Book Of Hell (Part 3)

I leave my castle in the usual way, like a bat, and in a matter of minutes I'm at the bar in town. In order to be suitable for the place, I wear simple peasant clothes. I go into the place, which is crowed. Among the routines of the place: loud talking at the same time, pushing and shoving, spilling glasses, laughter, riots, disagreements... Or finding my presence strange because I'm a newbie or they already know the truth. Soon, soon, I'll know what it is. In fact, it seems more like the second option because by the time I got to the counter, I had them gracing my presence. Or they could be the rudest and most unreceptive guys in the world. All possibilities have to be considered.

"What do you want, stranger?" For the short and dry speech, without gaps for this, to become a conversation, combined with a not very friendly face, it is... This is undoubtedly a not very friendly welcoming entourage.

"Wine, please!" I place a silver coin on the counter.

"And information!" I put in another coin. He finishes cleaning his glass, turns around and opens the keg. He serves me with certain truculence when he puts the glass on the table.

"Keep your second coin, outsider!" With two fingers he drags the coin back to me. I drag it back to him saying:

"The information is more important than the drink!"

"But it is the only one you'll have!"

"Then I'll have to..."

"What is it, Voltan? I know we don't have a good reputation here, but sometimes it can be useful." To what he shows himself to be the most "friendly" in the room, his "kindness" is also demonstrated by pulling the coin towards him. It seems that I was accepted into the room where the attendant returns to his duties and the routine also returns to normal, without all that attention on me.

"What information do you seek, outsider?"

"What can you tell me about the bat-shaped mark carved into the door?"

"You must be drunker than many here. Ha, ha, ha, ha..." He laughs uncompensated as others follow him and I seem to be back to typical school banter. He doesn't know it, but his facial expression changes and his heart takes on a different rhythm. I grab his arm tightly.

"I only leave here with the information I need!

Wwwwwwwaaaarrrr..." I have a stake stuck in me from the back that comes out in front.

"Wwwwwaaaarrrrgggg..." Then I have my neck cut. I immediately take my hand to neck, in an attempt to stop the flow. With what strength I still have, I punch Mr. Giggle as I send him out of the bar through the window that breaks. I do the same with another one who came to attack me. I turn and to the coward who attacked me from behind, I won't let him live then, I use my fingernails and I cut his throat. To what I also fight back to the one who cut mine. Everyone shows themselves as enemies and, in fact, it was the second option. But drunkards aren't worthy of that nomination.

"Aaaaarrrrr..." I break the wood in my chest and the back I was holding...

"Aaaaarrrrr..." I pull it out of my body. I regenerate those two big wounds, as well as, the one on the neck.

After two steps towards the exit, I catch signs of life... I turn and I go behind the counter. I examine everything and I find a trapdoor.

I open it and I find a staircase. I enter. This building is old. I catch the signs of life from before, but now, clearer and much more.

I hear voices and I walk more cautiously...

"This evil must be eradicated from the face of the Earth!"

"How much longer are we going to be feeding him?"

"I still think it's better to continue to serve as food for the vampire!"

"He butchered William. Don't you remember? It was his neighbor even, Rodan."

"We don't know if it was the vampire. It's not like him!"

"Oh, you're a vampire expert now?" Borir says.

"You know that in the Forest of Amelon there's another very serious problem! An indomitable beast!"

"Exactly!" Kristan agrees with me. And I add:

"And I say more, it's because of it too that we are afraid to go out at night simply to... Get together."

"I agree with Rodan. We must leave it as it is. Or, seek help!"

"Whose help?" Asks Borir nervous for we won't go with him on his hunt.

"Monastery of Saint Cicero!"

"What? What is that? Where is this monastery?"

"My cousins came from the capital seeking refuge here because there are those same "rumors"."

"What do you mean?"

""What do you mean", Borir, it means that there are vampires there too!" What? My kind in the capital!

"Explain it better, Rodan!"

"A mysterious disease plagued our region five hundred years ago..."

"Yes. We all know that."

"But what few know and don't tell, is that the symptoms of this "disease": the weakness, the pallor, the discouragement, the thin blood flowing slowly, in short... It was the vampire who caused it, and these are the same symptoms that affect people there, including, reports of missing persons!" My wild eating from that time still resonates between them.

"And what does that monastery have to do with it?" I don't know if it was a great question from Borir or he wants to discourage everyone.

"It has to do with that my cousins said that it is the greatest place to combat these "evils" of humanity!" Good to know!

"So let's send someone there immediately to ask for help!"

"Wwwwwwwaaaarrrr..." I have again a pierced wood running through my chest. And I fall to my knees.

"You only know how to attack from behind, cowards! Aaaarrrr... Uuurrrr..."

"We take advantage of weaknesses, carelessness... Like you!

A wood has already been pierced through his heart. Don't you die?" Vampires are killed when a piece of wood sticks the heart only in front, it's good that they don't know that and, for people of faith, for that reason religious people are always ahead of the attacks. I have my wrists shackled to chains attached to the wall. He grabs me by the hair and pulls my head back. I can face another coward.

"You now, demonic being, will pay for all the harm that you caused to my family of this and other generations."

"Aaaaarrrrr... Aaaarrrr... Rrrrrr..." My blood starts to boil and my skin dissolves, my bones too...

"Wwwwwwwaaaarrrr..." There's holy water in them. While I still scream for dissolution, I scream even more because a leash was put on me and soon after several spikes stuck in my throat and neck.

"It's finally time to act!" The vampire's in serious trouble so I thwack his "executioner" in the head, and I shoot numbing darts at everyone. I remove the spikes from the leash, as well as, her then, and he's trying to overcome the destructive power of the holy water that, if the vampire loses it, it will spread culminating in his extermination.

OUTSIDE THE BAR ON THE SURFACE

Humans are ripped to shreds by the werewolf. Between screams of panic and terror, with hands, legs, arms and feet being separated from the bodies, heads rolling, deep cuts in the chests and backs by long and sharp claws, bites that tear off shoulders, there's still time to drink their blood. The werewolf enters the bar breaking everything. When faced with the empty place. But soon he smells his enemy's scent and finds the secret passage and smashes through both the door and the balcony.

INSIDE THE TUNNEL

"Come on vampire! Come on!" I receive help from this masked man, both in saving my life itself and in escaping. He knows the place well. A human helping a vampire? There's something! For now, I accept your help which is being of great value. The truth? I owe him my life!

"I understand, to a certain extent, of course, that you are making a lot of effort to overcome the power of the holy water and, I can see that you are managing to overcome it, but I need you to walk faster because our enemy's now much stronger, voracious and ruthless than any human." He looks at me and takes my face as if in astonishment, and only I know what I spend with this shitty creature almost every night, but I express: crap!