the knife's lead. He was almost happy doing that. Of course, some time it would crave blood and he would accompany it to get some. It was always a special kind of blood, the kind it drank first time when it awoke. The moves he practiced under its guidance came in handy then. Because those possessing that blood were dangerous. They were prowling in the night, vanishing without a trace at dawn. So he hunted them at night. As time passed, he became a hunter of hunters and he was enjoying the sensation of power it gave him. And while he was doing that his body was changing also. But he took it in stride, taking it as a perk of what he was doing. 

It was a morning of August around ten. He was sitting on a bench in front of a church where he was called with the usual business. As time passed, others that were doing the same thing as him started taking note of him and often he would be called to team up with the purpose of destroying a more difficult nest. That could only be accomplished after sunrise. 

His usual partner was getting late. He just occupied his time with watching the clouds move in the sky. 

The sound of footsteps approaching woke him up from the reverie and he turned his head in the direction of the approaching person, expecting his partner. But he discovered immediately that it wasn't him. It was a girl, maybe the same age as him. From what he could see, she was quite pretty with blonde hair in a ponytail. He decided to just ignore her for the moment, until he saw her walking in the direction of the entrance into church. She seemed to not have noticed him. 

She already passed him when he finally spoke with a calm voice. 

"You should just let it be!" 

She quickly turned on her heals searching for the owner of the voice, he guessed. 

"I'm sorry, you scared me!" 

Her voice was cracking. Watching her he nodded impassive. 

"That's good then. I reached one of my goals for today. Run along now, I don't have patience for you to make me unable to complete what I have to do!" 

Her mood instantly turned sour, her temper flaring up. 

"Look here, mister! I don't know who you are or what you want, but what I do or don't do, it's entirely up to me. I just want to enter the church." 

The teenage boy shrugged. 

"I don't care! Get lost, I have work to do!"

"Work? You're only sitting on that bench looking at the church."

"Exactly, it's very heavy, intellectual work, but I guess you can't understand normal language."

He stood up from the bench he was sitting on and started coming closer. She frowned as she watched him draw nearer and her hand reached inside her purse trying to grab something from it. Probably her phone. 

"Stay right there, I'm warning you!" 

But he kept coming so she moved quickly. In fact he was surprised by her speed. He was even more surprised a moment later when she quickly released the projectile with a sling hitting him square in the chest, knocking the air out of him, making him start to hiccup. 

"Now, we're even! Don't play around or I'll knock you on your ass!" 

She lifted her hand and took a quick step forward, feinting a slap. At least that was her intention, probably. Because she tripped on a rock embedded badly in the dirt road and tumbled forward waving around getting him silenced with a slap, followed by her head in his stomach, making him whizz pathetically as the remaining air in his lungs just flew out with explosive might, and then both of them tumbled to the ground in a messy heap of entangled heads, hands and feet. You know the romantic scene where if a boy or a girl falls he gets an accidental kiss?

Sort of that was his thought for a fraction of a moment. And it happened here also, but a lot different. Instead of slowly falling and romantically kissing the other one, was more like a tank at full throttle ramming into a house and collapsing its walls. Sort of like that. What I'm trying to say is that her forehead kissed his lips in the fall, making him whimper. Not from pleasure, but pain. 

He kicked the air and pushed her off of him and finally got to his feet taking heavy breaths of air while holding his chest with a hand and covering his mouth with the other. All this time he stared daggers at the dumbfounded girl still on the ground. 

"What the hell was that for?" he coughed, spitting some bloody phlegm on the ground. "Are you crazy?" 

But she just stood up, patted herself down and walked towards the church. She turned at the door and spit between her teeth. 

"It's your fault. Don't get in my way!" 

"My fault? I was in your way? You're crazy! But don't worry, I won't! In fact, if I see you I'll just go the other way around just to avoid you! Crazy!" 

"Great! Do just that!" 

Turning back to the door, she opened it abruptly and walked in. 

As soon as she walked in, he hurried to take a walk around the church. When he returned to the point he left from, it was just in time to see her back as she left. He couldn't help himself from shaking his head in wonder at such a weird one.

"What are you dreaming about?"

Unknowingly an elder was standing next to him, his face lacking any emotion, his eyes like those of dead fish.he couldn't help from jumping in surprise at seeing him, his mind short-circuited at the fact he didn't sense his approach.

"Nothing, just thinking of what is going to happen..."

"Oh, alright. What happened to your face?" the elder's gaze roamed across his face. 

"Nothing, just slipped and fell." He felt his cheeks burn as he touched the swollen lips. 

"Oh? You must have slipped a few times in a row!"

"Just shut up! Let's get it done here! Not a word more, you hear me?"

"Yes, Your Majesty!" the smirk on the elder's face was followed by a groan as the wind was knocked out of him by a fist to the gutts and he knocked into the door using his whole body.

"Not a word I said!" he muttered as he withdrew his fist. Then he stopped, as if realizing something. He looked at his fist and then at the cracked church door and the old lying in a heap on the doorstep, groaning in pain. He suddenly realized something. 

"Strange, I'm not weak as what I did just now proves it. What happened earlier? How was she able to hurt me?" he mumbled as he took a final look towards the way she disappeared.

Then, he grabbed the old man, hoisting him up and walking inside. The door slowly closed behind them and was soon followed by screams of agony and fear. A silhouette jumped from one of the windows upstairs and immediately burst into flames. In the cracked window the teenager was watching it burn on the ground with empty eyes. He took out a phone, dialed and said a short sentence.

"Done! Send the cleaning crew!" and he slowly walked away as smoke was still rising from the corpse on the ground.